Vampire High School (Book 1: Gregor Academy)

by Lachelle Miller

  “Cami! Please… open your eyes…”

  Finally, she turned over. Groggy eyes blinked at me but I could tell she wasn’t really seeing anything. Not yet.

  “Right over here. Look at me- at the window.”

  Cami swung her feet over the side of the bed. In a few stumbling steps she was close enough that I could’ve torn her throat out. The smell was intense. I was a druggy and she was my crack. I was shaking.

  Her face was totally blank; no fear or even a sign she had registered that it was weird to find a person hanging outside your window. That’s when I realized she wasn’t really awake; Cami had always been a sleepwalker. Used to freak me out at slumber parties. Now it completely turned me on.

  “That’s right- over here.”

  She came to me then; inhaling deeply like I had done with Alan. Her t-shirt was tight and clingy and I could see her body responding excitedly. I could tell she was as ready for me as I was for her.

  “Cami,” I kept my voice so quiet and relaxing, “let me in…”

  Again, she took a deep breath. My vampire-sweat was reeling her in as much as the smell of her blood was driving me insane. But, she was moving so slowly; the anticipation was going to kill me before I ever laid a finger on her.

  I asked again, this time more firmly, “Let me in, Cami…”

  Instead she reached her hand out to me, running it down my arm. Her blind, sleeping eyes were all over me. It would have been so easy to grab her then, snatch her right through the window, drag her to the shadows and drain every ounce from her body. But, I didn’t; instead I just let her touch me.

  “Can I come in?”

  My voice hit her hard. Cami’s head went back and she moaned. I was doing to her exactly what Alan had done to me. I was betting that even if she woke up now I’d still have her; I could make her do anything. And I wanted her to do everything. This gave a whole new meaning to the term “playing with your food”.

  “C’mon,” I said in a sexy voice, “you won’t believe how much I want to be in there with you.”

  “Yes…”

  Once I heard the word my whole body thrilled. I practically finished right then. But, when I tried to crawl through the window- that invisible barrier was still there.

  I almost died. I was begging now.

  “Cami, let me in… please, please let me in…”

  “Yes…” she said again; but it didn’t make a difference.

  I was practically humping the trellis. It was time to just say “screw it” and grab her, bring her out to me. But, I’d waited too long and my dinner was drifting back from me to a safe distance.

  Cami went to her bed to wait for me. No matter how I called, she wouldn’t come back. Within minutes she had turned over and began to snore.

  “You fucking bitch!” I hissed at her.

  I crawled down the trellis, starving and horny. Waiting for me under the branches of a big tree was Alan.

  Chapter 6. Being a Helsing.

  We talked in the lab for a while, but although I soaked up all the details, my mind was racing. I watched Mr. Muscat and his helper behind the glass vacuum up all the dust. I think I was the only one who looked at the wooden stake, still imbedded in the table.

  Vampires. Who would have believed it. Not me, I can tell you.

  And for some reason that I couldn’t explain, I was caught up in it all.

  I was a Helsing.

  I had never been in a fight in my life, had never punched anyone, had never done anything physically exertive. But here I was thinking about hunting down vampires and sticking a stick in their chests.

  I suddenly thought of Dorothy. Killing her might actually mean I got to see her tits.

  I shook my head at the childishness of such a thought. I mean, I was in a research lab, where I had just witnessed a three hundred year old vampire meet its end, and I was fantasizing over tits?

  I determined there and then to grow up a bit, and I swear that I felt stronger already.

  “What did you think then?” Mary-Christine’s mom was standing right in front of me. I hadn’t seen her arrive.

  “Very impressive.” I offered, but was sure she wanted more. “I’m officially convinced.”

  “Good.” She smiled, and for the first time, I saw strength behind her eyes. She was no longer just Mary’s mom. She was a vampire killer.

  “Mrs. Muscat?”

  “Roni, please; short for Veronica.”

  Oh my, I had just been seeing Mary for a week or so, and I was already at the Dave and Roni stage with her folks.

  “Roni, how many vampires have you killed?”

  The words were out of my mouth before I could use my safety net. But to my surprise, it didn’t faze her.

  “Three myself. More with the group.”

  Crap. Mrs. Muscat. Roni. Had killed three people.

  “And Mary-Christine?”

  She smiled again. A warm friendly condescending smile. “We haven’t let Mary-Christine come along with us yet. We were saving that for when she turned a little bit older.”

  There was a lower age limit to vampire killings?

  I expected the rest of the day to be uneventful; you know, dinner, bedtime, but I was wrong.

  The whole group took their separate cars, but met up at a private function room of a local restaurant, where they partied till midnight.

  I even sneaked a couple of beers. So did Mary-Christine. We were the youngest there, and although I wanted to sneak away for a make out session, the stories they told got bigger by the beer.

  Vampires in New York, some in Europe. Beheadings, burnings, multiple stake stories, many quite funny. The best one I remember was a big guy, Tony, he was in Belfast, Ireland. He cornered a vampire in the docks; he had been hunting him for weeks and had shot him four times. It was weak, and was limping a lot. It climbed on board a freighter, trying to get away, but it slipped and fell, falling into the ships hold. Its cargo? Fencing posts. All sharpened, all sticking up. Thing didn’t stand a chance.

  The journey home to Gregor was nothing spectacular, but back in the car, heading north to Flagstaff, I did get a chance to fire my biggest question at Dave. “So how am I a Helsing?”

  “Ah. There lie a few possibilities. First of all, there has to be direct blood traceability back to Baron Pieter Williamsburg, from the 1500’s. Most of his bloodline had the gene, and we reckon it was first mutated because of a bad vampire contact. His folks soon found out they were immune to the vampire’s bite, and took up the job of eradicating their immediate vicinity of the creatures. Back then, deep in the heart of the country, quite large communities could be made. No contact with the outside world. Etcetera.”

  “So I’ve got mutated genes.” I almost said it as a joke.

  “Yes, either from your mom or dad. Probably your dad; the gene’s stronger on the male side. Unicorps has had a Helsing capture scheme going for many years.”

  “What?” I blurted out.

  “Many top companies have DNA reference data banks. Unicorps trolls these banks for the Helsing gene. That’s probably why they employed your dad in the first place.”

  “So my dad kills vampires?”

  Dave laughed. “No, if it only were as easy as that. Not every carrier of the gene has the active variant. You do. That’s why your friend at school bit you, then ran away. It’s probably why Alan kept you as a friend. Just to keep you close to him. There must have been a time when Alan tasted your blood, just to test.”

  I still resented the idea that Alan didn’t care for me as a friend, but let it go.

  Sitting back in the rear seat, I went through our friendship, but at first got nothing. Then it hit me. For some reason I told the story as it came to me.

  “We had been fooling round in his back garden, in and out of the pool. Early summer, last year. I got the palm of my hand cut on a bad bit of tile in the pool. It bled badly to begin with, dripping onto the tile. I remember now, he did act a bit strange. He sniffed my hand, then made
a joke that he was a bloodhound.”

  It was all coming back to me, and as it did, I didn’t like the taste it left in my mouth.

  “He got a knife, and cut his hand in the same place: right in the centre of his palm. We shook hands, gripping each other hard.”

  “He jumped up, taking me with him. He was a strong boy. ‘Blood-brothers!’, he yelled. Blood was dripping from our clenched hands. Then we did a rain dance. But I do remember seeing him lick his palm after we’d calmed down. I haven’t thought of that moment till now.

  “Bastard.”

  ~ ~ ~

  “Dude, that was freaking hot,” Alan told me, sweeping up to me like some big-shot who just winged into town, “you two almost got down and dirty!”

  I just stood there, feeling naked. I realized that all the surge of adrenaline and pumping of blood down below was completely gone. Vampires don’t really get tired but I felt like a balloon that’d had all the air squeezed out. It was hard to even get excited to see him- even after all those weeks of pining for his company.

  “Where’ve you been,” the words kinda drizzled off my lips like the fizz off a soda can.

  “Around.” He brushed some hair out of my face. “I’ve never been too far, Mandy Cross.”

  “Far enough I couldn’t see you,” I pouted.

  “I had to do that. Hannah was your mentor; it was her responsibility to teach you the ways.”

  “Oh- is that what that bitch was doing? You mean all that beating the crap out of me and making me wait on her gross husband was all some big lesson?”

  Without even knowing what I was about to do, I shoved Alan. I was a vampire but nowhere near as strong as him; I might as well have thrown cotton balls at him.

  Alan kinda grinned. That made me want to tear his kidneys out through his nose.

  “Hannah can be pretty…rough… she’s an old vampire-set in the old ways- but you’ll learn a lot from her.”

  “As if! I don’t want to learn anything that crazy hag has to teach,” I was shouting now, “because of you I ran away from my own house, Alan. Because you sent those terrible people to live there.”

  “I know. That’s why I’m here. Hannah told me you’d run off.”

  “Like you care what happens to me.” I shoved him again.

  Alan acted all injured, “What the hell, Mandy Cross? If I didn’t care I wouldn’t be checking in on you. I mean- just coming around at all means facing Hannah’s wrath big time. Trust me- that woman does not like to be bugged.”

  I criss-crossed my arms like my mother always did, “why should that bat care if you and me are friends.”

  “Hannah doesn’t approve of ‘petty attractions’; that’s what she called it anyway. She thinks vampires should only hook up if there’s some kind of political gain- not just to fool around or some shit.”

  He rolled his eyes. I giggled.

  “So… she doesn’t want you to come around ‘cause she thinks we’re gonna like… do it?”

  “Something like that.”

  I felt this total rush go through my whole body. Alan did like me. Weird as it sounds- that was all that mattered.

  “Well,” I said, all shy, “I don’t give a rip about what Hannah thinks…”

  I was stepping closer to Alan, swinging my hips all sexy and ready to make my move when another voice came at me from behind.

  “Then listen to what I think for a minute.”

  Damn. Sometimes being a vampire was like no help at all. I totally never heard anybody coming up the walk. Couldn’t tell for sure if Alan had.

  I was annoyed just to see Jackson’s smug, superior face, “What do you want?”

  “I want you to come home,” he told me.

  “You made it pretty clear that you didn’t want me there,”

  Then Alan jumped him, “Besides, Dude, I’m taking her back to her real home. I appreciate you looking out for n’ all her but…”

  “Shut your fucking face, you piece of shit.”

  Like- whoa! Where the heck was all that hostility coming from? I knew Jackson wasn’t totally in to the whole vampire scene. But, he was just flat out being a d-i-c-k to Alan.

  “What’s your problem, man?” Alan asked, taking a big step backwards.

  Jackson didn’t bother to give Alan a response. Instead, he just grabbed me by the wrist like he owned me or something and started dragging me down the sidewalk.

  I was yelling the whole way like some kid being pulled out of a candy store- without a lollipop. “Stop it, you jerk! Let me go! Knock it the freak off, Jackson!”

  I turned to find Alan but he was already gone. That dude always bails whenever things start to get real. I was going to have to talk to him about that.

  Since Alan was obviously not going to offer any assistance I took matters into my own hands and raked my French-manicured-nails down Jackson’s arm. Streaks of red popped up but he didn’t even wince. Finally, he did stop walking though.

  “What’s your problem?” he practically growled in my face, “I’m trying to help you, dumbass.”

  “Oh- I’m the dumbass? What the freak are you doing dragging me off when YOU’RE the one who kicked me out of your house in the first place.”

  “I didn’t kick you out, you freaking drama queen,” Jackson let go of me then, throwing his arms up like he was surrendering or something, “pardon the fuck out of me if I don’t like you, Mandy. Face it- you talk and act like a total fucking airhead and all you care about is hooking up with guys… but… that doesn’t mean I want to see you get in with Alan. That guy is nothing but trouble.”

  I couldn’t believe Jackson had just called me an airhead. I guess he didn’t know I was the only cheerleader on the squad that could do a perfect split during a super high jump. Stupid dork.

  “You don’t need to worry about that,” I said, “it’s my decision and I want to go with Alan.”

  I did a really snotty pivot and started to walk away, hoping Alan was still close by and would come out of hiding once he knew I wasn’t mad at him anymore. Again- stupid freakazoid Jackson clamped his hand around me.

  He got up into my face again but this time looked super intense and was talking to me like a person out on a ledge, “Mandy, you can’t trust what you’re feeling right now. Never trust anything you’re thinking- or feeling- when Alan McCartney is anywhere near you.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You’re beholden to him, Mandy. He’s the vampire that changed you- that creates a very tight bond that young vampires have a hard time breaking.” He held my face between his hands. “But, I did it. Amos Blanche himself changed me and I fought that bond until it finally broke; you can do it, too.”

  “Jackson… you’re freaking nuts. Of course I have a bond with Alan- he’s practically my boyfriend. Soon as I find him—he’s missing again thanks to you—I’m sure we’ll get it all worked out and we’ll be together.”

  “Then what? You go back home and let Hannah beat the shit out of you some more?”

  “Alan won’t make me go back there.”

  “Bullshit. Alan doesn’t give a fuck about you; you’re just another recruit as far as he’s concerned. He’ll sit back and let Hannah do her worst. It’s all a big game to him.”

  “You’re wrong!”

  “Oh yeah? When’s the last time you got all hot and bothered over Cami?”

  Jackson’s question hit me like a speeding freaking train. I was so embarrassed. I had no idea he’d been watching me that long.

  “It was just ‘cause I was so hungry… and she smelled so good.”

  “No. It’s because you’re beholden to Alan and he’s a sick little dweeb who would have gotten off big time on watching you go down on another chick and then stain the walls with her blood. It’d be the ultimate vampire snuff porn for that guy.”

  “That’s stupid. I didn’t even know Alan was around- how could he have made me do anything.”

  “It’s the bond,” Jackson told me, real seri
ous-like, “and Alan knows how to work it. You don’t have to come back home with me, Mandy- but stay the fuck away from him.”

  Jackson started to walk away. He didn’t get far.

  ~ ~ ~

  So we had just got in the car at the airport, and got onto the freeway. The car was quiet. I decided I had to clear a few points with Mary-Christine’s dad.

  “So consider me at the door, Dave, hammering on it.” I said. “When do I start, what do I do?”

  Dave nodded. “First we’ve got to bring you up to scratch with all we know, then tell you why we’re here in Gregor.”

  “And when can we do that?” I asked. I was energized, up for the whole thing.

  “I can start now, it won’t take long.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “First, throw away most of the crap you thought you knew about vampires. Like everything Hollywood gave us, it’s not accurate and some is downright misleading. They can’t fly. They can move pretty fast, though. We usually hit them with a blood coagulant or a sleeper first, then tackle them. Either of those will slow them down a lot.”

  “They don’t die when sunshine hits them, but they do get sensitive to light after a while, so because they go around at night, everyone has the idea they sleep during the day. Not true. Vampires, because of their higher metabolism, hardly need sleep at all. They’re killed by head chopped off, wooden steak through heart, or by complete incineration. Or a combination of all three. We’ve done all three many times- just to make sure. Avery Peterson’s remains, for instance. After it was collected from the tub at the bottom of the table, we incinerated it. Just to make sure.”

  “They kill for blood. For a vampire to ‘turn’ someone, they have to be real careful. They have to take a third to a half of the blood in the victim’s body, no more and no less. Then they have to give some back, that’s the real part of ‘turning’ someone, when the victims want the blood as much as the vampire. That gives them the immortality thing.”

  “What happens if a vampire stops short? What happens to those who lose less than a third of their blood?” I asked.