The Ruby (The Hidden Gems Book 1)

by R. M. Getsee

  Taking a deep breath I slowly walked downstairs. My family was already there, sitting at the table. They all looked up as I entered.

  My father and brother just looked at my outfit with blank expressions but my sisters immediately began whispering and giggling gleefully to each other. I felt a strong wind pick up out of nowhere.

  “Torah!” My father looked thunderously at the two girls and the wind stopped suddenly. “We do not use our magic against family.”

  Torah and Rhea just scowled at me behind our father’s back.

  “We just wanted to fix her hair; it could really use a blowout.” Rhea seemed to think that her twin’s joke was hilarious as they both started laughing loudly.

  “You all have to get going if you don’t want to be late,” our mom said as she pushed a driving mug filled with blood into my hand.

  Without another word I turned my back on my sisters, grabbed my purse and car keys and stomped out to my jeep.

  I knew the car was a little extreme beside my sisters’ sleek shiny silver beamers but I had loved it as soon as I had seen it. It was the best birthday present I had ever gotten.

  My father had surprised me on the morning of my sixteenth birthday; he had taken me to the Carey’s Car Sales and told me to choose anything I liked.

  When I had seen the large black jeep with its sharp, boxy body and tinted out widows I had fallen for it. After we had bought it my father had taken me out to get pizza and we had just hung out for the whole day.

  It was one of the best times I had ever had with my father and it was one of the reasons that I would never part with my beautiful jeep.

  I turned on the CD player and shuffled through my playlist, looking for a song to suit the mood I was in as I backed out of the driveway.

  *********

  I didn’t get off to a great start when I arrived on campus. I got lost a few times on the way to my first few classes, and had gotten chewed out by a couple of teachers for it. The classes were not even worth it as they were normal and I was almost bored to death in them.

  In math I was only half listening to the teacher drawling on and on about stuff that I had already covered over a year ago as I doodled on my page.

  When I realized that I had been drawing the face of the guy that I had seen this morning when I’d had that weird dizzy spell I quickly scribbled it out.

  I tried to keep my mind from wandering back to the page as I made myself pay attention to the teacher who was discussing what felt to me like sixth grade algebra behind a podium at the head of the class.

  I was ready to fall asleep from boredom by the time the bell rang signaling lunch. I jumped in shock from the sudden loud noise, and I practically ran to the crowded dining hall.

  I grabbed a tray of food and scanned the dining hall for an empty table. I saw my brother Jared laughing and joking with some guy, but his head was turned away so I couldn’t see his face.

  I finally found an empty table outside by an outcrop of trees, away from the shouting and laughing of friends reuniting after summer break.

  Setting my tray down in front of me, I leaned back on my hands and stared at the stars. I had always loved the night sky, always feeling more at home and at peace when I was bathed in the glow of a full moon.

  I was startled out of my thoughts as a shadow fell across me. Looking up I saw a dark haired girl looking down at me.

  “You’re in my seat.” she said, with an arrogant expression on her face.

  “I-I’m sorry” I stuttered, embarrassed, hurriedly standing and fumbling to gather my things. “I thought it was just an empty table, I’ll leave.”

  The girl just grinned at me. “I’m only messing with you, please stay. I’m Emilia by the way.”

  “Alex,” I said with a shy smile. I was pretty sure Emilia had been one of the girls in my first couple of classes.

  “I haven’t seen you around school before.” The other girl said as she studied me with interest.

  “No, I just transferred in from boarding school,” I stated, kicking myself internally for sounding so nervous. “My siblings go to school here though.”

  “Cool, do I know them?”

  I opened my mouth to reply and heard someone calling my name. I turned and saw Jared walking towards us. Emilia’s mouth dropped open as she looked at him.

  “Hey Emi,” he said, smiling at the girl. “I see you met my sister.”

  Nodding her head enthusiastically she grinned back, her icy silver-blue eyes sparkling.

  “What’s up Jared?” I asked, trying to get his attention. He jumped a little at my voice as if he had forgotten I was even there. Typical.

  “Just saying Hi,” His smile deepened as I shot him a pointed look.

  “Jared,” a voice called. Looking up I saw a girl walking over to us in a pair of the highest heels I had ever seen. She tossed her long chestnut hair over her shoulder and flashed a smile at my brother.

  “You and Roman never came to say hi,” she pouted. I fought back the urge to make a gagging sound at the girl’s overly obvious attempt at flirting, my shuffling movement drawing the girl’s attention to me and Emilia.

  “Oh, the freak took you hostage I see,” she said with a malicious smile. Emilia stared defiantly at her, not saying a word. “And look, she found a friend.” She shot me a distasteful glance as she checked me out, studying my plain clothes.

  “I’m Alex-” I began, but the girl cut me off, flipping her hair back.

  “I really don’t care what your name is. Jared, let’s go find your brother and Roman and leave these two freaks.” She smiled up at him expectantly.

  “Actually Jared was just checking on how his sister was doing on her first day at Vlad’s.” Emilia spoke up. She had an evil smile on her face now.

  “Your sister, the one who went to that private school?”

  Jared just nodded, lips pressed into a thin line since the ‘freak’ comment. You just don’t mess with family.

  “Then we should find her. I really want to meet the last member of the Morgan family.”

  I grinned, speaking up. “Aww. Jared, you told people about me?”

  I really wished that I had a camera at that moment when realization passed over the girl’s face. She stuttered and choked at her blunder, my father’s high position on the council literally made us like royalty. “I’m sorry –I-I didn’t realize...”

  She trailed off as someone else walked towards us. I gasped as I recognized him as the face I had seen during my dizzy episode this morning. He grinned and nudged Jared when he saw the girl we were talking to.

  “Hey Athena,” he said, he used a killer smile and she simpered and I had to admit I was pretty close to it too. Jared turned his attention to me. “Have you seen Rhea or Torah anywhere?

  “No,” I scoffed. “They’re probably avoiding me”

  Jared looked as if he was going to disagree with me but seemed to think better of it. The three of us had never gotten along.

  When I not only got into Rechters, the most prestigious school in Moscow a year early, but had also graduated early too, while they had not only been denied acceptance to the academy and had ended up being held back a year and were unable to graduate themselves things only got worse.

  They had barely spoken to me since I had gotten back unless it was to pass snarky remarks or point out the inadequacies and shortcomings within the family that they believed I had.

  I started as I realized that the guy beside Jared was still staring at me. I shifted uncomfortably and I gave my brother a pointed look.

  “Ooh, uh Alex this is our friend Roman. Roman, this is my baby sister Alex.” Jared blanched a little as I glared at him, noticing how he stressed the word baby.

  Roman just smiled, oblivious, and took my hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you Alexia.”

  My heart gave a weird stutter when he said finally, as if I had been waiting to meet him for my whole life, which was crazy as I had never had any interest in meeting any of my bro
ther’s friends before, and Jared hadn’t even known him before last year.

  I realized that I was still hanging on to his hand and quickly let go as if I had received an electric shock.

  “It’s nice to meet you too.” I cringed slightly at the slight squeak in my voice. Athena sniggered, as I tried to subtly clear my throat. “Anyway, Jared, I was going to invite you to have lunch at our table if you wanted.”

  She pushed out her chest a little and looked up at him through her lashes and I nearly gagged for real. Vampire females were shameless when they wanted something, or someone in her brother’s case.

  Emilia elbowed me in the side and stepped forward, “Maybe you should have lunch with me and Alex. It’s her first day so you should make her feel welcome.” It looked like she wanted Jared too.

  Athena sneered. “I promised the girls that I’d have lunch with them, so are you coming with me or staying here”

  Emilia looked like she would do anything to have lunch with Jared; she was giving me an almost pleading look as her gaze kept drifting back to him.

  In a last ditch effort to save both my peace at home and the budding kinship between me and Emilia I straightened my back and raised my voice from meek and shy to strong and forceful. “Jared, would you keep us company today?”

  Roman grinned and winked at me and my breath caught slightly.

  The brunette flicked her hair again and stomped off, looking pissed at being denied.

  Sitting down I blanched slightly when I realized that Roman was still here and had taken a seat opposite me at the table. There was an awkward silence, and then he smiled at me, making my heart give an odd stutter.

  “So how are you enjoying Vlad’s?” He asked, seeming slightly shy.

  I shrugged, fighting to keep myself from blushing under his gaze. “It’s alright,” I said, trying to keep my tone indifferent. “I haven’t really seen much of it yet so I’m just trying not to get lost.”

  “If you want I’ll give you a tour.” He said quickly.

  I nodded mutely, fighting the weird jolt of excitement that flowed through me at the thought of spending extra time with him.

  I tried not to snort as I noticed Emilia wiggling her eyebrows suggestively behind him.

  “I’d like that,” I said, feeling the warmth spread in my cheeks.

  He took my hand and I felt a tingling feeling where our palms met.

  “Come on, I’ll show you around.” He shot me a grin and pulled me to my feet, leaving Jared glaring at his back while Emilia laughed at his thunderous expression.

  Chapter Two

  I bounded into the classroom feeling elated. After Roman gave me a whistle stop tour of the moonlit grounds, we had ventured back inside the monstrously large grey brick building which, from outside, reminded me of Dracula’s castle.

  As we wondered through the school Roman had shot question after question at me. He quickly took me through each level and I realized how modern the inside was in comparison to the intimidating view from the heavy wrought iron gates that guarded the grounds.

  Each classroom I saw was spacious with high, arched ceilings. The walls were painted a cream color with heavy wooden desks and high backed chairs decorated with a comfortable looking dark green velvet cushion on each seat.

  When we were finished we rushed back to the table and we spent the rest of lunch talking with the small group and I felt confident that there was definitely a budding friendship between me and Emilia. Emi, I mentally corrected myself.

  Emilia had insisted she be called by her nickname as she did not particularly like her full name being used. “It sounds much too formal. It feels like I’m about to be told off by my mother.” I had grinned and agreed completely.

  I was only called Alexia when my mother was about to give me some long speech about something I did wrong.

  And Roman, well that guy was equal parts hot and weird. He had spent most of lunch drilling me for every detail of my life, and the staring was a little too intense for me, I preferred blending into the background and being put into the spotlight was a little hard to stomach.

  But I had to admit that it was nice to have people to hang out with and talk to. I hadn’t had that at my last school and it gave me hope that it was possible to have an actual social life at this school.

  As I found a seat in the back of the room I realized that I had been so focused on not being late I only looked at the room number and not at what the actual class was.

  While I was focusing on trying to find the timetable I had been given at the start of the day to check, I saw Emi walking into the room. She caught my eye and winked as she walked over and took the empty seat beside me. Grinning she turned to me and started babbling enthusiastically.

  “Are you excited? I’ve been looking forward to this since the first time I saw my mom use it when I was a kid.”

  I felt my brow furrow again as I finally found my timetable and searched for the class name. I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as I read the title on the paper: Elemental Magic.

  The sinking feeling grew as another class filed through the door.

  A group that just happened to contain Roman and Jared, along with that nasty girl that had accosted us at lunch, Athena, she was in deep conversation with Torah and Rhea. A guy with peroxide blond hair slicked back behind his ears and a small black ring poked through his eyebrow was trailing after her like a puppy, hanging on her every word.

  “Oh my god! Jared’s here, Mr. Carlisle must want them to do a demonstration, because they’re in the advanced class.”

  I spun back to Emi, realizing that she was still talking.

  “You must already know what element you’ll specialize in, graduating from Rechters and all.”

  The sinking feeling in my stomach grew and twisted itself into a tight knot. This was my worst nightmare. Not only was I about to humiliate myself in front of the whole class and probably lose the friendship that I had just started building when I attempted and failed to do any magic, but I would also humiliate myself in front of the whole advanced class too.

  Staring down at my desk I spoke softly, hoping no one else could hear. “I’ve never really had success doing magic. I try but I get headaches and have to stop.” Afraid to look up I tensed, waiting for the cruel mockery that always followed after I told anyone how weak my powers were.

  Instead, I felt a hand on my shoulder and I raised my eyes to meet Emi’s piercing gaze.

  “Just relax, lots of people have trouble with it at first, I can only use it weakly and I practice every day.”

  The heavy ball in my stomach lightened a little and I took a slow breath to calm myself.

  “Thanks, usually when I tell people how weak my powers are they either laugh or freak out. It’s one of the reasons I graduated so quickly from Rechters.”

  Emi gave me a questioning look and taking another deep breath I finished in a rush, “when people found out they tormented me, I studied harder than anyone so I could get out and come back home. I may not have friends but at least I have family here.”

  Emi gave my shoulder a light squeeze. “Well you have friends now, I’m not the most popular girl here but at least I’m not one of those vicious vamp chicks who are only focused on self-gratification and throw themselves at any guy who has a shiny car and looks their way.”

  Smiling I said, “You definitely aren’t.”

  And I really believed that. I got a warm feeling inside as I realized that I may have found the only decent vampire in this school.

  Realizing that the teacher had entered the class as the two of us were talking, I turned back to the front of the class and tried to tune into what he was saying.

  “Welcome to elemental magic studies, I’m Mr. Carlisle and I will be in charge of teaching you delinquents for the next two years. In this class you will be learning how to fine tune your own elemental skills and learning about other peoples.”

  He paused and looked at the group of students from t
he advanced class. “These are some of the most promising students I have taught and today they will be doing a demonstration of what you will be able to do with hard work and commitment. Every vampire has an affinity with at least one element. It is rare, but in some cases a student can have a second affinity, though not nearly as strong.

  “After the demonstration each of you will come up and try each element to see which you have the strongest affinity for, and that will be the one you will study in mastering.”

  He signaled to the group and four people came forward, Rhea, the blond guy, Roman and Athena. “There are four elements that can be controlled. Water, Earth, Air, and finally fire.”

  Rhea stepped out further and lifted her arms slightly; water from the glass on the desk shot up into the air, did a graceful arc around her and splashed back into the glass. The blond guy lifted his foot and slammed it down; the classroom shook as if there was a small earthquake and then stopped as suddenly as it started.

  Athena stepped forward with a smug smile and held out her hand and a small tornado appeared, it grew until papers started flying around the room and then dispersed.

  Roman took couple steps forward and the rest of the group scurried back a few paces, he flicked out his hands and small flames shot out of each of his fingers, they were bright orange and I could feel the heat from the back of the class, they flickered menacingly for a few seconds then winked out.

  The whole room erupted in applause. “Settle down, settle down, now I know you all want to try it and see what your affinity is but there is more information you need before we get to that.”

  *********

  Mr. Carlisle went over the theory for over half an hour. Most of the class seemed to be getting bored but I found it extremely interesting, apparently some of the more talented element users could actually combine their powers to create storms and other natural disasters.