Night Class

September 4th, 2019

Wednesday 1:40pm

Closing the doors to the medical room once more, I’m met with a terrifying sight. As I turn around, I come face-to-face with none other than Aldrich. The creepy uncle of mine, probably secretly some type of supervillain, smiles down at me with a perfect row of pearly whites. Minus the two very sharp fangs on his top row. A rush of fear runs through me at the thought of him slicing my throat with them and draining me dry, although, according to Natalia- Aldrich would technically do that to my wrist since neck veins are taboo.

“Princess Isabella.” Aldrich nods downwards at me and I recoil slightly from force of habit around creepers.

“Aldrich.”

I don’t miss the sudden tightness around his lips and the quirk of his jaw. Not referring to him by his title must really tick him off. Good to know.

“Whatever would you be going to the infirmary for, my dear?” His lips carry a smirk now. “Ah, yes. I sometimes forget how clumsy and easily expendable you humans can be. Forgive me.”

“Prince Aldrich.”

I turn to the side just in time to catch Ehren staring the man down. His eyes meet mine and with one raised finger, he hooks it towards himself, beckoning me to join him. Slowly, I make my way around my uncle and come to stand beside Ehren, nerves causing my entire body to shake. There’s so much tension in the room that I’m sure any minute it’s going to get difficult to breathe.

Ehren steps a bit more to the left so that he’s technically blocking half of my body from Aldrich’s view. “I thought you were too busy with the council to pay the academy any visits.”

Aldrich doesn’t look too pleased with the younger vampire right now. “Yes, I have been rather busy as of late. It would seem that the dear Princess Isabella has made something of a fuss involving the academy.”

“What!” I step past Ehren now, fully offended. “How did I cause trouble? I didn’t even ask to be here. I didn’t even know vampires existed until literally 24 days ago!”

“You’ve been disrupting the court with your frivolous ideals of-“ His face scrunches up as he spits out, “-equality.” He looks towards Ehren now. “This would not have happen had she not been subjected to spending time with half-breeds.”

“Watch who you’re talking about,” I hiss out. I have no idea where the confidence is coming from, but I’m thanking the Gods for it now. “I’m friends with dhampir’s and danag’s alike. Don’t ever call them that in front of me again.”

Aldrich’s eyes are set ablaze now as he steps closer. “You dare to speak out-“

He stops as Ehren steps in between us now. “Do it. I want you to give me an excuse.”

As I stare at the back of Ehren’s blazer, I can’t help but think about the situation we’re in. He’s protecting me from my angry uncle who just so happens to be royalty. Ehren will surely get in trouble for this in some way and I can’t help but feel guilty over it. I don’t want any of them to get in trouble, especially not over me.

“Until next time, Princess Isabella.”

Aldrich’s footsteps can be heard receding down the hallway, but I don’t dare peak around to watch him leave. How can I expect to survive this school when I can’t even survive speaking with a disgruntled relative? I don’t understand what seems to be the problem between the dhampir’s and danag’s, but it needs to come to a stop and soon.

“Um, thanks for that,” I whisper out.

I’m faced with Ehren’s chest as he grunts out, “Just watch yourself around Aldrich. He’s bad news.”

“Noted.” I run a hand through my stringy hair now. “Is it just me he hates or is he like this with all the royal family members?”

“Everyone, but he seems to have a sore spot with you.” Ehren stares off in the direction Aldrich just left. “I think he’s threatened by you.”

“Threatened by me?”

“Yeah,” he admits. “You, Natalia, and Giles are the only ones who have been testing the boundaries of the crown. The council won’t like it, but all the pieces will eventually fall exactly where the Queen wants them.”

“Speaking of...” I nod towards the medical doors. “Am I right to assume that Aldrich has no idea about the cure their working on?”

“He thinks it’s impossible to cure the disease, mainly because it’s hereditary and has killed nearly every monarch we’ve ever had, but we have something they didn’t.”

“What?”

He looks me in the eyes now, blue gleaming with hints of green. “You. All the other humans to ever be born into the royal bloodline have disappeared from it, mysteriously. You’re the first one to actually make it within the family scrolls.”

“Woah, wait.” I place a hand up now to stop him. “I’m in the family scroll?”

He only grins down at me, something I’m not too familiar yet with him. He rarely has any emotions on his face and this one of the absent ones, amusement.

The vampire now holds out a book to me that seems ancient. The old leather-bound book has seen some better days, for sure. Ehren seems amused as I look over the entire cover inch by inch, but I can’t help myself. I’m a straight sucker for things like this; old styled writings and such.

The smell of old parchment hits my nose, and my insides turn to liquid. Sitting down in the beanbag closest to the bay window of the library, Ehren lays the ancient book onto my lap. Gaining an affirming nod from Ehren to open the book, I unclasp the leather strap and peel it open.

The entire front page of the book holds small cursive writing. This is my family’s very own personal history book. The second page holds a hand-painted picture of a woman surrounded by large dogs, five of them, and holding something similar to a stick.

Letting my fingers run over the image, I look up towards Ehren. “Who is she?”

“Celeste Crux.”

“My relative?” My eyes widen now as I take in her features. “The one who produced the first-born vampire?”

“Yeah, that’s her.” Ehren’s own finger touches the paper, just where the dogs are at her feet. “This was sketched by Aldus himself, depicting the last moment he laid eyes on Celeste before her demise.”

“What happened to her? Mr. Craft never said how she died.”

He taps the paper. “You’re looking at it. According to the writings of Broderick Bromley, Aldus and Celeste were in a wooded area and they were arguing. Wolves, which later were discovered to be Lycans, came and tore Celeste apart. It was said that Aldus grabbed their two children and ran, but the youngest one, she ran to her mother and was also killed by the beasts. Not too long after losing Celeste and his child, Aldus took his own life, letting himself slowly starve and suffer, guilt eating at him for not rescuing them in time.”

With a tight chest, I slowly placed the book onto the beanbag next to me. Finally, I look up to see Ehren sitting in one of the bags across from me. His features are set in a somber expression. There’s no telling what thoughts are running through his mind right now. Aldus and Celeste Crux are basically like the starters of the entire vampire race and to know that they were torn apart, literally and figuratively, by the Lycans suddenly starts putting things into perspective for me. Kieran said not to mention the wolves and now I know why. They’re the reason Aldus and Celeste are gone.

“So, I guess this was the moment that started a rift between the lycans and the vampires, huh?”

Ehren nods, picking at the seams of the beanbag. “I guess so. Not many lycans agree with our depiction of history though. They say that their ancestors rescued two young females from a monster who was preying on them, but if that were true- which it isn’t- then where would Celeste and Rosalie had gone?”

“Rosalie was their daughter that died?”

“Yeah, she was.” Ehren flips the paper to show another sketching behind it. Two kids laying under a tree, showing their smiling faces. A boy no older than twelve and a girl who would’ve been about Melanie’s age; six. “Rosalie and Stefano Crux. They were the only known children of Aldus and Celeste. Stefano was the one who started the idea of having an all-vampire court and ruling system. He had thought our kind needed a type of justice system because of what happened to his little sister. He was right, we do need a justice system, not this crap that the courts have been dishing out for the last five centuries.”

“Five centuries?”

He leans forward, elbows on knees, and motions around the room. “This whole academy, mixing dhampir’s and danag’s, shouldn’t be a big deal like it is. When your ancestor, Stefano, was alive there was no discrimination between blood. There was no social status, there wasn’t a set of laws that protected danag’s and not the dhampir’s. When Stefano passed away in the mid 1500’s, the others of the royal bloodlines convinced his only daughter to create a more ‘organized’ court. And when I say convinced, I do mean bullied.”

Leaning forward, my hands find themselves tucked up underneath my legs. “MY aunt is literally the queen. Couldn’t she just like, I don’t know, overturned the rules they have now?”

“You would think so, but that would be a war in the making.” He smiles to himself now, a strange, faraway look in his eyes. “A war would definitely be something we need though. Something that we could win too.”

Small laughter can be heard now from the front of the library. A group of danag girls come walking in, smiling and talking amongst themselves. I look back to Ehren and realize now that our beanbags had gotten significantly closer throughout the entire conversation. Heat spreads across the bridge of my nose and all over my cheeks.

“Well-” Ehren clears his throat, looking away from me. “I guess I should leave you alone for now. I’ll send Rhea to come watch over you. I have something I need to discuss with your aunt.”

Without a single goodbye, Ehren stands and leaves the library. The way he ignores the looks the girls give him, the way he has a target in mind and sticks to it without breaking- He’s something to admire in a way.

Tearing my eyes away from Ehren’s retreating figure, I look back over the old book he had given me. He got it from a section that had a whole bunch of different family scrolls. Maybe there are others I could take a peek at. Maybe later. I really should look over my own family scroll before snooping through other peoples.

Turning the pages until I finally reach a section with an old papyrus paper sewn into the book’s bindings. The paper is thick and is somehow not flattened by the constantly closed book. Unfurling the long scroll, I’m shaken by just how little extended branches there are. The tree is more of a bush, short rather than tall. It starts to lengthen out towards the bottom of it. The word incest is starting to dance around in my head and causes my stomach to turn sour. There, at the bottom of the bush/tree, is my name etched underneath my dad’s. Melanie’s, however, is nowhere to be found. My heart drops at realizing she’s not on here, but maybe that’s because she wasn’t alive long enough or introduced to vampirism like I was.

Rolling up the scroll and packing the book up, I grow queasy with thoughts of Melanie on my mind. I miss her. I miss Dad. Would Dad have ever told me the truth about his nature, or would he have kept it hidden? Did Mom really know the truth? Questions aren’t the best thing for my mind right now, but they plague me regardless.

My eyes linger on the glass casing that holds the royal bloodline books. They land on one with a B with a circle around it, more like an oval. That one must be from the Bromley line. Books are stacked upon one another just under the casing and I grab a few, ready to learn a bit more about these families and how they tie in with me. I take an armful to the table, cracking open one after the other. One of them, worn and tattered, seems to be dedicated to hunters. The word SEALGAIR is in big bold letters on the front page. Flipping through the pages, I come across a list of names that are apparently vampires that have connections with the hunter’s society. At the bottom of the page, my heart nearly stops beating altogether.

-Calio-

-Demetre-

Daunte

Evans

-Fernande-

-Jeslin-

-Krafton-

-Lumine-

Maruca

-Romans-

The thing that terrifies me the most is the ones with the lines through them (italicized). Why are they marked out? Why is Romans marked out? Do the vampire courts plan on hurting Romans to eradicate his father’s mistake? My hands begin to sweat now as I close the book. Shaking my head, I now realize that I just might be reading too much into it. It might just be that those bloodlines have been fixed or that they’ve been discovered and rehabilitated. I can’t always just resort to thinking the worst about vampires. No matter how terrifying they are.

I open the book back up to another section, ignoring the burning sensation that lingers in my chest at seeing the name crossed out. A giant B is the header with an oval-like shape around it. Bromley. A lot of the page just mentions how the Bromley family has a secret group within the hunter society at their disposal, a personal attack unit. They are referred to as quelli antichi. I have absolutely no clue what that means, but it sounds pretty cool.

“Izzy!”

I look up to see Emmy making her way towards me. The smiling girl is skipping, her pink ribbons flowing in a trail behind her. She’s honestly adorable and I’m not so sure she’s old enough to be attending this academy. She comes to a stop next to my table before pointing at the book in surprise.

“You’re reading about my family.” She leans forward, placing her cheeks inside her hands. “Did you find anything interesting?”

“Not really.” I shove the book to the side. “Should I have?”

Her head tilts, almost like a confused puppy. “I guess not. Guess what?” She jumps up onto the table, crossing one leg over the other as she rests her hands on her knee. “If I can pass one more exam in my conquering powers class, I’ll get to be in classes with the other vampires. Isn’t that awesome?”

My heart skips a beat. She’s so stinking cute the way she’s getting all excited over being able to join the ‘big kids’ in their classes. She’s definitely younger than us. What age exactly? I’m not quite sure. Maybe around fourteen like I originally guessed when we first met. Okay, maybe thirteen. I have no idea how vampires age.

“That’s great.” I smiled at her, letting her know that I really meant it. “Would you be able to be in my classes?”

“You might be able to request that, but I’m not sure.” Her finger taps her chin lightly, lost in thought for a moment. “Hey, do you think I could use your help with my last exam? It’s a project where I have to randomly use my power to show that I can succeed in an active environment.”

“Of course, I would love to help you, Emmy.” Her eyes brighten more, shining a significantly larger amount of pink around her iris’. “Do I need to do anything now?”

“No, not yet.” Her hands fiddle with the edge of her skirt. “Maybe at some point this week. It has to be random, and it can’t be something you’re expecting to happen. So, please think nothing about it for the next few days. Please and thank you.”

I can’t help but smile at her politeness. “Of course, Emmy. Anything for you. Now, what do you say we find a book in here somewhere that we can read together. What’s your favorite author?”

Emmy gets dragged off by an annoyed looking Tori as she mumbles something about her running off too much. Rhea sighs while sitting down on the bench next to me. Emmy had wanted to show me the gym after we got done reading. The gymnasium is huge and is bad for echoes. Emmy demonstrated just how high she could sing, and it echoed a great deal throughout the room. I think that might have been what gave away our position in the first place.

With a lot of convincing, Rhea lets me just hang out in my room alone for the remainder of the night. I grabbed a set of my porcelain chopsticks that Dad had bought me for my sixteenth birthday and put my long hair up. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to just sit back and type on my typewriter. There’s no way I won’t be spending the next few hours just typing and being to myself. Maybe writing about the academy would be for the best. It could be a way to get everything that’s happened out of my system. Cope with it in a healthy way.

The night seems to drift by peacefully until a knock on the door drags me from my writing. I want to stay there at the desk, ignore the knocking, and just get lost in the world of fiction. The knocking grows heavier, and I reluctantly open it to reveal Ehren.

“What do you want?”

His eyes narrow on me now before drifting towards the typewriter on my desk and back to my face. “You didn’t show up for dinner. I thought something was wrong.”

“No.” I move out of the way, leaving the door open so he can come in. “I ate some cheese cubes, so I just spent some time alone. I needed it.”

“Right,” he breathes out as he sits on the edge of my bed. “Are you hungry still? I can go grab you something.”

“No, I’m fine.”

“Okay.”

The room is quiet now, awkwardness filling the empty space between us. Surely, he didn’t just stop by to see if I was hungry. Ehren’s been strange lately. Constantly popping up at random times and checking on me. It’s nice to know I have friends that are concerned about me, but he seems awkward about it. It’s almost as if he’s not accustomed to looking after someone else- being a friend.

Another knock on the door has us both looking at one another confused. Ehren answers it and I’m surprised to see his brother, Kieran, standing there with a confused face as well.

“What are you doing here?” Ehren asks him, kind of roughly.

“I was just-” Kieran glances between the two of us before grunting out, “I was checking on Izzy.”

“Already done it. Thanks.”

Ehren goes to shut the door, but I grip the edge of the wood. “Come on in, Kieran. Thank you for stopping by to check on me. It’s appreciated. Really.”

I give Ehren a glare, to which his eyes glow. The dhampir moves to the side, letting his brother enter the room without another word. Kieran takes a seat now on the bed while I sit back in my chair. Ehren stands at the edge of the open doorway, arms crossed and a look of silent frustration on his face. Whatever his deal is with Kieran right now, I don’t want to be involved in it, so I ignore the awkwardness.

“What’s up?” I ask Kieran now.

He looks between Ehren and I before muttering out, “Not much. I just wanted to make sure you were okay. You didn’t show up for lunch.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t very hungry, and I had some cheese cubes.” I lean back in the chair, trying to appear relaxed, but Ehren’s making it difficult. He’s like a parent, monitoring our every move with one another. “How was dinner though? Did I miss anything fun?”

“Vera had a literal meltdown. Burnt the entire table after hearing Romans’ comment about her outfit.”

“Huh?”

Kieran smiles now, relaxing just a bit. “Romans had said Vera’s outfit looked like it had been sewn onto her body and that he would’ve loved to peel it off. Apparently, Vera took that as a fat comment rather than a compliment. She burned his hands and the rest of the table as well.”

I had wondered before about Vera’s gift, but now it seems obvious. The girl had heated my hair into curls without an actual iron, so it makes sense.

“Romans should probably work on his compliments, or we might run out of dining tables.” I motion towards the pillows behind him. “Hand me one?”

He grabs the white one with the fluffy fur. I take it from him, thankful for something to hug to my lower stomach. I’ve been having stomach pains all afternoon and they have yet to lighten up. Maybe I’m finally starting my period after nearly a whole two months of waiting. Wouldn’t that be fun? I’ve yet to have one around the vampires and I’m curious to know how that works.

“You okay?” Kieran asks, concern etching his beautiful face. “You seem a little paler than usual.”

“Than usual!” I smack his arm as he laughs at the playful gesture. He seems to be back into the groove of his laid-back self. “I am not pale.”

“I have a darker tan than you and sunlight is my kryptonite.”

“You did not just say that.”

“But I did.”

Our laughter becomes quiet. The room is hotter than it was just a minute ago. His eyes are bright, a glowing blue that sets the hair on the back of my neck on end. Something about the way his lips quirk up or the way those bright blue orbs keep glancing at my lips- He looks as though he’s ready to kiss me.

The danag clears his throat, leaning back away from me. Tension begins to grow more than the heat and it’s now that I remember Ehren’s still in the room. Talk about awkward.

“Well-” Kieran stands to his feet now. “I should probably get going. I have a lot of stuff that needs done before class tomorrow.” He stops and grips my hand, placing his lips to one of my knuckles gently. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Izzy.”

He swiftly leaves the room, just barely nudging Ehren on his way out. The dhampir looks more than upset. I’m sure that whatever they’re arguing over will be okay. According to Rhea, siblings argue a lot more than I thought possible. I guess with Mel being younger than me, we never really had much to argue over. We didn’t have to share toys or clothes or anything like that. We got along perfectly fine.

Ehren stands by the door still and I glance between him and the hallway. “So...”

The dhampir glares at me now. I throw my hands up. “What? It’s late and I would like to get some sleep, Ehren.”

“Sure.” He steps out of the room before grunting out, “Night, Isabella.”

Irritation eats at my insides at him refusing to use my nickname. I want to punch him right in the face for continuing to use Isabella. It’s obvious he has an issue with me in some way, whatever it is, I don’t care. Without giving him another chance to speak, I slammed the door in his face. I can hear him breathing heavily from the other side, but there’s no fear. I feel my lips turning upwards. He must not be accustomed to being told no or being ignored. Good to know for future reference.