Night Class

August 12th, 2019

Monday 6:29pm

Incessant tapping on my cheek wakes me up. Dad must’ve forgotten to set his alarm and now I’m stuck getting Mel ready for school this morning. That’s when it hits me. The fire, Dad and Mel, the academy as a new start. Vampires.

Immediately, I sit up and notice that I’m in the room Ehren had dropped me off at. The one with a mini-fridge stocked with blood in it. The covers of the double sized bed are gently tucked around my lower half, the smooth velvety maroon sheets are strangely comforting me in a way.

After a quick glance I notice that Ehren and the guy that looks like him are standing in my room. Vampires. I can feel my heartbeat quickening as they continue to stare are me. Not long after it begins racing, I notice that the Ehren lookalike’s eyes start glowing a brighter blue and the area around his eyes are starting to become overgrown with dark blue and black veins. He looks like a demon from those stupid paranormal show’s teens at my last school would watch.

Giles is next to me, placing his hands out in a sign of peace and surrender. “Isabella, you need to calm down. Alright? I’ll explain everything to you as soon as Mother gets here, but you need to keep your heartrate low.”

His hands come closer towards me and I instantly scoot myself farther back into the corner, letting my back hit the wall behind me. Why did the bed have to be in the corner? I could’ve gotten under it and ran out the other side, but no, I’m stuck and cornered like a rabbit.

“Kieran!” Ehren’s voice comes out like a hiss as his hands brace themselves against his body double.

The Kieran guy doesn’t seem like he’s making any move to calm himself down. His eyes are still glowing and the veins around them have yet to disappear. There’s almost an animal-like appearance to him. It doesn’t seem like something of an actual animal, but more on the lines of a predatory gaze.

Ehren moves in front of him, shielding me with his own body from the man. “If you so much as take another step towards her I will pull your heart out of your chest myself.”

Ehren’s threat hangs in the air for a moment. None of us move or speak. Finally, Kieran takes a couple deep breaths through his mouth and his face starts to go back to normal. His eyes meet mine and he looks away just as quickly, simply muttering what I’m sure are his apologies. The two boys stand close together now, side-by-side, and I can clearly see the differences in them now. The Kieran guy seems older and has a slight shadow of facial hair along with thicker hair than Ehren. Even their heights are different. Ehren seems just an inch shorter than Kieran and a slightly less muscular frame.

Giles once again makes a move to come closer, breaking me from my staring trance on the boys. “Will you let me explain things now?”

I glance between him and the two by the door. I need to know more about what’s going on, but there’s no way the guy that just nearly attacked me is staying in here.

“Only if they leave…”

My hands tighten on each other as I grip my knees closer to my chest. Ehren grunts as he grabs Kieran and throws him from the room. He glances back at me once more before closing the door to the room, leaving Giles and I alone. His brown eyes meet mine and I can feel myself calming down. The rational part of my brain feels as though it can think clearly now that there aren’t any predators in the room. Giles is most likely a vampire just like those two, but he’s made no move to hurt me. Yet.

“Alright,” Giles breathes out as he leans back in the desk chair, “now that you’re feeling slightly better, I think it’s time for a proper introduction to the academy. Don’t you?”

I can only nod as he gives me a warm smile. He really does seem like a good guy and he is family after all. Surely even vampires respect what family means.

“Crux Academy is a school that was built in the early 17th century. My mother had founded it as a place where vampires like myself, Ehren, and Kieran could live and learn how to be at peace with humans. We study their ways and behavior and let that guide us with how to interact with them on a social level. Are you following me?”

His eyes are piercing mine, that eerie golden glow around his iris’s doesn’t have the same effect on my neck hair as that one girl’s eyes had or how Kieran’s had. So, I nod and let him know that I’m still following along.

He smiles and his golden hue brightens only slightly before continuing, “Excellent. Here at Crux Academy, us vampires are not only taught how to get along with humans but also how to hide our true nature from them. We are taught control over our vampiric nature and that helps us with not harming humans such as yourself.”

My skin crawls as I remember that predatory look on Kieran’s face as he stared me down, as if I were his next meal.

“You might need to work on the control part a bit more,” I say as I loosen my grip on my knees. I tried to add in a little chuckle, but it came out dry and not as friendly as I had thought it would.

Giles only laughs at my comment while nodding. “Yes, yes it would seem so.”

I never noticed his accent has less of an American hilt in it. It leans more towards an English accent and that furthers my curiosity of this place. Even Ehren and Kieran had sounded that way, but I chalked it up to jetlag and the insane drive here. Maybe it has something to do with them being different. From what I had learned from my trip through the small town of Damascus, no one else here speaks with their accents. Maybe the majority of the students are from England or something like that, like an exchange school.

God, an exchange school for vampires.

There would be so many girls in my last school that would trip over themselves and maybe even kill others to attend this academy. So many of the hormonal teens would practically salivate over books and movies of shirtless vampires and claim they would let the demons bite them if given the chance.

No thank you.

“I do hope you forgive Kieran’s nasty behavior. He normally isn’t like this, but we’ve never had a full-blooded human behind the academy walls before either, so I’m sure there are bound to be a few setbacks.”

He seems genuinely sorry for how Kieran had acted. Which in turn makes me want to instantly reassure him that I’m fine and that everything else is fine as well, but the hard truth is that it’s not. I’m way out of my element here. I’m a human stuck in a school with more than likely hundreds, if not thousands, of vampires that would jump at the opportunity to suck me dry. I’m beyond terrified, but the image of Kieran staring at me with those blood thirsty eyes makes me keep my heartbeat at an almost even rate.

“I- Where’s Natalia? I want to see her.” My voice comes out shakier than I wanted it to, but it can’t be helped. I may be able to mask the fear in my heartrate but not in my voice.

Giles nods while standing to his feet. “I’ll go and fetch her, but Isabella-“ His hands meet each other in a begging stance as he pleads, “Please do not leave this room and whatever you do, do not panic again. No one here would purposefully hurt you. I assure you dear cousin, your safety is at the upmost importance.”

“Then why am I in a school overrun with blood thirsty vampires who are obviously struggling with control issues?”

The silence in the is thick enough to choke on if you breathe in too deeply. I can tell Giles is having a hard time collecting himself after the question. He finally sighs and runs a hand through his slicked back brown hair, slightly disheveling his perfect appearance.

“I’m not quite sure. I can only assume that Mother thought you were already aware of our nature. We will have to wait to hear from her before we know for sure though.”

He shows me his hands once again, as if to say, ‘I mean no harm, please don’t run’. “I will retrieve her and we will sit down to discuss this as a family.”

With one more glance at me, making sure I was still on the bed, he shuts the bedroom door. Now that I’m finally alone, I release a breath I hadn’t known was being held. My body feels as though it’s run a marathon in the last hour.

As I sit alone in this room, I start to notice smaller details I hadn’t recognized before. The carpet looks to be brand new, no stains at all and no signs of wear and tear. They must have either just put the flooring down or they have an excellent cleaning crew. Judging by the fact that Ehren’s room had a white carpet as well, I can only assume they just have a well-equipped cleaning crew. It would make sense. An academy filled with teenaged vampires who drink blood might cause a bit of a mess in their rooms.

My stomach turns at the thought of sipping blood or watching someone else do it. I’ve had a busted lip before and I can say with all honesty that blood tastes anything but good. How they would ever think it’s good enough to drink is beyond anything I care to comprehend.

Above the writing desk is a corkboard with quite a few clear pushpins in it in random places. It would be a good place to hang up photos I have of my family. Maybe even a few scrap pieces with some inspiring quotes. I could even make a writing collage of it.

Wait- what am I thinking? I’m not really planning on staying here, am I? There are literal bloodsucking demons running around outside of my bedroom door right now. I’d be insane to sleep here even for just one night, let alone a few years for school. Then again, no one has actually attacked me. Yet.

The door for my room slowly opens and I quickly fling myself back into the corner of the bed, clutching the maroon duvet cover with shaky hands. My knuckles are bone-white from the firm grip. I know I shouldn’t be scared right now, for the fear that Kieran will come back and drain me dry, but it’s like a natural response at this point.

A small breath of relief releases at the sight of Ehren entering the room and closing the door behind him. He’s now wearing black slacks and an untucked white button-up. The mustard yellow tie around his collar is the only sign of formalness to his school attire. His brown hair is still slightly disheveled like as if he’s not even bothered putting a comb through it and his eyes are still set in that unbothered expression. They harden as they take in my terrified appearance.

“You need to work on keeping your heartrate under control,” he grunts out as he leans against my dresser.

His entire stance still very much gives off, ‘Don’t talk to me unless you want to die’ vibes, but I’m starting to think that might just be his personality at this point. At least I know for a fact he won’t kill me. He threatened Kieran earlier for even thinking about it.

I slowly release the blanket from my death grip and let it fall around my waist. He’s right, I do need to try and keep myself calm. At least until I figure a way out of here.

“Sorry. It’s just kind of hard to remain calm now when I know I could die at any minute.”

His eyes narrow on me as he stares me down. However, they never once glow like Kieran’s had. Maybe Ehren isn’t even a vampire. Maybe he’s human like I am or at least closer to being human than the others. That Tori girl from earlier had said that I was closer to his kind.

Ehren pushes himself off the wall and crosses his arms as he says, “You won’t die within these walls. Everyone here is now under strict orders to keep their distance from you by order of Queen Natalia herself.”

“Queen Natalia?”

Ehren gives me a small smirk, the only expression I’ve seen on him other than a glare or annoyance. “Like I had told you earlier, you’re royalty here, Princess Isabella.”

My mind swirls with the new information, but it doesn’t seem real. My parents had never mentioned anything about being related to a Queen, let alone a Queen vampire. Maybe I’ve been switched at birth or they had sent the letter to the wrong person after my father’s death. Surely there’s some kind of mistake here.

“I-I’m not royalty,” I say out loud. “I’m just a regular teenage girl from Los Angeles who likes reading crappy fiction novels and drinking way too much coffee for it to be considered healthy.”

I stare at him as he continues smirking at me. His unchanging expression leads me to think that he doesn’t believe me.

“I’m not some princess. I can’t even tell you the last time I wore a dress and I definitely don’t have a lot of money. I mean, my dad had a bit of money put back for me and my sister, but not enough to deem us royalty.”

Ehren makes no move to change his expression. My nerves begin to worsen as he continues to stare at me as if I’m wrong when I know I’m right. I think I would know if I was some royal princess.

The door opens next to him and in comes Giles with Aunt Natalia behind him. Her long brown hair is delicately done up into an elegant bun with a diamond encrusted pin sticking out in front of it. Her golden-brown eyes seem as though they are more gold than anything. Natalia looks the exact same as she did when I first met her at ten years old. She looks exactly like you would expect a Queen to look like. A long red velvet dress that seems like it was plucked from the Victorian era and diamond earrings paired with a diamond necklace. She looks as though she’s getting prepared for a Shakespearean play.

“Thank God,” I whisper out. “Aunt Natalia, please tell him that I’m not some royal princess. That I’m just a normal girl from California.”

Giles gives me a look of pity as Ehren chuckles from beside him. Given the torn expression on my aunt’s face I feel like this argument won’t be ending in my favor.

“Isabella dear, you are my relative,” Natalia says as she walks across the room towards me. She sits on the edge of my bed as she explains, “Therefore, you are considered royalty among us vampires. And for that, I am truly sorry.”

“I don’t- I don’t understand…”

My hands begin fiddling with the edges of the duvet as Giles takes a seat on the desk chair once again. “Mother explained on the way up here that she really had thought you already knew of our existence, of the truth about vampirism.”

I shake my head while releasing the duvet. My eyes train on Natalia and hold her stare. “Was my dad…”

The older woman’s eyes flash a brighter golden color once before she finally nods. “He was half human though. He intended to tell you at some point, I’m sure. However, when I received word of his demise, I immediately sent for you. I couldn’t have you being sent off to some children’s shelter.”

Her eyes flash once more as she says quietly, “I had hoped your younger sister had survived as well, but no one would tell me whether or not she was also injured.”

“She- Yeah.” I glance up at Ehren to see him looking away from us three. He looks uncomfortable almost. “She died in the fire too.”

Giles leans forward now, his hands resting upon my own as they lay across the duvet now. The chill in his hands sends shocks up my arms and down my spine.

“We were told that you had your father cremated before coming here. Is this true?”

I glance between my only living relatives at this point and instantly feel guilty. This was my father’s aunt and cousin; surly they should’ve had a say in how he was handled after death.

My heart drops as I nod my head at them, refusing to meet their eyes though. “Yeah, I had them both cremated. That’s what Dad did for Mom so I figured it was the right thing to do, you know.”

A sigh of relief has me looking up at Aunt Natalia in shock. “You’re not upset?”

“Upset?” She asks with surprise. “No, my dear. I’m thrilled.”

I don’t even bother to hide the confusion clear on my face. Giles chuckles before tapping my hands and saying, “When our bodies die there is a chance for someone else to feed us blood while in that deathly state. If they succeed then there is a chance that we resurrect, but not completely.”

“Not completely?”

Aunt Natalia gives me an almost sad smile. “A resurrected vampire is one without a soul. As living beings now, we have one, it may be small compared to a human, but it is there, nonetheless. A vampire without a soul is a killing machine. They would not hesitate to kill even their own offspring.”

Giles rubs his cold thumb across my pale hand. “We tend to cremate our fallen relatives or comrades for that very reason.”

“Oh.” Is all I can say.

Aunt Natalia stands to her feet and extends her hand outwards, palm up. I stare at it for a moment then glance over at Ehren, still unsure whether or not to trust any of them. I mean, Ehren did protect me from the Kieran guy and Giles has been nothing but kind to me. Not to mention that Natalia is my aunt, so there shouldn’t be any reason not to trust them. For now, I think to myself. I’ll go along with all of this for now.

I slowly scoot to the edge of the bed, letting Giles help me to my feet, and once they touch the floor I quickly realize for the first time that my shoes are gone. The carpet feels plush beneath my bare feet, softer than I had expected it to be. I glance down at them then give Giles a simple raised eyebrow.

He chuckles before motioning towards the floor next to the nightstand. There my Doc’s sit waiting for me to put them back where they belong. Before I can even think about moving towards them, Natalia clears her throat, making Giles and I both look at her.

“I do believe you are intended for a fitting at this time. Perhaps it would be best to leave the- “ She glances at my beat-up Doc’s for a moment before saying, “worn Marten’s here.”

I can tell it’s paining her not to just insult the poor article of clothing. Dad was the same way about them. He constantly begged me to buy something else to wear or at least replace the old ones, but it never felt right. I love my Doc’s. Mom had bought them for me before she passed away and they feel comfortable to me. But, for Natalia’s sake, I’ll leave them where they are for now.

I give her a stiff nod, still not really wanting to leave them behind and go barefoot around the school. As we exit the room, I can feel Ehren following closely behind us. My hand feels shaky while lying in Natalia’s hand. The other one is just dangling at my side freely. I do notice it bumping into Giles’ every now and then as we walk down the hallway, but I choose to just ignore it if he is too.

We leave the hallway with my room in it and come back into the area of the grand entrance. The hallway that continues down the hall has a few students milling about, but only for a moment before rushing into their respective rooms. My insides do little flips now at the worry of all of them either avoiding me or going out of their way to meet me. If I’m going to be stuck here then I at least want people to treat me normal, not like the plague.

“Natalia?”

The older woman to my right glances down at me, her diamond encrusted pin in her hair not once moving as she does so. “Yes, my dear?”

My insides tighten now at the thought of asking her for anything at all, but like her and Giles had said, we’re family. There shouldn’t be any reason to be scared of them or worry about them hurting me over something like a simple request.

“I know that Ehren said that you told everyone to stay away from me, but I don’t really want special treatment.”

She gives me a look that borders on confusion so I quickly continue, “I just mean that I want them to treat me like I’m just a normal student. I’m not royalty and I’m definitely not some fragile little kid who needs to be tiptoed around.” I glance at her once more before whispering, “Ma’am.”

She smiles down at me and the gesture instantly erases my worries that had stacked upon my shoulders. “I will instruct the staff and students of your request. I do value your opinions and care for your well-being. Though, I do hope that you’ll forgive me for this, but I will be assigning you a watcher. Someone to make sure that you are being treated well and that no one is overstepping their boundaries with you.”

“Is that truly a good idea, Mother?” Giles asks before saying, “Many of the students here already know she’s a Crux so there should be no more problems. I’m more than sure that Isabella would not like a guard surrounding her at all hours of the school day.”

I can tell by the stiffness of Natalia’s hand that there will most likely be some mother and son bickering in a few minutes if I don’t step in.

“It’s alright, Giles,” I quickly say to him as we descend the staircase. “I don’t mind. I understand that safety comes first and I’m sure that it'll be hard for some of the other students to have me around, so maybe a bodyguard isn’t such a bad idea.”

Natalia’s hand loosens and she gives me a thankful smile as Giles finally nods in agreement. I notice that through the whole time of us traveling throughout the building that Ehren hasn’t spoken one word towards us. He’s stayed absolutely quiet the entire time and that makes me wonder about a few things. Is he going to be the bodyguard? Does he feel intimidated by my aunt and cousin somehow and that’s why he stays so quiet in their presence? Or is this because of what that Tori girl had said, about him being a different kind from them and me being closer to him than them? He doesn’t seem very intimidated though with his relaxed posture and, ‘I don’t care about anyone’ attitude still in place.

We take the hallway to the left of the front entrance and go down another four doors before finally reaching our destination. Natalia opens the door and in the room is a large round platform that looks as though it can spin in circles if you push it. A woman with long platinum blonde hair and those same icy-blue eyes that most of the other creatures here have, is standing in the middle of the room. Her hands are holding a long string that looks as though it’s one of those measuring tapes for bodies.

The closer we get to her the more I realize that this woman is actually built like a super model. Tall, at least six feet, and her attire consists of a floor length red velvet body dress. The middle of it dips just between her breasts to reveal smooth porcelain skin. Not a single blemish or freckle in sight on her body.

“Ah, you’ve brought me the walking blood bank.” Her voice has a slight Russian accent to it. “How thoughtful of you, my Queen.”

Natalia sighs before ushering me up onto the round platform. “Inka, you know that she is my relative, so why make such crude comments?”

Giles chuckles before dismissing himself and Ehren, backing out of the door as the two women behind me begin going over the materials needed for my school uniform. Not long after entering the room, Inka has wrapped the measuring tape over nearly every inch of my body. Her hands worked at twice the speed anyone would have thought possible as she’d measure then mark, measure then mark. Her long red nails would sometimes trail down my exposed lower neck as she’d measure and re-measure my shoulders. The small movement would send my neck hair on end, letting me know that she is very much a predator and I am very much the prey here. However, through it all, I managed to keep my heartrate even and not once did I panic.

After nearly an hour of measuring and marking, Inka finally announces to us that she’s finished. Natalia thanks her for her service and motions me towards the door.

Before leaving I can hear Inka say in her low Russian accent, “It was a pleasure, Princess Isabella. Hopefully you will visit again soon.”

The tone in her voice sends shivers down my spine, but it was the smile on her lips that got me. The slightly exposed teeth, those two canines just protruding from her upper lips. Fangs. Just for a moment, only a moment, my heartrate spiked. It was then that I realized, this might be the place I die.