Fullblood Academy: A Vampire Academy Mild Bully Romance (Vampires of the Sanctum Book 1)

by Phoenix Chaos

  I recognized this scent.

  Craw oil?

  The girl held a green bottle in her hand, her face a contorted mess of fear and anger. She clutched the bottle to her chest, holding it like it was the dearest thing to her.

  “Please let me go,” she said.

  I’d scared her, and she looked at me as if I was the ugliest thing she’d ever come across. My breathing had quickened, my chest rising and falling as my rationality returned. I glanced at the bottle. “Where did you get that?” My senses were slowly returning, even though Verity served as too much of a distraction.

  “I bought it.”

  “From who?”

  “A secret source from home.” She darted her eyes to her left, unable to meet my gaze. My desire for her burned with a strong intensity, and I barely knew anything about this girl.

  I pressed my lips together, considering her answer. “That kind of thing doesn’t work on me. It might be useful against the lowbloods, and even some normals, but I can fight past it.”

  “Let me go back to my room.”

  A pause.

  I sighed, shielding the hunger from my thoughts. This girl wasn’t Janella, despite the resemblance, but my deep-seated anger made me want to make her life hell. I shouldn’t be this petty or unfair. I’d never met Verity before and shouldn’t be projecting my past on her.

  It was too difficult to not hate her.

  I clamped my hand around her neck. “I want to make your life hell,” I said, giving in to the vindictive part of me.

  I was choking her breath out of her. Tears pooled around her eyes. “Why?”

  I slapped her, throwing my hand across her face. She seethed, arching her back. She had no idea how sensual that action looked. How much it drove me to want her.

  “You’re a whore,” I told her, projecting my thoughts of Janella against her. “You should be fucked and used and not pampered in the way you have been before. All you ever do is use others.”

  “Wh-at are you talking—” Verity’s sentence was cut short as I tightened my grasp around her neck. I shoved her to the ground, and she fell weakly. She coughed before struggling to get up. I bent down, yanked her hair, and forced her to look at me. Her blue pupils were dilated, flashing fear.

  I’d never allowed Janella to show me that look. I’d treated her too well.

  “Go,” I said, baring my teeth. My fangs poked out from my mouth. “Try not to let me see you again.”

  She tried to nod, but her hair was trapped in my grasp. I released her, and she scampered to her feet, rushing to get away from me.

  I put more space between me and her. Hastily, she took the chance to escape. She ran down the corridor to get away. She shouldn’t have run. Those movements merely stirred the predator in me and made me want to chase her down. I withheld those instincts, letting her go.

  As soon as she was out of my sight, her image appeared in my mind. The image of her was a nuisance I couldn’t get rid of.

  Her existence was a sin.

  Eight

  Verity

  My breathing was so hard that my chest hurt. I couldn’t stop thinking about Cassius. The way he touched me. Hurt me. I walked quickly down the dim hallways of the Sanctum, skimming past the forlorn portraits that lined this particular one. I almost tripped on the carpet beneath me. It wasn’t like me to be this clumsy. I was usually more dexterous and aware of my surroundings, but that encounter had me all frazzled.

  My belly clenched tighter, my breathing quickening. Lord Cassius had been too close. The way he looked at me made me think he might bite me, and I thought I saw my life flashing through my eyes. I’d taken out the craw oil out of instinct. All I wanted to do was ward him away, and the oil happened to do the trick. If he got any nearer, I wouldn’t have been able to keep myself together. His skin felt more cooling to the touch than a human’s, but his gaze caused heat to rise in me, the tension between us unbearable.

  Get a grip on yourself, Verity. He’s just like any other monster.

  He’d choked me, slapped me, tugged at my hair. I shouldn’t want to see him again. Something was definitely wrong with my head.

  Up close, his beauty was so enrapturing that it seemed wrong. Such perfection shouldn’t be allowed to exist. Having to lay my eyes upon such a monster and be swayed by his looks had to be curse. How many innocents had fallen to his thirst?

  He was no different from the vampires I’d hunted down back home.

  If I had a weapon, I might have been able to cut his heart out, but in the state I’d been in, dumbfounded and half frozen, I doubted I could have summoned the courage to carry out the deed.

  I had almost obtained the means to save Hannah.

  My failure caused guilt to trickle down my spine. I had to find another opportunity to get what I wanted.

  Once I reached the end of the corridor, I pushed the door to my room open and stepped in.

  Grey looked up from the pamphlet he was reading. He was sitting on the bed, resting his elbows on his elbows. “You all right there, Verity?”

  I slammed the door shut and pressed my weight against it. “Yeah.” My scalp still hurt from Cassius pulling my hair.

  Grey frowned, clearly unconvinced. “You’re as pale as one of them.”

  “Don’t compare me to them.” I hated vampires so much that just the thought of those creatures made me queasy. Cassius had to be the worst of them. He was the strongest, after all.

  “Hm.” Grey set the pamphlet down. “I won’t press it if you don’t want to share. Just remember: I have your back.”

  “You’ve yet to prove it.”

  Grey shrugged. “Fair point.”

  I glanced at the pamphlet in his hand. “What does it say?”

  “Just a brief write-up on the uniforms. It talks about how to put them on properly. Funny, huh? It assumes we don’t know how to wear clothes. Maybe vampires think that humans are stupid. I’m considering whether I should take offense.” Grey pushed himself from the bed and stood in front of the full-sized mirror at the other end of the room. It was only then I noticed he was wearing a different outfit.

  He’d donned a black blazer. A cream-colored shirt was tucked underneath, its collar peeking out around his neck. Wrapped around the collar was a red tie with a gold emblem on it—a bat superimposed over a fleur-de-lis. I’d seen that emblem around the Sanctum’s hallways. I wasn’t certain what it represented.

  “Nice outfit,” I said. It gave Grey a smarter appearance. Some of his tattoos peeked out from over the collar.

  Grey pointed to my bed. “Your uniform’s over there.”

  I spun around and strode over to pick my outfit up. I unfolded it and held it out in front of me. It was a replica of Grey’s, but the blazer was matched with a skirt that ended right above my knee. They’d supplied me with a pair of knee-high socks, too, the same color as my tie.

  “Just one outfit?” I asked.

  “They’ll send more after this, or at least that’s what the letter says. There’s not enough to go around for now, and they’re trying to make sure everybody has one.” Grey smoothed his hand down his blazer before turning to me. “Are you going to put yours on?”

  I wasn’t keen on playing dress-up. Not after my encounter with Cassius. “Tomorrow morning.” Or was I supposed to say “night”? They had their day- and nighttime cycles all mixed up around here. “I’ll just wear it before class.”

  Grey smoothed his hand over the side of his head. “Shame.”

  “Why?”

  “I want to see you in it. Think you’ll look pretty.”

  I huffed. There was something about the way Grey looked at me that unsettled me. It wasn’t as intense as the way Cassius had, but I could see the longing behind his green eyes. I couldn’t be sure of what kind of man he was, and wondered if I should sleep with a knife beneath my pillow.

  Grey strode over to a backpack at his bedside. He knelt down, unzipped the bag, and began rummaging through it. A moment later, he pulled
out a small box. I squinted at it.

  It was a cigarette box.

  “Oh no,” I said, shaking my head.

  Grey took out a lighter and flipped open the box. He pulled a cigarette out with his teeth.

  I scowled. “You’re not doing that here.”

  “I need my fix.”

  “You’re going to stink up the whole place.”

  “And?”

  “Really? No remorse? Can’t you take this outside?”

  “I always smoke in my room.”

  “Is that why you smell of cigarettes? It’s probably unbearable where you live. Your parents don’t complain?”

  “They’re not the type to complain. If they’re unhappy about something, they show it through their actions,” Grey said. He sat back onto his bed, resting his elbows on his knees again, and lit the cigarette. Crap. I was going to be stuck here for who knew how long with a tobacco addict. The scent was going to give me nausea and secondhand cancer.

  Should I really care about cancer, though? Considering I spent so much time around vampires, I doubted I’d have a long lifespan.

  I sighed, then picked up the backpack Miles had allowed me to bring over and took out a piece of jerky.

  Grey eyed me judgmentally. “Jerky?”

  “Beef-flavored. You have cigarettes, I have my own vices.” I tore off the tip of the wrapper with my teeth.

  Grey snorted. He took a drag of his cigarette, then blew out a huge cloud of smoke. “I wouldn’t exactly call jerky a vice.”

  “Ever heard of sodium? Kills in horrible ways. High blood pressure, strokes, stomach cancer. You know, the things you can get from smoking, too. I say we’re on par.” I took a huge bite, tearing the piece into two, and chewed. I’d picked up my jerky addiction in high school. I’d always had a taste for meats. The red kind, especially, and jerky just seemed like a convenient way to have meat around. I chewed loudly on purpose to annoy the hell out of Grey, but it didn’t seem to do the trick. “You said something about getting along with your roommate?”

  “Uh huh,” Grey replied. “I think we’re doing that just fine.”

  “You consider this fine?” I asked.

  “You don’t want to punch me to death. That’s a win in my book.”

  I blew a breath through my nose. “What kind of people have you been hanging out with?”

  “Sick fucks.” Grey sucked in another breath of smoke.

  I focused on the taste of my jerky, and silence fell between us. After a long pause, I said, “I’m guessing you don’t want to talk about those people.”

  Grey peered at me. “My dad taught me that it was better to stab people in the back before they got a chance to do anything in return. He made me beat up my best friend when I was eighteen, and when I was done, my father shot him in the head.”

  I stopped chewing.

  “All Harold did was take some of the drugs for himself, but Dad wanted to prove a point.” Grey put out his cigarette on his jeans. Ash was getting everywhere. “Yeah, I think, for my standards, we’re doing pretty well.”

  “So,” I said, eying Grey warily. “How do I know you’re not trying to get on my good side so you can stab me from behind? With a father like that, I’m guessing you have a real screwed-up world-view.”

  “You don’t know,” Grey said. “You’ll never know.” He pulled his backpack onto his lap and rummaged through it again. “The thing about life is that you can’t be sure about anything. If something hits you, it hits you.” His candidness made me trust him more, strangely enough.

  “And by ‘it,’ you mean yo—”

  “Catch.”

  Grey threw a bundle of cloth toward me. I caught it. The object felt heavy. I pulled away the cloth.

  A knife.

  This one, unlike the steak knife at the cafeteria, looked intricate. I picked it up and held it against the golden light above us. It had a silver hilt and a curved blade. The right side bore shallow engravings that looked like a tiger stalking deer. “Is throwing knives at people randomly something you do often?” I asked.

  “It’s a good skill to have,” Grey replied. “But no. I don’t get much joy from it.”

  “Why do you keep doing it to me, then?”

  Grey shrugged. “Maybe I’m just impressed by how quick you are. Where’d you learn to move so fast?”

  “I spent a long time chasing and running away from monsters.”

  “Hm. How’d you mean that? Figuratively? Literally?” Grey pocketed his pack of cigarettes.

  “Both.”

  Grey cocked his head. “There’s one thing I can tell you for sure. Dad taught me many things, but he also taught me to treat women well. I’ll do my best not to hurt you.”

  “You’re saying this after throwing a bunch of knives at me.”

  “You asked for a way to get Cassius’s heart, and I just gave it to you.”

  I glanced at the weapon again. “This?”

  “It’s a blade forged specially to kill vampires. It has whitesun imbued in it.”

  “What’s that?”

  “A special stone that bears the properties of sun. I’ve learned that vampires burn under it. Strange how much information you get just from talking to people a lot.”

  Despite my years of chasing down vampires, I’d never heard of whitesun before. Maybe Jonas hadn’t come across it.

  Grey smiled. “I’ll teach you how to use it properly. I know you women. Dad always told me you’re the weaker sex and that we men have to fend for them.”

  I rolled my eyes. “He sounds like a misogynist. I’m guessing he makes your mom cook all the time, too.”

  “She makes good pasta.”

  I resisted the urge to give him another eye-roll.

  Grey leaned closer. “What do you say, then? We take down Cassius together. A team, you and me. And we can save your little sister. How’s that for a truce?”

  “You sure you want to team up with someone as weak as me?”

  “I’ll make an exception.” I couldn’t tell if he was being serious.

  “I don’t work in teams anymore.” Seeing Jonas die had been too painful. “Thanks for the knife. I’m keeping it.”

  Grey’s jaw dropped. “You can’t cut me out so soon. That’s not fair. Took me a lot of trouble to get that knife.”

  “You’re the one who told me not to trust people.”

  I watched him swallow his own words as I stood and walked to the bathroom, taking the knife with me.

  “You’ll regret not having me on your side,” Grey said.

  “Yeah, I don’t think so. But don’t say I’m not grateful. You’re a little bit on my good side now.” I clicked the bathroom door shut behind me, ignored Grey’s complaints from outside, then ran the faucet.

  I splashed water on my face and gripped the side of the sink before looking into the mirror.

  As soon as I got the chance, I was going to take Cassius down.

  Nine

  Verity

  “Tell me where he sleeps,” I said, dragging a servant girl aside and pushing us close to a wall. I silenced her screaming by cupping my hand over her mouth. It was nine in the morning, the middle of the night for vampires. I couldn’t sleep, not with the dreams I had of Cassius running through my mind.

  I was having the wrong kind of dreams. I should be imagining him in pain, dying with a stake through his heart, but instead, images of me taking his lips wouldn’t stop flashing through my mind.

  How would it feel like to be in his embrace? Was he just as cold as he seemed?

  I wrapped my arm around the servant girl’s waist, fastening her in place.

  “Who?” she asked.

  “Your lord, Cassius,” I replied. I pressed the knife to the servant’s neck, threatening to slice her jugular. I felt her heart beating from the back of her ribcage. She quivered as I held her. I wasn’t going to truly hurt her. I just wanted to get the information I needed to save my sister.

  The sun was out, which meant that it w
as the most opportune time to take Cassius out. I picked my battles when conditions favored me.

  “Please don’t hurt me,” the servant said, shaking from fear.

  “I won’t if you tell me where he is.”

  “All right. Okay. I will. Please, just stop pointing that thing at me.” The servant sucked in a deep breath. “He’s in the other building, right across the joint walkway. Once you cross it, turn left. You’ll find a narrow path that’s lined with red roses. Walk right across to the end and you’ll reach a spiral staircase. Climb all the way to the top. Cassius’s room occupies an entire floor, and if you’re headed the right direction, reaching the end of the staircase will bring you face to face with his room’s entrance. The Lucian family crest should be on it.” The servant whimpered. “Now can you please, please let me go.”

  “Thank you,” I replied.

  “I won’t tell anyone—”

  I slammed the hilt of the knife in the servant’s temple, knocking her out to be safe. I didn’t want to risk her ratting on me and sending vampires after me. I caught her before her unconscious body fell to the ground, cradled her, then dragged her along the hallway until I found a comfortable spot for her to rest in. I propped her up against a wall that was hidden in her shadows. After that, I left to find Cassius.

  My heart beat furiously in my chest. I didn’t think I’d be able to pull this off, but desperation was my fuel. I focused on the mental image of Hannah’s dying form. The way she’d slumped toward the ground after the lowblood let go of her. And the blood. All that blood. Had she been carried off to the hospital like I’d hoped? Miles, on the way here, told me that the doctors would be unable to do anything. At the very least, I hoped that they’d buy me some time. One month was too short for me to find a solution to save her.

  I followed the directions the servant had given me, taking large steps up the spiral staircase. The Sanctum was comparatively empty during the daytime. It looked completely different, too, shedding some of the constant gloominess that hovered around this place. It almost looked beautiful, like it’d been ripped from a fairytale.