by Nexus Jones
Needless to say, I was feeling pretty good about myself. I had finally put that ruthless bitch in her place and made myself proud.
Putting down Melinda isn’t just about getting back at her. It’s about putting a notice out to everyone: If you mess with me, there will be consequences.
And it sort of worked. The bullying slowed down, and so did the gossip. All I had to do was give them a mean stare and they would stop doing whatever it is that made me upset.
People even began to become nicer to me. Maybe it was out of fear that I would use some dark magic on them if they didn’t follow my orders.
And look, I will admit that I don’t like being feared. If it were my choice, I would rather have lots of friends that loved me and trusted me. I would rather treat the people around me well and get along.
But in vampire world, you cannot be too nice. People are ruthless and vicious. They can be cruel and calculating. They say that we aren’t inherently evil, but I’m not so sure that I agree. Vampires aren’t exactly known for our kindness.
This place is like high school, but amped up to a million. Everything that exists in a normal high school: lying, cheating, bullying, rumors, and sex, exists here. But the consequences are far more steep.
Ever get on the bedside of someone that could literally rip your soul from your body? Tip: You certainly don’t want to do that.
Roseblood Vampire Academy is a wicked beast. But it looks like I’m finally starting to tame it.
Walking into my Defense Against the Light class, my professor, Mrs. Redvine, pulls me to the side.
“Are you okay, dear?” she asks
I give her a confused look. I had no idea what she was talking about, but I responded anyways.
“Yeah, did I fail the last examination or something?” I asked
She shook her head.
“No, you did fine. Excellent, actually. Much better than your first exam.” I exhaled and gave a smile. I gave myself a psychological pat-on-the-back for my accomplishment.
“Great. So what did you pull me out of the class for?” I asked
“We are worried about you. The teachers are commenting that your eyes are now glowing with power, immense power, actually. But you seem to not be harnessing correctly.”
“Oh, yeah.” I said, chuckling.
Remember how I said that colorful eyes were a sign of power with vampires? Well, yeah mine have been glowing purple for a month now, and I still don’t know what my powers are. But I still feel them growing inside me, like they are aching to come out.
Although most vampires would be thrilled with the prospect of getting new powers, for me it has come with some serious mental anguish. I keep getting these nightmares. The nightmares of those men in white cloaks who come to me. And their castle. On an island somewhere.
“Do you know what they are yet?” she asked
I shook my head, “No ma’am, I don’t know. But they are certainly affecting me.”
“Like, in nightmares?” she asked
I was totally taken aback, and my eyes blinked several times in shock.
“Yeah, how did you know?” I asked
“Because my power is reading souls. Your soul has a lot of turmoil right now, but it’s coming from your dream cortex in your brain.” She said, pointing to my head.
I felt on my forehead, a dull pain that came from too much deep thought about my problems.
I nodded my head in agreement.
“You’re right. I’ve been under so much stress lately. You’d have no idea.” I frowned.
She returned my nod.
“Go inside. We have to start class.”
I was grateful that there was an opportunity for me to talk about what I was going through. But I tried my best to keep the contents of my dreams to myself. It wasn’t that they were bad or anything, but it’s always good to keep those kinds of things secret. I’m not exactly sure what the Order of the Fang wants from me, but I am not going to take any chances in pissing off a magical and powerful organization like that.
I decided that my partner in the Defense Against the Light classes would be Austin.
This class is pretty tough, but he seems to have a good head on his shoulders about this kind of thing. He’s the best Darkness Vampire that I’ve ever met.
He lifted an eyebrow at me before casting a lightness orb in his hand, tossing it towards me. I dodged it as quickly as I could. I looked at him with slight distress.
“Hey, I wasn’t ready!” I said.
“You got to be quicker than that.” He said, smiling
Ugh. And he’s supposed to be the mature one of the trio.
He’s far more down to Earth than the other two, but he’s still a wealthy and somewhat cocky asshole. I think that he just looks much better in character when I mentally compare him to his friends.
Anyways, light magic can be incredibly deadly to a vampire. We are creatures of the night, after all. The most common defense against a vampire would be a “light orb” as we call them. They are essentially small, shining balls of white light packed with heavenly energy that can be used as a defense against us.
The church created them like a thousand years ago when we first started taking over Europe during the Great Vampiric War. The light monsters themselves taught the Catholics how to create them, and ever since, they have been hurling these tiny balls at us, causing instant burns, pain, and even death if we get hit in our heart.
Of course, magical technology has advanced in that timeframe. But “light orbs” are the most common form of light magic still used and are still wickedly effective when trying to kill a vampire.
At first, I was totally terrible at casting counter-attacks at these things. I was so horrid at it, that the professor made me counter-attack tennis balls instead, because she didn’t want me to accidentally get killed.
But ever since I received my new eyes, I’ve been much better at this. I mean much better. I can devise a counter attack in a split second, no matter how potent the light orb combination is.
If a mage tried to even use a machine gun of light orbs, I could repel them back or make the disappear with a snap of my fingers.
And these things aren’t easy feats, either. Although vampires are capable of using defensive spells, the most advanced ones often take long months or even years of practice to get right. Zaine Balsari, one of our top students, was only able to perfect the Amagi defense after practicing it for eight months.
They’re that hard.
But I’ve been able to nail some pretty advanced defensive tricks within a month. A timeframe so rapid, that it made my teacher’s jaw drop.
“You ready now, Mira?” he asked
“Give it to me.” I said, cracking my knuckles.
He sent three potent light orbs directly at me. Three? Oh, you bastard. It’s like you’re trying to kill me or something.
But he didn’t send them that fast, so at least that gives me a little more time than usual to figure out what to do.
I whisper a spell and turn them into fairy dust. Their remnants sparkle in the air.
Austin raises his eyebrow and smirks. He’s impressed, but I can tell he’s trying to hide it. He’s definitely not the type to be easily impressed.
“Give me another.”
“You got it.”
He forms a large light orb in the palm of his hands and sends it spiraling at me at a rapid pace.
Oh now he’s talking.
It has to be moving at me like 50 miles per hour. That’s all? This should be a piece of cake.
I whisper under my breath.
Favari.
It turns into black dust. Completely neutralized by darkness and the remnants sent to the Nether Realm.
“Those are some really advanced dark blood spells your casting. I can’t even do some of that.”
I narrowed my eyes and chuckled at him in a taunting manner, “Hey, we can’t all be good at this.”
I was totally messing with him. But i
n a playful and fun way. The more time I spent with him, the more time, I really started to like him.
“Oh, you want to play games? I can play games.”
He closed his eyes and started whispering another light spell. The ground around him started to shake, and smoke started forming and circling around his ankles. In his palm grew a light beam, large and incredibly packed with lightness. And it was….golden?
He’s sending me golden light? That’s only something that actual angels tend to use.
And moreover, it’s practically illegal and highly frowned upon to use.
It’s like the machine gun of magic.
If this hits me, it’s over.
A bead of sweat drips down my forehead, and my heart pounds through my chest.
I take a deep breath. I try to adjust my form before he’s able to send that thing, but it’s too late.
He zips it right at me.
Blazanzo!
The golden orb of deadly spirit energy stops in the center of the battle room and collapses into itself. Growing smaller and smaller from the size of a beachball to a marble. And then into nothingness.
“Damn, I really thought I would get you on that one.” He said.
“What the hell, Austin! That would’ve killed me!”
“Hey, you seemed like you wanted a challenge. I gave it to you.”
He was right. I did like that I finally got a challenge. But goddamn, he could’ve warned me before sending what could’ve been a magical atomic bomb at me.
Of course, he won’t get in trouble for it. None of the noble families ever get in trouble for anything. Their lifestyles are the definition of impunity.
“Those eyes. They’re something special.” He said, looking deeply into them.
“Yeah, too bad I can’t figure out what my powers are though.”
He narrowed his eyes, looking at them.
“I feel like I can figure this out. Come with me.”
“What? Now?”
“Yeah, classes are over. Why not?”
“Don’t you have basketball practice?” I asked
He shrugged his shoulders.
“They can wait.” He said, looking at me sexily.
Oh boy, is he hot. His gorgeous hair was so incredible that I could run my fingers through it all day long. And his face looks like it was crafted from marble. It was so sexy that I could sit on it.
Sit on it?
No, no, no. Stop with the dirty thoughts Mira.
“You have nothing else to do.” He said
“How would you know that?” I asked
He rolled his eyes and held back a laugh, “Come on, we all know that you spend all your down time in your room. Just come with me.”
He grabbed my hand, and I felt my heart explode. My body began to heat up in desire, as I saw him smirk. That sexy fucking smirk.
He knew that he had me wrapped around his finger, and there was nothing that I could really do about it.
“Fine.” I said.
He whisked me out of the classroom and through the academic building and across the campus towards the boys dormitory.
I got some stares from the other students as they saw me holding hands with Austin, one of the most popular guys in the entire school.
This will probably make me so much more popular than I was. Not that I care about that or anything.
We stopped in front of the boys dormitory. It looked pretty similar to the girls one, but it was made of brown brick with a large eagle-headed gargoyle gracing each side of the front stairs.
I took a step up a stair, and the gargoyle turned its head to face me. It’s eyes turned red and its mouth opened. For a second, I thought it was going to incinerate me with some sort of security magic.
“You don’t live here!” it said.
“Relax, Chester. She’s with me.” Austin said.
The gargoyle turned its head back forward and closed its beak. Its eyes turned back to stone as well.
“Sorry about that. We have guardian magic here.”
“Oh..uh…yeah.” I said, awkwardly.
This place can be pretty weird at times. There are all sorts of magical objects and creatures lurking around here. And oftentimes, we come across them at the most random moments.
We have a ghost that lives in the girls bathroom at my dorm, but I generally try to ignore her. If you spend any time trying to engage with her, she’ll probably keep you around for literally hours as she talks about her life and her drama with the other ghosts.
But anyways, we enter the front door into the boys foyer. And, it was surprisingly nice for something that belonged to a bunch of boys.
The black and white checkerboard marble floors sat at the bottom of a shining black staircase, which lead up to the second floor of dorms.
Guys were walking around with their backpacks. Getting homework or whatever done. It was pretty busy with a flurry of activity commencing.
Girls were allowed to be in the boys dorm during the day, but we couldn’t be here at night. And under no circumstances were we allowed to be in their rooms.
But the rules of this place don’t really apply to someone like Austin.
I followed him up the stairs and then into his dorm room.
It was pretty nice. Well, that’s an understatement. It was insanely nice.
There were a bunch of very expensive looking items around, all made of marble or metal. The newest technology sitting on his desk and some framed art. His bed was at least twice the size of a regular bed, and it looked like he had no roommate either. Along the side of his wall was a massive bookcase with what had to be at least hundreds of books.
Glancing along the side of it, it didn’t seem like they were lazy beach reads, either. They looked like some serious research books.
“Dude, are you Einstein or something?” I asked
“Nah. My IQ is only 170. Einstein’s was 185. I’m not as smart as he is.”
I rolled my eyes. Whatever. That was such a humble brag.
"So what do you do with all these books?" I asked
"Normally, I like to read them, maybe apply the concepts in my experiments in the lab, and use them for research."
He walked to his bookshelf and grabbed a large book with a leather padding.
I was able to read the spine of it as he pulled it off the shelf.
The Book of Occult Secrets and Mysteries
He opened it, flipping through a few pages. He looked as if he already knew what he was searching for.
“I think I’ve seen your condition before.” He said.
“What is it?” I asked
He stopped on a page, and positioned the open book in front of my face.
“Right here.” He said, while pointing to a picture of a man with glowing purple eyes, “I think you have this condition.”
I took some time to read the text. Eyes of the Dracula.
“What on Earth is this?” I asked
"I'm not entirely sure. There's limited research on it." He said, already pulling another book from his shelf and shuffling to another page, "But there's old stories of there being a long lost heir to the Dracula bloodline."
He put another book in my face.
Age of Vampires
In summary, the passage he showed me said that there was a long lost relative to the Dracula bloodline, a royal family, and that they had a trait for purple eyes.
I arched an eyebrow, trying to figure out what this all really meant. I struggled, trying to piece together the information that would lead to a conclusion that I find entirely improbable.
"Wait, is this actually trying to tell me that I'm a part of a royal family?"
"Possibly." He said, closing the book, "I'm not sure what their name was, but it is entirely possible that you are one of them."
"There's no way." I said, shaking my head in disbelief.
There's no possible way on Earth that I'm any kind of royalty. I'm just a normal, boring, bland girl without a lot of money.
I dress in frumpy clothes and like to go couponing in my freetime. I'm hardly what anyone would picture in their mind if they were to think of royalty.
"It would be cool if you were." He said, "I think there might be a way to test it."
I lifted an eyebrow in intrigue. I mean, there's no way on Earth his hypothesis could be correct. However, there's no harm done in investigating it to see what may happen.
"What idea did you have in mind?"
He smiled while closing the book.
"I thought you'd never ask." He said, "There's a rumor about this group of people that have an ancient connection to the exiled royal families. They're rumored to still hang around the outskirts of vampire society and hide in plain sight. If we can find one of them, they might be able to answer our questions about the nature of your powers and your lineage."
"I did meet this one guy a while ago..."
He looked interested, hanging onto my every word.
"Who are you talking about?"
"His name was Roxas. He said he was a part of a group called The Order of the Fang. I also have had dreams about them, too."
Austin was deep in thought. He tapped his chin with his index finger and bit the bottom of his lip. His eyes were narrow as he worked his brain to the limit.
"The Order of the Fang? I thought they were just a myth."
I shrugged my shoulders.
"Well, he was real to me. He's the one that gave me my eyes."
"Do you know how to reach this guy?"
"No. I mean. I don't know how to reach them, but they have a way of finding me. I see them in my dreams. And the dreams just feel so...real. It's hard to explain."
His eyebrows jump in the air. He just had an epiphany.
"They could be using neural magic to communicate with you."
"Neural magic?"
"You know, they're trying to talk to you through your dreams."
I raised my eyebrow, interested but also kind of weirded out. "I've never heard of anything like that. That’s wild." I said
He felt on my forehead. And I blushed. His rough, strong hands grazed the top of my head, making me melt inside.
"Of course you haven't. You're so naive."
He had this sort of condescending way of talking to me, that rich people kind of give off when they talk to those in a lower social strata.
