Blood and Beasts

by L. M. Miller

  “Seph, hurry up. Stop trying to cut corners,” she called down, and Seph ignored her.

  That girl was just itching for a fight. Did she realize that Seph was a strong vampire? Probably, but she was so drained (no pun intended, of course) that she didn’t care anymore. Besides, Seph was her friend first, a vampire second. Right? Seph blinked, and Abernathy nearly screamed as she reappeared beside her, air pushing away from the space that she was now occupying.

  “I’m going to really start to hate that,” the girl acknowledged before continuing on to the left, towards the girls’ dorms.

  She guided her to her room, number 11, and then left her there. She sighed. Abernathy was obviously really tired and preoccupied about something. She didn’t take the action to heart, shaking it off.

  Opening her door, she gasped at the décor. It was beautiful. The bed to her right had to be hers. It was a huge, king-sized bed with an emerald comforter that looked to be made of shimmering silk. There was a canopy with apple-green curtains, slightly sheer, silk as well. She pulled apart the curtains to see the sheets underneath the comforter were made of satin and golden in color. The wood of the bed was mahogany with a gold sheen to it, polished to a shine. She had a nightstand and chest-of-drawers, all made of the same gold-tinted wood.

  She glanced at the floor, her shoes slipping on the white, gleaming marble a little. Then she looked over to the left side of the room. Her eyes took in the matching furniture except the comforter was amethyst, the curtains lavender, and the sheets silver satin. The wood of her furniture was made of birch with a silvery sheen to it, and Francesca was sitting on the bed, watching Seph the whole time. Seph ignored her, and the werewolf girl could easily guess why.

  They seemed to have a pure white vanity to share for their make-up and hair supplies. Seph walked over to see a crisp, clean bathroom, complete with a little shower against the back wall, in the far right corner. She walked back out to their room after exploring it. She opened her drawers to find all her clothes filling them. Her make-up and hair supplies were on the vanity, and her books were in the nightstand. She sent a glare over at Francesca.

  She could not believe her! Francesca had lied to her! To her best friend! She had lied to her face! And what was worse? She had done it when they were supposedly bonding over their weird circumstances, over their awful situation, when they thought it was them against some evil doers (who ended up being their future teachers). That was beside the point though! She had lied!

  Seph stomped off into the bathroom, taking a shower to cool off. She leaned her head back in the shower flow, letting the warm water beat down on her face. It felt wonderful. After her shower, she washed her face, brushed her teeth, brushed out her hair, and only then did she stomp off to her bed, reentering their shared room. She viciously pulled her curtains around her, protecting her from Francesca’s constant, wide-eyed stare. She could still see her slightly through the translucent curtains but not that well.

  Seph pushed the comforter down, wanting to just curl up in bed and think. She could turn off the lamp on her nightstand, which was green and gold, matching everything perfectly. Francesca would need to turn off her lamp as well for there to be complete darkness in the room, and that was the only way Seph was going to get any sleep. She hit something as she slid under the covers. She picked it up and froze.

  Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen. It was the nice copy the boys had bought her, and it brought a wave of nostalgia with it. She touched the necklace that she still wore around her neck, then the bracelet on her wrist, remembering. Pearl and Pearce… Nate… They had all cared for her. They had cared for her so much, loved her even… But did they really? She had become this… thing, and they had shunned her. They seemed to despise her. She recalled Pearl and Pearce’s faces, their absolute disgust. Nate… he was lying on the ground, his neck dripping rubies. She knew he was alive. She knew he was all right. She just knew this. It was the amount of blood she had taken, but this feeling was really weird…

  Suddenly, Francesca pulled apart the curtains, and before Seph could open her mouth to say a thing, she sat down on her bed and passed her over a gold-wrapped gift, obviously a book. She said nothing, and neither did Seph as she snatched it from the girl’s outstretched hands, dark-tan resilient against the gold wrapping paper. Seph sent her a glare, unwelcoming as ever, wishing her away from her sight and her bed that very instant. She tugged at the gold paper.

  Unwrapping the gift, the book that came out in her hands was smooth, unnaturally smooth. She rubbed the cover thoughtfully, wondering what animal produced a hide like this, so soft and silvery-white in color. She read the words on the cover, words written in red, jewel red, glistening almost like blood…

  Everything You Wanted to Know About Every Magical Creature Known to Any Creature by Vincenzo Fraschetti. She flipped through the book, vellum pages thick beneath her fingertips. She looked at the index, at the titles of the chapters. An entire chapter was donated to vampires, another to werewolves, another to wizards. It was amazing! Francesca knew her so well. Francesca…

  “Fraschetti’s a famous writer. He’s a vampire,” she explained, and Seph nodded.

  “I’ve heard of him. I mean, we did know some things about vampires and werewolves as humans. I never bothered to read any of his books though, much as I wanted to. Janette would have condemned me to hell,” she shook her head as did Francesca.

  They both well knew of Janette and her religious zealotry. Seph flipped to the back and read Fraschetti’s short autobiography. He lived in Italy with his wife, Sofia. He had three children: Giuseppe, Isabella, and Giovanni. All three of his children had attended Zephyr Hall, although they attended one in Italy, Zephyr Hall Italia. Isabella and Giovanni were vampires while Giuseppe was a wizard. That’s weird, Seph thought, and Francesca seemed to read her mind, although she couldn’t have literally.

  “Vampires can’t have children with another vampire. They can only have kids with either a werewolf, wizard, or human. You’re dad was a vampire, Seph. You’re mom was human, obviously,” Francesca glanced away.

  “And you?” She asked, trying to mask the anger lacing her voice.

  “Both my parents are werewolves. We’re a little werewolf family,” Seph looked away now. “I couldn’t tell you, Seph, and I wanted to so much! I’m the oldest though, so I was the first to change. We knew our parents had to leave for three days every full moon, and I would watch the kids then. Remember? I always invited you over those three days to help me watch them all. We would have so much fun…” Francesca looked forlorn at the lost memories shared between them.

  “Why?” She had to know.

  “The code,” she answered matter-of-factly. “It’s for our protection, my family’s, werewolves and vampires and wizards and witches in general. You cannot tell a human you attend this school. It protects the school and its students. You can tell whoever you want that you’re a vampire. Obviously, the school had to speak to your foster parents about where you are and what you’re going to be doing from now on. They had to handle the hospital, the EMS people, all your foster siblings, and your real ones,” Francesca listed off.

  “Are Pearce and Pearl…” she started, and Francesca nodded.

  “If you wanna make sure your kids are gonna be vampires, get with a human. You never get just humans from that. I read it in the book somewhere,” she nodded at it. “One of the few books I actually read. I got my own copy of it,” she explained, nudging her head towards her bed, where a copy rested on her silver-stained nightstand.

  “And if I got with a werewolf or wizard, there’s a fifty-fifty chance?” She raised a brow, and Francesca shook her head.

  “With a wizard, it’s 75% that you’ll get a vampire because your genes are stronger than the wizard’s. As for with a werewolf… I dunno…” She shrugged. “Vampires and werewolves usually don’t get together because they’re both very aggressive, nearly kill each other a lot of the time, you know? The war between werewolves and
vampires just ended about two or three centuries ago anyway. Don’t tell the Guth Man that I don’t know that fact for sure,” she laughed lightly, but Seph still had not forgiven her fully and only gave her a half-hearted smile. “I think it’s fifty-fifty, but I dunno. It might even be in that book,” she nodded at the book still clasped in Seph’s pale hands.

  “That’s cool,” she said coldly, and an awkward silence elapsed between them.

  “I’m sorry, Persephone,” she stated forwardly, and Seph looked up at her sharply. “I know that those stupid codes and rules don’t seem to matter to you because we’re best friends, and I lied to your face. It’s a spell though. You cannot break it even if you wanted to, and at first, I didn’t want to tell you, before I found out you were one of us. It was just… I was afraid that I would frighten you, and admit it, if I had come to your door as a werewolf, you would have screamed bloody murder,” Francesca pointed out, grinning a little, and slowly, the grin became infectious.

  “Alright, I forgive you,” she heaved a great sigh, grinning even more, and Francesca did as well.

  “Great! Now let’s see what classes we have together,” she announced, bouncing up and down with excitement.

  It turned out, they had two classes together, Lit with the awful Madam Powers and Gobbledegook with the very pretty Sir Sanzio.

  “You know who Sir Sanzio’s real dad is, right?” Francesca said, juicy gossip spilling from her full lips every few seconds. “Leonardo Da Vinci!” She gasped out, and Seph was shocked.

  “The Da Vinci?!” She spouted, and Francesca nodded. “How?! He had no children!” She continued, and the Hispanic girl just shook her head.

  “He and his mistress, Madam Luti, a witch, had one illegitimate child, Sir Sanzio,” she explained excitedly.

  She was about to ask about the surname thing, but suddenly, Francesca’s ears perked up, and she cocked her head to the side.

  “It’s nearly eleven! We need to get some sleep, girl!” She announced, quickly rolling out of her bed and bouncing onto her own.

  “Oh wow, okay,” she said, completely dazed by Francesca’s sudden switch from conversation to sleep.

  “Werewolves always know how high the sun and moon are. Something to do with knowing when the next full moon is…. I dunno,” she called before knocking out that easily.

  Seph stayed awake in bed for a while, staring at the apple-green canopy, thinking. Life had changed so much in the past few days. A few days ago, she had been a foster child with a few friends with a foster family. She had two half-siblings, and six foster brothers. She had two best friends. Sure, one had lied to her and turned out to be a werewolf, but she had two best friends all the same. Now, her real siblings were terrified of her as were her foster brothers. She had nearly killed one of her best friends, and no longer trusted the other, at least not completely. Even her foster parents didn’t care for her anymore. Janette could be a bit of a religious fanatic, and a vampire foster child? That obviously would not go over well. On top of that, Bill had shot her! Actually shot her! She had nearly forgotten about that what with discovering that she was a vampire and all.

  Now, at school, she was even more abnormal, on top of everything else. She was already such a strong vampire that the sun affected her, and she had to drink so much more blood than the usual. She loved blood though. It sounded horrible when you put it like that, but she could not live with it. She craved it all the time. She was actually a little hungry right now. Those eight gallons were running low in her system.

  She had new friends though, and meeting new people was a favorite pastime of hers. Life was too short to live the same day twice. She had new friends now: Linda and Abernathy and Rodney. Rodney… there was something about him… She felt attracted to him, but she should never act on that impulse. Look what had happened to the last guy she had been attracted to. She had nearly killed him.

  Am I evil? She thought to herself that first night at magic school. Let’s see… Since I turned sixteen, I’ve nearly killed my best friend. I’ve drank eight gallons of blood. I’ve poked and prodded another student enough to make him attack me. I nearly attacked another student when I was hungry. I drank eight gallons of blood, equivalent to draining three and a half people. Maybe the half would be a child… Nate… I can’t be good. I can’t be a good person then. What good person does that?! I guess I have more of my father in me than I thought, she deduced miserably, and a few tears sprinkled down her face.

  She sniffled inaudibly and wiped at her tears. With her efficient vision, she noticed that they had a pink tinge to them. Why would they… blood. Blood must mix with her tears. For some reason, that was just the cream of the crop. She buried her face in her pillow, choking back a sob. She was a freak. She was a vampire. She was evil.

  After a while, her thoughts spiraled out of control as she drifted off to sleep. Sleep was lovely. Sleep was sweet respite. Sleep finally took her, and she would wake up at seven that evening completely refreshed. The only memory of her wicked thoughts the night before was the pink tear stains on her pillow.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  The week passed, and Seph’s life became relatively routine. She and Francesca would get ready in the morning, waking up at seven and leaving in thirty minutes. They would hurry down all the stairs, meeting Linda and Abernathy on the way or at the base of the steps. Rodney would be waiting for them as well. They would hurry to breakfast, where they would all just manage to get their food. Seph never had a problem in the line. Usually the students would actually let her cut in front of them. Apparently, word had gotten around about how much blood she had drank, and they were a little afraid of her. Well, it was better that they were afraid. She got her food earlier that way, and her hungry self was not someone to trifle with.

  Sometimes, she would take her blood to HU if she had not finished it all in time, and the Guth Man never complained. In HU, she would have to endure Ruby’s snickers and stares with her and her two werewolf buddies, whose names she learned to be Regina Conde and Lorelei Stevenson, and Oglesby, of course. She and Linda would talk with her telepathy though, and that was always fun. The Guth Man could never figure out why the two of them always knew the answers to the questions even though they were obviously not paying attention. He suspected, but he never accused, her of using her powers during class.

  Next was Basic with Linda again and Rodney. Basic was entertaining. Madam Winslow seemed to actually like Seph. She was just having a bad day that first day. They also both adored the book Pride & Prejudice, which bonded them on an entirely separate level. Basic may have been interesting, but Seph was not too good at it. Apparently, vampires rarely ever were. More than once, when her spells went awry, one of her vampire powers would be unleashed. On more than one occasion, Madam Winslow would have to intervene with a quickly thought of spell before some student was hurt.

  After Basic, Lit became a much more interesting class with Francesca in it, as Abernathy was a bit too passive. Madam Powers still despised Seph, but with Francesca there, they would double team her most of the time if she ever picked on one or the other more than usual. Apparently, she did not like Francesca either, and that was why they were best friends. They irritated the same people.

  Gobbledegook with Sir Sanzio was fun. Seph had quite a knack for it, which showed, and Francesca also had this class with her. Sir Sanzio and Francesca got along really well, always cracking jokes with one another. It was awkward the first class though, after the whole run-in they had. Sir Sanzio had been the one who had finally secured Francesca in her crazed werewolf state, but after a few awkwardly silent moments, they eventually went right back to normal. Seph also noticed a certain bottle filled with red liquid that he kept under his desk, and she knew what it was. She had scared a few of the students in there and him. He had actually feared for the safety of his students when she was so hungry that first day. Therefore, he now kept an extra bottle of blood for emergencies under his desk, just for her.

  Lunch went m
uch the same as breakfast. They would all talk about their morning classes. They would joke, laugh, have fun, bond. Seph was starting to like Monster Academy more and more. She still missed her family though. She missed them like crazy. She missed Pearl and Pearce. She missed little Manny with his chubby, little stomach. She missed Bobby, who was always everywhere at once. She missed the depressed Lawrence, who never had anything positive to say. Dean with his chipper attitude, Terrence with his quiet studies and constant knowledge, Nate… She missed Nate. They had been best friends and lived in the same house for over three years. Now he was suddenly gone… He would never want to speak to her again anyway. She had nearly killed him.

  Did she miss Janette and Bill? Not so much. Occasionally, she missed Bill with his steady flow of car knowledge that nobody wanted to hear about, except maybe Nate, as he told them how this worked or that worked. Janette… She missed having a mother, or the closest thing she had ever known to a mother, a real mom.

  She tried not to dwell on the evil thing. It got her too depressed and sad. Also, who knew that vampires had bloody tears? She hoped some people realized this, but she didn’t want to freak anybody out by suddenly tearing up or anything. So, she kept her thoughts happy, as much as she could at least.

  Hieroglyphs was one of her favorite classes but not because of the material or because of the teacher. She and Rodney would talk the entire time. Joke or play jokes on unsuspecting students. It was a great time.

  Drama with Abernathy was fun too. Madam Babbage was really nice, even if she was a little frightened of Seph, as most people seemed to be. They were doing Shakespeare monologues at the time, and Seph had chosen the fairy queen’s speech in A Midsummer’s Night Dream. It was a beautiful and eloquent monologue, hard to pull off, but Madam Babbage thought that Seph had the candor to do it. Abernathy had chosen Cleopatra’s monologue right before her suicide in Shakespeare’s play, which she would practice with much embellishment and dramatization all the time.