CONVICTION OF THE DAMNED: SUPERNO ACADEMY BOOK ONE

by Tierney Storer

  Caleb had been pissing Kaida off again and Mikel had decided to join in. The second he had threatened to steal more of her memories for the group to see I saw red and had another one of our many scuffles. It was actually a lot of fun except for the one tiny issue that we were in the corridor for our lesson, and Professor Fox happened to walk by and see it all. She grassed to Ryder and now I was stuck here on another useless adventure.

  There were four others with me today; Mikel of course, but he was joined by Bette, the stronzo Harpy Drew and some random skinny white boy I hadn’t seen before. From the hungry way he kept darting his pale eyes at my neck I had a feeling he was a Vampire.

  I could see why the boys were here. The only one who was a shock to me was Bette. She didn’t go to lesson often enough to land herself in detention so I couldn’t imagine how she had managed to end up with us. But I was sure to ask her when she decided to sit in the chair opposite me as we waited for Ryder to turn up.

  “A couple of my pack had a fight and ruined Professor Cardan’s classroom,” she replied, offering me a stick of pink gum, “so I figured as Alpha it was only polite of me to take the blame and spend the evening dossing with my boyfriend.” She laughed.

  Bette had a point not that I would ever say that to her. We were being nice enough to each other right now and making strangely pleasant conversation, but this was not the norm.

  “Why are you here though Dari, I figured you would be the sort to just pretend detention didn’t exist?”

  “I tried that before,” I winced at the memory of the one and only detention I cut, “and Ryder turned up to the dorms and dragged me out my room. The stronzo made me run laps outside in the rain for over an hour in nothing but shorts and a vest.”

  I didn’t bother mentioning how Ryder had been whispering filthy compliments the entire time and made me do push ups every time I laughed or reacted. Nor did I think it wise to talk about how he had specifically requested what outfit I wore for the sheer purpose of watching it turn see through in the rain. I knew he had done it thinking I would refuse, but it would be no surprise to anyone to find out I secretly liked it.

  I had got my memory back of the night we had really met for the first time, and I could see just why he was so hot and cold. He had walked me home after a scuffle outside a bar, and I had kissed him goodnight. I was drunk as hell then, but I still knew without a doubt, that Ryder had kissed me back.

  Considering I was a nasty human he hadn’t stopped flirting with since our little kitchen meeting. I sure as hell wasn’t going to mind that even if it did hurt a little afterwards when he went back to ignoring me. It was all a game, and I was willing to participate even when I hated myself a little bit afterwards.

  The classroom door was kicked open and the man himself appeared with a handful of pointy sticks in his grip.

  “Okay delinquents, get into pairs,” he grinned at me, “Princess you’re with me.”

  “Of course I am.” I muttered, getting out my seat to stand beside him.

  “You are all litter picking. Take a stick, poke things, and put them in the bin. It is so simple that even the most foolish amongst you will manage.”

  Ryder looked at me when he said foolish. But I had decided to ignore him and pretend he did not exist. If we had to spend the next hour walking around campus then I would need to be quiet. Or else the pointy stick might end up somewhere it was not supposed to be.

  Twenty minutes went by with nothing more than the sounds of the birds in the sky, and the huff I let out every time I found something to stab. Ryder was watching me, when he wasn’t close enough that his stupid soft arms were grazing against mine as we walked. For a blissful while I thought I had gotten away with ignoring him.

  Until we somehow detoured through the woods and ended up completely alone in a field of trees and pretty blue flowers. I stopped to admire them, reaching out a hand to pick one up, when Ryder snatched my arm and told me they were poisonous.

  “They could kill you.” He muttered, and I just shrugged and carried on looking.

  “If you don’t say something to me in the next thirty seconds I’m going to give you detention for a month.”

  I thought for a second, allowing myself to look at him properly for the first time and notice just how tired he looked. His emerald eyes lacked sparkle and the dark circles on his face made him look kind of creepy. He was still hot, but definitely a little creepy.

  “Fine,” I replied with a sweet as sugar grin, “how about fuck you Kyan.”

  I couldn’t even laugh at the look of fury on his face. With a growl that belonged to animal Ryder lunged at me, yanking me into his arms and slamming me against a tree on the other side of the flower patch. My back hit the trunk and his marble arms wrapped around me like a vice.

  “You’re not funny.” He said, before he took a giant bite out my neck like I was a god damn sandwich.

  There were two pinpricks of pain – his fangs – before everything inside me lit up like it was the fourth of July. I was scared as hell, having only heard things about a biting from Kaida’s point of view, but when his lips touched my neck I came alive. It was frightening just how much I felt like I was playing with lightning. And even more scary at how much I enjoyed it.

  Ryder feasted on my blood and moaned, winding his hands around my neck and hip, and crushing me against him. I ran my fingers through his hair, roughly pulling on the ends when he sucked a little too hard.

  “Fucking hell.” I whispered, breathless and far too turned on for me to continue being considered sane.

  My words seemed to shock him. He withdrew his mouth and blinked a few times. The darkness on his face was gone and he looked a little flush, making me realise that the reason he had been snappy, and dark was hunger, and not for food.

  “I… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.” He stuttered.

  I wanted to be mad, but I didn’t have the energy. The sadness flickering over his features told me he truly hadn’t meant to snap like that, and that was all I cared about.

  “It’s cool. I know you didn’t do it on purpose.” My fingers were still in his hair, and I had to methodically remove them one by one.

  “That’s it, you forgive me that quick for that?” He raised a brow.

  It wasn’t that I forgave him, but rather I didn’t hold it against him in the first place. The more I had been learning about Vampires lately had made me understand three things about them. The first was that their bloodlust was dangerous if not satiated; they would turn into horrible monsters. The second was that they were legally allowed to take blood from any adult, so long as they were not another Vampires source.

  And finally; most Vampires didn’t feel guilt over their feedings, and so for Ryder to be apologising to me it was no small thing.

  “You were hungry, and I can see you’re sorry. It’s no big deal.”

  “If that was no big deal then what the fuck did I do to make you ignore me? Because don’t think I haven’t noticed you’ve been treating me different since that night in the kitchen.”

  I hadn’t actually realised he had noticed. But now that he admitted to doing so I felt a small trickle of glee inside my heart. If he knew I had been mad at him then it had made all those times I felt guilty whilst ignoring him worth it.

  “You insulted me stronzo. What do you expect?”

  “But what did I say?” he mused, as he loosened his grip and moved away from me. “I don’t know what the hell I did for us to go from being about to kiss to you stropping off.”

  Stropping off?!

  “I did not strop!” I yelled, “I walked away because you were a hurtful dick, and I don’t need another guy like you in my life.”

  “I was drunk, surely it wasn’t that bad.” He said, but all I heard was his implication that I was overreacting.

  “You know what. Fuck this.” I shoved myself off the tree and turned towards the path back to the courtyard. “Next time you want to bite me I suggest you ask nicely, or else I
might just slip up and let your brother know what you like to do with nasty un-fae girls like me.”

  Ryder didn’t stop me leaving and I didn’t look back. I cursed him out the entire way back to my dorm. And again, during the night. And even more in the days that followed. It was bad enough he had insulted me, but to pretend like it was nothing was the final straw. I would forget all about Ryder and pretend he didn’t exist. No more laughing at his jokes or entertaining his flirting when it was just the two of us. He means nothing to me.

  Kaida

  The first four weeks of our schooling had been a carbon copy of one day repeated like we were stuck in one of those old movies. Think Groundhog Day but instead of it just being me, I was trapped with a bunch of people I wanted to cut into pieces and set on fire. The incident with Laina’s vision had ended without another word, and for two weeks I was stuck in a blissful in-between, like I was waiting for the penny to drop and the world to come crashing down.

  Xavier had taken to following me around when I was alone, his navy eyes brimming with unspoken questions and pain. He never said a word to me unless he was with the others, and even then it was only to insult me. Our kiss was now a memory, albeit painful, that would never be mentioned again. Some days I even doubted if it had happened at all or had been a figment of imagination.

  The only reason I knew Xavier still thought of me was with his incessant following. He was everywhere I was, always lurking, always waiting. More often than not I thought he was actually going to murder me, because that was the only reason I could think of for his incessant observation. But each time I called him out he turned his back and flew away like the little bitch he was.

  Caleb on the other hand had no objections approaching me, and every other day he would jump out of the darkness and bite me. Most times he chose right before a lesson or in a room full of people, so that I had no choice but to stand there and allow the entire world to see how weak I was. He also refused to let me forget about my moment of weakness, and relentlessly teased about me about the mistake with Xavier.

  The only blessings were that he hadn’t spoken a word about seeing me naked, and that he seemed to be appearing at the same days and times, so whilst my uniform was fucked and I had to get changed out of bloody clothes, I could at least semi-predict when he would arrive. I could handle Caleb’s teasing, so long as he kept my secret. Besides, the more I got used to his brand of torture, the easier it was to handle it.

  The biting itself had become nothing more than a slight inconvenience to me. In fact, I almost enjoyed it. Pain-wise there wasn’t really any there anymore, and Caleb was always so flirty it was hard not get to butterflies each time he trailed his marble fingers along the skin of my neck or whispered sweet nothings in my ear. I only stayed with him for as long as he fed, but I had to admit I was finding myself looking for reasons to talk to him outside of that situation. At least I did until I remembered why I hated him and that the feelings inside me were a result of his Vampire magic.

  It was more the psychological issues I had with it. Each time Caleb touched me I was flung straight back into my childhood and reminded why I was never going to be happy. Then once Caleb had finished with me I would have to go and release my anger the only way I knew how. Pain. It was safe to say I was covered in a symphony of new scars across my palms and knuckles from the repeated cutting and smashing of mirrors.

  I didn’t know why the school kept replacing the ones in the girl’s bathroom, but each time I shattered them they would appear back right as rain within the hour. I wouldn’t dare complain; it meant that I could get away with my deeds, and as the mirrors were my go-to I couldn’t afford to lose them.

  There were times like this morning when only the satisfying crunch of bone was enough to satiate me. On our way to class, it had been raining, which meant Mikel had decided to use his ridiculous control over that water to absolutely cover me in mud.

  “Oh no, is that too germy for you Kat? Or has your so-called germ phobia gone.” Xavier had laughed, as he used his fire to make sure the mud dried like cement over every inch of my body.

  I never said a word to him, not wanting to let him know that my words about disliking germs were lies. Xavier didn’t need any more ammunition against me, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to offer any up.

  “Leave her alone guys.” Ember butted in, forcing his friends off and offering me apologies.

  “Not your fault but I appreciate the sentiment.”

  Ember stared at me for a second, his mouth parted like he was going to say something.

  “I need to go for a shower.” I muttered, scarpering away before he got a chance to do a thing. Even though it had taken me forty minutes of scalding hot water to shower away the mud, and another twenty to get ready for class again, I kept my mouth shut and refused to react out loud. I would not give the Heirs the satisfaction.

  ***

  The boys and I were stuck together in Ryder’s Human History lesson, and their taunts about germs and mud were driving me insane, I refused to do anything more than grit my teeth and imagine their brutal deaths inside my mind. One day I would become powerful and strong, and the Heirs would rue the day they decided to make an enemy of me.

  “I'm going to need groups for the next hour; and yes I'm picking for you before anyone dares to bitch to me.” Ryder interrupted my vivid daydreams of stabbing Mikel with his bad news.

  Laina was paired off with Tory, Allie, and a boy called Dan. Dari had Asher and Mikel, and Bette. Which meant I was stuck with Xavier, Caleb, and Ember. It honestly my own personal hell.

  “Are the groups’ necessary sir? I could answer all the questions on my own.”

  That was dumb Kaida, Ryder is on their side.

  “Miss Darklight if you’re unable to work with people in a team how do you ever expect to make it past the end of the year in one piece?” Ryder replied, before shutting down any ideas of switching or not cooperating.

  And so, I was stuck. I dragged my chair around to the boys table as slow as humanly possible, careful to make sure I made as much noise as I could. I even huffed as I slammed my body back down in the seat next to Ember and crossed my arms over my chest, pointedly staring anywhere but at the two stronzo’s in front of me. I could work with them if needs be, but I certainly didn’t need to look at them or initiate conversation.

  I never expected to get away with my attitude, but I wanted it to be known how much I hated it anyway. With a wave of his fingers Caleb created a silencing bubble around the four of us.

  “Don’t you wanna work together Kitty Kat? You liked the last time we worked together.” Xavier smirked.

  “No.”

  “But why? Were all friends here? I bet with us on your side you’ll be able to at least scrape a pass.” Caleb added in, as he pushed back against his chair and stared at me with a grin.

  His blonde curls had grown slightly longer, and I hated that they only made him cuter. It was so difficult to imagine cutting his heart out when I found him adorable to look at. Though that was the whole thing with Vampires. They were created to capture your hearts, so that they could then take your blood. Their innocence and beauty were another part of what made them an apex predator and another reason I would never trust them.

  The pair of them continued to try and rile me up as Ryder handed out the worksheets, but each time I either responded with one-word answers or ignored them completely. I knew if I let my tongue slip too far I would end up trying to strangle one, or both, of them by the end of the lesson. And considering Caleb had been keeping his mouth shut about me, I didn’t want to risk him spilling what he knew.

  But by the time our papers were dropped on our desk they had given up being their version of nice.

  “If you don’t reply properly I think I’ll have to talk to my big brother and ask him to get you kicked out of this lesson. And I bet that wouldn’t be too good for you now would it?” Caleb said. “Or maybe I can tell everybody in here what I walked into in my own living
room…”

  “Alright Cal, I think that’s enough.” Ember began, narrowing his hazel eyes. His interruption on my behalf was another sign of Ember standing up for me since our day in the woods. I didn't know what to think of it.

  I looked at Caleb, allowing my death glare to pierce into his bright blue eyes as I contemplated how easy it would be to remove his head from his broad shoulders.

  “I had you pegged as a snitch from the day I met you sanguisuga. I'm glad you finally confirmed it with your own words.” I bit. My statement had no affect other than a small frown.

  “I'm not a snitch; I'm actually pretty loyal to my friends.”

  When I pointed out we were not, nor would we ever be, friends Xavier decided he had to chime in too.

  “I don’t understand why you’re so angry all the time Kat, it’s not like we’re the ones who were sent here to ruin your dreams. You need to stop being such a Princess and acting like your life has been so hard that you can’t even handle a little bit of teasing.”

  “Guys seriously, can we not just get through a single damn lesson without this shit?” Ember huffed.

  Biting my tongue only got me so far, and it was useless against people who refused to give up. Caleb was already looking over at his brother, as though he was about to summon him and tattle. And Xavier was staring down at me as he licked his lips, trying his best to remind me of that stupid mistake we had made.