Van Helsing Academy

by Stacey O'Neale

  Mom surprised me when she let go of my hand and straightened her back. I followed her eyes to the door. My father stepped inside the room while he was speaking to someone behind him in a lab coat. I had to assume the older guy was my doctor. Dad took a glance at me, then returned to his conversation. The extreme opposite reaction from my parents wasn’t a surprise. The doctor shook my father’s hand and left without speaking to me.

  Father came to stand at the bottom of my bed. “I’m glad to see you’re recovering.”

  “How would you know if I’m recovering? It’s not like you rushed over to see if I was okay.” My mother rubbed the top of my shoulder as she resumed her usual position as a moderator between us. Without words, she was asking me to dial it back.

  “Are you okay,” Mom asked.

  I sat the empty cup on a small table next to the bed. Still staring at my father, I replied, “I feel like I rammed head-first into a bulldozer, but other than that, I’m peachy.”

  He stared at me with a blank expression on his face, and I knew that he didn't appreciate my attitude. “I assumed that if you were hurt, you would’ve alerted the staff.”

  Guilt washed over me. My relationship with my father was complicated, but my issue wasn’t with him. The truth was that I was scared and lashing out. “I’m not sure what I am,” I answered. “I woke up in a hospital bed with no idea how or why I’m here.” A chill came over me, and I rubbed my hands over my bare biceps. Mom jolted out of her chair. She went into the hallway for a moment and returned with another blanket. “Thank you.”

  My father crossed his arms. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

  I tried to search my memory. Things in my head were foggy. The more I tried to focus, the dull ache in my head magnified into sharp jolts of pain. “I was with my team. There was a shifter. He had escaped during a full moon.”

  Mom gasped, putting her hands over her mouth like something I said had shocked her to the core. I watched her, feeling an overwhelming sense of dread growing in my chest. When she realized I was startled by her reaction, she dropped her hands in her lap and stared at my father.

  He came to stand behind her. “Are you sure there’s nothing else? Small fragments of memory? Things you remember but don’t make sense.”

  I tried to concentrate. “There is something else, but I thought it was a dream.”

  His eyebrows arched. “Tell us.”

  “There was a forest and a wolf,” I shrugged. “But that could’ve been the shifter we were looking for during our mission.”

  Dad gripped the back of Mom’s chair and leaned forward. “Anything else?”

  My head felt as if it were splitting in two, but I pushed through the throbbing pain. I closed my eyes and tried to visualize what I’d seen. “A room with a mattress.”

  “Where is the room?” His tone sounded less like a question and more like a command.

  I rubbed my temples. I didn’t understand my father’s urgency, but I wanted to give him something. The fact that I couldn’t readily recall my memories was starting to trigger my anxiety. “I don’t know.”

  “There has to be more,” he insisted. “What else was in the room?”

  I squeezed my eyes tighter, pushing back against the haze in my head. “A blanket and a few windows.”

  “Focus, Mina,” he ordered in a harsh tone he rarely used.

  My pulse accelerated as the ache in my head began to travel to my arms and chest. The longer I concentrated, the further it grew. This anguish had to end. I didn’t know how much more I could take.

  “What else do you see?” he commanded.

  “I don’t know,” I insisted. “I have to stop. It’s too much.”

  Mom wrapped her arms around me like a shield. “She needs to rest, Jonathon.”

  “Lucy, we have no choice.” His voice calmed as he spoke to her. “We have to get answers.”

  “She’s been in a coma for weeks,” Mom argued. “They can wait.”

  An icy chill raced up my spine, and my eyes shot open. There was no way I heard her. What she said was impossible. “I was in a coma?”

  Mom loosened her hold and met my stare. She tried her best to smile, but I could tell she was faking it for me. “Yes, you heard me correctly. You went missing after you got separated from your team. They found you about a month ago in the forest near the Van Helsing Academy. You were unconscious with cuts and bruises all over your body.”

  A piece of memory flashed in my head from that night. I didn’t get separated from my group. I’d gone to the river, and I wasn’t alone. I started panting. “What happened to Caroline?”

  “Caroline Dupree was badly injured when your team found her.” Dad knelt on one knee and positioned himself next to my mother. “She’s been in a medically induced coma for two months.”

  Tears welled in my eyes. “Is she going to die?”

  “The doctors don’t know,” Mom added. “The blow she took to the head caused a brain bleed. They’re hoping that, in time, the swelling will reduce enough for them to go in and surgically repair the damage.”

  My head spun as I tried to make sense of what I heard. “My team found her, but not me?”

  They looked at each other as if they were trying to decide their response.

  “No, no,” I shook my head. “This isn’t the time to hold back. I swear, I can handle whatever you have to say, but I need to know everything.”

  Dad was the first to speak. “We don’t know where you went, but we know that you didn’t stay in the forest. Multiple teams spent weeks searching for you. If you were there, they would’ve found you. Maybe they took you to the room from your memory fragment.”

  My eyebrows knit together. “How do you know someone took me?”

  “We’re assuming someone took you,” Dad answered sharply. “There’s a chance you went on your own recognizance, but I can’t imagine why.”

  Caroline was severely injured, and I had weeks of memory missing. What happened out there? I felt a tightness in my chest. I took several long breaths as I tried to calm myself. Otherwise, I was going to have a full-blown panic attack. “Let me see if I’ve got this. You’re saying something happened during our mission, but you don’t know what. In the middle of whatever it was, I left or got taken while Caroline was attacked and nearly died. A couple of weeks later, I just showed up in the woods covered in injuries. Did I miss anything?”

  “There were also two dead vampires,” Mom replied with hesitation. “Their ashes were found a few yards away from you.”

  I stared at her, feeling overwhelmed after all of this information. “That’s frightening, but at least now I know how I sustained the injuries. I guess that’s better than nothing.”

  “This is more complicated than you think,” Dad injected as he stood and began to pace. “The council is holding you responsible for the two unwarranted deaths.”

  “If I was defending myself, how is that unwarranted?”

  “One of the academy’s surveillance cameras picked up part of the incident, and from what I’ve seen, it doesn’t look like you’re defending yourself.” He stopped pacing to stare at me. “It looks like they were attempting to surrender, and you killed them.”

  His words hit me like a bullet to the gut. How could any of this be real? Taking a life was never something I enjoyed or took lightly. I always tried to find a different solution. That’s why none of this made any sense. It’s like I was hearing about someone else’s actions instead of my own. My eyes darted between my parents, trying to gauge their feelings. I couldn’t tell if they believed what they saw on the camera footage.

  “I didn’t do it,” I argued, feeling like I had to defend myself. “You know me. I wouldn’t kill without reason, especially if that supernatural willingly surrendered.”

  “We believe you,” Mom insisted, then turned her attention to my father. “Tell her, Jonathon. Tell your only child that we believe her.”

  “Of course, we’re on your side, Mina.” Dad
acted as if we were accusing him of something. “We have our entire legal team preparing the next steps for us.”

  That didn’t exactly sound like he believed me. If I had to guess, he was more concerned about the situation blowing up and going public. He was trying to make it go away fast. He would do anything to protect our precious family legacy. I sounded bitter when I should be relieved that I had my parent's support. Few people had the connections we did. But I always hoped for some kind of emotional reaction from my father. Something that would show he loved me.

  I pushed those feelings aside, as I had so many times before. “And what steps have you taken?”

  Dad straightened his posture. “We’ve arranged a trial before the Council of the Four Rings.”

  Chapter Three

  “The Council of the Four Rings?” A trial before the high council would be public. Reporters from every supernatural newspaper, vlog, and blog would be there. It would be a circus. And a massive tarnish on our name. Our family legacy was something my father cherished, which was why none of this made any sense. “You can’t settle this outside of the courts?”

  “I don’t want to settle.” Dad sat down in a chair. “It was no accident that they chose you as their target, Mina. Someone meant to use our family name to make a statement, and we need to find out who is responsible.”

  My eyes widened with shock. “How is a trial going to help you?”

  “Your assailants assume we will fight against the charges, which will inevitably lead to a lengthy trial with continuous media coverage. Instead, we’re going to plea bargain.”

  “Plea bargain for what?” I asked.

  “The council will sentence you to the Van Helsing Academy for rehabilitation,” he replied with confidence. “That’s where you’ll find the answers we need.”

  “Jonathon, you can’t be serious,” Mom argued. “This will destroy her reputation.”

  “This is a necessary evil, Lucy.” Dad leaned forward, balancing his forearms on his knees. “We need to uncover the truth.”

  Our family built the academy. If he wanted to investigate something, he didn’t need permission. He could simply walk through the front doors. No one would deny him access. “Why not just go yourself?”

  “I don’t want to create suspicion within the factions.” Worry creased his brow. “There’s too much at stake.”

  The concern on his face made me uneasy. Dad never spoke about issues with the factions. He always told us things we needed to know, but nothing more, so the fact that he was openly talking about it now was alarming. “What do you mean? What’s going on?”

  “Tensions between factions are at an all-time high,” Dad replied. “We’re receiving a constant flow of complaints led mostly by the vampire clan. Their accusations against reapers included unnecessary use of force, false imprisonment, and torture. There are even rumors of a rebellion.”

  A rebellion amongst the supernatural factions? “What does any of that have to do with me?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” Dad stared at me like he expected me to know. “If this person or group was trying to grow support for their cause, how would they go about it?”

  They would need to prove that they had just cause for their intentions. But more than anything, they would need the media to report on it. “They would do something on a large scale to get attention.”

  “Exactly,” he agreed. “A public trial for the mistreatment of two vampires might warrant a column or two, but a Van Helsing on trial makes the front page of every publication.”

  My eyebrows furrowed. “That doesn’t explain what the academy has to do with this.”

  “The video evidence only showed a small piece of what happened,” Dad explained. “If we could get our hands on those surveillance tapes, we might be able to identify your attackers. That’s where you come in.”

  He wanted me to infiltrate the academy from the inside. If I were serving a sentence, no one would suspect I was a spy. “We don’t even know if any additional footage exists. We’re staking my life on a lot of assumptions.”

  “I’m sorry that you must carry this burden. I know it’s a lot to ask.” The fear in his eyes sent a cold shiver up my spine. “But I don’t see another way out.”

  This request was beyond a lot to ask. “You want me to risk my life to find evidence that may not exist.”

  “I want you to stop an all-out war between humans and the supernatural factions. Our family cannot be the flame that ignites a war.” He kneeled next to my bed. “This rebellion must not come to fruition.”

  My great, great-grandfather ended centuries of violence when he got each of the factions to agree to abide by a set of laws. Supernaturals would exist in secret, while human hunters became the protectors of the covenant they created. They built our alliance on those principles. If the supernaturals rebel, it could lead to mass bloodshed greater than any war in human history.

  My chest tightened, making it hard to breathe. What he wanted me to do was dangerous, and there was a real chance I could get caught. And that’s assuming the council went along with their plea bargain, which they didn’t have to do. “What if your plan goes off the rails? I could be sentenced to prison or even executed.”

  “No,” Mom replied before Dad had a chance to respond. “Your father would never allow that to happen.”

  But it could. That was the part they didn’t want to admit. If the council didn’t cooperate, I could end up in a prison filled with supernaturals that I might’ve put there. I’d be dead in a matter of days. “Should I get my affairs in order? Have a lawyer draw up a will?”

  “Mina,” Mom spoke in an exasperated tone with tears welling in her eyes. “You shouldn’t say such things.”

  “I’m sorry.” An ache swelled in my chest each time I looked at her. I could tell this situation was ripping her apart, and I hated that it was my fault. “I’m not trying to upset you.”

  “I know you’re not.” She assured me. “You’re doing the best you can in a difficult situation.”

  “This is all overwhelming, and the fact that I can’t remember what happened only makes it worse.” As the words came out of my mouth, something flashed in my memory. It felt like a dream. There was an image of a pale-skinned teenage boy with blond hair and a beautiful smile. Was he one of the vampires I killed? If he was, why was he in my face smiling like we were friends, and why weren’t we fighting? In an instant, it all made sense. “You think a vampire compelled me, don’t you?”

  Dad smiled as if he was proud I figured it out. “As soon as you told us you couldn’t remember large fragments of time, I knew that’s what transpired.”

  “Jonathon, please,” Mom pleaded with him. “You can’t ask her to do this.”

  Dad pulled her aside to speak while I remained on the bed, still trying to digest what was in front of me privately. Going to the Van Helsing Academy was risky well beyond what he stated. The vampires, shifters, and witches in that place were there because they broke the law, and some reaper probably caught them. I’d have to watch my back everywhere I went. I couldn’t trust anyone.

  Putting the danger factor aside, Dad was right. I needed to find out who had compelled me and clear my name. But more importantly, I had to protect the covenant. It was my sworn duty as a reaper. I had to stop this rebellion and unmask the supes involved, even if that meant putting my life in jeopardy. There was only one choice for me.

  “Mom, Dad.” They both pivoted toward me at the same time. “I’ll do it.”

  Chapter Four

  Two guards brought me into the council chambers in chains. The silver shackles around my ankles clanged with each step I took, while my cuffed wrists were behind my back. I was dressed in a loose-fitting orange shirt and matching pants that reminded me of hospital scrubs. Dad tried to persuade them to let me wear my regular clothes, but they wouldn’t budge. He said the council, feeling pressure from the vampire clan, were intent on making this into a spectacle. Regardless of the reasoning, I felt
like a criminal.

  A supernatural courthouse closely resembled the American courts I’d seen on television. The polished mahogany walls and furnishings shined in the natural light coming from the large windows. The council sat the furthest away from the entrance. Two tables with chairs were available for the defendant and the plaintiff, along with space for their council. A long wooden bar kept the spectators in a separate area. The general public and press filled those seats.

  As I headed toward the council members, I stared straight forward, ignoring the crowds on both sides of the courtroom.

  A few days ago, the video footage leaked to several news blogs. Although we remained a secret from the rest of the world, the supes had several newspapers with reporters eager to write my story. I was front-page news. It was evident by the articles that the vampires were responsible for the leak. Before the trial began, they branded me a killer of defenseless creatures. That ought to make me a lot of new friends at the Van Helsing Academy.

  By the time I reached the defendant’s table, the four council members wearing floor-length red robes were already seated in a row behind an extended elevated platform. A flag hung high above them, bearing their insignia. The four intertwined golden rings represented each of the factions: human, vampire, shifter, and witch. Being chosen for a council member position was a great honor. They were coveted, even among the royal families.

  The knock from a wooden gavel signaled that the trial was ready to begin.

  For the first time, I was happy my handcuffed hands were behind my back. This way, no one could see them shaking. I turned around to see that my parents were sitting right behind me, separated from me by the wooden bar. My father stared at the council through narrowed eyes. He looked as if he were ready to commit mass murder. My mother wore the face of a terrified parent. Although she was beautiful in her fitted black suit, her eyes were puffy and red.