Bloodlust: Mystic River Vampire Academy (Year Two)

by Annalise Clark

  This was going to be a class of “baby vampires”, which actually meant former humans of all ages, ethnicities and backgrounds. As I entered the classroom, I took a seat toward the middle in the second-to-back row. I’d never been a teacher’s pet kind of student and I wasn’t going to walk into my first day and sit on the front row. Although, when the professor stood up to introduce himself, I would end up regretting that just a smidge.

  “Welcome class, and congratulations on becoming a vampire,” came the voice from the front of the classroom. This guy who I presumed was the professor was so hot.

  He was tall, slender built, but with defined muscles in his arms. I couldn’t see with the suit pants he had on, but I had a feeling his legs were just as toned. He had a chiseled jaw like those male models you see on the front of romance novels.

  But he also had a friendly face and soft eyes, and for reasons I could not explain, I wanted to both hold his hands and caress his scruffy face. As my mind started to drift into fantasies of what it would be like to kiss him, he began speaking to the class.

  His voice was just as sexy as the rest of him and I was so zoned out, I missed the part where he said his name. It didn’t matter. I’d call him anything he wanted me to.

  “The first thing you need to know about being a vampire, is that everything you think you know about being a vampire is likely not true,” he spoke, his voice deep and just a little bit raspy in a way that I found very sexy.

  Some of the students moaned and groaned before he continued. “Unless you come from a family of vampires, or have a vampire bestie, there’s probably a lot that you don’t know about us and how we operate. And that’s what this class is all about. I’m going to give you a crash course in everything you need to know about living as a vampire in this world.”

  Some people shifted in their seats, but as I glanced around at the class, most everyone seemed very intent on what he was saying. It was easy to tell there was a genuine interest in the topic, or at the very least, an interest in our sexy Professor.

  “There’s a lot to cover, so unless you have an amazing memory, I’d recommend taking notes,” as he said this, he turned his back to us and began writing something on a giant whiteboard at the front of the class.

  There were bustling sounds as some of my classmates pulled notebooks and binders out of their bags and backpacks. Shit! Was I supposed to bring school supplies?

  And then he began, with a tale as old as time… with a few twists, of course.

  “Fabled as demons of the night and regarded as creatures of myth and legend, there have been stories told of our kind for as long as humans have existed. Vampires. Bloodsuckers. Natural predators of man. Or are we?”

  “Are we dead? Well, obviously not. Because here we are walking the earth and speaking to one another. Are we alive? Not exactly…”

  There were a few snickers from other students in the class but some other gasps, likely from the newbies like me who still didn’t know anything about this vampire underworld.

  “Some have called us undead,” he continued, “and that is one way to describe it. The truth is, there aren’t really any human words that properly describe it. What is important to know is that after surviving The Turn, you are no longer human. You will look like a human and you may have many human characteristics, but you are not longer human. This is why human words can never truly grasp the complexity of what we are.”

  He looked around the room, allowing his words to sink in before continuing, pacing slightly back and forth in front of the class. For a brief moment, his eyes locked on mine. His intense stare caused me to look down into my lap, which was odd, because I’d certainly never been shy before. There was just something about him… I couldn’t look directly into his eyes like that.

  “So, the best starting point is for me to teach you about what vampires are, how you become one, and how you need to survive from here on out, because I promise you,” he paused, looking around at each and every face in the room before continuing, “it will be unlike anything you have known up to this point in your lives.”

  I looked around the room now and saw some of my fellow classmates with pens in hand, ready to take notes. Others stared right at the professor, waiting for him to continue, seemingly transfixed on what he had to say.

  “First, know that despite appearances, you are no longer human. Your bodies will be capable of doing things no human body can do. And your bodies will no longer need the things that human bodies need. This is going to challenge everything you’ve ever known about physiology and anatomy, and that’s why this school is so important.”

  I noticed his lip was upturned slightly on the right side as he spoke. It almost made it look like he had a forever smirk upon his face. It was cute.

  “Once you have fully completed The Turn, your nervous system will be transmuted. Magic will be coursing through your veins. You will no longer be human, despite this outer shell. This body is a mere conduit, the magical energy coursing throughout it capable of doing amazing things – things you have likely never thought of before.”

  Magic? I thought to myself. I’d never linked vampires and magic before, but I suppose there had to be some explanation for how we could do what we could do. Speaking of, what could we do? No one had really filled those blanks for me yet. I was hearing a lot about what I was not supposed to do.

  “This magic will power many autonomous abilities that you will now have – shapeshifting, conjuring, bewitching or enchanting others to name a few. As you move throughout your courses here at Vampire Academy, you will learn all of these, as well as how to master them. But first, I need to give you the basics. This is the foundation that will allow you to understand what is happening to you and the changes that your body is going through.”

  He went on to explain some of what was happening to our bodies during The Turn. I still wasn’t sure I understood all of it and I’d probably need to ask somebody to explain it again later. All I really wanted to know right now was when the vomiting would stop. I hadn’t been able to keep any food down since I wolfed down that pack of raw hamburger the day I met Hera. Yuck! That was a memory I didn’t need to resurface.

  “Now,” the professor said, “Who would like to ask some questions?”

  He looked around the class, but no one seemed to be jumping at the opportunity right away. I think most of them were either still in shock about the things he had just said, or they were trying to sort through the many questions they likely had rolling through their minds. At least, I know I did.

  “Can we go out in the sun?” A young woman with red hair and tons of freckles on her pale skin asked.

  “Wonderful question!” The professor seemed overjoyed to be hosting this vampire Q&A. I couldn’t explain why but a part of me felt happy seeing him so happy, which made no sense, as I didn’t even know him before today. “Yes, we can go out in the daylight. Despite the myths and legends and Hollywood movies, we are not impacted by daylight. This lore harkens back to the days when vampires were considered Creatures of the Night, or beings of darkness. But yeah… feel free to sunbathe all you want.”

  An older man in the back raised his hand to ask the next question, “What about garlic?”

  “Garlic doesn’t do anything to a vampire except give you bad breath.” The professor grinned and the class erupted into laughed. Oh, he was quite the charmer, wasn’t he? “That’s another myth. It’s folklore. Garlic has no evil power over us. It’s not our kryptonite. Go for that extra Italian pizza. It’s all good.”

  “What about a stake to the heart?” Someone from the back off the room blurted out.

  “Does a stake to the heart kill us?” He turned and grinned before he spoke again, as if he was just about to let us all in on a little secret. “Well, yes and no. You see, we can die to a stake through the heart, but it can’t be just any old stake.”

  A deafening silence came over the entire room and many of the students were leaning forward, desperate to hear what h
e had to say. Garlic may not be our kryptonite, but he was about to tell us what was.

  “A person could put a knife through your heart, and you will not die,” he continued, “because you are immortal. They could stab you with a stick from a tree, and you will not die, because you are immortal. However, there is a very special stake made from a magical wood that is not found here on earth, and that stake, which is in the possession of our very own gatekeeper, Hera, can kill even the immortal, like you and me.”

  Chapter 9

  The room stayed silent and it seemed that they were processing this information but as I looked the professor up and down, I saw he was looking back at me. This time, I fought the urge to look away and I met his gaze head-on, staring right into his blue-green eyes, even from the back of the room. As we stared at each other in this moment, it felt like time froze, or at least slowed way, way down.

  It was almost like the room closed in around us and all I could feel was him and me, me and him, and then there was a tingling sensation in my chest. Almost as quickly as it happened, he looked away, breaking the connection.

  I coughed and looked down at my lap as some of the other students murmured amongst themselves and then the professor closed out the class for the day.

  “There is so much more I have to teach you all so I do very much hope to see you all here tomorrow,” as he said that last part, he looked at me again, and winked.

  I felt a fluttery feeling in my stomach, but I ignored it as I gathered my things and looked at my schedule for the next class. Smiling at the professor on my way out, I tried to push away the weird feeling. It had to be nerves, or my imagination, or maybe I was just horny. I mean, he was damn fine looking…

  My next class was Vampire History where a short blond woman of about 28 in human years but nearly 1,000 as a vampire taught us about the history of our kind. As much as I did want to learn the truth about vampires and not that propaganda the government had been feeding us about the “dangerous vampire race”, I couldn’t help but find the class slow. History had never been my favorite thing. I shifted back and forth from listening to her and hearing the deafening sound of the clock ticking in the room.

  Why is that thing so loud? I thought to myself and the tick-tock, tick-tock pounded in my ears. Then I reminded myself that this must be more of my vampire abilities kicking in. As The Turn was finishing in me, my body was changing. This was what the professor had been talking about. With every minute that passed, I was becoming less human and more vampire.

  It was like a slow rebirth, without the actual death. My mind fixated on this as I moved on to my next class, Vampire Health and Wellness. Yes, that was also a thing.

  When I had first looked at the schedule Hera had given me, I thought it was the most ridiculous thing I had ever seen… almost as ridiculous as having to come to this stupid school in the first place. But now, things were different. After attending my first two classes while also experiencing the obvious changes that were taking place in my body, vampire health and wellness did not sound like the craziest idea around.

  I walked into my next classroom, which was only around the corner from my locker, and I saw some familiar faces from my first period. One of them noticed me, too, and decided to introduce herself.

  “Hey, I’m Astrid,” she said, extending a thin hand with long fingers and perfectly manicured nails.

  “Carmilla,” I said as I took her hand in mine and shook. Did vampires shake hands? What the hell did we know, anyway? We were still in The Turn. We didn’t know a damn thing about being vampires.

  “Isn’t this all so freaky?” she asked as we took seats in two desks beside one another. “I mean, this whole vampire thing? It’s like whoa!”

  I was guessing from this interaction that Astrid did not come from a long line of vampires. She must have been accidentally turned.

  “Y-yeah, definitely whoa,” I replied. She really had no idea.

  “So, how did you, you know?” her wide eyes were begging me to share more than I was sure I felt comfortable sharing.

  “How did I what?” I knew damn well what she meant but I was going to stall this line of questioning until I was able to think of a decent answer.

  “Become a vampire, silly! Who turned you?”

  “Well, would you believe it was just a nasty STD?” I said as our teacher was walking into the room and to the front of the class.

  “STD?” Astrid laughed loudly. “Oh, you’re a funny one, aren’t you?”

  Funny was absolutely something I had never been accused of before. But it didn’t matter because the teacher of this class was standing at the front, obviously seeking our attention.

  “Hello class!” The dark-skinned, dark-haired cutie from the front of the room said as she clapped her hands together to get our attention. “I am Professor Leah, but you can just call me Leah.”

  As she said this, she tossed a piece of her long, curly black hair behind her shoulder and smiled a smile so big it could light up the entire room. Damn, why are all my teachers so hot? I had to shake the hot-for-teacher thoughts away in order to concentrate.

  I was here to learn and to avoid being “destroyed” by Hera. But still… dang! If I’d had teachers like this when I was back in regular human school, things might have gone very differently for me.

  Chapter 10

  Leah was here to teach us newbie vampires how the vamp body works. I can’t tell you how badly I wanted her to give me a physical presentation, but I calmed my horny nerves and settled in for another lesson. Most of our first day was turning into teachers just talking at us for the day.

  Really, that made sense. I mean, even back in human school the first day was almost always about getting to know one another and the teacher explaining rules and expectations and telling you what you would learn in their class. So, this was all par for the course, so far.

  “Taking care of your body,” Leah continued from the front of the class that only had about twelve students in it, including me, “is a very important task that should not be taken lightly. These are the only bodies we get. You might be immortal, but your body will feel the impact of all the vampire magic coursing through it. It’s essential you care for it properly.”

  I tried to distract myself from her beauty and listen to what Leah really had to say. Knowing that I would be in this body for well, forever, meant that I needed to know how to care for it properly.

  “You do not need human food to survive,” she lectured from the front of the class as some of my peers were taking notes. “However, you can eat human food. It is a popular misconception that vampires cannot eat regular food or that your body will not be able to physically digest it. We are vampires, but we still reside in these human shells and that means a lot of the human rules still work for us.”

  A girl in the front looked like she wanted to ask a question but was intimidated by Leah, and she continued teaching her first lesson. “You can eat normally, and your body will process it. This is a good thing because it makes it easier for us to blend in. Can you imagine if you had to explain to all of the humans surrounding you in life why they never saw you eat?”

  Several of my classmates laughed at this part and I found myself grinning a little as well.

  “We also need sleep, the same as humans. What’s different is that we do not need as much.”

  She went into an explanation of how the vampire body can operate on very little sleep and can also go much longer in between sleeping than the human body.

  “You will also gain a great deal of speed and agility,” she explained. “I realize this may be strange for you, especially those of you who were not the athletic type before your Turn.”

  She looked directly at me as she said those words and I couldn’t help but feel like she knew more about me than someone who has just met me should know, but whatever… that was far from being the strangest thing to happen to me in the past 48 hours.

  “You must learn to understand your new speed and agili
ty so that you can use it in healthy ways as needed, and also avoid suspicion by humans around you. Who’s seen the part in Smallville where Clark Kent wants to go out for the football team, but his dad explains he can’t because his special powers are too strong?”

  Wow, she was throwing out a Smallville reference?

  “So, it’s kind of like that,” she explained. “You have immense power inside of you. And if you’re not feeling it yet, you will be soon. And trust me, it is an incredible feeling. However, it’s very important – vital even – that you do not ever let a human see that true potential. If you show them the whole of your power, they will not be able to comprehend it or to understand it, and that is why so many of our brothers and sisters have been killed.”

  She paused then, looking down at the floor with a look that told me she had lost someone very important to her for precisely these same reasons. “We must be careful,” she added before telling us we would learn more tomorrow and then dismissing us for lunch.

  On my way out of class, I could have sworn I saw some mist in the corners of her eyes that looked like tears, but I didn’t dare ask. I didn’t even know this woman. I couldn’t help but feel a little sad for whatever she must be going through. Sometimes I could be a bit self-centered, but I wasn’t a monster.

  Still thinking about Leah and her sad eyes, I met Propanga at lunch and then attended a couple of afternoon classes, and then we were done and I went back to our room, exhausted.

  I had learned more than I could imagine and there was so much more to learn. Then there was that weird connection with my Professor in first period, and my odd little duck of a new friend, Astrid… there was no shortage of interesting and amazing things that had happened.

  And this was a just the first day of school!