Bloodlust: Mystic River Vampire Academy (Year Two)

by Annalise Clark

  “I’ve been working on a new invention,” he said, lifting up a pair of sunglasses from the table and handing them to me.

  “Uh, Amadeus… I hate to break it to you, but sunglasses have been around a long time.”

  “Hardy, harr harr,” Damien teased. “They’re not sunglasses, Carmilla. They just look like sunglasses.”

  “Then what are they really?” I said, trying them on and looking around the room.

  “A mix of magic and science!” Amadeus announced proudly. “These babies will allow you to see the unseen.”

  “Does he always speak in riddles?”

  “Quit messing around, Carmilla. This is so cool. Just wait till you see what they do,” Damien beamed, looking as proud of his brother as he was of himself.

  I pulled the glasses off my face and stared at the two of them standing there with big stupid grins on their faces. “Okay, someone tell me what I’m holding here,” I said impatiently.

  “Werewolf goggles!” Amadeus sang out with pride.

  “Werewolf gogg…” I turned questioning to Damien. “Did he just say werewolf goggles?”

  “Yeah, he did.”

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  “Come here and I will show you,” Amadeus said, walking toward a back area of his lab.

  Damien just grinned from ear-to-ear like he was loving my confusion. Sometimes I think that man lived to get under my skin.

  Around the back down a little mini hallway was another room, with several cages inside. It looked like a very old-timey jail. And inside one of the cells was a man.

  “Holy, shit! Did you kidnap somebody?”

  “Carmilla, chill.” Damien’s bemused look just made me more annoyed at him. “Put on the shades and look at him again.”

  We had werewolves planning an attack on the school and these two were in the dungeon playing games. What was it with men sometimes? Taking a deep breath and letting out a long sigh, I did as Damien said and put on the glasses again.

  When I looked back at the man in the cell, I shouted and jumped backwards, nearly falling over, ripping the glasses off my face.

  “What the!”

  “Oh good, they work,” Amadeus murmured, writing something down on his clipboard.

  “If your goal was to scare the shit out of me, then yes, they work. What the hell?” I asked, looking at Damien who was laughing hysterically at this point.

  “Now you can see the enemy coming.”

  I put the glasses back on and looked at the creature in the cell once more. He was tall, probably seven foot or so, but hunched down in the small cell. His body was covered in hair and he had a longer mane around his face, which was very wolf-life.

  His yellow eyes stared back at me, unamused to be caged up like an animal. That stare clearly said he would rip me into shreds if he managed to get out of there.

  The grayish brown fur covered his entire body, which was lean, with a muscly chest and very toned arms (front legs?). He had long, black claws on the end of each extremity. And the teeth… he had long canine fangs prominent from the rest of his very sharp teeth and a mouth that snarled into a grimace as I looked him up and down.

  “That’s a fucking werewolf?” I said, finally.

  “Yup,” Damien laughed. “That’s a fucking werewolf.”

  Chapter 25

  Why was it so hard to accept that werewolves existed when I had accepted the fact that vampires were real, and I was one? Maybe it was because the government had told us vamps were real. We had all grown up on the history about it. I’d seen pictures and heard stories since I was a little girl.

  But werewolves? Well, I don’t know… that just seemed scarier. Turning into a vicious howling beast? And the hair? All that hair!

  Ick. I suppose I could be grateful I wasn’t bitten by a werewolf, if that was even how you became one. Because I liked being a vampire a lot more than being a hairy beast that wigs out over the full moon.

  “You know, most of what you’ve heard about them isn’t true,” Damien explained. “Same as with us. There’s all kinds of stupid stories out there, but they’re just that – stories.”

  “Okay, so how do you separate the fact from the fiction?”

  “That’s a great question, Carm!” He looked way more excited about this than I would have expected, as if he’d been waiting for the chance to explain this to somebody. “Well, first, you listen to the experts who have spent centuries learning about them.”

  He then launched into an hour-long explanation of werewolves and how they work, myths and legends versus reality, and the whole shebang.

  Fascinating as it was, I had to get back to prepare for classes tomorrow.

  “So, is there a reason you’re telling me all of this and showing me your magic glasses?”

  “Werewolf goggles,” Amadeus corrected from across the room.

  “Actually, yes,” Damien began, and I had a bad feeling about where the rest of that sentence was going. “We need you to go undercover.”

  “Undercover? For what?”

  “To flush out the wolves.” He looked so content with his plan, sitting there with a smirk on his face.

  “You mean you want me to be live bait.”

  “We’re going hunting for some big angry fishies!” He laughed as he laid out their plan.

  I couldn’t believe that the two guys who had been talking me out of going out around town and to the bars were now encouraging me to fraternize with the humans in order to bait the werewolf vampire hunters who wanted to infiltrate our school and take us all out.

  Was everyone losing their minds these days? I guess it made sense. I was already in on it. He had invested all that time teaching me to fight, too. If Damien believed I was ready for some secret mission like this, then I’d do whatever they asked me to do.

  I just wish Amadeus had made these glasses a bit more stylish. Aviators were not really my style.

  Chapter 26

  As we hatched our secret plan behind the scenes, the show had to go on for me in school. I was here for a reason, after all. That reason was to learn how to be a vampire and not get caught. So far, I was doing a damn fine job of it, too.

  I’d passed all of my classes with flying colors and each of my instructors proposed I passed, with honors, even!

  Graduation was approaching and so far, I’d managed to make it through my first year, which is more than I could say for some of the idiots I had first landed in here with.

  Hera’s stake was getting a real workout with this fresh batch of vampires, that’s for sure.

  I was fairly certain more vampires had been put down than would be graduating with us this month. It was just as well. Most of them behaved like idiots and attacked one another or broke out of the gates and tried to attack the humans out in town. Sleepy little Mystic had no idea there were deadly vampires walking in their midst, capable of draining their full body of blood in mere minutes.

  No one I had gotten close to had gone all “ashes to ashes” on me, so maybe that was a sign that I pick good friends. Whatever. It hardly mattered now anyway. It would be over soon.

  As for the few who had made it through, well, some of my favorites were on the graduates list. Propanga was still around, of course. This was good news since my roomie had become my best friend here. Even if she did behave like my overprotective mom at times, I wanted her to succeed and I definitely wanted her to stick around.

  Astrid was still here, too. It’s safe to say I had feelings for her, so I was glad she was here, but I also wasn’t ready to explore those feelings, so I was going to continue to be detached when it came to her. I couldn’t be catching feelings when I was up in here to learn to vampire without getting caught, right?

  And now, if that wasn’t all enough for a girl’s to do list, I had a secret mission to catch werewolves who were plotting against us. Talk about a full datebook!

  I had a mission. I couldn’t allow a girl to derail me. Even if she was a very, very sexy girl�
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  Damien had intel that said they were not going to make a move before graduation. I guess their sources had told them how dangerous new vampires could be, too. Damien also had a theory that it was a staff member and Hera’s stake that they were really after, so if they waited until after graduation, all the new vamps would leave and more than 60% of the regular staff went on vacation or back to their homes, too.

  A skeleton crew of staff would remain until the next training period, but that meant it would be easier for them to strike when our forces were low.

  He had sent me on a couple of scouting missions to the bars and clubs in the area but told me not to interact; just to observe.

  “If you see wolves, don’t do anything!”

  “Yeah, I got it,” I confirmed.

  “Just get as many details as you can about them and slip your glasses off, so you see what they look like in human form and what they’re wearing. No detail is too small. We need to gather all the intel we can, in order to be prepared for the incoming attack.”

  My first three trips had been a bust and I was starting to wonder if there really were anymore wolves in town. Maybe that altercation with Damien that night had sent them packing for good?

  But then, one Friday night, on my third recon mission, I spotted two. They were sitting at the bar of a popular pizza joint, nursing a cold beer a piece, but eating nothing.

  They seemed to be searching the room, like they were looking for someone. About twenty minutes in, another guy showed up, also a werewolf. And right after that, a female.

  Wait? They had girl wolves? I never knew that!

  All they did was sit at the bar and talk about something I couldn’t make out from a distance, even with my supersonic hearing, and then they left, all at separate times and in separate cars.

  I met with Damien and Amadeus after and told them everything I saw. Damien agreed that it was too risky to make any other moves until after graduation, but he felt confident they were not going to do anything until the school was emptier.

  Hoping he was right about that, I agreed to stay on guard, just in case. Damien also assured me that the “higher ups” in the vampire coven knew about this and that they would be sending backup to help in a potential battle, and also added security for the school campus itself.

  That was a relief. I mean, Damien was pretty badass, but I couldn’t see him, his geeky genius brother, and little ol’ me defending against a whole pack of angry wolves.

  “You think you can stick around after graduation and help us out some more?” He had asked me that evening.

  “Well, you know you two can’t do it without me,” I teased. “So, I suppose I’ll have to.”

  “Thanks!” Damien looked so excited I’d be staying here in Mystic after graduation. I knew that was because he really wanted to catch these guys. That was his job, after all, but a little part of me couldn’t help but wonder if it was also because he enjoyed spending time with me and didn’t want me to run off where he couldn’t see me anymore.

  It was a fleeting thought that I shook away. Regardless of what I felt for Damien in the first place, this was all about business now. And besides, we were friends. I had no intention of making it weird.

  Chapter 27

  Now it was time; graduation from Year One. This was the only mandatory portion of the Academy, although many students chose to stay on beyond that, as I had recently decided for myself.

  In this moment, waiting to be called up to a stage and recognized for our achievements, it felt like a normal school, out in the human world. One could easily forget everyone in here was a dangerous vampire who could rip your throat out.

  Everyone looked so… normal. Average, even. More attractive than average, perhaps, but still human-looking, all the same. There were no white faces, fangs dipping with blood, black capes and hoods, or other unusual things. There were no sacrifices or weird chants or naked virgins of anything of the sort that you often heard about in stories of vampires by the humans.

  More proof that humans really knew nothing…

  Astrid was beside me to my left and Propanga to my right, and in that moment, I felt more wanted and at home than any other time in my life. I couldn’t think of anyone I’d want by my side more than those two. They’d seen me through thick and thin here this year.

  That was when the professor came to the front of the stage. He was dressed in a black fitted suit with feint white pinstripes on it. They were very thin and from a distance, it might look like a plain black suit. He wore it well, and his cufflinks shined and sparkled in the lights, even from a distance.

  As he stood at the podium before us and began to speak, I felt something I had never felt before in my previous career as a student. I felt pride. Deep down, I was happy about all that I had accomplished here. Maybe I was not going to admit that out loud to anyone else, but it was a good feeling. Funny that I had to basically die and become a vampire to have this feeling, but hey, life is unpredictable.

  “We have come here today,” he said, taking the microphone in his hand, “to celebrate the accomplishments of our graduating Year One students this year.”

  He continued with a speech that lasted only about twenty minutes and praised those of us who had made it for sticking it through and not getting, well… dead.

  Next, they had us stand and as our names were called, we walked across the stage and were given a small golden pin.

  There was no need for certificates or paper documents. It’s not like we could frame them or show them off in the human world anyway, right? But this little pin was a symbol of solidarity and safety. If you saw this pin out in the human world, you knew that you had an ally.

  Astrid stood beside me, holding my hand. It felt surprisingly warm, ya know, considering the whole vampire thing and all. It was comforting to have her there with me.

  After the ceremony, we went out to the yard for an open-air commencement party. There was live music and lots of booze and it was a very fun, fitting way to end the year. The smell of the river filled the air around us and there were all types of treats and luxuries to enjoy. We had done it!

  We had survived the year and we were full-fledged vampires.

  And that was the end of my first term at Mystic River Vampire Academy. Despite not even wanting to come here, I think I found a thing or two I could love about the place.

  The best part? This wasn’t the end of it. The school would go on a two-month hiatus for the staff to vacation and then they would be back. There’d likely be a new batch of fresh meat coming in the doors as green as I had been a few months ago myself, and my class could come back for a second year.

  I had already promised Damien I would stick around over that two-month break so we could continue investigating the whole werewolf dilemma, too, so Mystic was going to be my home for quite a while longer. I honestly didn’t mind that one bit.

  Only the first year of Vampire Academy was required to not get killed after your Turn, but there were benefits to staying on after that. After learning that the vampire world had its own ecosystem of sorts, all underground, that the humans never knew about, I realized I wanted to be a bigger part of things.

  We had politics and our own medical systems, and even a witness protection program. And vampires who finished all three years of Vampire Academy could qualify for special positions within this system.

  As we drank and sang and danced and partied in the yard, I looked out across the crowd and saw a familiar but unexpected face. It was him! The one who had turned me… he was here.

  Him! I thought to myself, both furious and excited to see his face again. It was Knight, or whatever his real name was… the vampire who had started me on this path.

  Because I chose to go home with him that night after the club, everything had changed. Part of me knew I should be mad at him – he had changed me, after all. He had turned me into something not alive, and not dead… undead.

  But I couldn’t help thinking about all the ways t
his had improved my life. So maybe, he had actually done me a favor. Besides, I had consented.

  And then I remembered all the powers that vampires get, and something became clearer about that night. Something that got the wheels turning in my head, so that I looked at this from a fresh new perspective.

  He could have used his powers on me!

  I consented because he mind-controlled me. That would also explain why everything was so fuzzy, and why I felt like I had been drugged. It wasn’t roofies; it was vampire magic.

  So furious I was seeing red, I vowed to confront him after this was over. For now, it was my turn to pose for some photos for the Academy.

  Chapter 28

  And that was that – I had officially graduated my first year at Vampire Academy. Mystic River had no idea what they were up against when they brought me into the fray. But I was not going down without a fight, and I wasn’t ready to be put down yet.

  In fact, I’d actually done quite well here. Never being one to conform worked out better than expected when you’re sent to a school that breaks all the “normal” rules of human society. We had our own rules, our own code; but we weren’t human anymore, so we didn’t have to live like them.

  I had only just turned 21 and the idea of being “Forever 21” was exciting to me. For many people, this was the best year of their lives. Now, I’d get to live it again and again.

  The beauty of this new life as the undead, was that I could be anyone I wanted, go anywhere I wanted, and do anything I wanted – as long as I didn’t get caught as a vampire. The world was my oyster, as they say, and that was very exciting.

  There had never been anything special about me. I wasn’t a cute kid, come in top of my class, become a sports star or Homecoming Queen, or do anything remarkable or significant with my life. I didn’t have any special talents or unique abilities, either. Up until this point in my life, I had been just getting by.