“Rune, I can see by your face that that statement might have made upset you. I understand, she was your mother and she was all that you knew. You’ll find that after some time you’ll be able to see how much danger she’d put you in by keeping you from the Desert Academy. You’ll learn that, by controlling your cravings your life can be so much better. I was your age when I came to Desert Academy and I was afraid and angry as well, but over time by learning discipline, I was able to harness the fullness of my abilities and now I am one of the number one DOD Agents in the world.”
“DOD Agent?”
“Yes, if you work hard, after your third year at the academy you will either be released back into society to live your life as a mortal or you will be recruited to the DOD Agency. The Daughters of the Damned Agency is an elite group of Desert students who work directly with the Council to keep the Darkside invisible from the mortal society. I mean, can you imagine If anyone knew that all those creepy stories about werewolves, dragons, witches and vampires were true there would be an all-out civil war. The DOD oversees making sure this never happens.”
“What is your…” I waved my hands in the air in circles, “power?”
Suddenly, I was no longer walking on the sidewalk, but had levitated from the ground about three feet, although my legs kept moving, I was suspended in thin air. I looked at her and she was waving her wand at my feet as I floated. My feet touched the ground just before the first step to ascend the steps of the school.
“I see.”
“That’s one of them anyway,” she opened the doors of the school.
Inside the foyer there was a huge stone statue of a man with a bald head holding a golden lammergeier in one hand. The bird seemed to dominate the statue.
We stood in front of the enormous statue for a moment, she admired its details, “This is our head Council, Drisdol Prescott. He is the strongest and most powerful of us all. Here he is in human form, but he is one of the oldest of the warlocks alive today, he is a dragon.”
“A fire breathing dragon?”
“Yes, real fire. So, try not to make him angry.”
The foyer was quite large, I could hear the distant whispers of girls hushing each other when they were alerted to the Duchess’ presence. Inside her office, I watched her shuffle papers around on her desk before picking up the receiver and punching in a few digits. She spouted of in a foreign language that ended with my name. I sat waiting for her to address me, but she didn’t.
A knock at the door.
“Come in,” she said then gestured toward me. “This is number 1176, Rune Porter.”
A number? Is that what I had been reduced to?
“Rune, you will follow Headmistress Teasley to your temporary sleeping quarters. We will speak more in the morning.”
I turned and followed the headmistress down the hall to its end, her spiral red curls bounced up and down as she walked through the hall with an authoritative stride. Her face was stern, and she had frown lines around the bottom of her mouth. When we came to the end of the hall there was a set of double doors, there stood a guard stood. He too had a wide flat face with large scrunched up features. He grunted to the headmistress and she obliged.
When slid her card through the reader the doors parted like the red sea. We quickly came upon another door trimmed in yellow and marked Class Two Dormitory. Seconds later, we were standing in a quaint and cozy living room. A fire danced in the hearth and a big black cat sat somberly on a green sofa.
“Hello Josephine,” the headmistress said to the cat. “Isn’t it past your bedtime,” she glanced at her watch and back at Josephine. This time when I looked again there was a girl of about sixteen, she was smiling at me. Her eyes were a mesmerizing green. I shook my head; I must be deliriously sleepy.
“Josephine is a shapeshifter,” the head mistress explained. “You’ll see that she favors the smaller animals.”
“I thought shapeshifters only existed in teen novels?”
“Real.” Josephine whispered as she slid past the headmistress and disappeared into one of the rooms.
Mrs. Teasley continued, “There are three main floors to this institution of learning. We are now on the second floor where the main offices reside. Those are the office of the Council, the Headmistress and the DOD Agency which is where I found you with the Duchess. The front entrance is located directly across from those offices and is the only way in and out of the Academy. Directly underneath us in floor one, there you will find the classrooms, the fitness room, the pool, and Class One dorms. Class Three dorms are located above us. All meals are served in individual dorm kitchens and prepared by the headmistresses.”
We pass through a huge kitchen. In the center of the room is a 16-foot table made of solid oak. A vintage cast iron stove took up have of the wall and promised many delicious meals. “Your dorm, Rune is located on the first floor one and is very much the same layout.” Next to the kitchen we enter another open room with desks and a few television sets. There were four additional doors along the walls of the room marked A, B, and C. “This is the study, and these are dorms A, B, and C,” they enter room A, although it is a dark room, it is fairly large. Big enough to fit four bunk beds comfortably along opposite sides of the room and two desks side by side in between. each suite has a total of twelve beds to house twelve students. However, it is late and we need to make up your bed on the first floor first thing in the morning, so we are temporarily housing you here.”
I hear a soft snore coming from the top bunk. I placed my bag underneath. On the bed across from mine, a girl stirs. The headmistress abruptly leaves the room assuring me that she’ll be back in the morning to escort me to orientation. Just as she leaves, a big black cat pounces on my bed and proceeds to groom herself. I am disgusted. Josephine.
“Josephine, please get off of my bed,” I whisper.
“Who are you talking to?” the girl across from me says. She sits up in her bottom bunk and rubs her eyes. “Josephine has green eyes. Shape shifters can never change their eye color.”
“I look again, and the cat’s eyes are gray. “Go!” I say ushering the cat away. I sit on the bed facing the dark shadow.
“I’m Rune. Rune Porter.”
“Welcome to Desert Academy Rune. I’m Lucy.”
“I thought second-classmen didn’t associate with first-years?”
“You’re in my room.”
I could make out in the dark that her hair was cut into a shoulder length bob.
“So, Lucy are you a shape shifter too?”
“No,” Lucy lowered her gaze. She felt the shame creeping upon her again. She never wanted to reveal her dark side. “I’m an angel,” Lucy said.
I digested what she’d said, but something in her eyes said that she was far from the room we sat in now.
“Angels, vampires, werewolves, shapeshifter what a combination.”
“Boy are you in for a rude awakening. See you in the morning.” With that she turned over and went silent.
I lay there looking up at the ceiling allowing the days events to sink in. Memories of my mother flood my mind and I can’t help the steady stream of tears that begin to flow. I turned my back to the room and cried. I missed my mother, right now we would be laying side by side, my head tucked into the cusp of her neck. I’d feel the throbbing of her pulse. She’d stroke my hair until I fell asleep. Deep within me I could feel the heat of passion to dispose of her murderers rise to my chest, I vowed to myself that I would find and destroy the Council of the Gods.
Chapter Three
As the morning sun rose and spilled into the room, everything looked different than it did in the dark. The pain in her heart had unfolded into a knot of nervousness. How had she ended up in this, how would her mother feel about her being here? The beds were made of thick wood, covered by dark green wool blankets. There were wood panels on the floor and a thick cream bear skin rug made the room cozy. There was one window between the two beds that was directly above the two desk
s that sat side by side. The sun projected rays filled with dancing specs of dust onto the flood near the door. There were two door inside the dorm room, one led to the restroom and the other to a huge walk in closet.
When Lucy woke, she sat up in bed. She did not smile but looked around the room as if she were expecting there to be someone there, the look on her face revealed sadness. Her eyes, both hooded and droopy, were void of a youthful glow, but rather tension and insecurity. Rune knew that there was a much deeper story behind her pain.
“How long have you been here?” I asked, pushing my covers back and allowing my legs to dangle to the floor. The other roommates had already left the room. I glanced at my bag that had been moved to the corner of the room.
Lucy followed my eyes, “Katherine probably moved your bag. She doesn’t like anything out of place. Once I left a brush on the bathroom counter after I used the restroom and when I came back to the dorm the brush was on my bed with a note that said, next time I’ll burn it. So, I did it again just to see what she’d do and when I came back there were ashes on my bed, next to what used to be my brush. All that was left was the handle because it was aluminum.”
“Are you serious, what a bitch.”
“Yes, actually she is a bitch and a witch too. Although she is only a second year, she comes from a long line of witches who have successfully integrated into society after graduating from DA. Her family owns Blake Pharmaceuticals.
“You mean “THE” Blake Pharmaceuticals nationwide?”
“That’s it. They practically own half of the pharmacies in the U.S. Anyways, her mother was damned by the Council because she put a curse on one of Katherine’s teachers for giving her an “A minus.”
“Are you serious, a curse for something as small as that? So, why would the Council damn her for something so small?” I asked.
“She turned the teacher into a DOG, and actually, there’s more to it. Katherine’s mother was next in line to be voted to the board, and the board controls the election of the council members. They’re like the House of Representatives while the Council is the Presidency and the DOD Agency is the Secretary of State or CIA and FBI. Well, with Katherine’s mother gone, the board cannot resume practicing until they elect a new board of directors, which is done by the citizens of the dark side. The problem is that no one really volunteers to do the job because they do not want to work with Drisdol.”
“I was never much for politics, but just how big is the Council of the Gods?”
“IDK, I think there’s like four main Council members or something they represent the four corners of the globe where the dark siders live, or once lived. Drisdol is the lead council and the three others are only replacements.”
“What do you mean, replacements?”
“Drisdol was responsible for replacing the three members and it seems that he replaced them with three of his own choices, so that he could maintain in full control. The COG’s are housed in a secret location they are like the white house; they give their orders to the DOD Agency who carries out their orders. I heard there was a meeting between the President of the United States and the Head Council Drisdol not too long ago.”
Before she could ask any more questions, a tiny green light flashed above the door sending a soft beam throughout the room.
“What’s that?” I watched the beam blink three times and then stop. Then it beamed three more times.
“It’s our alarm clock. We should be at the table for breakfast. Get ready for drama. These girls are no joke.”
We met the other girls in the kitchen. Breakfast was prepared by the head mistress, she worked quietly and was very meticulous about every item she placed on the table. The table was filled with breakfast dishes of all kinds: Eggs, Grits, Bacon, Orange Juice and Coffee. The girls came in chatting among themselves. Although they saw her, no one bothered to speak to her because the handkerchief she wore in her jacket was white, while they all wore yellow. All classmen wore navy blue jackets, while their skirts were checkered green, yellow, white on a navy background. The handkerchiefs were what set the classes apart:
White was first class one.
Yellow was class two.
Green was class three.
When the girls qualified for graduation, they wore navy handkerchiefs for their last six months.
I took a seat at the table and put a croissant on my plate. She watched the other girls enter the room. Most of them were in conversation about events from the day before while others were still in morning mode.
“Looks like we have a house guest,” one girl said grabbing a banana from the center of the table and proceeded to peel it while staring at Rune. She took a bite of her banana and looked around the table. Everyone was quiet, waiting for her to continue her quest for attention. Aka Bully the new girl.
“It seems that the council has a bit of a scheduling problem. Too many recruits, and not enough empty beds. Aren’t you supposed to be in the Class One Dormitory on the first floor?”
Her name is Rune,” Lucy spoke.
“No one asked you, freak!
“So, Rune. I’m Katherine,” she spoke again looking at her friend and smiling. “We have a rule around here, whenever a new recruit comes in they are required to impress us with their magic skill.”
“But I don’t do magic. I’m a vampire!”
“Yeah, and vampires don’t eat meat. I once had an uncle who knew this vampire who was forced to eat a small piece of cooked meat and he almost died.”
“OK.”
“So, since you’re a vampire I dare you to eat three pieces of bacon.”
“Don’t do it! I’m vampire and I have NEVER eaten a morsel of food, I only drink blood,” the girl across from me held up a blue juice box. I looked at Katherine, she was one of the type of girls who thrived from attention. If it wasn’t about her, she was not interested. I picked up three pieces of bacon and slowly and methodically lifted them to my mouth and stuffed them in. The other vampires at the table made gagging sounds and Katherine smiled. She was probably waiting for me to start gaging. I chewed them, swallowed and then showed her my empty mouth.
“Strong stomach,” she said. “But not impressive.”
After they chatted about it for a moment, the girls begin to fix their plates, the chatter among them continued and soon their steady flow of conversation gave me a chance to see exactly what they were about. The most outspoken girl was Katherine Blake. She was the center of attention. Although all the girls wore the same exact uniform, Katherine found a way to stand out with her hair. It was colored light purple with streaks of silver spread throughout, it hung in waves like a continuous flowing waterfall to the center of her back. It moved in slow waves that made you want to reach out and touch it.
“She uses magic to make it flow like water,” Lucy whispered.
Suddenly, one of the girls at the table sneezed and everyone held their plates. Lucy grabbed mine before it blew away. A gust of wind blew into my face and the room shook as if there was an earthquake. Everything that wasn’t held down was now on the floor.
“Kim, you are supposed to Warn us!” Katherine yelled.
“I’m sorry I didn’t know I needed to sneeze,” she held up both her hands as another warning before she inhaled, “Ahhhhh Ahhhhhh ACHOOOOOO!” This time the entire table was lifted, and everyone was thrown up from their chairs.
I burst out in laughter. I can’t help it! What kind of girl had a powerful sneeze as a supernatural ability? This girl only weighted a buck twenty if that. How could she hold so much powder in a sneeze?
“Are you laughing at me?” Kim glared at me through wet eyes. Her face was red with the left-over force of the sneeze. Her golden hair was disheveled, and she rubbed her nose. “How utterly rude of you?” she said through tear filled eyes.
“Yes, it is and I’m sorry I don’t mean to be rude; it was just unexpected,” I apologized.
“Just as your stay here was. You best be moving on to your own floor with your ow
n kind.”
“Heeeeyyyyyy!” one of the other vampires said.
Kim rolled her eyes, “I don’t mean vampire you idiot I mean first classmen.”
Her comment shocked me and before I knew it I was lashing out, “I don’t know what your problem is, but I didn’t ask to be a student at this prison anyway. I’d rather be in my own hometown attending my own school with my own friends.”
“Don’t be so full of yourself “RUIN”, none of us asked to be here either, but our mothers were here before us and now we’re here. Girls we better get to class,” Katherine said getting up from the table. It seemed that my laughter had altered the mood of the entire room and everyone just wanted to get as far away from me as they could.
The bell sounded in the hall and the flashing green light indicated that there needed to be movement, like soldiers the girls simmered about the room until they found their way out the door and down the hallway. Rune listened to their footsteps until they could not be heard anymore. Lucy got up from the table. “I’m sorry Rune, I have to go too.”
“Why do you allow Katherine to speak to you that way?” I ask her.
“She was the one who moved your suitcase. She sleeps in the bed above mine. They hate me because I am the first dark angel to enter DOD. I guess because I can’t really choose a side, I’m the enemy. Also, when I came a week ago, the nightmares and the shadows started happening every night, she sleeps above me and…”
“And?”
“They stalk me at night. The demons, they’re remain in the shadows.”
“I thought you said you were an angel?”
“I was an angel, until I made a choice that banished me from his presence. The transformation takes a while. I was sent to earth as an angel on assignment. Somehow, being among humans brings with it so much temptation.”
Daughters of the Damned Page 2
