Chapter 3
Three
I can count on one hand how many people have been able to glare at me and live. I guess I’ll now have to say both hands because the little bloodsucker is glaring at me.
Surprisingly, Ms. Jullia Waterstone who has her arm linked with the bloodsucker scolds her and pulls her up the stairs into the lecture hall. She grumbles something back I can’t quite pick up but holds her glare as she stares at the floor.
They take two seats on the third row near the middle. Callahan comes through the door next and his eyes zero in right on her. I’m sure Thorne and Darian clued him in on what happened earlier this morning.
Very curious how a newly turned vampire not only didn’t attack first in what I could tell was a very aggressive situation, but she didn’t even lick a drop of the blood smeared on her face. She actually wiped it off and looked almost repulsed by it.
Callahan makes a beeline to the open chair beside her.
Being in the same grade as her, and being a devil like myself, he’ll be the perfect person to watch her.
Even if the Dean says we should be fine and the Mage Board is forcing the university to take her, a vampire is still a vampire.
There’s a reason one does not sit on the council and there are none in the school.
Except the bloodsucker. Though she hasn’t sucked anyone’s blood – yet.
She doesn’t give Callahan even a glance and continues to glare at her tablet.
There’s a stylus in her hand and she’s either writing or doodling something on the screen.
Her friend whispers to her and I wonder – aside from being roommates – how a mage befriended a vampire.
Not only that, but how a vampyr would let his girlfriend be close to one. Especially so freshly turned.
And those pale pink eyes. Whoever’s blood she drank must have been someone very powerful. Maybe that’s how she was able to subside her bloodlust.
Returning my focus on the chalkboard I begin writing. I’ve been forced to teach the same four classes at this university for nearly a hundred years now. Each year has been even more excruciatingly boring than the last.
Except now.
When I turn back around the last student has taken their seats, the bell rings, and all eyes are on me. All eyes, except a particularly pale shade of pink. I do believe I told her to make sure she’s always looking at me.
Stubbornly, or perhaps stupidly, she keeps her eyes on her desk. Arms crossed and leaning back in her chair.
What a fucking brat.
Callahan beside her grins at me with his meddlesome smirk. Everyone else seems to hold their breaths as they wait for me to speak. Good.
“My name is Professor Asier. I will be your Magic History teacher, and for most of you your Intro to Power Compulsion class.” I let my words ring in the room before continuing.
“Your syllabus is now available on your tablets and I expect all of you to read everything over on your own time. To start today off, does anyone know the beginning of Syngenia?”
The bloodsucker blinks like she’s just remembering something as the pink in her eyes fades to a shade lighter. I had looked into her paperwork and aside from the documents of how she was turned and her exam results, we have nothing else.
Her only name is Mavyn Tsuki though the enforcers who caught her couldn’t find documents in the human world of anyone by that name. It’s not that surprising since it’s listed she is an orphan. It’s probably a name she made up.
Her friend raises a hand and I nod to her.
“Syngenia University was established five thousand years ago after the War of Gods finally ended, but if you’re referring to Syngenia the first land of magic, that would be the beginning of the first universe the Goddess of Breath created.”
The bloodsucker lowers her brows as she glances at her friend. Ms. Waterstone doesn’t seem to notice as her eyes stay on me waiting for what I’ll say.
“Correct.” But as I say that the bloodsucker quirks her lip as if my response is distasteful. “Do you have something to add Ms. Tsuki?”
She freezes in place though her eyes finally slide to me. Looking at me for the first time since she entered, and I can’t read a single thing from her. Not only does she not give anything away, but she already has mental shields up. Powerful ones, too.
“Syngenia is also the name of the first vampyr born, named after her mother, the first blood witch. Both of them existed before the university and the first land of magic.”
That’s impossible.
Callahan is gaping at the girl like I would be if I wasn’t frozen in shock as I am.
“And actually it was not the Goddess of Breath who created the first land of magic, it was a joint effort between the first breath and wood witch. Though many did believe the first breath witch was a goddess.”
She states it like she knows it’s fact.
How the fuck does she know that?
Only humans can be turned into vampires.
And no mere human would have access to knowledge like that.
I’m not even allowed to fully teach it because of the guards that are on that kind of knowledge.
Unless. . . maybe it’s not her knowledge but the knowledge of whoever’s blood she drank that turned her.
That has happened before. Memories being transferred.
But it makes me wonder who’s blood it could have been.
“That,” I finally choke out, “is correct. However the answer I was looking for was the one given by Ms. Waterstone. Now.”
I turn towards the chalkboard so I don’t have to look at her for a minute. Her bored glare returned the second I said however, and fuck I need to calm down. The little brat needs to be taught a lesson.
Writing the list on the board I announce the assignments everyone needs to start and Callahan waits until after I’m finished to knock on my mental shields.
He, like me, can communicate through mind links, but unlike me he cannot always get into everyone’s heads without permission. He’s still young, though.
I like her.
Looking up at him, I glare. His response is to laugh in my head.
Come on now. You’re gonna tell me you don’t? With all that firecracker and bratty energy? I mean, did you see the way she looked at you?
I fucking know that Armani, I don’t need you reiterating it.
He chuckles again, though it’s lighter as if he’s trying to keep me from hearing it. I try to focus on the paperwork in front of me but my brain will not make sense of it at the moment.
Apologies apologies. I just don’t think I’ve ever seen you so knocked off your axis. I don’t blame you. When she mentioned the witches even I couldn’t believe it. Weren’t those history books locked up by the Board?
They were. Do you think it could be memories from whoever the owner of the blood that turned her? If they were a powerful enough vampyr it could be possible. There aren’t many clans with red eyes to begin with.
Want to ask Thorne? He’s not doing anything, we could ask now?
Yes. Only because if she has other memories, other knowledge hidden in her mind, it could help. . .
His realization floods my mind and a second later I can feel Thorne Arcturus’ mind.
Is this about the girl? I hear through my head. Callahan’s giddiness accompanies it. Already having so many minds in mine is giving me a headache.
She knew about Syngenia the Blood Witch and her daughter.
Thorne is quiet for a moment before bits of his surprise weave through my mind. He’s gotten better at shielding his emotions even while inside the mind of another.
You think she could possibly just know that, or do you think it’s from the blood of who turned her?
The blood, I answer. She has pink eyes meaning whoever’s blood it was had red ones. And her control over her bloodlust, her eating regular food. . . I’ve never seen a vampire do that before.
It isn’t possible, Thorne agrees. Even through the vampyr history when the strongest vampyr known turned their own vampires his blood wasn’t powerful enough to stop their bloodlust. They were able to get control of it sooner.
That being a year verses it normally takes multiple years to fully control it.
It shouldn’t be possible if she was only turned two months ago.
So what? Callahan interjects. You think she’s not a vampire? The enforcers said they watched her turn, saw her get burned by the sun, and she drinks blood.
I don’t know. She could have maybe reacted differently to the blood and venom. Maybe she has dormant magic from an ancestor and that’s what helped her with her bloodlust. All I know is that she’s an anomaly the Mage Board threw in here.
Thorne hums. You think she’s a spy? Maybe she isn’t newly turned and that was just an excuse? Or are you thinking maybe she’s a blood demon?
Could be, Callahan chirps. Maybe she is a spy, but she did eat enough regular food this morning to fill up one of the swim teammates and she looked like she enjoyed it too.
Regular vampires can’t do that. No matter how many years they’ve lived.
So maybe blood demon. Unless she’s actually a vampyr and pretending to hide from the sun?
You thinking about taking a sip of her blood, Thorne?
Or at least see if the sun actually burns her?
Thorne hums in either contemplation or agreement. I’m not sure which as he slowly starts slipping from the link getting lost in his own thoughts.
I look up to see the bloodsucker’s face smoothed out as she writes on the tiny tablet. Does she not have a regular notebook and pen? Why write on that small thing?
Callahan shrugs his shoulders as he glances at her before poking her with his pen. Her face contorts for a split second into a frown before she evens it out and looks over to him.
Thorne fully leaves our mind link and I focus enough on Callahan so I can hear his physical words as well as his mental.
No paper and pen like the rest of us, firecracker?