Chapter Two #3
Julia’s pencil, which had been busy scratching the corner of her page, stills. Ife’s eyes widen. “No way,” Stephan says.
“Aye,” I say, frowning at the three of them. “You don’t have a vampire roommate?” I ask Stephan.
“I wish,” he says. “But it’s already a miracle that Tynahine’s managed to get Heritages and Converts to coexist.”
“Why?” I ask. Despite knowing there are two types of vampires, I never stopped to think about how they see each other.
“Heritage vampires usually think they’re superior,” Julia says. “Ife is an exception to this rule, of course.” She smiles at her friend, who in turn grins back.
“So you’re—”
“A Convert,” Julia says, her dry voice telling me she isn’t interested in sharing anything else about herself.
“There’re only a couple hundred Heritage vampires here,” Ife says. “The Council doesn’t have a single Convert on their board, even though their population far outnumbers ours. So you can imagine why there’s some tension between us.”
“Seems a bit unfair,” I say, and Ife nods.
“Definitely. I have a classmate who was persecuted by the Spanish Inquisition back in the day, and I’m always telling him that he should apply to be on the board. He’d be fantastic.”
“You have a classmate who survived the Spanish Inquisition?” I ask.
“When he was human. Five hundred years ago.”
“Why—” I lean back. “Why the fuck is there a five-hundred-year-old in your class?”
Stephan laughs, and Ife shakes her head, as though I’m an ignorant child.
“Vampire and human education are not the same, Cassie.”
“How so?”
“Well, when a human studies, unless they want to stay in academia their entire lives, it’s mainly to get a job, isn’t it?”
I think I know where this is going. I nod anyway.
“A human life, a mortal one, is linear. Structured, too. It’s not the same for vampires.
Our interests change every century. My brother was a famous opera singer before he became a doctor.
And I’m not sure if you’ve gone through Tynahine’s website, but we have an undergraduate degree—philosophy, I think—that lasts sixty-two years. ”
“Wow,” I whisper. “How many decades have you been here?”
“Oh, only four years,” she says. “But I’m pretty sure the Night Dean told us the average age of Tynahine’s students is eighty-nine. Plus, some of our faculty have been here since the university first opened its doors in the thirteenth century.”
I try to picture someone working the same job for eight hundred years. Ife walks off to get another round of blood, and as Stephan chats away with Julia, I feel myself growing awkward.
“So,” Ife says, putting down two steaming glasses of blood. “You were telling us you have a vampire roommate?”
“I haven’t met them yet,” I say. I bite into my wrap, lettuce, spinach, and crispy Halloumi filling my mouth. I glance towards the edge of Ambrose Hall just as a new crowd appears.
A dozen girls, all with an ethereal vampiric beauty.
One stands out amongst them. Tall, hair short and white. The same girl I saw up on the fifth floor of the library. The fifth floor was near-empty when I ran away, so I’m pretty sure it was her voice I heard, either begging to be bitten or saying, We’ve got company.
“Not her, right?” Ife asks, noticing who I was just staring at.
“Uh…” I clear my throat. “I don’t know.”
“As if Aliz Astra would share a room,” Stephan scoffs. Every muscle in my body tenses when I hear the name. Astra?
“Never mind live in a hall,” Julia says, looking up from her paper to stare at the white-haired vampire. “Doesn’t she own the hunting lodge?”
“More like hunting palace,” Stephan says.
“You’re right. She does own it,” Ife says, pouting. “Damn it.”
“Astra?” I whisper the name, still not believing it.
“The Astras?” I ask. Ife nods, amused by my reaction.
The vampire in question, Aliz Astra, joins the queue to the blood stall, while the girls around her fight for her attention.
The Astras are the most powerful vampires in Europe.
And I was bad-mouthing her father in our last class.
Before I look away, Aliz Astra turns, and our eyes meet from afar. Just like last night, something tightens inside me, as though there’s a chain drawing me towards her.
She cocks her head slightly, her cool features broken by a sly grin. My heart skips a beat.
“Why is she looking at us?” Ife asks, drawing my attention away from Astra.
“I—” Why indeed? “Well, I may have accidentally overheard her last night.”
“Saying what?” Ife asks in a hushed voice, eyes wide with excitement.
“More than saying, it was doing,” I say, and for some stupid reason, my cheeks burn.
“Shocking,” says Julia, rolling her eyes.
Astra must have a reputation, then. I look back over at the crowd.
She’s no longer looking at me, and air flows easier into my lungs now that her attention is gone.
I wish I knew which of the girls flocking around her was the one I heard her with in the library.
I also wish I could get her out of my head.
“Most of the vampires here are serious about their education,” Ife says, playing with her straw. “And if I remember correctly, Astra was, too, at the start. I had a few classes with her during my first year here. Then she started failing.”
“Failing?” I ask, glancing back at the white-haired vampire.
“She may come from the most powerful family in Europe, but she is surprisingly stupid.”
“She’s had to retake the same classes four years in a row,” Julia says, her slender neck elongating as she turns to stare at Astra. “Vampiredom is truly doomed if she is going to become the next leader of the Council.”
“So, humans can be expelled for failing Integration, but Aliz Astra gets to stay here for as long as she likes?” I ask, and Ife nods.
“She treats Tynahine like a playground,” Julia says. Her pale eyes meet mine, and for a second, I forget that she, too, is a vampire. “So, you better hope she doesn’t decide you’re her next plaything.”