Chapter 2 #2
“Hanna,” Jullia snaps, making her sister turn towards her.
“Mavyn made a blood oath to Asher. She can’t hurt me.
That’s first of all. Second, we’ve been together all weekend and she barely cared at all not only when she must have been hungry, but when I cut myself she didn’t even notice.
Stop being overdramatic and causing a seen. ”
I glance down at Jullia’s thigh where there’s not even a scar. Asher made sure there wasn’t a scar. He also glared at me when Jullia had been cut but I only rolled my eyes at him and rolled over to the wall my bed was against to go back to sleep.
Hanna blinks at her sister and then at me. “You,” she jabs a finger at me, “were in the presence of fresh blood not even two months after turning and didn’t devour my sister?”
All eyes are turned to us now and the line for the food has stopped. Even the workers are watching us and at the worst moment a waft of eggs and buttery toast comes by making my stomach grumble. Hanna, Jullia, and Asher all look at my stomach with perplexed expressions and I groan.
Pulling the sunglasses off I rub at my face.
“The only thing I want to devour right now is a full plate of breakfast foods. I don’t even care what’s on it at this point.
I haven’t eaten in three days and I’m fucking hungry.
Now is everyone going to continue staring at me or can we move this damned line along? ”
Hanna is still staring at me with shock though now suspicion is threading in through there. In the blink of an eye she takes her nails and rips into her palm before shoving it in my face. Salt explodes in my nose as I step back and try to push her hand away.
“You said you were hungry,” she urges. “Come on then. Have a bite. Let’s go, vampire.”
Her sister and Asher both try to stop her but before they can she rubs her bloody hand over my mouth. Jullia stares in horror at me with Asher furious and a commotion at the other end of the cafeteria sounds.
“What the fuck is going on,” a voice thunders. Cloud cover comes out of nowhere darkening the room and blocking out the sun.
Asher pulls out a piece of cloth from his blazer as he holds Hanna back and gives it to me. Jullie turns towards the owner of that voice and starts stuttering with an explanation trying not to get her sister in trouble but also trying not to get me in trouble either.
Hanna is still glaring at me, though the longer I keep my mouth shut and don’t let my tongue lick up her blood her fury starts turning into disbelief.
“Enough,” he thunders again. Silencing Jullie as he finally stands before all of us.
“Mr. Ruleten, would you tell me why you are holding Ms. Hanna Waterstone and why her hand is bleeding.” I can feel – actually feel – his eyes shift me and I finally look up.
“And why the fuck is Ms. Waterstone’s blood on a vampires mouth. ”
There’s people behind the male, but I can’t quite focus on them yet. Before me is a god. At least, that’s what Ms. Elaycia would say. She would say that any time a male came through the brothel that even she would serve for free.
He’s tall. Not quite as tall as Asher, maybe an inch or two shorter. His hair is wavy and longer, just barely covering his ears. It’s dark red, but the kind that would look black in lower lightning. Skin a shade or so lighter than Asher’s and red eyes ringed within gold.
I’ve never seen eyes like that.
Finished with my assessment, I look behind him to four others. Two of them having to be students because they’re wearing more or less the same thing as me, and the other two I’m sure are staff – professors or deans or whoever else.
“Mr. Ruleten,” the man growls. It makes Asher jerk with Hanna still caged in is arms. I take the moment to look down at the white cloth and use it to wipe my face. Out of the corner of my eye I see Hanna’s eyes widen.
Asher clears his throat. “It was an accident – “
“If you’re about to tell me,” he interrupts and silences Asher, “that this vampire accidently bit Ms. Waterstone I need you to move it along so I know whether or not I need to detain the vampire.”
After I have the blood wiped from at least my lips and the rest of my mouth and chin as best I can I huff and look to the ground off on the side. At this point they should just kill me. It would be easier for all of them.
“Do you find this situation an annoyance, Ms. Tsuki?”
His voice is all power, all commanding, all consuming.
It forces the listener to bow, to submit, to heed.
Especially when he says your name. But it makes me realize now what kind of being he is.
I had forgotten that in addition to the six beings of moral – five of them being able to attend the university – the celestials are also able to attend.
Them being the demons, the angels, the demigods, and him. The devils.
“Yes,” I answer plainly.
He hums and his power pushes into the room like thick fog. Only this, I’m sure if he wanted to, could suffocate you. It feels almost the same as the man who adopted me when I was a child.
“You find this situation – you biting another student who was unwilling, which is grounds not only for expulsion but imprisonment and death – to be an annoyance?”
Straightening my back, I clench the bloody cloth in my hand and look him dead in the eyes.
“I find the fact that you jumped to conclusions before Mr. Ruleten had a chance to finish his statement and immediately want to blame me to be an annoyance.”
The room goes dead. The gold in his eyes flare. I’m very sure I’m about to get my head ripped off. Sad. . . I won’t be able to say goodbye to Ms. Elaycia and the rest of the house. But maybe then I’ll stop feeling so tired.
Instead of my head detaching from my body, the male turns his head towards Asher. Waiting. Asher doesn’t hesitate.
“There was an unprovoked altercation. Hanna started it, though I’m sure she didn’t mean to take it so far.
Mavyn didn’t do anything, as well, she proved that she does not have any bloodlust. Not only did she back away from Hanna when she began bleeding but she didn’t even drink any of it with it being on her mouth. ”
How every diplomatic. Stating what happened but not completely throwing Hanna under the bus. I doubt even if he did much would happen to her anyways.
The devil returns his gaze back to me. Red eyes that are no longer blazing with gold flicking to my mouth and then to the cloth still clutched in my fist.
“When was the last time you fed?” he demands.
Perfect fucking timing as my stomach grumbles and surprise lights in his eyes as he glances at my stomach. I clench the cloth tighter and dig the nails of my free hand into my palm.
“I tried to on Saturday. Before that it was probably when the vampyr blood was shoved down my throat.”
He raises a brow as more surprise glints in his eyes. “Tried?” he echoes.
Huffing, I drop my shoulders and look over a bit longingly at the breakfast I still haven’t eaten. “Yes. Some donated blood from a bag.”
He glances at Asher and he nods. “She barely took one sip before almost retching it back up.”
I glare at Asher. “You would have too. It was nasty.”
“To be fair,” Jullia’s soft voice interjects, and she flinches when eyes go to her. “That batch was donated from water mages and Mavyn already said she can’t stand the taste. But that doesn’t diminish that she didn’t lick my sisters blood from her lips. That shows immense control.”
The devil turns back to me and I return to staring at the food. Eggs, bacon, potatoes. There’s also fruits and I think I see steamed vegetables. God I would love nothing more than buttered and lightly salted steamed vegetables.
“It does, Ms. Waterstone,” he rumbles and Jullie relaxes a bit. “Ms. Hanna, will there be any more altercations?”
He doesn’t look at her. I know because I can still feel his eyes on me.
“No,” she states. Strong and proud. “I only wanted to make sure my sister was safe since they will be rooming together.”
“Good. And Ms. Tsuki?” I look up at him with dead eyes. My stomach growls again making everyone give me perplexing looks. “Make sure next time you keep your attention on me when we’re conversing.”
Motherfucker.
Gritting my teeth I barely dip my head to nod.
His eyes darken but he says nothing else before turning and leaving.
The second his back is to me I take the cloth and fold it up before wiping my face again.
I can still scent salty seawater and fucking rotting fish.
I wasn’t lying to Jullia when I said I did not like water mage blood. I actually hate it.
Taking in my surroundings again, I notice Asher has let Hanna go and Jullia is currently glaring at her.
The two staff members with the devil left with him, though the two students haven’t.
Two males with gold stitching in their blazers, with a gold embroidered dragon on one and a silver embroidered pair of feathered wings on the other as their symbol.
I would wonder what race they could be, but I’d have to care for that.
Turning towards the line again I glare at every single person who looks back at me until they start moving. Great first fucking day.
Me, Jullia, Asher, and Hanna all get food and I follow Jullia and Asher as they take a table closest to the door and near where the people Asher had first greeted were.
Not that any of them come near us. Hanna disappears further into the cafeteria and everyone else slowly goes back to what they were doing.
The second I sit down I dive in.
Fluffy eggs, crispy bacon, golden potatoes, a cup of mixed berries, and best of all my steamed vegetables. I can feel both Jullia and Asher’s eyes on me but I don’t pay them any mind as I start shoving food into my mouth. I get through half of everything and already I feel a million times better.
God it’s so good I could almost cry. Nutrients and flavor and my body is already thanking me.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy about regular food before,” I hear Asher murmur. “I also think that’s the first time I’ve seen her smile.
“That is the first time she’s smiled,” Jullia whispers back.
With only a couple pieces of potatoes left I finally look up and see their trays are still mostly full. Shoving another fork full of food I blink at them.
“This is actually the most alive I’ve seen her,” Jullia sort of croaks. “Does this mean you were starving for three days?”
She looks panicked and Asher is also looking a bit worried for me. Swallowing my bite I take my cup Jullia had kept filling with water and drink the whole thing.
Sighing in content, everything relaxes. “Yeah,” I answer on a sigh. My tone light and unbothered. “Though normally it wouldn’t be so bad but they had me locked up for a month and they only fed me regular food when I finally annoyed them enough to.”
Jullia’s eye twitches and she stares at me for a moment before taking her hands and rubbing them down her face.
“I really thought vampires couldn’t eat regular food. Or at least, they didn’t need it to survive. But you do?” she asks, but she doesn’t really ask me. She sort of throws the question out there. “Or do you just get very sluggish and that’s why you sleep too? I don’t understand.”
Asher gives me an amused look I ignore and shove the last bit of food on my tray into my mouth.
“Or is it,” she tries, “that you haven’t fully turned? Is that why you also don’t have any bloodlust? Did the transition not fully complete? I remember reading about that once but it’s impossibly rare. Yet you can’t go in the sun and still drink blood?”
Asher rubs his hand on her back as he continues eating his breakfast. I let her stew as I take out my tablet from the inner pocket of my blazer and turn it on. It’s more or less like an iPhone. There are apps already on here and ones you can download and you can customize the screen.
I hadn’t done anything with it until last night after my shower.
Jullia helped me fully set it up and showed me how to use it.
She also downloaded the social media app everyone uses that is more or less like a mix of Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
She made an account for me and followed herself and Asher through it. I haven’t looked at it since.
Instead of clicking onto the square app showing a circle split in four, each quarter a color relating to one of the main elements, I click on the app that shows my class schedule and the portals for each class.
It’s a bit like Canvas – not that I used it at all since I didn’t go to school during the time when schools were using it.
My and Jullia’s first class is Magic History which is quite literally the actual name.
Magic History. Our teacher is Professor Asier who Asher had said good luck to us to.
The professor also teaches Intro to Power Compulsion which Jullia explained to me was basically us strengthening our mental state to be able to better understand and control whatever abilities we have.
Because it has more to deal with control over our mind and bodies all first years take that as well, and me and Jullia have that together. Our third and last class for today we’ll take after lunch.
There’s no work load in the portals yet. I’m assuming we get them after we actually begin classes. Pretty much everything else we need is on the tablet as well. All the text books and even a notes tab you can use to write or type notes.
Since I couldn’t bring anything with me and have no real school supplies Jullia also let me borrow one of her stylus pens for the tablet so I can at least take notes.
After classes, depending on how much school work I have, I’m going to the advisor building to look for a job. It’s not that surprising
No. Even if I have all the school work in the world I’d still head in because it’s not even about needing a lot of money, I just need enough for at least some school supplies, hygiene stuff, and maybe a non-school uniform outfit.
Asher stands after finally finishing and kisses Jullia on the head and waves at me before leaving. She stands a second later and I follow as she says we better get to our first class.
Asher winced when we said who our professor was. I really hope he was exaggerating about whoever Professor Asier is.
Jullia links her arm with mine as she navigates the school. Leading us to the building where the class is and following a bunch of other students. The whispers from students gradually get quieter as they enter the classroom.
Asher probably wasn’t exaggerating, but with my belly full and body rested there’s an almost excited energy. Despite what happened this morning I feel much better and maybe it won’t be as bad as I initially thought.
Too bad I walk through the classroom door.