Chapter 6
CHAPTER
SIX
The welcome party was basically a freshman mixer for incoming students, put on at the school in a small hall.
The place was decorated nicely from what I could tell on the outside with flickering lanterns and flowers carving out a path to the entrance.
Every wall on the outside of the stone building held a glowing blue rune.
“What’s that one?” I pointed to the rune facing us.
“Aegis Bastion, shield rune,” Harper said.
Whoa. “Cool name. Shield from what? The vamps?”
She nodded, tossing her glossy black hair over one shoulder.
“They are constantly trying to snuff out our dimension. All the runes do things like dampen our smell, which is like coffee to them. They love it. There are confusion runes too, so if a vampire does find themselves in this dimension, they’ll forget what they are doing and leave. ”
“That’s incredible!” I grinned. “So they can portal too?”
She nodded, eyes a little wide. “But they don’t need designated locations like we do. They portal instantly on shadows. It’s what makes them so terrifying.”
That made so much sense! How they just appeared at the club and in the park with Asher and me. “But you’re pretty safe here?” I asked.
She nodded as we moved up in line. “Haven’t had a vampire attack on campus in my entire lifetime.”
Wow. Eighteen years. That was a nice streak.
“Where do the runes come from?” I glanced farther down the line as a man began checking names on a list as the students entered.
“Short answer? Runes were created by a first generation of hunters, called the legacies.”
Interesting. The same legacy that Molly’s family was?
“And the long answer?” I asked.
A girl in front of us peeked over her shoulder to look at me and then quickly looked back.
Harper leaned to my ear. “The long answer would overwhelm you right now, but I’ll totally tell you later if you want.”
I nodded. Message received. Dipping my toes into the history of vampires and their hunters instead of a full submersion sounded good to me.
When we got to the front of the line, a tall man with broad shoulders, short hair, and smooth white skin grinned at Harper. He had a salt-and-pepper beard and wore thick black-rimmed glasses that were stylish and made him look cool. Definitely looked the part of a professor.
“Hello, Professor Walters,” Harper said formally.
He frowned. “No more Dad?”
My heart melted, and I couldn’t help but smile.
“Not at school! I don’t want anyone thinking I get special treatment,” Harper whined.
He waved her off. “Fine. You look beautiful, and I hope you have fun,” he told her.
Harper leaned in for a quick hug. “Thanks, Dad.”
I heard her whisper and decided I couldn’t love this family any more.
He peered down at me. “And you, Miss Stella. We are so excited to have you here. If you need anything or have any issues, you come see me personally, okay?” He beamed as if genuinely excited to meet me.
“Thank you, Professor,” I told him and ducked in after Harper, feeling again like maybe it was okay if I stayed here.
What am I saying? Was I actually considering living in another dimension and learning to hunt vampires?
No way.
But the second we turned the corner and I slammed into Asher’s chest, I was thinking maybe staying here would be good for me.
Lord have mercy, he was easy on the eyes. Tonight he wore all black, with his blond hair slicked back and his arm in a sling. He peered down at me behind sharp, endlessly green eyes.
“Hey.” I smiled. “I never got to really thank you for last night. Sorry if I was?—”
“You’re welcome.” His tone was clipped as he sidestepped me and kept moving.
My throat tightened. His words, his reaction, were like a shot to the chest. What was his problem? Was he mad at me for last night? I was a freaking human twenty-four hours ago. Obviously I was going to wig out when I heard otherwise. It wasn’t my fault, and no one asked him to run after me.
“Are you okay?” Harper had just witnessed the awkwardness.
I cleared my throat, forcing a small smile. “Fine.” I shrugged, trying to act like it didn’t hurt.
I felt like Asher and I had survived a war together. I’d saved his life! And he’d saved mine. For him to treat me like that… It hurt. But life hurt. I was used to people disappointing me, so I stuffed it down and gave Harper a small smile.
A tiny pale-skinned girl with long cotton-candy-pink hair and an ankle-length black Renaissance dress popped up right in front of me. She was at least a head shorter than I was and very petite.
“Is this her?” she asked Harper with a bright smile.
“Yep,” Harper confirmed. “Stella, meet my bestie, Luna.”
“Hi!” Luna wrapped her arms around me and crushed me to her chest.
“Oh… Hi.” I patted her back, and she pulled away from me.
She was wearing black lipstick and sporting a super goth look, but her hair and personality were screaming otherwise.
“So exciting to have a lost-born legacy! You must be so overwhelmed,” Luna said.
I nodded. “Just a bit.” I gave a nervous laugh.
“Keep the LBL on the down-low. She’s overwhelmed,” Harper told Luna.
Luna nodded. “Well, if anyone messes with you, just tell me.” She gave me a serious glare, like it was a threat and a promise all at once.
“She’ll be fine.” Harper put her hands on Luna’s shoulders and steered her away from me. “No need to activate throat-punch mode.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Throat-punch mode?”
Luna and Harper shared a grin, like there was a story there.
“Let’s just say I was bullied in grade school until one day, I started to protect myself.” Luna fisted her hands and gritted her jaw, staring me down. She was tiny and adorable, like she would blow over in a strong wind.
“With a throat punch?” I laughed.
She nodded, relaxing her stance. “Finnigan Magnus never called me a buck-toothed beaver again.”
I couldn’t help but smile. I loved her too. Both she and Harper were so easy to talk to and so sweet and accepting. This place was growing on me already.
Harper petted Luna’s hair like she was a dog who needed calming. “She can get a little unhinged sometimes but she’s the most loyal friend you could ever have,” Harper said.
“Thanks, bestie.” Luna blew her a kiss.
The center of my chest ached at their exchange.
There was a yearning that bloomed inside me.
I realized in that moment that I wanted that kind of friendship.
As a child, I moved around too much in foster care to make close friends, and the group home was always chaos with kids coming and going.
Only Rae seemed to be a constant companion, but it was still surface level.
She was older, so having her age out before me meant we didn’t have much time living together.
“Welcome, new Nightguard Academy hunters!” a familiar voice boomed out of a speaker system.
We all pivoted so that we were facing a raised stage and looked up to see Harper’s dad, Professor Walters.
“My fellow professors and I are eager to teach our newest class of hunters to learn to defeat humanity’s greatest threat,” he thundered, and everyone cheered and clapped.
“Over the next three years, you will progress in your studies here, training day and night and going on field missions, all in an effort to graduate and be recruited as hunters in the guild.”
There was more cheering and smiling faces around me. I found it interesting it was only a three-year program versus the four years we did back home for college.
“And for those of you who passed your final, you will be getting your hunter marks on Monday.”
He held up his arm, and I noticed the black runes shimmered in the light with an opalescent sheen, almost like they were glowing.
So he was a hunter too? Or maybe he was before he decided to teach?
I wasn’t sure how that worked. An excited ripple went around the room, and there was more cheering, myself included.
The marks were pretty badass. I glanced across the room to see Asher, arms folded as he leaned against the wall and scowled.
I guessed he wouldn’t be getting his marks, and I felt guilty about that, but only slightly. It wasn’t my fault the club I was in got attacked and I ran. He shouldn’t have followed me if it was going to break some rules.
“As you know,” Professor Walters said, his voice growing somber, “being a hunter is a great and dangerous calling. There are many sacrifices made to follow this calling. Therefore, not everyone will be chosen to apply to join the guild at the end of your time here at the academy, but I assure you, all of you will be useful to Veil Haven in some way. So please relax and enjoy yourself tonight, because Monday starts the hardest three years of your life.”
The clapping following that particular part of his speech was very faint.
“Buzzkill,” Luna muttered to Harper.
Harper nodded, giving me a tight smile.
“So three years of training and you might not even become a hunter?” I asked Harper.
She nodded. “My mom said you met Jane at the DNA archives today?”
I dipped my chin in agreement, and Harper went on.
“She was in my mom’s class and failed out her first year.”
Ouch. So if you weren’t a hunter, you were relegated to office work?
I guessed that wasn’t so bad as long as it paid well.
A steady job was a steady job. But part of me wanted to be a hunter now that I knew it was exclusive.
My ego wanted to prove I could do it, and protecting humans seemed like a valiant cause.
Luna leaned in. “Some students who flunk out try to apply to other less reputable schools and apply to the guild that way. There are options.”
Harper winced. “Like Blood Bane Academy? Eww. I could never. They’ll recommend anyone to the guild, and then most die in the field because they’re ill-prepared.”
Blood Bane? There were more academies? It sounded like it.
I had an inquisitive mind, so this whole thing was fascinating to me.
“So your dad is a hunter but also a professor?” I asked.