Blood and Knowledge

So, I'm in class with William beside me. I've never worn a uniform in my life, and the idea of even wearing one was a nightmare to me, but to be honest, I kind of like this one.

I'm dressed in a white long-sleeved shirt, black trousers, and black shoes. I've taken off my jacket since I'm feeling kind of hot.

The jacket is black with the school's insignia on its chest pocket. It consists of a cat's claw mark, a crescent moon with stars, a wolf howling at the moon, and three drops of blood encased within a shield.

The classroom door opens, and in walks a tall man wearing a blue shirt and black jeans.

"Good morning, class."

"Good morning, sir," everyone says.

"I'm happy to see you all back at school. Now, shall we continue from where we left off last time?"

He turns to the board and writes "Algebra." "Huh," I guess even the supernatural need to learn math. At least they had normal subjects because if they didn't, I'd be in trouble.

He turns around, and his gaze lands on me. "You must be the new student, Alex, right? It's an honor to have you in my class."

"Thank you." Okay, I need to do some research on my family; this is really getting uncomfortable. I never knew that my family name had such a huge effect on people.

Class begins, and time ticks by. After an hour and a half of boring math, the bell finally rings. I take my schedule to see what I have next. History, it reads.

I sigh since I never saw the point in learning about dead people and the things they did in the past. Besides, what's buried should remain buried, right?

"Hey, Alex, I'll see you in chemistry. I gotta go to the library," William says as he picks up his books.

"Yeah, it's cool. I'll see you later then."

So, I'm walking down the corridors trying to navigate my way to class, which, mind you, isn't easy. Every inch of this place looks the same to me. I finally reach my class ten minutes late. I approach the door and knock.

"Come in," says a feminine voice from inside. I open the door to find Miss Katherine in a white sweater that complements her hair and black slacks.

"Late to class on the first day, Alex?" she says.

"Sorry, ma'am. I got lost on my way here."

"Not to worry, it happens to everyone on their first day here. Now grab a chair; we were just about to begin."

The only available seat is beside Sara. I internally groan at this since, although I don't hate her, we just haven't exactly exchanged any nice words with each other. I walk over and sit down.

"Now then, today we'll be talking about the events that took place before the Binding of Blood."

I can see the excitement in everyone's eyes as soon as she says this. "As we all know," she continues, "the Binding of Blood was a treaty signed five hundred years ago.

The treaty resolved the conflict between the four major supernatural species. The treaty was signed by the leaders of the strongest group of each respective species. The witches were represented by the Cages, the vampires by the Vincents, the werecats by the Hatakes, and the werewolves by the Wolfgangs."

The silence in the room is deafening to the point that I can hear myself thinking. She said the Vincents, meaning her family represented the vampires, and Wolfgang, so my family represented the werewolves.

"Before the Binding of Blood, there was war and chaos on all sides. The werewolves sided with the witches, while the vampires sided with the werecats, but all these alliances were rare since each species loathed the other.

The humans were the ones to suffer the most. They didn't even have any means to protect themselves from the supernatural. We were faster, stronger, and smarter than them.

They were caught in the crossfire. Villages were raided, and the captives were used as slaves or blood supplies by the Vampira," she pauses to make sure that we understand before continuing.

"The war raged for centuries, but it was small scale at first, and the humans rarely noticed at all. It was not until three hundred years before the treaty that things got worse." Silence. "Now, can anyone tell me the reason why all used to fight?" Miss Katherine asks.

A hand in the front row shoots up.

"Yes, Asia, if you may."

"The supernatural, before the Binding of Blood, fought mainly due to their way of lifestyle, pride, diet, resources, and of course, territory.

The witches considered themselves to be servants of nature, so they despised the vampires who killed humans in order to feed by draining the life out of them.

The werewolves despised the vampires too, as they considered themselves to be the protectors of humans. The Vampira saw themselves as the superior race as they, for starters, are immortal and never age; hence, they considered the rest vermin."

"Precisely correct. Please continue."

"And finally, the werecats, or cat-shifters. Another proud species who took pride in their strength and size in numbers.

But in the end, the four strongest clans of each respective faction saw the need for peace and to end such rivalry between each other, so they convinced their brethren first and decided to make a truce. Thus, the Binding of Blood, where blood from each species was mixed and bonded by a spell, signifying the union and peace between each other."

"Well done, Asia, glad to see that you've done your homework. Now, this all took place 500 years ago, and it brought about the Council of Light, a council of elders from each faction headed by the strongest people from each faction."

"Miss Katherine, who are the four leaders?" Asia asks.

"Their identities are concealed in order to prevent an overthrow in power for control of the supernatural world. Not even the council knows their identities."

A knock on the door is heard.

"Come in." In walks the three identical sisters with blue eyes. She walks up to the headmistress and whispers something in her ear.

The headmistress looks at her as if contemplating what she just heard. She nods to her and turns her attention back to us. "Class dismissed. We'll continue next time," then she walks out.

The rest of the periods weren't as interesting as history with Miss Katherine. They were just plain boring as always: Geography, Chemistry, even English—jeez.

As I'm walking through the hallway, I hear someone call out my name. I turn around and see Sean walking up to me. "Hey, Alex, mind if we have breakfast together?"

"No problem, I was getting lonely."

"So how's your first day at school going so far?" he asks.

"Well, it's okay. History was interesting though."

"Yes, it was. Lessons with Miss Katherine are always interesting; she talks about events as if she was there when they were taking place."

We arrive at the dining hall, and Kira, William, and Sara are already there.

I take a seat, grab a glass, and fill it with orange juice, then I pile my plate with eggs, bacon, and toast.

"Well, someone's hungry," Kira says.

"You have no idea," I say as I begin to chow down on my food. "So, what were you doing at the library, William?"

"Nothing much, just looking for something interesting."

"So, Alex, what classes do you have next?" asks Sara. I grab my schedule from my bag and look it over. It says Su... Super... Supernaturalis. What in the world is that supposed to be? I ask.

"Supernaturals is the biological and physical science of our species. We learn about our abilities, strengths, and weaknesses," Sara replies.

"Well then, this should be fun."

After finishing breakfast, Sara, William, Kira, and Sean head to our next class. We arrive early and each take a seat. As the minutes go by, the room slowly gets occupied as more students arrive.

After ten minutes, the bell rings, signaling the start of the lesson. Standing at the head of the class is whom I presume to be our teacher. He's a tall young man with dark ebony skin, black curly hair, and he carries himself in a way that Sean did. A witch, I presume.

"Welcome to class," he says while turning to me. "You must be our new student, Alex Wolfgang, I presume. You're quite the talk around here, I should say.

Anyway, my name is Professor Lucas Drake, and I'll be with you in Supernaturalis." After introducing himself, he focuses back on the class.

"Now, today we will be discussing our biology, starting with the most complicated: the Vampira. Born from the shadows of night, vampires have been greatly feared and respected. Vampires are known by their dangerously beautiful features.

They use this to lure their prey, in other words, the humans. They contain large amounts of strength, speed, agility, and stamina."

A boy in the back raises his hand.

"Yes, Jason?"

"Sir, why do vampires drink blood?"

"Ah yes, a wonderful question. Vampires are equipped with long fangs, which are quite visible when they're hungry or angry.

They use their fangs to pierce the flesh of their prey. Now, to answer your question: vampires drink blood, first of all, because their blood is barely able to carry diffused oxygen, thus they need human blood in their system to do so. Blood satisfies this need, especially human blood, with its high quantity of hemoglobin."

As I'm listening to this, first of all, I'm like, so humans aren't at the top of the food chain; we're on someone else's menu too. Secondly, all I can say is yuck! Drinking blood is disgusting. I mean, I've drunk my own blood on a couple of occasions when I cut myself, for instance, and let me inform you, there's nothing tasty about it. Blood has a taste that feels like you're drinking liquid metal.

"Another reason is that blood strengthens a vampire. If a vampire is badly hurt and cannot regenerate, blood can be used to jump-start their healing factor, thus saving their lives."

"So vampires can die?" I blurt out.

"Yes and no," he says as he shifts his gaze to me. "You see, there are two kinds of vampires, the pure-blooded and those that are turned into ones.

Pure-blooded vampires are born as vampires and age until their mid-twenties or early thirties. From then on, they do not age unless they choose to do so, which, even if they do, which rarely ever happens, they age at a slow rate.

Turned vampires do not age at all; they stop at the age that they're turned. Now, killing a trained and experienced vampire is no easy task, trust me, so is killing any other supernatural.

Only the wolves have had the honor of being the most capable of killing vampires in large numbers, but that was before the Binding of Blood," he begins to stroll around the class and continues.

"Vampires have the best healing capability of all factions."

"Is it true that they can burn in the sun?" a girl sitting in front of me asks.

"On the contrary, no. Vampires do not burn in the sun; they can walk just fine in it. In fact, they actually love the sun, and they sunbathe in it in order to tan their skin since it's slightly pale."

"Can they turn into bats?" Sean asks.

"No, Sean, they can't. Those are human versions of what vampires might be capable of doing." As Professor Lucas goes on with the lesson, I can see pride in the eyes of some kids; even Sara is smiling.

They must be vampires too, that's why. "What are you looking at?" William whispers.

"Nothing," I mutter.

"Uh-huh, I saw that look, you don't fool me," he starts.

"What the heck are you talking about? What look?" I ask.

"I can see you've fallen for Sara."

"Pffff, you wish. We just met yesterday," I retort.

"Yeah, yeah, who cares, that's why it's called love at first sight."

"Anything you two boys would like to share with the class?" Sir Lucas asks as he stands between us.

"No, sir," we say in unison.

"Good, now as I was saying, moving on to the werewolves..."

Brnnnnnnngggggggggggggg. The bell goes off.

"Well, would you look at the time? I guess we'll carry on next time."

We leave class and each go to our respective classes. Lunch comes by, and soon after, we head to our towers. To say I was exhausted was an understatement. My brain is now filled with knowledge I never thought I would ever possess, much less believe to be true. I head over to the bathroom to take a shower. As I'm scrubbing myself, I feel a weird tingling at the nape of my neck.