PROLOGUE

"What are your plans after class?"

I put my notebook on top of Vico's and copied his assignment. "Not sure. Do you have anything in mind?"

"Well," he slid his body on the chair, "Nothing either."

"Then, let's stay in our own house."

He just shrugged. I keep on writing and revising his answers for our biology class. Copying answers isn't my thing, but this one is urgent and I really need to pass this or my dad will scold me nonstop.

Since it's a two-hour lunch break, only a few of us were left in the room. Most of our classmates went outside. There were actually around four who left here. Vico just bought a lunch for the both of us, then got back here immediately.

He hates being in a crowd without me. All the girls kept on clinging to him or giving him tons of food that went straight to my stomach. Vico never ate food from his admirers. That's maybe rude to hear, but he almost died before from poisoning when he ate a chocolate from his admirer. Vico was really traumatized.

That's why he gives them that food and throws the teddy bears away. He always suspects that it has a camera, since he caught one before. Geez, being attractive wasn't that dreamy. It was actually a disaster.

"Can you open those skittles for me?" I asked Vico. I can't drop my pen, all my energy to write will fade away and this assignment will fly in the air.

He put down his phone and gave me the opened skittles. He also opened a bottle of water for me.

"Aww, so sweet."

"Shut up, Dylan." Vico warned our classmate.

I bit my lower lip to stifle my laugh. We often hear that from people who don't know that we're just actually siblings to each other. Vico never saw me as his lover, and so did I. Our relationship will be so stressful if ever.

The classroom had been drowned in silence for almost one and a half hours. I closed our notebooks and put Vico's in his bag. My fist accidentally touched his face when I stretched it after writing for so long.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to do that."

He rolled his eyes, "Whatever."

I also rolled my eyes at him. This man's pride is greater than Mt. Everest! That's why he has never had a girlfriend ever since; he always thinks that he was right and just a jerk. Gosh! Being attractive to girls with that kind of attitude was actually sick.

My mouth was busy munching skittles when my eyes landed on our room's door. There was a bunch of girls standing outside, one of them was holding a pink piece of paper, the other one had chocolate, and the last one was holding a camera.

Are they going to record how ugly they would be if Vico rejected their gifts?

The chewing of my food got slower when I saw the girl with an arrow tattoo on her neck was going to enter the classroom. She stopped because three girls were blocking the door.

Our position was too far from the door so my ears couldn't catch their conversation clearly. That girl with an arrow tattoo pointed at me and Vico, and that girl's eyes holding a pink paper became dark.

She almost crumpled what she was holding for an unknown reason. My forehead creased when that girl holding the pink paper gave me a death glare before marching away.

That arrow tattoo girl smirked at me when she walked past me when she was going to her seat. Whatever she told Vico's admirers, I'm sure that she put me in a not-so-good position in their eyes.

"Vico."

"Yeah?"

I faced him and got his phone. He was about to complain, but he probably saw that I was dead serious now. "Do you think your admirers could hurt me?"

He looked so puzzled by what I'd asked him. We never talked about his admirers like he wants us to do. I never care about them either, though, but there's a bad energy that creeps inside of me from that girl's glare.

"Never. I would never let them touch even a strand of your hair."

Vico stated those words with the most soothing voice I ever heard in my entire life. Looking deeply into mine. The butterflies inside my stomach had broken out from their cages.

A sweet smile automatically plastered on my face, "That kind of assurance I wanted to hear." Something vibrated on my hand and I saw that Vico already deafeated from his game. Shit! "And you lose."

His eyes widened when his phone finally got back to him. He tightly closed his eyes and sighed deeply. His jaw was tensed while pressing some buttons on his game.

"I'm sorry," I whispered while watching him.

I genuinely felt bad for him.

He shook his head and hid his phone in his pocket, "Thank you. By the way, why did you ask that? Are they bothering you?"

"No," an air came out of my mouth, "It was not impossible to happen, though– your admirers would hurt me."

Vico didn't say anything. He got something from his bag. My eyes sparkled when he put two more skittles on my desk, "There."

"Thank you!" I excitedly opened one and ate it right away. "Uh, I forgot to ask you. Do your parents love rare steaks? Like there's still blood on the meat?"

"Huh? Why so random?"

I shrugged, "Just curious."

Vico chuckled, "What kind of human could eat a rare steak?"

"Your parents don't eat rare steaks?"

"No! Why would they?" He laughed loudly.

The girls in our class suddenly turned their heads on us. Some of their eyes are sparkling because of how handsome Vico was while laughing, some are glaring at me. Wow.

"Weird." I whispered and focused on my skittles.

The two-hour lunch break ended and our history professor walked in. This professor is actually a bit weird... or unique from other teachers here at our university. I could say that she had the same energy as that arrow tattoo girl has.

They're both obsessed with mythical creatures.

Pushing her thick black-framed glasses, she cleared her throat to get the attention of some of us. Yes, emphasis on 'some'. American high school students usually don't care about nerdy professors like her.

She discussed parts of the history research papers that we're going to do: parts, uses, kinds, and so on. She teaches well actually. Maybe she doesn't suit the current taste of students when it comes to professors. She is so old-styled.

An old lengthy skirt that, it seems, got passed down from her great-great ancestors. A long-sleeved blouse that has a closed neck style with ruffles. High socks with brown shoes that we have no idea where they come from. Her age? 25 years old. See, she was too young to dress up like that.

We thought that she was in her mid-40s when it was her first time to teach us. Vico and I were totally mind-blown when we found out about her real age. Only the two of us knew about it, and we couldn't tell anyone about it.

She told us that students won't behave like this- even if they're not entirely listening to her- when they know about her young age. The students here still respect the elderly even a bit. She had a point, so we let her.

"What do you think would be our topic?" Vico's voice brought me back from reverie.

"Sirens? Werewolf?"

"I don't think so," he answered while scratching his chin.

Here he goes again. "What is it, then?" I asked again and rolled my eyes.

He gave me a side glance while smirking, "Vampires."

"Vampires?"

"Your research topic would be about vampires," our professor announced.

Vico's eyes sparkled while mine was widened. Why are we going to make a research paper about fictional creatures? This professor has gone insane.

Our classroom was filled with different noises after that. Most of us were confused. I raised my arm, she pointed at me, so I stood up and in just a second, their eyes were on me.

"We know that you really love and are interested in mythical creatures, but don't you think making an 'academic' research paper about vampires which belongs to a fictional creatures–"

"How sure are you that 'vampires' are only 'fictional' characters?" The arrow tattoo girl chimed in.

My forehead creased. What does she mean by that?

"There's still no solid evidence nor study that vampires do really exist. All the articles that you will find about vampires in books, online, or on television were all fake or just theories." I justified my side.

Who is she to rudely interrupt me? Do her parents teach her the right manners? Gosh!

She stood up and faced me. Her deep black eyes met mine. "You are literally living with vampires."

"Woah?"

"Is that true?"

"Who would believe a freak like her? She was just jealous of Luna."

What the actual fuck? Did she totally lose her sanity?

I shook my head while my tongue was pushing my cheek, "You watched and read too many vampire series." I retorted.

"Stop now, Luna," Vico solemnly whispered at my back.

He knew that any second from now, the other side would be unleashed. No one wants to see that– even me. Vico's trembling voice and his terrified face before them were still vivid in my mind. He was the first one who saw that side of me.

"Are you done debating?" Our professor finally came in. She sighed deeply and looked at me, "I guess both of you answered your question?"

I can't do anything, but throw myself in my seat. That girl is getting on my nerves. How dare she to bring up my parents with her pathetic obsession!

She should be thankful that we're still inside of the school premises. If this happened outside, she would find herself lying in the ICU.

Our history professor announced more about our project to her subject, then dismissed. All of our classmates stood up and went outside the classroom. Some of them were bidding good bye to me, but I ignored them.

I'm throwing daggers at this shitty arrow tattoo girl while she was fixing her things. My knuckles are itching to punch her hard in her face. My emotion got the best of me again, and I found myself standing at her side.

"Luna, let her be," Vico tried to stop me.

"Why do you have my parents' photos?" I tried my best to ask her with my calmest voice.

Nevertheless, my whole system was already trembling in rage.

She sighed. She looked at Vico first, and finally met my eyes, "Why don't you ask them about their real identity?"

There. That's it. I'm really going to rip her flesh from her bones!

I bit my lower lip and convinced myself not to make any mess. Vico suddenly held my hand because it was starting to form in fist on its own.

"Look, I really don't have any plans to stick my nose on your stingy obsession with vampires," I blew and at her with my sharp eyes, "However, you're slowly crossing the line. My parents do nothing with any of the vampire stuff."

She slowly walked closer and leaned a bit towards me, "You'll know everything. You will definitely regret that your mom picked you up from the trash that night."

"Hey!"

"Yeah?" I answered Vico. We're now walking to our house.

"Are you still bothered about what Montero told you?"

I shook my head, "Why would I?"

"You are," he nodded.

Silence enveloped us once again. Whatever I do to ignore what Venice Montero told me earlier, it still keeps on playing on my mind like a broken cd. It's making me exhausted for some reason.

As soon I saw the sofa, my knees automatically melted down. My breath got heavier than usual. For some reason, my eyes looked for a clock. It's only five p.m. in the afternoon, but it already felt like midnight.

Maybe school made me really drained today. There's so much that happened in just a day.

My phone vibrated and I received a chat from Vico.

Vico Nico:

don't forget about the research paper

i know you hate doing it, but your dad wouldn't be happy if he knew

just reminding you. you can still do it in other day, take a rest for now.

i'm aware that venice really stressed you out earlier. just ignore her.

i believe in you

With those comfort words, my tears endlessly fell from my eyes. There are always people that, even if we can't voice out the things that bother us, they're just going to hug or lend their shoulders silently.

It feels like heaven to have a person like Vico. We may be bickering with each other most of the time, but he was the first person who would run to me if I needed a hand.

I was about to type a reply to him when our doorbell suddenly rang. My brows furrowed while I was wiping my tears. Did my parents expect a visitor today?

I still stood up and carefully opened the door. There are one girl and a guy, both of them are wearing all black outfits. Their backs were faced on my direction, so they obviously didn't know about my presence.

"My... my parents aren't here..." I slowly informed them.

My eyes got big when they finally faced me.

They look so familiar to me! I'm sure that I have seen them before! Argh! Why can't I remember when and where?!

"Uh, Sanguis and Estrella aren't here?" the girl said with a pout in her face. She slid her hand inside her pocket and gave me an unfamiliar invitation.

The guy cleared his throat, "That was supposed to be a surprise, but– never mind."

My brows are still furrowed while scanning the invitation letter. It was wrapped in a gold and black envelope with a gold ribbon outside. It's not my habit to be nosy about other people's property, so I didn't bother to open the letter.

"What is– where the heck are they?!"

They... They just disappeared...

My goodness! I'm really stressed!