Five

The next morning, Shay woke up earlier than necessary, feeling unrested.

Probably because she spent most of the night overthinking about that moment with Ivan Belov. And even after hours of doing that, she had no clue of what had happened. Not really.

She wasn't entirely sure of whether Belov took her to the woods because he was attracted to her and wanted to do something like... kissing her. Or if he had wanted to bite her.

And drink all of her blood.

It was terribly confusing because she had heard things before. About vampires and their bizarre sexual acts involving biting and blood sucking. It was a normal thing for them, so what was exactly what Belov was intrigued about?

Shay's body or Shay's blood? Or both at the same time?

"Fuck," Shay groaned when she realized she couldn't continue thinking about that. She had to leave her room, she didn't want to be late for breakfast.

She also didn't want to see Belov while her mind was a mess, but still, Shay would rather face an awkward situation than to be late to something, so she put on her sneakers and left the dorm building.

"Morning," Adrian murmured in a sleepy voice as soon as Shay sat at their table. He already had food in front of him, so he had arrived even earlier than her.

Maybe Adrian was more committed to this whole thing. Maybe the cameras would capture that, plus the situation in the woods, and conclude that Shay wasn't committed enough.

That she was too busy having a crush on a vampire to have what it takes.

"Morning," Shay responded, then smiled at the staff member bringing her breakfast, "Thank you."

"Did you know vampires don't have breakfast? That's something I just learned," Adrian continued talking as he ate his eggs, "Because they don't always sleep. So last night, while we were sleeping, they were just... around. Doing things. Being weird. Drinking blood."

"Oh..."

"And they also know each other already, because all of them except for one have been here before," he went on, blue eyes full of suspicion, "Don't you think that's unfair? And, like, cheating?"

"A little, yes," Shay nodded, starting to eat, "But also nothing to worry about. How good can they be, if they were here before and didn't make it? If they didn't have what it takes back then, they probably still don't."

Adrian stared into her eyes for a couple of seconds in total silence, then a big smile started to grow.

"You're funny," he said, like he couldn't believe it. And before he could say anything else, one of the werewolf girls arrived to the table, "Hey. Good morning."

"Good morning," the girl mumbled, looking distraught. Her eyes were huge and her eyebrows pulled down in something like distress, "Uhm... just so you guys know, Greta got expelled yesterday."

Greta, the other werewolf girl, the one from Lithuania. Shay's mouth fell open in surprise.

"No way!" Adrian exclaimed, so hard, it echoed through the hall, "Why?! How?"

"I don't know," the french girl shrugged, "I heard a loud commotion last night, around midnight. Someone went to Greta's bedroom and told her to leave, I guess. She complained and cried a lot, then left."

"I can't fucking believe it," Adrian growled, "I didn't want the first to leave to be a wolf. Now they outnumber us."

The three of them fell into a tense silence. It wasn't good that one of them already got booted off. On the first day.

Maybe it meant the girl was too weak. Or maybe young wolves weren't ready for Enlightenment.

Shay's face crumpled at the thought and when she looked up again, she found the girl's eyes. She didn't remember her name, but... it was something with an H. She was intense and focused. Had not said a single word until this moment.

"One of us has to win," the girl stated, just as intense as she looked, "I don't like the vamps."

"Me neither," Adrian followed. Shay simply nodded, "We can help each other train and get better. Are you good with energy pulses?"

"The best in all of France," she scoffed, prideful, "Are you?"

"Hell yeah. The best in all of Canada," Adrian repeated and winked at her, then both of them looked at Shay at the same time, "Are you?"

"According to these people, yes," Shay shrugged.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

For the next seven days, Shay avoided Ivan Belov as much as the vampire avoided her.

They always stood as far away from each other as possible and tried their hardest not to make eye contact during practice.

Although, Shay felt eyes on her neck sometimes and she could tell it was him. She didn’t understand exactly why she was so attuned to everything he did, but she definitely was.

Nobody else had been expelled in a whole week, which made all the vamps turn into cocky assholes. Especially Ivan, who loved to taunt them by calling them 'dogs' and saying it was a matter of time before they all left.

He could be really mean and exasperating, mostly towards Adrian.

"Shut the fuck up, Belov!" Adrian growled, finally losing his temper after several comments thrown his way. He took a few aggressive steps towards the vampire.

Shay could tell he was ready to fight, so she decided to break the tension herself. At this point, she knew the instructors were not going to do anything to stop the altercation. They were here to coach them in their energetic powers, not break fights.

"What? I did not lie. You will be the next to go," Ivan continued, with a mean smile, "You are the weakest link... goodbye."

"Can you stop being an asshole for five minutes?" Shay complained, looking him in the eye for the first time all week. She was stopping Adrian by the chest right now, but she could tell it wouldn't be easy to hold him back if Ivan kept going with his incessant chirping.

"Mmmm," Ivan acted like he was thinking about it, "No, I do not think so."

Shay knew him well enough by now to believe it, so she decided to turn to her friend completely. Adrian was a good guy, but more of a hot-head than anyone she had met before. That was his biggest weakness.

"Don't let him be the reason you leave," Shay said. Adrian took a big breath and finally moved those big blue eyes to Shay, "Who cares what a vampire thinks of you? All he does is smoke and drink blood. He won't win this. He's too old."

"Ah, Hart, you're being the asshole now. I'm not even the oldest vampire here. Anton was present during the medieval era," Ivan scoffed behind her. His voice sounded amused, "Back me up, Anton."

"Bah, I don't care about you enough," Anton muttered, voice bored and raspy as hell, "Can we go back to work? This is boring me."

"Yes, let's get back to what we're here for," Shay blurted out and pushed Adrian back to Helene. The second she grabbed his arm, he started to calm down for real. Shay returned to Ivan before he decided to continue, looking directly at him for the first time since that first day in the woods. She looked up, not allowing herself to get intimidated by his height, "Riling people up won't get you anywhere. It only makes you less worthy of Enlightenment."

"Fine," Ivan relented, rolling his eyes and taking a few steps back, "But you're going to be my next partner."

"Huh? What about me?" Deanna—Ivan's blonde friend who was always around him— whined, "You're my partner."

"You can partner up with the instructor now," he shrugged, ignoring her completely. Then he pointed at Shay and whistled, "You're with me now, puppy. Come."

"Don't fucking whistle at me," she growled, walking Ivan's way mostly to stop him from doing that, whistling like Shay was a real dog. It was extremely insulting.

But she went.