Two

The first day went by easier than she expected. She was introduced to the other three werewolves in the program. Two other women and one man, all from different parts of the world. They were not exactly friendly, but she understood why.

There was only one spot available for Luxe City. Only one novice—werewolf or vampire—would reach Enlightenment and a chance to live in the city. Only one.

So this wasn't exactly a ‘team wolves’ versus ‘team vampires’. No, it was a free-for-all.

But the program still tried their best to keep species separated. They had a dorm building only for wolves and another one only for vampires. There was only one dining hall, though.

Thankfully, it was separated into two sections, divided by a long table with desserts available for anyone.

Nobody tried to interact. Everyone sat down at their own table, listened to the brief general introductions and rules of engagement from a staff member, then started eating in very uncomfortable silence.

Shay couldn't stop looking over at the vampire table.

The four vampires looked very much alike. Extremely pale skin, slender frames and dead eyes. They didn't look approachable at all, but they were having hushed conversations as they ate.

Shay was surprised to find out they ate only fruits, absolutely no meat. And they were also drinking blood casually.

They drank it from black sealed packets to hide the red color, but the substance became obvious whenever it dripped down their chins or stuck to their elongated and overly excited fangs.

It had only been around two hours since Shay started observing the reality of vampires and she was already over that fear she'd grown up with.

The fear was forced on her by older werewolves who had never even interacted with a vampire before. But now (after only two hours) Shay had more knowledge about the topic, so she could say with certainty that vampires weren't that scary.

They were... cute, actually.

It was cute how they ate their fruit and how they drank their packaged blood, how their eyes darkened and their fangs grew longer, excited by the blood. It was very cute.

Not scary at all.

But she tried to focus on her own food. Meat. Protein and carbs, a lot of it. Shay wasn't as hungry as usual and her focus was on the four vampires across the hall—especially one—so she took longer than usual to finish eating. By the time she was done, the dining hall was almost empty.

She got up and started walking toward the dorms, but stopped when she saw a tall figure leaning against a wall, smoking a cigarette.

It was the same vampire from earlier. The handsome one. And now she knew his name, thanks to the general introductions before they served the food.

Ivan Belov.

Shay knew she should simply walk away and find her room to get comfortable before the final orientation gathering, but she couldn't stop herself from walking closer to the vampire... as if something were pulling her to him. 

That was the vampire who kept chomping on plums like they were the most delicious thing to ever exist. The one whose fangs looked the longest and who kept licking the blood running down his fingers, making it look a lot more delicious than it was.

"You’re Ivan Belov, right?" Shay asked, making the vampire look up with confused eyes. He took a long inhale, lowered the cigarette, then slowly blew the smoke out. Shay extended her hand, "I’m Shay Hart. From the US."

"Hm," the vampire murmured, sounding bored, "I’m from Russia."

"Cool," Shay nodded, then waited for something else. Usually people continued conversations, but apparently not this vampire. He remained silent and Shay had nothing else to say, "Uhm... you shouldn't smoke here.”

"Who says?"

Shay pointed at the sign right beside him. It clearly said DO NOT SMOKE HERE, but Ivan simply rolled his eyes and took another inhale before blowing the smoke toward her.

"I don’t care," he responded, giving Shay a long look from her hair to her sneakers, "You are very young. A... puppy."

"No, not really. I'm twenty."

"So young," Ivan said, with actual emotion on his face for once. The emotion wasn't a nice one, though, "I'm two hundred and eighty-eight years old."

Shay's mouth fell open in surprise she couldn't hide.

He had to be joking... right?

Sometimes Shay wasn't the best at identifying jokes, so she waited for the smile or chuckle that would instruct her to laugh too, but it never came.

"Are you being serious?" she finally asked. Ivan nodded, "I-I mean, I know vampires are immortal..."

"Do you?" the guy asked, sucking on the cigarette again. His cheekbones looked sharp as knives when he did that, "Then why does my age surprise you?"

"I don't know... I wasn't expecting it."

"Anton Frontier is six hundred and something," he informed Shay. Anton was one of his fellow vampires and that guy only looked around thirty. Shay took a difficult breath and nodded, trying not to look too freaked out. "Is this your first time around vampires?"

"Yes," Shay admitted.

"That's why you look like you are waiting for me to bite you," Ivan replied casually, then his eyes moved down her body, "Relax, puppy. I don’t bite pretty girls without consent."

Shay nearly choked on air.

"I'm not—I wasn't—I don't think—"

Ivan raised one eyebrow, amused now. His lip twitched slightly.

"You are very interesting. So bold and so nervous at once,” he mentioned, as if he was actually intrigued by her, “She-wolves are usually a lot less likely to approach a vampire like you just did. Why would you do that? Are you naive or… brave?”

Shay felt her face turn red and wished the ground would swallow her whole. But before she could muster a coherent response to that long observation, another figure walked out of the dining hall.

Then stopped abruptly.

"Hey," Adrian, the male wolf, said. He crossed the few steps between them and offered Shay a fist bump. Adrian hadn't talked to her all day, but Shay still lifted her own fist and bumped his, as if they were friends. Adrian nodded approvingly before his gaze slid toward Ivan, "Is there a problem here?"

"Nope, no problem. We are simply having a friendly conversation," Ivan responded with a cold tone, no smile.

Adrian placed a heavy hand on Shay's shoulder and squeezed. It was a possessive motion and, just like that, Shay understood what was happening.

As an older (and male) wolf, Adrian must've felt the need to follow his instincts and protect Shay from the random vampire. Friends or not, wolves tended to lean into pack hierarchy. Always.

Across from them, Ivan watched the exchange with a cool, almost analytical gaze, as if cataloguing everything they did.

"Well, sorry to interrupt, but we have to go find our dorms," Adrian said, his hand still firmly on Shay's shoulder as he started guiding her away, "We don't have much time before orientation."

Ivan stepped forward and threw the cigarette to the ground.

"Yes. Me too," he responded, "Let’s all walk together. The friendly way."

"Sure. Fantastic," Adrian muttered, clearly annoyed. But they all started walking together. And Shay somehow ended up in the middle.

With Adrian on one side and Ivan on the other, the space between them charged with weird electricity. Shay felt hyperaware of every step. Ivan's presence was cold and sharp at her right. Adrian's warm and solid at her left.

And Shay felt like a rope they were considering tugging from both ends.

"You know interactions across species are monitored for safety, right?" Adrian broke the silence, looking at Ivan over Shay's head, “Especially with the opposite gender.”

"I know a lot more than you," the vampire responded in a bored tone, turning his head to meet Adrian's eyes as well. "We are always being monitored here, kid. To the molecule, in ways you wouldn't even understand."

Shay knew that. The program was very open about the borderline invasive surveillance. She could also see the tiny cameras everywhere. Literally everywhere, capturing every move.

"Anyway. I'll see you at orientation, Hart. We will continue our friendly conversation there," Ivan stated before turning to the right, heading toward the vampire building, Shay assumed.

As soon as Ivan was out of sight, Adrian let out a relieved breath. His shoulders relaxed too.

"Never let a vampire get you anywhere alone," the guy said, giving Shay a sharp look of reprimand, "They say werewolf blood tastes way better than animal or human blood. You have to be careful with that guy, Hart, not fucking friendly. Being alone with him is dangerous."

Shay swallowed and nodded to appease the guy, but she knew already… she wouldn’t listen.