The walk to Guardian Brooks' Vampire 101 lesson was relatively eventful with Els gushing with excitement. When we actually got to the lesson, silence dawned on the class and everyone turned to stare at me."Ah, so little miss runaway has finally decided to grace our lesson." Guardian Brooks commented. Although his words weren't very nice and seemed very sarcastic, there was something in his tone that seemed different. His tone certainly didn't seem to match with his choice of words. It was like he was putting on some kind of a sarcastic front without meaning to or something. This certainly wasn't the same stiff and demonic Guardian Brooks that I remembered."Pleasure to see you too, sir." I replied with a similar tone of voice to match his."You seem to be the hero of the class, Valentine. You must've been prepared for the outside world.""Sir, I've lived in the outside world for the past six years, it's nothing alien to me." I retorted as politely as I could but it was hard."Well th
From then until the end of training, I made sure that I wasn't alone with Eric again. After what happened during our little spar, I was still somewhat confused about what had really happened back there. There was no reason why I should've lost that fight. Perhaps it was the constant fights that I'd had recently with the Strigoi and I hadn't fully recovered my body's strength yet. That must've been it. That would explain why my body seemed to be moving a little slower than usual.When the lesson ended, it was no surprise when Eric strolled towards me. What I was not expecting was such an intense stare from him. It was a gaze that seemed to hold a promise of a continuum of what had nearly happened between us had Tom not interrupted us. I pushed down the surprise that I felt and simply gave him a cheeky smile."Well it sure looks like someone got a little over excited during our lesson." I winked playfully at him."What can I say? Attractive girls have that effect on me," he shrugged."Y
Eric took my advice and headed for the feeders. The game had ended with a draw and everyone headed for lunch. I easily found my usual table and sat down beside Ingrid. Els wasted no time in asking questions."What happened? I thought you were hooking up with Eric?""I was and I already have. He's gone to the feeders." I told her."So? What happened?" Roxy asked curiously. "Are you guys together yet?""Apparently so." I nodded."Apparently?""Well we came to an understanding that we'll try it for a while and see how it goes. It is only my second week after all so I'm not really all that sure about committing just yet.""But you are going out." Ingrid asked."Yes.""Congratulations!" the three girls squealed and threw their hands up in the air in delight."What's the cheer about?" Dan asked curiously as he sat at the table. Soon the other three royals joined him."Don't you guys have to feed?" I arched my brows at them."Already done." Jacks shrugged."So what was with the commotion?" Q
The loud chatter quietened as Aunty Jules led me through the crowd of people which had split down the middle like Moses and the Red Sea. People fell silent or resorted to using low whispers instead as I walked past them. Somewhere in the crowd I noticed the girls and I noticed the encouraging smiles that they were giving me. Their smiles and encouragement made me feel more confident and more reassured that this was going to be fine.Yes, there was a large crowd, but technically, all I had to do was just lie there while the tattoo artist etched some symbols onto the base of my neck, right? That was all that I had to do, right? The more I tried to remember what the ceremony was actually like from the memory of having attended one once when I was much, much younger, the more the images of the event that day escaped me. No matter how hard I tried to remember that day, I just couldn't.I had to guess that it was because it was incredibly boring that I couldn't actually remember much about
I flinched at the fury that was in Maria's voice. The woman was usually very calm and very rarely raised her voice but she sure was terrifying when she was genuinely angry about something. This occasion was certainly one of them and I knew exactly why she was so angry. Someone had spilled the beans and told her the truth.'Skylar' had been a very secretive name that only Maria had ever used. Kalani meant 'sky' and I wasn't entirely sure how it had happened but instead of calling me 'Kalani', 'Little Sky' or 'Kai', Maria had become adapted in calling me 'Skylar'. It was a very individual name between Maria and I so I wasn't all that concerned about anyone else being able to work out who she was talking about from that shout. What I was concerned about was getting out of this room alive if Maria found out that I was in here.I could hear Aunty Jules bolting out of her chair and warned Maria to keep her voice down. The main door shut firmly and I could hear shuffling in the other room so
He barely managed to block my punch and surprise flashed through his eyes as he stumbled sideways a few paces from the impact of my next attack which was a roundhouse kick. I stared at him for few moments in fury when I realised that he wasn't going to defend himself anymore from my attacks and somehow that just made me even angrier.The next attack sent him flying out of the door just as Rosette and Ali walked in and Ali barely had enough time to tug Rosette out of harm's way. Crispin crumbled against the wall and he slowly picked himself back up. There was a gaze in his eyes. A gaze that I couldn't stand to see.It was a gleam that spoke of volumes of duty. The duty of letting me do what I wanted because of who I was, because I was the Ivashkov Princess. In terms of titles, Crispin was nothing but a mere guard and it seemed that in his eyes, I could beat him to a complete pulp and he wouldn't even contemplate on defending himself because I was of higher status than he was."This! Th
"You really are back…" he whispered and buried his face into the crook of my neck.His arms wrapped around me tightly and I was pulled into an almost suffocating hug. I squealed in response as I was squashed against him and for several moments, I simply sat there awkwardly, waiting for him to pull away.Eventually, he did and he held me at arm's length so that he could inspect me again."Ali, it's been a whole week already…""I know, little sky. I know. But that doesn't make this any easier to accept," he sighed. "You're the same person, but at the same time, I feel like I don't know who you are. I've missed out on so much. I've missed out on you growing up, Kalster and that makes things difficult. Sometimes, I don't know how I should act or behave. I still feel like you're the same kid from back then and I just react based on what I remember of you, but you're much stronger than that now, aren't you? Much, much stronger.""I'm sorry for changing, Ali.""Don't be. It's not your fault.
"My… my house?" I choked out."Yes, little sky, your house." Ali nodded hesitantly and I could tell that he was watching me as my expression faltered and crumbled to complete distress.Memories of six years ago flooded my mind instantly and I knew exactly what he had meant. He had meant that we could use the house that I used to live in. The house that I used to live in with my now deceased parents. If I went back there, I knew that memories of how life used to be back then would consume me and I would probably break down into a total mess the same way that I had done on the first day that I was back at the Academy after having had the talk with Martin in his office.I wasn't sure if I could handle another break down again so soon. I hadn't even considered the idea, the possibility, that they had kept my parents' house empty. I would have thought that after such a long time they would have remodelled it to cater for other visitors or royals in this school. I hadn't once thought about