Blood and Beasts (9 page)

Busily, she began doing something at
her desk, clearly indicating that their conversation was over. Seph looked
around cautiously, wondering what people were thinking about her. Rodney had
left her side. Glancing at the door, she saw him and Linda waiting for her,
beckoning for the young vampire to hurry up.

“C
’
mon, Seph. What class do you have next?” Linda asked,
pulling her forward.

She grinned and hurried out the room
with them. Rodney was as cheery as ever. They walked down the hallway together,
and she felt… she felt like she had made some friends, actual friends… This was
odd. She had not expected people to warm up to her weirdness this fast. Then
again, everybody was kind of weird here, in their own way, of course. Had she
finally found a place that she fit in?

“You have Magical Lit next?” Linda
asked, looking at the girl
’
s schedule.

“Magical Lit? Good luck with that.
Madam Powers is real nice to look at, but she
’
s a bitch,” Rodney commented, and several passing
werewolf girls glared at him, golden eyes vicious. “I meant the other kinda
bitch, girls. You
’
re nice bitches,” he called to them,
but they simply shot daggers at him with their eyes before they rounded a
curve.

Seph and Linda were shaking with
laughter.

“I think you should watch your
choice of words around here, Rodney,” Seph commented, still giggling a little.

“
Hey, don’
t be soundin
’
like a veteran here, Seph. This is still your first
day. I
’
m a werewolf. I can use the word
bitch when referring to anyone I want. You, on the other hand, better watch
your use of it,” he said with that lopsided grin of his, and she just rolled
her eyes at him good-naturedly.

“Especially around Francesca!” Linda
gasped out, laughing. “She hates it when people use the word bitch because it
does kind of describe what she is, a female dog… wolf… werewolf,” Linda
concluded, and Seph suddenly stopped their little group, pulling them to the
side of the bustling Red Hall.

“Francesca… She
’
s been here two months?” She asked them, and they both
nodded solemnly, realizing that they had breached a sensitive subject. “She
told me she had been living in the woods… Why would she lie to me?” She
murmured, intense feelings crashing through her mind like giant tidal waves,
overwhelming her.

“Seph, you
’
re killing me,” a familiar voice called in passing, and
she looked up to see Phin holding his head as he walked by with the tall, dark,
vampire girl, Sarabi?

No one else realized the context of
what he meant, but she did. She may be able to block him from her direct
thoughts, but she would never be able to block him completely. He would always
be able to sense her emotions, and he could sense the tumultuous ones she was
feeling right now. Well, he should have thought of that before taking her
blood.

“
You can
’
t reveal that you go to Monster Academy, even to a
fellow being, until they
’
ve been formerly admitted or have
previously attended the school or are an adult. She knew you hadn
’
t been to the school but recognized
you as a creature of the night, like everyone else here. She couldn
’
t tell you that she was going to
this school even if she had wanted to. It
’
s
part of attendance here. You signed some type of contract the moment you walked
through that archway, which is inscribed with some type of contract words. I
dunno how it all works,” Linda explained rapidly. “Where has Abernathy been all
day…” she murmured suddenly, scouring the hallway.

“Abernathy?” Seph started to ask
when the warning bell rang, informing them that they had a minute until classes
started once again.

“What! How does this always
happen?!” Linda exclaimed, darting off to their right.

Rodney was still beside her.

“She
’
s a bit excitable,” he said with a shrug before eyeing
the clock closest to them. “But I need to get going too. Don
’
t wanna be late for Mermish lessons.
Your next class is right in front of you, by the way,” he called, sprinting
down the hall in the opposite direction of Linda.

Seph looked to her right, where
Linda had disappeared, and then to her left, at Rodney
’
s receding back. So, she had made two friends at this
school, but neither of them was in her next class. She sighed, staring at the
door with the black, gilded number 013 emblazoning its oxblood exterior. Time
to go to class, she thought wearily, before stepping forward and opening the
door to her third class.

“Out of my way, newbie,” she was
nearly shoved to the marble floor as Ruby pushed past her and took the last
seat in the back.

Seph glared daggers at her but
decided not to get into another fight with her. Ruby had obtained that seat
fair and square. They had no reason to quarrel. Seph was big enough to admit
that, unlike Ruby earlier. Back in HU, she had unfairly tried to take Seph
’
s seat. She would gracefully accept
her defeat and take a seat in the front, but in the far right corner, closest
to the door, quick escape route. She slid into the seat just as the bell rang,
announcing the commencement of third period classes, held by a teacher with a
mean streak.

Her new friends … Linda seemed nice
enough, down to earth. Then her boyfriend, Stefan… he seemed really different
from Linda, but then again, she didn
’
t
really know Linda that well. Linda obviously had a wild side to her that Seph
had not yet discovered. Rodney was funny and nice. Cute too. She just did not
see that much there. He was kind and all, but she saw no depth in him. He
seemed to use humor a lot, a regular comedian. Then again, she didn
’
t know him that well either.

“I see we have a new student today,
and I don
’
t think her mind is on task,” a
crisp voice cut through her milling thoughts, and Seph flushed a little at being
caught inattentive.

She looked up sharply to see a
pretty witch towering over her. Her olive-toned skin matched perfectly with her
black hair, which fell around her shoulders in loose curls. Her hazel eyes were
penetrating and sharp, like a hawk
’
s. She was an intimidating, tall
woman, becoming even taller as she neared Seph
’
s desk, which had to be right up front. Seph scoured
the minds around her, searching them to see if the teacher had asked a question
or something. Apparently she hadn
’
t. In fact, the long-haired, Asian
girl beside her was just as confused as she was at what task the teacher was
referring to. Then again, she had not been thinking about the class either. She
had been thinking about Francesca, and how bad she had looked in the infirmary.
She knew Francesca?

“Are you there, Miss Black?” The
teacher was snapping her back to reality, again.

Seph was getting the impression that
Madam Powers did not like her particularly. Well, Seph did not like Madam
Powers already. She looked at the teacher coolly, keeping her face carefully
blank.

“Yes?” She responded coolly, trying
hard to not snarl through her teeth at the irritating woman, her temper rising
hot and fierce in her chest.

“Miss Black, tell me, what did the
Amazon women do to themselves in order to shoot their arrows more accurately?”
She raised a carefully groomed eyebrow at Seph, awaiting the answer in a timely
fashion as her heel tapped like a woodpecker.

Tap, tap, tap.
The teacher was thinking it clearly
in her mind, and she was also suspecting Seph of telepathic powers. This was
her little test of it. Well, Seph already knew that answer anyway. She had
studied the Amazons on the house computer at one point. It had been one of
those days where she just surfed through the Internet, hopping from site to
site, checking out whatever her random mind wanted to.

“They cut off their right breasts in
order to be able to pull the arrow back better,” she replied smartly, gazing
directly into the teacher
’
s eyes.

“And how do you know that, Miss Black?”
She asked with a sneer, and Seph wondered what on earth she had done to offend
this teacher.

“The Internet,” she responded
smoothly, and there were several chortles around the classroom, which the
teacher silenced with a single, sweeping glare.

“Well, we must not always trust the
Internet now, Miss Black,” she turned her back to her and walked towards the
center front of the classroom after chiding her.

Seph just shook her head. Clearly,
this teacher didn
’
t like her for some reason.
Whatever… She would live. Suddenly, a wadded paper ball hit in the back of the
head and bounced away. She whirled around in her desk to look at the students
surrounding her, and she saw Ruby and the werewolf guy she had been talking to
in their HU class laughing quietly to themselves. She sent them a well-placed
glare. He thought he was so cool with his little brown fohawk, tinted green.
Only certain people could pull that look off, and he was not one of them. As
for Ruby, she was a coldhearted-

“Is Mr. Oglesby engrossing your
attention, Miss Black?” Seph faced forward as she realized that, once again,
Madam Powers was towering in front of her desk. “Do you think he
’
ll return your affections?” She
remarked with a smirk, and several little laughs spread around the classroom.

 The long-haired girl beside her was
not joining in. Apparently, she didn
’
t
think it was that funny either. Seph felt like she had at least one ally in the
classroom. That was better than none, to be an optimist.

“Oh, Mr. Oglesby may engross her
attention, Madam Powers, but never the other way around,” Ruby called up from
the back as more students laughed now.

“Yea, no offense or nothin
’
ta the whole… get along wit
’
each otha
’
s differences or whateva thang,” he twanged in a deep
Southern accent. “
But
I don’
t dig on no
bloodsuckas,” he finished, smirking and leering at her simultaneously.

Seph opened her mouth to retort, but
Madam Powers crisply cut her off.

“Do not even think about
interrupting my classroom, Miss Black, with your banter,” she remarked sharply,
walking back to the front of the class to continue her lecture on a text of the
Amazons.

Seph glared at the teacher. She was
a bitch. Huh? What do you know? Bitch rhymed with witch. How nice. She turned
back to glare at Ruby and Oglesby, and he twiddled his fingers at her
annoyingly. She roamed his mind to locate his first name… Ian.

No worries, Ian. I wouldn
’
t touch a Southern dog like you with
a ten foot pole
,
she turned back to the front after catching Oglesby
’
s sudden look of surprise. His eyes scanned the
classroom, but he knew who had spoken to him, in his mind. Perfect. Give them
something good to talk about. 

She heard whispers from the back
with her new, hypersensitive ears and knew that he was informing Ruby of what
he had just heard. She quietly listened in on Ruby
’
s thoughts while all the time pretending to pay
attention to Madam Powers. Ruby thought that maybe Ian had just been hearing
things or maybe this new, annoying vampire had more depths than she thought.
There had been the time in HU, when she thought she heard the vampire in her
head than too. Either way, she was going to keep her eye on that evil, little
vamp. She was a challenge and a problem to the power she had established at
this school. She may soon need to be dealt with…

Bring it on,
Seph thought to herself when she
felt a slight shaking of her arm. Blinking several times, she turned her head
to see that the long-haired Asian girl was talking to her. She was introducing
herself. What had she just said?

“Hey? You there?” The girl laughed
cheerily, already small brown eyes disappearing into little more than slits.

“Oh ya, sorry. I just… zoned out,”
she remarked smoothly, and the girl smiled again, the apples of her cheeks
crinkling her eyes.

“Oh ya. I do that too sometimes,” she
said happily, and Seph nodded. “I was just introducing myself. I
’
m Abernathy. Abernathy Tran,” she
tapped her fingertips to her lips and then her forehead.

Was she Arabic or something? She
looked Asian though. Vietnamese or Chinese, maybe.

“Persephone Black, but everybody
calls me Seph,” she responded, attempting to mimic the lip to forehead movement
but failing miserably.

Abernathy laughed good-naturedly.

“That
’
s how a wizard greets someone. We adopt many rituals of
human religions. You probably recognize that as Islamic. It
’
s just one of our many traditions.
When vampires greet, and I
’
ve only seen this a few times
because there really aren
’
t that many vampires here, they grip
forearms, like this,” she showed Seph, grabbing her forearm and making Seph
grip her forearm.

“How do werewolves greet?” She asked
curiously.

“Oh, that
’
s easy,” she said, smiling brightly. “They just expose
their neck to each other, a mark of respect.” She showed her, brushing aside
her hair to reveal the side of her neck to Seph, and her eyes followed the girl
’
s jugular vein raptly.

“Miss Tran, you are not a werewolf.
Wishful thinking?” Madam Powers remarked coldly, attacking the only person who
had tried to befriend Seph in the entire classroom, further ensuring that Seph
would be viewed as a pariah.

“No, ma
’
am. I was just explaining to Seph about the different
traditions here with the different species. You stated that she seemed to be
interested with Ian over there, and he
’
s
a werewolf. I was just showing her their way of greeting each other. In case
she got confused,” Abernathy grinned happily, peppiness sparkling in the drab
classroom.

“Right…” Madam Powers said no more
on the matter, but she watched Seph and Abernathy out of the corner of her eye
carefully, just waiting for them to talk to each other so she could attack them
once again.

Always on the prowl…. She must be
bored,
Seph thought
to herself. Slowly, she inched her foot forward. She nudged Abernathy
’
s black heel, wondering to herself
why anyone would wear a shoe with a heel to school. Abernathy shot her a
confused glance and opened her mouth to speak, but Seph just shook her head.
Madam Powers was watching, hazel eyes glimmering with anticipation.

Let
’
s keep talking this way,
she suggested and saw Abernathy do the
same little jump Oglesby had done earlier. She also noticed, with displeasure,
that Ruby saw this also. So she was aware that Seph probably had some
telepathic powers in her, some advanced telepathic powers… Oh well… she lost an
element of surprise, but she could still catch her off guard. She and Ruby may
be enemies, but it was not like they were in a full-fledged war… yet.

Interesting thought. I see that you
and Ruby have met before,
Abernathy commented in her light tone, and Seph realized too late that the
connection she had opened between them had also opened her every passing
thought to Abernathy and vice versa, if she bothered to listen.

Ya, we have. I also know a friend of
yours. Linda? My first two classes were with her, and Rodney was with us in the
last class. They both seemed to hang out a lot. She was looking for you,
Seph said, watching the teacher
with a blank face so that she had no idea that the two girls were having a
conversation to themselves.

Ya, I was in the infirmary with our
other friend, Francesca. Have you met her?
Before Seph could stop them, old memories of Francesca
played through her mind. Like an old movie reel, disconnected images flickered
through their shared minds. There was one of her and Francesca playing at the
shed, both much younger, playing wall ball while Nate hid in the shadows,
deciding whether to join them or not… They were a little older now, in her
cousin
’
s garage, holding each other
’
s hands while they got their
tattoos… Next, she and Francesca were facing off in the woods, Francesca in her
huge werewolf form… Then, the pair of them were standing together, side by side
in the rain, while authoritative persons exited a slick car… Linda was saying
how Francesca had been attending Monster Academy these past two months… The
vase flew to smash into the wall over Rodney
’
s head… Assailed with these memories, Seph finally
managed to pull her foot away from Abernathy
’
s, but it was too late.

Seph glanced over at the other girl
cautiously, and her small eyes were as wide as they could be, doleful even,
catching Seph
’
s tormented emotions as well.
Abernathy slowly inched her foot forward to touch Seph
’
s again and reopened their connection. She waited
patiently for Seph to dissipate her wall and allow the connection to flow.

I guess you do know her…
Abernathy murmured, and Seph nodded
in her head.

Ya…
I do. We
’
re best friends. Or…
we were
…
she drifted off and moved her foot away from Abernathy
’
s again, riding on the waves of her
roiling thoughts and emotions throughout the rest of the dull lesson.

“Tonight, I would like you to begin
reading Orson Shade
’s
essay,
Species
Blending or Lack Thereof
,
which will be in your rooms this afternoon. Class dismissed,” Madam Powers
’
s voice rapped out just as the bell
rang.