Chapter 5-The awakening

Chapter 5: 5-The awakening

When the world started moving again, the first thing Maisa felt was her heart. Except that it shouldn’t have been possible by any law or logic she knew of.

She didn’t have a heartbeat. At least not a real one since she woke up in that wooden hut. She had felt the silence inside her chest. A cold emptiness of a vampire’s dead heart.

But now, a sudden overwhelming pain pricked he heart. Her hand flew to her chest. Something was happening. She couldn’t understand if it was part of the transformation to being a vampire or something else.

A lethal sound filled the room. A heartbeat sounded loudly. It was strong and heightened. Her eyes widened with shock. Even though it was her first day being a vampire, she had the basics from her training as a hunter.

’No,’ she exclaimed inwardly. That wasn’t possible! She looked around desperately. Hoping for assistance or assurance that she wasn’t a freak of a vampire.

The four vampires, members of the council, were frozen in place. It wasn’t because they were confused but because they felt it too.

The whiteblood princess at the table had gone completely still. The expression she wore, the one of control and superiority, had cracked.

Her eyes widened slightly. For the first time in her entire existence, something had broken through her perfect mask.

Her hand slowly moved toward her chest. There where her heart had been still and unbeating for so long, she heard it. A real heartbeat.

Her dead heart was alive, and it terrified her because she knew what it meant. The ancient laws, the impossible bond. The one thing even the strongest vampires could not control. A mate.

"No..." The word left her lips. It was barely audible. Plain and utter denial crossed her face.

The authority in her eyes didn’t fade away. Her gaze was enough to send shivers down Maisa’s skin. It made her feel like she wasn’t even worth the dust on her shoes, let alone the grand chance to be her mate.

Maisa’s breath caught.

The blackblood beside her looked just as shaken. The confident, arrogant expression she always wore vanished instantly.

Her fingers gripped the table. Hard enough that the wood cracked. She stared at Maisa like she was trying to understand how the universe had betrayed her.

A human-born vampire. A redblood with no background or future was to be a stranger in the halls whose name she’ll forget after informing her of the rules but to be her mate? That was unacceptable!

Her heart was beating fast. Had it been anyone else who awakendd her heart, she would be happy and pleased, but her, she hated it.

She hated that warmth spreading through her chest. She hated that her instincts immediately wanted to protect someone she had never met. She hated that the first emotion she had ever felt was attached to the person she was supposed to despise. Someone beneath her.

Maisa felt her hateful gaze, it burnt her skin. She tried to ignore it but with vampire emotions that were a hundred times more than that of a human, she didn’t know how.

The blueblood was the next to react. Unlike the others, she looked terrified for a different reason. She understood the zing perfectly. She knew the legends around a vampire’s heart coming alive.

Her mind was already searching through every book she had read. Every record, every impossible story, but none of them explained what she was happening in the room.

Her eyes softened, more with wonder than disgust. "You..." Her voice was barely a whisper. "What are you?"

Her gaze was like that of a person seeing an alien. It was curious and bright as though she couldn’t wait to tear Maisa open to find out what was breath her turned redblood exterior.

Maisa couldn’t answer her question because she didn’t know. Was she a hunter still? Part of the human world? Or a vampire with no more ties to the human world? She had no idea.

The mixedblood was the last to react. The one who had been watching silently the whole time while feeling a little overlooked. She was the only one whose eyes held the least judgment.

The moment their gazes locked, her expression changed. Her entire body relaxed like something inside her had finally found where it belonged, a kindred spirit in the new vampire’s eyes.

She stepped forward without realizing it. She quickly stopped herself because she was afraid. She wasn’t afraid of Maisa or herself but of the other vampires in the room and how they’d view her if she embraced Maisa to welcome her.

Maisa was revealed to find at least one vampire among the four who didn’t hate her outright.

The room became completely silent. Five vampires had their hearts awakened at the same time. It was a bond that should not exist. It was unheard of, a mate bond that picked the best and the brightest of each existing bloodline and tied them together.

Maisa’s chest rose and fell quickly. She wanted to run and disappear. That wasn’t supposed to happen on her first day. It defeated her whole goal of being invisible until she figured things out.

She was supposed to keep her head down and pretend to be a normal redblood. She was supposed to survive until she found a solution to her nightmare of a situation.

Maisa wasn’t supposed to become connected to the most powerful students in the academy. That was far from the plan and a real inconvenience if she intended to keep herself out of any spotlight.

The whiteblood princess slowly stood. Her eyes never left Maisa’s frame, "What is your name?"

Maisa swallowed. Her real name sat on her tongue. But it had now reduced to a dangerous secret. A name that could get her killed if she dared to say it.

She forced herself to speak. She had a feeling that the whiteblood princess wasn’t one to be ignored or refused. "Maisa."

Just Maisa, that all she said. Going deeper in such a heated room, she feared slipping up and digging her own grave.

At her current stare and level, she wasn’t a single match against any of the vampires present. Not even Kriza, all of them could kill her in a heartbeat or a twinkle of an eye and make their nails at the same time.

Maisa carried her aunt’s warning in her heart and didn’t dare show more weakness on her face. The vampires would feed on it and make her rue the day she ever paraded as one of them.

The princess stared at her, and the bond between them pulsed again. She closed her eyes, hoping the feeling would vanish, but it lingered. It wasn’t going away.

Kriza glanced at the student council, and back at Maisa, being an outsider in the bond, she hadn’t felt the change that took place right under her nose. She was stuck wondering why the tension in the room peaked so suddenly.

But she didn’t voice her concern. It wasn’t her place, and being a blueblood nobody, she knew better than to overstep.

Four dead hearts had awakened inside the prestigious academy, and none of them knew yet... that the vampire who had awakened them was the daughter of the family they hated most.