Chapter 9-Stay away

Chapter 9: 9-Stay away

"And if you don’t report... you’ll be punished."

Maisa sighed. She had escaped one strict system only to enter another. Her thoughts drifted unwillingly back to the council chamber.

"What about the student council?"

Sapphire immediately looked serious. "What about them?"

Maisa tried to sound casual. "They seem important, " She carefully chose her words.

Sapphire laughed in amusement. "Important?" She found the understatement funny. "They practically run student life."

She leaned forward and whispered, "My advice? Stay away from them."

Maisa’s heart skipped. "I wasn’t planning to get involved."

"Good."

Sapphire nodded firmly. "Princess Varitreya barely notices ordinary students. If she does...it’s usually bad."

Maisa gulped. She had already caught the princess’s attention. Worse, she awakened a bond with her.

"And Addessa?" She hoped it wasn’t as bad as she imagined.

"You definitely don’t want her attention. She hates incompetence and redbloods. She believes we shouldn’t exist," Sapphire sighed. "As far as I heard, her mother is advocate for redbloods to be removed as part of society. She wants the vampire community to host only natural born vampires... no space for turned vampires like us in the world she’s fighting to build," her heart tightened.

Maisa silently swallowed. That meant death for her and other turned redbloods. She kept the warning in her heart, don’t mess with Addessa Challan.

"Lumi spends more time buried in books than talking to people so she’s mostly harmless until personally provoked."

"And Zolani?" Maisa felt her heart draw near. She wanted to hear positive praise on the only vampire in the council who looked at her with kindness.

Sapphire smiled. "She’s the nicest but she’s always with the others. So if you avoid the council...you avoid all four."

Maisa forced a smile. "If only it were that easy..."

"What?"

"Nothing," she quickly denied.

She couldn’t exactly explain that fate itself had decided otherwise. It had linked her to all four so even though she’d love to take Sapphire’s advice, it wasn’t much of a choice on her part.

Sapphire stood and pointed toward Maisa’s folded uniform. "Oh, one more thing. The uniforms."

Maisa looked down. "What about them?"

"Never wear another bloodline’s colors," she said sounding unusually serious. "It’s forbidden."

"Whitebloods wear white, blackbloods wear black, bluebloods wear blue, mixedbloods wear crimson and redbloods wear dark red. It’s how everyone identifies rank immediately."

"So..."

"If someone puts on another bloodline’s uniform... it’s considered impersonation. And that is a serious offense."

Maisa nodded carefully. "I’ll remember that. Thank you for the warning."

Sapphire smiled again. "Good. You’ll find your way just fine if you follow the rules and avoid drawing attention from higher ranking bloods."

She climbed into bed before pulling the blankets over herself. "We have Professor Primrose first thing tonight. Trust me, you don’t want to be late to her class. She’s terrifying."

Maisa couldn’t help smiling. "I’ll keep that in mind."

Sapphire yawned. "Get some sleep. The academy only gets more overwhelming from here."

Within minutes, Sapphire’s breathing steadied. She was asleep, deep in slumber.

Maisa remained awake. The darkness surrounding the room felt unnatural. Her body insisted this was the middle of the night. Yet outside, the sun was rising.

Birds began singing and she imagined people somewhere beyond the academy walls were waking to begin their day and she was expected to sleep through it.

She lay down slowly. The bed was softer than she expected. She stared at the ceiling as sleep refused to come to her.

Everything was too strange. It was all too new and too terrifying. Eventually, she closed her eyes anyway. The moment she did, warmth blossomed beneath her collarbone.

The flower above her heart glowed through her skin. One petal and then another before all four glowed in each bloods colour. A gentle pulse spread through her entire body.

Unlike before, she didn’t just sense their existence. She felt them. Varitreya, her heartbeat was slow and composed, like the steady rhythm of a queen refusing to surrender to panic that was a redblood mate.

Addessa’s beat was faster, sharper, carrying restrained frustration that burned like banked fire. Probably fueled from her upbringing thar not only taught her to hate humans but turned vampires too.

Lumi’s heartbeat fluttered unevenly, accompanied by restless curiosity, as if her mind refused to stop searching for answers and her heart passionately fueled the flames of her interest. Keeping her glued to books for hours and hours.

And Zolani, her heartbeat was calm and gently comforting enough that Maisa unconsciously relaxed.

The room around her dissolved into darkness. The glowing flower pulled her deeper. Then, she saw them.

The four didnt stand like strangers seated across a council chamber. They were standing beneath an endless moon in a field of luminous flowers.

They stood facing away from one another, each surrounded by the color of her blood. Thin threads of glowing light stretched from each of their hearts.

The threads drifted across the dream until they all met in one place, her. Maisa looked down. The four lights had woven themselves into the flower blooming over her heart.

It pulsed once. The four vampires turned toward her at the same time. Before any of them could speak, the dream shattered into darkness.

In different corners within Veris Academy, four other vampires were uneasily, each unknowingly dreaming of the same brown-haired redblood whose heartbeat had awakened their own whether they were in bed or not.

"I can’t believe the bond already affects me this much," Varitreya complained.

She sat in the company of both her wardens who were also her confidants. Addessa Challan and Medora Stardust.

"What bond?" Medora asked.

Varitreya and Addessa shared a look. A dangerous look that expressed the awakened secret they each held in their awakendd hearts.

That one look was enough for them to have an understanding that they were not to speak of the bond to others.

"I have a meeting with the Queen later this week. Are all the arrangements ready, Medora," Varitreya changed the subject.

Medora frowned for a breath then composed herself. "No one informed me..."

"I am informing you now. Go and get everything ready."

Medora’s gaze drifted over to Addessa. She hoped Addessa would join her and offer a hand to hasten the pace of the work but the blackblood didn’t return her gaze, let alone volunteer to her.

"What are you waiting for?"

"I am leaving," she folded her thumb and pinky finger before placing the remaining three fingers over her heart and bowing politely. "Excuse me, your royal highness."

After she left, Varitreya was able to speak more freely to the one vampire who understood. She lifted the fabric of her jacket and exposed her wrist to Addessa.

"This appeared earlier. A mark of four. You, Lumi, Zolani and that thing..." she couldn’t bring herself to name Maisa. "I can feel all four of you like you are a part of me.. and just now, the bond pulled me into a daydream. It’s unbelievable."

Addessa lifted her school jacket and the shirt underneath, her mark had appeared near her waist. It carried the mark of the four and just as Varitreya felt, she felt it too and even had the strange dream of being out in the fields.

"I have it too. And I hate it just as much as you do."

"We must find a way to get rid of them before they are discovered. At this point I think that the others have one too, make sure they know not to speak a word of it to anyone," she ordered.

"Your wish, is my command, your royal highness," Addessa happily accepted the order. "I’ll start with that redblood."