As Biology class continued, Oliver seemed bored and impatient, consistently fidgeting and nudging me.
"Let me see your class schedule." He whispered quietly so that only I heard him. I reached into my bag and pulled it out.
It read Biology 1, Geometry, History, Lunch, Intro to Physics, Remedial Reading and Grammar, and German 1. They had based most of the classes that we were taking off of the interview we'd had, but also told us that if anything was too hard that we could change out of that class. I found it interesting that I would be taking another language. Each class was 50 minutes, with a 5 minute break in between and lunch was thirty minutes long. 6th period ended exactly at 3 and we were given 10 minutes to go across the street to the training facility and get changed before we had 50 minutes of working out. I handed it to him and he handed me his own.
His read Biology 1, Physics, History, Lunch, German 1, Calculus, and Advanced Weapon and Warfare. We had two classes together plus lunch.
"Why are you in the weapons class?" I whispered to him.
"Jansen had me moved into it after we fought. He asked me about it when you went up to the room yesterday. I figured it'd be better than the English and Grammar class I was supposed to take. He told me he was going to have to pull some strings to get me permission to skip English." He whispered with a smug smile on his face.
I rolled my eyes. Part of me thought that a weapons class sounded cool, but I was fine with just the after school training that would be taking place from 3 to 4.
"Two classes?" He huffed disappointment, but kept a straight face.
"Oliver, you need to be paying attention and not talking." Ms. Aurn said softly. She had a pity look on her face, and Oliver rolled his eyes. When she was finally finished teaching, she checked her watch.
"Okay class, we have five minutes left so I'll let you talk. No homework tonight." A few people said yes, but mostly, people turned around to look at Oliver and I.
"So you two were slaves?" Someone asked, sounding almost sarcastic.
"Well." Oliver said, glancing at me. "Kira was, but I was a slave leader technically." He said. Everyone froze, knowing exactly what that meant. Just like the interrogators had done to him Saturday, many of the people shot him short dirty looks.
"D-did you say slave leader?" Ms. Aurn said in disbelief, cutting the silence. Oliver nodded his head, but ignored the stares. Some kids pulled out their phones, typing away on them. I hoped it wasn't about us, but I had a feeling that Oliver had the exact opposite wish as me.
Some kids started talking, but they left Oliver and I alone. When the bell rang however, the boy who'd been sitting on my right side gave me a nervous smile.
"Do you want me to help you to the next class."
"She's fine without your help." Oliver snapped from my left. The boy looked at him with a frown.
"I asked her, not you." He said.
"Oh, okay. Kira, do you need his help?" Oliver asked me, narrowing his eyes. I looked at the boy and shook my head.
"That's not fair. You can't scare her into answering the way you wanted her too." The boy argued.
"I didn't scare her into doing anything." Oliver answered, grabbing my arm and pulling me with him out of the room, not another glance to the boy. He walked me to my locker, where we put our new Biology books in, him sharing my locker with me out of laziness, and then took me to my next class. When we were in front of it, I suddenly realized that I was going to be alone in this class with more new people. I looked at him, actually feeling nervous.
What if I messed up? What if they were rude? Oh God, what if I messed up? I thought to myself, thinking that we'd be dead for sure if I screwed up our fake identities.
As if sensing my anxiety he smiled lightly.
"You'll be fine. Stop worrying." He said, glancing around the hallway, which was almost empty.
"I'm going to class now. Good luck." He said.
"Okay, good luck to you too." I said in a low voice. I turned and walked into the room, which was very similar to the last one. All of the eyes watched me as I walked to the desk where the teacher sat. The man was grading a paper and didn't notice my presence. I didn't say anything or make myself known, but waited. After a few moments he looked up, seeming startled as he saw me.
"Good heavens child. Clear your throat or something next time." He said, giving me a mildly agitated look. When I didn't say anything, he looked down at a different sheet of paper.
"It says here that you're the new student, Kira, right?" He asked. I nodded my head when he looked back at me.
"Well here's your book. I'm Mr. Finson. Find an empty seat." He said. I did as instructed and sat down next to a girl.
"Hi, I'm Laura." She said. I looked at her. She had short brown hair and hazel eyes. Aside from a few pimples, her complexion was very pretty. She had an easy smile on her face, but didn't seem to enthusiastic about me sitting next to her, almost nervous actually. I wondered what could make her nervous of me, but I smiled quickly back at her and waved.
"Do you talk?" Another girl in front of me asked rudely. This one was blond like me, but something seemed unnatural about her hair color. Her brown eyes looked me up and down; then she sneered at me.
"Um." I said, unsure what I'd done to set her off. She roller her eyes before turning around to her other friends.
"She's a freak." She muttered to her friends loud enough for me to hear, but quiet enough that I knew she was pretending that I wasn't supposed to. Her friends laughed aloud and shot me smirks.
"Ignore them. They're just a bitches." Laura said to me quietly. I smiled at her again.
"So did you guys hear that there's a new guy who's apparently smoking hot?" The lead bitch said to her friends. I tensed, knowing they were talking about Oliver. I couldn't blame them. He was drop dead gorgeous. Black hair that was always sexy and slightly messed up, crystal blue eyes that shined brightly, and a perfectly chiselled body that was toned and muscular. I sighed to myself slightly at the image of his bare chest this morning.
"You do know that the girl you just called a freak came here with him, right?" A guy asked, rolling his eyes at the annoying blond. She turned back to me and narrowed her eyes.
"Are you and him together?" She asked.
"What?" I asked in a fake-shaky voice.
"Like are you boyfriend and girlfriend? Or are you guys related?" She asked, as if it were obvious, which it sort of had been.
"No." I said, keeping my answers short.
"Good, it would've been harder trying to steal him from you."
She made me want to puke and slam her head into the desk at the same time. Thankfully the bell rang, making me come to my senses before I actually did something rash.
The teacher took role quickly, then stood up at the front of the room.
"Kira, would you like to come up here and introduce yourself? If not you don't have to." He said. I bit my lip and shook my head. He nodded and looked down, but the same boy who had pointed me out to Blondie spoke up.
"Oh come on. Go ahead and tell us something about yourself. Where are you from?" He asked. I felt eyes turn to me, but the teacher spoke up.
"Mr. Dawn, if she doesn't want to speak, she doesn't have too. Leave the girl alone." He said. After that he began to teach us class. By the time the bell rang I had a feeling this would be my most difficult subject, but I didn't want to simply give up. We had a worksheet with 20 problems on it for homework, so I quickly put it in the folder I'd deemed my Geometry folder and left the classroom. When I turned a corner, I ran into someone, sending papers flying.
"Fuck." A guy said, looking up with a fierce glare. As he saw me, he instantly stopped glaring, instead his blue eyes seemed surprised.
"I'm sorry." I said quietly, bending down to pick up the papers. When he didn't help me, I felt anger start to boil inside of me. When I stood up. he was smirking. He didn't make a move to take his papers back, but rather leaned against the lockers with a grin.
"That's okay, you can run into me any day. My name's Jake."
"Kira." I said, glancing away from him.
"So you're the new girl? It's nice to meet you." I nodded at him, a silent agreement with him.
"So how about to make up for hitting me you go on a date with me?" He asked, smirking. I had to admit he was pretty attractive, more so than Jansen, but he wasn't anything next to Oliver. He had blonde hair and cold, blue eyes. He was muscular and tall too.
"I, uh, no thank you." I said, holding his papers out to him. His smile dropped and a look of annoyance crossed his features.
"What? Do you think you're better than me?" He asked.
"No, of course not. I-I just don't know you." I said hesitantly. It was then that I noticed people looking at me and him with worry. A few were whispering. That was when I heard a voice say a name I recognized.
"Someone needs to get Jansen before he does something to the poor girl." A girl's voice said.
"Yeah, he's in Axel's group. I heard his anger problems are almost as bad as Axel's too." Another said. I had no idea what they were talking about.
I looked back at him, and saw a look of anger mixed with cockiness. I stepped away from him, and noticed he had still yet to take his papers.
"I don't think that's it. I bet you're just a snobby little bitch." He spat at me. I shook my head, feeling my nerves rack. I told myself that I was a Pure Blood Elf, but I wasn't allowed to use powers, so I was feeling vulnerable to this boy.
"Probably a slut too."
"A what?" I asked, confused. I'd heard the word before, but didn't know what it was.
"I can't tell if you're stupid, or you just think I am." He said, stepping toward me. I took another away from him.
"I have to go to class." I said, trying, yet again, to give him his papers. He didn't take them, but the glare in his eyes heated up.
"Yeah, you're definitely just stupid. Now listen closely, you don't get to go anywhere until I give you permission." He said. I didn't say anything, but looked at him with wide eyes. What was wrong with this human?
"If I were you, I'd apologize." Oliver said from behind me, startling me. Jake laughed and looked at him as he stepped up to my side.
"Yeah right. Unless you want to get your ass kicked I suggest you get lost." Jake said to Oliver, who only smirked and raised his hands in surrender. He knelt down and for some unknown reason began to untie his shoes.
"I'm sorry if I offended you. I wasn't trying to." I said quietly, leaning away from him.
"Sorry? I don't accept apologies." He said snatching his papers from my hands finally. I took a step back at his sudden movement. His arm shot out and grabbed my own -very tightly- and he cocked his head slightly to the side.
"Didn't I say you couldn't go anywhere until I said?"
"I-I just- I wasn't." I stuttered out. Somewhere inside my head thought about what kind of vampire he'd be. He'd probably be worse than Cedric. That was the moment Oliver stood up, still looking calm, but the smile was no longer there. He stepped behind Jake quickly wrapped his shoelace around Jake's neck and literally began to choke him. Jake immediately let go of me, dropped his papers, and tried to pull at the string that was cutting off his oxygen and blood flow to his head.
"I said you should apologize, but now I'm not sure I'll accept that." Oliver said in a frighteningly low tone. He pulled harder and made Jake lean slightly backwards, making Oliver's head higher than his own by even more.
"Oliver!" I heard Jansen shout. "What the hell are you doing? Stop now!"
"Relax Jansen, I have this under control." Oliver said, not taking his eyes off of the boy he was strangling.
"Oliver, no, you can't do this. Let him go!" Jansen said running over to us. Oliver ignored him.
"Now I suggest you act smartly and apologize." Oliver said, now looking terrifying. The entire hallway was dead silent.
"S-sorry." Jake barely choked out, face beat red and lips turning blue. I was speechless.
"Good." Oliver said, letting Jake go. He gasped and dropped to his knees, gasping for air. Oliver let his shoestring fall next to Jake.
"Retie my shoe, then I want you to give Kira a proper apology." He said, voice sounded cold. Jake surprisingly did as he was told and stood up.
"I'm sorry." He said, looking irritated. The area around his neck was already starting to bruise.
"For what?" Oliver said sharply.
"For being a jerk." Jake added, giving Oliver a sideways glance.
"Oliver." Jansen said through his teeth, looking pissed. "What happened? Somebody came and got me because Jake was getting made at Kira."
"This waste of space called Kira a bitch, stupid, and a slut. Then he put his filthy hand on her." Oliver said, still glaring at Jake.
"That doesn't mean you can choke him half to death!" Jansen shouted. Seeing he was getting nowhere with Oliver, he looked at me.
"Are you okay?" He asked. I shot Jake a nervous look and nodded my head.
"Okay." He said. People were still watching us, so he shouted for everyone to go back to class. I was surprised, yet not at the same time, that they all obeyed. Even Jake.
Oliver walked silently next to me to History.
"Are you sure you're okay?" He asked finally.
"Yeah I'm sure. And thanks for stepping in. That guy was surprisingly scary." I said.
"No problem. I wouldn't let anyone hurt you." He said.
"I think you may have went overboard." I said, giggling slightly.
"Nah, I did the perfect amount." He said back, laughing slightly. When we entered the classroom, there hushed whispers stopped instantly. I could take that as a sign that everyone knew what had happened.
The teacher wasn't in the room, so after a moment a silence, a couple of guys started to clap, and the rest of the class joined in.
"You are going to be a legend here. Nobody has EVER done something like that to anyone in Axel's group." A guy said with a grin. Oliver smirked.
"Axel might go after you though. Look out for a dude with black hair and a nose piercing." Another guy said.
"I'm not worried about him." Oliver said, taking a seat in the first row off to the left of the classroom against the wall, right next to the two guys that had started the clapping. I sat in the second row, right behind him.
"Kira, this is Robbie and Dakota. They were in my last hour and they're also friends with Jansen." Oliver said, introducing me. It was no wonder he'd sat next to them. Dakota was next to Oliver while Robbie was next to me.
"Are you okay? Jake has been known to be violent toward girls and guys alike. Axel too." Robbie said, looking concerned. I nodded my head.
"I'm fine."
"I can't believe they'd hit a girl." The girl sitting behind me said.
"Welcome to equality." Oliver said dryly, causing the two boys to laugh.
"Really?" She said, rolling her eyes. "That's just wrong to say. If you feel that way then why'd you help her?"
"If it were any other girl I wouldn't have stopped to help." Oliver said honestly.
"They were in the vampire world so they stick together." Dakota said with a grin.
"Guys are hopeless." She said, rolling her eyes. I noticed that me, Oliver, and the girl were all sitting sideways in or seats, backs against the wall and feet in the isle. "I'm Dana." She said to me. She seemed nice. Her ginger hair was pulled into a ponytail and her face with sprinkled with freckles. To top off her look, she had bright blue eyes.
"Kira." I shook her outstretched hand.
"Don't mind those two idiots. They actually kicked two girls out of their seats so you guys could sit there." Dana said, rolling her eyes.
"That's okay though, they were annoying." She said, looking back at the Blondie from my last hour and one of the girls she'd been with. I was surprised to find her glaring at me from across the room.
"She's rude." I said, mostly to myself.
"Bitch more like. Most everyone hates her guts."
"Did she do something to you?" Oliver asked me, eyes narrowing at me.
"Uh, no I guess not. She was just mean and called me a freak. Then she said something about being happy that she didn't have to steal you away from me because we aren't together." I said with a frown.
"Dang, that's the most I've heard you say all day and I had the first two classes with you and I saw the entire thing with Jake." A boy that was behind Robbie said. He was sitting next to Dana. I recognized him as the guy who had tried to get me to talk about myself. I looked down and shrugged.
"I'm Sawyer." He said.
"Hi." I said, a little quieter.
"Why are you so quiet?" He asked, giving me a weird look.
"None of your business." Oliver snapped at him. He only held his hands up. Sawyer seemed nice enough, just blunt. It was obvious he didn't understand why anyone would be nervous around others because as we sat there talking for several minutes -me just listening- he talked a lot and kept asking me to talk too. Oliver seemed okay with him though.
Finally, almost ten minutes after the bell, a teacher hurried in with stack of papers in his arms and a coffee cup.
"Sorry, the printer had some issues, then I spilled my damn coffee and got called to a short meeting with Fight because apparently Jake did something again. Although it's said he got his ass handed to him." He laughed, desperately looking for something on his desk. Some of the students giggled at their teacher. He seemed pretty cool to me so far, already very informal and relaxed. He was young for a teacher and was more attractive then the majority of guys in this entire city.
"Alright class, open your books to page 163. We are going to talk about the American Revolutionary War briefly over the next week." He said, grabbing his own book and going up to the podium in front of the room.
"Professor Carrol, aren't you going to introduce the new students?" Blondie asked from the other side of the room. "I'm sure we'd all like to know more about them."
The teacher looked up in surprise. "That's this hour?" He asked, eyes scanning the room until he saw me and Oliver.
"I'm sorry, I thought I had you both next hour. You're the fellow who gave Jake that awful bruising, huh?" He asked Oliver. It was obvious he was trying not to laugh. Oliver shrugged.
"Well how about you two come up and and give a proper introduction." He said. "By the way I'm Professor Harvey Carrol and I work for the school, but I'm also a high ranking officer in Fight." He said, giving us a little information about himself.
"You wouldn't happen to be the Harvey who's a level 13, would you?" Oliver asked as we walked toward him. Professor Carrol raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know you already knew about me." He said, answering Oliver's question. The fact that he was in Fight meant he probably already knew we were from the vampire territory.
"Jansen and Otto mentioned you yesterday." Oliver clarified. He simply nodded his head.
"I'm Oliver and this is Kira. We're from Ibitario, as most of you probably already know. I've already been pissed off once today, so I'd highly suggest not aggravating me again." Oliver said. "Any questions." He added, voice thick with sarcasm. The professor coughed, trying not to laugh.
"Why don't you tell us something a little more personal about yourself?" Blondie asked, smiling and twirling her hair.
"I'm not attracted to sluts." He said, looking her directly in the eyes. Everyone's mouths dropped open. I covered my own mouth, body shaking slightly as I tried not to laugh. The three guys we sat with started cracking up.
"Any other questions?" Oliver asked, raising an eyebrow and looking around the classroom. I was surprised that the professor said nothing to him.
"Are you calling me a slut?" The girl yelled as others started to laugh as well.
"No, but you're pretty much saying you're a slut by asking me that."
"You said that looking right at me!"
"You asked the question." He said, shrugging before sitting down. I followed him to the seats. Robbie and Dakota slapped his back in praise, and I'm sure that Sawyer would've too, but he was too far back.
"Serves her right." Dana said, making me giggle a little. The Professor sighed,
"I'd heard you were like this." He muttered quietly before looking at his book and starting the lesson. The rest of the class period went by quickly, and I easily deemed this one as my favorite so far, and it would probably be my overall favorite.
When the bell rang I happy because I had been hungry all hour.
"Oliver, can I talk to you and Kira?" Professor Carrol asked. The guys all started saying 'Ohhhh, you're in trouble now.' as they left, making me and Oliver both roll our eyes.
"I wanted to warn the both of you about a boy named Axel. He's very dangerous, but has a way of avoiding getting in trouble because he's never 'caught in the act.' I want you both to stay away from him." He said.
"Professor-" Oliver started, but he raised a hand.
"Call me Harvey when we aren't actually in class please."
"Harvey, I can handle myself. I've already been warned about him anyway." Oliver said.
"This is different. Axel has a group of about 6 guys that are all skilled. All of them are level 8 fighters except one who is a level 9. Axel himself is the youngest level 10 we've ever seen aside from myself. I get that you're probably a great fighter, but one verses 7 skilled fighters could end very bad for you. On top of that, we know that none of them have any issues putting a girl into the hospital. They have before, but we didn't get any solid proof of it." He said, now looking at me with a worried look.
Who was this Axel guy? I'd only ever known one Axel in my life, and he'd also been awful.
"Alright, I'll be on the lookout." Oliver said, still sounding reluctant. Harvey nodded his head, but held out his hand to shake. He shook Oliver's, but the moment his hand touched my own, a jolt busted through me as I came to realization.
Harvey was a vampire.
We went to my locker before going to lunch, but once we were a distance away from Harvey's room I spoke.
"Oliver." I whispered softly.
"I know." He said, completely calm. He looked down at me and gave e a look that said we'd be talking about it later.
We made it to the lunch room, and while people didn't stop talking as we walked in, I did start to hear our names floating around the room. We got our lunch and I hear someone shout Oliver's name. We both looked over to see Jansen waving at us, sitting with Robbie, Dakota, Sawyer, and even Dana. They were obviously a close group of friends. There were a couple of other people, one other girl and three guys, at the table who didn't look happy that Jansen was inviting us over, and I used my vampire hearing.
"Don't invite them! That guy was a slave leader." One hissed.
"Don't worry, they're both cool. Just don't hit on or insult Kira and you won't have a problem with him." Dakota said.
"He's actually funny, but don't let anything he says go to heart. He's also a sarcastic prick." Robbie added with a laugh.
"It's a good mix. He's cool." Sawyer commented. I glanced up at Oliver and saw a satisfied smirk, telling me that he was listening in on them as well. As we walked directly to the middle of the cafeteria, I knew there were a lot of people watching, but the hairs stood up on my neck and my nerves began to boil. When we made it to the table, I set my tray down and looked to my left toward the back of the cafeteria, knowing that whoever was staring at me from over there was the one causing my senses to be erupting.
I was met with a familiar pair of dark eyes.
My hands started to shake slightly.
He had a piercing on his ear and tattoos lining his arms while his short, black hair was sticking up, obviously not styled in any way.
Axel?
THE Axel?
Grahm's old slave?
Yes, it was. The boy who was had only been two years older than me, yet was always in charge on the few occasions that Cedric and Grahm would be away at the same time.
The same Axel who worshiped Cedric.
The same Axel who I even hid behind Cedric to escape on a few times. While he didn't hurt me that much, he scared me because he was completely unpredictable and there was always something far more unnerving about a human hurting me than a vampire. Now I was staring at the boy who I'd grown up around until Sam had taken me away.
A lot of questions flooded my head, like how was he here and why? How could a coincidence like this even happen?
But two questions had an unknown answers that worried me most: When was he turned into a vampire and what was he planning.
Why were there two vampires, aside from Oliver and I, here in the D.C. Area?
"Bella." I saw he mouth say, although I didn't hear it past the sound of my blood rushing in my head. I watched as he stood up, eyes wide and staring at me in shock. I couldn't seem to look away as he smirked and slowly took a step my way, but when someone said my name, I snapped out of my daze and looked toward the exit, which was in the opposite direction as Axel.
I didn't look back as I ran like hell to get away.
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In case you've forgotten, Grahm is Cedric's Aemula. She mentions Grahm having a slave back in Chapter 17 of Blood, but it is very brief and did not give his name.
I'm not going to lie, I've been waiting a long time to bring Axel into the story.
This is a bonus update chapter because I haven't been updating as much lately! I hope you liked it!!
VOTE AND COMMENT FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE!
What do you guys think of Axel and the school?
Love, Ash <3