Blood and Beasts (10 page)

“Let
’
s go,” Abernathy said in a quiet voice, grabbing Seph
’
s arm and pulling her from the room
before the general flood of students could block the doorway.

In the hallway, they relaxed, especially
without Madam Powers breathing down their necks. It was a little awkward
between them though. They had just met, but Abernathy had already had a glimpse
into her mind and felt her feelings on a more personal subject than others.
That was when Linda burst into view, flinging herself on Abernathy. She was
pleasantly surprised to find that her best friend had already met Seph. Seph
glanced to the left to see Rodney casually making his way over to them, nodding
at a passing guy with a mohawk.

Seph stared at the passing guy. His
skin was a little darker than Rodney
’
s,
but they didn
’
t look related. He could pull off a
mohawk, unlike Oglesby with his little green-tinted fohawk. This guy had a huge
Mohawk, dark-brown and faded to light-brown at the tips. It looked perfect on
him, even if it kind of overpowered his shorter form. He was a little scrawny.
Maybe his mohawk should be a little shorter, but he could still manage to pull
it off. The guy in question glanced over at her, and she immediately looked away
after catching his storm-gray eyes. So he was a vampire, just like her. For not
having too many vampires at this school, she sure saw them everywhere.

“That was Trey. He
’
s a vampire. In his fourth year,”
Rodney commented, sliding up beside the three girls and ignoring Abernathy and
Linda
’
s high-pitched chatter as they
discussed Francesca. “What class do you got next?” He asked Seph, leaning a
little closer to her so that they could have their own conversation.

“I have choices,” she acknowledged,
glancing at the well-crumpled piece of paper. “Gnomish, Mermish, or Gobble…
Gobbledegook,
” she stumbled over that last word,
an unfamiliar term with a crease running through it. “Is Mermish that hard?”
She asked him, recalling that he had been running off to that class earlier,
and he shuddered.

“Do not take Mermish. It
’
s the hardest of the three. I wouldn
’
t have taken it if I had known,” he
sighed, shaking his head disconsolately. “And the teacher! Ms. Maudlin Pike!
She
’
s a … She
’
s a hag. I mean, for real, she
’
s a hag,” he said, shuddering again, and Seph laughed.

That was something she had been
missing of late… laughter. It was nice to laugh again. It was nice to have
friends again, friends who accepted her.

“Wow, you have some post-traumatic
stress from this class,” she joked, and he nodded, eyes wide with trepidation.

“No, I
’
m not lyin
’
. Don
’
t take it. That hag is mean. Take Gobbledegook if you
wanna challenge yourself at least a little. It
’
s a little difficult, but Gnomish is just plain easy.
It
’
s basically English but with a few
of their own slang words thrown in there and a few random words from random
languages also. It
’
s really just a breeze-by class. You
’
re smart though. Try Gobbledegook.
Sir Paolo Sanzio is pretty cool,” he admitted, and she considered it.

“Ya, I think I will take
Gobbledegook,” she stumbled over that word again, and they both laughed. “You
say I
’
m smart. You don
’
t know that,” she said suddenly,
staring at him and the huge smile on his face.

He shrugged nonchalantly.

“My cousin might
’
ve mentioned that her best friend
was smart, always helping her with Chemistry in high school, and then she would
help me with my Chemistry, using your notes,” he admitted, and Seph frowned.

“
Your cousin?
” She asked, and Rodney
’
s face fell.

“Francesca
’
s my cousin… Her dad and my mom are brother and
sister,” although anger rolled up inside her, she tried to remember if
Francesca had ever mentioned a Rodney.

“She said she had a cousin around
her age that was half-Arabic or something?” She said, and Rodney nodded,
smiling.

“
Well, I
’
m actually a fourth Arabic, a fourth white, and half
Mexican,” he stated matter-of-factly.

“
Ooh
… look at them, Abernathy. Tellin
’
secrets, laughin
’
to
themselves, they look just like us,” Linda said mockingly as the two girls
studied the pair of them unnervingly.

“Hey, I have an idea,” Seph suddenly
said with inspiration, and all three leaned in close to hear what she had to
say. “Why don
’
t we head for class now? That way,
we
’
re not sprinting down the hall to
them, like usual?” She suggested, and they all laughed, nodding in agreement.

“Ya, that is a good idea, ‘cept I
dunno what Sir Babbage would do if I arrived to Music early. I
’
m always late,” Linda laughed,
heading down the hallway to their left.

“Ya, I got HU with Sir Guthrie,”
moaned Abernathy, heading to the right. “It
’
s just so great,” she added cheerily, and it took Seph
a moment to realize that she was being sarcastic in her own chipper way.

“And I got Lit,” announced Rodney.
“Right here,” he said with a little grin, and she just shook her head at him.

“Gobbledegook is where?” She asked
hopelessly, and he inclined his head to the left, in the direction Linda had
walked off.

“Blue Hallway, kind of near where I
just was. Just head straight down the hall. Sir Sanzio
’
s room is number 031,” he said just as the warning bell
rang. “Late again?” He asked, raising his eyebrows to her as she darted off,
and he headed into his own classroom with the dreaded Madam Powers.

“Already gotta reputation for bein
’
late, and I
’
m not even halfway through the day,” Seph muttered to
herself, shaking her head before glancing at the moonlit courtyard to her
right. “Halfway through the night,” she amended, staring at the darkness.

It was very strange to see cool, silvery
moonlight beaming down onto the grass instead of warm, golden sunlight. She
shuddered when she thought of the sun. Last thing she remembered about it was
that it was much too bright and way too hot for her. No, she preferred the
softer, incandescent lighting of the moon. She was smiling to herself as she
slipped through Sir Sanzio
’
s door and sat herself down in one
of the few remaining seats. Actually, it was in the same place as her last
seat, right up front and all the way to the right, closest to the door. Quick
escape route, as usual.

Sir Paolo Sanzio swept into the room
just as she was sitting down, and she nearly gasped aloud. With his shock of
blue hair and violet eyes, he was unmistakable. He was one of the three wizards
who had attacked her and Francesca the other night! He was the one who had
finally chained Francesca down and not very nicely, now that she thought about
it. He seemed to almost hear her gasp in his head, although she had not made a
sound, and turned back to look at his new student.

Her shields! She had let them fall!
She really needed to remember to keep those up, she thought, throwing them up
again. There was a glimmer of a smile on the teacher
’
s face. He had heard her gasp in her mind, and her
thoughts about the night before last as well. He had also heard that she
already knew about shielding her mind. He looked at her calculatingly.

“Students, I believe we have a new
student among us,” he announced, and she sent him a scathing glare, clearly
sending the message that she did not want to do the whole,
stand-up-in-front-of-an-entire-class-of-your-peers-that-you-have-never-met-before-and-explain-yourself-and-your-life-to-them,
thing. “I think we should welcome her. New student, would you please come up to
the front of the class and introduce yourself to us?” He asked, smiling all the
while.

“Sure,” she said, trying to hide the
malice boiling in her mind from him, as that would hardly make a good first
impression.

She rose carefully, walking slowly
to the front of the class. With her back slightly to the students, she managed
to send him another glare before taking a deep breath and facing them. She
smiled, trying to appear warmer, although a few students leaned further back in
their seats from her. Apparently, they had recognized that she was a vampire.
Big surprise… Her eyes had to be dark grey by now, maybe even black… She was
getting pretty hungry. So, they recognized her as a hungry, new vampire. She
wondered if her fangs showed or not.

“Hi, I
’
m Persephone Black. Most people call me Seph,” she
said, keeping the same approachable smile on her face.

Her eyes recognized nobody in the
classroom. She was on her own, lost at sea. She hoped that she was not about to
drown.

“Well, let me say hello to you, Miss
Black,” the teacher said crisply, and she glanced over at him testily, her
annoyance mounting by the minute. “Students? Any questions for our new one
here?” No hands rose, what a big surprise. “Perhaps, if you ask enough good
questions, we will not have time for that pop quiz I was considering,” he
amended, and several hands shot up.

“
Yes, Mr. Sprofkin?
” He called on a particularly
timid-looking boy who kept sniffling, and she recognized him from her Basics
class with Madam Winslow… where that whole vase incident had happened.

“What
’
s your family like?” He asked, a simple enough question
but a difficult one for her.

“Um…” she started, faltering a
little as Sir Sanzio turned his big, purple eyes on her. “I
’
ve lived in a foster home for the
past four years. My foster mom, Janette, works in a grocery store, and Bill has
his own mechanic shop,” she explained, and everyone nodded, not alleviating any
of the tension in the least.

“Miss West?” He asked, and a tall
girl with huge, gold eyes stared at Seph a little challengingly, freckles
standing out around her silver glasses.

“Do you have any real brothers and
sisters? Foster brothers and sisters?” She asked, not wanting to take the pop
quiz as she flooded Seph with questions that were only more complicated
considering her different living situation.

“Uh… ya,” she said a little
nervously, not enjoying all the attention as the new kid. “I have one
half-brother and one half-sister. They
’
re
twins, and they
’
re both eleven. We
’
re five years apart. Their names are
Pearl and Pearce,” she said matter-of-factly, palms sweating, and the same girl
raised her hand again as Seph tried to suppress an exasperated sigh.

When would this inquisition be over?

“Miss West?” The teacher called
again, voice light.

“What about any foster brothers or
sisters? And do your real siblings live in the same home as you?” She asked
persistently.

Seph was sorely tempted to throttle
the pestering girl. That would stop the onslaught of questions indefinitely.
She smiled, thinking the werewolf girl was lucky she couldn
’
t read minds.

“Ya, Pearl and Pearce lived with me
in the same foster home. Originally, they were gonna separate Pearl and Pearce
because girls and guys don
’
t usually stay in the same house,
but they
’
re twins, and they weren
’
t about to be separated. Then they
tried to put me in an all-girls home, and that did not go over well with the
twins either or me, for that matter. So we all ended up together,” she said,
grinning a little at her satisfactory, full answer.

Miss West raised her hand again.

“Ya?” Seph asked, not waiting for
Sir Sanzio to call on the annoying girl.

Funny, Miss West was a werewolf, but
she would have pegged her for a witch. Then again, Miss West, whose first name
was Tanya, she easily gleaned, was acting a bit like a predator on the prowl.
She had sensed Seph
’
s unease and was using it against
her. Maybe she could learn from this… Do not underestimate anybody at this
school.

“Foster siblings?” She smiled
cruelly at Seph, sharp teeth glimmering as she clearly enjoyed tormenting the
new vampire.

“Yes. I have six foster brothers.
Manny is five. Bobby is seven. Terrence is eight. Dean is twelve. Lawrence is
fourteen. And Nate…” she trailed off a moment as flashes of Nate
’
s bleeding throat flew through her
mind. “Nate is fifteen,” she finished, keeping her face a careful neutral mask
as she battled inwardly with her own feelings.

Nate… His bleeding throat… the taste
of his blood… the disgust on the twins
’
faces…
his blood… She was hungry, and these images were just making her angrier and
hungrier, for that matter. Did emotions spike the bloodlust? She hid a barely
perceptible tremble.

“You may sit down, Miss Black,” Sir
Sanzio repeated, and her head snapped to him when he took a slight step towards
her.

She did not trust this teacher. He
may be a wizard, which was not as much a physical threat as another werewolf or
vampire, but he was strong in other ways. He had subdued Francesca in her full
form. He was the first wizard to intimidate her at this school. She doubted
that he would be the last. She shook her head once, clearing the eerie, sticky
cobwebs from it.

“
Thanks
…” she murmured and took her seat, hair hanging around
her face to shield it from any curious observers.

Sir Sanzio began the lesson and
carefully did not look in Seph
’
s direction again. She knew her
walls had fallen when she had mentioned Nate
’
s name, and she knew that he had seen the same images
in his mind that she had seen in her own. He was obviously a slightly advanced
telepath, just like her, which he also now knew. Did he also know how hungry
she was? She paid attention to the class as best she could while her stomach
silently rumbled inside her. She found that she actually had quite a knack for
Gobbledegook, although that should not be a surprise to her. She had a
surprising knack for languages. Francesca often spoke to her in Spanish, and
she would reply back, each understanding the other relatively well. She had
even learned some French online, another one of those Internet surfing days.

“
Miss Black, de-gobbledegook-ookook
gobbledegook-gobble-gobde gob-dookble-ble ookde-gobbledegook-gobdook?
” He asked suddenly, and she smiled
at him, knowing the answer and how to respond already

“
Blede gob-ook degook-blede-gobblede
gob-gobblegobble-gobde dede-ble-gobblegobble ookde-ble-gob-dookble-degook, Sir
Sanzio,
” she concluded,
imitating his goblin accent perfectly, picking up on the language of the
goblins and hobgoblins alike.

“Very good, Miss Black,” he said, keeping
to himself the shock he had felt at her prowess at the new language.

He gave her a peculiar look before
turning his attention back to the rest of the class and the lesson at hand. She
smiled inwardly. She sure had shown him, and it had felt good. She did enjoy
excelling at subjects and being acknowledged for that. A little vain, was she?
Maybe… or just confident. Depended on how you looked at it.

Midway through class, an amazing
aroma filled the air. Seph took a deep breath, sitting straighter. She turned
to her left and to her right, searching for the source of that amazing smell
that seemed to wrap around her stomach, ensnaring it and spiking her hunger.
Finally, her eyes zeroed in on the girl directly across from her, all the way
up front and in the far left corner. She was biting her nails, and a bright
crimson spot of blood had erupted around the cuticle of her right index finger.
Seph could see it as clearly as she could see her own nail. She stared at the
hand intently. She stared at the drop of blood. She licked her lips without
noticing. How good would that fresh blood taste, hot and smooth down the back
of her throat. She was suddenly out of her chair, eyes latched onto the
oblivious girl, who continued to chew on her nails.

“Miss Black?”
Sir Sanzio
’
s voice sounded so far away, as though he were miles,
and not mere feet, away from her.

Slowly, she tore her eyes from the
girl, who had finally noticed her. The girl
’
s fear merely added more enticement to the smell of
blood as her eyes grew large in terror. A hungry vampire was eyeing her like
she was a steak. Seph spared Sir Sanzio a glance, but his violet eyes caught
hers and held them. She was not able to look away, although her brain kept
niggling her to focus on the food at hand.

“Would you like to step outside,
Miss Black?” He asked, as cordial as ever, but it was not really a question.

She nodded once, realizing how she
must be terrorizing the classroom, as per usual, and quickly exited before she
could terrorize anymore of her peers. Walking out into the royal blue hallway,
she inhaled deeply, taking in the scents of the night. She breathed in fresh
glass, crisp and sharp. There were the mingled scents of the few trees dotting
the courtyard here and there, majestic oaks that had seen many years, some even
centuries. They told stories, trees. There were the flickering torches and
candles that swathed the air with their stark, homey scents. She tried to
exhale the smell of blood from her nose, but it seemed to cling there, coppery
and sweet.

She leaned her head back against
the wall beside the classroom door, which was shut, and closed her eyes,
inhaling deeply. She imagined breathing in the scents of the night, breathing
them in, breathing them in. She then imagined breathing out the smell of blood,
breathing it out, breathing it out. It was hard to do, but she managed. Her
heart rate slowed, which was a good thing. In the classroom, it had been
thumping like mad, up to a human
’
s level. Now that it had settled
some, it was not nearly so high, but it wasn
’
t anywhere near where it should be.

“Are you hungry, Miss Black?” She
opened her eyes to see Sir Sanzio standing there, watching her carefully. “Eyes
pitch black, just as I thought,” he said with a little sigh, shaking his head
solemnly.

“I
’
m sorry,” she said meaningfully, nodding back towards
the classroom. “I didn
’
t mean to…” she trailed off, not
quite able to finish her sentence as she thought back on how animalistic she
had looked and acted.

“You didn
’
t mean to what, Miss Black? Control your hunger better?
You
’
re a new vampire. It is to be
expected. How much blood did you have this morning?” He asked her promptly,
arms folded over his chest as he watched her every movement cautiously.

“Um…” she squeezed her eyes tight,
trying to think past the pounding heart in front of her.