Blood and Beasts (13 page)

She recognized the fair-skinned guy
leaning across a couple of desks to invade on the personal spaces of two girls.
It was Alistair, the vampire she had fought that night. He looked much the
same, as though he had been sculpted by a Roman artist or something. He was
attractive but scary. She remembered his reaction that night, throwing her into
the shed. She also remembered his reaction the night after, when he and Phin
had gotten into that silent argument that she had overheard. He had a lot of
rage building up inside him.

Right now though, he was turning on
the charm. He was leaning lecherously over the desks towards the two girls. One
girl was tall and willowy with coffee skin and light-brown curls, cropped short
around her stark, heart-shaped face. The other girl was laughing hilariously at
Alistair
’
s advances. She was Asian, small and
petite with a gymnast
’
s build, as well as short-cut, punk,
plum-tinted hair. She winked at Seph broadly when she caught her eye before
continuing to giggle over Alistair
’
s antics.

No one commenced class. No one
talked to her. So, she moved forward and sat down in the desk in the very
center of the classroom. Slowly, as she concentrated intently on her
black-painted nails, she listened as the chatter gradually died down, and she
realized that absolutely everybody in the room was staring at her with their
variety of grey-shaded eyes. She resolutely stared at her nails, hoping that
she was not blushing with all this attention.

“Ahem,” Phin cleared his throat, and
everybody looked to the front, Sarabi still lingering beside him while studying
Seph carefully. “I think it
’
s time we commenced class,” he said
regally, and a few of the vampires looked confused, not sure what he meant.

Eventually, all the vampires found
one of their many unused seats. They looked uncomfortable, as though they were
not accustomed at all to actually sitting in the desks strewn about the room.
They all looked forward again, waiting for Phin to continue.

“Today, we obviously have a new
vampire fledgling amongst us,” he gestured his hand towards Seph unnecessarily.
“Persephone Black, age sixteen, known as Seph, is our new sister,” he said with
a brilliant, white smile.

They all stared at her, once again.
They sure did stare a lot. She, again, studied her nails. After a moment of
silence elapsed, Phin decided to speak again when it was obvious that she was
not about to say anything.

“Why don
’
t we introduce ourselves?” He suggested, and a few of
them sent him very patronizing looks.

Phin returned them scathingly. One
of those few was Alistair. He simply emitted hostility towards her.

 “I
’
ll start,
” Sarabi announced, still lounging
beside Phin up front. “I
’
m Sarabi Umbra. I specialize in
flying,” and with that, she suddenly started to rise from the floor, hovering
all the way up to the very ceiling.

Seph knew her eyes had to be huge.
The petite Asian girl, much smaller than both Linda and Abernathy, suddenly
cleared her throat, asking for the room
’
s
attention without words. In her peripheral, Seph watched as Sarabi slowly
settled herself back down on the ground.

“I
’
m Masoko Li,” she said with a bright, full-lipped
smile. “I
’
m best at
transmogrification,
”
Seph gave her a weird look before there was a sudden
pop!
, and where the
small girl had been, there was now a flapping bat.

Her eyes had to look like they were
going to pop out now.

“
Alistair,
” the hostile vampire said curtly. “
Just Alistair. I’
m best at mind control,” he said,
but with a pointed glare sent his direction by Phin, he did not exemplify this
little talent of his.

“Capri Stone,” said the
longish-haired brunette guy, the close friend of the grungy Asian. “I teleport
best,” he explained and blinked.

Seph nearly jumped a foot when there
was an outburst of air beside her, where he suddenly appeared. He blinked
again, the air sucked back into his empty space, and she watched in awe as he
appeared back in his seat, twiddling his fingers at her. He was obviously very
satisfied with her astonished look. How could this all be real?

“Kenji Nguyen,” said the grungy
Asian. “I turn into mist,” he explained, and she watched as his body at first
began to shimmer and then slowly wavered out of sight.

She felt the cool mist brush by her
face and watched as the sparkling pearls slowly traveled around the room before
returning to their original place. He slowly materialized back into his seat.
Was this real? She had sucked the blood out of one of her best friends just two
nights ago. Yes… this had to be real.

“
Trey Woods,
” announced the dark guy with the
mohawk. “I heal the best,” and she raised a winged brow to him, not sure what
he meant. “We all heal at exceptionally fast rates, as you may have noticed. It
is also very hard to harm us. I, however, can hardly be harmed, and even when I
am, I heal the fastest. Also, I understand how the healing processes work…” he
petered off as Masoko suddenly interjected.

“He
’
s saved about three humans
’
lives because of what he knows and can do. He knows
just what they need, and he
’
s even given some of them his
blood,” Seph
’
s eyes widened. “Not enough to
change them or anything, just enough to heal them. His blood is just real
strong in the whole healing department,” she finished, all upbeat, similar to
Abernathy in that way.

“Ya,” he added, and then there was
silence.

“I
’
m Roberta Frost,” announced the willowy girl sitting
next to Masoko. “I
’
m the fastest of us all. We can all
run and travel at amazing speeds, but I
’
ve
been clocked as the fastest,” she smirked smugly, and she saw quite a few
unhappy glances pass around the vampiric group, the most disgruntled being Trey
’
s and Kenji
’
s.

“Stefan?” Phin prompted, and the guy
looked up sharply.

“Oh ya,” he started. “I
’
m Stefan Ross, but you already know
that. I
’
m best at hypnosis,” he said, and
she began to open her mouth when he cut her off. “
No, I don’
t. She likes me for just being me. I
only hypnotize people that I need to get somethin
’
from,” she gave him a puzzled glance, and he glowered
back, daring her to allude to him doing something disrespectful with his
girlfriend.

“And me,” Phin said, grinning
broadly. “I am Phineas Dragonfly, but everyone calls me Phin. I specialize in
telepathy,” he said, looking at her pointedly.

But you already know that too,
he finished in her mind, and she
tried not to shudder.

“You drink a lot of blood,” Sarabi
suddenly said, and everybody looked over at the built, dark woman.

“Ya, I guess…” Seph admitted with a
slight shrug.

“You
’
re… what, five feet, three inches in height? Around 120
pounds, I
’
m guessing?” Seph nodded. “And
drinkin
’
a pint of blood each meal wasn
’
t enough? You gotta drink two pints
a meal? That
’
s six pints a day,” she pointed out,
and Seph just shrugged again.

“To each his own,” she replied,
guard up in case Sarabi tried to ostracize her as being different, even more
different than being a vampire already made her.

“I propose the drinking game,”
Sarabi announced, and immediately everyone sprang to their feet excitedly,
except for Phin, who instantly began to voice his disapproval.

What was the drinking game?

“The drinking game? Sarabi! C
’
mon!” Phin exclaimed as the other
vampires proceeded to push all the desks out of the way, lining them up against
the walls.

Capri had already helped Seph out of
her seat and sat her on the ground. Masoko shoved a plush pillow under her so
that she was luxuriating on the black marble floor. She was sitting in a circle
with all the other vampires. That was when she noticed a large fridge sitting
in a corner of the room this entire time. The blackness of the fridge had merged
with the darkness of the walls perfectly, effectively obscuring it. Kenji was
seated by it, and after punching in a code on the dial lock, he proceeded to
open the fridge. The open door revealed rows upon rows of gallons filled with
blood, a waft of cold air sneaking its way over to Seph. Her skin prickled at
the prospect of all that blood. There were eight rows for each type of blood.
The fridge had not looked that big from the outside, and she suspected magical
intervention was involved. One of the vampires had to be particularly skilled
in the art, or a witch or wizard had helped them out. Maybe they got along with
the other species at least a little better than she had originally suspected…
Maybe.

Suddenly, Kenji set two gallons of
blood in front of her, one labeled B- and one labeled A-. They looked
absolutely scrumptious to her. She imagined that her eyes were becoming darker
by the minute, if not simply because dinnertime was approaching. Also, the
prospect of all this free food before her was always tempting, her fangs
elongating in her mouth.

“Drink,” Kenji said, and she just
stared at him.

What exactly was the object of this
game? Was the blood spiked? Did they want to drug her or something? It felt
like a trap…

“I
’
ll explain, even if I don
’
t agree with the game,” Phin muttered unhappily as he
paced around the group, refusing to sit down with the others out of sheer
stubbornness at being overruled. “Drink the blood. Drink as much of the blood
as you possibly can. Don
’
t throw up. After we see how much it
takes for you to be fully revitalized, which shows how many powers and
strengths you can or will have, we can then test your abilities. They
’
ll be at your fullest potential with
all that blood in you, and we
’
ll be able to see what skills you
could ever excel in, and what skills we should probably not even bother honing
in with you,” he explained, still surly about the whole situation.

“Oh, cheer up, PhinPhin. We do this
to every new fledgling,” Masoko said perkily, and he scowled at her and the nickname.

“So, start,” Sarabi commanded,
staring at Seph pointedly.

She sighed. She supposed there were
worse things to be forced to do her first day… night… of Vamp Class. Picking up
the gallon by the handle, she flipped off the top with her thumb. She stared
down into the thick depths of the blood. It was cold… Cold blood was fine with
her, but she preferred warm blood. She was expected to be a glutton with all
this blood, but if it was going to be chilled…

“Drink this one first. We
’
re heating a few gallons up on the
burner,” Kenji passed a steaming gallon of A- to her, and she handed him the B-
back.

“
Here goes,
” she murmured to herself, exhaling
slowly, before downing the gallon without pause.

It was so good! She had not realized
how hungry she was! It was getting closer and closer to dinnertime, and two
pints of blood each meal really was not that much to her. This was so good. She
made sure not to make a mess of herself. She would not allow any blood to
dribble down her chin. That was just sloppy. However, her lips never parted
from the rim of that gallon as she downed the entire thing with gusto.

Someone passed her another steaming
gallon, and she downed that one much the same as the first. This one was B-,
and she liked B-flavored blood. It had a certain tang to it. A-flavored blood
was sharper, stronger. B blood had something else to it, softening the edges.
It could almost be considered sweet.

Another gallon was handed to her,
and she never stopped. This was B+ blood, and it was just as good as B-. The
difference between a positive and negative was the aftertaste. She could not
quite define them. She much preferred positive blood for some reason.

The next gallon was O-, which was
all right. O-flavored blood had a common taste to it. Not a common taste, just
a taste that one could easily become tired of. A-flavored blood was sharp.
B-flavored blood was sweet. O-flavored blood was relatively plain. Positive
bloods left a pleasant aftertaste in her mouth while negative bloods left an
almost sour aftertaste in her mouth. Sour was not necessarily bad, just
different.

After the fourth gallon of blood,
she started to notice the stares she was receiving, considering the fact that
she had not paused to take a breath since that first gallon of blood. She slowed
just a little then. She drank the fifth gallon, some AB+, at a moderate clip.
Her lips never left the rim, but she did not down it as though she had been
starving for the past four days. She really liked AB blood. It was delicious. A
mix of sweet and sharp, it could become too sweet if one drank too much of it.
It was not helped by the positive aftertaste with the sweet tinge to it. She
wondered how AB- blood would taste. She wanted to try that.

The next gallon was AB-, and it was
really good. It was sweet and sharp, but it could still be considered too
sweet, even with its slightly sour aftertaste. It was good though, and she
drank it at the same moderate clip. They were all gawking at her, and she
wished they wouldn
’
t. She noticed Roberta immediately looked
away, and Capri did as well, but nobody else seemed to do anything but stare at
her, open-mouthed and wide-eyed. Even Phin had stopped his pacing to stare at
her. Apparently, she was drinking a lot. After she finished the gallon of AB-,
she set the empty gallon done satisfactorily, smacking her lips together
pleasantly.

“Are you finished?” Sarabi asked
her, astonished by the six gallons she had drank.

“I could be,” she offered with a
small smile, feeling completely invigorated and confident with all that blood
in her.

“Do you mean you could drink more?”
Kenji asked, unable to keep the awe from his voice.

“
I guess
…” she answered sheepishly.

“Drink until you
’
re full,” Alistair commanded, not
nicely at all, as he passed her another gallon.

It was, disappointingly, only
lukewarm. There was something about the tepid temperature that just did not sit
well with Seph. She disliked it with any beverage.

Where
’
s does she put it all?
Roberta wondered rudely.

She
’
s not exploding…
Capri noted, studying her
quizzically.

Six gallons
… There are eighteen pints of blood
in the human body… Eight pints to one gallon… She just drank forty-eight pints
of blood… That
’
s…
and then all she felt was a shudder
from Masoko
’
s mind.

She tried to glare at them all over
her gallon of O+ that she was currently drinking. Instead, when that was not
working too well, she decided to concentrate on her drink. She was starting to
feel a little full, to be honest. O+ was not that bad. It did have that common,
plain taste to it, but the positive aftertaste was nice. It was pleasant
enough. She just did not like O- blood at all. It would be her last choice of
the various blood types.

After that, Alistair passed her a
gallon of A+, the last type of blood. They were all looking at her expectantly.
A few of them were wondering if she was going to puke or not. A few of the guys
were thinking she was looking really attractive right about now, especially
with that rosy flush on her cheeks from all the blood. A lot of them were
feeling disgusted. They were feeling disgusted not at all the blood because
they liked blood, but from the fact that she could drink so much. Maybe
disgusted was the wrong word. Scared was more like it.

She finished the last gallon of the
A+ blood and admitted that it was not bad at all. She set the empty gallon down
and wanted to burp. She was so full and completely satisfied right about now.
That was good. She wondered if they could play these drinking games every class
because she liked this. However, it was also very wasteful. She didn
’
t need all that blood. She hoped
that they did not have a limited supply of blood. According to Phin, they didn
’
t.

How did she know that? She had not
asked Phin before. She had just been looking at him and had easily obtained the
information from his mind as though it had been in her own thoughts. That was…
weird.

She drank sixty-four pints!
Roberta exclaimed.

She could drain three whole
people and half of another every single night. She would kill four people a
night if she were wild. Or she could just partially drain sixty-four people, a
pint per person,
Phin noted optimistically.

This new fledgling
’
s a little scary,
Kenji murmured.

Kali would love to meet this
girl,
Alistair said, eyes wide with the notion.

That was one hungry vampire,
Masoko chirped with her usual cheerfulness.

This girl could become a problem
if we
’
re not careful. She could challenge
me once she
’
s trained, and then… she could win…
Sarabi was not too happy about that fact.

That
’
s not normal! No vampire should ever
be able to drink that much blood in one sitting! What is she?! How powerful is
she?!
Capri was
aghast, somewhat terrified of her, but his face was impassive, hiding his
thoughts perfectly.

I
’
m happy I
’
m friends with her and not enemies.
Linda better be careful around her though. She better learn to control her
hunger because if she attacks Linda ever…
Stefan did not finish his own thought. He did not want
to because he liked Seph reasonably enough. He found her to be an interesting
person…
vampire.

I wanna see what she can do,
Trey thought happily, eagerness and curiosity flooding his thoughts.

Roberta was running, and her foot
got caught in a rabbit hole. Her friends were coming to help her. They didn
’
t know what she was. She would
attack them as soon as they freed her. She was so hungry!

Masoko
’
s father backhanded her as she hissed at him, fangs
exposed. She needed to learn more discipline. She had killed the cat, Fifi, and
drained it of all its blood. That was foolish of her. No one could know what
she was or what she could do. He was screaming this at her as he kicked her and
beat her with anything and everything that he could get his hands on. She was a
monster, and a monster wild would have to be put down if she could not learn to
control herself.

Capri ran, scoring the winning
touchdown. Everybody loved him! Everybody cheered for him! Then it was the next
day. The sun hurt. His eyes hurt. His skin hurt. He was hungry, and they
noticed his fangs. His best friends were no longer his best friends. His
girlfriend wouldn
’
t even look at him. They had dropped
him as though he were nothing… All because he was different.

Phin fought to keep his head above
water. The water was pulling him down. The weights were pulling him down. He
would not die. His brothers would not win. They had always hated him, and now
that he had changed into something weird they could try to kill him with a
reasonable explanation. They were trying too. Then his sister, Nadine, was in
the water, freeing him from the icy depths. She was his savior.

Sarabi screamed at him as he came
near her again with the belt. He wanted to teach her a lesson. His lessons
always ended the same way. How had she gotten herself into this? She already had
two kids from him! The belt snapped audibly, and she growled. Not today, not
tomorrow, not ever again! This time she was going to teach him a lesson. His
neck snapped in her powerful hands.

Alistair hated to serve them. A
subordinate was not the role he was meant for. He was his own leader. There had
to be a way out of this. Could he leave Covington though? They had just taken
over, but he hated the whole coven. Roberta darted by, fear curling around her
tall frame like a primordial serpent. She seemed to want to escape too.