FOUR | ASPEN HIGH

Kathrena was silent as I climbed into my truck after her the next morning. She had her arms folded, though her dark eyes were bright as she stared straight ahead.

“Good morning,” I said, as we pulled out of the driveway. The pines rolled past as we followed its long and winding curves, which wove through the woodland and out to the road.

“Is it?” She snapped.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, flicking my gaze over to her and then back to the road ahead. She didn’t look sad, or angry, but she certainly didn’t seem happy, either. There was a distinctive narrowing between her eyebrows, and a small crinkle of skin from where her brow was furrowed.

“Nothing,” she sighed. “I’m just tired. Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” I shrugged. I was curious to find out more, but I didn’t want to intrude. I’d likely snap if I had a secret to keep, too. Of that, at least, I was sure – Kathrena was hiding something.

I too had something to keep to myself. The thought of the golden-eyed boy had churned over and over in my mind last night, and I felt a flutter in my stomach at the thought of seeing him again today. I wondered if he’d search me out again, and I found myself – to my utmost astonishment – hoping that he would.

I couldn’t let myself get close to a human. Besides, his behaviour had been downright odd thus far. I did not want to spend my evening misty-eyed and dopey at the thought of a stalker, but it seemed that I could not help myself.

I didn’t let myself consider why he’d been watching me. I had to hope that his reasons were pure, and I prayed that he’d not guessed my true nature. I had no idea what would happen to the Clan if a human discovered that I was not who I said I was.

Kathrena stayed silent for the rest of the drive, and I didn’t probe her or attempt to make conversation. She seemed as fixated on something as I was, so we drove in companionable silence, both of us lost within our own heads.

I pulled into the car park, and as Kathrena was opening her door to get out, I put my hand on her shoulder. I wasn’t sure what had come over me, but I felt for her. It was hard, spending so many hours at a school, filled with people who knew your name but nothing more. Our lives here were fabricated; they were intricate lies which were bound to us, but were not of us.

“If you do want to talk about it with me, you can,” I said. “Don’t feel obligated to tell me, but if you need someone who can keep a secret – even from the Clan – I’d be happy to listen,” I shrugged.

“Thanks,” she said, a small, reluctant smile tugging at her lips.

“No problem,” I shrugged, and then hopped out of the truck. I grabbed my backpack from the cargo bed, and smoothed down the legs of my jeans. It was colder today – there was a definite chill in the air, and the grass surrounding the trees looked damp with dew from the night’s frost.

I decided that it would be worth wearing my jumper from the offset today, and I tugged it out of my backpack while Kathrena waited, her hands on her hips.

“Sorry!” I said, as I pushed my head through the collar. My long, wavy hair was loose today, and I pulled it through the hole and let it fall about my shoulders.

Kathrena began to walk towards the campus, and I slung my still-open backpack across my shoulder and tore after her. “I’m coming, I’m coming!” I called, and caught up with her quickly.

I pulled my bag round to my front to zip it up, and my hair caught in the zipper. I sighed.

“You go ahead,” I said. It was only my second day, and I’d already been late twice.

“I’ll see you at lunch?” She checked, her eyes alight with quiet amusement as she watched me struggle.

“Yeah, sure,” I said, through gritted teeth as I tried to yank my hair free. I ripped out a few strands, and as I did so the unnerving feeling that someone was watching me shuddered down my neck and back once again.

As I entered my first class of the day, Rowan gave me a little smile and a quick wave. I smiled back, my gaze meeting her bright green eyes. I’d not had this class, History, yesterday, and I felt a little surge of reassurance when I caught sight of her.

I missed being able to speak freely with people. Rowan seemed nice, and welcoming, and I wanted to be able to reciprocate her kindness. But there was no room for friendship, nor trust, once you had been irrevocably reborn as one of the undead. The thought seemed so ludicrous that I let out a tiny snort, and I had to hurriedly cover it with a cough.

There was one seat left, right at the front of the classroom, and I slipped into it uneasily, sliding my bag beneath the desk. I didn’t like being in so many people’s direct view, so I shuffled a few strands of hair forward, hoping that they would hide my face. It was unnerving, knowing that most of the class could watch my movements as they pleased.

I didn’t feel that I could so easily draw around my notes so close to the teacher, either, so I pretended to pay attention and he lectured us about the Victorian period in England. Parts of it interested me, but I let my mind drift instead to the histories that Aradia had taught me, shortly after I’d been turned.

“Are you sure you’re ready?”

“I am,” I nodded. Aradia had brought me through the house – the Clan house, she’d called it – and we were tucked up in a wide window seat together. I felt a little uneasy being so close to her, but she’d shown me nothing but kindness.

I was eager to learn more, and my toes bounced against the wooden floor beneath them. I was confused by everything she’d taught me so far, so I hoped that a short history lesson regarding vampires would help me settle the new information in my brain.

I was a vampire. I couldn’t comprehend it, not one bit. I’d read a lot of myths about them, old legends, and Dracula had been required reading for my English Literature course. But I’d never imagined that they might actually be real.

“Perhaps I should start with the Light and Dark Vampires,” she suggested. “You’ll have to feed soon, Ellis. It may be a little easier for you if you understand how, and why, the Sunstone Clan feed in the way we do.”

“Okay,” I nodded. I knew that feed meant drink blood, and the very thought of it alarmed me. The humanity that I’d shouldered for seventeen years was disgusted by the idea, but I could feel a burning pulsation in my throat, and like a dry human mouth signalling thirst, I knew that my new type of thirst needed to be satiated.

The evening light slanted through the window, casting shadows across the side of her face as she spoke. Her purple eyes had scared me at first, but they were gentle as they met mine. She had the beginnings of crows feet at the corners of her eyes, but, like the rest of her body, it would never again age, and the crows feet would never deepen. They lent her face a wise appearance, one that was soft and kind.

“In our world, there are two types of vampire. Think of them like magnetic poles – opposites. Some can, and do, exist between the two poles. These two poles are called Light and Dark, or Daywind and Nightstar. These poles are not born into our nature when we are turned. Rather, they are born from what we do – our actions. With each action, we align ourselves with either the Daywind, or the Nightstar.”

“Okay,” I mumbled. My head was already beginning to ache, but I nodded along regardless.

“Perhaps ironically, we as vampires believe in the power of the soul. The soul, as we believe, is carried through the mortal body in the blood. The Light Vampires take this blood from willing victims only. This imbues us with the power of the day: we may walk among humankind, and our powers lie in our abilities to conceal ourselves amongst the living. The Daywind Vampyres embody the dawn, the sun, the morning, and the day.”

“And the Dark Vampires?” I asked nervously, certain that her answer would disturb me.

“The Dark Vampires, or the Nightstar Vampyres, believe in the soul also. They believe in its raw power, and they take it from victims, against their will. As such, the magick, the spirit, in the blood they drink is more potent. But it is a dark potency, and these things do not come without a cost. The Dark Vampires are cursed to live under the cover of night, and above all they covet power. They cannot walk among the living, for in the sun their skin burns. They do not look as we do, Ellis. They are creatures of the night, with wicked fangs, pale skin, and elongated claws. They embody the dusk, the moon, the twilight, and the night.”

“Oh,” I breathed.

“The Sunstone Clan does not believe that any life is worth taking for the sake of power. Should you disagree, you are free to make your home elsewhere.”

“Ellis?”

I looked up. My teacher, a balding man with a doughy face, was staring down at me.

“Yes?” I asked, frowning.

“Are you, perhaps, ready to tell me who Isambard Kingdom Brunel was, and why he was so significant in the Industrial Revolution?”

I’d studied this before. I felt as though I was scrunching up my brain as I thought.

“He was a civil engineer,” I said, my tone confident. I even leant back in my chair a little, just to prove how self-assured I was. "He created much of the infrastructure during the Industrial Revolution, bridges and tunnels, that pushed the movement forwards. He joined the past with the future."

As I shifted back in my chair, I caught the scent of something I’d not encountered before. It was new to me, but I’d heard its description a thousand times.

There was a werewolf in my History class.