Vampire Shifter Academy, page 15
The hut was small but neatly arranged. It seemed that every inch was used to its full functionality. No inch of space was wasted. Eva preferred these small cozy homes to large villas, where people could get lost looking for each other.
“Here.”
Amelie walked over to her, bringing a little silver tray with her. It was wonderfully shiny, gleaming under the light of the candles, though Eva could tell it was old. On it, there was a cup of steaming hot tea, and a little container of honey, with a wooden spoon.
Eva propped herself up a little. Her body felt heavy, like it still wasn’t fully hers. She coughed a little. The pain in her head was dull now and she didn’t feel it as much but it was still there. She couldn’t figure out what had happened, or how she’d ended up here.
“Drink this,” Amelie offered her the tea. “It’ll do you good.”
“Thank you,” Eva smiled gratefully.
She took a sip. It was so hot, she almost burned her tongue.
“Watch it,” Amelie warned her. “It’s still very hot.”
“What is it?” Eva asked.
“It’s red clover tea, with a dash of ginger. It’s good for blood purification.”
“That’s funny, drinking that in a school for vampires and me being a Halfling,” Eva laughed, immediately feeling her body reject that action as too painful.
“It is?” Amelie wondered. “I never thought of it that way. We’ve all been drinking it for ages. Actually, ever since I got it from dear Florence Balcombe, when she and Bram visited us, one time.”
“Bram?” Eva asked. “As in, Bram Stoker?”
“Yes, dear,” Amelie nodded.
“The author of Dracula?”
“The one and the same,” Amelie kept nodding proudly. “We gave him some of the best ideas for his novel, you know.”
“Are you serious?” Eva was amazed to hear that.
She almost didn’t believe that but then again, why wouldn’t she? It made perfect sense.
“We just told him not to reveal our location, because, as you already know, we need to keep it away from the prying eyes of humans.”
“How did he end up here?”
“Oh, their carriage got lost,” Amelie continued, taking her cup of tea and holding it in her hand, enjoying the warmth it oozed. “It was a horrible evening, thunder and lightning. Heavy rainfall. I told Sorwyce we needed to save them, otherwise they would either starve to death here in the mountains before they found their way back, or they would fall prey to some wild animal. So, we went and fetched them back here.”
“Did you show them the school?”
“Oh, no, dear. That was after Sorwyce disappeared. I mean, we arranged it all, so that no one knew where he was but, in fact, he’s been alive and well all this time. He is still with your father.”
“Where are they?” Eva changed the subject immediately, upon hearing the mention of her father.
“I can’t tell you that yet, dear.”
“I won’t tell anyone.”
“I know you won’t. I truly do but this is for your own safety, and for the safety of us all. You do understand, don’t you?” she asked, hopefully.
“I guess I do,” Eva tried to smile. “I just don’t know what happened to me. Or how I ended up here.”
She squirmed a little, trying to make herself comfortable in the bed. The cup was still in her hand. The tea smelled strangely soothing. She took a sip and allowed the warmth to wash all over her. Her breathing became softer, even that horrible pulsating feeling in her temples died down a little.
“You fell unconscious,” Amelie explained, “there, on the path. I couldn’t leave you lying there.”
“You brought me here?” Eva asked. “By yourself?”
“Oh, God no!” Amelie giggled. “Sebastian helped me bring you here. Despite what I may look like, I am an old woman. I can’t carry young women such as yourself on my back. And it would make it even worse if I dragged you across that gravel. You’d be in so much pain right now, my dear.”
Eva wanted to tell her that she really was in pain, but it sounded rude, so she decided to be quiet. And besides, she was too focused on hearing that Sebastian had helped her.
“I know you’re in pain,” Amelie continued, to Eva’s shock.
It seemed like almost everyone here knew what she was thinking, and addressed her worries even before she voiced them out loud. She didn’t know whether to like this or fear this.
“But, that’s not why you’re in pain. There is another reason for that.”
At that moment, Eva saw Sebastian standing in the doorway. He was all wet, his hair sliding down his face in tresses.
“Oh, child, come in! You’ll catch your death in that rain!”
Amelie rushed over to him and pulled him inside by the fire, which softly crackled in the corner of the room. Sebastian ruffled his hair a little, then looked over at Eva.
“Hey, sleeping beauty’s awake,” he smiled at her.
“Here,” Amelie pulled a shirt out of her wardrobe, and gave it to Sebastian. “You need to change.”
“I’ll be fine, Amelie, you worry too much,” he rolled his eyes, even though he still had that smile on his face.
“Just put it on,” she urged him.
He sighed, accepting it. In one big swoop, he took off his shirt. Eva could see all of his tattoos for the first time in the soft glow of the fire. There was a raven on his shoulder, a wolf howling at the full Moon on his right forearm, a caged bird, the woods, paw prints, and some writing Eva didn’t understand. He put on the other shirt quickly, then turned to her.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, sitting down next to her on the bed, where Amelie was sitting, a few seconds ago.
“I’m still very dizzy, but that tea Amelie made me helped.”
“Yeah, she can make awesome teas. She knows everything there is to know about herbs and plants.”
“Is that why you’re the gardener?”
“I wanted to stay close to the school. Keep an eye on Rannulf. But, at the same time, I didn’t want him to feel threatened by my presence, so I thought being the gardener would keep us both happy,” she explained.
“Why do you need to keep an eye on him?” Eva wondered.
Amelie looked at Sebastian, then at her.
“It’s a long story, dear,” she told her.
“Tell her,” Sebastian urged her. “There’s no better time than now.”
Amelie went to her bookshelf and got out a book. She opened it and Eva realized it wasn’t a book, but a photo album.
“It’s easier to follow a story when you have pictures,” she smiled, her fingers shaking as she opened the first page.
She sat down on a chair, pulling it closer to the bed, so that all of them could look at the photo album. The first photo was of a big group of students, all neatly standing in front of a school. Smiling faces revealed shiny fangs and Eva could even see a few tails in there, too.
“This is Holmerry,” Eva remembered the name.
“Yes,” Amelie smiled, tapping at her husband’s face in the photo. “The pride and joy of my husband, Sorwyce. These were Rannulf and Douxora. How proud their father was of them both.”
Amelie turned to the other page and Eva saw a photo which she knew her father had in his study. It was Sorwyce, Douxora, another man she didn’t recognize, and her father, all standing in front of Holmerry.
“My dad has this photo,” she told them both.
“Of course he has,” Amelie smiled. “So did yours,” she told Sebastian, who seemed surprised by this fact.
“You seem to forget that vampires can live for a very long time. Unless, of course we stumble onto someone shooting silver bullets,” she swallowed heavily as she spoke, “or someone whose job it was to hunt us all down, like that horrible man, Helwing.”
Her whole body shook as she voiced his name.
“You mean Abraham Van Helsing?” Eva asked.
“No, dear,” she shook her head, with a smile, remembering she was safe here, “that’s a mistake perpetrated on purpose by Mr. Stoker. Van Helsing never existed. He was just a fictional character but he did have a basis in real life. It was Georg Andreas Helwing, who was born in a small town in Wegorzewo, in Poland. He was a Lutheran pastor, and he studied and wrote papers about vampires and werewolves. Mr. Stoker heard about him through one of his friends from Slovakia, I forget the name. You are all probably too young to know anything about the bubonic plague which killed off many people in the 18th century. These peasants believed that whoever died from this disease, would rise from the grave after they’ve turned into vampires, so they could keep spreading the disease. So, to prevent vampires from coming back to life, they would sing a song for the dead, chop the head off with a spade, then throw it into the tomb. Most of this was rather silly but Helwing managed to come up with some pretty successful methods of killing us.”
“But, didn’t you say it was the plague that killed the villagers and not vampires?”
“You see, Helwing was very intelligent. Even back in the day, there was some semblance of science and he knew how to use it. He knew who died from the disease and he knew they wouldn’t be coming back as vampires. But, some of our ancestors, they tried to use the plague to their benefit. They killed peasants, draining their blood, leaving them to look like plague ridden corpses. Helwing could somehow distinguish who died how.”
“Why did they kill peasants in the first place?” Sebastian asked. “Couldn’t they just live off the cattle?”
Amelie’s face suddenly darkened, but Eva knew there was more to it than just sadness. There was a deep rooted pain, which had been there for centuries.
“We are not monsters,” Amelie continued, not really answering his question at first. “We do what we must. We need blood. That is how we were created and we do not question that. We only try to hurt as few as possible.”
Eva suddenly remembered that Sebastian was a blood dealer. Did Amelie know? Sebastian was hurting others by what he was doing. He was making the problem even worse.
“What if some chose not to?” Eva asked.
“What do you mean?” Amelie wondered.
“I mean, what if someone provided human blood on purpose?”
Sebastian turned to face her. His eyes locked with hers, but she didn’t look away. She wasn’t afraid of the answer, if he was.
“I guess you’re talking about me,” he said loudly.
Eva was shocked. He said that and he even sounded proud of what he was doing. She felt hatred rise from deep inside of her, so deep she didn’t even know it was there. How could she have been so wrong? She couldn’t see him for what he was, even after Bella had warned her several times. How could she have been so blinded by her attraction to him?
“She thinks I sell human blood, like everyone else,” Sebastian turned to Amelie.
“You didn’t tell her?” she asked him.
“No, I waited for your instructions,” Sebastian shook his head.
“Wait,” Eva finally put down the teacup, which was already empty. “What’s going on here? What didn’t you tell me?”
She suddenly felt that rush of dizziness again and the pressure inside of her head became almost unbearable. Sebastian rushed to her side and placed his hand gently underneath her head.
“Just try to relax,” he told her, looking at her, all worried. “It’ll pass.”
“How is she?” Amelie asked, looking at her, with the same anxious expression.
“I’d say still okay, that tea probably helped a lot.”
At that moment, Eva pushed him away, and leaned over to the side of the bed, vomiting. It came in horrible gushes, ones she was barely able to stop or fully get out. She felt Sebastian’s hands gather up her hair and she was grateful for that small act of kindness. Once she was done, and her stomach finally pulled back to where it usually was, she felt like she could breathe again. The disgusting taste of vomit was still in her mouth. She frowned.
“Here,” Sebastian said, offering her a glass of water. “Just take one small sip. You don’t want to irritate your stomach again.”
She did as he told her. She took one small sip, then gave him back the glass. She didn’t know what was happening and she hated the feeling.
“What’s going on here?” she asked, suddenly feeling afraid. “Have you both been lying to me all this time?”
“No, no,” Amelie was quick to assure her. “We just haven’t told you everything, so you are confused, and it’s understandable. If you’ll allow me to continue with my story, it will all become clear.”
Eva eyed them both for a second, but then, realizing she couldn’t run away even if she wanted to, she adhered. Amelie opened the photo album again, showing the same photo from before.
“Some time after this photo was taken, Rannulf started acting oddly. I found small animals drained of blood but at first I thought someone just didn’t clean up after themselves. Then, I realized that someone was storing this blood and in very large quantities. It would have to come from thousands and thousands of rabbits, or…” she paused, allowing Eva and Sebastian to make their conclusions.
“People?” Eva asked.
“Unfortunately, yes. You see, we don’t do that. We need very little blood to survive for a very long time. There is no need to kill for future. We never allowed that at the institute. Of course, there was an investigation, and Sorwyce and I found out, to our horror, that it was Rannulf’s doing. We tried talking, we tried forbidding him from doing it, but nothing worked. He seemed to have turned evil somehow. If that makes any sense. Douxora came to me one evening, with a notebook he found in Rannulf’s room. It was an ancient book on demonology. We had those at the library. I thought he was just interested in that. It was just a phase. He would outgrow it. Several months later, we found three Halflings dead, positioned in some kind of a ritualistic circle, with blood offerings to a demon named Xol’gorog. Sorwyce and I were devastated. We knew immediately who it was but we couldn’t allow our own son to be killed. For they surely would have killed him. So, we said we didn’t know who it was. Maybe some animal in the woods. We never allowed anyone to see the ritualistic part of the murder. We hid the blood, spilled it all over the woods, and hid the bodies in different places so they would be easily found, but it might look like an animal got hold of them and killed them. The official explanation we offered was accepted and life went on. But, Sorwyce was never the same again. Neither was I. We knew we couldn’t trust Rannulf. He was becoming increasingly dangerous. He pushed Douxora down a cliff when he thought no one was looking. Not even Douxora saw him but he claimed that no one else was there and we believed him. We realized that Rannulf had summoned that demon, Xol’gorog, and he was under his protection and influence, even before the actual summoning and sacrifice. Xol’gorog needs blood and that is how he infects the host. He’s like a disease. But, what he does is he mutates the host’s body from the inside, making it thirst for more blood. Then, more and more of us started disappearing. More and more Halflings, too. We had an invisible enemy who had infiltrated our own lines, and was killing us off, one by one. This is why Sorwyce disappeared. Rannulf tried to kill him. He attacked him, wanting the position of the Headmaster, knowing how powerful it was. Sorwyce fought him off, but Rannulf didn’t manage to kill him. Sorwyce escaped and the official story Rannulf gave was that his father had simply vanished. They all believed it, of course. I pretended to believe it myself. Douxora knew something was wrong but he couldn’t prove anything. Some time later, Rannulf got the position but Douxora wouldn’t agree and, now, we have two academies, as you know.”
“Does Douxora know Sorwyce is alive?” Eva asked.
“Of course,” Amelie nodded. “We’ve been preparing for a long time now but I feel we’re still not ready to attack him and, after all, he is my child, I don’t want to hurt him.”
“Is there a way to make Xol’gorog go back where he came from?” Eva asked again.
“Yes, but it is very difficult. Also, we don’t know if Rannulf would ever change back.”
Eva could hear sobs and her heart ached for this woman who had lived several lifetimes, not one of them happily. She knew she needed to help her in any way she could.
