The elf gives me a sympathetic look before standing and leaving. It takes me a few minutes to gather my thoughts. By the time I climb to my feet, I’m the only one left in the classroom. The others have all departed, but why haven’t more students come in?
I grab my schedule from where I stashed it in my boot. Oh. Duh. There are only five courses in a day. I'm free. None of the mentors or master gave any real homework, although I suppose lifting weights in the gym could be considered homework for Weapons Training 101.
There’s also no textbooks, either, which annoys me. I would love to be able to read up about witches and hunters and even the past evil guys. Are we going to be expected to take notes? Will there be tests? Essays? I doubt either will be necessary for Weapons Training. Then again, I can see Master Vanhylde giving us a test on which weapons to use on which creatures.
My head swimming, I leave the building and glance around. Everyone seems to know where to go, what to do, but once again, I feel clueless.
Just then, Calli appears beside me. I jerk.
“I’m sorry,” she murmurs. “I sometimes forget my speed.”
“No, no, you’re fine.”
She locks our arms together and starts to walk. “How was your first day?”
“Ah…”
“In one word.”
“Oh.” I think for a few seconds. “Interesting.”
“Good interesting or bad?”
“Both?”
Calli laughs and lays her head on my shoulder. “I wish we had some classes together. I could tell how nervous you were this morning, and you’re still uptight now.”
“Am I that obvious?” I wrinkle my nose. Over the years, I’ve gotten good at hiding my emotions, or at least I thought I had.
“It’s a vampire thing. Well, not all vampires but some. I can sense emotions, feed off them in addition to the blood I have to drink.”
“So, like an energy-feeding vampire.”
Calli pulls away and huffs. “I prefer psychic vampire,” she says, sniffling and sounding insulted until she giggles.
“You aren’t at all like how I pictured a real vampire to be. No offense.”
“Why? Because I’m not a goth? Don’t wear all black? Don’t brood and hang around shadows?”
“Or hang upside down from trees.”
She grins and runs her free hand through her blond hair. “Why can’t I want to look like this?”
“There’s no reason why you can’t,” I assure her.
“It’s actually my natural hair color,” she says.
“Really?”
She nods. “You dyed your hair black before coming here. Why?”
“To fit in. So people would stop asking me questions.” I shrug.
“But your natural hair coloring is so beautiful.”
“It makes me stand out.”
“Why isn’t that a good thing?”
She unlinks our arms and stops walking. By now, we’ve covered enough ground that I know we’re headed back to our cabin.
“Don’t get me wrong. Other vampires don’t understand why I wear so much makeup. They think I can’t accept that I’m a vampire. Just because I don’t want to walk around with gray skin tone doesn’t mean I don’t know and recognize who I am. I want to look like this for me, not anyone else. Not for the other vampires, not for some boy. For me.”
“That’s all that matters,” I say.
“Plus… not that I ever drink from the source, but I would imagine looking like this, I could get a lot closer to humans than if I didn’t wear makeup.”
“I never wear makeup.”
She gaps. “Never? Why not?”
“Makeup is expensive. I’m poor. Easy math.”
“I can give you a makeover if you want.”
“No thanks. I’m happy with how I look.”
“Red hair and all?” she asks, relinking our arms.
“Red hair and all.”
Calli starts to talk about her classes, but even though our talk has eased my mind somewhat, I’m still overwhelmed. By the time we enter our room, my head is spinning.
A few other girls including the black-haired vampire from earlier pop in and out of the room, all talking and laughing easily. Their camaraderie has me feeling out of place. They’re all friends already, and while I only had one friend before—Valerie—I almost feel as if I need a ton of friends here if I’m going to make it.
“Want to come to dinner?” Calli asks.
I hesitate and then shake my head. I know I think I need friends, but right now, at this minute, I don’t know if I can handle more looks, more whispers, more questions about how today went.
“Are you sure?” Calli presses.
“I’m sure.”
"Okay." Calli stands there a moment as if considering something and then gives me a hug. "I'll see you later."
I nod and then call out, “How can you walk in the sun?”
“My father’s a demon, remember? Demons can walk wherever the hell they want.” She winks. “I’ll age like a normal human until about twenty, twenty-five or so, and then my growth will slow tremendously. Vampires created through bites can live forever unless killed. Vampires created through vampires and incubus, well, I can live for centuries potentially.”
“Oh, wow.”
“I know you’ll have a lot of questions. Never think you can’t ask me anything. I know a lot, and I’m willing to share. I like to talk.” Calli flashes a fang-filled smile and wiggles her fingers. “Later.”
Most everyone leaves with Calli, and within five minutes, I seem to have the cottage to myself. I glance out the door to the hallway. No one is there, and I shut the door to the room. Most people would hate to share a room with five other girls, but I don’t mind. Five is a lot fewer than the number in my previous bedroom at the orphanage.
Valerie. How is she doing? I wish she would get adopted or at least placed with a foster family, a good one, but at her age, it’s unlikely. We’ve both accepted that a long time ago, but we also thought we would always have each other… until we turned eighteen. Then, who knew? Neither of us figured out our futures. I have a clear enough path ahead of me now because of this school, but Valerie… I feel like I’ve abandoned her, and that just isn’t right. It’s not as if she has a cell phone so I can call her. We do have emails, but that just seems kinda impersonal. I don’t know. Snail mail is out. I don’t want to risk anyone else reading whatever I decide to tell Valerie.
But if I know my friend, and if I could be willing to tell her the truth about what I am, I know exactly what she would tell me.
“Why aren’t you practicing your magic? Become the badass witch you were always meant to be!”
I grin, blinking back tears. I heard her voice clear as day in my head.
Now, I’m not sure I was ever meant to be a badass witch, but why can’t I practice my magic?
I am not willing to try necromancy again. I almost managed to fly earlier. Well, hovering in the air has to be a start. What kind of magic would flying fall under anyhow? Grr. I really wish I had a textbook! Maybe the academy has a library somewhere.
For now, though, I’m on my own.
I close my eyes and will myself to hover in the air. I even try to jump a few times, but that doesn’t result in anything but gravity exerting its force on me to bring me back down again.
My frustration grows, and I try to funnel that into my magic, to use that to fly, but that doesn’t work. Nothing is working.
Hmm. Peter Pan flies because of fairy dust and happy thoughts. Whenever I’ve used magic in the past, I’ve always tapped into my emotions, the darker ones, but maybe I can use a strong emotion of any kind.
The thing is, I don’t have a lot of happy memories or thoughts to draw on.
That realization has me even more frustrated, and I lie down on the oval rug between the two sets of triple bunk beds. I stare at the ceiling and run through my head the list of magics.
Nothing really speaks to me, though, and I roll over. My gaze falls onto the unlit candle resting in a brass holder on the nightstand between the beds.
Hmm. Elemental magic. Fire. I’ve never attempted to do anything with fire before, so I’ll most likely fail. Still, I’m bored and eager to try just about anything.
I sit up and hold my hand out toward the candle. In my mind, I picture a roaring fire. Nah, not realistic. A regular-sized flame. Still too much. A spark. Just a simple spark. Nothing too big.
And… nothing happens.
Flaring my nostrils, I stand, march over to the nightstand, and use one of the matches lying on top to light the candle.
Maybe I can do something with fire that’s already there instead of conjuring it out of thin air.
My hand hovers above the flame, slowly lowering until I can feel the heat without touching the actual fire itself. That heat I draw into myself, or at least I try to, and my eyes close. More heat, more, more…
My hand stings, burning, and my eyes fly open. My hand hasn’t lowered to touch the candle’s flame. No. My hand is well above it.
My burning hand.
My hand that looks like a ball of fire.
Panicking, I shake my hand, trying to fan the flames, and as easily as they appeared, the flames dissipate. My hand stings, and the palm is red, but there are no blisters, no burn marks, and I breathe a sigh of relief.
“What smells like it was burning?” Calli asks from the doorway.
I glance over at her sheepishly. “Oh, I just lit the candle… What’s that?”
“I brought you some dinner. You aren’t going to not eat.” She holds out the tray with a covered dish. “I wasn’t sure what you like so I got you a little of everything… pork knuckle roasted in beer, roast beef with cranberry sauce, coal burner’s dish…”
“What’s that?” I ask.
“What’s that?” she counters, nodding toward my hand.
“Ah…”
“It’s potato with pastries and ground pepper.” The look the vampire gives me screams, “Your turn.”
“I was trying to figure out how to use my magic,” I mumble.
Calli beams. “Oh, don’t worry about that. I might be able to find someone to help you with that.”