"Kai! Are you alright? That must've been horrible to endure. It was disgusting to hear about. The way they talk about people just for gossip." Els frowned."It's disrespectful. They're just pissed that they couldn't get close to Drew Ozera the way you could." Roxy scoffed."If I was you I would've beaten them. But since I'm not, so I can't." Ingrid pouted."Those guys aren't worth half my time." I waved nonchalantly. "Besides, I'd rather not get detention on my first proper day at this school. I should at least attempt to make Guardian Maxwell's job manageable.""I bet you could've taken them all on. That would've put them in line for sure." Ingrid huffed."It's because I'm new. It's alright though, I'll deal somehow." I shrugged. Although I said that, I had no idea how I was going to put up with it. It was no doubt only going to get worse. "And besides, if I took them all on, they'll all be missing out on class tomorrow. Personally I think of that as being a blessing rather than puni
I knocked on his office door politely three times before waiting patiently."Come in," he called and I walked in casually. I noticed that he was preoccupied with a phone call so I simply sat on one of the chairs to wait. After around five minutes he finally hung up looking a little tired."Difficult caller?" I asked with concern."Yeah, far too many complaints," he sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "So how are you settling in so far Kai? I didn't expect to see you so soon.""Don't worry Martin, I'm not here to complain." I laughed. "As for the settling in, well I'm doing a lot better than I thought I would. Some of the people here are really nice.""I've heard from Joe that you seem to have gotten along with McCarthy, O'Reilly and French.""They are really kind and accepting. They don't push for answers when I'm reluctant in answering and I really appreciate that." I smiled softly."You also seem to be more skilled than I could've possibly expected. Beating the four royal b
"Hey Kylie, are you sure you're feeling okay? You know you woke up pretty much everyone in the entire school with that lousy scream of yours?" one of the girls sneered. Probably a Moroi, I wasn't sure since I wasn't really looking. I was specifically ignoring them to avoid any unnecessary violent accidents.Deep breaths Kai, you don't want to get into a fight with people you could crush in less than five seconds. I warned myself. I recited the mantra a few times before plastering a casual nonchalant smile on my face."Oh and Ingrid, hanging around her won't help you pass combat class, you know?" she taunted further and I saw Ingrid's expression change from a cheerful smile to discomfort. I realised that she probably wasn't bold enough to back chat the bitch but I sure as hell was."Sorry but, who are you?" I asked with a hand on my hip. I made sure to make my voice light and casual with a hint of spite. Truth be told, I had absolutely no idea. I couldn't really remember most people at
It seemed that I wasn't totally unlucky today because I managed to avoid anyone in my year and found a patrolling Guardian to ask for help. I took a cautious survey around me before leaving the shadows and running up to the Guardian."Um… hi, I'm doing this wacky exercise as part of training and I was wondering whether you could tell me where I might find the people on this list." I ask him and handed him the aforementioned list."Ah, you must be one of the ones being chased. Guardian Maxwell did mention something about an entire year group having a chase," he chuckled."Yes, he decided to drop the bombshell five minutes before the chase." I grumbled. "When I headed to practice today, I definitely was not anticipating to be chased by the majority of my year.""He left it until the last second? Wow that's unfortunate. What's the prize?""Skipping out on the assault course on Saturday and laps." I sighed."No wonder they're going all out, most people don't like the course.""It can't be
He seemed to take a deep breath before letting it out. "That day of the attack six years ago, one of the best Guardians died along with the last surviving Moroi Ivashkov.""Ivashkov is one of the royal names right?""Right. That was one of the things that made me realise, just having dhampirs fight won't be enough. They might be generally built to be physically stronger, but it didn't have to be like that. That day, I watched from my window as some of the senior Moroi fought alongside dhampirs to take down Strigoi. It was what made me realise that even though sustaining royal lines was an important thing, fighting with the dhampirs instead of standing there and doing nothing while they risked their lives is even more important and would increase the chances of both the survival of Moroi and dhampirs. So after that attack and everything calmed down enough for us to attend classes again, I switched courses and took on combat class with the dhampirs. At first I was on my own but then a c
One way or another I managed to find my way back and for some reason I felt lighter. I felt as though a weight had been lifted from my chest. I suspected that it had something to do with the fact that I was reconnected with Ali. When I first left the school and made life for myself out there, Ali was one of the people that I had missed the most, because he was always there for me. It was easiest for him to be there for me a lot of the time because he wasn't weighed down by other duties unlike everyone else who had a job to do. And there had been times when it was easier for me to talk to Ali because he wasn't an adult yet. In my eyes, he was still a fellow kid of some sort. Now that I thought about it, it had been completely ridiculous that I thought that, but it made me open up to him so much. Losing such a person after I left the academy broke my heart and it took me so long to adjust without all those people around me anymore.I remembered that each time I needed a dose of confiden
The rest of lunch passed by with random comments from people I didn't really know about the challenge today and they congratulated me on my win as well as the other four who took part as victims being chased. It was the maddest game of cops and robbers I'd ever played but I had to admit that it was pretty entertaining. Somehow, I had a slight hunch that the game was also a way of taking a look at what our team work could be like. It was an obscure way to test it, but there had been times when team work was necessary. Like the group fights that I was involved in on two occasions and it seemed like Drew was too since Jackson mentioned both of us saving their asses at some point. And then there was that stunt at the end to win the game.Team work was also important for those trying to catch us. The first part was to try and find us, even harder part was to capture us. That would've required much more than simple head on fighting. It would've required strategy to try and create a way to c
On my way back, I passed several Guardians who sent me sympathetic glances. No doubt word of what had happened had spread like hellfire through the academy and it was apparent that most people here knew of it. It was even worse of a scandal because it involved a royal. Whether she was of high status or not, this kind of event would definitely attract attention. Well, technically speaking, it involved two royals since I was one too regardless of the fact that I was a dhampir because I was literally the last of my family. And then there was also the fact that the four royal boys had joined in too half way through to prevent my face from being slashed by the knife that she had held.A deep part of me wanted to run through the halls as fast as I could back to the dorms so that I could shut myself away. Then I remembered that that was how I used to react to these kinds of situations. But through the years, I've learned that it was definitely better to keep my head up and not to show fear o