Lunar's Curse

Even then I was lucky.

Xavier and Rina were bloated, courtesy to some poor schmuck in the Cattle Farm pens. They decided to do something a little more 'entertaining' in their words.

Maybe my Djamphir powers would snap awake when I was in mortal peril. That had to be how it worked. It always worked like that. I kept convincing myself of this as Xavier led me away from the front doors and down corridors near my temporary room. Rina followed closely behind me, eyes always aware.

I passed by my room and Quatan found it was the perfect time to open his door to do who knows what. He opened his mouth to say something when he caught sight of me but stopped abruptly upon seeing Xavier and Rina.

“What's this about?” he asked Xavier in that arrogant I-couldn't-care-less flippant way. But I could see by the way his eyes darted towards me that he was worried.

Then, the most surprising thing happened. I heard Quatan's voice echoing around in my head:

Myra? Need some help?

I looked at him but his lips hadn't moved. Xavier and Rina hadn't seemed to have heard him at all. Quatan winked at me and said again in my head: comes with being supernatural.

I managed a small smile. “It's okay Quatan.” I know what I'm getting into. Don't worry about me, I added silently, not concentrating at all and wondering if my Djamphir skills could do that.

They couldn't but I could see that Quatan understood anyways. He nodded and said again in my head: I'll find the portal while Xavier and that girl is distracted.

“Are you done staring at each other?” Rina hissed impatiently, prodding me sharply with her nails. “You humans can be so silly with affections.”

Affections? Though Rina probably didn't mean what she said, my cheeks turned red and Quatan looked a little sheepish. Turning back into his room, he shut the door. Another voice entered my head but it wasn't Quatan. In fact, it was a raspy, familiar voice.

You think you can steal my precious Quatan away from me? Eternal's voice was no longer careless when she was talking about Quatan. In fact, she sounded furious. Added to that, I had no idea how she could speak outside of the room. Wasn't her essence or whatever she was stuck in that particular room?

Apparently, Eternal had access to my thoughts because she started to tsk at me. Oh Myra, how innocent and naive you can be. I am no longer in physical existence but I am what runs Seul Âme itself. Without me, the night creatures would crumble under the sunlight and cease to exist. I am the essence that runs this castle. I am eternal! If I cease to exist then the age of eternal darkness will come to an end and the sun will see it fit to rise again.

Something went off in my head. If I destroyed Eternal somehow then the mansion would collapse. Not only that but if Eternal was the reason that Seul Âme in eternal darkness then if she was destroyed, the sun would rise again... And destroy the Vampires.

Eternal, hearing my thoughts, hissed. The loud sibilant sound resonated in my head so much that I clamped my hands around my ears-thinking it would be able to soften the sound.

Think you'll be able to stop me? No, I do what I want and you will not destroy this world that I have built! I will have none of it!

Her voice seemed to multiply and louden to a raucous shriek. I crumpled on the ground, holding my ears, and gritting my teeth, the sound causing my minor headache from this morning to worsen.

Sharp fingers dung into my skin, nearly drawing blood and the shrieking in my head lessened with the physical pain I was feeling. I whimpered in relief, wishing that I had a razor so I could distract myself from the inner pain by causing physical pain. I looked up to see Rina's eyes staring furiously at me. Her lips move but I couldn't hear her through Eternal's shrieking. Rina jerked me up and then slapped me right across the face.

I would have been embarrassed at that but now I just felt relieved. The stinging pain seemed to get rid of Eternal's shrieking and I was only left with a remnant of the killer headache she had been giving me. Still, headaches were not fun. I groaned, leaning my head against a wall, trying to wait out the squeezing pain in my head.

“Stupid human,” Rina hissed at me, jerking me from the wall. “Get a move on.”

Xavier said nothing about this and we continued walking along our path to who knows where. The headache was now fading and Eternal wasn't speaking anymore which was a relief. I didn't want that Lamia in my head. The rest of the walk was (to my relief) silent.

Finally, we seemed to have reached the very back of the mansion. The corridors looked exactly like the rest and the doors at the back seemed exactly like the front. This made me wonder, was this actually the front doors? Had I been at the back doors the entire time?

The only difference was that there were guards posted on either side of the large doors. They bowed to Xavier and Rina and ignored me completely. Then they opened the doors for us to walk through. The moment the doors opened, I knew that this was not the front of the mansion. There was another set of corridors in front of us.

Rina nearly shoved me through the doors as we walked onwards. I turned to look at her and she glowered at me until I turned away again. Even then I was sure that she was still glowering at me.

Now the corridors had large one-panelled glass windows on either side of the corridors. The windows showed the perpetual twilight outside and I shivered. The whole night thing was beginning to get on my nerves. I wanted sunlight, not moonlight. The walls were now painted an immaculate white that hurt my eyes when I looked at it for longer than a few seconds. Instead of a red carpet, the floor was now made of light hardwood. There were different colour doors on either side of the walls between the windows from time to time but Xavier never entered any of them. The hallways were nearly as labyrinthine as the ones with the beige walls.

“Where are we?” I asked to no one in particular.

Rina laughed—a high-pitched sardonic laugh that sent icy shivers down my spine. “Vampire school.”

My eyes widened. There were schools for creatures like Vampires? School? Were there schools for the wolfen too? What did they teach? The art of killing a human? I got the feeling that I didn't want to know.

“We are going to...what you call the 'auditorium',” Xavier said, speaking for the first time since our walk through his mansion.

Before he could say anything else, we turned a corner and was greeted by the sight of wooden double doors. Squinting, I realized that there were intricate swirls carved into both doors by a masterful person.

Other than the unique 'rich-school' design, it looked perfectly normal and very un-Vampire-like. Walking in, there was a gallery hanging overhead and a stage at the very end of the auditorium. It was dimly lit by many odd torches with artificial fire on either side. The seats were a plush deep red that reminded me of the carpeting on Xavier's mansion. The white wall behind the stage was lit up by the projector. There was a teenage boy who looked no older than me bent over the machine, working on it.

Maybe he was human too! But I lost hope as soon as it came—his skin was too pale to be human. He was a Vampire. And oblivious to our presence until Xavier cleared his throat. The boy looked up from the projector immediately. “Oh!” He sank to his knees and bowed his head. “Prince Xavier! Princess Rina!”

Rina was a princess? But that shouldn't have come as a surprise seeing as she was Xavier's fiancée. I glanced over at her; she was wearing a smug expression while she watched the boy. Finally, he stood up and his gaze fixed on me. A look of confusion crossed his features as he stared at me.

Xavier cleared his throat again.

The boy's eyes shifted away from me and back to Xavier. “Yes Prince, how may I be of service? We are doing the mandatory slide show for all Year One students today.”

“Good,” Xavier said, nodding. “A front row seat for us, I suppose?”

“You're watching it? Oh—I—” He looked at the ground, seeming utterly flustered. “Of course,” he said and led us to the seats in front of the projector. I ended up right beside the Vampire boy because Rina instantly took the other seat beside Xavier, leaving me near the boy.

“The students will be arriving soon,” the boy informed us as he continued to fix up the projector. “You won't have to wait very long.” True to his word, teenaged Vampires began to stream into the auditorium as soon as he finished his sentence. From afar, they looked like normal academy students. All of them wore a white collared shirt with a blue vest over. Females wore short blue skirts and tights while males wore black sweat pants. They all had flat-soled black sneakers.

The students came in dozens with no teacher in sight, all chatting and laughing like all normal students. I could feel the energy of the unrestrained students in the air but they were all so...orderly. There was no one leading them and none of them were complaining. That was what tipped me off in the beginning. Other than that, all the students were completely pale. There was no other varying shades in their complexion. They all had the same pale skin. It was so unnatural. Their truly vampiric side showed when a boy leaned closer to a girl, his sharp fangs exposed. The girl shrieked with laughter but I felt nauseous at the sight.

The fangs he showed were like very sharp teeth if you ignored the fact that they only grew on the tops of either end of his mouth and that they went just below his lower lip. It was utterly revolting.

“What did you bring me here for?” I whispered to Xavier, feeling like I was about to throw up. Were they all here to prey on me or something horrible like that? No, please no.

“I am proving a point,” said Xavier simply, emotion undetectable in his impassive tone.

All the other Vampires looked teenaged. In fact, so many other Vampires I had seen were teenagers. Once they had all settled down, the boy who had talked to Xavier earlier stepped onto the stage and tapped into the microphone a few times. Utter unnatural silence fell across the crowd. This couldn't be a human school because all eyes were on him. Everyone was so focused that it felt completely unnatural.

“Hello and welcome Year Ones. As you may have heard from older siblings or a family member, you will begin your first day after this slide show. I'm Evan, you may be seeing me around the school once in a while.” He smiled, showing dimples on either side and did a little bow. My heart started pounding with lust from looking at him. He was so handsome. Justine would have been drooling all over him if she was here.

Perfection, a voice whispered and I thought back to that conversation with Xavier. The Vampires' faces were all free of unsightly scar or blemishes that would take away from their appearances. They were like those airbrushed celebrities in magazines Justine would read.

“First, we will begin with a little history.” The slides moved but I wasn't looking at them. I was still look at Evan's face, unable to keep my eyes off him.

“You must all know about the first Lamia? If you don't, you might as well leave.” Evan smiled and the students laughed unanimously and settled down just as quick as before.

“So let me begin with why the Catlins are in rule now as we also have a special guest ourselves.” Evan motioned to Xavier. Xavier stood up when Evan motioned to them and the students gasped. Rina, not wanting to be outdone, stood up along with him too. They had their five minutes of glory before Evan continued and they sat down again.

“Faye Lamia,” Evan announced and I felt a jolt of recognition at the name. “She was the last Lamia Princess and Queen. Her mother and father had both died in an accident with a powerful Sorcerer and Faye was the last of her bloodline.”

Bloodline. Last. Lamia. All these words struck a bell in my head. Why did this sound all too familiar? There was also a sickening feeling in my stomach as I repeated the words over again. Gathering courage, I looked up at the slide show. A red haired girl was scowling from the slide, a violin held beneath her chin. Her hair was the same shade as mine and her defiant green eyes were so emerald that they had to be unnatural.

Her face, her eyes, her nose, her mouth—she looked almost exactly like someone I saw every time I looked in the mirror: myself. My heart crawled up to my throat and stayed there as I stared at the screen, holding my breath.

“As you know, the Lamia bloodline produces extremely powerful Vampires. One day, she was assigned the duty of dealing with the son of the Sorcerer who killed her parents. This Sorcerer's name was Lynton.”

Lynton. My grandmother had said that name before. My heart was pounding so hard that I was sure everyone could hear it and I felt like I couldn't breath at all. My arms and legs were frozen—from what, I didn't know. Fear? Maybe.

“Unlike the rest of us, the Lamia have produced children with human blemishes; some of them contain the ability to love.” Evan let that word hang in the air and there were gasps and noises of disgust from the students. Personally, I didn't think love was such a horrible attribute but these were Vampires so it was to be expected.

“Letting them bond was not a great idea and they fell in love. The honourable Marquis Catlin found out and ordered her exile at once. They couldn't have a corrupted Queen or heir. But when they left Seul Âme did they realize their grave mistake. If Faye and Lynton were to ever have a child, it would be the most powerful Djamphir Seul Âme will ever see. This Djamphir would even have the ability to hide from Vampires and wolfen alike until they reach the age of seventeen; the blooming age. The Huntsmen were sent to kill her and fortunately, they succeeded.”

There were sounds of relief from the students but I felt as if my breath had been snatched away from me. No, it wasn't possible. I couldn't be. No...

Faye and Lynton were my parents.

And I was the Djamphir they were talking about.

Suddenly, I felt too cramped in this place and my breaths were too shallow. If Evan really was right about the Djamphir, then I had to get out of here before anyone figured out. They wouldn't be slow to cut me down if they thought I was dangerous.

“Now we will continue with creatures of this Realm. We'll start with Djamphirs. They are basically Vampires who are living, do not need to feed on blood and are not afraid of sunlight. The Djamphir race is not part of the night creatures' category and will not perish if Seul Âme sunlight ever rises.”

There were murmurs of unease amongst the students; a lot of them were paler than usual at the mention of sunlight.

“Seul Âme sunlight is nothing to joke about,” Evan said gravely as a picture of a bright, vivid sun showed on the screen. There were strangled cries from the students at the picture as if they expected to burst into flames at any moment.

“Seul Âme sunlight has a mind of its' own. It seeks to destroy every standing night creature. Even wolfen, who can stand the touch of sunlight but not silver, will be destroy by the rays of this deadly sun. There is no hiding from it; it will find you. Not even the strongest potions from the Medice can help. This is entirely different from the weaker Light Realm, which is the only realm that humans are aware of, sunlight.”

Louder distressed murmurs went through the students but Evan cleared his throat and they were silent once more.

“But the sun has not risen for quite a while and it's pretty doubtful that it ever will again. Before we learn briefly about our own abilities, we will skim the topic of other denizens of Seul Âme.

“In the Cattle Farms dwell humans and all the Djamphir in his world. As you may know, Djamphir are brutally dangerous so we drain them of blood. Once a Djamphir has lost enough blood, their Vampire advantages will be gone and they will be as harmless as humans.

“We move on to the Witches and Sorcerers. Like Djamphirs, they are almost alike to us. Except most of these only have elemental powers and simple spells—not extended strength or speed or Vampire Perfection that lusty humans crave.

“You should all know what the wolfen are now. They're a little like us minus the perfection gene and the wolf part, of course.”

There were snickers from the crowd and I realized what this presentation was all about—getting rivalries and loyalties in their heads. I wondered if any of them had thoughts of their own. They had to—they were rebellious teenagers after all.

Or were they?

“Finally, we reach the real Seul Âmes. They are usually just called the Âme. Humans decipher these creatures as 'soul reapers'. This is not as far-fetched as it seemed. They wear black cowls as to symbolize their tie to our Realm and hold a scythe to finally separate the fine line connecting the human soul to the body.”

The slide show projected a red haired girl with green eyes that looked the exact same shade as mine. She looked a little like Faye, which is to say, a lot like me.

But this wasn't Faye. I've seen this girl before and her name was Mel, the soul reaper, or Âme that appeared in my dreams.

“This is not Faye,” Evan said to the whispers of surprise. “Her name is Mel and her story isn't very concerning though I will briefly go over it as it connected to the Lamia bloodline. After showing mercy to the dying Prince Quatan Catlin, which an Âme is never supposed to do, she was sentenced to a millennium of Hell before she would be reborn into the line of the Lamia. It's quite possible that she became Faye since the Lamia line is already extinguished.”

I was suddenly very glad that Xavier had not paid attention to the attendance list where my last name was written. I would have been dead if Xavier and Alex had been less arrogant to take the time to find out about me.

“The Âme are regular humans from the Light Realm who have died a violent death in the hands of another human. Upon their death, they become Âme. Finally, we move on to our last and most superior denizen: Vampires.”

There were giggles and appreciative hoots from the students but as soon as Evan started to talk again, they were all silent.

“One of the most obvious factors of Vampires is age. We pick which age we want to look. I look like a teenage boy,” Evan motioned towards himself. “And so do most of you. Yet, you are only six in human years.”

Six? They were only six? Some of them looked older than me!

“I am a hundred and seven in human age—a teenager in Vampire age,” Evan said, smiling coyly.

My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. One hundred and seven? Now he didn't seem so appealing any more. I felt like throwing up in my mouth.

“Moving on, we will briefly touch on what you will be learning here. First off, Ones such as you will learn about the physical extensions of a Vampire. Twos will do more academic work; history and human subjects that we find somewhat useful to teach. Here, the path to become a Medice will be open to any students.”

There was excited whispers among the students when this was mentioned—especially among the female students. Evan cleared his throat and the chatter stopped. “Threes will learn of mental skills such as persuasion and manipulation. For your fourth year through fifteenth, you will continue the study of human and expand your skills. At the end of your fifteenth year, you will drink a special concoction from the Medice and go to the human world—the Light Realm. There you will be immune to their sunlight and feed on as many humans as you like.”

A tumultuous cheer rang all around me and I shuddered, trying not to get sick all over the floor.

“One more thing,” Evan said, still smiling, “a very rare power of a Vampire is to see into the past. Whether this be hours or days, they can peer into the past of what happened in the very area they are standing in. This gift is so rare that it is not even a Vampire gift anymore.”

The students were silent again as Evan continued. “If you are to see anyone doing this—report immediately. I cannot stress this enough. They will have a golden shimmer around them as they do this. This ability is only found in Djamphirs and as you know, all Djamphirs should be killed on the spot if seen out of the Cattle Farm.”