Night School

Altercation

Nicholas


If Delilah was going to survive here at the school, then she was going to need to toughen up very quickly. If not, this place would break her, vampires could smell fear after all. However, Nicholas knew this wasn’t entirely true, she had the oldest and strongest non-council member vampire ensuring that she wasn’t killed in one of the dark, winding corridors. Nicholas had no real interest in ensuring her survival but he very much liked being alive and as such needed her to do the same. But then, if he kept her alive then there was the matter of his impending ‘Council Internship’ as he’d begun to call it. He didn’t trust Aubrey or her potential intentions in the slightest. Especially since there wasn’t currently a position available on the Council, nor did Council members often die; leading Nicholas to believe that she planned to assassinate one of the members and replace them with someone loyal to her. He moved to sit up and realised that Eva had decided to stay in his room after last night.

Nicholas roughly pushed her off him, causing her to stir. “You know I don’t like you staying in here.”

“But she moves so much. I can’t listen to her sleep without my head being done in,” she sleepily retorted. He begrudgingly nodded in agreement, humans were very loud and fidgety compared to them.

“Well then sleep on the couch or make her sleep there, you don’t get to waltz on in here.”

Eva gave a cheeky grin before brushing her lips against his neck. “But you love it when I do.”

His body shuddered at her touch. He did enjoy her company, but that didn’t give her carte blanch to invade his private space. “We have to leave soon, get out and get ready.”

Eva climbed out of bed and pulled on her sheer nightgown, which would probably not go down well with their new flatmate. “So what is happening today with this breather?”

“Nothing. We’re going to go about our day as normal, everyone should be good to her because they’ll be wanting to pass the test and leave.” That’s what Nicholas was hoping for anyway.

“Fair enough. Will you be watching her?”

He couldn’t tell her of his mission from the council for fear that she’d share the story around and cause him to have a target on his back, murdering others to further one’s own position wasn’t exactly frowned upon; so, he tried to steer the conversation away from the topic. “Surely that’s not jealousy I hear in your voice.”

Eva raised an eyebrow. “Surely it is not. It’s not as though we are dating.”

“No, no we are not. Hence why you have no business being in my room, now out.” He opened the door for her and this time she left, running her hand delicately across his chest as she did.

Nicholas rolled his eyes and closed the door behind her, already irritated before his day had begun. He got dressed and drunk a bag of blood as quickly as possible without spilling it down his front. Sated at least and with little time to get Delilah to her class and more importantly to the vampires who were to test themselves, he walked out into the loungeroom. "Delilah you better be ready."

She walked out from the bathroom, hair slightly damp and eyes red. “I am,” she replied, sounding tired.

"Crying like a child isn't going to get you anywhere so I suggest you either buy a bottle of strong eyedrops or toughen up." And he sounded just like his father. He quickly pushed that thought away and instead properly looked at her, to weigh up how difficult keeping them both alive would be. There was nothing too extravagant about her; she had long, brown hair that was tied into a bun, bright green eyes and fair skin not unlike our own. Her clothes were average as well; a silver bangle, ripped jean, a loose white top and sandals. The only semi-remarkable aspect of her was that he could feel, what he could best describe as, a slight pull towards her. As if there a rope tied around his waist that was connected to her, it was neither taunt nor obvious but it was most definitely there.

Delilah looked taken aback. “Why are you so hostile?” she asked whilst avoiding looking into his eyes.

Because weakness would get her, and more importantly him, killed. “Because I am not your family or your friend. I have no interest in holding your hand whilst you make this oh so difficult transition away from mummy and would rather you be capable of dealing with the world without my help as soon as possible.”

“But we’re just roommates. I didn’t ask for this,” she replied softly, beginning to tear up again.

Nicholas rolled his eyes but dropped the conversation. Instead he held the front door open for her and said in a softer tone, “Come on, we’ll be late.”

Delilah took a deep breath and walked through, thanking him as she stepped through the door with Eva following behind. The three walked in silence through the corridors, after several minutes Eva turned down a different set of stairs as she attended a blissfully human-free class.

“So… what can I expect today?” Delilah asked, looking around at the other students as they passed.

Don’t cut herself. Run as quickly as she could. Don’t get him killed. “Don’t talk to anyone who doesn’t talk to you first, some people can be a bit funny about things like that. If you’re very polite then everything should be fine.”

“I can do that. Hey, did it take you long to get adjusted to sleeping during the day? I’m exhausted.”

When he’d turned, Nicholas wasn’t sure if he’d slept for those first several years. “It took me a little while yeah but it just doesn’t make sense to be about during the day here. Surely you can feel how warm it is even now at 9 o’clock at night, you’d just burn during the day.” Nicholas kept his laughter at his own joke to himself.

Delilah nodded. “I did notice it was hot while I was trying to sleep. It didn’t seem that bad though.”

“Shut it, the classroom is just down this corridor.” They turned right and Nicholas held himself tall despite the burn of so many vampire eyes staring at them.

“Can we sit together?” Delilah asked softly, looking nervous as ever. However, what she didn’t realise is that they could all hear her loud and clear regardless of how quietly she spoke.

A red-headed vampire whom Nicholas greatly disliked stepped forward with a fake smile plastered across his face. “Nick!” Nicholas glared at him. “How’re you doing, mate?” He didn’t bother to wait for the response that Nicholas wasn’t going to give. Instead the red-head turned his attention to Delilah. “Lovely to meet you. Miss?”

She smiled pleasantly. “Delilah. You are?”

“What a beautiful name. I’m Jonathan. Now I’m sure you’d love to get away from this old grouch so why don’t you join us?”

“Sure, if he doesn’t mind,” she replied sweetly, looking at Nicholas to see if he was fine with the arrangement.

“Be my guest, meeting new people is what we’re all here for afterall.” Nicholas’ point was definitely not lost on Jonathan and his friendly demeanour dropped for just a second before he once again smiled widely at Delilah, who nodded and walked inside with him and several others.

Nicholas sat at the back of the room, listening to their conversations and ready to step in if any of them said something that would compromise them all. However, so far it had been quite banal; Jonathan loved to speak about the large estate that he would inherit and himself in general. Despite the fact that the ninety years that he’d been here his family had probably purposely forgotten about their vampiric relation or had sold the mansion and moved far away. Eventually he decided to ask Delilah a question about herself. "So how are you faring here? Nick isn't causing you too much trouble?"

“Well, he doesn’t like me I don’t think.”

“What?! How could he not?” One of the girls sitting with them exclaimed. Nicholas wondered whether the examiner watching them was scoring them well given their over-enthusiasm.

Jonathan smiled at Delilah. “Just ignore old Nick, he’s not much liked anyway.”

“Are he and Eva nasty to everyone?” Delilah asked, glancing at Nicholas as though to make sure he was far enough away he wouldn’t hear.

“Oh no, Eva has some redeeming qualities but I’m sure you’ve noticed Nick’s bad attitude and superiority complex.

Delilah giggled. “Yeah, that doesn’t sound wrong.”

“Yeah,” Jonathan laughed to himself. “He’s honestly the most bad tempered v-“

Nicholas pushed his chair out and loudly flipped the table so Delilah wouldn’t be able to hear what came out of Jonathan’s mouth next. “If you’ve got a problem with me, Johnny boy, then why don’t you say it to my face rather than whining?”

Delilah jumped and appeared at a loss, but Jonathan merely smirked. “Whining? I’ll happily say this to your face. You’re a foul tempered son of a bitch who couldn’t back up his tough words even if he tried.”

“Well why don’t we see who can actually back up what they’re saying?” Nicholas saw a spark of fear in his eyes, for all the boy’s bravado, he knew that the twenty years that Nicholas had on him was enough to make Nicholas the far stronger opponent.

The examiner posing as the teacher of the class cleared her throat. “Gentlemen, if you’re going to have an altercation then please take it outside. Away from our new student.” The stress she put on that final sentence and the fact that Jonathan flinched showed Nicholas that Jonathan had realised that he’d failed the test. Jonathan would have to remain here at the school until he was deemed ready to take the exam again, and that could be ten years away.

“No ma’am, that won’t be necessary,” Jonathan said in a meek voice.

Nicholas smirked and sat down at another desk, proud of his victory. Delilah however, looked away from the other students and brought out her books for the class. Completely unaware that Nicholas had just saved both their lives.