The Domus Paranormal Academy

Predators

I sighed.

“I thought Literature would be...

“What? “she interrupted me abruptly, suddenly astonished. Are you in Literature?

“Yes," I nodded, startled by her reaction. Why do you say it like that?

“It's Viktor's class," she answered instantly. His domain.

The note of panic I detected in her voice made me more puzzled, but that made sense. Even the teacher seemed to adore him.

I needed information.

“Tell me which classes the Lycans dominate, please," I asked, and to explain my request I added: "So I'll be careful not to choose them.

Valery did not hear me. She entered into a sort of emergency moment that surprised me.

“First of all, you have to drop Literature right now," she said, and quickly put down her fork to look for something on the laptop. I know there's a form to change subjects around here...

“No," I tried to stop her, "I'm not going to change. I can avoid the other subjects, but I'm already in this one, and leaving would be like shouting: I'm a coward!

She looked at me as if she didn't understand me.

“At the point, you're at, do you care what others might think if you dropped the class? “You already got into trouble with Lucian, now you're going to get into trouble with Viktor? You'd better get away from him before things get worse.

I furrowed my eyebrows, suddenly angry.

“Just because I'm in a class with him, I'm asking for trouble?

“I mean, it's obvious there's a clash between you and them, and I'm only telling you because...

“You're afraid of them," I said to her with obviousness. Or did you think I hadn't noticed?

Valery sighed, looked sideways to check that no one was hearing us, then leaned forward to reduce the range of her voice. The panic passed into her gaze.

“Marise, I know it made you feel good to challenge Lucian," she whispered to me with a tone that made him sound very serious, "I confess that even I enjoyed seeing his surprised face when you won, but to maintain rivalry with someone like him, you must at least have the same social level as him, otherwise he will destroy you in a second.

I was sure it was a very important warning, but it didn't scare me.

“Fearing a person with power only makes her more powerful," I told her.

She pursed her lips and settled back in her chair. She looked at the laptop screen again. There was something mysterious in her silence until she finally muttered:

“You don't know what they're capable of here. What Lucian is capable of.

“And you do? “I asked back instantly. If so, tell me.

She said nothing, and her silence was an answer that left me looking at her strangely. Perhaps she too saw Lycans as figures to avoid upsetting because she was so ingrained in the lifestyle of the Domus elite, where just having one of the most famous surnames for millennia earned them everyone's respect, but not mine. I knew that beings like Lucian were full of only one thing: flaws that they were careful to hide.

That's not why I had to argue with Valery, though. I mean, I had a Shrek” like character, and if I was wanted, the argument would go all the way, but to argue over those fools? No. That wasn't how I wanted to handle things.

Before I could say anything to her to repair the little argument, our table was assaulted by Dash and Otsana. She slid into the seat across from me, next to Valery, her face burning with the excitement of good gossip. Dash slid in next to me, grinning wide and fascinated. He unhooked his backpack of an expensive brand and began pulling out a stack of bills to drop them in front of me.

“There's no science to your gambling if you leave the prize," he told me, and finally deposited a watch on top of the handful of cash. I saved it all last night before it fell on him.

I alternated my gaze between him and the bills.

“What's this?

“What you won at poker," Otsana answered very obviously. Or do you just remember that you shoved a cucumber up Lucian's ass?

The truth was that I had completely forgotten that part of the betting money.

“Well, that seemed more than enough reward," I admitted. “Well, but you won the satisfaction and two thousand dollars to boot," Dash pointed out, pulling the bills closer to me.

The water I was drinking at that moment came out of my nose. I had to cover my mouth to keep from making a mess. Yes, I had also forgotten the amount of the bet.

“Two thousand? “I blurted out, dumbfounded.

“It wasn't even that much," Dash snorted with a shrug of indifference.

Did he think it wasn't enough? I couldn't get over my astonishment.

“God, Marise, you made Lucian look like a defeated jerk," said Otsana, with a huge smile of joy. It was iconic! Epic! Unexpected!

“Now no one stops talking about it," Dash nodded in a lower tone.

“But that's not all," Otsana continued. No one has seen Lucian since last night.

“I think you embarrassed him so much that he doesn't want to show his face or doesn't know what face to show," Dash added with a chuckle.

“Or he may be too busy planning how to crush her," Valery interjected, concentrating on her laptop, but with her ear to the ground.

Again she spoke too confidently about Lucian's cruelty. She didn't doubt that what she said was true, and now she didn't doubt anything else: she knew something. Valery knew more than he was showing. Well, that was obvious, but she knew something that maybe Otsana and Dash did not.

“Whatever, you may play hard to get, but I know you'll be afraid," Valery sighed.

I snorted and looked down at my mashed potatoes as I poked at them with the tip of my fork. I had already lost my appetite.

“I don't know, I hate being stepped on more than death could bite the shoe that tries to step on me and kill me, I'd die with a smile on my face. “I shook my head.

“The Lycans are born predators," Dash warned me that time, very sure. And in the end, there will only be one winner.

“They are," Valery affirmed.

Okay, it was a bit irritating that they thought they would win every time. Yes, yes, it was Lycan territory. Anyone would rather have them than a stranger with her bravery through the roof, but I wasn't scared or cowardly. I could face whatever came. I had to face it. I had come to Domus ready to accomplish everything I had set out to do. Surviving Lucian Lycan alone was a new challenge.