Cursed Fate

2- Subterra Academy

I am ready to dig into her neck when she suddenly pushes me away and removes her headset, completely vanishing from my front.

I growl in frustration, removing my own headset and coming back into reality. I now stand in an aisle with a giant dome over our heads.

“Damnit, Cyla!” I shout to the girl in front of me, who is actually a witch and one of my best friends. “Couldn’t you have kept the simulation for a little while longer?”

“So you could bite my neck? Nuh uh!” She says and throws her tongue out at me. “Besides, you had already won!”

I cross my arms, feeling grumpy. “You could have let me take a little bite”

“Gross!” Cyla exclaims and makes a face, making me laugh.

I turn to look at the others who had played into the simulation with us. The pack of wolves is sitting on the empty metal floor looking exhausted. We do this game of catch every week or so after I teased Noah vampires are better than werewolves. As it is mostly forbidden to fight at the Academy, we came to the simulation and Cyla suggested we play this game.

Noah is yet to prove me wrong.

“You won this time, Naiya, but never again” Noah, the acclaimed alpha, says.

“Isn’t that what you said last time?” I respond and he starts growling at me, getting up.

“Whoa, whoa!” Cyla interrupts, getting in front of us. “The game is over. Besides, classes are about to start”

“She’s right, Noah” Lucas says. “We should go”

At this, Noah gestures for the others to stand up and follow him and they start leaving the Simulation Room. I and Cyla stay behind a little longer.

“Were you really going to bite me?” She asks me. She is a little younger than me, or at least looks that way. Being a witch, she ages like a normal human and is around the age of 16.

Being a vampire myself, I look 17 forever, but I am almost 30 years old. Not that I remember much of my human life.

“Only in the simulation” I say, with a smirk, showing my pointy fangs.

Cyla looks at me suspiciously, but then shrugs and we start our walk back to the Academy.

Subterra Academy is a school for every supernatural creature. It works a lot like a safe haven, really. Located underground, it was originated at an abandoned metro station right under the center of Manhattan and welcomes creatures from all over the world seeking shelter. I have heard the Academy has existed for about a century, but I’ve only been here for almost a decade.

The younger of the supernaturals have to take lessons in order to learn how the world works or just how to live amongst humans without revealing the big secret of our existence.

The place is a lot bigger than it looks at first. It is separated in several sections, the Simulation Room being one of them. The large room containing the giant dome is located right next to the dorms, which contain the most variable conditions so the many different students can live comfortably. It has a Common Room where all students can have fun and relax.

Close by, there are apartments created to accommodate those in need of shelter. It is also where the teachers live.

And then there is the actual school, where classes are held every day. There is a large hall, which used to be the main station of the abandoned subway, where they frequently gather us for announcements or for big events.

The kitchens and the canteen are also located there, next to the many classrooms existing. There is also an Infirmary, a Library and a Computer room, along with a large Interior Gym and a Stadium.

The entire Academy is connected by a large set of tunnels, which can even be labyrinthic at times and an intricate set of booby traps and expert security systems surrounds the whole thing.

I came here shortly after I turned into a vampire. Or rather, I was forced to come here. But that is all in the past now. I came to enjoy my time here and soon enough I will be able to leave on my own.

There are different time limits for how long you have to undergo lessons depending on your race. For vampires, 10 years is the limit and then you can leave and do what you want.

Only a few more months for me.

“Do you already know what you’re gonna do once you leave?” Cyla suddenly asks me when we are almost to the classroom.

“I’ll think of something once I’m out there” I tell her.

We reach our class shortly after and I adjust my skirt before entering. Teachers can be very picky about how we treat our uniform. Our uniform is very similar to any other private school uniform. The base color of ours is black and the rest of the colors vary from race to race. Vampires are black and red. Wolves are black and grey. Witches are yellow; Shapeshifters are brown; Mermaids are blue. It is just an easy way to distinguish who is who.

We take our seat at the many desks. I am lucky to have Cyla with me during my classes or I would be bored to death.

Today we start with History, with Madame Solena. Each class is roughly set of 30 students. Our usual class is set by the students who have been here the longest. Noah’s pack is part of it, but there are also mermaids, shapeshifters and witches.

The class talks amongst each other until Madame Solena arrives and terminates every conversation with her threatening aura. She is a vampire as well, one of the oldest living at the Academy and one of the most hated teachers here. She is impervious in her teaching and tolerates no failure. She is the only teacher who forces us to take her evaluations and publicly ridicules us when we fail.

Madame Solena adds to her threatening aura by always dressing in dark clothes and using her black hair tightly pinched to the back of her head in a perfect bun.

She watches over the class through her tiny glasses before she turns to the chalk board and starts writing.

“Today, class, we are going to learn about the Royals” She says as she finishes writing the word Royals on the chalk board. “Can anyone tell me what Royals are?”

Of course, Charlotte is the first to raise her hand to answer. She is a mermaid and apparently considers herself my own personal nemesis. She hates me to the core and has managed to convince her two followers, Isabella and Abigail, to hate me too.

They are the perfect little girls of this class and they make sure to show just how perfect they are every time they have a chance.

“Yes, Miss Charlotte?” Madame Solena says, looking at her.

Charlotte stands straight in her chair, looking proud of herself. “Royals are a special breed of vampires. They are direct descendants of Lucifer, the first vampire. They must be born from a male Royal and a human mother” She answers Madame Solena’s question as if she were reading it directly from the book.

“Yes, indeed” Madame Solena says, nodding her head. “Very well, Miss Charlotte”

Charlotte looks victoriously at me and I can only roll my eyes at her. Pompous little b***h.

“Royals are indeed born from a human mother and a male Royal” Madame Solena continues the class. “That is the only way a Royal can procreate. They are born as humans, but possess special abilities, such as mind reading or illusion manipulation. Later on, they are usually turned to vampires by their family members, but males can still procreate, even as vampires”

“As you know, our own Headmaster is a Royal and he possesses the ability to control electronic devices and digital data” She continues. “Now, can anyone tell me what happens when a Royal manages to procreate with another breed besides a human?”

She watches us carefully as we all look around confused at the question. This time, I am the first to talk, not even bothering to put my hand up.

“Is that even possible?” I start. “You just said a Royal can only be born from a human mother and a male Royal”

She turns her eyes to me and I nearly flinch at her pointed look.

“Indeed, Miss Naiya, that is exactly what I said” She says. “But what if I told you there exists a particular case where a Royal reproduced with something other than a human?”

Everyone waits in silence as she pauses before continuing.

“Amelia”

The simple name causes the class to go into an uproar, especially amongst the vampires

“You mean the woman who nearly annihilated the Royals?”

“She wasn’t a Royal! She was a monster!”

“She killed my family!”

“Quiet!” Madame Solena shouts, forcing the class to quiet down. She waits another minute before she continues.

“There are very few papers which can prove it, but my research confirms it” She says. “Amelia was indeed a Royal, born by a Royal father, but her mother was no human”

“What was she?” Cyla innocently asks.

Madame Solena looks at her and I can see Cyla crouching down on her desk.

“Her mother was an angel” Madame Solena simply states. “Which makes Amelia a Nephilim”

“I thought those were just myths” I say and she turns her gaze back to me, like a snake ready to snap.

“Indeed, they are. Because there is no concrete evidence of their existence” She says. “However, it would explain her special powers and how she single-handedly managed to nearly exterminate the entire Royal race”

The class falls silent at this. It does make sense. Amelia is an infamous woman who served the Royals for many years before she snapped and destroyed their castle and everyone who lived in it. Well, nearly everyone. There are a handful of Royals lurking around, but they all live in hiding. They fear Amelia will return and finish what she started.

“Open your books at page 196” Madame Solena suddenly says, breaking the class from their trance. “I expect you to know the Royal Family tree by heart by the end of this class”

Another surprise quiz at the end of the class. Figures. She doesn’t even give us proper time to study. Cyla looks at me in a panic. She hates quizzes. She has a tendency to blurt out anything but the right answer.

The suffering finally ends after yet another terrifying quiz, but this time Cyla and I managed to escape unharmed as Madame Solena didn’t call us to the chalk board.

The bell rings and we nearly flee the classroom, quickly heading to our next class: Anatomy, with Professor Albert.