PUREBLOOD

2

"NO!"

He made to sink his fangs into her neck but a punch sent him flying to the air and he landed with a dull thud. The wind sent her white hair flying to obstruct her face and she buried her face in her palms. "Not again..."

He groaned and she lowered her hands as she turned towards where he was. Blood seeped from his mouth and his eyes slowly turned to her.

"You messed with the wrong person today." Zuriña said and more blood dripped down his jaw as he tried to speak.

"Please...help...me."

"You should have listened when I told you to leave me. No one can ever recover from my punches...so die, let the world be relieved of a vampire like you."

"What...are..." He coughed up more blood.

"What am I?...A superior vampire...a vampire from birth."

Her wristwatch beeped and she looked down at it.

"Darn, it's curfew." She cursed and leapt into the air.

A kitten was l*****g its' paw when she zoomed across roofs and in less than a minute, she jumped down in front of the building.

"Zuriña...."

"What happened to your hair?..."Henry was saying as she dashed to her room. She began to fumble through her things, throwing and tossing them around as she searched for the only thing to calm her down.

"Where's it? Where did I put it?"

"What are you looking for?" Rietta asked.

Henry on the other hand seemed to understand the situation, so he turned to the laundry basket in the room. "Here it is." He said.

She ran to the laundry basket like someone who was possessed. And there it was, the crown of thorns.

"Phew." She sighed as she wore it over her head before plonking on the bed.

"Are you okay, Riña?" Rietta asked.

"Yeah, I just need a minute."

Henry winked at her and took Rietta's hand in his.

"Come on Rietta, I'll make you some noodles."

"Okay." She replied as they turned to head out of the room.

Riña sighed once they were out of the room."I'm really such a klutz..." She mumbled.

The crown of thorns had been designed for her by the priest, Father Michael who'd taken her in when she was young. He'd known she was the type to transform if she was to be triggered but he'd figured out the only way to get it under control was by putting on the crown of thorns.

She hurriedly sat up and turned to the mirror. Her hair starting to fade back to brown and her claws were slowly disappearing. "Hey Riña, why didn't you take it with you? You'd have been in trouble if you'd been spotted by a human."

It wasn't just trouble though, it would have been a serious one. She'd have to quit school and forget about living like a human. Humans were so scared of the vampire race so she didn't have much of a choice.It wasn't easy too, hiding who she really was.

A can materialized on her desk the next afternoon and she raised her head to see the new professor before her. "You're Zuriña, Zuriña Anderson, right?"

"Yes, professor."She replied and lowered her eyes to the can before lifting her eyes to meet that of the professor's.

"I noticed you were still hard at work even after the class, so I got you this to help you remain focused." He explained.

A smile crossed her lips. "Thank you so much."

"Keep up the good work" He said as he retreated to the professor's table where two other students were waiting for him and Riña found her eyes glued to his back.

"Hey, Zuriña."

She turned to see a coursemate of hers approaching her so she wore a smile, since she didn't know his name.

"Hey Zuriña." He smiled

"Hi"

"I'm Roshan. We've met before, I'm always sitting behind you in a couple of classes."He said.

Oh, really? She wondered. She hadn't noticed.

"Yeah"

"I was wondering if we could do Professor Park's assignment together, since it's a pair work...that's if you're yet to have a partner in mind though"

She smiled at his nervousness. He looked cute. "I don't"

"Does that mean we could be partners?"

"Yeah." She smiled

"If it sits well with you, could we discuss about the assignment over lunch?"

This was among the part of 'pretending to be human that she hated the most'

"Sure, I was feeling hungry anyway." She lied as she rose up to gather her books.

The campus cafeteria was a bit far from their lecture halls so they walked.

"By the way, did you hear the news? A vampire murdered a whole family." A guy was saying.

"I heard about it...Those vampires are really going to kill everyone at this rate." A girl replied.

"I wish they'd all drop dead. Those monsters"

She dropped her head as her expression changed to a sad one. She couldn't be close to people ever since she was a child so she'd attached herself to picture books. She'd always been envious of friends who'd sit and play together and she'd always prayed for one too. Her prayers looked like they'd been answered when one day, Yian, a boy smiled down at her with his hands towards hers.

She had been criticized a lot since she couldn't attend school, but for the first there was someone who didn't care about that and was ready to spend time with her.

From then, they had met up everyday and he had told her things he couldn't tell anyone in school and during those periods, Zuriña almost forgot that she was a vampire.

But the saying was right, happy moments didn't last forever. He had come back from school one day with his entire face swollen and when she had asked what was wrong, he had said nothing.

They had met less and less after that incident and eventually lost touch. She had gotten mad...mad that she had not been able to help him after everything he had done for her. And so she had decided to help him.

And on one of the days Yian had been bullied on the streets, she had disguised and used her strength to beat up the bullies who ran away like the cowards they were.

She had remembered taking off her disguise as she ran towards him to see if he was alright, only to be greeted with the look of fear and panic as he had realized what she was.

"Please...spare me..."

"Zuriña, Riña." Roshan called and she jerked out of her thoughts.

"Right, I'm sorry. What were you saying?"

Someone bumped shoulders with her and she raised her head to see an unfriendly face glaring down at her. "Watch where you're going, bitch."

"You're the one who bumped into her first."He made to protest and Zuriña noticed that students around where whispering and murmuring amongst themselves.

"Wait a sec, he's that upperclassman. So he could seriously come back to school?" Roshan scoffed and she turned to him.

"What upperclassman?"

"He's known for having a screw loose and is infamous as he causes trouble anywhere he goes. Everytime he goes out to drink, he beats up his classmates and extorts money from them. He smokes in lecture halls too. Funny enough, I heard he's been friends with Professor Park since high school. It's a surprise how they are so different." Roshan said and she turned to him.

"How do you know all of this?" She asked and he chuckled.

"Upperclassman talk."

"Let's go. Checking caught up in this won't do any good."

Brad threw an empty gallon of water and staggered home, like a drunkard that night. "This thirst won't leave." He muttered to himself, unable to count the number of water gallons he'd drained that day.

They were all the same, everywhere he went. They seemed to know about how he blew up all his jobs interviews and how he came back to the uni after nine years.

But it didn't matter, did it? He thought as he leaned over to look at his himself at the rear view of a parked car.

I've been reborn, he thought to himself.

Elijah Park was going through some folders he held as he made his way towards his parked car, where Brad stood. "Hey Brad, long time no see."

Yeah, long enough for you to start acting up around me. He thought to himself.

Elijah walked towards him with a smile. "I was wondering what you were up to when I heard you're back in school, but I didn't see you around."

Look at him. He and I are completely on different parts even though we started college at the same time. How did a moron like him get hired? Ugh, he was probably have fun when I was running around during job interviews. How dare he? How dare he try to have the things I can't have. He thought.

It doesn't matter, Brad. You can make him unable to have those things anymore, a thought struck in and his eyes turned red as his claws elongated.

He buried his claws in the car's bonnet and with a turn, the car was upside down.