Night Class

September 10th, 2019

Tuesday 4:30pm

We had driven for four hours; Giles ignored all human traffic laws in the process. How we didn’t get pulled over, I have no clue. To my left Ehren is sitting quietly. To my right Rhea is quietly sitting as well. I feel awkward sitting between the two, but Romans wanted alone time with Vera in the back row, attempting to calm her down because she feels guilty about letting Kieran get taken, and Peyton called shotgun. Why the irritating dirtbag was going with us, I have yet to figure out.

The van swerves a bit as a horn honks from the opposite direction and I find myself pressed up against Ehren’s stiff body. Giles finds his bearings before muttering something about humans being terrible drivers. I find it comical but make no move to defend humanity on their driving abilities. As stealthily as I possibly can, I shuffle to the right more, getting myself out of Ehren’s personal space. A small brush of his hand against mine as it rests in the space between us has me looking over at him. His jaw is tight, ticking with annoyance, but his eyes are focused outside the tinted window. Taking a risk on the situation, I gently slip my hand into his, letting our fingers interlock. The dhampir makes no move to remove it, the ticking in his jaw lessening, so I leave it be.

There’s a vibrating sensation coming from Ehren’s leg. He looks more than annoyed as he fishes the phone out, having to release my hand in the process. His eyes scan the screen before groaning and hitting the bright green button.

“What do you want?”

“Ehren!” He pulls the phone away from his face with a look bordering on murder. The shrill voice on the other end is obnoxiously loud. “Where is Kieran? I’ve been looking for him since yesterday. He hasn’t called me back and he’s not in his room.”

“That’s because he’s missing, Amanda.” Ehren’s voice is cold, not an ounce of warmth behind it. “Now, stop yelling or I’m hanging up.”

The conversation is now a lot quieter, and he ends the call as quickly as he can. I guess it makes sense that Kieran’s girlfriend would want to know where he is. I would want to know about Ehren if anything-

My heart briefly stops beating in my chest. What am I thinking? Do I really see Ehren as my boyfriend? The guy hasn’t even asked me out yet. Wait. Yet? No, I highly doubt he’ll ever even think about it. He said it himself; It needs to be Kieran. Ehren doesn’t want to hurt his brother the way he was hurt. Kieran admitted that he liked me, so there’s no doubt in my mind that Ehren has been keeping me at bay for that reason alone. But there are these spurts of chemistry between us that neither of us can seem to explain or control.

“How will Mandy survive without her poor Kieran-poo?” Peyton asks with sarcasm lacing his voice. “Gods that girl is mind boggling with how attached she is to him.”

“She’s in love, mi hermano,” Romans teases from behind me. “Don’t you feel in love with your beloved Emelia?”

“You know I don’t,” Peyton hisses out. The danag crosses his arms and sits back in the seat now. “I’m slowly but surely working my way out of that one. I just need to give the courts something to gossip about involving me and my disgusting behavior.”

I’m reminded now about how he and Rhea have been trying to worm their ways out of their parents’ good graces. I can only assume that Rhea wants out because of her family’s negative views on equality, but as for Peyton... There’s no telling what his motives are.

“Just tell them about you assaulting me. I’m sure that’ll help you out,” I mumble the last part.

The entire van seems unstable now as the atmosphere grows thick with tension. Giles growls out from the driver’s seat, “You assaulted my cousin?”

“E-Ehren told me to!” Peyton’s quick to throw Ehren under the bus. “He said to use my gift on her.”

“Booker...”

Ehren sighs from beside me, seeming not at all affected by the chill behind Giles’ use of his first name. “We needed to prove that Isabella could deflect persuasion in order to help Emelia avoid expulsion.”

“So, you used my cousin to save your own.” Giles grips the steering wheel, nearly bending it. “Great to know.”

“It’s not like that,” I defend Ehren. “He knew that I would feel guilty if anything happened to Emmy because of me. So, I don’t mind that they did it. I feel better actually, knowing that Emmy won’t suffer any dire consequences because of it.”

I can see Giles looking between the road and Ehren in the rearview mirror while chuckling out darkly, “You are very lucky that she’s not negatively affected by your poor decision-making skills. Should either of you think of such an idiotic idea in the future, I will see to it myself that you both suffer firm punishments.”

“Jokes on you,” Romans laughs out. “Peyton is into the kinky stuff. You’d only be fueling his inner desires.”

Romans grunts as, I’m assuming, Vera punches him in some way for the inappropriate comment. Rhea shudders with disgust, probably because we’re talking about her brother here. I don’t really blame her though. He’s not related to me, and I still don’t want to hear about his inner desires.

“Moving on!” Peyton shouts with a red color dusting his cheek bones. “Are we close to the estate or what?”

“It’s just up the road,” Giles grits out.

The next couple minutes go by quietly, tense and awkward, but quietly. Just ahead of us, a long way down the dirt path Giles turned down, is an old-style castle. A literal castle. Weathered bricks, dark windows with wooden shutters, and a few towers scattered in the front, back, and sides. The place looks like what the academy should look like. Creepy and chalk full of bloodsucking monsters, ready to devour the small group of unsuspecting teenagers. Okay! Maybe now isn’t the best time to switch into author mode.

Climbing out of the van, I noticed Vera staring up at the tallest tower of the castle. Her eyes waver as tears filled them. There’s something chilling about seeing her look so terrified of the structure that makes me hesitate about going in it at all.

“V.” Gently, I tap her shoulder and she jumps, as if I actually took her by surprise. “What’s wrong?”

Her auburn hair blows gently behind her as she finally looks in my direction. Blue eyes glow at me as she says, “I can’t help but play out different scenarios about what he might be going through right now. I feel-”

“Hey.” I place my hands on her shoulders, making her look deep into my eyes. “Him getting taken was not your fault. Not in the slightest. The only person to blame here is Arlo Bromley. That’s who took him. That’s who needs to pay for what he’s done. Not you, V.”

She doesn’t look too convinced, but nods regardless. “I’ll be fine. Maybe see if Ehren’s holding up alright?”

As much as I don’t want to leave her side, she has a point. I’m sure Ehren feels his own guilt over Kieran getting taken. He was the one who snapped his brother’s neck, leaving him defenseless in the woods when attacked. That’s got to affect him in some way. Neither of them should feel guilty, in my opinion. The one who needs to pay really is Arlo Bromley, not my friends.

Ehren’s eyes meet mine and I can tell from here that there’s a warning behind them. The message is there, clear as day, stay away. Message received. Giles motions me over towards him and Peyton as they spread the contents of the file Ehren found over the hood of the black van. The majority of the pages seem to be layouts of various buildings, estates, owned by Bromley. I’m sure this will count as some sort of breach in the royalty code, but as of right now, none of the royalty crap matters anymore. If those pretentious and stuck-up vamps got a problem, they can come to me directly.

“We know the building has fourteen exits.” Giles begins pointing out each one of the exits. “Should one of us get separated in there, we find an exit and meet back at the front of the building.” He looks between Peyton and I. “Agreed?”

“Agreed.”

“Sure thing,” Peyton mutters.

Giles’ eyes narrow on the blonde now. “Listen here, Whitmore. I’m putting myself in a lot of potential trouble with Mom here. The least you could do is take it seriously for once.”

“I got it!” Peyton crosses his arms, looking out towards the wooded area across from us. “I just want to get this over with and get back home as quickly as possible.”

“What’s so important back home?” I asked him.

He looks as though he’d rather not answer but does anyways. “I left Levi as Emmy’s watcher. He’s not the most reliable, but he was like a last-minute option. Tori has got a stick up her-”

“Okay!” I shake my head. “Sorry for asking.”

Glancing back, I notice Rhea and Ehren talking to one another quietly. Romans seems to be acting as something like a referee for the two. Another glance back towards the side of the van and-

“Vera?” I walked closer to where she was just standing. “Vera!”

Giles is immediately at my side, a hand covering my mouth as he stands behind me. “Shh. Are you attempting to make every vampire in existence aware of our presence?”

I slap his hand away and face him now. If I were a vampire, I’m sure my eyes would be glowing like theirs do when angry. “Vera’s gone. Where is she?”

He looks around, ready now for an attack that may or may not be coming. “Are you sure she didn’t mention going for a walk or anything? You know she might need to clear her head.”

“Romans!” The dhampir looks at me now. “Did Vera mention leaving to go for a walk or anything?”

His eyes widen as they scan the area around us now. He shakes his head before looking towards the large double doors of the estate. The two doors are swaying in the breeze, open and ready to be explored.

“No way she went in on her own,” Peyton whispers out.

Shouldering past him and my cousin, I stomped towards the doors. “She feels like losing Kieran was her fault. Of course, she went in alone!”

Ehren’s hands are immediately on my upper arms, stopping me from entering the estate. “Isabella-”

“No.” I cut him off. “I don’t care about how dangerous it might be. Vera is in there alone and probably Kieran. I can’t just sit around while we make up a game plan to save them both. I’m going in.”

“Alright.” He stops me from moving past him. “Alright. We split up into two groups. We take one hour to look around the entire building. If we don’t find either of them within that hour, we meet back out here. Understood?”

I look back to see Giles with a torn expression. He finally meets my eyes, my pleading eyes, and nods in response. Fear begins coursing through me now. Vera and Kieran are all alone in there. There’s no telling what Arlo will do to either of them. He already threatened my life just to get back at Ehren and I’m not even sure I’m anything to him. Kieran and Vera are in danger with each moment that passes by as we stand out here and-

It’s gone. That feeling of fear, the weight on my chest, it’s all gone. It’s happened before. Each time I feel something like fear, or excitement, nervousness- They all get taken away from me. The feeling is unnatural and nerve wrecking.

My eyes scan over the group of confused faces until they land on a guilty one. Rhea. Lifting my finger up, I point it at her directly.

“You. It’s been you doing it, isn’t it?” Her eyes widen, but they still hold that look of guilt. “I knew it! Is that your gift, taking away other people’s emotions?”

She nods while muttering, “Yeah, it is.”

“Well, knock it off!” I snapped at her. “It’s wrong. If I feel something, then leave it alone. I don’t need any of you using your gifts on me anymore!” They all stare at me now. “If I want to be persuaded, or have my emotions messed with, or even put into severe pain-” I look at Ehren now before glancing back at Rhea. “I’ll let you know. Until then, back off.”

Rhea looks away from the group, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. A deep part of me feels so bad for yelling at her, knowing she was only trying to help, but the biggest part is pissed at being messed with. I’m growing tired of these vampires acting like their gifts can just be used whenever they want and on whoever they want. That’s not how the real-world works. They can’t just use their gifts on humans like we’re some type of test subject. The sooner they learn that the better it will be for them and humans when the academy is co-ed.

“So-” Romans looks between all of us awkwardly now. “Who are the groups?”

“Much like with any royal situation, the prince and princess should be separated.” Giles pushes me towards Ehren. “Izzy will go with Ehren and Rhea while us three-”

“No.”

Everyone’s quiet now as Giles and Ehren stare down at one another. Neither seems to be willing to break first. Things would be a little awkward if Rhea were to search with us.

“It’s fine, Giles.” Rhea grabs her brother and shoves him into Ehren now, roughly. “They can have Peyton and you can take me. Problem solved.”

“Is it though?” I whispered out.

Peyton gives me hard eyes now before looking away. Like I want to be stuck dealing with Ehren being in a bad mood and the guy who assaulted me. Technically Ehren’s the one who told him to assault me, so this is even more awkward. Both guys seem to be refusing to look at one another as they wait near the front doors now. Giles kept me close to him as the others began walking away. There’s something behind his dark eyes, something like the fear I had felt earlier.

His hand brushes mine before finally looking into my eyes. “If- Should anything happen-”

His breath seems heavy now as he looks between me and the estate and suddenly, I understand what the fear is from.

“Giles.” I grip his hand in mine now while he looks at me with surprise. “I’m going to be okay. I’ll have Ehren with me. You will still be in the building somewhere too. If I scream or anything, I know you’ll coming spoofing in to save the day.”

“This is true,” he chuckles out. The fear is back in his eyes though as he stares down at me, eyes glowing gold. “But I can’t lose you. Mother and I would go insane if you-” He takes in a deep breath. “You can’t leave us, Izzy.”

“I know,” I reassured him. “I know how important I am to helping cure Natalia. I’m not going anywhere, Giles.”

“Curing Mother?” Giles’ eyes crinkle as he hugs me closer to him. “I could care less about the cure, and neither could she. You’re our flesh and blood.” Strong arms tremble now as he hugs me tighter. “We’ve lost so many family members that we just can’t lose anymore. So, please be on guard in there and stay right by Ehren’s side. He won’t let you get hurt; I promise.”

“I know he won’t.” His grip loosens and he holds my arms now as he stares down at me. “I trust him just as much as I trust you.”

Giles’ lips turn upwards. “Good to know you trust me. And I, you.”

“Can we go now?” Peyton complains from behind me somewhere. “I’m starting to get hungry.”

“On second thought,” Giles mutters out. “Perhaps you’d be better off taking Nicolas with you.”

A laugh escapes my lips as my nudge him. “I’ll be fine. Find them, please.”

Giles, Rhea, and Romans step into the estate without so much as a glance backwards. I stand between Ehren and Peyton now with a slight tremor of fear tickling down my spine. I may not even make out of here. I should’ve made a will when I had the chance.

Stepping through the open doorway with both guys at my side, the air seems colder in here than outside. There’s a distant chill, causing my arm hair to stand and my feet to falter on the tiled floor. Ehren’s hand meets my inner elbow, but I pay no attention to it. Staring up at the two-story vaulted ceiling, my throat becomes dry. The place is dark, cold, and screams haunted horror house for naïve teens. We three naïve teens are the perfect set up in this horror story. We’ve already stupidly split up. I should’ve known better than that, but it’s the fastest way.

That’s what the first one to die always says.

Shaking my negative thoughts, I make my way to the staircase with Ehren and Peyton following closely behind. Neither seem to be in the mood to talk about anything, focusing only on the task at hand, and I’m just fine with that. Although, this would be the perfect opportunity to ask both about their problems with Rhea. Of course, Rhea admitted her faults with Ehren, but it would still be nice to talk to him about the subject and I still don’t know why her, and Peyton don’t get along. Their siblings, twins! Mel and I were super close despite our age gap. I couldn’t imagine not caring about my sibling.

“Uh-”

I stop in my tracks and turn to look at Peyton now. The danag seems to be looking anywhere but in mine and Ehren’s direction now as he holds his mouth. Ehren is tense now as he steps closer to Peyton’s slightly shaking frame.

“Whitmore...” There’s an underlying tone, a hidden bite within Ehren’s voice. “Hold yourself together. I will not hesitate to rip your heart out.”

“Ehren,” I gasped out. “Don’t threaten him-”

“It’s fine,” Peyton barely grunts out.

He drops to his knees now and I rush forward, but Ehren’s arm stops me in my spot. His frame shakes harder as he grips each side of his head, seeming as though he’s blocking out something that we can’t hear. And then, I smell it. Mint and the scent of an old musty book. The aroma causes my heart to flutter in my chest. It only takes one word from Ehren though to bring me back to reality.

“Isabella.”

My eyes shot open to see Peyton still struggling with something I can’t seem to comprehend. The smell is still there, but it’s not as mind-altering as before. It’s Peyton’s charm.

“Peyton?” I move a bit closer now, only being stopped by Ehren once again. “Ehren, let me get closer. He won’t hurt me.”

The dhampir doesn’t seem to be convinced, but he removes his hand regardless. Peyton’s eyes snap up to meet mine the closer I get and it’s then that I realize what’s wrong with him. The veins around his eyes, black and blue, the two fangs penetrating his bottom lip as he struggles to breath in and out. He’s actually hungry. I thought he had said it as a joke, but he really meant it. That’s not good.

“Okay, breathe.” I slowly drop to my knees and place my hands out in a peaceful gesture. “You need to just breathe and try to relax. Do you think drinking your vial would help, huh?”

Peyton struggles, but eventually manages to nod to his head quite aggressively.

“Okay.” I turn to Ehren now. “Ehren, please get his vial out and help him. He seems to be kind of in a weird state.”

Ehren moves closer before finally getting between Peyton and me. “When did you last feed?”

The danag doesn’t even seem capable of answering. Ehren grips the vial, opening it and tossing it down the vampire throat. Minutes tick by before I notice Peyton’s shoulders finally relaxing, and his breathing comes out in pants through his mouth.

“Forty-Eight hours,” Peyton breathes out.

“What?” Ehren grips him and pulls him to his feet.

He looks nervous now as he glances between the two of us. “Forty-eight hours since my last feeding. Kieran too. We’ve been drinking together, and I waited for him at the cafeteria on Sunday, but he never showed up, so I thought maybe Monday, but then-”

“Then he was taken,” Ehren grunts out. “That’s great. If you’re starving right now, then Kieran must be-” He stops and takes a deep breath before turning and punching the wall. A decent sized hole now resides in the bricked wall of the estate we shouldn’t even be in. “That’s just perfect.”

“We need to hurry and find him.” I grip Peyton’s arm and pull him along with me down the hallway, knowing Ehren won’t want to be touched right now. “If you were that bad just now, then there’s no telling what Kieran’s going through. He may not even be able to get to his vial.”

Please, please- Whoever is out there, God, Gods- Please, don’t let Kieran die right now; let him be okay. There’s so much we need to talk about, so much we left unsaid. He needs to know the truth about my feelings; or lack thereof. And Ehren wouldn’t be the same if anything happened to him. That guilt would eat him and Vera both alive and I can’t let that happen to my friends.