Blood of Eternity

Blood of Young Lovers

I desperately try to pull away from the young boy. He looks up at me with wide, innocent, gold eyes.

"Where's my mommy?" He whimpers. "I want my mommy." The scent of pulsing life drives me to circle closer in the alley under the light of the moon. I snarl, fangs extended, waiting to taste his blood.

I could stop. I could, I could back away and find another meal. Or I can continue creeping forward, smelling the boy's fear, hearing his pumping adrenaline, and enjoying every moment of it.

"Your mommy is too late," I hiss. He doesn't have time to scream before I feel his life staining my teeth. It's destruction and creation, color and music, life and death and it flows through me.

My eyelids open into darkness to see a popcorn ceiling above me. I shut them again, hoping the nightmare will face from memory. Instead, it is already seared into my head, inside me for forever.

"Again, Olivvia?" Charles asks across the room. I hiss angrily at him, flashing my fangs.

"Get out of my head," I growl.

"Your dream pulled me in. I can't escape a dream's pull," he defends himself. My internal clock tells me it's safe to awaken. I sit up and wipe my forehead although there's no sweat.

"You could've at least changed it," I rebut weakly. The Hunger stirs angrily; it wanted that dream to be real. It wants to feed off of someone, now.

"It's not my job to babysit you, it's my job to teach you, to mentor you. Your first test for level one is today and you need to keep a clear head," Charles chides.

I internally groan. If only I could somehow put this off. Instead of laying back down, I pull on the neatly folded outfit laying outside our dorm room door. In the mirror, my sage eyes glow like flashlights to guide my movements in the light less room.

The last month has led to this. Training with other fledglings has taught me how to use my speed despite the other genders strength, it also taught me that friends are hard to come by. In high school, you were friends with pretty much everyone that shared a class with you but here, the people you trained with are enemies, rivals. Besides those two:

-how to beat opponents bigger and stronger than you

-control over Hunger (mostly)

-a ton about vampire history

-and how to blend into human society

I am so deep in thought that when someone knocks on the door, it brings me back to reality.

"Are you ready, Olivvia?" My only friend here besides Charles calls.

"Coming Heidi," I respond. Opening the door, I am greeted by a frowning girl a few years older than me - if we're counting in human years. A few feet down the hall, her tall twin brother Hayden watches us with unblinking black eyes. Every time I see him, a shiver goes up my spine at his quiet yet imposing demeanor; much different from Heidi's normally open one. The only tell that the two are siblings is the ash blond hair they share.

"Are you worried about the test?" I ask Heidi when we start through the twisting hallways, towards the gym. She raises one eyebrow in response. I know her response before she says it out loud.

"We do not worry the same way humans do. Our emotions are muted and they only affect us if we let them," she reminds. Right, so I only have to tell myself I'm not worried and then I won't be. Easy as pie.

 I'm not worried. The thought has no effects on my wild mind which is busy drawing up pictures of what will happen if I fail. I won't fail. I can't. If I fail, someone else will be assigned to Roman.