MAEVE

Chapter 22

CHAPTER 22

The heavy doors groaned heavily, as if extremely reluctant to perform their duties. If I had thought that meeting the students was scary enough to drive me to therapy, then the sight of these highly sophisticated men clad in suits and coats worth my future was enough to give me PTSD.

Everyone stiffened, and the men, if I could call them that, stepped in graciously. They were all beautiful, numbering about twelve in total, and their beauty was a ruthless one. With faces to compel, eyes to seduce, and fangs to kill. And I felt more than ever like a prey.

"Oh my god. I don't think I have ever seen them before," One girl at my back whispered, voice breathless.

"Are they really their Father's?" One asked, pointing towards Elijah and my friends, and from the way they stiffened, they heard it clearly as well.

"Silence!" The man at the front suddenly said. He didn't yell, nor did he shout. Silence was just something he demanded, and with the word came a brutal force that sent me stumbling from my seat.

A groan was forcing it's way from my throat, and my body fighting against the force that stole my breath and sent me on my knees. Everyone around was in similar condition, and groans of pain echoed in the room.

I greedily gasped in a breath the moment my lungs gave way.   Heaving myself back on my seat, I turned to my friends.

"What the hell was that?" I asked with terror. To be fair, they were not faring any better as I watched them drew ragged breaths.

"The imperial sway." Elijah answered, casually wiping the blood that stained the corner of his mouth.

"What the hell is an imperial sway?" I asked again.

"It's a special ability granted to the current ruler of every vampire royal family. It allows them remind you of whom you serve," He answered grimly. "In more ways than one."

I refrained from asking more questions. Instead I looked at him, wondering just what it was that placed that haunted look in his eyes, and found myself despising everything that had ever hurt him.

"Come out," The one at the very front commanded. His voice resounding around the hall without effort. "Now!" He ended.

We were all wondering just who he was talking to when Elijah stood up slowly. Instinctively, my hands shot out and grabbed his, stopping him in his tracks. He turned to me with an indecipherable expression.

I searched his eyes with mine. Deep within those obsidian orbs I tried to find out what he was thinking. I felt his fingers brush against my knuckles slowly before letting go.

Ashton kept me firmly on my seat, and I could only watch helplessly as he moved down slowly to his father.

"You had one job," His father gritted angrily, and Elijah retorted something under his breath as they stood toe to toe. I wondered just how he made it so easy to look like some male model in his uniform, with his long midnight hair loose and framing his face, long lashes protecting his haunted gaze, and his extremely svelte torso I was almost jealous of.

The sound of palm echoing against flesh woke me up from my trance. Elijah stumbled to the ground and sat there with his head bowed. And Ashton and Noah tensed up at my side, almost at the verge of springing up when Elijah shoved his head back with laughter on his lips and bloody claw marks on his cheek.

At the sight of the marks on his face, Ashton and Noah sprang up, and I found myself springing up with them despite the fear in my heart. Elijah turned slightly to us with an almost imperceptible shake of his head. But his father turned too, and at the sight of Ashton and Noah sprang up with anger written all over them, he smiled, and struck Elijah again, and they could not be stopped.