Welcome To Nightingale: School For Vampires.

"Mason Williams, please report to Mrs. Ryan's office immediately." The intercom crackled, repeating my name once more before going silent. Every student in my study hall turned to stare at me. I felt heat rush to my face, as it did when any large span of attention was placed on me. 

I looked up from doodling on my bright red notebook at my teacher, who inclined her head towards the door. I shakily stood up and grabbed my cream colored tote bag from beside me and walked out of the classroom, and down the hallway. As I approached the large mahogany wooden door, my heart started to race. Standing there, I swallowed.  

Usually, students only got called down here for something very serious, or if they were in major trouble. Major trouble as in, murdering someone, and that definitely wasn't me, so there was only one other option: someone had died. Was it my parents? My baby brother, Lucas? My grandma? I could only pray it wasn't anything like that. 

I knocked lightly on the door, and heard Mrs. Ryan's raspy, attractive voice saying my name. "Come in, Miss Williams." I opened the door, creaking slowly. 

"Hello, Mrs. Ryan," I said, nodding my head to her. "You called me down?" 

"Yes, I did." She gestured to the brown leather chair in front of her lavish desk, filled with important documents and pictures of her family. "Please, have a seat." 

I did as told and sank into the seat, placing my bag softly on the ground beside me. I stared at her, fiddling with my hands, waiting for her to deliver her verdict of why I was in this office. I felt my fingers clam up, as they did when I was painfully nervous. 

"Let me ask you, Miss Williams, do you believe in vampires?" she asked, folding her hands onto her desktop, tilting her head questioningly at me. Her black hair shimmered with the morning sunlight coming through the blinds outside. 

What an odd question. "No, not really, Mrs. Ryan," I said. I wanted to ask her what that had to do with her requesting my presence here, but I kept my mouth clamped shut. Yes, it was that possible to be afraid of a teacher.  

"Well, as for what I am about to tell you, you must know that I, in fact, believe in them with a strong passion. In fact, I deem to know quite a bit about them. My knowledge is vast. What do you know about them, Mason?" she asked me, raising her eyebrows. 

I searched my confused mind quickly for facts. "I've heard that they burn in sunlight. Or, if you prefer, they can sparkle. I know they're supposed to sleep in coffins..." I trailed, noticing she was looking at me with an amused expression. 

"Oh, my dear, you have quite a bit to learn. I suppose I shall bring in Alexander, now. Alexander, please come in." A door opened in the back of her office, which I used to think was a closet, but now I could see a stone staircase leading upwards into some room. A boy about my age came out in a white V-neck shirt and black skinny jeans, completed with vans. I recognized him from the many photographs on my principal's desk. He smirked at me, and then turned to Mrs. Ryan and spoke, his voice as gorgeous as honey. 

"Yes, Valentina?" he asked, giving her a full on grin, which made butterflies flutter in my stomach. "I see you've gotten ahold of your next victim." 

Mrs. Ryan, or Valentina, as I now knew, laughed. It was a pretty sound, like wind-chimes, but softer and not as metallic. "You should know by now, Alexander that none of them are my victims, but persons that meet the qualities required for Nightingale. And how many times have I told you not to call me Valentina? I am your mother, and you will address me as such." 

"Sorry, Mother," he said as his grin grew wider. "So, what is her name?" 

"Her name is Mason Williams, and she's a student here. But I haven't yet informed her of our world, quite yet. I'm in the process of it," she smiled enticingly. "I thought I'd call in some backup." 

"Alright, then, Mother," he said as he plopped into the matching chair next to me. I smelled his cologne, Drakkar Noir, drifting off of him in pleasant waves. "Purely for my entertainment." 

She rolled her eyes and turned back to me. "My son, Alexander, is quite the joker, Mason. Now, as I have previously said, you have much to learn..." 

"Wait, Mrs. Ryan. What does your calling me down here have to do with vampires? What is Nightingale, and why is your son here?" I asked. I was even more confused than a blonde in a psychology class.  

"Oh, right. Well, dear, Nightingale is a vampire boarding school, and my son here is a student there. My husband is the headmaster. I run a human school purely for educational purposes to teach his students about your kind." She explained kindly. 

"Vampire boarding school? My kind?" I asked, gripping the armrests. I didn't really like where this conversation was going. 

"Yes. My son and I, including my husband and all the children at Nightingale are vampires, with a few exceptions of demons and half-vampires." She told me. "You, my child, are a human, fully, but your parents understand about the realm of us. Your aunt Josephine was a strong vampire. It was sad thing for her to be killed by Fang." 

I swallowed. My aunt Josephine had died when I was a baby of a heart attack. Or, at least, that was what my parents had told me. "I don't understand." 

"Your parents have requested that I enroll you in Nightingale as a half-vampire, which is the only way you'd be allowed in. The teachers will know of your status, and we will go to extra lengths to protect you, my dear." She smiled and patted my hand. 

"But why can't I stay here?" I asked desperately. "I don't want to leave my family and friends behind." 

"That's exactly it, darling. Your parents know that you might, someday, end up like your aunt, because being a vampire runs in your blood. So, they want you to have a proper education of your possible future." She said, looking to her son. "There are three types of vampires. Ones who are born into the life, like my son, here, called Semiquins. Then, there are those who are created by others, like I was by my husband, called Serephins. Finally, there are the ones who start out as human with vampire blood in their veins, whether it is from a relative or an accidental injection from a needle, and become a vampire on their sixteenth birthday, called Harlequins. Then, there are ones with vampire blood, but never become as such, those are named Feliquins." Her son was texting on a cell phone now. 

So, I was a possible Harlequin, and my aunt hadn't died from a heart attack, but been killed by someone named Fang, and there was a possibility I might end up like her? Oh, shit. Life has just gotten a hell of a lot more complicated.