Breath of Fire

Chapter Fifteen

"We have to tell her! I can't keep hiding the truth from her, she could have died, Blaise!"
"We can't Elios! You heard what professor Pyrion said. For all we know, this could be an elaborate scheme of the corrupted shifters and we all know that they can never be allowed to unbind their powers. They have to be the ones after her! We've all read the prophecies, only someone wielding all four elements can break the spells concealing the former king and queen's castle and that can never be allowed to happen!"
"Yet the prophecies also say that only when the shifter heir has reclaimed his powers will peace be restored, so doesn't that mean we need the opposite to happen?"
"No, not if it means unleashing a hoard of corrupted shifters on the world as well! Those beasts are powerful enough as it is even with their magic bound, there would be no stopping them if their powers were fully unleashed!"
"But -"
"Shut up, I think she's finally waking up!"
I was surprised when I next opened my eyes, having been so sure that I never would again. I blinked up at the four pairs of eyes that I found staring down at me and grinned.
"So did that poor couch survive the blood bath or did you have to get it replaced?" I asked cheekily as I scrambled out of bed and hopped merrily over to my dresser to grab a change of clothes.
"She almost dies again and her first concern upon waking up is the bloody fucking couch?" I heard Blaise say under his breath as he sent one of his famous glares my way. I stuck my tongue out at him, refusing to let his sour mood taint mine. I was happy to be alive and didn't want to be dragged down by depressing thoughts at the moment.
"We had to get a new one," said Caspian with a laugh. I kicked the guys out of my room and slid into the shower, enjoying the warm water as it rained down on my skin.
As soon as I got downstairs, the guys were on me asking me what had happened to me earlier that morning. I froze, I didn't have a great answer to give, not knowing how to avoid the issue of bringing up the vampires who were hunting me because that would lead to questions about why they were chasing me and that might lead them to question me too much about my past again. I had to keep my name a secret from everyone else. I had no idea why, but a part of me had always known that my true name was the most important secret that I had to keep above all else. I didn't know how I knew it, but there was a natural instinct within me that knew never to give my real name to anyone. I still had yet to figure out how the hunters who were after me even knew it, but I'm guessing they had gotten it out of my parents before they had killed them.
"Um, I was running in the woods to get in some extra exercise and I tripped and fell," I said slowly. It wasn't exactly a lie since I had, indeed, tripped on a root at one point during my run.
"That's the biggest load of dragon dung I've ever heard," Blaise replied with a snort. I shrugged my shoulders and grabbed an orange from the fruit bowl and twirled around, waving over my shoulders to the four boys before leaving to head to class. Hopefully they would just accept that I didn't want to talk about it and leave it at that. Knowing them, it wasn't the last they had to say on the subject, but for now, it would have to do.
***
The next few months flew by with a tirade of more monsters coming after me, though since they attacked while I was on campus, it was doubtful anyone noticed that they were after me in particular and I didn't have to worry about fighting them off on my own as there was a security team to handle such problems. So for the first time in my life, I found myself not worrying about the monsters that were after me and instead, focused on continuing my studies with the help of Drake. By now, the two of us had become quite close and we spent most of our time together, something that Caspian, Terrance, Elios, and Blaise could never seem to let me forget. Among other things, I had taken up learning how to fight with a sword. I still had my silver arm cuff/dagger but I couldn't always rely on something so small. When no one was around, I tinkered around with the piece of jewelry and found that I could morph it into almost any shape I wanted. Silver rope, chains, and the original dagger were the items I liked the best so far.
***
"Do I have something on my face?" I asked as I noticed Drake staring at me as we sat reading in the library.
"No, of course not. Why do you ask?" He replied.
"Because you are staring," I said, being as blunt as I could.
"Sorry, Kaida. I can't help it," Drake said, blushing slightly. I smiled at him to let him know it was ok. Blushing myself as I realized once more just how attractive he was. He wasn't nearly as gorgeous as the four brothers who I lived with, but he was still attractive in his own right, and at the moment, the only male that was showing me true kindness and friendship.
"Now you're staring," said Drake with a smirk as he leaned across the table and brought his face close to mine. I felt my cheeks heating up as he drew closer and closer but I did nothing to stop him when his lips met mine. I leaned forward, enjoying the feeling of being wanted. It started off slow and sweet but quickly became more passionate as Drake reached up and placed his hand up to my neck.
"Do you mind? Some of us are actually here to study," a voice said with a loud cough, breaking my concentration. I pulled away from Drake my cheeks redder then ever as I stared over and saw the four men I had been avoiding as much as possible standing in front of our table glaring at Drake.
"Shove off, Blaise, we weren't bothering you, so don't bother us," I said, rolling my eyes and standing up. I piled my books in one arm and walked over and grabbed Drake's hand with my free one, not failing to notice how four pairs of eyes were watching my every movement. Something inside my heart twisted and clenched painfully at the sight of the men before me as I realized that I had just kissed someone other than them, but I mentally smacked myself in the forehead to rid myself of such thoughts. They didn't belong to me and I didn't belong to them so why the hell was I feeling so guilty over kissing Drake! 
***
3 Months Later
I sat next to Drake in elemental history class, fiddling with my pencil and trying to concentrate on the professor's words but unable to. As much as I liked him, my body rejected the idea of sleeping with the dragon and he had spent the last few months trying to convince me to do so. It was straining our relationship and I was scared that it was going to ruin us.
I looked up from my notebook as the door to the classroom opened. I rose my brows as I saw Terrance standing there.
"Sorry, professor, I need to borrow Samantha right away," he said. The professor nodded to me and I slowly gathered my things, wondering what the hell was up.
I followed Terrance down the hallways and over the grass as he lead me to professor Pyrion's office. The whole way over I was racking my brain trying to figure out what I could have done now to get in trouble. Terrance knocked on the door and then ushered me in. I glanced around the room as I walked in, noticing that Caspian, Elios, and Blaise were also in the professor's office. I was also surprised to see that there was a newcomer. Like everyone else I had met so far, he was insanely attractive, though he looked like he was in his early thirties. His clothes were all black and something about him gave me the shivers. He had a dark energy that permeated the room. The minute he turned his eyes on me and smiled, I saw them. Two pointed teeth peeking out between luscious red lips.
I stepped back and collided with Blaise on accident, but was too distracted to care about the glare he sent my way.
"What in the blazes is a Vampyre doing here!" I exclaimed, raising my hands in front of me defensively.
"Don't worry, sweetness, I don't bite...much," the vampyre said as he winked at me. I heard the sound of four snarls behind me and turned to see Caspian, Terrance, Blaise, and Elios staring at the newcomer with thunderous expressions on their face. I shrugged, not caring what new thing the boys could be angry at, since all they ever seemed to do lately was get angry over nothing, and spun around to face Pyrion, looking for an explanation.