The Vampire's Curse

Chapter Five

Chapter Five

It was time for his students first paper in his class to be turned in and Nik was curious to read what his students thought were on the assignment.  The first paper was on the short story, "Vampyre", by John Polidori.  It was the third week of class and surprisingly no one had dropped his class.  He was sitting at his desk waiting for his students to start filing in.  He knew the minute that Angela entered the room, he could smell her.  She came in with the red haired girl Sarah and the blue haired boy Erik.  They were laughing at something, and he was envious of the easy natural way that Erik was with her. 

He had not seen Angela outside of his classroom since the day that he ran into her outside the Stratosphere.  He wondered if she was still snooping around or if she had let it go and believed what the papers wrote about the murder.  Thankfully there had not been anymore murders reported at this time.

It was time for class to start; he stood up from his desk and cleared his throat, "Good evening everyone.  I hope everyone enjoyed reading John Polidori's short story and that you are prepared to discuss the story and turn in your papers. I am very interested in your thoughts on this story."  The students began getting out their papers and books.  Nik sat on the edge of his desk and said, "Who wants to begin?  Angela?"  Angel looked up and smiled, "Sure, but its Angel.  I loved the story.  It was one of the stories that led to the romanticism of vampires in modern day fantasy fiction.  I believe that without it, we would not have the current paranormal and fantasy genre that we have today." 

Nik listened to what Angel had to say and responded, "That is very interesting thoughts on the story, and I agree with you.  But let's talk about the different legends, or characteristics about the vampire in the story.  That is what your papers were about.  In our next paper, I want you to compare Lord Ruthven to Dracula.  I want you to talk about the similarities and the differences the two authors use to describe their vampires.  Their abilities, their looks, all the things that make the vampires stand out." 

The class proceeded to discuss the story after that, then Nik collected the papers and dismissed his class, but not before asking Angel to stay after for a moment so he could speak with her.  He knew it was a mistake, but he had to know if she was still poking around into the murder of that girl. 

Sarah told Angel that she would wait for her outside and they would go get something to eat.  Angel walked up to Nik's desk and waited for him to finish putting the papers in his bag.  When he was finished she said, "You wanted to talk to me?"  He replied, "Yes, I was concerned about you snooping around the crime scene of that young girl at the Stratosphere.  I know you said you were just meeting a friend, but I didn't believe you."  Angel just looked at him flabbergasted.  She could not believe that he knew she was lying about why she was there.  She wondered if she told him her suspicions if he would think she was crazy. 

"Ok, you're right.  I wasn't meeting a friend.  I was curious about the crime scene, because it was very suspicious and coincidental for me.  The circumstances of the murder I mean," Angel said.  "How so?" Nik asked.  Angel looked at him and he could tell that she was nervous about talking about this with him.  Something was definitely bothering her about this. He waited for her to answer him.  She took a deep breath and said, "My father was murdered when I was 16.  I lived with him and my brother in California.  The circumstances of his murder are identical to this murder.  So whether it's a copycat or it could be the same person I want this person brought to justice."  Nik just sat there and listened to her.  He looked at her and asked, "How long ago was this that he died?  How old are you now?"  He had a feeling he already knew the answer; she was always the same age when he met her.

"This happened 8 years ago.  I am 25 now," she said.  Nik thought about it and realized that about 8 years ago Erika and her coven were in the Los Angeles area.  He looked at her and said, "If you don't want to talk about this, I understand, but what part of California did you live in at the time?"  She replied, "Covina, why?"  Nik thought for a minute about how to reply to her question and said, "I think I remember reading something about your dad's murder in the papers at the time, I was also in California 8 years ago." 

Angel looked at him.  She knew there was something familiar about this man, but could they have met before.  Maybe in California?  She asked him, "Have we met before this class?  You are so familiar to me.  I feel like I know you, but I don't remember ever meeting you before 3 weeks ago."  Nik shook his head, wondering if she was having dreams about him yet.  All the others in the past always said the same thing about him.  That he was familiar to them, that they felt like they knew him.  But it was just remnants of their connection, their soul bond.

He looked at her, "No, I don't think so.  I was not living in Covina at that time, but in Los Angeles.  But I think I remember reading about this in the papers."  Angel opened her mouth like she was about to say something then shut it.  "What?" Nik said.  She just shook her head.  He took her hands in his, she was so warm, and looked her in the eye.  "Tell me," he said.  He knew he should not use his glamour on her, but he really wanted to know what she had been about to say.  Just then Sarah walked into the classroom looking for Angel, "Hey Angel, I am starving.  Let's go."  Angel looked away from Nik and shook her head to clear it, then looked at Sarah and then back to Nik.  She did not know what had just happened, but she didn't like it.  She grabbed her bag and looked at him, "Are we done here?"  "Yeah, but I would like to finish this conversation at a later time.  Can you come by my office tomorrow evening around 6pm.?" 

Angel looked at him, and thought to herself that this might not be a good idea, but he was her teacher and she could trust him, so she replied, "Sure, I will be there."  She walked out of the room with Sarah.  Nik sat there and thought about what they had been talking about before they were interrupted.  He wanted to know what she had been about to say before Sarah came into the room.  He knew that this was not a coincidence and he really did remember reading about the murder of her father in the paper.  Was it really Erika that was responsible for her father's death, or another coven?  He was going to look into this, because if it was Erika, and Angel got too nosy, it would not end well for her.