Chapter 286

Third Person POV

From the moment Ruby set foot on this campus, she felt out of place. She felt as if others were watching her and waiting for her to snap at any moment. Like it was normal for new vampires to lose their minds, and maybe it was. But ever since she first woke and nearly killed Tessa, then had her first sip of blood, she hasn’t felt compelled to lose herself to the bloodlust again.

She had to admit, she was incredibly nervous when Joseph dropped her off at this strange place. She didn’t want to part ways with those who had become her friends. She certainly didn’t want to part ways with Carter. Leaving his side was the hardest thing she’d ever had to do, and she didn’t even fully understand that feeling.

She could still feel the ghost of his arms wrapped around her, making her feel safe and loved. She was so in love with him and that terrified her. He had hurt her once before and nothing was stopping him from doing it again, but somewhere deep in her heart she still trusted him, and she knew he would never do anything to deliberately hurt her. Not like he had previously.

Ruby wished that Tessa could have come along and seen her off, but she also understood why that wasn’t possible. She almost killed Tessa once and she would never forgive herself if she managed to do it again and succeed.

When they told her she was going to a vampire academy, she didn’t know it was going to be an actual school. She wasn’t sure how she felt about being around a bunch of new vampires; she worried it would be nothing but mayhem. But she’s quickly discovering it’s nothing like that.

Sure, some really terrifying new vampires want nothing but to harm people and drink blood. But they are isolated in a different part of the school. Most around the school struggle with their need for blood as well, but they are more managed. They don’t want to actually hurt people; they are just as terrified as Ruby and they are just as lost, if not more so. At least Ruby had friends and people waiting and rooting for her. Some people at this school didn’t have that and Ruby felt terrible for them.

Ruby had to go through a period of evaluation which lasted a couple of days before they officially placed her in a specific section of the school. It included a couple of therapy sessions, psych evaluations, 12 hours in isolation, and testing her willpower to not drink a small cup of blood that they placed in front of her. She had to sit with it for a few hours before they decided that Ruby was one of the least harmless new vampires.

Sure, she felt compelled towards the blood and there was still a part of her that wanted to give into her vampire side and lose herself, but she refused to lose her humanity. She still held onto the Ruby she was before the transition.

After a couple of days of testing, they finally placed her in the school section she was currently in. They gave her a pretty nice room, with a roommate who she had grown to like in the couple of weeks she had been at this school. They gave her a class schedule; she was taking 4 classes this semester. They gave her a map of the school and told her she was free to wander around, but certain sections were off-limits. That’s’ where the worst of the worst vampires were, and they wanted others to stay clear of those areas.

She was even allowed weekly phone privileges. Typically, new vampires needed to be kept from the outside world so they could focus on their lessons and eventually rejoin society, but because Ruby was in the least harmless section of the school, and she had supernatural friends, she was allowed to contact them once a week.

She was also told that no humans were allowed to know of their kind, which she understood. She wasn’t planning on telling anyone about this. It’s not like she had anyone to tell anyway. Her family would never understand, they never did understand a thing Ruby shared with them.

“Did you hear the news?” Emma, Ruby’s roommate and closest friend at the school asked when Ruby walked into their dorm room. Emma was seated on the couch with her legs crossed and her schoolbook on her lap. She was studying the history of vampires; a class they were taking together.

“What news?” She asked, shutting the door behind her and putting her new backpack on the ground next to her bed, which was across the room.

Their small dorm room consisted of two twin beds on opposite sides of the room, a bathroom, two closets located close to their beds, and two dressers, also closer to their beds. It had a couch with a TV that sat on the wall and a mini table that seated two. Oh, and two end tables next to their beds which had a couple of drawers for extra space. It wasn’t anything special, but Ruby had quickly started to think of it as home.

It was a comfortable shared space. It was on the first floor of the dormitory and around the corner was a shared space for all the girls in their section, which consisted of a mini kitchen stocked with basic stuff, a living room with a couple of couches, love seats, and a huge TV that the girls tend to fight over, and there was a pretty nice stereo system too that tends to be on 24/7.

For the most part, Ruby got along with most girls in her section. She got along with her dorm advisor as well, which happened to be her mentor, Erika.

“New students are coming to this school,” Emma informed her. “They are arriving tomorrow. I wonder if we will have any in our section.”

Ruby shrugged.

“Maybe,” Ruby said, noncommittally. She wasn’t really sure what the big deal was; she assumed new students arrived often, but telling from Emma’s face, who had been here for more than a year, maybe that wasn’t the case. “Is it rare for new students to arrive?”

“This quickly after we just got a new one, yes,” Emma said, shaking her head with a frown on her face. “It means someone is out there turning humans into new vampires.”

“Isn’t that illegal?” Ruby asked, recalling what Erika had told her on her first day.

Apparently, it was illegal for Carter to turn her into a new vampire without the vampire council knowing about it. He would face hell for it soon enough; Ruby was worried until she was able to call Carter and learned that he was off the hook, thanks to Tessa.

“Yes, unless the council finds there a good reason to turn a human into a vampire and approves the decision before it happens,” Emma said without missing a beat. “I can’t imagine that happened with 5 different humans though.”

“There’s 5 of them?” Ruby gasped; her eyes large with alarm. “Are you sure they were all humans?”

“According to Erika, they were,” Emma said, shaking her head with dismay written all over her face. “It’s a shame really. Whoever is turning humans into vampires at this rate is going to get help from the council.”

“Maybe they’ve been approved?”

“Doubtful, but maybe,” Emma agreed.

They spent the rest of the evening studying into the early morning studying for their first round of exams, which was only a week away. Ruby was still getting used to the reversed schedule; she wasn’t used to being awake all night and sleeping during the day, but she felt like shit when she spent too much time outside during the daylight after she first shifted, and she never wanted to feel like that again so now she’s way more cautious.

Neither of them had classes for the rest of the evening, so Ruby called it an early morning and decided to go to bed before the sun had risen. It was true that Ruby was tired, but she never felt quite this exhausted before. It was like she couldn’t keep her eyes open even if she wanted to. She managed to wait until she got into bed before her eyes fluttered shut, unable to control them any longer.

It was almost instant, which had never happened before. But she was transported into a dream, and she saw 5 new faces entering the school grounds. Ruby was confused because they weren’t bound at the hands like she had been. She thought it was a procedure to bind new vampires when they entered the school and keep them bound until after their evaluation. But when Ruby expressed this to the Elder that was walking them into the school, an Elder she had never seen before and assumed he was new to the school, he didn’t hear her.

It was like she was there, but she wasn’t there. It was frustrating, but she decided to stand back and just watch.

She gasped when the tallest of the new vampires grabbed the Elder’s neck and snapped it, making him fall to the ground. Ruby let out a scream, which he couldn’t hear. She wasn’t sure if this Elder was dead or not; was it that easy to kill them?

As if to answer her unspoken question, another of the vampires searched the elder and came across a silver stake which he soon plunged into his heart. Ruby felt weak; there was no doubt in her mind now, he was definitely dead.

The other new vampires started to cheer and chant and then they ran around the school, terrorizing others and killing students in cold blood. There was one girl in particular, she looked young, very young. She wore ripped clothing, and she was very dirty; Ruby couldn’t help but wonder about all the things this young girl must have gone through. There was no way she was of age though; she had the face of a child.

She had tears in her eyes, and she looked terrified, but upon seeing all the fresh blood, despite it being vampire blood, she jumped at the opportunity to drink some.

Come to think of it, they were all drinking vampire blood. It didn’t make any sense; Ruby was told that vampire blood was nasty to other vampires. So, why were they drinking vampire blood?

Ruby woke up in a cold sweat, gasping for breath. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she scrambled out of bed. She went straight to Erika's room and told her what she had seen. Erika tried to calm Ruby, telling her that it was only a dream and that it was just her anxiety.

“Is there a new Elder or guard at this school?” Ruby asked, still panicked.

Erika thought about it for a moment and then nodded.

“Sebastian just arrived at this school a few days ago. He’s an Elder but he’s new to the school,” Erika explained. “He knows the procedure. You don’t have to worry about anything, Ruby.”

Ruby wanted to believe her, but she didn’t. She was too wound up and terrified. Nobody would listen to her though. As soon as the sun went down, she went straight to the board and told them what she had seen. They didn’t look as if they believed her either, but they told her that they would look into it and get back to her.

It was a waste of time, Ruby thought to herself.

But there was nothing more she could do.

It wasn’t until later that night when disaster hit.