Cassian Legacy: The Vampire Prince
Chapter 2

When I arrived at school the nextday two things happened that had never occurred before. The group of friends Ihad made from the previous day waited for me at the entrance, and the boy,whose journal I had returned, stared at me from the side of his yellow racingcar as I walked up the sidewalk from the bus stop. The two situations made meuneasy at first, but as I mulled them over in my head I realized that I hadmade an impression of some sort on them both, I just didn’t know what. Theirstares were not hostile in any way, but I felt like I should be cautious inhowever I dealt with this unnerving situation.

I made my way over to the entrance,willing to handle the four teenagers first before I tackled the other issue. Ihad no clue what the kid wanted to say to me. He just stared, following me withhis blue eyes. He looked curious, like I didn’t belong at the school and heneeded to figure out what made me so different. Odd thing was that he was right,even though he guessed it with his outward facial expressions. But he would beroad blocked. I wasn’t about to let him know that secret quite yet.

I pointedly moved my eyes back ontothe opposite side of the parking lot and walked up to the four friends I barelyknew. The girls looked like bubbles about to pop, while the boys looked eagerupon asking me a question of some sort. Once I reached their position though,none of them spoke a word, even if their giddiness was slathered on theirfacial expressions and body language openly.

“You aren’t waiting for me, right?”I greeted them.

Krista wasn’t looking at me, butshe nodded several times. Eventually Mallory nudged her and she grabbed my arm,pulling me into the school’s main entrance. We traveled down the main hall andinto another adjoining hall before she burst out her question.

“How do you know Finn?” sheexclaimed.

I glanced at each of their faces.They all seemed eager to know how I knew the kid, but I didn’t know who Finnwas so how could I answer them? “What?”

“Finn…” Seth suggested, though Ididn’t understand what he implied. “Finn Tierney.”

“Who?” I questioned them again. Whowas this kid and what had them all thinking that I knew him, supposedly?

Mallory rolled her eyes. “The boyyou talked to yesterday.”

“The one who stared at you in theparking lot earlier,” Nate butted in.

Oh – so that was the kid’s name. Ihadn’t known it, and didn’t really wish to know it. But what piqued my interestwas how they knew him when he was a new student here.

“I don’t know Finn. But I take ityou do?” I finally answered.

Krista whipped out a photo album ofthe previous year’s student body. Even this school apparently partook in thecustom of photographing each kid and plastering them into a book. Her fingerpointed at the kid, Finn, where he was centerfold on the bottom row of thebleachers in the gym’s picture. He wore the same attire and he looked exactlythe same in the colored photograph. His round face and dark locks of black hairwere sheer perfection, the same yesterday as well as earlier when I saw him. Sohere was the proof that he had studied here before.

I shook my head. “I didn’t know himbefore yesterday. What’s the big deal here?” What was I missing?

Krista’s eyes popped wide open. “Idon’t really believe that for one second. Finn only looks at people if he knows them. And you, he knows. Why elsewould he stare at you like that?”

Mallory nodded eagerly, backing upher ridiculous theory. Technically people looked at you to address, confirm, communicate,or even admire your face and body in some sort of fashion. They didn’t stare atyou if they didn’t know you. It was odd behavior to some degree, even odderthat these four knew his particular behavioral patterns.

“Do you know Finn?” I asked them all. Maybe something had happened intheir relationship which would explain why he was isolated now.

Krista sighed. “I wish.” She nearlysulked then recovered herself. “He doesn’t talk to many girls, and the ones hetook to prom and the homecoming dances didn’t gush about his character toomuch. They mostly were disappointed that he didn’t do anything with his datesother than escort them there.”

So the kid was a heart breaker. “Sowhat’s the big deal with him? He looks pretty average to me.”

Krista looked taken aback.

I floundered for the right word.“What makes him so enticing?” I asked again before she could chastise me.

Mallory sighed. “He’s supposedlyroyalty. And he’s gorgeous, a great athlete…”

“He also smells really good too,”Krista said. “Some sort of cologne I’ve never heard of.”

“He’s charming,” Nate snickered. “Idon’t understand why the girls get so wrapped up in this nonsense. He’s beenhere at the school for over three years now.”

I whipped my head over to him,alarmed by this news. “Three years? How come I haven’t seen him before now?”

“See, I knew you were interested,”Krista laughed. “What girl isn’t?”

Mallory turned away with her, asthey headed for class. “It’s hard not to be interested. He has his own allure,”she stated to herself mostly, but from the distance between us I overheardevery word.

I focused back on Nate, but he waswalking away again. Seth stayed put, but that was only because he figured outwe both had Chemistry together this morning. As we strode down the hall to classroom8A, I took the opportunity to question him about this Finn.

“So, do you know where he’s beenbefore yesterday?”

Seth shrugged. “Who knows? He tookoff a semester. But this is the first time he’s brought back friends with him.”

We walked into the room and chose alab table in the middle. We didn’t have assigned seats, so it was easy for usto sit together.

He unpacked his supplies and shookhis head. “I still can’t believe you two don’t know each other. He stares atyou like he does, and that’s saying something.”

I purposefully ignored looking athis face and acknowledging that I heard the statement. I figured he wanted meto admit to our supposed relationship, but all I would do is deny him oncemore. I didn’t know this Finn, and I didn’t know if I wanted to. He was just aboy, an average teenage boy after all. If anyone in this school was special itwas me, and not him.

The bell rang, signaling the startof class. Ms. Ingram walked in and started dividing up the supplies for thelab, but as usual she took about the first ten minutes of class assorting ourgroup work. I usually spent this time catching up on homework, if I had any,but now that I sat next to Seth he pelted me with questions about my life,which I really hoped to avoid.

“So where do you hail from?” Herested his chin upon his hand and leaned across the table so that I wouldnotice him better.

I sighed and tried curling in onmyself. It didn’t work as I sat on a stool in front of a black table with aBunsen burner - I abhorred fire, of any kind. So my legs found a bar closest tomy bottom and my knees scraped up against the wooden edifice. I couldn’t doanything about my torso or arms so I hunched my shoulders and leaned on myelbows, solidifying an awkward fetal position.

Knowing he waited for an answer, Igave one. “All over.”

He didn’t buy my broad statement.His smile went flat and his eyebrows narrowed. “You had to start somewhere.”

I racked my brain. It had been solong since I had a home, or returned home, or even thought of home. I imaginedthat he caught me staring up at the encrusted ceiling because he cleared histhroat hesitantly and scooted his stool across the floor. The noise was loud,much louder than I thought it would be. I closed my eyes, dropped my chin, andshuddered from the squeal.

“Are you alright?” His voice, ladenwith compassion, awoke me from my state.

I met his eyes without turning myhead too much.

“It was only a question, I didn’twant to pry,” he apologized.

I shook my head to clear it fromthe dizzying ache that formed once the questions started. I was about toanswer, but Ms. Ingram started the lecture. I left the questions alone for now,but I understood that this subject wasn’t closed. He wouldn’t be satisfieduntil I gave an answer of some sort, and that gave me time to think about whereI might call home, if home existed, or fabricate a lie good enough to fool themall.

In the mean time I focused upon themindless tasks set before me. We had to mix the samples in the boxes and thenheat them for about twenty minutes, measuring the reactions of each mixture.While Seth grabbed the boxes, I pulled out a sheet of paper and pen. We wereonly to observe the effects of the samples, but I already knew ours was goingto turn into putty. I had done this experiment before. Regardless, I wrote downthe intervals of time and prepared to detail changes that I cared nothingabout.

Seth returned promptly, and startedmixing the samples. I watched him, making sure he performed the lab correctly.So far he had it right. He lit the burner and set the mixed sample on top ofit. We watched and waited patiently for the mixture to turn.

“I never meant to make a big dealabout your home. I can understand the confusion being a military brat myself,”he finally stated after ten minutes passed in silence.

I didn’t understand what he meantby that statement. I knew what the military was, but not a brat. He continuedwith whatever he was going to say and didn’t give me much of a chance tointerject – which I didn’t mind.

“We moved a lot until my father waspromoted to Colonel. After that my mom got tired of his military lifestyle andput her foot down. We moved back here so that she could take care of herparents. They’re separated now, but can’t decide on a divorce or not.” Heshrugged. “It doesn’t bother me much. Dad’s never been around for me since Iwas five.”

I learned so much about him in sucha short time. Meanwhile the mixture was turning brown. I jotted down theinformation and tried focusing my mind back on him, but all I heard was anumber of students sigh with fascination when their mixtures all startedturning different colors. It seemed that Ms. Ingram gave us different types offood coloring, because our neighbors had a reddish mixture while the kids infront of us had a blue-purple chunky mess in their beaker. Ours was brown, notan exciting color, but unique nonetheless.

“Abel?” Seth questioned.

I hadn’t realized I wasn’t payingattention. I snapped awake and glanced down at our brown goo.

“Are you alright?”

I nodded hurriedly and wrote downsome rushed answers for the times I was missing. I grabbed the beaker and setit down on the tabletop. Seth reached over and turned off the burner.

“Um…” he stuttered. “How didyou…wasn’t that hot?”

I froze. I had completely forgottento be normal around him. I pressed my hand against the coolness of the blacksurface and glanced at him worried that he might make something out of myaccidental exposure.

“I had an accident when I wasyounger and I have no superficial feeling in my right hand,” I rushed out.

He reached for my hand. “Youprobably got a second degree burn. You need to let a nurse see to that beforeit gets infected.”

I removed my hand from the table,snatching it away from his reach. I made sure he couldn’t see my palm,otherwise his questions would evolve. “It’s fine.”

“No it’s not,” he pushed.

I hated having to do this, but hewas getting worked up over nothing. I didn’t want him suspecting anything. Hisheart rate had increased slightly, alarmed by my actions, and already a bead ofsweat formed at his right temple. I turned my whole body towards him and gazedinto his clear green eyes. “It doesn’t hurt,” I commanded him.

His whole body froze in place,while his heart rate dropped a few beats per minute. He sat back onto thestool, having made a move to get a hold of my hand in any way possible. Hecrossed his hands in his lap and nodded absentmindedly. “You’re fine,” hereiterated.

I smiled and nodded once. “I’mfine,” I repeated back sealing the spell.

I glanced away quickly, not wishingto keep it up for too long. The compulsion effect didn’t last that long for meanyway, at least not on people like him, but I was able to use it for smallthings like this. For the future though, I needed to be more careful in how Ipresented myself. Today was turning out to be disastrous. Using that abilitytook a lot of my strength away, and I would need the rest of it if I wanted tostay sane and survive in this school for the rest of the week.

If the worst happened, and I sappedthe rest of my strength, I could always check out early. I kept a list ofexcuses ready for those days I wouldn’t be able to attend at all. I hatedmissing class because it always gave me extra work, making it harder for me tocatch up to the material. Plus, I was busy already outside of school with otheractivities.

Seth took a long time to move fromhis relaxed position. I was afraid that I had overdone it. I hated usingcompulsion on people, especially kids, because their brains were still growing.Most of the time my compulsion didn’t work on their minds like it did when Iused it on others. But his answers were normal for the use of compulsion, so Ididn’t worry too much over it.

When he finally did move, his handtouched my shoulder. “Was it good?”

I blinked. Was what good exactly?“Excuse me?” By my calculations his mind should’ve returned to the moment whenwe talked about the experiment before I picked up the hot beaker and not askquestions about whatever it was he thought about now.

The silly smile he wore on his facewiped off suddenly like he had a new thought form in his mind. His eyebrowsfurrowed from disappointment and confusion. At once they strayed to my righthand which I had revealed from out under the table once I used my ability. Hishand dropped from my shoulder and he switched his gaze back on mine.

“You burned your hand,” hewhispered like it was an afterthought.

I shook my head, wondering whatbrought this on. “No, it’s fine. Don’t you remember?” I tried putting his mindback on the right track, the track he should follow. He should not beremembering the past few minutes at all. My compulsion should be strong enoughto erase that memory. Although there was an alternative as to how his mindwould resist compulsion in any form. But was it possible that he was one of them? No, that couldn’t be it. His scentwas normal for a teenage kid, plus he had a heartbeat.

It took him a few minutes before heresponded properly to my question. He finally nodded his head drastically inslow motion, and repeated the words I forged into his memory.

We continued with our experiment insilence, unlike the rest of the groups. After an hour and a half of class, thebell rang. For the first time, I wasn’t the first one out of the classroom. Ipacked up my stuff while he dreamily meandered around the room, staring at allthe objects and gingerly touching them like they were bubbles about to breakapart.

The teacher glanced at him briefly,studying his movements, and then turned her sight on me. “Is he alright?”

I shrugged. “He seemed fineearlier.”

“Seth,” she beckoned him.

He froze in place, in between twolab tables. He stared out of the window, focusing on nothing in particular.What was weird was that he didn’t respond to Ms. Ingram at all when he shouldhave. Suddenly, but what seemed slowly with my quick reflexes, his bodycollapsed to the floor. My mouth dropped open of its own accord, as I wasn’tused to people feinting or passing out after I used compulsion on them. I racedover, more slowly than I usually ran because it was bad enough that attentionwas being drawn towards me at his expense. Ms. Ingram pushed a small red buttonon the wall, and not long after I reached his tired body did she request thenurse.

A few students for the next classtried coming into the room, but she ushered them all back outside and closedthe door, waiting for the right personnel’s arrival. It didn’t take them long.During the minute of time that I had, I searched for signs of life from him,though it was then that I realized I might’ve used too much of my gift on hismediocre mind. Compulsion was a science, and I wasn’t adept at using myability, like others of the Fae. I hated it actually and only used it as a lastresort, especially on teenagers and children. This effect had never happenedbefore, so I wasn’t prepared for it.

I felt guilty. I never wanted tohurt him, mostly because he considered me as a friend. I never quite made up mymind about him and the others, whether they were true friends or not, but thatdidn’t mean I wished them harm.

Principal Hawkins arrived with thenurse. I hadn’t met either of them before, but I recognized the official badgesthey wore, even if the print was in six point font. “We need to get him to theoffice and call his mother.”

The nurse felt his forehead andneck simultaneously. “He’s breathing, but he’s hot. He might be coming downwith something.” She looked at me. “What were you two doing before?”

I stared at her. Why would she aska question like that? I was only here because he had fainted over what Iassumed was my compulsion. She suggested otherwise.

Though, what I would’ve answeredwith was cut short by my teacher. She had crossed her arms and pointedly made aface in the nurse’s direction. “What kind of suggestion was that? I run aproper class here.”

The nurse drew her attention awayfrom me and started questioning Ms. Ingram. “So this happened in class?”

“Just after the bell rang,” Ifinished, bringing the focus back onto me. If anyone was going to explainthings it had to be me. I was the only one who knew exactly what had happened,and therefore I was the only one capable enough to lie about it. I met Ms.Ingram’s eyes, but didn’t turn on my compulsion. I wouldn’t need to use it onher in this case. Already there was more implied here than what actuallytranspired and it seemed preferable if we treated it as a sudden illness ratherthan what it really was. “We finished our lab, but he didn’t pack up. He made aturn about the room and then when Ms. Ingram beckoned him, his gaze focused onthe window and he passed out.”

I left out the part about the oddquestions at the lab table, which Ms. Ingram wouldn’t have heard anyway,especially after I used the compulsion on him. The confused circumstance wouldraise too many questions, and I didn’t need any more attention drawn to me frommy uniqueness.

The nurse sighed. Obviously shedidn’t believe our statements. I don’t know why she wouldn’t though. It soundedlike an honest answer in my opinion. Her light brown eyes met mine. “I justneed to make sure my dear that you two weren’t kissing.”

Kissing? Now why would I even dothat? With a boy like him?

Ms. Ingram huffed from where shestood. “Helen, they weren’t kissing. Is this why you’re giving us cryptic looksand suggestions? Is it because you think he has mono?”

“Classic symptoms uponobservation,” she announced.

I shook my head. I knew of mono,having seen it pass through multiple people, and not just from kissing. “Thisisn’t mono. I think I’d be looking at a fever of some sort, quite possibly thecommon cold.”

The nurse pursed her lips, stillnot wanting to believe my suggestion, which was hilarious. As a nurse, sheshould know better having been medically trained that one can’t base adiagnosis on observation alone. But she finally nodded her head and gazeddecidedly at the principal. “Go back to my office, I have a stretcher there.”

I sighed and handed my bag to thewoman. “Take this. I’ll carry him.”

The three stared at me like I wasout of my mind. I was sure they thought that, but it didn’t matter to me. Heavythings weren’t so heavy anymore, though heavy items were never really heavy forme anyway. I reached down and pulled him to his feet. In one swift movement hewas in my arms, like I carried a small child, not a five and a half footteenager.

I glanced at the nurse. “Lead theway.”

They all stared at me with completeshock and amazement plastered on their faces before the two administrators leftthe room. I followed them out into the hall. Class had already started, so Ididn’t worry about gawkers standing in the corridor. I also knew that Ms.Ingram sent all her next students to the library from the brief instructionsshe had with them out in the hall when they tried entering the classroom. I wouldn’thave done this if I knew there were students watching me. There would be toomany to convince they hadn’t seen what they did, and I couldn’t have that.

At the rate I was going, I wouldneed sustenance soon. Using compulsion on the nurse, principal and teacherwould massively drain my strength and already I could feel it sapping away.