Blood Valentine

 

Prologue

 “Welcome to Saeren Academy,” the guide told the students as they walked through the halls. “Stay close… I can’t be responsible for any harm if you wander off on your own.”

One of the girls in the back whispered to her friends, “Isn’t this exciting? I heard this school has great instructors.”

“Yeah, well, only if they don’t eat you, right?” said another.

“Oh, I bet they have strict rules to follow. Otherwise they wouldn’t be letting non-vampires go to school at such a dangerous place, you know?”

A third girl shivered. “I don’t wanna be here… It’s so scary!”

“Then why are you here?”

“Because my parents made me come here…”

Naeyan turned to the first girl, who was walking beside him. “Do you think they’d let us have the princess and prince tournament here?”

The girl, Maya, laughed. “If they did, we’d so totally win again. Hehe, that was great!”

“What’s that?” asked another girl.

“Oh,” Maya explained, “it’s just a silly competition we had in middle school. The students would vote on the nominees about who would be Prince or Princess.”

“Sounds a lot like prom.”

“But this is different! The prince is a girl, and the princess is a guy.”

“So then…” the scared girl looked between Naeyan and Maya, “you guys won?”

“Yeah, we did,” answered Naeyan. “It was just for laughs, though.”

Their conversation ended quickly as they bumped into their future classmates, having been halted by their guide. “Please pay attention, children. Now,” he said as he got the group walking again, “I am required to remind you that you will be attending classes with actual vampires. In the past, Headmaster Sarz kept the two groups separate, making students like you attend classes during the day, and having the vampire students take classes during the night. However, we are trying something different this year.”

They then stepped into the cafeteria, non-vampires eating in one half of the room, vampires eating in the other half. Both halves looked up as the future students walked in with their guide. “This year, Headmaster Sarz would like to allow both kinds to socialize with each other, so he has decided to allow everyone to sign up for classes at any time of day. But please, do remember that the vampires here are very dangerous, so be careful not to anger them too much.”

Suddenly there was a scream, as a female student ran into the cafeteria, bleeding profusely from her neck, as well as some blood dripping down her mouth. The future students watched in shock as their guide ran to her. “Damn it,” he muttered, turning to two male vampires. “Get the new kids out of here, quickly!”

“Yes, sir,” said the two boys, hurrying over to the now frightened group. They pushed the young teens out of the room, back down the hall they came from. “Move it,” said one, ‘accidentally’ pushing one of the girls down.

“Don’t be violent,” said the other, Kuurin. “We don’t need a lawsuit because of it.”

As they came to the end of the hall, the two vampires stopped in their tracks, looking down a dark hall, smelling vampiric blood. Kuurin frowned, telling his partner, “Get them out of here, carefully!”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it.” While the lone vampire now moved the group along, Kuurin ran down the hall, straight to where the guilty vampire stood, the scent of blood still very fresh. “Meyuun…”

The boy looked up, seeing Kuurin standing there, then he quickly wiped at his neck. “Uh… hey…”

Kuurin sighed in frustration. “Why the hell did you do that? You’re going to be fucking expelled now.”

Meyuun just stared off. “Why… did he have to run?”

“Meyuun!”

“Look, I turned him because I love him! Alright?!” The older student glared at Kuurin. “You have no idea what it’s like, Kuurin…”

“It’s against the rules! If you wanted to do it so badly, you should have waited until after graduation!”

“I don’t care about that!” Meyuun tightly clenched his fists. “I want to have him all to myself… Now… now people know he’s mine. He even asked for it. He begged for it.”

Kuurin shook his head. “You guys are just going to get tired of each other later on.”

“No, we aren’t. Look, this is a really powerful bond we have now. We’re going to stay together, even with me away from the school. We’re never going to break up.”

“You’re such an idiot! Haven’t you ever heard? First loves never last!”

Meyuun narrowed his eyes. “That’s just what adults want you to think. You’ll believe differently when it happens to you.”

“No I won’t.”

“Yeah… you will.”

***

Naeyan looked back at the school as he, Maya, and the others walked to their waiting parents. This school was already definitely a bit more exciting than middle school had been. “Naeyan!” he heard his father call, turning to look at the still somewhat young-looking man of forty years. “Get over here, boy.” The teen walked over to his father, a full-blooded Fearan demon. “Now, if you get into any trouble here, I’m taking your ass out of this school. Got that?”

“Yes, Father…” Naeyan agreed, but he felt as though he just couldn’t stay away. He wanted to attend school here. He wanted to experience everything a high school had to offer, even a dangerous one such as this. Yes… things were going to be exciting.