The rainy season during the month of September did not deter the students of the Imperial Academy from having fun. Kids who were bored having been confined in their classrooms for ever so long decided to risk catching colds by running around school and playing under the rain. They were still kids, after all, without mom and dad to pinch their ears. But then again, there was a one formidable Miss Amara, who could deliver a very precise message of disapproval with just one lift of her brow, making the students abandon their revelry and seek asylum inside their rooms instead.

Lira, however, had a different way of having fun during a cold, rainy day. Her idea of fun was sitting on a comfy chair, feet curled underneath her and a good book on her lap, while splashes of rain created a calming and soothing music as it hit the earth, providing her a cool but relaxing ambiance. Mari, as always, decided to throw caution in the air and plunged herself in the rain, laughingly saying, "What can a little rain do to us?" while an equally exhilarated Yumi squeaked with delight and an alarmed Lira rushing after them. Where was Ian to back her up at a time like this?

"What a little rain can do indeed," Lira snorted as her runny nose delivered a loud nasty sneeze even the dead would be disturbed. She was in the rec room with the other students. Yumi was in the infirmary, complaining of severe head ache and elevated temperature, with Mari accompanying her.

Achoo! Another sneeze again.

Nicholas, who was sitting beside Lira, rolled his eyes, pulled a tissue out of its box and handed it to her, looking disgusted.

"What? Don't vampires get sick to?" she asked as she wiped her nose.

"Of course not, Lira. We can't be afflicted with any human diseases. And we can easily heal ourselves when we get cut or stabbed or whatever," he said explained. "What do humans do if they get sick?"

"Well, if it's very severe, we see a doctor. We take medicines, drink lots of water and make sure we have enough vitamin C to increase our immune system so we won't easily get sick again."

"It's so complicated to raise a human then."

"How about turned vampires? Don't they get sick too, since they were once humans?" Lira asked.

Nicholas looked at Lira as if she was talking about aliens. "Turned vampires? Oh you mean like what humans believe when we bite them and infect them with our venom, turning them a vampire, too? Or if we let humans drink our blood on their dying breath they'll turn into a vampire?"

She nodded.

"We cannot do those things. The disease that once plagued my ancestors was not something that can be passed on through bite or blood transfusion. I have heard, though, of incidences where if you drink a sufficient amount of blood from a powerful vampire, you will share the vampires' qualities like great speed or strength. But those were just rumors."

"But that disease, it's still inside you?"

"In a way yes, though it remains dormant."

Lira nodded in understanding. "So how do you, you know, expand your population?"

"Female vampires can get pregnant, too; although they can only conceive twice. Usually the second pregnancy is very fatal to the females as carrying another vampire can cause enough harm inside a mother's womb. Even a developing fetus feeds on his mother's blood."

"You said twice. How come you have three other siblings?"

"Sev and Steph are my half-brothers. Only Philip and I shared the same mother. Our mother died after she gave birth to me."

Nicholas for a moment looked unhappy that it made Lira's heart ache a bit. She knew what it felt like to loss a mother. "I'm sorry. But at least you still have your brothers and father."

Nicholas only snorted. "My father is in his sleep, conserving his energy."

Lira decided to let the topic drop to avoid Nicholas' ire. "So turned vampires are not true."

"There are cases such as the dhampirs: half vampire half human. But it rarely happens as the Council looked down upon those vampire-human marriages. And if a female human married to a vampire conceives child, vampire blood is usually strong so you would expect the child to have qualities of a vampire. Imagine how fatal it is for that human, since a fetus starts feeding on her mother. Human females are not as strong as the female vampires."

"Okay. So vampires can only get pregnant twice. Why is that?"

"It is fate's way to ensure the vampires will never outnumber the humans," Nicholas explained.

Achoo! A sneeze from Lira.

Nicholas rolled his eyes again and said, "I'll bring you these medicines and vitamin C you're saying tomorrow. That cold of yours is really bothering me. A lot."

Lira chuckled. "Do you even know where to get those things?"

"I can ask Sevastian. He always read those human books; he probably knows where I can get one," Nicholas answered. With the mere mention of Sevastian's name, Lira blushed, which made Nicholas scowl. "You better forget about Sevastian, Lira."

Lira looked at him dumfounded. "Wh—what? You're reading my mind again. That's intrusion of privacy!"

"I told you to learn how to block your mind."

Lira made a loud "hmph!"

"Lira, we know our human classmates fancied themselves in love with us, and we find that... cute. However, we can't reciprocate those feelings. Remember, I told you that the council frowns upon those relationships. And being born a prince, Sev knows the rules well. You view Sev as this white knight in shining armor, a gentle prince. But never forget, no matter how gentle he seems he is still one of us: a vampire."

Lira fumed with anger and embarrassment. She was angry because Nicholas made all those assumptions; and embarrassed because all those assumptions were right.

"I better go back to the dorm. Yumi is probably waiting for me," she finally said.

Nicholas sighed. "I'll walk with you."

"No need Nicholas, I can manage on my own," she replied and made her way out of the hall.

***

Nicholas watched Lira's retreating back and her defeated stance. He couldn't understand these emotions suddenly swirling inside him; as if he felt bad looking how hurt Lira was. Human emotions are highly contagious after all; and even the strongest of all vampires were not immune to it.

***

Lira was still feeling down two days later since the night she had the talk with Nicholas. She would even admit that she was heartbroken. Her current disposition even made her oblivious of Mari's latest antics. Mari was in a high spirit one morning, showing Lira a box of blueberry cheesecake saying she finally figured out how to get Matt to fall for her. "A way to a man's heart is through his stomach!" Mari had said, before she sauntered towards Matt handing him the cake while giving him her most seductive smile. In extreme cases, she would wear her skimpiest outfit whenever possible and flaunt Matt a lot of her skin. They tried to talk her way out of it, but Mari was so adamant.

So one gloomy Saturday morning, Yumi and Lira were not even surprised to see a distressed Mari with puffy eyes and red nose barged inside their room, rushed towards them and wailed, "I've been dumped! And we weren't even an item yet."

Lira and Yumi knew what Mari meant, so they both rushed towards her and gave their friend a hug and their shoulders for her to cry on.

The three sat on the floor, with several empty cans of soda and bags of chips before them, as Mari recounted the tale of the demise of her heart. "So I decided to finally confess my feelings to him this morning. I was even wearing my favorite skirt and my lucky bracelet, see? And my favorite shade of pink lipstick, too. Then... Then..." Mari chocked back a sob. "Then he told me I'm not his type! He said I was too vulgar, and I don't even know what he meant by that! I mean, am I not THAT sophisticated or classy enough for a guy from the First Order? And I have never even made any explicit or obscene remarks towards anybody. Then he said, he said, he doesn't like the way I smell!" Another bawl followed.

"Oooh! That pig!" Lira said angrily. "He doesn't even know what his missing! It's his loss, Mari, not yours. And besides, you happen to smell very nice."

"Here Mari, have a chocolate," Yumi said, handing Mari a chocolate bar. "It will help you release those happy hormones."

Mari sniffed; then she took a bite of the chocolate. "Thanks."

"Well, Mari, with the way I see it, you have two options," Yumi said. "It's either you forget about him and move on, or we could try another approach."

"What do you mean, Yumi?" Mari asked, looking hopeful.

Yumi took a bite of the chocolate before sharing her idea. "Well, maybe Matt is used to receiving too much attention. I mean, after all, he does look cute and he's been receiving a fair share of attention from the other girls. I heard Lavinia say he's her black knight or whatever." She rolled her eyes. "So, if you place that attention suddenly to some other guy, you know to one of his buddies perhaps, and then who knows? He might get jealous."

Mari eyed Yumi skeptically. "I don't know... I mean, I'm not sure if he'll buy it or if I'll look convincing..."

Yumi rolled her eyes. "Mari, you're probably present in every boy's wet—"

"What?" Mari asked, raising an eyebrow.

Yumi chuckled. "Never mind. The point is just give another guy a smile or two, and they'll start drooling on your feet. Then, Matt will notice it. He'll realize what a fool he has been for ignoring you. He'll get jealous. Then it'll be his turn to win your heart."

Mari gave Yumi a small smile. "Oh Yumi, you made everything sound so simple." "Sometimes, we need to lose something before we'll realize how important it was to us," Yumi added.

Mari turned to Lira. "What do you think, Lira?"

"If Yumi thinks it'll work, then I guess we should give it a try."

Yumi smiled. "Of course it'll work." She then faced Lira and said. "And don't you ever think Lira that your depressive state has escaped my notice. I was just waiting for you to open up."

So Lira began telling about her feelings for Sevastian and what Nicholas had told her. "So I guess there will never be anything between us: A vampire and a human."

"Oh," Yumi said, looking disappointed as well.

"Oh well, there are still many fishes in the ocean," Mari said.

"There aren't any oceans nearby, Mari. And why do we need fishes at a time like this?" Yumi asked, looking confused.

Lira couldn't help but laugh. "What Mari meant was they are not the only boys around."

"And we will venture on that ocean tonight," Mari declared with a determined gleam on her eyes.

That evening, they decided to check a place their upperclassmen swear by. Ian, tagged along, saying he had a bad feeling about it and he'd go with them to make sure they'd not land into any trouble. They went to the said address and were dumbfounded to find an almost dilapidated eerie-looking, wooden, one-story building almost obscured by the trees surrounding it.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Lira asked Mari, surveying the place. The building was several meters away from the curving darkened highway where there was no motorist who frequent the area since it was rumored the road was haunted by a white lady who causes freaky accidents to unsuspecting motorists.

"This is where the address led us to," Mari said.

As they neared the old building, they could hear a faint music coming from the inside. They slowly opened the door and crept inside. Blaring lights and loud music welcomed them as swarm of bodies danced around in the room without any regard. They noticed the crowd was a mixture of vampires, and humans closer to their age. They even spied some of their upperclassmen. They were all acting weird; openly flirting with each other with a lot of kissing that made Lira turned her face away with embarrassment. It wouldn't surprise Lira if she found someone fornicating in one corner.

"What is this place?" Yumi asked.

"I have a bad feeling about this place," Ian said

"We should probably leave this place now," Mari suggested.

"Yes, I think we should—" Lira's attention was briefly snatched by a familiar figure. She spied Nicholas seated on a couch at the far end of the room, smiling seductively over a slender, pretty girl sitting across his lap who was exposing her neck towards Nicholas' eager lips. Stephan and Sevastian were also with him, occupied with their own—uh—girlfriends. Nicholas' lips were inches away from the girl's neck, when he suddenly stopped, sniffed the air and turned his head abruptly towards Lira's direction.

"What the—" she heard Nicholas say as he sharply stood, sending the poor girl off his lap, sprawled on the floor.

Then all of a sudden, they heard a booming voice, that sounded strangely like Matt's, announced, "Party's over!"

"SLAYERS!" Everyone started to scatter and clambered to every exit they could find. Nicholas gave Sevastian and Stephan a quick nod, and a second later, Lira felt a tug on her wrist and was surprised to see Nicholas leading her outside and running away from the building.

Lira tried to tug her hand away from Nicholas' grasp. "Wait! I need to go back. My friends..."

"Are safe as we speak. I told Sev and Steph to get them to safety."

"Why are we running away?"

"Slayers decided to crash the party. Philip's going to be pissed when he finds his students participating in that kind of... activity."

"Slow down Nicholas!" she said as she tugged her hand free. "Let me just catch my breath a few seconds."

"What were you doing at a place like that anyway?" Nicholas demanded, his eyes burning murderously.

"Well, we didn't know it was THAT kind of place. We were just about to leave when the slayers started raiding the building," Lira said defensively. "Why were you there anyway? And exactly what kind of place was it?"

"It's none of your business!" Nicholas snapped. "You should have stayed away at a place like that! Do you even know what will happen to you if you stayed there a minute too late?"

"But nothing happened except slayers—"

"Those vampires will swarm around you, feast on your blood until you're all dried up like a prune because of that smell of yours!"

Lira tried to comprehend his words. "What smell?"

"Your blood, Lira. Why do you think you were attacked at school months ago? It's because your blood smells appealing to us. You don't even have any idea how hard it was at first for the others at school to resist the smell of your blood." Nicholas ran a shaky hand over his hair. "You were safe at school because I ordered them to restrain themselves. But in there, in that building, there are vampires who will not listen to my command."

"But Nicholas, I was not openly attacked before I even came here. If what you say is true, then shouldn't I have been attacked back home?"

Nicholas sighed, looking as if he was trying very hard to control his patience. "I believe you live your whole life in the south. Think Lira. There were hardly any vampires in Isla del Sur. Maybe someone realized your pull to the vampires and decided to dump you in that forsaken island."

"Oh," was all Lira could say.

It was a moment before Nicholas spoke again. "I'll take you back at the academy. Climb on my back."

"I will not! I'll take a cab, thank you." If there were any around.

Nicholas let out a sigh before he said, "Very well," then he scooped Lira into his arms, carried her and ran so fast Lira swear everything she saw around her was a blur. She gave a shriek and flung her arms around Nicholas' neck as he sprinted his way on the woods towards the direction of their school.

They were back at the academy and Nicholas set Lira on her feet. "Thanks Nicholas. But really, don't do that again. I'll see if I can mask my scent with a strong perfume so I won't bother you guys during class."

Nicholas snorted but gave Lira a half-smile. "Go. Your friends are waiting."

Lira found Mari and Yumi on the foyer pacing back and forth, anxiously waiting for her.

"How did you guys get back? Is Ian safe?" Lira asked.

"Stephan and Sevastian helped me and Ian," Yumi said. "Mari got separated from us but luckily Matt found her and hid her and brought her back her before the Elite Guards could lock her up somewhere."

"Ian went to the mess hall to get something to calm his nerves," Mari added.

"We are so never going back to that place. Ever," Lira promised. And the three started laughing with relief.