When Julia's eyes met Alex's she flushed, and it felt as if her heart was trying to rip itself out of her chest. She couldn't believe they were here; it was a nightmare come true. After that night in Paris where they'd drugged her with gods know what, they'd dumped her off at her hotel and disappeared. She had to deal with Ren when she woke up the next morning. He was beyond enraged; she'd never seen him that angry in her life. It ruined the few days they had left in Paris because he refused to let her leave their hotel.

Returning to Havenswood was the only silver lining to living in a town where nothing ever happened, knowing she would never have to see them ever again. As she stared at them she felt her entire world turning upside down.

Mr Usui looked at the dark faeries with an amused expression. It annoyed Julia that he was acting like the confrontation was a huge joke.

"Since this is your first day, I'll excuse your tardiness, but don't be late again. Class, let me introduce you to your new classmates." Mr Usui pointed to each of the god-like beauties standing in front of everyone. "Prince Damien Mietitore, Prince Alexander Griffemort and Miss Véronique Beaumont are pureblood dark fae. Please make them feel welcome. You guys can take those empty seats over there." He pointed to the three desks exactly across from Julia's on the other side of the room.

As they walked to their seats Ren continued, "The gods created more light fae, the demons created more dark leeches, and the war intensified." He leered at Véronique in a goading manner. "It's no secret that light faeries are bloodthirsty," he took a long pause then added, "and if you must dark faeries are as well but only in the parasitic way. Anyway, no one knows what ended the war."

"Wrong again you delusional sprite. Everyone knows the war ended because neither the gods nor the demons could put up with the light fae. An eternity in Tartarus was preferable than having to dealing with your petulant species," Véronique shot back at him.

His glare turned into an icy glower. Julia could tell by the way the muscles in his jaw clenched he was pissed. Her hand shot out; closing her fingers round Ren's trying to hold him back from doing anything stupid. She glanced around the room and everyone, even Mr Usui, was on the edge of their chairs waiting for Ren's reaction.

No one messed with Ren. It was one of those unwritten rules that everyone, especially the pureblood light fae, respected. Whenever Julia asked him why the full blood light fae seemed to put him on a pedestal, he would always give her the same story. About how in the past he was a badass in Arcadia and how his actions got him banished for a while. She knew there was a huge story behind it but she could never get him to tell her.

Alex cut the tension as he said, "The gods and demons finally came to an agreement. The gods would rule the heavens and the demons would rule the underworld; leaving Earth to be ruled by the supernaturals."

Ren squeezed Julia's hand before letting it go and leaned back in his chair. "Leave it to a fanger to butt in where he isn't needed."

Véronique started to stand, but Alex grabbed her arm and yanked her back down.

Ren continued as if nothing happened, "Many eons passed and with it many wars between the noble light fae and the scummy dark Tinks."

Véronique jumped out of her seat faster than either Alex or Damien could catch her. Her long bony fingers curled round Ren's throat and hulled him out of his seat. "I'll rip that slimy tongue out of your mouth you dirty piskie."

Julia looked around the classroom and saw everyone was too shocked to help, she turned to Mr Usui, "aren't you going to stop this madness?" and said in high-pitched voice.

When he only gave her a shrug, Julia knew her strength was the only thing she had that could help her best friend. She slammed her palms on her desk causing it to groan in protest to her harsh treatment. The legs of her chair scraped against the tile floor as she pushed it away from her desk. The muscles in her arms and legs tensed, ready to start throwing punches the second she jumped out of her seat.

Ren started laughing like a lunatic. His eyes burned with an acid green fire that she'd never seen; freezing Julia in her tracks. In a flash he grabbed Véronique's arm, twisted out of her grip and had her pinned to the ground. Véronique screamed in rage and spun out of his hold. Ren formed a bright yellow power orb in his hands at the same time as Véronique's fangs shot out and she raised her finger to her mouth ready to bite it. They were both poised to unleash their powers on the other when a blinding flash of electric-blue light engulfed the classroom.

Everyone froze as Mr Usui slapped his knee with one hand in a fit of laughter. His other hand still outstretched; electric-blue flames of foxfire flickered from his clawed fingertips from the use of his kitsune powers. "Oh man this is the most fun I've had in a long time. Now children if you would care to take your seats."

"I can't believe you let things go that far. You're a teacher for gods' sakes," Julia said, her voice going up an octave every other word.

Mr Usui closed his clawed hand crushing out the flames and gave her yet another shrug. "Oh please. Oren was never in any danger. Besides, I for one would pay to see a Battle Royale between Oren and Miss Beaumont; it really would spice things up."

Julia's mouth dropped open; she couldn't believe the insanity this class was descending into.

Ren sat back down and Mr Usui said, "Oren, please continue. I can't wait to hear what other interesting facts you have to say."

Ren gave Julia a wink, and she shook her head flopping back down in her seat. "With the emergence of the humans, a truce was agreed between light fae and dark fae. Both species would create their own domain. The light fae created Arcadia, and the bloodsuckers created Alandria." Ren leaned back in his chair and plunked his feet up on his desk. "It's my personal theory that after the truce came about, the gods and demons got bored. They lost their only source of entertainment and inevitably some took a liking to the humans and returned to this realm." He winked and clicked his tongue. "As a result of their trysts with the humans the rest of the supernatural species were born. Unfortunately for those poor offspring, humans have never been very accepting of anything different. Because of this we supernaturals have had to go into hiding."

"Thank you for that colourful explanation, Oren. Moving on, today we'll be discussing dark faeries."

A collective moan went around the class and twenty pairs of eyes rolled in unison.

Hinata Aikawa, a cute blue oni, said in a high-pitched nasal voice, that scratched Julia's ear drums every time she spoke. "Mr Usui, I don't see why we have to learn about those blood-sucking-ticks when we have nothing to do with them and they have nothing to do with us."

Alex gave Hinata a hard glare. "You really are delusional. But I guess living in the-ass-end-of-nowhere has a lot to do with that," he said in a condescending tone. "Sure it can be said that dark fae and light fae have nothing to do with each other. Each has their own laws and rulers. But for the rest of you idiots, you have to live by the dark faerie laws."

"The only idiot I see is youfang-boy," Hinata muttered at Alex.

"Alex has a fair point," Mr Usui cut in before anyone said anything else. "Before the senate was weakened by Thorsen it used to be the most powerful governing body there was over us. There were representatives of every supernatural race on the senate, even light faeries. And the Guard enforced and defended those laws."

Bryce Yatsuha, a glasses-wearing know-it-all nerd-of-a-tengu that no one liked stated the obvious. "Everyone knows the senate is a relic barely hanging on after Thorsen's last attempt to destroy them."

Mr Usui, not really acknowledging the comment other than looking at him as if to say shut up said, "Moving on. Can anyone tell me why it is against all laws that dark faeries reproduce with any species other than humans?"

Véronique's cold liquid-mercury eyes looked around in utter disgust. "Because, why would any dark fae lower themselves to mate with the dregs of the supernatural species?" she said in a voice dripping with contempt.

Grace Frost, who had an odd khaki green skin colour on account that she was half-dryad half-human, hissed at Véronique, "No one asked for your opinion you leech."

Véronique fixed her frosty glare onto Grace and then looked through her as if the poor half-fae didn't even exist. "You're just jealous. Unlike you light faeries who will breed with anything with a pulse," she gestured to herself and the two boys, "we have standards. And for your information, Teach, the only reason a dark faerie would ever lower itself to breed with a human, is to produce lower classes to serve the purebloods."

Damien glared at Véronique and said, "Stop it." Then he gave Mr Usui an apologetic smile. "Sorry about her. To answer your question Mr. Usui, if a dark faerie were to have offspring with any other supernatural; those children would possess unimaginable powers. No one really knows why it's only the dark fae cross breeds that gain such extreme powers and not the light fae cross breeds. But one theory is that it has something so do with the origins of how we were created. And as a result by mixing our genes with other supernatural species, it unlocks the dark faeries latent powers. However, that's all just hearsay.

"Many, many thousands of years ago the paranormal world learned that lesson the hard way. The Great War resulted when the dark fae cross breeds tried to take over, both the supernatural and the human realms, to rule over them as gods. Many supernatural races were wiped out, not to mention the humans almost went extinct.

"After that, a law was decreed that dark faeries were not allowed to reproduce with any other species other than humans. And any dark fae supernatural cross breed would be executed on the spot along with their parents."

Mr Usui smirked at him. "Correct, Damien."

Julia hadn't been paying any attention to what was being said. A swarm of questions were buzzing around her mind, the most persistent one being, what in the names of the gods were they doing here. As she tried and failed to answer any of them, she couldn't stop staring at the two boys, especially Alex. It was though he was a giant magnet and her eyes were two lumps of metal.

It was only when Véronique glared at her and hissed, "What do you want, freak?" that Julia turned bright red and looked away.

Ren was about to say something but Julia stopped him. "Just drop it, Ren, it's not worth it."

Mr Usui cleared his throat interrupting the pair's hushed conversation. "Can anyone tell me the differences between light fae and dark fae magic or how you can kill a dark faerie?"

Malik Luna, a tiny little thing at four-foot who was a light fae-witch half-blood, said in a catty voice, "If you want to kill a soul-sucker all you have to do is pop their over inflated egos."

The whole class erupted in laughter even Mr Usui chuckled. The only ones who weren't laughing and looked put out were the dark faeries and Julia. For some unexplainable reason she felt offended by the comment, but quickly slapped that wayward feeling down before it had a chance to grow.

Mr Usui took a deep breath stifling his laughter. "Enough with the insults," he said in a voice that meant business. "I want real answers or I will assign you all a ten-page report on this topic. Come on class, what are the differences between their magic, it's not a hard question."

The class was quiet and Ren smirked at the three dark fae before answering. "Besides the fact the light fae are better than dark fae in every way possible?" Mr Usui arched an eyebrow at Ren and flashed him an unimpressed look. "Okay, okay, Usui, don't get your knickers in a twist," Ren said leaning back even further in his chair. "Light faerie magic is derived from nature and the elements." Ren created a bright orange power orb and tosses it back and forth like a ball in his hands. "This means we light faeries can create orbs and manipulate nature." The fiery orange orb crackled and sizzled with magical power. "The leeches' magic is derived from darker somatic forces and therefore they are not able to create orbs or any of the downright awesome magic light faeries can create. All in all their magic is just lame when you compare it to the light fae."

Véronique a wicked glint lit her eyes on fire, then bit her finger and let a little blood flow out. The blood lengthened and hardened into a long thin whip-like form. She flicked her finger at Ren's power orb. The blood-whip split the fiery orange ball in half causing the magic to flash violently. Ren jumped out of his seat clapping his hands over the volatile magical sphere extinguishing it. "You bloody insane Harpy," Ren shouted.

Véronique flashed him an evil grin. "I wouldn't call dark faerie magic lame you filthy Tink." The blood that had hardened into a long whip started to coil back to her. She cupped the softened blood in her palm and drank it.

Mr Usui chuckled. "She's got you there, Oren. Now sit down." He looked at Ren for a moment then said, "After that display let's talk about why it is dark fae drink blood." Mr Usui turned his attention to Alex, "Alex, would you care to answer?"

Before Alex could answer, Véronique shot Mr Usui a venomous stare. "That's Prince Griffemort. And you know our feeding practices are none of your business."

Mr Usui folded his arms and rocked back on the heels of his feet. "Ah yes, the ever so secretive feeding practises of the dark faeries. I would love to know more about the act of blood sharing."

Véronique blushed from head to toe and looked as if she was about to jump up and rip the teacher's head right off his shoulders.

Alex grabbed Véronique's arm, shook his head, and she calmed down. He shrugged and replied as if he couldn't care less, "Unlike how the light fae get their magical energy from nature, we dark fae have to feed on blood to function and sustain our powers. Dark fae can go centuries without blood but that's only if they are sleeping, the dark fae version of hibernation, because we don't sleep. As for the other subject you and I know that's a wholly inappropriate topic for class."

Mr Usui chuckled and waved his hand dismissively in the air. "Yes. I guess you have a point." He walked toward Véronique. "The only way to kill a dark faerie is to cut off their heads, burn them, or tear out their hearts. You can rip them limb from limb or even stab them in the heart with an anti-dark fae weapon but provided they get blood from another dark faerie they will survive." Mr Usui stopped in front of her desk and cocked his head to one side and leaned over her. "Why is that Ve-ron-ic?"

Her whole body radiated a murderous intent. She gripped the sides of the desk so hard a loud crack ripped through the salient room as the plastic started giving way. "That's because our blood has magical properties," She replied through clinched teeth refusing to look at him. "Besides having special powers to turn our blood into a weapon, it also allows us to regenerate and heal incredibly fast. So even if we are stabbed in the heart with an anti-dark fae weapon, our blood will sustain us in a coma-like state and prevent death until we get blood."

"Then what's the point of having anti-dark fae weapons if they won't kill them?" Malik said.

Mr Usui walked back to the front of the class smiling as if he was thoroughly enjoying the antics of today's class. "Good question, Malik. You got a tiny taste of a dark faerie's strength earlier with the incidents between Oren and Véronique. But to answer your question it's because of the dark faeries strength, that the magical metal byzantiumwas createdin order to make anti-dark fae weapons. They are used to slow them down and cause injury. So you can get close enough to them to rip their heart out, or burn them or cut their heads off. Without the aid of those weapons, unless you're a pureblood light faerie or another dark faerie you will have a long drawn out battle on your hands." Mr Usui clapped his hands together. "Okay, now let's talk about the ancient dark faeries."