Freshman Blood: Dhampir Dylan

Three - Freshman Blood

Three:

Stone gargoyles flew overhead. My heart pumped in my chest in surprise, as I walked to the open double doors. I could feel the strange blood magiks utilized by the sanguinar, as it permeated the air above.

“Are they supposed to be so damn menacing?!”

I asked my dad, and he snorted and waved me off.

“I wouldn’t worry about those—or any sanguinar-based being. You carry the blood of Mavis in your veins.”

I bit my lip and once again, I was being defined by the abnormalities which were my normal.

“Those things don’t feel very friendly, dad!”

I said, and Olaf gave a wave of his hand.

“They are set to patrol the skies above the University grounds. This is one more of Talia, and Cali’s preventive measures to keep threats out of the University. Besides, you’re hardly going to register as a threat to this lot!”

Somehow dad’s reassurances didn’t help much. Not when I was witness to an entirely new race of stone and blood magiks.

“Who in the hells did they get to invent these damn things anyway?!”

I wondered aloud, as I watched the swooping nine-foot-tall stone monsters. Their large canines looked like they could cut through my limbs with little effort. I felt very little from the gargoyles, but they did feel. Their minds were independent of the casters who created them, unlike golems.

“That would be your Aunt Fray. She wove her personal druidic blood magiks to create these.”

I nodded dumbly and murmured, “I’m shocked everyone let her do something so crazy complicated, without being suspicious.”

I murmured, and Dad sighed and murmured, “Fray was under Calder’s geas. He basically had full control of her mind the entire time they were mated. These days, Fray is just looking to make amends with the world she very nearly helped destroy.”

Hellen nodded and said, “You might want to be nice to Aunt Fray, if you do run across her on campus. She was selected to be the headmistress of this university for a very good reason. With Mavis, and Morgana gone, Fray is the single most powerful being living on this plane of existence. She’s also well versed in all sorts of magiks.”

Momma managed to stuff down most of her residual hostility, aware she was speaking to her empathic child. Even without trying hard, I could still detect notes of distrust in my momma.

“It’s very hard for me to believe you when I know you’re lying about trusting Aunt Fray.”

I told my mom, and she huffed and murmured, “Bloody emotional eavesdropper!”

She didn’t mean anything, and despite the mild nuisance having a kid who could read your emotions like an open book presented, my mothers all loved me.

“Yep, that’s me, and I am just sure everyone around here is going to love my special K brand of powers.”

Momma gave me a sidelong look, and her worries were as thick as mine. She feared me being rejected by my peers as well.

“Look, not that we don’t love y’all, but this is where we part ways.”

Liv winked playfully at our parents, and dad looked crestfallen that his little girl was so eager to be rid of him.

“I’d hoped you would sit next to yer ole da!”

Olaf whined, and Liv tugged on my sleeve and pulled me along with her. I gave her an annoyed look, but followed along, humoring my little sister. Mark was breaking off from everyone in his own direction. He was headed towards the booth for the gay pride club on display on the other side of the expansive main hallway.

The inside of the castle building we’d entered was as authentic as an Arthurian tale straight from momma Morgana’s lips. Suits of armor decorated the walls. Granted, some of these suits were tailored for different beings than mortals. I even saw what had to be a lycan suit, with a metal wolf-head shape.

The dark stones inside the castle were like the Sanctum. Obsidian was used as magiks lodestones to store immense magiks. Hells, Jaxie and I had been born in a long-dead world, due to the ability to jump dimensions with the right spellcaster, and enough powered-up lodestones.

The carpet was red, trimmed with gold. The stone flooring was dull grey around the carpeting. The tapestries handing down the walls were of various immortal clans and their coat of arms. Mavis’ House of Aubrey was the most prominent crest. Large ravens flanked a dark-grey castle-face on a shield.

“They’ve chosen to honor all the houses, even the many which were obliterated during Calder’s madness.”

I heard someone telling a few humans, who were taking pictures with their porta. I always kept my portable holographic computer and communication system on me. Adults often called them PHCC’s, but most people my age or younger just called them portables, or portas.

“Are any of these families human?”

One of the guys asked, and a vampyr youth sneered at him and murmured, “You’re lucky our government even bothered to include you in this school! Besides, what purpose could you have to study our magiks, other than to turn them against us?!”

He growled in a low tone.

Dad moved closer and flashed the lad his bloody gaze. That was enough to make the young vampyr’s jaw slack, and his stupefied expression bespoke his brush with an ancient vampyr such as my father.

“Mind yourself boy, and don’t represent our clan poorly to our guests!”

Dad snapped out loud, drawing looks from many of the milling bodies, as the main throng were slowly filling the enormous theatre-like assembly hall. My keen ears could detect the sound of classical music being played live inside the enormous assembly building.

Violin notes and cello bars reverberated throughout the stone buildings. Brass and low percussion roared next to the stringed instruments. Everything sounded almost like an epic ballad one might expect to hear from a bard in olden times.

“They’re not sparing any details or flourishes for this event, I see.”

Momma mused, as she and dad walked into the building together. I was still looking at some of the booths along the main hallway, all of which represented clubs opening their doors to the brand-new university.

The only club I was really interested in, was the Tennis team, which was not represented. The sports teams would hold try-outs in a few days, from what I knew already.

“Why aren’t you over with Mark, prancing yourself around the pride booth?”

Jaxie asked, as she appeared next to me. I looked over at my niece, s***h twin, and snorted.

“I have no interest in joining a club simply because I like vagina.”

I told her, and Jax shrugged, and she looked me over.

“Not like you need a club to tell. You are a walking masculine-type lesbian.”

I growled in annoyance and turned away and began to walk towards the assembly hall.

“Have fun Jaxie, I’m going to just stick to the shadows and find a drama-free corner.”

She laughed loudly, and said, “I swear, if we ever get another movie director, we need to have them cast you as Batgirl! You have the brooding down to a f*****g science, Dylan!”

Jaxie laughed, and I rolled my eyes and gave her the finger, as I walked towards the sound of the lovely classical music. I could hear my niece laughing as if she found me profoundly amusing. All the damn kids of my family were all so damn obnoxious! Sometimes I wondered how the hells they had lived this long without getting bitten or scratched. My dhampir claws are smaller than the vampyr versions, but they are no less sharp.

“Just get the bitchiness out of your system before you come home tonight, Jaxie.”

I called out to her, and several people looked at us. I felt my cheeks turning pink because I loathed to be the center of attention. My mind was constantly under siege from the many minds and emotions around me. With all this in mind, I narrowly decided to run full speed to the darkness of the back wall. I did quicken my pace but managed not to turn myself into a dramatic fast-moving target for everyone’s attention.

Emotions, like the music, filled my soul. The endless litany of anxieties, fears, insecurities, and first-day jitters all ran their course through my mind.

“Just close your eyes and slam your psychic defenses in place again. Closing your eyes actually helps you eradicate the invading thoughts.”

A female voice said from beside me. I’d been in such a hurry to escape Jaxie, and the onlookers, that I’d not noticed the single skulking figure in this dark corner. She had grey eyes and light-brown hair, as well as the pinkest inviting lips. Her eyes were like soundless sirens, luring my soul in.

Her slight body stood about five-four, yet she had profoundly generous belle curves. Her deliciously girly-looking appearance called to my fancy. I might be rather androgenous myself, but I delight myself with lipstick lesbians. There was nothing heterosexual about the look in this grey-eyed beauty. Her magiks were odd, almost fae, yet not fae. I frowned slightly and bit my lip.

I could barely feel her emotions from inside her mental shielding. She seemed aloof, and she desired not to be seen. We were birds of a feather, it would appear.

After a second to peruse her figure once over, I shut my eyes and slammed my two layers of psychic barriers up in my mind. After a moment, the silence which greeted me was almost deafening to me.

“Wow, that actually works!”

I mused, and she nodded, and said, “You will still have bleed-through, obviously, but it should give a little respite before you need to force the thoughts back out.”

I blinked and nodded to the girl. She felt slightly older, but not old. Her more cultured behavior bespoke a woman fully mature.

“Thanks for that, um, I’m Dylan.”

I said, and I extended my hand to her in greeting, and she looked at my hand for a long moment before deciding to shake it.

“I’m a bit beside myself that you would bother to speak to me, Princess.”

The girl confessed to me bluntly, as we shook in greeting. She looked me over, and I bit my lip as my emotions stirred. It shouldn’t surprise me that she knew who I was. My veins sizzled as we touched, and my heart did a flip in my chest. She was powerful, and extremely mysterious.

To say I liked bad girls, would be understating my attraction.

“Right, um I don’t even know your name, why wouldn’t I talk to you?”

I asked her, and she blinked, and didn’t immediately pull away. Our touch lingered, almost as if neither party truly wished to separate. I wasn’t like Jaxie, so I wasn’t one to hold or openly lust over a girl I just met.

“I’m Diana, the grey witch.”

She said, and I felt my nerves bursting as I realized who my lust had landed upon. She was the daughter of Sasha the former grey witch. Diana was something of a pariah in the community, because her mother not only stole magiks and powers from countless beings throughout time, but she also stole the Source of all Light’s powers, and nearly became the most powerful governing body of the cosmos. In fact, it was her mother’s fault I grew up missing my mum, Mavis, and momma Morgana.

“Well, I don’t see any evil on you. So why shouldn’t I talk to you?”

I asked her, and Diana looked at me for a long moment, as if to decide if I was being honest with her.

“You are very similar to your mother, your biological one, that is.”

Diana murmured, and she pulled away, and sauntered into the shadows. Part of me wanted to plead with her to stay, but she was already out of sight.

My heart was still beating frantically, even as I wondered what the hell was wrong with me. I was already the freak of nature, leave it to me to be drawn to another freak. I shook my head as if to force myself from this line of thought.

“Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our Headmistress to the platform!”

Alice Sumerset chirped, as she clapped wildly. I’d not seen my Aunt Alice in a while, she’d been very busy helping quell unrest in the fractured realm of Fairey. Her dark-blue hair seemed unnatural to the mortals, as well her purple eyes. Alice was very similar to Aunt Talia in appearance and features. They were cousins of the same Winter bloodline.

A short-cropped redhead strode forward on the stage filled with nature, living greenery and even small trees on the stage. I could see the band members spread out where they’d paused their music, they blended into the forest-like theater stage keenly.

“Thank you, Alice Sumerset, for that enthusiastic introduction.”

The voice was a dead match for my memories of momma Morgana. Her eyes were the same shade of blue. Her flowing white frosty-looking evening gown made her look every inch a princess. I could feel her vast arch druid magics reaching out to me. Even at this distance, despite my mental shields, I could feel the screaming torment of her soul, and her deep profound depression.

“Immortals, humans, creatures of all shapes and sizes, we have finally come together as one body. This is the most sacred of places, and the direst of days. The post-modern world ended after a fashion nearly two decades prior, yet here we all stand, united in cause. In this post-Ragnarok world, we have banded together, casting off the shackles of our former prejudices, and created this institution for higher learning, for magiks.”

Enthusiastic applause thundered around in a roar, and cheers could be heard all around. Fray was a truly magnetic person, even though I doubted she realized it about herself. I leaned back, listening intently, as the pulse and thrum of the emotional waves rippled throughout the building like the waves on the sea.

The spacious rows of neatly carved fairy wood seating were neatly arrayed, thousands of occupied wooden seats, and many still filling up. I focused most of my attention on Fray, as to avoid the bulk of the emotions pounding at my mental gates. My heart seemed to beat with a frantic tempo faster even than the roaring clapping of the crowd.

Panic threatened to swallow me whole, devouring me with the madness of the abyss of emotions churning like a mindless maelstrom of agony and despair. Much of the assembled class were young, like me. They were all wrestling with their youthful feelings, and their angsty unrest.

I closed my eyes again, and pushed back the emotions, slamming yet another layer of mental shielding down. I was the only being I knew of who could use three layers of psychic barriers. My mental abilities were powerful, and completely taxing to live with. I just hope that I could gain enough practice here to learn how to live an eternity with my empathy.

My abilities are my personal hell made manifest. Every agonizing moment inside a building filled with thousands, is like being washed out to sea in the magma streams of some fiery hell-scape.

I felt a few beads of sweat forming on my temples, as I came back to myself. I managed to slow my breathing and ease my rampant heart pounding pulse. My greatest fear wasn’t simply losing control of my empathy, but the fear that my telekinesis would go haywire at the same time. I’ve had emotional waves so powerful, that I ended up shattering my windows and breaking the bookcases, while sending them flying through the ceiling.

Without control, I am a loaded weapon with no safety feature. Whatever my fears about others seeing me, and despising me, are second to my fears of becoming a telekinetic bomb amid the school. Most of the others don’t have such volatile powers to contend with.

“Now, I would like to welcome my good friend, and sister-in-law, Anne Devlin to the stage.”

I heard, as if snapping out of my mental funk at the introduction of my mother. The place was filled with applause as my slender average height mom trekked to the podium. Her silken raven hair was longer than ever, falling below her butt now. Her sharp cobalt gaze was warm and deeply inviting. She looked almost precisely the same age I was now. Time had frozen for my mom upon her evo genes activating.

“Thank you, Headmistress Fray La Fay. It’s a pleasure and a privilege to be here amongst all your precious youths. My own children are out here as well. This is a very exciting year for us all.”

My mom said, and I felt my cheeks heating up at the mention. Even my mom didn’t hold favorites. She loved all of us the same. I know better than anyone because I am deeply empathic.

“In your time here, we hope you will foster new bonds of friendship, as well as perfect your natural magiks. With evos and new druids emerging in the human populations, it is imperative that this school helps youths attain control of their gifts. As many of you are already aware, I am the first of the evo humans to manifest nearly twenty years ago. The first, but only the very beginning of what has become a tide of new evolving immortal humans to crawl from the primordial ooze, so to speak.”

Mom said, waxing nerdy and poetic. She was an amazing speaker, and she held everyone’s attention with little effort.

“I know the outside world is deeply divided, and we are often doing everything just to maintain a state of non-aggression. I pray with the opening of magiks universities, we can bridge the gaps, and come to new levels of understanding. It’s hard to be an evo, not the typical immortal, yet not a human mortal either. We are caught between two opposing forces which are often bent on destruction. Let us together thread a new needle and find a new common area. I am eager to help my fellow evos with your many diverse burgeoning abilities.”

Wild applause and whistling echoed around me. I felt the joy, and the peace my mother offered, as she projected her emotions towards everyone, as if they could see into her soul. I realized she was intentionally baring herself to them, exposing her honesty to them. No one with a single brain cell could accuse her of being deceitful or false.

“Let us come together and bring this world out of the chaos of the Ragnarok wreckage. With time, and understanding, we can mend the wounds which have divided this once great nation.”

I could feel many agreed with my mom’s point of view, yet I could also hear jeers and feel negative thoughts. It seemed illogical to dissent peace and unification, yet there were some who seemed opposed to co-existence, even under this roof. Such rampant hatred without true purpose was frightening, even more so than all the nightmares of the post-apocalyptic wastelands between cities. Hatred was something far more cunning than mere physical threat of danger. At least with the rovers, you know they are going to rob, and r**e if you give them half a chance.

“Pretty words will not be enough to convince some of you, I know. So, to you I say, welcome, and please watch, listen, and learn. It’s truly hard to still call yourselves natural enemies, once you have learned from one another, and when you’ve endured hardships together.”

Mom concluded, and Alice whistled loudly, and cheers began to erupt from the theater building. You’d almost think we were cheering on a regional hover ball match, not the opening speeches of a new magiks university.

“We shall hear from our final opening speaker, Lord Morgan. For those who have been living under a rock for the past decade, Morgan is the Prime Druid, the god of all druids. Please, welcome my dear friend.”

Mom asked, and she waved her hands in a wide flowery manner as a lean man of about six-two prowled to the podium. His hair was fiery, like his two daughters, Morgana, and Fray. (Well, the two daughters I knew. According to moms, and history, Morgan had over seven hundred children.)

Applause was surprisingly sparse. Some people seemed confused, like they were scared to clap at a god. That made about as much sense as racists in magiks university, but whatever.

Morgan waved and his disarmingly gentle smile seemed to render most of the crowd lulled into his presence. I could feel his vast and exorbitant powers, even from back here. What I didn’t feel, were his emotions. That was rather surprising, given that I could feel Thor of Asgard, and even Odin, his father.

“Welcome again, and I assure you I will not be here long. I abhor public speaking. Throughout my six-thousand-year life, I have avoided being forced to make an arse of meself as much as possible. Humans, Evos, immortals of the known species, and my druids, I greet you all. I have come to be stationed here to oversee the druidic training. However, if you have an issue, do not be shy to come find me. I would like to be productive as a member of this staff while my celestial duties are allowing for my presence here. Also, I will be assisting the lycanthrope alpha Professor Rick Gains. He is a renown shifter who recently migrated from France.”

I’d heard Liv growling about the alpha being hired onto the staff. She seemed to feel like she was all the dominant wolf this school needed.

“Please stand up and wave to the children for me, Rick.”

Morgan said, and I saw a large well-tailored three-piece suit- wearing man about six-one, and a lean, chiseled two-hundred pounds of shaggy wildly styled sandy blonde hair. He wore a long goatee of pale blonde hair, neatly groomed, and perfectly cut. His yellow eyes were hauntingly beautiful, even to a very gay and demi-s****l person like me. I could appreciate that art, even if it was not my style.

I hope we can keep my little sis from humping his damn leg!

I mused to myself, as the wolves howled in cheers to the alpha. I knew one wolf who wasn’t howling, or two, unless Mark decided he wanted to howl to make gay mating calls, of course that was always possible. My brother was as bold and outspoken as our father. Sometimes, I felt truly odd around my extrovert siblings, and our extreme extrovert father. I sometimes wonder if he is secretly disappointed, like I am broken.

“Thank you, Alpha Rick Gains. I hope that the local lycans are accepting your presence here. The lycans of Paris were largely whipped out recently in anti-immortal attacks throughout the city. We are still hoping to hear from more survivors and offer safe harbor. With any luck, we will avoid such tragedies here in New Orleans.”

Morgan said, his tone somber, and I felt suddenly reminded of just how much of a shitshow I was raised in. My world was truly broken, shattered to pieces, and it might never be whole again. On those heavy notes, the opening speeches concluded. Applause was thundering, and I knew there was to be another assembly later this week. Other than that, classes were beginning tomorrow.

The minds began to invade my mental space again, so I made a quick exit, before everyone seated could decide to make for the doors. My mind was splitting, and I wished for the thousandth time, that aspirin worked on dhampir bodies. Alas, I’d have to settle for a stiff drink in my locale.