The Claddagh Academy

Starving on My Birthday

Blaise

            My sixteen-birthday started as bad as any other one of my birthdays. I woke up drenched in sweat, starving and trembling. The situation didn’t get any better after taking a shower or dressing in my uniform. It only got worse. I hadn’t told anyone it was my birthday for a series of good reasons. First, because Karoo would probably make a big deal out of it. Her birthday had passed just a couple of weeks before and I’ve learned the hard way she was a birthday monster, one of those beings that used their birthdays as an excuse to do and get whatever they wanted. In Karoo’s case she got to use my magical cloak for the entire day and asked the most ridiculous things from her siblings. From a foot massage to a neon pink birthday cake. Secondly, I hated my birthday. I was fine spending the day as low key as I could. Which was a hard task to accomplish when Kodiak and Karoo could read my very thought. That was why after taking a shower and changing into my uniform I left the girls’ dorm and opted to take the long walk to the dining hall. Winter have finally arrived, and the campus was covered in a heavy layer of white snow. From the portcullis to the main plaza and the adjacent coliseum and green meadows. Everything was white. And still. As far as I could see nothing seemed to be alive, the wind and the gentle fall of the snow were my only companions while I crossed the yard separating the dorms from the dining hall.  It was also horribly cold. That was another thing I hated about my birthday. It was always cold. I fixed my scarf and my long coat, putting my shaking hands inside the coat’s pockets and getting inside the dining hall. It was still early in the morning, but the brownies that worked on the kitchen had turned all the chimneys on and brightened the cold, dark castle with long lamps that hanged from the tall roof. The effect was quite pleasant, but even after serving myself a bowl of warm oatmeal and grab a cup of hot coffee I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking.

            I sighed, sipping coffee directly from the cup on the table and giving up on trying to hold the damn cup still on my hands. They just couldn’t stop shaking. I ate fast and then waited to see if my state had improved. After a couple of minutes had passed I groaned and stood, going for seconds since I was still as hungry as when I woke up. This time I grabbed an entire plate full off eggs, toast and bacon and returned to the table. I was halfway my second breakfast when a known face appeared by my left. Red eyes that burned like fire were focused on me. I’ve come to recognize him in our classes, since the Fire Fae was in First year and shared our same schedule. His name was Uriah and for some reason Karoo always tried to avoid him at all costs. I’ve tried asking her a couple of times about Uriah, but Karoo had always changed the subject and ignored any reference about him, which led me to think that whatever had happened between them was serious. I looked at him when Uriah handed me a white envelope. I frowned, staring at the white envelope as if it was a war declaration. In my book, whoever was Karoo’s enemy was my enemy. Girl codes worked in strange ways, but I wasn’t going to be friendly to a boy Karoo so clearly didn’t like.

            “What is that?” I asked, and Uriah only blinked, staring at me with the same apathic expression I was using to look back at him.

            “It’s a letter for you. I went to the mail tower and the lady in charge asked me to give you this. I told her I didn’t want to, but she insisted,” he said shrugging. I nodded, taking the letter from his hands and watching warily while he turned around and started walking away. Curiosity made me stop him before he could walk any further.

            “What happened between you and Karoo?” I asked, and Uriah stopped, his shoulders tensed, and his red eyes turned to the floor.

            “That’s none of your business,” he said. I needed to admit he was right. Asking Uriah for his side of the events was probably not the right way to get to the bottom of whatever happened between my best friend and him, but I was still curious. Karoo was not the kind of person anyone would hate, and Uriah clearly hated her. I could tell by the way he sometimes looked at her, as if he couldn’t wait for her to disappear.

            “That’s true, but just so you know Karoo is my best friend. She is humble and sweet, when she could have ended very differently considering her status. I don’t know what could have happened between you guys, but whatever grudge you are holding against her is ill-founded,” I said, and Uriah turned around fast, his fists tightened, and his face twisted in an expression of pure anger.

            “You don’t know what you are talking about,” he spat with a poisonous glare, “The only reason why I accepted to bring you that letter is because I support your decision of declining Kodiak’s attention. That monster doesn’t deserve happiness, nor love, nor pity. If you are what he wants, then I hope you never get to fall in love with that…abomination. Both for your own good, and his demise,” and with those parting words Uriah left, making me feel even more confused about the whole situation between the Fire Fae and Karoo. I always thought Uriah was angry at Karoo for some sort of romantic drama. Maybe he had been interested in Karoo, but she kept turning him down. Maybe they had been involved and had an even more dramatic breakup. The part I couldn’t understand was Uriah’s hatred for Kodiak. He called Kodiak a “monster” and an “abomination”. Big words of hate if you asked me. Why did Uriah hate Kodiak so much if he had a beef with Karoo? What had happened between those three to make Uriah so angry? I looked down at the letter in my trembling hands and for the millionth time in the day I wondered when they would stop trembling. Pushing all thoughts about Uriah, Karoo and Kodiak to the side I focused on opening the letter and on checking what Amadeus have been up to. I had no doubt the letter was from Amadeus. Who else I knew outside from school? I opened the letter and started reading.

            Dear Blaise:

            I’ve just received notice from principal Cauldron about two attacks that have occurred at Claddagh. Both attacks directed at you. At first, I thought about going to Claddagh and kicking Cauldron’s ass for his incompetence to both, report the attacks to me sooner and failing to keep you out of harm, but then I decided to ignore Cauldron and focus on what is important. Protecting you. I’m writing to you from Siberik, after consulting the leader of the caravan that was supposed to take Molly into custody. Apparently, Molly escaped with the help of a hooded stranger that at the time couldn’t be identified. His face was covered by a black mask, no recognizable clothes or insignias. The second attack directed at you was more impersonal, since the hooded man wasn’t involved, but I’m sure this man was behind it as well. He is powerful, to get Nulls under his thumb and get a maddened Banshee like Molly to do his bidding. This direct us to two possible types of enemies. Either an Unseelie or a Blood Fae are under these attacks. These types of Fae are the only ones than can control other species so easily. Whoever our masked enemy is, he is not working alone. Look for clues as I’ve thought you. His accomplice is very close to you, probably too close. I will write to you soon, I promise.

Be careful,

                                                                                                            Amadeus

P.D: Happy birthday kiddo.

            I folded the letter and placed it inside my backpack. A masked man was after me, a man powerful enough to control a Banshee and Nulls. The only person I’ve ever met that was powerful like that was Kodiak and he apparently have rescued me twice from the attacks. I didn’t want to admit-not even quietly to myself-the possible soul bonding connection that tied me and Kodiak together, but truth was I knew Kodiak wasn’t behind the attacks. Possible mate bond aside. That just wasn’t his style. Kodiak was too arrogant to work behind other’s people back. And he had no reason for wanting me dead. Between the Unseelie and the Blood courts I truly believed that whoever wanted me dead had to be from the Blood Fae. They were the kind of mysterious, secretive Fae that I could expect to be conspiring against me. But why? What I’ve done to piss off somebody from the Blood Fae court in the last couple of years? I haven’t met any other Blood Fae apart from Aella and nowadays we both tried to stay away from each other as much as we could. I looked back to my breakfast, feeling my stomach grumble again with so much hunger I couldn’t keep my hands from trembling. I was about to pick another bite from the eggs on my plate when Talon Doomhold sat by my side, taking my plate and eating my breakfast. Talon was the pranker of the family, and one of the top names on my s**t list. Groaning I took my plate back from his hands and slap him in the back of his head. Talon squeaked like a pig and pointed a finger at me when the rest of his siblings started seating around us. Kodiak sat by my other side, pulling on my coat’s hood and smiling at me when I rolled my eyes at him.

            “Kodiak control your woman! She woke up with rabies this morning,” accused Talon, caressing the back of his head and stealing incriminating glances at me. Every other Doomhold except from Karoo started laughing. It was good to know I could count on my good friend whenever I needed her.

            “Talon mind your own business. Totem just eat the damn oatmeal and stop playing with it and Aramir, I’ve already explained to you why you need to eat your breakfast plenty of times. So-eat-it-before-I-punch-you-in-the-face,” I smiled at Karoo’s daily motherly love for her siblings, before her big, circular eyes focused on me with the same intense focus. Oh s**t, I was in trouble, “You woke up unusually early today. I always worry about you after that last attack Blaise. You should know better than to walk alone around campus. Who knows what can happen next? You should always wait for me to escort you or for any of my thick-headed brothers.”

            “Okay,” I said softly, and everyone stopped eating and looked at me as if I’d grown two heads. Kodiak and Karoo looked at each other in that kind of silent way that meant they were holding an entire telepathic conversation. I sighed, too hungry to focus on why everyone was so surprised. Pushing my trembling hands inside of my coat pockets I stood and turned around. The dining hall was starting to get full of people and my head and stomach were screaming at me to feed from them. I had a good idea of why I was so hungry and that involved a starving siren I’ve neglected for too long. I needed to feed her, and I needed to do it soon.

            “Where are you going?” Asked me Karoo and I started singing a song in my head, anything to distract her and Kodiak from reading my mind and understand what was really going on with me. Karoo sighed, looking at Kodiak and then at me, “I really shouldn’t have thought her to sing to keep us out of her head, didn’t I?”

            “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it Karoo,” said Kodiak with narrowed eyes focused in his siter, before looking back at me with a penetrant stare that promised he could easily go inside of my mind if he really wanted to. I tensed and started walking as fast as I could away from them.

            “I will see you in Conjuring!” I said over my shoulder and started running to the girl’s bathroom on the first floor. I got inside a compartment and broke in an attack of tremors and shaking. Man, I shouldn’t have let the siren starve like this for so long. I’ve never let her this long without food, but with so many classes, tests and Nulls attacks I’ve been kind of busy. Closing my eyes, I let the siren’s conscious awaken. It was a fast takeover, like flipping a switch. One moment I was in control, the next one she was.  Her consciousness bloomed, taking control of my body and mind.

            “Tsk-tsk, you know better than to keep me hungry for so long Blaise,” she admonished, whispering inside my mind and caressing my own consciousness with her fingertips. My body shivered at the touch of our consciousness. It felt like hearing nails scratching a board, irritating and a very unpleasant sensation, “Now, Take me to the Unseelie King. I will only feed from him.”

            “What?!”

            “You heard me Blaise. I made a deal with the king when I helped him with the Copper Hands. From now on we only feed from him, do you understand Darkholme?” I fell on my knees, bracing my legs and gently rocking my body to fight the tremors that made me twist in pain. The siren had never been this hungry before and I knew she was bluffing. Nobody, regardless of the kind of creature it was, would be so picky on choosing their food when they were so hungry. I was still rocking back and forth when I heard someone else entering the bathroom. Another girl. A juicy girl full of anxiety’s and insecurities, the perfect dinner for the siren.

            “Stop being stupid and feed from her,” I told her and felt a tap on my mind, a reminder that the siren didn’t like being called names. I rolled my eyes and rest my forehead on my knees. Whenever the siren was hungry my own body grew weak. What affected one affected the two of us. I was just feeling exactly what the siren was feeling, the same way she would experience my own hunger if I’d ever fed myself only tofu for a week. The siren expanded her consciousness and touched the girl’s emotions. I could hear the girl putting on makeup by the mirror at the entrance of the bathroom. Her emotions were a mix of banal insecurities and low self-esteem. The siren tasted her curiously, like a kid licking a spoon of honey and deciding it was too sticky. A second passed before the siren’s consciousness rushed inside my mind with renewed stubbornness.

            “Take me to the Unseelie King. I want him.” I shook my head, which was a stupid waste of energy in my state and only made me feel dizzy and lightheaded.

            “Over my dead body. I’m not weak and I refuse to ask him for help in this state. What would he think of me? Of you? That we are too weak to feed on our own. I will not feed from Kodiak. Not now and not ever! You heard me? Now, stop being a hardheaded pig and feed from that girl before she leaves!” The siren groaned so loud that my headache turned into a fully developed migraine. I whimpered, hurting everywhere.

            “I WANT THE KING!” Screamed the siren in my ears, before taking her tantrum to the next level and retracting obstinately inside her own consciousness. I felt her slamming the door of our connection and leaving me alone to deal with my weakened body. It took me a couple of minutes to get on my feet. I was still trembling when I opened the door of the cubicle I’d been using. Everywhere hurt. From the follicles of my hair to my toes. If I couldn’t make the siren feed soon there would be consequences to pay. Terrible consequences. I had no idea how long I could go on in the horrible state I was. I stopped by the entrance, looking at the girl that could have been the siren’s dinner if she hadn’t so stupidly refused her. The girl was gorgeous, tall and curvy, with long black hair. She was probably from an upper year, since I’ve never seen her before. She looked at me worriedly while she applied another layer of mascara in her natural long eyelashes.

            “Are you alright?” She asked me with concern and I smirked. The simple gesture made my head hurt so much that I had to close my eyes for a couple of seconds to ride the wave of pain.

            “Just a migraine, it will pass,” I said, staring at my reflection in the mirror and sighing. I looked like a dead body, too pale and delicate, with dark circles under my eyes and hollow cheeks. I still looked like me, but sick. The siren was obstinate, but so I was. Never, ever I would go to Kodiak and feed from him. It was my greatest weakness, a weakness I refused to show to the Unseelie King. Kodiak was always so strong and perfect that I couldn’t even imagine what he will think of me if he ever saw me feeding like a rogue vampire. The only difference was that vampires feed from blood and the siren feed from emotions, but both species were dangerously unhinged when we were hungry. I simply couldn’t understand why the siren wanted him? Sure, Kodiak was the strongest Fae I’ve ever met, but the siren usually didn’t care for those kinds of things. She preferred weak individuals, since those always showed the strongest emotions. Fear, humiliation, anger, disgust. The list was infinite. The only strong emotion that Kodiak would ever be able to feel had to be…well, it had to be…lust. I swallowed nervously, feeling my weak knees fail me for a second. The girl that had been applying lip gloss turned to me with a frown.

            “Are you sure you don’t want me to take you to the infirmary?”

            “No! I mean, no, thank you,” I said to her with a quick smile. The last thing I wanted was for the entire Doomhold family to worry about me and go to see me at the infirmary. It had been an already scarring experience the first time. I smiled at her a second time before turning around and walking to the exit. On second thought I turned around and looked at the girl directly to her eyes, “You are truly beautiful. Inside and outside. You don’t need to put makeup on for people to see you that way.”

            “That’s easy for you to say,” she said with a nervous laugh and I shrugged.

            “Maybe, maybe not,” I turned around then and walked away, leaving a very confused girl at my back. In that moment I would have given away my beauty without a single thought to get rid of the pain numbing my body. I had no clue how I would be able to hold myself together around other Fae in the state I was, but even the pain was worth it if that meant Kodiak would never get to see me at my lowest.

                                                                            ***

Blaise

                 Somehow, someway, Karoo and I ended being professor Olympus’s learning assistants for the rest of the year. The story went like this. A month ago professor Olympus gathered First year after her Tactics of Combats class and asked us who wanted to help her plan our Winter Ball. I took a defensive step back at the idea of adorning a ballroom with balloons and decorating walls, but Karoo took my hand in a horrendous wave of overexcitement and offered ourselves as victims…I mean helpers. Mss. Olympus accepted us at once. Probably because I was her favorite student-although Kodiak would forever disagree on agreeing about this matter, since he thought he was everybody’s favorite. Maybe it had been the fact we had been the only volunteers, maybe it was the fact everybody left right away the moment we volunteered. At the end, we were stuck helping professor Olympus to organize Winter Ball. From then on I’d been enslaved and exploited under the promise of winning five extra points that would sum to my yearly GPA. From any other person’s standpoint I was in a wining position, but for me, the actual person who had to paint glittery words on the walls, it wasn’t that advantageous. All the contrary. It was very…irksome, especially when you were suspended six feet over the floor, with your ass hanging up and a can of glitter in one hand.

                 Karoo was busy tying up some fake snowflakes to the roof of the main ballroom. One would think that magic would be handy in this kind of things, but this year the Winter Ball’s organization had ended for some inexplicable reason on top of professor’s Olympus’s desk. Now, Mss. Olympus was an immortal warrior and a great mercenary with martial discipline…but a magical organizer she was definitely not. The woman believed in our physical dexterity, a fact I was proving by hanging from a rope while covering a handmade poster with so much glitter that it looked like a five grader arts and craft trophy. At this point I’d managed to cover even my ass with glitter, an enterprise I still couldn’t explain to myself, when I was up in the sky and my ass was hanging a couple of inches over my shoulders.

                 I was there, contemplating the meaning of life while I splattered glitter everywhere when the rope from which I was hanging snapped and I fell fast and hard to the floor. Only that magic helped me at the last moment, cocooning me in a safe net and placing me on my own feet. The moment I was on the floor Mss. Lambert shifted in front of me, holding a dirty sock on her white hand. Or should I say talon? The woman sure as hell had long hands that gave me the creeps. She tightened her lips, looking down at me as if I’d insulted her morals as a crazy cat lady or something. Not that I would ever insult a crazy cat lady, they were kind of my heroes for not giving a s**t and doing whatever they damned pleased. I gulped nervously though. I wasn’t nervous about Mss. Lambert. I was used to her antics after so many months of cold war and forced truce, but today I was barely hanging to my sanity. I’d only been able to control my siren by staying away from Kodiak, but she was still hungry and we were too weak to control our combustive temper.

                 “Mss. Darkholme, I believe this is yours. Isn’t it?” she asked me, holding the incriminating sock right in front of my nose. I frowned, looking up from the sock to Mss. Lambert’s eyes and back to the piece of clothing. I felt the siren stretch hungrily under my skin and holding my breath I took a step back from Mss. Lambert. It was dangerous to confront Mss. Lambert in my current state. I, for once, couldn’t held myself responsible for my actions if she pushed me too much today.

                 “I really can’t tell. Everybody uses the same kind of socks around this place”, I said through my lips, trying not to scent her emotions. I was starving at this point. The siren had refused to feed from others throughout the day and I’d refused to seek out Kodiak as she wished. We were at an impasse. The result was this insanely unbalanced consciousness living in my head. I knew something bad would happen if I kept this on, but I refused to ask Kodiak for help. Mss. Lambert lifted an eyebrow at me and tightened her lips an inch more. By then her lips were white lines, all wrinkled and severe.

                 “You left it at the communal area! I have witnesses that saw you take your socks and throw them over your shoulder! Rule fifteen hundred from the Dorm’s Rules: A student would never leave pieces of clothing in the communal areas. If the student is found guilty she would be punished by doing the laundry of the entire girl’s dormitory for an entire week!” she screamed rule fifteen hundred on my face, making me flinch. Who would have known Mss. Lambert had such a good pair of lungs at her age? I sighed, looking back at her and pushing my trembling hands inside my jacket’s pockets.

                 “And let me guess, your witnesses are princess Aella and her friends,” I said rolling my eyes. Mss. Lambert squinted at me, a task that proved to be a miracle consider how tight she had engineered her low bun.

                 “I don’t like your tone, Mss. Darkholme,” she said threateningly.

                 And that, my friends, was the exact moment in which the siren flipped her Crazy-b***h-Mode switch. In her defense, she was starving and unbalanced, two traits that never worked very well around Mss. Lambert’s judgy personality and my lack of patience. I felt the siren’s consciousness awake and my own mind was displaced to the side like a discarded tissue. My skin started to shine and I felt the distinctive burn of my eyes when they started to turn iridescent.

                 “Blaise are you alright?” asked me Karoo, sounding a little bit worried while she looked at me from the back of the room.  Professor Olympus stopped cutting fake snowflakes and gave me a questioning look. I felt the siren’s energy spreading like a fog out of me and suddenly I was sniffing the air like a hound, tasting the smell of the emotions around me.

                 To my surprise Mss. Lambert’s emotions tasted like Nutella. Sweet and glorious human Nutella. Heavy in my tongue and creamy against my fangs. Fear. Mss. Lambert tasted like pure and undiluted fear. A wave of hunger hit me and the siren hissed, taking a step closer to the poor woman who was staring at us in shock. Let’s eat her Blaise…. yesss…she will pay for making you work like a maid. Eat her from the inside out, until she is just dry bones and loose flesh…

                 Yeah, let’s not. I shook my head and the siren hissed again. I couldn’t even talk to her. I was too weak and she was the one in control. I tried to take a step back but the siren couldn’t let it go. She pushed her arms up and scared out of my mind I saw our skin shine, attracting all the colors of the sun. My long hair started to float and my fangs felt funny against my gums. The siren was ready to finally feed.

                 Only that a more powerful scent made us stop in the last second. The siren stopped and I did too, sniffing the air and scenting the rich aroma of ambrosia in the air. Lust. So powerful and rich that nothing could ever compare. We turned around and through the hazed eyes of the siren I saw Kodiak standing just a couple of steps behind me. He c****d his head to a side, a crooked smile forming in his cruel lips. Then he waved a ringed hand at me, conveying me to come closer.

                 “It’s time to take your payment from me, siren,” he said with a knowing smirk. His lust only smelled stronger when the siren turned around and started walking in his direction. Correction. The siren didn’t walk. She sauntered, moving her hips from one side to the other until we were right in front of Kodiak.  And then, to my horror, Kodiak let his wings explode from his back and in one, swift maneuver he took me in his arms and flew me away.