GrimWire

Chapter 1

"Grimoires are important to society. They keep vampires from killing, they grant power to humans and help to enhance the powers of other beings such as demons, demi-gods and the like," the woman who was speaking was their history teacher at the school. She was walking from one end of the room to the other as she lectured.

Lucas sat at the back of the room, in the corner, his gaze centered outside the window. The vampire was hardly listening as she walked passed him She continued on her lecture pausing briefly at his desk before moving on.

"It is in a vampires DNA to not have a burning thirst for blood. The grimoires also help with this, keeping them from drinking too much. Another important part to a vampire is their attachment to one -and only one- human companion once they've drunk that human's blood. A vampire will not drink from another human ever, at least until that partner passes away."

Lucas winced slightly at the words. It had been several years since Ahndrai, but to Lucas it still felt like yesterday. His lips pulled into a frown as he sat there, lost in thought. Once again he was sinking into depression, thoughts of what he could have done differently to save Ahndrai. Perhaps if he'd been more persistent on saying no, than his boyfriend would still be sitting next to him.

"Stalkers, on the other hand, are a type of vampire that one does not wish to encounter.

This brings us to our lecture today, so make sure you all take notes. Stalkers were once vampires, but because of greed, they changed themselves completely. vampires, as well as anyone else, can only handle one grimoire. Any more than that and drastic changes will occur, and not anything good.

"With more than one grimoire, a stalker is very powerful and their blood lust is unbelievable. They can kill a minimum of seven humans in one night, draining them of their life blood completely. Even to this day we continue to face surprises from the Stalkers regarding what kind of power they can gain from having multiple grimoires.

"With that in mind, let's talk about how the war started between the vampires and the Stalkers and its continuation today," her voice droned on, but Lucas tuned her out shortly after she started talking about the war. He'd been there; he already knew firsthand how it started. The vampire knew all about the tensions beforehand and what happened with the first Stalkers. Along with his family, he was right in the middle of the turmoil... they always had been.

Lucas' silver gaze narrowed angrily as he stared outside. They were still fighting the war, every day with more casualties on the vampires side. It also seemed that there were more Stalkers than the day before. It was a one sided war, one that didn't favor his kin at all.

"Lucas," a voice startled him from his thoughts. Looking up, the vampire locked eyes with their history teacher. How long exactly she'd been standing next to him was a mystery, but the look on her face was one of irritation. Once she had his attention, she lifted a thinly preened eyebrow as she asked him a question, probably for the second time in a row, "Can you educate us on the start of the war seeing as you're not paying attention to my lecture."

Lucas frowned slightly, but didn't turn away, "The first Stalker was Kivar. He used to be part of the families, but his greed for power drove him to gather more grimoires than what was allowed. He was the first to kill humans and the first to openly declare war against us. We've done all we can to keep our war between vampires and Stalkers, but Kivar is persistent. I do not know how long we can contain our fighting."

The silence in the room was testimony enough for Lucas' not paying attention to her in the first place. The woman stammered, her obvious frustration at his correcting her bluntly filled the room with her clipped tones. Most of what she had said was incorrect and she knew it the moment Lucas had begun speaking. It always happened that way, the humans usually got the details mixed up or lost over the years. Not that it was their fault really, Lucas didn't blame them. They were -of course- only human after all.

The bell rang then; marking classes end time and the twenty minute break between. Lucas stood slowly, picking up his bag and leaving the room. All the while, he ignored the whispers that followed him.