Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2015 21:50:09 -0500
From: S. Ngaima <staten8808@gmail.com>
Subject: Semester in Blood, Chapter 5

"What are you waiting for Captain? Do your job," Caesarian states.

For a minute, I actually think Armando is going to do it. I think Armando
is going to run across the room and stake me, or rip my head off. I'm not
exactly sure what kills a vampire to be honest. If the Grip covered it in
Art of Killing, I was pretty sure that I dozed off during that section. I
regret that part immediately.

Armando doesn't though. He looks over at the Dean and shakes his head, "I
know you like to think that you the king Caesarian, but you aren't. I'll
lock up the boy and let the king decide."

At that moment, he tells his guards what to do and I am taken away. I look
back to see Nero one last time, no not just Nero but Prince Nero. This
whole time this boy was the fucking prince and I had no idea. I am shocked
when I look over at him.

When I leave the building, I'm taken directly to the jail and it becomes
clear that this is no small deal. There are swarms of Paparazzi all around
me. You would think I was OJ Simpson or something by the way the cameras
were going off. My heart is swamping in my stomach. Is this how the fuck I
am going to die? Is this stupid ass reason why I was going to be killed?

It takes two hours of being locked up before Armando finally comes and gets
me. He doesn't look happy when he pulls me out of the cell. He gives me
some cold blood to drink and starts to escort me out.

"Thank you for stopping the Dean."

"He has it out for you," Armando lets me know; "His daughter was the talk
of the town in Class O. Everyone assumed she would fall in love with Nero
and become the next princess. I think he fed that to the media
honestly. When you came around everyone stopped talking about his
daughter. Everyone started focusing on you."

"Wait Dean Caesarian has a daughter in Class O?" I ask.

He nods, "Sure does."

"Let me guess. Coco?"

"That's the bitch. Moreover, with you taking attention away from Coco is
making this even harder for me to protect you. You just seem to LOVE media
attention. Do you know in the past week you got 20 hours of coverage on
Fangtastic TV? You have a death wish or something?"

He had no idea how close to the truth his statement was. "No but I did try
to kill myself when I was a human. That was an epic fail as you can see."

Armando must think I'm joking until he looks in my eyes and sees that I'm
not joking. His eyes are glaring up at me. When he sees that I'm serious,
his face sinks into a little bit of a bothered frown. I can tell he's upset
by me saying that.

He still sounds mad but not angry when he tells me, "It's hard to keep you
alive. You know that? You know how many strings I had to pull not to get
you killed immediately?"

"Why are you trying to keep me alive?"

Armando shrugs, "I'm not the only one. The crowned prince is doing anything
and everything to help you. It's a media circus out there though. Even more
so than it already has been. Everyone wants to know what's going on in
Class O."

I feel bad almost immediately again for attacking Nero. It's not because
he's a prince. I mean that sucks but it's just because I allowed myself to
get so angry that I hit him. I wasn't threatened. I wasn't in pain. There
was no reason for me to head butt Nero the way I did. It was completely out
of my fear of just how comfortable Nero was making me feel. It scared me to
feel that comfortable with someone again after Milan.

"I didn't know he was the king's son," I admit.

"He's not the king's son really. Vampires leave Eden, find a human have a
child with them and when the child becomes of age, they take the child away
from the other human parent and bring them to Eden. The King refused to
leave Eden but he needed an heir so he adopted the son of a Countess who
will killed by Rogue Vampires while she was in the human world raising
Nero. Regardless Nero is a prince. Attacking a member of the royal family
is treason."

I look over at Armando, "Is he going to kill me?"

Armando stops walking at that moment.

"I'm going to stand out of the door. If the King orders you dead...I'm
going to come and get you. I'm not going to let you die over something you
didn't know."

"Isn't that treason too?" I ask.

Armando nods.

"Yeah it is."

I'm so confused by Armando.

"Why would you risk your own life to save mine?" I ask him.

Armando shrugs, "Listen. You're special. I know you are. I'm just waiting
for everyone else to realize it too."

My heart flutters a little bit knowing that he believes in me like that. I
smile at Armando but he doesn't smile back. I know that he's trying to be
focused at that moment as we get to the palace.

The palace is a huge skyscraper building next to the Cathedral school. The
roof of the palace is painted in the same style and manner as the Sistine
Chapel in Vatican City. This entire place actually reminds me a lot of
Vatican City. There are priest looking people that act as servants. They
are cleaning up the throne room as Armando guides me past. Their eyes are
looking at me. They are looking in the way the students at the school were
looking at me. These people are pretending to be professionals but I can
feel their eyes following me. I feel so insecure. I remember all the
paparazzi that swarmed Armando and his guards just getting me to the
palace. These vampires were taking this shit really serious. It scared me
honestly.

Armando takes me past the throne room. I can feel his hand tightening on my
shoulder. He's trying to tell me that everything is going to be all
right. I want to believe that everything is going to be fine and somehow I
am getting some type of comfort knowing that Armando is going to be close.

Armando takes me to a room and stands outside of the door. He looks me in
the eye for a second. There are guards all through this hallway but that
doesn't stop Armando from kissing me on the forehead.

Talk about favoritism.

"Be strong," he tells me in a solid voice, "I'm right outside. Remember
what I told you..."

He'd be there to save me if I needed saving. He wouldn't let me die.

The thought that Armando was on my side helped a lot. Armando wasn't some
kid even though he looked probably exactly the same age as me. Armando was
an experienced vampire. If we had to run there would probably be no one
else in Eden I'd rather run with than the Captain of the King's Guard.

He opens the room at that moment and allows me to walk in. As I walk in to
the king's chambers, I realize that I don't know what the formal thing to
do is when you meet a king. Should I bow or was there some sort of vampire
act of respect for me to show.

Luckily, I'm not alone with the king. I notice Nero. He motions a head nod
at that moment as though tipping me off on what I should do.

I nod at the king.

The king doesn't seem like a scary person. He isn't anything like the
Dean. Regardless of the fact that he isn't Nero's father they actually kind
of look alike. They both have this mahogany orange reddish skin that looks
like chestnut. The king's hair is wild however where Nero's is tame. Nero
eyes are much more slanted than the king's as well and Nero's silver eye
color isn't shared by the king. Those are the true giveaways that they
aren't really related by blood.

"Sit," King Arie, tells me.

I'm nervous but I take a seat next to Nero.

"King Arie----" Nero starts off.

I find it strange that Nero doesn't call him father even though King Arie
adopted him. I'm assuming he must not see the king as his father. He
doesn't get much out before King Arie hushes Nero.

"Shh..." the king hushes him before turning to me, "Santos is it?"

"Yes sir."

"Santos I find myself in a dilemma. I'm sure you noticed the cameras out
there. Everyone in Eden is watching me right now. They are all wondering
what I am going to do with the strange AB that attacked my heir."

"Sir I want to formally apologize to Nero," I say.

The king nods and smiles, "I know you're sorry. That's not the point. See,
it was strange for me to put you in class O. As you know, Class O members
are trained to be the King's guard. This would make you a very important
Vampire when you graduate. My decision was very controversial. It seems
like everything I do is controversial. Nothing makes them happy. They have
no love for the fact that that I never chose a lover or that I didn't leave
Eden to have a natural born heir."

He looks over at Nero as he says that. I wonder if the people of Eden have
some resentment towards Nero being the prince since he wasn't naturally
King Arie's son.

King Arie continues after a short pause, "Now this dilemma. You attack my
son. My son would like to forgive you. Honestly so would I."

"Thank you sir."

"I said that I would like to forgive you. Not that I would," he interrupts
me, "You see, when you are a king you rule for the nation, not
yourself. People are waiting to see if I'm a strong king. They are waiting
to see if I am going to sentence you to death. And I'm afraid I don't have
a choice."

"King Arie please," Nero explains.

King Arie stands up at that moment and paces around the room, "The Jihad is
now. Lilith's rogues are getting stronger by the moment in the human
world. The King's Guard is the most vulnerable than it's ever been with
such a small class O. An attack is impending."

"They don't know where Eden is sir," Nero tells Arie.

"For now they don't. But who's to say someone in Eden won't get scared
because of how weak the king is. Who's to say a traitor won't give our
location away. The entrance to Eden is our biggest secret. If the Rogues
find out where we are...they'll stop at nothing to kill every last
vampire. That is their nature you see. The nature of the Rogues is to
kill. So I have to be strong. I have to show people that I'm not afraid to
kill as well. I hope you can understand."

He's polite as fuck. You would think he was telling me that he couldn't
invite me somewhere or that he'd broken something of mine. He's telling me
in the most polite way possible that he wants to kill me.

"It happened during sex!" Nero states.

King Arie expression of shock has nothing to do with my expression of
shock. I look over at Nero wondering what the fuck Nero is even talking
about.

"What?" the King asks.

"I was having sex with him," Nero explains immediately, "I know it's fast
but it just happened. We were in the back and, well you know how passionate
vampire love making can be."

Love making?

I'm shocked when Nero puts his hand on my hand and holds it. He was a
pretty good actor. I'd have to give the prince that.

I squeeze Nero's hand, "I wanted to say something but I didn't want to
embarrass the prince."

"Embarrass? Embarrass!" The king says.

For a moment, I think he's mad.

"Sir..."

"This is GREAT NEWS!" King Arie says at that moment.

Nero and I look at one another.

"Sir?"

"This is exactly what Eden needs. It needs an amazing love story."

"Love?" Nero states.

I was pretty sure Nero's lie was about sex...not about love. All of a
sudden, Nero looks a little scared and nervous about the lie he came up
with.

"Exactly. I can see it now. It'll give these bored vampires something to
obsess over. And it's much better than Caesarian's bitchy daughter," King
Arie states, "This is perfect. Well done Nero."

It happens fast. I'm not sure how fast it happens. King Arie gives the
orders almost immediately to set up a press conference where we would break
the news to the Vampire media. My mind is blown at what is going on. I
don't understand.

I'm sitting there looking at Nero. His eyebrow rises. A few minutes ago, I
walked in here wondering if I'm alive but now all of a sudden with a single
lie my life was going to change again.

"What?just?happened?" I ask Nero.

He looks over at me, "I think you just became my boyfriend."

"Oh shit."

My heart is racing at that moment.

"Don't worry," he tells me, "It was the only thing I can think of. The
people want it. We can fake it for a little bit. You know how to fake it
right?"

I didn't answer his condescending question. I just look in his eyes with
the most suspicious look that I can muster, "Why are you helping me?"

He shrugs, "You're helping me too, believe it or not. Everywhere I go
people are trying to get with me because I am the heir. That'll hopefully
stop. And hell, I'm saving your life. A thank you would be nice."

I let the words leave my mouth barely, "Thanks?"

"Relax Santos. It's fake. I know I disgust you."

"Disgust me? I never said---"

I don't get the chance to finish what I'm thinking because we are swarmed
by the king's maids at that moment. I watch as the King's publicist pulls
me away from Nero. He goes over all these crazy scripts that I have to say
as the beauticians get me camera ready. In the corner of my eye, I can see
Nero having the same thing done with him. He looks extremely uncomfortable
and I feel a little at ease that he's actually doing all of this for me. I
don't get it. I don't get why Nero is lying to his father. I don't get why
Nero is planning on lying to his city.

Nero and I did not get along. It was actually the opposite. We were
fighting. How the fuck was I supposed to convince an entire city that we
were in a relationship.

"We aren't in love?but we're getting there."

The whole day goes by fast and the press conference goes by even
faster. It's all a blur. All I remember is being in a hot room with a bunch
of cameras and so many people. Nero seems to be a professional at it. He
talks easily and luckily, for me he's taking the spotlight and fielding
most of the questions that come in. It kind of worries me how easily Nero
lies to the cameras. It kind of makes me sick. By the end of it all, I'm
struggling looking for Armando but Armando is nowhere to be found. Now that
he doesn't think I'm in immediate danger it's he has completely abandoned
me.

For some reason I feel like I'm in a different type of danger though. I
wasn't exactly the type of guys that princes of the underworld fell
for. What if no one believed my story?

"Long day?" Nero states.

He smiles at me. His smile is perfect. His teeth are perfect. He is
everything you would imagine a prince would be?even if he is a vampire
prince.

I turn back around, "Have you seen Armando?"

"Is there something going on between the two of you?"

"Who?"

"You and Armando. Not that it's any of my business."

I roll my eyes at the thought, "No. It's just. He's cool."

"Damn what the hell does someone have to be to be cool to cold ass Santos?"
Nero asks laughing a little bit, "I have been trying?"

He's the ideal boy and right now the ideal boy is walking me back to the
Class O dormitory and he's holding my hand.

"Do we have to keep doing this?" I ask, "Holding hands and shit. It just
seems so?"

"Fake?"

"Yes sir. Almost like we are trying too hard," I respond.

"I never been in a relationship before," he says letting go of my hand, "My
bad. Not really sure how this shit works. Spent my whole life worrying
about becoming a vampire. Love wasn't exactly that important."

"You?never been in a relationship. You're a virgin?"

"Whoa, I didn't say all that. I just never got serious. You know," Nero
responds walking me up to the dorm room. We stop outside of the door. I can
tell Nero is hesitating to go in and see the rest of class O. I'm probably
as anxious as he is about all of this. It's one thing to fool people in
front of the cameras. It's another thing to completely fool people all
together.

"It's hard to believe someone that looks like you never had a
relationship," I say.

"Yeah because I'm the biggest catch huh?" he says sarcastically.

"You're sexy as shit, you are a prince and you have a good personality," I
respond as though he's dumb as hell, "You trying to tell me you don't see
why Coco and every female, gay guy or bisexual is obsessed with you? I'm
not dumb. You ready to put on our show?"

I start to open the door to the Class O dormitory but Nero stops me. He
looks down at me with those silver eyes and for a second I'm feeling my
heart do fucking flips. He is holding onto my hand when he does it. He
keeps his hand right on mine to stop me from turning the doorknob.

"Wait hold up," he stops me, "Did you just say I'm sexy as hell?"

He raises an eyebrow as though I definitely just sparked his interest.

I sigh realizing that the low self-esteem bullshit was probably just a
front. I want to give him a push but I think I've learned my lesson about
putting my hands on Nero. I turn the door at that moment and walk into the
class O dormitory.

The first thing I hear are sobs. They are coming from Coco. She's sitting
by the window and Sextus has his arms around her comforting her. Coco looks
like she is straight up wrecked. The girl is crying a fucking river and
it's clear why. The television is on the common room. Geneva and the others
are crowded around it and the news is covering the press conference. I
can't help but notice how fat in the face I look especially next to camera
ready Nero.

"You think you can do this to me?" Coco tells Nero, "You think you can just
string me along this whole fucking time!"

She's screaming in Nero's face. Nero's mouth hangs open as though he
doesn't know what to say. It's clear he doesn't know how to react. The rest
of the class is watching Coco go off. I could tell they were probably
sitting there waiting for her us to come back and see how Coco was going to
respond after hearing the news about Nero. I don't get why she thought she
had a chance when he was basically disciplining her with his words every
chance he got. He clearly didn't think her pranks were funny. Coco just
seemed like a nasty person and honestly, I think Nero caught on to that a
long time ago.

I'm shocked by it at that moment. I don't know what causes me to defend
Nero but I do it without thinking twice. I sneak up beside him and let my
fingers intertwine with his. His fingers are warm and he jerks as though
surprised that the same person who wanted to pull his hands away earlier is
now attempting to hold his hand again.

"You might want to be careful with the tone that you use," I warn Coco,
"You are talking to your next King."

Coco looks at me. I think for a moment I hear Camilla snicker but before I
catch it, she stops and pretends like she's looking at Lucca. Coco eyes are
glaring at me with a flame that I swear is coming straight from the depths
of hell. That is the only comparison I can make from the look in her
eyes. I can see now how she happens to be the daughter of Dean Caesarian.

Coco storms off and a part of me expects Lucca, Camilla and Sextus to
follow right behind her since they are her little crew.

Sextus is the only one who leaves the room with her.

Camilla and Lucca actually walk over to Nero and I. At first, I'm not sure
what the fuck they want. I'm not sure if they are going to stick up for
Coco but when they smile I realize it's going to be nothing like that.

Lucca is the one who starts it off, "You guys looked amazing on tv."

Camilla smiles next to Lucca, "Everyone's talking about you two."

I'm not sure how it happens but for the rest of the night Camilla and Lucca
are in our faces. They are specifically in my face. When I go watch
television they are there gossiping about how old the architecture of the
houses in Eden look. When I try to have a conversation with Geneva, the two
of them are also there all of a sudden attempting to input themselves into
the conversation.

It isn't until nighttime that they go to sleep that I finally shake them. I
mean the fake shit is more than I can really handle.

"You have some new fans," a voice says.

I turn and see him standing there while I'm in the bathroom washing my
face. My old best friend. Raul.

"Don't start no shit, won't be no shit," I warn Raul.

"I didn't come in here to start shit with you," Raul tells me at that
moment, "Milan is worried about you and so am I."

I can almost laugh at that moment.

"You and Milan worried about me."

"Yes, believe it or not," he explains, "We never meant to hurt you. But the
way to get back at us isn't by having some fake relationship with a guy you
don't even know."

"Get?the fuck away from me Raul," I warn him.

I can feel myself maddening.

Raul looks at me, "Oh come on. So are you trying to tell me that it's real?

"I'm over him and I'm over you?" I tell Raul.

Raul laughs. The motherfucker actually laughs, "You and I both know that it
would take a lot longer to get over Milan than that. I hurt you. You hurt
me. Let's just move on."

"I didn't hurt you enough," I explain to Raul, "Get away from me. Now?"

"Is everything ok in here?" a voice says.

Luckily, Nero walks into the room at that moment. He seems to sense the
tension. Raul doesn't remove his eyes from me.

Raul nods, "Yeah. Yeah everything is just fine. See you around Santos."

Raul walks away at that moment.

I watch as Nero eyes him as he's leaving. Nero looks suspicious. I have no
doubt Raul and Milan haven't told anyone what their history with me is. I
don't think they want to let it be common knowledge the types of snakes
they are. My heart races every time I am around them. I just need to avoid
them. Fucking around with Raul and Milan was the reason that I got in
trouble with Nero in the first place.

"Are you going to tell me what's up with you and them or am I going to have
to ask them?" Nero asks.

"Please Nero?"

"Santos."

Tears are falling down my eyes at that moment. They have a red tint to
them. Maybe it's true that vampires cry blood.

"Please Nero," I repeat.

Nero takes a deep breath, "We should sleep in the same bed from now
on. Just so that people around here don't get suspicious?"

For some reason I'm not as anxious as I think I am when I lay down next to
Nero. The bed is small. Nero doesn't have a shirt on. He warns me about
this beforehand and asks me if it's ok. He says he doesn't like sleeping
with a shirt on. When I lay next to him I kind of feel like Nero is a
little bit more nervous than I am.

That's when I see Milan. He walks past in the darkness and makes his way to
his own bed. When he sees Nero and I, he stops. The look in his eyes says
that something bothers him and instead of going to his own bed he ends up
walking over to Raul's.

A pain shoots through me.

"You ok?" Nero asks.

He's studying my face again. He can read me so easily.

"I'm fine," I explain to him, "Let's just go to bed."

He nods and whispers, "Is it ok if I put my hand around you. You know?just
for acting purposes."

I shake my head. My mind just keeps wandering to Raul and Milan. I let
Milan in once. I was more attracted to Nero. Nero was even more attractive
then Milan. If I put down that gate and he hurt me?it would hurt forever. I
wasn't going to let that happen, not now, not ever.

"No one's watching," I tell him shaking my head and crawling up as far away
from him as possible.

"Oh yeah. Yeah. You're right. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

=====================================================================

I dream at that moment.

A woman. A woman with a bald head is in Eden. She has dark skin that
reflects the light of a red moon. She moves like a snake through Eden. She
walks slowly. Her eyes focus intensely and her feet are sticky.

Her feet are sticky because she's stepping in blood.

Piles and piles of bodies are around her.

Then I realize some of the faces of the bodies she steps over. My heart is
racing as I see this woman walking throughout Eden. I see Nero. I see
Armando. She steps over Camilla, Lucca, Sextus, and Countess Roxy. She
makes her way right up to me and she rips my head off.

I wake up panicking. My heart is racing. I'm drenched in sweat. As I wake
up Nero panics waking up with me. He grabs my hand at that moment and holds
it. He doesn't seem to be turned off by how much I'm sweating. He actually
seems to want to pull me closer and I'm the one who's holding back from
him.

"What's wrong?" Nero asks.

"I had?a dream. I had a nightmare."

Nero looks at me, "What?"

"I had a nightmare. A woman with a bald head."

Nero's eyes seem to be glued onto me, "The prophecy is true. You are
him. You are?"

"Who?"

Nero looks at me.

"Vampires don't have dreams, Santos," he says.

"I just had one."

Nero nods, "I believe you. There is a prophecy. It says that when the
vampire with AB blood comes to Eden he'll dream. And when he dreams, Lilith
will wake up again and once again walk the Earth. And Santos?if Lilith
finds a way into Eden?we are all dead?"



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