Chapter One

The afternoon sun shone through the windows of Alvord Academy and lit up the classrooms with a dim orange glow. The school bell was ringing clearly throughout the grounds echoing off the academy’s stone buildings and towers. Students were making their way across the grounds and towards their dorms and laughter could be heard all around.

“Shoot.” Said Ria as she dropped her Socials textbook and loose-leaf paper flew everywhere. She sighed and bent down to pick them up, her long red-brown curls falling in front of her bright green eyes. As she reached out at the last piece of paper, she saw another hand already on it. She looked up and saw a pair of warm brown eyes.

“Ria,” said the boy, his eyes twinkling as he smiled down at her. “How nice it is to see you.”

“Keenan...” Ria stuttered as she quickly pulled her hand away from the paper.

“Careful,” he said, and winked. “You don’t want to be late for class. Speaking of class,” he said straightening up and handing over the paper to Ria. “Did you sign up for Extra Studies this semester?” ‘Extra studies’ was a cover name for Exterminating class.

Alvord Academy had a secret. A secret that the majority of the students there don’t even know about. The school of course, offers regular classes just as any other boarding school should, but that is not its main focus. The real purpose of this academy was to secretly train young vampire hunters into real exterminators. Their job of course, is to protect the human race from dangerous blood sucking demons. Also know as vampires.

Ria had known about vampires all her life. Well, almost her whole life. She had no memory of her life before the age of six. The oldest memory she had was of that dark stormy night 9 years ago. She remembered being found huddled in a corner of a dark alley, wet with that night’s rain. Tallia had cared for Ria, and then sent her to the academy where she teaches so Ria had been in training to become a vampire exterminator ever since then.

“Of course I’m taking Extra Studies,” she answered Keenan as she took the last piece of paper and stuffed it in her textbook with all the other things she had dropped. Then she looked at his warm smiling face and her cheeks flushed bright pink. Keenan was a senior student at the academy and was a full vampire exterminator for as long as Ria could remember. Keenan was the assistant coach of Ria’s exterminating class and knows a lot about vampires.

“Good, I’ll see you in class then?” he waved as he walked away from Ria and into the main building. Ria stood there blankly until she heard a exasperated cough coming from beside her.

“Spoiled brat,” said Braedan, and scowled. Braedan was a childhood friend of Ria’s. He was tall and good looking with ice blue eyes and white-blonde hair. He looked down at her.

“Ria, what are you still doing here?” he asked, eyebrows raised. “Aren’t you supposed to be preparing for Extra Studies class?”

“Shoot!” she cried. “I’ve got 8 minutes, see you in class!” She waved and dashed off. Holding her textbooks close to her chest, Ria sprinted across the grounds to the main dorms. The door to the dorm room opened and a whole group of girls piled out, giggling and laughing. Fighting against the crowd Ria approached the staircase which was, thankfully, empty.

***

That night the moon shone eerily across the grounds of the academy and the shadows of trees loomed over the building. The silent night air was occasionally interrupted by the soft chirp of a cricket and the rustling of leaves.

“Ria are you paying attention?”

Ria jerked her head away from the window and quickly looked up at her teacher.

“Sorry, Ms. M.” She apologized and glanced over her shoulder. Keenan, who was sitting with his senior friends at the back of the room, looked in her direction and winked. She heard a disapproving huff coming from Braedan, who was sitting beside her. Ria turned her attention back to the teacher as she talked about different types of vampires.

Ria sighed. She remembered learning this the first day she had attended Alvord Academy. There are 3 main categories of vampires. Class A; the purebloods. These were the vampires that were born purely from a vampire family. These vampires were very powerful but very rare. Class B were the noble class. These was also naturally born vampires but are mixed blooded. Class B vampires are the most common vampires. Then there is Class C. Vampires who were born as humans and changed into a vampire later in their life. These vampires have trouble controlling their thirst and often are the ones wreaking havoc between the human and vampire world.

As day break approached, class was dismissed. And Ria begun stuffing her books into her bag. Suddenly the edge of a piece of spare paper sliced across her finger and small droplets of blood were oozing out of the cut.

“Are you okay?” asked Keenan and looked at her finger. He froze suddenly, his gaze fixed on her bleeding finger and for a second Ria thought she saw a faint red gleam appear across his eyes. Just then, a figure appeared in front of Ria, separating her from Keenan.

“Get away from her.” Braedan snarled, a hand held Ria firmly. The red gleam from Keenan’s eyes disappeared and he looked up at Ria, ignoring Braedan, smiled and said “Good night Ria, Sleep well.”

And with that, Keenan left the room, leaving Braedan, his arms still outstretched, glaring after him.