Thanks for checking out chapter one - I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it! Look out for Lemons in chapters 24, 25, 51 & 54 (but there are plenty of other steamy scenes to enjoy as well!)
My story & characters link directly to the canon/timeline of the Vampire Academy series, books #1-#6. Scroll down to check out the index of key scenes at the bottom of this page...
*I'm currently editing the whole story to check for consistency & adding a few bonus details so if you're re-reading you might notice a few new things :-)
1. Difficult To Explain
(Sonya POV)
'So what element did you specialise in, Miss Karp?' the girl in the back row asked shyly. Her pale blonde hair was tucked up in a high bun that accentuated her regal features, and I could see by the faint expression of concern on Vasilisa Dragomir's face that she was genuinely interested in my answer.
There was nothing strange about the teenager's question but it instantly put me on edge and I had to work hard to fight off the familiar feelings of anxiety and panic that surged through my chest. Thirty students looked up at me with expectant faces.
'I…'
The bell rang.
Thank goodness, I thought, watching my class file out through the heavy oak doors, Vasilisa's question forgotten as the teenagers jostled past one-another towards the student lounge.
The blonde girl trailed behind her classmates to pause at the door, probably hoping for a few minutes of my time, but I made a convincing act of being absorbed in a test paper that I'd just plucked at random from the pile on my desk. Jesse Zeklos, said the name at the top of the page. I rolled my eyes. Royal, or just a royal pain? I giggled aloud, amused at my own private joke, scaring the girl away. Oh well. One less thing to worry about, I sighed in relief as I glanced up to see her slim figure disappearing through the doorway.
Four dhampir guardians, three men and a woman, made their way from their places at the back of the classroom to follow the stream of teenagers out into the hallway. Most days I didn't even notice they were there and they probably didn't care much about me either. Dressed in professional black and whites they stood silently though every lecture, watching their assigned moroi charges and only intervening if a student was in danger or severely out of line. But as they passed my desk today one of them slowed his step and turned his head towards me. I didn't recognise him, but for a fraction of a second our eyes met.
His gaze was soft - a mixture of curiosity and concern that made my pulse quicken. I froze, staring back at him, overcome by the irrational fear that always gripped me when somebody noticed that I existed. I usually preferred to go through my days quietly and only encouraged minimal contact from my students and colleagues. Anything more felt like an invasion of privacy and this unexpected encounter left me feeling exposed, like this man knew something secret about me, maybe something I didn't even know myself. I forced myself to break eye-contact and thankfully he turned away a moment later, leaving me alone in the classroom.
Trying to rid myself of the uncomfortable feeling, I shuffled the students' test papers to neaten the pile and my mind drifted back to the blonde girl and her question. It was the same question I'd heard dozens of times in the last five years I'd taught at St Vladimir's Academy but I never quite knew how to answer it. I guess there are some things that are too difficult to explain.
In fact, there was a LOT about my life that was difficult to explain...
Apart from being a school teacher with a passion for art and gardening, I belonged to a secret, ancient race of moroi; a society of people with magical abilities who happened to live, in part, on human blood. I guess to most people that made us vampires but we weren't the blood-sucking monsters of human folk-lore. In fact, those vampires - the strigoi - had nearly hunted us to extinction and now we only survived under the protection of our dhampir guardians who pledged their lives to defend us.
Unlike the strigoi, we weren't blessed (or cursed) with immortality. Most of us lived out a similar life span to our human and dhampir cousins, though occasionally moroi were known to live beyond a century. Being exposed to direct sunlight couldn't kill us; dhampirs (being half-human) weren't bothered by it at all, but it caused great discomfort for moroi. As a result, our school community operated on a nocturnal schedule - sleeping during the day and waking after dusk.
Moroi were born with fangs and we did require human blood to survive but this was only sourced from willing donors. Open contact with the human world was generally avoided and many of our kind chose to live in self-sustaining communities - like St Vladimir's Academy - to keep our existence a secret and take shelter from the ever-present threat of strigoi attack.
Our own race was further divided between the common moroi and those who belonged to the twelve royal families that ruled our whole society. Bickering between these families was not unheard of and offences against any royal were severely punished. Suffice it to say, our existence hung in a fragile balance.
And if all that wasn't complicated enough, there was the little matter of magic. My people had a natural ability to influence the four elements; earth, air, fire and water. As students, Moroi were taught to use each element at a basic level and eventually went on to specialise in only one field of magic. Everyone except me, apparently.
Once, I had been one of the most promising students at St Vladimir's Academy. I was academically gifted and had a natural aptitude for all forms of magic, but as the years went by my friends moved on to more advanced magic in their field of specialisation and I was left behind. My teachers said I was just a late bloomer but it eventually became clear that I was never going to specialise, and my classmates began to look on me as a curiosity. There were a bunch of mean girls, royals of course, who started a rumour that I was magically retarded and told the younger students to stay away from me if they didn't want to catch my disease. Some even suggested I wasn't Moroi at all, just a dhampir blood-whore who enrolled in the wrong class.
In the end they were right to look on me as a freak, they just had the wrong reasons. As it turned out I could do magic. Something happened when I was seventeen that essentially woke me up and I suddenly found myself able to perform magic with ease, as though I had been doing it all my life. The trouble was that my powers didn't fall under any of the usual elemental magic categories. As I gradually uncovered my abilities I became increasingly frightened and confused. I was a freak. And I had to make sure nobody ever found out.
So yes, magical specialisation was a touchy topic for me.
I massaged my temples for a minute until the last waves of panic subsided then made an effort to push the incident from my mind, becoming suddenly aware of the dull aching feeling in my stomach. It was lunchtime and I was hungry.
When I stepped out of the arts and humanities building the sky above was dark but the grassy quad was awash with light. Students sat under the lamp-light in small groups, studying or chatting with their friends. Through the lit window of the ground-floor cafeteria I could see dozens of dhampir students hogging into plates piled high with food, and a few of their moroi classmates sat with them, working slowly through more sensible sized portions. I moved beyond the sounds of their laughter and conversation to join the smaller line of Moroi teachers and students who had come for their appointment with the feeders.
I didn't have to wait long. Alice, my regular feeder, was waiting for me with a smile on her slightly pudgy face.
'How are you today, Honey?' she asked me, her cheeks moulding into a wide grin. The forty-something year old was usually available whenever I arrived. Most other Moroi avoided her because they thought she was crazy but I knew better. Sometimes the people you think are crazy are the only ones who are really sane.
'Okay thanks, Alice,' I replied, pausing to ask how she was before sinking my teeth into her fleshy neck. An instant feeling of warmth and satisfaction spread through me and I heard her sigh contentedly as my fangs delivered a dose of pure endorphins into her system, sending her into a euphoric, drunken state.
It was such a simple exchange, blood for bliss, and it kept us from needing to take blood by force. Co-operating with other species was how we kept ourselves alive and fortunately there would always be humans willing to volunteer themselves as blood-donors for the ultimate high. I felt slightly guilty knowing I was taking advantage of a junkie's addiction but at least I wasn't as dark and twisted as a strigoi who wouldn't hesitate to kill for blood. Strigoi. I shuddered at the mere thought of the name and quickly finished up with Alice, wiping my lips on a wine-coloured napkin before thanking her and walking out of the feeding room (not that she heard me in her current state).
After lunch I returned to class and threw myself into the lesson, a double period of art history. The students were a mix of moroi and dhampirs in their senior year – I'd been their teacher for several years now and knew the drill. We viewed several works by the 19th Century Russian artist Nikolai Ge, discussing the socio-political sub-text that echoed throughout his catalogue. Later the students broke off into pairs, selecting one painting to analyse in more depth in preparation for their individual assignments.
No matter what dramas were going on outside these doors, or what anxieties might come later to plague me inside my own head, here - right now - I was in my element. My classroom was my domain; the place I felt inspired and in control, and I exulted in one of those rare, magical moments when I knew exactly what I was doing and felt perfectly in balance.
Author's Note:
When I first read the VA series I felt like Sonya Karp was a great character but I wanted to know more about her. I'm convinced she isn't just a crazy two-dimensional character - she's got her own life going on; her own history, interests, doubts and dreams. As soon as I started writing from Sonya's perspective, I wanted to get to know Mikhail Tanner better too, so this story will alternate chapters from Sonya & Mikhail's point of view. Prepare for some steamy action in the chapters to come!
A massive special thank you to Gigi256 whose writing inspired me to read VA in the first place, and who is still churning out amazing chapters & stories in the VA universe - you are incredible!
Please feel free to favourite, follow & leave a comment - I really appreciate your time & hope you enjoy the story as it unfolds :-)
Key Scenes: Here is a list of some well known events you can look forward to in my story...
Ch 7 - Emily Mastrano & Eric Dragomir's affair (resulting in the baby Jill Mastrano!)
Ch 12 - The Dragomir Crash (that killed Lissa's parents)
Ch 19 - Summary of the royals Sonya will meet at a banquet
Ch 29 - Lissa resurrecting the raven
Ch 32 - Rose & Lissa escaping St. Vladimir's with Sonya's help
Ch 34 - Sonya turning Strigoi
Ch 38 - Summary of VA #1-3 when Mikhail returns to his Guardian job after hunting Sonya (Lissa being abducted by Victor, Mason's death, Dimitri turning Strigoi)
Ch 39 - Rose breaking into the archives for info to save Dimitri from being Strigoi
Ch 41 - Victor's prison break & Dimitri's return from the dead
Ch 42 - Rose's prison break
Ch 43 - Sonya's return from the dead
Ch 46 - Finding Jill Mastrano
Ch 48 - Victor & Rose battle
Ch 49 - Sonya & Mikhail reunion
There will also be cameos from some other favourite characters including; Eddie, Mason, Kirova, Queen Tatiana, Tasha, Spiridon, Alberta, Adrian, Avery, Hans, Don, Sydney & Jill, as well as some brand new characters for you to enjoy.