Chapter 4

As Katie hauled me passed hundreds of kids standing at their lockers through the school to the front office I began to wonder what it was that I smelled everywhere. At first I thought I was just smelling way more colognes and perfumes then I'd ever smelled in my life but then I thought, what I'm smelling is richer, sweeter, thicker…as if I smelled the blood of every person that surrounded me walking through the hall.

"I think the principal will want to talk to you after you get your schedule and all." she said gently shoving some kid into his locker so we could get by.

"Why would he want to see me?" even within all this traffic of kids and my arm being pulled in the right direction I still had a hard time keeping up with her.

"He usually likes to talk to new students. He's really nice, so you don't need to worry yourself about him. Just act normal and relaxed and you'll be fine." she made a sharp turn which almost made me hit the corner face first. "Here we are!" and I ran into her not noticing that she had suddenly stopped facing a brown door that had "office" written in bold black letters. The door was strictly solid brown wood, not like other doors with blurred windows. "Well, this is where I leave it to you." she gave me a quick hug and added, "Don't worry, they'll take care of you."

"Ok, I guess I'll see you somewhere sometime today?"

"Maybe, who knows, we may have some classes together!" then she gave me another quick hug and ran off down the opposite direction we came from, disappearing into the ocean of bodies again.

"Now or never, Jason." and I opened the door to the office.

Inside looked just like your typical secretaries room, a wooden desk with a women sitting behind it arguing with another women and her daughter about something, a few students and their parents sitting on both sides of the door to which I had just entered. Leading behind the secretaries were two similar brown wood doors that fell about five feet apart with "Men's principal" on one and "Women's Principal" on the other. This seemed very strange to me.

At the front desk stood what I guessed to be a mother and her daughter. The girl was very short if she was around my age, let alone to be going to this school, but she was very cute. She had shoulder length brown hair and from what I could tell from here, green eyes.

Out of pure embarrassment I turned and pretended that I was studying a picture next to the women's principal door.

"Are you new here too?" she asked in a quiet dreamy voice.

"Yeah. You too?" I whispered back as she moved back beside me as slow as a sloth so her mother wouldn't notice her sudden movement, but she seemed so preoccupied as to even notice if dynamite exploded right in front of her.

"Yeah, and my mom's having a fit about going here. I don't know why though, the people I've met that go here seem very nice."

"No kidding, I moved here last Friday and I already know most of the guy's soccer team and a few others."

"Yeah, so what are you?" she asked with an excited look.

"What am I? What do you mean?" I had no clue what she could possibly be talking about.

"Oh, you don't know yet. Well you'll find out soon enough." she winked at me, "Oh, and my name's Clary."

"Jason."

"Well I hope to see you around, Jason." then she moved up beside her mother at the same sloth like speed as before.

"Let's go Clary, these people don't know what they're talking about!" and her mother grabbed her arm and dragged from the room before she even had a chance to make a sound.

"Can I help you?" the secretary said rubbing her eyes in relief that the women was finally gone. She had brown hair that lay in long curls, a green shirt with a brown shawl wrapped around her shoulders.

"I'm Jason Castore, I'm new." I couldn't think of any other way to put it. I looked down at a triangular name plate that read, "Ex. Secretary, Mrs. Jones"

"Ah yes, Jason, we've been expecting you." what? How could they be expecting me? "Castore you said?" she asked as she ruffled through a pile of beige folders.

"Yes, may I ask how you've been expecting me?"

"Ah, here we are," she pulled out a beige folder with my name on it that held some papers which I guessed to be my schedule and map of the school. "Dr. Que asked me to send you to his office when you arrived, he wants to speak to you." she pointed to my left, "His office is through that door. Don't be shy Jason, he's very nice."

I moved to my left turning back to look at the other students waiting to be seen. The guys sitting one side didn't seem to look much older than me, but were much bigger and darker. Their eyes, I swear, looked like slits. On the other side sat girls whose skin glowed just the same as Clary's had, their eyes were normal though.

Weird, I thought to myself as I opened the door to Dr. Que's office. His office was more or less the same layout as the room before it, brown wooden desk in the middle with a triangular name plate, folders scattered in various places, a few filing cabinets in the corners, pictures of family or friends hung within inches of each other, and a large glass window covering the back wall to which Mr. Que was gazing out.

"Hello, Jason. Take a seat." he said in a strong yet gently voice without turning his attention from the outside world.

After a minute or two he finally turned from the window to reveal a tall well built man who looked to be in his late thirties or early forties. He had a head covered in disheveled brown hair, a scruffy but well kept face. His eyes were an off blue with a black slit down the center of both. He wore a brown suite that fit to show off how much muscle he had that would otherwise be hiding from the world.

"Do you know what this school is, Jason?" his voice sounded through the trance I had been under while evaluating my new principal.

"Sir? Isn't it just like any other high school?" padded black computer chair behind the desk creaked as he sat down.

"We tend to think so, yes, but in reality, it isn't like any other high school anywhere." he paused to link his fingers together across his chest.

"I'm not following you…" I said after a few seconds of awkward silence waiting for him to say anything.

"Jason, how do I put this…?" he placed his hands with fingers still linked on the desk, "This is a school for half-breeds, if you will." then he looked at me with a most warming smile someone like him could have ever produced.

"What exactly do you mean by half-breeds?" this wouldn't process with my brain, it wouldn't go through, like a worm virus trying to infect a computer with various firewalls set up to protect against it.

"Vampires, werewolves, and mutants if you will." he looked at me with an excited look and his face lit up like a fat kid in a candy shop, I could tell he hadn't told this story in a while.

"I would be freaking out at what you just said if I hadn't experienced vampires first hand. As for the werewolves I'm not so sure, and what exactly do you mean by mutants?" I felt calm for someone sitting in my situation, talking about a school for vampires, werewolves, and mutants (whatever they were).

"Mutants aren't necessary a derogatory term because their genes are mutated so that's exactly what they are," I must have had a dumbfounded look on my face because he continued his lecture. "We don't know how it's done but it is. What we do know is that the mutation is passed down from generation to generation. Say if your father was mutant of fire, you would also have the mutation of fire, and your son will have the mutation. Does that help explain it?"

My mind was being challenged by everything I've learned back in England and what I was learning now didn't seem to want to settle in my brain. "It makes sense for the most part, so what you're saying is that someone can control or manipulate fire to however their will is satisfied?" this is what boggled my mind the most.

"Yes, and there are more than just the main elements. We have students who control weather, manipulate other people's minds, and in few rare cases some have sprouted wings." he paused for second to let that last one sink in. I really couldn't understand what was happening to me, a month ago I had been like any other regular high school soccer player and student, now I'm being hurtled into a world of such things that I have only read about or seen in movies. This was cool!

His chair let out a sigh as air refilled the padding when he got up, "Lets take a tour, shall we?" he moved around me over to open the door for me.

I followed him out of the office into the secretary room where the students who sat there before were still seated, they didn't seem to care that one of their principals was striding past them. I began to wonder if all the guys eyes in this school were slits and why were the girls normal?

"You may wonder why the men of this school, theirs eyes are slits and the women's are not?" he asked stepping in the empty corridor to which stood hundreds of students just minutes before.

"Yeah, how did you know?" I closed the office door behind me. I wonder if he can read my mind.

"I can't read your mind if that's what you're thinking," he chuckled for a second then continued. "Most new students here notice that and wonder why. Well I'll gladly tell you, most of the men for some reason have that gene for a werewolf passed down from their forefathers, not all men show it though. The gene, or some like to call it a curse, will lie dormant and you can go your whole life without ever wakening it, others find various ways to wake what's hidden within them. Now you'll also notice some males whose eyes are normal, now they are either vampire or haven't woken the gene yet, and those who haven't yet, like I said before, may go their whole lives without ever wakening it." he went silent for a few moments admiring the corridor.

To any other person who came (meaning someone who was pure human) to this school would just think it was a lot bigger and nicer than theirs. The walls were strictly red brick, below our feet lay white marble with golden names listed not inches away from each other. "Why are these names here?"

He turned around and looked down, "They are the names of the headmasters and mistresses that have ruled and protected this school over the past centuries" did he just say centuries? No way has this school been here that long. ". In every wing you'll learn that there are names of those who have mastered in that specific field.

Along the walls pictures were hung of every kind of animal and their masters, "These are the warriors who protected this very school in the past." ok now I was confused.

"What do you mean by protect? Like people tried to burn this place down or something?"

"Yes, and they try to destroy the place and turn it into rubble, but you'll learn about all that in your history class." so there seemed to be more to this place then I had thought. "Now back to the females." he said taking a few strides down the corridor telling me he was ready to move on.

"I'm guessing they're vampires?"

"And you guess right, although like the men they can also be werewolves too."

"But how come their eyes are normal and not slits?"

"That is because vampires are more human then creature." a thought struck me from a book I read a while back that said vampires are only undead humans, whereas werewolves are a completely different breed/species.

"Well ok, I can understand that, but what about mutants? What's their role here?" even though he explained mutants control elemental powers of the planet, the thought of mutants still made me think of X-men.

"Mutants are more human than anything, just with a bit extra power to them. Most normal societies don't accept them, saying they're a danger and so they end up here or in some other school closer to where they live."

"You mean there are more schools then this one?"

"Oh yes, not too many but there are more." he paused to take a few deep breathes, "Well I think you'll learn more during class time, how about I tell you about the school now and give you a grand tour of the place?"

Not like I could refuse and I had no intention of going to class anytime soon.

I soon learned there were four wings to the school: north, south, east, and west. Each wing had its own purpose, like the west wing (the one we were in) was the office and personal records wing, with a few classrooms. Mr. Que wouldn't tell me what each wings purpose was and that I had to learn on my own saying, "the only way to learn something is to discover it on your own, everything can't be taught to you."

We continued back the way we came to venture into the east wing. The way the school was laid out confused me to an extent, I understood the school faced north, but wherever you were in the school, how were you suppose to figure out what lay where?

The east wing looked rather the same as the west; red lockers line the walls, white marble floor with names imprinted in gold, same pure wooden doors. The only difference I noticed was the big sign half way down the hall that read "Medical Hall".

"I'm guessing this is the medical wing?" I asked pointing to the sign.

"Very good, although it doesn't take a genius to figure that out," he laughed looking to where my finger pointed to. "Also, you may notice names in gold on the floor just like the other?"

"Yes, I noticed. Are they there for the same reason as the people who protected the school?"

"Sort of, the names here are the names of those who healed and protected the ones who fought for the school." we kept walking down the hall until another wide hall opened up to the right.

"I thought the school was in four wings?" I looked down the connecting hall confused.

"What did you think the school was in the shape of a plus sign or something?" he looked at me with a confused look.

"I don't really know what I thought, but I guess that's what I had in mind…" I felt really stupid now.

"Don't worry about, you'll get to see the whole school soon enough. Now shall we venture upstairs?" he said waving his arm to the left at a white space in the wall.

"There are stairs? But from outside it seemed like only a one story building and what about the rest of the ground floor?" I felt so confused, from the outside only the very middle went higher than the first floor. How could there possibly be more stories to this place, and I wanted to see the rest of the first floor.

"The rest of the bottom floor is just the same as these two," he said motioning with his arms from the medical to the office hallway. "With connecting corridors down each side," he pointed to the hall to our right. "As for the stairs, do you believe in magic my boy?" magic, how could he possibly put magic into my head after everything he told me which I thought only existed in fairy tales do actually exist?

"I don't know, I guess I'll have to wont I?"

"Well you don't have to but it would help. Well if you looked over here, what do you see?" we moved forward a few paces then he made me look at the white space on the wall I just noticed earlier.

"The wall is white where the rest is red? I don't get what I'm supposed to be seeing." I was staring at a white wall! What was there to see?

"Look harder. Focus on what is behind the wall."

I stood there for a good minute or so staring at the wall trying to visualize a set of stairs. I would have thought that Mr. Que had gone insane if a pair of red and black stairs hadn't appeared out of nowhere.

"You see?" I heard a voice say then I noticed that Mr. Que had walked through the wall and onto the first step.

I lost focus when I noticed him standing on the stairs and now all I saw was that same white wall again.

"Just believe there are stairs and walk through the wall."

"Walk through the wall? Are you mad!" if any normal person saw this they would have thought I was mad because of that I am talking to a wall, but the fact was that I had been speaking to Mr. Que who was standing on the other side of the wall.

"I did, so can you." he had a point, if he could walk through the wall then so could I.

"Ok." I closed my eyes and took a step forward, and then another, and another, and without realizing it I was walking very slowly.

"You can stop and open your eyes now." and so I did. I turned around to see the white wall, now black on this side, stood behind me.

"Welcome to the real part of the school."

As we began moving around upstairs I noticed there were far more classrooms up here then downstairs. Red lockers still lined the walls, which made me wonder how many kids (and/or adults) came here.

"This is our academic portion of the school, the classes where you get to learn what a werewolf is, how vampires live while being dead, why mutants have the power they have. This is where you will learn everything you need to know with some survival tips included." he lead me down the hall past about seven doors with every kind of name from geometry and biology to bloodlust and power control.

"And this is where your first class will take place," he stopped me in front of a door that read "History behind the myth".

"History class?"

"Yes, you will learn a far bit more about yourself and what lies within you then you would read every single human book ever written about your kind."

"But I thought you said I was going to get a grand tour?"

"You did, well you saw the office and medical section of the school and now your in the academic section. There's really not much else to see," he then placed his hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry, no one will bite you and if they do," he gave me a little wink, "You can claw their face."

"But…" I couldn't think of anything to say plus Mr. Que was already striding away so I doubt he would turn and listen to me.

"Looks like I'm going to have to face the rest of today alone." I gave a huge sigh and opened the wooden door to my first history class in this new world.

"So you're the new kid eh? I heard you were bigger," a few guys crowded around my desk at the back of the room a few minutes before class was over.

"Well sorry to disappoint you." even though I didn't have eyes in the back of my head I could sense that I was surrounded by these big buffoons.

"Think you're funny huh?" the biggest one and most likely the leader said taking hold of my shirt below my shoulders. Since he had short brown hair I could see the full contorted look on his face, along with his yellow slits of eyes.

"Well if believe I am funny then yes, maybe I am." he tightened his grip and pulled me out of the desk. Funny thing was that no one else around us seemed to car in the slightest that a big circle had formed around some big buffoon and the new kid.

"You're lucky it's just your first day, I'll let you off with a warning now but later, if you make any kind of smartass remark to me or any of my crew I'll smash your face in." then he threw me to the floor just as a bell rang signaling the end of history.

"Dicks…" I muttered so quietly I thought no one had heard me, but apparently I was wrong.

"What did you call me!" the big guy came back to pick me off the floor and carry me out the door where he threw me against the lockers. "I said I was giving a warning you little prick! Most kids don't ever talk back, but I guess you just want to get your ass kicked on the first day!" and before I could even cower over in pain he slammed a right fist straight into my stomach, knocking the wind out of me.

I began to cough up a little blood. He slammed a left into my side, a right into my heart. I didn't know what was happening inside me but my blood began to rush so fast I felt burning hot. My muscles contracted and grew, my senses heightened to where I could hear the heartbeat of every person in this existing hallway, my head cleared of all thought, my stomach began to feel no pain. I could feel my finger nails growing, so when the big guy moved back to see the work he'd done on me I lashed out at his face, slicing the right of face.

Blood poured from his cheek, the smell aroused my senses, my lust for blood. I pounced on him lashing out even more, along with putting a few punches in his face. By this time a group has formed around us yelling "fight, fight" and screaming some random things like " kick his ass!" I didn't take any notice of them because all I wanted to do was tear his face off and drink his blood. To sink my teeth into his neck seemed like a godsend, but to actually do it seemed like a sin.

"Help me you idiots!" I heard him yelled under all the blood gushing from his face. His friends moved in on me. I turned and roared at them, or to me it seemed like a really loud growl, and they all backed off.

Take his blood Jason. Kill him for what he did to you, unfair treatment will not be tolerated. That voice sounded in my head again making what was only thirty seconds seem like thirty days.

"Blood…I want your blood…" I whispered in his hear before I sunk my teeth into his throat and drank the thick, rich, and very powerful crimson liquid pouring into my mouth. I felt bulletproof, indestructible, and immortal.

"What is going on here!" a familiar voice rang in my ears making me release my grip on the guy who I just drained and sat back against the lockers breathing hard.

"It was him! The new kid, he did this! Help Drake!" one his friends yelled at the man walking towards us.

"Good lord! I come to check up on you and help you to your next class but I come and see you've drained this young man of his life. Come with me." he hurriedly said grabbing my arm and pulled me to my feet and dragging me over the bloody mess I had created.

"Why did you do it?" he asked me once we were safe with his office door closed.

"He pissed me off and I don't know…something took over and I just lashed out at him. Once I smelled his blood I couldn't resist sinking my teeth into him and-"

"Couldn't resist! What do you mean you couldn't resist! You're a bloody werewolf boy not a vampire! You should have cravings for meat, not blood." he yelled and sat down in a huff.

"I'm sorry…I don't know what came over me, I swear. And I promise you all I wanted to do was drink his blood; I felt no craving for eating him." I don't know what I felt, my mind was spinning and I couldn't get a grip on reality.

"Yes well, now I have a dead student on my hands, not to mention what this will do to the covenant…" he trailed off as if he said more then he should.

"The covenant, sir?"

"Yes the covenant! Half vampire, half werewolf, when they find out, if they haven't already, that a werewolf has been drained of all blood there may be some trust conflicts between the two. But I'm still intrigued to know why you preferred to drink his blood instead of tear his throat out." he placed his hands under his chin as if to show me that he was in deep thought about the situation.

I looked up at him hoping for him to see a the sympathy on my face, "I don't know-"

"My lord!" he interrupted me, "Your eyes my boy! Their blood red. This is very interesting." he got up and moved out of his office door, shutting it slowly behind him.

What the hell had happened upstairs? I understand what he said by werewolves preferring meat over blood, but for someone who actually experienced the event he seemed more bewildered then me.

"Jason," his voice sounded again opening the door. "This is Professor White."

The women following close behind Mr. Que was tall and slender with skin as white as the marble floor in the halls with flowing and black hair that wrapped around her shoulders. Her eyes were the color of deep emeralds, no slits, which meant she had to be a vampire. She wore a sparkling black dress that hugged her body like another layer of skin and split at the legs like jeans ( I guessed for more freedom to fight).

"Hello Jason," her voice was dreamy like an angels. "You may call me Ms. White if you prefer. Now I hear that you drank a fellow students blood instead of tearing his throat apart like a normal wolf?"

"Yes." my mind couldn't process anything else to say, I gawked at how beautiful someone who was dead could possible look.

"That, along with your eyes being deep crimson is rather interesting. Do you have any vampires in the family or have you ever been bitten?" she moved to sit on the edge of the desk with such grace it seemed she had danced to the desk.

"No, I don't think so. No one in my family is or ever was for all I know, anything. I'm scared to tell my parents that something's wrong with me let alone tell them what I'm becoming."

"Well maybe you should ask your parents why they specifically choose Toronto to move to and or why they moved. I'm sure you'll be surprised at what you'll learn tonight," she then turned to Mr. Que. "We will need to clean this up and make a cover story to tell the covenant before they find out, if they haven't already." then she left the room the same way as she moved to sit on the desk leaving Mr. Que and I staring at each other.

"Well maybe there is more to your family then you may know. I'd take her advice and find out something about your family history tonight. As for the rest of the day, you will need to spend in my office like any other student who just killed another." he laughed at what he just said, "I'm not mad at you anymore Jason, you seem to be the kind that have secrets worth digging up." and with that he left his office leaving me completely dumfounded and with nothing to do but stare out the window.