It had been almost two months since Zero kissed me in the Headmaster's house. Honestly, it hadn't really changed anything. We were still friends, we went on patrol and we did all the normal stuff we used to do. The only difference was that he would smile, and that was simply amazing.

"It just makes my day."

"Hey Rae, you coming?"

I turned to see Mika and Lyaia waiting on me by the door to our classroom. I had stopped and was looking out the window at the blanket of snow covering everything. It was mid-January and it definitely felt like it.

"Yea I'm coming." I said.

"Good, because our new Professor is coming today." Lyaia reminded me. "He's supposed to be really smart, almost as smart as Headmaster Cross."

"Impossible." I argued. "No one is as smart as he is."

Lyaia shrugged as Mika grabbed our arms and pulled us in the classroom.

"Just come on." She urged. "You can find out during class."

We went straight to our seats and sat down. I looked to my left and smiled at Zero, but he didn't smile back. He didn't even look at me. He was staring at the front of the room, his eyes hard. I looked and saw the new Professor sitting at his desk. He was rather weird looking. He had on jeans and boots with his feet up on the desk. His shirt was plain and he wore a brown leather jacket over it. It looked like he had a gun slung over his shoulder and a dirty old hat on his head. The thing that got me though, was the plate thing over the right side of his face.

"Ugh." I mumbled.

He had his head down, but as soon as I groaned, he looked up. His one eye was blue and looking right at me. I looked away and shuddered.

"Don't stare." Mika whispered. "He looks really creepy."

"I'm not convinced he's certified." Lyaia put in.

"Hey you three!"

The girls and I turned to see Captain Freckles, the class president, glaring down at us.

"You better act right!" he warned. "The new Professor will be with us for the next few weeks at least, and I'd like to enjoy them. So don't screw up!"

He proceeded to flop down in his chair and mumble angrily to himself.

"He's crankier than usual." Lyaia said.

"Yea, I don't like it." Mika added. "We should put a spell on him to make him happier."

"Or just make him a toad." I muttered.

The girls laughed earning another death glare from Captain Freckles. We got quiet and turned to the front, where the new Prof. had gotten up and was leaning against his desk. He now had a sucker in his mouth, making him look even weirder.

"Hello class." He greeted.

Everyone immediately got quiet and looked at him.

"I'm Professor Yagari and I'll be your new teacher for a little while." He said. "I'm only here while Professor Umagi is gone. When he returns, you will resume your regular schedule."

"Why is our schedule different?" Rayne asked from behind me.

"I teach a very special course and you are the students selected to take it." Professor Yagari explained.

I heard Zero mutter under his breath, so I glanced over at him. He was sitting propped on his elbows, still staring the front. I couldn't read his expression, so I turned back to Professor Yagari.

"Now," Yagari continued, "I teach a very specific type of Literature."

"But this was Math." Sara said.

Professor Yagari smiled eerily at her and I felt my stomach knot up.

"It's ok." He informed her. "I've got permission to teach you Lit."

No one else said anything.

"Great. A whole day with this creeper. No, a few weeks with this guy. Oh God…."

"Now, I like the gothic era of American and British Literature. You know, Frankenstein, The Crucible, things like that. More specifically, witches, dragons, elves….vampires." he said the last with an evil smile.

I shuddered at the sheer awkwardness of the whole thing. He kept glancing at me, making really uncomfortable. He was talking and acting like eh knew.

"I don't like this guy." Mika whispered.

"He's creepy all right." I agreed.

We got quiet and listened to Professor Yagari teach. We all sat in silence as he told us his methods and all that what not. He gave us a huge list of books we would read and a chart to fill out as we read them. Then he said he wanted to get to know us. He made each of us tell him our names and a few personal traits or things we liked to do. When he got to me, he paused and gave his weird, evil smile.

"Raven Vitalanie Shiki." He said. "How nice to finally meet you. The Headmaster spoke very highly of you."

I'm pretty sure I turned red.

"Go on." He urged. "Tell me something interesting about you."

"Well, my eyes are red. " I said stating the obvious. "I'm athletic and I have a brother."

"Yes, Senri isn't it?"

I nodded. The Professor nodded as well, and then said he would start the lesson after lunch. He never called on Zero, just smiled at him and dismissed us. Mika, Lyaia and I immediately got up, but Zero stayed in his seat.

"Zero?" I called. "You coming?"

He nodded and got up. I looked at the Professor and he was watching us leave. Zero put his hand on my waist, ushering me out the door. Once we had made it to the lunchroom and sat down, I turned to Zero.

"What's up with you?" I asked.

"Bad day." He muttered.

He didn't even look at me. He just picked at his food. I sighed and turned back to my own tray of stuff. Mika touched my arm and smiled.

"Don't worry." Lyaia mouthed. "It's not you."

I shrugged. Suddenly, I wasn't hungry. I got up to throw my tray away, leaving Zero and the girls staring after me. I decided to go outside and sit under my favorite tree for a while. IT was cold and snowing, but I didn't mind. I relaxed on the ground and tried to just think. I knew I hadn't done anything to Zero, but why was he so upset? It couldn't possibly be the new Professor.

"What are you doing out here?"

I looked up to see Senri standing over me.

"I'm thinking." I said.

"Be careful." He joked. "You don't want to hurt yourself do you?"

I laughed and stood up, knocking snow off myself.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Just checking on you." He said.

He glanced around, almost like he was making sure no one was watching us.

"You should get to class." He said, pushing me to the door.

"Ok?"

He shoved me in and pulled the door shut.

"Well. I guess I'll go to class."

I made my way back to the room, but stopped short of going in. I could here voices arguing. It was Zero and Professor Yagari.

"….not her!"

"Zero! Who else?"

"I don't know, but it's not her!"

"I'll find out."

I heard Zero growl and start walking to the door. I quickly made myself invisible as he walked by. Mike and Lyaia were coming down the hall, so he stopped them.

"Where's Raven?" he demanded.

"We don't know." Mika said.

"The last we saw, she was going out the door." Lyaia added.

Zero stormed on down the hall and once I was certain he was gone, I appeared to the girls. I think they had already seen me, because they just looked at me.

"What's wrong with him?" they asked together.

I told them what I had just overheard.

"But I don't know who or what they were talking about." I admitted.

Mika furrowed her brow, thinking. She started to say something, but the bell rang.

"We'll talk about it later." I said.

We went back in the classroom and found Zero already in his seat. He had that same emotionless stare again, so I just sat down, not saying a word. Once we were all seated, Professor Yagari began his lesson.

"I'd like to cover something that would be a little exciting for you guys." He began. "So how about vampires?"

I immediately felt the tension in the room from Rayne and Allen, the two other vampires in the room.

"What do you say, class." Yagari asked.

We all just kind of nodded, not that we really had the choice to protest anyway. He then launched into a long story on the history of vampires and what evil people they were.

"But there were people who thought vampires could be good people." He scoffed. "They wanted to tame vampires and make them their ally."

He smiled wickedly and held up Zero's charm bracelet. Zero sucked in his breath and grabbed his wrist. I looked over at him and sure enough, it was gone.

"Miss Shiki." Professor Yagari called. "Would you like to be my assistant?"

I hesitantly got up and walked down to his desk. I braced myself for what I knew was about to happen.

"Now ,the tamers would take bracelets like this," he explained, "and put tattoos on the vampires. No offense to you, Raven, I just noticed you had a tattoo."

I shrugged.

"The tamers would put one drop of the vampire's blood on the bracelet, binding the two. Then when the vampire would go crazy, they did this."

He held the bracelet close to my neck and instant pain filled my body. I knew my marks would glow, so I quickly slid my hand behind my back and made sure my hair was covering the part of tattoo Yagari's hand didn't. I stayed perfectly still while he slowly explained what he was doing. I looked at Zero, pleading to him with my eyes.

"Alright!" Allen said.

"We get it!" Zero growled.

Professor Yagari smiled and pulled the charm away from me. My head was spinning, but I fought the urge to fall.

"Thank you, Raven." He said.

I nodded and walked back to my seat. I slowly sank down in my chair, cringing the whole time.

"There's no way. But he knows. He wouldn't have picked me if he didn't."

The rest of the day flew by and before I knew it, we were being dismissed. Zero helped me up and guided me out the door.

"Raven! Zero!" Yagari called.

We turned and looked at him.

"Zero, I think you should formally introduce us." He said.

Zero growled, but did as he was told.

"Raven, this is Yagari, from the Vampire Hunter Association. He was my Master."