Again, Becca is based off Syvia, Kairan is VladimirsAngel, and Diana is Bloodthirsty. Have fun seeing them interact with Rose. ;P Oh, review response page next chapter.

And for Heaven's sake, people, KAIN AND ROSE ARE NOT BLOOD RELATED!!! It says on the genre it's a romance. Don't like it, too bad! The story goes as I want it to go. So I'm sorry if you're weirded out that it's her uncle, but vampires do not have the same morals! Keep that in mind while you read! If a sire and child can sleep together- which they do, and often (and that's effectively a father-daughter sleeping together), then a non-related uncle and niece who are vampires definitely can. So GET OVER IT! I'm tired of listening to complaints about it. Sheesh.

Kain sat at the desk and set his fingers into a steeple.

"First of all, there will be no textbooks in this class. What we write on you will be able to get off the Internet or from your friends. We will be writing essays solidly, and the topics will be of my choosing. There will be ten papers that we do throughout the semester and they will be of varying length, which will be told to you when I give the assignment. These will be one third of your final grade. The second third is attendance. Unlike other teachers, I expect you to be here, and I expect you to seek to learn. If you don't want to be here, then get out of my class. As for the final third, it's made up of speaking, interaction in class, and tests— and yes, that does include the final."

There was a bit of muted cheering from the class at that. It would mean that the final in this class didn't make up so much of the grades and they wouldn't have to fully stress out about it.

One of the students in the corner raised his hand as an indication for Kain's attention and stated plainly, "Uh, Mr. Kain? I'm quite confused by the set-up."

Kain raised an eyebrow and commented simply, "Get out. It seems to me the set-up is rather easy to understand, and if you don't, then get out of my class and stop taking up these obviously brighter people's time with silly questions such as those." He looked at the students, fixing each with a pointed glare for a moment. "Rest assured, I do not care who you are, or who your parents or friends are. It makes absolutely no difference to me. You will work if you are in my class and you will earn my respect. In return, I will begin to respect you as well. An even trade-off, so to speak. And if you have any problems with my teachings, I will take you out after class and beat you into a bloody pulp."

He grinned widely and the other students chuckled, but Rose winced to herself. She knew he wasn't kidding, and he would take them up on that threat.

"Now," Kain continued. "You all have a paper due next Wednesday and it should be five pages long. Your topic is vampires. I want you to make notes and research information on their behaviors, myths, legends, weakness and strengths. I want you to look into creatures like Dracula and Nosferatu. For God's sake, though, do not tell me their story. If you feel so inclined to, only summarize it and get on with the piece."

He looked pointedly at the class as each person quickly wrote notes. The bell rang as an indication that set of classes was over. Kain waved a hand at them.

"Now, I don't want to see you until next Wednesday. Shoo."

Students quickly piled out of the room, already whispering about the strange new teacher. Becca turned to Rose.

"Hey, would you like to meet a few old friends of mine?"

"Uh, sure. Could you give me a few minutes? I need to talk to my uncle."

"All right. I'll be outside."

Becca followed the students out of the room and Rose immediately pounced on Kain demanding, "What in hell are you doing teaching?!"

"I told you that you would be sick of me," he grinned.

"Yes, but that doesn't explain why you are standing there and teaching an English class! Do you even have any credentials?"

Kain chuckled darkly. "Well, it seems the dean and the board found me 'fitting' for the job. They certainly didn't express any disagreements."

Rose blinked at him a long moment. "You charmed them, didn't you?"

"Of course."

"And why the topic of vampires?" Rose inquired. "I would think you would know everything about such creatures."

"Ah, it's absolutely wonderful. I'm having my students look up these creatures for me. I want to know what to expect should I run into any of this world's vampires."

"Are you really even sure we have vampires?" Rose shot back. "I certainly haven't seen any in my life except you."

"True," Kain mused, "but that would not explain why so many of the legends and weaknesses are all similar to our world's vampires. How could there be so much that's similar without there being a common kernel of truth?"

"I suppose. Every myth has to have a seed of truth to start, right?"

"That is does. Ah yes, on another topic, since your father no longer can protect you, he asked me to come and told me to give you a message." He promptly tipped his head back and let out the malicious laugh that only he could do. Rose groaned deeply and clenched her fingers in front of her.

"When I get my hands on my father again . . ."Abruptly deciding something, she dropped them, blinked at Kain, and told him, "Well, I'm still not going to be sick of you."

In a swift move, he grabbed her and pulled her up against him, kissing her lightly. "Yes, you will be." He gave her a shove toward the door. "Now get out of here. I have other classes to plan for."

"Grr." She walked out the door and met up with Becca. Becca led her down through the halls toward the cafeteria. It was lunchtime.

After buying their respective lunches, Becca led her to a table where two other girls sat. Both looked up, smiled to the human girl, then looked curiously at the crossbreed as Becca waved a hand toward them. One of the girls had shoulder-length brown hair and looked up at her with curious tie-die eyes. She wore black, but it was in fashion, with denim pants Rose had never seen the style of before, and a short sleeved black blouse. The girl next to her was built much like Rose was from the training her mother and father put her through. She had long, flowing copper-gold hair that fell to her waist, was pale enough to give Rose a run for her money, and had inquisitive fey green eyes. Around her neck was a thick silver torque.

"This," Becca began, indicating the black-clothed girl, "is Diana, and she," she added, pointed to the copper haired woman, "is Kairan. Ladies, this is Rose. Not only is she from out of town, but country. Rose's from England."

"Diana Rinace," Diana clarified.

"Kairan Kincaid," Kairan added. Rose smiled slightly.

"Rose Croft."

At the name, the three girl's eyes grew wide. "Croft as in Lara Croft? Tomb Raider?"

Rose blinked. "I didn't know my mum was so well-heard of here."

"Are you kidding?" Diana chuckled. "Your mother has a kind of cult following among the girls here. We're all fascinated by her work. So you're actually her daughter?"

"Mm-hm."

Suddenly, Rose's head perked up and she turned slightly away, looking at something to the far right. The three girls exchanged a look saying, 'Wow. She's about as strange as we are.' They followed her gaze and saw she was staring at another table where the 'preps' of the school were sitting. Rose's eyes narrowed as she heard them talking about how cute the new English teacher was. She shook her head, then turned back to the girls.

"Sorry," she apologized. "Sometimes strange things catch my interest."

"Don't worry about them," Becca responded. "They're the harpies . . . just like a high-school "in crowd," but I doubt they'll be angry at you for long."

"Angry at me?" Rose inquired, blinking. "I didn't know they were. I just heard them speaking of the teachers."

Kairan chuckled softly. "You don't know then? They're all mad at you because you've had the entire population of males staring at you all day. They do that whenever a new female with legs and breasts comes to the school. It's just the way it is. They'll get over it, as well." Kairan had the kind of look that told Rose, 'Believe me, I've been there.' Rose smiled and found herself liking these three girls. They were outsiders among their own kind, but were intelligent and amusing and . . . mortal. There was really no other way for her to explain it.

"Please sit down," Diana invited her. "There's another friend of ours who's not here yet. She's still on vacation, as her class doesn't start until next week, so you'll meet her then."

"How did you all meet?" Rose asked, settling down between Kairan and Becca. The three shared another look and smiled at the memories.

"Actually, we were old school buddies. And we decided we were going to stick close to each other when we went to college. What about you? Why did you come to America for college?"

Rose shrugged slightly. "I had wanted to see what the American system of school was like, and I wanted to go to college somewhere away from my parents. Don't get me wrong, I love them, but I did really want some time away from them."

"Amen," the three agreed simultaneously. Rose cocked her head to the side, considering.

"Are you sure you three don't all share a brain?"

This question brought them to glancing at each other, then Becca smirked and shook her head.

"Nah. I wouldn't want to be part of that pervert's brain," she commented, indicating Kairan.

"Now wait a minute," the other retorted. "I'm the pervert?! Who was it who came up with the idea that one summer to—"

"We're not gonna talk about that," Becca hastily cut in. Rose blinked in confusion and noticed the same look on Diana's face. Diana shrugged and smiled toward Rose sympathetically.

"I wasn't there, so I don't know what they're talking about either." Rose laughed in response.

Several days later, Rose sat in the English room with Kain, helping him grade papers. She didn't particularly want to do it, but he didn't take 'no' very well, so here she was. It was still early in the morning before her class. She had dropped the class she had been taking before Kain's, allowing her to sleep in until eleven.

She squinted at the paper before her, then handed it toward Kain.

"I'll bite. Can you read what it says?"

Kain leaned over and narrowed his eyes, snarling slightly at the bright pink pen writing. " 'Frankenstein was a sane and really smart man who tried to beat nature at her own game,' " Kain read off, deciphering the loopy script, "with hearts on the I's."

Rose winced and held it away from her body with a finger and thumb. "Can I burn it now?"

"No," he chuckled. She suddenly found herself out of her seat, sitting on the table, with Kain standing in front of her, looking down at her. He took the paper out of her hands and set it to the side, then kissed her. She felt herself respond and melt up against him. Rose knew Kain had developed a cult following, a collection of women (in other words, most of the school), who would do anything to get him into their beds. She also knew, though, that people were taking notice of how much time she spent with him, and half of them seemed to forget that she called him uncle. She knew that there were the beginnings of whispers in dark corners that the two were sleeping together, and she knew she was going to have to find a way to combat that soon. If anyone were to ever look into her family, the combined effect of her sleeping with her professor and her "uncle" could wreck the family name.

"I've noticed you have only been calling me uncle in public," he murmured into her ear, lips traveling down across her neck.

"Of course. Can't have the normal humans thinking I'm sleeping with you. Besides, you have quite a few different names when we're in private."

She felt a sharp pain in her ear as he bit into it, fangs breaking the skin. She hissed and shoved him away, growling "Bastard," mockingly. His eyebrows rose.

"Oh, is that one of my names outside of school? News to me."

"It's not and you know it," she responded, grabbing his face and pressing her lips to his. "My lover," she breathed as he pulled away. He nipped her cheek gently.

"My little Rose," he responded.

There was a sudden shouting and commotion from outside the doors. Curious, Rose turned to the door, but knew she'd never get out of the room if Kain wasn't going to let her go. However, it seemed he as well wanted to know what was going on. He walked toward the hall and she followed, looking around. They finally came out to the main entrance of the college and saw a large bus parking in front of it. Becca came over and found her.

"What's going on?"

"Football players are coming," she responded with a shrug. "People get so worked up at this time. It's finally football session. Whopdeedo," she muttered sarcastically. Walking in front of the young men was a large, round man who was balding, but had that, 'I am a tough guy, do not fuck with me,' look about him.

"Who's that?"

"The coach," Kairan answered. Rose jerked slightly, having not sensed the mortal come up next to her in the press of people. She turned back to watch the football players, scouting to see if any of them were boyfriend material. She had to give them credit; a few of them were quite cute. However, the other females in the school were also vying for girlfriend position, and Rose never went out with anyone just because they were cute. The only thing that didn't escape her notice was the expressions on the teachers' faces as they looked on the coach. Rose leaned toward Becca.

"What's with the teachers?"

"Oh, them. The coach has basically 'spoke' to all of them to keep them out of getting in the way of the football players."

Rose winced and realized this, certainly, was not going to end well, then.