Reaper Academy

Chapter 1

"War is coming, Helena. War is coming."

Opening my eyes, I looked around, this time no longer fearing the nightmare that always had me clawing into my sheets and ripping it into pieces, a reminder that I wasn't normal.

That I had never been.

Today was going to be a good day, father had said.

More like a life sentence, but I always agreed with whatever Papa said.

Today is my eighteenth birthday and if everything goes well, I'm going to be shipped to Reaper Academy by the end of the week.

Too fast for you?

I'm Helena Shaw, a citizen of the Island country of Spatos, revered by the world for advancement in technology and harmony between different species, the species being the humans and vampires, the country governed by Councilors, who were of both species.

Eighteen years ago, another species, Lamias were part of the citizens of Spatos until the war and the creation of the magical mist that separated us from them.

The mist was on the outskirts of Antiope, the fallen city closest to the Milton Forest which was now also a part of the mist and Lamia territory.

Close to that great mist stood Reaper Academy, a training school for vampires and half vampires to harness their gifts because the mist was weak, they said.

Once you were sixteen, you were tested and if found to be of good health, sent to Reaper Academy to harness your skills in order to either become an enforcer for the city, a guardian for any of the councilors or what was called an elite team, set aside for the day the mist fell.

The humans also had an academy, the Enforcement, that trained those interested in becoming enforcers for the city. Very few got the honour of being a part of the elite team or Guardian status.

Being sent to an academy was every teenager's dream, except it wasn't mine. Especially because I wasn't vampire or human.

I was an abomination, a half vampire, half Lamia. A Vami. The first to ever survive birth.

After the war and the Lamia were banished, the rest that remained were hunted and killed off, save my mother, a Lamia, who'd hidden because she was pregnant with me.

Apparently, she had had a vision that I was destined for greatness, according to my father and had died giving birth to me.

For six years, my father had hidden me, watched me to see if I would drop dead, before confessing to the Council and pleading that my life be spared.

That was the beginning of the end of life as I knew it. We were brought from Erros, a city in the South where I'd been born to Anthios, the capital city where the Council resided.

My mood was watched round the clock by Enforcers, everywhere I went, people stared at me in fear and awe, the only reason I hadn't been stoned to death on the streets being the announcement of the Council that I would be instrumental to the defeat of Lamias if they ever crossed the mist.

I didn't have any friends at school but I didn't mind. The one person who had wanted to be my friend, Lizzie, a human had run screaming after I showed her my Lamia form.

My father was the only one who loved me, not like he had a choice in the matter but I guess I had to be grateful that I hadn't been abandoned in front of Welma's orphanage babies home.

Being a Vami wasn't all bad, I was prettier than most vampires and vampires had ethereal beauty, my hair as dark as night that stopped at my waist and my eyes a bright hazel like my mother's.

I had her petite height but my father's smile and curves for days on a slim body, that made some humans want to ask me out even though they worried whether I'd eat them alive or poach their organs, all rumors that were unfounded, because like vampires and Lamias, I lived on blood. Animal blood and human blood bought at a blood bank.

Vampires could walk under sunlight for a while but couldn't tolerate it like humans did, so they preferred nightfall for most activities. Lamias on the other hand were night creatures and had almost zero tolerance for sunlight.

As both, I could walk around in the sun but it wasn't something I liked to do.

Vampire abilities ranged from increased speed, strength, sharpened senses, presence of fangs and black eyes. They could be killed by decapitation, fire or stake to the heart from wood from the mountain ash tree that grew on the riverside of Gaith, a city in the West.

Lamia abilities ranged from increased speed, strength, sharpened senses, snake like flexibility, fangs and claws that can paralyze a body part when cut and white eyes. The paralytic effects usually wore off after 24 hours. They could be killed with silver or sunlight.

I'd spent majority of my life learning my abilities, and while I could walk in the sun, had increased strength and heightened senses, the ability to change my eyes to both black and white and snake like flexibility, I tired out quicker than the average vampire, a trait the Councilors thought was weak, and a reason why they mandated that I be sent to Reaper Academy, even though I didn't want to.

Not because I didn't want to learn to defend myself, especially when I was vulnerable to all the things that both Vampires and Lamias were which made me a target, but because I was terrified.

Some went to Reaper Academy and never survived the training. I didn't want to be an Enforcer or Guardian or Savior.

I wanted to be a seamstress like my mother. Unfortunately, I didn't have a choice. The life of my father, an Enforcer was on the line. My life was on the line. I needed to prove my loyalty to the Council and my country. The only way to get out of this was if the blood work showed an ailment or something in my biology that made me unfit to go.

I prayed for a miracle as I walked into the city lab by myself, but if there was anything I knew about the gods, it was that that they never answered when I spoke.

Chapter 2

"Happy Birthday Helena. I'm so proud of you." My father, Galen Shaw patted my head and sat across from me at our favorite blood cafe.

After getting the results at the lab, I had called him, fighting my tears to give him the news that I was fit to go the Academy and he'd wanted to celebrate, promising me my favorite blood drink.

If he saw that I was on the verge of wailing, he said nothing, instead choosing to reach over to cover my hand on the table with his.

"Reaper Academy is a place that every Spatian dreams of attending, Helena. Two years that will change your life forever."

"Or that will end up with me six feet under. They will never accept me, Father. I'd stand a greater chance of acceptance if I boarded a ship leaving Spatos and fled the country."

"We both know you can't do that now." He whispered, looking around and raising his brows in warning, a reminder that even though I could no longer see Guardians following me the way they did when I was younger, it didn't mean I wasn't being watched.

Sighing, I withdrew my hand from his, resting against my seat and ignoring the flash of hurt that passed on his face.

He didn't understand. No matter how hard he tried to, he would never understand what it felt like to not belong anywhere. To be feared, hated and treated like other. I didn't blame him for it but sometimes when it was really tough, at night, I wished I had died the night I was born like the other Vamias.

"When do I leave for the Academy?"

"As soon as possible. The session already started. Antiope is a day's ride by train, four days by horseback. I know how uncomfortable you can get in confined spaces so we can always go by horseback, if you want."

One disadvantage of being a Lamia was that they didn't do well in confined spaces, hence the reason I'd been given the room with a balcony that was never locked no matter the weather.

"We go by train. Let's get this over with already."

If I was going to Reaper Academy, I might as well just go there early enough and begin the two year countdown. At least, there would be winter break and end of session break to look forward to.

What exactly was I looking forward to?

Alone time on my bed with novels and television, because television apparently wasn't available in the Academy.

What was worse, from the articles I'd binged read online, Reaper Academy was set in ancient Spatos times. That is, while the other cities had advanced and embraced technology, living in Antiope was like living in the olden days.

No phones for students, no television, horseback and ancient weapons of war.

Well, guns couldn't kill Vampires or Lamias so that last part wasn't so absurd but still, how was I going to survive?

"Here is your order." The waitress said, her human eyes widening as she took me in, finally realizing who I was.

Helena Shaw, hybrid. Most infamous person in all Spatos. Sometimes, I wondered what would happen if one person walked up to me one day and asked for an autograph with the way they stared like I was a celebrity.

I bet I was more popular than Aileen, the country's national fairy because even she had been asked about me on television and she'd wrinkled her nose in irritation at being asked about me like I was important.

"You're her." The waitress whispered, in awe and when I smiled, showing her my four fangs instead of two, she stumbled back, nearly falling, save for my father that caught her by the arm and whipped his head to look at me, his brows raised in question.

I shrugged.

Showing her my fangs, two on either side was childish, but I never said I was mature, did I?

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The train ride to Antiope had nearly killed me and if I'd had a heartbeat, it would have probably stopped working from the agitation of sitting in an enclosed space for 15 hours.

Thanks to the Council's benevolence, plus the fact that the only person willing to sit with me was my father, I'd been given the biggest coach in the train and had to stop myself from reaching throughout, keeping myself busy with a historical romance series about forbidden lovers who later defeated all odds to end up together.

I didn't have a doubt that I would never experience that kind of love. I'd never even kissed anyone before. No one could get past the fact that I was not like them, no matter how beautiful I was and they hadn't even seen me in Lamia form, with green scaly skin, claws and white eyes devoid of pupils.

All I had for romance were my books and television shows, both of which made me happier than I should for someone who would probably never experience love in her lifetime, which was yet to be ascertained.

Vampires and Lamias were immortal, which meant I might be too but given that I was the only surviving Vamia, no one could get their hopes up yet, and by no one, I meant the Council and my father.

I was one of the hundreds of thousands who secretly wished I wasn't alive.

"We are here." My father whispered, knowing it was enough to distract me, thanks to my extra acute hearing. I'd gotten everything in two fold, the vulnerabilities included.

"All passengers alighting at the Antiope station, we have arrived at your destination. Kindly take the posterior doors and have a nice day." A male voice said from the speakers in the train and as I walked behind my father with my extra heavy luggage which felt like a piece of paper thanks to supernatural strength in hand, I ignored the stares and tried to breathe in and out , already excited to be getting out of the confined space.

The big sign that read 'Welcome to Antiope' at the train station was the first thing I saw as I breathed in fresh air.

Well, Reaper Academy, here I come.

Chapter 3

My father and I took a cab from the train station to the badlands, the last outpost where cars couldn't go past and from where we would advance on horse back to the Academy, hidden in a massive forest.

Of course, no one could advance to the Academy without their approval or risk being shot down in the woods.

I didn't know whether to find that really cute or creepy.

I wondered what would happen if I just ran into the woods right now without waiting for feedback from the mysterious castle that was the highly esteemed Reaper Academy.

"Don't even think about it." My father said in Southern dialect, obviously watching as I gazed into the forest from the office where we waited to receive response from the Academy to proceed.

I'd forgotten that I had about twenty three suicide attempts under my belt.

"Aren't you worried," I replied in dialect "that I may go on and get myself killed at your beloved Academy?"

Looking away from his phone, he bared his teeth at me, a reminder that while he was a soft hearted man where I was concerned, almost meek to most of my tantrums, he was a vampire and an Enforcer.

"I am worried. But not about you hurting yourself. But about how short sighted you are to see that getting yourself killed is not going to hurt anyone in Spatos, no one but me. And maybe your mother watching you from the Beyond, seeing all the effort she put to keep you breathing, to bring you into this world go to waste. Get yourself killed, Helena. Do exactly what the Council wants without getting their hands dirty. Do what the people want. Do what you want, Helena."

"I hate you, Father." I whispered, both of us knowing I didn't mean it.

I hated that he was right. Always hated that he was right.

My father opened his mouth to speak when one of the outpost officers walked into the office.

"They will be expecting her now. Only her, Sergeant." He inclined his head to my father, who ranked higher than him in the Enforcement.

Rising to his full height, standing at six feet four inches of solid muscle, my father shook hands with the officer and turn to smile at me, his fangs purposely on display.

Stretching out his hand to me, "What will it be, Helena? Shall we turn back?"

I knew if I truly said no, my father would do everything in his power to save me. At the cost of his life. The only reason he was pushing for the Academy was because he saw it as a way for me to prove my loyalty to Spatos and earn their trust. And be treated like one of their own.

A chance at being treated like I was normal.

To turn back was suicide but forward felt like a death sentence.

Taking his hand, I rose to my feet.

If either option was certain death, trust me to take the most interesting route.

"I will return in six months, father."

With a big grin on his face, he claimed my face with his large hands "Never doubted you for a minute, my warrior."

I hoped he was right. That I was indeed a warrior.

Only one way to find out.

*************************

The ride on horse back with a carriage holding my luggage should have been comical given that I'd just alighted from a train not too long ago but this place, this wide path way in the middle of the woods truly looked ancient.

Untouched by technological advancement.

After all, technology was humanity's way to keep up with the supernatural.

"We are here." The officer that escorted me said and I merely nodded, my mouth slack from staring at the sight before me.

Reaper Academy... was a fortress.

A massive castle made of dark stone that looked like it spanned acres upon acres of land with a huge gate that made the fortresses in the documentaries that I saw of other countries look like a joke.

Academy was too demure a word for this place.

"It was a stronghold of the ancient Vampire King Eris long ago before the kingdoms merged to become one country and the Council was formed." The officer said and when I turned to look at him, I realised that I must have looked really shocked by the size of this place.

"We're going through a smaller gate. Come." He brushed his horse's side lovingly as we advanced to where there was indeed a less intimidating sized gate that could allow us in.

The officer exchanged greetings with the three guards, all vampires by the gate who took one look at me and froze.

"Mixed breed." One of them said to the other and his eyes widened, taking me in.

Well, they didn't look like they were going to lynch me.

I resisted the suicidal urge to show them my white eyes devoid of pupils that marked me as Lamia and nodded slowly, dismounting from my horse at the same time that the officer beside me did.

As we stood in the center of what was a very large courtyard, a woman wearing a black cloak, her blonde hair in a ponytail emerged from the entrance doors.

Walking up to us, she nodded slowly at the officer who bowed to the waist.

"Miss Dorian." He said in reverence.

"Rise, Connall. I told you that you need not bow any longer."

Turning to face me, she closed the gap between us and looked at me critically in a way that made my hackles rise in apprehension.

Don't attack, I warned the Lamia in me. Stand down, I said mentally as her eyes turned vampire black and that's when I heard her voice, only she hadn't spoken.

"Welcome to Reaper Academy, Helena Shaw."

She wasn't any vampire. She was a Minder, a rare breed of vampires that manifested mind gifted abilities. She was a telepath.