☼ Chapter I ☼

picture; Sonya Reinove

author's note: I rewrote this June 4th, 2019. It needed to be done. The first 10 chapters will needed to be rewritten and edited before the story continues, but it will continue. Just wanted to let any new readers know, if they wanted to pick up the story. Only the prelude and chapter one are rewritten and edited.

Comment + Vote, enjoy!

______________________________________________________

• Present Day ~ August 19, 2019 •

A thunderous bang-bang-bang-bang! resounded against my dormitory door, jolting me violently from the black peacefulness of sleep. Once realization settled over me, I groaned in annoyance before dredging myself up from the sweet comfort of my bed.

The air in my room was colder than I recalled it was before I had gone to bed and a shudder passed through my body.

I let out a deep, long yawn as I raised my hands above my head and stretched as if in an effort to allow my fingertips to brush against the roof.

Rubbing my fingers down my face, I started towards the door just as Lorelai's voice floated through the walls to me, "Sonny! Open the damn door! I know you're awake!"

My eyes rolled so hard my head started to hurt at the stupid nickname that my friend had christened me with some time ago as I yanked the door open to reveal her irritated expression. "Took you long enough, Sleeping Beauty."

"Aw," I cocked my head to the side and gave her an innocent look. "You think I'm beautiful?" Lorelai ignored my teasing and pushed passed me into the dorm and moved over to the couch in the living room.

"What are you doing, anyway?" I quizzed easily, working to keep my irritation at bay as I spoke. "It's barely 4pm."

Lorelai's brilliant stone-gray eyes slid towards me and she smiled slowly. "You know you really lucked out getting the two-bedroom dormitory with no roommate." She reached for the remote and flicked the TV on, then aimlessly began to surf through the channels before deciding to select the Spotify app.

Digital Dagger's "Come Crashing" began to play, flowing around the space around us with wondrous melodies. I loved the song, but the sound of it did nothing to ebb my annoyance with my best friend.

"This is harassment." I told her as I sauntered into the kitchenette and prepared a pot of coffee. "You come here nearly every day and wake me up more than an hour before I need to be up." Lorelai had risen from the couch and moved into the kitchenette with me now.

She snatched up one of my strawberry PopTarts as it rose from the toaster and I cut her another annoyed look.

"You're still human, Sonny. You don't have to be on the nocturnal schedule yet." She took a generous bite out of the PopTart and cocked her head to the side in the same fashion I had earlier and smiled innocently.

"You should enjoy the sunshine." She teased as she spoke around the huge bite of PopTart.

"You're mocking me." My voice was flat as I poured myself a mug of coffee. Lorelai's laugh was so ugly. She grunted and snorted the whole way through it, and it didn't help that her default laugh was a guttural and almost maniacal cackle.

"You're mocking me." She mimicked in a high-pitched, annoying tone.

"Why are we even friends?" Lorelai dramatically clutched at her chest and feigned hurt. I rolled my eyes at her though I couldn't help but to smile. I playfully shoved past her before retreating to my room to get ready for classes.

"I am literally the best thing that's happened to you since you were forced here to Seikrov." She countered and I shrugged, not really being able to argue with her.

Lorelai and I had become instant friends when I met her six years ago in my first ever Combats lesson. She'd beat my ass and I sported a black eye and a huge gash that had to be stitched up for four months.

Lorelai didn't have a chance in hell of getting over on me now, but the memory was still embarrassing.

"You literally hit me over the head so hard the first day I met you that I needed four stitches, Lori." I reminded her cooly, and she smiled slowly in that mischievous way I had long become accustomed to.

"Whatever, I took you to the infirmary and out to eat to make up for it, too." She shot back, plopping down and falling back onto my bed as I sifted through the clothes in my closet. "I see why you didn't want to get up." She snuggled into my new super soft pillows and comforter and let out a loud, exaggerated moan.

"Did you hear about the beginning of the year party Sunday night?" She lifted her head from the blanket to look over at me as she asked.

"Yes. And I'm guessing you want to go?" I pulled my tank top over my head, revealing my bare chest. I could see Lorelai checking me out in my peripheral, but didn't try to cover up as I pulled my black bra on.

"Do you not want to go?" She managed to stay on topic, but her eyes didn't stop blatantly staring at my chest.

"You're such a horn dog." I smirked at the childish joke, and Lorelai's eyebrows scrunched together in a scowl.

It didn't matter what expression was on her face though, Lorelai was still beautiful. She had long stick straight chocolate hair and stormy gray eyes that shifted easily with her emotions.

They could go from steely and cold when she was angry to a nice day with overcast when she was laughing or happy. I sometimes liked to just watch her eyes change to their many shades of gray whenever I talked to her.

That trait always made her so easy to read, so easy to understand. I had told her this once, and Lorelai suggested maybe it was because we were kindred souls, and not because her eyes changed as much as I thought.

To accompany her silky chocolate hair and stone gray eyes, she had high cheekbones that made her face look pretty and angular.

Her lips were plump and curvaceous, and usually had a sheen of cherry Chapstick over them, making them appear pinker than usual. She had creamy, flawless skin the shade of wet sand, a perfect bronze-brown color thanks to her Spanish genes most likely.

"You're very funny, Sonny." Lorelai said icily, not appreciating the lame joke and pulling my thoughts back to the present.

"Well you're the one over there eye fucking me." I retorted simply as I pulled my year seven Novice top on. It was a white corset top that had lacy, crimson swirls flowing all over it.

At Seikrov, all the Novices that were training to be Protectors were separated by years, similar to a high school grade system. Each year had a color that represented the Novice's level of progress.

Year ones wore a plain black corset top or black long-sleeved button up for the males with Seikrov's initials over the left breast in white; year two was a black corset top with burgundy swirls and the males paired the black button up with a burgundy vest.

Year three females wore a deep gray and royal blue corset top and the males wore a gray button-up under a royal blue vest; year four was a plain emerald top and year five the emerald top gained golden swirls the with the exact same design as the other tops.

Year six Novices wore whatever top they wanted with a stark white blazer with the Academy's scarlet-colored initials.

We only wore our uniform tops on certain days and during special occasions, like today. It was the first day that lessons were back in session since the summer was over. It was already mid-August, and the chilly but sunny days had already dissipated weeks ago.

Siberia's below-negative weather was one of the many things about attending the Academy that I immediately had liked. The winter was always my favorite season, and being from Arizona, our winters were almost laughable.

"Eye fucking?" Lorelai scoffed incredulously, pulling me back down to earth once again. "I was merely appreciating what you were putting out there." I twisted around to look at my friend and she had a sly smirk on her face.

"You know I'm gay." She continued, her voice sounding displeased. "Sometimes I think you do stuff like that to annoy me as much as I annoy you."

"Maybe," I drawled, my own sly grin creeping onto my lips. "Or maybe I just am way too comfortable around you." My brain suddenly flicked back to my old best friend, the guy who I'd been the most comfortable around back in my old life when I still lived in Arizona.

Gavin has seen me get naked dozens of times, and sometimes, he was the one peeling my clothes off.

"Right," Lorelai rolled her eyes and rose from my bed just as I sat down at the foot to pull my black combat boots on. Her voice sounded easy, but I could tell that her mind was far away.

"Anyway, that party." Lorelai circled back, beginning to exit my room as I grabbed my bag and a pair of shades from my desk.

"Yeah, Lori. I'll go with you. I haven't been out to have any fun in a while." My voice was thoughtful as I pushed my key into the lock, twisted, and retrieved it.

"Um, you mean we haven't had any fun in a while." Lorelai pushed her waist-length chocolate hair off her neck and blew a raspberry. "This summer was so lame. All we did was eat junk food and watch a million horror movies."

"What's wrong with that?" I interjected, scrunching my eyebrows together at her groaning. "I liked having relaxing girls' nights in. We don't always have to go out and do drugs and get wasted and make out with handsome randoms."

"Or pretty randoms." Lorelai wiggled her brows suggestively and I rolled my eyes, but couldn't stop the stupid smile that broke over my face. "And human drugs don't really affect us. I like to get fucked up."

"Yeah, I bet you do." I mocked her and Lorelai turned her head to look at me seriously.

"It's a nice distraction from my brothers, Rob Zombie." Her voice was cool, but her eyes had turned cold and stormy and my hand instinctively found hers and our fingers entwined. "I miss him so much sometimes." She admitted quietly.

I frowned, the thoughts of my own sister entering my mind, but I quickly pushed them away, not wanting more deeply depressing thoughts of Meredith to creep in.

"You'll probably see them again someday, Lori." I told her gently and her brilliant gray eyes snapped up to meet mine.

"Sonny, I'm sorry—" She started to say quickly before I squeezed her hand in reassurance then let go, shaking my head as a tentative smile settled over my lips.

"It's fine, Lori. I didn't mean it that way." Lorelai knew about Meredith. She knew everything about that night and that her death was the reason I was forced to the Academy. "I hope one day I'll see Cetilayn again. That's why I said it." I told her easily as our elevator thrummed to a stop and the doors opened.

"I know, Sonya. I know you didn't mean it that way, but I still feel dumb as hell complaining about those two idiots when you've been through worse."

"It was years ago. I am healing." Lorelai offered me a soft smile, knowing that wasn't true at all but not speaking on it. She had slept over my dorm right next to me more times than I could count over the past six years.

The night terrors were the worse in the very beginning and I get them even now. They are few and far between, and generally happen more often around someone's birthday or the anniversary of my parent's divorce, Cetilayn's abandonment, or Meredith's death or when I am very stressed out.

"You don't have to not talk about them to spare my feelings, Lori. I know I've never met them, but they're important to you so I guess that makes me their sister by association."

Lorelai's smile widened and became much more genuine. "I doubt you would want to be their sister if you had met them. Trent is usually more serious, but when he's around Kel, he's an obnoxious idiot, too."

"I've known plenty obnoxious idiots." I looked at her pointedly and Lorelai clutched her chest and looked shocked.

"Me? Obnoxious?" She gaped at me and shoved my arm.

"I like how you didn't deny the idiot part." Lorelai swung her hand to hit me this time and I side-stepped quickly so she missed and stuck my tongue out. She grappled towards me and I spun on my heel and took off running.

"I'm gonna smack you, Sonya Reinove." Lorelai growled playfully before taking off as well, chasing me almost all the way to the main building where Novice lessons were held. "It sucks asshole that you excelled a year." Lorelai told me in a slightly breathless voice as we moved towards the nine-story structure.

"Now we won't have any classes together and you're gonna graduate before me." Her lips pushed out in a pouting manner and I nodded, agreeing.

"I think they honestly wanted to have me graduate and finish sooner in case I Awakened and started the Change. Since I was the top fighter in the year five class, I guess they felt cutting out one year of combats would be okay since the year seven training is so intense." I shrugged, but the thought of Awakening sent a shiver down my spine and thoughts of Cetilayn rushed to the forefront of my mind.

I closed my eyes tightly for a moment and breathed out slowly to compose myself. I didn't need traumatic memories rushing up right before I started my first Intricacies of Supernaturals lesson.

"Maybe." Lorelai seemed thoughtful, but didn't say what was on her mind. We had come to the hall where the year seven wing split off from the main opening mouth of the building and Lorelai looked dejectedly at me.

"I miss you already." She whined before reaching towards me and doing our little handshake we always did before leaving one another's presence: palm-to-palm first, then back-to-back, thumbs encircled the one another's and then we kissed each other's pinkies goodbye.

"Later, Lori." I sighed, releasing her hand and looking towards the long hall that was painted white with crimson swirls long the top and base of the wall. "Wish me luck."

"Good luck, Sonny. I'll see you for dinner." She turned and disappeared amongst the morning rush of Novices.

Turning quickly before I could convince myself to ditch the first day, I began my trek down the long corridor. I had already memorized the class number because I'd read and reread my schedule time and time again weeks before lessons were supposed to start.

I was nervous about skipping a year. Just because I was a top Novice amongst the year fives didn't mean I would be a phenomenal year seven. For all I knew, I could be incredibly mediocre, even weak in comparison to all the other year sevens who had partaken in all of the Academy's training.

If I got my ass handed to me in Combats this year I would be embarrassed to death so much so my ghost would be blushing from the humiliation.

And this course, Intricacies of Supernaturals, had an introductory course that was taken year six, but since I was skipping year six, I had absolutely no background besides my own knowledge that I grew up being told by Meredith and my grandmother.

My feet halted just outside the door of my IOS class and I felt my heart drop to my stomach.

It was like being the new kid all over again, but this time it was much more intimidating. Imagine being a sophomore, and being placed in senior classes because you were so brainy.

If I hadn't been so nervous, I would've laughed at the fleeting thought to pray to whatever God or Goddess might listen. I'd beg them to let the day go smoothly, and protect me from embarrassing myself. But instead, I clutched the amethyst pendant necklace that my mother had given me for my sixteenth birthday.

It was oddly cut, almost like an oval that coiled in on itself with a misshaped four-point star lying over the top. At each point on the star, there was a midnight blue stone and the chain it was on was twisted like a vine and had strange etchings in an Ancient language.

Meredith had told me it was an heirloom passed all the way down from the Original Vampyre Siern Reinove himself, but I couldn't fathom how a simple necklace could make it through all those years, but then again, maybe it was a fighter like me.

When this idea crossed my mind, it slipped from my fingertips and I felt a small surge of bravery fill my chest. Exhaling shakily, I twisted around and moved into the classroom.