THE VAMPIRE LORD KOSAN

17 FEBRUARY, WEDNESDAY, AFTERMATH

Maybe no one would notice my ears.

{They noticed.}

What? Why was Maria still in my head?

"Maria Valentino Kosan!"

He hadn't shouted it. Only spoke, and like some kind of creepy spell, the moment those words left the vampire lord's lips, Maria whip her head back to face him. Her link to me fell limp. I instinctively cut off my grasp on Maria's mind and blocked up my own.

I mean, letting Maria into my head was one thing, but an unknown ancient vampire lord would be a whole different story.

I watched as Maria stood there as still as the other humans in the room. Her expression was creepily serene and blank.

I growled a little at the vampire lord. He reminded me of my very first meeting with the late Lord Ciara. How I trembled in fear back then! I had been terrified by their dark auras.

I guess I've leveled up quite a bit since.

The vampire lord looked to be like any typical powerful vampire. He was ageless, looking anywhere between 25 to 40 years old at the same time. His suit and mannerism was austere and dark. And he was scentless, save for the light musky cologne - which made me do a second take, since when did vamps wear cologne?

Now that I looked carefully, this vamp lord was stronger, older, and far more controlled with his dark flame. He was definitely more dangerous.

It's a good thing his attention was solely on Maria. His expression was terse, and if he were Dad, it would be because he was having a stern, mindlinked talk with Maria.

VAMP DAD: How many times have I told you not to mess around with wolves? They are very dangerous. What did you promise me when I agreed to let you attend school?

VAMP MARIA: I will be careful and keep my distance from wolves.

VAMP DAD: And that includes not mentally connecting with the wolves, particularly alpha wolves. Do you have any idea how dangerous they are? Even if they don't tear you up physically, they can shred you mentally like...

VAMP MARIA: Like Aunt Margo. I know... I know... You've told me, like a million times.

VAMP DAD: Then what were you playing with just now? Young lady, you are coming straight home with me where your punishment awaits you. Do not count on your mother being there to change my mind. She has gone to visit your grandmother. This time Maria Valentino Kosan, you will face the music.

VAMP MARIA: Well fine. You do that! Go ahead and ground me! Let me wallow in my dark cycle alone.

VAMP DAD: Dark cycle? Please! If you're in your dark cycle, you'd have... My god. You're in your dark cycle... You're in your dark cycle... Maria, why didn't you say you were in your dark cycle?

This was purely my own imagination. Wow, my imagination was really working overtime today. But remember, they were vampires, and who knew what went on in their twisted and depraved minds?

Now back to reality where the vamp lord had looked up from his charge.

The computer lab was wrecked like the Titanic rammed into it. I'm not sure when or how, but while waving Henry and EJ in the air, and getting Fluffy off Maria, my hair had somehow smashed most of the tables and scattered pieces of computer across the floor.

Among the wreckage stood a handful of terrorised wolves, two neat rows of unnaturally still humans parked to one side, and the Kraken aka me.

The vampire lord now quirked up one perfectly arched brow at me.

"She made me do it." I decided to clarify. Just in case Madam Principal sent the bill to Dad.

The adults blinked in surprise. I suppose a talking Kraken was not an everyday occurance.

I felt his cold grip on my mind, but I clammed tighter, refusing him entry. So eventually, he had no choice but to speak aloud.

"Blue Alpha. What a pleasant surprise." The vamp lord demurred.

Wait, what? Weren't you just two seconds ago trying to pry into my mind? And shouldn't you be rushing your poor spawn back to care for her in her dark cycle or something? Why the sudden polite conversation?

"I would say 'nice to meet you', but I'd be lying." I answered coldly. I heard someone gasp, not sure who, but I didn't care. I was still miffed about him trying to pry into my head like that. Rood!

And then the vampire lord smiled, to the effect of making the small hairs on my neck and arms stand up,

I regarded the elder vamp carefully. Maria was standing next to her Sire now, like a creepy doll in a horror movie.

"Can we call off the blue warriors, please?" Madam Principal fretted. We could hear their approaching steps now. She looked at me, and then promptly change her mind. Instead she tried her appeal at Fluffy and EJ, "Can either of you do it? Please tell them to stand back and allow Lord Kosan to take his daughter home now."

So this was the infamous Lord Kosan, the Vampire Lord who ruled the Upper Kosan Coven, and put all his minions on a diet of packeted laboratory blood.

"There is only one other wolf I know who fought like you..." Lord Kosan mused aloud, "Are you Blades' daughter?"

I felt my hair flare, "I'm his great great granddaughter."

Lord Kosan looked surprised, "Has it been that long?"

"Who were you to him?" Whatever he was, he couldn't have been anything good.

"Believe it or not, he was a friend." Lord Kosan answered calmly.

Did he mean like in a 'friends are not food' kind of way?

"How nostalgic. But if you please, Blue Alpha, my spawn has entered her dark cycle and I wish to send her home." Lord Kosan informed me.

I didn't quite realize what he was going on about at first, but then I followed his line of sight and realized that behind the closed doors to the computer lab were now at least a dozen of my warrior wolves.

Who told them to charge up? And who's guarding the school gate from paparazzi now?

I pulled open the door to reveal the warriors growling lowly behind it. Wth, "You guys go back. Everything is fine."

They shuffled, and then one of them told me, "Apologies, Alpha. Your Luna ordered us to stand our ground until Beta Ki arrives."

I flared. That dumbbell! But it wasn't like I could complain about my overprotective mate in front of his men.

I tried to sense around for Ki. My internal radar indicated that Ki was actually already in the building too. Oh yeah, he would have been coming for theatre practice... Which we were officially late for.

"Stand your ground on THAT side of the hallway." I pointed at the wall across from us.

My warriors looked extremely reluctant, no doubt thinking of the death god they would have to report to, but I was the alpha, so they had no choice but to drag their feet there.

Then I turned back to the two vampires, "Okay, go, go."

"Lord Kosan, please allow me to walk you out." Principal Laura offered with a strained smile.

Lord Kosan gave the principal an imperious stare, "If you insist, Madam Principal."

Hahaha... I was beginning to see where Maria inherited her impeccable haughtiness from.

"It is regrettable that your school had to take damage from the sinkhole. Old buildings are unpredictable like that. I would be more than happy to make a donation to its repairs.

"What?" Principal Laura looked like she needed a moment to decipher the vamp lord's meaning, but I understood him perfectly. The vamp lord was dictating the official reason for the mess, offering to pay for the damages, and admitting his daughter was a sinkhole. Hahahaha.

"Oh yes, it is as you say, Lord Kosan." Principal Laura agreed, "Thank you very much for your kind generousity."

Yes, especially since it was footing the bill for damaged technically made by me.

I waved my hand at them and smiled, "Bye bye!"

I walked them to the door of the computer lab and didn't relax till they were completely out of sight and I was sure they were really gone. My warriors were still outside, lined up along the hallway like soldiers, but because this was a school, they could also be students being punished to stand outside the classroom. Hahaha. Served them right for charging up like that.

I popped back into the class and informed the others with a grin, "They're gone."

All in all, I felt everything turned out pretty well. Dark-Cycle Maria, AKA Sinkhole was gone. Dark Vamp Lord Kosan, AKA Vamp Dad was gone. Nobody was irreversibly wounded or dead. And our school was going to get a new computer lab for free.

I was going to get in trouble at home for this though. But I was always getting in trouble, and this was for a good cause. I was arguably the hero who saved my classmates from a full blown vamp rampage.

Inside the class, my little school pack did not look quite as pleased at our victory.

"Sam, is that really you?" Marcus asked, half-jokingly, but it was the kind of joke that was just pretending to be a joke. The half of it that was serious was really quite serious.

I grinned, "Yup, come on, you can't possibly think I could be controlled by Maria right?"

Wrong. From the looks of their faces, it was obvious they were convinced that I was not only controlled, my memory was probably altered or wiped too.

Henry stared my head. I'm not sure what he was looking for. Maybe a sticker on my forehead, or a green light that would blink to indicate that I was vamp free or something. But after a while he nodded, "What the hell, Sam. You really freaked me out back there."

"Me?" I flared again, but my hair was now back to its usual length and harmless form, "Maria was the one who went into her dark cycle!"

Yes. We must not forget. This was all Maria's fault.

"We were lucky." Marcus said in retrospect.

Everyone who knew what a dark cycle was nodded somberly. It was a "we could have died" kind of moment.

Everyone who didn't know what a dark cycle was (e.g. me), just watched blankly. I knew the Green Packlands was kind of sheltered from vamps, but how was it everyone else - even Jasmine knew what a dark cycle was?

"What's a dark cycle?" I asked.

The guys looked at me.

"Nevermind, Sam. It's over." Henry sighed, "What I want to know is what the hell did you do to your hair?"

Of course he would.

I tossed my head, "Nevermind, Henry. It's over."

Henry growled lowly at me. I decided to change the subject. Nodding over to the rest of the class standing like a Madam Tussauds' exhibit, I asked, "When are they going to wake up?"

Marcus shrugged. Henry frowned, "Shouldn't they snap out of it by now?"

"Not always." Fluffy, who seemed all too familiar with this level of vampiric activity, informed us, "There are those who can keep their prey in stasis for a very long time."

Yeah, cos vampires are sick like that.

We regarded the neat rows of "prey".

"Okay... Now what?" I asked.

As usual, it was the beta who had the answer to questions like that... Or at least he had the options.

Marcus consulted his phone and informed us, "Theatre practice had started 20 minutes ago. Madam Principal request us to stay with our class for the CIS debrief. And Ki is coming up to clean up the incident on Sam's side. I'm assuming Pete is on his way up here too?"

Henry nodded irritability, "I told him he was unnecessary. I had nothing to do with this fiasco."

Did he mean it was all on me?

"It wasn't me!" I folded my arms and tossed my head, "Didn't you hear? It was a sinkhole (named Maria)!"

"What the hell, Sam! Did you get your mind wiped?" Henry flared up then, but only his arms, his short brown hair remained quite perfectly in place.

Oh... Hahahaha. The possibility that I was mind-wiped was still fresh in their minds.

"I was joking! Just joking." I laughed, "Of course I knew what really happened was that Henry confessed his love for Maria and she rejected him, so he got mad and threw an alpha tantrum, destroying the computer lab."

Their faces! Omo. So fun.

Maria's right. I mean, Maria's annoying (because she was annoying when she's right). I did like tormenting my friends, just a very little tiny bit.

{So fun}