Chapter 1 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.