Chapter 10

So I hope you don't mind I decided to upload an extra chapter today, because this is part of the previous chapter and I didn't know how to break it up properly. Can you tell I need the firm hand of an editor? Oh well. I hope you like it.

Zach head swiveled to the left when he heard Marley scream from across the gym, "Get off of me you blood sucking leech!" as she tried to throw Mr Rothe off of her.

Mr. Rothe looking hurt, stood up graceful from the crouch he was in as Marley shot up faster than a human bullet, and stalked off towards the corner of the gym.

Zach watched as Liv broke from her group and ran over to comfort her and turned to ask Lauren, "What's her deal?"

She just shook her head mournfully and said, "Marley hates Vampires with a passion," and sighed looking sorrowfully at Rothe.

"So Rothe's a vampire?"

"Did you ever see the movie Bram Stoker or read the book Dracula by the guy with the same name."

"Yeah why?"

"Because there's more fact than fiction in that tale I even suspect that Stoker may have been enlightened."

"Zach, Mr. Abe Rothe is Professor Abraham Van Helsing, but instead of dying at the end he was actually turned."

Wow! Zach couldn't believe that his geeky science teacher was actually a cool vampire.

"Wait a minute," Zach blurted out, "If he's a vampire what's he doing up in a sunlit gym?

"Oh that's nothing. Most of us can fashion amulets or charms that ward off ill effects and if we can't there's an entire underground market to obtain them in. He's probably wearing a protection charm."

"Ok, he said. "So why does Marley have a hate on for vampires?"

"She a dhampir. That's a child born of a human and a vampire

"Like Blade in the Blade Series?" he interjected.

"Yeah just like that, but her mother didn't survive. None of them do. The dhampir kills the mother at birth. She blames her vampire father for that. She has a huge mistrust of all vampires. And she's pissed that the council has paired her up with Van Helsing as her trainer and mentor. She spent all last year refusing to train because of it. Somehow Helsing convinced her to train with him this year, but as you can see it usually end's like this."

Lauren just sighed, "It's just so sad. He's got the kindest soul and you can see that it eats him up inside that Marley feels this way about him."

"But if Marley could just think about it for a second, "Lauren continued,  "she would see they had no choice. Marley's wicked fast and strong. She has all of the strengths of a vampire and none of their weaknesses. She has to train with him, but her judgment is too clouded by the hate she feels towards him."

Zach thought that explained a lot. Marley stalked around like she had a chip on her shoulder the size of Texas. She always looked like she had a well of anger just seething under the surface. She could put off an aura of don't touch like nobody's business. Liv always seemed to have to sooth her. What could he say she was as prickly af. She actually looked prickly. Hell Zach didn't have anything against piercings, it wasn't his bag, but the occasional one could be cool, she however had them all over her face. Add the tattoos, partially shaved head, crazy color hair, and punk goth style and she fairly broadcast on all frequencies stay tf out of my way. He had to admit though it didn't make her any less attractive, but it was off putting.

Speaking of attractive, Zach smacked his head.

"Lauren there aren't any unattractive people in this school!"

Lauren burst out laughing, "You just noticed that huh? "She said as she playfully jabbed him in the shoulder.

"We're lucky in that sense: we're born attractive and if we're not a glamour takes care of the rest. Zach many magical creatures are predatory. We're designed to draw humans in with our looks. It's the cross we bear." She said theatrically.

"Is that why Olivia is so hot?"

"Yeah that and she excretes a pheromone that attracts men to her. She's a succubus Zach. She's built to entice, to draw you into her web so she can suck the life out of you. She doesn't of course. Well . . ." Lauren leaned in and said with a conspiring tone, "Well, she does feed, but if you ask me she's not really that into men. She and Marley seem really close."

Zach's eyes wandered over to the corner of the gym where Marley and Liv still stood. Liv had Marley's face cupped in her two hands and she was talking to her gently. Of course, he thought stupidly, why hadn't he seen it before? Maybe because whenever he came anywhere near Liv there wasn't any blood flow left for his brain. You couldn't miss the intimacy now though. They genuinely seemed to cared for each other.

"That reminds me," He blurted out turning back to Lauren to see her suddenly try to hide a disappointed look, "Why did bringing up Ollie earlier cause such a stink?"

"Oh that, yeah, I almost forgot. Liv is a little weird about Ollie seeing that he doesn't really . . . exist.

He must have looked stunned, because she laughed and continued, "He's her male persona. Succubus can take on both genders, and trust me when I say when she's Ollie we ladies are affected in the same way as you guys are. We wouldn't even notice Mr.Conte our Super Sexy Spanish teacher who's half Brazilian–Demon and FullBlood-Stud, no matter how drool worthy he is; if Ollie's in the room." LAuren said with a dreamy look crossing her face.

Zach did a face palm and exclaimed, "Oh sweet Jesus!"

"What?" Lauren asked.

Zach groaned through the fingers that covered his face and said, "I asked him to put a good word in for me."

Lauren just laughed and, patting his leg, said, "If it's any consolation, I don't think you're the only one."

"Shit it must be terrible for her." Zach said

"Yeah I think that's why she sometime switches uncontrollably to Ollie. I think it might be easier for her to be a guy. That might be why Marley is so protective of her too. It would explain why she nearly bit Donnie's head off at lunch."

When Zach looked over to Conte's group he saw Connor shaking his head emphatically when Conte invited him on the mat. When Conte left the mat and started talking to him heatedly Connor just crossed his arms and sneered at him belligerently.

"What's up with Connor? Why is he refusing to spare?"

The athletic teen stood to the side of the mat staring daggers at Conte with his dark eyes. Eyes that were in complete contrast to his auburn hair and pale complexion. For the first time Zach noticed that Connor Anwell may look like the star quarterback of the school, but his demeanor said I'm the school reject and no one will convince me otherwise. His broad shoulders were hunched in on himself, and even though he stooped he still towered over their Spanish teacher.

When Lauren sighed loudly he knew he was not in for a happy tale.

"Zach," Lauren began," Not all of us end up with super cool powers. Some of us end up with ones that downright suck. And poor Connor is one of them.

He's a Gancanagh. They were known in ancient times as love talkers. They could seduce people just by touching them. I know what you're thinking though that it doesn't sound so bad, but hear me out. They didn't just seduce them for a hookup. If they touched someone with their bare skin they could enslave them. The person would become addicted to them. From that moment on the victim couldn't eat or sleep for want of them. They would waste away. They sometimes would even fight to the death in a jealous rage for them. It was a death sentence to be touched by a gancanagh. "

"OMG," Zach uttered, "Is that why he wears gloves all the time. I thought it was just an outdated fashion statement?"

"And it's also why he's always near Brenna just out of reach, never really close enough to touch, but never really far away either. We know he has it bad for her, and he knows it too. The only one that doesn't know it is Brenna. And don't you dare tell her either," She insisted, "That would be crueler than cruel."

"Do you remember how happy Connor was in grade seven; how easy go lucky he was compared to how sullen and quiet he is now? It's a sin really; his gift has turned out to be a curse."

Lauren shuddered and said, "It could've happened to anyone one of us. It still could. Anyone of us could snap and not be able to control the power that runs through our veins; and then what? What would the council's goon squad do: put us down like rabid dogs? Finish a nice neat job by magically wiping the memory of us from existence?"

Zach reached out for Lauren and embraced her in his arms wanting to comfort her, but who was he kidding, he needed comforting himself. This world was scary af. Three days ago he thought he knew how his life would pan out. He'd finish high school, go to college, get a job, have a family, grow old and die. Now he couldn't even say for sure that he'd get to do any of that.

Zach's morose thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the most miraculous thing he'd yet to see. The room before him suddenly elongated to what he would guess to be a two mile radius in either direction. It was now filled with targets and practice dummies. It had magically transformed in the blink of an eye to a fighting arena with enough room for all students to practice.

At that moment the remainder of their teacher's entered the room with a strange Arabic woman.

Lauren noticed him looking at the newcomer and said, "That's Ameera, she's Ryan's mom, and she an over 2000 year old jiniri, that's a female Jinn. You know, Ms Morgan the Math teacher she's really Morgan Le Faye the apprentice of Merlin himself. She also teaches 4th Dimensional psychic which is just a fancy way to say teleportation and she just happens to be the bane of my existence," she rolled her eyes to punctuate the sentence.

"The older gentleman is Brenna's Grandfather Mr Tuluqaq the health teacher, he's a shaman, but he also teaches Ritualistic Magic, Mr Alexeev is a Slavic Leshy who also teaches Transmogrification (shape shifting), Ms Long is a Chinese Dragon and teaches Magical history, and Ms Murakami is a Japenese, Kitsune who teaches study of magical creatures. The last three are three of the nine Greek muses. Zach our school's English teacher, Music & Art teacher, and Librarian are actually older than time itself. "

Lauren beamed at Zach and said, "Having them all here can only mean one thing."

"Oh yeah what's that, "Zach asked quizzically.

Lauren eyes sparkled and her face split into a big grin, "Weapons training is about to begin."

Zach's eyeballs nearly popped out of their sockets when rows and rows of weapons rose from the floor in neat columns, reminding him very much of the scene in the Matrix when Morpheus encouraged Neo to pick a weapon. He spent the rest of the training class wondering how nobody lost their head and being equally excited and mortified by the idea that he would soon be doing the same. As he looked on, Zach couldn't help considering ruefully that the red pill had been chosen for him by luck of birth and, regardless of him wanting to or not, he was going to have to swallow it.

********************THANKS FOR READING***************

If you liked this chapter Vote, Comment, add, this book to your reading list, or suggest it to a friend. Thank you all for helping me reach my goal of 1000 reads by the end of the month. But alas Enlightened is still not listed because of a glitch when I first posted. Pray I can get it fixed or I'll have to delete this copy and start all over again.

Stay tuned, because you're going to want to read more; soon Zach's going to be introduced to the magical community of San Francisco.

A/N if you think up a cool name for a magic shop run by witches leave it in the comments below. I'll write it into the books. *Hugs*