Heofon Academy- Chapter Two

I woke up, slouched in the back of a car, at first I thought all that had occurred was some crazy dream induced by too much wine, but then I noticed Alexei was sitting next to me and all hope of that theory faded. 

‘Where are you taking me?’ My voice sounded dry and raspy.

‘You’re coming with us to the academy,’ Alexei replied, passing me a bottle of mineral water. Water never tasted so good and I sloshed some down my dress in my haste to devour the whole bottle. My mouth still felt furry, but my throat felt less restricted, which was good.

‘What academy? Why can’t I go home?’ My voice didn’t sound panicked, more curious than anything, after tonight’s events I didn’t really care where I was going, as long as they had a shower and a bed.

‘Hoefon Manor, an academy for training Nephilim. While you were unconscious, we did some digging into your family, we were curious why you couldn’t be compelled. Turns out you’re one of us,’ He smiled as if he had told me I had won the lottery. 

‘What? That’s impossible my parents died when I was eight, but they were definitely normal, I would remember if they were different.’ Although even as I said this statement I doubted my own words. I could barely remember my parents at all, I saw their faces in old pictures, but they might as well have been strangers. My foster carers (there’s been a few over the years) only knew they died in a car accident, but no other details and they insisted I had no other family.

‘No your father was Nephilim, one of the tutors recognised him in a photograph they found, he had changed his name and married a human woman; your mother, which is a taboo in our culture. Hence why he went off the radar.’

‘So what I'm like half Nephilim, what does that even mean?’

‘It means you have some of our traits, but probably not all of them. You may be stronger, have heightened senses, such as sight and hearing and we know you can resist the compulsion. We will find out about the others at the academy, sometimes certain traits don’t show until you require them, training will bring them out.’

My mind was reeling at this revelation. Did my mum know about my dad’s secret past? And why was it a taboo to marry a human? I had a lot of questions, but tiredness was winning out and I sunk back into my seat and closed my eyes, letting the hum of the car lull me into a deep sleep.

When I next awoke we were approaching a pair of large metal gates set back into a brick wall at least eight feet tall and extending for as far as I could see. The gates opened automatically giving me the spectacular view of the manor house and grounds. The building was gothic style and massive, with large stained glass windows, the only thing missing was a moat and drawbridge. The grounds were extensive, lush grass and quaint flower beds. There was a large lake in the distance, I could just about make out a little row boat at the dock. Surrounding the manor, at regular intervals were tall spot lights, like what you find on football fields. 

As we drove through the grounds, I noticed a lot of people milling around, presumably fellow students, which made no sense as it must be past midnight, but they looked as though they were passing between lessons as they were carrying backpacks and books. Strange.



We pulled up to what I presumed to be the main entrance, a large wooden door with brass knocker and semi circle handles, as I got out I half expected it to creak open on its own, like what happens when you approach haunted houses in scary movies, but instead a very tall woman stepped out to greet me.

‘Miss Harris! My name is Ms Noushkov the headmistress of this establishment; we are very pleased to have you here!’

Ms Noushkov was rather slight with dark cropped hair and extremely pale skin, her enthusiastic greeting lacked sincerity, I imagine she had to wait up for me to arrive and wasn’t very pleased about it. Though to give her credit she seemed full of energy and not at all sleep deprived as I was feeling.

I followed Ms Noushkov in a robot like manner, my body working on autopilot. I turned round to ask Alexei a question about where we were going, to find he had vanished. I felt disappointed that he wouldn’t be coming with me.

As we headed to her office, I took in my surroundings and could not believe the grandeur of the place in which I would be living. The walls were wooden panelled and papered with thick wall paper and the floors highly polished natural wood. It was stunning.

Ms Noushkov sat at the large mahogany desk in front of the offices large floor length window. The walls were mainly covered by large bookcases filled to the brim with ancient looking books. Being an avid reader I itched to search through them to see what treasures were hidden behind the tattered bindings.

‘Please take a seat Miss Harris,’ she pointed to a carved chair in front of the desk, breaking my daydream.

I sat down and waited for further instruction, but after what seemed like forever, Ms Noushkov was just staring at me.

‘Umm,’ I mumbled awkwardly.

‘Oh sorry dear, you look remarkably like your father,’

‘You knew my father?’

‘Yes, we were friends in the past; trained together in this same academy, if it wasn’t for his indiscretions he could have been running this place alongside me. He was a great man.’ She sounded wistful.

‘I'm sorry, but what’s the matter with falling in love and marrying my mother?’ I was a bit angry at the emphasis being put on my dad’s marriage, as if it was some massive betrayal to his kind. For all I knew it was.

‘It’s simply not done, our kind stays with our kind. The Nephilim are a dying breed, we need to keep as much pure blood in the race or we end up with lots of half breeds like you.’ She added distastefully gesturing towards me.

‘If I'm an unwanted half breed as you put it, why do you want me here? I don’t particularly like my foster home but I would be happy to return to my normal life.’

‘You killed a rogue vampire tonight, your life will never be normal again and we have to take what we can get. The Nephilim aren’t particularly fertile and we tend to die young, as of the nature of our work, so there are less and less new students each year.’

Ms Noushkov didn’t like me and I have to say the feeling was mutual. She got up from behind her desk, obviously deciding our little pow wow was over.



‘Right, let’s get you to your room now introductions are over. We are arranging for your things to be brought over tomorrow, so I've had some essentials placed in your room, so you can have a wash and put on some more conservative clothing.’ She eyed my red dress and bare feet with a smirk.

My room was on the other side of the manor from the offices and communal rooms. I got a few funny looks as we passed under a sign that read ‘Girls Dorms’. I still couldn’t fathom why people were milling around in the middle of the night and why Ms Noushkov wasn’t ordering them back to their rooms.

The room was massive, it wasn’t merely a single room with a bed as I had imagined, it was a whole apartment. The first room had a plush red carpet, cream walls and heavy jacquard curtains. A beige sofa sat in the centre facing a flat screen TV, and a couple of bookcases lined the walls complete with a few novels I recognised such as Wuthering Heights and one of my favourites: pride and prejudice. The room has two doors leading off it, one into a moderately sized bathroom complete with a bath with the shower over. The second door led into the bedroom where a large four poster bed stood, complete with heavy red drapes. It felt like a fairy tale, I had never seen such grandeur in my life. I tried to hide my excitement from my snooty host, as she already had such a low opinion of me, but the grin on my face gave away my excitement at staying in such a beautiful place.

‘I’ll leave you to get settled in; your new things are laid out on the bed.’ I walked over to the bed and there placed on the red satin bedspread was a tooth and a hairbrush, a pair of navy jogging bottoms and a black tank top; not my normal style but anything was better than this grubby dress. They had even thought to put some soap and shampoo next to the bundle which was a welcome kindness. I couldn’t wait to try that shower out.

‘Lessons start tomorrow at 6pm so you will have plenty of time to settle in, feel free to wander the halls and grounds in your free time.’ I thought I misheard the time.

‘Sorry do you mean 6am?’

‘No, we work through the night here and rest during the day, you will soon adjust.’

‘Why would you do that?’

‘Why to accommodate the vampires of course.’ She added in a matter of fact tone, implying I should have worked this out on my own.

Well, that threw me off track, once again, as I thought I could find some normality in this situation.

‘Why are there vampires here, I thought that’s what the Nephilim were fighting?’

‘We fight the rogue vampires, but not all vampires are bad. We train with them here as they are fast, strong and the best chance we have at fighting their own kind. We each pair with a vampire when out on patrol, you met Alexei’s partner tonight Jared.’ Oh yes Pale skinny Jared, I wonder if all vampires were such a cliché to the books I had read.

‘Oh, I thought I dreamt that.’ I had hoped anyway.

‘You will meet your vampire tomorrow.’ And with that she left rather abruptly.

Well great, I get my very own vampire. Things were really looking up!