They got to their destination in the very late hours of the evening, or early hours of the night.

Delano tapped Melmarc awake as Mrs. Ella instructed everyone to get down from the bus.

Melmarc woke to a violin playing in his ear with a very different tempo from the one he’d slept to. While it was still a violinist, there was just something at the heart of this one that told him it wasn’t something he was supposed to end up listening to.

He picked up his phone and checked the playlist. It was from an entirely different violinist.

“Did you change my playlist?” he asked Delano who was already standing, and reaching into the overhead compartment to get their things.

“Yea.” Delano’s voice was strained as he tried to jimmy something from the compartment. “Don’t get me wrong, I like Lindsey as much as the next violin enthusiast but I needed something different. I figured dream you wouldn’t mind as long as it was a violinist.”

Behind them Eroms and Tracy had already gotten up from their chairs.

Not wanting to be left out, Melmarc stretched with both arms held over his head. He enjoyed the sweet relief that came with the action. He even closed his eyes to revel better in it.

When he opened his eyes, he started at the view in front of him.

[Melmarc Jay Lockwood, a new skill has been added to a selection of skills you have proven efficient in to some degrees over time. Would you like to view them?]

[Yes/No]

“Yes,” he muttered under his breath.

His skill selection appeared in front of him.

[Narcolepsy]

The Gifted regains a full health status when they fall asleep.

[Sword of Light]

The Gifted wraps their sword in light, giving it heat properties.

[Echo Draw]

The Gifted cuts twice in one motion.

[Rings of Saturn]

The Gifted wraps a ring of pure raw mana around their body and can attack with it.

Well there goes fist of thunder, he thought, reading the options. And again, Rings of Saturn is here to stay.

Narcolepsy sounded like a useful support skill. He couldn’t see it working as his main skill in anyway. Not if he wanted to go after what he wanted. The strong didn’t sleep as their main course of action.

“You coming?”

Melmarc looked up to find Delano and Eroms waiting for him. The rest of their classmates were already in a steady stream towards the exit.

“Yea,” he mumbled.

He removed his earbuds from his ears and was keeping them in his case when he noticed one of them was not in his ear.

He looked up at Delano. “Did you take my earbud?”

“Yea.” Delano tapped his right ear. “Now, come on. I don’t need Mrs. Ella shouting at me in front of everyone. You know she’s out to get me.”

“Everyone’s out to get you,” Eroms said sarcastically.

…………………….

They got down from the bus and onto the entrance of an extravagantly large compound. They’d made their way into the gates at some point while Melmarc was sleeping and were in the compound proper.

The ground was completely free from winters touch. It was tarred like a proper road, and when Melmarc followed it with his eyes, he learnt that it had its own roundabout, complete with a water fountain that then dissected it into two more roads that led in two different directions.

Anywhere that wasn’t tarred road was a properly mowed lawn, well cared for as would be expected in spring.

But it’s winter, he thought, looking around like a tourist.

He almost bumped into another student when Eroms pulled him back by his collar. On one side of him Delano laughed.

“Trippy right?”

Melmarc thanked Eroms then continued staring. “Am I the only one who’s impressed by this. It’s winter and everything’s so… warm.”

There wasn’t even any steam coming out of his mouth as he spoke.

“It’s funny how both your parents are Delvers yet this impresses you.” Melmarc took of his hand gloves and shoved them in his jacket pocket, then he zipped his jacket down.

“We are nothing but a humble family,” he commented absently.

In front of them was the center of attraction in the entire compound. There were sculptures of different kinds littering the compound at strategically placed position. Statues and simply carfted bushes that looked at little too life-like.

But none of them compared to the mansion in front of them. It was large, and yet large would be an understatement.

It was at least thirty floors high, but was clearly designed as a simple living home. Its outside was painted a deep brick brown and lights streamed out from the multiple windows that were too many to count.

“It’s massive,” he commented to no one in particular.

Behind him Eroms said, “That’s how everyone reacts the first time. The first time Delano saw it he called it a waste of money.”

“Because it’s a waste of money,” Delano said.

They were all walking now. At the head of the procession was Mrs. Ella and another teacher whose name Melmarc did not remember. All he remembered about the man was that he taught one of the classes and was the shortest teacher in school.

They were the last in the procession, so they walked easily.

“Wait,” Melmarc said, realizing what Eroms had said. “This isn’t you guys’ first time here?”

Delano shook his head. “Nope. This was where we stayed for last year’s trip.”

“It must’ve cost a fortune.”

“What can I say? Our school’s not broke.” Delano made a staggering turn. “By the way, didn’t you say your parents were out of town for work? How’d you get them to sign the forms.”

“I didn’t. My uncle signed them.”

“They wouldn’t have let you come if it wasn’t your parents’ signature on the form. You know they have them on record, right?”

“Right.” Melmarc’s hands were getting hot so he took his gloves off and zipped his jacket down. “Do you really believe they check all the student’s forms to be sure their parents signed them?”

“Yes,” Delano answered flatly.

“Last year my mom signed the wrong signature and they had to call her to confirm she was the one that did the signing,” Eroms offered.

Melmarc paused. “That’s… thorough.”

“They have to be when you consider how much we pay for tuition.” Delano took of his jacket and wrapped it around his waist. “This place is never cold, its always like summer in here.”

“I heard they have at least three Elementalists on call,” Eroms said. “My dad said major companies do, especially the ones that deal in outdoor events.”

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Delano nodded sagely. “Makes sense. If you have enough Elementalists weather control doesn’t seem like a far stretch.”

They were close to the entrance to the main building now, and Mrs. Ella was giving a quick speech to the students. From where they were, Melmarc could barely make out what she was saying.

“Anyway,” Delano went on. “The place apparently belongs to a former Delver. A-class, I think. He quit the Delving thing and started up a business. No one knows what it is, but this is like the by-product of the business.”

“This isn’t the business?” Melmarc asked. “And how do you even know this?”

“I found out when we came back from last year’s trip. When you go to a place that only employs Gifted, you ask questions. I even found out that he only uses the place to host school trips. Sometimes it’s for schools that can’t raise the money to house so many students in a hotel, and sometimes it’s for schools like ours who have the money but want to spend less.”

“If this is the by-product, then what exactly is the business?”

Delano shrugged. “No one knows. But there are theories, if you’d like to know.”

His friend had one of his mischievous grins on his face that told Melmarc he was better off not asking for more information.

But he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t curious. By normal Delver standards, his parents were rich. They didn’t live rich, but he knew they were very rich. But he didn’t think they had enough money to fund a place like this.

“Conspiracy theories or normal theories?” he asked.

Delano chuckled. “What do you think?”

“Alright, let’s hear it.”

“So, apparently,” Delano said with much enthusiasm. “People think he’s a Medium.”

“Really?”

Mediums were a non-combat class and, generally speaking, not a very sought after class. Yes, they were exactly like mediums and psychics who claimed to call on the spirit of the dead and do séances and stuff like that.

With the rise of the Medium class and such similar classes, one thing had been put to rest. You could not summon the dead. Still, there were still people walking around and into Medium shops to talk to their dead loved ones.

Melmarc never held it against anybody, because if he was being honest, he was pretty agnostic about those things.

Call him a coward, but he really didn’t have a stance on the subject. Personally, he didn’t believe in it. As for if he thought it was real, he couldn’t say. After all, there were people who believe the world was flat and then there were those, like him who believed it was round.

One of them was right and the other was wrong.

It’ll be a kicker if the world’s actually like a trapezoid or something, and both parties are wrong, he chuckled.

Delano’s face scrunched up in worry. “What’s so funny?”

“Trapezoid world.”

“Okay. You think up the weirdest things, but Eroms and I accept you for who you are. Anyway, as I was saying. So there are people in the community that believe he’s actually an A-rank Medium with a specialization in blood magic.”

“You mean he specialized? Don’t most Mediums diversify so they can kind of do everything.”

“But he chose to specialize in blood. The theory says it made him very tanky in fights.” Delano pulled out his phone and typed a few things. “Here.”

Melmarc took the phone. Eroms peered at it from over his shoulder.

On Delano’s phone was a news article with the picture of a pale looking man with deep, long, black hair. He looked maniacal with whips of blood flashing around him. He wore a trench coat of crimson red and was stepping on someone’s head.

His victim didn’t look so good.

Melmarc sighed and gave the phone back to Delano. “Now I get why you’re so interested in him.”

Delano laughed. “It may have started because of the money, but you obviously can’t believe I’m still interested just because he’s rich.”

Someone stepped out of the front door of the house. They exchanged a few words with their teachers and everyone started shuffling forward and into the house.

“Just for the record.” Melmarc started walking. “There’s no vampire class.”

“There’s no vampire class… yet,” Delano corrected.

Certain class speculations were a growing theory in the communities Delano ran with online. The vampire class was one of them.

The community believed that there was a class that fed on the blood of people to get stronger. But till this day there were no records of any such class.

Obviously, that did not deter the theorists. Instead, it led to an expansion on the conspiracy. So they also believed that it was a class of immortal Gifted that snatched up anybody that got the class and hid them from the world.

They lurked the night scavenging for food and sometimes saving the world. Apparently, there was like a cabal of ancient vampire classes that protected the world from other vampire classes.

Delano believed the government was aware of this.

Melmarc thought it was too movie plot to be real. Though, the picture in the news article did tick the boxes for a vampire. Still, there was no record of such a class so it was difficult to believe.

“Besides,” Delano went on, returning his phone to his pocket as they walked into the mansion. “Dracula was a vampire.”

“Dracula is a fictional character built off the personality of a Romanian ruler. He wasn’t a vampire. The real person was probably a Gifted, at best. But not a vampire.”

“I lightly disagree. What if he was, in fact, a vampire? And what if he’s not dead, merely one of the founding members of the vampire cabal?”

Melmarc blinked. “You’re serious? No, what am I saying? Of course you are.” He sighed softly. “Okay, let’s play hypothetical. Let’s agree that there really are vampires somewhere out there in Romania that rule the vampire world turning other selected people into vampires.”

“Obviously they wouldn’t be turning people into vampires,” Delano interrupted. “I’m a member of a conspiracy theory community not the league of extraordinary delusionists. If they could turn people into vampires we’d be hunting vampires everyday while our numbers dwindled.”

“So some vampire theories make enough sense to stand while others don’t.”

“Exactly. It’s a theory not a delusion. It has to be logical somehow.”

Melmarc turned to Eroms. “Is this how it works?”

“Yes,” he nodded. “Two years ago, he was going on and on about how heaven is a real place and angels are real. Apparently his group thought that there was a portal somewhere that opened up and into a world with angels.”

“The theory’s already been debunked.” Delano waved it aside. “Some dude saw a picture of a winged monster that looked like large fairies and started shouting angels in the group. Turned out he was a Christian and just really, and desperately wanted angels to be real.” He scoffed. “We uncover conspiracies not go on wild goose chases.”

Melmarc opened his mouth, then closed it. He wasn’t sure how to handle that little piece of information.

He also wasn’t very sure how Delano would handle what he knew about that little piece of information. He could very well drive his friend down a rabbit hole if he said anything.

So he settled for a grunt.

“Anyway, the vampire thing doesn’t sound feasible but I wouldn’t really argue against it.”

Delano gave him a worried look. “That was quite the one-eighty. Is there something your government employed Delver parents have said that I should know about?”

“You’re incorrigible.” Melmarc shook his head. “Imagine how much fun the world would be if we had super heroes?”

He was hoping to change the topic.

Inside the mansion was as grand as outside. It was well lit in yellow lights from strategically placed bulbs. But the most of it came from a massive chandelier that dangled from the ceiling. It was extremely wide, and was shaped like a series of constellations.

They stood in a wide hallway, standing in front of a central, grand stair case fully outfitted with the velvet carpet.

At the head of the staircase was the owner of the house. He stood there talking to someone about something, paying them no attention.

Maybe he is a vampire, Melmarc thought.

He looked quite pale despite looking so young. Melmarc stared at him as Eroms answered him about superheroes.

“We already have super detectives. I think those are our version of heroes.”

“Besides,” Delano added. “We already have people who go around wearing spandex and beating up bad guys with Classes. Most of them work for the government, and some of them are just really advanced neighborhood watches.”

Eroms actually chuckled at that. “Also, the Gifted accords wouldn’t really let that work.”

Oh, that’s true.

Every country had their own version of the accords. But in summary, it simply entailed something along the lines of no Gifted holding any office that carried great military power. No Gifted was allowed to assault a non-Gifted, kind of the way professional fighters were dealt a heavier punishment if they got into a street fight.

So the Gifted couldn’t really go around saving the day since a lot of bad guys usually turned out to be just bad guys. There were the sudden and occasional menaces of someone who got their powers causing chaos and terrorism, but it wasn’t as common as people would like to think.

In situations like that, the police had its own unit that deployed a Gifted to the scene. There were often rumors of Gifted fights in places, but most of them ended as rumors and rarely ever made the news.

So the idea of superheroes, while cool, wasn’t very feasible.

“Besides,” Delano added quickly as their host finally turned to face their group, “who would want to waste their time putting on a face mask, a spandex, a cape, and some boots to go out and save the world. By the time they’re dressed the bad guy’ll probably have had his fill and dipped.”

Then he tapped Melmarc and nodded towards their host as if he wasn’t already staring at the man.

“You’ve got to admit, though, he looks like a vampire.”

Well, so much for trying to change the subject.

Their host came to a stop halfway down the stairs. It placed him in just the right spot for everyone in the group to see him, and for him to see everyone.

“Welcome once again to my humble abode, everyone,” he said. “My name is Vlad Alexandru, and I will be your resident vampire.”

He waited for his words to sink in. Clearly he was expecting a reaction in the silence that met him.

Unfortunately, the lady he had recently been talking to at the top of the stairs did a poor job of hiding her amusement behind the hand she held over her mouth. So the joke didn’t carry enough tension as was intended.

Vlad turned to the lady and shook his head in disappointment before turning back to them.

“Let’s try that again. My name is Vlad Alexandru, and I will be your host.” There less dramatization in his words this time. “I’m sure a lot of you that weren’t here last year might have already looked me up on the internet. So I’m here to assure you that I am, in fact… not a vampire. I am an A-class Alchemist…”

“I thought you said he was a Medium,” Melmarc whispered to Delano.

“The last time we were here, he said he was an A-class Namer. You can’t believe everything he says. Besides, there’s always one sick child at the end of the trips, it’s one of the rumors of this place. Last time it was Jake.”

That was weird.

“Didn’t Jake transfer a month after that trip?”

“Yes. To a different state.”

There was an odd enough certainty in Delano’s voice that worried Melmarc. It worried him enough to ask.

“Why did we really come for this trip, D?”

Delano didn’t take his eyes off Vlad. “For the African exhibit in the museum.”

Melmarc couldn’t believe this was happening.

“You’re here to snoop around, aren’t you? How did you even know this was where we were going to be staying?”

“It said so on the board back in school.” Delano shrugged. “Honestly, there was a part of me that thought you knew. Come to think of it, I remember telling you.”

He had, at Lulu’s diner. But Melmarc hadn’t thought they were going to be snooping around someone’s mansion in search of incriminating evidence that proved they were vampires.

What exactly would even be proof? A blood bank? A person with their head ripped off?

I really hope it’s not a person with their head ripped off.

Melmarc wasn’t sure how to feel about this. If he knew Delano well, and he liked to think he did, his friend would find a way to sneak around at night. Which meant it would most likely be with him and Eroms.

He would’ve liked to claim that it wasn’t the reason he was here, but that wouldn’t be correct. He liked the idea of seeing the African museum, but he was really here to spend time with his friends.

And they would, technically, be spending time together.

Spending time proving the existence of vampires.

This wasn’t how the trip was supposed to go.