Chapter Text
Shane Hollander had imagined this moment dozens of times. Stepping onto the campus of the Enlightenment Program, the prestigious academy built to shape simple creatures into higher beings.
Enlightened beings.
He pictured it grand, serene... maybe even gothic and scary. Instead, he was greeted by an aggressively modern building with a security checkpoint where he looked at a camera, then had to wait until it beeped three times before the guard finally waved him through with a bored, "Go ahead, kid."
Not exactly magical.
Shane stepped into the main courtyard, heart pumping with a mix of nerves, excitement, and his wolf's instincts screaming that this was a very bad idea.
Being allowed here is a privilege not many people have. He should be grateful. He should have no complaints... but he had a big one.
The academy wasn't a werewolf-only thing. Or even a general-public thing. It was a vampire-werewolf thing.
But wolves didn't mix very well with vampires. Out in the real world, they usually avoided each other as much as possible. Vampires were unpredictable and scary. They were lethal predators with little to none humanity.
In here, though... they had to live together, train together and be evaluated together.
Reaching Enlightenment was everything he'd wanted his whole life. The certification—if he passed—granted access to Luxe, a hidden metropolis where the strongest supernatural beings lived at the peak of their abilities.
Higher mental clarity. Stronger physical control. Emotional balance. Peace.
All things Shane desperately wanted.
He took a breath as he walked, telling himself to relax... only for every single follicle of his body to get on high alert at the presence coming up from behind him.
He froze as the air temperature changed. Something icy brushed against his awareness.
It was undeniably the cold presence of a vampire.
Shane's stomach clenched and when he finally turned, he regretted it. Because he immediately locked eyes with the person a few feet behind him.
But the vampire looked nothing like the horror stories he'd heard growing up. He wasn't gaunt or monstrous. Or rotting. He wasn't even dressed in black leather with dramatic eyeliner like half the movies portrayed.
Instead, the guy wore a navy coat over a casual graphic t-shirt, dark jeans, and boots. His curly hair was sticking out of his black cap, his cheekbones were ridiculous, his eyes a bright shade of green.
He looked modern, confident and... annoyingly attractive. Like a model.
The vampire looked at him too, studying him in the same way Shane was doing.
"You are a wolf," he said in what seemed to be a Russian accent. It was a statement, not a question.
"Uh... Yeah."
The guy lifted his eyebrows in a rude way before walking away, without another word, and continued on his way. He looked bored with this whole situation already, or maybe he was simply bored of life.
But the short interaction served to settle Shane's previous anxiety over the whole vampire thing. Because it disproved a lot of the things he had heard about vampires before.
Apparently, they don't start burning with the sun. That guy was perfectly fine under the bright noon sunlight. They are not scary monsters either... they are actually very attractive creatures. They also do not pounce at the first chance to drink blood from a wolf, that guy did not look even a little tempted to sink his fangs into Shane's neck to drink from him.
So... maybe that meant he would be fine here, interacting with the vampires.
Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.
~~~~~~
The first day went by easier than he expected. He was introduced to the other three werewolves in the program. Two women, one men, all from different parts of the world. They were not friendly, but he understood why.
There was only one spot available for Luxe City. Only one novice (werewolf or vampire) would reach Enlightenment and a chance to live in the city. Only one.
So this wasn't exactly team wolves versus team vamps. No, it was a free-for-all.
But the program still tried their best to keep species separated. They had a dorm building only for wolves and another one only for vampires. There was only one dining hall, though.
It was separated into two sections, divided by a long table with desserts, available for anyone.
Nobody tried to interact with the other, everyone sat down at their own table, listened to the brief general introductions and rules of engagement, then started eating on very uncomfortable silence.
Shane couldn't stop looking over at the vampire table.
The four vamps looked very much alike. Blonde heads, extremely pale skin, slender frames and dead eyes. They didn't look approachable at all, but they were having hushed conversations as they ate.
Shane was surprised to find out they ate only fruits and vegetables, absolutely no meat. And they were also drinking blood casually. They drank them from black, sealed packs to hide the red color, but the substance became obvious when it dripped down their chins or stuck to their elongated and overly-excited fangs.
It had only been roughly two hours since he started observing the reality of vampires and Shane was completely over the fear he grew up with.
The fear that was forced upon him by werewolves who had never even interacted with a vampire before.
Now Shane had more knowledge than them about the topic, so he could say with certainty that vampires weren't scary.
They were... cute, actually.
It was cute how they ate their fruits and how they drank their packaged blood, how their eyes got darker and their fangs grew longer, excited by the blood. It was very cute.
Not scary at all.
But he tried to focus on his own food. Meat. Protein and carbs, a lot of it. Shane wasn't as hungry as usual and his focus was on the four vampires across the hall (especially one), so he took longer than most people eating.
By the time he was done, the dining hall was almost empty.
He got out and started walking toward the dorms, but stopped when he saw a tall figure leaning against a wall, trying to light a cigarette and failing.
It was the same vampire from earlier. The curly-headed one. And now he knew his name, thanks to the general introduction before they served the food.
Shane knew he should simply walk away and find his room to get comfortable before the final orientation gathering, but he couldn't stop himself from walking closer to the vampire.
The one who kept chomping on plums like they were the most delicious thing ever. The one whose fangs looked the longest and who kept licking the blood running down his fingers, making it look a lot more delicious than it was.
"Ilya Rozanov?" Shane asked, making the vampire look up with confused eyes as he finally was able to light up his cigarette. He took a long couple of seconds to inhale, lower the cigarette, then blow the smoke out. Shane extended his hand, "Shane Hollander. From Canada."
"Okay," the guy murmured, as if he was already bored of this conversation. "Russia."
"Cool," Shane nodded, then waited for something else. Usually, people continued conversations, but not this one. The vampire remained silent and Shane had nothing else to say, "Uhm... I-I don't think you're supposed to smoke here."
"Who says?"
Shane pointed at the sign right next to Rozanov. It said very clearly 'Do Not Smoke Here', but Rozanov simply rolled his eyes at it and took another inhale of the cigarette, then blew it to Shane's direction.
"I do not care," he responded, giving Shane a long look. From his hair to his sneakers, "You are very young. A... puppy."
"No, not really. I'm twenty."
"So young," Ilya said, with actual emotion on his face for once. The emotion was not a nice one, though, "I'm two hundred and fifty eight years old."
Shane's mouth fell open in surprise he was not able to hide. Rozanov had to be joking... right?
Sometimes Shane wasn't the best at identifying jokes, so he waited for the smile or chuckle that would indicate he should chuckle too, but it never came.
"Are you being serious?" he finally asked. Rozanov nodded with ease, "I-I mean, I know vampires are immortal..."
"Do you?" the guy asked, sucking on the cigarette again. His cheekbones looked sharp as knives when he did that, "Then why does my age surprise you?"
"I don't know... I wasn't expecting it."
"Anton Frontier is six hundred and something," he informed Shane. Anton was one of his fellow vampires and that guy only looked around thirty. Shane took a difficult breath in and nodded, trying not to look too freaked out, "Is this your first time around vampires?"
"Yes," Shane admitted.
"That's why you look like you are waiting for me to bite you," Ilya replied casually, "Relax, puppy. I do not bite without consent."
Shane nearly choked on air.
"I'm not— I wasn't— I don't think—"
Ilya raised one eyebrow, amused now. His lip twitched up slightly.
"You are very interesting."
Shane felt his face turn red and wished the ground would swallow him whole. But before he could muster a coherent response, another figure walked out of the dinning hall.
Then stopped abruptly.
"Hey," Hayden, the other male wolf, said. He ended the few steps between them and offered Shane a fist bump. Hayden hadn't talked to him all day, but Shane still lifted his own fist and bumped his as if they were friends. Hayden nodded approvingly, then his gaze slid to Ilya, "Is there a problem here?"
"No problem. We are having friendly conversation," Rozanov responded with a cold tone, no smile.
Hayden placed a heavy hand on Shane's shoulder and squeezed. It was a possessive motion and, just like that, Shane understood what was happening.
As an older wolf, Hayden must've felt the need to follow his instincts and protect Shane from the random vampire. Friends or not, wolves tended to lean into pack hierarchy. Always.
Across from them, Ilya watched the exchange with a cool, almost analytical gaze, as if cataloguing everything they did.
"Well, sorry to interrupt, but we have to go find our dorms," Hayden said, his hand still firmly on Shane's shoulder, then he started pushing him, "We don't have much time before orientation."
Rozanov stepped forward and threw the cigarette to the ground.
"Yes. Me too," he responded, "We all go."
"Fantastic." Hayden muttered, clearly annoyed.
They all started walking together.
Shane somehow ended up in the middle. With Hayden on one side, Rozanov on the other, the space between them charged with weird electricity.
Shane felt hyperaware of every step. Ilya's presence was cold and sharp at his right. Hayden's warm and solid at his left.
And Shane felt like a rope they were considering tugging from both ends.
"You know interactions across species are monitored for safety, right?" Hayden broke the silence, looking at Rozanov over Shane's head.
"I know a lot more than you," the vampire responded in a bored tone, turning his head to find his eyes as well, "We are always being monitored here, kid. To the molecule, in ways you wouldn't understand."
Shane knew that. The program was open about the borderline invasive surveillance. He could also see the tiny cameras everywhere. Literally everywhere, capturing every move.
"Anyway. I'll see you at orientation, Hollander. We will continue our friendly conversation there," Rozanov stated before turning to the right, heading to the vampire building, Shane supposed.
As soon as Rozanov was out of sight, Hayden let out a breath that sounded relieved. He also relaxed his shoulders.
"Never let a vampire get you anywhere alone," the guy said, giving Shane a sharp look of reprimand, "They say werewolf blood tastes way better than animal or human blood. You have to be careful with that guy, dude, not fucking friendly. Being alone with him is like begging him to suck you dry."
Oh.
That didn't sound as bad as Hayden intended it to.