World of Alvarra: Rise of the Vampire Lord

Malon steepled his fingers together as he stared down his newest problem student. After the whole fiasco yesterday, it would come as no surprise that Van was in deep trouble.

And to top it all off. Malon had somehow heard about the affair between him and Cerina…

“Van… I hope you understand why I have called you here today.” Malon began, eyes darkening as he leaned forward in his creaky chair. “You not only caused a stampede of students, caused mass confusion in an impromptu manhunt, bedded your teacher… And my daughter…” His glare became particularly dark on that part. “But you also withheld an extremely important piece of information about yourself that has now spilled out into the school and caused a riot! Do you have anything to say for yourself…”

Van tried not to squirm in his seat, remained silent as he really didn’t know what he could say in his defense. It wasn’t like he wanted this crap to happen, and it wasn’t like it was particularly his fault either, or so he believed. So he didn’t know why he was in trouble when they should be pointing fingers at the people who started the rumors.

Malon continued to stare down Van. Even now, though the situation was a bit serious, the two couldn’t help but allow an awkward silence to grow between them. There was just something about each other that rubbed them the wrong way. Something that seemed to resonate in such a way that made them feel uncomfortably familiar with each other.

In the end Malon sighed and leaned back on his chair, wondering what he was going to do about this situation.

“Van, until further notice you are to be confined to your dorm and out of sight of all female students until such time we can arrange for a more permanent solution to your stay at my academy. And while I can somewhat understand why you would keep the fact that you're an incubus to yourself. By hiding it from the school, you have allowed this… Upheaval in the school community, creating disorder and confusion amongst the student body to occur. Now our ability to protect you or play the rumors down is far more difficult than it could have been if you had just told us from the start.”

His voice darkened for just a second. “Not only you but my daughter as well will be punished for keeping such a secret to herself. She should know better than to allow a ticking time bomb to go unresolved.” He mumbled.

That little comment let Van know that Cerina had probably found out about him. But more importantly it also let him know it was not Cerina who ratted him out. “If it wasn’t her… Then who? Couldn’t have been Lucia, she would have held it over me like she had been doing for a while. And I don’t think it was any of the other girls either. They either already figured it out and kept it to themselves, or just thought I was particularly good at the sex.” Whatever the case may be, he couldn’t really do anything about it now.

“Van, are you listening?” Malon said darkly as Van’s thoughts began to stray.

Van sat up straight and nodded.

Malon sighed. “You are dismissed.” Waving Van away.

Van got up and was escorted by a small group of guards. They surrounded him and guided him through a few less used corridors and halls to prevent any noisy students from peeking and getting an idea of what was going on.

Once they were at his dorm the lead guard turned to him. “We are to stay with you until such time as arrangements for your new room can be acquired. Or until you are dismissed from the academy… Whichever comes first. Please understand this is for your own safety and for the greater good of the student body as a whole.”

And true to their word, when Van opened the doors to get into his room, they followed. “Are you all going to follow me everywhere?” He asked concernedly.

The guards remained silent.

Van, how did it go, are you okay!” Luna was the first to rush up to him. Slowing down when she saw the number of strangers behind him, but quickly moving forward anyway. “You're not hurt are you?” looking worriedly at him.

“I’m fine. Sorry for worrying you.” Van said apologetically.

“So? What happened?” Cerina asked worriedly. Though it seemed more out of concern that she might be in just as much trouble as Van was in. Though she also was worried for him.

She wasn’t the only one there or wondering what was going on. It seemed the entire dorm had turned out to wait for his arrival, never knowing when, but waiting anyway. Even Tabitha and Trevon was there.

Van sighed and decided to address the whole room. The secret was out after all, no point in pretending it wasn’t. “I’m sure you all heard about the rumors going around about me… Well… I’m going to put those rumors to rest… They’re true.”

A few gasps were heard. Some looked confused, while the majority remained silent, unsurprised.

“FUCK YEAH! I CALLED IT!” Tabitha yelled, surprising everyone. “Come on, put out you bitches!” A few of the students near her grumbled and Crava’s exchanged hands.

“Seriously?” Van questioned, looking at her a little annoyed.

“What? Can’t a girl hustle?” Tabitha picked up the last of the Crava’s from all those she made bets with.

“Anyway…” Van decided to ignore her. “Until further notice, I’ll be under watch and under guard while the school figures out what to do with me. There is also an unofficial bounty on the person or group of people who first spread the rumors about me. So if that’s something you're interested in, any bit of information would be helpful.”

Everyone turned to Tabitha.

It took her a few moments to realize she was suddenly the center of attention.

“What? Just because I figured out he was an incubus before the rest of my girls doesn’t mean i’m a nark. I’m not going to let word of the fact we have a literal sex demon in our dorm out. Imagine all the other clans that would try to snatch him away from us. I’ll be shooting myself in my foot if our clan does bad. I’m aiming for a scholarship after all! It would look very good for me in the future if my clan gets good grades. No way I would ruin that.” Crossing her arms and looking offended by the gazes on her.

Selfishness aside, she had a point, it wasn’t like her to do something like this. Everyone slowly turned away and began to talk amongst themselves about who the culprit could be.

“Umm…” Luna looked at the guards nervously. “Can Van still sleep with us in our room?”

Which was a good point. Van had been wondering how exactly this was going to work.

“No.” The lead guard said. “Until further notice, everyone must be moved out of the room. And we will guard him while he stays inside. All people who wish to be in the same room as him must first be searched and approved by us first. It’s for his own safety.”

“Wait, even my wife!?” Van exclaimed worriedly.

“Wives are the exception.” The guard responded.

“What about lovers?” Kira asked.

“Unless you’re a wife or concubine, an approved lover, or a blood-bonded maid, you cannot enter the same room as him without our permission. Please understand this is all in an effort to make sure that no one abuses or takes advantage of the incubus. More importantly, this is for his own good and safety as some might try to kidnap him by claiming to know him.” The guard said.

“What about my classes?” Van asked.

“Until further notice, you will not be attending any. Though we can arrange for some tutoring so long as we or someone else is in the room to watch over you.” The guard answered.

“Hmm…” Van wasn’t too happy about this. It was practically house arrest. “When will this whole thing blow over and I can get back to my normal life.”

The guard looked somewhat apologetic now. “I’m sorry, but I do not think it will be ever so long as people know who, or what you are…”

Van frowned, but couldn’t really be angry at the guard for giving an honest answer. He really didn’t have anyone to blame other than himself. “All this means is I have to get even stronger. Bend more people to my will. Make it so no one can question me or tell me what to do.” He thought darkly.

“Van…” Luna looked at him in concern, reaching out to take his hand in her own.

Van stopped his dark thoughts. Momentarily shaken out of them. He looked down at his beloved wife. “I’m fine… Just a little tired from all the excitement. I’m just going to head into my room and rest for a bit.”

Dejected, he did just that. The posse of guards followed his every step until he made it to his door. Where the guards quickly moved in to check the area out before moving back out and guarding the door to prevent anyone from following him after.

With a sigh, he walked to his bed and fell forward. Hoping come morning everything would be back to normal.

---

Malon slammed his fists onto his desk. “What the hell did you think you were doing Dreva! You caused mass hysteria and confusion in my school! Plus now that the whole student body knows there's an incubus around, all those horny teens will be on the prowl! What were you thinking!”

A familiar looking person, some might say resembling the rogue that assaulted Magnolia for her pink hair with her group of thugs, appeared from the shadows. “What can I say? I did promise I’ll get back at him one day.” She said with a shrug. “How was I supposed to know he actually was an incubus?” Looking completely unrepented about her actions.

Malon looked extremely displeased and crossed with his subordinate. “All because of a little scuffle you decided to upturn my entire school!? Do you know who pays you!”

“Oh please… You and I both know I'm the best in the business. I have eyes and ears everywhere. How do you think I was able to spread those rumors?” Dreva said, looking unafraid.

“AND who do you think helped create that information network? Most of which IS MINE!” He hissed.

Now it was Dreva’s turn to get mad. “Listen. I always commit to a promise. You know that. It’s the whole reason why I'm your best agent. I say I’m going to do something, I do it. No matter the costs… I’m sorry about the little mess I made. But hey, at least you got yourself a nice son in law.” She gave an easy going smirk. “Imagine if you can wed your daughter to him, that is definitely a sure fire way to get to that Ingrid brat. Imagine if then your daughter has a child and inherits all those titles? No need for the great march anymore. Right?”

Malon sighed and sat down on his chair. “It isn’t just about finding out the methods to become a vampire lord…” He turned to look her in the eye. “Imagine the culture that we left behind. The knowledge. The ancient Nilfan were powerful mages with secrets over life and death itself!”

“But more importantly… Every generation, Alcray gets more and more… Overpopulated… With the younger generations unable to spread out and unfold their wings. The wastes take up over forty percent of all of Alcray… Imagine what we can do if we just destroy the source of the storms forever! All that living space! Enough for the next few centuries! No more young blood wars, no more trying to sneak young bloods into the frontiers of other unclaimed lands. And with the wastes dealt with, we can turn a united front towards the rest of the world! It would be a golden age for vampire kind!”

He then gave a glare towards Dreva. “But we first need more of those Mana Pulse Disruptors. They are potentially the only thing that can help us break through the barrier surrounding the Nilfan capital.”

“It’s not as easy as it sounds, you know.” Dreva said. “Especially now with those Fandorian agents running about.”

“And how is dealing with those agents going?” Malon asked pointedly.

Dreva shrugged. “As well as anything else going right now I guess… We’ve found a few… But I have decided to keep my distance for now in the hopes of them showing me others potentially in their network. It doesn’t seem they have figured out what we're doing with the MPD’s. But they have gotten in the way of a few transactions, though they only hit the ones we already were planning to lose. Our main pipeline is so far undisturbed.”

“Good Good.” Malon said with a nod. “At least something is going right. And Devi? How far along is she in reverse engineering the MPD’s and turning them into a suitable weapon to breach the capital barrier?”

“The girl still seems in shock that her lover is an incubus and now under house arrest. But other than that she’s making good headway into making a suitable weapon for our needs.” Dreva said.

Malon groaned with annoyance. “Who didn’t that brat fuck?”

“You’d be surprised by how many were in on it.” Dreva said with a smile.

“I think I’ve heard enough. Cali, please see our guest out. I have work to do…” Malon said, turning away from Dreva and going through a few of his notes. Already trying to think of a way to fix this whole mess.

“Now… How can I make use of him…” Malon thought as he was perusing a document with Van’s face on it.