A Feast For The Vampires

XXI

“Jah Neeva! Good evening!” greeted an elderly man the moment Neeva walked into the reception of the hotel. His smiled widely at her, the corners of his eyes crinkling. “What brings you here?”

Neeva rushed to the man and bent down low, her head bowed. “Good evening Jeh,” she greeted with a light voice.

The old man balanced the basket in his hands on his waist and placed his hands on her back. “Bless you child.”

“Teyro.” She stood straight and gestured to the school with an outstretched arm. “Jeh I’ve brought visitors. Mr. Jaeger’s people.”

His eyes widened slightly and he dropped the basket on the receptionist’s desk that was behind him. “So these are the visitors that ate up all the rooms in my hotel.” He spread his arms wide, the billowing sleeves of his shirt flapping around. “Walia!”

The students didn’t know how to reply. Some of them made confused faces, scrunching up their noses at the way the word came out in a cracky manner. A few of them looked up at the intricately designed ceilings, while the rest looked at themselves, scratching their heads in confusion.

“They don’t understand Jeh,” Neeva said with an amused laugh, her buckteeth peeking past her lip.

The old man threw his hands to his back and clasped them together. “Oh, my bad. I meant to say ‘welcome’.” He grinned widely, his yellowed teeth becoming visible. “Better get used to the dialect or you’ll all get lost in a sea of foreign words. Right Neeva?” He turned to her and she replied with a dip of her head.

She smiled warmly and turned to the school. “Um... Please I’d like to know who’s in charge?”

“I am,” Tobe and Lydia answered in unison, Tobe in his deep, lazy voice and Lydia in her loud, authoritative one.

They spared each other bad looks, their eyes narrowed in slight distaste. Students smiled at themselves knowingly, like they were sharing silent, public secrets.

Lydia raised a brow, placing her hands on her cocked hips. “Since when were you in charge?” she asked sharply.

“Since Jioazi started taking care of our sick principal. And”—he pushed up his glasses with a finger and narrowed his eyes at Lydia—“who left you in charge?”

She rolled her eyes, scoffing as she said, “women rule the world glasses. Beyonce said—actually wrote a song about it.” And then she sassily flung her strawberry blonde hair over her shoulder, looking away from him.

“Like I care,” he droned quietly, his shoulders slouching slightly.

Lydia turned her head to glare at him, pointing a perfectly manicured finger at him. “Look here four eyes, I’m...”

And just like that, Tobe and Lydia started fighting for dominance, Jaozi facepalming at them with a tired sigh. The students just quelled their snickers with a fist to the mouth, their teeth holding down their bottom lip. Apparently they were finding their teachers’ bickering funny, because in the next few seconds, they started snickering.

But Kimi raised a brow at their childish banter, folding his arms over his chest. Is this how teachers are supposed to act?

He scoffed softly, rolling his eyes as he looked to the side. In a flash, his gaze caught sight of the back of a figure who walked into another hallway, flanked by bodyguards. The person was dressed in a black coat and black hat. A shiver spiked his spine at the sight of the person. Kimi bristled in fear, looking the other way with frightened eyes.