by Helen Harper
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Yes, I was in your house. You had a party there, maybe you remember it? I think,” I paused, putting my finger on my lips in mock concentration, “yes, I think I helped rid you of a wraith then.”
Aubrey licked his lips. “Do you have any idea what I am?”
“Why, Mr. Aubrey, sir,” I said sarcastically, “you’re a vampire. An undead bloodsucking affront to nature. Or so I believe anyway.”
“You are in some sense correct. I am indeed a vampire. And I do definitely suck blood.” He shrugged. “Perhaps that’s a personal failing, but there is little to be done about it now. It does mean, however, that I’m actually very sensitive to blood. More so even than other vampires. I can scent a drop of blood from a hundred metres away.”
I had a horrible feeling I knew where this was going. It didn’t matter, however, I had to project confidence and bravado. “Well, bully for you. As for me, I have a similar ability in that I can sense bullshit from a hundred metres away.” I smiled pleasantly at the vampire. “It comes in handy sometimes.”
Aubrey’s face suddenly twisted with an ugly snarl. “You were in our trophy room because you left your blood there. I know you thought you cleaned it up, but it takes more than a bit of spit and polish to hide blood from me.”
Alex spoke up. “That’s ridiculous,” he said, swallowing. “Even if she was in your trophy room, what I found for you was the Palladium. What is there on the ground right now is the Palladium. You know it and we know it. So pick it right back up and take it home with you.”
Thomas moved up from among the crowd, and stood next to Alex, balls of burning blue flame in his palms. “We are not without our own power, as you well know.”
“I’m not afraid of you,” sneered Aubrey.
“Well, actually, there’s a simple solution to all this,” the Dean interrupted. He motioned towards me. “You taste Initiate Smith’s blood here to see if she really was the person who broke into your trophy room and swapped your statue with another one. If she wasn’t, then you take your little Palladium back to London with you and don’t bother us again. If she was, then she can deal it and the wraith. And we will deal with her.”
Oh, you absolute fucking wanker. It appeared that the Dean had just worked out how he could get rid of me without requiring some complicated trap in the library. What hadn’t occurred to him was what might happen if Tryyl decided to show up here to reclaim his property. I wanted to scream at him that it was the vampires who’d created this problem in the first place by taking the Palladium from Tryyl and then torturing the poor creature. I was not the problem here and most definitely did not appreciate being made the sodding scapegoat.
“Dean Michaels, I don’t think that’s a very good idea,” said Alex nervously. “We shouldn’t give in to the vampires’ ridiculous demands.” I knew that Alex would naturally still be worried about what tasting my blood might mean, given that he thought I was still a Draco Wyr.
“I agree,” joined in Thomas. “We should not be held hostage by these bloodsuckers. They should just take their statue and leave.”
I sent silent thoughts of gratitude in Thomas’ direction. Unfortunately, however, it was all for nought. Without warning, the Dean flicked out a stream of blue light, catching me on my bare shoulder, where the fabric was still hanging off after Solus’ investigations. I yelped in pain and looked down to see a tiny trickle of blood appear and begin to drip its way down. Fuck. Aubrey sprang forward, grasping me by the shoulders and bent his head, red tongue flicking out. I sharply pulled up one leg, kneeing him as hard as I could in the groin, forcing him to bend over double in pain.
But it was too late. As soon as the vampire began to straighten, I could tell by the look in his eye that he’d lapped enough blood. Not only did he now have absolute proof that I was the one who’d been in his trophy room, but he also had a look on his face that suggested both wonder and puzzlement. Clearly, whilst he didn’t recognise what my blood was, he knew there was something different about it. And by the manner with which he was licking his lips, he had definitely enjoyed it. I thought back to Anton and what had happened with him when he’d tasted my blood, and my heart sank. Now I was really in trouble.
Chapter Twenty-two
I remained where I was, eyeing up Aubrey nervously, attempting to work out what his next move was going to be. There was an unerring look of satisfaction on his face, coupled with what was most definitely the gleam of a predator. I tried desperately to think of what I could do to end this stand-off. The last thing the academy needed was to have to take possession of the Palladium, especially now that Alex had confirmed that he couldn’t find the wraith’s physical remains. I inwardly cursed the vamps for not being courageous enough to deal with the problem on their own, and the Dean for thinking that he could.
As the pair of us stared at each other across the divide of a mere couple of feet, I became suddenly aware of some movement from behind me. Abruptly there were sounds of a scuffle taking place, and the muffled tones of the Dean shouting something.
I half-turned, trying to keep Aubrey within my line of sight, but also to see what was going on. What the fuck? My mouth dropped open in shock. Thomas had somehow jumped on top of the Dean, knocked him over and was now punching him repeatedly in the ribs. The Dean was trying to put his hands up defensively, and attempting to spark his magic into life to manage a counter attack, but Thomas’ knees were positioned in such a way around the academy head’s torso, pinning both him and his arms to the ground, that he was unable to move. The rest of the mages were all taking nervy little shuffling steps backwards, as if afraid to get involved.
“You great lumbering idiot!” huffed Thomas, as he landed one punch. “She’s one of us and you let that thing taste her.” He connected with the Dean’s soft body again. “Not only that, but you actually encouraged him to do it.” He hit the Dean square on in the face, and there was the distinct sound of his nose breaking. I winced.
“Er, Thomas?”
He ignored me completely and continued his barrage against the Dean.
“Jeremy!” I yelled.
He stopped for a moment and flicked a glance up at me. But I recognised that look. I’d spent half a lifetime giving that look to others. Thomas was in the throes of utter all-consuming rage and nothing was going to sway him from his current course. Shit. I jerked my head at Alex, who nodded unhappily, then we both ran towards the pair of them. I grabbed Thomas’ right arm and Alex took his left. The mage’s fists continued flying, his arms flailing in the air as we dragged him off the now prone and groaning body of the Dean.
“Goddamnit, Thomas, stop it!” I twisted myself round to look him in the eye. “Look at me! I need you to calm the fuck down. Right now.”
He continued struggling for another moment or two, then sagged, a flicker of conscious light crossing his eyes. Then, seemingly from nowhere, a jet of blue light appeared from behind and struck him smack bang in the middle of his forehead. Thomas fell backwards, hitting the ground with a painful thud. I spun round, only to see the Dean half sitting, arm outstretched and a look of grim satisfaction on his face.
I launched myself at him, knocking him back down. “What the fuck are you doing?” I hissed.
“Protecting myself,” replied the Dean in a voice that might have sounded physically weak but that held a ring of steel to it.
“He’d calmed down! You just attacked him just out of spite!”
The Dean’s sharp eyes fixed on mine. “Out of spite?” His voice rose. “Until you got here, Mage Thomas was a loyal soldier. Less than four weeks in and he’s all of a sudden like a rabid dog. And rabid dogs get put down, which is exactly what I’m going to do to you, Initiate Smith.” He spat the final words of my name out as if they were a curse.
I stared at him, completely taken aback by the fury and hatred in his voice. Jeez. It was a strange day indeed when I seemed to be the only one not losing it. Then a set of arms locked themselves in a
steel grip around my chest from behind me and I was dragged off the Dean.
I knew who it was the instant he’d touched me, and resisted the urge to kick back and free myself. “I might have know that yet again you’d be at the centre of all this,” growled Corrigan in my ear.
“What exactly is going on here?” The Arch-Mage stepped into view, hands on hips, definitely not a happy bunny at all as he surveyed the carnage the in-fighting had caused. I realised that both he and Corrigan must have only just come through the portal that remained hanging iridescently in the air on the other side of the driveway.
I opened my mouth to answer, as did the Dean, but the Arch-Mage held up a finger and hushed the both of us. He glanced over at the cluster of stunned looking mages, whose frozen inaction during the fight caused me no end of irritation, and then beckoned one of them over.
“Mage Slocombe, pray tell, exactly what has transpired here?” The tone in the Arch-Mage’s voice brooked absolutely nothing but dripping disapproval.
“Err…, well, Your Magnificence,” stuttered the terrified looking Kinesis teacher, “the vampires arrived out of nowhere, demanding that we take back some statue. They said that it was all her fault. That she’d stolen the original and put something in its place.” He didn’t even dare to look at me as he explained, despite the fact that Corrigan’s arms remained locked in a steel circle around me. “The Dean struck her so that she bled and the vampire leader could test her blood to prove that it had been her,” Corrigan’s body stiffened noticeably at this, “and Mage Thomas didn’t think it was, er, appropriate for him to have done so and he attacked.”
“I see,” said the Arch-Mage slowly. “I had rather hoped that the Lord Alpha and I were going to be able to defuse the situation before it got to this.” He looked around our little group. “So where are the vampires now?”
My stomach dropped as twisted my neck round the wall of Corrigan’s chest and realised that he was right. Somehow, whilst everyone’s attention had been on the Dean and Thomas, Aubrey and his two minions had simply vanished. My eyes fell onto the ground with a heavy lurch. The Palladium still lay there where Aubrey had tossed it, its dull wood contrasting against the frost-covered tarmac of the driveway. Those sodding bloodsuckers.
The Arch-Mage exhaled heavily and looked over at Corrigan behind me. Some kind of unspoken communication passed between the two of them, then he nodded briskly. “Fine. Have the Dean escorted to his office and Mage Thomas to the infirmary. Mage Slocombe, if you would be so kind as to retrieve the statue and place it in the academy safe until we can work out what to do with it, then that would be most appreciated.”
Slocombe nodded vigorously, but I could tell that the poor guy was consumed with fear at having anything to do with the harmless looking piece of wood that had caused so much trouble.
“I must protest!” interrupted the Dean. “I have done nothing but keep the order here and attempt to sort out the situation that she has created.”
Stay calm, Corrigan’s Voice irritatingly instructed me.
I am fucking calm, I shot back. It’s everyone else that’s going nuts.
The Arch-Mage’s eyes narrowed. “Your Magnificence,” he said quietly.
“Huh?” The Dean looked confused. I, however, knew exactly what he meant and grinned, simply because the Dean had pulled this trick on me himself.
“When you address me, Dean Michaels, you will show me the respect that I deserve and use my title.”
Something flared and then abruptly died in the Dean’s eyes. “I apologise, Your Magnificence,” he muttered.
“Very well,” replied the Arch-Mage evenly. “Lord Corrigan, if you would be so kind as to come with me to the Dean’s office and we can reach some kind of solution for what to do with the Palladium now that the vampires have decided to dump it back with us after all. We appreciate your continued support in this matter.” His eyes flicked to me for a moment. “I believe you can let Initiate Smith go.”
“I will just have a few words with her first,” drawled Corrigan from behind me. “Then I shall be happy to join you.”
The Arch-Mage nodded in acknowledgement, then jerked his head at the rest of the mages. As one, they all hiked up their robes and scuttled off towards the main doors, quickly disappearing inside with just a few picking up the unconscious body of Thomas and a couple of others helping the Dean to his feet then walking him inside, shoulder to shoulder. Slocombe stared hard down at the Palladium, then blinked several times until it began to rise in the air, and float its own way forward. Clearly he had decided that touching it with his bare skin would not be a particularly good idea. I didn’t blame him. The Arch-Mage followed them all in at the rear.
When the heavy doors thudded shut behind him, Corrigan finally let me go. I turned to face him.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
He raised his eyebrows at me. “The Arch-Mage needed a bit of help. The vampires were threatening to return the statue that you’d so stupidly swapped, and he thought that I might be able to exert some influence upon them and help rid them of the wraith problem at the same time.”
I spluttered. “That I’d so stupidly swapped? You should get your facts right. All I did was give them what they’d wanted in the first place. I took back a completely different statue and gave it to the sodding Arch-Mage so that he wouldn’t have a mutiny on his hands within the Council.
Corrigan’s green eyes held mine. “And that worked out so well, didn’t it?” he murmured.
“Fuck off,” I said. “I’m not responsible for other people’s actions.”
“And yet somehow you remain at the root of them. I swear, kitten, sometimes you are more trouble than you’re worth.”
That stung. I growled at him, and then turned on my heel, leaving him standing alone on the driveway. Bloody shifter.
*
Still cursing him after I’d stomped theatrically inside, I made my way to the infirmary to check on Thomas. He was lying down on a small bed, moaning softly as I craned my neck around the door. Another mage was bent over him, murmuring something calmly to him. She turned when she sensed my eyes watching her, and shot me a look of malevolence, so I hastily left her to it. At least Thomas seemed to be coming round and the Dean’s cold-blooded shot of magic hadn’t done him any apparent lasting damage.
I stalked down the corridor, anxious energy balled up inside me. I was sorely tempted to head straight to the Dean’s office and confront the Arch-Mage, and force him to acknowledge that the extenuating circumstances of three undead vampires on the academy’s grounds meant that Thomas couldn’t be held responsible for his actions. Instinctively, I knew that I probably wouldn’t help matters at this point. Besides, I didn’t think I’d be able to face Corrigan again and keep hold of my temper if he continued to insist that all this was somehow my fault. I was at a loss to know what else I could have done given the situation that Alex had confronted me with.
Curling my fingers into my fists, and gritting my teeth, I had no idea what to do next. Until some decision was made regarding the Palladium, the Dean and Thomas, I was in limbo. I needed something to keep me occupied or I’d go insane. I considered for a moment heading to the library to see if some reading could take my mind off everything that had just happened, but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to concentrate enough on even the most interesting book with my thoughts as turbulent as they currently were.
I was three steps past the laundry room when I stopped abruptly in my tracks, breathing a sigh of brief relief. I could sort out the situation with Deborah’s skirt. That would keep me occupied for at least a whole ten minutes. I wheeled round and entered, noting for a pleased moment that the scrap of fabric still hung from the clothes horse where I’d left it to dry earlier that morning. I strode over and picked up, smoothing it out. Excellent.
Unsure of where Brock would be, but figuring reasonably that the vampires’ sudden appearance would have had all the students placed under lockdown, I headed up fo
r the dorm rooms, turning left instead of my usual right. The majority of the doors were closed, but from helping the alcohol sodden teen return to his room a couple of weeks before, I had a pretty good idea which one was his. I stood outside it for a moment, then rapped loudly.
The murmur of voices floated out towards me, and I heard some shuffling as the occupants moved towards the door. It opened just a crack and half of Aqmar’s face appeared round, looking surprised when he caught sight of me.
“Baldilocks! Wow, good to see you! What on earth is going on? We were told to stay in our rooms until further notice but we could see out the window that something was going down. Were those really vampires outside? Here?”
I deliberately ignored his questions. If the Dean wanted to tell the students what had gone on then that was up to him. It wasn’t my place to put the fear of God into them. “Yeah,” I said, as casually as I could, “you should probably stay in your rooms or around the dorms for the time being. Um, listen Aqmar, is Brock there?”
He looked slightly put out and I could see the warring emotions on his face as he was torn between wanting to find out more about what had just happened, and wanting to do as I asked. Fortunately, he eventually opted for the latter, and opened the door completely. “He’s here,” he said finally, then called behind his shoulder, “Brock! Baldilo…, I mean Mack, wants to talk to you.”
There was a creak and a thud as Brock heaved himself off his bed and then padded his way to the doorway, peering out. “Hey, Mack. What’s up? Aren’t you going to tell us about what those vamps were doing here?”
“I have something for you,” I said, again ignoring the questions.
He looked puzzled. “What?”
I pulled my arm out from behind my back and held out Deborah’s now neatly folded and clean smelling mini skirt. “Here. It’s Deborah’s. If you want to get in her good books, then all you have to do is give it to her. Make something up about finding it in a corner of the laundry room. She’ll be grateful and you’ll have an opportunity to ask her out at the same time.”