I was enjoying some hot chocolate out in the snow when I noticed it. There was a rustling in the woods, and it was getting closer to the school. I took a closer look. Fifty to sixty people sprinting our way… lead by a man rippling with the dark red power of a well-fed vampire. Wait, those weren’t people, not any more. They were thralls.

I grabbed my walkie-talkie as I sprinted to get inside, my other side flaring Authority as we spoke. Everyone would hear this, even if they didn’t have a receiver of their own.

“ATTENTION! The school is under attack by a vampire! I repeat, the school is under attack by a vampire! All non-combatants to the courtyard, all combat-capable personnel prepare to repel the attackers.”

The instant I was inside I slammed the door shut. Then I made the most emphatic force field sign I’d ever done, even as my other side reinforced it: this vampire Was Not Authorized To Enter. A dome of shimmering, impenetrable energy flared into life over the school. Good, I’d bought some time at least, but the instant I let down my hands the force field would collapse.

That’s when I noticed Reese Tonsa, instructor for the Combat Applications Workshop.

“Reese?”

“Yes Headmaster?”

“How much can you do to prepare in about a minute?”

“Quite a bit. Need to get to the courtyard to start preparing it though.”

Professor Demouls was also present, noting, “I will gladly assist in the defense.”

Suddenly, he had always been holding a sword. After all, if he said he had a sword, who was reality to disagree?

I noted, “Can’t hold this much longer, my hands are starting to cramp up from this pose.”

Demouls nodded, “Get yourself to safety, Headmaster. We can take it from here.”

I let my arms fall, and the barrier fell with it. Immediately the door was blasted open and we were flooded with vampiric thralls.

Then reality split in twain as Demouls’ blade snapped out, an arc of shattered spacetime ripping through the crowd.

The thralls that had just been cut faded. Shit, this vampire was an illusionist!

Demouls nodded, slashed open spacetime again, and suddenly we were on the roof. From here we could see what was going on a lot better. Reese had evidently covered over the courtyard with a painted steel dome. And the school was surrounded by thralls now, most of them phantoms called up by the vampire’s power. There were also several fake vampires all heading for various doors.

I donned my Mancia glasses, and instantly the position of the real vampire was revealed directly below us, his power clearly visible even through three floors of school.

I pointed, “There! The real vampire is right below us! On the second floor!”

Demouls teleported us again, and the vampire whirled in shock as we appeared behind him. A blast of lightning from Jethro’s very big gun was simply ignored in favor of the more dangerous opponent, as Demouls and the vampire went at it.

Shredded spacetime and deadly blood rays filled the hallway as the two hyper-lethal adversaries went at it. Both of them were moving so fast I could hardly track them, but Demouls was being forced back step by step, even as several people opened fire on the vampire.

How many people did that vampire drain before coming here!? This wasn’t how vampires normally performed!

I threw open a door to the courtyard, and found Reese in the middle of several painted soldiers in futuristic power armor. And she was busily painting more.

“Will the soldiers accept my orders?”

Reese nodded, “Yes they will!”

I grinned. “Right. Troops, move out. The vampire is in the north corridor on the second floor!”

Right as I said that, there was an explosion from the direction of the alchemy labs. Oh no.

Suddenly, thralls started pouring into the courtyard. The trio of security personnel here opened up with blasts of fire and lightning from their Flux wands, but it was clear they needed some help.

Fine then. Gather power in the hand, have my other side reinforce it with the Authority to protect this school, and throw the most powerful blast of ice I’d ever done.

Instantly the thralls froze in their tracks, shattered, and faded. More phantoms, but deadly nonetheless.

Right, we have a little bit of breathing room. Take a moment to track the vampire’s power… and it’s on the first floor now, with Demouls still locked in combat with it. What could it even be here for?

Then it hit me, Geoffrey. Of course it would be Geoffrey. Wait a moment… the two of them might actually be able to salvage this situation.

I found the eight year old archmage in question huddled under the courtyard’s central tree.

“Geoffrey, I know things are scary, but there’s something I need you to do for me. You don’t have to fight the vampire, but you can make it so he can’t get in here.”

They looked up, “I’ll try, but I need materials.”

That’s when Reese interjected by swinging her paintbrush across empty air, suddenly bringing a massive supply of bricks and mortar into existence. “Will these do?”

Geoffrey nodded, and got to work. Bricks flew through the air and slotted themselves into place around the courtyard in a dazzling display of telekinetic construction, and I felt Xiu’s transcendent Sharp power locking them into indestructibility. In less than a second the possibility of the vampire getting into the courtyard was completely closed off.

Right. That was handled. Now I needed to get back to defending the school; even if the students were safe things could very easily take a turn for the worse. It took a great deal of exertion, but I opened a door in solid air and suddenly I was just down the hall from both Professor Demouls and the vampire. And Demouls was starting to tire, keeping up with this undead monstrosity clearly taking a toll on him.

On the vampire’s part, he was still rippling with power. The amount he had left was by definition finite, but he didn’t seem to be slowing down at all.

Right, I needed to intervene. Let’s chill the playing field a bit, shall we? Flux sign for ice, Mancia sign to curve the shot around Demouls, and my other side’s transcendent Authority for sheer, unrelenting power.

The whole corridor chilled to the temperature of the winter outside as my shot flew down the hallway. Then I heard a loud crack and the vampire was suddenly gone. No… not gone. Supersonic.

I whirled around and got a force field up just in time to intercept the vampire before it could bite my head off, a loud SLAM resonating through the corridor as the supersonic vampire impacted. There was a splatter like a bug on a windshield, then suddenly the vamp was whole again, and still trying to kill everyone here.

That’s when Demouls spoke up, “He’s spending that massive blood supply to instantly heal. I’ve bisected him several times but he just keeps coming.”

Right. Second force field behind said vampire, and squeeze. He’s using blood to keep going? Then lets juice it all out of him.

Unfortunately for me, that vampire realized exactly what I was about to do. Before I could close the bubble, he slammed up through the ceiling to the floor above.

“Follow me.” then Demouls opened up another portal. I followed, and got a front row seat to the vampire draining Lucy dry and throwing her corpse aside.

Demouls wasn’t idle, and I noticed his sword flaring with Mancia as he swung.

For a brief moment everything paused. The vampire looked around confused, “What am I doing in a school?”

Oh. Demouls had cut away the vampire’s memory of why he was sent here.

Of course it didn’t help, as the very next thing the vampire said was, “Ah who cares why I’m here! Killing you all is going to be fun!” and immediately leapt back into combat.

Demouls’ next slice went clear down the vampire’s middle, and for only a fraction of a second I could see the monster’s insides before he sealed himself back up.

Fine, time for another ice bomb. I cast, and the vampire dodged back again at supersonic speeds. I turned to intercept again… only to hear a sickening crack from behind me as Demouls was punched down the corridor. I forced open a door in the air to wherever Anne was, and saw a brief glimpse of the courtyard as Demouls’ unconscious form sailed through.

I turned back to the vampire as fast as I could, throwing up a force field just in time to avoid being grabbed. I was alone with the vampire, and all this magical exertion was starting to run me dry. Shit.

There was only one chance at getting out of this alive now, and I was going to take it. Blast a hole in the floor, run through the second floor corridor. Block another supersonic charge. Right turn. Run down the corridor, pass Slate’s office. Open the door, force a dodge with an ice blast, go through, close it.

I was now in my office, the height of my power. And that vampire did not have an appointment.

There was a crash as the door was kicked in… but strangely, no vampire. The phantoms faded, even as one of the apparently physical thralls fell over.

It had worked, but I wasn’t quite out of the danger zone yet. I needed to finish this. First thing first, radio, “All surviving security and Hazmag personnel to the accounting office! I repeat, all surviving security and Hazmag personnel to the accounting office!”

Then I ran through the corridors, down the stairs to the basement, and to the door of the accounting office. I threw it open with telekinesis, and saw. The vampire was still writhing, fighting the Budget’s mental assimilation with every scrap of its strength. But now it couldn’t evade.

“Misters Adley, HELP!”

This time my ice blast hit home with no dodging. And the second, and the third, and the fourth, and the fifth. In seconds I’d frozen the vampire solid. At exactly that time, the Hazmag team arrived, all suited up for operation in the Budget’s zone of influence.

I took a breath of relief. “Budget, thank you. Hazmag team, remove that frozen vampire. Break it into pieces. Incinerate the pieces one at a time while keeping the rest of them frozen. Keep the ashes safe in separate piles until the NMCU gets here.”

Then my other side cut in “This is an order.” with all the Authority we could still muster up.

The team of suited custodial workers saluted “Yes Headmaster!” and immediately got to work on disposing of the monster that had been attacking the school.

Then I finally let the exhaustion hit me. I barely had the energy to radio “Vampire dead, unseal the courtyard.” before crumpling up on the floor and falling asleep on the spot.

I woke up in one of the infirmary beds. Evidently someone had carried me here. In the background I noticed Anne asleep in a chair, and Jethro looking down at me from a standing position.

I tried to ask where Demouls was, but all that came out was incoherent gurgling. I tried again and managed, “Whe Dmol?”

Jethro blinked, “Ah, you’re finally awake. The good news is the vampire’s well and truly dead. The NMCU took them away for proper disposal. The bad news is… we lost a lot of people during the attack.”

I nodded. “How many dead?”

“Twelve. And it could have been a lot more if Anne weren’t here. A lot of people are still missing bits and simply being kept stable until Anne can patch them up the rest of the way.”

“Did Demouls live?”

Jethro nodded “Yes, but his spine’s in about four different pieces and he’s still severely concussed. Only reason he survived is because Anne got to him within seconds of the initial injury.”

Ah… It had worked, then.

“Students?”

“They all survived thankfully. Every last one of them sat out the fighting in the courtyard.”

Then another horrible possibility occurred to me. “The press? Are they here yet?”

“Thankfully no, but only because the National Magical Crimes Unit currently has the place locked down tight. The instant law enforcement leaves, this place is going to be swarming with reporters.”

I tried to sit up, but my legs simply wouldn’t move.

Perhaps seeing my expression of panic, Jethro said “Ah. According to Anne you’re suffering from severe magical over-exertion, probably from all the teleportation you were doing. Since it wasn’t life threatening she left you to rest and got on with other patients. That said you need to eat a lot more than normal for the next week to make up the energy debt.”

Oh… That made sense.

“Anyway the cafeteria’s still a disaster area, so they won’t be able to do much until they get new cooking equipment shipped in. So it’s pre-packaged sandwiches until then.”

I grimaced.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully. In the afternoon the NMCU came by to ask me for a statement about what happened, and I told them everything I remembered about the attack. Then they told me what happened to the vampire ashes.

“So. We’ve got a bit of good news there. Your instructions to the hazmag team meant we had absolutely no trouble permanently dispersing the vampire’s ashes. Several aircraft are sprinkling it over the ocean as mono-atomic dust as we speak. Getting all of it back together again will be factually impossible.”

I’d recovered enough to sit up by this point at least. “So. Any idea who hired that vampire? If it had much more power than it did... the sun would have seen it through the earth and tried to bank a shot off the moon.”

I wasn’t being hyperbolic; the sun actively targeted vampires for elimination. Fifteen minutes of light lag after the vampire got into a position the sun could detect, then the sunbeam hit. There was even a recorded case of an entire hill being reduced to a crater after a vampire ran down a mine shaft.

The officer answered, “No, sadly. We managed to identify all the victims who were drained to power him up at least, but there weren’t any leads on who kidnapped them.”

I blinked, “Well that sucks. Anything else I should know about?”

“Two things. First off, the press is going to be here in force the instant we clear out. You should probably start preparing your response ahead of time.Second, a team of four officers from the National Magical Crimes Unit is being assigned to the school for the foreseeable future. They’ll be working alongside your existing security team.”

Ah.

The next day I was at least able to stand up and walk around, though Anne made very clear that I was absolutely forbidden from doing any magic at all for at least a week. The National Magical Crimes Unit was still poking around the school, but it was pretty clear they’d be leaving soon. Well, aside from the squad who were being assigned here long-term.

As I ate one of the unappetizing pre-packaged sandwiches the cafeteria had been reduced to, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise like someone was walking behind me. But when I turned to look, there was no-one there.

Jethro noticed this, of course. “It’s alright, Adrian. I’ve been jumping at shadows since the attack too. If I had to put a word on it the school feels… haunted. So many good friends dead...”

I thought about the idea for a moment. I had encountered a few ghosts during my time as an insurance investigator. The circumstances where they could emerge were fairly specific and required that the person in question be an unrealized Sharp at the moment of death. Plausible, but we wouldn’t be able to say for sure for quite a while.

“It’s plausible, Jethro. Still, best not to get your hopes up.”

Another tingle…

Jethro nodded, “I understand. So… how are you going to handle the press when they show up in force tomorrow?”

I grimaced. “It sickens me to even think about it, but I’m going to use this crisis as leverage for additional funding. Almost all the damage and death could have been avoided if I’d been able to install the security upgrades I wanted, and the only reason I couldn’t was because my request for additional funding was denied.”

“I understand. I won’t judge you for it. Just promise me you won’t let something like this happen again.”

“If I get my way, no-one’s going to be able to attack this school again.”

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