Rei rolled her eyes and flashed off into the woods.

I took a deep breath and coughed up more soot. I wondered if all vampires were c.o.c.ky a.s.sholes. Wheezing, I struck out in direction of the faculty lodge. I set an aggressive pace and stretched out my stride. I needed to cover the quarter mile to the faculty lodge as quickly as possible, but the smoke had done its work. My lungs were burning in protest, and my legs were already protesting the lack of oxygen.

By the time I sprinted past IKM, it looked like the evacuation was almost complete. Fire drills were taken seriously at Elliot. You never knew what someone else might have cooked up, and you definitely didn't want to hang around to find out. Monique was organizing the effort with Iota's leader, Susan Collins. Susan had just returned to cla.s.ses last week. It looked like the replacement arm was settling into its new digs nicely. I caught Dante's attention as I pa.s.sed. He patted Monique on the shoulder and set off after me. His lanky strides made short work of the distance.

"Yours?" he asked, gesturing to the fire.

"Yea," I huffed. "Did Jules fill you in?"

"Yea. We're evacuating all the buildings. She said you two saw an ACT device on one of them?"

I nodded.

"Son of a gun...so it's the same guys? How'd ya figure they managed to pull this off?"

It was a good question. The outside world could prove to be a dangerous place for a Conscious human, but behind their magical defenses, the Magi were quite powerful. Elliot was not your average campus. Sure, you couldn't see the weaponry, but that didn't mean it wasn't there. Eliot was built on a leynode, a point where two or more leylines intersect. The magic community coveted leynodes. Nodes enhance the power of magic. They turn your standard mage into a 300lb gorilla. In the past, churches, temples, and fortresses were all built atop leynodes. A node granted tremendous defensive advantages. Fortification specialists could set up near-permanent wards that fed off the endless supply of mana. More than a dozen such wards protected Elliot College. There were counters for hexes and curses, shrouds to distract attention, and primed offensive volleys. Elliot was regarded as the creme de la creme of such nodes, the magical equivalent of Fort Knox. That anyone uninvited could even manage to cross the campus threshold was astonishing. Heck, the whole point of sending uppercla.s.smen to escort freshmen was they couldn't get onto campus without talismans (aka, their student ID cards). Last year, two students tried to breach Elliot's threshold without their ID cards. They left their ID cards at the train station and ran for Elliot's gates...the faculty tracked them down two weeks later on a freighter bound for China. They had decided to open up a noodle shop together-in Beijing. How had these gunmen managed to breech Elliot's defenses? It was a very good question.

"We worry about that later," I huffed. "Let's get to the dean first."

The faculty lived in an old colonial governor's hunting lodge. The thick wood-walled cabin predated the Declaration of Independence by a mile. I once told Jules that it blew my mind that a building that old was still standing. She scoffed. Said her dresser drawers back in Ireland were older. Said everything in America was brand spankin' new.

Stupid Europeans.

Dante and I arrived at the entrance and he swiped his ID. Only captains and their lieutenants were granted access to the lodge. Dante was my direct superior, but it really didn't matter much. No one really pulled rank unless there was a crisis...although he did order me to stop complaining about his snoring.

Once inside, Dante told me to watch the door, and he moved swiftly up the stairs to rouse the faculty. It was my first time inside their lodge. Finally able to catch my breath, I spent a few seconds marveling at this real deal log cabin. A large hearth sat in the center of the room. It crackled with the last of the evening's embers. The first floor had a cool communal setup. There were books all over the walls (interesting reading if you knew Sanskrit or Aramaic) and lots of comfortable looking leather couches and chairs. A huge picnic-style dining table sat off to the side. To the left was a kitchen full of brand new commercial grade stainless-steel appliances. I was slipping back to my days working in the kitchen, envying their setup, when I noticed an open carton of milk sitting out on the counter. I bit the side of my cheek. Wasting food really bugged me. Crisis or not, there was no point letting the milk spoil. I walked over to put it back in the fridge.

You might be shaking your head, thinking, Dieter, dude, you just took out four members of a raiding party by setting a state park on fire, but you're worried about a carton of milk spoiling. What gives, man? Fair enough, but I'd spent my childhood stealing ketchup packets to fill in the gaps of my food pyramid. That has an effect. As I picked up the carton, my nose p.r.i.c.ked. A mixture of sweet, sour, and rust filled the air.

"s.h.i.t," I muttered. "The sun isn't even out yet and this day is already c.r.a.p."

I rounded the counter quietly. It was going to be bad, I just knew it.

Little life preservers floated atop the red and white puddle spreading across the linoleum floor. It was Professor Simons. He was dressed in his PJs, a bowl of O's in one hand, and a spoon in the other. I noted the gaping hole in the back of his head and stifled a gag. The side effect must have worn off-now I wished I could have the crazy back.

I knelt down to examine the body. I was considering whether to even bother checking his pulse when I heard a m.u.f.fled thud from upstairs.

"s.h.i.t," I cursed. The bad guys were still here.

I scrambled behind the counter. It blocked the view from the main stairwell, but did they know I was down here? Wood did a good job absorbing sound...maybe they hadn't heard my blabbering. I paused to think. Should I try and make a run for it? Go for help before I got caught too? Or should I rush up there?

I bit my lip. "d.a.m.n it," I muttered. This was freaking ridiculous. I didn't even know what the h.e.l.l is going on here. I kinda regretted not picking up one of the masked men's guns...not that I could use one. Despite my father's love of them, I had never learned how to fire a gun. Now explosives on the other hand...

I turned my attention back to Dante. The pipe vs. tall man incident should have taught me some sort of lesson, but when it came down to it, I wasn't one for the indirect approach. Besides, these guys didn't seem to show a preference for live-and-let-live. I didn't want to have to break-in a new roommate. If I was going to save Dante, I needed to act fast. I rushed through my options. The main stairwell was a no-no. They would definitely be covering that. I needed another route.

The place was old, built back in the day they had servants, and servants never used main stairwells. The butler sloshing down the stairs with a chamber pot was just so unbecoming.

I crept to the back of the kitchen.

There it was: the rear stairwell.

First things first, I told myself. I huddled down close to the floor and closed my eyes.

The first rule of basic defensive magic is fortify-or-fry. Fortifications resonate with attacks to deflate them. That means they're type specific. Mages don't get to cast G.o.d Mode and repel every type of attack. They have to guess what's coming or counter faster than the incoming volley. Which fortification to pick was easy. Poor Professor Simons made the decision for me. Anti-K it was. A kinetic defense is worthless against things like explosions, mental attacks, or lasers but perfect-in theory-for stopping bullets. I drew up mana from the leyline and tried to picture a set of body armor. (It wasn't hard, I'm eighteen and male.) The trans.m.u.tation formed in my mind, I placed my right hand on my chest and charmed my robe.

At my basic skill level, a fortification spell would hold for about ten minutes. Dunkin McWilliams, our defensive magic professor, said a competent battlemage could shift fortifications in under a second. Both Sheila and Roster excelled in these forms of magic, and Roster had been helping me in exchange for some biochemistry tutoring. I had a long way to go to go before I was switching fortifications on the fly, but Professor McWilliams did say I made one rock solid anti-kinetic charm. No surprise, really. Kinetic modulation had been the basis of my very first cast. I smiled. With the anti-kinetic charm in place, all I had to do was make sure I didn't get shot in the face.

Thankfully, the stairwell was pitch dark. I prayed none of the steps would squeak, and started up to the second floor. I eased my way up the final steps, took a deep breath, and peered down the hall. A man with another AK-forty something was standing guard at the main stairwell. My gut lurched. No matter how good my anti-kinetic charm was I didn't want to test it out against an a.s.sault rifle.

I went over my options again. I could go all out and conduit a simple explosion from the ground floor. That would take the gunman out easily, but probably eliminate half the second floor in the process. That didn't seem like such a great idea. This was a rescue mission, not a group barbeque. A directed energy attack was another option. I needed a direct line of sight for that, like when the tall man had when he electrocuted Rei. The problem with that plan was I was on the second floor of a building. The manaflow of a leyline is tied to the surface of the Earth. My ability to attract mana decreased exponentially as I moved away from it. I would have to expend a tremendous amount of energy to attract the mana I needed. That would take lots of time and leave me exhausted. Now, if I thought that the dude was a lone gunman, I might have considered it, but what were the chances of that?

And why not just use some mana from my reserves? True, mages have their own internal reserves of mana, but I'd learned that my own internal reserves were pitifully small. At Elliot, I was a pen light in an ocean of lighthouses. My talents rested in attracting and conduiting large quant.i.ties of mana, not storing it. Big conduit. Tiny battery. Jules insisted that it's the motion of the ocean that counts-but Jules is a terrible liar.

I rolled through more options: If I were Monique, I would convince the fool to fall down the stairs.

If I were Dante, I would...

I scratched my chin. That just might work. There was even a certain symmetry to it. By training me, Dante (a.s.suming he was still breathing) would save his own rear. And as my inspiration to learn the trick, Dr. Simons was about to get his revenge. I went over the trans.m.u.tation in my head. It had taken Dante three weeks of Polimag lectures to teach me it properly. (It was a great illusion if you didn't want to stick around for the last few minutes of cla.s.s.) I just needed to combine Dante's spell with a type of entrapment field I knew all too well. Now, Dante's spells were never easy. He had a quirky way of thinking. Forming the conduit took me a full minute of focus.

With Dante's trans.m.u.tation prepped, one question remained: If I were a gunman, where would I aim?

What a freaking question.

My nerves were no good, and I wasn't going to be able to keep the conduit stable much longer. I closed my eyes and tried to stop the shaking. I told myself that he probably had really bad aim. I told myself that if I screwed it up, I wouldn't have much time to spend regretting it anyway. I took another deep breath, hoped it wouldn't be my last, screamed, "f.u.c.k it!" and swung into the hallway.

The gunman was well trained. There was no fumbling. He had his rifle trained on me in an instant. A round already chambered, he fired a single shot at my chest.

It came so d.a.m.n fast. My hand outstretched, the round thwapped right into me. My body shuddered to a halt, but the gunman didn't waste time. He followed with a triple-tap. The window behind me shattered as the bullets punched through my torso.

Heart racing and adrenalin pumping, I screamed, grabbed him by the jacket, and threw him down the stairs. By the time the gunman realized what was happening, he was already colliding into the landing. He should have wondered why the first round didn't break the gla.s.s. He should have noticed the blur to his right as the real me continued down the hall. Mine was shoddy cast, but staring down the scope of a rifle had given him tunnel vision. I looked back at my dummy. Me 2.0 was losing its cohesion, and my own hands were gradually re-appearing.

My chest heaving from the effort, I leaned against the wall. I had bested the b.a.s.t.a.r.d, but I felt no satisfaction. In all likelihood, the guy who taught me that trick was dead. I needed to do whatever it was I planned to do next-and fast. Catching my breath, I rushed down the stairs. From the thug's belt I swiped his supply of twisty ties and hogtied him good. Next, I grabbed the cylindrical grenades from his shoulder. I recognized the make. They used to have a bunch of disarmed ones at the army surplus store back home. They were called flash grenades. Big bang. Little hurt. Ideal for rescuing hostages. I grabbed his rifle next. The weight of the weapon surprised me. Pretending to know what the h.e.l.l I was doing, I checked the bolt and safety. Red meant 'on' if I remembered correctly. I didn't dare check the bullets in the clip. I had no idea how to get it back on. Gun at the ready, I hustled back up the stairs. I needed to hide somewhere and plan my next move, but on the top step I ran smack into nothing.

The nothing crunched off my forehead and swore.

"d.a.m.n it, Dante," I said, rubbing my noggin', "I thought you were dead!"

"Shhh!" he whispered. His invisible hand grabbed hold of my shoulder, and the world around me drained of its color. I could see him now. He had drawn me under his shroud. His lower lip was dripping blood.

"Sorry," I whispered. "I, uh, didn't see you." Way to go Captain Obvious. I smacked my own head.

"Forget it, bud. Come on!" Dante urged.

We rushed into the nearest room and closed the door. I could hear footsteps and voices coming down the hall. They were moving from room to room. We stood quietly in the corner until our own door flew open. A second gunman swept the room.

My eyes met his, and I mouthed a "holy s.h.i.t" to Dante.

Seeing nothing, the gunman yelled, "Claro!" and slammed the door shut.

"There are three of them left," whispered Dante. "I got pinned between the gunman you took out and the rest of them. I was waiting for him to start walking down the stairs to give him a nudge when you did it for me. Nice dummy, by the way. I thought you didn't have enough mana for that kind of spell."

"I don't." I pulled the spent round out of my pocket and placed it in his palm.

Dante looked at me warily. "Bud, are you okay in the head?"

"Um...mostly," I said, fully aware of the past hour. I gestured to my new toy. "And now I've got a machine gun."

Dante shook his head.

"Anyway, what the h.e.l.l is going on?" I asked. "And where's Dean Albright?"

"Far room. It looks like the faculty managed to erect a barrier before they were overrun."

"Professor Simons is dead, Dante."

"Yea, Greggs and Conroy too."

"Wait, the ones that teach The Healing Arts and Advanced Hex Defense? Weren't they Jules and Sadie's advisors?"

Dante nodded. "From the look of it, Greggs was surprised, but Conroy was able to buy the rest enough time to set up a barrier. A frameshift, most likely." Frameshifting is a method of abstracting s.p.a.ce. Once a frameshift is set in motion, anything within the range of the shift leaves the material world. Nothing can act on the shifted s.p.a.ce, and vice versa. It's an excellent method for containing extremely nasty things, but not so helpful as a defense. You have to shift back to normal s.p.a.ce eventually, and then you're at the mercy of whatever's waiting for you.

"How long will the shift last?" I asked.

"No idea, bud. Shifts are extremely unpredictable. What matters is what happens when they do. The bad guys are setting up some sort of bomb."

"A welcome home present?"

"Yep."

"Okay, so we need to move before then, but how do we do that without getting Swiss-cheesed?"

"We need some backup. Let me-"

A tapping came from the window. The invisible me swirled around, Kalashnikov at the ready. Dante s.n.a.t.c.hed a flash bomb and made ready to toss it.

"Oh, Jesus Christ," I said with relief.

"Hardly," said a m.u.f.fled female voice from outside. "However, I appreciate this new attempt at deference, my most vulgar junior." Rei was staring at us through the window, holding onto-okay, so I wasn't exactly sure what Rei was holding on to-the gutter, perhaps. She had ditched her Elliot robe in favor of the cap, tank, and army pants she seemed to prefer. Dangling by one hand she asked, "Can I come in?"

"Whoa," I whispered. "Seriously?" The oddest question popped into my head. Outhouses. Did outhouses count as part of the domicile or were they fair game for vampires?

"No, my most contemptible walking swath of destruction, but I do not wish to bust in the window-bad guys with guns and all."

Dante looked at me in surprise. "Hold up," he whispered. "She has a sense of humor?"

"Debatable," I replied, "but she is attempting to update her jargon with a journal on modern humor."

I walked out from under the shroud and unlatched the window. Rei landed like a feather and crouched low to the ground. She looked in the general direction of Dante's shroud and smiled.

"Good evening, lieutenant."

"Lady Bath-I mean, prin-I mean-"

"Rei is fine, lieutenant. I am your charge."

"Right. Thanks. Um, okay then, Rei, um, if you don't mind, how did you find us? I mean you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. Just professional curiosity."

"Not at all, lieutenant." Rei pointed to her nose. "You're shroud is perfect, but you two still stink. Mind, it's mostly Dieter who stinks." She turned to me with a cheerful smile. "My most flammable compatriot, the smell of napalm suits you."

Strange, I thought, Rei was much more lighthearted than usual.

"A-n-y-w-a-y," I whispered. "We still have a bit of a problem here."

"Is Dean Albright in danger?" Rei asked. A flash of fury danced across her features.

"Not right now. The surviving faculty frameshifted. But there's a bomb waiting for them when they shift back."

"How many of the prey are left, lieutenant?"

"Prey? Oh...Dieter got one of them, so that leaves three by my count. There aren't any mages among them. Imperiti only."

"Then the task is simple enough. Lieutenant, can you provide me a shroud?"

"Whoa," I objected. "Simple enough? They've got some serious firepower, Rei. Are you nuts?"

Rei smiled genially. "I do appreciate your concern, Dieter, however you suffer from some misperceptions."

I was about to object when an ice-cold aura pressed against my throat. In the same instant, Dante's shroud melted like b.u.t.ter. He stood frozen, his face a mixture of confusion and terror. I could understand why. The mask of humanity had slid from Rei's face. Her features had lost their color, and only a cold, dispa.s.sionate stillness was left behind. I had to look away. Her expression burned my eyes. It was like staring into a blast freezer. All the while, the s.p.a.ce around me was compressing. I recognized the sensation. Rei was. .h.i.tting me with her glamour-and she was. .h.i.tting me hard.

"Your error is understandable," she explained in an emotionless hiss. "But, Dieter, you have vastly misgauged me. I am a Pure. What you witnessed in New York was merely a shade, a Nostophoros on her seventh day without food, awake well past her bedtime."

I gasped for air, but my diaphragm contracted against my will. What the h.e.l.l was going on? Rei wasn't just denying me my speech. She wasn't just denying me air. She was cutting of my capacity to form cogent thoughts. This wasn't even in the same ballpark as the last time. This was major league power, I realized with a shock. Frustrated by my miscalculation, I struggled against the intense urge to remain silent.

Rei's nose flared in response. She took one step forward, and my knees buckled, dropping me to the floor.

"I apologize, Dieter, but under no circ.u.mstances will you cast magic with me nearby. Is your memory that short?" She looked down upon me with disapproval, and then turned her attention to Dante. "Now lieutenant, if you wouldn't mind."

Dante wasn't under Rei's compulsion, but he was so scared he was shaking. Fighting through the terror, he began prepping another shroud. My own body had locked into an uncontrollable spasm. It wasn't so much that I couldn't move a muscle, as I couldn't stop them from moving. Every last strand burned in protest as they contracted far beyond their normal limits. This was beyond glamour. This was beyond anything I had read about. Rei wasn't trying to pervert my will. She had circ.u.mvented it entirely.

What the h.e.l.l was had she done to me?

Furious, I lifted my head off the floor. She was going to try and handle the crisis on her own. She was going to put herself between the danger and me again. My mind flashed back to that first heavy blow. That wet smack. How she had slid across the ground, her cheekbone crushed, her face a mess of red. I trembled in frustration. This was unacceptable. I would not be told like this. My father told. 'She's never coming back, Dieter.' 'You'll never get into college, Dieter.' 'She never loved you, Dieter.' 'An invitation to a summer insti-what? A bunch of eggheads and not a dime in sight, forget it, Dieter' No. Not again. Not again. What if Rei died? A flash of rage pulsed from my gut. Deep inside me, something tore. Things were breaking, maybe important things, but I didn't give a flying f.u.c.k. I wouldn't be told. I wouldn't stand aside. Not again. Not ever again. I forced the air out of my seizing lungs.

"Rreeehh," I growled.

She turned to look at me. For a second, something flickered behind that icy mask. An ounce of Rei, the Rei I cared about, looked back at me. But it was gone in an instant. I Saw the blow before it came. I strained, demanding my muscles to release, but it was too late. Her elbow was already finished with my temple. My head exploded in a burst of stars. My useless body bounced onto then off of the bed. The blow shook my will, and in that moment of weakness, the spasms grappling my body strengthened ten-fold. I could do nothing but lie on my side and seize.

"Continue, lieutenant," Rei urged. "That ruckus will have alerted them." I stared at her from the floor, my jaw clamped shut like a vice, but Rei wouldn't match my gaze. My heart sank. It was totally humiliating. Dante finished the cast, and Rei's form dissolved into nothingness. The door opened and closed and away she went. I looked down at the floor, the steady thud of railroad tracks beating in my ears...