Indeed. Magic can strengthen bodies, harden resolve, and keen senses; however, such work is not easy. Humans are complex beings, Dieter. They have many moving parts. Toying with them can have...unantic.i.p.ated consequences.

Down the hallway a barrage of gunfire erupted. The firing sounded wild. Dante dove on top of me as bullets tore through the wall. He whispered a fortification as the bullets flew by. Then came a strange sound-a thwap-as though someone had struck a melon with a bat. A man's scream followed, then the snap of a twig, a tearing sound, and fluids splattering on the hardwood.

"One!" Rei announced from outside our door.

Another set of heavy footsteps came from the other end of the hall and halted near our door. "Padre nuestro que estas en los cielos," the man mumbled as he stepped backwards. "Santificado sea tu nombre, venga tu reino, sea hecha tu voluntad, como en el cielo asi tambien en la tierra. El pan nuestro de cada Dia, danoslo hoy. Perdonanos nuestras deud-" The man's feet vanished with a crunch. I listened in silence to the sound of air wheezing in and out through a broken straw.

Rei finished the prayer. "Asi como nosotros perdonamos a nuestros deudores, y no nos dejes caer en la tentacion, mas libranos del mal..." Another twig snapped. "Amen," she cooed. There was another tearing sound, and it was suddenly raining in the hallway.

"Dos!" she announced as the corpse thudded to the ground.

"My G.o.d," Dante whispered. "So it's true. The born ones are on a different level than the Turned." I ignored Dante. I could hear her breathing. It came fast and thready. It was almost like when I was watching...

A magus can circ.u.mvent these challenges by binding themselves to another. This harmonizes the flows. In the European tradition, the other was traditionally a knight. The binding forms a conduit between them in which mana can flow safely.

A metallic device bounced down the corridor. Rei picked it up. "An M-67?" she asked casually. "That won't work at all. You'll need at least an MON-200." Her voice went cold. "Did daddy pack one of those with your lunch, little boy?"

"A grenade?" Dante stammered. In a matter of instants, he stood, tore the mattress from the bed, fortified it, threw it against the door, and jumped back on top of me covering us both with his robe. I could only lay there, bound by the spasms, as the door to our room blew off its hinges. Debris cut my face and clouded my vision. My ears rang from the blast. My body dumped adrenalin like it was going out of style. The surge of energy broke the binding. My fatigued muscles sagged from exhaustion.

"I'll give you a minute to figure something out," Rei called out to the gunman. Through the smoke and dust, Rei skipped into our room. She was covered head-to-toe in blood and plaster. Her clothing was torn. Her face was flushed. Hard nipples pressed out against her saturated tank top. "Pardon me, gentlemen," she said, climbing over us and out the window. Her feet vanished as she flipped herself up onto the roof. I listened to the light pitter-patter of footfalls as she dashed across shingles.

The last man standing screamed and fired blindly into the air...

Our weft-link is of a temporary nature. It is incomplete, and as I have already told you twice, it will wear off with time and distance. The inconvenience will be over soon. You have nothing to worry about.

Rei laughed as the bullets tore through the roof.

I swallowed. It was there if I had wanted to see it. It was the same as in the office when she was interrogating the tall man. The glee, the giddiness...Rei didn't care. It was fun. It was playtime. And when she was around-and only when she was around-I felt the same thrill. No wonder I had barely seen her since opening day. She had been avoiding me. The night we arrived, when she told me about her living arrangements, I'd gotten so mad that rage had overwhelmed my reason. She must have realized it then. I slammed my fist into the ground. I was such an idiot. That night, it wasn't Rei's pride that had been wounded. No, Rei had realized that I was at risk and acted decisively to stem the damage. My eyes welled up. Rei had extracted herself from my life like she was a tumor.

Dante rolled off me. His forehead had been gashed in the blast. He lay on his back, dazed. Amidst the chaos, I crawled over to put pressure on the wound. A crashing noise tore through the roof, and the pitter-patter of her footsteps intensified. Rei was in the attic now. The gunman responded by screaming even louder. He switched clips and launched another volley. One clip. Two clips. Three clips. Four. He was still screaming when his gun clicked empty. The poor guy was out of ammo...but that wasn't the point.

Against my will, my heart rate was speeding up. The room was too bright; my eyes had dilated. I tried to focus on Dante's wound, but we heard the rifle drop to the ground and shivered. We heard him drop to his knees. We felt the beat of his fists against the floorboards. Again and again he beat at the splintering wood. He knew we were coming. He knew it was over. He cried out a horrid lament. He surrendered his will to our own. That was the point. We trembled in excitement. Such a vibrant display of despair.

"My G.o.d, Dieter," Dante said as he stared up at the ceiling. "What have we gotten ourselves into?"

There was a moment of silence before the screams began.

"I don't know, Dante," I said, my body shivering from the thrill. "They're hitting students and they're hitting faculty. You don't do that to make a point. You do that to cripple an organization long-term. I don't know the games you guys are playing, but it smells like a war to me."

"Bud, pray you are wrong. They didn't call them the Dark Ages for nothing."

A dull thud reached our ears. Rei let out a hiccup.

"Well, at least she's on our side," I said.

Dante turned to me, confused.

"Sure, she is, but Rei's the only one."

I helped Dante sit up.

"What do you mean, the only one?"

"Her kind, man. The prin-sorry-Rei is the only one of her kind to ever join up with the Department. The rest of the drainers are rogue, bud. We're just edibles to them. I should know. I come from a border state."

"Oh," I said swallowing. Not good. "Seriously, I need to enroll in History of Magic and Bestiary next semester. I can't tell a.s.s from mouth, Dante. This is getting ridiculous."

"Hey man, ignorance is bliss. Don't even get me started on dragons."

"Dragons? They're real too?"

"You poor grub," Dante said, smirking. "Naw, dragons aren't real." Dante didn't smirk much. Heck, Dante didn't joke much. Maybe his change in humor had to do with the huge gash on his forehead.

Rei frolicked down the hallway and into our room. Her hair was tangled, and her clothes were in tatters. A huge blood smear covered most of her face. She looked like she had survived some sort of b.l.o.o.d.y baking disaster, and her fingers were playing over a bundle of brown candle sticks connected to a bunch of wires. "Heya, lieutenant. Watcha want me ta do with this?" she asked, tossing the explosive charge from one hand to the other.

Dante just sat there with a neutral expression on his face.

"You know what, lieutenant? 'Do' is a funny word. Dooo. Daaaaa. Deeeee. Dooooo. Daaaa..."

Rei sniffed the air and went rigid. Her dilated pupils latched onto Dante forehead.

"Ohhh!!! Lieutenant! You're bleeding! Do you mind? I mean it's cool if not, but I could totally go for a little Southern right now. It has to have been like five years. Sister tricked me, and he was soooo hot, and oh-my-G.o.d, he must have tasted like ice cream, or chocolate, or what else do beater chicks like? Caramel? No, that's not right. I have observed that they do not enjoy caramel as much as chocolate but-"

"Um, yea," Dante blurted, "I would be totally cool with that except I ate like a bucket load of garlic for lunch so it's probably not the greatest idea."

Rei crinkled her nose. "Gross, lieutenant."

"Hey, Rei?" I said, watching the bundle of explosives exchange hands once again.

"Garlic is gross," she said matter-of-factly.

"Hey!" I screamed, waving my hands in front of her. "Focus, Count Chocula, focus!"

Rei suppressed a hiccup.

"Ohhh! Because I am a vampire it is funny. Good one, Dieter!"

She jumped into the air and applauded.

It occurred to me that to applaud-my Sight imploded in an avalanche of color. I dove toward the bundle of death. Dante dove out the second-story window. (At least one of us had some sense.) Rolling onto my back, I slid to a stop under Rei's legs and caught the bomb with my gut. Thankfully, my washboard abs were still a work in progress. The bomb continued to tick-tock pleasantly.

"Oh! Dieter! Naughty," Rei said looking down at me. "No peeking unless I say so-then you can peek. Okay, I say so! Wait, now I say not so!"

"Women," I grumbled.

Rei covered her mouth and started giggling. She seemed capable of amusing herself, so I made busy examining the bomb. Their number thirty appeared on the display-now twenty-nine-now twenty-eight.

"Dieter," Rei asked. "I know he's sneaky, but can the lieutenant fly?"

"He's practicing," I replied. "Hey, Rei? You know what would be like totally awesome?"

"Oh! What? Tell me. Tell me, tell me, tell me!"

"We should totally go on top of the roof. Can you give me a hand?"

"You are so right, Dieter. The roof would be totally A, W, E, awesome. We could watch the sunrise!"

I let that that one slide and rushed to the window. Rei hopped out onto the sill, grabbed my hand, and yanked. As I flew through the air, it felt like my whole right arm was coming out of its socket. (Nope, check that, it was out of its socket.) I flopped onto the roof cradling the bundle with my left. My right side screamed in protest. I'd worry about the pain later-fifteen seconds later to be precise.

Rei was skipping about next to me singing "Good Morning, Good Morning," from Singin' in the Rain. What the heck was up with Rei and show tunes? I searched the landscape frantically. Auditorium? Negative. Lawn full of students pointing? Negative. Albright's red Corvette? Probative. Elliot Pond? Perfect.

"Hey, Rei?"

"Whatsit?"

"I bet you can't throw this into the pond from here."

"Oh, pu-leeease, Dieter. I am a P-u-r-e Nostophoros, not some mausoleum trash."

"Then prove it, Ms. Puerile," I said presenting her the explosives.

There were ten seconds left. If this didn't work, I was going to have to take flying lessons with Dante.

Rei flexed her slender biceps. "Be awed, puny magus!" She s.n.a.t.c.hed the charge, and before I realized it was gone, had hurled the bomb at the poor, unsuspecting pond. The explosives soared through the air with the greatest of ease and disappeared into the icy waters with a plop.

I sat down on the roof in exhaustion. My right shoulder was throbbing something fierce, and I really wasn't looking forward to re-setting it. Rei plopped down next to me and leaned her head on my wounded arm. It was the second time she managed to paralyze me tonight. I fought the urge to scream.

"Dieter?" she said in a tone I didn't like one bit. "I don't feel so good."

I cringed as Rei puked a few liters of blood all over my lap.

Bleary eyed, she looked up at me. "Sorry. I drank too much."

I walked casually to the front of my brain and murdered my sense of smell.

"Don't worry about it, partner," I said patting her head.

"Hey..." she said, pointing an unsteady finger at me, "you...you don't you call me that. That's top-super-double-secret."

"Sorry, partner. I won't do it again."

"You better not," she mumbled, "cuz I'm a Pure."

With a flash of light our three residence halls-and about three dozen innocent koi-were incinerated in giant b.a.l.l.s of flame.

"Ooooh, pretty," Rei remarked.

"Quite," I managed. I was thankful my sense of smell was currently being chalk marked. Blood-breath isn't an odor you'd care to sample.

Chapter 21.

COMING DOWN.

It took a bit of work getting Rei off the roof. It was thirty minutes to sunrise. That combined with her 'overindulgence' made Rei a drowsy mess. To make matters worse, my right arm was dangling about an inch too low. The professors' had shifted back into the natural world at around the time of the blast. Now they were running about, pretending like they knew what they were doing. Helping us off the roof, Albright looked plain terrible. The deaths of Simons, Greggs, and Conroy must have been quite a shock. The faculty had been caught completely unawares. They seemed as surprised as the rest of us. Thankfully, not a single student died. At least they could take solace in that.

Albright told me to take Rei home and be back at Central in three hours for a debriefing. A huge crowd of students was waiting outside the faculty lodge. They broke out in applause as I emerged carrying Rei on my shoulders. I near gagged as my Sight exploded from the attention, so I was grateful when a few seconds later the clapping kinda died off. Heroes aren't supposed be covered in plaster and blood-puke.

Sadie was standing in the middle of the crowd wearing her bunny slippers and robe. She was explaining to a group of Kappa's how she'd taught me everything I knew. I smiled. As far as I was concerned, Sadie could say whatever she wanted. I'd nearly drowned and/or blown her up. That earned her plenty of capital. I gave her a grin and thumbs-up. Jules was less amused. She came running over with a concerned look in her eyes. She eyed Rei's slumped form warily, and then turned her attention to my mangled limb.

"Your shoulder!" she cried.

"Don't worry, Jules, I'll be alright."

"Of course ya will. But Awen's Ghost, Dieter, let me practice on it! I've been workin' on this new spell that'll be just parfect!"

"Yay," Rei mumbled. "Puppies."

"How about you just throw it back into its socket?"

"With my hands?" Jules asked incredulously.

Roster walked over and lifted Jules aside. Her little legs kicked futilely in the air.

"Oi, Roster! I'll kick yer a.s.s. Put me down!" she screeched.

"Chill, cupcake," Roster boomed. "Breaking bones is my specialty. I just have to do it backwards, right?"

A wince and scream later and my shoulder was back in the right place. Roster showed some promise as an orthopedist. The sun was gonna rise soon, and I didn't want to dally, but before I left, I made sure to tell Monique where Dante was probably roosting. Roster's eyes lit up when he heard the news. Fodder for at least a year of razzing, I presumed.

I ditched my blood soaked robe and wrapped Rei up in a spare bed sheet for coverage. As I walked through the crowd, I ignored the waves of questions bombarding me from every side. I even managed to brush off a snide comment from one of the Beta's about vampire b.l.o.w.j.o.bs.

Sheila didn't. She clocked the a.s.shole right in the face.

Mindless slaughter really seemed to bring us Lambdas together.

I trudged the quarter mile to the groundskeeper's cabin alone. My shoulder ached from the dislocation, my lungs burned from the fumes, and my face throbbed from Rei's elbow. Then there was the fatigue. All that casting had really taxed my reserves. Still, despite all the pain, I felt relieved. Sure it had been messy, but we had done something good tonight. People were alive that should have been dead. People I cared about. People who cared about me. It also helped that-despite being 5'10'' and able to leap small buildings in a single bound-Rei couldn't weigh more than ninety pounds. That got me thinking. I was trudging into a forest with a dangerous predator nestled on my back. I could feel her head resting on my shoulder. I could smell her (bad) breath as it tickled past my neck. I was toting a freaking vampire. She could wake with a start and have my life in an instant. That should have scared me senseless. That should have made me dump her and run. But I wasn't scared. I felt at peace. Life felt more doable. More complete.

Forming that weft-link with Rei might explain some things: the intense blood l.u.s.t that overwhelmed my senses, the surprise Dante expressed at Rei's sudden interest in humor, the two flashbacks we had somehow shared, and even the strange visions I'd experienced. But those side effects weren't my main concern. What troubled me most was the sense of emptiness I felt when Rei wasn't around. Never in my life had the simple presence of another made me feel so good. I didn't want that to be because of the link. A cold breeze rushed through the trees, and I shivered in my soggy clothes. What a horrible thought. What if my feelings for Rei were nothing more than the byproduct of some errant magic? Stars above, what if they were fake?

The sun crested over the horizon, and Rei tensed around my shoulders. Her grip became so tight that it hurt.

"Easy, now," I whispered. "We're almost home."