Chapter Seven

  "I apologize for my outburst, Lady Veronica-"

"Dorerra?" Michael finally spoke. The vampire male turned back to him, red eyes once again aflame with anger. Michael saw this and paid it no attention. "Where have I heard that name before? Oh yeah, now I remember! I've killed someone with that name before. Judging from your reaction, I guess he was related to you. Was he by chance your g-"

    It was a well known fact that vampires were incredibly fast. They were easily among the fastest creatures in the supernatural world, possibly the fastest even. Most of the witches in that hall who had never seen a vampire run quickly had that rectified by what happened next. The vampire, incensed by Michael's words dashed down the stairs towards where the Hunters were standing in front of the lecture platform. Within seconds he had already reached Michael, his fist cocked back for what would surely be a devastating blow should it land.

    If anyone in the crowd had blinked, they had already missed it. Even some of those who saw what happened could not understand it. A second ago, the vampire had been rushing towards Michael, then suddenly he was on the ground clutching his upper arm in agony. Half of his right arm, from the elbow downwards was gone. Not torn out, there was no blood, but simply gone. 

    The vampire was still trying to figure out what has happened when Michael's shadow fell over him. He looked at the pained immortal creature on the floor for a while before raising his eyes to address the shocked crowd.

    "I have killed some of the ancestors of half the people in this room," he said, his eyes watching the vampires' expressions carefully before going over to the witches. "And I am the reason the other half was forced into reclusion. I have faced down monsters you have only heard about, and some you haven't even dreamed about. I do not give a damn what you all do with your lives, but I will not tolerate the antics of children less than a fraction of my age. 

    "I do not intend to explain myself but if any of you get in my way, you will die."

    Turning around, he began to walk towards his team but stopped halfway to address the injured vampire who was looking at his arm that had yet to heal.

    "I will not hold you responsible for your grandfather's actions but it would be wise for you not to make the same mistakes he did. Your arm will not regenerate for a while. My magic doesn't fade away easily. It will heal eventually though. Until then, try not to annoy me any further."

   Michael glanced at Jade who had been watching the whole thing with a smirk on her lips. She nodded and raised a well manicured hand in the air. A swirling spiral of purplish black shadows appeared out of thin air and they walked into it. Michael spared a moment to regard Vincent with a small nod. Then his eyes went straight to the female vampire at her seat. She stared back at him, her curiosity now visible in her eyes. A hum escaped his lips as he went through the portal and it disappeared behind him.

                       *********

    "Well, that was a hell of a first impression you guys made," Vincent said as he took a seat on one of the wooden chairs in the room.

    "Dumb kids had it coming," Lee replied from where he lay on a couch.     "Can't believe he called us mangy."

    "I'm honestly surprised you didn't attack him on the spot."

    "Do you want us to kill these kids?" Lee half glared at the suited man.

The Exorcist gave him a weak smile. "Please don't. It would kinda defeat the whole purpose of this thing."

    They were currently in one of the dorms of the school. This one was the closest to the forest behind and was one of the buildings set apart for the supernaturals to live in. The Hunters had been given the entire left wing of the top floor, with individual rooms and a shared living room and kitchen. The right wing was occupied by witches, a choice made after debating the race with less aversion to the Hunters. Both groups however had to share a massive common room in between both wings of the floor. 

    After the Hunters had left, Vincent had hurried through the rest of the introduction and had gone on to direct them to their new living quarters. He himself showed up there later that night for a prearranged meeting with the team.

    "Oh please," Jade scoffed, her eyes never leaving her clear nails. "Michael pretty much killed that plan when he told them we've basically been killing their great grandparents."

    The Hunter in question simply rolled his eyes at her and turned back to Vincent. "In any case, that's done. Now, you're supposed to be explaining something?"

    Vincent who had been momentarily struck dumb at their easiness with each other, quickly recovered himself and cleared his throat before speaking. 

    "Yes, right. As you know, you've been asked to safeguard these kids until the top dogs of the three factions figure out exactly what's going on. But there's another addition to that request. Michael, the leaders of the Arcane Circle as well as the Vampire Council have made a special request for your services in the protection of two very important people."

    He placed two pictures on the table and slid them over to Michael. "The one on the right is a witch, Mia Delgado. Age twenty, Mexican-American origin, orphan by birth. She recently discovered her powers and had been under the care of her foster parent prior to that discovery. The Circle gave no reason as to why they wanted her under tight protection, only asking that you be the one to watch her personally."

    Michael stared at the pictures in front of him. The right one was a brunette he recalled seeing in the crowd earlier in the day sitting with two other girls, one with dark hair and one with white hair. The girl in the other picture he recognized immediately. He had caught her several times staring at him throughout the assembly. He had a feeling she was special. The girl was one of the only two people to have seen what had happened when the enraged vampire had attacked him.

Vincent noticed him staring at the picture and began to explain. "That's Veronica Von Reize."

    Olivia looked up at him. "Von Reize? Isn't that the name of the current Dracula?"

    Vincent nodded. "She's the Vampire King's daughter. Those two vampires beside her at the assembly are her personal bodyguards. They have to be at her side always. The witch girl is also under the tutelage of the most skilled witch here as a primary form of protection."

    "If both of them already have assigned bodyguards, why am I needed?"

    Vincent gave him a small smirk. "You wanna compare those guys to yourself?"

    "Fair point."

    Jade let out a short laugh at Michael, obviously amused at this new development. "Man, and I thought it couldn't get any worse. Congratulations boss, you've gone from babysitter to royal babysitter!"

Lee's disgruntled expression changed into one similar to Jade's as he joined her in her laughter. Even Olivia had to cover her giggle with the back of her hand.

    "Traitors, all of you," Michael muttered halfheartedly and turned back to the smiling Vincent. "Have they been made aware of this arrangement?"

    "Yes. Mia agreed easily enough, I don't think you'll have any problem with her. The vampire on the other hand..."

    "Ugh, vampires and their stupid pride," Jade groaned, having understood what the man's trailed off sentence meant. "We kill a few of them and suddenly we're the bad guys."

    Vincent chuckled humorlessly. "Perks of the trade I'm sure. Anyway, Veronica hasn't agreed to let you oversee her safety. Either she has a lot of confidence in her guards or she has a serious grudge against you guys. And honestly, for her sake I hope it's the first one."

    "I'll deal with her later. Right now we have a bigger problem on our hands. People are being cursed in this school."

    Vincent blinked thrice in surprise at the revelation before he closed his eyes smiling wryly. "I really should've expected this. You guys certainly work fast. How bad is it? Do you know who the caster is?"

   Michael shook his head lightly.        

   "Fortunately it's only a minor life drain spell. Not strong enough to be noticed immediately, it seems like the curse was designed to last a long time while transferring the victim's energy to the caster. We haven't been able to figure out who the caster is though."

"It's not the witches?"

   "It can't be," Dean answered the man from where he leaned back against the wall in thought. "Some of them have been cursed too."

   The room went quiet for a while, leaving everyone to think on their own. Vincent in particular found this news deeply disconcerting. If the caster had cursed those witches intentionally, then that meant they knew why the latter was here in the first place. If word of this got out, it would cause no small panic among the top brass of the three factions. Frantic efforts would be made to relocate them all and there would be no better time for the enemy to strike.

   "We can't afford to inform the students yet. It would cause panic and possibly alert the curser," he reasoned. "Did you have any ideas in what to do about this?"

   "Same as you," Michael replied calmly. "I doubt whoever is doing this knows we're here right now. That will be our best weapon. My team and I will lay low and be on the lookout for anything happening behind the scenes. You and your colleague are undercover here as part of the staff right?"

   Maybe it should have bothered Vincent that a boy who looked half his age was talking to him so casually. But Vincent had not gotten to where he was today without being able to recognize authority. And this 'boy' before him positively oozed the stuff.

He nodded and Michael continued. 

   "Since whoever is doing this is confident enough to curse witches, that means they probably have the means to cover any 'accidents'. As staff, you'll be able to access the files on every student. I assume you know the symptoms of such spells so you already know what to look for. If we find anything, we'll let you know."

   "Same here," Vincent agreed. There was unconcealed surprise at how easily Michael had taken charge of the situation. And they had not even been at the school for a full day yet. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed audibly. "The Church really screwed up when we lost you guys huh...

   Rising to his feet, he dusted his suit and made for the door. When his hand was in the knob, he hesitated for a while and turned to look at Olivia.

   "Hey uh, for what it's worth," his voice was apologetic when he spoke. "We truly regret what happened."

Olivia's expression turned uncertain and she looked down at her hands clasped in her lap. The room grew quiet for the second time that night. This time, the silence was laden with guilt and the sadness of an unpleasant memory.

   "Regret won't change the past."

Vincent turned his downcast eyes to Michael as he opened the door. "No, it won't. But it'll keep the past from repeating itself."