After Hours (VAMPIRES PART 1)

Chapter 6

LISA

Jennie St Laure, not only in hunter territory, but our fucking Academy building? It's unheard of. It's... There's no time. My instincts kick in.

I shove the students out of the way. Hollering at them to get back. This has to be an attack. Why the fuck didn't our guards detect her?

I smash my fist into the emergency alarm on the side wall and bellow at the kids to move the fuck back. More trainers pour into the foyer, now all doing the same. Shoving students back and forming a defensive line.

Jennie hasn't moved. She's frozen in that unnerving way vampires have. How the fuck did she breach our defensive perimeters? Why the hell is she here in person? We have annual peace negotiations for this shit.

Ten swerves into position next to me, his arms out wide protecting the kids behind us. Finally, the Chief appears, breathless, clearly having run from her tower.

She skids to a halt in the hallway, her face darkening to a violent shade of purple. The alarms cut out, but the afterburn of their ringing still echoes in my ears.

"What in the name of blood are you doing in here?" the Chief barks.

I cringe.

The balls of steel she has to speak to Jennie like that. I've heard the stories about her. I hear she tears apart her staff for less than an incorrectly timed eyebrow twitch.

But Jennie doesn't even flinch at the Chief's words. Instead, the vampire's eyes flick to the Chief, a snarl on her lips.

"I've come in peace, Chief. I bring an invitation," Jennie says.

"And you didn't think to use the proper channels? The official ones that don't set our security screaming."

Jennie's expression narrows. "There are no laws preventing my being here, and I've harmed no one... Besides, this is time sensitive."

"Oh. Well, that's okay then," the Chief drawls, her eyes practically falling out of her head.

Jennie shifts her position, she moves so fast that a student behind us screams. Which unleashes another round of hysteria that takes the Chief and all the trainers bellowing at everyone to be calm before quiet is restored.

In Jennie's hand is a claret-coloured envelope.

The Chief steps forward and snatches the envelope out of Jennie's hand. "If I find out the students that died last night were at the hands of your vampires, I swear on the Mother of Blood herself, I will come for you, Jennie."

Jennie's expression twitches and shifts. Her head tilts to the side. "Were they lost in the Montague territory?"

The Chief's pallor deepens, red climbing her neck. "I knew it was you." She steps up to Jennie, right in her face.

I think I might be sick. She's going to get herself killed being that close, that confrontational. But Jennie surprises me by stepping back.

She shakes her head, her features drooping. "Then this invitation is even more important than I first feared."

"What the hell does that mean?" the Chief asks.

"It wasn't me who took your students. I, too, lost several men last night. Good vampires. It appears that we may have a common enemy, Chief. I do hope you can find it in your heart to attend tomorrow. Despite our differences, I believe we can help each other here."

My mouth drops open and I blink. But by the time my eyes are open again, Jennie has vanished, and the hall erupts into chaos.

The Chief barks orders. "Ten, Jenevelle, Mingyu... check the security gates and guards. I want to know exactly how the hell she breached our security." She turns to another set of trainers. "Triss, take the others and get the kids back to their rooms, guards on all the dorm entrances and exits. Classes are cancelled the rest of the afternoon. If she's gotten in once, there's no telling if she will do it again. I want every student on lockdown."

She summons me to follow her. We head towards the west tower and climb up the stone spiral staircase. The receptionist waves us both through, and I follow after the Chief into her circular office.

This is the highest turret in the castle. Long rectangular windows, wider than a normal castle window, are carved into the circular walls. They shower the room in beams of light. A third of the walls are covered by tall bookcases, a ladder running across them. Three stakes with dried, crusted blood are mounted on a piece of decorative wood and line the wall behind the Chief's desk.

Each of those stakes killed a significant vampire, though the first stake's victim she doesn't talk about.

She sits behind her large oak desk and indicates I should join her and take the chair opposite.

"That was..." I start.

"Yes. It was. I'm going to need you to run a full diagnostics report on the Academy's security."

"No problem, I'll do that this afternoon. I know our wards were holding just fine yesterday."

"Yes, but there's very little magic in those."

She's right, of course. There's very little magic of any kind in our world now. There used to be, until vampires were created a thousand years ago and our dhampir healers were drained of power to do it. We use what little there is in the best ways we can now.

The Chief huffs and folds her arms. "Even a fresh drainer newly turned could get through those sodding wards without too much damage if they were really determined. It's the guards I'm pissed with. I want you to check the records of the patrols. The shift changeovers. Someone should have seen something. A millennia old vampire doesn't just get into the fucking Academy without anyone seeing."

"Unless she was so fast there was no way we'd have seen her?"

The Chief glares at me so I backtrack.

"Noted. I'll have a report ready for you by evening."

She flips the envelope Jennie gave her over. "What the hell is she playing at?" she growls.

"Are you going to open it? Maybe you should let me, what if there's poison or something inside it?"

The Chief moves to hand it over and then pulls back. "No. In that case, I'll definitely open it. Jennie can't mess with me, she knows I'd make her life a misery."

The Chief has one of those ageless faces. I'm not quite sure how old she is. Her skin is pure and wrinkle free. Her eyes, though, they hold a lifetime of stress and responsibility. They age her beyond the smoothness of her features.

She sniffs the envelope but seems satisfied so opens it and reads:

Jennie St Laure cordially invites you to a ball in the Midnight Market.

All vampire nobles and senior hunters should attend. Consider this an additional peace talk. On my word, no blood will be drawn. I will be making an announcement that affects the entire city, and your presence is required at 9 p.m. sharp at the Whisper Club.

Yours in Blood,

Jennie St Laure.

I whistle. "Well, shit."

"Have Ten run the security report. I need you to go straight to the Midnight Market and assess the Whisper Club. I need to know every entrance and exit. I want a full brief on the security forces we have."

"I don't think we should take every senior hunter either. This could be an ambush."

"Agreed." She pauses, looks me up and down and thrusts the card at me. "It's black tie. I'm assuming you're more of a suit than a dress girl."

I nod.

"Have the quartermaster see if they can tailor you a suit in time. One way or another, we'll know what the hell is going on by tomorrow night."