First Semester

by Jace Mitchell

  The two men in the room stood and moved toward the door. Hannah looked up after she’d lit her cigarette. The vampire was staring at her, but she hadn’t bared her fangs, so that was probably a good sign. Either the girl believed Hannah or Dracula didn’t want them touched. Either way, it was working out.

  Hannah followed the group into the main lobby of the dead subway station. They hopped into the empty tunnel and traveled a ways in the dark, then pulled themselves up to another drop-off station. Dracula had placed them farther away because he needed the space for the vampires he’d brought to him, and now, as Hannah stood in the lobby, she saw how many there were.

  “We were so foolish,” Matthew murmured as he stared at the ground. “To think we could control this.”

  It wasn’t control we wanted, dumbass, Hannah thought. She didn’t say anything, though. She felt confident Matthew would get what was coming to him for his treacherous ways.

  They walked through the crowd of vampires.

  They’re all looking at us, Hannah thought. They know we’re the ones who brought them here. I wonder if they want to thank us or kill us?

  The group finally reached a room off one of the back halls of the subway station. The vampire opened the door but didn’t step inside. She simply moved out of the way and glared as Hannah passed her.

  “See ya around, darling,” Hannah said as she entered.

  Dracula was alone in the room.

  I feel it, Hannah thought. I feel his power. It’s different than anyone else’s. I chose wisely, and Matthew will see that soon.

  “Your thoughts betray you, frightened man.” Dracula sat in a chair with one leg crossed over the other. He didn’t look up but studied his nails instead. “I heard them as soon as you stepped off the railroad tracks. You think you should not have called me over, yes?”

  Hannah forced a smile from her face.

  Dracula’s eyes darted to her. “Your friend here, she wants me to hurt you, frightened man. She thinks you have betrayed your oath.”

  Hannah held the vampire’s eyes, although it was tough as hell to do so.

  Finally, he looked back at his nails. “I will deal with all this when we are done with these pesky children. I would like to know more about your group since I am coming to believe there are more like you, yes?” He turned his attention to his other hand without looking up.

  “Yes, that’s true,” Hannah answered.

  Dracula nodded. “There will be time, then. For now, the children have arrived.”

  “Arrived?” Hannah could hardly believe it. “That’s imposs—”

  She caught herself before correcting the creature she’d called here to worship.

  Dracula shrugged. “Yes. It would seem they somehow got information about your lair, and now they are traversing these tunnels in hopes of finding me. A silly notion at best. I’d planned on going to their homes and killing them with the overwhelming force you see outside this room, but to think they can find me in a lair such as this? I could hide forever, and they would never know it.” He looked up and smiled. “I do not wish to hide, though. I wish to end this foolishness so I can get on with my plans of ruling.”

  Hannah nodded. “That’s what we want as well.”

  Dracula lazily flicked his hand in the air as if swatting at a fly—or Hannah’s thoughts. “I called you three here because I want you to join me as we destroy them. I haven’t quite figured out what to do with you yet, at least two of you. Frightened man here will meet the demise he deserves for having little faith in my gratitude for bringing me here. In my world, there are checks and balances on what I may do. The different species who live there are powerful enough to hold me back. But here?” Again he waved his hand. “There is nothing that can’t be done. They should have firebombed this city, but instead they send children? Humanity is full of idiots, and soon you will be nothing more than a food supply for my offspring and me.”

  Matthew dropped to his knees, unable to help himself any longer. “Please! Please don’t hurt me!”

  Dracula glanced at him, his eyes narrowed. “Do not do that. Do not beg. It’s unbecoming.”

  Matthew looked at the floor and sobbed. Dracula turned to Hannah and Bradley. “Okay, fat man and old lady, now we find the children, yes?”

  Old lady? Hannah thought. Quickly realizing her thoughts were as apparent to this man as her words, she followed it up with, I’ve been called worse. Plus, Bradley is fat as hell.

  Dracula stood from his chair and went to the door. He placed his hand on the doorknob and glanced over his shoulder. “I do not wish to live in these tunnels anymore, so it is good they come. We end this now.”

  Claire stared down through the manhole.

  “You sure this won’t drop us into a sewer?” Jack asked from his place next to her. “Because if I go down there and the first thing I smell is shit, I’m coming right back up and beating someone’s ass.”

  The group of four—Claire, Jack, Marissa, and Frank—formed a circle around the open manhole. Remington and Lance stood behind them. Everyone else was back at the university.

  “It’s not a sewer line, you dope,” Remington told him.

  He’s really getting familiar with us, Claire thought. Oddly, I like it. He may not be a part of the core group, but he’s still one of us.

  “The amount of money and time we’ve invested in you all?” Lance asked. “And then we mess everything up by dropping you in a sewer? The two of us wouldn’t be able to get a job as greeters at Wal-Mart.”

  “Hey,” Claire snapped without looking away from the manhole. “My mom was a greeter at Wal-Mart.”

  “Nothing wrong with that,” Lance responded. “But it would be a cut in pay, and I know Remington here likes strip clubs too much to risk it.”

  Everyone but Frank chuckled.

  “What’s a strip club?” the leprechaun asked.

  Jack raised an eyebrow and looked at him. “You’re kidding?”

  Frank shook his head, frowning. “Never heard of it.”

  Jack closed his eyes, and a smile appeared on his face. He looked into the sky as if God was blessing him at that very moment. “When we get out of here, Frank, I’m going to change your world.”

  Claire rolled her eyes. “Enough. It’s time to get down there. Everyone ready?”

  The group was loaded down with the weapons Mitchen had shown them earlier. Claire felt like she was GI Joe—or Jane, Marissa had corrected. She had two wooden stakes attached to her belt and twelve metal stakes that would be used in the Impaler. Each of them had six Immolators attached to the vests on their chests, three on either side. Four cans of Holy Mace (as Jack was now calling it) were attached to their arms. Each had a Nova in their pants pocket as well.

  “Yeah, ready,” Jack confirmed.

  “Your arm going to let you actually fight this time?” Marissa asked with a grin.

  Jack smiled. “It’s nearly healed, so don’t you worry about that. The main problem you’re going to have is how you’re going to write epic poems about my triumphs down there when we get back. It’s going to take you the rest of your life to give me my due.”

  Good, Claire thought. Joking is good. Better than being scared.

  “Okay.” Remington stepped through the four and got down on his knees. He slowly dropped the rope ladder until he felt it touch the ground. He stepped by and tied it off on two small bolts they’d drilled into the cement. “Enough chatter from the peanut gallery. Time to do what we get paid for.”

  “Only person paid here is Frank, and that’s in beer.” Jack stepped up to the ladder and carefully put his foot on the first step. “Which is another thing I want to talk about when we get back. Jack here is going to need some paychecks.”

  Claire stepped forward and lightly placed her foot on his head, pushing him down.

  “Keep him under control down there,” Remington said.

  Jack started down. Frank went next, then Marissa, and finally Claire.

  She looked
at Remington and Lance as she stepped onto the rope ladder. “See you when we get out.”

  “Bet on it,” Remington assured her. “Go give ‘em Hell.”

  “That’s the plan.” Claire started down the ladder, the silence of the tunnel quickly assaulting her senses. No wind. No voices. No noises at all except the rope ladder slowly creaking as the four climbed down.

  Claire reached the ground. The other three had already turned their headlamps on, casting light out across the darkness.

  “Tight space,” Jack commented. This was definitely a subway tunnel. The walls on either side stretched maybe ten feet, but Claire thought that was a good thing. There weren’t a whole lot of places to hide, which meant they’d see their attackers quickly.

  “Marissa, you got the maps memorized, lass?” Frank asked.

  Marissa giggled. “Nope, forgot ‘em on the way down.”

  “Funny,” Jack whispered.

  He doesn’t like the way our voices echo, Claire thought, and neither do I.

  Marissa had memorized the maps the captured vampire had drawn out over the past few nights. No one wanted to waste time consulting them or not focusing on what was in front of their faces, so she’d volunteered to memorize exactly what the vampire said. He’d known it all because he said this is where they broke the Veil—down here in these tunnels—and so to get out, you had to have an intimate idea of where you were going.

  “Onward then, ye lazy bastards,” Frank called. “There’s not a bar in sight, and Frank wants to start drinking as soon as possible.”

  Marissa moved forward with Claire right behind her. The headlamps did a decent job of lighting up the darkness, and they traveled like that for about ten minutes before reaching a crossway.

  “Left,” Marissa guessed. She turned without slowing at first and then stopped, causing Claire to almost run into the back of her.

  “Hello, children.” The vampire stood ten feet from them, her skin pale in the light from their four headlamps. She had blonde hair and was distinctly beautiful, like a goddess dropped from Mt. Olympus.

  “Well, I don’t think that’s Dracula. Unless he had some kind of sex-change operation,” Jack joked.

  “What do we do?” Marissa whispered. The four stood shoulder to shoulder, blocking the entire tunnel.

  “Start taking notes, Sissy,” Jack told her. “Because these poems about me will be remembered like The Iliad.” Jack’s hands moved like vipers, although his feet remained in place to avoid giving away what he was doing. He pulled the bar from his waist, pointed it toward the vampire, and pressed on the end. The stake flew through the air like a missile.

  The vampire barely had time to blink.

  The stake struck it in the chest, pulverizing bone and the undead heart behind it.

  Jack didn’t even pause, simply unhooked another stake and loaded it into his weapon.

  The vampire fell to the ground.

  “You all saw that, right?” Jack looked at the other three. “I want to make sure that’s on record. While you three were twiddling your thumbs, I stepped up and saved everyone’s asses.”

  Claire gave him another of her elbows. “Good job, but save it. There’s going to be a lot of them up ahead. At least we know we’re on the right path. Let’s keep going.”

  The four walked on, passing by the dead vampire without looking down at it.

  A thought came to Claire as they continued forward. “Frank, why can’t you just teleport around this place and kill them?”

  “Because I don’t know where I’ll end up, lass,” Frank replied. “Could end up inside a wall, or maybe in a room full of the bloodsuckers.”

  “Couldn’t you just teleport out if that was the case?” Jack asked.

  “I’m going to put a serious request in that the university start teaching you about leprechaun culture. It’s ridiculous how little ye all know.” Frank shook his head, his light shining back and forth across the tunnel. “We’re taught since wee ones that we never teleport unless we know where we’re going. Doing that is a good way to end up in front of a bus.”

  “You have buses beyond the Veil?” Marissa asked. “Who drives them?”

  Jack rolled his eyes. “We’re not having an economics class right now, Sissy. Ask him later.”

  They reached another crossing. “Right.”

  The group turned as one this time, wanting to take on whatever waited beyond the corner.

  “Sonofabitch,” Jack mumbled. “You three going to help? Because I don’t have enough hands for all of them.”

  Four vampires stood twenty feet off, a bit farther away than the last vampire. Three males, one female.

  I wonder if they know about the mechanical stakes already, and that the distance is to make us more effective with them? Claire thought, keeping her cool. A month ago she would have been terrified and the other night extremely nervous, but now she felt pretty confident they could take out the four of them, especially with these new weapons.

  She stepped forward, but Frank put his hand lightly on her leg. She looked down at him. He was staring at her with a wild grin. “When I get done with these four, I want you to admit I could have gotten away from you at the amusement park if I’d wanted to.”

  Claire’s eyes narrowed but Frank didn’t give her a chance to say anything. He stepped away from the group. “I don’t recognize any of ye bloodsuckers, but then again, I try to stay away from your type. Always trying to take from others what isn’t owed ye, mainly our blood.”

  The vampires all smiled at the same time, looking creepily like robots.

  “Come, little man. Let us end your torment,” one of them offered.

  “I’m not a man,” Frank ground out through gritted teeth, reaching for one of the wooden stakes on his belt. He yanked it off. “I’m a fucking leprechaun.”

  Claire’s eyes widened at what happened next.

  Frank moved faster than anyone she had ever seen. He darted to his right, and rather than stay on the ground, he launched himself onto the wall. He landed on one foot, then shoved himself off it, flying through the air like a suicidal acrobat.

  The vampire closest to him turned but appeared to be moving in slow motion compared to Frank. The small green creature thrust his stake into the vampire’s heart and removed it just as quickly. He kicked off the dying vampire, but instead of heading toward the ground, he launched himself back into the air.

  The other three vampires were still in the process of turning, trying to gather themselves to attack this mythological ninja.

  Frank began his descent, stake tip pointed down. A vampire reached up to grab him, but only touched a flash of light.

  Frank teleported to the ground. He sliced upward with the stake, dropping the vampire who had tried to lay hands on him.

  Two left, Claire thought, bewildered at how fast all of this was happening.

  Another flash of light, and Frank was on the other side of the vampire. The stake darted once, twice.

  All the vampires lay on the ground, and Frank turned to the group. He smiled, blood dripping from his weapon. He tucked the stake under his arm, then took a bow. “Thank you, thank you! Thank you! Seriously, the applause is too much! Thank you!” He bowed over and over as he spoke.

  Claire started laughing, her voice echoing off the walls.

  “Frank...” Jack shook his head, mouth slightly open. “You move like someone from The Matrix.”

  Frank stood up, stopping his ridiculous bows. “The what?”

  Jack nodded, still in awe. “I’ll show it to you after the strip clubs.”

  “Five dead?” Dracula’s voice cut through the stillness like a blade through water. “Five of us dead?”

  The vampire in front of him looked down at the floor, refusing to meet his gaze. She’d brought the news, though how she knew it, Hannah had no idea. She, Bradley, and Matthew were seated in three chairs against a wall. The vampires had congregated around the departure station, all of them apparently waiting for news that
the kids had been killed.

  But that was not what appears to have happened, Hannah thought.

  Matthew sat two seats over from her. He was doing his rocking thing again, and Hannah wanted to smack him. She kept her hands to herself, though, knowing that Dracula’s punishment would be far worse.

  The vampire turned around, his eyes falling on Hannah. Vampires surrounded him, probably close to seventy, representing all the work Hannah and the other two had done in searching for this one. Building him a following.

  “You said they were mere children. Teenagers.” His voice carried ice in it that chilled all the way to Hannah’s bones.

  “They are.” Hannah nodded. “You don’t understand yet. Very few people can even see that you exist, but kids can more than most. The government found the oldest who could see you. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to fight you.”

  “STOP!” Dracula screamed, his voice carrying farther than it had any right to. “Nothing you say makes sense. These aren’t children. Van Helsing himself couldn’t have wiped out five vampires in such a short time. What is it that you bring this way, woman? What is coming to attack us?”

  Hannah’s eyes were wide. She was stupefied. Dracula thought she was conspiring against him? She, the one who had engineered his arrival in this world?

  “Master,” she whispered, “they are teenagers, not even old enough to drink alcohol in this world.”

  Dracula turned his gaze on the rest of his brood. “They know where we are, and they’re coming this way. So be it. We will meet them in force if we cannot defeat them with stealth.”

  He looked over his shoulder at the three.

  “If you are right, you will serve at my right hand. All except frightened man. If you are wrong and I take heavy losses, you will die right after these teenagers.”

  Thirty minutes had passed since they saw their last group of vampires, and Frank wouldn’t shut up.

  “You tell me now, lass, that I could have gotten away from you. Tell me, or Frank is done helping. I’ll watch Jack here try to take your glory, and keep watching while you all fall.”