Bloodrage - Helen Harper Page 0,98

fell backwards, hitting the ground with a painful thud. I spun round, only to see the Dean half sitting, arm outstretched and a look of grim satisfaction on his face.

I launched myself at him, knocking him back down. “What the fuck are you doing?” I hissed.

“Protecting myself,” replied the Dean in a voice that might have sounded physically weak but that held a ring of steel to it.

“He’d calmed down! You just attacked him just out of spite!”

The Dean’s sharp eyes fixed on mine. “Out of spite?” His voice rose. “Until you got here, Mage Thomas was a loyal soldier. Less than four weeks in and he’s all of a sudden like a rabid dog. And rabid dogs get put down, which is exactly what I’m going to do to you, Initiate Smith.” He spat the final words of my name out as if they were a curse.

I stared at him, completely taken aback by the fury and hatred in his voice. Jeez. It was a strange day indeed when I seemed to be the only one not losing it. Then a set of arms locked themselves in a steel grip around my chest from behind me and I was dragged off the Dean.

I knew who it was the instant he’d touched me, and resisted the urge to kick back and free myself. “I might have know that yet again you’d be at the centre of all this,” growled Corrigan in my ear.

“What exactly is going on here?” The Arch-Mage stepped into view, hands on hips, definitely not a happy bunny at all as he surveyed the carnage the in-fighting had caused. I realised that both he and Corrigan must have only just come through the portal that remained hanging iridescently in the air on the other side of the driveway.

I opened my mouth to answer, as did the Dean, but the Arch-Mage held up a finger and hushed the both of us. He glanced over at the cluster of stunned looking mages, whose frozen inaction during the fight caused me no end of irritation, and then beckoned one of them over.

“Mage Slocombe, pray tell, exactly what has transpired here?” The tone in the Arch-Mage’s voice brooked absolutely nothing but dripping disapproval.

“Err…, well, Your Magnificence,” stuttered the terrified looking Kinesis teacher, “the vampires arrived out of nowhere, demanding that we take back some statue. They said that it was all her fault. That she’d stolen the original and put something in its place.” He didn’t even dare to look at me as he explained, despite the fact that Corrigan’s arms remained locked in a steel circle around me. “The Dean struck her so that she bled and the vampire leader could test her blood to prove that it had been her,” Corrigan’s body stiffened noticeably at this, “and Mage Thomas didn’t think it was, er, appropriate for him to have done so and he attacked.”

“I see,” said the Arch-Mage slowly. “I had rather hoped that the Lord Alpha and I were going to be able to defuse the situation before it got to this.” He looked around our little group. “So where are the vampires now?”

My stomach dropped as twisted my neck round the wall of Corrigan’s chest and realised that he was right. Somehow, whilst everyone’s attention had been on the Dean and Thomas, Aubrey and his two minions had simply vanished. My eyes fell onto the ground with a heavy lurch. The Palladium still lay there where Aubrey had tossed it, its dull wood contrasting against the frost-covered tarmac of the driveway. Those sodding bloodsuckers.

The Arch-Mage exhaled heavily and looked over at Corrigan behind me. Some kind of unspoken communication passed between the two of them, then he nodded briskly. “Fine. Have the Dean escorted to his office and Mage Thomas to the infirmary. Mage Slocombe, if you would be so kind as to retrieve the statue and place it in the academy safe until we can work out what to do with it, then that would be most appreciated.”

Slocombe nodded vigorously, but I could tell that the poor guy was consumed with fear at having anything to do with the harmless looking piece of wood that had caused so much trouble.

“I must protest!” interrupted the Dean. “I have done nothing but keep the order here and attempt to sort out the situation that she has created.”

Stay calm, Corrigan’s Voice irritatingly instructed me.

I am fucking calm, I shot back. It’s everyone else that’s going nuts.

The Arch-Mage’s eyes narrowed.