“Here,” she said. “Keep yourself busy.”

When I pressed my psychometric powers into the medallion, I saw Allorah standing at the front of a small classroom. Judging from the ancient-looking lab equipment around the room it had to be at least twenty years ago. That, and Allorah looked totally different.

Yes, she looked younger, as I had expected she would, but what surprised me most was that she actually looked happy. The Allorah in my vision was vibrant, her eyes eager and wide, her smile practically giving off a cartoonish sparkle of sunshine.

Because this was Allorah’s memory, I already knew a lot about what I was seeing. Science was the subject that she taught, but it was after school that she loved almost as much because of her secret passions. Allorah was a Forensics League nerd, coaching a handful of the after-school kids for competitive speech team. There were six high school kids in the room with her, four girls and two boys, all of them diligently going over their scripts for a big regional meet.

Allorah heard a commotion off in the building and excused herself in order to check it out. Her classroom was at the back of the third floor of the four-story town house, and she went to the top of the stair landing to listen. Down below, the lights flickered off on the other two floors. Allorah knew there were several other people still here with after-school programs as well and wondered just what the hell they were doing. She wasn’t sure what the fall production was going to be for the drama club yet, but hoped all this had something to do with that and not with the creeping sensation she felt down her back.

It was the screams that convinced her it wasn’t the drama club. No kid could fake a sound like the one that tore into her ears. Shocked and shaking, Allorah turned and ran for her classroom. Her students had heard the scream and were already standing up by their seats.

“What’s going on?” a blond boy asked.

The sound of struggle was getting closer, coming up the stairs.

“I don’t know,” she said, “and right now, I don’t care. Move!”

Allorah ran to the far end of the room and threw up the window sash. Being a relatively new teacher, she felt almost powerless, but knew she had to be strong in front of her students. She grabbed one of the nearby girls and pushed her toward the open window. “Fire escape,” she said, pushing authority into her voice. “Now!”

No one had to be asked twice. All six of her students bolted toward the window, each of them clawing to be first one out. Allorah grabbed one of the boys, the dark-haired one this time. “Campbell, let the girls out first. Then you can go, in an orderly fashion.”

The boy Campbell nodded and held back, though I could see on his face it was killing him. The boy was terrified. While she waited on her students, Allorah took stock of the science room. Not much going on for equipment this early in the semester, but…

There was something not quite human standing in the doorway to the classroom. I knew what it was. The taut, leathery skin pulled back over its face, the exposed fangs. Vampires had taken over the school, but that didn’t compute to the innocent Allorah of twenty years ago. She merely went with instinct. She threw on two of the nozzles sticking out of one of the lab tables and backed herself toward the open window. The creature blurred into motion toward her and she freaked the hell out, almost dropping the lighter she was fumbling in her hand. Her arm thrust forward, her thumb rolled over the wheel, and flame jumped to life, igniting the two jets of gas. The vampire was caught in the stream and immediately burst into flames itself, howling with an inhuman pain. Allorah gave it a weak kick with one of her boots as the last of her students went out the window and she followed, slamming the window shut behind her.

The kids were hauling ass down to the school’s courtyard below with Allorah close behind. When she reached the bottom, Allorah jumped the last ten feet from the hanging ladder of the fire escape to the ground. She looked around. The only exit from behind the school was actually going straight through it and out the front. That was chancy, but there was also…

“Campbell!” she whispered. “Help me lift the others over the back wall here.”

“Isn’t that like a consulate over there?” he said. The school was near the United Nations.

“Do you want to wait and see what’s on this side of the wall for you?” she asked. “I promise you, you’re better off dealing with consulate security. Now, get lifting.”

Campbell nodded and ran to the wall. He and Allorah started once again with the girls.

“I’m scared,” the second one said as they lifted her.

“It’s okay,” Allorah said. “We all are.”

Feeling Allorah’s waves of emotion hit me hard. This was not the steady and even-keeled Enchancellor I was getting to know. This was a scared woman in her early twenties freaking the hell out as the supernatural thrust itself into her world. People either accepted it or their minds snapped. If Allorah didn’t have the kids to think of, I think her sanity would have already made a trip to the latter state.

Now it was just her and Campbell. She lowered her hands, fingers interlocked, ready for his foot. He planted his shoe in her hand. A second later, only his shoe remained as the boy seemed to disappear from in front of her. “What…?”

Allorah looked around. Two figures now stood in the center of the courtyard, both savagely gnawing the screaming boy’s neck. Allorah gasped, and put her hand on her chest… only to discover the cool of the silver chain around her neck. She looked down at the medallion hanging on it, which bore a concentric set of circles that resembled an eye carved into a good sized-metal disc.

Allorah had gotten the charm during spring break in Greece, the woman who sold it to her claiming it was a sixth-century BC apotropaic eye. Bizarre market trinket or not, it was meant to ward off evil spirits while drinking, and if something like these creatures didn’t qualify as evil, then what the hell did?

Allorah pulled the necklace from around her neck and ran forward. The creatures immediately reacted, dropping the now-lifeless boy to the paved stones of the courtyard.

“No!” she screamed out and swung the necklace in her hand. Like a table saw blade, the amulet spun around on the silver chain, the edge of it humming with an energy all its own. It caught one of the vampires, this one a male with tangled brown hair, in the cheek and sliced into it, sticking. The creature fell to the ground, clawing at its own face, and Allorah didn’t hesitate, her heart and mind vacillating between anger and fear. While the pained vampire was down, she ran to the wall and pulled down the school’s banner from its post, taking the post in both hands. Caught in a moment where she couldn’t take the time to think, Allorah plunged the post down into the creature’s chest, essentially staking it. It exploded with blood, covering her and sending her mind into total shock.

The sound of another approaching figure filled the doorway leading into the school.

“Stop playing with your food, already,” it said, and I had no trouble recognizing the voice. In fact, I had heard it earlier this evening. The vampire I knew as Brandon stepped out into the courtyard. He was transformed in full-on vamp mode and his features were terrifyingly stretched out, like a canvas pulled too tight over an artist’s frame. This was a far more horrific version of the kinder, gentler vampire I knew now. Monstrous as he looked, Brandon stared in horror at the blood of one of his fallen vampires. It was everywhere.

Allorah was already down on her knees and scrabbling to find her amulet, paying no attention to the other remaining vampire that had been feeding on poor Campbell. It was a female vampire and she grabbed Allorah by the hair and started to lift her. I knew the face of this vampire. It was the woman from the portrait over the fireplace in Brandon’s private chambers. Damaris.