Sous

Hacate ran down the main entrance stairs meeting up with other faculty and staff. They heard the cries and screams coming from the cafeteria. When they entered, the entire student body was in a panic. Many with their wands out but not knowing how to proceed. One of the professors ordered all of the students to lay their wands down. Hacate ran to the center of the cafeteria. She slipped on a puddle of blood. On the ground, she saw a trail leading to a student with eyes wide open, tears stained the face, dead as they were being eaten, consumed by a vampire.

Hacate got to her feet and threw out her hand. The vampire student flew back, hitting the wall but landing on all fours. He looked at Hacate and hissed. His face was covered in the dead student's blood. It dripped from his mouth, down his jaw, to his uniform.

She did her best to not look at the dead while she kept her eyes on the vampire. At the same time, the other staff members were ushering the other students out from the cafeteria. Once they were all gone, the vampire student stood on its feet, wiping its mouth as he did so. He laughed as he walked down the steps from the podium often used by the staff and faculty for speeches or presentations.

Hacate didn't know this students name but she remembered him from a few years ago. Noe at the age of 58, the boy should be sixteen. He had been in her alchemy class.

Clarence came to stand at Hacate's side. "What did you do, RJ"?

That was his name, RJ.

He shrugged at Clarence's question. Clarence whispered to Hacate, "Remember what I said years ago?"

It was a reference to when he mentioned the cons to teaching the students such a potion.

"I just do what vampires do."

"We do not eat our prey, RJ. You ate that student. A student whose parents we have to reach out to. We have to reach out to your parents!" Clarence said.

The student took each step toward the two before him. To him, these two were the most powerful at the school. If he consumed them then he would be invincible. He would be able to protect his family from the wolves that seemed to forever be chasing and fighting his kind.

RJ lunged at the professors, aiming for Hacate first. Clarence stepped in front of her, grabbing RJ by the collar and pulling him onto the ground. He was on top. He held RJ's head in place and attempted to land a punch. RJ moved his head to the side by breaking his neck, the punch missed and hit the cafeteria floor. With the power of Clarence, he made an indent into the floor.

RJ snapped his neck back into position and kicked Clarence off of him. Clarence twisted himself into the air, turning into a dozen bats, and proceed to soar at RJ. RJ did the same thing, having had learned the following technique at the age of fourteen.

The two bats engaged physically with one another, their wings flapping frantically while Hacate watched with keen eyes. The average magae wouldn't have been able to keep up with the speed of the two but she was no average magae. She also took note that RJ was quickly learning the skills of the wolf he had killed.

"AAAAHWWOOOO!" RJ let out a howl as he himself transferred into a wolf. His red eyes glowed as he snapped at Clarence who still held the form of a bat. With the power of a wolf, RJ was able to do things a vampire normally be able to do. RJ ran toward the wall, using it as a launch pad that sent him in the direction of Clarence. This time, he managed to get a bit from Clarence's wing.

Clarence fell down onto the floor. RJ scooped him up into his mouth and this was when Hacate knew she had to act. She threw her hand up. A sword appeared and slammed itself into the side of the wolf. RJ howled and collapsed onto the floor, dropping Clarence who did turned back into his vampire form.

RJ began to transform back into his vampire form as well. The sword in his stomach already begins to disperse into small little particles. He held onto his side whimpering. He got to his knees, still applying pressure to his wound.

Hacate walked up to him and placed her thumb on his forehead. She proceeded to drain him of all his power, and with that, came a seal that burned on the right side of her neck.

Once all of his magic was drained, living numb and barely conscious, he fell to the ground just lying there like a vegetable. The hunters would be there shortly.

At the age of sixty-five, Hacate had found herself visiting the witch in Vania much more often. She was the oldest witch she had ever known and probably one of the most powerful. Which was saying something since Hacate was known throughout Nadia has the powefulist.

She sat with the witch in a garden filled with ravens. She hated sitting in the garden. She had a hard time controlling the telepathy she experience from the ravens that hung about the trees.

They all cried out for their mom's, dad's, anyone, they cried for friends, they cried to be turned back into a human. See, the elderly witch had a habit of cursing people and turning them into ravens when they crossed her wrong. It just so happened it was mischievous kids who did her wrong mostly.

"Can any of them be turned back?"

"Of course," she said. "They can easily be turned back once they admit their fault and apologize." She sipped her tea. "You'd be surprised at how prideful children can be."

Hacate looked once more at the trees that seemed to be filled with hundreds of ravens, all children.

"And what would you call your magic?" Hacate asked.

"I think its a bit dark. If white is the absence of color and black is the addition of all colors then what is bright is white and what is dark is black."

Hacate was optimistic, wanting to teach her students all forms of magic but it was apparent that dark arts, black magic, dark magic often attracted dark individuals. For the time being, she would remove this form of magic from the school curriculum.