It couldn’t be helped. First, the city guards made their appearance. They wanted to take Carmilla away. The worst part was that her parents cooperated. They were going to hand her over.

Father, who had always doted on the girl when she was younger, looked at her in disbelief and called her a monster. Mother said nothing but that was her way. Always the proper lady. Carmilla was nothing like her mother.

When Carmilla refused to leave her room, her father had tried to force her. It was quickly apparent that he was no match for her. The blood had made her strong. Exasperated, he invited the guards in, who were armed with small blades.

The first man, a burly brute with a full beard, approached her bed and said, “Come quietly, wench. Some people want a word with you.”

If not for that sword of his, she might not have managed to fight them off. While the young vampire was very skilled at stunning her prey to draw blood, she had yet to kill anyone. At least not on purpose.

Carmilla hadn’t expected him to strike when she tried to push him away. Perhaps he hadn’t meant to either. Blade held in his hand, he leaned into the young woman, nicking her in the shoulder when she wiggled from his grasp.

When she bled, her blood had a life of its own, running on autopilot down his blade onto his hands. From there it disappeared up his sleeve. Even when he broke contact, she still had control of her blood.

The guard grasped at his wrist when she entered him and tried to rip his tunic from his chest as her blood coursed through his veins with murderous intent. When he drew the sword back to strike again it was too late. The blood found its target and stopped his heart.

A final gasp escaped from his lungs and the man fell to the ground, twitching just as the boy in the alley had done mere hours before. The second guard dropped his sword and ran from the room screaming.

When her parents returned her mother finally found her voice. An ear-piercing shriek echoed through the house as the woman saw what her daughter was capable of. Her father was now speechless as he stood framed in the door. Carmilla looked back and forth between her parents and the fallen guard. She needed to deal with them but, first, she needed some blood.

I awoke staring at the ceiling, missing the feeling of waking up next to Kalliphae. Mate chat would suffice though. I could feel her stretching out in her bed as though she was right next to me. She smiled when she felt my presence. Good morning, Mel.

I didn’t get the chance to greet her because Quetzalcoatl burst into the connection. Why must you continuously wake up like that? The dream was just getting good. The vampire was about to kill her parents.

Byakko disagreed. She will imprison them. Nobody kills their parents. Parents are to be honored and respected.

The serpent shot back. Want to bet? I could feel her murderous intent. Right, Melvin? Back me up here.

I was about to give my opinion on the dream when Kalli spoke. Okay, you two. It’s timeout time. Go play quietly outside of Melvin’s head so the grownups can talk.

Quetzalcoatl only had a chance to reply with a single word. Grownups?

Then I kicked them both out, a snake and tiger appearing next to the bed in my room. With a little peace and quiet, I finally greeted my girlfriend.

Good morning, Kalli.

She had already made her way to the toilet when she replied. Before you say it, I miss sleeping with you too.

It was true. Kalli read my mind.

I need to change my schedule today. I’m dropping magical history and picking up a physical education class. It’s my weak point right now.

She had moved on to getting dressed for the day. Do you think I should drop my martial arts class with Alex?

I wanted to say yes but the only reason for that would be because I was still jealous of Alex.

Don’t you like the class? You can’t let someone like Alex push you away from something you want to do.

She sighed, molding the phoenix dress into the blue dress she found all those months ago in my mother’s closet. The sight of it put a smile on my face. She noticed and smiled back. I guess I’ll keep the class for now. Do you think I should take your mana class?

While spending more time with Kalli sounded fun, I wanted her to get the most out of her education.

Don’t worry. I can give you private lessons anytime.

She was already on her way out the door while I hadn’t even gotten out of bed yet. I’ll hold you to that. Don’t forget, you promised me a daily massage too.

Sitting up in bed, I wondered where Kalli was in such a hurry to go.

Would you like to have breakfast?

She replied by knocking on the door to my dorm. I watched Joe answer the door through my mind’s eye. Quickly throwing some clothes over my mana armor, I burst out of my room to see quite a few people staring back at me.

The gang was all there. Aside from my roommates, Wendy and Stefanie were both sitting around the common room table while Joe made waffles.

Raverly looked up at me, “Good morning Alfalfa.”

I gaped at the boy in confusion before Kalli filled me in. Your hair is sticking up. Why did he call you that?

You sort of answered your own question. Alfalfa is a kid from an old TV show whose hair always stuck up.

She giggled at me as I ducked back into my room to take a quick shower. By the time I returned breakfast was just wrapping up, and I had an early meeting with the headmaster so I had to eat as we walked to school.

We all walked together on our way to school. I decided that I liked being a part of the group for once. Kiki was the only one from the group that wasn’t with us. When I checked the map for her, my sister was nowhere to be found.

The headmaster was waiting for me when I arrived. When I walked in the door he smiled, “Good morning, Mr. Murphy. I heard that you played hooky from school on Friday.”

Not sure if I was in trouble again, I admitted, “Yes. I wanted to keep Kalliphae company since she was suspended.”

He nodded and made his way around the desk to his seat, “Ah. Yes. Well, since you have agreed to teach this class, I suppose I can ignore that. Kiki spoke to me about your compensation. She claimed to be your manager. It turns out that I was able to secure additional funding. Your pay will be 400 gold for the semester but you will be required to work with some of the named families in the area. I hope this is agreeable to you.”

A smile found its way to my lips. Access to named families was an unexpected bonus. Perhaps I could pick up a few more bloodlines as a bonus. With my new salary, we were halfway there. I looked across the table at Mr. Ramsey who was watching me anxiously and asked, “When do I get paid for this?”

He dropped a heavy bag on his desk and said, “It’s funny you should ask. Part of the contract your sister drew up stipulated that we pay in advance. I told her we could have paid more if you agreed to be paid at the end of the year but she insisted.”

When I reached for the bag, he pulled it back and placed a contract in front of me, explaining, “This is a standard magical contract. While a verbal agreement would also be binding, it’s always better to get these things in writing.”

I silently looked down at the document.

This employment contract (The Agreement) between The Academy (Employer) and Melvin Murphy (Employee) commences halfway through the Fall Semester of 2021.

The Employee will act as resident mana/chi/essence specialist.

Job Title and Description

1. The initial job title of the employee will be Mana Enhancement Instructor.

2. Employee will teach classes on Tuesday and Thursday from 08:00 - 09:00.

3. Employee will awaken the mana passageways for a minimum of 20 individuals to be chosen by the headmaster.

Employee Compensation

1. Compensation paid to the Employee for the services rendered by the Employee as required by the agreement (the “Compensation”) will include a salary of 400 gold for the remainder of the semester.

2. This Compensation will be payable upfront prior to any services rendered.

3. Failure to provide contracted services to The Employer will result in forfeiture of Compensation.

Special Addendum

1. Optional consideration for Kiki Morin as the facilitator of The Contract may be paid in mana.

Melvin Murphy (Employee)

Mortimer Ramsey (Employer)

I looked over the contract. After the main page, there were several additional pages of fine print that I quickly scanned. They mostly contained legal jargon about applicable laws and giving notice if I wanted to quit.

The part about Kiki confused me, so I asked Mr. Ramsey, “What does this part mean about paying the facilitator in mana?”

He twisted the contract so he could read it and frowned, “It looks like she is paying herself for her part in our contract. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen someone request payment in mana. The contract does say that it’s optional, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it if I were you.”

I made a cursory scan of the rest of the contract, pretending to be interested in what was written there. Once I finished, I signed my name and slid the contract back to the instructor. He signed as well and slid the bag of gold across the table.

Remembering Kalli’s dilemma, I asked, “Do you mind if I get a copy of the contract?”

Mr. Ramsey smiled and nodded, taking out a plain-looking wand. With a swish and a spell muttered under his breath, I was soon looking at two copies of the contract. Marveling at his magic, I asked, “Is that an illusion?”

The headmaster laughed and shook his head, “No. That was a simple duplication spell. I can teach you how to do it if you like.”

“Sure”, I announced, thinking about all of the wonderful things I could copy.

When I left the headmaster’s office I was frowning. It turned out that the duplication spell, Zxroxth, only copied documents. Still, I learned a new spell.

My next stop was the administration office to drop a class. The counselor gave me a bored look and asked, “What class would you like to drop, and will you be replacing it?”

Handing the woman my class schedule, I said, “I would like to drop magical history and replace it with a physical education class.”

She waved her hands in front of a glowing screen that hovered above her desk and asked, “Why do you wish to drop magical history?”

I answered truthfully, “They didn’t have any information on the things I wanted to learn about.”

Taking an interest in the conversation, the counselor asked, “What specifically were you hoping to learn?”

I shrugged, thinking back to my conversation with the teacher, “I took the class hoping to learn about magical bloodlines. The teacher didn’t seem to know much about it.”

The woman seemed to be thinking about it for a while before she agreed, “That is true. Nobody knows a lot about bloodlines except the families they come from. I suppose if you looked hard enough you might find someone who has done the research but can you really trust anything the named families say about their blood?”

I thought about that. It looked like I was going to have to dig deeper into my three bloodlines if I wanted to know what made them tick. When I didn’t speak, she asked, “What class would you like to choose. These are the selections for that time slot.”

She handed me a parchment with classes that began at 2:30 in the afternoon.

Class

Time

Mana Fencing

Mon-Thurs 2:30

Way of the Fist

Mon-Thurs 2:30

Big Weapons

Mon-Thurs 2:30

Obstacle Course Training

Mon-Thurs 2:30

I looked at the selections and asked, “What are these classes about?”

The councilor raised an eyebrow but explained anyway, “Mana fencing is the use of mana to create various weapons to defend yourself. As a summoner, this might be a good choice for you. Way of the fist is martial arts. Think kung fu but with a heavy focus on mana-enhanced blows. Big weapons class is self-explanatory. They use big weapons and only big weapons in that class. I think those guys are compensating for something. Obstacle course training is the most entertaining class to watch. Those students run obstacle courses and train by doing parkour all over the city.”

The choice was difficult because there were things I liked about all four classes. In the end, I chose Mana Fencing because I wanted to expand on my control over mana.

Now that I had my class schedule put back together, I needed to get to class. I was running late.