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That’s when I felt the press of ainst me A muffled explosion vibrated under the soles of my feet I looked around down the hallway, but other than the nearly silent bang, you could have heard a pin drop What I was feeling wasn’t the typical barrier against evil that so many businesses and houses have This was a spell "I think we have a proble back to Jamisyn and Sanchez

The principal’s face was frozen in position, mouth open But no, not precisely frozen I experienced what a thousand hubirds probably see every day Everyone in the school was running in slowIn fact, I would bet they believed the theet when the vampire inside me wants to come out and hunt at sunset Their movements were a crawl

Except this tiht--the factdown on

I slid back into the school I needed to confirm my suspicions There was aset into the door of the first classrooh, the kids inside were half out of their seats, ready to pick up their pencils and notebooks

This was not good

Jaered the spell Orover the threshold I raced fro in the silence Every class was the salance out the ed carsdown the shaded sidewalks It was just the people in the school ereslowly The reason for the spell came to me in a flash that e

If nobody could get away from a bomb or a killer, everyone would die It would be, sadly, child’s play I wasn’t exactly sure why I wasn’t affected It could be the vampire blood, that I was outside when the spell started, or maybe the protection charm disks I had in my jacket Either way, I knehy Dottie had insisted that I went to the school when I’d wanted to stay under the covers and pull the pillow over ht my eye and I chuckled at the irony of it Most every kid who has gone to a public school has wanted to do it Heck,lass on the front of the fire alarm, then pulled the lever down

Bells shattered the silence and echoed down the halls so loud it made my head throb Out on the street, one or two people paused, but when nobody ran out of the school, theyit was a fire drill In the distance, I could hear a phone ringing, only because it was a counterpoint in pitch

That was good, because without a call fro when the dispatcher called, they would send an engine Now I just needed to get the attention of the general public

Principal Sanchez had been right Because I didn’t knohat sort of danger I was getting into, I’d put on every weapon I could easily find on short notice One of those wasn’t precisely a weapon It was a distraction, a defense I raced down to open the s facing the street, pulled two "smoker" charainst the nearest locker The smoke is black and thick, a screen to disappear behind with a client in tow But the s the eyes, which is the nice thing aboutto match the bells and people would come

I raced back to the door and carried Principal Sanchez out, hoping that once I got her past the threshold, she would be out of the spell’s influence

It worked "Each of us … what?" She blinked repeatedly as she realized where she was--on the sidewalk, probably a dozen steps fro loud S toward us "Oh, rabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to meet my eyes "Listen to me There’s a spell on everyone in the school Probably tripped e opened the door There’s been an explosion in the baseot the fire departet the kids out We need to find out whether you can get back in the school without being affected by the spell again"