The vampire reared back at my blow.

“Traitor,” it hissed, stumbling off of Clara. She scrambled away.

“I was never one of you,” I shot back. “Don’t make me a monster like you.”

“Then you’ll die like a human,” the vampire replied— then lunged at me with its dozens of claws. I threw my hands up in reflex.

But the blows never landed.

I cautiously opened my eyes, and found Clara pelting the vampire with chunks of concrete. One hit the side of its head with a hollow thunk, and it turned away from me and back to her.

“Caspar!” she yelped. “A little help, here?”

Caspar started to raise his hands, but the vampire on top of him grabbed his arms with two of its many appendages and pinned them back. It leaned over him, fangs dripping with his blood, and prepared to go back to its suckling.

We weren’t outnumbered, but these things were clearly more prepared for a fight than we were.

I glanced at Clara.

“Sorry,” I whispered. “I wish I could save you.”

I didn’t know why I wished I could. But now that they had seen that I wasn’t a monster— now that I had thrown my lot in with theirs— I wished there was some way for me to come through this, too.

I wasn’t like Caspar, though. I’d never studied magic. Without my gun, I was powerless.

Caspar was the only one of us who could fight— but he was pinned.

It clicked. We had to free Caspar if we were going to have a chance.

I turned from the vampire nearest to me and rushed headlong at the vampire that was on top of Caspar. It turned towards me— but it was too late.

I crashed into it, tackling the insectoid creature to the ground and rolling it off of Caspar.

Caspar scrambled to his feet. Wasting no time, he stretched out his hands and slammed a massive wall of force into the vampire that was still attacking Clara, dashing it against the wall. The creature’s human head smacked against the concrete, blood dribbling from its skull.

The vampire I had wrestled off of Caspar sunk its claws into my shoulders. I let out a scream. Caspar turned back to me and sent another bolt of force hurtling into the vampire. I scrambled away from it, grabbing Clara’s hand and running towards the hallway exit.

“Go!” Caspar shouted. “I’ll put up a wall and delay them!”

We bolted down the hallway. Caspar followed us, stopping in the entryway to raise his hands. A shimmering plane of force appeared, blocking the entrance to the hall.

Clara and I dashed up the hallway, finding a flight of stairs at the end. Praying that there were no more vampires, we raced up them, and found ourselves upstairs, down the hall from the destroyed lobby.

The doors, however, were still locked.

“We need Caspar to blast those open,” Clara said.

“There might not be time.” I looked around frantically, searching for another exit.

Caspar ran up behind us.

“The force wall should hold for a few minutes,” he said. “What now?”

“We need to get out of here,” I said.

“No, duh.” Clara rolled her eyes.

I glared at her.

“Is this really the time—” I started.

There was a rough scrambling noise from the pit in the lobby.

“They’re trying to climb out,” Caspar said. “We need a plan, now.”

“Do you have magic that could, like, teleport us?” I ask Caspar.

He shook his head.

“I wish,” he said. “I’m an elemental magic user— I don’t do the occult stuff.”

That was a strange sentence to hear from someone who had tarot suit tattoos on his arms.

“You’re the deep one,” Clara said. “Don’t you have any magic?”

I shook my head.

“I’ve never learned.”

Clara swore.

“Caspar, this is in your hands,” she said.

Caspar bit his lip.

“I— I have an idea, but— it’s really dangerous.”

There was another clattering sound of claws on concrete from the lobby.

“Go for it,” Clara said.

Caspar took a deep breath.

“Stay close to me,” he said. Clara and I both took a step closer to him as he raised his hands above his head.

From outside the station, I heard a low howling, as if of some mighty beast. I felt a shiver of fear— was Caspar summoning something even more dangerous than vampires?

But then a mighty something hit the side of the station, and I realized that it was no beast— it was a great force of wind.

“Get ready,” Caspar said, gritting his teeth. The wind strained at the outside of the station. The building creaked, unsteady on its foundations.

Caspar knelt down, raising one hand above his head. A shimmering bubble of force appeared around us.

I realized what he was doing. He was going to blow the building down.

There was a momentous crack from overhead. A piece of the ceiling fell, hitting the force field and sliding off.

A moment later, the building seemed to explode. Glass shattered inwards. Beams were ripped from the ceiling. The walls collapsed around us.

Dust rose outside of the fore field, making it impossible to see. I cowered close beside Clara, praying that Caspar’s field would hold.

It did.

The dust settled around us, revealing the clear night sky above. After a moment, Caspar let the force field drop. Dusty air rushed in, making me cough.

There was silence for a long moment.

Then Caspar started to laugh.

“We did it,” he whispered, doubling over. “We did it. We’re alive.”

I glanced at Clara, then found myself grinning, too.

“We did it,” I repeated.

Then I remembered who I was with, and I took a step back. Were they going to make me run for it? After everything we just went through, was Clara still going to try to turn me in to Delta Green?