Secretly Sam by Heather Killough-Walden

Meagan?” Shawn asked, focusing his inhuman attention on the girl as she sidled a little closer to her teacher.
    Meagan didn’t answer, but Dietrich could almost hear her swallow. He watched her throat move, once more imagining the amount of blood she must be inadvertently drinking. She’d already wiped some away from beneath her nostrils; the smear of pink and red marked her upper lip and part of her cheek. The rain was taking care of the rest.
    “It’s not so bad,” Shawn said, still addressing Meagan. “The taste of blood. You get used to it.” He moved closer, taking slow, long strides that Dietrich and Meagan attempted to match in retreat. “I could get used to yours,” he continued, his tone lowering so that it became more personal. “He wants you both dead, but what a waste.” He sighed and shook his head. “Violet eyes are so rare. I’ve always admired yours, Meagan. Imagine how beautiful they would be if you were like us.”
    Meagan’s purple eyes flashed, and her hands clenched and unclenched at her sides. Dietrich felt the pull of power around her, a building of the witch’s inherent magic. She was drawing into herself, beefing it up as if preparing for an assault. And maybe she was.
    “Us?” Dietrich asked, gaining Shawn’s attention.
    The vampire turned his burning gaze on his history teacher. Shawn smiled, giving Dietrich a better view of those fangs. “Ah, Mr. Lehrer. The history teacher with the secret identity. A witch, no less.” He moved closer. “Or in your case, would it be wizard?”
    Dietrich tried to step back, but Meagan slipped behind him, her hand reaching out to clutch at his sleeve. Dietrich turned to look, steadying her as he did. They were up against the lip of the ravine. Loose rocks crumbled from the road into the mud, sliding down the slope to land in the building puddles below.
    A hissing sound was growing in volume, but Dietrich couldn’t place it. And he had more immediate concerns.
    “So tell me, teach,” said Shawn. “Can you magic your way out of this one?”
    Dietrich spun to face the vampire again, but the boy was no longer there.
    “ Boo .”
    Dietrich spun in the other direction, turning to his left to find that Briggs was now behind them, flush with the edge of the ravine, his boots mere inches from slipping down into the wet, sloshy ground below.
    Miraculously, he remained firmly where he was.
    “Holy mother….” Meagan’s voice trailed off as the hissing sound Lehrer had noticed earlier now became loud enough to muffle even the sound of the rain. It sounded like snakes – thousands of them. But this noise was joined by another, the kind of bubbling, gurgling sound that boiling water made.
    Dietrich frowned, looking from Briggs to the ravine and the car that was lodged deeply in its mud below. It was too dark at its base to see what was happening unless lighting was flashing. When it did, Dietrich’s eyes followed the line of illuminated sludge to where the ravine disappeared upstream. He watched that dark edge as the lightning died, shunting it into blackness once more.
    He continued to watch. The sound continued to grow.
    And then electricity brightened the night sky once more, a bolt striking so close by, Dietrich’s body reflexively curled in on itself for protection. But his eyes remained locked on the ravine – as a wall of frothing, foaming water six or seven feet tall rushed toward them.
    He’d been right. The deep, dark wet swallowed the ground, ate up everything in the ravine, and within seconds, it filled the space of the ditch to mere inches from the lip of the road, completely drowning the ruins of his car in the process.
    Dietrich watched it with wide eyes, thanking his lucky stars that he’d managed to get himself and Meagan out of it when he had.
    “You’re wasting time, Shawn,” came a new voice from behind them.
    Dietrich spun, drawing Meagan close.
    Another of Dominic’s band mates stood beside the abandoned semi. Dietrich