The knowledge of the pretty vampire out there gnawed at him. She'd tried to eat Manuel, and while it sounded as if she'd been injured, there was no confirmation of her demise. Which to a trained Watcher, even one cast out in disgrace, meant she was still out there – injured, hungry and plotting revenge. Vampires were often plotting. But less often plotting against people in Wesley's charge, even if only partly and by technicality.

Wesley worried less about the fact that it was only by technicality and more about the fact that a vampire was undoubtedly plotting a gruesome death for one of his students. Everything in his upbringing itched to do something to stop the vampire, to destroy her before she could harm one of his charges. Except that he was lacking the proper tools and resources to do so. Yes, he had some weapons, and he knew the forms for fighting, but… He did splendidly in practice forms, and controlled circumstances. Actually hunting down and killing a vampire was far from controlled circumstances.

Getting himself killed or maimed fumbling about on his own would be worse than useless. Blindly meandering about armed could cause any number of problems, from legal to reputation to other, non-demonic trouble. So what was he to do?

After a long time stewing over the matter while grading papers, an idea wiggled itself into his head. He was a teacher here, in a place where the Headmistress took a particular interest in the continuing survival and good health of some of her charges. He rather doubted she'd want anything dreadful happening even to those students who weren't her special students. Perhaps he could try to see if Headmistress Frost could help? Perhaps he could even try to call her Emma outside of his own thoughts? She had suggested that he was allowed on several occasions.

It was a daunting idea, asking Headmistress Emma Frost for help. Partly from old habits against discussing matters supernatural with those who weren't already in the know. Another part was that he'd had such dreadful luck asking and receiving help in general. A third part was that he just felt entirely self conscious, tongue-tied and flustered speaking in front of anyone, let alone such an attractive and capable woman.

He gathered his nerves together as well as the papers. Considering the time of day, she was most likely in her office, so he made his way towards the primary administrative building of the lovely campus. Hopefully she would have a few moments to spare, and hopefully she wouldn't laugh at him.

His walk to the administrative building passed in a blur of pleasant scenery. He spent a few long moments waiting outside her office, struggling with old memories of failing to live up to his father's expectations, of problems at school, of so many, many times he'd been found lacking. Those old events didn't matter.

"Do come in, Wesley," her voice seemed quite collected. As if no troubles plagued her.

He regretted how he was about to spoil that calm. "Headmistress…" the small tilt of an eyebrow and tiniest pursing of her lips caused Wesley to amend his words, "Emma, there is a situation causing me concerns, and it connects painfully to the safety of our students."

"What seems to be the problem?" One pale hand invited him to sit.

Wesley sank into the white chair and the words began pouring out. His education about the habits and vindictive nature of vampires. How the buxom vampire from the club would likely be plotting against Manuel and Haroun, and by extension any other student of the school. His persistent desire to remove the threat before his students were harmed and his concerns regarding his own capabilities. Some but not all of the potential disasters which might follow attempting on his own and his distaste for each of those dreadful outcomes. He tried to keep his own weaknesses and failings to himself, focusing on the identifiable problem of the vampire and however many other vampires might come stalking, as well as hostile demons and how dreadfully beyond his personal ability he felt the current situation.

"… and so I'm hoping you can help devise a viable plan," Wesley finished, his throat a trifle sore from talking so much.

Emma blinked, her lips parting for a moment and the words dying. She tried again before managing, "I consider the safety of the students very important. Preventing them from being eaten with or without the consumption as a follow-up to torture suddenly finds itself quite high on a list of things to avoid the students experiencing. I confess it was not a listing I had thought necessary."

Wesley ducked his head in an attempt to hide the wince. He hated the way mentioning some of the harsh realities of the supernatural could ruin pleasant or even just calm moods. "Most fail to consider such ugly fates until circumstances conspire to ruin their delusions of safety."

"We will make plans to protect the students, Wesley. I won't let them become dinner and minions for demons and vampires." Emma paused, her head tilted as she considered the matter.

Wesley wondered why his imagination supplied her voice murmuring 'if the students become anyone's minions they will be mine.' It seemed too absurd a thing for the Headmistress to say, and therefore she couldn't have said it… right? "I presume the final plans will take some time, but I am relieved to… to not be alone in this, I suppose."

"There will be an assortment of plans, some of which will take longer to devise than others. For the short term…" Emma paused, and then gave a smile which seemed positively wicked. "In the short term, do you think Haroun and Amara might be up for a little hunting? Eliminating a few vampires with minimal support networks could only be a benefit to my school. If it can be an educational opportunity for the students as well, then the advantages are increased. Of course, this assumes you have some idea of how to find vampires either alone or in pairs."

Wesley considered the idea, trying to push back unrealistic images of himself leading a pair of students on a dusty rampage against the local vampire population, with none of the living picking up more than a movie-style minor bruise or dramatic scrape on the temple or cheek. Life was not like the movies and television would often portray, and did not have the option to retry a scene. "I think they both have sufficient sword skills under class circumstances. I suspect Amara would keep calm… no, rather I suspect Amara would not freeze up in troubling circumstances. Haroun has shown he can not fall to pieces, and if he isn't repressing he might like the chance to act against vampires. Experiences such as his can occasionally cause an irrational sensitivity, and such things should be discouraged. Caution is good and sensible, but…"

"There is caution and there is over reacting concern and fear," Emma nodded. "What of Manuel?"

"I doubt his ability to remain focused, and fear he might use his emotional manipulations at the wrong time." Wesley had no hesitation giving his answer. "While his sword-work is decent for a classroom setting and he might do well enough at competitions, I would not feel comfortable taking him into potential combat at this point. I'm… to be honest, I'm waiting to see how he reacts to his misadventure and hoping it will help him grow up a bit. His attitude strikes me as quite self centered and immature. Both of those are terrible things to have if one is fighting in a group."

"Much as I'd like to assume he would know better, you have a point about how he has acted before now. I'll keep an eye on him for changes as a result of his misadventure as well. If it seems he is reacting poorly, perhaps targeted violence might help him," Emma mused.

"I will begin a bit of research to determine good locations to find stray vampires. To accomplish this, I'll be checking locations for clubs, cemeteries, and officially abandoned warehouses. Perhaps also police reports and statistics on assault locations. As much as I'd like to eliminate as many vampires as possible as soon as possible, not preparing ahead of time would be fatal at best," Wesley replied.

"For this, better to be thorough than fast," Emma decided.

"Quite reasonable. Shall I let you know when I feel I have sufficient information?" Wesley felt quite relieved at the way she was taking the whole matter, unpleasant as the matter was.

Emma nodded, a clear dismissal of Wesley for now.

Wesley felt vastly relieved over the whole thing as he returned to grading papers. Only after they were finished would he start mapping out the various cemeteries, clubs, and officially empty warehouses and abandoned buildings. Gaining access to the police data was technically not legal, but he'd figured out Emma wouldn't mind a minor bending of the law like that if it was for the benefit of the students and especially if it passed unnoticed.

End part 9.