Magaestra: Tested: An urban fantasy series

by Katherine Kim

A shriek from outside the window drew everyone's attention as two small blurs dashed to the playset. Tamika, Ori, and Kenya following behind a bit slower.

  "Well, at least I know Kaylee's happy and healthy. And not one of you has answered my question yet." Her expression could make hardened warriors shiver, and Fatih winced, knowing that she didn't want to have to tell this woman about... well... anything.

  Faith fumbled though trying to form a complete sentence“Um, Crissy…. That is we—”

  "Crissy has been kidnapped, Miss Latham," Marc jumped in. “We had hoped to have her back, safe and sound before worrying you.”

  Lucy's gaze frosted over and she turned to Faith. She didn't say anything, just raised an eyebrow at her and waited for details.

  “Is that so?” She said after a few moments of silence. The demand for information was more than clear in her tone, and Faith could easily hear the fear her aunt was holding back. Panic and hysteria were not things Aunt Lucy was prone to, thank goodness.

  "Um, she, uh." Faith swallowed. This woman raised them, she wasn't going to attack Faith because of events outside her control. She might be mad that Faith didn't call her right away, but, she wouldn't be mad for long.

  "We were attacked. Kaylee and I, I mean. At the cabin. That's why Rod is staying there right now and we're here," she started. Marc nodded when she glanced over at him and she felt Aldric's hand on her back, his thumb stroking gently up and down her spine. "The guy who was Crissy's one night stand somehow found out that she had Kaylee and came to kidnap them both, but when I fended off his, um, his thugs long enough for Aldric to show up to beat them and get me and Kaylee away, he went after Crissy. We haven't been able to find her yet, but everyone who's investigating thinks that she's not too far away. It's too personal a situation, and they still want Kaylee for some reason."

  Faith was very pleased with herself for not letting any paranormal information slip.

  "Everyone who is investigating?" Aunt Lucy asked, her eyes narrowing. "You mean the police, I should hope."

  "Yes. Detective Lincoln has been here a lot, and I know he's working hard to track down the people involved. And Aldric's cousin is doing some unofficial investigating, too, since he's a computer whiz." Faith scrunched up her face and shrugged "He's not hampered by all the red tape and official nonsense that the police are he says, and Ken-- Detective Lincoln-- has very carefully not asked too much about it. I don't think he wants to know where any anonymous tips come from in case Leo finds anything."

  Aunt Lucy hummed and sipped her coffee, letting the information turn over in her mind. She eyed the way Aldric stayed close to Faith and glanced at Marc, who sat quietly drinking from his cup, then outside where Kaylee was dragging Tamika into the playset prison again, and Kenya and Ori were clearly on guard duty without being too stiff about it. Faith held her breath when a sentry stepped out of the shadows of the treeline for a moment before fading back into the brush. If Aunt Lucy saw them, she didn't say anything.

  Hopefully, she just thought it was a dog at this distance.

  She turned back to raise an eyebrow at Faith and set her coffee cup down carefully on the side table by her elbow.

  "That seems like a fair number of people for watching those kids out there," Lucy said, slowly. "And I have heard the movement in the rest of the house, so I know there are more people here than just us and them." She nodded outside. "Not to mention that Rod fellow back at the cabin."

  "When I offered Faith and Kaylee a safe place to stay, my people and I took that promise seriously," Marc nodded. "They don't look it, but those three out there are some of the fiercest fighters I know, and they adore Kaylee and Jake both. They couldn't be in better hands."

  "And I give you my word as the head of security here that every precaution is being taken to make sure that Faith and Kaylee are both safe here while we search for Crissy," Aldric added with a slight bow.

  "You say that this hoodlum was the man that fathered Kaylee? Why would he try to kidnap her instead of sending a lawyer? It doesn't make sense." Lucy pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes at Faith.

  "Faith?" she asked. "You trust these men? And those folk out there?"

  "I do," Faith said, with a nod. "Completely. These are good people. They didn't have to step in to help us, but they did, and they even fought off another attempt at snatching us. Ori got hurt and just finished healing up, and he's still out there on watch."

  Lucy nodded again. "That's good enough for me then." Her words were brisk and final like a decision had been made and she was moving to the next problem. "Do you suppose it has something to do with the gifts your mother passed down to you girls, and I assume to Kaylee as well? It’s not like this lowlife could just tell a judge about wanting to control some mages, after all.“

  "Wh-- what?" Faith's hand shook so hard that Aldric took her coffee cup and sat it on the table before taking her hand in his. She knew that she was gaping like a fish in a boat, but couldn't seem to stop.

  Aunt Lucy just huffed and rolled her eyes. "You girls always thought you could pull the wool over my eyes like I didn't already know everything. You two have never been as careful or clever as you thought you were. So, I'm asking again." Lucy leaned forward and flicked her eyes over Aldric's now blank countenance. "Was Crissy taken because of you girls' magic or not?"

  4

  Faith sputtered and trembled and all Aldric could do was put his arm around her in support. Marc had gone very still, watching Lucy. Aldric studied the woman again, from her faux careless hairstyle to her sensible but stylish shoes, and every inch of the woman said competent, intelligent, and determined. She might look at first glance like an amiable older woman, but Aldric had enough experience in his life to be wary.

  "What are you talking about, Aunt Lucy?" Faith asked. Her voice was too high-pitched and uneven to be taken as it was intended, even if Lucy had been a less astute sort of woman.

  Lucy sighed and deflated slightly. "Oh, Faith. I've known about your mother's family since the day your parents found out they were going to be parents.” Lucy sat back and swept her fingers over her forehead. She gave Aldric another assessing stare then turned it on Marc, who returned it steadily.

  The corner of Lucy's mouth twitched upward and a gleam appeared in her eye while Faith just sat there, stunned. Lucy nodded.

  "You seem to have found some very determined protectors. Good." She raised her brow at Marc. "I don't know what your story is, but I think I can guess. I will tell you this once, though. It doesn't matter in the slightest what you are, if you hurt my girls I will come for you and I am more dangerous than I look."

  It was Marc's turn to fend off a smile. "I give you my word, as I gave it to Faith and Kaylee themselves. They will be protected with everything we can call upon. As for your threat," Marc did grin now. "You will have to get in line, I suspect."

  She turned back to Aldric, who kept his face as blank as he could.

  Lucy smirked at him regardless. "I had noticed, yes."

  "Aunt Lucy!" Faith slumped and hid her face in her hands. After a moment she sat up again. "What do you mean you knew about Mom's family? What did you know? And what do you mean we weren't as clever as we thought we were? You'd better start explaining."

  Lucy's gaze softened. "When your mom found out she was pregnant with Crissy, she and your dad knew that they needed to find someone to name as guardian, in case the worst happened. So they came to me." She paused and sipped her coffee and stared into the cup, lost in her memories for a moment. "They told me about the magic, and about what had happened to her family, and about how much danger there was for a mage in the world. I didn't believe them, of course. It sounded so outlandish! Magic and evil vampires and hunters and government conspiracies... It's the stuff of the movies I was working on, not real life."

  "You know about vampires?" Aldric asked. "What else?"

  Lucy grinned now, the gleam back in her eye. "I know about vampires and werewolves and all sorts of things. So don't think
you're fooling me, young man. I saw that wolf in the trees a few minutes ago. I know what you all are."

  And now it was Aldric's turn to be amused. "I doubt that, somehow. And I am older than I appear," he said. "Young lady."

  That made her eyebrows shoot up and a look of apprehension washed over her. Her whole body tensed.

  "Aunt Lucy, Aldric is not an enemy," Faith jumped in. "He damn near died trying to save Crissy from those assholes, and I won't have you thinking whatever it is that you're thinking right now. I know that look. That's the look you get right before you take someone down."

  "Take someone down?" Marc asked.

  Faith snorted. "Don't let the innocent, helpless woman act fool you. Aunt Lucy does Krav Maga for fun in her spare time."

  Lucy huffed and settled herself. "I have also taken up knitting," she said primly.

  Faith rolled her eyes. "My point is that whatever it is you're thinking, you are not allowed to attack Aldric, do you understand me?"

  Lucy eyed her niece for a long moment. Then she turned her eyes back to Aldric, assessing him all over again, this time for danger rather than trustworthiness. Aldric simply sat and let her judge him. He could understand being cautious if she was told anything about how much terror a handful of his kind caused around the world.

  "I suppose I wouldn't judge all humans on the actions of a few murderers. I shouldn't judge you by the actions of a few psychopaths either," she said at last.

  "Thank you." Aldric bowed his head. "I have sworn to protect Faith and Kaylee with my life, and I will not go back on my word."

  "I feel like we've gotten off track slightly," Marc said. "Since we're all friends here, and we all know about the paranormal world, let's start over. I am Marc Keller, leader of the Frostwalker Clan, and werewolf. This is Aldric Donnelly, my second in command and Head Enforcer for the clan, and one of our vampire members. Faith and Kaylee have both accepted membership in our clan as well, and while we have not been able to discuss it with her in person, I have claimed Crissy as ours as well to underpin our rescue efforts. She is family and that is enough.”

  He leaned forward. "We do not abandon our own."

  "Excellent." Lucy nodded. "You say you have tried to rescue my niece already?"

  Faith grimaced and started to tell Lucy the whole story, from what Crissy had told her of the creepy man in town hanging about near Kaylee's preschool, through the attack at the cabin and Crissy's kidnapping. Aldric took over for a moment when she stumbled over the near rescue of Crissy at the lodge and how the surprise attack of the strange vampires had caused them to lose Crissy again. Then he faltered when he tried to tell the story of the raid on the camp in the nearby forest.

  "Aldric was dying, stuck under that damn boulder. I couldn't move it, even with my magic and he was too weak to help," Faith's voice broke. "I wasn't going to let him die." She glared at Lucy, full of defiance, daring her aunt to speak out against her actions.

  Lucy's eyebrow rose and a small smile graced her face. "I see."

  "He tried to refuse!" Faith grumbled. "Can you believe that? There I am bleeding thanks to the damn fall anyway, sitting in the dark, scared to death that he was about to die himself, and he wouldn't freaking feed! He argued with me about it!"

  Marc was grinning now and Lucy's smile had widened as Faith got more vehement. "It sounds like he should know by now how stubborn you are."

  Faith just growled quietly. Lucy just laughed.

  "Well," she said after a moment. "I suppose you're all right after all. I'm sure you understand my concerns. Their mother didn't have a whole story to work from, just the warnings from her own parents to stay away from vampires at all costs. Werewolves were slightly less of a concern, but to be avoided if possible anyway."

  Aldric nodded. He understood, and as general advice went it made sense for Magaestra to be warned away from other paranormals, considering what had happened. Vampires, being long-lived, also had long memories. Not all the vampires that survived the war were fighting on the side of freedom and life.

  "Yes, ma'am. But one of the core tenants of the Frostwalker Clan is respect for others. Whether they are paranormal or human, we consider it our duty to protect those who need it," Marc cut in. "We are not a large group, but large enough that anyone coming into our territory should know better than to kidnap a woman right from under our noses. We take that very seriously on its own. The rest of this?" Marc shook his head and growled softly. "Unacceptable."

  "They've been dealing with the Goldfangs while they're looking for Crissy. It's been a mess." Faith slumped to the side and Aldric wrapped his arm around her shoulders, holding her close and trying to lend her some of his strength if she needed it. She tipped her head to his shoulder in seeming acknowledgment.

  "So, let's see if I can boil it down," Lucy said, eyeing Aldric and her niece. Faith sat up and nodded.

  "This Jesse Honeyford snatched Crissy and tried to grab Kaylee as well because he is Kaylee's sperm donor," Lucy raised an eyebrow and Faith nodded.

  "That's right. We're not sure if Kaylee will be a mage or a wolf. We'll have to wait and see," Faith said.

  Lucy hummed. “After nearly mowing them all down, he did manage to grab Kaylee, along with your son Jake," Lucy glanced at Marc who nodded. She looked over out the window to the kids, both cheerfully running around the playset as three Enforcers watched-- both the kids and the surroundings-- with indulgent smiles. Kaylee yelled something and Ori started to cackle, nodding enthusiastically.

  "Then, when you rescued the kids and found Crissy, she got snatched again in the middle of a battle with an unknown foe. After the dust from that has barely settled, you hear a rumor of wolves nearby with a captive, and you go to find them in the hopes that the captive is Crissy and find wolves and unknown vampires working together now, instead of against each other."

  "That about sums it up. The captive wasn't Crissy, but Honeyford's younger brother who is, apparently, the only other person that Honeyford actually seems to care about. Jesse, I mean. He was livid to hear that his brother was taken and beaten to try to learn where Kaylee and Faith were hiding. Greg Honeyford had us take him to the cells once he had healed up enough and tore into his brother for the initial kidnapping situation, and stormed out again, without letting Jesse respond” Marc said. "That guy looks like a preschool teacher, all soft and sweet, but boy is he not at all soft when it comes down to it. He's going to teach the kids here this coming school year so we can keep them under guard more easily."

  "And you trust him?"

  "We do," Faith said. "He was in really bad shape, Aunt Lucy. And when he recovered enough for us to tell him what happened, he felt horribly guilty. I'll introduce you in a bit if you want, so you can interrogate him." Faith grinned. When Aldric raised a brow at her she giggled. "Maybe you could send Aunt Faith down to the cells to get a few more answers. Bet she comes back with information Ken missed."

  "We will consider it," Aldric said, amused.

  Faith sobered again after a breath and turned back to her aunt, who sat regarding them with a raised brow and a small smile. Aldric hoped that meant she had forgiven him for his species.

  "You really knew about our magic this whole time?" Faith asked, her voice smaller than Aldric had heard before.

  Lucy's smile softened and she reached out a hand. Faith jumped up and ran around the coffee table to settle beside her aunt, who took both of Faith's hands in her own. "Your parents wanted to make sure that I was ready, in case I needed to do exactly what I did. They needed me to know, and frankly, I'm glad they warned me or I would have shrieked the first time I saw you levitate something, or Crissy lighting one of those damned candles she loved in high school."

  Faith groaned. "I did wonder why you always stressed out about fire safety. We thought you were just really nervous about apartment fires.”

  Lucy snorted. "I was. I was raising two young idiots that thought fire was a toy."

  "We did not!" Faith grumbled.

 
Aldric exchanged a glance with Marc.

  "Well, since there seem to be no secrets here to worry about, we will take your things upstairs to a room and let you get settled in," Marc said. "I'm making chili for dinner tonight, and it will be ready about six. Anything you don't eat I should know about?"

  "Not a thing, I'm easy to feed," Lucy smiled at him. “And I should thank you. Both of you, it seems." She nodded at Aldric. "For keeping at least two of my girls safe. Anything I can do to help, I'm at your service. I would like to talk to this Leo fellow if you think I can."

  Aldric nodded. "I will let you know when he calls in later this evening," Aldric said. "He is likely asleep right now."

  "Ah. Vampire hours." Lucy nodded solemnly, but her eyes sparkled when she looked at him again. “Much the same thing as hacker hours, I suppose. You let me know. For now, I think Faith and I have a lot to talk about. Why don't you show me to a room, dear, and we'll catch up on three weeks of missed calls, hmm?"

  The raised eyebrow left nobody in the room with the impression that Faith would be seen again before dinner.

  5

  "So I was thinking that today we'd talk a bit about joining magics." Ken slung his bag into an empty chair and sat heavily before reaching over to pour himself some coffee from the carafe at the end of the table. This was how they usually started these lessons. A long chat about theory or how much Faith already knew about something, then Ken's rambling explanations, then they would move to the other end of the table away from the coffee and snacks Faith brought downstairs to eat before practice.

  Ken always went for the coffee first, groaning at the first sip. "God, that is so much better than the swill at the station. I think it's a law that cop coffee has to be barely potable."

  The comment about coffee was also part of his routine and made Faith grin.

  "Joining magics?" she asked.

  "Yep." He took another sip and reached for a sandwich. "I remembered last night that you mentioned Kaylee and Jake trying to help you out at the lodge battle. I'm a bit mad at myself that I didn't remember sooner, frankly. This is pretty important stuff. Not basic, mind you, but nothing about your training makes any sort of logical sense anyway at this point. We're just jumping around a bit."