Magaestra: Loyalties: An urban fantasy series

by Katherine Kim

  "Those guys aren't stupid, Sammy. Alpha Molin is underestimating them, I'm telling you. We're going to get killed!" The second one was whimpering now, though he raised some excellent points. It seemed that the Goldfangs weren't all intellectual failures. "We shouldn't even be here anyway. There's no reason for us to be attacking them and you know it."

  "Whatever, man. You want to go back to the camp, go for it. I'm staying the hell away from that mess. I've had it with those goddamn prissyass leeches and those nasty things they call dogs-- which is a fucking insult to canines-- and that little faggot's whining. I can't take it anymore. I still don't know why the hell we need him for, anyway. I still don't know why Alpha hasn't killed him yet. Put us all out of our misery. At least you're good for something. Now get back in there and finish makin' us lunch. I'm hungry."

  Aldric had heard enough. These fools thought that hiding out in Faith's family cabin was a good choice? He was more than happy to show them their mistake. And they knew where the Goldfangs had a camp nearby? No doubt that was the place that they were launching their attacks from. It was time to remove these wolves from the Latham's property. He felt Tamika's growl more than he heard it, and knew that she agreed with him.

  By now the arguing pair were almost to the truck parked sloppily at an angle across the small grassy patch in front of the door. The leader of this little group of hideaways rounded the back of the vehicle, still grousing at his companion. There were still three wolves inside that he could tell. For now, they had these two to take out.

  Before the wolf could get the back of the truck open, Aldric was on him, tackling him to the ground and striking him hard enough to bounce the wolf's head off the ground. He heard Tamika taking down the other one behind him. His opponent shoved hard and managed to roll Aldric off to gain some space.

  They wrestled back and forth like that for a few minutes, until a bark alerted Aldric to the arrival of the other three wolves from inside the cabin. Then it was three against one, and Aldric had no time to think too hard. He knew Tamika was holding her own well enough, since the other wolf that had been arguing when they engaged was already on the ground, groaning.

  He was dodging and punching, but losing ground, as he was less inclined to just put all three down. Dispatching full rogues who were attacking innocents was one thing. A rogue wolf was one step from going completely feral, so it was often safer for the community as a whole. Aldric didn't enjoy it, but it was a sad truth of the paranormal world. He hoped that if he ever skirted too close to blind bloodlust, someone else would show him the same mercy.

  Besides. These shifters had information. They could not talk if they were dead.

  A dark blur crashed into one of his opponents, as Tamika took one of them on herself. That meant that there were already two down.

  "You're losing. Give up and we may be more prone to mercy," Aldric said. He fended off another blow from the newcomer and struck back, landing a solid blow with all his strength. The wolf flew back and bounced off a tree to land in a heap, unmoving.

  "Fuck you," the leader of bunch snarled, and his magic flared around him.

  Aldric was ready for the wolf's shift and whipped a hand out to grab the creature's ear and a hind leg, and put him on the ground on his side. The wolf whimpered, but couldn't reach him with either tooth or claw at the angle Aldric held him.

  "You're going to be very helpful to the Frostwalkers, my new friend," Aldric practically purred into the ear he held firmly in his right hand. From his side, Tamika stalked up and growled at the struggling wolf, snapping at his throat before she tipped her head back and howled.

  A few miles off, he heard several voices raised in answer, and he recognized Rod's among them.

  "Hear that? There will be sentries here in minutes," Aldric grinned. "And then, once you're in our holding cells, you and I will have a discussion on the morality of squatting, kidnapping, and various other topics."

  The sudden shift back to human lost Aldric his grip on the wolf, and he had to leap back to avoid the fist.

  "I'm not telling you shit, bloodsucker," the wolf snarled and leapt at Aldric again, shifting in midair. It was a difficult feat and most wolves didn't bother learning how to do it, so Aldric was caught unprepared and found himself flat on his back before he could react.

  Instinct took over and as the wolf snapped his teeth at Aldric and dug claws into his belly and Aldric felt the heat blooming where the wolf dug in. Aldric's own claws found the wolf's throat. A moment later, the wolf dropped to the ground.

  "Oh shit, Aldric!" Tamika's voice sliced through his shock. He shoved at the dead wolf, rolling the body away from him and a wave of pain made him dizzy.

  "Tamika? I think..."

  "I think you stay put, sugar. That's bleeding like hell. Damn gut wounds. Hold tight, here's reinforcements!"

  Rod's voice was shouting orders and Aldric decided to lie back down and let his enforcers handle it. Right now, he needed to focus on not moving too much so he could heal. Again.

  Faith was going to have some very pointed words for him when they got home. For some reason, that thought made him smile.

  10

  Faith paced back and forth in the kitchen, checking the coffee again and fussing with the little plate of sandwiches she had made up. Ken said that he didn't need anything, but as hard as he had apparently been working lately, she was sure he wasn't eating well. She knew that when she got caught up in a project she could forget to have anything more than coffee for days.

  Not that being a police detective was anything like being an accountant, but still.

  She was practically vibrating, waiting for him to show up. Aldric was in his office making plans with Tamika. Faith had mentioned that she was a bit worried about her cabin, so he promised to check on it first, before they made their circuit of the Frostwalker Clan's territory. They were going to head out soon.

  When the doorbell rang, she just about jumped out of her skin. She heard faint voices in the front hallway and then footsteps heading back.

  "She's in the kitchen here." A sentry entered the room and grinned at Faith. "You two have a nice chat. Aldric will be back soon and check up on you."

  Faith raised an eyebrow at that last bit, but smiled and nodded anyway. Ken just grunted, and the sentry turned back to the front hallway.

  "Morning, Miss Latham." He looked exhausted, dark circles under his eyes and his shirt rumpled like he'd slept in it. It was a different shirt than yesterday's, though, and he didn't have much stubble on his chin so she knew at least he had been home at some point to shower and change.

  “I meant it, call me Faith, please. I assume you want some coffee?" She was pouring it before he answered. When she handed it to him, she poured the rest of the pot into a thermos, arranged it, another cup, and some cream onto the tray with the sandwiches, then led the way to the basement stairs.

  "Come on down. There's a meeting room that Marc said we can use so it's just us. No little eyes or accidental ears to catch wind of anything." She nudged the light switch with her elbow and led the way down the stairs.

  "How's the kid?" Kenneth asked. "The wolf boy I mean? I got the impression that they don't usually fuzz out like that till puberty or something."

  "He's doing okay," she answered. "Yeah, under normal circumstances he'd have been a few years older before his first shift. I guess all the stress lately and his determination to protect Kaylee just triggered it early. Marc's been working with him since he shifted back, going over all the tricks and tips for smooth shifts, but it's been tough. Now that he's shifted once, he's having a tough time staying in one shape. Marc's worried about school next month."

  They dodged through the gym and down a short hallway until she used her elbow again to hit the lights in a room that looked like a cross between an elementary school meeting room and an old dorm lounge. She put the tray down on the table, then pulled a chair out, not sure really what to do next. Kenneth shrugged out of his jacket and draped it over the
back of the seat across from the one she hovered behind, picked up his coffee, and took a long swallow before he sat like he was planting himself for a long session of paperwork.

  “Much better, thanks,” he said. “Now then. Where do you want to start?”

  Faiths brain came to a screeching halt. She knew, distantly, that she must look like an idiot, gaping at him like she was, but she couldn’t for the life of her think of even one word to say. Kenneth’s eyebrow quirked up, and he tried to keep a grin off his face.

  “Okay, why don’t we start from the beginning, then? That’s usually the best place to start. What’s your strength? What family of magic are you best at?”

  “Um,” Faith blinked. “I’m not sure about families of magic. My mom died before she could teach me much and the aunt we lived with after that didn’t know anything about it. So, I guess...” Faith bit her lip and frowned at her coffee. “I guess the thing I’m best at right now is shields. And I killed a vampire at the lodge with my magic. Basically, I turned my shield from a dome shaped thing into a pointy thing and shoved it into the guy who was about to kill Aldric.”

  Kenneth whistled low. “Kinetic magic isn’t very common. Wasn’t even before those assholes tried to wipe us out. As for me, I’m best with fire, if you hadn’t guessed.”

  Faith had to huff a laugh at that. “The monster-dog melting fireballs kind of gave you away, yeah.”

  “So, your mom died, huh? That’s why you don’t have more training?”

  Faith had the feeling that he was using his Good Cop tricks with her, but since she had nothing to hide and everything to gain, there was no reason to hold back now. “Yeah. Crissy and I were kids when Mom and Dad were killed in a car accident. My grandparents were already dead by then-- I barely remember them. Gramma had cancer, and then Grampa just gave up and was dead too, about four months later.”

  “And you lived with an aunt after that?”

  “Yeah.” Faith sipped at her coffee and picked up a sandwich, mostly so she had something to do with her hands. “Aunt Lucy was wonderful. She was a single woman, living a super busy life in L.A. when our folks died, then suddenly she had two devastated little girls to take care of. She was amazing, and she’s threatening to come out here and bust some heads if we don't get back to our normal weekly phone calls soon. I haven’t told her everything, of course, but I’ve been holding her off as much as I can, but she's smart and she can figure out some of what I'm not telling her, so...”

  “And she doesn’t know about your magic?”

  Kenneth took a sandwich of his own and bit into it. “Oh man, that’s good. What is that? It's not beef.”

  “Venison. Marc makes an amazing roast, and if there are leftovers, it makes a crazy good sandwich. Aldric tries to make sure there’s always some venison in the fridge,” Faith said. “And no. Aunt Lucy was my dad’s sister, and the one thing that was always drummed into us, by both our parents, even before we could do anything ourselves, was to never tell anyone, ever, unless we knew we could trust them. We were kids, and even though we trusted Aunt Lucy, we kept the secret.”

  Kenneth nodded. “So how did these...” he waved a hand over his head vaguely and looked like he wanted to grimace but was still playing Good Cop. “These people find out? That is far more dangerous than your human aunt knowing.”

  “When Kaylee and I were first attacked, we were in our cabin. I had no idea that werewolves or vampires or any of this even existed, so when they came crashing into the kitchen like that, I panicked. I yanked Kaylee behind me and threw up a shield.” Faith shivered at the memory. “I hadn’t even used my magic at all in years. It was just instinct, you know?”

  Faith was ready to get started, but a little voice in the back of her head that sounded remarkably like Aldric was reminding her that Ken had taken a huge risk in revealing himself, and reassuring him that the Frostwalkers were no threat to his safety was just as important as her own learning. That's what she was doing here answering his questions instead of complaining about the topic, building trust.

  Kenneth nodded. “An excellent instinct.”

  “Yeah. Well, I was running out of energy when Aldric came crashing through the door and took the rogues out. I had just enough time to see that they were all dead when I passed out. Kaylee says I fainted and then Aldric carried me like the ladies on Mom's books she thinks I don't know she hides under her pillow." Faith grinned and even Ken snorted at the impression of the five-year-old. "I woke up upstairs, tucked neatly under a quilt, and when I came exploring I found Kaylee and Jake engaged in a fierce battle against the Great Ticklebeast.”

  Kenneth blinked. “The what?”

  Faith laughed. “Marc. He was letting the kids wrestle him down and beat him with pillows. Aldric only told Marc what he had seen me do because he’s the Chief and needed the complete story, then went back out to start looking for Crissy. This was right before we found out that she'd been kidnapped. Marc offered us the protection of the Frostwalker Clan right away, and we didn’t tell anyone else here anything other than that my sister was missing and rogues were after Kaylee. Not until we found the dead werewolf in the ditch. That's when we told the Enforcers, but that’s it. That’s everyone who knows. Well. Now you, Leo, and Uncle Eldridge know, too. And the kids.”

  Faith swore. "And, I guess, anyone who wasn't killed at the fight at the lodge when the other vampires took Crissy and tried to take us. Crap, I hadn't really thought about that until now."

  Ken growled and finished his coffee. Faith got the impression that he was Keeping some of his thoughts to himself. "Letting these people know about our magic is the riskiest gamble we could possibly take. You have to understand that. We can't trust them," he said. he leaned forward and tapped on the table, his gaze focused on Faith. "Do you know what they're likely to do?"

  Faith narrowed her eyes and growled slightly herself. "They are likely to protect me. I trust the Frostwalkers, Detective. They've proved themselves more than once. One of them is dead because they were trying to rescue Crissy. To keep me and the kids safe."

  Kenneth frowned. "Do you have any idea what paranormals like that are capable of? Why there are so few of us?"

  "I do." Faith nodded. "Aldric and Marc talked to me about it to explain why Aldric and Marc were so stunned to find me. And then again when we were guessing at why those vamps might be after us. Aldric was particularly upfront about it, since I think he feels that he's more guilty by association. But there are two important things to think of."

  Kenneth raised an eyebrow and waited. Faith appreciated that he wasn't trying to bluster and steamroll her opinion on this, no matter how strongly he apparently felt about it. He likely had a perfectly good reason to distrust other paranormals.

  "First: don't be racist. Err, speciesist," Faith squinted and turned the word over in her head, then shrugged and kept going. "You can't just paint everyone that shares a genetic trait with the same brush, and you can't blame someone today for something that happened generations ago. People change. Cultures change. Hell, Germany learned lessons from that war so massive that they passed major laws to avoid it ever happening again. You don't think every German born now is automatically a Nazi, do you?"

  Kenneth had the good grace to look chagrined. "Err, no. I suppose not."

  "Aldric's family fought with the Allied forces. Or whatever they called the paranormal side of all that," Faith frowned again. She had to fill in these gaps in her knowledge. She was starting to feel like she missed a few grades of elementary school, not knowing basic touchstones of paranormal culture.

  "Anyway, the second thing for you to get your head around is that not every person- paranormal or otherwise- is exactly identical to the next one. Marc is practical, nurturing, and a serious homebody. Tamika is sassy, outgoing, and very proactive. Aldric is a tough, overprotective goober with a secret love for reading. And all three of them grew up together. Sort of. I'd like to point out that perfectly normal humans with no links to the paranormal whats
oever can be some of the most vile, violent, nasty creatures on the planet, but you're not writing off all humans, either."

  Kenneth sighed. "I didn't think I would convince you to move out or anything. At least take some basic precautions? Lock your doors at night. Set up wards for your room and Kaylee's."

  Faith sat up. "We never got to wards with my mom. I'm not sure she knew much about them, either. Our great grandfather's education got cut short, too, so there was a lot he couldn't pass on. Can we go over that?"

  Kenneth blinked at her for a moment before taking a deep breath and brushing his hand over his hair.

  "Okay. Well. Why don't we start with what you do know, and then work out a plan from there? I will absolutely teach you warding basics before I go, though. Make sure you keep your rooms warded. People like us aren't safe. Anywhere."

  Faith's excitement crept back and she nodded. She hadn't thought much about her magic since she was orphaned, but now? Now it was not just exciting again, but it was pretty vital to her survival, and that of her family.

  Ken carefully worked his way through the basics, reminding Faith how to draw energy from the earth-- how to refill her tank as he put it-- faster than simply regenerating her own magic from scratch. He watched her call up a shield and offered some tips on making it stronger and more durable, and on helping it take less energy to sustain.

  Finally, after a while, they covered wards. Kenneth warned her that these were the most basic of the possibilities for warding a place, and these first few required a structure. A room or a house were perfect subjects, and by the time the coffee was gone and Faith was wrung out, she could ward a room against most intruders. It wouldn't keep anyone out for long, wards weren't all powerful force fields, after all, but it would buy some time.

  It also served as an excellent alarm system. Kenneth demonstrated several times so she could see what that felt like as the wards spell reverberated back against her consciousness. It pretty much sucked, but not too bad. Definitely not a sensation she would fail to notice.