by Erin R Flynn
“I agree we simply didn’t have the right tool to make the difference happen. I believe you just gave it to us, Ms. Vale.”
“Then that’s my good deed for the day,” I teased, thanking my lucky stars when the bell rang. Yeah, I was ready for lunch.
And the healing rune I wrote on myself to help with the migraine Professor White gave me. She also taught me something too and I’d definitely need to rethink my mental shields.
14
My Friday night fun had to be rescheduled. I was informed of that in two ways: one a text from Craftsman and two was a lot of excitement from Campbell’s thoughts… As she was going to be at the same plotting meeting as Craftsman and it seemed she had renewed hope he might accept her advances.
Since he hadn’t been shutting them down like he used to.
Fan-fucking-tastic. Well, it was at situation level now and didn’t help what I’d heard earlier.
The kicker? The absolute clincher in all of this that was the absolute smack across my face? The meeting was about my donations and my seminar project I’d started. That was all the whispering and naughty thoughts I’d heard in Runes 102 the day before as well. People were hoping to get to spend more time with Craftsman and get closer to him using his crystal research and now these new projects.
And I’d set it all up. Talk about building the path to have your lover walk away from you.
Needless to say, my mood was shit after classes. I sent Darby a text I didn’t want to study, headed to my room, and packed a bag for the weekend with what I needed. Izzy came into the room just as I was heading out.
“If you want to come home this weekend, text me, I’ll unlock the portal for you,” I muttered.
“You okay, Tams?” she worried. “I heard what you admitted in mental shielding.”
I snorted. “Yeah, I called that one. No one was going to keep to those NDAs if it was juicy.”
Her eyes flashed shock. “You were testing them.”
“Yup,” I answered, popping the P loudly. “I gave them something to talk about besides Mason for a while but—I just need to get out of here. I need to feel more me. Everything just feels like it keeps slipping through my fingers every time I grab for it.”
She nodded as she listened but then sighed. “I’m not downplaying your feelings because you just went through something horrible and it’s understandable you feel upside down… But we all feel that way too. That’s life. Life is an uphill battle and a fight and all those other clichés that ring true because they are. So, it’s not just you.”
“You good?” I asked, hating it always seemed to be about me and Izzy had shit too.
“Someone took a shot at me about my family wiping their hands of me without even a fight and the hit landed,” she admitted. “I could use some quiet time this weekend too. I love you but…”
“Yeah, me too.” One of the reasons we got along so well was at our cores we were a lot alike and sometimes we needed to retreat into our own spaces. “See you Sunday.”
“I might stop by Saturday and get some work done on Mel’s set-up at home for the food blog and social media,” she admitted, shrugging when I shot her a questioning look. “It settles me to plot out all the places we’re going to go. Sometimes I need to remember there’s a life outside of here or I can have one without my parents. I’m free to have one now.”
“Yeah, I know the feeling.” I glanced around the room but really meaning it further to campus. “Sometimes this was the cage I came into. I need to remind myself I can escape too.”
“You’ll give us a heads-up before you do, right, Tams?”
“No, but I’ll let you know I’m safe and how to meet up with me,” I promised.
“Close enough,” she chuckled, trying to hide the nerves in her voice. “Go do your thing. I’m fine here. If you need me, I’m there.”
“Thanks, Izzy.”
“What are roomies for?” she teased before waving me to head out.
I headed for the admin building to use the faculty portal so no one tried to write down how to get to my house with the student portal. Zack fell in step with me and didn’t say a word, a bag over his shoulder as well. Marshall was on the other side of me though and I couldn’t help but shoot him a confused look.
“I could use a night off,” he admitted, sounding as grumpy as I was. “Ray and Sean are meeting up with us after their shift in a few hours if you’re cool with that.”
“Yeah, as long as no one plans to make me talk about my feelings, they can come hang.” I almost smiled when they both snorted. “Glen being a dick again?”
“No, my Alpha’s great,” Marshall bit out, lying through his fucking teeth and I didn’t even need powers to tell me that. “Irma said she’s bringing trays of dinner.” He shrugged when I shot him another look. “They’re worried about you, Tamsin. It’s obvious how ready you were to get off campus.”
“Do you blame me?”
Zack snorted. “No, I would have delayed starting the semester a week or two after being drugged, abducted, and the rest you went through. I think needing to get the fuck out a few weekends the least volatile reaction.”
That actually helped quell what was swirling in me a bit.
The faculty lounge was empty—a first I’d ever seen—so that was lucky at least. I also didn’t have to pretend I knew how to set the portal to home and my magic didn’t do it automatically. I just thought of where I wanted to go as I powered up the portal.
“So, what is this project you’ve been plotting?” Marshall asked after we arrived in the garages. He flinched and then sighed. “Shit, I forget every time they’re going to be here.”
“On dog beds chillin’ no less,” Zack drawled.
“You sleep on cold concrete or out in the snow,” I threw right back. I went over to Chief and knelt down, taking his paw so we could update each other. “A group came and tested the fairy barriers on the back side of the property. They stayed hidden, but we know the scent and can pick it up again if we need them to.”
“I’ll text Mel and we can see what her hidden cameras picked up first,” Zack muttered, pulling out his phone. “I’ll have Chief take me out there later with Ray so we can get the scent in case we catch it at campus too.”
I nodded and brought them over to my bike, setting down my stuff as I flipped on a heat lamp. I pulled up a video on my phone and gave it over to Marshall to answer his question.
His lips twitched as he watched it. “You want to make a flying car like in Harry Potter?”
“No, smartass, I want to make the invisibility booster,” I answered, shrugging when they both gave me disbelieving looks. “Why not? We have shadow runes. I can throw up wicked barriers. What if I could do both? Instead of a nitrous boost, it was a shadows and protection barrier? I’ve had people already try to follow me home and chase me on the road. It’s not going to get better.”
“This isn’t my forte,” Zack muttered, watching the video over Marshall’s shoulder.
“Yeah, but you were one of the reasons I thought we should have them,” I said gently. “You didn’t get to finish schooling, so you don’t have a conduit. Legally you can’t get one so you can’t throw up barriers or shadows on the fly.”
He snorted. “Nor could I when riding so fast or in any sort of trouble. Wolves don’t have the best focus during danger. We want to shift and rip out throats.”
“Exactly. So, let’s do it better.”
“Where are you thinking of starting?” Marshall asked.
“I wrote in my paper the theories and how it might be possible, but I left a lot out so no one just did it after I came up with it,” I explained as I pulled out one of the crystals I’d made tier seven. “This might be overkill but if this is installed in the NOS button booster and had the carved runes I’m thinking of, it’s where I want to start.”
“You’d need an activator,” he muttered as he took the crystal from me. He shrugged when Zack gave him a shocked look. “I did finish school
ing and it wasn’t Artemis level, but I’m not stupid and turn my nose up at having access to those kinds of lectures. I hang out in the ones professors don’t mind on my off shifts. Sean does too. It’s something Glen hates.”
“He’s such a knuckle dragger,” I grumbled. “And I got high-grade spell powder from Katrina Calloway already. If we had a small chamber of it and say the button pushed the covered crystal right into it, that should activate it, right? In theory? Or even an extra something set up on the handlebars we could attach like any of the other millions of accessories.”
“Now that I can help with,” Zack promised.
“Shouldn’t you ask Craftsman about if this could work?” Marshall inquired as he kept studying the crystal. Both of them flinched at whatever they got from me. “Ahh, I get some of your upset now.”
“No feelings talk,” I reminded them.
“Anger isn’t a feeling,” Zack argued. “What did he do?”
“More what he didn’t do as I hear too much, remember?” I seethed as shrugged off my jacket and tossed it on the work bench. One of the other things I’d gotten for the garages was my dream set-up of tools and everything I could need to work on my baby. “Like how often hot coeds flirt with him and his replies and sometimes I don’t know if he’s dense that he doesn’t get what they’re saying or… Forget it.”
“No, get it off your chest, it will help,” Zack pushed. “He’s not shutting them down he’s with someone?”
“No, and now Campbell thinks she’s got a chance with him while working on the project with him that I started, I donated to, and he broke a fucking date with me for. I know I’m not just with him but for fuck’s sake, he was the one who pushed that, wanting me to have the normal he couldn’t give me. Or was that really so he could have all the fawning and attention?”
“You gotta mark your territory,” Zack suggested, nodding when I gave him a confused look. “He’s yours and you guys know where you’re at, but he might not know how to handle outside. I’m not saying you do it as Tamsin Vale, but no reason you can’t do it as the girlfriend or lover.”
“Not to defend him, but if he just announced he was involved with someone, it kind of sounds like he just made a decision for both of you,” Marshall added. “And you didn’t care last semester.”
“I did and we talked about it,” I admitted. “But we weren’t at this level. I also didn’t have as much control of my telepathy so all I got was a lot of noise most of the time. Now I’m getting more clear voices of what I’d want to know and what I’m hearing doesn’t make me happy.”
“I’m with Zack—claim your territory. You want the bitches sniffing after him to back off, then make it clear he’s taken even if it’s not known it’s you.”
“That helps. Now I’m extra glad I got you guys gifts,” I admitted, gesturing to the far corner of the other garage. I technically had eleven extra-wide garages or room for eleven vehicles, but there were five doors.
The bay the dogs used as theirs by the side door to the outside was a single garage and a half sized. Then two doors that were double garages in depth—and had some extra fae dog beds along with their gobs of food freezers—and then two more than were triple garages in depth. So those two garages were long enough that three vehicles could park in them.
Those were the ones that had the door to the house and the portal on the wall… And had the four motorcycles I’d bought covered in the corner.
“Wait, there should only be two,” Marshall objected. “You asked Sean and I to talk bikes with Zack and Ray so we could figure out what they’d want.”
“You sneaky little fairy,” Zack chuckled, smiling at Marshall. “She asked Ray and I to do the same for you guys. Then she got us all our dream bikes.”
“Luckily it’s the off season and the places were very accommodating finding exactly what you guys wanted in features and upgrades,” I admitted. “You can gush over them all night. Where do we start?” Now that Zack said he had an idea, I was ready to jump in.
“I know where to get what we need,” he muttered, glancing longingly at the covered bikes. “We basically want a cigarette lighter add-on, but instead of pushing it in to heat it up on a coil so we can light a smoke—”
“Push the crystal down into the spell powder and activate it,” I finished for him. “Brilliant. You need cash?”
“Yeah, that might be best,” he agreed after a moment.
I waved for him to follow and headed inside. I brought them to the study that was now basically mine and Mel’s home office now that we’d handled everything Conall Townsend had asked us to. I went over to a large painting and took it off the nail, thanking Zack as he took it from me. I opened the safe and pulled out a stack of fifty-dollar bills wrapped with a bank slip.
“You’ve been busy,” Marshall commented, blinking at all the cash in the safe.
I snorted. “That was here, mate. I’ve not added to it, though I’m going to because I’ve got some missions I’m hoping to get help with that I think best for cash only.”
“You want people to buy out other books written in Faerie that can be found,” Marshall surmised. “Yeah, I could help with that if I got a glamour charm. You have to be careful with that or—”
“Someone’s going to be asking questions we don’t want,” I finished for him. “Which is why the first story we’re going with is people being sent out to find awesome ones after hearing I’m into fairies and curious about Faerie. Sounds like a good wooing present the elites would throw their money at and idiots would all think the same thing.”
“And try to outdo each other, which is a lead-in to go back and find more,” Zack muttered. “Smart. Yeah, but you need someone to give these orders, so no one senses a lie.”
“Mel knows,” I promised. “You in?”
“Sure, it would give us a chance to have our ears in more gossip as well.”
I thanked them both and handed each of them two stacks of hundred-dollar bills, which was twenty grand total each. “Tell Mel what I’ve given you and get your specific instructions. She’s handling it and has the glamour charms we bought. She also works out paying you for your time.”
They both gave me looks not to be stupid, but Zack replied. “You just gave us brand new, top of the line bikes. I think we’re good.”
Fair enough.
He headed out to that shop he knew of while I went to change and Marshall raided our kitchen as the hobgoblins always kept us stocked. He was digging into some muffins he’d zapped and I snagged a few as well. I’d also brought everything I’d prepared for this.
“Um, are you starting on the tier seven crystals that cost more than I make in a year?” Marshall muttered as I plugged in the etcher with diamond tips I’d bought.
“No, the tier ones but wow, I didn’t know you guys… You think you’d get paid top dollar for protecting the elites’ kids and having to do it at a remote spot.”
He snorted. “Oh, you’re smarter than that, Tamsin. We should be grateful for such an honor and to have a remote location to shift when our wolves need it as not every wolf or pack has that option.”
I shook my head. “What does all that tuition go for then? I mean the price is a fucking fortune, more than Harvard, plus room and board. Where does it all go? You guys don’t get it. The teachers aren’t exactly raking it in.”
“The meal plan doesn’t cover the lush food and lavish options and accommodations,” he answered. “I know that much. It costs a lot to keep that barrier up. While we’re not making a ton, we do make good salaries for campus security and most campuses don’t have the security we do. The upkeep and protection is a lot. More than the students know and it goes fast.”
Fair enough. As long as someone had plausible answers then I guess it made sense. I couldn’t even imagine how much it cost for all the security cameras over the vast campus grounds and keeping them up in harsh weather.
“Sorry,” I muttered, feeling bad I had so much money when he brought up not mak
ing as much as one crystal I made.
“Don’t be. You’re generous and not some stuck-up elite,” he replied easily. “You share and are nice. I didn’t mean to sound jealous or like I was desperate for money, just some perspective on those crystals since you’re new.”
“Yeah, I got that perspective the other day.” I shot him a quick glance as I got set up. “You seem like even if you had a ton of money you wouldn’t spend it.”
He shrugged. “I send most of what I have to my mom to help with my younger siblings. My dad died when our pack was attacked years ago, and he didn’t get a death benefits the enforcers get because he wasn’t one. It makes me angry when I think about it, and the Alpha would have if he could have, but the pack just didn’t have the money. I had just finished school and took the chance at getting a better-paying gig.”
“And you did.”
“And I did,” he confirmed with a sigh. “Edelman gave Sean and I a chance since he was in the same boat as me and we were friends from the same pack. Glen didn’t like how big we were as he’s Alpha of a lot of Betas already. I get tired of it. We’re more than wolves. We’re people too and we can listen to a boss and not be Alpha orders that aren’t questioned and rule of law.”
“Yeah, that sucks. I could see that being hard when he’s not a leader of a pack like a town or family that you’re used to, simply most Alpha of the guards.”
“That’s exactly the problem, and as great as Zack and Ray are, they’re pushing the problem. They’re both way more Alpha than Glen.”
“Whoops.” A pang of guilt hit me hard since they were there because of me.
“It’s just going to be rough for a while until balance is found but most of us completely believe it will be better in the end because they came. It’s just hard to find that medium.”
I nodded that I got what he meant. “Growth is good, but it means change and change is hard.”
“Amen, sister, amen,” he chuckled before taking another bite of his muffin. Goof. I would have expected that from Sean but maybe Marshall needed a night off to let go of his serious and the stress on his shoulders.