by Bob Dattolo
An hour and a half later, Leticia laughed. “I can’t believe your parents were like that?”
“Yeah. Totally. I can’t say I understand it. It sort of makes everything weird in my head, you know?”
“I bet it would.” Sarah nodded.
“You guys didn’t have any weirdness that way? I assume you’ve been shifters since you were born?”
Sarah nodded again. “Yeah, we’re all born shifters. Nothing like that in my life. My parents run a huge Pack that takes up a ton of their time. I’m just about as strong as either of them and I haven’t gotten all of my power yet, so they wanted me to go out and see the world, so to speak.”
Leticia smiled. “My parents are the betas of our Pack out in Hawaii. They’ve been in flux recently with a lot of people moving around, so it’s taking up more of their time than they wanted. I’m hoping it settles by the time I graduate. At least college.”
“How does that work? Do you go back to your home Pack? Or…I don’t know, join another one?”
She smiled. “I love our Pack. I don’t think my mate will be from there, but I’d love to stay there forever. Our territory is awesome. The island is awesome. I love our people, not just the shifters. I’m here for schooling, maybe to find a mate, then to go home.”
“When you say mate?”
“Like a mate mate? Soul mates? Like in the movies?”
“Uhh, what movies?”
“You know, the shifters and vampire movies?” Steph asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t have a clue. I was told I would go to hell for even talking to a supernatural if I didn’t spend time in prayer, fasting, and flogging myself. I don’t know anything about anything, and what I was told was apparently a lie, so I can’t really trust any of that. Unless you really do run around at night killing children. I’m starting to think that was also a lie.”
My roommate grunted. “Damn, that’s fucked up. A mate is like a magical connection to someone? Shifters and vampires have it. I’ve heard that trolls and orcs do, too, although I’ve never met one, so I can’t say. Mages don’t seem to have one.”
Sarah laughed. “No mages that I’m aware of. Not sure about angels, demons, or fey, either. I’ve never met one of either to ask.”
I grabbed my phone. “I…I had a fey in the FBI offer to be my mom. To take me home and raise me.”
Their eyes widened. “Holy shit, are you serious?” Sarah asked.
“Yeah.”
“Why didn’t you take it?” Steph demanded. “That would have been wild.”
I shrugged. “She said her king forbade it. She was willing to do it but knew that they’d hunt her down and kill her at some point.”
Leticia grunted. “Okay, that’s messed up. You don’t fuck with the fey. Why was she willing to do that for you? Did you know her before all of this happened?”
“Nope. To the best of my knowledge, I never met a supernatural until the vampire found me. Now I’m not sure I’ve ever met a normal human. She had her reasons, but they’re confusing, not that she told me all of them. I rather have the impression most of it is a secret.”
“What do you mean a secret?” Sarah asked.
Another shrug. “Just that? She seems to know what I am and I’m turning into, but won’t tell me. That seems to tie into why the king wouldn’t allow her to raise me.”
She whistled. “Daaamn. That’s crazy.”
Someone knocked at the door. “Come in,” Steph called.
Rachel opened the door. “Hey everyone, we’re getting ready to go to dinner, you guys in?”
Leticia helped me stand. “You want to go?”
“Yeah? I’m starving.”
Sarah touched my arm after the door closed. “How’re you doing?”
I immediately knew what she was asking. It was kind of obvious. “Uhh, better than I thought I would. I’m still not comfortable, but…”
“It’s not as bad as you thought it’d be?” She asked.
I nodded and looked down. “Yeah. And, I don’t know, it feels good.”
The three shifters smiled. “Before long, you won’t even notice it.” Steph smiled as she got dressed, and I followed suit. I feel beyond strange to be getting dressed with someone else here, almost worse than being naked, just not as bad as I felt when I got naked to begin with. I picked at the feeling, wondering why it’s not hitting me as hard. Is it what they said? Is it just that I got comfortable? Is it what I’m becoming?
There weren’t any answers in my shorts, so I pulled them on and slipped into my shoes and socks as the others got ready. They continued light conversation as they dressed, not even remotely caring about anything.
This is going to take some getting used to.
Out in the hallway, Rachel, Zach, and Nick were waiting, with Carl coming down the hallway as he played on his phone. “Everyone else coming too?” Sarah asked.
“Should be.” Rachel answered. She fell into place at my side and pulled me away from the group a little bit. Before she talked, she bit her lip and looked away before turning back. “Uh, I wanted to thank you again for what you did. There’s no one that could have stopped that from happening. I’ve been with him and his friends before, but…I just didn’t want to, you know?”
I clasped her hand, finding it chilly, like the director’s. “I do. Even if you’ve…been with him before, that doesn’t mean you have to again.”
“Yeah, well, to supernaturals it tends to.”
“I’m coming to understand that.” I studied her a little. “How new are you to all of this?”
She shrugged. “Pretty new. I was a norm before I got attacked. Two of my friends died, but he changed me for some reason.”
“He?”
“No idea? Just some guy. He left us all there and I woke up not dead when the morgue guys were looking us over. Thank God they had a vampire on staff, because he was able to help me.”
“My God…what did you do?”
“What could I do? I’m underage, so I went home. My parents read up on vampires and tried to hire some folks to help me, but it’s hard. They were grasping at straws when they found this school and thought it’d help. None of my friends at home stayed with me. Their parents didn’t want me hanging out with them any longer.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that.”
“Me too. But I like it here. I don’t like being forced into sex, but I like the rest.”
“Can’t you stop them, though? Aren’t you like crazy strong?”
She nodded. “I’m strong and fast, but Corey’s got magic. Fire magic, at that. That’s really bad for vampires. I’m also not willing to kill him, so I’ve just put up with it. I just…I don’t know, I like sex just as much as everyone else, but I’d like to be asked.”
I’m not sure why, but I pulled her into a hug. “I don’t know if I can stop everyone, but let me know if anyone tries to force you.” The weird rage inside of me bubbled up and I felt it infuse my body, filling me with heat. “No one will be forced if I can stop it.”
The others in our group stepped back from us in alarm. “What the fuck is that?” Armand asked, heading down the hallway.
Steph laughed. “That’s our new girl getting upset about something.”
He held up his hands as if feeling something radiating out from us. “Holy shit, I’ve never felt anything like that.”
The rage percolated for a few more seconds, then slid back into the shadows.
“Damn, that’s the craziest thing.” He stepped closer until he touched me. “It’s gone entirely now.”
Tom joined the group. “All right we heading over?”
Everyone fell into place pretty easily and I watched the little order work itself out. Tom and Sarah walked in front, which I sort of expected. After that, it seemed to flow and shift. It didn’t stick to a specific order at all.
“So…I’m not sure if I’m not supposed to ask something like this, but why’s Tom, not in charge, I guess, but why’s he the leader of our gr
oup?”
Sarah smiled over her shoulder. “It’s okay to ask something like that, especially here. But you should watch it outside of our group. If you asked that and sounded like you didn’t believe the order, that could lead to a fight, especially if they’re a shifter.”
Tom nodded. “Seriously, shifters are dicks that way.” I laughed hard at that.
Steph laughed too. “He’s serious. We are. Or, most of us are. Some of us don’t care nearly as much as others, but when you get to the bigger pack animals? Don’t question the ranking and make it sound like you could do better unless you want to fight about it.”
I couldn’t help laughing again. “Yeah, no, that’s not at all anything I’m interested in. I’m just curious. Did you guys…fight, I guess?”
Armand answered. “Sort of, but not really? We have five shifters in our group, now we have six mages, and one vampire. If Rachel were older, she’d be the leader. She’s not and she’s not interested, so she’s sort of outside the box that way? I’m the strongest mage and could possibly lead, but that’s something I don’t need. I love my potions and conjuring, and I’ll stick with that.”
“This is so bizarre. Just…it feels like everything I knew growing up is a lie or gone. Heck, I have…had 14 brothers and sisters, and now they’re all gone, too.”
Rachel fell in beside me. “If it helps any, we’re sort of going through that together? I’m ahead of the curve by a bit, but it’s all new. Granted, I wasn’t raised the way you were, but I never thought I’d join the ranks. Like most of my friends, we wondered what it’d be like to become a shifter or vampire, but none of us ever expected it to happen. It’s sort of like wondering what it’d be like to be an A-list celebrity. None of us were trying to become actors or singers, it was more fun fantasizing. Now…it’s my reality. It’s my reality and none of my friends that I ever talked to about these things wants to have anything to do with me. They didn’t care that I didn’t ask for it and was attacked or that I had to watch two of our friends get killed. That didn’t matter. They were afraid I’d attack them. As if.”
I surprised myself by putting my arm around her and pulling her into me. She’s taller than I am, but she seemed to need it. “Well, I don’t know what I can do to help, but I’m here now, I guess. I may or may not be going to hell, although folks seem pretty sure that’s not the case. I guess I can’t argue against being some sort of mage, although that seems to be a big question mark. I just wish Rasphael would tell me what I’m becoming.”
Armand and Tom stopped dead, bringing the rest of the group around.
“How do you know Rasphael?” Tom asked, looking kind of freaked.
“Uhh, she’s with the FBI? She’s the one that offered to raise me instead of coming here.”
Armand looked at him. “Fucking hell.” Then turned to me. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah? Why?”
Tom laughed, but it was strained. “Damn, you have no clue what she is, do you? Who she is?”
“She’s a fey? She’s either the secretary for Director Fitzsimmons or co-heads their group or something? I wasn’t sure on that.”
“Fuck…yeah, no, that might be what she does now, but she’s freaking famous to a lot of people.” Tom responded.
“Why?”
Armand cleared his throat. “She’s fucking brutal in a fight. She can see the future and I’m not sure anyone really knows how strong she is since she’s never failed at something.”
I shrugged. “Well, all I know is that she was really nice to me and offered to raise me even though her king would have had her hunted down.”
“God damn, that’s…I’ve never even heard of a fey offering to raise a non-fey. Why did she offer it?” Armand asked.
“No idea?” Or, I have some idea. I just don’t want to tell them about her comments and the little snippet where she told Director Fitzsimmons that they’d have a hard time killing me. That doesn’t seem like a great idea to me.
The group stood there for about 20 seconds before Sarah hit Tom’s arm. “C’mon already, I’m starving.”
Chapter 9
Carl laughed at my overloaded tray. “You really didn’t eat like that normally?”
I ate two more bites before responding. “No. Not even close. The FBI seems to think my parents were keeping us underfed? Now with everything else going on with me, my appetite is going crazy. Either I’m full or I’m starving, it’s like there’s no middle ground.”
Steph sat next to me with an equally loaded tray. Rachel sat on the other side of me, still with nothing in front of her. I nudged her. “You don’t eat, right?”
The group giggled. Even the guys. “I eat. Just not human food.”
“Blood?”
She smiled and fangs slid into place. I expected to be horrified at the sight, but I wasn’t. “Yes. Does that bother you?”
I stared at her fangs for a bit. “A few days ago, I would have been scared out of my mind. Now? After what I licked off of my hand earlier? I don’t seem to have the same problems I would have expected.”
She laughed outright and her fangs receded. Any response was distracted by Zach and Nick breaking into a discussion about video games. I tried to follow it for a while, but none of it made sense. Why I’d care about hit power for guns in an online shooter game is beyond me. Rachel interspersed comments here and there along with Paul and Carl, so I resumed eating, polishing off my entire tray around the same time Steph did. The other shifters at the table had huge trays as well, just not as full. Steph grabbed her tray and stood. “More?”
“Yeah. Please.” I joined her, watching the other kids milling around. Too many of them were staring at me and I didn’t like it. I tried to ignore it as I grabbed more food, taking Steph’s advice on what’s good and what’s better.
“This is crazy, you know that, right? The food here is amazing.”
She smiled. “It is. Then again, as a shifter, I could eat almost anything and find that it tastes good. I’ve never heard the mages say that the food is fantastic, so maybe it’s shifters? Although that wouldn’t explain why you think it’s so good.”
“Yeah. I’m a mystery, all right.” Noise in the back of the room at one of the tables made me look over before turning back to the food. “Let me guess, even if I whisper, everyone will still be able to hear me, right?”
“Pretty much? At least the shifters and Rachel. It’s not that big of a room.”
“All right. Never mind then.” I tried to put my fears out of my mind, but they kept coming back again and again as the talking at one of the tables kept getting louder in spurts. “Do I want to know what they’re saying?”
She shook her head. “Probably not.”
Sighing, I finished loading my tray and headed back to the table. I was able to put my tray down before the inevitable happened. I didn’t even get a chance to sit down before two people stood up. I didn’t watch them get up, but I knew who they were. Or I was pretty sure I knew. Not their names, just which two. The first is a guy about 6 feet tall, with dark brown hair. He looks like a normal jock, which probably means he’s a shifter. The second is a girl a few inches taller than him with a shock of white hair in a short punk cut. Or close enough to it. Not really what I’d expect in a rich kid’s school.
“What did you do to him, you fucking bitch!” The guy’s voice made my shoulders slump. I seriously didn’t need or want this.
I faced the two of them as Rachel shifted next to me and Steph stood up. I held my hands out towards my tablemates. No sense them getting hurt over something I did. “Can you be more specific?”
“Are you kidding me?” The girl seemed dumbfounded.
“Corey! What did you do to Corey!?”
The strange pressure inside of me shifted a little as I stared at them. “I stopped him from trying to rape someone, then stopped him from raping me. Do you have a problem with that?”
The girl was a little taken aback by my response, but the guy wasn’t. “Fuck you! You
’re out here just fine and he’s still laid up! He can’t even shift yet!”
“Huh, that’s a shame. Hopefully he’ll get that back soon.”
I wasn’t quite prepared to be pushed by the girl as she got her steam back. “What did you do to him?! Fix it!”
I’m gonna have a bruised back from hitting the table, but it didn’t hurt quite as much as I think it should have. Standing back up, I tried not to shy away from these two. It’s hard when he’s at least 10 inches taller than I am. “No idea what happened to him. I can’t fix it, I don’t even know how it happened to begin with. All I know is that he was going to rape me and then threatened to kill me.”
The girl growled and grabbed me by the throat and picked me up before I could stop her. “Fix it!”
I expected her to crush my throat or to squeeze really tight or something, but she really just picked me up. While it’s not a convenient carry handle, it didn’t hurt. Yet. “I can’t. No idea what’s wrong with him other than him being a rapist.” The pressure inside of me kicked into gear and some of the people at my table cursed and, it seemed, pulled away from me. “Now put me down.”
“Fine!” She growled. “You want to play who’s stronger? Connor, fuck her up.”
She dropped me and I had a bare moment of my feet on the floor before he hit me hard enough to lift me entirely over our table. I had a brief glimpse of the edge of the table, some surprised faces, and then it was all ceiling tiles, floor tiles, and tables crashing around me as I knocked empty tables and chairs aside and crashed into one of the server carts. I’m not even sure where he hit me, because my entire freaking body hurt from feet to head.
I didn’t plan it, but I scrabbled at the scattered silverware in front of me even as he grabbed me up by my throat and shook me. I have no idea what he was yelling, because the power inside of me wanted no part of this.
None.
It showed it by driving the silver thing in my hand into the side of his neck and tearing it forward in a spray of blood. His eyes grew wide as he dropped me, but I was barely on my feet again before propelling myself forward and latching onto him, sucking at the gaping throat wound. I must have gotten it in behind his trachea or something, because he’s spurting blood like a fountain, and the thing inside of me didn’t want it to go to waste.