by Bob Dattolo
He patted my hand, shocking me with how cool his skin is. “Now, get to work. I’ll be assisting the others. It seems only Armand has managed the light breeze I requested.”
Glancing over my shoulder, I saw that, sure enough, Armand had a breeze somehow locked in place in front of him, fluttering his hair and the bits of paper he was putting into it. It swirled in a lazy circle, periodically dropping the bits of paper out onto his table. The rest of the class looked split between upset and annoyed that their efforts weren’t paying off. At least not fully. Christine had something started, but it wouldn’t seem to stay in place, so I took that as a good sign.
None of which will help me with this.
Reaching inward got me precisely nothing. Not a thing. For a brief moment about 20 minutes in I thought I felt a tiny bit of warmth, then realized I had to pee. That is so not what I’m looking for here.
By the time class ended, Armand and Christine were the only ones to get a decent breeze blowing, while I managed to contemplate my navel, or whatever it is inside of me that moves around. It never did anything useful that I could tell.
Mr. Reynolds surprised me with a pat on the back. “That’s all for now, Ceri. Take the candle with you and see if you can practice in your dorm tonight. If not, then we’ll pick everything up again in class. This isn’t a race and, while there are definite things we need to cover with you, it’s not like we don’t have time. Out of all of your courses here, this one is the most subjective when it comes to graduation.”
I joined the rest of the group and we waited for our shifter friends, and Rachel, before heading back to the dorms. Steph nudged me. “So, how was it? Did you set any records for how quickly you did whatever it is you guys are doing?”
My little group of mages laughed. “Yeah, no. Unless the record is sitting there doing nothing?”
Christine patted my back. “No, trust me on that, you didn’t set any records there. Nick, how long did you say it took you to light a wick the first time?”
He smiled proudly, “Six months!”
I nearly stumbled. “What? I’m going to have to stare at a stupid candle for six months?”
More laughter. “No. I was five at the time. I’d be shocked if it took you more than a week to do it. The hardest part seems to be touching your magic. Once you can do that, it opens things up.”
The other mages agreed. “Too true,” Armand added. “That’s pretty much key. If you can do that once, you can do it again, then you can branch out and do the other things. The reason they use fire is that it’s tangible to most kids. Heat is a known thing, so it’s easier to get them to focus. Once it’s done once, you can do it again and it all rolls downhill from there.”
“Still though, that was crazy boring!”
Rachel snickered. “Poor new mage is bored trying to get her cool magic to work!” The smile on her face belied her words. “You’ll get it. You guys get the cool stuff that way. All I can do is vampire garbage.”
“Vampire garbage. I swear, last week I never would have expected to hear someone say that. Like ever!” We continued walking. “Okay, so no homework again today? Is that normal for us or did they go light because I’m new?”
“Nope.” Tom replied. “Not light, necessarily. It comes in waves it seems. We’ll probably get something on Monday, I’d think. We haven’t done a paper in a bit.”
That’s not bad. I’m used to more schoolwork, honestly. “Okay, so…now what? School’s out and it’s Friday? What does everyone do now? Sit in our rooms? Go to the lounges? Walk in the woods?”
“We mostly sit in our rooms until classes start on Monday.” Paul sounded so honest that it made me stop walking.
“What? Are you serious?” Thankfully, they started laughing.
“No, not at all. It depends on school, usually. Some of us like to do homework first, others wait until Sunday. Otherwise, we usually go into town, go to the mall, the movies, that sort of thing. Sometimes we’ll go out to eat instead of eating here.” Paul got us moving again.
“Phew! Okay, that’s good. I had this vision of being locked in here. It’s bad enough I’ve been locked at our family compound my entire life. Until this week, I’ve never not eaten at home. Until the FBI took me to buy clothes, I’d never been in a store of any kind. I’ve never been to the movies, either.”
We continued walking as a group, but it was a near thing as they all stared at me with varying looks of pity.
“I told you, my life has been wacked.”
More than a few of them shook their heads. “Well, you’re with us now,” Sarah said, taking charge. “I think that deserves some time out tonight. Who’s game? Nothing huge, maybe go out to dinner, hit the mall, that sort of thing?”
Armand, Rachel, Steph, Leticia, and Tom were in with us, while the rest decided to stay local and catch up on their studies, do hobbies, or meet up with other students. Zach even had a date with someone, although I don’t have a clue who they are based on the name.
The group split up once we were on our floor, and I joined Steph in our room, sighing as our door closed.
“So, seriously, how was your first day of classes?” She kicked off her shoes and propped herself on her bed, leaning against the wall.
Her question made me sigh again. “I can’t even say. This is just so strange. The past few days have been so far out of my expectations that I sort of expect to wake up and find out that I’m in a coma. Or maybe I really did die in that empty factory and this is hell. Or heaven. Or, I don’t know, limbo or something.”
She nodded. “Okay, granted, but school?”
“Better than I expected? At least somewhat? I’m beyond shocked to hear that I tested so well on the normal courses. Then not shocked at all to find out that I sucked on the others. I hope I can learn everything I need to for defense by the end of next week. I don’t even get the basics there, so that’ll be hard, I think.”
She smiled at me. “If you want, I can help you with that?”
I cocked my head at her. “I want to kick myself for asking this, but what would I owe you for it?”
She smiled wide. “Nothing specifically. I don’t do that as much with our group. While it’s hard to step in to defend someone in the group, helping is a little different, especially for something like this. Besides, we’re roommates and hopefully becoming friends, so what kind of a bitch would I be to charge?”
I looked at the cascades of scintillating color near her head. “Plus you kind of figure more of what happened this morning will be happening?”
I didn’t think her smile could get wider, but it did. “God, I hope so! That was fantastic.”
Her response made me cover my face. “Don’t remind me!”
She snorted. “You’re funny, you know that? Don’t forget, I can smell how turned on you are right now. You enjoyed it just as much as I did.”
I threw my hand down. “I did! I know I did…but it’s just so weird. I didn’t exactly grow up being taught it was okay. But, yeah, I really liked it. Especially when the guys showed up.”
“That’s my girl! Don’t think about it like that. We’re all in the same boat that way.” She cocked her head. “All right, sounds like they’re heading this way. Where would you like to eat?”
Sure enough, everyone filed into our room a moment later, with each of them finding a seat. I noticed that they all looked at the rainbows but didn’t touch them. Leticia sat on my bed next to me, with Sarah propping herself on the end. Tom took my chair, while Rachel took Steph’s and Armand took the other bed.
“You’re asking the girl that’s never eaten out where I want to eat? I literally don’t have a clue. Other than commercials for restaurants, I’ve never even heard people talking about them.”
Tom swirled in a circle on the chair. “All right, that makes sense. So…what kind of food do you like?”
“These days? Anything that will sit still long enough to go on my plate. At least a third of the things I’ve eaten since being
picked up by the FBI has been something I never ate at home. I ate some of everything at each of the meals here and didn’t taste anything that I didn’t like. What are our options?”
He glanced at the others. “The Cue?” Most of them nodded.
“That might work.” Sarah answered. “Good food, huge portions, nice crowd.”
Leticia patted my leg. “I think you’ll like it there. It’s a barbecue place? Like the ribs you had yesterday?”
I thought back. “Oh, okay, yeah, those were amazing!” They were, too. My parents cooked on a grill occasionally, but since we had to cook for the other kids, most of us kept it basic due to necessity. And lack of variety being provided by my parents.
Sarah gave a fist bump to Tom. “All right, we’ve got ourselves a winner! Plus, it’s close to the mall, so we won’t have to drive too far.”
Everyone stood up, so I joined them. “Umm, how much does going out cost?” It sounds so stupid to ask a question like that, but here we are. There are so many things that I don’t know, that it’s ridiculous. Thankfully, it doesn’t sound all that expensive.
Tom has a huge SUV that we could all fit into, so we were on the road about 20 minutes later. As one of the smallest, I was wedged into the third row in the middle. I was still smiling, though.
“Why’re you so happy?” Leticia sat next to me and had been staring at me for a bit.
“I know I told you guys about my life, but I don’t think you get it. This is the most normal thing I think I’ve done since everything happened. I’ve never had friends before or been in a car except with FBI agents. Heck, this is the fifth time I’ve ever been in a car at all. How can I not smile? Things are different and…arguably better. I’m still freaked out over things, but at least I’m not locked away on a walled compound being taught that everything is evil and being required to starve and beat myself every day.”
A few of them laughed. “Yeah, I guess that makes sense.” She sounded like she was thinking through what I’d told them. “It’s strange for us seeing you come in, too.”
“In what way?” Everyone but Tom turned to look at me. He just stared at me in the rearview mirror. “What? What’d I say?”
Sarah shook her head. “You don’t see it yet, but you’re something else. You’re this strange mix of naïve and weak and scared, but then you pull something out of your ass like what you did in those fights. Or what happened last night. I’ve felt power from a lot of mages in my life, and you’re stronger than every one of them.”
Armand jumped in. “She’s right. I can’t even explain what it’s like, and I grew up like this. I’m pretty damn powerful, but I wouldn’t put it past you to whip my ass right here right now even without you knowing what you’re doing.”
Tom cut me off when I shook my head. “They’re right, you’re not seeing it, but it’s true. When you don’t think about things, you seem to do better. Granted, not necessarily controlled, but still better. Whatever is happening with you is continuing, so we’ll see where you end up, but you could seriously be number one in the school if you wanted it.”
I waved my hand. “No thanks. Don’t want it. Don’t need it. I didn’t want to get in those fights to begin with, so adding to it? Yeah, I don’t think so. I just want to learn to be me. It’s just that the me I always thought I was is a lie. Most of what I grew up with is a lie. That’s hard to swallow, but I’m doing my best, you know?” That got me hugs from both sides. “So, you’re right, I don’t have a clue what it’s like being around me. I barely have a clue what it’s like being me, so I can’t say that’s a surprise. I’m just trying to take one hour at a time. Not even one day at a time. Maybe later, once I’m pretty sure I won’t get tripped up over stupid crap that I don’t even remotely understand.”
Tom smiled back at me. “That’s just about all we can ask of ourselves.” He nodded forward. “We’re here.”
We arrived at the restaurant earlier than normal dinner time, since it’s right around 4, but supernaturals are normally hungry, so that only made sense. The place smelled amazing but didn’t look like much. Leticia nudged me as we got out of the truck. “You’ll love this food. Trust me.”
The inside of the place smelled even better. It was decked out in wood and more wood and had casual pictures all along the wall of food cooking, people eating, and what looked like cooking contests. There were shelves along one wall with a huge swath of trophies. We were seated before I knew it, and I never even saw who brought us to the table before I had a menu in my hand.
I felt like an idiot, but Steph helpfully walked me through the menu, showing me the various things she’s eaten and explaining what some of the things are. In short order, we decided that I’d copy whatever she’s having since it all smelled amazing to me. Rachel would be our shield, making it look like we weren’t stuffing ourselves with more food than the average 16- and 17-year old’s can eat. While folks know about supernaturals, many of them seem to try to stay under the radar at least a little. Either that or they don’t care one bit.
A waitress took our order pretty quickly and had drinks back at our table even faster. When they arrived, Tom leaned onto the table. “All right, we pretty much know each other since we’ve been going to school together since freshman year.” He nodded towards Rachel, “All except Rachel, but we’ve spent a ton of time together since she joined us.” He got a smile back from our resident vampire. “In light of that, I think we should all get to ask you a question that you have to answer truthfully.”
I blinked slowly. “What…like truth or dare?”
He waggled his hand. “Sort of, but without the dare. It’s a getting to know you kind of thing.”
“Do I get to ask any questions back?”
“Nope.” That sounded pretty final.
“That doesn’t seem fair?”
Steph nudged me. “Just roll with it. You’ll get to know us anyway.”
“Okay, fine. Shoot, I guess? Not that I have much to say that I haven’t already said.”
Tom looked around the table. “Who wants to go first?”
Sarah shrugged. “Me? All right…what’s your full name and why did your parents give it to you?”
I played with a coaster on the table, spinning it idly. “My full name is Ceri Nawfed Driscoll. No idea why they picked my first name. I didn’t learn until the FBI picked me up that Nawfed means ninth. I was their ninth child. All of us were numbered.”
“Holy…that’s fucked up!” She sounded shocked at my answer.
“I know, right? They only ever called us by our middle names, too.”
“You know that everything you say about your parents makes me hate them a little, right?” Tom sounded kind of angry.
“You and me both.”
Rachel tapped the table. “Me next?” When she got some nods, she continued. “Okay, why did you step in and protect me yesterday…and when are you going to collect for helping me?”
That made me jerk back. I thought I had been pretty straightforward on why I helped. “Uhh, okay, I helped because the idea of someone being forced to have sex is repugnant to me? I mean, if you want to, I guess go for it. Not that I felt the same way early yesterday, since I believed it was evil and a gateway to hell. But, yeah, force? Not if I can stop it. If I don’t step in and stop it, I might as well be doing it myself.” That got me some strange looks. “As for collecting on it? I don’t ever plan on collecting anything. You don’t owe me for what I did. I didn’t even know you were you, if that makes any sense. I would have done it for anyone that I heard that happening to.”
She quickly wiped at tears. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I mean it, too. I…I don’t like the idea of force. I hope you guys aren’t doing it to others because I’d step in there, too.” Conveniently, none of them admitted to anything and there weren’t any guilty looks.
Steph went next. “I’m not even sure what to ask. Have you ever had a crush on anyone? Or been in love?”
“C
rush? No. Not even remotely. Until I ran away, the only people not part of my family were the few people my parents would invite in, and that wasn’t even once a year. It didn’t help that we weren’t really allowed to talk to any of them and, frankly, they reeked of evil. I don’t know if they were, but as I explained it to the FBI, it’s like they desperately wanted to hurt us and kill us, but only the thinnest of excuses was holding them back.”
“Damn, waste of a question!” She smiled anyway.
“You can make it up later if you want.” It didn’t hurt to throw that out there.
Armand studied me a bit, “Okay, what’s up with you knowing Rasphael? I’m not sure I understood that.”
I shrugged and put my drink down. “I’m not sure what to say there. She’s sort of the secretary for the FBI group that had me. She’s also the co-director, I guess? At least that’s what Director Fitzsimmons said. She basically offered to take me in and be my mom when everything happened. I’d never met her before, but she seems to know what I’m becoming. Not that she’ll tell anyone. She won’t even tell the FBI! She was told by her king that if she took me in, she’d be hunted down. She offered to do it anyway since they probably wouldn’t come for her until I’d already grown up, but I couldn’t do that to her. That…what she did? Offering to take me in? Even though she’s positively overflowing with power, it’s the single nicest thing up to that point that anyone has ever done for me. That little bit of compassion and thoughtfulness? I’d do anything for her right now. She offered to be my mom in spirit, so I get to call her and talk and things like that. As much as I don’t want to bother her, I sort of need that, you know? I’m legally an adult and sort of emancipated, but I’ve never had parents that care, so…yeah, even though I’ve talked to her literally less than 20 minutes total in person, I’d kill everyone within a mile of here for her if I had to.”
He stared at me in shock. “Motherfucker,” it barely registered as a curse, although I did twitch, “that’s insane. She’s famous to supernaturals. She’s…yeah, powerful is one way of putting it. She single-handedly saved the fey kingdom about a thousand years ago against an invasion. She’s basically death on two legs.”