by Bob Dattolo
The stress across some of their shoulders eased, making Steph and Rachel laugh, “I told you she wouldn’t care!” Rachel said.
“Seriously. She’s been pretty clear that she doesn’t want to be in charge of anything. While what we saw is a shocker, is it really that much of a shocker to everyone?” Steph looked across the others as I slipped my shorts on. “She’s been a surprise since the first meal. While this is a larger surprise, I’m not sure I can say that it’s bigger, if that makes sense.”
No one answered her, so I jumped back in, “Back to your question? The feelings aren’t that part of me. To be clear, it’s not put away any longer. It’s just not out. The feelings are…pretty much everything else. The fact that I’m not hemorrhaging blood from my face due to you all seeing me in the shower or getting dressed? That’s because these other feelings are sort of taking over. I guess it’s the new part of me? Or the part that I should have always had? How I was raised isn’t just quickly being pushed back, the speed’s sort of ramping up. I still have the same thoughts and concerns and keep thinking that I should be finding a flogger to beat myself bloody for all of the sins I’m experiencing so that I can go to heaven…but they’re fading. The thoughts, that is. This new part of me is sort of outshining the old parts, and it’s only when I start second-guessing things that I go back to how things were in my brain. I’m not sure if that makes any sense?”
Leticia nodded at my words, “I can see it. I think that only Rachel among us really understands what you mean on a personal level, but I can see it. We were all born being what we are. You weren’t. Rachel wasn’t.”
Our resident vampire smiled, “True. It’s still hard for me. Arguably, I’d say I’m probably farther behind than you are on accepting everything.”
Everyone joined me in staring at her, “Why do you say that?”
She sighed, “Look at you! I mean, yeah, you have issues with some things, but when it comes right down to it, you accept them. I’m sort of the opposite. I’ve accepted some things, but not all of it. Not when it comes right down to it. Yeah, I sort of fell into the whole naked thing, but part of that was repetition and being forced to do it. The sex thing? Okay, that was different, but I wasn’t raised thinking it was a sin, so that wasn’t that big of a step. Drinking blood? I have to do it, so there’s not much of a choice there. The rest, though? I’ve never met a vampire that hasn’t killed someone by this point in their life. A year into it? Most go off the deep end at first and kill more than a few people before they get things under control.”
“What do you mean under control?” I asked, wondering what she’d say.
“Just that? The urges hit us and they give in, killing their enemies pretty much wholesale.”
“And you didn’t do that?”
“No!” She threw up her hands, “I bury those urges something fierce. I’ve been close to killing on a few occasions, but I keep holding off. Not that it’s good to kill people, but it’s sort of expected? Especially with feedings. Or when attacked. Like with Corey? I should have crushed him a long time ago. When he fisted my ass last year and made me drink his piss because I couldn’t help him with some of his homework? I should have torn him to pieces.”
Steph shifted, “He did that to you too?”
That got her a look, “He did that to you?”
Steph looked to the others, “Show of hands of who he didn’t do that to?”
Only Paul’s hand went up.
“God damn, I had no idea.” Rachel’s voice sounded breathy.
“I doubt that’s the only time most of us have had one or both of those things happen to us.” Steph shrugged.
Rachel’s shoulders shook while I kept my huge smile from growing. I have to say, I’m even happier now that I killed him than before. “So…yeah, I should have killed him. Everyone would have backed me on that. I just…I can’t seem to do it! Everything I learned growing up tells me that it’s not right, and no matter how everything pushes at me, I can’t seem to get by that. And you? You seem perfectly fine with that. Those people…they screamed and screamed, and you laughed. You really don’t care that they’re dead? That you killed them?”
Her eyes widened at my shrug, “Nope? I know it should. I can feel that it should, but…yeah. It doesn’t bother me in the slightest. Want to know the best part?”
She nodded, but her head was shaky.
“The best part is that I can still hear them screaming!”
Her mouth fell open, “Uhh, what do you mean?”
I tapped my head and then my chest, “In here? Inside of me? I can still hear every one of them screaming slightly in the background. It’s freaking awesome. Like the best feeling. Well, almost.” I couldn’t help glancing at the rainbow across the wall.
That got a few eyes to follow, and it took a second to realize it was the shifters looking. All of the magic users continued to stare at me.
Armand’s jaw trembled just a bit, “Umm…do you mean that? Or are you, I don’t know, exaggerating or something?”
“No? Unless I’m crazy? I guess that’s a possibility? Although it seems real to me. I can’t get them to change or do anything different so far, it’s just screaming.”
Carl nudged the more powerful magic user among us, “What do you think? That sounds like necromancy, at least a little?”
Christine nodded, “Yeah. A little. I’ve never learned much about it, but…could it be?”
Armand looked across them and included Nick and Zach, “I’m not sure? We can ask Mr. Reynolds? Necromancers have been killed for centuries now. I’m not sure I’ve heard of one being found in the past…50 years? 100?”
“Killed? What do you mean?”
He took a breath, holding it for a bit, “I’m not sure what to say? Necromancy is…dark. Evil, for lack of a better word. The magic user families have been wiping it out and destroying everything they can find about it for the longest time. I don’t know when it started, but at least a thousand years ago?”
My phone rang unexpectedly, and I caught the name, “Umm, sorry, hold on, this is…Mom.” No one reacted beyond their eyes going wide, so I picked up. “Uhh, hi?”
She laughed, “Daughter-mine, can you put me on speaker so that your friends can hear me?”
“Sure? Hold on,” I hit the buttons and put the phone down, “you’re on speaker.”
“Good morning, everyone. This is Rasphael.”
Too many of my classmates shivered at hearing her voice, although Steph and Rachel didn’t. Maybe because they’ve heard it a few times?
“Armand, you were wondering if what my daughter said indicates that she is a necromancer?”
He went pale, and sweat began coursing down his forehead in rivulets.
She laughed, making him twitch, “No need to worry, young one. No need. If push comes to shove, my new daughter can look out for herself. I just wanted to interject myself into the discussion. You are correct. Human magic users have been systematically wiping out necromancers across the Earth for more than 1,000 years. It has actually been closer to 2,500. At one point, as a group, they were inordinately powerful. They ruled the magic families as the strongest, and the others became jealous of their power and might. They managed to join together to destroy their backer and then took down the powerful necromancer families one by one. At the time, necromancy was not considered an evil power. Not at all. It just was a power. Much like your ability to conjure fire and kill someone can be considered evil. It was jealousy and greed that caused the fighting, and the leaders twisted their purpose and cast the necromancers into the role of villain. That has led to thousands of years of fighting and murder.” She let that sit for a minute, “To allay your fears, I will tell you outright, my daughter is not a human necromancer. At all. I do not know everything, obviously, but to the best of my knowledge there is one remaining necromancer family in the world, and she is not a member of it.”
She let that sit, and I knew she was looking at everyone through her spell, “
I know your fears, at least those of you that are from magic using families. I can see it. I can practically feel it. Feel free to speak with your coven leaders or your parents about Ceri…but make no mistake, if someone attacks fearing that she is a necromancer when she is not? Then I pity them. I really do. That being said, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.”
My friends stared at the phone as if it was dancing a jig.
“Ceri?”
“Yes…Mom?”
“Oh daughter-mine, I have waited long and longer to hear those words.”
“Umm, sorry about that.”
“No need to apologize, although I understand why you said it. It has been hard waiting, but you are here at last, and I can’t wait to show you my home once you turn 17. I think you should stay there through graduation, but you can visit me and stay with me during vacations and time away. I think time among the long-lived is a good idea for you. A very good one.”
“Oookay? You know I don’t really know what that means, right?”
She laughed, getting me to laugh again, “I do know. I do. That being said? I’m sure your friends will explain. I will let you go for now. I’ve taken the liberty of transferring more money into your account. You also have access to your former parents’ accounts. Your paperwork has been filed, and you’re fully emancipated.”
“Thank you. Does that mean I can get a license and a car and stuff like that?”
“It does. I will send you the driver’s manual. Study it and I can help you get your permit test set up.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Now, go and have fun. And…pay attention to your magic as it moves. I believe you’ve felt it getting stronger? And larger?”
“Yeah? Very much so. Especially at the end of the fight.”
“As I expected. Pay attention to that, and you’ll have a better idea how to stretch things so that you become more powerful. Power is safety in our world, and you and I both need it. Reputation has a protection all its own, but that simply means more and more powerful people come after you at some point.”
She let me think about that for a minute, “Thank you. I’ll watch for that.”
“Have a wonderful day.”
“Thank you. You too.”
I hung up and leaned back, looking over my friends. “Oookay. So apparently I’m not a necromancer? No idea what I am, but not that.”
Armand nodded, “Yeah. You know…you’re handling talking to Rasphael pretty well, you know that, right?”
I shrugged, “You have to remember; I don’t have any idea what her reputation is like other than what I’ve heard here. No idea at all. I just know her as the woman that showed me compassion and more honest love and attention in a five-minute conversation than my parents did in 16 years. I’d fill rivers with blood to save her if needed, all based on the few times we’ve talked and the three times I’ve seen her.”
Rachel hit my leg, “See? It’s things like that! I can get behind those thoughts, but I don’t know that I could actually do it if it came down to it!”
She took my hand when I reached for hers, “I’m not sure how to help you with that. I fight everything at the start and then give in, while you gave in at the start and fight everything at the end. Between us we have someone that doesn’t have a clue and someone that accepts everything. Somehow we just need to get to the point where we’re both accepting everything.”
“I don’t know how to do that, though!”
The topic of me possibly being a necromancer faded as we started talking about Rachel. The pain of it is that most of her problem isn’t something that we can really work through. Not like forcing me to get naked or anything like that. How do you force someone to kill someone? Or to fight back? None of us want to fight her, because that’d just be stupid. She’d know that we wouldn’t really hurt her, and that’d make the effort pointless at best.
The only possible approach came from Christine when she recommended getting her some rabbits or guinea pigs and have her drain them until they die. They can live on animals for a bit, and it seems like they get a boost of strength if the person they’re feeding from dies, but they can’t hold a human’s worth of blood in one go. They can do that to a small animal, though.
Not that we were going to do that.
Yet.
Maybe at some point.
My friends calmed down towards me by the time we were done, and I was happy to see that they let things go. Not entirely, but a little. Tom and Sarah were more accepting of the fact that I didn’t want to take over anything, so they moved back into their number one and two slots. Armand was a little sketchy as he looked at my phone from time to time, but I think that was mainly due to getting to speak with Rasphael.
I seriously need to look her up online or something and figure out why everyone is so freaked out about her.
Just before lunch, we learned that they planned to close the cafeteria for lunch and dinner, so we were pretty much on our own. We couldn’t agree on a course of action, so the group broke up to do different things. It didn’t help that I got sidetracked by Ms. Darvel as she quizzed me on the second set of three chapters she had asked me to learn.
When I was done, she nodded, “You’re coming along decently. Do you know what you have to do next?”
Groaning, I shrugged, “Next three chapters?”
She laughed at that, “Nope. Next four. They all connect together. You have a week.”
“Damn…”
“You’re getting it. Just keep doing what you’re doing, and you’ll be fine. I understand you’re getting tutoring in magical species?”
“Yeah. I’m making good headway there.”
“Good. And magic?”
“Umm, not sure? My first assignment was to light a candle, and I can do that now. I’m not sure what my next will be.”
She broke into laughter, “Yeah, I’m betting that you can light a candle. You know that what you did out there is pretty much unprecedented, right? At least for a student that hasn’t even turned 17?”
Spreading my hands, I smiled, “I don’t have a clue. I can see it being that, but knowing it? No clue at all that way.”
“Seeing what you did out there…it’s hard to remember that you’re so new to this.”
“I am, though. Two weeks ago I didn’t have a clue about any of this.”
“That’s just…it’s both amazing and scary.”
Cocking my head, I stared at her for a minute, “Why both?”
Her smile grew quickly, “Amazing because what else can you do? You seem like a ball of contradictions, and it’s exciting beyond belief to wonder if you’ll possibly have an impact on the world. Is this one of those situations where 500 years from now I’ll be telling someone that I knew you when you were just a junior in high school, and they’ll be shocked that I know the Ceri? Then scary because, well, if you managed to win a challenge of that size with that number of challengers at the levels they were at, what else can you do? And, if you decide to do it, can anyone stop you? Or will you simply take over one day and no one can do anything?”
Okay, honest thoughts. “I guess I can see that. Both points. As for the second one, I’m not sure what to say. Let’s look at Rasphael. Everyone tells me that she’s powerful beyond belief. Could she rule the Earth if she wanted to? She follows and supports her king, but if she stepped out, could she do it?”
Ms. Darvel sucked in a breath, “Oh my. Yes, I think she could? Unless an angel or demon stepped in to stop her or maybe enough people banded together, I’m not sure we have any individuals that could stop her.”
“Okay then, if she hasn’t done that, then there’s no way that I would do that.”
“Why?”
“If the ancient fey with unimaginable powers hasn’t taken over, then there’s no reason that I can see for me to do it. None. She wants me as a daughter. In my mind, there’s a reason why she hasn’t moved to take over, so I can’t see me second-guessing her. She knows mor
e about virtually every single thing under the sun than I do. Normally I’d say that someone my age knows more current pop bands than someone her age would, but I don’t know any of them, so I can’t even say that! I barely watch television and have only seen a handful of movies. Literally the only thing I know more about than she does is being me, and the me that I know is changing in leaps and bounds and she knows what I’m changing into…so I’d argue that she really kinda knows more about me than I do.”
She nodded at my words and then patted my shoulder, “What you say is true. But consider this? Has she not taken over because she was saving that role for you? Is that a possibility?”
Oh. Oh hell.
My phone rang, and I popped it onto speaker phone. “Mom?”
Bell-like laughter poured from the phone, getting me to chuckle with her. “Umm, is this a laugh of oh no, she’s crazy? Or more oh, someone guessed my plan?”
More laughter, and I swear she fell from her chair again. Director Fitzsimmons could be heard laughing in the background.
Ms. Darvel had a look of confusion on her face that I knew was set to turn to horror if the wrong words were spoken.
“Umm, Mom? You’re kinda freaking out my teacher.”
The laughter petered off and she cleared her throat, “Ms. Darvel, thank you for that. I needed a good laugh today, and that was wonderful.”
“Umm, you’re welcome?”
“To answer your question? I have not left taking over the Earth for my daughter. I rule where my powers lie already, although I will not explain that. I have no need to take over ruling Earth or the between lands. Ruling at that level is far more trouble than it is worth in my opinion. I am content following those that do rule and keeping them in power where I can chip in.”
She let that sink in for a minute, “So, while my daughter will have her strengths and will rule where her strengths lie once she comes into them and accepts everything, you have no need to worry that way. Then again…I would recommend never moving into the category of enemy or threat. As you saw in the challenge, she does not suffer fools any more than I do. While my win in a challenge like that would have been faster, I doubt that it would have been more creative even though I have lived far longer than she has. Our powers are complimentary on some level, but not the same. Be that as it may, though, she is powerful, but she is young. She needs friends and companions and role models to build her new life from. She seems to look up to you, at least from what little I’ve seen, so don’t throw that away in fear at what she could do. Focus on what she does do.”