by Bob Dattolo
I felt through the rings and held the one up I earmarked for him, “Well, it should make you a really powerful alpha?”
He froze for a second, “That’s impossible.”
“No, Tom,” Mr. Reynolds said, “not impossible. Just very, very difficult. And almost entirely unheard of. Please, try it on. Let’s see what changes.”
He took the ring, hand shaking just a bit, then slipped it on as I nodded to him. The ring shocked the crap out of me by adjusting to fit him better, then it almost entirely faded from view. I’m getting better at that one.
Tom’s muscles began to twitch violently, and he groaned as he bent over for a moment, then laughed as he stood up. I could feel power from him, and it’s pretty impressive. “Oh my God…”
Sarah approached him, holding her hands up, “Jesus Christ, you were strong before, but now you’re a freakishly brutal alpha!”
Tom smiled and shifted, practically exploding into his form. Sarah screamed and jerked back, laughing when she covered her mouth, “Oh my fucking God! What the hell did you do!” She shifted, taking nearly 20 seconds to do it. The others laughed as she panted and shifted back. Meanwhile, Tom shifted back. I swear, it took him less than a second to do.
Steph touched his shoulder, “That’s fucked up right there! You have to be the strongest lion alpha I’ve ever run across!”
He laughed and stared at his forearms as he made fists, “That’s crazy. That’s faster than any alpha I’ve ever seen. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone under five seconds.”
“Me either!” Sarah looked back at my hands and the other rings, getting the rest of the group to laugh somewhat uneasily.
“All right, so…I have to figure out a price with my mom for these. I worked one out with Rachel for hers, so we’ll do it here. For now you guys get them while we figure out a price. Consider these a loan for now based on us being friends and, umm, lovers. There are a couple caveats with these. To start, you guys should be the only ones that can take them off. No one else can. If they kill you and get it, they shouldn’t be able to get it to work for them. And, I need to say this; you can’t get them to work for anyone else, either. Only me or my mom should be able to do that. That being said, both of us can take the ring off you. So, along with the boost in power, we don’t want to see you guys going out and crushing everyone just because you can. Remember, those that are already powerful haven’t gone out and done that. I didn’t make these to turn you guys into unstoppable conquerors. So, if you do something that pisses off my mom, we’ll come take the ring. Then you guys have to deal with the fallout at the power level you’re at now. Does that make sense?”
Tom cocked his head at me, “Does that mean we can’t create our own groups?”
I shrugged, “You want to create a Pack or a Pride or something like that? Go for it. Just don’t go out there and willy-nilly kill someone to take over their group just because. Or somehow steer them into attacking you in challenge. Now, if they do it and you kill them, go for it. But like I said, we’re not trying to create a bunch of shifters that can go out and kill on a whim. Any more than we want to create magic users that take everything over.” They nodded slowly when I stopped talking. “So, who wants to try their ring out?”
Do I need to say that they each did? I do? Huh, here I thought I wouldn’t have had to do that.
They so very seriously wanted to try their rings out. To a person, they laughed as their bodies got used to the increased power, then exploded into their shifts. I swear it’s almost fast enough to miss if you blink. Or at least miss a huge chunk of it. It’s crazy.
As they played, I dragged Rachel up, “All right, one of the things I tried to do was make it so you can’t get caught by a vampire’s gaze. So Rachel? See if you can capture them!”
She blushed, but did as I asked. She’s working through her reluctance to be a vampire quickly, which is nice to see. She was able to capture Armand and make him dab without much fuss, but her attempts to capture the shifters sort of sloughed off. That made them laugh until I got their attention again, “Now, since this is school and I’ve seen a bunch of crap, just because Rachel can’t capture you with her eyes doesn’t mean that she can’t kill you outright or just beat you down. You guys are strong as hell now, but so is she. So, you know, don’t be dicks.”
Our little group came together in a hug before they went back to playing, leaving me with the magic users and our two teachers.
It took longer for Ms. Ahmed to clear her throat than I expected, “Ceri? What are the chances you have another ring like these for sale?”
She looked so anxious that I didn’t have the heart to tell her no right off, “I don’t, but I could be convinced to make another. I won’t be making them wholesale though, that’s for sure.”
“If you can get me a price? I’d love to have one. I’m an alpha, but I’ve been seeing a lot of pressure from others in the area, and I’d love to be more protected.”
Mr. Reynolds nodded, “She wouldn’t even need something quite as strong, so keep that in mind.”
I fingered one of the blank rings in my pocket, “How much would you be willing to pay for something that makes you stronger?”
Her lips pressed together as she thought, finally saying, “I never even thought about something like this as an option. The last time I saw anything even remotely like this it went for $200 million? I know that wouldn’t buy me the same level they have, but it doesn’t have to be that strong. I don’t need that much of a boost.”
Hmmm, I need to check on this, “Can you hold for a minute? I need to talk with my Mom.”
She looked perplexed, “By all means? Are you going to call her?”
My friends laughed. Well, the human ones. “No, she won’t be calling.” Armand said, not clarifying when she gave him a look.
I moved to the corner of the room, knowing that she’d be able to hear me no matter where I stood, and opened a portal, finding Mom at work. She looked up as soon as the portal was in place, smiling at me, “Daughter-mine, is there an issue?”
“No? Umm, to start, I’m at school obviously, in the shifter class. During magics class today I made some rings for my shifter friends that turns them into really strong alphas. You should see them shift now, it’s under a second.”
She looked impressed, “Very nice. We’ll work out an appropriate price for them?”
“Thank you. I have a different question, though?”
“Do tell?”
“Ms. Ahmed here is an alpha. She’s the shifter teacher here. She seems to be having some issues with locals that are stronger than her, and she asked if I’d make her a ring like I made them. She’s already an alpha, so doesn’t need one anywhere near as strong. So I have two questions. First, should I do it? Second, if I do, how much should it go for? She offered $200 million.”
She tapped her desk, obviously reviewing things in her head before looking like she’s listening to something. “All right, Director Fitzsimmons just mentioned that there’s quite a bit of infighting going on near the school, and it’s very likely that there’s going to be an attempt to consolidate by some of the more powerful shifters. Your Ms. Ahmed was deemed to be weak enough to be killed or gobbled up. We only know about it because it came up in some of our research around the people you interact with, otherwise we wouldn’t have known. It’s not illegal, so we’re not looking for it. On the other hand, I’ve encountered Ms. Ahmed a time or two over the centuries, although she may not know it was me at the time. If you can do it, go for it. $200 million is not the going rate, but it is not bad for someone just starting out. We can always say that you offered a discount to her because you do not have a reputation of strong work. It’s not quite factual, but it’s not that far off of it depending on how you look at it.”
“Thank you. I’ll do that then.”
“Have a wonderful day, Ceri.”
“Thank you, you too.”
I closed the portal and hit the ring in my hand, pushing pow
er at it for a bit more than five minutes before returning to them.
“Is everything all right, Ceri? It sounded like you were going to make the ring for me, but then you didn’t come over?”
Mr. Reynolds laughed, making me twitch at the sound. So familiar! “She was making the ring. Or trying to. Let’s see what you came up with?”
I showed her the ring, “It’ll probably be quicker just to put it on. It takes like 20 minutes for me to test it with magic, so using it should be much faster.”
She held the ring that I offered her and looked at my teacher, “Did she truly make this ring in five minutes?”
He nodded, “A little more, but most likely? Let’s see if it’s enough or if she needs to dedicate more time.”
She slipped it on and went through the same quivering. She didn’t laugh, though, before shifting. Looks like I hit the nail on the head power-wise. Luckily so. It’s not like I had much say in that. I just don’t have enough control to really know what levels I’m hitting while working on them.
A half hour later she arranged payment through Mom, and we were gone, heading into our post-school zone.
Collapsing into my chair in my room, I didn’t bat an eye as Steph stripped and sat in hers. She fingered her ring, “Thank you for this. You realize you’ve made all of us pretty much the strongest alphas that we know, right?”
I shrugged, “Yeah? Should I not have done that?”
She chuckled, “It’s not a should have thing. It’s a…I don’t know, just something that people don’t do.”
“Right, but do they not do them because they can’t? Or because they won’t”
She grunted, “Okay, probably because they can’t.”
“There we go then. Since I can, I’m not sure I shouldn’t. Well, as long as my mom agrees.”
She smiled at that, “What are you thinking about for the others?”
“Umm, others?”
She gave me a look, “Don’t give me that. You made us all stronger, so what makes magic users stronger?”
I didn’t hold out long through her mock glare at not answering her, “Fine. From what I can tell, I think the magical multiplier to some extent. It is sort of a trump card, I guess? It allows us more access to our power, so that might work.”
“You gonna do it?”
“I’m thinking about it.”
“What’s stopping you?”
“Not sure. Nothing really, I guess.”
She laughed again, “Then don’t let me hold you back.”
Fine, direction given. I took out five rings and went to town on them for about the same amount of time as before. I did manage to put on more of my rings to make sure I got enough growth, and I was pleased when I was done and ran tests on them.
She groaned, “Don’t tell me, what’d you do now?”
I slid my extra rings away under the table where she couldn’t see what I was doing, and nudged the rings on the table, “Umm, I created the rings? They’re pretty good, too.”
“So…how much of a boost do they get?”
“Umm, I tried to keep it on the lower end, so it should let them cast spells with about 50% of the same effort.”
She nearly fell over laughing at that, getting a small herd of people joining us not even 20 seconds later. This time I heard them coming before the door opened, making me realize that my senses are actually improving.
The others watched Steph laugh and laugh, before Christine asked, “What’s so funny?”
I held up the rings, “Umm, I just made these for you, Zach, Nick, Carl, and Armand? This should allow you guys to do the same spells with just about 50 percent of the effort.”
Steph started laughing again, with Nick and Carl joining in. “You serious?” Zach asked.
“Yeah. So…same sort of caveats as before. I’ll figure out a price with Mom. No taking over. No attacking without cause. That sort of thing. I put in the same sort of protections against vampire gaze and some injuries, and Mom and I can take it back and give it to someone else. You guys can take them off, but not set them up for someone else.” I let that sink in, “They’re yours if you agree to that and are willing to pay what we come up with.”
They exchanged long looks before they fell into line so I could hand them out.
Instead of them practicing spell after spell, it turned into a few hours of them performing sexual favors for me that we all enjoyed. Not that I wasn’t reciprocating.
Ms. Darvel caught me after dinner and quizzed me on my latest chapters, giving me a pass and then additional chapters. Thankfully though, I should be caught up most of the way and will just need to hone my actual defensive skills. Hence their work in the classroom.
Rachel’s brother showed up for classes on Tuesday, and he settled into the freshman group pretty easily from what little I saw at lunch. Then again, he got to talk to us as well, so he’s not alone like I was. Tuesday night, I happened to catch him near the lounge, and he looked so happy that he could float away. It turns out his dozenal was giving him a baptism by sex. He thought we were kidding, but he quickly learned that we weren’t. Not even close. He’s a happy camper, which I can’t disagree with. As much as it pushed my buttons originally, it pushes my buttons in a good way now.
Chapter 26
Wednesday and Thursday passed in a strange sort of blur. It wasn’t really weird, per se, but nothing of note happened. Well, other than being distracted by Mr. Reynolds like every hour or so. Everywhere I looked both days, he was there. Eating in the caf. In the hallway. Looking through the door of my classrooms. In magics class, something that he kept doing was plucking at my brain. It was right at the tip of my tongue, but wouldn’t come to me.
It didn’t help that the space inside of me holding my magic kept acting weird. Growing and twisting and shifting and yanking my attention away from pretty much everything. Sex with the group both days ended up lasting for freaking hours and hours. I kept sending out magic without meaning to, getting the guys hard and riled up again. It’s like it’s firing on its own.
Yet every time it did so, I swear I could feel flares of something around me. It took until Thursday night to realize that I was feeling Rachel. And her brother.
There was one other flare of cold power nearby that kept nudging at me until I made it to magics class and stopped dead in the doorway.
Mr. Reynolds was busy talking to Armand in the front of the room, and I felt him deep inside. I’d never felt him before, obviously, but I do now. Something inside of me recognizes him. Or his power. He’s a vampire. I never once realized that. No one ever mentioned it. Not once. Yet there he is. I swear he’s warmer than room temperature, but maybe he uses magic to be like that? He breathes. I’m not sure if he has a heartbeat. I never thought to check for that.
My little realization came to an end as I was bumped and had to go into class. Questions and lessons started, and I lost track of asking him about being a vampire. Especially since I figured it didn’t quite matter.
Friday dinner was held out, with my friends giving me a little impromptu birthday thing. With the big day tomorrow, I planned to be with Mom as much as possible, so was going to be gone the entire weekend. We had a blast at the barbecue place, and it wasn’t until I saw Mr. Reynolds watching us from against the wall and again on the way back to the dorms just before midnight that something clicked in me.
Watching him flit through the shadows on campus did it. The mix of that and what I’d been picking up for the past week or so finally came together, and I knew why he’s so familiar. Once it triggered, I knew I had to speak with him. My friends held back at my whispered request, and I headed towards him where he stood in the deep shadows. I was shocked that he didn’t leave.
We ended up standing about four feet apart as I looked him over. I never saw it, but now I do.
“Thank you.”
He cocked his head, “For what?”
My turn to cock my head at him, “For what? For this. For all of this.”
He laughed softly, “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Don’t do that, Mr. Reynolds. I recognize you now. I can feel you inside.”
He stood up straighter, “You can feel me already? When is your birthday?”
“Tomorrow.”
His smile grew, “Finally. At long last.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I recognize that you’re the vampire that found me when I was trying to kill myself, but I still have no idea what I’m turning into.”
He laughed again, this time louder, “Turning into? You’re not turning into anything. You’re going through…puberty, if you will. You’ve always been what you are, you always will be what you are. You are in your chrysalis phase. Tonight at midnight, not too far away from now, you will move into being what you have always been but could not touch.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, “You lost me there. I get parts of it, but what am I supposed to be? Can you tell me that?”
“Oh no…your mother will tell you, I’m sure. It has been long since we’ve seen you here on Earth. More than 2500 years waiting…it will be good to have you among us again.”
“Please, Mr. Reynolds, please tell me!”
He bowed his head, “I’m sorry, Ceri, My Lady, I can’t do that. Or, no, I won’t. You are who you are, but you’re also more than that. Use your powers wisely.”
I knew that no matter what I said, he wouldn’t give me the answers I needed, “Then thank you. Since you did what you did, my life has changed in so many ways. I think that deserves payment. Maybe a reward. In light of that?” I grabbed the two rings I earmarked for him from my safe and held them up, “Payment for what you’ve done for me. Maybe I would have become what I’m supposed to, but I’d have been dead if I had my say. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to thank you enough.”
He stared at the rings, and I wasn’t prepared for tears to start down his cheeks, “I accept, My Lady. I only did what a follower should have done. Something your parents failed to recognize.”
I froze as he took the rings from my hand, “Wait, you knew my parents?”