Love's Misconception

by Flynn Eire

  Either way, Thursday was now mine, and I stuck around, watching how things worked and for Drake to show me the ropes… And to learn how to cook it seemed because I didn’t know dick about cooking and, yeah, that would be needed to work the kitchen. I mean, I knew that, but I figured I wouldn’t be doing anything all that intricate so how hard could it be?

  Yeah, harder than I had skills for. I burnt toast if not supervised. Drake found it hysterical, mostly because I kept apologizing and trying to hide it—as if the smell wouldn’t be a huge clue.

  I was a good prep though. I could mix, cut, whisk, and pull things out of the fridge like a boss. It was the actual cooking part that was tricky to me.

  “How have you never cooked?”

  “We had servants,” I sighed, scrubbing my hand over my head, groaning when I remembered I’d been touching bacon so now my hair was covered in grease. “And then we were fed shit gruel and bad stereotypical cafeteria food. None of us helped or cooked. We had a few guys who looked like they were Zakasacs rejects that I know spit and snot in the food.”

  “Lovely,” Manny chuckled as he dumped some more eggs into a huge skillet.

  After I screwed up several more things—and almost started a few grease fires—they pretty much banished me to prep work. I think Manny took pity on me and decided that would always be my job… Even after he found someone else to fill in Thursday mornings.

  “But I’m supposed to take a kitchen shift,” I hissed, hating how fragile and panicked I sounded, knowing Drake could overhear us. I didn’t want any other reasons to stand out or get called on anything so the higher-ups might use it as an excuse to ask me about other things.

  Manny’s face took on an understanding but very dad-like expression. “Now you listen to me. This is my domain back here. Even Alexander knows that. And if I say I’d rather have someone come a few mornings a week to help with prep to make all the shifts go easier then that’s my decision, just as the pre-trans get their butts in here to do all my dishes.” He shot me a wink and then nodded to the boxes of eggs waiting to be broken and whisked. “If you’re willing of course?”

  “Yeah, I’m willing. Might be the only way the place doesn’t get burned down if I’m in the kitchen,” I drawled and moved over there. Drake shot me a smirk as if trying not to laugh and maybe another man would have taken offense or even been embarrassed, but I wasn’t most men and I found myself having a hard time not laughing as well.

  I stayed to help to help a bit longer and then grabbed some breakfast to go, before heading off to my new assignment alone to really dig into it. I opened up the gun cage and then the storage vault that had all the bigger toys in it. I hadn’t wanted to say anything with Drake around because I knew their friend had been the one keeping this all together before but everything was a mess.

  “I wonder if he died before the attack here,” I muttered, deciding that had to be the case and giving the warrior who wasn’t around to defend himself the benefit of the doubt. It also made more sense too. Someone would have noticed sooner if they saw the gun cage in this disarray. After an attack if no one was in charge of it, I could see it getting pushed off for a while… Or until the next idiot took over.

  Either way there was a ton to do because no one had been keeping up with weapon care and reordering. After seriously assessing the situation, I made my first real decision as head of the weapons and found some paper, a thick marker, and scribbled a note before taping it to the gate that surrounded the area for safety.

  I finished breakfast, wanting about twenty more coffees, and got to the heavy lifting… Mainly dragging everything out of the vault so I could really clean in there, take inventory, give every piece of equipment its proper care, and get to ordering what was needed.

  I was just about to start stripping every assault rifle and any larger gun when I heard a growl at the gun range gate.

  “I swear I’m going to beat my mate,” a voice I’d heard yesterday said. Then my gift told me it was Dimitri. Right, Alexander’s mate… Great. “He’s the only one that has the authority to shut down the gun range!”

  “Actually, no, not just him,” I clarified as I stepped out by the gate. “As the new range and weapons master it falls under my purview. And given what I found here I don’t feel comfortable with anyone firing these weapons until I’ve had a chance to strip, clean, and test them myself first.” I felt his rage more than I saw it flash in his eyes. “Look, I heard about the attack. I guess the guy who had this job, Kevin, died before it happened, right?”

  “Yes, right before,” he muttered, losing some of the anger and studying me carefully.

  “A lot of chaos happens in that kind of attack. I get it. But these weapons haven’t had any TLC since. You’re low on every bullet in stock. Things were in the wrong place. Hell, I found a few handguns without slides assembled right. Now that could be a pre-trans mistake or something happened after the fight and everyone was too tired to clean up a mess that wasn’t theirs. But I’m here now so just give me a bit to make sure it’s all safe.”

  “I get that and I appreciate safety, I actually put it first with my pre-trans,” Dimitri agreed, his shoulders losing their tension. “Sorry, not a fan of people screwing with my schedule.”

  “Didn’t know where it was. In the future, I’d like to sit down with the trainers and go over what they’ll want on their agendas so I have what’s needed to order and am able to prepare.”

  Dimitri’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s not how it’s ever been here. Whoever’s in charge of the cage just makes sure the space is cleared for us and gets out of the way.”

  I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, knowing this was the first of many times I was going to stir the waters. And while I was willing to do it professionally that didn’t mean I liked it.

  “That’s not how it was by me either but with all due respect to those who came before me, it should be. The weapons master is just that, a master of munitions. You’re in charge of the pre-trans training program, just as Matteo is of the post-trans. That doesn’t mean you can actually know everything of all the specialized fields. I mean, why do we train the pre-trans generally with a GLOCK 30S and the post-trans switch over to a GLOCK 21 Gen4?”

  “We always joke they get big boy guns,” Dimitri hedged, scrunching his eyebrows together. “I don’t actually know now that you mention it.”

  “They are a bit bigger, for when their hands are larger after the transition, yes, but they’re also a bit heavier, and have a slighter kick so when they have the strength of vampires, they’re not accidentally tossing them around like toy guns as they’re learning to control their new senses and muscles.” I waited for that to sink in and Dimitri to bob his head. “That’s why the gun master should teach this part of their training.”

  “You’re telling me you know all the ins and outs of all the weapons we have here?”

  “And some you’re missing that we had in Seattle,” I confirmed.

  “You wanted this job,” he chuckled. “That’s why you were so weird when Alexander assigned it to you. You were wanting to come in and fight for it.”

  I saw no reason to deny it now but that didn’t mean I trusted any of them just because he thought it amusing. “Will he take it away from me now that he knows I want it?”

  His face fell in an instant, amusement gone. “Look, my mate screwed up, but he’s not a dick. He’s old. He’s not good with a lot of the subtle stuff or understanding that he’s big bad to the rest of us because he doesn’t care about crap like that and his words sound more threatening than they are.” He let out a frustrated sigh and lowered his voice to where the pre-trans wouldn’t hear him since they didn’t have vampire hearing yet. “He wouldn’t like me telling you this but he couldn’t sleep last night, too upset at your first day here.”

  “Forgive me for having a hard time believing that. He seemed to be more upset that he was getting busted in front of everyone that I called him out on what he’d done instead of
upset I was so distraught.”

  “As I said, he’s not exactly touchy-feely after being a warrior as long as he has. Did the older warriors at your camp ask how you were a lot? I bet the moment you started acting uncomfortable, he said something about me being around soon?”

  I sighed, remembering that was one of the things Alexander mentioned. “Fine, I’ll try and start over with everyone here, but that’s the best I can promise. If no one else comes pumping me for information or fucking Wyrok rushing me from behind while we’re all yelling at each other, then maybe I’ll believe this isn’t a bad place.”

  “Helios doesn’t have much patience for squabbling. He’s really old. He wasn’t going to hurt you. I think he was just going to tie everyone to chairs and tell the kiddies to play nice. He’s done it before.”

  “Asshat,” I bitched under my breath.

  “I don’t disagree, but it actually works,” Dimitri chuckled, running his hand over his head. He hurried to open his mouth when I did to cut me off before whatever scathing remark he guessed was coming out of my mouth.

  Smart man.

  “So you want some slave labor? I’ve got a gap in my schedule now and I promise my pre-trans aren’t useless.” There were several groans behind him and Dimitri smirked. “And I do love to torture them so. I live for it actually.”

  “Yeah, we know,” someone daring called out.

  “Anson, if you’re not careful, I’ll give you to someone for all time, mucking up whatever they want,” Dimitri shot right back. Everyone chuckled at that, some of the pre-trans poking their friend as Dimitri focused on me. “So what can we do?”

  I thought about it a moment and nodded. “I could use help cleaning out the vault and then getting counts on all the bullets we have so I can reorder a lot more.”

  “Anson, take a group and start separating bullets. You should know the difference by now,” he ordered. I raised an eyebrow at that and he waited until half the group was gone and he sent the others off to start cleaning out the vault I had mostly emptied. “He’s next to transition. They tend to act out and get pretty ornery. You remember how it was.”

  “Yeah, but I was the gay Aberdeen. I hit my quota of acting out.” I shrugged and walked away, not really caring that his mouth was hanging open. We didn’t get passes in my family, the chance we could die in our transition didn’t excuse bad manners or making snarky comments to someone who outranked us. If Dimitri let them get away with it, fine, he was more accepting than my family or my camp in Seattle.

  That didn’t mean I understood it.

  With all the help—even pre-trans help—cleaning out the vault was done in a fraction of the time. Dimitri was right, they weren’t useless. He’d done a nice job with them. They listened well, thought through steps of what needed to be done and asked appropriate questions before completing tasks instead of just dunces doing whatever the mindless task they believed it to be… Which was how mistakes were made.

  It made me think this camp really did have their shit together more than the rumors said. I knew firsthand how rumors could come from jealousy more than anything. I took a chance to stick my nose into business I didn’t want to normally, somewhat worried about my mother. We might have a horrible relationship, but the one thing she didn’t know was that I always watched out for her while I was in Seattle.

  Now that I was gone, I knew others in the family that would never be so caring or might stick the knife right in her back for her seat or to take the Aberdeen wealth.

  “You know, off the record, I don’t know what this shit is between my mother and Councilman Ashton, but if I had to guess from what I’ve heard over the years…” I trailed off, gauging his reaction. I was shocked to see it was almost bored.

  “Look, we don’t really get into the politics here. We’re remote. Alexander abhors them. I found out not too long ago he was approached about taking an open council seat but he was happy here before we mated. We only just got more involved because we found out the old Ashton was a rat bastard and saved Theo from him. Now our friend’s mated to Theo and we see them now and again. Other than that, we really don’t have ins with the council like others do because we don’t have joint facilities.”

  “I always did wonder why the Midwest Council’s attached warriors weren’t actually attached to their estate in Chicago. I mean, Wyoming is so not Midwest.”

  “No, no it’s not,” he chuckled. “We take on more pre-trans and we really do more training. Even when we cover escort missions, most are fill-ins or for training. East and West Coast camps cover most of the Midwest Council’s needs. And technically this is Mountain time, so it’s not really Eastern, Central, Pacific, more Eastern, Central and Mountain, and Pacific in the grouping of Councils. That’s why they share warriors for assignments so well.”

  “My mother said it also keeps any location from becoming to tyrannical and setting up some kind of twisted monarchy like is still left in Europe.”

  Dimitri rolled his head and gave me an annoyed look. “We have a friend mated to one of those monarchs in France. I wouldn’t say that too loudly around here.”

  I shrugged. “Hey, he might be one of the good ones. I don’t disagree though. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. But my mother’s point is it would be twisted to take what we have now and try and make it back into a monarchy. She says that’s why there’s so much crossover so everyone’s checking on the others.”

  “Not often enough apparently. Too much has gone on in Seattle that’s happened right under other councils’ noses,” he grumbled and I got a flare of rage, a few notions of… Rune?

  “So this isn’t all about me?” I whispered before I could stop myself.

  He let out a huff. “God, you really are perceptive. Is that how you were able to see Helios coming?”

  Deciding the only chance I had was to put the issue to bed, I went with the best lie I could come up with. “I’ve always had above-average hearing. I heard him. He’s too fast to track, but I heard like a whistle of something, almost like a bullet cutting through the air, I don’t know, I just reacted.”

  “Nice reflexes.”

  “I was on high alert already.” I shrugged again, hoping he would let it go. He bobbed his head, and I slowly let out the breath I’d been holding, hoping he didn’t notice.

  “And no, it’s not all about you. One of ours was severely mistreated before you were ever at Seattle. It was bad, like horror-story bad. That’s why everyone freaked out when we thought there were whispers of someone else getting abused there and then shipped off here. I promise that’s why Theo got involved and the whole kettle got stirred up.”

  “I’m not asking for specifics, but what do you mean abused?” I hedged, my skin going cold.

  Dimitri slowly turned and met my eyes, rage simmering in them. “I mean like one of my closest friends telling us that they left him a dagger and told him to do the honorable thing when he couldn’t walk because his transition went horribly wrong because his coven let his father abuse him. Like some other pre-trans they considered a reject just disappearing and never being heard of again and not being shown to the infirmary when it was his time to get the help he needed.”

  I swallowed loudly and quickly glanced at my feet. “How long ago was this?”

  “A few decades ago. Why?”

  “Because I have no doubt that’s what would have happened to me at that camp if I wasn’t Councilwoman Aberdeen’s son and it was found out I was gay.”

  I hurried over to where the pre-trans were cleaning the rifles, unable to continue the conversation and not have the tears that were burning my eyes fall free. The kicker was I didn’t necessarily disagree with Seattle’s way. Granted I didn’t think being gay meant weak, but I was raised that the weak should be cut, or it would lead to deaths in the end.

  I guess I just never thought that being cut from the warrior program meant their death.

  5

  “You would not believe their pre-trans here, Mother,” I said in
to the phone when we took a break for lunch. I took mine to-go and was sitting outside, enjoying the brisk fall Wyoming air. I wasn’t sure if I was more shocked she took my call right away or that we were having a pleasant conversation.

  “How so?” she asked curiously.

  “They are well ahead in their weapons training from where I was at post-trans level. Physically their endurance is astounding for pre-trans. Of course they can’t do the heavy lifting post-trans and warriors can, but the way they push them to be distance runners and whatnot is truly what they attest their survival rate to. Did you know they have the highest survival rate here?”

  “London, you sound like you are drinking the Kool-Aid, as they say,” she chuckled in her condescending way.

  “Maybe, but when have I ever sounded like that?” I pushed. There was a pause and I knew I had her. “I’m an Aberdeen and I’m not easily impressed. I see the flaws here as well, Mother. Their gun cage and vault was a disaster. An understandable one since the man who’d been handling it died before the attack and there was no replacement. I’m far from saying this place is perfect, but they are up for change and suggestion and there are aspects to what they’re doing here that I believe are better than other camps.”

  “That was the idea behind having such a remote camp,” she muttered thoughtfully. “They would not be as easily influenced and would focus solely on the training. I will think on this. Again, we’re not investigating, so be upfront with this Dimitri if you would, but I am interested in what you’ve told me in the difference in pre-trans training. It would be nice if more made it through their transitions.”

  “Of course.” I paused and went for the other topic I knew she wouldn’t like to discuss. “Mother, why do you hate Councilman Ashton so much? Is it because he’s gay?”

  She let out a deep sigh and I wondered if it was the end of our civility. “Why are we on this again?”