Coming Together (Tèarmann Chronicles book 6): A Christian Urban Fantasy

by TR Moore Ede

  “Thanks,” Jason said.

  And we have adult dragons, I thought.

  Jason and Irene are adults.

  I rolled my eyes. You know what I mean. Imagine how strong they are. I’d love to see that.

  Assuming they’re stronger. I mean, as I just said, Jason and Irene are adults.

  I looked at her. That’s from human standards. They’re not human. “Is this everyone?”

  Mr. Quinn glanced around the table, silently counting. “Yes, we’re all here. So Jessie, Jessica, I think you know everyone, except for Eve. Eve, this is Jessie and Jessica. Do you know everyone else?”

  “Yes,” she whispered. “Although I only met Malissa today.”

  I tapped my fingers on the table. “I’m almost positive that we’ve met.”

  She barely shrugged.

  I tilted my head slightly. “We’ve met before, haven’t we?”

  Eve flinched before slowly nodding.

  “When?”

  Eve’s shoulders tensed as she tried not to tremble. She clutched onto Victoria’s arm.

  “Jessica-” Mr. Quinn started.

  “Mr. Quinn, when did you meet Eve?” I asked.

  “Last week. She’s staying with me until we can get in contact with her family,” he replied.

  “Really, last week?” I looked back at Eve.

  Jessica, what are you getting at? Jessie asked.

  We met the alien last week. “Did we happen to meet last week, too?”

  Eve’s face turned almost as white as paper.

  “Jessica! Stop it!” Victoria snapped.

  I stood. “I don’t think you know WHAT you let into your house.”

  “Jessica!” Mr. Quinn snapped. “Sit back down. I already know her story.”

  I looked at him. “But she’s-”

  “Sit down.”

  I plopped down.

  “It’s going to be okay,” Victoria whispered, squeezing Eve’s shoulder. She glared at me. “Talk about kicking someone when they’re down.”

  “But she’s-” I started.

  “Just like you, experimented on,” Mr. Quinn said.

  I rolled my eyes. “Is that what she told you?” My gaze swung to Eve.

  “Jessica! Stop it!” Jessie hissed.

  “I’m confused,” Malissa whispered.

  I opened my mouth.

  “I’d word what you’re about to say next VERY carefully,” Jason said, looking me dead in the eyes. “Everyone that lives here—and Zack— knows her story.”

  I swallowed and let out a long breath. “Humans don’t have blue blood.”

  “Officer Rasper,” Eve whispered, squeezing the life out of Victoria's hand.

  “Guys? What’s going on?” Malissa whispered, leaning forward a little.

  “That was uncalled for!” Victoria snapped. “If-”

  “Victoria,” Mr. Quinn said. “I need everyone to calm down. Arguing is not a good start. But Jessica, that was uncalled for. It’s like blurting out that you have powers to someone that doesn’t know that powers exist.”

  I frowned. “Like you just did?”

  “They have powers?” Eve whispered.

  “That is what this meeting is about. Every one of you has a power of sorts. Yes, some at this table aren’t human, but only three, not four.” Mr. Quinn said.

  I glanced at Irene, Jason, and Malissa. I knew those three weren't humans for sure. “And Eve?”

  “She’s like me. The result of an experiment that has passed to her from her parents.”

  “Three non-humans?” Eve quietly asked. She glanced at the dragon twins, and then around the table, her gaze settling on Malissa.

  Malissa rubbed her forehead. “I am so confused.”

  Mr. Quinn sighed. “Everyone has heard the rumors about the alien ship that crashed nearby?”

  We all nodded.

  “A ship did crash, with Eve in it. She does not come from here but is nonetheless, human. Generations ago, her ancestors were experimented on—like Victoria—and they left earth as it changed their physical appearance, and at the time, they could not change back. Eve crashed here accidentally last week. She has no communication with her people and both gangs are after her.”

  “Both? That’s not good,” Malissa whispered.

  “We helped Eve out of the UIC,” Jessie said. “How did you get tangled up with them?”

  “They-they made us like this,” Eve softly replied. “They knew I was human and had some sort of spray that made me change into my other form … It’s not that different, just blue.”

  “Are we completely sure she’s human?” I asked.

  Eve nodded, wringing her hands together. “I-it’s obvious I’m meant for Earth. It was hard enough living back home. I-I can fly but we didn’t use it often because it was difficult. I can shoot things out of my hands, but I didn’t know that; back home we thought it was just our hands glowing.”

  “And from what we can tell, her biology is just like a human,” Mr. Quinn said. “People at the hospital know about her so she can get the proper medical attention. They were able to treat her just like any other patient.”

  “Unfortunately, my blood is still blue, and I’m stuck with this,” Eve whispered, pushing her bangs back to show a blue diamond shape on her forehead. “All my people have this. Some might think it’s a tattoo, but both gangs know that I have it.”

  It was quiet for a moment.

  “Um, so non-humans?” Eve whispered.

  “Malissa be-ist a mermaid,” Zack said, slinging an arm around Malissa’s shoulders. “We’ve got dragons, mermaids, and aliens. This is awesome! Ow ow ow. Malissa.”

  She let go of his neck hair. “That could sound wrong.”

  “Everyone here knows what I mean,” Zack said, rubbing his neck. “I thought only Vic did that.”

  “There aren't seven or so other people to stop you, so I thought I would finally muster up the courage … Sorry, did I pull that hard?”

  Victoria facepalmed. “Malissa, you did great. He’s fine. The fact that Zack can neither encourage or discourage you is proof.”

  “Um, okay,” she whispered.

  “If he does keep stuff like that up, I may start to consider it,” Jason muttered under his breath.

  I snickered. “I can’t wait to see Zack’s face. Make sure I’m there.”

  Zack leaned closer. “I think I missed something.”

  Victoria grabbed the back of his collar and pulled him back into his seat. “Can we focus? Officer Rasper still hasn’t fully explained why he gathered us all here.”

  “Thank you,” Mr. Quinn said with a nod. “As mentioned, all of you here have some sort of special ability. After some consideration, talking with your parents and the chief, I am starting a volunteer group connected to the police. I would like all of you to be part of it.”

  We were all quiet for a moment.

  Jessie’s eyes grew large. This has something to do with our powers otherwise he wouldn’t have mentioned it-

  I know! I snapped before letting out a deep breath.

  Zack stared at Mr. Quinn with huge eyes, a small smile pulling at his lips. His eyes seemed to sparkle. “Ar-are you doing what I think you’re doing?” he whispered, excitement building in his voice.

  Mr. Quinn smiled. “Yes, Zack, I am in one sense starting a superhero team.”

  The entire table went quiet.

  Zack had this huge grin. “This is so cool!”

  Malissa set her cup down and slowly folded her hands in her lap, her shocked expression still present. “You-you’re serious?”

  Mr. Quinn nodded.

  “Officer Rasper, as, um, interesting as it would be, none of our parents would ever agree to this. It’s too dangerous,” Victoria said.

  “I would not have brought this up to you if I hadn’t already secured your parents’ approval. Well, except for Eve’s, that is.”

  We were all quiet again.

  “Hang on a second,” Zack whispered, slo
wly raising his hand. “How the hey did you get my parents to agree to something like that?!”

  “I thought my parents wanted me away from danger, not running toward it,” Malissa said softly, rubbing her forehead.

  “I don’t think Miss Silver will like this,” Jessie mumbled.

  “Officer Rasper, I think you could talk a lion into giving up his teeth,” Irene said.

  “Maybe that’s his superpower!” Zack exclaimed, punching his fist into the air.

  Victoria snapped in his face. “Focus!” She turned back to Mr. Quinn. “You’re serious? My parents actually agreed to this?”

  Mr. Quinn nodded. “They did.” He turned his gaze to Eve. “I’m still unsure whether you should do this. It will be dangerous; I’m not going to sugar coat anything. After getting your parents’ approval, the choice is up to you.”

  “What about Eve?” Victoria asked. “We can’t get in contact with her parents.”

  “At the moment I am acting as her guardian to stand in for them,” he replied.

  “But for something like-”

  “Please don’t change his mind,” Eve said, covering her mouth. “We already went through this.”

  She nodded. She turned to Mr. Quinn. “Sorry, go on.”

  He gave a nod. “I know a lot of you struggle with the question of why you have powers. Maybe this is the reason.”

  “How is this the reason?” I asked, rolling my eyes.

  “The fact that I found a group of teenagers with powers and that my chief believed me is something in itself,” he said.

  I nodded. “Right, that.” I let out a long breath. “All right, continue.”

  Mr. Quinn nodded. “Thank you. As I said, this will be connected to the police, which means you won’t get in trouble with the law because you will be working with us. I will be the only one who will know who you are, aside from the main nurse.”

  “Mrs. Crop?” Victoria asked.

  He nodded. “As she already knew about mermaids, I figured she would be the most trustworthy. There will be training. We are not about to throw inexperienced people toward crime. And you’ll have to pass. Thankfully, most of you already have experience in fighting, which will help. You will learn combat skills, law, driving, and a variety of other things. As you are all sixteen, or older, it’s legal that you learn to drive. You will have a badge, but not like ours. We are still the police and you’ll still be expected to listen to us and give us respect. Eve has a chip that will disguise your voice.”

  “My brother is a techno geek and made it.” She huffed, shaking her head. “When he first showed it to me, he slipped some older brother teasing into the explanation. So, as a joke, and a bit of spite, I hid the voice changers and when he never asked for it back, forgot to retrieve it from my bag. It was simple enough to recreate,” Eve said. She seemed a bit more relaxed. “It fits in your mouth. As a heads up, it’s not super comfortable.”

  Mr. Quinn nodded. “You will also have uniforms. If you’d like, you may design part of it yourself. Since you’re not official police officers, you won’t have our types of uniforms.”

  “We can make it as we’d like?” Zack asked with a smile.

  He chuckled at Zack’s enthusiasm. “Yes and no. We would like some unity to the uniforms. The shirt is what you can add some design to, but it can’t be bright or flashy. But that does mean they can have some superhero elements.”

  “Yep. Mr. Mason for sure shouldn't know about this group,” I muttered, leaning my face against my hand.

  Chapter 6

  “Volunteer? So, we won’t be paid?” I clarified. That made sense.

  “That is correct,” Mr. Quinn said. “But you will receive proper medical care and therapy if needed. You can start and stop at any time, but if you are off for too long, you will have to go through training again. If you are injured enough, you will be pulled off the team. If your parents change their mind, they have the full right to remove you as none of you are of legal age. Except you two,” he said, looking at Jason and Irene. “Please remember, if you wish to join, that you are a help, but not an actual part of, the police force. You will be acting more in the background. A lack of listening could get you dismissed.” He went quiet for a moment as if reviewing all the facts he was giving. “I believe that is most, if not all of it. Any questions?”

  “I still can’t believe my parents agreed to this,” Malissa said, rubbing her forehead.

  “I think that goes for all of us,” Victoria mumbled.

  “Come on guys, it’ll be awesome!” Zack said, swinging an arm around Victoria and Malissa.

  Malissa turned to look him in the face. “Zack, are you getting the gravity of this situation? We will be fighting crime, and it won't be like in the movies or comics.”

  Zack nodded as Victoria pushed his arm off. He took his other arm off Malissa. “I just have this calming sense. I don’t understand, and it does sound scary, but if it’s God’s will, so be it. We just need to trust Him.”

  Jason and Irene glanced at each other.

  “I’ll trust my skills and you guys, thanks,” I said, leaning back in my chair to stretch. “You know because I don’t believe in that sort of stuff.”

  “Your skills won’t last forever. There are hundreds of those guys out here,” Jessie said.

  “Which is why none of us are going to do it alone,” I said. “Even the dragons. Hey, what about communication? Are we going to have walkie talkies?”

  Mr. Quinn shook his head. “No, you will have earpieces. Eve is helping to make them. Because of the slightly different technology, there’s a higher chance it won’t get tapped. There will also be a feature that if you can keep the talk button held down, you can click something so it will stay listening until you stop it.”

  We asked Mr. Quinn a few more questions, and when we were finished, he fed us all lunch.

  After we ate, we discussed costumes and possible code names in the living room. Zack kept encouraging us to get superhero-y costumes.

  “It’ll stick with something more plain looking, thanks,” Jason said.

  “Aw, come on,” Zack said, then looked at Jessie and I.

  “It would be kind of cool,” Jessie whispered.

  I shook my head. “No thank you.”

  “Do all of our costumes have to match?” Malissa asked. “As in the same colors?”

  “I don’t think so,” Irene said. “Either way I’d prefer to go with just a symbol, something small and simple. Just enough that you can tell it’s me.”

  Zack was quiet for a moment. “There’s nothing wrong with drawing inspiration from other heroes from comics and books. I like the colors red and yellow.” He seemed to be talking to himself.

  Victoria rolled her eyes then said, “No silver and blue?”

  “Naw,” he said.

  “Try and think of something more original,” I said, shaking her head.

  “Eh,” he said with a shrug. “We’ll see. What about you, Vicky?”

  “Don’t call me that,” she said. “And don’t forget to go with darker shades.”

  Zack nodded. “Officer Rasper did clarify that. And my question?”

  “Just give me a moment to think,” Victoria mumbled, staring off a little. “I don’t know. I was thinking about a rope.”

  “A rope?” I asked with a frown.

  She nodded. “As I can turn invisible and fly, I can take people to safety, but carrying them the entire way sounds hard. Or I could use it to keep things under control, or even you, Zack.”

  “Tru- Hey!” he exclaimed, jumping to his feet.

  Victoria started laughing.

  Malissa snickered, trying to contain her laughter. She quickly composed herself. “Maybe I could go with scale design or something.”

  “That might hint at your species a little too much,” I said. “You may want to keep thinking.”

  She nodded. “That’s a good point …” Her eyes focused on the floor as she tried to think of an idea.


  “Jason and I need something that will ensure the Slayers won’t recognize us. If they do, it’s game over, and we’ll need to go,” Irene said, looking over at him.

  Jason gave a nod.

  “You can’t leave,” Zack said, eyes wide. “You didn’t get here that long ago.”

  “She said if,” Jason said. “If they figure out it’s us, you may need to shut down the entire team as it could be that dangerous …” He glanced at Irene. “I’m starting to reconsider if we should do this.”

  Irene bit her lip.

  “But you’re the most experienced and skilled out of all of us,” I said. “You’d be the most helpful.”

  Jason ran his fingers through his hair. “It could be life threatening for all of you if they figure it out. They’re not dumb.”

  Zack placed a hand on his shoulder. “There’s a reason God brought you here, to this house at this time. We understand that things could happen to us, but you can’t stand alone forever.”

  Jason looked at Zack for a long moment, then he turned to Irene.

  Irene slowly nodded. “Well … for now I suppose.”

  “Huzzah!” Zack cheered, grabbing Jason’s wrist and shooting it into the air.

  Jason blinked a few times then pulled his hand away. “That was not needed.”

  Zack just smirked.

  “Does anyone have any ideas for code names?” Mr. Quinn asked as he joined us.

  “Just as long as it doesn’t hint toward Irene and I being dragons, not a clue,” Jason said. “They don’t know we have any of our senses or that we can breathe fire, so we could use something connected to that.”

  Mr. Quinn nodded. “That would be best. Jessie, Jessica? Any ideas?”

  I shook my head, and then looked at Jessie to see if she had any.

  She also shook her head. “My powers are mental, but I don’t want a brain or an eye on me. And using my birthmark is just begging the UIC to guess. After all, it was them who gave it to us.”

  “Then that’s not much of a birthmark, it’s more like a tattoo,” Zack said, his eyebrows furrowing together.

  Jessie shrugged. “I suppose. That’s what I thought it was for a while, so that’s what I call it.”

  “Anyone else have ideas for their name or anyone else's?” Mr. Quinn asked, looking at the others.