“Principal, the only thing I care about is whether or not you are going to kill me”. I had to ask, I really didn’t care about anything else he was saying.
“Ah the impatient nature of youth, always me, me, me”, he laughed. “You are not in danger from me yet Mr. Price. Now where was I, oh yes, the device you saw me using conducts a test, so to speak. With that device I can pick out a vampire, a werewolf or a fellow wizard. Vampires normally have a dark hue all around them when viewed, werewolves show up red. Wizards on the other hand show up blue, and normal humans do not have an ‘aura’ so to speak. Do you know which color you showed up as?”
All I cared about once again that I wasn’t dead or going to die. Now I was focused on getting out of here while Mr. All Powerful wanted to play twenty questions.
“Sir I do not know”. I replied. “If you are not going to kill me, I would like to go home”.
“Home?” He said like I just said something out of the ordinary, “You are home Mr. Price. Many students here would love to get the chance to sit down and talk to me and all you are worried about is yourself. Now then, to answer my own question, you showed up green.”
“Green?” I asked, “What does that mean?”
“I do not know Mr. Price” he said matter of factly. “That is the reason you are still alive and are now a student. Tell me, have you ever done anything spectacular or out of the ordinary, something that science couldn’t explain?”
“Well, I am here talking to a mad scientist after single handedly fighting off a vampire with nothing but chewing gum, that has to count for something”. I said trying to mimic his no nonsense tone.
“Ah a comedian, I assume that was supposed to be funny. No matter, I am sure once your training starts you will see less humor, now answer my question Mr. Price, I am beginning to lose my patience”. He said with his body posture changing, letting me know he was serious.
“I have no powers that I know of Sir”. I said, deciding not to press my luck.
“Well perhaps they will manifest later”. He said “Mr. Price there are exactly 199 empowered people on this planet, wizards as we are known. Do not think all that nonsense about a wand and spells and the like, think more along the lines of comic books super heroes. Now as for the number 199, I am not sure why that is, I only know there has never been more wizards than that since I have been alive. A wizard normally gains his powers at puberty and keeps them until they are the ripe old age of 25. The trait is passed down among bloodlines and wizards are normally an only child, something that else I have no explanation for. With my viewer I can pick out who is empowered at birth, and normally the child goes missing early in life, only to turn up later or miraculously escape their captor or anything else I can come up with after they are an adult. Some wizards’ powers are not as great or as apparent as others, I for one had super intelligence, something I did not know how to exploit until my twenties. The children who leave here always take on a government job or some type of media job, ensuring all of our secrets stay safe. Failure to keep things to yourself normally means death for all involved; the person who told and the people they tell with close friends and family thrown in for good measure. The only non-powered people who know of our existence are people who themselves were former wizards, very high ranking government officials, certain military teams and of course the President who we answer directly to. But I am rambling, the fact is I do not know where you fit in, but I will not rest until I do. I must take leave of you now, another student will be in here shortly to show you around. If you have not noticed you are quite naked under that blanket, I suggest you put on your clothes before she enters. Good day Mr. Price.”
I had no chance to be horrified that the little blondie may have saw more of me than I liked, so I hurried and put on my clothes. I had no idea why they had to strip everything off of me to see that I was okay, I figured maybe they were perverts. Just as I finished getting dressed, in walked what was the biggest girl I have ever seen.
CHAPTER 6
Meet The Gang
When I say this girl was big, I am talking as an WNBA player mixed with WWE big. She was at least 6’5 from what I saw and very muscular. She had tan skin, I figured she looked Middle Eastern and she was very hairy. When I say hairy I don’t mean she hand a full beard, but she definitely had the chickstache going. Her hairline appeared almost to her eyebrows and she had sideburns. She also had huge ‘assets’ going for her and was pretty hot for a fur covered amazon. Without even asking, I figured she had to be a werewolf.
“You must be the new guy, I am Khatara” she said holding out her hand.
Now this was one of the only times a girl had actually spoken to me and was real nice about it, so I was a little shocked. I shook her hand and held on too it a little too long. Her hand didn’t feel what I thought a girls’ hand should feel like, hers was rough and calloused. I figured it must be from all that gym work. I must have made her a little bit uncomfortable because she stared at me kind of oddly. I pulled my hand away. I felt grateful for being this dark, as she couldn’t tell if I blushed or not.
“Hi, I’m Cory”, I said trying to lift the weirdness between us. She still just stared at me and I was trying not to look at her or think about the skin tight workout suit she was wearing, which naturally meant I thought about it more.
“How long have you been going to this boobs?” I asked her before realizing what exactly I just said. “I mean school! How long have you been going to this school?” I was mortified. I can’t believe I just made that slip, especially with a girl built like the terminator.
“It’s okay Cory, you can stare I don’t mind”. Khatara spoke looking at me like she was game for whatever. “You can do more than stare if you want to.”
I was stunned. On one hand I thought she just basically offered me the chance to lose my virginity, but if I was wrong I did not want to get pummeled, as I was unsure if I could take this chick or not. I decided she was just messing with me and decided to change the subject.
“Are you supposed to show me around”? I asked.
“Sure, right this way”. She said, sounding almost disappointed.
The infirmary was still in the building I guess doubled as a school. When we walked what I guess could be taken as outside, although we were underground in a very large building, I could see I was not far from where I first entered. We walked together towards what I guess was some type of eatery, as I could smell the unmistakable fragrance of French fries. Khatara made her way inside when I suddenly realized, as always, I did not have any money. I never had any money unless I hustled it up from somewhere.
“Khatara, I can’t eat in there, I have no money”, I said feeling like a complete loser. Any chance I thought I had with this piece of cheesecake was completely out the window. She just stared at me, like I just either said something really stupid, or the kind of stare a girl gives you when you are a complete loser.
“There is no need for money here, everything is free” Khatara spoke, “The principal teaches us when everyone has the same thing as everyone else in whatever quantities they wish, thievery goes down. Anything you see here in any building is yours for the taking, with some exceptions. Sit and we will talk on this”.
I ordered my meal first and found us a place to sit. No one was in the place except me and her and some guy behind the counter cooking. He had six arms so I figured he was some type of wizard in his day but whatever his power was didn’t totally go away. Khatara took a seat across from me. She started staring at me and batting her eyes. She made me nervous but not in a OMG this is my first time sitting with a girl eating type of nervousness but a what in the hell did I do to this chick is she going to eat me type of nervousness. I started staring at my plate and figured I would say something to break the ice.
“So, Khatara, how long have you been here”? I figured it was a safe enough question.
“I was born here, my pack know this as our home and do not leave once we grow old”. She replied.
“We have our own separate area of this school where no humans unless invited are allowed. This extends to the vampires as well, we do not go on their lands and they do come on ours”.
“Why can no one go visit you guys, I thought you said everyone has everything.” I asked confused.
“There used to be a great war going on between vampires and werewolves, since we are natural enemies. Making this war even harder was the ongoing war we had with the lycans, and finally our war with the wizards.”
“I thought lycans and werewolves were the same thing”. I asked, sure I had read that somewhere or saw it in a movie.
“That is untrue; Lycans main form is that of the wolf, with human form being secondary”. She said continuing, “Also Lycans are all male, as werewolves are all female; we even reproduce differently”.
Yesterday I wouldn’t have believed in any of this, today I am finding out about the reproductive cycle of fairytale creatures, who just so happen to be real. I probably shouldn’t have, but I couldn’t resist. You know that one question you want to ask but are afraid of the answer? Yeah I asked it.
“How is your reproduction different?” I asked.
“Lycans reproduce the same way you see on TV, by the bite. Once bitten though the person has less than 20 years to live, the average lifespan of the lycan. Lycans are much smaller than we are, shrinking in stature once bitten. Lycans are also faster and more nimble, think of werewolves as the huge gray wolf, while lycans are more like the coyote. There are also many more lycans out there, due to the way they reproduce, making them a formidable foe”.
To me it didn’t make since why would a bunch of scrawny wolves fight with a bunch of leggy ones. Still she told me all about the lycans, but she did not answer my original question.
“Khatara if lycans reproduce by the bite, then how exactly do you reproduce? Do you do it the natural way with the lycans?” I thought it was a valid question. She just stared at me. Not with the sultry eyes of a seductress but with the hungry eyes of a pitbull. At this point I am just figuring that she must have that mad dog thing going that pit bulls have, ready to fight if you stare them down. While she was huge, I had fought people her height before, but with nowhere near the muscle tone. I just figured to play it safe I would not look at her for the rest of the day.
“Lycans for the most part cannot reproduce with us even if we were willing. We give birth the natural way.” She told me.
“What do you mean for the most part?”
“On occasion we get a live lycan to experiment with, none of our wolves were able to get pregnant except one, and even she only had a single pup in her litter.” She replied. “Once we found that we were not compatible biologically, we disposed of the thing”.
Now that opened up something disturbing. What I gathered from that was some dude was raped repeatedly and when they couldn’t get pregnant they killed him. I guess that is not the most horrible way to go, but definitely not the best.
“Well if you can’t reproduce with them, who do you have sex with?” I finally said the S word. Reproduce sounded to me like something my science teacher would say.
“We do not have sex, we mate”. She said with a superior sounding tone in her voice. “We only come into heat twice a year, and we are only compatible with you human wizards. That is how we reproduce, although our numbers are dwindling due to not having enough volunteers or criminals.
Criminals? I did not want to know what they did to that poor guy. I thought folks would be lining up around the block to get some. This didn’t make sense since using quick logic, making the average wizard between 13 and 25.
“Why would you need volunteers, just go to a sperm bank like all the rich old chicks do”. To me the question was valid.
“It has been tried before, it does not work. Mating the natural way works.”
I decided I had enough sex talk. I figured my first time talking about bumping uglies with a real life girl would be exciting, this was confusing, weird and just plain scary.
“Khatara you never said why you and vampires do not get along.”
“That is simple” Khatara started, “Vampires used to rule over the Lycans, something they wished to do to us once they discovered our existence. We will never submit like happy little dogs the lycans were and fought with all of our strength. When the lycans finally regained their freedom, there was no love lost between us, since they were the vampires’ main weapon as they are too good to get their hands dirty. Vampires wished to rule over all of us and probably would have if it wasn’t for the wizards who suddenly began attacking all with no mercy. Eventually the wizards saw us as friends and not a threat as we wolves lived side by side with the wizards for a while. Our war with the wizards began when one of our great Alphas made one of the most powerful wizards ever born her mate against his will. The humans saw it as an attack instead of us just seeking to fight our extinction. The wizards then started killing everything equally, leaving us in a four way battle. This war had been going on for decades. The humans would always have new wizards to replace the dead ones while without wizard help our numbers slowly dwindled to the two known packs we have now. Our only consolation is that the vampires are worst off than we are, there are at least 100 wolves in existence, compared with the 60 or so vampires and only 3 of them are males.”
“Why do you have such little numbers? You should have called a truce when you found out you were going extinct.”
“We did just that” she said sadly, “The vampires and ourselves had a meeting with all of our leadership in Waco Texas in 1993. The wizards still holding onto old grudges found out about our meeting and burned us alive. They covered it up saying we were some kind of cult. It was after this that the current principal came to power and we have been at a fragile peace ever since, working with the government to bring down warlords and rogue wizards, wolves, vamps and lycans ever since. At least a semblance of peace is afforded to all who took the principal’s offer. Fortunately if we start warring again, our numbers are superior to that of the vampire.
“How are you going to manage that, I thought vampires made other vampires by biting them.”
“I am not here to discuss vampires, if you want to know so much about them go ask one.” She said sounding offended. “Now about this school, I am guessing this will be the last day we actually talk. I was surprised that the principal asked me to be your guide. Getting new students is not to rare, but getting an almost grown up student is unheard of.”
“Why would this be our last time talking?” I asked before realizing that maybe she didn’t want to be seen with me.
“All of the races here keep to themselves. My Wolves are friendly enough, at least with the wizards for obvious reasons. The wizards in turn despise us and try to make our lives difficult, since they know the true nature of why we are after them. The vampires do not socialize with anyone unless it is deemed absolute necessary and prefer to stay in their own neighborhood. The wizards do not trust us and are still in a cold war with the vampires, constantly trying to outdo each other. The lycans refused the offer of peace which is why you will not find any on our campus except for one, well sort of. Regardless, after today you will no doubt meet your human friends and they will catch you up on why it is social suicide to be seen with a wolf.”
This school was like any other. Still clique heavy. I for one though, was not about to pass up a chance to hang with a bunch of girls who wanted to get in my pants for once. I thought my life was ruined this morning, now here I am about to be popular. Our food came and we ate it quickly enough. I had a cheese burger meal and she had a rare steak. Watching her eat was like watching the nature channel, brutal. After we finished we got up and walked outside. We got into a golf cart and she showed me the obstacle courses, the Special Forces compound, where the vampires live and finally where all the humans lived. We got out the cart near the entrance of the human neighborhood. There was a kid there at the entrance who was about 6’0 but skinny as a bean pole. He had brigh
t red hair and his face was covered in freckles.
“Cory this is Ronald”, she said kind of nastily. “I would show you to around your own neighborhood but the company just got less pleasant.”
And with that she hopped into the golf cart and drove away. I didn’t know what that was all about but this guy seemed like the guy you beat up for pocket change, so why did she give the attitude? Maybe he was an old boyfriend. Either way it didn’t matter. What mattered now was that I was about to meet people and I could make a new first impression and maybe become popular for once. I knew the werewolves couldn’t keep their hands off me, I was hoping to make well with my own people too.
“Hi, I’m Cory” I said and stuck out my hand. The ginger just stood there looking at me and blushed. Great, the first person I meet is the social outcast.
CHAPTER 7
Lil Miss Know it All
“Hi, I’m Ronnie.” The red haired kid replied, still looking kind of nervous.
“Nice to meet you Ron, I am new here and just trying to figure out what’s what.”
“New?” He said continuing, “How can you be new here? All of the wizards have been accounted for. Where did you come from?”
I told Ronnie my story from start to end. He admitted it was a bit weird but that the only people he has ever seen here were all brought when they were young.
“Well that is all of it”, I said “So why don’t you and hairy Miss Hotness get along, I thought they liked wizard guys and why in the hell do you call yourselves wizards? I haven’t seen not one wand or any of you do anything near magical.”
“Umm, which question do you want answered first?” He asked sheepishly.
“Just pick one bro, any one will do”. I replied.
“Well many people have problems with the werewolves, I don’t mind them at all, they just don’t like me. I am a little different than most wizards”.
The Spawn of Hate Page 3