by T S Paul
“Director, we had authorization to start the program. I swear we did. The former Director showed it to me.”
“Well it isn’t to be found, now! He’s gone and here you are. A large section of your operation is so illegal the repercussions could bring down the Bureau! Fix it. You have less than forty-eight hours before an investigative team from Washington gets here. If they find anything that is not supposed to be here, heads will roll! Don’t think I’m ignoring your own personal involvement in this. That student did nothing to deserve the stalking you subjected her to without her knowledge. Your file will reflect that.”
She looked at one of the ladies at the table.
“Lisa, how is Human Resources doing? Are you prepared to run the whole staff through race relation training?”
The short blond woman looked up from her notes and responded. “We have classes running this week for the security department. It is going to take the better part of a month to have the entire staff take them.”
“Good. Thank you Lisa. Listen all of you! This whole Cluster-frak happened because I wanted to see what a student was talking about. She wondered why she was followed everywhere in the building and everyone she met either drew down on her or reached for their weapons...”
“Ma’am, that witch just about destroyed the school last year! She can’t be trusted to roam free!”
“Sub-Director Jonson please turn in your credentials and go home. You’re done. Agent Thomlinson?” The large man by the door looked up.
“Take Dick here and escort him back to his office. He is to pack up his personal effects and leave the building. Make sure you collect his badge and creds so he cannot return to the base.” She turned back to the former Sub-director. “Pending review of course, you are out of here.”
She ignored his protests as he was dragged out the back door. No need for the students to see that. “Now, let’s get something straight here about Agatha Blackmore, shall we? The FBI has never had its own Witch before! We use hired hands for our magical needs. I witnessed first-hand the difference between the two. We need her. We need her desperately! The Witches’ Council has been trying for years to get a volunteer who would work with us. It was sheer luck that we got her. We need to keep her.”
“Director Mills, I don’t understand why she’s so special. I’ve worked with the Russians for years and had no problems. They can be very helpful with an investigation. We used the three brothers just last year to take down that wizard in Miami.”
“Did they capture him directly or use magic to do it?”
“Well no. They scried him out and put some protection spells on our men. The assault team took him out with special weapons. We only lost two of them in the process.”
“Yesterday morning I watched Miss Blackmore take down all three of those same Russian brothers at one time when they attacked her. In addition, she protected the entire field and all the innocents at the same time. According to related information that I have received, the Russians are the minor leagues compared to her and her family. I watched the video from last year. She was the victim. All she did was give her name and over a dozen agents drew on her. When she tried to leave, you opened fire on her. She only attacked when the Marines became involved. Watch it, yourselves if you don’t believe me. She told me that if it had been her grandmother instead of her that building and part of the school would not exist anymore. We need her. Get that through your damn thick heads!”
There was a bright flash suddenly that left all those at the table blinking. In front of the Director was a folded note.
“Director, what?!” Director Mills held up her hand to stop any more questions. She carefully picked up the folded sheet of paper and opened it. Smiling, she laid it back down.
“Let’s wrap this up, people. We have an investigation to prepare for and classes to start. Any more questions?”
~~~~~
Cat was watching me as I made the note disappear. “What are you doing?”
I pointed to the meeting room and the Director. “She looks too tired. I just told her that.”
She shook her head. “Only you, Agatha. Come on, let's go back to the dorm. I have a hard choice to make and I want your help. You were right: I do have to choose.”
I smiled at her and picked up my tray. Stepping over to the trash and dish area I began sorting my tray. As I was about to leave one of the security officers cleared his throat. At my glance he spoke. “Miss Blackmore? The Director would like a quick word.” He pointed to the kitchen. I looked back at Cat and Chuck and motioned for them to go on out.
The Director was leaning up against one of the kitchen prep tables. She was munching on a carrot. “What’s up, doc?”
She smiled at me. “Cute trick with the note! I’ve never seen that one before.”
“Grams taught me that when I was eight. We used to play a game and send each other messages. You look tired Director.”
“It’s been a long twenty-four hours. Headquarters received a message from the Witches’ Council over the incidents yesterday; there was praise for me. I most likely am safe from the witch hunt that will occur. Did you inform them?”
“I told my grandmother this morning, but neither Cat nor I told anyone else. I did destroy the cameras in the dorms. I also did something to our room.”
“Is this something I should know about?”
“Sort of? I changed the walls, floor, and ceiling to metal. I was trying to do a shield spell.”
She began to laugh. “Sorry; I thought you might have done something a bit more drastic yesterday. Have you given my offer some thought?”
“I’ll teach your class for you. It should cover the true history of Paranormals and the US government. I will touch on how magic works and what is both possible and impossible. Some things I have to leave out such as the Council’s enforcers or how we punish our own. Everything else the Council should be OK with. Grams said she would clear it with them.”
“The Council has enforcers?”
“All the larger Councils do. They keep low profiles, but how else do you think the groups protect mundanes?”
“Then why isn’t the FBI working with them instead of hiring Russians?”
I smiled sadly at her. “It all relates to the Purge. They just don’t trust you enough yet.”
“But it’s been almost a hundred years! They don’t trust us yet?”
“It’s more a case of what happened afterwards explaining ‘why’ they don’t trust you. But I will explain that too if you like. I love history.”
“Good! That is what I was counting on. Plan on doing a class two afternoons a week. Your schedule should reflect it. Use whatever free time left over for extra study or lab time.”
“Thank you Director Mills. You look so tired. Get some sleep, please?”
“I will. Go ahead and take off. You have a big day tomorrow.”
Cat and Chuck were waiting for me near the exit. “So what’s going on?”
“Nothing bad, I promise. She wanted to thank me for something I didn’t do and ask about me teaching a class on witchcraft to FBI agents.”
“Oh, is that all? What didn’t you do?”
“Somehow the Witches’ Council knew about the whole camera incident. They were pissed! But they praised Director Mills for her quick resolution of the issue. I think they have spies here.”
“Ya think? That is a very strong possibility, Aggy...”
As we walked back to the dorm, I watched how Cat and Chuck acted around each other. I had initially thought there was something there, but now it was as if they were siblings not rivals. Something to be said for the whole pack-mentality thing. Whether she liked it or not, Chuck was part of her pack.
The dorm room was just as we left it except for music coming from inside Fergus’s home. He was listening to a Katie Berry song and dancing on my desk. All three of us stared mesmerised at him dancing.
“I don’t think I will ever sing along to Dark Horse without laughing from now
on.”
“Thanks Chuck for ruining yet another song for me!” Cat gave him a not-so-light punch to the arm.
We stepped into the room as the music died. Fergus heard us.
“Have a good morning, Ferg? We liked the dancing.”
“How much did you see?”
“Only a little bit. You were good!”
He failed to answer and went back into his barn with a mooo. That mooing door made me laugh every time. We sat down on our respective beds and Chuck took a desk chair. “So Cat, why don’t you declare as an Alpha?” I asked.
Chuck winced.
“I told you why. It would hurt my family.”
I thought for a moment. “Have you asked your family? I bet your dad would be tickled that his daughter was Alpha material.”
“That’s true... Let me give him a call. He keeps his phone on all the time.” She pulled out her cell and entered his number. Chuck was staring at the ceiling. I couldn’t remember if she’d told them about him or not.
“Dad? Are you busy? I need to talk to you about something important.” I’m not a freaky all-hearing Were that can hear a phone conversation from across the room so I could only guess at what he was saying from Chuck and Cat’s faces.
Cat’s head was cocked to one side and Chuck started to choke back a laugh. “No. No. Dammit Dad, No! I am not pregnant. Geez! Who has time for that nonsense? No, that is not why I need to talk to you. Stop! Seriously. Is anyone around that can hear this conversation? Can you chase them out? Fine. I can wait.” She covered the mouthpiece and shook her head. Both Chuck and I started laughing at her.
He must have started speaking because she put the phone back to her ear. “OK, this is serious Dad. Last year before school let out I was challenged in a dominance fight.” She held the phone away from her ear. Even I could hear the “What!”
“Dad. Dad. Dad! It’s fine, I won. No. No. It was Charles Winthrop. My roommate calls him Chuck. What? My roommate Agatha. Dad, we talked about this, I know I did. No I’m not imagining it. No. No. Fine! Hold on.” Cat held the phone out to me. “He wants to talk to you.”
I pointed at myself and asked. “Me? Why me?”
Cat just rolled her eyes and shook the phone. “He can hear you, you know. Just talk to him.”
I gingerly took the phone from her. “Hello?”
“Hello, Agatha is it?”
“Yes, Sir?”
“I need to ask you a few questions about my daughter. Is there somewhere you can go that she can’t hear me?”
“I can’t but hold on, I can fix it so she can’t hear.” I looked at the two Weres and smiled. I mouthed sorry to them and spoke “þegja” along with a wave of my hand.
“OK, we can talk now. I promise you that neither of them can hear a thing.”
“Who else is there with you?”
“Oh, Chuck is here too.”
“Does he live there too?”
“No. He just comes over all the time.”
“If he’s not dating my daughter or has declared her as his mate why is he there all the time?”
“He’s her bitch.” Cat’s dad snorted. I covered the phone and turned toward the two Weres who were now glaring at me. “Sorry, now you know how I feel during these conversations. What? Sorry, I forgot.” I giggled. Even I forgot I took away their hearing!
“I just heard what you said to them. How did you do that?”
“I thought Cat told you? I’m a witch.”
“Really? I knew the Witches’ Council was looking for someone for the FBI, but I didn’t know they found someone. What clan are you from?”
“Blackmore Clan. Marcella Blackmore is my grandmother.”
There was a lingering silence at the other end of the phone.
“I’m sorry to have questioned you. I’ve met your grandmother; she is very formidable.”
“If that is a polite way of saying she’s a Bad-ass then you are right! She raised me from age eight.”
“Do you know what Catherine wants to tell me? Is it serious?”
“While I’m familiar with the basics of Were society and Cat has taught me much, I don’t know all the details. She really should tell you this. Hold on a minute while I un-zap them.” I looked at the two Weres and spoke the word. “Hljóð.”
“Can you two hear me now?” They both grabbed their ears and nodded.
“Dammit Agatha don’t do that again! You just scared the hell out of me!”
I thrust the phone into her hands. “Talk to your Dad and tell him.”
She took the phone. “Dad, I’m an Alpha.”
Chapter 6
Robert Moore, Cat’s father, actually took the news rather well. His brother Marcus was the pack Alpha, after all, not Robert. Robert agreed with his daughter that she couldn’t come home for long visits as a declared Alpha, but she could come home. Marcus would allow short visits if she notified him beforehand and didn’t get into any trouble or heaven forbid try to recruit anyone. There were procedures for visiting Alphas. He told Cat he would get with his brother and set up a visitation schedule for her. He said it was a major boost in status for the family to have a rare female Alpha.
Cat had a good cry on my shoulder. She’d really thought she might never see her family ever again. She’d failed to mention to me that the entire time in South Dakota she had been pressuring her wolf to not make an appearance. The intentional loss of family was the one curse of any wolf. At the first tear I had sent Chuck off and told him we would call if we needed him. It was just us girls and Fergus.
“Cat, honey, it’s Ok: you can see your family again. Your father even said it was a great honor to the family to have a female Alpha. What’s wrong? You can tell me.” I held the small girl in my arms. Her crying had stopped, but I could sense she was still hurting. Empathy was one of the major witch powers and I had a small trace of it. I could sense the major emotions and that coupled with my telepathy gave me a sense of wrongness sometimes. It was one of the things that saved my life last year.
She pulled away from me and looked up at me. “Aggy, thank you for being my friend. I was so afraid I would have to kill Uncle Marcus just to say hello to my mother.”
“Didn’t they teach you about visitor rules for the pack?”
“Of course they did. But not what to do for visiting Alphas. That just doesn’t occur. Sure we can meet on neutral ground or at a pack gathering. But home ground or rather claimed territory is another matter. Most potential challengers don’t get twenty feet inside a claimed territory. They kill them before they can hurt anyone. There hasn’t been a clan war in over a century. Even during internment the Alpha rules applied. I was so afraid.”
“Cat, friends are the family you get to choose. I will always be your friend. I can’t speak for Fergus but he might be your friend too.”
We both heard him mumbling in his little barn. “Damn sneaky cats!”
I just had to giggle. Fergus was good for comic relief. “Let’s get cleaned up. We need to plan for tomorrow. Classes begin!” I checked the time. “It looks like we missed dinner. Want to send Chuck out for Pizza?”
“He’ll be happy I’m OK. You were right, Aggy, and I’m sorry I argued. Chuck is pack. I just didn’t see it. I hope he’s OK with it because I don’t think I can give him up, too.”
“Give him a call and order some pie’s. Tell him to get some sodas too, I think we’re out.”
Chuck was good with going for food. He was much like Fergus in that he was a movable stomach.
~~~~
According to my schedule, I had law enforcement procedures followed by basic martial arts training this morning. After lunch was intro to firearms. I wasn’t starting my own class as a teacher until tomorrow. That gave me a day to make up some handouts. Both Cat and I had a hard time waking up. We were up late talking with Chuck about how Packs are put together and how to form a basic one. Ironically, Chuck had been aware that he was in hers.
“Chuck, how did you know?”
> “As you might know my father, Charles Winthrop Senior, is the money man behind Volf Advertising. In our family Pack he is a Gamma wolf. He has never been a dominant wolf in our pack. One of the reasons I’m here is that I am more powerful than he is and he didn’t want to see me die in constant dominance battles. I guess I should stop saying our pack when I talk about them... Unlike you, Cat, I really can’t go home. I would be challenged within a mile of home, especially now that I smell different.”
This puzzled me for a moment. “Chuck, what did you do over the Winter this past year? I mean I stayed here, and I didn’t see you.”