by brett hicks
Sally nodded and said, “Yeah I was going pretty easy on them at first too. Hell if I was not so reluctant to kill my former pack mates, you would never have been so beat up.”
I shrugged and said, “Not your fault, sorry we had to kill your wolves at all.”
“Not my wolves, you and Dylan are my pack now.” She said this with finality to her tone that only an apex alpha female could muster.
Dylan nodded and said, “If they want to play sides like that, then I say we make a treaty of our own.”
I looked at him and he was looking at Jon. “What did you have in mind?” Jon asked Dylan with no hesitation.
“I am signing up for the police academy; I was planning to follow Sally and Kayla, if they joined anyway. We make a treaty that the three of us join the human police and help keep the peace. No one wants us on their side as it is, so I purpose that he offer our skills to the humans of the city, will your bosses agree to something like that?”
Jon thought it over for a few long minutes, while my mom started serving each of us breakfast and Jon finally looked back to Dylan and said, “My boss has been looking for a way into the supernatural community for a long time. He has given me a lot of freedom, so I will take this to him, if you sign up today, I am sure he will ok it.”
Dylan nodded and thanked my mom for the food. “So are you sure your boss will even want a vampire, even a half-breed, on his force?”
Jon shrugged and said, “You are the rarest of supernatural kind in this city. I believe I can make him see how valuable that is for us, besides you have never been one to harm innocent people. I can point that out to him too.”
He looked to Sally and said, “I think it is safe to say that the police would welcome two alpha wolves and a witch/ dyamphyr hybrid. It would make solving these damn murders a lot easier. Hell we would not even be on to the fact that they are voodoo and vampire, if you had not figured that out for us. I am also sure the coven and the weres will be reluctant to attack anyone working for the police department. It would cause all hell to rain down on them.”
I sighed and said, “We have two sects to get off our hides and two sects committing murders in the city to stop. What the hell, it sounds like it will all be peaches and fucking cream.”
We ate our breakfast in relative silence after that. My mom was giving me looks of concern, but she did not try to stop me from doing this, she had known all my life, I wanted to be a cop.
Chapter: 18
Later that afternoon Jon had taken all three of us, with my mother following, to meet his bosses. They had been less hesitant than I would have expected. They gladly set up the tests for Dylan to complete along with his paper work to the academy. They had Sally and I run courses and they tested our abilities extensively. They also asked for a demonstration of my magic.
I had beat up a dozen males in the prime of their lives, before I finished their combat tests. I think Sally and I broke the warp speed barrier, when we finished the track laps in a speed that human eyes could barely perceive. They agreed to let me come down and turn in my paperwork after my eighteenth birthday, but they made a formal agreement to consider us under their protection. I wanted to point out that it was mostly the other way around, but the truth is that we were using the humans as a shield. So that no sect could consider us fair game to kill off.
Jon was looking into every witness statement, trying to figure out anything he could about the identity of the voodoo practitioner. My mom strongly suspected it would end up being either the heir or the current head of the voodoo lands. I did not disagree, but Jon needed hard evidence, because voodoo magic or not, they had rights under the law. As much as that chaffed my skin right now, I was also grateful for it, because those same laws protected me too. No one could legally harm me under law, just for being alive, so I kind of had to agree with the law on this matter.
Sally and I were going with my mom to the head coven now. We were pulling into the McQueen estates now.
I had never seen them up close before, but the walled in section of down town was like a small village in itself. The masonry was seventeen hundreds and it looked both imposing and beautiful. I noticed the gates were made of sterling silver and they were spelled to stay perfectly shiny. The witch community had thrived for over three hundred years now and the McQueen name was synonymous with power and success.
We were flagged through the gates by a wide eyed adept. He knew who we were from the look on his face, but he was not about to deny my mother admission into her own home. She was still officially the heir to the coven proper. They had no right to or authority to remove her, short of my grandmother coming out now.
We parked her SUV at the large mansion at the very center of the gated community, complete with its own apothecary, general goods store and a bar and grill too. There was a magic school, like a mini Hogwarts without the huge castle though. I was kind of bummed about that bit. Sally and Dylan were wide eyes, because they had never been allowed inside the witches’ main branch before. My grandmother was more of a xenophobe than most would like.
My mother and I stepped out of the car and Sally and Dylan stayed close behind us. A few witches I did not know came out to greet us, if greet was the right word. I could see they were bracing themselves to attack if needed. My mom explained to me that witches had their own version of enforcers not so different from the wolves.
A young red headed girl came forward and I realized where I had seen her before, she went to my high school. She was one of the witches that always gave me and Sally the stink eye in the halls. She did not look any happier to see us now, but she looked like a serpent ready to strike at any moment. Her muscles were tense and coiled, ready for action at a moment’s notice.
She was a medium built girl, eighteen from what I remember from school. She was slender and in perfect physical shape. I could not remember her name to save my life. She wore her long red hair in a French braid that flowed down her back. She was dressed in old fashioned grey trousers and a white cotton tunic. I could see a sword belted to her wait and many knives and daggers strapped to her leather holsters. She had military style boots on, with a dagger sheathed in each boot. She was basically very similar to me in her weapon choices, but she did not conceal them.
Her aura radiated pure ocean blue and I could actually smell salty water mixed into her personal musk. She had vivid green eyes that held our gaze and radiated power. She was strong, damn strong, but I knew she was no match for me. It was not my hubris, just an instinctual sense of my superior power.
“I am Jaden Arthur second apprentice to Lady McQueen. You are to follow me, my Lady is expecting you, but you will leave your damn wolves out here.”
I stepped forward and I let my magic aura swell with my power. I pushed it out and I felt the temperature drop fifteen degrees in moments. My eyes were glowing silver slits now. I was not able to hide either side of my heritage when I called on my full powers. I was still days away from my birthday and they all knew it. My power startled even the strongest of them. I looked at Jaden and said, “My pack stays with me. If I wanted all of you witches dead, it would not be my wolves you should fear.”
Jaden seemed to go distant for a second; I would guess she was talking to my grandmother via some form of witch telepathy. Most supernatural sects had such methods of communication, if you formed bonds with each other. She stared at me with renewed hatred and aid, “Fine your mutts can come too, but they will be filled with silver at the first misstep.”
I gave her an icy look that promised death and destruction and said, “I will end you if you dare it little witch. I do not feed on living beings, but I swear to make an exception for you, if you dare try it, or my grandmother.”
She snarled at me and she was going to her sword belt. I was about to palm my dagger, when my mom stepped between us and said, “I am still the heir here and you shall treat with us peacefully and not threaten the next apex of this city. Her blood is pure of the ones who signed peace agreements
with this coven over three hundred years ago. So if the pissing match is done, take us to my bitch of a mother.”
Jaden was giving my mother a murderous look at her last statement, but she nodded and spun on her heels and strut into the very castle like mansion. She did not look back to us and she moved at a very large stride, since she was about five foot nine, she had a lot more length of limbs than I did. I had no trouble matching her pace though, thanks to my dyamphyr blood, hell I probably could move faster than she could see, once I was eighteen.
Witches were crafty fighters and they relied on their stored spells to keep up with my kind, or with wolves. I still liked my chances with blades and fangs over her magic. My mother explained to me that I could shield myself from their spells with my aura. They have to break my defenses to really hit me with the full force of their spells, if they are not able to just overpower me.
We walked up a massive stairway to the second floor and into a large office. Across from us was an ancient beauty with blonde hair and ocean blue eyes staring at us. She had a scar that ran from the top of her left eye down her left side cheek. It was a very old wound that must have been brutal at one point to scare an immortal so deeply. Still the scare did not retract from her beauty. She had perfect yellow hair that framed her. She was letting it hang loose. She stood up as we walked into the room and she was my height, about five foot four. She was built identical and could have passed for my twin. She was ageless and had stopped aging in her early twenties. She looked not a day older than I did, even after many centuries of life. She was at least six or seven hundred years old now.
Joan McQueen, the matriarch of my bloodline. She looked over me with a sort of morbid curiosity. I noted the way she seemed to look at my mother with a deep sadness in her timeless eyes. She did not pay much attention to Sally or Dylan. She had an air of power like none I had ever felt before. She commanded respect and she was not one to be trifled with. I did not really want a war with this woman now that I was standing before her.
“So my prodigal daughter has returned after eighteen years. Shame it takes an upheaval for you to come visit you poor mother.” She pouted, but it was all a ruse and we could all sense it. Her beautiful features were in a permanent scowl. She wore the weight of many lifetimes of command on her small shoulders. She had the muscles of a real fighter and warrior woman from an era long passed. She was so very like me that it was shocking, like looking into a mirror of sorts. I only hoped I did not look so sour when I was her age.
“Joan we are here to inform you of a new peace treaty, which I expect you will want to abide by.”
My mother handed her the paperwork signed by the chiefs of police and apparently the mayor of the city too. She read the document over and then handed it to her little redheaded apprentice to read in turn.
“So your child is going to be a police officer, I guess she was serious with her college applications. Am I to assume you are here with this information for more than familial purposes?”
My mother gave her a hard stare and said, “Joan cut the crap, we both know you understand why I am here, with my daughter and her allies.”
The little red head looked up at me from behind the paper with a look of hot blooded fury radiating from her. She looked like I had just danced all over her family graves.
“You are hiding behind the human law like a coward.”
I rolled my eyes and I unclutched all of my magic now and let everyone in the room feel the subzero bite of my cold fury. The cold snap in temperature drop literally froze both of them in place.
“You will call off your dogs and you will not threaten my life. I do not need to hide from any of you. I could just end all of you, tell me why that is not the best option for me anyways? I don’t want your fucking coven. I want to help keep the peace. All of us are willingly giving up all rights or claims to any sect to do so. You selfish bitches could not begin to comprehend the meaning of self-sacrifice. I do not expect you to understand this choice, but you will abide by the peace treaties and we will also keep your fucking witches from getting drained by vampires, or sacrifice to loa.”
I saw real fear in the red head and Jaden looked to my grandmother. She was staring at me in shock and awe still.
“So you really are powerful little hybrid. I expected as much, but experiencing it, well that is a different matter altogether. I shall tell you a story of a time lost to modern society. You are not the first witch-vampire. You are the third actually. Twins were born to a witch raped by a newly raised vampire. Her children became bloody tyrants over six hundred years ago. They laid waste to my homeland and they took me from my mother’s house. I was tortured, raped and drained to near death many times by them. Like a cheap whore, I was discarded when they believed me dead.”
She sighed out and looked out her window, that over looked the courtyard.
“I chased them down years later when I came into my full powers and I drowned their whole castle in my wraith. They had ran loose for over fifty years and the human cities of France and the villages bore the cares of their evil. I will never apologize for what I did to you Kayla, but I will abide by this peace treaty, since you do not share your brethren’s thirst and evil practices.”
My mom looked shocked and I felt the same. I saw the red head standing across from her was unshaken by this story, she must have heard it before. I studied my grandmother for a few moments then I said, “Sorry for what happened to you, really I am, but I will never forgive you for putting a death sentence on my body. I am not trying to kill people. I kill vampires, it is what I do. I will not apologize for being born anymore, so don’t expect it of me.”
I extended my hand to her across her desk and looked her in her deep blue eyes. “Peace between us?”
She looked at my hand for a long moment, and then she stood and clasps my hand and shook it.
“Peace between us child.”
She looked to my mom and nodded to her. My mom nodded back, but they did not touch at all. I could see the regret swimming in my grandmother’s eyes, but she would not voice it. She was a very proud lady.
……………..
My mom basically made my grandma put it in writing and we all put a drop of blood into our signatures. It was to make a new peace treaty, so now we were a new sect in the community. Joan McQueen’s treaty would make us very much legit to any sup in this city now, but it was nothing more than a tenuous peace agreement at best. I held no delusions of us being the perfect family now.
Joan insisted that we stay for dinner with her heads of the sect. Jaden did not seem much happier to have us lingering for this long, but she was biting her tongue for now. The large dining halls were like something out of a mid-evil castle. The ridiculously long solid oak table seated over thirty people. Every seat was accounted for tonight. All the big players of the witch sect of New Orleans were here out of curiosity, if no other reason. Bored immortals could be very amusing to dine with. Half of them had old feuds with each other and my grandmother was constantly playing referee with each side of her sect.
Dinner was served in courses like old school courses from a forgotten time period. Most of the sect leaders just tread carefully with me, not just because I was strong in my own right, but my mother’s threatening presence too.
………
My grandmother pulled us into her parlor and had us sit on the soft old style couches with her. She clearly had something on her mind.
“In the interest of peace I will share a possible theory with you Kayla, and Sally.”
I looked at her and could see she was in deep thought now. I nodded and said, “we are all ears then Joan.”
She nodded and looked at Sally now.
“Child I have known your father all of his life and this behavior of his is beyond just impossible.”
Sally grits her teeth and said, “Tell me something I don’t know please!”
Joan just shrugged it off and continued now, “I understand you discovered at least four h
uman formed gris-gris talismans were made. I find it interesting that the first murder occurred the same time as your father began to exhibit strange behavior. It is purely speculation on my part, but I might start looked to see if one of those talismans did not end up on or inside his body.”
We both snapped to stare at her now. Sally said, “You think that he is being, what possessed or controlled?”
Joan nodded and said, “I have dealt with a lot of death magic in my many years on this Earth kids. It is my seasoned opinion that when you have gris-gris and strange apex behavior in the same place at the same time, then the two are connected. Nothing short of death spells could turn an apex on his daughter and his own God-daughter, but that is just this old bat’s opinion. You may do or not do what you will with this information.”
I looked at Sally and I could see the gears turning in her mind now. She nodded to me and I nodded back. My mother spoke for the first time now.
“I believe you are correct in this leap of logic. I honestly should have put that much together myself. I have grown lazy in peaceful times. I will back you girls up in whatever you decide to do.”
“Jaden you shall call the apex and have him meet us at the usual neutral location. This will give them the surprise they need to confront him and dispel the death magic possessing him. Go now child, I am sure no one wants the apex to get any crazier.”
She bobbed her red head at my grandmother and walked out of the room and I heard her making calls on her phone.
Chapter: 19
I went home and geared up for our meeting tonight. I may be trying to free Sally’s dad of voodoo control, assuming that is indeed what it is, but I was not taking a chance with my life. I packed my two nine millimeters with silver hollow points. They were strapped to my waist in cross draw style. I buckled a full length silver and cold iron forged katana to my back. I had six daggers on my person tonight too.