by Sheryl Lee
Axel tapped the staff on the table top and Zora managed to prevent herself from hyperventilating. She picked up her cup and took a big mouthful. It was going cold; she would have to make a fresh pot she thought absently.
“I have summoned my staff because we the fairies have reached a decision regarding you little Zora.”
Zora felt herself begin hyperventilating again. Surely he didn’t plan to smite her with that staff. Powers snorted beside her, so she guessed he was in her head again and if he was snorting that meant there was a good chance she didn’t need to worry about being smited, smitted, smitten, whatever.
“Because of the events of your childhood you have no understanding and no training regarding your abilities. We cannot, no matter how hard we work you, possibly train you fully – physically at any rate - in the limited time we have available. And we the fairies believe that this is an extremely powerful and dangerous werewolf. To enable you to be at your full powers, and to give you the best possible chance of success, we will have to resort to methods other than the traditional.”
He tapped the staff thoughtfully on the table. “This is the same staff that I used to give the powers to your ancestress, I will now use it to enable you to access your powers. Then our training sessions will be focused on honing your abilities and not teaching them to you.”
Zora stared at him in complete disbelief. Axel, tall handsome in the prime of his life Axel was really hundreds of years old? And he was going to smite her with that staff and boom! she was going to know everything about her ability? That didn’t make sense.
She was probably going to regret it but she had to ask, “So you can teach me everything I need to know with a wave of your magic staff there? Then why go through the years of training? Why not just show up on a person’s doorstep, do your magic thing and jobs cool?”
Axel smiled gently at her. “Such impatience, so human a reaction. The reasons are many. If you grow up with this knowledge, it becomes second nature to you. If you do the years of training, you become strong and your reactions become automatic. If you learn slowly, the layers of who you are build up strongly inside you. You are a better person, a better fighter, a more instinctive defender. Naturally I have the skills to imbue you with all that you will need. However we will need to work on your implementation so that you can reach for the skills you need automatically in a crisis.”
Zora absorbed that, and wished that her mother had told her something so that she was not the clueless person that she was now. She shook her hair back, and remembered she was sitting in her pyjamas, in front of Royalty. “Well can I at least shower and change first, before you smite me with that and I turn into this defender person?”
Axel smiled a wider smile. “Of course my dear. I am hoping Powers here will cook me a big breakfast and you should eat also. It is a much bigger undertaking than I think you understand.”
Zora felt a shiver run through her at his words, but she shrugged it away. Pushing her chair back she began to head off to the shower, then turned back to Powers, “Scrambled eggs with chives and parsley and two slices of buttered toast thanks Powers.” Smiling angelically she sashayed out of the kitchen and went to make herself presentable.
An hour later Zora was not feeling anywhere near ready for this ceremony. She would have preferred another pot of tea, maybe some more toast because she was still starving. She supposed it was because of all the supernatural vibes swirling around the house now Axel was there as well. They were on the veranda, and Powers had promised coffee and cake when the ceremony was complete. Zora was thinking along the lines of something more alcoholic, in fact she could do with a shot of something to steady her nerves right now.
Axel turned from contemplating the view towards the beach and studied Zora carefully. “Come closer little Zora, and do not worry. You will feel nothing but an infusion of power followed by a sense of well-being. All I am doing is unlocking your abilities so that you can access them all. You are strong, possibly the strongest of all, and so when you are united with your abilities you will feel maybe a little like superwoman.”
He smiled gently at her, as suddenly nervous, Zora approached on tentative feet. She stood in front of him, and bowed her head at his imperious gesture. Axel touched her head and each shoulder with the tip of the staff and then stepped back. Zora looked up, surprised.
“Is that it?” she asked incredulously.
Axel sniffed. “We are fairies, the original magical beings; we do not need words or frippery for our magic to work. We are not witches and warlocks, tied to their rituals and spells. You will feel the effects soon, best you sit down and drink your coffee and eat your cake. You will need the extra energy.” While he was speaking his aura shimmered briefly as he sent the staff back to wherever it came from.
Zora blinked, and sat, just as Powers appeared with a tray laden with cake and coffee for all. Zora still really wanted more tea, but coffee was good too. She didn’t feel any different and wondered if the bespelling was a dud. Maybe the staff was too old, didn’t work anymore, or had developed a glitch from its unusual travelling mode.
Still, the cake was rich moist chocolate, with white chocolate icing. Truly death by chocolate cake. And Powers did make a very good coffee. Zora began breaking up the cake into little pieces on her plate. Powers just shook his head as he watched, Axel rolled his eyes in a most unroyal gesture. Zora did not notice, she was distracted by a faint buzzing sound in her ears, and strange sparkling lights in front of her eyes. Was this what the fairy meant? Felt more like the onset of a migraine.
She took a steadying sip of her coffee, and almost choked on it as the flavour burst on her tongue. Seeing Axel watching her indulgently, she tried to raise an eyebrow interrogatingly even as she coughed in a most undignified way. Axel smiled. “It is taking effect little Zora. You see, your abilities enhance all of your senses, even those not tied to your defender powers. So you can taste subtleties in your food you will never have noticed before. That is why Powers excellent coffee now tastes so much better to you.”
“Better?! It’s more than better! It’s like ambrosia!” Zora eyed the broken segments of cake on her plate with deep interest. They seemed to be glistening, each crumb clearly distinct from the others, and the whole contrasting very nicely with the gleaming white of the porcelain plate they were resting on. She took another mouthful of the amazing coffee, more prepared this time for the rich layering of flavour on her tongue. Cautiously, she picked up the smallest piece of cake from the plate and popped it into her mouth, but she was unable to stop herself from groaning in appreciation.
Eyes closed as she savoured the richness of chocolate cake mingled with the coffee still on her taste buds Zora did not notice the sudden intense interest emanating from Powers, or the way his pupils dilated as he watched her. Axel however did not miss a thing, and smiled a secret smile to himself. It was as it should be and he was pleased.
CHAPTER FIVE
Zora cleaned up the last of the cake from her plate and accepted another coffee from Powers gratefully. She was a little worried. Apart from her newly enhanced sense of taste and smell – she could smell the citrus tang and an indefinable odour of man emanating from Powers even from where he sat some distance away from her – she didn’t feel that she had connected to any great abilities hiding within her. She sighed faintly, she had doubted from the start that she was really the person both Powers and Axel seemed to believe she was. Stealing a glance at Axel she couldn’t pick any sign of ill ease from him. But he was a fairy after all, and royalty at that so who knew what he was really thinking.
She watched moodily as the two men – well neither of them was a man really, but it was easier to give them the general term – chatted quietly. And they weren’t even talking about her, they were talking about people she had never met. She wondered if she would meet all these people now that she was a card carrying member of this enhanced ability clique. It took a while for her to realise that at the distance the men wer
e sitting from her she should not be able to hear anything but a low murmur, but she could hear every word distinctly. Huh, her hearing must be vastly improved as well. That could be useful.
Staring around the veranda Zora caught sight of movement at the periphery of her vision. She turned her head slightly to see better and stared in revulsion at the creature just emerging from the hedge that lined one side of Powers yard. A brown snake, she hated snakes. She watched, willing it to just keep on slithering off to the beach or to go back where it came from. Of course it didn’t, it kept on coming towards the house with what seemed to be single minded purpose. Zora sat still, coffee cup frozen on the way to her mouth and tried to keep her cool. It would be embarrassing to squeal like a girl in front of royalty.
Remembering the cup in her hand she slowly placed it on the table, never taking her eyes off the snake. Then she remembered to let go of the handle. The snake kept on coming, it was closer to the house now. Zora told herself that it wouldn’t come onto the veranda, brown snakes couldn’t climb could they? How high off the ground were they? Not very high, there were only a couple of steps down to the ground from the front of the veranda. Well surely the snake was heading underneath the house to go catch mice or rats or something. Zora kept on watching, and felt herself start to hyperventilate (again) when the snake disappeared from view as it got closer and the edge of the veranda blocked it from her vision.
She stared fixedly at where she saw it last, sending frantic mental pictures in that direction of lovely plump mice running around under the house. There was no sign of anything and Zora began to relax. Her mind tuned in briefly to what the men were saying and she caught something about Marcus and vampire and blood stocks and forgot the snake completely. She swung her eyes to the men and quickly swung them back. She didn’t want them to know she was listening in case they stopped talking. She needn’t have bothered because blood curdling shrieks and catapulting oneself off the veranda in a blind panic is usually more than sufficient to stop a conversation dead.
Zora forced herself to stop shrieking as the men stared at her in alarm. Clearly they were deficient as predator and/or animal as they still hadn’t seen the snake, now on the veranda, still slithering towards them. It stopped momentarily when the madwoman that was Zora hurtled past it shrieking like a banshee, but it soon started its forward momentum again. Zora managed to form words and screamed at the two idiots on the veranda. “Snake! Coming right at you!”
Eyebrows raised, Powers looked around casually, spotted the snake and hissed at it in a most inhuman way. The snake stopped, tongue flicking out to test the air. Powers hissed again, and growled a little, a sound that raised the hairs on Zora’s arms and the back of her neck. The snake hesitated, confused, head swaying a little. Axel, looking slightly amused, waved a hand at it in a shoo gesture and to Zora’s astonishment the snake meekly turned around and went back the way it came. The men continued their conversation as though they had never been menaced by a deadly reptile. Well, Zora supposed, they hadn’t been.
Feeling a little foolish she began to walk back and only then did she realise how far she had come in her panicked dash. Funny, she didn’t think she’d taken that many steps but she was almost onto the beach path. Brow pleated in a puzzled frown she measured the distance to the veranda. Wow, adrenalin sure did give you wings.
“That’s not exactly it, little Zora.” Axel had come to the steps and was smiling at her, easily reading the confusion on her face. “Since you may have to engage with a supernatural being, you have enhanced physical abilities. You are stronger and faster than you were, you will find yourself astonished by what you can do quite often until you adjust.”
Zora came back up the stairs and accepted her coffee from Powers with hands that shook only a little. After taking a big gulp she turned to Axel. “There’s one thing I don’t understand about all of this. Why did you have to unlock my abilities? Why haven’t I had them on tap all of my life?”
Axel smiled gently at her. “Untrained, your abilities could be dangerous. We the fairies took steps to block them from you, although we have always intended that you come into your heritage around about now. Even though there has been no threat for two generations your line is strong and we would not like it to end with you. We had however planned on doing it with and through Powers and we thought we would have the luxury of training you properly.”
Zora thought it through, and turned to Powers. “Did you know this?”
Powers met her gaze levelly. “I knew you had no idea who you are or what you are capable of, but I didn’t know your abilities had been blocked by the fairies. I thought you had done that yourself. People are in general very good at denial. I thought that you may have done one or two things that scared you a little and you blocked them out.”
It all sounded very plausible, except for one thing. “Axel, your highness, whatever I should call you, how exactly did the fairies block my abilities? I think I would have remembered a visit from a stranger carrying a staff.”
Axel smiled that indulgent smile. “Very astute little Zora, and please, call me Axel. In truth, I do not really need the staff, but it is useful and it does like to feel important. Once we had made the decision it was very easy for one of us to visit you in the guise of a child in the playground. You are tied to our family through your bloodline, so my sister was sent and it was very easy for her to touch you in the course of play and block your abilities.”
Zora was silent as she absorbed all of this. There was a lot of information to digest in one short paragraph. The fairies could change their appearance at will it seemed, Axel had a sister and she had met said sister, he did not need his staff to perform magic and the staff seemed to have feelings so she assumed that in some way it was self-aware. Since Axel seemed to be waiting for something she asked the only questions she could think of. “What is your sister’s name, and does she look like she did when I met her? And does your staff have a name, should I have greeted it?”
Her second question surprised a snort from Powers and a full blown grin from Axel. My, he was a very handsome man/fairy when he smiled like that. As though he knew her reaction his smile widened before he replied with a thread of amusement making his voice suddenly very seductive. “My sister simply used a younger version of herself so you will probably recognise her when you see her, and her name is Tianna. The staff does have a name but only I know it, and it would enjoy if you greet it next time you see it.”
Zora frowned, she didn’t remember anyone called Tianna, but then she supposed if a fairy was sent to block her abilities she would not exactly be calling attention to herself. She filed that bit of information away and briefly gave consideration to the idea a staff could be considered an entity, and that in this surreal life she found herself it no longer seemed like that big of a deal.
Back to business. “So now that my abilities are unlocked, what do I have to do to learn how to use them? Actually, apart from the enhanced physical abilities, what can I do?”
“Come little one, let us sit and I will tell you, and then we will begin the physical exercises to make it easier for you to use your abilities. First though, know that you have the knowledge on an instinctual level. If the need arises, even if I have not taught you, you will know what to do.” Axel’s eyes fixed intently on her as he said that and Zora shifted uncomfortably under his gaze until he continued. “But the exercises will help you to assimilate these abilities better, and of course your physical fitness even though enhanced, could be better.” He frowned slightly in disapproval as he said the last sentence, probably deserved since Zora did not believe in exercise unless it was running to her car in the rain.
“You can sense a werewolf in the same way you can sense the other supernaturals when they are around. However you can also sense a rogue werewolf when you are at the place where it has committed a murder, or some other atrocity. The violence leaves an echo and you can pick up on it. You are very strong little Zora, I think you will pick up f
ar more than any other defender. Now that your abilities are unblocked we will take you back to the site and see what you feel. Although it is best to go to a site within 12 hours, I believe you will still pick up a useful amount of information. That you picked up anything at all earlier is astounding.”
Zora nodded nervously, feeling like a student about to be put on the spot and asked to give an oral presentation in a foreign language.
Axel continued, “You also have the useful ability of being able to cause a werewolf to combust if you and it are present within eyeshot at dawn. I will show you how to do it, it is very simple.”
Zora nodded again, like a marionette. Causing someone – or something – to combust was a simple thing to do. Right, in this alternate universe in which she now lived she guessed it was.
Axel smiled as though he had read her thoughts – maybe he had, after all her mind was apparently open like a book. He continued, “Your six senses are enhanced, your sight, smell, taste, hearing, touch and your, um, shall we say your intuition. By this I mean you will quite easily be able to sense other supernaturals, and you will also find you can more easily pick up on the intentions of the humans you come into contact with. You are faster and stronger and we will work on that so you learn your new limitations. It is important to know your limitation little Zora because you will feel invincible and against a supernatural you certainly are not. But you will heal faster should you get hurt, which is useful.”
Zora nodded for the third time, her mind screaming a protest at the thought of fighting a supernatural being and getting hurt but hey, she would heal faster so it’s all good. She was trying to assimilate the information she had just received when she realised that Axel was speaking again. “You can see my aura right down to the colour, I wonder if you can see the tells of the other supernaturals.”