by Silver Milan
“Well well, Mathis, this is quite the diverse group you’ve got for me this time,” the man said.
“No more diverse than any of the others,” Mathis said. “Potentials, your handler: Walter Baez.”
“Pleasure to meet you all,” Walter said. “I’ll take it from here, Mathis.”
Mathis nodded, then went to the elevators and pressed the button. Meanwhile Hugh vanished into the parking garage.
As he waited for the elevator, Mathis turned back to look at the shifters one last time, and said: “Good luck to you all. If we meet again, it will be as equals.”
The elevator opened and Mathis stepped inside. His eyes lingered on Ariel in the moments before the doors closed. She wasn’t entirely sure what she saw in that look. Sadness, maybe. And hope?
“First order of business,” Walter told the remaining group. “You are no longer Potentials. You are now First Year apprentices. Come then, worms, let me show you to your dorm rooms so you can change into attire appropriate to your rank.”
“Did he just call us worms?” Tina said under breath.
“I think he did,” Michelle replied.
“Backpacks and suitcases on the cart.” Walter gestured toward a cart beside him.
The shifters loaded their luggage onto it.
James pressed the elevator button but Walter held up a hand.
“Oh no,” Walter said. “The elevator is not for you. First Years always take the stairs.”
“Uh, how far exactly is it to our floor?” Ked asked.
“Fifteen flights,” Walter replied.
“What about our luggage?” Ariel asked.
“I have an assistant coming down to retrieve it,” Walter said. “Now, the stairwell, please.”
“Somehow, I have a feeling that this training isn’t going to be as fun as we all thought it would be,” Brian said, entering the stairwell.
“Speak for yourself,” James said, entering behind him. “I for one never thought it would be fun.”
“Hurry it up!” Walter said. “Double time. Double time!”
Ariel ran after James, taking two steps at once.
After eight flights they were all panting loudly, and only taking one step at a time. The older among them fared the worst.
“Thought we were joining the witches, not the military,” Katelyn complained.
“Come on, pick it up!” Walter said from the rear. “You call yourselves shifters?”
“I thought shifters and humans were supposed to be treated the same here!” Michelle told Walter.
“Oh you are, in most things,” Walter said. “However, I am your handler. And I am a shifter. I know how much stronger than human beings you are. I know what you’re capable of. Now pick up the pace!”
James transformed into a panther, slipping out of his clothes to take the stairs four at a time.
Walter raised his voice immediately. “Oh no you don’t!”
James floated into the air and froze, captured by an invisible vise.
“Change back!” Walter said. “Immediately!”
James became human once more, and when he knelt to retrieve his abandoned clothing, an invisible whip audibly struck his backside. James howled, leaping. A red switch mark appeared on his naked buttocks.
“No clothes for you,” Walter said. “Because you changed without permission. It’s probably for the best, since you won’t be needing them anyway. Your white robe awaits.”
Ariel resisted her own urge to change, and continued up the stairs as fast as she was able. She felt completely winded by the time she reached the destination floor. When she piled out into the hallway with the others, she doubled over and rested both hands on her knees.
“Four minutes,” Walter said. “Pathetic. We’ll have to work on improving your time. If you wish to discipline the mind, first you must discipline the body!” He surveyed the panting group. “Well then, let’s make a visit to the wardrobe closet for this level, shall we? I’m growing tired of looking at the panther shifter’s hairy backside.”
“I’m not,” Michelle quipped.
Ariel wasn’t sure if Michelle’s panting was due entirely to the exertion, or partially because of the naked, manly bum in front of her. He did have a nice physique, Ariel had to admit.
When she looked up and realized James had caught her looking at him, she averted her eyes, blushing.
Nothing wrong with looking, she told herself.
She examined her surroundings. She was in a red-carpeted hallway with walls painted a drab brown. Equally spaced doors, all closed, lined the left side, while windows looked down onto the grounds to the right. The hallway curved inward slightly, following the outline of the tower exterior. Other than the shifters, the passage was deserted.
As Walter led the winded group through the hallway to the ‘wardrobe closet,’ an exhausted Ariel couldn’t help but think that if this was a glimpse of what awaited in the coming weeks and months, the training definitely wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
Maybe this was a mistake after all.
Mathis switched his weight from one foot to the other. He stood before the desk of Savanna Kettleburn, president of the Steel Tower, and his current boss. The dragon shifter was a powerful witch in her own right, and answered directly to Queen Yvonne. Rumor had it that she had the Ability to use compulsion directly, rather than via the Strength. Mathis doubted that rumor, because he knew she wasn’t a member of the royal family. Still, he supposed it was possible.
She finally looked up from her laptop. “You can sit.”
Mathis made himself comfortable in the guest chair.
“I reviewed the application you sent by email,” Savanna said. “I’m afraid your request is denied.”
“I know it’s policy not to allow any vacation time in the first few months after a new posting,” Mathis said. “But I figured, in light of my years of dedicated service, that you would grant me an exception.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Savanna told him. “The foundation of the Steel Tower is Wayfarer law, followed closely by discipline. If I started breaking our rules to grant vacations to everyone who asked, our carefully built society would break down.”
Mathis clenched his jaw. “Giving me a vacation isn’t going to cause the downfall of the Wayfarers.”
“Yes, but when the other witches find out, I’ll never hear the end of it,” Savanna said. “I’ll be inundated with different requests. Vacations. Transfers. Pay increases. I have to keep my foot firmly planted to the ground, and refer those who would ask favors to our rules.”
“But I have at least four months banked up,” Mathis said. “What’s the point of banking vacation time if I can’t use it?”
“Maybe you should have thought about that before sleeping with the vampire you were tasked with destroying,” Savanna said.
Mathis lowered his gaze and exhaled softly. He was ashamed of that. One moment of weakness, one moment of lowering his guard... the vampire had been so beautiful. She reminded him of Gwendoline, both in looks and spirit, or at least the way Gwendoline had been in her youth. It had all been an act, of course. The vampire was using him. Mathis had revealed all of that in his report, leaving out only one thing, and that was how close Mathis had come to allowing the vampire to turn him into one of them. When Mathis refused the final time, the vampire showed her true colors and nearly killed Mathis. He was lucky to get out of her coven alive.
When Mathis met Savanna’s eyes once more, he merely nodded. “I understand. Thanks for considering my request.”
“Of course,” Savanna said. “Send me another application in a year, after the prerequisite time, and I’ll approve it.”
“I will,” Mathis said.
“You’ve received your new assignment?” Savanna asked.
“Yeah, I got it,” Mathis said. “Guess I have a flight to catch.”
“You do,” she said, returning her attention to the laptop.
A year.
He
wasn’t sure he could wait that long.
He turned to go, but there was some other matter he had almost forgotten to bring up with her. “By the way, did you ever send anyone to investigate the Death magic I sensed last time I was here?”
“I went myself with a hand-picked team,” Savanna said, not looking up. “We destroyed a small vampire coven that had taken up residence in our domain.”
“Ah,” Mathis said. “Was she there?”
“If by she, you’re referring to the vampire who got you into this mess, then no,” Savanna said.
“Too bad,” Mathis said, meaning it. After all the grief she had caused him, he really wouldn’t have minded if the creature had met her demise. “What did Yvonne have to say about a coven hidden so close to our apprentice school?”
“The queen didn’t like it, obviously, and was pleased by the destruction,” Savanna said. “She sensed the Death magic unleashed during our battle, and expressed relief that none of us were hurt.”
“I’m glad, too,” Mathis said. “I bet the vampires weren’t expecting the dragon witch president of the Steel Tower herself to show up.”
Savanna looked up and smiled impatiently. “I'd love to chat with you, Mathis, but I do have pressing matters to attend to. If there is nothing else, would you mind terribly much...” Her eyes flicked toward the entrance.
“Ah, yes.” Mathis said.
He spun on his heel.
“Please shut the door behind you,” Savanna said.
With that he left, closing the door as instructed.
He made his way across the intricately marbled hallway of the topmost level, hardly noticing his surroundings, and took the elevator to the basement garage. On the ride down, he quickly forgot the news of the destroyed coven. Gwendoline filled his thoughts.
In the parking garage, he found Hugh waiting in the assigned van.
“So what’s the plan, boss?” his Keeper asked when Mathis loaded into the passenger seat.
Mathis glanced at Hugh. “We’ve been assigned to test the shifter territories outside the New Hampshire den.”
Hugh studied his boss. “We’re not going to New Hampshire, are we?”
“Oh we are, man,” Mathis said. “The president already booked us a commercial flight.” Wayfarers usually flew commercial, unless they were on a sensitive mission, such as transporting Potentials to the Steel Tower.
“And when we get there?” Hugh asked.
Mathis looked at his Keeper. His friend. “We’ll take the vehicle assigned to us. You’ll drop me off next to a car rental company, and then drive to the different shifter crews in the area.” The Wayfarers could track their own vehicles, and they would have no reason to believe Mathis wasn’t with Hugh doing his job, especially if he left his RFID ring with Hugh. It was a little bit risky, considering that the shifters might report Hugh’s solo visit to the Wayfarers. It was also against the rules to travel outside safe havens without his Keeper, mostly because of the danger to himself. But Mathis was willing to bend the rules and risk punishment, not to mention his life, for her.
“What do you want me to tell the shifter crews I drive out to?” Hugh said.
“Make something up,” Mathis said. “You’re performing a census. You’re doing a survey on dragon-shifter relations. Anything.”
Hugh nodded. “The census should work. One question, what will you report to the President? She’ll get suspicious if you don’t find any Potentials in those territories.”
“I plan to join up with you along the way,” Mathis said. “So be sure to take your time traveling between shifter crews.”
“And if you don’t show up before I’m done visiting them all?”
“Then I guess I’ll have to revisit a few without you until I find a Potential,” Mathis said.
Hugh drove the van out of the parking garage without saying a word more. When they were on the road to the Belgrade airport, the Keeper finally broke his silence.
“Is she worth it, boss?” Hugh asked.
Mathis sighed. “If you can’t judge her worth by my actions, then no words will convince you of that, my friend.”
Hugh nodded. “You’re doing all this work, all this effort. Spending time, energy. Risking everything. For what? How do you know she’ll take you back?”
“I don’t,” Mathis admitted. “But I have to try. And I think you know, I’m not one to give up easily.”
Mathis swore he was going to set things right with Gwendoline.
Somehow, he would.
Even if it meant spending the rest of his days in a Wayfarer prison.
10
Gwendoline studied her phone, and she reread the email message from Mathis for what must have been the tenth time.
Gwen,
I’d like permission to visit you in Midnight once again. There’s so much I need to tell you, I’m not even sure where to begin. But I know I can’t do this over email. I need to look you in the eyes when I strip bare my soul to you, so that you know everything I’m saying is real. Authentic.
Why get in touch with you after all these years? After what I did to you? It’s because a few months ago I almost gave up everything for a vampire. A vampire I thought reminded me of you. I almost threw away my life because I wanted back, so desperately, what I’d lost all those years ago.
I’m not really sure what to expect from all this. I guess I’m looking for forgiveness. Hoping. And if you can’t forgive me, I’ll understand. But I just want you to know why I did what I did all those years ago.
This is all unofficial business, of course. I ask that you don’t contact the Wayfarers, because by doing so you’ll only put me in a world of trouble.
— Mathis
Gwendoline set down the phone. Mathis promised to explain his betrayal all those years ago, but she already knew why he’d done it. It seemed fairly obvious. Still, it might be entertaining to listen to his excuses.
What game is he playing?
Gwendoline couldn’t help but think back to her youth, when she had gone to the Steel Tower all wide-eyed and impressionable. She remembered meeting Mathis, a fellow First Year who boarded on the same floor. Such a beautiful, strong man. A human. A man who made her doubt her preconceived notions of the superiority of dragons over ordinary men and shifters, only to confirm those notions in the end when he betrayed her.
The emotional side of her truly wanted to believe Mathis was sincere in his email, that he cared for her after all these years... but the logical, more rational side of her, the side honed to a razor-sharp edge from years serving in the royal court, told her that he wanted something. Perhaps a political favor of some kind from Gabriel. Perhaps money. Definitely something for personal gain. Because after what he had done, there was no way she could trust him.
She was tempted to contact the Wayfarers out of vengeance, if only to “put him in a world of trouble” as he called it. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized what fun she could have toying with him. She’d wrap him around her finger, just like he had done to her, maybe even sleep with him. And just when he thought her heart was his, and that she’d give him whatever personal boon he was asking for, she’d betray him.
And that would be the sweetest revenge of them all.
Smiling wickedly, she pulled out her phone and thumb-typed a response.
Jett sat in his study.
The cabin felt so empty with Ariel gone. Everything about the place reminded him of her. He had taken her in almost every room, and on every item of furniture. Images of her naked body calling out his name would fill his mind whenever he glanced at certain spots. The kitchen countertop. The shower. The desk in his study.
It wasn’t just the sex he yearned for, but her company as well. The emotional bond they’d formed. He missed their long conversations in the evening. He missed sparring with her.
He missed her smile.
The laptop was charging on the desk in front of him, plugged into the wall outlet. Jett had upgraded the camp
’s power supply since taking over as Alpha. He’d installed a string of expensive solar panels and storage cells to augment the gas-powered generators Blue Hurricane originally used. Jett was confident he was leaving the pride in a better state than before his arrival, and that made him feel better about what he was about to do.
Jett couldn’t help but wonder if he was doing the right thing by abandoning the pride and going to her. Was he being selfish in wanting to see Ariel every weekend? Was he putting her training at risk? Or even her own life: what if the vampire witch really was still out there, and what if she followed him, and decided to use Ariel as bait to draw him out? No, the vampire wouldn’t dare attack Ariel in the Steel Tower.
But she would have no qualms about attacking Jett. He would have to institute precautions when he arrived in Belgrade. He planned to take Flame, Brazen and Viper with him, and at the very least he would alternate those White Swords on a 24/7 watch, if only to prevent the vampire witch from collaring him while he slept. The question was, would the White Swords be powerful enough against her? He hadn’t yet decided whether he would remove the collars Flame and Brazen wore; he was leaning toward the no side, as he didn’t want them to face the stiff punishments that came with flouting that particular law, especially in Wayfarer territory.
A knock at the front door roused him from his troubling thoughts.
“Come in,” Jett said.
He heard the front door open and close, followed by the stomp of heavy boots. The distinct scent of lion fur wafted to his nostrils.
Cliff entered. His eyes monetarily flicked to the single piece of luggage beside the desk. Within that travel bag Jett had packed all the belongings he had taken with him to Blue Hurricane.
“Sit,” Jett ordered.
Cliff took the visitor’s chair across from him.
“So, I agreed to wait until she arrived in Serbia,” Jett said. “She just sent me a text: she landed a half an hour ago.”