Betrayal: An Urban Fantasy Academy Series

by Bob Dattolo

  Another sigh. “Okay, enough. I hope you are having fun. I will reach out again if we learn any more about our options for pulling you. We have been developing a number of tests that we would like to run on you. We’re willing to pay again. We can talk when you get back to school or the next time we meet. Until then? As I said, please be safe. Otherwise? Live to your fullest. Our lives are dangerous and extremely iffy, so it’s best to live like you’re going to die tomorrow, because all too often? Death really is waiting for us.”

  Angelica started cleaning some of the empty containers, “Well, at least you have an admirer there.”

  “Right? That’s good to hear.”

  “So then…Levi has your number. That’s weird and I have no idea how he got that. I don’t have his, do either of you?”

  Both Parece and Angelica shook their heads.

  “That’s fucked up. But not only does he have it, but so do my parents? I can’t even guess how they got it. I don’t think they could have gotten it from my cell phone bill or anything like that, I don’t think I’ve ever called you before, have I?”

  Hmm, “I don’t think so?” I searched my phone for a minute, “Nope. Nothing.”

  “Okay. Even weirder, then.” She took a deep breath and turned her phone over, turning it on. It promptly went crazy.

  She let us see the phone as the numbers went up. “Freaking hell, that’s insane.” The numbers are still going up, and I can’t understand how someone could be contacted so many times.

  The numbers peaked and she stared at them, “Just to be clear? I’m not reading so fucking many text messages or emails.”

  Parece nudged her arm, “Just start with the email, then go to texts. Let’s see who’s been contacting you. Maybe it’s not your parents.” She got looks from us, “What? I said maybe!” She laughed at her own joke.

  The email came first, starting from shortly after we left the hotel in LA and right after the poor thing was turned off.

  Where did you go?

  Bring her here!

  Come back!

  You are our daughter, bring here to the house so that we can deal with her!

  The email go downhill from there. Then the messages start from other people. “Who the fuck are they?” Angelica touched one of the names. “Are those…dammit, earth dragons? Are those Vijay’s parents?”

  More email got opened. “Yup. My parents gave them my email address. They’re all demanding that I bring Maddie to them so that you can be killed.”

  “Damn, they’re pretty inventive with their curses. I have to give them credit for that.”

  Angelica sat back in her seat, “This is fucked. Honestly, the worst part is that they would be livid at us if they really knew that Maddie didn’t kill them on her own. That we were involved and drained them. She just made it possible.”

  Nods from the other two.

  “You don’t think they’ll just blame me?”

  “Oh, don’t worry, you’d have their blame for setting it all in motion. But if they find out we drained them? I’m thinking we’ll get lumped in and added to their kill list.”

  Fuck. “I’m sorry about that.”

  Angelica laughed, pulling the other two in with her, “Seriously? You’re apologizing? Please, you gave us power. You didn’t have to. You could have taken all four for yourself, but you didn’t.” She looked to the others, “It’s things like that that make me sit back and really think about what you’ve said. You’ve given me two people to drain, all because you know my parents will kill me if I’m weak. I treated you like shit at the end, yet you still went out of your way to help me. You made it possible for us to get through two of the challenges. All on your own. You never once asked for anything from any of us and have offered to go off on your own in case it endangered us. It’s…it’s not something I’m used to. I know they’re the same way.” Samantha and Parece nodded at her unspoken question. “We’re not used to selfless things. We’re not used to people being willing to make us more powerful when they don’t have to. We’re used to quite the opposite. If I were in your shoes and have the kind of power you have, I’d be hard pressed to say that I would have done what you did. Give us more power. Especially since we haven’t ever talked about being allies for this next year. All three of us know that you want to be, but you’re also willing to accept it if we decide otherwise. That freaks us out, because we’d never want to make someone not an ally stronger and might not even want to do that with an ally. To us, us being stronger is the best ally we can get.”

  “I get that. I do. I’ve tried to explain how I view things. I don’t expect you guys to jump in to being allies with me next year. Would I like it? I would. But I don’t expect it. Just, to be clear? I didn’t hate anyone other than Levi in the trial or before that. Yet no part of me is really upset that I killed them. Hate is on the horizon, though, in situations where I feel like I’ve been…betrayed, maybe. So someone using something against me? I get it, but if I feel what is being used is a betrayal? Then I’ll slide to hate, with no stops along the way. I’m not sure I’d be able to pull myself back from that, either. Once I’m there, I don’t envision giving the person another chance. So, like I said? Want me to leave, I’ll leave. I’ll even have you tell your parents that I’m gone, and you can point them in my direction. But get involved in setting me up?” My hair lit up as I strained through creating 50 balls of each affinity plus 50 of light and sent them bouncing around the room. I included sound with it, which I knew they picked up on. Each affinity has its own sound as it moves and a different sound when it bounces into something. The sound varies based on the size of each and the speed they’re going.

  Parece stared up in horror, “Oh my fucking God…you’re even more powerful than before!”

  Samantha didn’t look down, “You…you knew she could do this? We had fucking trouble creating three lights in the trial! What the fuck is happening right now?!”

  “I saw her twice. Just after she learned how to do light. She’s got to be doing something we can’t, because…fuck. I’ve never even heard of someone adding sound to things. And it’s all different.” She swallowed hard, “I don’t know if it counts for anything, but I have no plans to double cross you. I’m not fucking sure I’d survive even if I was across the country, so…yeah.”

  Angelica smiled and looked back down at me, “I’m perfectly fine being allies again. Even more so than before.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. Frankly, I’d hate to fucking see what you can do with dangerous spells.”

  Samantha groaned, “Don’t kid yourself. Except for the light, every one of those spells up there could hurt us.” She froze as I pushed out more power and created another 50 orbs of electricity.

  Something magic says basically can’t be done like this.

  “Is…are…is that real electricity?” She sounds horrified and I smell a splash of pee from her.

  One of the smaller balls came down, “Feel free to touch it.”

  She did, then jerked away with a shout, “Oh my fucking God! That’s…” she closed her eyes, trying to fight off the panic trying to fill her. Possibly make her do something stupid. “I don’t even know what to say.” Her heart rate is still through the freaking roof. “You do impossible things like they’re nothing. I don’t want to be an enemy. I’m not sure I can push to be an ally depending on the others, but…I don’t want to be an enemy. I’d prefer to be an ally, I really would. It has to be safer than not being one.”

  “Plus, she might teach us how to do something like this.” Parece touched the same ball and then jerked away, laughing. “Just as I thought. Real fucking electricity. You’re too damn much, Maddie.”

  They watched the balls for another ten minutes until I started having them disappear if they hit another ball. They were gone ten minutes after that.

  Once the spectacle was gone, Samantha pulled her phone up again, “Let’s listen to the messages.”

  Let me say this
about that; they’re not good messages. Pro Maddie? Umm, no? How much no can you fit into one sentence? That much no times, oh, every number.

  Messages from her parents. From the parents of the guys. From friends, passing on messages. From people that she knows, but we don’t have the context to understand who they are.

  All of them telling her to come home and to bring me with her. Or to tell them where I am.

  As the last one finished, she turned her phone off again. “You all got that, right?”

  Parece nodded and stood, “Yeah. They’ll be coming.”

  “They will. I don’t know how quickly, but I have to think they’ll get some sort of signal within the hour.”

  “That means we have to leave?” The various messages were pretty freaking clear that once she listened to everything, they’d be able to figure out where she is. Where we are. That means they’ll be coming. So we have to go. Right now, basically.

  It took most of an hour to pack and make sure we had everything, then we were in the car and rolling. I was driving since they all had calls to make.

  “Samantha?” I decided to start the ball rolling, “I think you should call first. They’ll know we’re here, so maybe doing it from here won’t tell them more about where we are heading.”

  “Umm, okay.”

  A face in a passing car drew my attention, then they were gone. What the fuck? No one else reacted, so surely that couldn’t be Levi?

  Samantha turned her phone on again and put it on speaker. It rang once before it was picked up, “Young lady, you had better have a good explanation for why you have been avoiding us, why you haven’t turned that girl over to us, and why you aren’t here!” Her father’s voice is so rough with anger that it’s tough to make out the words.

  “Hey, Dad.”

  “Samantha Rodriguez! Where are you! Get your ass to this house right now and bring that little fucking whore with you!”

  “Dad, no!”

  “Don’t tell me no! I am your father!”

  She didn’t respond to that.

  “You will be here within the hour, young lady!”

  She spoke again, “No, I won’t.”

  “Samantha!”

  “I can’t, Dad. We’re nowhere near LA right now. I can’t be there within the hour. Besides, I warned you about going after her. I did. I practically begged you, but you decided that you knew better.”

  “She is a child!”

  “She was a stricken, Dad!” She practically yelled that. “A stricken! I’ve seen pictures of her with the mortmagi in! She got them out and then healed! She has magic…I can’t even tell you the things I’ve seen from her. Things I can’t even come close to doing. Things you’ve never been able to do. Same with Mom.”

  “Don’t disobey me, Samantha!”

  “Dad? I saw your picture. Both of your pictures. I saw the interview with you both. I know she hurt you. That you’re scarred. I’m sorry about that, but I freaking begged you not to go after her! Honestly, you’re lucky you left when you did because she wouldn’t have stopped. I get that you think she’s a kid because she’s 18, but she’s so not just a kid and she sure as hell isn’t a stricken any longer. As for the guys that were killed? They attacked her. She had every right, legal and otherwise, to kill them. Now they’re dead.”

  “Don’t disobey me, Samantha!”

  “Dad? Here’s the reality of the situation. Two realities. You raised me to be powerful. To stand on my own. To stand my ground. I’m standing my ground on this. I won’t be delivering her to you. The second reality? If I tried? She’d kill me. She chased away both of you, and there’s only one of me. If I tried to give her up for you to find her and try to attack her? I’ve seen some of what she can do, the bare bits that she shows me, and it fucking terrifies me. I just saw something less than two hours ago that…I’ve never seen anything like that. Ever. Never even imagined it being possible. I have a chance to possibly learn that? I’m not bypassing it. I have the ability to not turn her in and risk her finding out about it and coming after me? I’m not bypassing that, either. I have the ability to support a heinously powerful friend that is the main reason I even made it out of the trial?”

  “She’s not that powerful!”

  “Half of our class owe their lives to her, Dad! Half of us. More would have made it, but they didn’t trust her. Yet a full half of the class owes her for saving them. You know as well as I do that won’t get her much when classes start again, but I plan on staying on her good side. And staying there involves not trying to fuck her for doing something you would have applauded me for.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

  “Don’t even, Dad. Russell shot her into a wall with a thing of ice and crushed the back of her skull. If he did that to me, you’d pat me on the back for finding him and killing him. As for the others? Pete showed up and wanted to rape her. The other two supported it. Had they done that to me? You would have been there with me when I went after them. You know it. So would Mom. I get that you’re pissed at her. She hit you with a brutal bitch of a spell and you’re scarred. Let me say this, though, why aren’t you blind and magicless?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “You got hit with a spell that tore up your faces. Came close to your eyes. Why didn’t she tear out your eyes?”

  “Because she couldn’t! She’s too weak. She was too far away. And we dodged!”

  “Dad? That’s a bunch of shit and you know it. I smelled her when she described what she did, Dad. She purposefully set that spell up to not go for your eyes. She missed them on purpose. She wasn’t trying to strip you of your powers. She was trying to attack for what you did to her in hitting her through a wall. For hitting me. If she wanted you to be magicless and stuck as a dragon, she could have done it as you flew away.”

  “Impossible!”

  “Dad? I smelled her. She was telling the truth. I’m not turning her in. I won’t risk it. I’ve seen what she’s done to other people. I’ve seen what she can do with magic. If I turn her over to you and she breaks free? She’s already explained how she would handle betrayal like that. I wouldn’t stand a chance. None. Zero chance. So, I’m sorry. I know this pisses you off. You’ve got to be livid at being scarred. But I won’t do it. I’m turning my phone off in a bit. We’re traveling still and we’re gonna visit the Black Hills and some other places so she can get some flying practice in. I’m sorry this makes you angry, but it’s for the best.”

  “Don’t you hang up on m…”

  She hung up and powered her phone off. The car was silent for most of ten miles. Finally, she sighed and dropped her phone into the cup holder. “That was…he won’t give up.”

  “Is he gonna go after you?”

  She didn’t respond at first. “Beatings. Maybe some bad ones. I don’t think they’ll kill me. I probably should have told them that the guys were drained. They might have been okay if they knew I got some of that. But maybe not. It all depends on how powerful the other parents are and how they’re connected. I just…I never remember hearing about them before, so I have no idea where they came from. Four guys my age? That’s messed up.”

  “I’m sorry you’re sucked into this.”

  “Don’t be. My parents are assholes to begin with. This is just…pushing them. A lot.” More silence. “Okay, who’s up next? Let’s get these calls done and then keep going. We have more relaxation to do, and it won’t do itself.”

  Parece was next. Her mother freaked when she answered and was screaming and carrying on for a solid five minutes. Anger and sadness have apparently been messing with her head, because she wasn’t making sense at all until her husband showed up and calmed her the hell down. When the hysterics finally ended, he was the one to speak, “Parece? Where are you? Are you okay? Is someone holding you? When we didn’t hear from you, we feared the worst!”

  “Hi, Dad. I’m okay. No one is holding me. Like I said? We’re driving around the cou
ntry, but we ran into some issues out west and kinda had to go silent.”

  “Issues? What kind of issues? You’re okay? Not hurt?”

  “No. I’m not hurt. Stronger than ever, in fact. The issue is a messed up one. We met some guys at a club. One of them attacked one of my friends. Then another showed up and was planning on raping her. She pretty much killed all four of them. The parents of the guys know Samantha’s parents and contacted them because of where they died. Her parents showed up thinking we were squatters pretending to be her. That started a fight with Maddie.”