by Bob Dattolo
Now, as I tuck myself into bed with Melissa and Rachel, I can’t help but be so, so happy that Marisela’s family is back together. Together and fabulously wealthy. It seems Mom continued paying for her squires, even after they were gone. They have more than 200 years of accrued wealth coming to them.
I also learned a bit more of what they do for her. They’re arguably squires, in that they are involved in fight training and such, but they also act as guards if they’re needed. Interestingly enough, Marisela’s grandmother is a fantastic cook, from what they said, and she acts as Mom’s cook as well. It seems to be something she inherited from one of her grandparents, who was a full brownie. They’re sort of domestic gods and goddesses. The traits were bred out before Marisela was born, so she didn’t get that drive.
Mom was overjoyed with everyone being back and seeing her missing people again. Jen was as well. She may not know them, but she can obviously feel how happy Mom is, and that makes her happy as well.
The Angeles family is in one of the other wings of the place, settling in a little bit. Marisela was intending to sleep in with us, but having her dad back? Yeah, that sort of wins out at least for a bit.
That’s okay. I get it. We all do. That still leaves me with two people that need to be close. Rachel, because we share so much more than a normal relationship would share. And Melissa, because she desperately needs it. During our rambling conversation before bed, I learned from Mom that the fey really do need to be close. The formative years for a fey child are where they connect with people. They forge the bonds that help them grow and become strong. Melissa missed out on a ton of that, and we need to make up for it if at all possible.
Somehow.
I’m willing to give it a shot. It’s just too bad she’s not a guy. No one was interested in any fun tonight due to the emotional turmoil of everything happening. I get it, but dang…I was right when I mentioned to Ty I might be climbing the walls soon.
Oh well. There’s always tomorrow. With Melissa’s birthday on Saturday, maybe we can get something fun planned? We’ll see.
Marisela wasn’t with us on the way to school the next morning. During the night, with Mom’s blessing, they decided to take a family vacation together. They need some bonding time, and Phila needs time with her husband. After all, he died, and she buried and mourned him for years. As did Marisela.
Mom gave them keys to one of her places in Hawaii, and I struggled to get a portal set up for them. It took more than an hour and a half, but I got it up and they went through with pockets stuffed with cash so that they can get their vacation going.
That left me, Rachel, Melissa, and Tara to drive in together.
“So…vampire?”
Rachel nodded at Tara’s question. “Yeah. You?”
Tara laughed at the question. “You’re moving here to go to school?”
“Pretty much. I’m supposed to be registered, so I guess we’ll see.”
“What makes you want to go here?”
Rachel patted my seat from behind me, “Ceri. We’re…connected.”
Tara sniffed, “Girlfriends?”
That got shrugs from both of us, but I didn’t respond, “No. Not really.”
“Huh…”
I broke up the conversation, “So…what did your lawyers say?”
She smiled wide, “Holy…you weren’t kidding. Your mom gave me so much money! My parents are taken care of! They’re getting jobs that they can do! The lawyers are helping me with the contracts and stuff. We’re pretty much through three of them, with only the chips one still not done.”
“Are you getting excited?”
Her face looked dreamy, “You have no idea…God, I never thought this would come. I’ve dreamt so many times. Nearly every day. Just dying for a chance. One opportunity. Eminem is right, you have to own the music when you get your chance…”
“And you did. Mom told you about the funding and lab and stuff for your other ideas?”
She practically rocked in her seat, “Yes! My freaking God…I probably shouldn’t tell you, but there’s no way I’m not signing the contracts.”
“I never thought there would be. Same for us. I’d be creating a company with you if Mom said no. What you showed me…dang, it’s too cool.”
I told the others about her inventions on the way to pick her up so that they weren’t lost if anything like this came up. I couldn’t help feeling really good when we got to school, pulling into a spot in the lot and completely ignoring Syl standing in the shadows under a tree.
Melissa hit my arm as she opened the door, “What are you going to do with Mark, Chuck, Warren, and Eric?”
“I guess we’ll see. There’s a slight chance I’ll let this go and maybe accept an apology. I doubt Mom will, though. She’s…yeah, pissed doesn’t even begin to cover it. Then again, I may just do it myself.”
She hopped out as the others followed. Tara stopped in back of my truck, “Wait…what’s with the guys? I heard there was a huge thing the other day, but I’m crazy confused by it.”
My smile hardened, “They went after Dave after I warned them that I’d challenge them if they did. They did and then they attacked me with a spell.”
Rachel frowned, “You never said what the spell was?”
I nodded, “I never did. It was a screwed-up spell that tried to block me from my magic and make me be their whore. I mean that, too. It tried to make me allow them to sell me to anyone with the money. I’d do it willingly and pretty much beg them for it.”
My vampire friend growled, getting the others to move back as her eyes turned black, “Where are these motherfuckers!”
I hugged her, hitting her with a ray of golden light. I’d been sending it out constantly since leaving the between lands. There are a tooooon of people there that reach out to me nearly constantly. It’s an amazing feeling. “You don’t have to worry about them. Like I said, Mom left them with a challenge that they have to answer by Sunday. I doubt I’ll let them go. I’m sorta pissed. As you can imagine.”
She pulled back on her display of anger, taking deep breaths to calm herself. I find that hilarious, since she doesn’t need to breathe unless she wants to. When her eyes were back to normal, she nodded, “Okay. I can do that. If they mess with you while I’m there, though, I’m not sure I’ll be willing to let it go.”
“Well, whatever you do, don’t do it in school. They can still expel you for fighting. Make it official, and then it’s good enough.”
She nodded, “Okay…” she fiddled with her ring, making me look down. I’m wondering if I should try to boost it? That’s something to think about. Hit her up with something more like what Mr. Reynolds has. That’s something to do later. Maybe in class when I’m bored.
Syl watched us as we crossed the parking lot, and I knew that everyone in our group saw him. I still stared at him as we walked, practically daring him to try anything. With my magic back, I hit Melissa with a far stronger spell to protect her and guard her. Let’s see if he gets through that.
Tara carved off just before the door, getting pulled into a homework conversation with someone I’ve only seen in passing. She gave me a hug and left our little group, letting us head in. At that point, Melissa left to move on ahead and get to home room. She knows to reach out to me through prayer if things start going wrong. She even tried it, although it freaks her out a bit.
Rachel and I passed in to the office, finding the registrar there. I have to say that I’m shocked as hell to find that Mom really did have this set up. They have her information and everything they need and even had a schedule printed out for her. She somehow managed to get into home room, calculus, gym, and lunch, which is pretty darn good if you ask me.
We hit her locker, putting her few things away, and then I brought her on a quick tour. We nearly bumped into Troy, the magical senior, near the class I found him in with his friends. They were with him as well. As soon as they saw me, they backed against the lockers.
“Hey, guys
. You don’t have to do that, you know.”
The guy that threw up before I left looked queasy, “Man…it’s you again…I’m not sure I can handle that…”
Rachel gave me a look. “I let a little too much out. Troy here hit me with a spell. He was trying to identify the most dangerous person in school and figured it’d hit Nathan.” I told her about him before getting here. “I went looking for the person since I wasn’t sure why it hit me. He was trying to prove a point to the others here. They were asking him about getting Nathan to turn them. Or a shifter. They didn’t appreciate the…danger involved in that.”
Her mouth fell open as she looked across them, focusing on the small girl. “Jesus…yeah, don’t fucking do that unless you know for sure what you’re getting into.”
The girl looked her up and down, “How do you know about it? Are you a mage?”
Rachel let her fangs come in, “Vampire.”
I smiled at that. I love her fangs. “She’s the girl I told you about. Can you tell them what the gang did to you when they took you?”
Her fangs receded, “Fucking Scudo…have you ever been fucked by a dog? Multiple? They had me for a few days, and it was nonstop beatings or fuckings. Mostly fuckings. Them. Their friends. Their dogs.”
The girl looked queasy, “Jesus, are you serious?”
“Yes. Completely.”
Troy nodded, “I was trying to tell you…”
“How could you let them do that? You’re a vampire! You’re strong!”
“I am. I am strong. Then again, they’re older vampires. You’re rarely stronger than an older vampire unless you get lucky. I was a normal vampire. I’d been one for like a month. Even then, in that month? I’d been fucked…oh my God, 70 times? 80? Possibly more. Every stronger shifter that finds you wants a piece of vampire ass or pussy. We can take a lot of damage and heal. I had a moose shifter take me at one point.”
“You never told me that?”
She shrugged, “What’s to say? He loved ass, so he took me again and again. Let me tell you, bull moose are fucking hung. Tore me apart…but we heal quickly enough to take it again. When he was done he let me go.”
“You didn’t kill him?” Troy prompted.
“Kill him? It’s a date in the supernatural world. I either accept it or they come after me in 100 or 500 years and destroy me or my family or something like that.”
I nodded along, “That’s what Troy was trying to tell you. It’s like this…if you suddenly gained the power to use magic and got into the supernatural community? I’ll say what my roommate said to me in my last school. You’ll be fucked before the end of the weekend. You can accept it and go along and get a date and some food out of it…or you can fight. If you fight you may die. Or you may not, and you still get a dick in you. Or a face full of pussy. Then they may remember you later and come after you. Go after your family. Your businesses. Burn your house down. If I went up to pretty much any supernatural in this school right now and demanded that they have sex with me, at a guess…maybe two would tell me no. If even that many. Even if they’re girls and they don’t like girls. Take any guy here? Let’s try Nathan? If he walked up to any supernatural and said, hey, I’m gonna sink it in your ass tonight… Troy? What would you say to that?”
He smiled at my question, “I’d make sure I get a dinner out of it.”
One of his guy friends smacked his shoulder, “You’re not gay!”
He shrugged, “Gay? No. But sex is sex. We’re wired differently. It’s just a shock to those that are new to being a supernatural. Or to outsiders. We’re taught early what our options are. You just know, you absolutely know, that you’re not coming out at the top of the heap when you’re young. So, you’re prepared to be used by a lot of people.”
“We try to look at it as a date. A one-night stand. You may not like the person, but hey, free sex. It helps that most of us can’t get diseases and it’s hard for us girls to get pregnant. And, don’t get me wrong, if you get turned into a shifter you’ll beg them to double fist your ass if that’s what they want you to do…but is that what you want for yourself?”
The girl rallied a little, “Thank you. I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and…yeah…I’m not too keen on it.”
Rachel touched her shoulder lightly, “If you somehow get sucked into it, come looking for us and we’ll help explain things. Otherwise? Yeah…unless you know for sure how you’ll be treated and protected? Be wary. Very wary. I’ve seen more than one person get changed and then sold because the person was sick of them.”
“Sold?” The queasy guy asked.
“It depends on who you are and what you change into. As a vampire? The leader of our families and those in the family stronger than we are pretty much own us. They can order us to do whatever they want, and we do it. We can’t even really fight back until we get much stronger, which can take centuries. Until then? Total property. If they get sick of you? Sold to the highest bidder. Maybe the guy wants a bed warmer. Maybe they need strong people in their families. Maybe they want their horses to be sucked off nightly. You never, ever know.”
We let that sink in for a bit. “Anyway…sorry for bothering you. I’m just showing Rachel around since this is her first day here.”
Troy nodded and stuck his hand out, “Nice to meet you. If you ever need me, I’m here. A senior, if you didn’t know that.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m a junior with Ceri. Let me know if you need me for anything?” She looked at the others, “You guys as well. If anyone is pressuring you into anything? We’ll help if we can.”
We left them with that, continuing down the hallway. It’s funny, but since people don’t know what Rachel is, she didn’t have people avoiding her. They avoided me pretty decently, though. Based on what I’m hearing, stories are being told about me.
We continued on as I gave her the highlights, discussing everything under the sun. “Umm, hey, question?”
“Yeah?”
She bumped my shoulder as a huge football player kid nearly collided with her. “What’s happening with the rings for the others? Have they paid you for them? What’s going on with that?”
I frowned, “I’m not sure. Or, nothing, right now. No payment other than from you.”
“Does that mean you have to take them back?”
“I’m not sure? I doubt they have a hundred million bucks, even pooling money between them all.”
“True. So…”
“I don’t know.”
We made it to home room, finding Mr. Crosland in front of the space. He saw us coming in and smiled at me before frowning and cocking his head at Rachel. “I don’t know you?”
She handed him her paperwork, “Hi. I’m Rachel. I’m new.”
His smile blossomed as he took the paperwork. Two pages, much like mine was. “Nice. Two new people in a week? And you already found our other new person?”
I couldn’t help smiling, “We went to the last school I was in together. She’s living with me so that she can attend here.”
His brows went up as she reviewed everything, pausing on the last page. “I…see. Were you given information on any other classmates?”
“Some?” She sniffed, making a production of it, “I can tell that you have a number of supernaturals here including a vampire. Nathan, I believe his name is?”
“Right. Nathan. Will there be any…issues?”
She shrugged, “We’ll have sex for dominance in front of the class, but that’s it.”
His heart skipped a beat and we burst into laughter.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Crosland. No. Nothing like that. Ceri told me that everyone is given lectures and things on how to handle people?” He nodded, “We’ll be fine. There may be some dominance things, but the shifters and mages should leave me alone. Nathan may have a problem, but it will stop once he finds out how strong I am.”
He looked her up and down, “Strong?”
“Vampire strength. Magical strength. He can’t stand against me
. Once he feels that, he’ll back off and we won’t have any issues.”
“What if he won’t back off?”
He doesn’t know? “Mr. Crosland? From what I’ve seen from Nathan, he’s not a dumb guy. Would you go into a cage with a gorilla and plan to beat it up?”
His lips pressed together, then he shook his head, “No? That’d be stupid.”
“Please trust Rachel. Trust me. Nathan will feel how strong she is. Once he does? You’d have a better chance beating that gorilla than he does her.”
“Oh…my.”
Yeah, oh my.
Rachel ends up picking the seat closest to me, but it’s still most of the way across the room. There are very few people near her when she first sits down, so she entertains herself by looking through her map while I hit her with my light. It’s kind of cool that I can talk to people this way, sometimes, but I didn’t go for it this time. She just basked in it while I basked in her attention as well. She did play with her magic a time or two, getting it to flow out and then back. She’s already gaining some control over it, which is pretty cool. Now we just need to train her. Since I never learned the normal way of doing magic, I doubt I can do it. Thank God for Mom being willing to do it.
Destanee and Rhett come in first of the supernaturals. It still tickles me pink that Destanee is so petite, yet she’s an elephant. They both stop as they catch Rachel’s scent. Since it’s a new one, they can pick her out easily enough, so give her a nod that she returns before heading to their seats near me.
“New?” Rhett asks as he sits.
“Yeah. Friend of mine. Rachel.”
She gives them a little wave when they look over.
“Nice to meet you, Rachel.”
“Same.”
Destanee looks her over, “You new? Or like 500 years old or something?”
She laughed a little, “Under a year.”
“Daaang. Nathan’s gonna love having you here. Being weaker?”
My turn to laugh, “Just to be clear? She’s not weaker. Like…at all.”
She turned back to Rachel, “Seriously? I thought age was the thing there?”
