Forging Family

by Bob Dattolo

  As it is, I’m walking out of the portal in a mall somewhere. That’s not what I was expecting. Like…at all. I sort of thought it’d be his house.

  My ability to place the portal isn’t quite pinpoint, at least not with this type of appearance. I can’t really see through my magic and pick the perfect out of the way spot or anything like that. With someone I know well, like Mom? Yeah, I can do it. If it’s a place I’ve been to? Yup. No problems there. I can’t really determine if I’m going to open up onto a place where there are a bunch of people, though. Even if it’s a place I know well or if Mom’s there. Then again, no one has just started walking through one, either, so maybe there’s something helping me control it? It’d be freaking funny to open it up, only to have someone wander through it because they were right there when it opened.

  Of course, that makes me wonder if I can help with flooding situations? I probably can’t open one large enough to really alleviate a big flood, but I could possibly open one large enough to help in smaller situations? Or maybe not. Unless I can open one large enough to cover an entire river, I doubt it’ll do much to have water the size of a body no longer be part of a flood. If that’s what it takes to stop it, then it’s probably not a flood.

  Then again, if a dam has a break in it, I could possibly open a portal right before the crack and all of the water goes through it instead of putting pressure on the hole?

  Something to think about…and possibly wait for the very specific moment where that possibility comes up and I can see if it works. Why do I have a feeling that’s not going to happen all that often in my life?

  I can hope, right? And no, not that it happens. That it doesn’t happen, and it’s not needed. I’d rather not think that dam designers are that inept that they’re developing cracks all over the place. Figuratively speaking, of course.

  Although, you’d think I could just use my magic to stop it from getting worse. The portal seems like a stop-gap measure at most, while my magic might be able to actually repair the damage to the dam that’s endangering it.

  Sorry…sorry, mall. I’m in a mall. I tried for a decent distance away from him, although I don’t know where he is in this place. I’m in the young woman’s section of a huge chain store, so I guess that’s not bad.

  A woman is staring at me from about ten feet away, mouth hanging open and a shirt slowly slipping from her hands.

  “Hi. Love the shirt.” I nodded at the piece of clothing as it falls from her hands. She misses her grab since she’s still staring at me. It’s like people aren’t used to others popping out of portals or something. Just because I’m the only one Mom knows that can do this shouldn’t mean much. Right?

  Just go along with it. It’ll make me feel a little better that way.

  Leaving her behind, I moved through the racks of clothes to the aisle, following the faint scent of shifters. Honestly, places like this can be iffy for tracking scents. If they haven’t actually been through the exact area you’re in, the air is so circulated that the smells travel crazy distances. Not that I’ve tried tracking specific people in a mall, but I have been in malls since hitting 17 and have tried to track people to see who they were. In some cases, I never did find them. The AC units basically laid a false trail for me that confused me enough that I never ran into them.

  In this case, I figured I’d find Paul’s scent if I hit the main walkways in the mall and be able to track him that way. Sure enough, I found him with a strong wolf shifter scent around him. They all smell like him, so I figure they’re part of the same pack. That’s probably a good sign. I can’t tell if they’re family, necessarily, although they probably are. After all, he’s 16, so while shifter kids grow up early, he’s still underage as far as the government is concerned. I’ve heard rumors that they may change that for supernaturals, although I doubt it’ll pass. If they make a younger age an adult, then norms will freak out. I can see it. They’d be a second-class citizen, which will make the lawyers go bonkers in the courts. I can see it passing and then the courts grinding to a halt in the first week due to gridlock from the number of cases being filed everywhere.

  The mall is pretty busy for this early in the morning on a Saturday. Granted, we woke up late, but it’s still only a bit after 11am. I haven’t spent much time in malls in my life, which shouldn’t be a shock due to how I was raised, yet I sort of figured most crowds waiting until closer to lunch before showing up. This just goes to show how much I don’t know about the shopping habits of Americans in this neck of the country.

  Not that I know where I am.

  Nothing around me really tells me, and I don’t have an innate sense of things with the portals. If I track down Mom, she might as well be in China for all I know. Heck, I can find her in the between lands and that’s not even on Earth. I never know where it’ll open up that way. It’s like a cereal box surprise, just with possible interdimensional travel thrown in.

  No one really stares or reacts to me in the mall as I move along. I do get a few looks, some of which are appreciative, but it’s mostly people ignoring me. None of the people that I’m passing are supernaturals, at least as far as I can tell. Not that that matters.

  The scent of wolf leads me towards the food court, and my first realization that I’ve found them is coming across a wolf shifter at a table by himself. He’s staring at the entrance to the food court, as if guarding. He looks me over briefly, sniffing, then moves on to looking across others. It’s pretty apparent when he realizes that I don’t smell normal, because his head jerks back to me and he sniffs deeper.

  Not that I stop and talk to him.

  I can see Paul at a table with five other people. They’re well away from the rest of the people in the food court, with a clear ring around them and then single people looking outward in a larger ring.

  Guards.

  It makes me wonder what would happen if I tried to sit within the cleared circle. It nearly makes me want to try.

  Upon realizing that he’s there, I focus towards his table as I move away a little, heading back through the line of guards and sitting at a table as I pull my phone. No sense barging in if something is happening.

  “…your plans.” One of the adults, a male, stops talking as I sit. Too bad I didn’t hear the rest of it.

  Paul sounds frustrated, “I already told you! I’m not taking over the pack! I love the pack, why would I want to do that?”

  “Paul,” the woman closest to him touches his hand, “Jack and Carlie have every right to be concerned here. You know they do. We’ve had three alpha wolves come through in the past five years, and it’s been a fight every time to stop them from trying to take over. You were strong, very strong, but you were weaker than we are as the betas…except now you’re way beyond us. Any of us. There’s no way…”

  He tapped the table, not hitting it like I expected him to, “Mom, I told you! Ceri made it pretty freaking clear that we’re not supposed to go on conquest sprees or anything like that. We didn’t get these because she wants us to take charge of everything. We got these because we need to be protected. She was pretty damn clear on her expectations beyond that. We can protect ourselves and do normal things, but beyond that?”

  The man on the other side of the woman, that looks suspiciously like an older Paul, sighs, “You keep saying that like she has any choice in the matter. I get that she’s a mage, but…she’s just a mage. She can’t hold you to any of that.”

  My friend laughs, “Yeah…Dad…she’s so much more than a mage. I just can’t explain it. As in I cannot. Her mother put a spell on me and I can’t even begin to think about making it possible for you to understand me. I’m not even going to try. I saw her in challenge. She killed something like 145 people in one group challenge. By herself. Before she turned 17. An entire rhino family. Dead. A full wolf pack. Dead. Three mage families…three full families? Dead. Then she broke open the challenge circle shield from the inside. By herself. The teachers weren’t even able to remove it. They were total
ly in shock at what they just saw. As much as she’s my friend, she’s a force of nature. Besides, the ring is spelled so that she can take it off of me whenever she wants. So, no, I have no plans to buck her direction. None.”

  He looked back at the other two wolves, “Jack? Carlie? I’ve told you before that I support you. I’ve even told you that I’d take a vow in front of the pack. I didn’t even make it a thing when I came home or even tell anyone about it. You guys felt the power and called me out in the meeting. My plan was just to lay low, as I have my entire life. I never expected to be able to stay in the pack once I became an adult. I was too close to my parents’ power level, and I don’t want to fight them for beta position. I don’t want to fight you guys for alpha of my own pack. I’m not sure why you guys don’t understand that!”

  I stood up and started towards them.

  The guy, Jack, leaned into the table, “That’s just it. When you say your pack, you say it like you’re looking to take over!”

  My scent must have reached Paul, because his face turned white as he slowly turned towards me, drawing attention to my approach.

  The outer guards had been watching me, but they didn’t react since they seemed to think I was moving through the circle and not stopping. Stopping me would have been too much of an announcement that something was happening in the mall food court. That’s not a great way to hide things, you know?

  Jack bristles as he sees me watching them, “Leave. This is a private conversation.”

  I smiled, not getting upset at his tone of voice. Paul looked a bit freaked, though. “I’m sorry. I’m not leaving. While this is a private conversation, it involves me pretty directly.”

  He stands, leaning over the table, fists plants, “Leave, human.” I’ve heard that calling someone a human is usually an easy way to tell others that you’re a supernatural.

  “Nope. Good try, though.”

  Both alphas start to pour out their power, getting a small sound from Paul before he scurried up, “Please! Don’t do anything!” The guards stand and start moving towards me in a leisurely, yet dominant, fashion.

  “Sit down, Paul.” His father yanks on his arm.

  “Don’t worry, Paul. You’re fine. They’re fine. Everyone here is fine.”

  “Leave.” The woman looks ready to shift, which throws me for a second. They must seriously be worried about losing their position to have their emotions get out of control so quickly.

  Two guards come up behind me, moving close but not quite touching me.

  “Let me be pretty clear right now. If either of the two guards behind me touches me with the intent to hurt me, I’m going to break their hips, shoulders, and spines. I’m not leaving. You’re confronting Paul due to the ring I gave to him? I get to be part of this conversation.”

  Jack’s eyes narrow as he sniffs, nostrils flaring, “You? You’re the one that is planning on taking over our pack?”

  The guard on my left side grabs my upper arm and squeezes. That has me reaching over with the same arm and grabbing his forearm on the opposite side. “I’ll tell you what, you squeeze as much as you want. I’ll match you. Let’s see who calls uncle first.”

  Sweat breaks out across Paul’s face, “Jesus…please, Gary, don’t do it. I’m freaking begging you. Don’t piss her off!”

  Gary snorts, “She’s just a freaky smelling norm. She can’t…”

  I let more of me out, letting some of my power suffuse the area, reaching and probing in every nook and cranny. Not that it wasn’t already doing that. I have a decent sense of the number of bodies beneath the mall. It’s not nearly as many as I would have thought, although I could still have a decent army if I wanted one. I also let my skin ripple.

  I laughed, letting the sound of bells out. Older shifters know what that means, and every single one of them froze at hearing it. The fey aren’t anything to mess with.

  “Squeeze my arm, Gary. Let’s see where that gets you. Then again, if you manage to hurt me somehow, maybe I’ll call in my mother? I’m not sure if Gary mentioned it, but she’s Rasphael. The fey? She’s at home right now, but I can call her here in less than a second. You may think you can take me out, which you can’t, you won’t be able to take her out. She killed an entire lion pride due to a threat they made. She was 15 minutes late for dinner that night.” I looked at the time on my phone, “She can be through your pack and not even have to hurry to make it to lunch on time.”

  The two alphas sat down suddenly, strength leaving them.

  “Are you…is she…”

  Paul sighed, “She’s not lying. I told you. She’s so much more powerful than I can even explain.”

  I smiled wide, showing them my teeth, then turned slowly back and stared at the hand on my arm. “What’s it gonna be, Gary? You want to see who can scream the loudest? I’m putting money on it being you. Assuming you’re not so deep into shock that it just can’t happen at all. I’m even being nice and not shattering bones like I mentioned to start.”

  His hand springs open and he takes a step back. I’m thinking it’s because I let every bit of humanity leach from my face. People seem to get wigged out by that.

  The other guards took a step back as I looked across them, still smiling. “Now that we have that cleared up, I’m going to take a seat here. I came to talk payment for the ring with Paul. I cut him a discount on it since we were lovers, but the shutdown at school means we need to move up to actual payment before someone gets the wrong idea about things.”

  The adults at the table didn’t know how to respond as I grabbed a chair and sat. I did stop the flow of power pushing at my skin but didn’t bring the humanity back. I didn’t pull back on the actual power they could feel until the guards moved back by their original tables.

  “Now…Paul? Thank you for sticking to my rules on taking over.”

  He rubbed his face, wiping away the sweat, “You’re welcome. I tried to hide the power, but everyone is freaked out. I was hoping no one would figure it out before I got back into school. I’m flying out tomorrow to another boarding school. Most of the others are going to go there as well.”

  A little humanity came back, “Huh, cool. Who all is going to be there?”

  “Umm…No one has heard from Christine or Rachel. Armand is dead, obviously. I think Steph’s a maybe. She’s…not doing well.”

  That made me sad, “Yeah…what Armand did to her really messed with her. She hasn’t spoken to me since everything happened with the attacks.”

  “We tried to convince her that you weren’t upset once you knew about the spell. She can’t seem to accept that she couldn’t have stopped him. As much as she didn’t fight for position much, I think she really thought that she was more powerful than Armand.”

  “Yeah, that’s the impression I had as well. Even though she told me multiple times herself that he could be first in our dozenal if he fought for it, I think she really felt more powerful. You just can’t fight back against a spell like that. If he went after her with fists? Yeah. Beyond that? Even mages are screwed if you hit them with enough power.”

  “Yeah…”

  His mom finally regained enough composure to talk, “Are you…are you Ceri? The girl that made the ring my son is wearing?”

  “I am.”

  “You said there is a cost for it? We can feel his power growth. It’s off the charts. We have checked around, and no one has heard of a ring that powerful being made or sold before. The closest isn’t even in the ballpark, and it sold for 750 million dollars about ten years ago. He can’t afford a billion dollars. We can’t even come close to that!”

  “I’m not sure if he mentioned it, but the going rate at the discount I’ve offered is a hundred million. I know that’s low, but I’m new to magic and we were lovers, so I’m okay with the discount price. I don’t even need the money, but I’m not willing to leave it like this and have other people get the wrong idea about things. I have too many potential enemies for that to make me feel good.”

>   His father bristled, “A hundred million? A year? No ring is worth that.”

  “Not a year. Total.”

  Paul nodded, “I never mentioned it to you guys because I didn’t think you’d believe me. That’s the price she quoted.”

  “There’s no way that’s the price.” His father sounded so sure of himself.

  “That’s the price. It goes with the caveats that I gave him, though. No conquest sprees. None of that. His alphas,” I nodded at his alphas, “were more powerful than he was, and they weren’t trying to conquer everyone. To me, that means that he shouldn’t do that, either. He can protect himself from any attackers, I’m perfectly fine with that. Beyond that? There are other wolves from our class that are more powerful than he is even with the ring, and they’re not trying to suck him up. So…you know, play fair in the sandbox before other, larger kids, come play with you.”

  His mom looked so doubtful, “A hundred million?”

  “Right.”

  Jack took a deep breath, “Can we really trust this? We don’t want to lose our pack.”

  “Trust it? I’m sure you can tell that I’m telling the truth. To me, just because you’re more powerful doesn’t mean you subjugate others. That’s a horrific idea. Those that want to rule everything aren’t great rulers from what I’ve seen. If I ever find that one of my rings are being used for that, I’ll be there to take it back and then we’ll see where things fall. I can take it at any time, even after it’s been paid for. While he owns it and can pass it on, I control who it responds to. Or my mother. We’re not about to allow irresponsible magic to hit the streets.”

  The four adults began looking at each other, as if having an unheard conversation that I wasn’t part of.

  Paul cocked his head, “Have you heard from Christine or Rachel?” He kept his voice low, as if not wanting to disturb the others.

  “Yeah. I doubt they’ll be in school. Christine has an apprenticeship that she fell into. She’s crazy happy from what I’ve heard.” I hit her connection with me with a heavier beam of golden light, getting a happy look back from her. “Rachel’s living with me right now and going to school. She had some issues at home. Someone put a spell on her parents and they were basically being driven to push her into killing them. It wasn’t pretty. They’re fine and alive, but she’s with me and Mom has guardianship of her.”