by Erin R Flynn
Warlock, witch, vampire, a few shifters, and a dragon, though he didn’t say shifter so that was odd and I thought a distinction.
I noted the jerk was a bear shifter, Ronald Von Thann.
“So I’m one of them?” I checked.
“Most likely a witch, as shifters have changed into their animals by nineteen,” Headmaster Edelman told me. “Would you like to find out?”
I raised an eyebrow at that. “I’ve already stated my aversion to labs.”
He smiled as someone snickered. “Nothing like that, I promise.”
He waved at someone off to the side and the woman brought over a large clear crystal. I would have thought glass but it looked naturally forming.
He took it from her and placed his hands on either side of it, holding the tall crystal horizontally. It slowly turned blue.
“Blue is warlock or witch.”
“All right,” I agreed, getting he wanted me to go next.
The woman brought the crystal over to me, and after an understanding nod from the headmaster I took it from her with a thanks. She backed away and I moved my hands to the right spots, staring at the crystal as that energy started building again.
It slowly turned red and then bright red like my hair and shattered in my hands. More than that, it dissolved into some sort of sand.
“She’s a fairy,” someone breathed. “But how? They’re all gone.”
“She must be bred right away,” Ronald declared as if it were written in stone, totally a given.
The fuck it was.
A few people growled and arguments broke out, not helping my unease at being brought here. I reached into my boot, biting back a snort when I realized they hadn’t disarmed me, and pulled out a knife.
Before anyone could react, I threw it towards the guy, landing it in the back of his chair inches from his head. He flinched and glanced at it, him and others slowly looking back at me.
“You will not be breeding me,” I snarled. “It’s not happening. We’re not playing the cliché games of placating crazy elders or whatever else is in fiction. The answer is a resounding fuck no.”
He opened his mouth to argue and I shook my head.
“I will kill any who try to rape me and I’d rather drink a bottle of bleach and deprive you of my apparent value than play whatever bullshit you’re thinking.”
The vampire snorted. “Rape? Just pay her. She was beating up her pimp and stealing from him.”
So clearly they did go through my bag. Assholes.
I narrowed my eyes at the guy. “I have more knives and I missed him on purpose.” I smirked when he flinched. “And that’s a surrogate and people pay them all the time.” I focused on the woman then. “You can tell if I’m lying or not, right?”
She blinked at me but nodded.
“I have not ever accepted money for sex. I am not a sex worker, a prostitute, or even a stripper.”
“We ran the names of the men you fought, all involved in selling girls,” Ronald argued.
I smirked at the headmaster. “You were in such a rush to get me out I had to be rendered unconscious and abducted but you checked their IDs?”
“For possible backlash later,” he sighed, looking tired. “Also in case your power flared on accident and they were really with you.”
I nodded; that made sense at least. I let out a slow breath and pushed to stand on my chair, sitting on the back of it so we were the same height.
“So you put two and three together and came up with fifteen, great. Let’s try this again and with reasonable people who aren’t out of their fucking minds thinking I’m a breeding mare.”
The woman snorted and I felt better that at least a few of them seemed to have their heads on right.
“What were you doing with those people then?” the vampire demanded.
I looked at him and raised an eyebrow. “None of your fucking business.” I held up my hand to stop him. “My business is not your business.” I focused on the headmaster as he was the boss. “So what now? I was brought to a school because of my age and my power freaked out like never before? You want me to enroll here and learn to control it?”
His eyes flashed shock before he nodded. “Yes, especially now that we know you’re the last fairy in our world.”
I chuckled when he studied me closely. “I’m a reasonable woman. It makes sense and I’m cool with it as long as the breeding is taken off the table. I don’t want to hurt people accidentally or be the one who outs this secret world.”
“There will absolutely be no breeding of you,” he declared firmly. “We don’t ever force mating or our own to give children. There are laws and rules just like humans have.” He shot Ronald a disgusted look before focusing on me again.
“So I’m the last?” I pushed when there seemed to be a lull in what came next. “I’m valuable, I’d guess?”
“Extremely,” the falcon shifter answered. “About twenty years ago all the fairies that lived in our world were called back to Faerie, their world. There was a war going on between light and dark fairies—judging from your bright red hair and blue eyes, you’re a light fairy.”
She waited until I nodded.
“We don’t know what happened. They all left and never came back, the portals all sealed off.”
It wasn’t hard to put some pieces together then. I was born during a war and someone didn’t want that for me, thought their side wouldn’t win, or any of dozens of reasons, and left me in the human world.
But looking around the group, I could tell that meant I was the last dodo and even more as I caught thoughts about how powerful I would be.
That worried me. A lot. I licked my lips and focused on the headmaster. “You said there are rules? I assume everyone here works for the school and is bound by confidentiality laws?”
He smirked at me, nodding. “Yes, they are.”
I flinched, several people cursing in their heads. Oh, those assholes wanted to be the ones to announce the last fairy was found or whatever other crazy. I stared each of them down.
“You will tell no one. Not one person. Not a wife, not a child, not even write it down. My business is not your business. You’re part of the school so you found out, but you will not so much as whisper what I am.”
“We can’t just—” the vamp tried to argue.
“You can and will or I will collect a life debt,” I snapped. “You would endanger my life by telling people, since one of the fucking school board at what seems a respectable college thought breeding me was the correct answer here.
“So I’m not trusting your world is free from bad people just like the human world.” I gave them a moment to sit with that. “If it gets out, I will come to everyone in this room.
“If it gets out, I’ll ask each of you if you told and I will hear the truth. I will collect that debt but maybe not from you.
“Maybe I’ll take a child, a partner, a loved one, and let you deal with you being the reason they’re gone. That is a life debt; you ruin or risk my life and I will take one from yours.”
“Well, she’s clearly a fairy with the ‘debt’ stuff,” someone drawled.
I focused on the headmaster, who seemed amused with what I said or just me.
“Fairies are known for balance, with nature and fairness. ‘An eye for an eye’ came from fairies and they never let a debt go,” he explained. “But they were fair and outlined exactly the cost of a transgression as you just did.” He smiled when I snorted. “Hit the nail on the head?”
“In more ways than you know,” I admitted, rubbing my tired neck. “So what’s next?”
“I agree that not everyone here needs to know what happened tonight, but I do,” he declared after a moment, gesturing to the knife in the back of Ronald’s chair. “You are the last and important, but I’m in charge of keeping everyone here safe.”
“That’s fair,” I accepted after a moment, understanding we were at the negotiating part. “I do have to handle a few things.”
/> I held up my hand to stave off arguments.
“Send someone to escort me, it’s fine, I’m not running.” I looked at the falcon. “I’m not running. I get this is important but I had a life and people who would start a lot of crap if I just fell off the planet, believe me.”
“She’s not told one lie,” she told the headmaster. “She’s being completely honest.”
I nodded. “You’ve given me no reason to lie.” I decided to handle something else after pointing to the knife. “I’ve never started a fight. I’m not a bully, I don’t get my kicks going after people, and I’m incredibly violent, but only when provoked.” I gestured towards Ronald as if to say, do you blame me?
She snorted. Yeah, sounded fair.
“Fine,” the headmaster granted. “But yes, an escort who can handle any problems.” He gestured over to Mr. Sexy Emerald Eyes. “This is Dr. Julian Craftsman, one of our professors and, as you experienced, incredibly handy in a pinch.”
That was one way to put him.
“Go with him and handle what you need to but quickly, as you put out a large energy output and that attracts eyes. As you said, we are a respectable college, top tier even, but there are others that aren’t. There are others who are very ‘bad people’ and they would be thrilled to catch the last fairy.”
I sighed, nodding. Yeah, I got this was partly protective custody now too.
The headmaster turned to the woman he’d waved over earlier. “We need to contact the lawyer who—”
“How expensive was the crystal?” I asked, picking up I was about to be in trouble.
The headmaster waved me off. “It’s fine. We knew the risk.” He sighed as he focused on me. “Before the fairies left, they entrusted a dragon lawyer with all their assets. He’s kept them in trust until any fairy resurfaces. One has and it’s the order across our world that he be contacted if one is found.”
I blew a raspberry. “Oh boy. This is going to be quite the rabbit hole, huh?” I bit back a groan when he gave me a sympathetic look. “So I’ll be able to afford this fancy university, I take it then?”
Several people exchanged looks and burst out laughing. Got it—so fairies were either a wealthy sort of people or there were enough of them that all their assets amounted to a lot.
Awesome but terrifying.
I blinked at the vampire, his voice practically echoing in my head he was so wound up. “Which property?”
He flinched but didn’t fall for it, narrowing his eyes at me, understanding I heard.
I smirked at him. “Don’t even think about it. You won’t be able to make some grab, now that the guy will unlock whatever. It won’t happen. I’ll clearly see you coming.”
He rolled his eyes at me.
“Who was it?” He didn’t think it but I nodded like he did. “Got it. Yeah, I’ll just make sure that property is…” I trailed off as he thought it and the name. “Gotcha.”
He cursed under his breath, his mind racing.
I rolled my eyes. The moment you told someone not to think of something, it was instantly what was on their mind. It was human nature… Or the nature of people, it seemed, not just humans.
“Dude, I don’t care. Don’t get all bent out of shape and start shit for something like that.” I chuckled when his eyes went wide.
Yes, I knew what he was trying to hide and it was bad but not bad enough to risk shit with someone on the school board who clearly had influence.
“So you screwed some guy out of money when the guy was being a douche? So what?”
“That’s what he’s worried about?” Ronald asked but I didn’t answer, careful not to look at the falcon either. I kept focused on the vampire.
“Are you killing people and hiding bodies?” I nodded when I heard in his mind the answer was no. “Then I don’t care. The guy was a douche. Good for you.” I made sure what I was saying was in my gaze. “I’m not looking to make an enemy of you so don’t make one of me. I’m fairly certain the statute of limitations is up on that and I don’t care.”
“I understand,” he muttered, his thoughts telling me he accepted that and believed me.
Good. I had enough shit piling up in a matter of minutes.
“I have one last non-negotiable issue,” I told the headmaster, bouncing my head around. “Well, two. At least for now.”
He raised an eyebrow at me and I only smiled.
“I need whatever freshman permission to park my ride here as I’m not coming here without a way to flee if anyone pulls crazy on me. And I’m not giving up my weapons. Not happening after being abducted here.”
He sighed, nodding.
I winced. “And I might need a tutor.”
3
I learned the “thing” I’d been wondering about when I first met the team was a portal.
Yeah, like no shit.
I also learned that the first two guys I’d “met” were Marshall and Sean—both of whom apologized for grabbing me. When they explained how the whole thing was far outside their wheelhouse normal security for the college I couldn’t stay mad at them.
Oh, and they were wolf shifters.
Cool.
We arrived back where they found me, my chest aching from the portal. I glanced around and Marshall caught on, leading the way to where they’d stuffed the guys I’d knocked out.
Who were still knocked out.
Sean whistled. “Damn, girl, that’s quite a punch you pack.”
“Yeah, scary when I didn’t do it on purpose,” I muttered, freaked out by what I’d done.
I found the one I wanted, leaving the USB drive and note. I slipped on gloves and nabbed all their wallets, carefully putting them in a different bag.
“Um, how illegal is what we’re doing?” Sean worried.
I snorted. “I said you could tag along, not that I was going to change what I was doing.”
“And just what are you doing?” Dr. Craftsman asked, finally saying much of anything to me. He had a very nice English accent and voice when he wasn’t using it to knock me out.
“Not your business,” I purred, finishing up and launching my boot into the leader’s groin just for good measure.
All three men who escorted me winced. Yeah, every guy did when it was a hit to the junk. I jogged away from the scene, noting the three others didn’t even sigh and kept up with me.
I retrieved my belongings I’d stuffed in a bus locker and tossed the bag to Marshall to hold. Then I went for what was next but spun on my heel and went the other way.
“Lost?” Sean teased me.
“No, changing the original plan because if I retrieve my ride, you’ve got no chance to keep up with me.”
“Or we could ride with you,” Marshall tried.
I snorted. “It’s a one-seater, hon. Even if I tried to squeeze you on the seat with me, you’d definitely go flying with the way I drive.”
We caught a bus in time and it was hard not to laugh when they scrambled for cash to pay. I had enough rides on my bus pass and given I was bouncing that night, I didn’t need them. We sat down and thankfully they were quiet for the six-stop ride.
They followed me off and to the place I was supposed to be at hours earlier. I knocked, waited, and then knocked in several places on the door.
It flew open seconds later and I was engulfed in strong perfume before the hug as Faith launched herself at me. “Oh, thank god, Tams, we were terrified when you were so late.”
“Yeah, turns out the guys were already on someone’s radar,” I fibbed, already having thought of a cover. People got busted because they didn’t think ahead and come up with viable answers to give quick.
Sure enough, she didn’t linger on it.
“But we’re good? They didn’t hurt you?”
“Not a scratch,” I promised her as I pulled away. I opened my bag and handed over the cash and wallets I pulled off the pimp and his guys. “You got maybe a day with the cards. We talked about what to do.”
“Yeah, got it, b
ut let’s celebrate, Tams. You pulled off a miracle,” she gushed, the others gathering behind her.
I smiled at them but shrugged. “Can’t. Gotta bounce. You knew that was what I was going to do.”
“Yeah, but tonight’s okay? Bring in the hunks and we’ll show them a good time,” another girl said, staring out at the attractive men with me.
“Can’t. Gotta go with them and fill them in so I don’t blow their shit apart,” I lied.
“Oh, um, boys in blue, got it,” she about squeaked, the others making themselves scarce.
“It’s cool,” I assured Faith when she looked ready to flee. “I promised to cooperate and I wouldn’t break their faces for fucking up my collecting your debt.” I bit back a smirk when one of the guys snorted behind me. I pulled out the last thing for her. “Call this number if you want to get out. Any of you.”
“Out?” she muttered, taking the business card from me with nothing but a phone number on it.
“Yeah, like out, Faith,” I said gently. “I mean out of town, out of shitholes like this, and out of the life of men fucking you over. You want it and my friend will hook you up, okay? Not a free ride or whatever, but a chance.”
“A chance sounds much better than my life was looking yesterday,” she rasped, nodding as she tucked the card into her bra. She gave me another hug until I felt my back pop. “You take care of you, baby girl. There’s more than this life for you too.”
“Yeah, there might be,” I agreed, not wanting to tell her about what happened when she didn’t even know my last name, but it was a start. “Rent’s paid through the end of next month.”
“Right, girls, Tams needs her bags!” Faith called over her shoulder.
They showed up toting my stuff, which I passed back to the amused and confused guys. Then I got a hug and a thanks from each of them.
“I added that skirt of mine that you liked to your bags,” one told me proudly.
I thanked her, not having the heart to tell her I had been totally lying and could never wear something she’d fucked men in for money. I bit back a shiver. I needed to toss it and rewash everything in that bag for sure.
