by Jan Stryvant
"Geas," Roxy filled in.
"I had a dream. Apparently my father had set a bunch of training spells and such on me before he died. Well, they activated last night, and I didn't get the chance to tell you before you left for class."
Roxy calmed down and patted his leg under the table. Jolene had been doing her best to distract him this morning, after he'd already seriously distracted her beforehand.
"So, does this mean you're an alchemist too?" Mr. Channing asked.
Sean shrugged, "I have all the stuff he wanted me to study in my head now, but I haven't even begun to start on it. I still have a year of college left, and well, I don't have clue one as to where to start with all of this.
"Right now, I'd just like to find out who the hell is after me, why they're after me, and make them stop," Sean growled out the last bit, or rather, Sean and his lion did, they were definitely a lot more in tune today.
"Well, I pulled all the records I could on your father yesterday. A lot of them have all been archived; he's been dead for twelve years now after all. But what was done to you and your mom, well that was a big red flag. A lot of people dumped a lot of crap on the two of you.
"None of that makes any sense. I don't recall hearing anything about it down in Vegas, and Sid, the guy who's sheriff here now, he wasn't living in Reno back then, so he doesn't know anything about it either."
"We tried asking one of them," Sean admitted, looking down at his plate. "He seemed to think I had some legacy of my dad's," Sean shook his head, "we were cleaned out, completely. The few things they left us, I know they went over and let us have only because they weren't worth much." Sean looked up at Mr. Channing, "And now that I know that they cast some nasty spell on me, when I was still just a child, I know there is no way my father could have left me anything. They're just grasping at straws for something that doesn't exist anymore, if it ever did."
Sean watched as Mr. Channing sat back and thought about that obviously mulling it over.
"Okay," Mr. Channing said after a couple of minutes of silence, "here's what I suggest: drop out of college and disappear for a while. Study as much of that stuff your father left you as you can. Alchemists make good money; there aren't a lot of them around. I'll dig into your father's background as much as I can and I'll use some of my own connections to see if I can make these assholes go away. If not, I know some people who sure as hell can."
Sean blinked, "Drop out? I'm more than halfway through the semester!"
"We're pretty sure they're using magical means to track him, Dad," Roxy piped up. "So it doesn't matter where we go, they're still gonna find us."
"But wouldn't you rather be some place where you can see them coming?" Mr. Channing replied to his daughter.
"Actually," Sean said, "I grew up here; I've worked damn near every place around here. These guys, they stand out. I think I can see them a lot better here, and there's a lot more places to lose them."
"They already grabbed you once," Mr. Channing pointed out.
"Yeah, but I'm not that kid anymore. Anyone who tries to grab me now isn't going to live to regret it," Sean growled in a low voice.
Mr. Channing nodded slowly, "Well, every man has to make his own decision on just when and where he's going to stand his ground. You just take care of my daughter, you hear? Anything happens to her, and I'm going to be pissed."
When they got back out to the car, Mr. Channing opened up the trunk and waved Sean over as Roxy got in the back.
"You know how to handle and shoot a pistol?" Mr. Channing asked Sean.
Sean rolled his eyes, "This is Reno, kinda hard not to learn how to shoot around here."
"Don't get wise, have you had any training?"
Sean nodded, "Yeah, Sampson trained me."
"My daughter said he was some sort of soldier?"
"Yeah, he was. He taught me how to shoot and everything. But I never had the money to buy a gun. Not like I had anything to steal."
Mr. Channing pulled out a box and handed it to Sean.
"Consider this a mating gift. My daughter has made it pretty clear that you two are in this for the long haul."
"Thanks?" Sean said a little unsure, "But we can't open carry on campus."
"Your CCW is in the box."
"What? I'm not even twenty-one yet."
"No, but you will be soon. Sid owed me a few favors, and well, there are exceptions to every rule. The holsters I got you are all elastic, so you can shift in them. Figure out which one you like and start packing. Claws are nice, but you can't kill someone from the other side of a parking lot with them."
Sean nodded, "What about Roxy?"
"Oh, I took care of her already," Mr. Channing smiled.
"Thanks," Sean smiled, "Dad."
"Just don't make me regret it," Mr. Channing warned in a whisper.
"Well, that went well," Sean sighed smiling down at Roxy as they laid on her bed. The very first thing they'd done after closing the door was to shed their clothes, get on the bed, and just screw their brains out.
Roxy smiled and kissed him, "I think he likes you."
"Of course he does," Sean grinned, "Everyone likes me!"
"Uh-huh, suuuure," Roxy drawled. "So, aren't you going to open up your present and see what my dad got you?"
"The box is heavy enough; I'm guessing a fifty caliber desert eagle?"
Roxy laughed, "Right gun, wrong caliber. It's a forty-four magnum. He figures your hybrid hands have got to be pretty big, so you might not be able to use a smaller gun. And forty-four is a lot cheaper than fifty."
Sean nodded, then frowned.
"What?"
"Who knows when I'll be able to achieve my hybrid form."
"Yes, well, I have to study, and you probably should to. Why not try doing it as a lion?"
Sean laughed and then stopped when he saw she was serious.
"You're not kidding, are you?" he asked.
"It works, trust me. I did it all through sixth grade because I wanted to get to my hybrid form before any of my friends."
"I thought being born a lycan, you got that automatically?"
"Nope, we have to work at it just like anyone else. We just get the advantage of having years to get used to our animal. Though it's no fun going through puberty as a lycan, trust me on that!"
"What do you think of your father's suggestion that I drop out of college?"
Roxy sighed, "Honestly, I don't know, Hon. I guess it depends on how you do with learning the other stuff. He might be right about pursuing the alchemy thing, but then again, what do you want to do?"
Sean shook his head, "I haven't even started to look at any of the spells, or figure out what it takes to learn them. And the way the whole thing works is just weird. It's like an RPG, I'm supposed to put 'points' into something I want to learn, and then I can learn it?"
"What did Jolene say? You did ask her, right?"
"She said it's different for different types of magic users, which only makes sense. She also said that magic users are stuck up bigots and that they probably won't care much for a lycan who can do magic."
"Well, Dear, we can cross that bridge and blow it up or burn it down when we come to it!" Roxy said with a smile.
Sean gave her another kiss. "Well I better get back to my room and let you study.
"Though you know, we could save a bunch on rent if we shared a room," he added with a wink.
"You do have a point," Roxy grinned and rubbed his head, "and your hair hides it so well!"
"Ha ha," Sean said and carefully got up, and putting on his pants, he grabbed the rest of his clothes and his gift and went back to his room.
He spent a few minutes going through everything in the box. The permit he stuck in his wallet for now. There was a leg holster, which would probably work with his hybrid form, if it was as big as Sampson's had been. There was a shoulder holster that he could actually wear under some of his looser shirts and maybe even get away with it.
He could wear a li
ght vest, which would cover it easily; he usually wore one on the cooler days anyway. But he wasn't sure that he needed to start carrying a gun just yet. He'd never shot this one and the last thing he wanted to do was miss what he was shooting at and hit someone else.
Putting the trigger lock on it, he stashed it behind a few textbooks; he could play with it later.
Then putting the books he needed to study on his desk, he took off his pants and shifted.
'That was easy,' he thought to himself.
'We are getting better at this, perhaps that thing in your head helps?' was his lion's response.
'I hope so. Well let's study.'
'I'd rather go out and run around for a while.'
'I don't want Roxy mad at me, do you?'
'I'm sure we could....'
'No, just stop right there, she said this will help us, so we're doing it. As for running around, once it's late, real late. Like after midnight.'
'Promise?'
'I like the idea too, you know' Sean admitted to himself. He just wondered if these conversations would continue, or go away once he mastered this part of himself. He honestly had no idea what he preferred.
'Okay, let's get started!'
One thing Roxy hadn't told him, and which he should have guessed, turning pages with paws was hard! He'd also put more than one hole through a page, and ripped one in half completely, when he tried to use a claw. If nothing else, this was teaching him a whole lot about manual dexterity, and reading as a lion was a bit difficult as well. He found he was easily distracted, and had a hard time remembering stuff at first.
Part of that was because his lion found it all very boring and so he had to constantly work to get him to pay attention. At least his lion wasn't resisting him at all; otherwise he probably wouldn't be able to do it. But it was definitely slow going.
When Roxy showed up at ten pm with a couple of pizzas, he quickly scarfed them down, and then looking at him in his lion form she suddenly shifted into her cheetah form.
"Wow, I had no idea you were so small!" Sean rumbled.
"That's just 'cause you're so big," she replied in a higher pitched voice than he was used to hearing from her.
"Am I really that big?" He asked, shaking his mane a bit.
Roxy ducked her head in a nod, "I've seen some weretigers, they can be pretty big too. But I've never seen a werelion other than you, so I don't really have anything to compare it to."
"I was thinking of going outside and running around for a bit after midnight, interested?"
Roxy shook her head, "I'm going to bed here pretty soon. Unlike you, I didn't get to sleep in."
"Jolene was here, what makes you think I got to sleep?" Sean laughed.
Roxy whacked him in the nose with her tail, and hopped up onto his bed, and settled down. Sean got up on it much more carefully, he was afraid if he hopped on it he'd break it, and just cuddled with her for a while.
'What?' he asked as he suddenly woke up, and found his lion feeling excited.
'Let's go outside for run!'
Sean oh'd to himself and remembered he had pretty much promised, besides the idea sounded like fun to him.
Carefully stepping off the bed, so as to not wake Roxy, he made his way over to the window and looked down.
'Can we make that?' he asked.
'Easily!'
And with that his lion launched them out of the window and down to the ground.
They hit front paws first, and then his butt came down and thumped as well, spreading the shock out. It stung a little bit, but he suddenly remembered that he regenerated, because he was a werelion. Heck, he'd been shot and he'd gotten over it so quickly that he'd completely forgotten about it until now!
'Let's be careful, last thing we need is our picture in the paper.'
He felt his lion agree with that, and they spent about a half-hour just prowling around the house, then they leaped over the fence into one of the neighbor's yards, not one that had a dog of course, and spent a few minutes examining that, then started to work his way towards San Rafael Park. This time of night he figured it would be nice and empty, and he could run a bit and stretch out his muscles.
Having to cross the campus made it a bit of a challenge, but that just added to the fun he figured.
Cutting around the north end of the stadium, he made it to the park without seeing anyone, or anyone seeing him.
But on the way back he ran into a problem, he had just crossed Sierra and was running by the back of some apartment complex when he heard someone exclaim, "Jeff! Come quick! I just saw a lion!"
Ducking into cover, Sean swore, he wasn't in the best place to hide, and someone from the hotel next door had their car lights on. It wasn't enough to show him clearly, but more than enough to give his outline if he moved.
"What are you going on about, Nancy?" he heard.
"A lion! I saw one! I'm sure it was! We better call the police!"
"Nancy, put the phone down, with all the crap going on around here this weekend, I'm sure they don't need reports of a 'lion' running around."
"I know what I saw, Jeff!"
That was all that Sean needed, to have a bunch of cops running around. There was no way he'd be able to hide from them, shifting back to human form he just started to jog through the brush.
"Look! There it ...."
"That's a man, Nancy! I told you, there aren't any lions around here."
"Maybe he's being chased! I tell you I saw a lion!"
Sean cupped his hands around his mouth, "Roar! I'm a lion!" He yelled.
There was a moment's silence, then the sound of someone sputtering, followed by a man laughing.
Sean sighed, and just hoped no one could see that he was naked, the last thing he needed was the police to be called for that! He quickly ran across the Carson-Reno highway and onto campus, it was definitely a bit cold to be running around at night in the all together, backtracking the way he had come, he stopped for a minute and shifted back to his lion form, then padded off at a more sedate rate.
Just as a car came screeching on to campus and headed for the place he'd stopped to change.
'Well that's curious' he thought.
'Let's check it out,' his lion said.
'Sure.'
Ducking around the ticket booths, he leaped up onto the top of them and hunkered down behind the Wolf Pack sign and peeked down through one of the cutouts to watch what happened.
The car stopped, "Which way?" he heard someone ask.
"I don't know, he disappeared!" a second voice said.
"What do you mean he disappeared?" the first once asked again.
"Just that, one moment the spell was telling me where he was and the next it isn't."
"What are you, a hedge wizard? Can't you find a freaking kid?"
"Something's interfering with the spell I tell you! But he's around here somewhere, so why don't you get off your asses and go look!"
"What if we run into those other guys? Hell, what if we run into the campus police?" a third voice spoke up.
"Then laugh and run away like a bunch of stupid college kids!" the second one said again.
'Curious,' was all Sean could think.
'They are tracking us somehow, I do not like it.'
'I'm open to suggestions,' Sean replied as all four doors opened, and four men piled out of the car. It was dark, but that didn't hamper Sean in the slightest. Three of them started over towards the stadium, splitting up to check the doors.
"Spread out, he's got to be around here somewhere," the one by the car, the second voice said and getting back in the passenger's seat sat down and closed the door. "I'll tell you if he shows up again!"
'A running car with an open door,' Sean thought, 'Think we can sneak down there and steal it?'
'Just watch me!' his lion chuckled, and standing up he leapt off of the roof and ducked down under the bleachers moving quickly. He shifted back for a moment and Sean could clearly hear the guy in the car call, "Sou
th! South! Under the bleachers!"
Sean shifted back then and his lion went west, leaping over the low fence and dashing into the shadows. You'd think a huge four hundred plus pound lion would be clearly visible, even at night. But as they got near the parking lot, he hunkered down and quickly crept across the lot, approaching the car from behind, on the driver's side.
He could hear the three others heading back to the car now, complaining to the guy in the car about how much he sucked.
Coming up to the door, Sean shifted back, jumped into the seat, put the car in gear, then grabbing the steering wheel with his left hand he grabbed the guy in the right seat just as he started to yell, "He's here!" and slammed his head into the dashboard a couple of times until he stopped moving.
As soon as he got off of campus, he turned left, turned the lights back on, and slowed down so as not to attract any attention. Then when he got to McCarran he went east, and after a few blocks he turned down a small side street and putting the car in park, he turned it off, and undoing the other man's seatbelt, he dragged him out of the car and quickly stripped him of his shirt, which he tore up and used one sleeve to blindfold him with. The man's face was pretty bloody; Sean could only guess that he'd broken his nose.
The other sleeve he used to bind the man's hands behind him. Then he went through his pockets, relieving him of his wallet, his cell phone, and a key ring with some keys. He took off the two rings the man was wearing, as well as the strange looking necklace, then went and searched the car.
On the floor where he must have dropped it when Sean slammed his face into the dashboard was a rag with dried blood on it. Sniffing at it, Sean realized it was his blood. Probably from the van.
'Before you became us,' his lion pointed out.
"Good point," Sean murmured.
The glove box didn't have anything beyond the registration, which Sean grabbed. The back seats just had some drink containers, but the trunk had a couple of road flares in it, which Sean also grabbed.
By now the man was starting to groan, so Sean walked over to him.
"Where is my mom?" Sean asked.
"What?" the man gasped, his voice sounding different now, Sean wondered if he had broken more than just his nose.
