Demon Accords 8: College Arcane (14 page)

“I would suggest caution, Janek. The first
time a were of any species kills a human, even in self-defense,
there will be an uproar. The public’s fear is very real. There’s a
reason why the current poster child for weres is a petite female,”
Gina said.

“I thought it was because she happened to be
part of Chris’s team,” Jetta commented.

“Yes, but the Alphas are comfortable letting
her keep the role. Stacia’s been plastered all over the media and
the public is getting… if not comfortable, at least acclimated to
her,” Gina said.

“Doesn’t hurt that she’s frigging hot,”
Delwood rumbled. Most of the males in the room nodded.

“Yes, being attractive is very helpful in
this instance. People are drawn to beautiful people and tend to
overlook all kinds of things because of it. Here, this is a good
time to segue to this group of photos,” Gina said, clicking her
remote.

The monitor showed a Google Images page of
Stacia Reynolds thumbnails.

“Notice how many times she’s pictured with
children or families,” Gina pointed out.

“I thought she was just nice, but you’re
telling me it’s all fake?” Paige asked.

“No, she is nice. Right, Caeco? Declan?”

“Yes, tougher than she looks, though,” Caeco
commented.

“She certainly took good care of Toni in New
Hampshire,” I said, still looking at the photos. Gina froze and it
occurred to me that I might have a big mouth.

“Did she?” she asked, trying for clinical,
but I doubt anyone was fooled.

The whole class was looking our way and I
just knew Caeco wasn’t going to be the one to tell this story.

“Ah, yeah. Toni rode Awasos out of the
complex and Stacia ran right alongside her the whole way. Then she
got her a blanket and water and wrapped her all up. I think
everyone else was too scared to go near Awasos. He’s like super
protective of your daughter, but she just worked around him like he
was a puppy or something. Then she got Toni all buckled into the
chopper and sat with her, holding her hand. ‘Sos was in wolf form
and curled around both their feet.”

“Thank you, Declan. I didn’t know all those
details,” she said, turning away for a moment like she was studying
the monitor and surreptitiously wiping one eye. When she looked
back at us, she seemed pretty much back to normal.

“Stacia has a unique relationship with
Awasos, kind of like she’s his de facto big sister. She has been in
his life since shortly after his birth.”

“Not what I would have expected for a female
werewolf,” Ashley said. “I mean, I could see someone like P!nk as
one. She seems really kind of fierce on stage.”

“Or Michelle Rodriguez, from
The Fast and
Furious
. She’s pretty badass,” T.J. added.

“Yeah, and she’s hot, too. I like that brown
hair, brown eyes Hispanic look,” Delwood said, looking toward
Caeco. I leaned forward just a bit, blocking his view.

“So you see, your own expectations are
probably not all that dissimilar to the general public’s and
frankly, some of the were women I’ve met fit that image exactly.
But when you’re trying to mold a positive opinion, using a girl who
looks more like a model downplays how dangerous she is. Chris tells
me that posters of Stacia are selling like crazy.”

“I bet his posters don’t do to bad, either,”
Erika muttered.

“He won’t admit it, but I have my sources,
and you’re completely correct,” Gina answered. “Again, by directing
the image into that of role models, it increases their ability to
influence this pivotal moment in history. And that’s going to be
the center point of our seminar—this enormous, without precedent,
moment in history. We’re going to study current events and discuss
ways it might continue to unfold—both good and bad. So right now,
let’s break into groups of four to six and do some quick online
research. I want you to look for recent news or opinion pieces on
the supernatural breakout. We’ll take like fifteen minutes, then
we’ll go around the room and see what everyone has found.”

We ended up with eight in our group and
everyone broke out phones, tablets, and computers to start running
down the news.

A little more than a quarter hour later, Gina
called for our attention.

“Shelia, tell us one thing your group found?”
Gina asked one of the telepath girls who was in a group of
four.

“The top headline in Google News was a story
about Chris and his team cleaning up a gateway at Stonehenge. Lots
of articles about their recent travels around the world cleaning up
the remaining outbreaks,” Shelia said, nervously pushing her
glasses up.

“Good. That’s been a major topic for the last
two weeks. Remember, there has been much said internationally about
the God Hammer being just an American asset. Thomas, what did you
guys find?” she asked one of the were boys, deliberately bypassing
Delwood.

Thomas glanced at the giant before answering.
“Yahoo Finance and MSN Money both have headlines about the upcoming
Demidova IPO. It’s got Wall Street all hot and bothered. There’s no
other company in the world quite like it and the prices of many
major pharmaceuticals are plummeting.”

“Excellent. Talk about a disruptive
technology: refined vampire proteins to treat some of the most
devastating diseases known to man, and they currently have the only
source,” Gina said.

“What do you mean by currently?” Matthew the
werewolf asked.

“Katrina, care to comment?” Gina asked.

The vampire girl was still by herself, none
of the other groups brave enough to include her. She didn’t appear
to care.

“Tanya’s group is a smaller subset of the
Coven. The Elders are hanging back and letting her front the
Darkkin society, but at some point, they may decide to compete
against her.”

“Which are you part of?” T.J. asked her,
showing serious balls.

She studied him for a moment. “I am a Vice
President in the Demidova Corp.”

“Then why are you here… at this school?”
Ariel blurted out, surprising everyone.

“Exactly how would that be your business?”
Katrina asked in a dangerous tone.

Ariel shrugged. “You’re likely older than
anyone here, probably been to college three or four times, and you
already have a job. Just seems odd is all.”

A funny expression flashed across Katrina’s
face. It might have been chagrin or embarrassment, but it was gone
too quick to tell.

“Perhaps, noisy little seer, I am on
assignment for my Queen,” the vampire replied.

“Enough. Katrina has as much right to be here
as any of you, whatever her personal reasons are. Let’s get back to
the topic, shall we? Tami, what did you girls find?”

“Well, Mrs. Velasquez, we’re not sure of this
one, but eleven women were found dead in New York City. The cause
of death was sudden embolisms in all eleven and the scene of their
deaths was set up in an occult ritual. The article surmises that it
has to do with Satanists attempting to open a gate,” Tami said. “We
think it was a circle of witches.”

“Interesting. Correct me if I’m wrong, but
don’t most circles number twelve?” Gina asked.

“Generally, that’s the accepted number,
although a circle can be any number. The eight of us could form a
circle, nine if we added Declan, but twelve seems to supply the
best mix of power and flexibility. We are wondering if the twelfth
one survived and in fact might have caused the others to die,” Tami
said.

“What gives you that idea?” Gina asked,
thoroughly intrigued.

“We can’t be sure, but the description of the
ritual layout is more in line with a spell to raise power than to
summon anything,” Britta spoke up. “If the circle was collectively
sharing power with its leader and something went wrong, it could
kill them in just that way. It’s one of the first things we learn:
how to prevent draining yourself to death in a sharing.”

“Also, the article mentions that the police
are looking for a twelfth woman known to be part of the group. I
think they fear possession, but I doubt it,” Jael added.

“That, ladies, may be a pivotal point in the
exposure of witches. I’ll defer to your expertise on the true
nature of what happened, and I suspect that the police might
eventually bring in someone who would tell them much the same
thing,” Gina said.

“The article mentions that the authorities
are waiting for a certain expert to get back into the country,”
Jael said, nodding.

“And he will know almost instantly that it
was witchcraft, not demonic,” Gina said before whipping around to
look at me. “Declan, would he contact you about something like
this?”

Again, every eye in the room was on me. I
shrugged, feeling my face flush. “Maybe, or maybe my aunt.”

“Why would he contact a little spark like you
when he knows my mother just as well?” Erika asked, arms
folded.

“Because Chris Gordon doesn’t trust witches,
except for that one right there and his aunt,” Katrina said,
sounding as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “It
seems some of them have attempted to put spells on him,” she added,
eyes drilling into Erika.

Oddly, the snotty blonde dropped her eyes and
looked embarrassed, which made me wonder just what she might
know.

“Okay, we’ll have to see what happens.
Justin, what did you find?” Gina asked the by far quietest person
in our group.

“Ah, well, we found an story in the
Burlington Free Press
about missing children. Some of us,”
he glanced at Ashley, “felt that it was potentially supernatural in
nature.”

Gina looked completely alarmed at this.
“Ashley, are you certain?” she asked.

“No ma’am, but there are three kids missing
all at once and, well,
they
are here,” Ashley answered.

“Who’s they?” Ryanne asked, “and why would
they be taking the little ones?”

“Ashley? Would you like to share?” Gina
prompted.

After a long moment of thought, Ashley
started to speak. The whole class leaned forward as she told a
story of alien invasion in a New York town only hours from where we
were sitting. How the aliens had poached our planet for thousands
of years, ending up deep in our folklore as elves, goblins, and
pixies. She explained about a sister planet, Fairie, separated by a
thin layer or membrane of dimensional physics that was suddenly
eroded by the Large Hadron Collider, much like Hell’s was. Speaking
in quiet tones, she told of a world with two main kingdoms, known
as Winter and Summer, and the role that each played in insuring the
survival of their species. She explained being taken from her
grandparents, who didn’t survive the experience, and being rescued
by her father, who had to be the biggest non-supernatural badass
I’d ever heard of. Of how her very rare form of telepathy worked
only with another important species on the planet and how that had
changed an entire world. And at the very end of her tale, she
explained that those same aliens, who we might call elves, were
here to oversee her safety and that some might be tempted to kidnap
some children while they were here.

“Ashley, I’ll need to talk to Director
Stewart about your suspicions,” Gina said into the silence that
followed the pretty girl’s speech.

“Yes ma’am, but closer to home, I think some
of the people in this room might be targets.”

“Aren’t they much too old?” Gina asked.

“I would have thought so, but I know they’ve
been sniffing around some of the kids. They wouldn’t bother the
were kids, as that wouldn’t help them and might get them dead, but
they might try to target some of the kids with less dangerous
powers or attempt to recruit the more powerful ones,” Ashley
said.

So that was what was behind my
accidental
meeting with the creepy blonde Eirwen.

“Well, this changes things. Class, no one is
to walk anywhere alone until we know more. I’ll have our security
people accompany you to and from the campus. I want everyone to
buddy up. Ashley, what about the witches?”

“I think they’re too dangerous for the
Hunters to bother. I know of one instance where the leader of the
Hunters encountered one of our witches and backed off. They may
approach them, however, as they’re drawn to power and I suspect the
witches give off a lot of it.”

“Please do not leave the building tonight. I
promise to have procedures and protections in place by morning, by
the end of your survival class. Please, please use the buddy system
from now on. Class dismissed. Ashley, I need to see you.”

Just that fast, the class had gone from
interested to fascinated to scared… at least in some cases. The
were kids suddenly found themselves popular as we all exited the
room. Caeco glanced my way as we walked out. Myself, I was still
thinking about the circle of dead NYC witches and the missing
Sorrow
, wondering if they could be connected.

“Who do you think was approached?” she asked
quietly, shifting my train of thought.

“I’m pretty dead certain it was me. I had a
weird encounter with a couple of people at lunch today and then
Ashley and her dad came along. Ashley told me the girl I met was
Eirwen, Princess of the Summer Court.”