Demon Accords 8: College Arcane (2 page)

“We’re also going to develop your skills,
help you achieve the most you can get from your gifts while
learning to control them. So although I’m sure you’ve all read your
welcome packets as well as the information we mailed to you last
month, let me layout the structure of our program.

“You will all pursue the educational
direction of your choice, attending either the University of
Vermont or Champlain College or, in some cases, both. Most of you
are starting as freshmen in the spring semester. Several of you are
technically still in high school, but you will be finishing your
traditional education here, taking college courses and receiving a
diploma from your hometown school while advancing toward a college
degree.

“I won’t lie. College is hard work and to
make matters a bit more difficult, you will also be taking a few
classes here. Three days a week, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays,
all
of you will be taking
Supernatural Survival
,
taught by Mr. Jenks.”

The tough-looking werewolf stood up and waved
at the group before sitting back down.

“This class will be taught in the morning,
before your regular classes begin up the hill on the campuses.
Specifically, six a.m. You will meet in our gym facility.”

There was a collective groan, although we all
should have known this from the packets.

“Your survival class is a combination of
personal self-defense, situational awareness training, modern
survival skills, and a honing of any particular personal abilities
that you have.

“Additionally, following the same
Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule, you will each have an evening
class that has already been selected for you. The majority of you
will take
Explorations of Power
with Miss Berg.” The tan
witch stood up and smiled, giving a little wave and even nodding
toward the four witch girls.

“Those of you with more volatile natures,”
she said, smiling at the weres below us, as well as at a boy and
girl sitting to our left who looked like a brother and sister.
“—will be taking
Control
, also taught by Mr. Jenks.

“
Control
will teach those of you with
physical gifts not only how to manage your tempers, but to better
use your strength and speed. If you Shift, it will teach you to
gain the third form, the midway mode.”

The were boys looked excited at that, but the
brother and sister combo seemed unimpressed.

“
Explorations
is a carefully
constructed curriculum designed to help you build control and skill
with your gifts of the mind while exposing you to other facets of
the supernatural world. Some of you have gifts that we term
psychic
for lack of a better classification, with maybe one
or two specific abilities. We will hone those. Some are more
broadly endowed with abilities. Witches, as it were. We will
explore the spectrum of your Craft and share various
approaches.”

She looked at the four teenaged witches as
she said this. One of the blondes smiled broadly and tossed her
hair. Her twin blinked like she’d been daydreaming and the native
girl looked… blank. The one on the far end leaned forward and I
finally got a good look at her.

Black hair, light-colored eyes that I knew
for a fact were green. Ryanne, one of the Sisters Eeire. An
unsettled feeling of anxiety flooded me, mixed with a thrill of
excitement. I tried to squash the thrill part but damn, she was
pretty. Immediately, I felt guilty, looking away from her. I had
thought about her occasionally over the last several months, but I
honestly never expected her to be here. She
had
told me she
would be attending this program, but what did that mean for me?
Ryanne and her three sister witches knew I wasn’t just a regular
warlock with weak powers, not since I had squared off with them in
a back alley not far from where I was now sitting. But I wasn’t
ready for everyone to know just how different I was. College was
supposed to be a chance to start over, wasn’t it?

“A few of you fall outside either of these
categories and so you will audit both classes to broaden your
understanding of the other world you’ve found yourselves a part
of.

“Tuesday and Thursday evenings, the entire
group of you will spend some time with me. We’ll be discussing the
recent events in Washington and across the planet and what it means
for each of you. The supernatural races have been exposed,
permanently, to the normal world. Demons have gotten the greatest
exposure, but weres and vampires are out as well. Witches and
psychics won’t be far behind. How will governments and societies
respond? How should you conduct yourselves? Who do you tell, and
when do you hide your abilities? We will analyze all of these
topics and more, using both oral and written techniques.”

There was a smaller collective groan at
that.

“In just a bit, we’ll adjourn to the dining
room for dinner. I think you’ll be pleased at the quality, variety,
and quantity of food that we have here for you. I’m quite confident
it exceeds anything that any of the colleges provide. The dining
area is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with snacks
available at any hour for those with accelerated metabolisms. Your
ID cards also work at either college in any of their eateries for
those times when you are stuck on campus between classes.

“Speaking of classes, in the next few days,
please introduce yourselves to Malcolm Tessitori, our in-house
counselor and liaison to the colleges. He is the one who will help
guide your college careers and facilitate your schedules and
classes. “

The bald guy stood up and waved.

“Tomorrow is Sunday, the day before classes
start. You can spend it as you wish, but I would suggest finding
your classrooms on campus and picking up your books. They are all
bought and paid for, but you will need to visit the college
bookstore and show your ID to get them.

“Next to last, let me introduce our on-site
medical specialist, Dr. Rosewell. She is a gifted general
practitioner with years of experience at Oracle. Please, please see
her if any of you experience any change in health.

“Finally, I’m going to turn the floor over to
one of our sponsors for a few words on behavior.”

Beside me, Caeco suddenly stiffened, as if
startled, then almost instantly relaxed. Her reaction and my
instant awareness of it were the only reasons I didn’t crap my
pants when an iron hand clutched my shoulder. Almost as fast as
Caeco, I
knew
who it was, maybe by the aura of power or the
steely feel of the hand. The real issue was that I was dead certain
that absolutely no one had been behind us when we sat down.

“That’s my cue. Sorry for the scare, but I
wanted to get a covert look at the group. Kind of hard to do these
days. I’ll chat with you two after,” said a soft voice, one I
recognized immediately. That’s when the most famous man on the
planet stood up from the empty seat behind us and started down the
stairs to the floor below.

Chapter 2

Chris Gordon stepped lightly down the rows,
reaching the bottom before the rest of the kids fully understood
who was among them. Wearing jeans, running shoes, and a
loose-fitting green long-sleeve t-shirt, he nonetheless commanded
attention.

He hugged Gina, then turned and looked at the
audience, who were either stunned or excited or both. He seemed
edgy, not nervous or anxious, but there was something there, an
undercurrent. He smiled as he looked around the room.

“Hi, I’m Chris Gordon and I represent one
half of the partnership that is responsible for this opportunity,”
he said, as if no one in the room had seen a television screen,
newpaper, or magazine cover in the last few months. “I’ll go ahead
and apologize upfront. I believe I’ve met many of you before but
I’ve had a little accident. It seems that my brain met a bullet a
while ago and I haven’t gotten all my memories back yet. They’re
coming slowly, but please don’t be offended if I don’t remember
you.

“With that out of the way, let me welcome you
to college or, as Oracle likes to call it, College Arcane.”

A hand shot up and Chris looked at its owner,
a brown-haired girl with glasses and a super excited look on her
face.

“Ah, yea?” he asked.

“What do the words mean? The ones that make
up ARCANE?” she asked.

“Good question. I had to ask to find out for
myself. Oracle loves this acronym shit… hmm, excuse my language...
oh what the hell, you’re all in college now, right?” The kids all
laughed.

“Anyway,
anomalous
means rare or
aberrant.
Recondite
has several meanings: hidden from sight,
not well understood, obscure.
Combatives
… well, to be frank,
we’re hoping to teach you how to protect yourselves and others.
Lastly, Oracle ranks talents and abilities among the trained and
untrained. The highest untrained ranking is Noble echelon—sort of a
guess at your potential. There, clear as mud, right?”

“What are the trained rankings?” the same
girl asked.

“Gina?” Chris turned.

“Paladin, Knight, and Champion echelons. We
will go over this as we progress throughout the year,” she
said.

“So there you have it… you’re in an academy.
For what? To learn to survive and thrive as representatives of the
supernatural realm. Why would we do this? That part is simple. At
the end of your education, you will be prime candidates for
recruitment by Oracle as operatives, should you chose that route,
or recruitment by the Demidova Corp. Personally I’m more than a bit
biased for the corporate path. But if you prefer the government
path, you have Oracle. You are also completely free to pick neither
of those choices, but to forge your own path.”

“Would you recommend Oracle even after what
they did to you?” Jetta blurted out, loud enough for everyone to
hear. The room froze, all noise stopping instantly. I’m not sure
anyone was even breathing as the room waited for his response.

Chris stood still for a second, his jaw
muscle jumping a bit. Then he turned to look at his questioner and
I swear to God his purple eyes flashed lighter for a second. Ah,
now I understood the undercurrent… he was pissed… deeply,
thoroughly pissed and I was pretty sure I could guess the direction
of his anger.

“You’re Jetta?” he asked. She nodded. I
couldn’t see her face but her shoulders and neck betrayed her
sudden tension.

“Well, I not sure that I’m the one to give
Oracle a rousing endorsement, but if you’re determined to go
government, there are much worse choices. See, Oracle answers to
the
President
and at the end of the day, they were just
following orders. And while I
will not
be telling you
exactly what happened, I will tell you that it will
never
happen again,” he said. The teachers in the front row were frozen
and the Oracle agents near the doors had turned to stone.

“But there are good people in that
organization, some of whom I owe big time,” he said, turning and
looking at the witch girls. Or rather at the pair sitting above the
witch girls. The young-looking brunette blushed and squirmed just a
little bit. I studied her for a moment before looking back at
Chris, only to meet his eyes straight on. He gave me the tiniest of
nods before continuing. Bewildered, I nonetheless was aware that
several people in the audience might have caught that little
exchange.

“Your teachers come from Oracle as well and
represent a tremendous amount of experience,” he said with a smile,
his eyes still hard. “Experience that you all need.”

The anger was still there, just buried,
simmering. “So, to sum it up, you may get a job offer from our
company or the government or both or neither. Our real goal is to
see that you all have the skills to stay alive and prosper. Our
world, the one that till recently has been confined to the shadows,
is a very dangerous place. Exposure has not changed that, but it
has changed some of the dangers. We want you to be prepared and we
want you to find your way. Now, you all
are
under an
obligation to follow the rules of conduct here. You all have power
to some degree or another. Some small, others great. And with great
power comes… Anyone?”

“Great responsibility,” about six different
kids all said more or less simultaneously.

“Nope, that’s Stan Lee. The word I was going
for was
temptation
. Temptation to use your advantages
against those without advantages. Now, this isn’t like using a
talent for singing to win a contest or allowing a naturally high IQ
to achieve the highest grades. I’m talking about using your
strength or telekinetic power or telepathy or ability to shift into
a veritable killing machine to intimidate or bully your peers.

“Don’t. Period.
When
we find you doing
it, we’ll send you home, no second chance, no matter who you
are.

“There’s also a second reason. Not to steal
Mr. Jenks’s thunder, but let me kick off your survival lessons with
one of my own observations. The supernatural world is a violent and
dangerous place. It is also a murky, mysterious place where things
aren’t always what you think. Assuming you are superior to someone
else and using your abilities against one of your peers might
result in them kicking your ass. It’s one thing to be physically
imposing like… what’s your name?” Chris asked the giant werewolf
boy.