It took an hour to get through all the pizzas, and as soon as I’d take one out of the oven, the guys demolished it. The wolves had made it back at some point and were helping with the magical disappearing pizza act. I was glad I’d saved the lone cheese pizza for last, so I could get a couple slices.
“So, how many of the wolves will be ready to help fight tomorrow?” Nate asked Joseph as I settled in next to him to eat.
“We’ll all be behind you,” Joseph replied. “The guys were a little surprised to find out who my acquaintances were, but once they knew, they were prepared to do anything you ask of them. A few burns and bruises won’t keep a wolf down.”
“Elan, will you help us tomorrow? I know Kapres are nonviolent, but an illusion, or two, might come in handy,” Nate continued on his strategic quest.
“Count me in,” he replied. “And I’m not afraid to throw punches for the right cause. Helping old friends sounds like a good cause to me.”
“Thank you. Sweetie, how are your natural abilities doing? I know they were partially blocked last time, but if you can use them, I want you to.”
I knew he was speaking of my telekinetic abilities, and I hadn’t used them very much in the past week, so I picked on my favorite victim. Rick rose out of his chair, and I made him do a couple somersaults just for the heck of it. Playing around with him wasn’t as much fun as it once was, but it still put a smile on my face.
“Avery, you can quit fooling around and put me down. I was getting used to not having to worry about you doing sneak attacks on me,” Rick said as he acted like he could swim through the air.
“She’s doing that?” one of the new wolves asked. “That’s so cool. You wouldn’t think someone as small and innocent looking would be capable of that.”
I wasn’t sure if the wolf was trying to get on my good side, or just hadn’t spent enough time with me. The innocent comment caused a few sniggers amongst my group.
I slowly put Rick back into his chair. “Should I try my other easy power?” I asked.
“Only in your hand, the house was already trashed once recently, we don’t want to burn it to the ground as well,” Nate cautioned. He’d seen what I could do if I was in a fit, but I was doing mild demonstrations, so he didn’t need to worry.
“Fine,” I said, holding out my palm to display one of my fireballs. Since I was being restricted on what I could catch on fire, I started wiggling my fingers so the fire wound in between them, before I got bored and closed my hand to extinguish it.
“She’s like a Vegas act,” another wolf said. “What else can you do?”
“I knew she had power, but I wasn’t expecting a show like that. How much weight can she lift?” Elan asked.
“We’ve never really tested a weight limit. I can lift the berserkers, but it does take more effort,” I said. Testing exactly what I could do with my natural abilities was a good idea, but I’d been working on fighting without using them, because I knew they could be taken away. “I’ve worked more with distance. Before I even knew what I was doing, I was able to lift Rick while he was in New York and I was in Montana.”
“So you don’t have to be in the same room with whatever object you’re moving? I could see where that would come in handy,” Elan stated.
“It is what it is,” I replied, shrugging. “As soon as I get my sorceress training, I should be able to do a lot of other fun things. I get really bad headaches if I try to do anything now, but I’ve transported me and Nate from Alaska back to our home.”
“That trick was scary for any of us left on the plane. We’d just finished battling a warlock and his evil skin-walker wife, when all of a sudden our leaders vanished from the plane we were on. Talk about a heart attack,” Rick said.
“It would seem with her on your side, you can’t lose tomorrow,” Elan said. “You’ve built yourself a strong team, Nate. I really envy the family you have here.”
“It can be your family too, Elan,” I told him. “We’re building something here for all uniques, not just the shifters. You’re welcome to join the group. We’ll ask that you keep illusions against us down to a minimum, but we do have headquarters near New York City and most people wouldn’t even question some of your pranks there.”
I wouldn’t have been surprised if there wasn’t already a Kapre or two in the area. Some of the things I’d seen on the news, or heard about in passing, sounded a little too strange to be natural occurrences.
“You’re most gracious, my queen,” he replied. I hated when people started throwing around titles, but he continued speaking before I could go off on him about it. “If you really think you would have the room for me, and some kind of purpose, I may take you up on that offer.”
I thought for a second and came up with the perfect idea. If I got good at my spellcasting, I could’ve done what I was about to suggest, but it seemed like a good idea to focus my energy elsewhere.
“How real can your illusions be?”
“To the person experiencing them, other than you as long as Nate is in the picture, it feels a hundred percent real,” he replied.
“Would you be able to come up with battle situations, so our students can train in real-life simulations?” I asked.
“Wow, sis, that’s a great idea. We can teach them the basic skills they need, and then unleash them in a virtual world where we don’t have to worry about stocking up on bandages.”
“I see no reason why I wouldn’t be able to do that. Would you guys be willing to teach me the basics? I’ve seen wars and fighting, so I could probably fake my way through a battle, but I would really like to learn more,” Elan replied.
“I see no problem with that. I don’t know about you guys, but running through a swamp has left me drained. I’m going to call it a night,” I said, getting up. “Nate, if you want to stay and talk more strategy, please do. I want us to be as prepared as possible for tomorrow, but I know the only way I’ll be ready is if I get to sleep now.”
“Okay, love, I’ll be over shortly,” he said, pulling me back down for a goodnight kiss.
For some reason he decided it needed to be of the thorough variety. I hated when he thought that was necessary in front of a group. I heard a couple of the wolves giving little whistles and laughing, so I tapped Nate’s shoulder to indicate that was enough. With one last little lick of his tongue, he released me.
“Sorry, we haven’t gone to bed separately in so long, I didn’t want you to miss me.”
“Likely story. I’m sure you’ll be to bed soon enough,” I said. “Goodnight everyone. Try to get some sleep tonight.” I went to leave the room and remembered that we weren’t in the house I’d slept in the night before. “Umm, are we still sleeping in the same room? I’m sure it belongs to someone, and they probably want it back.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot. We better have someone walk you across the street. We don’t want the warlocks to grab you while we aren’t looking,” Rick said, getting up to do the honors. I didn’t hear any complaints about me stealing someone’s room.
“Sit, I’ll take her,” Elan said. He towered over everything as he stood. “She’s been so kind to me, the least I can do is walk her across the street.”
With no complaints, we headed out of the house and crossed the street. There was no sign of danger along the way. When we reached the other house, I opened the door and turned to him.
“Thanks, Elan. I can probably take it from here,” I said.
“Would you mind if I came in so I could discuss something with you?” he asked. “I didn’t want to do it in front of the others because I didn’t think they’d understand.”
“Sure, that would be fine. I’ll warn you that Nate is probably listening in, though. There’s rarely a time when I’m alone with another person that he doesn’t,” I explained.
“That’s okay, he needs to hear this too,” he said as we walked into the living area of the house. He started pacing around, looking perplexed about what he was going to say.
“It can’t b
e that bad, I doubt you’ve gone on some kind of killing spree lately and need to confess your sins. The little pranks I’ve seen you pull haven’t been that bad.”
“It might actually be worse than a killing spree. I should’ve told you when we were alone in the clearing, but I didn’t really know you then. I’ll just start from the beginning and make this as short as possible. Two months ago a warlock showed up in Antipolo, where I’d been living for a while. I was lonely and he seemed like a fine enough guy at first. I know they can be nasty, but I’ve never had any trouble.
“Over the next month we became good friends. I mean he was the first person to actually take an interest in me in centuries. Then he started telling me about how the shifter uniques were making plans to do away with all of the other uniques and how a civil war was going to be started between us.
“Shifters have never been that friendly with me before, other than Nate and Rick, so I could see how it would come to this. I was scared. I wasn’t sure how they were going to be able to kill us, but I felt like he was speaking the truth. He said he had a way to stop this from happening and all I had to do was cause enough trouble somewhere in New England to make it in the papers.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t know he was lying to me, and only trying to get you here for their trap. You aren’t what they claim you are, and I can see now I was just being used. I don’t want to be used anymore. You are the uniques’ only hope against them and I can’t allow them to destroy you.” By the end of his speech, I could see the tears streaming down his cheeks while he kept his head bowed.
At first I was taken back a little by the betrayal, but I realized that it really wasn’t a betrayal if he did it before even knowing me. The fact that he’d told me the information when he could have just kept it all hidden, and may have never had to say it out loud, spoke volumes to me.
“It’s okay,” I said as I watched his head snap up. “They deceived you, it happens to the best of us. I lived for days with a skin-walker I thought was really my daughter. It took her trying to kill me to get the hint things weren’t as they seemed. I’m glad you told me before we went into battle tomorrow. If one of the warlocks had said something to clue us in that you were one time on their side, I may not have taken this so well.”
“So you can forgive me and I can still come and live with you guys?” he asked hopefully.
“I have to check with Nate, but I don’t think there will be a problem. You’re a good guy, Elan. I’m not always the best at judging that, but I think it’s true about you. Even the best of us can be led astray from time to time. I need you to go over to Nate and tell him anything that he’ll be able to use as an advantage tomorrow. You may just end up being our secret weapon,” I said with a smile.
“Yes, my most generous queen,” he said before running out of the house to do as I’d asked.
I was finding out quickly that being a queen was hard. It would’ve been so easy to just cast him aside as a traitor, but that was what he was expecting. I’d always thought it was best to keep people guessing, and I planned to do just that.
“Even without your memories, you are wise beyond your years, my dear,” I heard Nate say to me telepathically. “Now get some sleep and I’ll tell you our plan in the morning.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” I replied as I climbed the stairs to find my temporary bed. “Try not to stay up too late; you need your sleep too.”
“I won’t be more than another hour, my little butterfly.”
I made it up to the bedroom and changed into some sweats and a thin sleeping shirt. I promised myself the next morning I’d finally get that shower I’d been craving all day, and then I fell asleep.
CHAPTER 15
A case of too many cooks in the kitchen