When we got to the entry, everyone else was waiting, including Rick, who I hadn’t seen yet that morning. I didn’t like the looks I saw on their faces. I didn’t get the feeling we were going to rush right out the door.
“Hey there, little sis, I have something you need to see before you head out today,” he said, taking his arms from behind his back to present me with a newspaper.
My initial hope was that it contained a sale on throwing knives I couldn’t pass up. Chances of that were slim, but I could hope. The idea ended up being a lot better than reality.
I unfolded the paper to see that on the front page was a huge headline reading ‘God Save the Queen’. Below the headline was a large picture of me speaking to the crowd in the arena with a picture of me in phoenix form inset in the right corner. I folded the paper back up and handed it back to him. I didn’t even want to touch it.
“Aren’t you going to read it?” Rick asked, taking it and unfolding it so he could look at it again.
“Why would I? Everyone knows I hate the publicity. I just want to make sure people don’t fear us,” I said, gritting my teeth a little.
“Come on, this one is really good. Here, I’ll read you the highlights, since you forgot how to read. A local arena was seconds away from becoming a hole in ground late yesterday afternoon. An explosion was narrowly averted following a conference held in the arena by Avery Clavens and her group of uniques.
“During the conference, a member of the group Humans Unite caused a lively debate between himself and Clavens. Nathaniel Barnes, Claven’s fiancé, called an end to the question and answer portion of the conference because the overall mood deteriorated.
“The building was cleared out, leaving the group of uniques, who started smelling kerosene, one anonymous witness reported. They quickly exited the building to assess the situation without immediate fear of danger.
“Outside, it is said Clavens went into ‘full general’ mode. She instructed her people to clear the humans away from the building to minimize any injuries. As they hurried to move the people away, Clavens was alerted that there was someone left in the building. She quickly used her teleportation ability to hop in and remove the woman.
“‘At first she scared me half to death,’ Helena Morts said. ‘It isn’t every day you find someone appear right in front of you. I know the building didn’t end up exploding, but I really do thank her for getting me out. She knew something bad was going on and she risked getting hurt herself to try to save me. I don’t know many humans who would do the same.’”
“Can you please stop there?” I asked, interrupting his reading. There was only so much I could take. “I’m sure it’s a glowing review of my actions, but I don’t want to hear anymore.”
“Darn, I was just getting to the part where they describe you in action. The really good part is where this anonymous witness tells everyone they saw someone creeping around the halls while they were taking a bathroom break. He or she gives a description of a tall man in a cape, with black hair and black eyes. Sounds like the standard look of one of our warlocks, and nothing like any of us uniques who were on the scene,” he replied.
“That’s good. Hopefully that will make it so H.U. doesn’t claim we did it ourselves to make us look good,” I replied.
I was hoping to move on from the article and get on the road, but my wishes weren’t being granted that morning. I had a feeling the stupid article was going to be framed and given to me as a gift at some point.
“The article also goes on to give all the details of your wedding,” Liam informed me. “Apparently your publicist has been on the phone with the newspaper.”
“I don’t have a publicist,” I replied. I never thought I needed one, and I was fairly certain that would be something I remembered.
“That’s not what the paper says, dollface,” Kyle chimed in with a grin.
“Do they name this person?” I asked, curious to see who was running their big mouth. “If it’s Eva, I’m going kill her. I’ve already promised that a few times, but I will figure a way to carry out the threat if she’s going around leaking my personal information to newspapers.”
“It’s your mom,” Rick said after I’d finished my rant.
“Last I checked she’s your mother too.”
“I’ve found that it’s best when she does something that aggravates you, not to announce that I’m associated with her in any way. At the present moment, consider her a total stranger to me,” he replied.
“That’s probably the right thing for you to do. Please tell me she didn’t also announce it on social media. Not everyone reads the paper, so that may keep some of the looky-loos away.” I didn’t know why I wasted my breath sometimes. There was zero chance she hadn’t told the whole world.
“I imagine it’s already been retweeted at least a hundred thousand times. She put it on your page, so it looks more official,” Liam said.
“I don’t have ‘a page’, how could she have posted it on my page?” I asked. I stayed away from anything having to do with social media. There were way too many crazy people out there, and some of them were smarter than me when it came to computer security.
“Just remember, sis, she’s your mother and she’s only trying to do what’s best for you,” Rick said, and I knew there was more to come. If I didn’t have stuff to do, I would’ve ran back to my bedroom to hide the rest of the day.
“What has she done?” I asked.
“She social networked you to the extreme. You have an account on every social site I know and a blog. You should probably be thankful you aren’t single, because I’m fairly certain she would’ve tried to find you a man the modern way. She’s trying to help you appear more reachable to the masses. Your blog already has a million page views since she launched it,” Rick informed me.
“What in the world does she even say on all these things? I haven’t talked to her this week, so she shouldn’t have any ammunition.”
I was going to have to check the sites out after we got back from warlock hunting. I imagined horrible pictures from my youth plastered everywhere. At some point, I needed to find where she hid all my mementos and start a fire.
“You’ve talked to Frannie, though, and they’re in cahoots. Between the two of them, they have enough information to pretend they’re you. If you ask me, anyone who’s met you knows it’s not really you. The sarcasm behind the various posts isn’t quite right,” Kyle replied.
“And all of you guys knew about this and didn’t tell me so I could put a stop to it.” I had other priorities, but getting my mom and Frannie to stop masquerading as me landed pretty high on my list.
“I didn’t know,” Brad said, quickly to make sure he didn’t feel any of my wrath.
“Of course not. You tell her everything, and this was good for public relations, and she would’ve put an end to it. Now it’s a little too late for it,” Kyle said. “Taking everything down would look suspicious.”
“Be nice, Kyle. You know I can be reasonable. If you guys came to me and made a good case, I might have been onboard,” I said, not sure I fully believed my words. “Are we ready to go now? The warlock won’t just wait around forever for us. I’m sure a new plan to kill thousands of people is in the works.”
“If you’re available, Avery, I do have a request I’d like to make real quick,” Mak said, drawing my attention.
He’d managed to change his clothes, sporting a pair of blue jeans and a black t-shirt that showed off his small frame. He was a little out of place amongst the other men gathered.
“Sure, Mak,” I replied, noticing a man and woman standing next to him.
The pair helped Mak not look like the only under-muscled man in the group. I didn’t know enough about jinn to determine whether the similar looks between the three of them meant they were related, or if all jinn generally had the same olive complexion and facial structure.
“My name is Samaraimansalama and I would like to bind myself with you,” the female of the group sai
d before she did the same ceremony Mak had done. She was so quick, I didn’t have a chance to even say hello.
“And I am Mannanrasheedsadi, and I would like to bind myself with you,” the man said, doing the same thing.
“Okay, now that that’s out of the way, I hope you don’t mind if I call you Sammy and Manny, because like Mak’s name, there’s going to be no way for me to remember or pronounce your names,” I told them.
“That’s most gracious of you, master, to not call us by our real names,” Sammy said.
“Please don’t start with the master stuff. In fact, you know what? Let’s see if we can do this without a spell. I command you three to have free will,” I said, hoping that was all I needed to do. It was a little sad it took me that long to think of it.
“Do you guys feel any different?” Nate asked.
“I don’t think so,” Mak said, patting his body. “I believe I feel the same.”
“Sammy, would you please smack Mak for me?” I used my regular voice to ask, but I meant it as a command.
“But he didn’t do anything to deserve it,” she said, and then her eyes went wide with shock. “You told me to do something as my master and I was able to talk back and not hit him.”
“Welcome to the home of the free. It’s nice to have you guys as residents,” I said. “You’re free to stick around if you’d like, but if you want to enjoy your new freedom, don’t hesitate to go out and take on the world.”
“You’re going after the warlock who attacked you yesterday, aren’t you?” Mak asked.
I couldn’t tell if he was happy to be free. His eyes hadn’t changed one bit since Sammy proved they were capable of going against my direction. I usually could read a person by what I saw in their eyes, but Mak was blank as far as expressions went.
“Yeah, I figure he’s still in the city trying to regroup and decide on a second attack plan. We can’t just let him run free after what he tried to pull yesterday,” I said.
“I’d like to assist in whatever it is you’re planning. I don’t have to do everything you tell me anymore, but you mentioned I could be a part of your group, and I’d really like that,” he replied. “It will give me a chance to see if I’m still able to be helpful without being commanded.”
“I always say the more the merrier. I don’t know your exact skill set, but you have strong magic, right? The way you were able to quickly move people around tells me you aren’t an amateur. That always comes in handy,” I said.
“I think I’d like to remain behind at the house. I don’t know that I’m ready to join a fight just yet,” Sammy said.
“I’m with, Sammy. I don’t feel any different, but I think I need to work to understand if I can even use my magic without someone commanding me to do it in a situation that isn’t hostile,” Manny added.
“Make yourself at home, guys. Hopefully we won’t be gone too long,” Nate said. “Our daughter Sophia will be staying behind, and she can help get you settled in for now.”
Sophia looked like she wanted to say something, but I glared at her to let her know there was no way her pregnant self was going out to play with a warlock. She saw it, and didn’t bother trying to fight me. I wished everyone else was as easy as her to persuade to do what I wanted.
“Let’s go, guys. We have the Suburbans loaded up with any weapon we thought we may find useful,” Joseph said, leading us towards the door.
I doubted they’d mounted rocket launchers on the roofs, so I didn’t take him at his word. There were a lot of weapons I thought would be useful that we didn’t own. At least I didn’t have to ride around in the limo on the way to battle; it was only for conferences.
We were a team of thirty and ended up climbing in five of the waiting vehicles. I knew that many people was probably overkill, but we didn’t know if the warlock had friends hanging out with him. Personally, I couldn’t wait to get to the location and see what fun toys the boys had packed for us.
CHAPTER 10
History can be very frightening