Chapter 17
“Welcome, dear viewers, to a special edition of The Fringe. Long have we waited for this moment. I am your host, Brystol Chatterjee, and this is your introduction to the daughter of Declan O’Carroll and Stacia Reynolds, the Steward and the White Werewolf, Vesta Maeve Reynolds-O’Carroll, the Steward’s Heir. Hello, Vesta.”
“Hi Brystol.”
“And you have someone else with you. Your boyfriend?”
“He’s not my boyfriend, Brystol; he’s my beloved. You know what that is, right?” Vesta asked, her tone slightly chiding.
The production crews’ intents were mixes of anticipation, wariness, and at least, on the part of the assistant-daughter, Sami, anxious…
bordering on worry. One of the two in the back was slightly different, his intent almost ferociously anticipatory and…
resigned. Then it was gone and he was just interested.
“Well, yes, of course I do,” Brystol said, frowning. I got the impression she didn’t want to appear ignorant but also was slightly disbelieving, and maybe… unsettled. “A beloved is the werewolf equivalent of a Chosen among the Darkkin. A soulmate. A fated partner.”
“Exactly,” Vesta agreed.
“But you are a freshman in college. Surely you see how unlikely it is that you would find a beloved so early in life? And a male witch at that?”
“Is it? Unlikely? She promised me I would meet him and then I did.”
“She?” Brystol asked.
“Gaia, Terra, Mother Earth.”
“You’ve met her?”
“Many times. Craig met her. She likes him,” Vesta said.
“Craig Blackmore, native born to Golf Alpha. Witch. You met Mother Earth, Craig?” Brystol asked me.
“Yeah,” I said with a shudder.
“What was that?” Brystol demanded, pointing a finger at my whole-body reaction.
“Fear. Terror. Total panic,” I said.
“But she liked you? At least, that’s what Vesta just said.”
“Yeah, of course; I’m still alive, aren’t I? Think I would have survived the meeting if she took any kind of dislike to me?”
“Well, I don’t know,” Brystol said, glancing off camera at Declan and Stacia, who were shaking their heads.
“Well, the experts seem to agree with you, Craig. How did you two meet?” Brystol asked, changing the subject slightly. “Is there a meet cute story?”
“Oh, she didn’t like me at first sight,” I said.
“That’s not entirely accurate,” Vesta said.
“I saw him outside the building when he arrived. He looked, well, like he looks,” she said, waving at me.
“So I figured he was a typical male witch and therefore promiscuous and untrustworthy. Plus, there were stories about him circulating the school before he arrived. Negative stories.”
“Oh, do tell,” Brystol begged.
“Two witches came to us from Golf Alpha,” Vesta said. “Craig and a Fire witch with whom he was familiar. She hated him—like, loathed him. Spread all kinds of stories about him.”
“A jilted lover, no doubt,” Brystol supplied.
“No, just a girl with some deep psych problems. They had only met in person like a few times, but her father talked about Craig a lot and she grew to hate the attention he got.”
“Oh. That seems scary… a Fire witch with a psych problem,” Brystol said. “Scary for you, eh Craig?”
“Not really. Ilissa was just a nightmare to deal with. We had a shared a virtual classroom and we had to be blanked from each other with our mics controlled by the teacher. Fought tooth and nail.”
“But she was a Fire witch? Powerful enough to get into Arcane, right?”
“Eh,” I said with a shrug. “Not much magic on Greenacres to worry about and here she was just another student. Every Arcane witch is dangerous.”
“The fear factor was more the other way around,” Vesta said. “But in light of keeping the story moving, I thought he was attractive… too attractive. Probably nothing but trouble. Yet for some reason, I found myself observing him.” Brystol snorted and rolled her eyes at the cameras.
“Sure, odd behavior, that,” she said with a smirk.
Vesta just smiled. “He behaved differently, very differently from all expectations. Ignored the witches, focused on just adapting to a new place, a new planet. So I took a chance and spoke to him.”
“She gave me some vital information on Earth foods,” I said. “I knew my nemesis had already spread mega rumors and yet here was this amazing girl who offered me really helpful advice.”
“And you were smitten?”
“Well, attracted, yes. I mean, she’s amazing. But also, clearly out of my league. And I had enough troubles without entangling another. Couldn’t figure her out though. A real mystery she was.”
“In what way?”
“Well, she hung out with witches but seemed more like a were. She knew magic and knew the school inside and out, yet she was supposedly new as well. And in Survival class, she was as strong and fast as any werewolf I ever met, and I know a lot of werewolves.”
“You grew up with them?” Brystol asked though it was more statement.
“Yeah. My surrogate family are werewolves. She seemed very werewolf to me but knew so much about magic. There was lots of other stuff too, but she kept choosing to talk to me in spite of the rumors.”
“Why was that, Vesta?”
“He was shockingly original. Very calm and funny. Confident but humble too. He handled all the rumors and negative stuff that got thrown his way with humor. And he could fight… like really fight. What male witch is a fighter, Brystol?”
“True. A product of being raised with the wolves?” Brystol asked me.
“That’s part of it,” I admitted. “Greenacres is a very tough world. You have to fight every day, both literally and metaphorically. Lots of dangers everywhere.”
“Yeah, so I understand. Never been there myself, as I’m not interested in a place without magic where the scale reports a number I never want to see.
But we did what research we could in the short time we had.
I know a couple of students at Arcane and they told me a bit about you and your origins. They even shared a couple of videos.”
A lot of impressions hit me at once. The crews’ anticipation ramped up both to my extra senses and visibly. The guy in back was even more amped than the rest. But from Vesta, I got a sudden shock of suspicion and dread while Brystol had become nervous. Sami was worried.
“Videos from Golf Alpha?” I asked calmly.
Brystol nodded with a Chesire cat smile, but she was anxious.
She pointed at the monitor behind us and turned to the camera.
“Warning to my viewers. This is a graphically violent piece of footage.” Then she nodded at her producer and a montage of my culls back home played for fifteen long, dragging seconds.
The video ended and she turned to me with sharp interest. I felt my head tilt and my brows raise.
“Interesting choice for a first interview. Extreme violence right off the bat. It also shows you as being a bit cutthroat, yourself. Tell me, why did you choose to pull this out of the hat in your first meeting with Vesta and myself?”
“The only meeting,” Vesta said, her voice cold and hard. Deadly hard. “There won’t be another.”
Brystol noted the tone and blinked a few times.
“You seem very calm and likeable, but you handled Fife so easily. We didn’t have much time to investigate, but my team is the best and we’ve been watching Arcane for years.
Suddenly a lot of things made sense. The bird attack in Burlington for instance.
Our digging discovered that you are almost violence personified,” she shot back.
“Umm,” I said, reflecting on her intent. “So your first big scoop in decades, your first introduction to the Steward’s Heir and you choose confrontation? Bold. Pretty rude too. Plus, I only struck Fife once. Like the absolute minimum violence for the moment.”
She looked between Vesta and me rapidly. Vesta was really, really angry but she was letting me take point. Maybe for fear of how she might react.
“Okay. Let’s break it all down,” I said.
“You’ve never been to Greenacres by your own admission.
I’m guessing you’ve never seen an axehead in person.
” She blinked and I had a realization. “Oh, in a zoo maybe? But never a full flock in a killing frenzy. Hey, Omega, did you recover any of my videos from my data unit? Specifically, the one that was recorded by drones of an axehead massacre of a full flock of thunder turkeys?”
“Affirmative,” he responded, popping into existence and pointing at the same monitor Brystol had used. “Warning: This one is even more violent.”
He was right. Nine axeheads chopping twenty-one turkeys to death was graphically more violent than my shooting videos.
“That’s what a small flock can do. Does.
It’s why we keep the turkeys so far from Center Portal and any human dwellings.
It’s why my father and I became predator control experts.
Am I good at it? Yes. Is that due to magic?
Yes. Even the small amount that Greenacres has is enough to help me shoot like I do.
Do I like it? No. Those videos were part of what I had to face my first weeks at school. ”
Vesta jumped in before I could say another word.
“Why would you choose to go on such an attack? By all accounts, your fame and success came in no small measure from my parents. And now, your first meeting, you attack my beloved… why?”
“You’re too young to know that he is your beloved,” Brystol said. “Vesta, when you’ve been around the block a few times, you’ll realize first loves are fun and exciting, but ultimately they don’t last.”
“Unless they do,” Stacia said suddenly, stepping up behind her daughter. “Brystol, what on earth makes you think you can judge a were’s mate instinct?” Declan moved up next to his mate, bringing the whole family together. On camera.
The guy in the back’s intent suddenly flared and he bent over to reach into a box.
He felt victorious, elated, and resigned to his death.
His hand started to come out of the box, and I was up and moving.
Holly, Alex, and Kristin saw where I was looking, and all turned instantly toward the threat.
He was confident the bomb would be enough.
I saw it in his hand, a cylindrical device with a red LED readout that was starting to count down.
I pulled then pushed, and it vanished from his hand.
I heard nothing, but the five werewolves all turned and looked at the wall that was closest to the outside of the mountain.
There might have been a slight rumble. Three Omega drones shot over to the man and as he stood up and grabbed for a black plastic blade in his belt, one of them zapped him with a pulse of power.
“An explosion equivalent to three hundred grams of TNT has occurred outside this base as a result of the device this individual just activated. Thank you, Craig,” Omega reported.
Again, the AI was the most polite being in the room.
Alex and Holly started to bind the man with zip ties that Alex produced from a pocket. Didn’t know he carried those.
“You brought an assassin?” Declan asked Brystol. Terror took over her entire being.
“She was unaware,” I said. “Was he new or long-term?”
“He’s been with us three years,” Sami answered, eyes wide.
“Planted with the expectation of Brystol getting an early interview,” Alex suggested.
“Okay, this interview is over,” Declan said.
“Hey Craig, you didn’t unhand this one,” Holly joked.
“I’m improving,” I said.
“Where did it go?” the producer asked. “I saw it, then it was gone.”
Agent Jensen had been very quiet and I looked her way. She was staring at me, head on a tilt, a frown on her face. I raised both hands, palm up, at my sides and gave her a what look.
She snorted and moved over to the prisoner.
“Well, at least it was a hell of a show,” I said.