Thanks to my readers for reading my work and patiently waiting for new chapters and to the Big Closet team who give so much of themselves to keep this site going

I stared at the two suitcases on my bed and took one last look at my bedroom. As much as I wanted to leave, and as much as I needed space, I could feel tears coming to my eyes. This home that I had grown up in was all that I knew and, as much as I was trying to act as I I were ready for this, I couldn’t help but feel some uncertainty and fear of the unknown. I tried to comfort myself with the thought that I was only going to be a ten minute drive away; just far enough to give me some space and let me live the life of a normal University student in the dorms at UBC. I let out a sigh and reached for my suitcase. “I’m going to miss this place.”

“You don’t have to leave,” Lydia said from the entrance to my bedroom. “We could get you private tutors and you could take your classes online from home.”

“Just like we did with elementary school and high school? The only time I got to interact with people as a child was when we went shopping. Even my gymnastics lessons were with a private tutor, and I’m sure you would have had me do that from home too if you could have managed it,” I retorted as I turned to face the grey haired and slightly overweight woman. Technically Lydia was my servant and managed my trust fund, but she had raised me since my parents had died when I was barely a year old. She was the closest thing to family or a real friend that I had. I knew that my leaving was hurting her, but I needed this.

“Yes,” was her soft reply, her tone pleading. “Stay here with me, where you will be safe.”

I groaned and shook my head as I replied, “You’re doing it again! See, this is exactly why I need to leave. Ever since I was a baby you’ve been going on and on about keeping me safe and it’s suffocating me. The world isn’t as dangerous as you think it is. You’re so paranoid about keeping me alive that you’re preventing me from living. I just want a normal life!” I was beginning to yell now, so I took a deep breath to calm myself before I continued speaking. “I want to know what it’s like to go to school, to have friends, and maybe even a boyfriend.”

Lydia looked as if I had slapped her, so hurt she appeared to be from my words. “I never prevented you from making friends Raven. I gave you as much freedom as I could without sacrificing your safety.”

“You had background checks done on anyone I got close to; both my car and phone have a GPS locator, and whenever I brought anyone home you were so intrusive that it scared them off!” I grabbed my two suitcases, gripping the handles tight enough to cause the leather to make an audible creak in complaint. “I’m going Lydia; I’ll call when I’m settled in.” With that, I made my way out of my bedroom and stormed out of the house.

Lydia followed me outside, but she didn’t say another word as I placed both my suitcases in the trunk of my silver convertible. I wished I could drive with the top down to celebrate my new freedom, but autumn in Vancouver means rain and it was coming down in sheets. By the time I got my suitcases in the trunk and climbed into the driver’s seat, my long black hair was dripping wet and my new UBC hoodie was soaked through. As I drove down the driveway and through the gates I tried not to look in the rear view mirror, but a brief glimpse showed Lydia standing in the rain watching me leave.

It took me a while to find Totem Park, the dorm I would be staying in, and even longer to find my assigned parking space. It was almost eleven o’clock and the rain had stopped by the time I entered the residence itself, picked up my room key and welcome package from the front desk, and found my room. Totem Park was a co-ed dorm for first year students, with floors alternating between men and women. The room I would be sharing on the third floor turned out to be smaller than my room at home and was divided in half with each side having a bed, desk, dresser, and closet. I didn’t see any suitcases or personal items, so I could only assume that my roommate hadn’t arrived yet.

With a shrug I placed my bags on the bed on the right side of the room and began to unpack. My clothes went to the dresser and closet, my toiletries, make-up and purse took their places on top of the dresser, and on my desk went a framed picture of me with my parents. It was one of the few such photos I had. The photo was taken at home in the living room and showed my mother cradling me in her arms as my father sat beside her with his arm around her. They both looked so happy and tears came to my eyes as I once again wondered what they were like, and what things would have been like if they were still alive. Lydia always told me that they were two of the strongest, bravest, and kindest people that she had ever had the pleasure of knowing. But that was all I had of my parents; a trust fund, Lydia’s second hand memories, and a photograph. I suppose you could say I had their looks too, but that was small consolation.

My mother had been Scandinavian and had light blonde hair, pale skin, strong but attractive features, she looked to have been in good shape, and in the photo she had the most piercing blue eyes I had ever seen. My father had been attractive, muscular without being overly so, and had jet black hair and hazel eyes that almost seemed amber. I took mostly after my mother; having similar facial features, skin tone, well-toned shapely body, and her eyes. I didn’t know how tall my mother was, but I imagined she was tall like I am too. My hair though, was the same obsidian shade as my father’s.

I sat there at my desk for a long time just looking at that photo until I heard the door to the room open and close behind me. I turned to see a slim girl with wavy brown hair at the door. She was wearing a light green midriff bearing halter top and tight jeans and as soon as she saw me she smiled. “Hi, I’m Jamie Harris; it looks like we’ll be roomies.”

“I’m Raven Demarco,” I replied as I placed the picture back on my desk. “It’s nice to meet you Jamie.”

Jamie took her bags to her side of the room and started to quietly unpack. The silence didn’t last long though, and I thought that Jamie was probably the talkative type as she asked, “Where are you from Raven? What’s your major? I’m majoring in Psychology and I’m really excited to be here in Vancouver. Fort St. John is such a small town, and I’ve always wanted to know what living in a big city is like.”

“I haven’t really chosen a major yet,” I admitted shyly before adding, “I grew up here in Vancouver.”

She completely ignored my lack of a major and jumped on my other admission. “That’s awesome! You can show me the sights and all the good clubs and stuff!”

I couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm. “I don’t really know many of the good sights to see. I lived kind of a sheltered childhood, I was home schooled and stuff. I’d love to check out some of the sights with you though, once we’re settled in.”

“Overprotective parents?” the other girl asked as she abandoned packing to pull her chair from her desk to sit closer to me. Nodding to the picture on my desk she inquired, “Is that them? I can see where you get your looks.”

I sighed as I looked at the photo again. “Yeah, those were my parents, but they died when I was a year old. I was raised by my… nanny.” I didn’t want to admit that Lydia was a servant and possibly alienate my new roommate, but I didn’t want to lie to her either and nanny was probably the best way to explain Lydia’s role in my life.

A sad look passed over Jamie’s features. “That must suck never knowing your parents. Your nanny must have really cared for you to raise you after your parents died.”

“I guess so, but it’s a pain at times. She raised me, she managed my trust fund until I turned eighteen, and she’s the closest thing I have to family, but she’s way too overprotective. I just want to live a normal life, that’s why I’m living in the dorms instead of at home.”

The other girl shook her head. “Trust me, normal is overrated. I came here to get away from a so-called normal life and make something of myself. My parents own a gas station and wanted me to work for them, find a boy to marry, and take the business over someday. I don’t want that boring small town life, I want some excitement and to be something more than a glorified gas jockey.”

I nodded at that. “It sounds like you were as trapped as I was. I want to live, and a bit of excitement once in a while makes life worth living.” I looked at the welcome package on my desk and turned back to her. “Our floor doesn’t have to be at the dining hall for dinner until five thirty. What do you say we go off campus to get some lunch, get to know one another better, and see the sights once you’re done unpacking?”

She responded with a grin, “Screw unpacking! I can do it later, let’s go. Do you have a car? I don’t so we may have to use public transit.” She took a jacket from her suitcase as she waited for my reply.

“Don’t worry, I have a car.” I picked a light jacket from my closet and put it on before grabbing my purse and shoving my keys inside.

We were both pretty hungry, so we stopped for lunch at a café with an outside patio not too far from campus. The sky was starting to clear up and it was warm for early autumn so we sat outside to eat. The Caesar salad with grilled chicken was pretty good, and very filling, and I sat back contentedly sipping at my orange juice while Jamie and I talked. Some of the more adventurous pigeons and a couple seagulls watched us expectantly, seemingly waiting for any crumbs Jamie might lose from her chicken sandwich and one in particular seemed to be watching us intently. We were getting to know each other better and I was a little disappointed that we didn’t have very many similar interests. The way we got along though made me think that we would at least be good roommates even if we didn’t end up best friends.

After lunch we made our way towards downtown Vancouver. We spent over an hour walking along Granville Street and checking out the stores and the various street performers. Then we made our way down to the waterfront to see Canada Place and Harbour Centre. On impulse, I convinced Jamie that we should take the glass elevator on the outside of the building to the top of Vancouver Lookout Tower. I was pressed up against the glass watching the people and cars beneath us get smaller and smaller when Jamie asked, “How can you do that?”

I took my eyes off the view for a moment to regard my roommate. “Do what?” I asked her, a bit confused.

“Stand so close to the glass and look down like that. I get vertigo just thinking about it,” she replied with a slight shiver.

I shrugged as I looked down at the world beneath once more. “I don’t know, I guess heights don’t really seem to bother me, though I haven’t really been to a lot of high places.” Soon we were at the lookout at the top of the fifty story tower. The view was amazing, and I looked around in wonder at the views of the Northshore Mountains, English Bay, and all of Vancouver stretched out before me. I moved from spot to spot spanning all 360 degrees of the lookout, drinking it all in. I didn’t want to miss a single bit of it.

Jamie seemed to find my excitement very amusing. “Which one of us is new to Vancouver again? I have to admit it is one hell of a view though, just so long as I don’t look down.”

“Sorry,” I said with a blush. “Like I said before, I lived a really sheltered life.”

“Don’t apologize for enjoying this, I am too, it’s awesome to see all this on my first day here, it’s amazing how big this city is, I’m glad we came up here to see it. Besides, if I were in your place I’d probably react the same way. I’m seeing a new city for the first time, but this is your first time really seeing your home laid out like this.” She shook her head as a seagull flew by the window. “I can’t believe how many pigeons and seagulls we’ve seen today, it must have been hundreds. They’re all starting to look alike; I could swear that one that flew past just now has been following us all afternoon.”

“Maybe it likes us,” I responded with a laugh. “Seriously though there are a lot of them in Vancouver, it’s a big city so there are millions of people. That many people means a lot of garbage, or other possible food sources for them. They constantly get into garbage and places they shouldn’t.”

“We get crows and migratory birds at home, but I think I’ve seen more seagulls and pigeons alone this afternoon than I saw birds at home all summer,” she replied as we walked back to the elevator. “The crows get into garbage, but I can’t imagine ever having this many around.”

“You’ll get used to it; they’re probably all over the campus too.” I glanced at my watch as we stepped back into the elevator. “Speaking of which, we should get back there if we want to be in time for dinner.”

Traffic was light on the way back to campus and we made it back to Totem Park with twenty minutes to spare. Jamie went back to unpacking when we returned while I sat on my bed. “So,” she said as she was placing things in her dresser, “you said you haven’t decided on a major yet Raven?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “I’m hoping this semester I’ll find something that sparks an interest.”

She nodded as she folded a pair of jeans and put them away. “I’ve heard that a lot of first years do that. What courses did you choose this semester?”

I went over to my desk to get my course schedule and looked over it before answering. “I have Introduction to Anthropology, Introduction to Modern Biology, Introduction to Film Studies, Calculus, and Vikings and Norse Mythology.”

“That’s a pretty broad spectrum; I was considering taking some of those. What field of study is the mythology course in? History? Literature?”

“It’s in Scandinavian Studies,” I replied. “I was thinking of taking that as my minor. My mom was Scandinavian and I’d like to learn more about her culture. I figured that mythology would be a fun place to start.”

“Cool, let me know if it’s interesting, I’m still trying to figure out a minor.” She checked her watch and grinned at me, “Looks like its dinner time for our floor roomie, let’s head down to the dining room and meet the others.”

“That sounds good to me.” I took my purse and we both headed out the door and down to the dorm dining hall. With it being our first day in residence we were supposed to be using dinner as a chance to meet some of the other girls on our floor. Later, at eight o’clock, there was to be a floor meeting with the same purpose, where we could get to know more about dorm life and ask any questions we might have.

Once we made it to the dining hall, Jamie and I made our way through the line to order our meals. The special for the evening was beef stroganoff with a side salad and it sounded as good as anything else, so I ordered that and a Diet Coke. With trays in hand, Jamie and I found a table with two empty spaces where Jamie smiled at the four girls already seated and asked, “Are these seats taken?”

One of the girls, a very pretty redhead, smiled back and gestured for us to sit. “They are now. I’m Kendra, and this is my roomie Asako, the other two are Jennifer and Erin.”

“I’m Raven and this is Jamie,” I offered as we sat down. Once we were seated the talking began as we all tried to get to know one another. Kendra McAllister was even taller than me and seemed to be in very good shape. She was attending UBC on a volleyball scholarship and planned on majoring in History. When she had been offered the scholarship she had jumped at the chance to leave her small town of Cache Creek behind and try to make something of herself. She and Jamie seemed to become fast friends as we spoke.

Asako Sato was possibly the most bubbly person I had ever met. That small girl wore a constant smile beneath her glasses and wanted to work with children someday, so she was taking Early Childhood Education as her major. With her innate friendliness and her funny stories I thought she would be very good at her future chosen profession. Her parents were Japanese, but like me she grew up in Vancouver and wanted to be on campus and away from her parents while she pursued her studies.

Jennifer Howe preferred to be called Jenn. She came to UBC from a small farming community in Manitoba to attend the Nursing program. She was not much taller than Asako, with shoulder length ash blonde hair; she wore a loose fitting UBC sweatshirt and seemed a bit self-conscious. She was constantly tugging at her sweatshirt and didn’t say much. I found out later that she had been bullied horribly by some of the other girls in her community about her looks and her weight, though I didn’t see a problem with either.

Erin Ross was native and wore her long hair in a French braid. She was from Haida Gwaii and was majoring in Computer Science, with a minor in Environmental Science. Other than me, she seemed to be the most reserved of the group. She did seem to take to me pretty quickly though, and she seemed to find my name humorous for some reason. She would look at me occasionally and giggle.

It was when we were all relaxing in the third floor lounge as we waited for the floor meeting that was to happen later when I caught Erin doing it again. I turned to her and gave her a stern look, “Okay Erin, spill it. Just what is it about me that you find so funny?” I was suddenly worried that I had made some major social blunder and nobody was telling me.

She seemed to sense my concern and took my hand to give it a squeeze. “Sorry Raven, it’s nothing you did; I’m just trying to picture you as Raven.”

“But I am Raven, how could you not picture me as me? Do I remind you of somebody else?”

That just made her giggle again as she gave my hand another squeeze. “No, I’m trying to picture you as Raven. In the stories of my people Raven is one of our central Gods. He created Haida Gwaii; disguised himself in order to enter the house of the Sky Chief, from whom he stole the sun, moon, and stars to give to humankind; and there’s various stories about he brought humans into existence. He’s usually seen as a trickster, but everyone sees him differently, like there’s some reflection of the true self of the person seeing him. Because everyone sees part of their true self in him, he’s different to everyone; some see him as a magician with the power to create and transform and as a teacher for our people, while others see him as the greediest, most lecherous, and mischievous creature in existence. I guess you could say I’m trying not only to see him in you, but part of myself as well.”

Jamie broke out laughing when the explanation was made. “Oh that is funny. I haven’t known her that long, but I really don’t see our Raven as greedy, lecherous, or mischievous; so I guess that makes her the other side of the coin.” The others joined in the laughter at that and even I got a good laugh out of it. I couldn’t see myself as either a selfish and mischievous lecher or a magical transforming entity.

We kept talking until the floor meeting began. The meeting was basically a get to know one another event and our RA, Allie, explained to us some things about living in the dorm, the rules, and where we could find her if we needed to talk or needed a hand with anything. Some of the other girls were as nervous about starting University as I was, and most of them seemed pretty nice, but the six of us were pretty happy to stay in the company of our little group for the most part and learn more about one another. We stayed in the lounge after the meeting was over until after midnight when we finally headed to our rooms.

Thanks to my readers for reading my work and patiently waiting for new chapters and to the Big Closet team who give so much of themselves to keep this site going

October 30th, 11:42 pm

I stared at the book on Norse mythology that sat in front of me on my desk and tried not to fall asleep. It wasn’t that I found the topic boring; in fact I found it very interesting. I could hear Jamie get off her bed on the other side of the room and move around, and suddenly my Calculus book was placed in front of me. “You should be studying this Raven, it never fails to put you to sleep and you damn well need some.”

I turned to my roommate and shook my head, “I’ve got midterms to study for.”

Jamie frowned at me, crossing her arms before pulling me out of my chair to sit us both on my bed. “Are you studying so much to pass midterms or is it just a good excuse to avoid sleeping?” I was about to argue when she continued on, “Wait, don’t answer that we both already know the answer. You’ve been sleeping little enough as it is without actively avoiding it. You need sleep girl.”

“I’m not avoiding sleep,” I argued weakly, “I just need to study… and caffeine, a lot of caffeine, so can we drop this?”

“No way Raven, we are not dropping this,” she said, shaking her head. “You’ve been having these nightmares for almost a month now, and I’ve let you have your space hoping you’d get through whatever it is. Now as your roommate, and your friend, I am asking you to tell me what’s going on with you, or do I have to get the others in here too? They’ve been worried, especially Erin. You two usually talk about everything, but you’ve been shutting her out too.”

Erin and I had become close over the past two months. Despite her early teasing about me being ‘Raven’ we got along really well. We were in the same biology class and usually worked on our assignments and studied together, and when we weren’t doing that we spent our spare time together talking, shopping, or just hanging out in one another’s rooms. We had formed a similar type of friendship that had developed between Jamie and Kendra, and our little group often joked that Asako and Jennifer should room together so that Kendra could share a room with Jamie and I could room with Erin. I looked away guiltily as she mentioned Erin. “You know what’s going on, I’ve been having nightmares.”

My roommate shook her head, her frown deepening. “I know that! Come on, tell me about the dreams, maybe I can help you with whatever is causing them.”

I sighed, still looking away. “You’ll think it’s stupid.”

“Dammit Raven! I’m your friend; you don’t need to be so self-conscious around me. The only thing I think is stupid is you shutting us all out. Now what are these nightmares about?”

I lay back on my bed and closed my eyes, taking a deep breath to steady myself before speaking. “It always starts different; I’ll be in class, the hallway, the dining hall, or at a party or something, usually in a group or a crowd. Then I’ll make some sort of social blunder and everyone around is laughing at me. And there’s always that horrible voice…” I trailed off, shuddering at the thought of that voice, harsh and grating like crunching gravel.

“A voice?” she asked. “What does it say?”

“It’s always taunting me,” I replied as I let go of her hand to clench both my fists at my sides. “It says things like ‘You’re not one of them’, ‘They will never accept you’, and ‘You’re better off alone’ and then it starts laughing along with everyone else in the dream.”

She was silent for a time. Finally she sighed and I opened my eyes to see her watching me in concern. “Raven, I know I’m only a student, but I think that you could be suffering from social anxiety or possibly demophobia. It’s understandable with your sheltered background.”

“Demophobia? What’s that, a fear of demons or something?” I asked.

“That would be silly, demons don’t exist and that wouldn’t be related to the dreams you described. Demophobia is the persistent and irrational anxiety and fear of crowds or large gatherings of people,” she explained. “Do you get extremely nervous or afraid when interacting with others? Any trouble breathing?”

I shook my head, “Not any more than any other person, I don’t think, and I’ve never had trouble breathing. Why would this suddenly happen now? I haven’t been having any troubles socially with you, Erin, or the others, and I was doing fine in large groups until the dreams started.”

My roommate shrugged and shook her head. “I have no clue. Maybe you’re subconsciously suppressing it and your dreams are an outlet for it. I think you need to see a professional about this or maybe face your fear. I know you’re not a partier, but you should come with me and the rest of the group to tomorrow night’s Halloween party one of Kendra’s friends is holding, it might help us figure out if that’s really the problem or if it’s something else.”

“I don’t know Jamie, I really do need to study, and I don’t have a costume,” I complained.

“Erin said she’d help with a costume if I could convince you to go. Besides, it’s Friday and you’ll have the whole weekend to study.” Seeing my resistance start to weaken from her arguments she pressed on. “There’ll be cute guys there and Sarah’s apartment is on southwest Marine Drive, about a ten minute drive from campus. It’s near the beach, so if the crowd gets to you just grab me or Erin and we can take a walk to get some air. Or I heard about a really big party in Kitsilano.”

I groaned at that. “Kitsilano? No thanks, my house is there.” I had been avoiding going home, or even calling much since the dreams had begun, afraid that Lydia may find my lack of sleep a good excuse to try to convince me to return home.

Jamie merely nodded. “Well then you’ll have someplace to go if you need to be alone, or need a place to crash after too much drinking. It’s your house so stop avoiding it; it won’t kill you to go there once in a while.”

“Oh yeah,” I retorted. “Lydia would just love that, me showing up drunk with a friend or five in the same condition. It would be a great reason for her to keep me home where its ‘safe’ and she can protect me from myself.”

“We won’t go to the one in kits if it makes you uncomfortable, it was only a backup plan anyway. But you’re an adult Raven, Lydia can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do,” Jamie said, giving me a stern look. “Besides, doesn’t she work for you now that you have control of your money and property? I know she’s probably the closest thing to a mother you know, but she doesn’t run your life anymore, you do.”

I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples in an attempt to stave off the headache that was forming. “I know that. Even though she didn’t want me moving out to go to school, she didn’t try to stop me in any way other than asking me to stay. The look on her face when I left… I feel like just being here is making me a huge disappointment to her.”

To my surprise I heard Jamie laugh. “Everyone feels like a disappointment to their parents when they can’t see eye to eye. I felt that way when I came here too, like I wasn’t living up to what my parents wanted from me, but it’s my life, not theirs, and I need to do what’s right for me. I can understand Lydia wanting to keep you safe, but you need to be free to live your life and make your own decisions and mistakes. Without that you’re not living, you’re just existing.” I think she may have said more after that, but it was lost to me as sleep claimed me.

I dreamed again and awoke in a cold sweat. The voice from my dream lingered, unwilling to release its hold on my mind. How much longer do you think you can keep it up? Sooner or later you will make a mistake and they will all see that you are not normal. You will never be one of them. Like nails on a chalkboard, the sound and the words threatened to drive me mad. I lay there for several minutes with my eyes closed, trying to stop shivering, control my labored breathing, and banish the voice from my thoughts. By the time I had gotten control of myself and sat up in bed the alarm clock showed the time to be just before seven o’clock. I took off the clothes I had fallen asleep in the night before and, once I had slipped into my white bathrobe, I gathered my toiletries and shuffled off to the showers.

The shower was hot and managed to help ease some of my aches from sleeping in a strange position, while relaxing me enough that I could think about the things my roommate had said the night before. Deep down I didn’t believe she was right about the social anxiety or demophobia. I had gotten over any anxiety or fear of social situations during the first few weeks of classes. In fact, I had felt like I was starting to become more comfortable socially when the dreams began. Still, while I might not think she was right about the source of my problem, she could be right about getting out and having some fun.

I stepped out of the shower and, after patting myself dry and wrapping my hair in a towel, I put on my robe and returned to our room where Jamie was sitting up in bed. “How did you sleep?” she asked.

“Oh it was easy,” I joked, “I just closed my eyes.”

My roommate groaned at the joke. “Very funny, but you know what I meant. Did you have another nightmare?”

I sat on my bed and plugged in my hair dryer before finally giving her a nod in reply. “Yeah I had another one, but I think I got around six hours sleep. That’s a hell of a lot better than I have usually been getting lately.”

“I really think you need to see someone about these dreams Raven, if this keeps up you’re going to burn out before finals.” There was concern in both her voice and her eyes as she spoke.

“I’ll think about it Jamie,” I offered in an attempt to ease her mind. Then in a deliberate change of topic I asked, “You mentioned a party tonight?”

Her face brightened at that. “Yeah, a friend of Kendra’s is holding it. Erin said she’d help you with a costume, if you need it, once you’re both out of biology class.” Then she looked at the clock. “Speaking of classes I had better go start getting ready or I’ll be late for mine.” As she headed to the showers I began to dry my hair and wonder just what sort of costume my best friend had in mind for me.

I was glad that Fridays were light on my class schedule. I only had my class on Norse mythology at nine o’clock, followed by a three hour break before my one o’clock biology class with Erin. Rather than just heading back to my room between classes I took the materials for both classes in my backpack and spent the time after my morning class in the cafeteria reading the assigned chapters on Odin and Valhalla while eating my lunch. Then I was off to my biology class, where we suffered through a less than thrilling lecture on how habitat influences a species’ biology, and how various animals have adapted to suit their climates or local ecology.

As we headed back to the dorm Erin asked, “How did you sleep last night?”

I was tempted to answer with the same joke as before, but instead I just did my best to give my friend a reassuring smile. “Better than I have in a while, I must have been more tired than I thought. And I must have gotten enough last night if I didn’t fall asleep during that lecture.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “Good I’ve been worried that you’re working yourself too hard. You’ve been constantly staying up late studying the past two weeks. You really need to relax a bit. Did Jamie ask you about coming to the party tonight?”

“Yeah, she said you would help me with a costume,” I replied.

“Yup, I found the perfect costumes for us,” she said. “I thought we could go as a matched set, and if this doesn’t get you out of your shell nothing will.” The grin on her face as she answered made me suddenly have second thoughts about getting her ‘help’ with a costume. Only the fact that it was Halloween day and finding a decent costume would be practically impossible, and the thought that at least we would match, kept me from telling her I would find something on my own. Besides, she looked so eager.

“You can’t be serious,” I stated as I looked over the costume that Erin had laid out on her bed for me. She was already changed into her own costume, a white mini dress with lace trim and white wings attached. A halo, white pumps, and white lace gloves completed the outfit. “So this is why you suggested we get all our biology work done before getting ready for the party? So I wouldn’t have time to back out of wearing this.”

The practiced look of innocence on her face may have gone well with the costume, but I knew better. “Would I do that to my best friend?” she asked.

“Yes, you would,” was my response as I looked over the costume on the bed once again.

“Come on Raven, you’ll look smoking hot in that. If anyone in our little crew has the body to pull that off it’s you.”

“It’s funny that you used the words ‘pull that off’,” I retorted, “because I get the feeling that if I wear that, a lot of guys at the party are going to want to do just that.”

“It’s fun to show off once in a while,” she pressed. “I’ll be with you the whole time unless you tell me otherwise; to make sure nothing happens that you don’t want to. You need to let loose a little Raven. Now hurry up so we have time to do a proper job on our make-up.”

“Fine, I’ll wear the stupid thing.” I slipped out of my clothes and began getting into the costume. First was a red and black latex bikini top followed by a matching thong. “This isn’t a costume,” I muttered, “its fetish gear.” Once I was into the top and the thong I began to put on the accessories; a black mesh miniskirt with red latex trim and an attached devil’s tail, matching fingerless gloves, thigh high fishnet stockings, a pair of black pumps, and a hairband with devil’s horns.

Once I had everything on Erin gave a whistle, “See, I told you that you’d look good. You’re hot as hell.”

I rolled my eyes at the joke. “You’ve been waiting all day to use that joke haven’t you? I swear that I’m leaving the party the first time a guy asks me if I’m horny.”

“With him or on your own?” she joked back as we applied our make up in front of her mirror. “Just so I know what to expect.”

The comment almost made me screw up applying the sparkly red eye shadow that went with the costume. “Why are you my best friend again?”

“My references were good?” She grinned at me in the mirror as she finished applying her own sparkly white eye shadow.

“If you keep this up I won’t let you drive my car tonight,” I teased.

She shook her head. “You don’t have a choice about that. You’re supposed to be relaxing and letting loose tonight, which means I’m the designated driver.” Since my car could only seat two, Erin and I would be going together, while Jamie, Kendra, and Jennifer would all be going with Asako in her Prius. The rest of the crew were all waiting for us when we got to the third floor common room. Jamie was dressed as a witch, Asako as a cat, Kendra as a French maid and Jenn’s sexy nurse costume was almost as bad as my devil outfit.

“Damn!” Jamie said with a grin, “You look good Raven. I never thought Erin would actually be able to convince you to wear it.” She looked in her purse and pulled out a ten dollar bill which she promptly handed over to Kendra. “It’s about time you and Jenn came out of your shells a bit.”

Kendra grinned back at her friend as she took the bill and started dragging Jamie toward the elevator. “I told you so Jamie. Now come on girls, it’s time to party!” Once we had made our way out to the parking lot we all climbed into the cars and Kendra gave Asako directions, while Erin and I followed them in my car. I let Erin drive so that she would have the chance to get used to driving my car before having to do so later as the designated driver.

As we drove along the streets of the west side from the campus through the University endowment lands toward Marine Drive, Erin and I talked about midterms and tried to come up with plans for the weekend to give us short breaks from studying and course work. Almost ten minutes had passed when we pulled up in front of an apartment complex on southwest Marine Drive. Kendra told us that the building overlooked the beach, but it was hard to see much in the fading light of dusk other than what was illuminated by street lamps, or the lights of the building and the homes to either side.

Kendra pressed the intercom number for her friend’s apartment and we all listened for a response. For a couple of minutes the only sounds were our breathing, the beeping of the intercom and the cries of nearby seagulls. The sudden crackling static of the intercom as someone picked up on the other end nearly made me jump. The sounds of music and people talking over it could be clearly heard in the background as a voice said, “Hello.”

“Hi Sarah, its Kendra and company,” our ginger-haired companion replied.

“Come on in girls.” Then the door began to buzz, and Kendra reached over to open it before motioning us all inside and showing us toward the apartment.

The girl who answered the door was tall and athletic looking like Kendra and dressed as a policewoman, with her blonde hair tied back in a ponytail. She gave us all a big smile, “I’m glad that you and your friends could make it Kendra.” Introductions were quickly made and we were all ushered inside where the party was already in full swing. There were people in pairs or groups trying to talk to one another over the music, a portion of the living room had been cleared for dancing, and the small kitchenette was crowded with people getting drinks.

“It’s really crowded in here!” I yelled to be heard over the music as Sarah gave us a quick tour.

“If you need some fresh air just go out the patio door!” she yelled back. “We’re on ground level and it’s only a short walk to the beach!” I nodded in reply and she continued the tour.

An hour later I was really enjoying myself. I was nursing my third beer of the night and talking to a really cute guy named Matt, with short brown hair and nice green eyes, who was attending UBC on a basketball scholarship. Erin was not far off, talking to one of his friends and sticking close in case I needed her. “Are you here on a sports scholarship too?” he asked as he looked over my body. “You look like you’re in pretty good shape.”

I shook my head. “No, sports aren’t really my thing. I still practice gymnastics when I get the chance, but I never really got into team sports.”

Matt grinned at me. “A gymnast huh? You’ll have to show me some of your moves someday.” He gestured at my now empty beer bottle and offered, “Would you like me to get you another beer?”

“Uh sure, thanks,” I replied a bit uncertainly. Was he trying to get me drunk so he could get me into bed? He’d been nice so far, what if he was just being friendly? I wasn’t sure what he wanted. Were there some subtle social nuances that I wasn’t picking up on? You are not one of them, the voice from my nightmares taunted me. You think you can fit in but you can’t. You don’t know what to do, do you?

“No,” I spoke softly. The voice had never bothered me when I was awake before. “This is a nightmare.”

You’re not normal and you never will be, the voice pressed. Look at all these normal people around you; they know what to do and how to react to one another. Who can help you, your friends? They’re normal too, and soon they will tire of you. They will laugh at you along with everyone else.

I gripped my head in my hands trying to force the voice away. “It’s a dream. It’s got to be a dream.”

I didn’t even notice Matt returning with a beer in each hand, “Do you have a headache Raven? Maybe I should get you some aspirin. I remember the first time I drank too much, my friends never let me live it down.” He chuckled at whatever memory that brought up.

See, he’s laughing, the voice taunted again. Soon they will all be laughing at your attempts to be one of them, something you’re not.

“No! Leave me alone!” I screamed as I pushed past Matt and made a dash for the patio door. I thought I could hear Erin calling my name, but I just kept running until I was out the patio door and well on my way to the beach beyond. I needed to be alone.

 

Raven's Blood
Chapter 3: Revelations

By
Amethyst

Thanks to my readers for reading my work and patiently waiting for new chapters and to the Big Closet team who give so much of themselves to keep this site going

I kept on running until I reached the water’s edge. I had lost my pumps somewhere along the way, but I didn’t particularly care at the moment as I turned and ran along the water’s edge to put more space between me and the party. “Raven!” I heard Erin call again from somewhere behind me. I ignored her and just kept running, closing my eyes against the tears. I needed to get away from people, away from that voice.

Suddenly the wind was knocked out of me as I slammed into something and fell onto my ass. I opened my eyes and looked up to see a large man looming over me. It was hard to make out his features in the dark, but he appeared to be tall with dark hair and he was wearing a dark robe of some kind that I assumed must be a Halloween costume. “I… I’m sorry,” I stammered as I sat there in the sand looking up at him.

“Don’t be,” he replied in a gravelly voice that I was far too familiar with. “I’ve been hoping that we might bump into each other for a very long time Miss Demarco.”

My eyes went wide, and I tried to back away along the sand only to bump into something else. I looked back to see another man in a robe. My eyes darted around in a panic as I looked around for an escape route, only to find that there were seven men in total and I was effectively surrounded. “Who are you? What do you want from me!?” I blurted out.

The voice that had haunted my nightmares spoke again, as the man attached to that voice gave a predatory smile. “I wouldn’t worry about who we are Miss Demarco, you won’t be alive long enough for it to matter to you. As for what we want, well we want your blood and we’re not too picky about how we get it. So you can either stay there and we can get it over with, or you can struggle and we can have some fun.”

“M-my blood?” I stared at him wide-eyed as he pulled a wicked looking dagger from his robes.

“Oh yes,” my tormentor replied, licking his lips. “Your blood will free our Master. I’ve waited a long time for this. Your blood would be more potent if you weren’t sealed, but it’s of no matter, it will work regardless and be a lot easier this way.”

“Sealed?” What in the hell was this guy talking about?

He continued speaking as if I hadn’t said a thing. “We were content to wait until you Manifested, since that Imp did such a good job of keeping you out of our reach. But then you went to that school with all the humans and we couldn’t figure out how you could hide yourself among them so easily. Then we figured it out, you’ve been sealed all along, and that makes things so much easier for us. You were always among the humans though, and we can’t afford too many witnesses, so we needed to get you alone.”

I stared at him and tried to swallow the lump of fear rising in my throat. “The dreams...”

The man behind me hauled me to my feet and held me in place as the leader dragged the flat of the blade slowly along my jawline. “Do you know how much power it cost me to invade your mind all those times?” he asked. “It was worth it though, to get you alone.”

“Who says she’s alone asshole?” came Erin’s voice as a stone bounced off the leader’s forehead.

He looked past me toward Erin with a look of annoyance. “You just got in way over your head human. You all dispose of her; I’ll take care of this one and get her blood.”

The one holding me threw me to the ground. “As you command Reimus,” he replied.

Before I could try to scramble away he was atop me with the knife pressed against my throat. “Would you like to watch your friend die before I take your life?” he hissed as his features started to change. His eyes changed from brown to a glowing red, his ears lengthened and became pointed, and a pair of black horns sprouted from his forehead. In the dark I could barely make out the details as the others swaggered toward Erin, but from the gasp she let out it appeared that they were going through similar transformations.

One of the men managed to get a hold on Erin and she was thrown to the ground beside me. Reimus held my head, trying to force me to watch, as his toady stood over her, smiling as his fingernails lengthened into sharp looking claws. It was then that Erin began to shake and her eyes rolled back into her head, as her back arched and a mist formed around her body. I had thought that the demons were responsible for this, but they seemed as confused as I was. The mist gathered upon Erin’s chest and began to take shape, forming what looked like some sort of large cat with a stubby tail, a cat which promptly attacked the still staring demons.

“The human is some kind of mage you fools!” Reimus screamed at his men who were trying to fight the apparition. “Kill her body and be done with it!” Then he glared down at me, raising the dagger. “I’ve wasted enough time, goodbye Miss Demarco.” He hadn’t plunged the dagger into my chest yet, but I felt like he had. My chest, back, and shoulders were consumed in a white-hot pain, which was spreading quickly to the rest of my body. In my pain, fear, and desperation I struck at the demon atop me, trying to keep him from taking my life. My blow landed and, to my great surprise, sent him flying.

I got to my feet groaning, even as Reimus did the same. “Her seal broke! Forget the mage, we need to get the girl’s blood before her power fully manifests!” I stood shakily, wondering how I had managed to hit him that hard, and if I would be able to do it again. My balance felt off and I could feel something heavy on my back. I was pretty sure I’d been lucky before and was uncertain about whether a repeat performance was possible against the one demon, let alone seven.

One of the demons had its hands full with the cat, which seemed much more solid than the mist implied. The Leader and the other five though were heading right for me. I glared at Reimus and stood up straight. This… thing had invaded my dreams, threatened my life and that of my best friend, and made me a victim to fear. If I was going to lose my life to that bastard, then I was going to damn well go down fighting.

I threw myself at him, knocking him to the ground and started punching him the moment we hit the wet sand. I was kneeling on top of him and pummeling him when I felt the others grabbing at me and trying to restrain me. The weight on my upper back was making things awkward, and I could feel them grabbing at something there but I couldn’t place what it was, but I had more pressing concerns at the moment. It was then that I felt rushing air, and water splashing against my back and face, as the demons trying to hold me were sent flying.

I looked up to see the demon fighting the mist cat nearby get thrown back as well. “What the hell is going on now?” I muttered as three figures approached us.

“Damn PDA,” Reimus spat, “don’t think this is over.” Then the demon beneath me vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving behind only a hint of sulfur in the air.

I looked around confused for a moment until my eyes focused on Erin’s body lying on the beach. Ignoring the three people, I half ran, half crawled to kneel beside her, where the foggy feline was sitting atop her chest. The mist began to dissipate, losing its shape as it settled on and around my friend, seeming to seep into her. I pressed my head to her chest to find that she was breathing steadily and started to shake her lightly. “Erin, please wake up.”

Erin stirred and sighed, just lying there for a time, “Raven, is that you? I have got the worst headache. I had the weirdest dream; you were being attacked by these guys who turned into some sort of demons, and I think I was a cat.” She opened her eyes to look up at me and blinked several times, looking confused. “I think I’m still dreaming.”

“It’s okay Erin, I know it might have seemed like a nightmare, but it’s over and I think we’re safe now.” I looked up at the three figures standing close by. It was hard to make out features in the dark, but it looked like two women and a man. The shorter of the two women, dressed in a bikini top and a wrap with short hair, nodded and sat beside us, while the other two people, wearing what looked like some sort of wetsuits, began to look around the area. “Yeah, it seems like we’re safe,” I said. “Are you okay?”

Erin nodded mutely as she looked at something over my shoulder, “I think I’m okay.” She shook her head as if to clear it, blinked her eyes several more times, and then stared over my shoulder again in disbelief. “Raven you… you have wings.” I turned my head and looked behind me, wondering what she was talking about, the weight on my back shifting with the movement. There I saw what looked like black wings. Curiously I reached back to tentatively touch one of them, feeling the soft feathers under my fingers. Something about them felt strange though. It was like I was not only feeling them with my fingers, but like someone was softly running fingers along my spine, only it wasn’t my spine. Then the realization hit me like a hammer and I fainted.

Someone was shaking me. ~Wake up please. We can’t stay here, we need to move you in case they come back with reinforcements.~ The voice was feminine, with a musical quality to it, and it was very soothing. Everything came back to me then; the demons, Erin, our mysterious saviors, and those wings. I kept trying to tell myself that this wasn’t real, that it couldn’t be real, and as long as I kept my eyes closed and ignored the strange sensations I could almost believe it. Lying there with my eyes closed though only seemed to make me more aware of the strange feeling new appendages. It also made me aware of something I had failed to notice earlier; my teeth felt different, like I had fangs or something. Was I some sort of monster? I curled up in a ball and could feel the wings wrapping around me protectively, tickling my bare skin.

~Please, we need to get you somewhere safe,~ the voice repeated as I started to panic. ~I know that this is shocking and probably very frightening for you Miss Demarco. I can help to ease your fear, but you have to calm down.~

“Calm down!?” The voice probably could have calmed me down if I let her, but I didn’t want to calm down, and I had more than my share to panic over. “Demons want my blood, I’m some kind of freak, and you’re telling me to calm down?! How am I supposed to live a normal life like this?!”

~You are not a freak,~ the voice insisted. ~You’re a Paranormal, just like me. We can help you to adjust and to live a normal life but we need to take you somewhere safe first.~

“Paranormal? Like as in ghosts and goblins?” I asked in disbelief.

~Kind of,~ she replied. ~There are a lot of different types of Paranormals. I promise we can tell you more once you and your friend are safe, so please open your eyes and stand up. We have a boat to take you somewhere safe, your friend is already aboard waiting.~

Reluctantly, I opened my eyes and got to my feet with the help of the strange young woman in the bikini top and wrap. “Who are you people?” I asked.

~We’re Paranormals like you. I’m Alice MacArthur and the ones waiting at the boat with your friend are my parents, Lila and Jake. My mother and I are Merfolk and my father is a Water Mage. They were the closest agents who were able to respond to your situation. I tagged along in case they needed any help. My parents thought you might be more comfortable talking to someone your own age, while they secured the area.~

It was then that I realized that her lips weren’t moving. “Hey! What are you doing in my head?!”

She took my hand, giving it a light squeeze. ~I apologize if this bothers you, but Merfolk can’t speak, our physical voices are magical so we can only communicate telepathically. If it makes you feel more comfortable, I can’t read your thoughts unless you specifically intend for me to hear them.~

“Sorry, but the last voice I had in my head wanted to kill me,” I snapped as I shook my hand free of hers.

~We only want to help you,~ she replied as we got to the speedboat that sat waiting for us. She sounded hurt and I felt bad for that. She hadn’t shown any intent other than to help me so far.

I cursed silently and looked away from Alice, to look over the boat. Erin was already aboard and looked to be asleep. “Sorry, I know you’re just trying to help, but it’s been a rough night. Is Erin okay?”

~It’s alright; I would probably feel the same way if I were in your place,~ she responded.

Alice’s parents were leaning against the boat and it was Alice’s mother that answered my question. ~Your friend is fine, she’s just sleeping. She used up a lot of energy. You were lucky that we were at a party nearby when the office got the call, or your night could have been a lot worse.~

“How did you know I was in trouble anyway?” I asked. “Who called you?”

A seagull glided past me to land beside the boat. The bird began to grow, its form shifting and flowing, until it became someone very familiar. “I did,” the figure said as she stepped forward to embrace me. “I’m so glad you’re safe Raven.” She stepped back, looking me over for a moment before smiling and reaching out to gently touch my new feathered appendages.

“Lydia?!” I sputtered in shock. “Can someone tell me what the hell is going on? Why are you here? And more importantly, is anybody I know normal?”

“We will explain everything once we get you back home where it’s safe,” she said. “You can’t go back to your dorm looking like that, and there’s a lot you need to be told. The MacArthur’s will take you to the house by water and I will take your car and meet you there. Hurry up and get on the boat, we need to get you home, before Baerahn’s followers decide to regroup and try again.”

For once, I wasn’t going to argue with her about taking me home. Alice and her mother climbed aboard the boat and took their seats while her father gave me a boost to help me in. As I was climbing in I leaned too far forward while trying to compensate for the weight of my wings and ended up falling into the boat face first, with my wings tangled with my arms and legs. Once I was untangled and settled into a seat, he pushed the boat further out into the water and climbed aboard. Then his wife gunned the engine and we took off toward my home.

It was several minutes before I found a comfortable sitting position and by then the movement of the boat had woken Erin. Sitting up straight caused me to sit on my wings at first while trying to sit at the rear of the boat got them really wet. Finally I settled on just leaning forward, which put them above and behind me. “How am I supposed to live a normal life with these ridiculous things? They’re constantly getting in the way.”

Erin had been watching me try to get comfortable, her eyes never leaving my wings. “I dunno Raven, I think they suit you.”

“You’ll learn to control them in time, and we should be able to find ways to help you hide them,” offered Alice’s father.

“Oh yeah, hiding these is going to be so easy, why didn’t I think of that?” I answered sarcastically.

“I didn’t say it would be easy,” he replied, “but if anyone knows about hiding our differences in plain sight its Lila and Alice. Why don’t you show them your true form Alice?” The young woman nodded and as I looked on her exposed legs seemed to fuse together, lengthen, and take on a silvery sheen, reflecting what little moonlight there was. She had a… tail. She really was a Mermaid like she claimed. For a long moment I just sat there silently and stared.

~Are you feeling okay?~ Alice asked. ~I know this is all probably a pretty big shock to you. You’ll get used to it all. There’s far stranger things than us out there.~

I shook my head. “I don’t know, tonight set the bar for weird shit pretty high.”

“No kidding,” Erin agreed. “Just tonight we’ve learned about the existence of demons, merfolk, mages, and whatever Raven is supposed to be. How the hell do normal people not find out about all this? And why are we not freaking out worse than we are?”

Alice’s musical mental voice offered the answer for that. ~For the most part humans see what they want to see. Many of us just want to live normal lives and have ways of blending into human society. My mom and I talk telepathically with other Paranormals but with humans we have to use sign language, we all adapt. As for your other question, it’s because I’m talking to you. A Mermaid’s mind voice has a calming effect, and our physical voices help heal mental trauma.~

I had absolutely no clue how I could blend in and live a normal life now, even if Alice and her parents seemed to think it was possible. “What about those who can’t hide their differences like you can?”

Alice’s father leaned back in his seat as he contemplated how to answer. Finally he said, “Lila and I work for the Paranormal Defense Agency. It’s a covert government agency that not only polices the Paranormal, but also offers various services to help those of us that desire it to live normal lives. The PDA has an office in every major population center in the country and offers counseling, medical services, job placement services, legal services, and assistance with special needs.”

“Paranormal Defense Agency?” I asked. “I’ve never heard of it.”

“Nobody has, unless they have a good reason to,” he replied. “Only those in the highest level of government know about us and there is no mention of us in the budget. We get our funding through a company that acts as a front, and the government funnels money into that company via federal business grants and other sources. Practically every nation in the world has agencies like the PDA, to police the Paranormal and keep us secret from the general population.”

“Okay, I get why you’re telling this to Raven, those wings are going to be hard for her to hide, but why am I here?” Erin asked. “Aren’t you afraid I’ll blab about your organization?”

He shook his head. “If we were concerned about you telling others, we would get a PDA psychic to alter your memories of tonight. I believe this concerns you as well Miss Ross. What do you know about magic?”

Erin looked thoughtful for a moment. “Judging from what went on tonight, I’m going to take a stab in the dark and guess that it’s real. My people are more into spirituality than magic, but they could be interchangeable I guess. My grandfather was a Shaman for our tribe.”

“Did your grandfather ever mention anything about the paranormal or magic?” he asked.

“He told me that I was close to the spirits, and that he wanted me to follow in his footsteps. He taught me some before he died and left me his journals, but I didn’t take the old beliefs as seriously as I probably should have.” She looked away and sighed before continuing, “I thought I took them seriously, but I guess I didn’t really believe in anything I couldn’t physically see and touch before now. Are you trying to tell me that I’m a Mage like you?”

“No, I don’t think you’re a Mage Miss Ross,” he replied. “Mages are humans aligned to one or more of the ten elements. Those elements are Water, Earth, Fire, Air, Metal, Lightning, Wood, Ice, Divine, and Death, which the politically correct folks call Dark. You’re different; you seem to be connected to the spirit world instead of one of the elements. If you were a Mage I would offer to have one of the PDA Mages aligned to the same element as you train you, but since you’re not you’ll probably have to find a Shaman to do it, or develop your abilities on your own.”

“Or I could just go on with my life and forget this ever happened,” Erin countered.

~That would be difficult,~ Alice’s mom pointed out. ~You Manifested tonight, and once you’ve rubbed the lamp it’s hard to put the genie back inside. You have abilities now, untrained abilities, and untrained paranormal abilities could be dangerous to you and everyone around you.~ The rest of the ride to my house was spent in silence as both Erin and I considered the Mermaid’s words.

We were all just getting comfortable in my living room. In the light I was able to get a much better look at the three who had saved us. Jake MacArthur was a tall skinny man with a swimmer’s physique and red hair. What I had thought was a wet suit in the dark actually turned out to be a form fitting body armor, which matched that worn by his wife. Lila was tall and slim, with violet eyes and long coral colored hair. Alice on the other hand, wore her bright green hair in a short and wild style. Her eyes were bright amber and the bikini top and wrap she wore were of a similar shade as her hair.

Lydia arrived shortly after we were settled, and I looked up from where I was sitting on a stool when I heard the door open. “Now that we’re all here maybe you can start answering some of my questions Lydia,” I said once she had joined us.

My servant got comfortable in one of the armchairs. “I’ll answer anything you want to know, it’s about time you found out about who and what you are.”

“Let’s start with that then. What exactly am I?” I asked.

“You have mixed blood,” she replied. “Your father was a half Demon and your mother claimed to be a Valkyrie. Mixed Paranormals often have a lot of complications, as a result of the blending of the different physiologies and inherent magical qualities. Almost half suffer from some sort of physical deformities when they Manifest, and close to twenty percent are born Manifested like you were instead of Manifesting during puberty like most other Paranormals.”

I blinked in surprise. “I was born this way?”

She nodded slowly. “Your mother was a powerful user of Divine magic. She wanted you to be able to live a normal childhood and come into your abilities during puberty, like other Paranormals. So she decided to seal you not long after you were born, and then break the seal when you were in your teens.”

“Why did the seal break tonight if she wasn’t here to break it?” I asked.

Lydia nodded again before continuing her explanation. “As I said, she intended to break the seal when you were sixteen, but she always took precautions. She was worried that Baerahn’s cronies might come after you some day and she knew if that happened you’d only be able to protect yourself if you had your abilities, so she rigged the seal to break if you were ever attacked by a Demon.”

It seemed like every question I got answered was leading to more questions. “Who is this Baerahn, and why is my blood so important to him?”

“Baehran is an Archdemon with a lot of followers and a mad on for humans,” she explained. “Seventeen years ago he tried to bring a Demon army into our world, and a PDA Hunter team was sent to seal him before he could do that. That team was led by your parents. I helped them get close to him, but then everything went south. Their entire team was dead or dying, but before your mother succumbed to her wounds she was able to form a powerful seal using the blood of Baehran’s own son. Only the blood of Baehran’s family line can be used to break that seal.”

“Why the hell are his people after me then?” The irony of that phrase was not lost on me.

There was a heavy silence before Lydia replied. “Remember how I told you your father was a half Demon? He was Baehran’s son.”

“Well if gramps wants me so bad why doesn’t he come after me himself?” I asked, crossing my arms in annoyance.

~There are two types of seals,~ Lila MacArthur explained. ~The first type is a minor seal like the one used on you, we also use it to permanently seal the special abilities and magic of less dangerous Paranormal criminals, this essentially makes them no different than a normal human. The other type of seal is a full seal which seals both the Paranormal and their abilities in a pocket dimension. We use full seals on criminals too powerful for minor seals to effect. The type of seal your mother used on Baehran was a full seal. His followers need your blood to break that seal and return him to this plane.~

“And just what makes this house so safe from his followers?” I muttered. “The security system isn’t that good.”

“When you were born your mother placed powerful wards against Demons on this house and the grounds. Demons have no chance of getting past the wards she put up. Your mother made sure only three beings with demon blood could get past these wards; your father, myself, and you.”

“You’re a Demon?” I stared at my long time caregiver not willing to equate the sweet old woman who had raised me with something like that.

“My real name is Lydaethilia,” she explained. “I’m an Imp, and I am bound to serve you and your descendants until my death.”

“Bound? Do you mean you’re a slave?” Did that mean she only stuck by me and cared for me because she had no choice?

The Imp got out of her chair and knelt before me, taking my hand. “I am bound by my own choice and my blood. I swore a life oath to your father, and all his descendants, when he prevented Baehran from killing me. Nick was the bravest man I have ever known. Before they sealed Baehran , Nick and Siv ordered me to leave the battle and to care for and protect you if they didn’t make it out alive. I would have died for them. I kept you here to keep you safe, because I wasn’t powerful enough to protect you out there. Imps are shape shifters and spies, not bodyguards. I have been watching you in various forms since you started school, ready to call the PDA if you got into any trouble. You are the most important thing in the world to me.”

I could feel tears coming to my eyes. “I’m s-sorry,” I sniffled as I buried my face in her shoulder. “I left without any thought of how it was going to hurt you, I thought I knew what I needed better than you.”

“You’re grown up Raven; you needed your own life. I couldn’t keep this from you forever.” She held me tight until I stopped crying. She seemed to sense when I stopped and pulled away, “Do you have any other questions?”

I thought back on the events from earlier before nodding. “Why did the Demons panic so badly when the seal on me broke?”

Lydia grinned and let out a chuckle. “They were minor Demons, little more than errand boys. You are the product of a Valkyrie and Baehran’s son. Mixed abilities are unpredictable, but if you are anything like either of your parents, then at full power you would have wiped the floor with them.”

I frowned at the idea of being related to such an evil Demon. “If he’s so bad why didn’t they just kill him?”

Jake MacArthur mirrored my frown as he replied, “Demons are resilient bastards. Those as powerful as he is are damn hard to kill, and even if they had, his followers would have likely just collected his black soul and placed it in a new vessel.”

I sat there for a time going over everything in my mind, trying to think of more important questions to ask, when Erin asked what was quite possibly the most important question of them all. “What happens to us now?”

~Neither of you can return to school right now,~ Lila warned. ~Baehran’s followers will still be after Raven, probably in greater numbers, and they will be after you as well Erin. You stood up to them tonight, and lived to tell the tale, and that’s probably pissed them off since they saw you as just another human. They also know you’re close to Raven, which will give them even more incentive to get to you. Right now you’re both in danger if you leave this house without protection.~

“Not that I could leave the house anyway looking like this,” I grumbled. Not only did I have the wings to worry about, but also my fangs and inch long black claws in place of my finger and toenails.

“True, we’ll need to find a way for you to hide those wings of yours,” Jake put in. “You and Erin will need to be taught more about the paranormal as well.”

Lydia shrugged, “Nick and Siv both had the ability to hide their features and appear human, it’s common among Demons and I don’t know much about Valkyries, but Siv seemed to do it naturally as well. I would imagine that Raven has that ability to some degree. I would teach her, but Imp shape shifting is different, we have no set form like the rest of you and our shifting is closer to magical transformation than to actually changing shape. Also, staying in a specific shape for long periods of time is uncomfortable for us.”

~I could try to teach Raven how we Merfolk shift our tails into legs,~ Alice offered. ~The basic idea is the same and it might work for her to be able to retract her wings.~

“We have plenty of space if you want to stay here while you teach me,” I replied. “We can get the guest rooms set up for you and Erin. Is there anything we’ll need to do other than stay here and safe while I learn to hide these?”

“We’ll have agents go to collect your things from your dorm rooms and come up with a cover story for why you’re leaving school. We can work out the details on that tomorrow morning,” Jake said. “We’ll need to bring you in to the local PDA headquarters anyway to get your documentation sorted out, run some tests on the two of you, and figure out what you’re capable of. That way we can find out what you’ll need to do to learn to control your abilities. We can have a truck come by with your possessions, and some of the things Alice will need while she’s here, in the evening. We’ll also try to keep a few agents watching the house, in case Baehran’s followers get clever and try to send something other than Demons after you.”

“That all sounds good,” I said, trying to stifle a yawn, “but how do you expect to get me to this headquarters of yours without being seen.”

~We’ll send Alice in a delivery van with tinted windows,~ Lila offered. ~You can ride in the back, and when you get there she can pull up to the rear entrance.~ Her eyes closed for several seconds and then she smiled. ~The other two members of our team are outside and in position to watch the house while you sleep. Now that they’re here, we will leave for the night and start making the necessary arrangements .Try to get some rest girls, you’ll both have a busy day tomorrow.~

“I’ll try to, but what if that asshole tries to get into my dreams again? I asked.

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Lydia put in. “The wards should prevent any intrusion like that from Demons.”

Our three rescuers took their leave for the evening after that, leaving Erin and I alone with Lydia. I had more that I wanted to ask the Imp, but Erin and I were both exhausted from our encounter and what had followed. I remembered her leading us upstairs, but nothing after that as I quickly fell asleep.

 

Raven's Blood
Chapter 4: Changes

By
Amethyst

Thanks to my readers for reading my work and patiently waiting for new chapters and to the Big Closet team who give so much of themselves to keep this site going

As exhausted as I was, my sleep was broken. I kept getting my wings tangled in the sheets, lying on top of one, or finding a dozen other ways in which having a nearly twelve foot wingspan could make for an uncomfortable sleep. At some point during the night I threw off my covers and lay on my side. In that position, with my wings spread out behind me, I finally managed to sleep until the smell of coffee and frying bacon woke me.

I sat up in bed and tried to rub the sleep from my eyes, ignoring the protests from my stomach. There was a kink in my back, from my various awkward sleeping positions during the night, and I stretched in an attempt to work it out. This of course, caused my wings to unfurl and knocked the lamp from my bedside table, sending it to the floor with a crash. I heard movement in the guest room across the hall and a moment later my door was thrown open to reveal Erin, still clad in the white mini dress from the night before, with a look of concern on her face. “Raven are you okay?!”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I replied while trying to give her a reassuring smile. “I’m just not used to these yet and knocked over my lamp. How are you this morning?”

“I guess I’m okay. I was a little confused waking up in a strange room. I would ask if last night really happened, but I can already see the answer to that question.” She came into the room and sat on the foot of my bed. “How do they feel? Are they heavy?”

I shrugged, causing the appendages in question to move again. “They’re not really heavy,” I admitted after a moment’s thought. “It’s more that I’m not used to having the weight there, and it’s throwing off my balance a bit. They feel weird, kind of like having an extra pair of arms that I have no idea how to use. They’re sensitive too.”

“Could I… touch them?” she asked. She quickly looked away, embarrassed. “Never mind, you probably don’t even want to think about them right now, let alone have people pawing at them.”

“It’s kind of hard to ignore them, and I think I’m probably going to have them for the rest of my life, so I should probably try to get used to them.” I attempted another smile as I moved closer to her and took her hand, raising it to my right wing “You’re my best friend Erin, it’s okay if you’re curious, I know I would be if our positions were reversed.”

As I let go of her hand, she tentatively touched the black feathers. Uncertain, she looked to me for approval and when I nodded the tentative touch became a soft caress. “They’re so soft.” I shivered at the caress and she quickly pulled her hand away, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine; it just feels weird having someone touch them. It’s kind of like a shiver running down my spine, but it’s not my spine.”

We sat there for a moment with her staring at my wings and gently moving her hands along one. Suddenly she broke out into a fit of giggles. “I guess your name is more appropriate than I thought.” I stared at her in confusion wondering what exactly had set her off. It must have shown on my face, because she was quick to explain. “Sorry Raven, remember when we first met and I told you that I was trying to see the God Raven in you?”

I nodded slowly, “You said everyone sees him differently because he’s a reflection of ourselves or something, and none of our friends could see me as a mischievous and selfish lecher. I may have the wings for it now, but I don’t think anything has changed up here,” I said tapping my forehead.

“No, I think you’re still the same girl you were before, just with a few new additions. I also said that some people saw him as a magician, creator, and transformer, and you have been transformed by magic in a way.” She sighed as she stood up, suddenly serious. “We’re in over our heads right now Raven. We both need to learn as much as we can, and soon.”

“Hopefully those people can help us with that. Maybe they can get a Shaman to teach you,” I suggested hopefully.

She shook her head sadly. “I doubt it. Grandfather told me that Shamans of different tribes are usually competitive with one another, and they don’t trust outsiders. They don’t share their secrets with anyone but their successors. Hopefully I can learn what I need to from my grandfather’s journals.”

“Where are the journals?” I asked as I got off my bed and walked to my closet.

“Remember that old chest at the foot of my bed?” she asked. When I nodded she went on to add, “Everything my grandfather left me when he died last year is in that chest.”

“Good, that means you can start studying as soon as they bring our stuff here. Let’s find something to wear. I didn’t leave many clothes here when I left for school, it’s mostly summer stuff, but hopefully we can find something that works. I don’t know about you, but I never want to see these costumes again.”

We managed to find a hunter green ankle length skirt and a cream colored silk blouse that fit Erin, while I opted for a pair of tight jeans and an aquamarine halter top that didn’t bother my wings. Once we were dressed we left my room and headed downstairs to the kitchen, where Lydia was setting the table for breakfast. “You two are just in time, breakfast is ready and the MacArthur’s just phoned to let us know that Alice should be here with the van in half an hour. I was about to come and wake you. How did you sleep?”

“I had some bad dreams, but the bed was very comfortable thank you,” Erin replied.

“I was too tired to dream I think,” I put in. “It was nice to not have nightmares for once. When I finally found a position that was comfortable for my wings I slept like a log.” I took my seat at the table and looked at the breakfast. “Thanks Lydia, you always make a great breakfast.” Erin sat down beside me while Lydia sat across from me, and we all ate in silence for several minutes before it started to get to me. “You said last night that Imps get uncomfortable staying in a specific form for a long period of time?”

The Imp nodded. “Yes dear, we get uncomfortable staying in specific forms for lengthy periods, though most of us have a type of form we prefer over others and that we are relatively comfortable in. It’s sort of a signature form, never exactly the same twice but usually with similar age, gender and other variables.”

“Is that your preferred type of form?” I asked. When she shook her head I frowned at her. “You don’t need to pretend to be my elderly nanny any more if it’s uncomfortable for you; I want you to be free to be yourself.”

“You might find my preferred form difficult to adjust to,” she said with a shake of her head.

“You do realize that is only going to make us want to see it even more,” Erin stated between bites of toast. “So what is it, some kind of Demon? Alien? Talking Platypus? Don’t leave us hanging.”

Lydia rolled her eyes but raised her hands in surrender. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Her features became fluid and she seemed to shrink until finally the flesh colored blob resolved itself into an adorable little girl in a denim romper over a white t-shirt. She was maybe six or seven years old with big blue eyes and her blonde hair was tied up in pigtails. Prominently displayed on the front of the romper in a white circle was a hand displaying its middle finger, it was the last thing I had expected.

Apparently Erin felt the same way. She just stared for a moment before finally managing to utter, “I… I think you broke my brain.”

Little girl Lydia giggled and grinned at us. “I told you so.” Then we all returned to eating breakfast while she explained what would be happening. “When you leave with Alice in the delivery van, her parents and their team will be following you in another van while I keep watch from the air. As a last resort, I’ve placed cans of para-mace in your purses.”

“Para-mace?” I asked. “And how did you manage to get our purses? We forgot them at the party last night in all the confusion. I wouldn’t have been able to get in the house last night if I hadn’t remembered where we keep the spare key.”

“When I went to pick up your car last night I went in to the party disguised as you, to get your purses and tell your roommate that you and Erin were leaving,” she explained. “I couldn’t copy you perfectly, but it was good enough to fool a bunch of drunk university students. Para-mace is like pepper spray, but for use against some of the nastier Paranormals; Vampires, Demons, rabid Werefolk, and the like. It contains garlic, vervain, sea salt, silver nitrate and wolfsbane, and it’s enchanted with Divine magic to give it a little extra kick. It won’t do any permanent harm, but it hurts like hell to anything aligned with Death magic.”

“I’m part Demon Lydia,” I pointed out, “what if I’m aligned to Death magic?”

“Try not to use the mace unless you have to,” she replied with a shrug. “Hopefully today we’ll find out more about you, and that should give the PDA a baseline to work from.”

It was then that the intercom for the front gate buzzed. After making sure it was Alice, I activated the gate to let her into the grounds and then Erin and I grabbed our purses and went out the front door. A worn looking beige van was pulling up the driveway and when it stopped in front of the door I could see displayed on the side in faded lettering, Werehouse Imports and Exports. “Funny name,” Erin said with a chuckle, “I wonder if it was intentional, or if it was just a typo and they ran with it.”

~It was intentional,~ Alice supplied with a grin as she opened the rear doors and gestured for me to get inside. She was dressed in a black leather vest and boots, torn jeans and a t-shirt displaying a heavy metal band logo. That, the piercings in her ears and eyebrow, her amber eyes, and wild green hair gave her a decidedly punk look. ~The founder of the company the PDA uses as a front was a Werewolf. He figured if we can’t laugh at ourselves, who can we laugh at.~

“That’s a good look on you,” I commented as I climbed into the back. Once I was fully inside, settled on some cushions with my wings clear of the doors, Alice closed the rear doors and she and Erin climbed into the front seats.

As she settled in and started the engine Alice smiled at me over her shoulder. ~When you have green hair and amber eyes, people don’t give it another thought if you’re dressed like this. It sure beats dying my hair and wearing contacts.~

The drive to the PDA headquarters was long and uneventful. We wound our way through the streets of the west side, over Burrard Street Bridge, and then through downtown Vancouver until we reached a large run-down warehouse on the waterfront, and near the docks, with an attached office building and a sign matching the faded lettering on the van. “I have to admit, this is the last place I would look for a covert government agency,” I said as Alice backed the van up to the delivery entrance.

~The warehouse itself and the first floor of the office building are exactly what they appear to be,~ Alice’s musical mind voice noted as she turned off the engine. ~It’s a fairly profitable import/export business from what I’m told. In its official capacity this warehouse and office employs a large number of Paranormals, and humans who are in the loop. Also, some of the imports are unusual or hard to find items that Paranormals need to live somewhat normal lives, or equipment for the PDA itself.~

“I guess the PDA uses the upper floors for the covert stuff then?” Erin asked uncertainly.

The mermaid shrugged. ~Yes and no. The remaining floors are for PDA business. All registration and government services are located on the second floor, the third floor is dedicated to counseling and medical services, and the fourth floor is for helping Paranormals find employment and homes suited to their needs, and for recruiting specialized Paranormals for emergency work. The real covert stuff, policing Paranormals and damage control when the humans see something they shouldn’t, goes on downstairs. There is a large complex beneath the warehouse and office building that contains the policing department, training facilities, and special equipment for the PDA Hunters.~

Erin and Alice opened their doors and came around to the back to open the rear doors and usher me inside the busy warehouse. The mermaid’s parents fell into step with us and guided us, through the crates, workers, and occasional forklifts, to a side door that led to the attached office building. That door let out in an empty room with only a door leading to the rest of the first floor and an elevator. Lila pressed the button to the elevator and we all climbed inside, where she then swiped a key card and pressed the button for the basement level one.

“Normally we have new Paranormals go upstairs to meet with our doctors and counselors and to get registered,” Alice’s father said, “but since you’re a special case, I’ve gotten the Chief’s permission to get it all done downstairs where things are a bit more secure. Only PDA Agents with key cards, or those accompanied by them, are allowed downstairs.”

“Umm… thanks… I think,” I responded as I felt us begin to go down.

Once we were downstairs we were led to an office with four desks, each with a computer and one of which had various papers strewn across it. Alice’s father continued to explain, “Almost this entire floor is offices and the crime labs. The training facilities are downstairs, and we’ll take you there later to test you for abilities. This is our team’s office; I thought it would be more comfortable discussing things here until we get to the testing.”

“Is Alice part of your team too?” Erin asked.

The Mermaid in question shook her head. ~No, but I do want to join a Hunter team someday, so I’m sort of a trainee. Also, Mom and Dad thought you both might be more comfortable with someone your own age who has been through a sudden Manifestation. I only Manifested last year when I was eighteen. Usually Merfolk Manifest between twelve and fourteen years old, when puberty starts. I had pretty much given up on it happening and planned on going to college. Then it happened while I was swimming with some human friends at the beach one night. We had to get a PDA Psychic in to rewrite their memories about me. I couldn’t really hang around my old human friends anymore, they’re not in the loop about us and there would be too many questions about how I lost my voice and my sudden change in style.~

“I’m sorry it had to happen to you that way,” I said to the now sad-looking Mermaid, “but it’s nice to know we’re not alone in this.”

“Yup, misery loves company and all that,” Erin agreed, putting an arm around both me and Alice.

Erin and I both got a photo taken and then took a seat while Alice helped us with the paperwork for our PDA registration cards, which we would be issued later in the day. While we were filling those out, we discussed with the MacArthur’s the cover story the PDA would use when it went to collect our belongings. The plan we finally came up with was for two agents to go in posing as Lydia and a mover. The one posing as Lydia would be a psychic, and she would reinforce the story they would give in the minds of our friends, deal with administration, and handle any other unexpected difficulties.

The story that the one posing as Lydia would tell our friends was that I had had a nervous breakdown and decided to quit school and go somewhere to get away from it all. Erin had suggested her family cabin in the woods on Haida Gwaii and offered to stay with me until I was feeling better, with the idea that we could both return to school next year. I had then booked a plane to fly us to the islands and instructed Lydia to hire a mover and retrieve our things from the dorms. Erin and I also wrote handwritten notes to our respective roommates to add to the believability. It was hard for us to write those notes, hell this whole plan was hard to accept, but we also knew it was necessary if we didn’t want our friends getting accidentally dragged into all of this.

Once our story was set and the agents were on their way, one of the PDA psychological team was brought in to talk with us and see how we were coping. Dr. Maher was a short and slightly chubby man with curly brown hair and green eyes, who preferred being comfortable to wearing a suit and I liked him immediately. He had a way of putting me at ease, and there was no doubt that he cared about his patients. When I mentioned that, he told me that Empaths can’t help but care about how others feel. Overall, he thought we were both adjusting as well as could be expected, but he advised us that he and other psychologists were available on the third floor if we ever felt that we needed somebody to talk to. He also gave us his business card with his phone number and email address, in case we felt that need.

When Dr. Maher was finished with us, the MacArthurs escorted us to the crime labs and medical area, where a slim woman with greying brown hair and wearing a lab coat was apparently waiting for us. She looked up from her computer as we entered and smiled, her eyes settling right on me. “Ah! You must be Nick and Siv’s daughter! I’d recognize those wings anywhere.” She hopped off her stool and slithered over to enthusiastically shake my hand. I thought at first that my eyes were playing tricks on me. but there was definitely a snake’s tail under that lab coat instead of legs.

Noticing the direction of my stare the woman chuckled, “Forgive me dear, I forgot that you must be new to all of this. It gets uncomfortable maintaining a human form all the time, so a lot of us here work in our natural forms if possible unless we’re out on an assignment.” She seemed to grow taller as her tail split, brown scales fading to the natural olive color of her skin, as the two halves of her tail became legs.

“I am never going to get used to that,” Erin muttered beside me.

Jake laughed at that, “It does take a while, but you will in time. Girls I would like you to meet Dr. Sylvia Jennings. Sylvia, as you guessed, this is Raven Demarco and her friend Erin Ross.”

“It’s nice to meet you Dr. Jennings. Did you know my parents?” I asked as I thought over what she had said.

“As well as I’ve known any of the Hunters working here,” she replied. “I’m the one who patches up all the injuries our people get out in the field. I never had to do much with your parents though, Siv was pretty resilient and Nick had that Demon regeneration of his.”

I hoped that this woman could tell me at least a little about my parents. “You said you recognized my wings, did one of my parents have wings like this?”

“Don’t be silly, your mother’s wings were white,” the doctor said. “I recognize your wings because I was there when you were born. Let me tell you, those wings, even though they were relatively small at the time, did not make your birth easy for poor Siv. She took it like a champ though. She had a feeling that you were Manifested in the womb and she knew that meant there was a possibility that you had wings, but she still delivered you naturally.”

Dr. Jennings then took me to the examination room and had me undress and change into a paper gown. Once I was changed and sitting on the examining table, she came into the room with a clipboard. “I’m going to give you a brief physical, and once I’m done with you Jake and Lila will take you downstairs for a more thorough testing while I examine your friend. I usually use this room to patch up injured Hunters, but I have everything I’ll need here to examine you.” I nodded mutely and let her get to work.

She began with all the usual stuff; reflexes, blood pressure, breathing, heart rate, and checking the eyes, ears, and mouth. After finishing the gynecological exam she went on to ask if had been having any troubles or if anything had felt wrong since the seal had broken, other than having wings. The only thing I could really think of was the fact that I didn’t seem to know my own strength. I had shattered three glasses at breakfast that morning just trying to pick them up for a drink and considered myself very fortunate that I hadn’t cut my hand or something. I had also snapped more than a dozen pens in half while trying to fill out my PDA paperwork before Alice took over writing for me.

Finally the Lamia finished the examination, well most of it, and smiled at me. “Well Raven, you seem to be in very good health. Your canines are larger and sharper than a normal human’s but that's not too surprising given your mixed physiology. I’m also concerned about your weight; you’re about 20 kilos heavier than you should be at your size, even taking your wings into account. Now I’m going to try to take some blood, so we can run some tests on it. I want to make sure you don’t have any genetic defects due to your mixed parentage.”

“I hate needles,” I muttered, and closed my eyes as she moved the offending object toward my arm.

“Well I guess that’s one question answered,” I heard the doctor mutter. I opened my eyes to see that the needle she was holding was bent. “Damn, that was one of my good tungsten needles. Just a moment Raven, I’ll need to find one of my enchanted ones.”

“What’s wrong?” I asked as she searched through a metal cabinet.

“Your skin is too tough for the needle to penetrate,” the doctor replied as she found what she was looking for and turned back to me. “It’s not surprising; Siv’s skin couldn’t be penetrated by much except enchanted weapons. The only times I ever saw her in here were when there was magic involved, or some sort of internal injury like broken bones or a concussion.” She jabbed me with the new needle and managed to get it to pierce my skin.

When she figured she had enough blood she pulled out the needle and carefully watched the wound. “Hmmm,” she murmured, “I need to test something else. This might sting a bit, but I’m going to use one of my enchanted scalpels to make a small incision in your upper arm. Is that alright with you? You can close your eyes if it makes it easier.” I nodded my consent and closed my eyes tight. A moment later I felt a sharp sting in my arm followed by a tingling sensation. When I finally opened my eyes Dr. Jennings was wiping a little blood off my arm with a disinfectant wipe. “It seems you got something from your father other than those claws and teeth after all.”

I looked over my unmarked arm in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Most Demons have a form of high speed regeneration, its part of what makes them so difficult to kill, their wounds heal very quickly. Your father had it, and it seems that you do too. I don’t think you heal as fast as Nick did or full blooded Demons do, but it’s pretty damn close. That, combined with your mother’s hard skin, is going to make you damn hard for anything to hurt or kill.”

I gaped at the older woman in shock. “Are you saying I’m indestructible?”

The question caused Dr. Jennings to laugh as she replied, “Hardly. Your parents both shared a vulnerability to magic and enchanted weapons. There are probably quite a few things that can hurt you and I doubt, even with that regeneration, you’d live through something like decapitation. Still, you’ll be able to take quite a bit of damage if my guess is right. And as sharp and strong as demon claws tend to be, you should be able to give as good as you get.”

“Oh,” I replied, not sure whether I was relieved or disappointed. “Are there any other tests you need to do?”

“No, I think I’ve got everything I need from you. You can get changed while I go take this blood sample to the boys in the lab for analysis. Please send Erin in on your way out and ask her to get changed into a gown.” She smiled at me as she turned and left, closing the door behind her.

Once I was back in my clothes and Erin was in the room awaiting her own exam, the MacArthurs led me back to the elevator where we went down to the sub-basement. ~This may take a while,~ Lila said to her husband as we stopped at a door to the right. ~Did you want to take Alice to the shooting range for a bit? It’s a good chance for her to get some practice in.~

Jake nodded. “True, we don’t all need to be in there and Alice and I don’t get to practice together much. We’ll come join you once we get tired of putting holes in things. Come on Alice; let’s see if you’ve improved any since last time.”

~Sure Dad, that sounds like fun.~ She turned and waved as she and her father went further down the hallway. ~Good luck Raven.~

Lila opened the door and held it open for me with a smile. ~Let’s go see what you’re made of.~

 

Raven's Blood
Chapter 5: Testing

By
Amethyst

Thanks to my readers for reading my work and patiently waiting for new chapters and to the Big Closet team who give so much of themselves to keep this site going

The training room was a very large room with high ceilings and an indoor running track along the outer edge. In the center of the track there was gymnastics equipment, various weights and workout equipment I didn’t know the names of, and a large area with mats on the floor that I assumed to be some sort of sparring area, judging by the padded equipment and wooden practice dummies. It was there that a tall silver haired man, perhaps in his mid to late fifties, in a charcoal grey suit waited for us. Lila led me straight to him and was quick to introduce us. ~Raven, I would like you to meet our resident magic expert, Peter Grayson. Peter this is Raven Demarco, one of the two challenges we have for you today.~

The man chuckled and shook my offered hand. “It’s nice to meet you Raven, but I’m afraid what Lila said is a bit misleading. Saying I’m a magic expert makes it sounds like I have magic of my own at my disposal. I am not a Mage and I have no magic of my own whatsoever. However, I will be able to help determine what magic you and your friend may have.”

I let go of his hand after giving it a gentle shake, I actually let him do the gripping so I wouldn’t accidentally crush his hand or something, I was wondering what exactly he meant by what he said though and asked, “Don’t you need to have magic to know about it?”

He nodded in agreement. “Yes, you do need to have some inherent magic or magical ability to know as much about magic as I do. I have what we call Magesight. When I hit puberty I started to see strange things and everything seemed to be covered in colored lights. I came from a family of normal humans and my parents thought I had some sort of mental disorder. They took me to a lot of different doctors. One of those doctors was a Mage who discovered my gift and put me in touch with the PDA to train it. I can’t use magic, but I can see it in a way magic users can’t. I can see spells, auras, and magical creatures for what they really are and sense things about the nature of people and things.”

“I guess that must be pretty useful,” I responded.

He winked at me. “To be honest, more often than not, it’s a pain in the ass, but it does help me earn a ridiculous government salary.”

I decided that I liked this man and his sense of humor. “So what do you sense from me then?”

He stared at me for several minutes, appearing to be deep in thought. “I knew your parents and I can see that you’ve gained something from both of them, but you appear to be aligned to the Divine element only. It’s somewhat surprising since Nick’s father was an arch Demon and his mother was a Death Mage. However,” he added, “I don’t sense any potential for magic use from you at all. It’s a shame; your mother was a truly gifted Divine magic user, possibly the most powerful I’ve ever met. There is something, a Divine ability, but I can’t determine its nature. It’s similar to something I sensed from her while she was alive, but different as well. It could be something inherent to Valkyries, but your mother never talked about her people much, let alone their abilities, other than to say that they were warriors.”

“I guess that’s more than I knew before,” I said with a shrug.

“I wish I could tell you more,” he replied, looking disappointed. ”You may not be able to use magic itself, but I believe you have inherited some inherent magical abilities from your parents. We’ll test you for all the abilities that they were known to have. Have you noticed anything yourself?”

I shook my head as I responded, “Aside from my wings’ ability to get in the way whenever it’s least convenient and not knowing my own strength, no. You might want to put my father’s regeneration and my mother’s resistance to sharp pointy things in the yes column though, Dr. Jennings discovered those earlier.”

“That does shorten the list,” Peter replied thoughtfully. “Your mother could fly and I think it is more than likely that you can as well, or else why would you have such an impressive set of wings?”

“I’m beginning to think they’re here just to annoy me, “I retorted, “that or for comic relief.”

“As good as those reasons are, let’s see if we can find a practical use for them,” he suggested with a smile. “Perhaps they would be less annoying that way. Can you control them? Try spreading them for me please.”

“I just got them last night and I’ve been trying to get them to obey my commands ever since,” I muttered. I tried focusing on them, thinking of them as another pair of arms, but I just couldn’t seem to get them to do anything. It was like giving a snake hands and telling it to play video games, my brain just didn’t seem to have a proper frame of reference to work from. I spent twenty minutes trying to get them to do something, anything, consciously, but I was still trying when Dr. Jennings brought Erin in to join us.

“Maybe we should wait until you’re more used to them before we try flying,” Peter offered. “I see your friend is here, let’s see what I can make of her and then we’ll test your physical limits.”

It turned out that Erin was connected to the spirit world, like Jake had thought. The mist cat that had materialized when we were attacked was a physical representation of Erin’s spirit animal, the lynx, that Peter called an avatar. She could summon this avatar at will, but it required her to push her consciousness into it to have it do anything. The downside to this was that it left her body extremely vulnerable while her consciousness was elsewhere. Peter also thought that she could speak with and command cats since her avatar was feline.

“So basically I’m the crazy cat lady,” Erin joked.

Peter smiled but only replied, “You should be able to do more with spirits, but we will have to hope that you can find some way of discovering exactly what. Currently we have nobody qualified to teach you.”

“Well at least I have a starting point,” my friend said before sighing. “I really hope Grandfather’s journals have something useful in them. Otherwise this will be like trying to find a needle in a haystack, while blindfolded.”

Still feeling a bit disheartened by my inability to even consciously use my wings, let alone fly, I nodded in agreement. “I know exactly how you feel.” Then I turned back to Peter and looked toward the training area at the center of the room. “You mentioned something about testing our physical limits? Maybe we can find something I can do.”

Once we had gotten changed into some workout clothes that Lila provided us with; Peter, Dr. Jennings, and Lila spent the next several hours attempting to push us to our limits, and beyond, in every physical test they could conceive of. Erin’s physical abilities didn’t seem to have changed much from before she Manifested. Her strength, speed, and stamina were all normal for a human girl her age in decent physical shape. It wasn’t until she started on the gymnastics equipment that our testers found anything unusual physically. Erin was able to do things on the balance beam, and some of the other equipment, that I wasn’t able to until my third year of gymnastics. Her agility, reflexes, flexibility, and sense of balance were all way above average.

My testing wasn’t quite as revealing as Erin’s. We weren’t able to test my balance or agility very accurately because I was still getting used to having wings and it kept throwing me off. In fact, it was making it hard to get an accurate measure of any of my attributes. My stamina proved to be well above average while at a run and the consensus was that this was because I would need it for flying. Dr. Jennings believed that once I actually learned to fly, that I would burn energy a lot faster and need to eat more often. Running had also revealed that I was faster than normal, but whether this was my strength fueling my speed, or something inherent to Valkyries, was inconclusive.

My reflexes also seemed to be well above normal, and again the consensus was that it was needed for flight. Dr. Jennings said that the shape and size of my wings indicated that they were built for maneuverability and speed, thus the need for good reflexes. My claws, both those on my fingers and toes, proved to be very durable. They were also very sharp, sharp enough to leave deep gouges in a steel plate.

Finally we tested my strength, and we were all in for a surprise there. My mother had been strong, but nobody knew how strong since she tended not to reveal much about herself, outside what was needed on the job. Demon strength is nothing to sneeze at either and, even as only a half Demon, my father was quite a bit stronger than the average human. When we tested my strength I hadn’t even started to feel any strain yet when we ran out of weight to add.

“Are you sure you’re reading that right?” I asked Dr. Jennings in disbelief.

The doctor nodded, looking as stunned as I felt. “I’m sure Raven. You’re bench pressing close to two metric tons. I think that extra weight we noticed may be due to slightly denser bones and muscles, or else you’d break or pull something under the strain of trying to lift something that heavy, let alone hit something with that kind of strength. I don’t know whether it’s the Demon influence, the Valkyrie, or the mix of both. What I do know, is that I don’t want to be the person to piss you off.”

“Yeah, I think I’m going to need to remember to pull my punches. No wonder I sent that Demon flying last night and have been breaking things all day.” I stood up and stretched as I looked to Dr. Jennings and her ever present clipboard. “So, is there anything else you need me to do? I’m starting to get hungry.”

“Since we don’t know any of your mother’s abilities other than those we have already tried or confirmed in you, we should test you for shape shifting and various Demon abilities,” Peter suggested. “We know that you have regeneration and some physical features with those teeth and claws, so it’s possible that you may share some of your father’s Demon abilities as well. Most of these abilities are as natural to those of Demon blood as breathing, so we should be able to find out fairly quickly whether you have them or not.”

I wanted to get this over with and eat something, but I also knew that I needed to learn what I could do in case those Demons came back, so I gave in. “Okay, let’s do this. What’s first?”

“Let’s try shape shifting first,” Dr. Jennings suggested. “We believe that your mother had ability similar to Mermaids and Lamia to retract some of our mass and shift the non-human parts of us into something more human. Your father had Demon shape shifting which, in addition to making him look human, would allow him to alter his appearance so long as his mass stayed the same. Hopefully you’ll have one or both, if not we may need to help you find another way to hide those wings.”

I nodded in agreement, hoping that I had some way of hiding my new features. “What do I do?”

Lila smiled at me. ~It takes both energy and concentration to shift and retract our mass and change its appearance the way we do. When I started teaching Alice, I had her start by trying to shift one scale at a time and work her way up to the full shift gradually. I’m going to get you to do something similar. Look at the claw on the thumb of your right hand.~ I held my hand out in front of me and looked at the claw in question as she continued speaking. ~Now picture that claw becoming shorter, pulling inside your thumb, until it’s the length of a regular thumbnail.~

My gaze remained fixed on my right thumb as I concentrated, willing it to pull itself inside me. I was uncertain at first, but it seemed to be working. Finally my claw had a more nail-like appearance and was roughly the length I had kept my nails before my change. It was still black, but most people would just think I was wearing black nail polish. In my excitement at my success I lost my concentration and it reverted back. “Damn! I had it!”

The Mermaid put an arm around my shoulders. ~Don’t worry; it looks like you have something to work with at least. It will take a while before you can shift and maintain human form without concentration, but all we have to start somewhere.~

“I guess so,” I agreed, feeling a bit disappointed. “So how do we test for the Demon shape shifting?” I was hoping that maybe this would be a bit more productive.

“If you have that ability it should come naturally to you,” Peter replied. “Just think about one of your features and think about how you would like to change it. Your father’s ability made him a great undercover operative. He had dozens of different looks even with the mass restriction. Try changing your skin tone, it was a favorite of his.”

I looked at my arm and the pale skin on it and concentrated, trying to darken it. I thought of Dr. Jennings and her olive skin, willing mine to match it. I spent several minutes like that, trying to change first my skin tone, then my hair color, and then anything else I could think of, but nothing changed. Finally Peter put a hand on my shoulder. “I think that’s enough Raven, If you had the ability it would have come naturally, Let’s move on to the other Demon abilities.”

First they turned out the lights to test me for night vision and I proved without a doubt that I didn’t have that, when I knocked over a good deal of the objects I was supposed to avoid. Next we tried the various mental abilities that Demons could possess. They had me try to contact Lydia or the Demon who had led the attack on me telepathically, then they had me try to force my way into Erin’s mind and take control of her. I was beginning to get frustrated when Peter decided to move on to test the next ability. “Don’t worry about it Raven, it was unlikely you had the mental abilities. If you had you would have noticed last night or this morning, and we would probably be teaching you how to keep from picking up other people’s thoughts right now.”

“Why can I hear Lila and Alice speaking telepathically then?” I asked.

~Merfolk are projective and receptive telepaths,~ Lila explained. ~You don’t need to have telepathic abilities to hear us and we can hear your thoughts if they’re directed to us, so long as we know the person and they are within our telepathic range.~

“Well I’d really rather not be hearing anyone else’s thoughts anyway,” I replied. Then thinking that that may offend Lila I quickly corrected myself. “I meant everyday thoughts, not direct speech like you and Alice do.”

~It’s alright Raven, I knew what you meant.~ She looked at the clipboard Dr. Jennings was holding and frowned. ~Do we really need to test that Peter? That seems a bit cruel, even with her regenerative ability.~

He sighed. “If she’s not it’s better for her to find out now rather than later. We’ll just do a small area test.”

I looked at the pair uncertainly. “Do I want to know what you’re talking about?”

“Most demons are fireproof,” Peter finally said after a long silence.

I stared at him, my eyes wide. “You want to set me on fire?!”

Erin was quick to step between me and the trio. “No way! That is not happening while I’m here.”

Dr. Jennings and Lila weren’t any more enthusiastic about the idea, as they both shook their heads and gave their co-worker a stern look. ~This girl has been through enough in the past day without adding more trauma.~

Peter was quick to raise his hands in surrender. “I’m not suggesting we douse her in gasoline and toss her a match. As I said before, I’m just suggesting testing a small area.” He turned to me, still holding up his hands. “It’s your decision Raven. We don’t have to test it if you’re unwilling, but I feel it would be a good idea to know all your limits. “

“Just how small an area are you talking about?” I asked dubiously.

He pulled out a lighter and held it out to me. “That’s up to you.”

I stepped past Erin to snatch the lighter from Peter with my right hand. “Fine, let’s get this over with.” I very carefully flicked the lighter and once the flame caught I moved my opposite hand over the flame, wincing as I felt the heat, but holding my hand in place until the pain was too much. “Damn that hurts!” I cursed, dropping the lighter. Erin took my injured hand in both of hers to look at it in concern. I had what looked like a second degree burn, but it began to heal as we both watched. In just over a minute there was no proof that I had ever been burned.

“Holy shit,” Erin said in barely a whisper, as she continued to stare at my hand.

“Fire burns me, and it hurts like hell, so I guess that means I’m not fireproof. But at least it doesn’t hurt for long. Is there anything else you want to put me through or can I eat now?” I grumbled.

“Just one more thing,” Peter admitted, “but it’s not likely to take long. As you discovered last night, Demons have the ability to shift between our physical plane and the infernal plane to move from one place to another instantly. Your father sometimes used that ability to get his team members into hard to reach places. The place had to be in sight or he had to know the place and be able to visualize it in his mind though.”

“So what do you want me to do then, go home and bring something back?”

He shook his head. “No, I want you to walk about twenty feet away, and then concentrate on the spot you’re standing in right now.”

With a shrug I turned and walked away and when I had walked far enough I turned around and concentrated very hard on the area beside Erin, where I had been standing only a moment before. When I had it firmly in my mind I felt a rush of air around me and then I was standing right beside Erin again. “Do I pass?” I asked as the world began to spin and I fell to the floor unconscious.

I groaned as consciousness returned and opened my eyes to find that I was in an unfamiliar room, with Erin and Alice both looking down at me in concern, while Erin gripped my hand like a vice. Erin was back in the clothes she had worn when we left the house so I assumed I had been out for a while. ~Are you alright Raven?~ Alice asked.

“We have got to stop meeting like this,” I joked in an attempt to lighten the mood. “I’m fine. What the hell happened, and how long have I been out?”

Erin let go of my hand and gave me a weak smile. “You scared the shit out of me, that’s what.”

~It’s almost dinner time, you’ve been unconscious for nearly five hours,~ Alice said in answer to my question. ~Peter said you passed out right after teleporting. Dr. Jennings looked at you but she couldn’t find anything wrong so we moved you here hoping that you would wake up on your own.~

“Where is here?” I asked in confusion. “For that matter where is everyone else?”

Alice gestured to some of the monitoring equipment in the room and I was suddenly thankful that none of it was on. ~We’re in one of the rooms Dr. Jennings uses to care for people who need a little more than just ‘patching up’. She thought it best we make you as comfortable as possible. Mom and Dad had to go investigate a disturbance downtown, so I volunteered to watch over you with Erin. As for everyone else, Peter didn’t think he would be a welcome sight for you to wake up to, so he and Dr. Jennings went out to get some takeout about half an hour ago. They thought you would probably be pretty hungry when you woke up.~

I managed to get myself into a sitting position without hurting my wings. “They were right, I’m starving. Do they have any idea why I passed out like that?”

“Dr. Jennings thinks it was your mixed heritage,” Erin answered. “She believes that your alignment to the Divine makes passing through the infernal plane a lot harder for you than for the Demons. It takes an insane amount of energy for you to do and leaves you weak when you reappear in our plane.”

“Tell me about it,” I muttered. “I don’t plan on doing that again anytime soon, once was bad enough.”

Erin breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s good to hear. Peter thinks it could be dangerous for you to do it again anyway.”

“What? Is he afraid I’ll reappear in a wall or something if I’m not careful?” I asked.

She shook her head soberly. “No, that’s not it; he believes you should have a built-in awareness of space that prevents that. He’s more concerned that with the amount of energy it takes for you to pass through the infernal plane; you could be stuck there unconscious if you don’t have enough energy to make it back to our plane. That would leave you easy pickings for any Demon wanting a piece of you.”

“Well that’s just one more reason for me to never do that again,” I agreed. Then I promptly changed the topic to something less ominous. “If it’s almost dinner time then Lydia must be getting worried.”

Alice nodded her head. ~She did come in to check on you earlier. She claimed it was because she was getting bored of keeping watch from the roof of the warehouse. It was pretty obvious that she was on edge though. She’d probably still be here if she didn’t need to be at your house to supervise moving in my things and all your stuff from the dorms.~ She picked up my purse from atop the bundle of my clothes sitting atop a small cabinet and offered it to me. ~Here’s your purse if you want to get your phone out and give her a call.~

“Thanks Alice,” I replied as I took my purse and opened it to fish inside for my cell phone. Once I had it in hand, I very gently selected the number for home and hit send.

There were four rings before the call went through and a little girl’s voice answered, “Hello.”

At first I thought I had dialed the wrong number, and it was several seconds before I remembered Lydia showing us her preferred form in the morning. “Lydia? I’m just calling to let you know I’m okay.”

I heard a sigh on the other end before the Imp answered. “Good, you had us all worried. Are you heading home then? Should I prepare dinner?”

“No, Dr. Jennings and Peter went out to get some takeout for us, we’ll head home after we eat,” I replied. “Did the agents manage to get our stuff?”

“Yes, I was just starting to put everything away and prepare the rooms for Alice and Erin. Your friends were all concerned, but I was told that with some mental nudging they all believed the story. On Monday the agents will return to the school and get you both withdrawn from your classes.” The Imp paused before adding tentatively, “I’m sorry things worked out this way, I know how much you wanted a normal life.”

“It’s not your fault, you did your best, and this would have happened sooner or later,” I told her, trying to reassure her that I didn’t blame her for any of this. “I’ll let you get back to work and we’ll head back once we’ve eaten.”

“I’ll see you later then, make sure you get an escort to follow the van,” she cautioned before hanging up.

I put the phone back in my purse and looked down at my clothes distastefully. “Ugh, I’ve been lying in these sweaty clothes for hours. Is there anywhere I can wash up a bit and change clothes before I eat?”

Erin chuckled at that and pointed at one of the room’s two doors. “I felt the same way earlier Raven. There’s a bathroom over there, it’s not much, but you can wash up a little and change without having to go all the way back downstairs to the training area.”

~For someone who felt so dirty, she sure didn’t want to leave this room. Dr. Jennings had to order her to leave your side to go take a shower and try to relax a bit,~ Alice’s musical mental voice chimed in. ~I had to promise to come get her if you woke up.~

“Thanks both of you for being here,” I said. “I’d hug you, but I’m all gross from lying in these clothes.” I quickly took my pile of clothes and headed into the bathroom to freshen up.

“We’ll still be here to hug when you come back out,” I heard Erin say as I shut the door.

Getting changed in a small bathroom was not easy. As I tried getting out of my clothes my wings kept bumping into the walls, the mirror, the sink, the toilet, and anything else they could manage. When I was finally out of the exercise clothes, though I practically ripped them apart in the process, I took a wash cloth and tried to wash off as much of the grime as possible in the confines of the room. Then I patted myself dry with a towel and began the arduous task of getting dressed without destroying my clothes, while my wings did everything they could to make it more difficult.

When I finally emerged from the bathroom, Dr. Jennings and Peter were back with six large pizzas and two six packs of Coke. Once Dr. Jennings was sure I wasn’t going to fall on my face from a short walk, they escorted us to a small dining area where agents on duty took their meals. We were seated, and Peter was passing out cans when he said, “I’m sorry about what happened there Raven, I was just trying to be thorough with the testing, I had no clue that shifting between planes would be that taxing for you. Given your lack of most of the other demonic abilities, I was doubtful that you could do it at all.”

I shrugged it off. “Like you said, we needed to test everything, and you couldn’t have known that would happen. Let’s just put it behind us and eat. What kind of pizzas did you get?”

Dr. Jennings smirked at her co-worker. “I told you she wouldn’t blame you, you old worrywart.” Then in answer to my question she said, “We weren’t sure what you girls would like so we tried to get a bit of everything. There’s vegetarian, meat lovers, seafood, pepperoni, Hawaiian, and barbeque chicken.”

I shuddered at the last choice. “I’m not touching that last one; I don’t think I’ll ever eat anything that once had wings again,” I said as I helped myself to a large slice of pepperoni.

Alice giggled at that. It was weird, I could see her physically giggling, but there was no sound coming from her mouth. Instead I heard in my mind what sounded like the tinkling of tiny bells. When she managed to stop herself she offered, ~You can have my share of the seafood pizza.~ She took a piece of Hawaiian.

“I’d have thought that as a Mermaid you’d like that sort of thing. I kind of pictured you as someone who eats a lot of sushi,” Erin said, looking a bit confused as she took a slice of the vegetarian.

~I don’t hate seafood,~ the Mermaid admitted as she nibbled at her pizza. ~But when I Manifested last year I had trouble learning to turn back to a human form, especially getting used to breathing air again. I had to live under water in English Bay for six months before I could maintain a human form for long enough to live on land again. When you live under water and eat raw fish and seaweed for every meal for that long, sushi kind of loses its appeal.~

“I can see how that would make you want to eat other things,” Erin replied, making a sour face. “Do you still have problems changing form? You seemed to do it fine on the boat last night.”

Alice shook her head in reply. ~No, I can do it fine now. One day it just suddenly clicked and I was able to do it without a problem. I have really good control over my form and abilities now. Mom says I’ll be as good with Water magic as she and Dad are soon. It’s why they’re letting me help out with less dangerous cases.~

“I don’t think I’d like to see what you consider dangerous,” I put in between mouthfuls of pizza. “Those were Demons last night. How did you take them out anyway?”

~They were only minor Demons,~ the Mermaid stressed. ~Lesser Demons are mostly cowards, and they’ll run if they don’t think they can win. When Erin Manifested and your seal broke they knew they had their hands full. When we showed up, we used some high pressure water blasts to let them know we meant business and they decided the odds were no longer in their favor, so they went back to the infernal plane.~

We spent the next hour eating and talking about the Demons, our abilities, and how Erin and I could train ourselves, until Alice’s parents returned from downtown looking worn out. Once they were both sure that I had eaten enough to recharge my batteries, we left PDA headquarters and I climbed back into the rear of the delivery van. As Alice drove us home they followed behind to ensure our safety, and so that one of them could return the van to the warehouse once we were all safe inside.

 

Raven's Blood
Chapter 6: Home

By
Amethyst

Thanks to my readers for reading my work and patiently waiting for new chapters and to the Big Closet team who give so much of themselves to keep this site going

We had just gotten inside the house, when Alice handed both me and Erin a small envelope. ~These contain your PDA registration cards, you should keep them in your purses with your Driver’s License and other identification so that you always have them on hand.~

I opened my envelope as Erin was doing the same to find a laminated business card that said, Werehouse Imports and Exports: Customer Loyalty Card. It also had my name, photo, and a customer number, which I assumed must be the registration number used to identify me. Erin laughed as she looked at hers. “Very low profile, does this mean we get a discount?”

Alice nodded as she answered, ~Yes. Registered Paranormals get to buy anything in the warehouse at just a little bit above cost.~

“Really?” Erin asked, her eyebrows rising in interest. “That’s pretty cool.” She placed her card in her purse and I followed suit.

“Why did we have to register as Paranormals anyway? Are these cards used to track us or something?” I asked suspiciously. “You know in case we go bad, or do something illegal?”

The tinkling of bells in my mind signaled the Mermaid’s giggling. ~Don’t be silly, the registration cards just help us keep track of the number, and various types, of local Paranormals who want to blend in to human society and live normal lives. It lets us better serve their needs by knowing what services may be needed here. We hardly ever have to go after a registered Paranormal for anything more than a slap on the wrist offense. It’s the non-registered ones like your Demon friends that we need to watch out for, since generally they don’t want to blend in or they have something to hide. Those are the ones we seal or Hunt.~

I breathed a sigh of relief that I wasn’t considered dangerous or something. “What does the PDA do with the bad ones? Are there some sort of Paranormal prisons out there?”

~For minor offenses on less powerful Paranormals we use a minor seal, it’s kind of like a minimum security prison sentence since they’re stuck as regular humans,~ Alice explained. ~Full seals are much harder to do, and generally require having something important to the one being sealed. You can never know what that something is though, so we can’t use those often in the field. I’m guessing it only worked on your grandfather because his son’s blood was used, and your mother sacrificed her life to use enough power to do it.~

I nodded as I followed what she was saying. “So what do you do with the bad ones that you can’t use a seal on then?”

The Mermaid shrugged her shoulders. ~ A minor seal can be used on them if they willingly submit to it. That’s what the Hunter teams are for. They are trained in detective work and usually each team member has a different specialty. They track down the offender and ask them to come peacefully and submit to a minor seal. Ninety five percent of the time they don’t.~

“And when they don’t? What happens then?” Erin asked.

~Then the Hunt is on, and the team takes them down by whatever means are necessary,~ she replied sadly. ~In the case of murderers or extremely violent offenders they don’t bother with asking nicely they just Hunt them.~

“And you want to do that for a living?!” I asked incredulously.

~Think about all those humans out there, blissfully unaware of our existence just like you were yesterday,~ she pointed out. ~They are better off if they don’t know about us, and we’re better off that way too. Many of them would think us monsters if they knew about us, even those of us who just want to live a normal life. The ones the PDA Hunt are the real monsters, those who prey on humans or who would reveal us to the world for their own ends. We have to Hunt the predators to keep their prey safe. Sure it’s not a very nice job, but if somebody doesn’t do it the world will fall into chaos, and in chaos everybody gets hurt.~

“Wow, you’re really serious about this aren’t you?” Erin said in awe.

The Mermaid’s cheeks flushed in embarrassment. ~Sorry, I didn’t mean to get so preachy, but yes, I am really serious. I’ve been learning about guns from my Dad and working hard on getting better with Water magic. The PDA has a training program for those interested in joining them and I’m hoping to be assigned to the crime lab to learn forensics.~

“Maybe Raven should join you, with her strength and new abilities she’d make one hell of a monster hunter,” Erin said with a laugh.

“Yeah right,” I scoffed, “how is that living a normal life? I can just see myself on dates. ‘So what do you do for a living?’ ‘Oh nothing special, I hunt monsters for a covert government agency, it’s not near as interesting as accounting.’ What do Hunters tell people anyway?”

~Mostly they say they work in the import and export business, it saves us having to print different business cards,~ Alice retorted with a musical giggle.

“Of course, how silly of me,” I said with a groan. The sound of footsteps racing down the stairs stopped me from saying anything more until a six year old girl barreled into me for a hug and I let out an, “Oooomph.”

“Raven I’m so happy you’re back!” Lydia exclaimed as she let go of me to give me a stern look and waggle her finger at me. “Never worry me like that again young lady.” Her look had changed slightly from when we had left in the morning. Her hair was a slightly lighter shade of blonde and her romper was now rose colored instead of denim, but it still had the prominently displayed middle finger. Her appearance, combined with the stern look and the chastisement, sent us all into a fit of giggles.

“Thanks Lydia, I needed a good laugh,” I said once I could speak again, “and I am sorry for worrying you.”

The Imp grinned at me, “I had considered saying ‘Mommy, why did you leave me all alone?’ just for the shock value, but I’ll save that for when you have company that doesn’t know me.” Then she gestured to the room around us. “Anyway, Alice has only seen the living room and the foyer here, and I think Erin hasn’t gone much further than her bedroom, so how about a tour of your new home girls? I just finished preparing your rooms.”

“You actually do housework in that form?” Erin asked in disbelief.

“Oh sure,” Lydia replied as she led us up the stairs. “It takes a bit longer to do certain things, but I‘m more comfortable this way.”

“Yeah I can see how it would make things take longer; shorter reach, less strength and shorter legs, just to name a few things,” Erin replied.

“That and I can’t resist jumping on the beds after I make them when I’m like this, so I end up having to make them again.” I wasn’t quite sure if she was joking or not, but I tried not to pay it much mind as she began the tour. “The first door on the right is the master bedroom which is of course Raven’s. It has its own en suite bathroom, so she doesn’t have to fight with the two of you for the other bathroom on this floor, which is the second door on the right. Beyond that is my room. The first door on the left will be Erin’s room.”

She opened the door to display that the former guest room now displayed some of Erin’s pictures from her dorm room on the earth toned walls. Her clothes hung in the closet, and her books and school supplies were on the desk. Her grandfather’s chest was at the foot of her bed, which had the quilt her mother had made for her on top. “Thanks Lydia, it looks great,” Erin said with a smile as she looked over her room. “Now that I have my grandfather’s chest, I can do some reading before I sleep tonight.”

Lydia moved us on to the next room, opening the door to what I had always referred to as the ‘blue room’. “This will be Alice’s room. I took the bed out and moved it into the storage room, which is the last door on the left.” The powder blue walls were still bare, but there were clothes in the closet and the bed had been removed and replaced with a large wooden framed pool four feet high and the size of a queen sized bed. The water inside was clear and still. “I had the agents assemble your bed Alice; I didn’t want to make any mistakes with it, and I’ll let you decorate as you see fit.”

“That’s a bed?” Erin asked uncertainly.

~Yes it is.~ Alice replied with a slight mental giggle. ~Merfolk need to sleep under water since we revert to our true forms when we sleep, not that we sleep for long.~ She must have sensed what we were going to ask next because she went on to say, ~We only need about one or two hours sleep per night to be fully rested.~

“Lucky,” I said, “that gives you more time for studying or hobbies.”

She nodded in reply. ~True, and since most of us Manifest between twelve and fourteen we usually do well in school, or anything that requires a lot of practice. On the other hand we also get bored very easily.~

Lydia moved us along downstairs, and through the living room, to continue the tour. She showed our new roommates the den, dining room, and downstairs bathroom before we finally ended up in the kitchen. “I usually prepare all the meals, but feel free to use the kitchen yourselves if you like. Back there is the laundry room and out in the back yard there’s the hot tub and the beach. There’s a basement as well, but only Siv ever went down there. I think she had a ward which prevented anyone but her from going down. Raven went down there once when she was little and I had to wait for her to come back up, so I’ve kept it locked since.”

“I think I remember that, it was dark and I couldn’t see much so everything looked really scary. It took me forever to find the stairs again, and when I did get back upstairs I was so scared that I never wanted to go down there again.” I shivered at the memory.

”Creepy basement that only one person could get into? I smell a mystery,” Erin said with a frown. “We may have to go down there and explore or at the very least send Raven down with a flashlight this time. I’ve been wondering how your parents could have afforded such a nice home in one of the wealthiest areas of the city, not to mention the huge trust fund you haven’t even put a dent into yet. I hate to say it, but it sounds fishy.”

Lydia shook her head. “You’re free to explore, but I don’t think it was anything criminal. Siv might have been very private about her background, but she had very strong morals. She usually went downstairs when she was upset or deep in thought. I think it was her private place, everyone needs one sometimes. It may have some more information on who she was though.”

“I could use some answers about my mom, especially if I’m going to figure out what this mysterious Divine ability Peter detected is,” I thought aloud. “I’ll have to go down there and see what’s there.”

Despite my resolve, it was another three weeks before I decided to investigate the basement and its mysteries. As tempting as it was, there were more important things to learn at the moment. I spent most of my time with Alice, learning how to pull my claws and wings inside me and keep them there. I was slowly making progress, but it took a lot of concentration to maintain and was extremely uncomfortable. Alice assured me that I was doing very well and that with time it would get easier and less uncomfortable to maintain. I was also using that time to get a better sense of my own strength and was doing well on that front as well, having not destroyed anything unintentionally in over a week.

While I was doing that, Erin was reading her grandfather’s journals and practicing the meditation techniques contained within, to not only better control what power she had, but also to increase her power. She had also discovered in those books that she could gain more power, and possibly new abilities, by binding spirits to her. The journals contained the rituals needed, but they wouldn’t be of any use to her until she was strong enough on her own to see and interact with spirits. When she wasn’t reading she was practicing with the rattles and other shaman tools her grandfather had left for her in the chest.

Whenever we weren’t studying or practicing, we were learning everything about the Paranormal that Alice and Lydia could teach us. This was what eventually caused me to search the basement. Alice was telling us about the various types of Paranormals that she knew of locally, and what was known of them. When I asked what was known about Valkyries Alice frowned and shook her head. ~The PDA has very little information about your mother’s people. All they know is that Valks are strong, durable, can fly, and that they come from some sort of warrior culture. They figured at first that information about them was so rare because your mom was the only one they had any long term contact with, so they tried contacting the different agencies in Scandinavia where Valkyrie myths originated.~

“What did they find out?” I asked.

~That they don’t have much more information than we do,~ she replied with a silent sigh. ~Mom and Dad tried the agencies in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and even Iceland. None had any information outside old myths, sightings, and records of a few mercenaries claiming to be Valkyries fighting for Norway during the Napoleonic Wars and World War Two. The Norwegians are really interested in you by the way. Norway had the most sightings, and they believe your people may have been native to the mountains there. ~

I wasn’t sure that I liked how she ended that response. “May have been?”

~Either they’re really reclusive, even to other Paranormals, or there aren’t many left. There haven’t been sightings, or anyone claiming to be one, in decades.~ She sighed once more and looked at me sadly. ~I’m sorry Raven, I wish I had more for you.~

I shook my head and offered a weak smile to try and reassure the Mermaid that all was fine. “It’s not your fault Alice, your parents tried. If I want to find anything more out, I guess I’ll have to go check in the basement.” I stood up from the sofa and stretched my wings to get rid of the tightness between my shoulders. Learning to hide them was giving me a better sense of them and although I was no closer to flying than before, at least I had some degree of control over them now. Once the tightness was gone I pulled them closer toward my body, so I wouldn’t bang them on any door frames as I went to the kitchen for a flashlight.

“Are you sure you want to go down there alone?” Erin asked as she and Alice stood up to follow me. Both of my new roommates had tried going down there once, only to find that some invisible force prevented them. Alice figured that the same Divine spell that had kept Lydia and my father out was probably meant to keep out anyone except my mother and I.

“It’s not like I have a choice. I need answers and nobody, except me, can get past that door. I’ll try sending my thoughts to Alice once I’m inside. If that works, then at least I can remain in contact while I’m down there.” I took the flashlight from the emergency supplies drawer and switched it on to make sure the batteries were good. Once I determined that they were, I headed to the door under the stairs and unlocked and opened it. With one more weak smile to my roommates I said, “Here goes nothing,” and headed down the dark stairs.

The small beam of light failed to illuminate much so I kept it focused on the stairs in front of me so I wouldn’t misstep. ~Alice, can you hear me?~ I sent to the Mermaid.

~Loud and clear.~ she replied. The musical sound of her mental voice reassured me greatly.

I took each step carefully, not wanting to fall, and when I finally reached the bottom I swung the flashlight around in an arc. The damn thing just wasn’t powerful enough though, and I couldn’t make out much of anything. “Dammit!” I cursed aloud. “This would be a lot easier if I had some lights on.”

The room was suddenly clearly visible, as white light banished the darkness that had previously cloaked everything. The light came from evenly spaced white globes of light hovering in the air above me all around the large room, revealing seventeen years of dust and cobwebs coating the floor, and everything else in the room. A large portion of the room was taken up by what appeared to be practice mats for fighting and some sort of practice dummies. At the back of the room there were weapons of all types displayed on shelves and racks.

Shields, swords, spears, war hammers, bows, and various other weapons from ages past shared space with early firearms and other more modern weapons. It was like some kind of museum of warfare through the ages, and at the center of if all, resting upon a mannequin, was a suit of armor like that pictured on the mythical Valkyries in my textbook. I stared in amazement at everything until Alice broke into my thoughts. ~Are you okay down there Raven?~
~I’m fine,~ I replied. ~I got some sort of lights to work. I think it was some sort of Divine magic my mother left in place. You should see this place, it’s amazing, like some sort of museum.~

~You found a light switch? That should make things easier.~

~No, there’s no switch that I know of,~ I responded. ~I’m pretty sure my mom left a spell in place. These lights just turned on when I complained about there being no lights on.~
~The spell that your mother created to make the lights may be voice activated,~ she agreed. ~Probably to make it more convenient for her. So what’s all down there?~

~It looks like a practice area and there’s a bunch of different weapons, some of these must be ancient. I wonder how she got all of these. Was she some sort of collector?~ I turned around to see an open doorway leading to another room and stepped through to see a large antique desk with a padded stool rather than a chair. ~Hold on there’s more in this other room.~

As I stepped inside I noted that the shelves which lined the walls of the room were full of leather bound books, scrolls, and strange looking trinkets. Behind the desk was a large painted portrait of my mother wearing the armor I had seen in the other room, or at least it looked like her, and a brief search produced some photo albums of what I assumed to be my family’s history. Most of the photos were old, and the older ones featured five light haired women, usually armed. One looked a lot like my mother, and another was similar enough to be her sister. I assumed the similar pair in the later photos was their descendants, because the resemblance was uncanny.

The more recent photos were of my mother and father with a pair of men that I figured were probably their teammates when they were with the PDA. One of the men had pointed ears, while the other appeared to be a werewolf. There was also a picture of them holding me when I was born. It must have been taken before I was sealed, because I could make out stubby little black wings on my back. Those photos showed my mother with her wings, and they were such a pristine white that they seemed to glow.

A quick look at one of the leather bound books and some of the opened scrolls showed them to be written in some form of runes. ~This is odd, these all seem to be written in some old language. I recognize some of the runes from my Scandinavian Mythology class but I have no idea what they say.~ Since I couldn’t find anything that I could understand in the shelves, I decided to check the desk next.

The top of the desk was clear of anything but years of dust and a single envelope. Once I had brushed the dust off, I found that the envelope had my name written on it. ~I found an envelope addressed to me. I’m going to bring it and a few other things upstairs for us to look at.~ I gathered the photo albums, one of the books, and the envelope and headed up the steps. Once I was at the top I said aloud, “Lights off.” To my pleasure the lights vanished, and I shut the door behind me as I left to join Erin and Alice in the living room.

I placed the items I had brought up onto the coffee table and got comfortable on the couch once again. Alice sat beside me as I began to open the envelope. “Lydia went out to get some shopping done while you were down there,” Erin stated as she picked up one of the photo books to look through it. “She said dinner might be late unless you want to order in.”

~Chinese sounds good to me if we’re going to be spending the evening poring over books and old photos,~ Alice put in.

Erin nodded and headed into the kitchen, saying over her shoulder, “I’ll order while you two get started then.” I barely heard her as I focused on opening the envelope and reading the letter within.

Dearest Raven,

If you are reading this, then I fear that the worst has happened and I am dead. Your father and I are trying to prevent your grandfather, the demon Baehran, from bringing an army of his followers into the human world. Should we succeed, then there is the chance his followers could come after you one day. They have already tried to take you once, to become Baehran’s heir, since your father has refused to take on that evil legacy, but should we seal him then they may be after you for your blood instead.

There is so much of your life I have missed out on, but please know that I love you more than anything. Your birth made even the thrill of battle pale in comparison and for a Valkyrie that is something, as we feel most alive when we are risking death. I had hoped to one day instruct you in the rites and see you take your place as a warrior, but as you are reading this that is likely not the case.

Since I am not there to instruct you, you must find another if you are to reach your true potential. You must seek out my sister, Lin Hansdotter. If she yet lives, then she is the only one who can instruct you in the ways of our people and break your seal, if it has not been broken already. She can help you learn to protect yourself from those who would kill you. I have included a photograph of Lin to aid you in your search of her, but I fear she may not welcome you. We had a falling out some years ago and have not spoken since, though to my knowledge she is still in Vancouver at the time that I write this letter.

The thought of not being there for you pains me greatly, but I will gladly give my life if it is required for the greater good. Always remember that. Valykries are true warriors, we bow to no one and we fight to make a difference in the lives of those weaker than ourselves. A true warrior does not fight seeking recognition and glory, but rather to protect the weak. You must not show weakness to your enemies and you must guard your strengths, even from your allies. If your friends underestimate you, so too will your enemies, and a warrior seeks every advantage they can get.

Enough of that. Should Lin still live you must find her and have her teach you these things. Tell her I loved her even to the end, just as I do you. You are not just my daughter, but also my greatest treasure. It’s hard to say goodbye, so I won’t say that. Instead I will have faith that you will become a great warrior and fight the good fight in my stead. Knowing that to be the case, I will instead say:

See you in Valhalla,

Your loving mother, Siv Demarco

I could feel tears stinging my eyes as I finished reading the letter, and a few drops dampened the aged paper in my hands. I felt arms being wrapped around me and when I looked up, through eyes half blind with tears, I saw that both Alice and Erin had me wrapped in their arms. Their hold on me tightened as I began to sob, the letter gripped tightly in my hands.

When I finally managed to regain control of myself, I hugged my two friends in return and placed the letter on the table. Then I took the photograph from the envelope to examine it. She looked like the second woman in the more recent photos, though her hair was much shorter. “Well at least I know what I need to do now. I need to master hiding my wings, and I need to find this Lin Hansdotter.”

~We’ll help however we can Raven,~ Alice offered. ~If she’s your mother’s sister she may show up somewhere in the PDA database, or one of the other agencies databases. If she was in Vancouver then she might still be here, or we can find out where she went. It’s possible some of the local Paranormals may know her face, if not her name. We can show the picture to my parents and see what they can come up with. We will find her.~

“Thanks Alice, I hope you’re right.” I stared at the picture, trying to burn the face into my memory.

The discovery of the letter, and the possibility that my estranged aunt might still be alive, gave me good reason to work even harder at learning to hide my wings and keep them hidden. If I was going to go out to search for her I would need to be able to blend in with the regular humans for long periods of time. With that in mind, I doubled my efforts over the next weeks. I pushed myself to near exhaustion, until I managed to hide my wings completely and was able to keep them hidden for several hours at a time.

During those two weeks, any time I wasn’t training with Alice was spent searching the internet for any clues about my aunt, or in the basement. It seemed wrong to leave my mother’s sanctuary covered in dust, so I set to work cleaning it and then I began to study the scrolls and books. I wish I could say that they provided some of the information that I needed, but sadly all that I had looked at so far were written in runes, and while I might recognize one or two I was far from having any true comprehension of the language. Some of those scrolls and books seemed to be ancient and I considered trying to find a linguist to translate them, but then I would have to explain how I came across them. Besides, who knew what secrets they contained that weren’t meant for humans, or even other Paranormals.

Alice’s parents had looked through the PDA database and while they did find an entry for Lin Hansdotter, it was over twenty years old and the address listed was in an apartment complex that had been demolished three years ago. To be thorough they tried showing her picture around the neighborhood, but nobody had seen her. They weren’t even sure if they could find her using the picture because it was over twenty years out of date. Her appearance had probably changed with age, since she looked about my age in the photograph, and now she would probably be in her forties.

It wasn’t until mid-December that we finally got a lead on her. By then I was able to hide my more non-human features for most of the day if I had to. It wasn’t easy, and required enough focus to leave me somewhat distracted in public, but it could be done. So as a reward and a trial by fire Alice decided we needed to go shopping. She felt that both Erin and I needed a break, and to get out amongst people for a bit. It was weird being out in public again for two reasons.

The first was being cooped up so long, without much of anyone around but each other and Lydia. The second reason was Alice herself. Whenever she wanted to speak with a salesperson, or someone spoke to us and she answered, she would go through the motions of using sign language and tell us what she was saying telepathically so we could translate for the person. We were sitting in the food court of the City Centre mall eating lunch when a guy approached us. He was tall, kind of cute, and looked to be in good shape with dark purple hair and several piercings.

He and Alice began speaking in sign language and she quickly sent to us in that melodic mental voice of hers, ~This is Dennis, he’s a friend of mine from down below. Dennis, this is Raven and Erin. I’ve been living with them and teaching Raven how to pass as human.~

“It’s nice to meet you Dennis. Alice has been a big help to me and any friend of hers is a friend of mine.” I gave him a smile and extended my hand to shake his.

Erin quickly followed suit. “It’s nice to meet you Dennis. Would you like to join us?”

The Merman smiled, shaking both our hands in turn and signing to us, while his voice hummed in our minds like a bass guitar. ~The pleasure is all mine ladies. I would love to stay but I’m supposed to be meeting some friends soon. I just saw Alice and thought I’d say hi.~

I nodded. “Hopefully we’ll see you again some time.” Then, just as I had been doing for most of the day when we got into a conversation with someone, I reached into my purse and took out my aunt’s photo. “Before you go Dennis, could you tell me if you’ve seen anyone who looks like this? She may look a bit older now though.”

Dennis took the photo and looked it over, appearing lost in thought for a moment, before finally replying. ~I remember this girl.~

“You’ve seen her?!” I nearly shouted in my excitement.

~I don’t think I’ll forget that night anytime soon,~ he answered with a smile. ~It was a couple Fridays ago. Some friends and I went to the Ninth Ring on a dare.~

“The Ninth Ring?” Erin asked before I could.

~It’s a bar for Paranormals on the East Side. A lot of nasty characters hang out there,~ he clarified. ~That girl in the photo was there. She stood out because most Paranormals go there in their true form, and she had wings. I thought she might be an Angel or something until that Troll tried to proposition her. She spat in his face and then, when he took a swing at her, she caught his hand and took a swing of her own. She knocked him out in one punch.~

“That sounds like it could be her, or a close relation. If she hangs out at that bar then I know where I’m going Friday night.” I put the photo away and gave Dennis a grin, “Thanks Dennis, you’ve been a huge help.”

~You’re welcome,~ he replied. ~One bit of advice though, if you’re going to go to the Ninth Ring then you had better take some protection. It’s a dangerous place.~

 

Raven's Blood
Chapter 7: A Valkyrie, a Vampire, and an Ogre walk into a bar...

By
Amethyst

Thanks to my readers for reading my work and patiently waiting for new chapters and to the Big Closet team who give so much of themselves to keep this site going

Alice and I sat in my car outside what appeared to be an abandoned building, with the cold December rain falling outside. This was one of the worst areas of the East Side and my car stood out a bit, but Alice assured me that she could keep both herself and the car safe with Water magic if need be, especially with this much rain falling. “Are you sure that this is the place?” I asked for the third time.

~Absolutely,~ the Mermaid responded. ~Do you see that bit of blue graffiti to the side of the door? The little star with the letters PN underneath?~ I nodded and she continued to explain, ~The PN stands for Paranormal. Businesses geared toward Paranormal customers put that symbol by the entrance to show that they are there. Sometimes they’ll put another letter there as well, to show what type of business it is.~

“But it’s all boarded up, how am I supposed to get inside?” I asked.

She shook her head. ~It’s probably an illusion, these businesses usually hire Mages to place illusions to keep the normal humans from walking in.~

“What about the homeless that might be looking for a place to sleep? What keeps them out?”

~Another type of spell used along with the illusion. It makes normal humans look past the place without really seeing it. When they’re gone they’ll vaguely recall an abandoned building, but not anything specific. It’s mostly used to keep people from seeing customers going in and out.~ She looked uncertainly at the building. ~I’m not so sure this is a good idea. Are you sure you’re going to be okay by yourself in there? Dennis said it’s a rough place.~

“From what Peter and Dr. Jennings said, I’m built pretty tough,” I said with a confidence I didn’t quite feel. “I should be okay. Besides we probably won’t get another chance at this without Lydia getting super protective, and Erin won’t be able to keep her distracted for long. We need to do this quick if we’re going to convince her we just went out for a drive and to get a pizza.”

Alice sighed silently but gave in. ~Okay, fine, but you had better be back out in fifteen minutes or I’m coming in after you. The illusion should fade when you get to the door. If you get in over your head, send a thought my way and I’ll come in to back you up.~

“Okay Alice,” I said to reassure her, “but I’m sure I can handle myself.” With that I took off my jacket and left the car to sprint through the rain to the bar’s entrance.

The illusion did fade once I had reached the door, and I opened the sturdy wooden door that appeared to step inside. The large common room was filled with the smell of stale beer and cigarette smoke, and I could feel the looks of several of the bar’s patrons on me as I let the door close behind me. I stopped focusing on keeping my wings and claws contained and tried to walk up to the bar as casually as possible as I let them free.

My wings were very much a part of me now, and I felt some reassurance as their weight on my back returned. My balance was much better with them out now, and if this place was as bad as I had been told I’d need every advantage I could get. For that reason, the presence of my claws was even more reassuring as I leaned against the bar and took a seat to wait for the bartender. The bartender in question was a large man with scaly azure skin and three large horns on his head. “What can I get you?” he asked.

“Whatever you have on tap, and some information,” I replied as I leaned toward him and showed the photograph. “I’m looking for this person, I’ve heard she’s been here recently and she’s pretty memorable. She’s blonde and has wings like mine, only hers are white.”

“The brew will be three fifty,” he said without even glancing at the photo. “But if you want information you’ll need to talk to Joenyth, he see’s everything that goes on in here. Most folks just call him Joey.”

“So where can I find Joey?” I asked as I placed a five dollar bill on the counter.

The barkeep filled a mug of beer and placed it in front of me before taking the bill. “He’s over there, at the table in the back corner. Just look for the Gryphon, you can’t miss him.”

“Thanks, keep the change.” I took my beer and made my way toward the back where a large creature with the super-sized wings and head of an eagle and the body of a lion sat watching the room. I gestured to the table, “Mind if I have a seat?”

“Good evening sky sister, please be seated. You seek information yes?” The voice emanating from the creature was like two rocks being grated together, and I almost winced at the sound as I took the offered seat.

I nodded after swallowing a mouthful of the surprisingly good beer. “I seek one of my kin, sky brother, a blonde woman with white wings. I heard that someone saw her here recently.”

The great eagle’s head let out a sound which, after a moment, I identified as laughter. “You seek lonely bird then nestling? A strange bird that one. She comes here from time to time, but always alone. She does not speak to others, not even her sky kin. She hides herself from all among the humans. I know not where she nests; she is hidden even from our sight, so I can help you not. Others may know, as we hear some speak of her. Wait with me sky sister. Soon one comes who can tell you when and where the one you seek flies along the stone ground, and I can teach a nestling much.”

~I may have something but it will require waiting,~ I sent to Alice. ~Will you be alright out there until I get back?~

~I suppose so,~ the Mermaid replied, but she didn’t sound happy about it. ~At least with all this rain I can use Water magic to keep people from noticing your car. I’ll bunker down until you get back. Just be careful, and call me if you need me.~

I smiled at the Gryphon and answered, “I can wait a while and I am eager to learn what you would teach me sky brother.”
“Good,” the Gryphon replied with what I hoped was a smile. “Your kin goes without a flock, but you are yet a nestling and need a flock to call your own. Birds of a feather must flock together, yes?”

“Ummm… yes?” I replied uncertainly between long pulls at my beer.

For the next fifteen minutes Joenyth told me about his kind and their way of life. The Gryphons were scholars and kept an eye on all things Paranormal. They were also very good with Divine magic, which they used to remain unseen by humans and Paranormals alike, and were in constant telepathic contact with one another. They revered family, life, and knowledge above all else. It was hard to tell what he was talking about half the time, but he seemed to want to help me.

“Why are you being so nice to me?” I finally asked.

“No nestling should be without a flock and the black winged nestling most of all. The winds speak of you, and the evil which hunts you. Paranth Flock wishes to see you become war bird like your kin and hunt this evil; if you do not defeat it much life will be lost. We offer to be your flock. Paranth Flock will share knowledge with you and watch over your nest.”

I managed to understand most of what he said. From what he told me earlier they were pacifists so they likely wouldn’t attack anyone who tried to break into my home, but would probably act as an early warning system for me. “And what does Paranth Flock ask in return?”

“Paranth Flock asks only that you survive, and defend our flock if ever it is needed,” the Gryphon replied before looking toward the door. “One who can speak of your kin arrives, nestling. Be quick. You search for kin. Others search for you.”

I followed his gaze toward the door, where a skinny man in his twenties with olive skin and dark brown hair entered the bar. Then I thanked Joey once again for his help before going to the bar, where the man now sat on a stool ordering a beer. “Hi there,” I said with a smile as I sat on the stool beside him, “a little bird told me that you might be able to help me out.”

The man looked me over and smiled. “Oh I’m sure I can find some way to help you. I’m Pete, so what can I do to… for you?”

The look he was giving me was making me sick to my stomach, but I pushed it aside for the moment as I took out the photograph. “I need to find this woman, and word is you can tell me where and when.”

He took a long look at the photo and cursed. “Fuck. That’s the bitch who cost me two hundred bucks last week.” At my confused look he decided to elaborate. “There’s a street racing circuit in town, Paranormal drivers only. The girl in the picture is one of the racers, and she has a pretty good rep. I had some inside info on one of the other drivers though. He made some major mods to his ride and I thought he’d win, even though the odds were seven to one, so I bet two hundred on him. I thought it was a sure thing y’know? She still beat him, and I was out two hundred bucks.” He gave me a wary look. “You’re not a cop are you?”

I shook my head. “No, she’s a relative and I need to contact her. Do you know where I can find her?” I prodded.
He looked thoughtful for a moment. “She comes here to drink sometimes, all the drivers do. That girl can really put them away; I don’t know where she puts it all. Finding her here ain’t gonna be a sure thing though. If you really want to find her, your best bet is at the race.”

“So you know where these races are held then?” I asked, feeling hopeful for the first time in weeks.

He nodded slowly as he took a careful look around. “The time, place, and race route change every week so the cops don’t catch on, and details are sent to an email list that the drivers and fans all subscribe to. You have a pen?” I fished a pen out of my purse and he jotted down a web address on a napkin. “This is where you can subscribe to the mailing list. Emails are usually sent out Saturday afternoons and races are at random times on Saturday nights, that way there’s less chance of the cops catching on in time to stop it.”

I stuffed the pen and napkin into my purse and smiled at the man. “Thanks a lot Pete. Can I buy you a drink as a thank you?”

I felt something large pushing against my back and turned to see Joey there. “You must leave nestling, quickly.” He inclined his head toward a table in the corner by the door where two men had just sat down. “One who sits there was told of black wings by the dark ones who offer bounty on your blood.”

“Damn,” I cursed, “thank you both for the help, but I think it’s time for me to leave.” Then I quickly sent a thought to Alice. ~Warm up the car, I’m getting out of here now.~

~I can’t warm up the car, you have the keys. Are you in trouble?~ she asked as I made my way to the door, only to have the two men step between me and it. The first man was a skinny man with black hair, shifty eyes, pale skin, and a fanged grin I didn’t like at all. The second was an eight feet tall and ugly wall of muscle with a lilac tinge to his skin.

“Just my luck,” I muttered as I walked up to them. ~Yeah, there are two guys between me and the door; a big ugly purple guy and a guy who could really use some sun. From what you and Lydia have told me I’d guess they’re an Ogre and a Vampire. I’ll be out as soon as I can.~ I stopped just out of arms reach and mentally groaned when they didn’t move. “You are between me and the door. That might not be the safest place for you to be,” I said with a bravado I didn’t feel.

“The mixed blood threatens us Gront,” said the pale man, “isn’t that cute?”

“I’m sorry; did I beat you to it? Let me guess, you’re the one who’s going to threaten me and your big friend is the strong silent type who does all the dirty work. A bit cliché aren’t you?” I retorted.

The Vampire frowned, looking very annoyed with me. “Listen up girlie, this can go one of two ways: You can come peacefully, or we can have some fun with you before taking you in for the reward. They want your blood and its worth just as much whether we rough you up or not. I’d prefer to take you in alive and relatively unharmed.”

“Just like a visit to the Red Cross; I come in, give some blood, maybe get some juice and a cookie, and then go on my merry way. Is that what you’re offering?” I replied coolly.

“Hardly,” he snorted dismissively. “I’m very eager to see why your blood is so special; once they get theirs, I want a little taste. If you’re lucky, I may let you live on as my thrall.”

“Well isn’t that sweet of you,” I responded with a roll of my eyes as I slowly slipped my hand into my purse and began to feel around. “Is there some kind of benefits package that comes with that? Dental maybe? Never mind, as tempting as that offer is, I’ve never been much of a fan of working nights and my current medical plan is pretty good.” I felt the can in my purse and pulled it out to spray it in the Vampire’s face. “Have a taste of this asshole!”

I could hear the sizzling of his flesh and smell it burning as the spray hit and wisps of smoke rose from between his fingers, where he held his face in his hands as he screamed. “Arrrrrgggggh!” The big guy took that as his cue and hit me hard enough to send me flying back toward the bar. The stools in my path and the bar itself shattered at the impact, sending splinters of wood flying everywhere. The world was spinning a bit as I lay there, and my jaw felt like I’d been hit with a sledgehammer. I thought that it might be broken and as I managed to shake it off and get unsteadily to my feet there was a grinding feeling in my jaw as my regeneration kicked in. I winced and barely suppressed a yelp of pain as it popped back into place and I glared across the room at the Ogre.

Damn that hurt, I thought as I rubbed my tender jaw as I stood up among the bar’s splintered remains. “You have a mean right hook, I’ll give you that. It felt like you almost took my head off with that.” Pete was standing nearby with the bartender and both looked very surprised that the punch hadn’t taken my head off. I gave them a shrug as I brushed the dust off my shoulders and tried to shake off the fading bout of dizziness. Joey had fled the scene after warning me, so at least I wouldn’t have to worry about protecting him. With the Vampire temporarily out of the action, right now it was just me and Gront. “Okay, so that’s how it’s going to be huh? I hate you, you hate me, it’s time for things to get ugly,” I said as I glowered menacingly at him, or rather I hoped it looked menacing.

I leaped toward him, closing the distance between us in a heartbeat, and hit him with everything I had. Everything I had turned out to be a bit much, as I sent him flying through the doors and the rain outside to collide with the run down building on the other side of the street. ~Raven are you alright?!~ Alice yelled in my mind.

~Oops. I guess I still don’t know my own strength. You might want to call your parents and get them to send a clean-up crew. And a medical team in case any homeless were in that building.~ I felt better than I had in my life, like nothing could take me down. My sense of power from the adrenaline rush and taking on the Ogre gave me a confidence like I had never felt before. I turned around to find every eye in the place focused on me. “Is anyone else stupid enough to fuck with me?”

The bar’s patrons all hurriedly looked away and returned to their drinks as I focused my attention on the Vampire again. His face was very badly burned and it looked painful, but I wasn’t feeling particularly sympathetic at the moment. “Oh, you’re still here, fang-tastic. You might have missed it while your face was melting, but I just taught your big purple friend how to fly, he really needs to work on those landings though. So tell me, are you ready for Flight 101 or you smart enough to leave on your own power?” The Vampire took one look at me cracking my knuckles, then at the remains of both the bar and the doors, and fled into the night.

I retracted my wings and claws as I stepped out the doors and made my way back to my car. As I opened the driver’s side door I noticed that the abandoned building the Ogre had crashed into was partially collapsed and hoped that there was nobody inside to get hurt. I climbed into the driver’s seat and closed the door, turning to Alice. “Well that was fun. I know where I can get the info needed to find my aunt, and I got a bit of exercise. Did you let your parents know to send a clean-up crew?”

~Yes, they’re sending a medical team like you asked and a Psychic to implant memories for any human witnesses and the emergency response teams. I don’t think there were any witnesses around, but it’s hard to see properly in this heavy rain.~ She looked at the partially collapsed building. ~The Psychic will check for any injured in the building there too. What the hell happened in there?~

“It looks like someone among the Demons was smart enough to put a price on my head and let the local scum try their luck, instead of risking their own lives,” I explained. “A Vampire and an Ogre decided to try to collect. I maced the Vamp and the Ogre and I exchanged blows. The Ogre lost and is probably napping in that building over there.”

~There’s a bounty on you? We’ll need to let the PDA know about that. Paranormals could attack us at home,~ she replied, sounding worried.

“Don’t worry,” I said with a shrug, “a flock of Gryphons have apparently adopted me and will be watching the house for us. They won’t fight anything, but they will warn us, and I don’t think the Demons were very forthcoming about the details on the bounty. They only knew it was me because of my wings, so I think they only gave a description and not much detail.”
The Mermaid nodded. ~You’ll have to be careful about showing off then.~ Then the other part of what I said earlier seemed to sink in. ~Wait, what? You punched an Ogre through the doors and across the street hard enough to collapse part of that building?~

“Umm yeah... I guess I don’t know my own strength,” I responded sheepishly.

~If you did that, then the word strength may be an understatement. You didn’t get hurt did you?~ she asked in concern.

I shook my head. “He hit me pretty good but I was okay other than a sore jaw and some dizziness. He wasn’t as tough as he looked, and I heal quickly.” Telling her that he probably broke my jaw would have only worried her, and besides I healed up fine, so I kept that to myself.

~So what did you find out about your aunt?~ she pressed.

“I found out that she races cars Saturday nights and I can get the details on when and where,” I replied as I started the car. “Once I find out where and when she’s racing tomorrow night, I have a pretty good idea on how to get her alone for a little chat. First though let’s grab that pizza we came out to get and go home so I can sign up for that mailing list and find out when tomorrow night’s race is.”

After the PDA arrived to clean things up and Alice had the medic take a look at me to make sure I didn’t have a concussion or something, we stopped to pick up the pizza that was our excuse for being out and headed home. We opened the door to find Lydia in the foyer waiting, with her arms crossed and a frown on her face. “Where the fuck did you go to get that pizza? Italy?” I was about to answer her when she shushed me. “I had time to beat Erin at Monopoly while you were gone, twice.”

Erin, who was leaning against the wall, shrugged. “Hey, she’s crazy good at that game. So, did you find out anything useful?”

I rolled my eyes as we took the pizza into the kitchen. “It was a productive outing,” I admitted as I sat down, “let’s all have a seat and eat and I’ll fill you in.”

Once we were all seated and nibbling at our pizza Erin asked, “So how productive was it?”

I sat back and thought for a moment before casually listing off the night’s accomplishments. “Let’s see, I got adopted by a flock of Gryphons who have offered to watch the house for intruders; I found out how to contact my aunt, Speed Racer; I discovered that the Demons have put a bounty on my head; and I now know that Para Mace gives Vampires one hell of a sunburn and Ogres can fly… if you hit them hard enough. Though, when they land they cause significant property damage.”

Erin just sat there and stared at me. “I… I’m not even sure where to start.”

“Tell me everything that happened. Now,” Lydia said. In her current form it looked more like she was pouting about missing out on it rather than being pissed off about me deliberately putting myself in danger, but I knew better. So I carefully related everything that had happened since Alice and I got to the bar. When I was finished Erin was gaping at me and Lydia almost looked proud.

I had pulled out my laptop and was accessing the website to sign up for the mailing list when Erin muttered, “I knew I should have come with you. You traded punches with an Ogre and won. I would have loved to see that.”

“For all we know they have a price on your head too, those demons weren’t too pleased when you Manifested and came to my defense. And you don’t have my strength and durability,” I pointed out.

“You’re such a downer,” she replied, “can I at least come tomorrow when you try to find your aunt?”

“Sure thing,” I said with a grin, “I’m going to need somebody to drive my car back here if my plan goes smoothly. I’ll warn you now though; I don’t plan on getting into any fights tomorrow.”

~You didn’t plan on getting into any tonight either,~ Alice pointed out helpfully.

“Very funny Alice,” I replied as I clicked on the button to subscribe to the mailing list and sighed. “There we go. Hopefully by tomorrow afternoon I’ll know exactly where and when the race starts and then all I’ll need to worry about is what to tell her when I see her. If she and Mom really did have a falling out she might not be very keen on helping me.”

“You should take the letter along, just in case,” Erin suggested. “You might be able to use it to help convince her. Hopefully she won’t hold a grudge against you for her beef against your Mom, and if she’s gotten over whatever it was then the letter might help sway her.”

“If she’s anything like your mother she’ll be hard to read. Your mother didn’t like showing weakness if she could help it,” Lydia suggested. “Siv was a sucker for defending the weak and those in danger though, so if you use the angle that you’re being hunted by Demons her sister may feel compelled to help you.”

“That does have possibilities,” I admitted. “So are you suggesting I play the weak little damsel in distress?”

The Imp shook her head. “No she’d never buy that, especially if she somehow hears about tonight’s little adventure before you get to meet her. I would suggest you stick to the truth as much as possible. Demons are after you and you don’t know how to use any of your abilities, but you need to learn how so you can defend yourself and others.”

“Will that work if word about tonight gets around before I see her? I pretty much proved that I can protect myself tonight,” I replied, feeling pretty proud of myself.

Lydia shook her head, causing her pigtails to swing with the movement. There was a cute frown on her adorable face and I could almost forget she wasn’t a real little girl until she spoke. “Tonight was a fucking fluke Raven; you caught those two jackasses at the bar with their pants down. What saved you was that surprise you had in your purse, and the fact that they thought you were just a pretty face and underestimated your resilience and strength. After tonight though, once word gets around, those hunting you are going to be more careful when dealing with you. Few, but the most arrogant, are going to come right out and challenge you. They will attempt to catch you by surprise, or goad you into a trap.”

I sank down into my chair, knowing that she was right. “Thank you Captain Killjoy.”

~She’s right Raven,~ Alice put in, echoing my own thoughts. ~The reason you were looking for your aunt in the first place was to learn to control your abilities. Tonight proved that you need that still. Your first thought was to defend yourself with the mace when you could have easily taken out the Vampire yourself, and when you did decide to attack the Ogre you didn’t think about tactics. You just threw yourself at him, punched as hard as you could, and prayed. You underestimated your strength as badly as they did. If you don’t learn to fight properly you could be a danger to everyone in the area if someone does decide to attack you.~

“Yeah, I was really lucky that there was nobody in that building the Ogre landed in. I guess I was a little overconfident just now. I was just happy that for the first time in my life I was able to defend myself. No Lydia protecting me from everything in the world, and no Erin or the PDA jumping in to save my ass, it was all me. It was exciting and I felt so confident.”

Erin leaned over to give me a hug. ‘You’ll feel even more confident when it’s not a fluke, so try not to get too down. To be honest, I really envy you and Alice.”

Alice blinked, looking like she wasn’t sure that she had heard Erin correctly. ~Why do you envy us? Out of the three of us you’re the only one who can fit in with the humans without having to always concentrate on keeping some part of your real self hidden. We also have to constantly think about things most people never have to consider. I have to have most of my panties, pants, and such enchanted so that they aren’t destroyed, but rather sent to a pocket dimension, if I have to suddenly change form.~

I nodded vigorously in agreement. “And I can’t wear any kind of clothes that get in the way of my wings. Do you know how boring it is wearing halter tops all the time? Even bras and bikini tops are a pain to wear. I have to wear backless ones if I don’t want them damaged, and even then it’s not a sure thing.”

Erin shrugged. “Okay I’ll give you that. Those things must be a pain in the ass, but you both can do amazing things that are useful in our current predicament. Raven; you’re strong, nothing much hurts you, and someday you’ll be able to fly. Alice; you can breathe under water, you have Water magic, and you’re learning to use guns. What can I do? I talk to cats and I leave my body helpless with the one useful skill I do have. I just sit on the sidelines while you both improve yourselves.”

“Bullshit,” I said, frowning at the Shaman. “When we were tested you had amazing agility, reflexes, and flexibility, and your sense of balance is incredible. If you want to learn some way to physically improve yourself, take martial arts or something. And I’m sure once you’ve gotten more practice as a Shaman your skills will be really useful. Peter said the PDA doesn’t have anyone like you on staff, and I would imagine spirits are just as big a Paranormal threat as anything else.”

~She’s right,~ Alice pointed out. ~Mom said the Chief of the PDA policing division is chomping at the bit trying to figure out how to recruit both of you once those Demons are taken care of. When he read the report on you he saw a lot of potential for someone who may be able to communicate with spirits. I’m sure that if you asked my parents they would be able to set up martial arts lessons with the woman who trains our interested agents. Dad and I could teach you to use a gun too if you want, you need to learn to defend yourself just as much as Raven does.~

“The PDA wants to recruit me?” Erin asked looking stunned. “I can understand them wanting Raven, she’s built for monster hunting, but me?”

The tinkling of the Mermaid’s giggling echoed in my mind. ~Yeah they can see uses for both of you. I wasn’t supposed to mention anything unless you showed an interest since they want to leave it up to you, but I think the Chief would be more than happy to let you use the staff and facilities to learn to improve yourself, if there’s a chance you might be interested in becoming an agent.~

“There’s more than a chance,” Erin replied beaming. “Ever since we got pulled into this whole Paranormal thing I’ve been wanting to get involved, but it looked like I was only able to sit and watch. Maybe we’ll be able to get on the same team.”

~It’s possible,~ Alice admitted. ~They do prefer team members who can work well together and get along.~

“How about you Raven, are you in?” Erin asked with a pleading look. “I’d love to be able to do this with my best friend.”

I shook my head as I thought about it. “I’m not sure. I still kind of want to live a normal life if possible. I’ll think about it, but I won’t promise anything more than that.”

Erin seemed a bit disappointed, but nodded. “I don’t want to pressure you to do something you don’t want to.” Then she turned to Alice, “Do you think we can call your parents and try to set up those lessons?”

~Yeah they should be off shift by now and it’ll be a while before Mom goes to sleep, so she should have the time to talk about it,~ Alice replied.

“I’ll leave you girls to it then,” I managed to say through a yawn, “I’m going to head to bed; I have a busy day tomorrow.” Once the two of them were gone I shut down my laptop and gave Lydia a hug. “Good night Lydia. Thanks for the dose of reality earlier, I needed it.”

The Imp hugged me back tightly. “Rest well; I’ll see you in the morning.”

 

Raven's Blood
Chapter 8: Family Secrets

By
Amethyst

Thanks to my readers for reading my work and patiently waiting for new chapters and to the Big Closet team who give so much of themselves to keep this site going

The night’s race was set to start at ten o’clock at Arborlynn Park in North Vancouver, with the route taking them onto the Trans-Canada Highway to the finish line at Burnaby Lake. Erin and I made sure to be at the park by nine and once I found a spot that would give me a good view of the starting point I sent Erin home, promising to call her on my cell if I needed a ride home or ran into a snag. Then it was the waiting game until the drivers, and those wishing to see the start of the race, arrived.

Once the crowd had gathered, it was a simple matter to join them and watch the cars. Before the race each driver would have to leave their car for a short time to give their entrance fee to the one who would hold the money and take it ahead to the finish line to give the total amount to the winner. That would be my chance. Rather than keeping my eyes on the Pixie that would be holding the pot, I kept my eyes on the cars that pulled up to the starting line. It was near time for the race to start and so far there were five entrants.

A red new model Corvette joined the other cars at the starting point and I watched the driver get out, just as I had the previous five. My heart skipped a beat as I recognized her face from the photograph. Her hair was short and shaved at the sides and she wore a pair of jeans, a black leather jacket, and boots. I didn’t see any wings, but there was no doubt in my mind that it was her. While she made her way through the crowd to the Pixie holding the pot I slipped along the outer edge of the crowd toward the Corvette. Then I opened the driver’s side door to her car and made my way into the passenger’s seat, closing the door behind me, and sat back to wait.

The crowd outside was starting to get rowdy. The race was set to start in less than two minutes, judging by my watch, when the driver climbed into the car. “Hello,” I said with a smile as she settled into the driver’s seat.

“Who the fuck are you, and what the hell do you think you’re doing in my car?” she snapped with a slight Scandinavian accent. I figured the darkness in the car was working to my advantage otherwise my face, so much like my mother’s, would have been a giveaway.

I swallowed the sudden lump in my throat as I replied, “I’m someone who really needs your help.”
To my surprise she laughed. “Are you trying to annoy me to keep me from starting this race on time? Look kid, you have exactly ten seconds to get out of this car or fasten your seat belt, because I am starting this race whether you’re in this car or not. So whoever put you up to this is out of luck.”

I fastened my seat belt. “I’m not leaving this car until you agree to help me.”

“Fine, be that way.” She started the car and began to rev the engine. The signal to start was given and she floored it, causing us to launch forward among the sound of squealing tires as I was pushed back in my seat. She quickly pulled ahead of three of the drivers, leaving only two cars ahead of us. “You know kid, I might be more open to helping you if I knew exactly what kind of help you need,” she said after a short time of staring intently at the road and cars in front of us.

“There are Demons after me; they put a bounty on me. I need you to teach me to fight,” I admitted.

She laughed again as she responded, “I race cars, what makes you think I know anything about fighting?”

“And here I thought all Valkyries were great warriors,” I said, leaning back casually in my seat.

To her credit, the car only swerved a little bit at my comment. She also didn’t try to deny it. “I gave up fighting a long time ago kid, there’s plenty of Paranormals out there who can teach you to fight. You can get the PDA to help you.”

“I don’t need other Paranormals,” I stated firmly, “I need a Valkyrie. I need you.”

“I don’t know what you’ve heard about Valkyries, but there is one thing I will tell you. We don’t share our teachings with outsiders. Our customs, our fighting styles, and our abilities are just that, ours. To share them with outsiders opens us to defeat.” We were making our way onto the highway now and there were more lanes available. The Valkyrie gritted her teeth as she considered the cars ahead of us, and the other traffic on the highway. “Hold on kid, I’m hitting the nitrous.”

I was pushed back into my seat once again as the sudden acceleration sent us rocketing forward. Deft movements of Lin’s hands wove us through traffic, and ahead of the other drivers. With each near collision I feared that I might just need my Demon regeneration. My aunt’s face though, wore a look of sheer bliss and exhilaration. She looked over at me and laughed, “What’s the matter kid? Are you afraid of dying?”

I watched as the world sped by at unsafe velocities and, swallowing my fear, I turned to the Valkyrie in the driver's seat to ask, "Can't you go any slower?" I wasn’t too concerned about dying, but if there was an accident at this speed and I did live, healing was probably going to hurt, a lot.

"And lose this race?" She turned to look at me incredulously before shaking her head. "Not a chance in Hel kid, racing is my thing and I don't lose to or for anybody."

"The road! Keep your eyes on the damn road!" I bit my lip and closed my eyes, hoping this would be over soon as I muttered, "You don't act like a Valkyrie. I thought you were warriors and the handmaidens of Odin."

I could hear her snort beside me, “Oh I’m sorry, am I not living up to the stereotype? Shall I get you a beer? Or would you rather I kick your ass?” She sighed, and opening my eyes I discovered that her eyes were again on the road and her face was grim. "Get one thing straight kid, Valkyrie’s serve no man, ‘God’ or otherwise."

"But..." I began before she cut me off.

"Look kid, my patience is wearing thin with you. Now be quiet so I can win this race. You had better spend that time thinking about the next words that come out of your mouth, because if you want me to help you then you're going to have to give me a damn good reason."

We were both quiet for the remainder of the drive and crossed the finish line ahead of the other drivers. Lin left the car for a time and returned, counting her winnings as she settled back into the driver's seat. Then those cold blue eyes looked me over as she said, "You're still here? You have five words to convince me why I should help you, otherwise get out of my car."

I looked right into those eyes, swallowed the lump that was rising in my throat, and said, "Siv Demarco was my mother."

“Siv,” she said in barely a whisper. “You said she was your mother? Past tense?”

I nodded sadly as I withdrew the note from my purse and offered it to her. “I never really knew her; she died seventeen years ago when I was still a baby. She left me this note in a room only I could enter that told me to look for you.”

She looked at me in the dim light of the car. “You look like her, but are you sure you’re a Valkyrie? We’re always blonde, your hair is black.”

“So are my wings, “I said with a shrug. “I’m a mixed blood, my father was half Demon and the mixing of blood caused me to be born like this. The note has some of the details. I have some Demon abilities, but mostly I take after my mom. The PDA put me through some pretty vigorous testing and they said I’m aligned to the Divine, but I don’t have the gift she had with Divine magic. Peter sensed a Divine ability that was similar to something he sensed in my Mom, but he had no idea what it could be.”

“He probably sensed your andivapn, every true Valkyrie has one.” She paused to read the note, and when she was done I was surprised to see tears rolling down her cheeks. She stepped out of the car and was quiet for several minutes before returning to the driver’s seat and closing the door. “Siv always was selfless. If she’s been dead for seventeen years though why are you seeking me out now? The note mentioned you were sealed.”

I nodded as I took the note back and carefully folded it before putting it back in my purse. “She wanted me to be able to live a normal human life until I was ready to learn about my heritage. She put a fail-safe on the seal though, so that it would break if I ever needed to defend myself against Demons. On Halloween that happened, and two weeks ago I went down into the basement and discovered a room with old weapons and armor and a bunch of old books and scrolls. That’s where I found the note, and nobody could enter the basement but me.”

“That sounds like Siv alright; she always liked to be prepared for anything. How much do you know about Valkyries?” she asked as she started the car.

“Only what I’ve read in my class on Norse Mythology,” I admitted.

“Figures,” she said with a snort, “that’s why you pulled out that idiocy about us serving Odin.”

“We don’t fight for the Gods then? Or decide who lives and dies on the battlefield?” I asked, just a little disappointed.
“Odin and the other Aesir are no more Gods than we are, I am no closer to whatever Gods are up there than any mortal is, and I’m just as unsure as to whether they exist,” she replied. “And Valkyrie’s don’t decide who lives and dies on the battlefield any more than any other warrior; we slay our enemies and attempt to heal our injured comrades, and if a good friend dies honorably in battle then we will do our best to make it a death worthy of legend.”

“I guess I have a lot to learn then,” I sighed.

Lin nodded as she put the car into gear and started driving. “Let me give you an abbreviated history of our people. We, like the Aesir, were one of the first races of Paranormals and in that age people often mistook us for Gods. Our language was the basis for the Germanic dialects that came after. When humans began to form a more complex society and their numbers increased, our people decided that we would leave them to develop without our interference. We Valkyries numbered less than five hundred and our allies, the Aesir, were not much more than that. Despite our power the humans outnumbered us greatly.”

I interrupted her to ask, “If we were around for so long why were there so few of us?”

“There are two reasons for that,” she explained. “First, humans lives are so short that they tend to reproduce exponentially, to leave something of themselves behind when they die. Aesir and Valkyries are ageless; we have all the time in the world to have children, unless something manages to kill us, so we’re not in a hurry to have children. Second, being only a female race we Valkyries have to reproduce with humans or other Paranormals. We only seemed to have female children and there weren’t many children period since we vowed to leave humans to their own devices, and by necessity we were aloof from the other Paranormal races.”

“What do you mean by ageless?” I asked nervously.

“What do you think I mean by ageless?” she snapped. “We’re immortal. We usually Manifest around the middle of puberty and by the end of puberty we stop aging completely. That’s why, despite being over one thousand two hundred years old, I look no older than you do. And before you ask, yes you won’t age either, Valkyries are all or nothing. I believe that you’re not so much a mix of Demon and Valkyrie, but rather a Valkyrie with some Demonic attributes thrown in.”

“Why can’t I use Divine magic like my mother could then?”

“It’s not an inherent ability of our kind; it’s a talent, like painting or cooking. Some people are great at it, some are okay, and some can’t do it at all. You happen to be the latter,” she said with a shrug. “Now are you going to let me finish our history or not?”

“Sorry,” I replied sheepishly, “please go on.”

Thank you,” she said before continuing. “We kept ourselves out of human affairs and didn’t stray often from our village in the mountains of Norway. Despite our lack of potential mates, my mother had given birth to two daughters. Your mom was my true sister, and was born close to one hundred years before I was. Not long after I had finished my training as a warrior, the Aesir Thor came to our village to request our aid. The Frost Giants had managed to open a portal to our plane from their home in the Ice Plane and were intent on conquest.”

“And you and Mom offered to help them?” I guessed.

She shook her head sadly. “The entire village was mobilized to stop them. They greatly outnumbered us and the Aesir, but while we vowed to not interfere in the human world, neither would we let any harm come to those who would not be able to defend themselves. The Frost Giants were thirty feet tall and frighteningly strong, the humans wouldn’t have stood a chance. Your grandmother, and close to three quarters of our warriors, died in the first offensive. The Aesir took similar losses, and it was decided that we would make one last offensive to push them back into the portal while Loki and your mother found a way to close it. I was one of four Valkyries, and six Aesir, who stayed behind to protect them while they worked.”

I watched her intently until she paused, then I pressed, “So what happened then?”

“They found a way to close the portal, and keep it closed, and we called a retreat. Our kin kept fighting on the other side until the Aesir got clear with our wounded. They kept fighting, even as the portal closed. Our wounded didn’t survive long enough for us to heal them. The Aesir offered the five of us who remained a place in their village Asgard, but we decided to wander and live among the humans. When there were threats from Paranormals who would try to rule the humans, we would offer our services to those who would protect them.”

“The five from the photographs,” I realized. “What happened to the other three?”

“We lost our remaining comrades in Germany during World War Two,” she said. “Hitler employed Demons, to try and put a quicker end to the war, and we joined other Paranormals from the alliance forces to stop them. Ashilda was taken out by an artillery shell to the back. Unne and Syn were captured, and the Demons tortured them to death before we could save them. After the war was over Siv and I decided to move overseas to Canada, to attempt to make a new start among the humans here and gave up fighting."

“Mom said in her note that you two had a falling out, did it have something to do with that?” I asked.

She nodded as she turned the steering wheel to take a left turn. “About twenty years ago your mother couldn’t take sitting on the sidelines anymore. Battle was in her blood, and she always had a soft spot for humanity. She wanted us both to join the PDA with her boyfriend Nick to help protect the humans from Paranormal threats and vice versa. I had started racing cars by then and didn’t want to go back to fighting when I could risk my life just as easily behind a steering wheel, or on a motorcycle. We both said some things we regretted and went our separate ways. We were both too stubborn to try to make up.”

I could feel the regret in her voice and felt bad for both her and my mom. How would things have turned out if they hadn’t been so stubborn? “Huh?” I asked as I realized that she had said something more.

“I said you’ve got a choice to make,” she repeated. “We are the last of our kind, do you want to embrace our traditions and become a warrior, or do you want me to hunt down those Demons for you? What kind of help did you come to me for? Think carefully, because this is the only time I’m going to offer you this choice.”

What did I want? Things would be so much easier if she killed them for me. I might be able to go back to a normal life, but I would also be a danger to others unless I learned to control my strength and other abilities. The mysterious ability Peter had sensed also had me burning with curiosity. Finally, I had to take into account that I was one of the last Valkyries, and my mother had hoped that I would be a warrior like her. Lin showed no interest in being a warrior anymore, so if I didn’t learn then thousands of years of tradition would end. Did I want it to end? I had a duty to my people, and myself, and there was that thrill I got from fighting the Ogre as well. Finally I said, “I want to become a warrior.”

“Congratulations, you’ve passed your first test; a true Valkyrie never lets anyone else fight her battles.” She took another left turn and I realized that I had no idea where we were.

“Where are we going?” I asked as I looked out the window for familiar landmarks.

“We’re going to my hotel to get some clothes, and other things I’ll need if I’m going to be training you. We’ll need to figure out a safe location I can take you for training as well,” she replied.

“My basement has mats and some weapons and equipment, and the wards Mom placed there should keep us safe,” I suggested.

She shook her head. “It’s not big enough; we’ll need some place outdoors. Traditionally we took trainees away from the village and into the woods to train. Learning to use the lay of the land in tactics is part of the training. We’ll need to buy camping supplies and enough food to last a while. Even with a Valkyrie’s natural fighting ability the training can take months, so the sooner we start the better.”

“We can go buy supplies tomorrow, and I think maybe Erin or Alice can help us find a place away from prying eyes to train,” I suggested.

We pulled into the underground parking lot for the Nordic Hotel, one of Vancouver’s older high class hotels geared toward tourists. She parked right beside the elevator, and once we were inside she pressed the button for the penthouse. At first I thought she was playing a prank on me, but after a long elevator ride she walked right up to one of the two penthouse suites and slid her key into the lock. “Come on in,” she offered, “make yourself at home.”

The living room of the penthouse was decorated in earth tones, with expensive looking furniture with soft cream colored carpet and prints of famous paintings. I stared around me in wonder trying to picture the racing queen living in such luxury, but I just couldn’t see it. “You live here? How the hell can you afford a penthouse?”

“I don’t have to pay to live in the penthouse since I co-own the hotel.” I must have had quite the expression on my face, because looking at me caused her to laugh. “Do you really think a girl can live over a thousand years and not have a decent nest egg set aside? Your mother and I didn’t spend all our wandering time fighting you know. There was always money to be made working as some Paranormal’s private body guards, and some of the little things we collected in our youths are worth a lot now. In the fifties I started playing with our money on the stock exchange, our portfolio is pretty versatile.”

“Well that does explain my house and inheritance,” I replied still somewhat in shock. “My friends and I were wondering how she left me so much on a government salary.” Since we were safe inside I decided to let my wings out for some air.

The other Valkyrie gasped at the sight. “You weren’t kidding about them being black. It’s probably because of the Demon influence, I see you have claws too. I’ll take those into account while I’m training you; they give you an advantage while unarmed.” She let out her own white wings and I stared at them for a while, wondering if that was what my mom’s looked like in person.

I felt myself starting to tear up. “You two were together for over a thousand years; it must have been hard staying apart like you did.”

She nodded and looked around in an antique desk, coming up with a key. “This is the key to the other penthouse. Your mother was the other owner of the hotel; I guess we should change it to your name now. When we had our big fight and she left I never had the heart to rent out her penthouse. I may have been too stubborn to go look for her to make up, but I would have welcomed her back in an instant. The income from the hotel and our investments go into a joint account; I’ll have to change her name to yours on that too. I know you already said that you have a house, but this can be your home away from home if you want. Your apartment won’t be rented out unless you want it to be and I've placed wards to keep people from sensing Paranormals in this hotel, so it's fairly safe”

I took the key and stared at it as I thought about her out of date address in the PDA records. “If you lived here all this time how come the PDA had another address for you?”

“I have never fully trusted any government agency like the PDA, there’s too much chance that they can take advantage of the Paranormals they’re supposed to protect. So when I registered I gave them my secondary address, the one I used as a cover. It made Siv happy that I was in the system in case I ever needed help, and it kept them from getting too intrusive. All the staff here are either Paranormals or know about them, are paid well enough to stay loyal and keep secrets, and the wards keep them safe from Paranormal predators and human hunters. I will let them know who you are and that you are the other owner of the hotel.”

“Are you sure we can trust them?” I asked uncertainly, “the Demons have put a bounty on me.”

“I’ve known most of these people since they were born, their parents and sometimes grandparents worked for me and your mom,” she replied. “I trust them far more with both of our lives than I do the government.”

“I’ll trust your judgement then,” I agreed before asking tentatively. “Why didn’t my Mom just tell me about the hotel in the letter? It would have made finding you easier.”

“Valkyrie’s believe that if you want something it should be earned, and that includes training,” she replied with a shrug. “It’s tradition that young Valkyries must search for their chosen instructors and find them on their own before they can begin training. They can be given one or two clues, but beyond that they need to use their own skills and resources. Siv was following that tradition by only giving you my name and picture.” Then she went to a door and opened it and then turned around to ask, “Did you want to stay here tonight? You can look over your apartment and see if you like it. It’s getting late, and I should get some paperwork started to change your mom’s name to yours on the records while I’m thinking of it. What is your full name anyway? It only said Raven on the note.”

I was a bit uncertain about her, but she seemed to have really loved my mom and was willing to accept me as her niece. “Sure I’ll just call home to let my roommates know I won’t be coming home tonight.” I suddenly felt silly for not introducing myself properly earlier. “My name is Raven Lin Demarco.”

I could see her eyes moistening. “She always was too sentimental for her own good, but then, I would have named my daughter for her too. Why don’t you go get settled in and call home while I leave a message for my lawyer about the paperwork and start sorting out what I’ll need for our trip. If you get hungry the kitchen offers room service twenty four seven.”

“Thanks Aunt Lin, I’ll do that. Good night, I’ll see you in the morning.” I left the apartment and closed the door to leave her alone with her memories.

Once I had used the key to open the door to my new apartment, I stepped inside to look around. It felt strange thinking of this place as mine. The living room was decorated in the same tasteful fashion as my aunt’s, with earth tones, thick cream carpeting, and fine artwork. The couch and chairs were upholstered with black leather, and the coffee table and antique desk looked to be made of oak. Before I went to explore the rest of the apartment I decided to phone home. Erin picked up after the first ring and I was concerned that I might have worried her as she quickly answered, “Raven? Is that you?”

“Yeah it’s me Erin, you can start breathing again,” I replied.

I could hear her let out a long breath on the other end. “Did you find her? Are you okay? Where are you?”

“Calm down, I’m fine, and yes I did find her and she’s agreed to train me. As for where I am, I’m in one of the penthouse suites of the Nordic hotel,” I told her. “My aunt lives in the other penthouse.”

“Thank goodness you’re alright,” she said, letting out another long breath before continuing. “How can a woman who races cars for money afford a penthouse apartment in a fancy hotel like that?”

“I think the racing is just for the thrill of it, she owns the hotel,” I replied. “Or rather we own it, since she co-owned it with my mom and now my mom’s share and her penthouse are being passed on to me.”

“You own a hotel?!” I could almost hear her jaw drop.

“Co-own, but yes from what I’m told this hotel belongs to me and my aunt, and this lavish penthouse suite is mine to use as I wish.”

“How are you so fucking rich?” she asked, sounding flustered. “Were your mom and aunt part of the Scandinavian Paranormal mafia or something?”

I chuckled at her reaction. If she reacted like that to what I just told her how would she react to what I planned on saying next? Once I thought I could manage to say it without laughing I answered, “Apparently living for over a thousand years gives a person plenty of time to save money and my aunt plays the stock market with part of what they saved.”

Erin laughed on the other end. “I must have misheard you; I could have sworn you just said your aunt is a thousand years old.”

“Actually, she’s over one thousand two hundred years old,” I clarified. “My mom was even older when she was killed; Valkyries stop aging once puberty is over. Alice did tell us that there were immortal species of Paranormals.”

“Yeah, but I never thought that you might be one of them. It does make sense why the women in those photos all looked alike though. Damn life must get boring after that long,” she muttered.

“I think that’s why Valkyries are warriors actually, and why my aunt likes racing,” I replied, “when you can’t die by normal means life loses its meaning. So they look for ways to constantly put themselves in the position where something could kill them, and cheat death to make themselves feel more alive.”

“You could be right about that, it kind of makes sense. Jamie would have loved to do a paper on something like that, the psychological implications of immortality and all that.” She stopped talking for a moment before saying, “I just told Alice that you’re fine and you’re with your aunt, she’s going to let Lydia know so she’ll stop swearing and pacing a hole in the floor. Do you need me to come pick you up?”

“No I’ll be staying here tonight,” I replied. “By the way, my aunt wants to take me somewhere secluded for training once we can make preparations. Could we use your family cabin?”

“I would say yes, but there are usually a lot of tourists in that area of the island and the last thing we need is a picture of two women with wings on the six o’clock news.” There was another silence as she seemed to be considering the problem. “Maybe the PDA will know of a secluded spot without prying human eyes. You could come to the office with me tomorrow afternoon; I need your strength anyway.”

“Why do you need my strength?” I asked. “I thought you were going for a martial arts lesson, I really wouldn’t want to hurt you.”

My friend laughed. “I need you to carry my grandfather’s chest, that thing is damn heavy. After my martial arts lesson I’m meeting with a Faith Healer that the PDA called in from Japan. She arrives tomorrow and they think she might be able to help me with my training. They want me to bring all the Shaman stuff to the training center so we can work on the training there.”

That’s going to be a pain in the ass for you to drag back and forth while I’m gone,” I pointed out.

“Don’t worry about it; they’re letting me keep it there under lock and key. I don’t want to be hauling that thing around anymore than I have to.”

“Okay, I’ll go with you, but I don’t think I’ll be able to convince my aunt to come, she doesn’t seem to trust the PDA,” I answered. “I’ll be home before we have to go. I’m going to take a look around to see what this place is like and then go to sleep.”

“Good night Raven, have fun.” She disconnected the call and I stepped further into the apartment to look around. Everything was kept clean and free of dust and looked very modern. Lin must have really hoped to make up with my mom if she didn’t rent the place out but kept it as modern and comfortable as possible. The place was absolutely massive with the open living room, a dining room with a crystal chandelier and a large oak table and six chairs that were noticeable as soon as I entered. There was also a modern kitchen with a huge refrigerator and a gas stove, library, media room, wine room, large master bathroom with a shower and Jacuzzi, laundry room, powder room, and an empty room with a skylight that I thought might be a solarium.

I found three large bedrooms early on, two of which had access to a balcony overlooking the city and the ocean beyond. The bedrooms were all tastefully decorated with different color themes, earth tones and blues for the two that accessed the balcony and soft pink and deep rose for the one beside the master bathroom. Each contained a comfortable looking bed, dresser, two large closets, bed side tables and a desk.

When I finally stepped out onto the balcony from one of the bedrooms, I discovered that it went along the side of the building, to be accessible by the living room as well. It continued on even further than that and I walked around the corner at the end to find that the balcony became a large terrace which overlooked the bay, North Vancouver, and the mountains beyond. There was wooden patio furniture, a barbeque, and a hot tub, but in the late evening light I had to get close to make out much detail on anything. I stepped back inside the apartment by a glass door on the terrace to find myself in what I thought must be the master bedroom.

Once I found a light switch I discovered that the master bedroom was decorated in soft creams and dark red. It was furnished much like the other bedrooms but instead of a double bed it housed a king sized, four poster canopied bed with satin sheets and a warm looking comforter. And rather than the regular sized closets there were two massive walk-in closets, which were currently bare. One of room’s other two doors led back toward the dining room and kitchen while the other led to a large en suite bathroom decorated in cool blues and ivory with a large bath, a shower, two sinks, a vanity, and all the regular necessities.

This was the kind of place I would never have spent my money on. I may have been well off, but so much space just for myself felt wasteful and an unnecessary expense. That didn’t mean I wasn’t going to enjoy it though, especially that bed. Once I finished my tour I returned to the master bedroom, quickly shed my clothes, and climbed under the sheets. The soft bed had me asleep in minutes.

 

Raven's Blood
Chapter 9: Flying

By
Amethyst

Thanks to my readers for reading my work and patiently waiting for new chapters and to the Big Closet team who give so much of themselves to keep this site going

I awoke to a distant ringing sound that I eventually figured out was the doorbell. As much as I would have liked to stay in that soft bed, the strangeness of the room when I opened my eyes brought me back to reality and I climbed out of bed, wrapping the comforter around my naked body, to make my way toward the foyer. Once I arrived I looked through the peep hole to see my aunt standing outside and looking very cheerful. I opened the door and mumbled, “G’morning. What time is it anyway?”

Lin came inside answering chipperly, “Its six o’clock and we have a lot to do today.”

“Oh dear God, you’re a morning person,” I grumbled.

She began to push me back toward the bedroom. “And so are you now that I’ve agreed to train you. If you want to be a warrior, then you keep a warrior’s hours. So get showered and dressed, while I order us up some breakfast.”

“What have I ever done to you to deserve this?” I groaned as I let her push me along.

“Well you did climb in my car and refuse to get out until I trained you, so I’m just giving you what you asked for,” she pointed out. “You’ll get used to getting up this early; my trainer did the same thing to me on my first day. Except we didn’t have hot running water for showers back then, and when I didn’t want to get up she picked me up and tossed me in the lake. Remember that I told you that we lived in the mountains. Damn that water was cold.”

I shivered at the thought, “It sounds like your trainer was a real bitch.”

“She was only doing what was needed to toughen me up. I think she was a bit harder on me than she would have been on anyone else because I was her first student, and her sister,” she said as she took the comforter off me and tossed it on the bed. At my stunned look she grinned, “Yes your mom trained me.”

“Why was she so hard on you?” I asked as she pushed me toward the en suite bathroom.

“Before she agreed to teach me I was really jealous of her,” she responded with a sigh. “She was one of our best warriors and she was amazing with Divine magic. She taught me both and her being so hard on me not only made me a stronger warrior with a will to survive, but it also let me see how hard she trained to get as good as she was. Training with her helped us to become as close as we were. “

I stopped outside the shower and said, “Thanks for agreeing to train me. You didn’t have to say yes and I know it probably brings up bad memories.”

She placed a hand on my shoulder and looked me straight in the eyes. “You’re family, I couldn’t say no, and training you will bring up good memories. A Valkyrie does not mourn for what is lost, we relish in what was gained and remember the fallen for the good times we shared with them. To do any less than to celebrate the life they gave, is to dishonor their memory. Siv deserves to be honored. I will train you as she trained me, and should I enter Valhalla before you then I will tell her I trained you to be a warrior worthy of our people.” With that she shoved me in the shower and giggled as she turned on the cold water.

I shrieked as the water hit my skin and she ran out of the room. I left the water cold to help me wake up and tried to make the shower as quick as possible. Once I was cleaned, I shook out my wings to get rid of any water as best I could and wrapped a towel around my damp hair. Then I patted myself dry before heading back into the bedroom to change into my jeans and red halter top from the night before.

When I left the bedroom I found my aunt in the dining room with breakfast laid out on the table. There was a lot of just about everything one could want for breakfast and it looked more like a buffet than a breakfast for two. I raised a questioning eyebrow as I sat down. “Isn’t this a little much for the two of us?”

My aunt shook her head. “A big breakfast is the best way to start a day, and once we’re out in the woods we won’t have this luxury. You’ll have to start eating more now because you’ll be burning calories fast once you start training. And flying is going to cause your metabolism to speed up, so you’ll need to eat a lot more to keep up with the demand. A fully grown Valkyrie who’s started flying will usually eat at least this much for breakfast.”

“How long will it be before I start flying?” I asked, a bit eager to get started on that.

“Flying will be one of your first lessons and since you don’t have Divine magic to prevent the normal folks from seeing you while flying, I had to do some thinking. Once you’ve finished eating I’ll show you what I came up with and begin teaching you what you’ll need to know to fly. Trust your teacher and eat as much as you can, you’re going to need the energy.” Then she started eating, packing away not only a lot of food but also two glasses of juice and two glasses of milk. She encouraged me to drink a lot too. “You need to keep hydrated, and the natural sugars in the juice will give you a more immediate energy boost for working those wings.”

Once we had both eaten as much as we could, she escorted me out to the terrace. In the daylight I could see it in much better detail. She walked me to the three foot high stonework wall that ran along the edge of both the terrace and balcony to the corner which afforded a panoramic view of the city, the bay, and the distant mountains. “Have you attempted flying on your own yet?” she asked.

I nodded as I took in the scenery. “Tried and failed. I can barely get them to move when I want them to. It’s like they aren’t properly connected with my brain, neither can properly read the signals the other is sending.”

“You’re over-thinking it. All Valkyries do when they first get their wings,” she replied. “You think you’re not used to having wings and you expect them to feel wrong to you, so they do. Flying is all about instinct. What you need to do is relax and to let your wings do their thing.” She handed me a simple silver ring, urging me to put it on. “Whenever you fly where there might be people around you should use this. I’ve enchanted it with Divine magic so that it bends light around the wearer. It’s a similar spell to what I use when flying, and it will make it so that normal humans won’t see you. It’s not that powerful an invisibility spell, so many of those those attuned to the paranormal and specifically magic will see right through it, but it’s really the normal people and their cameras that we need to worry about.”

I put the ring on and asked, “How long do you think it will be before I start flying?”

“Probably a lot sooner than you think,” was her cryptic response. “First I want you to close your eyes and steady your breathing. Contemplate the air around you and how it feels around you, how it feels on your wings. Relax and let all the rest of the world fade away, there is only you and the sky.”

I nodded, and tried to relax and set my mind on the air around me and how it felt. I could feel the cold northern wind caressing me and let out a soft sigh. “That wind feels nice.”

Lin’s voice lulled me to relax even further as she massaged my shoulders. “I now begin your lesson Raven. Now in the time honored tradition of our people I will offer you to the winds. Repeat after me the first thing spoken by all Valkyries when they first learn to fly.” Her hands tightened on my shoulders as she let out a scream. “Eeeeeeeeeee!!!!” I nearly jumped at the sound, and I thought that an odd thing to say, until she picked me up and threw me over the edge of the building and I too screamed.

I opened my eyes to see the ground rushing toward me and as I began to panic suddenly my wings spread wide and I began to glide. I could feel the wind rushing around my wings, through my feathers, and something in my mind clicked. It was like I was finally feeling my wings for the first time, and if I could feel them I could control them. At first I let instinct guide me as I got the feel for gliding, sensing the winds, and making the most of them. Then I purposely began to flap my wings, gaining both speed and altitude and thrilling in the experience.

Soon I was far above the hotel and other buildings, the cars in the streets beneath me moving about like tiny ants. I lost track of time as I wandered up there, making my way through clouds and occasionally joining a flock of birds. Flying was simply put, the most incredible experience I had ever had. This was where I belonged; could I really give this up for a normal life? Could I go back to dull classes and then a boring nine to five job knowing that up in the sky there was true freedom? The only other time I had ever felt this confident, this comfortable with myself, was when I had taken down that Ogre.

I was stirred from my contemplation of the future by my aunt’s voice to my left. “It’s almost lunchtime; you should come back down and eat.” I was about to argue that I wasn’t hungry when I realized that I was indeed famished. If it was nearly lunchtime then I had been flying for almost five hours. I turned and stared at my white winged escort and she laughed. “I did the same thing when I first flew. I felt like I couldn’t get enough. Now try to follow me and when you land, touch down feet first, lean back into your wings, and use slow and firm wing beats to ease yourself down.”

Lin pulled ahead of me and I followed in her wake as she led the way back to the hotel. My landing was a little less graceful than hers, okay it was a lot less graceful, but I didn’t fall on my ass and I thought that was pretty good for a first timer. Once I had both feet safely on the terrace I remembered just how I had left it in the first place and crossed my arms belligerently as I glowered at my aunt. “Time honored tradition of our people my ass,” I grumbled.

She just grinned at me, “I didn’t make the tradition I was just following it.”

“You threw me off the top of a building!” I shouted back.

“True,” she replied, “we usually throw them off a cliff, but we’re in a city so I improvised. Instinct is the best teacher and you were flying just fine up there when I last looked. You weren’t in any danger. If instinct hadn’t kicked in and you were in danger I would have saved you, but you were fine.”

“You threw me off the top of a fucking building!” I repeated. “How is falling from the top of a skyscraper not in danger?!”

She rolled her eyes and let out a sigh as her wings retracted back into her body. “You’re overreacting, this is the way we’ve always done it and no Valkyries ever died from it. Some suffered broken bones or the occasional concussion, but none died, and every single one flew as a result.”

“Are all Valkyrie teaching methods this insane?” I grumbled as we walked back inside the apartment.

She looked pensive for a moment before shaking her head. “No, not all of them, just the ones that have to do with flying and combat training.” She laughed at my sour expression as she pushed me toward the table. “Cheer up and eat some lunch and then we can get you home and I can start shopping for the supplies we’ll need for our trip. I know what we’ll need, so you only need to pack clothes suitable for exercise in the outdoors and find us a suitable location.”

I ate much more for lunch than I had for breakfast. I hadn’t even realized how hungry I was until I started eating. As we both worked at clearing the table of anything edible Lin told me stories about when my mom was training her, and some of the more interesting people they had met in their travels. She told me so many things about my mother that I could never have learned from Lydia or the PDA and I asked questions whenever possible to learn even more.

It was almost one thirty by the time we stood up from the table and I grabbed my purse so that we could both get started on the things we needed to do that afternoon. “Would you prefer to fly home or have me drive you?” my aunt asked once I had gathered my things.

I was eager to take to the skies again and grinned as the opportunity presented itself. “Of course I want to fly. You’re not going to throw me off the building again are you?” I asked suspiciously.

She laughed and shook her head. “No, you can jump off on your own if you want to do it that way. You should have enough strength to use your wings to take off from a standing position though, if you’re as physically strong as you’ve said you are. Just remember to put on the ring first, and take it off when you have some privacy.”

I quickly nodded, “I’ll try the standing take-off some other time, I’ll just call home to let them know I‘m on my way.”

She handed me a business card as we walked back out to the terrace. “That’s got my home number and my cell number on it. Give me a call tonight so we can work out the trip details. Or you can come by for a visit if you prefer.”

On impulse I leaned forward and gave her a hug. “Thanks for everything Aunt Lin; I’ll talk to you later.”

She hugged me back. “You’re welcome kid, but don’t thank me yet, we have a lot of work ahead of us. I’ll see you later.” Once I let go of her she headed back into the apartment, leaving me alone on the terrace.

I made sure to put the business card with my new key in my purse, and then took out my cell to dial the number for my house. “Hello?” Lydia’s childlike voice answered.

“Hi Lydia it’s me,” I replied.

“It’s so good to hear from you, I was beginning to worry,” she said letting out a sigh. “Is everything alright?”

“Everything is fine,” I assured her. “Aunt Lin just got kind of caught up telling me stories about my mom while we were eating lunch. I’ll be home really soon, can you all wait for me outside?”

“Sure, I was planning on tidying the front lawn anyway. I’ll keep my cell with me, so call if you run into heavy traffic or any other delays.”

I resisted the urge to giggle. “I don’t think traffic will be too much of a problem. I’ll see you all soon.” I stuffed my phone back in my purse and took out the ring Aunt Lin had given me. I grinned as I put it on my finger with a giggle, “Time to go flying again my precious.” Then after making sure that my purse was closed tight and firmly in my grasp, I took a running start and leaped over the stone railing and into the air beyond. As soon as I was clear of the building I began to work my wings into a steady rhythm that would allow me more speed and altitude and headed in the direction of home.

It was a relatively short flight, once I got used to navigating in the air, and all too soon I was circling above my house to slow down and lower my altitude before landing. As I closed in at two hundred feet or so and settled into a circling glide I could see Lydia, Erin and Alice sitting by the garden and watching the driveway for my arrival. I smiled to myself and thought to Alice, ~Look up.~

She did, and then she was pointing and the others looked up as well to watch me until I made a slightly more graceful landing than I had earlier. Once I had both feet on the ground I casually closed the distance between us, smiled and said, “Nice day for flying don’t you think?”

“Holy shit! You were flying!” Erin said with an excited squeal as she hugged me. “That is so awesome!”

Lydia shook her head, trying to hide a smile. “I knew you’d be able to do it. But what the fuck do you think you were doing?! I can sense that there’s a spell shielding you from human sight, but it’s not humans that are after your damn blood! Why don’t you shoot off some flares while you’re up there so the Demons have an even better chance of noticing you?!” As much as she was bitching I could tell she was happy for me, and she did have a point. I really should have thought about it, but flying was just so exciting.

Alice placed a hand on the upset Imp’s shoulder. ~Calm down Lydia, the Gryphons will warn us I anyone comes here other than the Demons and the Demons are blocked from coming onto the grounds by the wards or they would have been here already. Besides, most Demons can’t fly. ~ She turned to me and smiled, though she looked a bit confused. ~You really seemed to have enjoyed that. I’m glad you finally managed to do it. I thought you were having problems with getting your wings to work properly though. How did you learn so fast?~

I shrugged and tried very hard not to laugh as I replied, “Aunt Lin taught me, but I’m not sure I should reveal to you all the time honored method our people use to teach flying.”

“Awwww, come on!” Erin begged. “You have to tell us. We’re your best friends, and it’s not like any of us are going to tell anyone. Please?!” She pouted and began giving me the puppy dog eyes and I giggled.

“Fine, I’ll tell you, but this falls under ‘don’t try this at home’, and Lydia has to promise not to freak out.” I gave my former caretaker a stern look as I said the last.

“I’ll try not to ‘freak out’. But I won’t promise any more than that,” she offered.

Knowing that was probably the best I was going to get, I shrugged. “She had me close my eyes and contemplate the air around me and how it felt and then…” I trailed off, as if uncertain whether I should share the big secret.

Alice and Lydia seemed to know that I was trying to get to them with the suspense, but Erin was hooked, eagerly waiting for me to reveal the secret. “And?! Come on Raven, don’t leave me hanging here.”

Then as calmly as if I were talking about the weather I said, “…and then she threw me off the top of the Nordic Hotel.”

Erin and Alice stared at me in disbelief and as I expected Lydia reacted in much the same way that I had before I had the chance to think about it over lunch. “She threw you off a building?! Is she fucking insane?! The point is to train you to so you can stay alive! She’s going to kill you before the fucking Demons do!”

I wrapped the little girl in a hug. “Calm down Lydia, I was upset at first too, but it’s always been done that way. Valkyries learn to fly through instinct, and nothing kicks in those instincts and makes you want to learn to fly like falling from some great height. Think about it, most birds learn to fly the same way. Aunt Lin assured me that she would have saved me if I were in any danger. I told you this because I knew you'd want to know, but I won't be able to share anything else from my training with you since Aunt Lin made me promise to keep all combat techniques and other things she will be teaching me when she starts my training secret from even other Paranormals or friends.”

Alice quickly added, ~Teaching like that isn't even that unusual with Paranormals. Even before we Manifest Merfolk are taught to swim as children through instinct. Our parents throw us in the deepest water they can find, and only come to our rescue when it’s apparent that we really aren’t getting it. Usually we don’t need the help. And I think all types of Paranormals have our own secrets.~

“Okay, okay, I get it,” Lydia grumped, “just try not to do anything else life threatening today please. I’m going to go start the pot roast I was planning on making for dinner. You girls try not to be stuck at the Werehouse too long. Dinner should be ready by six.”

I raised my right hand and gave her a grin. “I’ll try not to ‘endanger my life’ any more today, but I won’t promise any more than that.” At her frown I giggled and took off the ring before running into the house to fetch the chest from Erin’s room so we could be on our way.

When I returned outside Lydia had already fled to the kitchen to start dinner preparations and Alice was nowhere to be seen. Erin leaned against the passenger side door of my car and noticing me looking around she quickly explained, “Alice wanted to tag along. But since your car only seats two, and she doesn’t fancy sharing trunk space with that chest you’re carrying, she decided to swim and meet us there.”

“I could have flown and let you two take my car,” I said as I placed the chest in the trunk. I reluctantly pulled my wings and claws inside of me I walked around to the driver’s side door.

“Haven’t gotten your fill of flying yet huh?” she asked. “I don’t blame you, if it were me I’d be up there every chance I got.” We both climbed into my car and put on our seat belts and as I started the engine Erin looked at me longingly and asked, “What’s it like?”

“Flying?” I asked as I started down the driveway. At her nod I thought about how to describe it. It was a few moments before I sighed, smiled, and said, “It’s amazing. It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. It’s like I’m at home up there, and free to go wherever the wind will take me.”

My friend sighed and I looked over to see her staring longingly out at the sky. “I’d love to try it someday.”

I chewed my lower lip as I thought about how she could experience it for herself. “Maybe I can take you up with me some day, I’d really worry about dropping you though. Or we could get you a hang glider or something. It’s not the same as flying under your own power, but it’s probably pretty damn close.”

“That could be fun; hang gliding might be a fun hobby to take up once all this Demon crap is dealt with.” She leaned back in her seat as she came back to reality. “For now though, we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, I’m actually pretty excited to be meeting this Faith Healer. Grandfather’s journals are helpful, but I can’t ask those questions and get the answers I need. This may be just what I need to move ahead and actually communicate with spirits.”

I nodded and turned my head to smile at her before returning my attention to the road. “It looks like we’ll both be getting the training we need now, and once we’re trained we won’t be running anymore. We’re going to take the fight to them.” I had to be careful not to grip the steering wheel too tightly as I grimly watched the road ahead.

Despite traffic being light, I still would have preferred to be flying. We made good time, but Alice was still waiting for us when we arrived at the warehouse. We had discovered on previous trips that Alice was an incredible swimmer. So while we had been taking the roundabout route through the streets of the city, and the traffic and traffic lights that went with it, she had taken the direct route through English Bay. ~About time you two got here,~ the mermaid teased from where she waited by the elevator in the office.

“I could have beaten you if I’d flown,” I complained.

~We’ll have to race some time and find out for sure,~ she said with a smile. Alice wasn’t waiting alone, as standing beside her and holding the elevator door for us was a handsome man in a suit with horns sticking out of his brown hair. Furry legs ending in cloven hooves peaked out from his pant legs instead of shoes and I realized that he must be a Satyr. Alice was quick to introduce him. ~This is Janus Woods, he’s the Vice-chief of the policing division.~

He extended his hand and Erin shook it. I just smiled and nodded. “I would shake your hand, but mine are a bit full at the moment. It’s nice to meet you all the same though.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you both,” he replied with a smile. “We’ve been hearing a lot about you two, and Alice has been keeping us apprised of your situation. Shall we head downstairs so that Miss Ross can meet her instructors?” At the Satyr’s urging we all piled into the elevator and he used his key card to take us down to the lowest level. Once downstairs I set my wings and claws free and we headed immediately to the training room, where two women waited. The first was a Japanese woman dressed in white robes, while the second was a tall and slender woman with ginger hair, green eyes with slit pupils, and pointed ears.

Janus was quick to make the introductions, beginning with the Japanese woman. “This is Mirai Sato, a Faith Healer from Hokkaido. She will be helping Erin to learn to use her spirit related abilities.” He turned to the redheaded woman next. “And this is Lissia Francis, she teaches martial arts to our new recruits and keeps our other agents from getting too rusty.” Then he turned to present us as well. “This is Alice MacArthur, I believe that you and Lissia have met already. This is Erin Ross, the young woman that you both will be teaching, and Raven Demarco, one of our more unique cases.” I chuckled and shook my wings out a little at that comment.

“I am pleased to meet you all,” the Faith Healer said in what I thought was very good English, smiling as she shook each of our hands. She turned back to Erin. “I look forward to seeing how I can help you, and I cannot wait to look at these journals you mentioned when we spoke this morning.”

“I’ve heard good things about you both,” Lissia said as she shook mine and Erin’s hands. “I’m looking forward to teaching you Erin; I’m told that you are quite agile. My mother’s people use agility to fight rather than brute strength, and I’m eager to teach a student that might be able to keep up with me.” At the look of confusion on Erin’s face she quickly clarified. “I grew up in the human world, but while my father is human my mother is one of the Fey, you would call us Elves I believe.”
Erin’s eyes widened at that and she grinned. “I’ll do my best to keep up then, it should be interesting, but don’t elves usually live in the forest?”

There was a twinkle in the half-elf’s eyes as she nodded. “Yes, usually we do. We prefer to keep out of human affairs and stay in our forests where we can commune with other creatures of nature and the elements.” Her gaze seemed to focus on me for the briefest instant before she continued speaking to Erin. “For your training I will use a mixture of the martial arts that I usually teach, and some of my people’s fighting style as well. Most humans wouldn’t be able to pull it off, but judging from the results of your testing I think you can. I will be teaching Alice some basic martial arts as well while I’m teaching you.” Then she turned that smile on me, “I have heard that you are having trouble finding a teacher for your unique skill set. If you are not able to find one I would offer my services to help you as best I can.”

I returned the smile, but shook my head. “Thank you for your kind offer, but last night I found a teacher from my mother’s people.”

“I wish you the best of luck in your lessons then,” she replied with a smile before turning back to Alice and Erin. “As for the two of you, please get changed into some workout clothes and let’s see what I have to work with.”

Both of my friends dashed off for the changing room and I asked, “Is there somewhere I should put Erin’s chest of Shaman goodies?”

“You can just leave it here with me if you like Demarco-san,” Mirai offered. “I wish to look over the journals while Erin is occupied with her other lesson, so that I can better guide her lessons with me.”

I nodded and placed the chest where she directed. “It was very nice meeting you both, but while you’re both pushing my friends to their limits I need to find out who I need to go see to ask for a place to train. My teacher seems to think that we need something out in the forest or mountains, fairly remote with no humans around.”

“I believe I can help you with that,” Janus offered with a smile. “Why don’t we go talk to the Chief and see if we can work something out?”

“That sounds great, thank you very much,” I responded somewhat relieved. I had been half afraid I’d have to go all over the place and talk to dozens of people before I found the right person.

“We will see you lovely ladies later then,” the Satyr said with a smile before leading me back out of the training area.

 

Raven's Blood
Chapter 10: Revelations

By
Amethyst

Thanks to my readers for reading my work and patiently waiting for new chapters and to the Big Closet team who give so much of themselves to keep this site going

Janus escorted me upstairs to the offices for the policing division and then through the hallways until we reached a large wooden door with a window that had the words, “Policing Division Chief: Edward Little” stenciled on the glass. He opened the door without knocking and led the way inside. The room was small and comfortable looking office, where a woman with pale blue eyes and long white hair that seemed to defy gravity sat at a desk between us and the door to the inner office. “Hi Cathy,” he greeted the receptionist before going on to ask, “Is Ed busy? Miss Demarco and I need to talk to him.”

“He’s just going over some reports, so he should be able to see you. I can check if you’d like.” She beamed at me as I entered the room and my wings were fully visible. “Oh! Hello cousin, I had been hoping I might get to meet you.”

“Cousin?” I asked, more than a little confused.

“Please check if you would Cathy.” Turning back to me he quickly explained. “Cathy is a Sylph, one of the Air elementals. Like your mother’s kind they are Paranormals more at home in the air. I don’t know what it is with all you Air types, but you all treat each other like some big extended family. Other elements don’t seem to have that little quirk among their types, unless you count the Fey and their fierce protectiveness of all forest creatures and elementals.”

I nodded and remembered my talk with Joey the Gryphon. “I think I get it, I met another of my sky kin already. It’s nice to meet you as well cousin.” I thought it strange though that she had called me cousin, rather than sky sister as Joey had.

The Sylph had whispered something and I figured that she was using Air magic, since I hadn’t seen her press any buttons on the phone. She seemed to be listening carefully for a response before turning her attention back toward us. “Ed says to come on in, Janus.”

“Thanks Cathy, and could you send Bob and Joanne in as well?” he said as he guided me past the desk to the door. “We might need them for this.”

“My pleasure Janus, I’ll call them down,” the Sylph replied as Janus opened the door and we headed inside to a simply decorated office with a large pine desk and several comfortable looking leather chairs.

The person behind that desk got out of his seat and I was a bit surprised. He was a muscular man with reading glasses, a full head of grey hair and a well kept beard, but what was most surprising was that he was only four feet tall. He walked over to shake my hand. “Miss Demarco, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you. Your parents were wonderful people and two of the best agents we ever had.” I shook his hand, still slightly stunned and the Dwarf gave me a friendly wink. “Best get the short jokes out of your system now, not many can resist it when confronted with a Dwarf with the last name of ‘Little’. Don’t worry I won’t take offense.”

I did laugh, but only at his good humor about the whole thing. “I’m living in a glass house sir,” I replied. “I’m a girl named Raven with black wings, so I’ll try not to throw stones.”

“You do take after your mother,” the Chief said with a sad sigh. “In more ways than the obvious; she had a fine sense of both humor and diplomacy as well.” He gestured to the chairs in front of his desk as he took his place behind it once more. “Please sit down and tell me why you’ve come to visit me today.”

“Well Sir,” I began, “My aunt has agreed to teach me to control my abilities, but we will need a place for her to train me.”

“And I take it you are here because our training facilities downstairs are not suitable?” he prodded.

I sat down in one of the chairs, being extra careful with my wings. “Yes sir, the training will take months most likely, and we need a place outdoors where we can train privately for all that time. Valkyries don’t like to share anything about their training methods with outsiders; I am learning that our culture is very secretive about our ways.”

The grey haired Dwarf nodded. “Yes, I remember that your mother was very private about her background, and we try to respect that as we try to respect the cultures of all Paranormals in our jurisdiction. We can certainly check with our lands manager and see if we have anything suitable, where you can train undisturbed.”

Janus leaned back in the chair beside me. “I thought the same. I asked Cathy to call Bob and Joanne in so they can help.”

“Good thinking Janus, we’ll want Bob here so he can put it in the records,” the Chief agreed. “Then our other managers will know that the land is being used, and that Miss Demarco isn’t to be disturbed unless it’s an emergency.”

Soon the office door opened once more and two relatively average looking humans walked in. Joanne was a short, plump woman in her twenties with mahogany coloured hair, green eyes, and a look of stunned disbelief when she caught sight of my wings. Bob was a little on the tall side, and of African descent with deep brown eyes and his black hair speckled with grey. He didn’t seem all that surprised at seeing a girl with wings, so I assumed that the Paranormal stuff was old hat to him.

“This is Joanne Smith, our lands manager, and our records keeper Bob Johnson,” the Chief said, introducing the pair. “Joanne is fairly new with us, she only Manifested last month. She was a bit of a late bloomer, and she’s learning Wood magic while she uses her experience with land management and environmental issues to help us in a more official capacity. Bob is our IT expert and records keeper, and he probably knows more about what’s going on around here than I do.”

“I stood and shook both their hands, offering a smile to the other woman. “If you think seeing these is something, try having a pair sometime,” I said with a wink, causing her to blush. I was quick to try to reassure her. “Don’t worry about it; I haven’t been part of this much longer than you have, I got saddled with these about a month and a half ago. I still find myself staring when I see something I haven’t encountered before too. I guess we’ll both get used to it all in time.”

She breathed a relieved sigh. “Thank you, it is all a bit overwhelming still. One minute I was a normal woman at an environmental protest in the forest facing down loggers, and the next minute the tree I was chained to seemed to come alive and attack the logging equipment.” She turned to the Dwarf behind the desk and asked, “So what can we do for you Chief?”

“Miss Demarco here needs a place out of the way to learn to use her abilities. What do we have that’s large and isolated?” he asked.

She thought for a moment before referring to the tablet in her hands. She flicked through several screens before she finally came up with something she thought suitable. “How about this? Larren Island is an island north of Vancouver Island measuring roughly thirty six hectares. It’s almost entirely forested and we bought it in hopes of relocating some forest and ocean dwelling Paranormals who have been impacted by the mining, logging, and oil industries and using it as a Paranormal wilderness preserve. We decided to use another larger island instead and we are considering selling this one as a private island for a profit or using it for something else.”

She handed me the tablet which displayed an aerial view of the island in question. It was mainly forested with some high hills and a large sandy beach at the tip. I looked it over and nodded. “That could be just what we need.”

“We can wait a while before selling it,” Joanne offered. “The only people who have the kind of money to buy it are developers or the idle rich, and I would rather not see it torn up to make room for some sort of resort.”

I decided that it probably wasn’t the best time to mention that technically I was one of the idle rich, so I just nodded. “Give us a few months there and hopefully I’ll be fully trained. I’ll just need to write down these details.” Joanne offered me a notepad and a pen and I quickly copied the details and coordinates before tearing out the sheet I wrote it on and putting it in my purse.

“I’ll put it in the records then,” Bob said, making a note in his digital assistant. “Just let us know when you’re finished there and we can put it on the sales block or find some other use for it.” He turned to the Chief, “Was there anything else you needed from us Ed? I should be getting back to the computer lab, we’ve been having some issues with our servers the last few days and I want to see if I can nail down what the problem is, before it becomes a security issue.”

“I think that should be all,” the Dwarf replied before turning to me, “unless you need us to help you with transport to the island for you and the supplies you’ll need?”

“No, I believe we can handle that on our own sir,” I replied as I stood up to excuse myself. “Thank you for the use of the island and for all your help everyone, I’ll let you all get back to your work now.”

When I returned to the training center Alice was taking a break, while Lissia showed Erin some complicated acrobatic kick and had her try to copy it. “Hey Alice, how goes the training?” I asked as I took a seat beside her.

~Those two are impossible to keep up with,~ she complained. ~I can’t use those complicated jumps and rolls and such that they can. She’s teaching me to use my upper body strength to my advantage. We Merfolk might not be the steadiest on our feet, but swimming so much does give us a small strength advantage. Did you find a place to train?~

“Yeah the PDA has an island we can use,” I answered. “I think I’m going to get some flying in and maybe check in with my aunt while you two are doing your thing here, I’ll meet you at home. Here, take my keys so you can drive my car before Erin calls dibs.”

~Sweet!~ she replied, grinning as she took my keys. ~I love driving your car, just remember that Lydia said dinner should be ready around six.~

“I won’t be late,” I assured her. “I just want to see if there’s any help I can give my aunt with the preparations and then I’ll head home. I might even be home before the two of you.”

~Okay, have fun Raven, I’ll see you at home.~ She went to put my keys in her purse while I left the training room and the warehouse for some fresh air. The wind was cool and there was a light rain coming down, but I refused to let it dampen my spirits. After I was sure there were no prying eyes I placed the silver ring on my finger and, making sure that my purse was securely in hand, I beat my wings hard until I was airborne and made my way to the clouds above.

Once again it hit me just how liberating flying could be. All my cares and worries were far below while I rose above it all, even the rain. I circled for a time, just losing myself in the feeling of the wind on my face and in my wings. A quick look at my watch showed it to be just before five o’clock, so I made my way down to the Nordic to land on the terrace of the penthouse I had slept in the night before. I let myself in through the living room screen door and, after drying my shoes on the mat, sat on the sofa and dialed my Aunt’s cell number.

She answered on the third ring. “Hello.”

“Hi,” I started uncertainly, “it’s ummm Raven. I’m calling to let you know that I got a place for us to train. It’s an island north of Vancouver Island and there will be nobody there but us.”

“That’s great, I can get a helicopter to get us and our supplies there,” her voice responded. “I’m working on getting everything we’ll need now. Some of these things will take a day or so to get but we should be ready to go by Tuesday afternoon.”

“Is there anything I can help with?” I asked. “I’m at the hotel right now.”

“I’ve got almost everything we’ll need, though tomorrow we will need to go see my lawyer about getting your mother’s name on all our property, accounts, and investments switched over to yours,” she said pensively. “Siv must have gotten a new lawyer when she took part of her share of our money and left, or I would have known about you and about her death. This law firm has been handling our affairs for quite some time now. He’ll make the changes with no questions asked.”

“You trust humans to handle your legal and financial affairs?” It wasn’t something I expected from her. I had thought that she would handle everything herself as secretive as she was about everything else regarding our heritage.

“No kid, they’re lawyers, so they don’t really qualify as human,” she joked. “Our lawyer in particular is a Revenant; a century ago he was killed and brought back from the dead to terrorize the living. He feeds on human despair and fear, and what better way to do all that than as a lawyer?” I sat there speechless until I heard her laughing on the other end. “I’m joking kiddo, though our law firm is made up of Paranormals. They handle affairs like these which people of our long lifespans find troublesome, as well as other more mundane issues. I wish I could have seen the look on your face just now.”

“That was awful,” I said with a growl, “you had me believing you there. “

She was still chuckling as she got back to business. “We’ll meet up tomorrow so we can discuss some of the supplies we’ll be bringing and so we can go to the lawyer’s office. I’ll be too busy tonight with some of the preparations. Are you planning on staying at the hotel tonight?”

“No, I’m heading back to my house for dinner once we’re done here. I’m thinking of spending a night in with my roomies since we’ll be gone for a while,” I explained. I did plan on doing just that, since I felt bad on skipping out on them while they were at their lesson earlier so I could have more flying time.

“I’ve got your number in my call display, so I’ll call you first thing in the morning to work out the details then,” my aunt replied. “Have a good night and I’ll talk to you in the morning.”

“Sounds good, I’ll talk to you in the morning,” I agreed and disconnected the call.

I made my way back out onto the terrace and closed the door before stuffing my phone back into my purse. It was getting cool outside, but I couldn’t really wear a jacket while flying, so I resolved to just grin and bear it until I got home. I briefly wondered how my aunt managed to let her wings out with that heavy leather jacket before I shrugged, extracted the ring once again, and ran across the terrace to leap over the railing and into the open air beyond. As I flew home I began to compile a mental list of things I would need if I was going to spend a lot of time in the air: Something to place my belongings in and keep them firmly in place, a watch with built in GPS, and something to ward off the cold were at the top of the list.

~Dinner is ready Raven,~ Alice’s voice sang in my mind as I sat in my bedroom changing into some dry clothes. I had arrived home shortly before Alice and Erin, but I was soaked to the bone from the rain that was now pouring outside. I could have stayed above the clouds, but without a GPS I would have had trouble navigating without landmarks so I had had to fly through the rain to find my house. Once inside, I had quickly shed what I was wearing and I felt much better after getting out of the wet garments and patting myself dry with a towel. My hair and wings though refused to get dry even with a blow-dryer.

~I’ll be right down; I just needed to get out of those wet clothes,~ I replied. ~I would have been down by now but I’m having trouble drying my hair and wings.~

~Hurry down and I can help you with that,~ she offered. ~Water is my specialty after all.~

I quickly got into a pair of panties, a comfortable black halter top, and a pair of low rise jeans. Then, properly dressed, I made my way down to the kitchen for dinner. Everyone else was already seated at the table when I arrived except for Alice, who was placing plates in front of everyone. “I hope you made a lot Lydia, I’m hungry as a bear. Flying is doing a number on my metabolism,” I said as I greeted everyone with a smile and moved toward my seat.

Before I could sit down Alice pulled me aside and literally pulled all of the excess water from my thick hair and my wings, leaving them dry, a lot lighter, and more manageable. ~There you go Raven,~ she said with a grin as she displayed a large sphere of water in her hand.

“Why didn’t you tell me could do that like a month ago?” I complained, frowning at her as she made the ball of water move toward the sink and deposit itself inside.

She just giggled and motioned for me to take a seat at the table. ~You didn’t ask,~ she responded with another musical giggle.

I took my seat beside Erin and Alice took her own across from me while Lydia started to serve dinner, looking like a child wanting to be a big girl and help her mother. I had to stifle a giggle at the thought when she swore. “Shit! That’s still hot. I hope there’s enough for you Raven. I’m sorry, but I didn’t take into account the increased appetite due to your faster metabolism. If it’s not enough we can order some take-out for you afterwards.”

I looked at the plate in front of me and shrugged. “Well at the very least it will put a dent in my appetite until we can get something more. You should have seen the size of the lunch I ate. It looks great Lydia, you always make the best home cooked meals, thank you for making it for us.”

Erin nodded her agreement after swallowing a mouthful. “This is great Lydia, as usual, and there’s is no need to apologize. I’m sure that Raven understands. Hell, she probably isn’t used to the appetite herself yet, since she just started flying today. I guess we’ll all have to take that into account now whenever we do the shopping and cooking.”

I started to eat my own meal and found that it tasted as good as it looked. Lydia meanwhile was nodding thoughtfully. “I’ll make a mental note to buy more when I go shopping for tomorrow’s dinner. If anyone asks I’ll just tell them that I’m playing hostess to a hockey team or something,” she joked.

“Oh very funny,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Can you hear me laughing?”

The Imp didn’t reply other than looking at me sadly. When she did decide to speak, it was about another matter. “I wish you would wait until after Christmas before going off to train with your aunt, I had a big dinner planned.”

I sighed at that, which caused me to almost choke on my food. Lydia always went all out for Christmas dinner and I had always been with her during the holidays before. “Worried we’ll be eating a relative?” Erin asked while I tried to swallow and get control of myself.

“No, the only turkey at the table would be you,” I quickly retorted once my coughing fit was done. “Lydia was planning on a ham this year I think. It’s just that I’m going to miss you all while I’m gone.”

Lydia nodded. “The holidays just won’t be the same without you here. I’ll bake some Christmas sweets for you to take with you once I’m done shopping tomorrow.”

Dinner was quiet after that and we spent the rest of the evening in quiet companionship, curled up on the couch together watching movies. I had finished everything on the table once the others had had their fill and we still needed to order two extra-large deluxe pizzas so that my stomach wasn’t complaining loud enough to be heard over the movies. I had to pull my wings in so that I could be comfortable on the couch with the others, but right then I needed my friends’ closeness more than I needed to have my wings free.

It was almost midnight when I felt someone shaking me. “Raven, you should go to bed you’ve had a long day,” Lydia said, sounding concerned.

“Mmmm fine,” I muttered back sleepily.

~Don’t give us that,~ Alice’s soothing voice sang in my mind. ~You just fell asleep.~

“Did not,” I argued back. I was tired, but I didn’t think I was that tired.

“Then how come your wings suddenly popped out and wrapped around us?” Erin asked with a chuckle.

Well that certainly explained why I was leaning forward, and why I could feel my wings brushing against something. “I guess I’m more tired than I thought,” I admitted with a blush.

~Yes you are, now get up so Erin and I can walk you to your room. You’re too heavy for us to carry, even if those wings wouldn’t make it difficult on their own.~ Alice’s voice was like a lullaby in my mind at that moment, but I managed to get to my feet and both my friends took one of my arms and started to guide me to my room. ~Speaking of your wings, try to pull them closer to your body so you don’t bang them on any door frames.~ I was barely aware of the trip to my room, being put in my bed, and covered up by my friends.

I awoke to the sound of music. The sound was distant and it was hard to place just what it was in my sleepy state. When I finally realized that it was the ringtone for my cell phone, I crawled over the bed and started searching for it. It didn’t take long to find, since it was in the front pocket of the jeans I was still wearing and was currently digging into my hip uncomfortably. As I reached into my pocket for the offending device I looked toward the alarm clock to check the time. “It’s not even six o’clock yet,” I grumbled. “Who in hell phones somebody this early in the morning?”

When I hit the button to take the call my aunt’s far too cheerful voice answered that question. “Good morning Raven, this is your wake up call. Now get showered and ready for the day, we have a lot to do today.”

“I thought you said that we only had to go see our lawyer? How is that a lot to do?” I asked as I attempted to rub the sleep from my eyes.

“Yes, our appointment with him is at eight o’clock sharp, and afterwards I thought we should do some shopping. It occurred to me last night that you might need a few things before our trip,” she replied.

“Damn, lawyers really are evil, making an appointment for that time on a Monday morning,” I groaned. Then the rest of what she said hit me. “I thought you said you had all the supplies handled and all I needed to get was some suitable clothes.”

“I did,” she agreed, “but it occurred to me that you’ll need some good quality clothes made for your body type. I know all the best shops for Paranormals in town.”

“If they can make nice clothes that can accommodate my body, and the wings that come with it, then they deserve my money,” I grumped. “Now let me go take a shower so we can talk about this when I’m awake. Am I flying to meet you at the hotel for breakfast or do you want to pick me up at home? I don’t have a car today, since I loaned it to my roomies so they can get to their martial arts lesson today.”

“Fly here and I’ll have breakfast ready out on my terrace,” she responded. “We’ll drive to the law firm’s office since we’ll need the car if we’re going shopping afterwards.”

“Okay, I’ll see you soon,” I replied before disconnecting the call and placing the phone in my purse. Then I peeled off my clothes, pulled in my wings, and hopped into my shower to get clean as quickly as possible. Once I finished my shower I sent my thoughts to Alice, hoping that she was already awake. I probably could have walked to her room, but I was dripping wet and I didn’t want to wake anyone else. ~Alice are you awake?~

Alice was indeed awake and in a good mood if the tinkling bells of her mind voice were any indication. ~My aren’t you up early this morning,~ she said.

~Yeah I am,~ I mentally grumbled. ~Apparently my aunt was serious when she said that I would have to start keeping a warrior’s hours. I just got out of the shower and I have to go to meet her for breakfast before our meeting with our lawyer at eight. Do you think you can come in here and do the water trick? I don’t have time to fool around with the hair dryer.~

~I’ll be right there,~ she replied with a merry laugh. A moment later she came into my bathroom and pulled all the water from my hair and even what was left on my body. She quickly deposited it in the shower and smiled at me. ~Anything else I can do for you this morning?~

“Help me get ready?” I suggested. “Oh, and let Lydia and Erin know that I’ve got an appointment with my aunt and then she’s taking me shopping. I don’t want them worrying because I’m not in the house’s wards,” I added as we walked into my bedroom and I looked for something to wear.

~I’ll let them know. If you can’t be here at the house then what place is safer than in the company of a thousand year old Valkyrie?~ she said as she tossed me a pair of black dress slacks from my closet.

“True,” I replied as I pulled on a pair of panties, “but you know how much Lydia worries about me.” I caught the slacks and pulled them over top of the panties.

~Wear this top, it will look nice with your eyes, and it’s wrinkle resistant like the slacks.~ The top she threw at me was a cerulean backless tunic in satin and I put it on before sitting in front of my vanity to put on some light make-up. While I was doing that, Alice found me a pair of black leather ankle boots with a moderate heel, which I quickly fastened before putting on my ring, grabbing my purse, and giving my aquatic friend a big hug. She walked with me to the front door and watched with a smile as I took to the skies. ~You’re getting good at that, just keep an eye out for airplanes,~ she teased as I waved goodbye and flew in the direction of the Nordic Hotel.

The flight to the hotel was far too short, despite the cold morning air, and soon I was landing on the terrace of my aunt’s apartment. She was sitting at the patio table with another massive breakfast set out before her, and as soon as my feet were on the ground she smiled and motioned for me to join her at the table. “You look very nice Raven, what’s the occasion?” she asked with a grin. I noticed that she was dressed in her usual leather jacket, but with the table between us I couldn’t see much more than that.

“I thought I should look nice since I’m meeting the person who handles our legal affairs,” I answered as I sat down. “Usually people dress nicely to meet their lawyer.”

“You don’t say,” she teased. “Eat up so we can get a move on. For future reference though, our lawyer doesn’t stand much on formality, but that could just be with me. I’ve known David since your mom and I came to Vancouver after the war in the forties. Our paths crossed for other reasons, and once I found out that he was a lawyer who handled the legal and financial affairs of immortal Paranormals I asked him to take me and your mom on as his clients.”

I started eating as I listened to her speak, but paused between mouthfuls to inquire, “You met him in the forties? Is he immortal like us then?”

She shook her head. “No, he could grow old and die if he stopped feeding regularly.”

“Feeding? Is he like a Vampire then?” I asked as I returned to some feeding of my own.

She shook her head once again and laughed. “If you must know, he’s an Incubus. He feeds on sexual energy, desire, and lust. That’s actually how we met.” A distant smile appeared on her face as said the last.

“Okay, that was way too much information.” I gave a dramatic shudder as I downed another forkful of sausage.

“I’ll have you know that other than drinking, fighting, and driving too fast, good sex is one of the few things that I enjoy about being perpetually young. If I’m really lucky I’ll get to do all four in one night, sometimes in that order,” she stated.

“But…” I stared at her in shock as I thought about her doing it in that order. The thought made me cringe.

At the shocked look on my face, she rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry about me driving drunk. Our high metabolism makes getting drunk practically impossible. We can get a good buzz, but it fades quickly unless we keep drinking.” I breathed a sigh of relief and returned to eating when she asked, “Now where was I?”

“You like good sex?” I said uncertainly between swallows of juice.

“Right,” she replied. “My point is that if you’re going to be young and not likely to die by normal means you might as well enjoy the great things life has to offer. Have fun, experiment; find out what you really enjoy doing and do it. David was the one who helped me discover that, several times if I recall correctly.”

“Thank you for even more information I didn’t need while eating,” I said, trying to dislodge the picture from my head. “So besides being our lawyer, which I thought was the topic here, is this David anything else to you? Should I be learning about Valkyrie marriage rituals?”

“Nah, he’s just a good friend that I had some involvement with in the past,” she admitted. “Last I knew, he was in a steady relationship with an Undine. They’re an odd couple but they make it work somehow.”

“An Undine?” I wondered aloud as I helped myself to more breakfast.

“Undines are Water elementals,” she clarified. “Each of the ten base elements has one. Basically they are the embodiment of their element, and their abilities and appearance usually reflect that.”

“I think I’ve met an Air elemental, they’re Sylphs right? So what are the other eight?” I started to clear off my plate again as I waited for her answer.

She took a moment to think about it before answering, a frown forming on her face as she looked away. “Sylphs are for Air, Gnomes are for Earth, Undines for Water, Salamanders for Fire, Raiju for Lightning, Dryads for Wood, Guardians for Metal, Snow Maidens for Ice, and Reapers for Death.”

“What about the Divine?” I asked with a frown of my own, my breakfast forgotten. “Aren’t there any Divine elementals?”

She sighed heavily. “The Divine elementals are Angels. When I was growing up my mother told me that three thousand years ago there was a schism amongst the Angels, and they split into two different clans and went their separate ways. Both the male and female Angels were warriors, scholars, and mages but that was where their similarities ended. The males thought that there was one God, a male one. They were arrogant, self-righteous, and sure of their own superiority. In their arrogance, they felt that they should guide mankind with their ‘knowledge’. The females of the species felt that if there was an all-powerful and all-knowing being that it, or even they, would be creatures of pure Divine energy, not limited by such things as gender, and that to worship a being based on one’s own biases was foolish. They felt that the humans should be protected, but that they should keep themselves apart from them and let them find their own path.”

“We’re elementals?” I asked, putting all the pieces together. That explained why Cathy had called me cousin and what Lissia had said. “What happened to the males?”

“I can’t be sure,” she said with a shrug. “When the schism occurred our ancestors, led by our matriarch Locifeiðr, left the males of our race behind, built a village in the most remote place we could find, and severed all contact with them. That was when our people met the Aesir and established a loose alliance with them. I assume that they attempted to do what they felt was right. You can see the influence of them in several organized religions. They probably still live among mankind today, but I haven’t encountered any.”

“Okay, I think I get the whole war of the sexes causing the Angels to split back then, but why were there no male Valkyries since then? Like before the battle with the Frost Giants,” I asked.

“To be honest, I don’t know,” she admitted. “There were only five hundred of us back then and there weren’t a lot of children being born, and to be fair you’re the first of our kind who’s been born in over a thousand years, so it could just be that the ratio of males born is really low. It’s like our genes, including gender, are all dominant when we mate with humans or other Paranormals. My grandmother said that back when we still lived with the other Angels we gave birth to as many boys as we did girls.”

Guessing that there wasn’t any more I could get out of my aunt on that subject I asked the other question she had raised in my mind. “So how are we the embodiment of the Divine?”

She took a moment to think before replying. “The Divine is the very essence of life, creation, and purity. For the life aspect we’re eternally young, fast, strong, and durable and for purity we’re all beautiful with golden hair, blue eyes, and white skin and wings, unless some demon gets thrown into the mix it seems. All of those colors are generally thought to be connected to the side of all that’s good and pure.”

“I guess I can see that,” I agreed, “but how about creation? How do we reflect that?”

She took a long sip of her juice as she collected her thoughts. “That is one of our most closely guarded secrets. All Angels can create an extension of themselves, and summon it when needed. It’s a reflection of who we are as a person, our very essence. The form of these creations is different for each of us, as are their effects, and each is composed of the purest Divine magic. For Valkyries it’s our andivapn, the weapons we forge in our souls. My mother said that for male Angels it was their halos, an aura of light that enhances some part of them. Like the andivapn, the halo’s appearance and effect is supposedly different for each individual.”

I listened carefully to her reply as I finished the last of my breakfast. Once she had finished and I had absorbed it all I asked, “So I have one of these andivapn too?”

“You should, that’s probably what that guy who assessed you at PDA headquarters sensed. Now that you can fly, the first part of your training will be to forge and summon it.” The other Valkyrie glanced at her watch and stood up. “We had better get going, I’ll call housekeeping to come get these dishes and then we’ll head off.” She led the way through the apartment, and after a quick call to the kitchen we were on our way to our meeting.