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UNDER THE SCRUTINIZING eye of the Campus Security we moved the overflow of the Deviant Class students to Alabaster Hall. It was large enough to house them for sleeping, had bathrooms, a kitchenette for meals, and wasn’t far from the pool for showers. We’d make due during this split. The Otherkind teachers were willing to keep with us and try to help maintain order, which was good, we needed it more than ever during this protest. They helped make signs, kept the younger students from doing anything destructive or vulgar and talked organization while I tried to figure out just what the Hell I was going to say to the Dean. Taking the Deviant students out of the integrated dorms was just safest for everyone right now, I just didn’t realize how many of us there were, how many Half-bloods were hiding in plain sight.
We thought there were only the fifty freshmen, and seventy-five upperclassmen, turns out the numbers were more like ninety freshmen, and one hundred and fifty upperclassmen. The majority were students who had at least one Human parent during their enrollment, so the school simply didn’t know what they were getting. There were Werewolves, Werecats, Half- Brownies, Pukka, Equine Species, Vampires, both Half- and Pure under the radar, and oodles of Fey. All kinds of Sprites and Djinn. The numbers may not have outdone the Humans, but if they wanted a fight, they were in for it. We even had a coven, an actual Witch’s coven capable of magic and yet, I was the only one of my kind, except for Sig, where ever he was. I tried calling him, but his phone was out of the service area, apparently. I missed him dearly. My heart ached for him, and my body yearned for his touch. It was weird how that happened so quickly, I wondered if he even thought about me.
“Aella?” Professor Excelsior approached me as I grabbed my jacket. It was almost four and I was on my way to meet Dean Baker for our discussion on how to best prevent another riot and resume reintegration without harm coming to anyone else. It was funny how the winds changed so quickly here in New England. Just the past week it was hot as Hades and now it was colder than a Witch’s tit.
I turned to him, looking him up and down, he was an attractive man of about fifty. Long dark hair that curled up just behind his ears and a long face with Roman features. He was a Pureblood Vampire, who was always a bit spotty when asked about his age, simply saying he was old enough to know when something was gonna blow over or not, and knew when to shit or get off the pot. Whatever that all meant.
“Yes, Professor?”
“Might I suggest you leave Collette and Mary behind this time?”
I furrowed my brow. “They’ve been super helpful, though.”
“Um, no Aella, they’ve been manipulating the system for you. The problem is this time, it’s not going to work, and if they try, it’s going to get them hurt.”
“I think that they are big girls Professor, they are going to do what they want either way.”
He shook his head. “I just know what I hear and I hear that they know that they’ve been twisted by the Fey. Once someone knows, they resist. Once they resist, it becomes hard to bend them. Please, just be careful.”
“I will be, Professor. I just suggest you do as I’ve asked and see to it that these kids get taken care of at the rally in the Quad. There are going to be security details and I don’t want anyone hurt. Them or us.”
He sucked his teeth. “I can do that.”
I put my hand on his shoulder and squeezed it firmly. “Thank you.” I shrugged into my coat and headed for the door, Collette right behind me.
***
WHEN WE APPROACHED the Dean’s office there were three Campus Security Guards waiting for us. It was just Collette and I, now I was wishing I’d allowed Alewar and Mary to join us, but I needed them at the protest, needed Mary’s words, her lyrical sets would keep the crowd peaceful, she could do that much without even standing up. They were supposed to do a sit in, showing the peaceful nature of the Otherkind students. Show the abilities of those who could, feats of fancy, magic and whatnot. The three guards tightened up their position, blocking the office doors as we neared.
“I’m Aella Rowan, Deviant Class Representative, I have an appointment to see Dean Baker.”
“Yes, you do,” the center one spoke. “She does not.”
“Oh, come now.” Colette reached out, trying to grasp his arm and he turned, letting her catch his body armor.
“Ouch!” She drew back her hand with a sniffle. “Since when do you idiots use iron?” She held her injured hand protectively.
“Since Otherkind began using your kind to force us to your wills.” The door to the office opened and the School President, Mister Jeter stood in its space. “I didn’t believe it at first, but it all makes sense. Now, do you believe us, Senator Calder. Your own students have been manipulating the College Staff for their own devices.”
Leonas stood inside by the widows. From his vantage point, he could see the Quad. He lifted the blinds and looked down, then looked directly at me.
“They look so peaceful; it would be a shame if that were to change. Come inside dear and have a seat.”
I was grabbed and pushed into the room, the door slamming shut, then out of the corner of my eye I saw Greisen appear in the corner.
“It would be such a shame,” he hissed, grabbing the guard closest to him, Greisen’s bare hands leaving a mark on his bare skin as the man collapsed, bile erupting from his mouth with a froth.
“Too bad no one will ever know who ordered such a brutal assault.” Greisen’s wings came forth as he spun, Leonas hit the floor hard. I shoved President Jeter down so he wouldn’t fall victim, but he lifted his head.
I looked away, but the sound of his death will haunt me, the thud and the squelching roll of his head across the rug as it hit the table leg. Dean Baker screamed like a woman. Or maybe that was me. I hit the floor as he made the rounds. Finally, I saw him descend upon his father, taking him by the head as he had Collette, forcing his fingers down the man’s throat. Leonas gasped and choked on his knees, blood coming up as he tried to vomit the poison back out.
He pushed Greisen back, but he simply thrashed him with his wings. I scurried on my belly for the door, to find it was barricaded shut.
“I’m sorry.” I could hear Collette cry from the other side. “It has to be done this way.”
I tucked myself into the hole between the walls, pulling the filing cabinets in toward me as I watched Leonas being torn to shreds, then Greisen lifted the body, throwing it out the window into the Quad.
My fear was so thick I could taste it as the screams swelled and he turned toward me. Then I realized that it wasn’t my fear I was tasting, it was my acid. In my shock, I forgot who and what I was. My back itched, in fact, it burned as I heard the screams from outside. My mind raced as it imagined the sudden carnage that would ensue when the body hit the ground. The security detail would see it as an act of violence and would attack. The Otherkind would be forced to defend themselves. This would be a bloodbath for both sides.
I couldn’t let this happen. Too many people worked too damned hard for this, for it to fall apart now. I saw it for what it was. A power play, and Greisen Calder was at its center. I stood up, reaching for my weapon as he approached me, his wings covered in gore. His hands dripping in his poison.
“Come now, my little scapegoat. It’s time you had your medicine. It won’t kill you, but it will befuddle you enough that you’ll admit to anything Collette tells you that you did.”
“Touch me and I’ll take your hands, you feeble little worm.”
“Ahh, if only you weren’t tainted by my Dragon Daddy, I’d have liked to fuck you, just for sport.” He slashed at me with his wings, just missing me as I ducked, spinning out, jumping up onto the table and sliding across the bloodied mess. I caught the Quad out of the corner of my eye. The people were running, there was smoke as far as the eye could see and people were just screaming. The security detail was grabbing and slamming Human and Otherkind alike to the ground and hitting them with batons and cattle prods. I slid to the edge of the table.
My heart racing, I waited as Greisen ripped the door open pulling Collette inside, holding her by the throat.
“Cooperate little baa, baa or I’ll kill her.” His talon like fingers clawed at her throat, making her bleed.
Tears ran down her cheeks in a black mess as she sobbed.
“Leave her be, you bastard,” I snarled, feeling the acid in my throat.
“Do you have your phone?” he asked calmly, scratching her deeply. She clung to him, tearing at his arms.
I stayed poised to attack, but nodded yes.
“Send my father a message to come here, tell him you need him.”
“He won’t come. He hasn’t yet.”
“That’s because you haven’t asked. Only called, he’s somewhere he can’t get those calls. But something tells me he can feel you are in distress... Now.”
He flung his hand at me, the poison hitting me in the chest. It burned instantly. My scales jumped to the surface to protect me, but it only seemed to make it worse.
“It will take a bit longer to work on you, so I suggest you get on with it, before I come over there with the full dose.”
I could feel the paralysis in my chest, it was already becoming hard to breathe. I pulled out my phone, watching as he refused to loosen his grip on poor Collette. She was just a dopey little girl that got sucked into his fucked up world.
I opened up my messages to Sig and typed. I could feel my body burning, feel the rings in my back as my whole body arched. If I was ever in need, if I was ever going to make a decision about my path, it was now.
I dropped the phone on the table, sliding it toward Greisen, but it was stopped halfway by the muck and grime. The carnage outside was more than I could deal with. It had to be stopped and I was the only one left to help Alewar, who was fighting tooth and nail out there, trying to keep Mary safe. I could see them out of the corner of my weary eye. Her fiery red hair was a whirlwind beneath him as he shielded her from the onslaught of the campus security.
“That’s not being a good little kitten, I’m sick of defiant little kitties. Do you know what happens to defiant little kitties?” He dragged his claws across Collette’s fragile little throat and she folded to the ground like a puppet who’d lost its strings. “They get fixed.” He flew at me and I flipped myself off the table, my lance behind me, severing the laces to my corset piercing. I could feel the burning and the itching, the undeniable pain as it wracked my body. I didn’t care, I knew what I needed to do. I needed to save my people. My people were outside this room. They were in pain, they were unjustly being harmed and I was the only one to stop it. I dodged his next attack and tipped myself out the third floor window, praying that my wings would finally unfurl.