New Beginnings, page 2
part #2 of Barriers Series
The administration isn’t very happy with me being here right now, at least based on their reaction at the time. We’ll see how today goes.
“Are you really okay? You were able to help Ras…your mom?”
The concern in his voice very nearly brought me to tears, “I’m good. It was…it was bad there. What was happening? But we were able to help her. Help them.”
The obvious questions about what happened crossed his face, but he didn’t ask them. That earned him a hug, which he returned.
“Thank you for asking.”
“You’re welcome.” Something down south began to press into my leg, getting a different smile from me. “Any chance you want some help with that?”
You’d think that the sex this morning would have worn everyone out, but shifters can easily go 8 or 10 or a dozen times.
“If you’re willing?”
Was I willing? You damn betcha. This is one part of my new life that I’m beginning to loooove. It helps that I don’t think I can get pregnant based on what Mom told me. I haven’t clarified why that would be just yet.
Once our activities were done, we finished showering like normal, although I did shave. Yes, with him there. That’s taken some getting used to as well. Again, it’s much easier since no one cares or reacts negatively.
After getting dressed, we all headed over to the cafeteria together. The smell of the food there…oh my God. So, so good.
With the breaking of my barriers, my eating has gone through the roof. So far through the roof. It’s insane how much I eat. Steph eats the most out of the group, and I routinely eat at least a half a plate more than she does. Then again, Rachel is the lightweight in the group that way.
Conversation in the caf chilled when we arrived. No, when I arrived. The dynamic has changed drastically with Corey and his cronies being gone, but we’re back to a tense crowd as they pretty much all of them turned to stare at me.
My laugh filled the space, sounding strongly of tinkling bells.
That’s new as of this weekend. You can hear it in the fey when they laugh or when some of them say certain things, and now you can hear it in mine as well.
More than one student jerked at the sound, with Lacie’s eyes going wide. She’s a shifter from the senior dozenal, and was responsible for an attack on me the first day. She wanted me to help Corey, but I didn’t know how to do that. She nearly died from my response.
And yet we’re sort of friends now. I thought I was getting close with Lorde and Erica as well, hyena and elephant, as well as Stacey. They’re all giving me the same sort of freaked out look, so maybe not?
“Jesus, why do you sound like that? Why do you sound like a fey?” Lacie didn’t approach, but she didn’t back away as I got closer to her before I stopped.
Stopped and stared around at everyone. “Why do I sound like this?” I made sure my voice was pitched loud enough for the non-shifters to hear me. “First, let me be clear here. I’m sure everyone here has heard rumors that I’m a necromancer?” Fear filled too many eyes, “Just so that I’m crystal clear here, I’m not a necromancer. I’m not even human. I won’t clarify what I am, but human? Not even close. Second? I’ve learned a bit from talking to some unimaginably old fey this weekend. Necromancers were once the most powerful human magic users. It wasn’t considered evil, it was just a skill. Just like Corey’s ability to use fire or Lacie’s ability to use ice. The other magic using families got jealous of their power and worked to crush them. They painted them as being evil, when it was just a normal skill…and that’s led to more than two thousand years of murder. Every necromancer that has been found has been killed. The fey only know of one family left, and I’m not a member of that family. My mother is Rasphael. Yes, the Rasphael. Do I know where the necromancer family is? Nope. Do I care? Nope. Let me put it this way? I’ve been at this school for a month now, and I’ve been attacked by wolves, lions, rhino’s, mages with ice powers, fire powers, and then a host of other powers. I’ve never been attacked by a necromancer. Not once. Feel free to tell your people whatever you want, but if they come after me? If they decide to come kill the girl that’s not a necromancer? Then I’ll add their pile of money to my already ridiculous bank accounts. It’s money I don’t need or want, but I’m willing to bite the bullet and take it on if need-be.”
More kids jerked as I laughed again. God, I love the bell sounds. “On the other hand? Treat me like a normal student here and we don’t have to worry about any of that. I’m here for an education. That’s it.” Pointing at Stacey got her to stand up straighter, “Stacey’s the head of the school. Tom’s second. I’m not bucking that. Rachel isn’t bucking that. Kevin isn’t bucking that. Hell, I still need tutoring in defense and magical species! I’m the same Ceri that I was before…”
A few of the kids laughed. Dawson, a wolf shifter in the freshman class rubbed his arms, “Yeah, as if that’s supposed to make us feel much better?”
What can I say? Spike a kid to one of the tables with cutlery once, and they have an issue with it for weeks. He shouldn’t have collapsed the side of my face. He’s lucky I wasn’t willing to let more of me out then, otherwise he wouldn’t be here to needle me.
“At least now I’ll handle practical jokes better than I did before, so things are looking up?”
More laughter, this time a small mage sitting next to Dawson blushed. She’s the practical joker of the freshmen this year. She attempted to hit me with a spell to make me throw up as a practical joke. That’s what led to a very short confrontation and then Dawson needing some rescuing and healing.
The frozen students shared looks before moving back into motion. That allowed my group to flow into the line as I struggled to get used to everything.
Rachel nudged me, “You okay?” She always gets into line with us to start even though she doesn’t eat. Food. She’s just a good friend that way and always wants to be part of the group.
“Umm…it’s louder in here than I thought it’d be.”
Carl loomed over Rachel’s head, looking incredibly dark in the cafeteria lighting this morning. “Louder? What do you mean?”
I knew every shifter in the place was listening, so it’s not worth trying to hide. “Well, I turned 17, right? My senses ramped up to the moon with it. I was sort of warned that it’d happen, but damn…you guys hear like this all the time? Smell like this all the time? I feel like my nose is buried in everyone’s crotch this morning.”
At least half of the school laughed at that.
Carl grabbed some food, “Can’t help you there. I’ve never heard of a mage’s senses getting stronger when they turn 17. I still have more than a year to go, so I’ll let you know if anything happens?”
Steph was ahead and leaned back in line, “Remember the conversation we had when you first got here?” She glanced down at my groin, “How we can smell everything? What do you think adds to the horniness?”
That makes a disturbing kind of sense, “I guess it’s a good thing I can’t get pregnant easily, huh?”
More laughter. This time I joined in. Frankly, it’s all I can do not to go back to my room and plaster myself against the walls. Why? Because that first night in the room where I sort of explored myself…and then the other girls in my class explored me? During one of my orgasms, my magic coated the walls with sprays of color. Not quite rainbows, but close. It’s pretty much orgasms on tap. Even for the guys. They seriously have to watch which way they’re pointed when they touch it. It’s become a pastime for us, and the near nightly group sessions are usually in our room. It’s hard to say no to orgasms on tap. I’ve learned that it’s an insanely hard spell to cast and Mom only knows of a handful or two of people that can possibly cast it. I did it without knowing what I was doing.
Hooray for me?
Yeah, there’s no sarcasm there. None. You can cum by touching it, why would there be sarcasm? I know it sounded like it, but trust me, it’s not there. Rolling over in bed at night is a near-constant wet dream situation as you brush up against the wall. It’s delightful.
I’m still shocked that everyone in our dozenal sits in the same seats each time. They have these huge round tables that seat a dozen, and you almost always find each dozenal taking up a table. I haven’t seen very many people at all move to another table. If they do, they typically take one of the empty ones and someone joins them. That’s just short-term, though. I’ve thought about bucking the system and changing my seat, yet I haven’t done it. I’m not sure how the others would react, and it’s not worth upsetting someone for something so trivial.
Rachel took her seat next to me, and I only caught her eyes bleeding to black by total accident.
That’s funny, I just realized that her eyes rather mirror mine.
Yeah, I have black eyes. With the cracking of my barriers that the vampire did to me, my body changed. I’ve always had blood red hair, but my skin cleared up to look flawless, my boobs got bigger and tighter, muscles grew, nails got thicker, my teeth got a bit sharper, and my eyes turned black from edge to edge. They’re jet black in the middle, moving to a more smoky look at the very edges. No idea why that’d be, although it probably ties into the fact that I smell like pretty much every type of person out there. The world has shifters, vampires, orcs, ogres, fey, and a bunch of other types of people. I’ve been told that I smell like them all. Mainly because they all die.
That’s part of what I learned this weekend. It’s my…nature, if you will. I represent every creature that can die, at least on some level, and reflect their scents.
Trust me, I know it’s weird.
“Hey, you hungry?”
She perked up at my question, “Yeah? I’m sorry…with everything that happened this weekend, I haven’t fed since Friday.”
Fuck, okay, “Damn, I’m sorry. I know you can last longer now, but you have to be freaking hungry.”
“Umm, I am.”
She stared at my arm as I held it out, “Then feed? Just…no orgasms if you can?”
My friend held my arm, “Are you sure about this?”
“Yeah?”
“What…what will I owe you for this?”
The supernatural world is weird. You rarely do something for free for someone. In school, the most common currency is your ass. So to speak. Need help on homework? Blow someone or let them ride your face like a bicycle, and they’ll help you. Ride to the mall? Time to take one for the team.
As you can imagine, with my upbringing, I had a huge issue with that to start. I didn’t quite understand how supernaturals really view sex. Without diseases to mess with them or restrictions on getting pregnant, they don’t treat it nearly the same way. Even being forced into sex by someone stronger is just viewed as a good time. Yeah, even if you didn’t want to do it. You can fight them off, but then you run the risk of pissing them off or them beating you and fucking you anyway. Almost everyone just gives in and does it and treats it like a one-night-stand.
Except me. I’m decidedly anti-force. I’ve been raped once since coming here, and that’s when I was dead. I don’t have an issue with the fact that it happened, just that it happened. There’s no lingering fear in my head due to it. That…connection, if you will, just isn’t there. He might as well have been punching me. Or anything else.
“No payment. We’re already lovers.” That still hurts me to say it, but since I’ve loaded my peeps up with rings, we sort of have to play up the lover angle so that others will understand the cheaper prices. Assuming they ever find out about them.
Her eyes darted to the others in our dozenal before she took my arm. She hasn’t acted like this before, so it threw me. Not that I questioned her on it. I’m pretty sure I get why she’s freaked.
“Kevin, do you need to feed?” Her brother perked up from his table.
“No. Thank you, though. I got to feed yesterday.” The guy next to him gave him a fist bump, so I’m guessing they traded favors for it. Vampires are known for being vigorous, so you can imagine how many times a 15-year-old vampire can get it up. I’m shocked he’s not bleeding from the crotch from the friction.
Back on my arm, Rachel’s fangs pierced my skin and I felt a rush of tingles through my body that made me think she made it orgasmic. Instead of sending me over the edge, it just built in a sudden rush that made me gasp. Next to me, the cold fire feeling that I get from Rachel flares and heats up without warning, feeling like a nuclear explosion of heat…just before her entire body goes slack and she slumps over backwards. Since I was mid-bite with my other hand, I wasn’t able to stop her fall. The others were too shocked by it to do anything.
“What the fuck happened? Is she all right?” Tom rushed and grabbed her, sitting her up. “Jesus, she’s out of it entirely. What happened?”
The others stared at me as if I’d know. “Umm, I think I’m more powerful than I was the last time she fed?” There, is that enough? My magic has been out all morning, and I can feel everyone around me. The warm heat of the students in the room. Some of the workers behind the food line. The cold flares from Kevin and Rachel, although hers is now way closer to a living student. I can even…I can even feel tiny flares in the ground beneath the cafeteria. Some up in the ceiling. A few in the wall. Tiny flares that tell me something dead is there.
Something dead that I can call. Call and know that it will respond. Just as it did in the between lands, where I had an army of the dead following me. No, following Mom. She’s the general in the family, so to speak.
My new family. God, I know I just saw her last night, but I miss her. Granted, she got an eyeful of what Steph and I were up to this morning, but…I’m okay with that. She has monitoring spells on my room and she sees and hears everything happening in it and has since my first day here. She’s seen it all. It still makes me twinge a little, but as she said, she’s more than 7,000 years old. She has seen it all and done it all thousands of times. Add in the fey not caring about clothes very much, and you have a recipe for lots of nudity and sex. It means nothing to her, and that also helps me deal with it.
He looked to the others, but Armand was the one to respond, “I’m not sure who all can feel it, but you’re way, way stronger.”
Nick reached over and held up his hand, “Yeah. That’s…that’s messed up.”
“Umm, sorry?”
Rachel saved the day by groaning as she opened her eyes. Her power was still flaring high, but was moving back towards feeling cold again. Cold, but more powerful. I wonder if that means she’s more powerful? I’m not even sure how to test that.
Her smile had a goofy flare as she giggled, “Oh my God…that’s just…the best…So, so good.”
Tom patted her back, “You okay now?”
She giggled again, “I’m more than okay.” The table laughed when she leaned towards me, “Marry me?”
More laughter as I answered, “That may be a problem, since I’m not a lesbian? I think friends with benefits may be all I can give you.”
She giggled again as Tom patted her once more and returned to his spot. By unspoken agreement, my table moved on to other topics as we began plowing through our food. Or, the shifters began plowing. The mages don’t eat any more than normal folks do, so it’s not the same for them.
Then again, the other tables did not move on. They immediately began talking about me. Most have only heard rumors of what happened, so they talked about that. Others talked about things they’ve overheard. The only group that seemed to really have my back are the girls from the senior group that I sort of fell in with. Lacie, Lorde, Stacey, and Erica didn’t seem to care about the rumors.
Being able to hear everyone talking is more distracting than you’d think. Or no, more than I thought it’d be. I’m not sure what you’d expect here. I guess I sort of thought people just heard things, without realizing it’s like sitting at this table here and having every person holding a conversation with one other. That would make for five conversations at my table. It’d be difficult to follow them all. I never expected that.
Now I have 41 other students holding varying conversations and workers holding more. That fills my head with discussions on homework, the process for ordering chicken breasts, someone working out details for a ride to a store after class that required payment in anal. Since it’s two girls talking, that painted a picture in my head that I rather liked.
My name came up all too often, with the rumors flying wild. No one came close to the reality, so that’s probably good. It’s not that I need to hide what I am, but it’s weird. And I know I haven’t mentioned it. Mainly because…it’s freaking weird. No, my parents are gone, and I can curse. It’s fucking weird. That fits the situation. Very, very well.
It helps that Mom is what she is, but dang, how often do you expect to…I won’t even ask that. Instead, I centered myself a little, I love you, Mom. You’re my mother and my leader.
That probably sounds stupid, but…there it is. I felt a tingle coming back from her and I can practically see her in my head. She’s in her office in the FBI building, and looks every inch a solid employee. She’s basically the secretary for their group, but also co-leads it with Director Fitzsimmons. The director is something like 6’8” and a very powerful vampire, but she knows who holds the most strength between them. They’ve known each other for something like 500 years and have a strong friendship outside of their current working relationship.
Why does she work for the FBI when she’s phenomenally wealthy and works directly for the king of the fey as well?
Because one of her powers is the ability to read the future. She knew of my coming when she was my age, and has been yearning to meet me ever since. More than 7,000 years of waiting for me to come along. As she grew, she constantly searched for information on me. She never knew when I’d come, but she learned other things. The knowledge she gained helped her control her instincts. Helped her stop from doing things that would hinder us coming together. If she allowed her nature to take over, she could have killed me before I was even born. She could have not been in the right place at the right time for us to come together. She could have turned herself into someone that I wouldn’t have connected with.
