February 17, 2002 – 16:00 (London time)
"Lucas' vampires were indeed spotted roaming the forest in suburban Chicago, and a few attacks were reported. A few humans were found drained of blood by local pixies. Last night, a clan of goblins helped Lucas' vampires to attack King Matthew's warriors who were patrolling the forest and I've been notified to get there as soon as possible. I've done what I've been tasked to do. You instructed me to intervene if tensions between King Matthew's family and Lucas' clan escalated into a war, and that's exactly what I've done."
"There have been reports about Prince Charlie getting directly attacked after it was over and that you stepped in. Why?" said Alfredino.
"Sirs, my apprentice has done exactly what she was expected to do. If Prince Charlie was attacked, we can reasonably conclude that it wasn't over after all, so her actions were justified. Anything else?" said Andrew.
"That will be all," said Rolland.
"This is getting stranger and stranger. I was supposed to be the only EBEE representative there. Elders said they were monitoring the situation and I remember someone yelling after me when I stepped in to defend Prince Charlie. I think there was a mole in Chicago that night, it wasn't just about monitoring," said Coralis once they were out of the EBEE headquarters."
"I think at least one of the elders in London is working both sides, but I need to prove it. Lalima is close to the Spanish elders, I'll try to have a meeting with them."
"When I started working for the EBEE, I remember meeting with five elders… where are the other two? I haven't met with them in quite a long time."
"I met with them a few times when you worked cases with the CMMA the past few months, but rarely. I'll let you know if I can find out anything from the Spanish elders."
Coralis took off and headed back to her Montreal apartment. All she could think about was the shower awaiting her and finally being able to change clothes. She was relieved that Frank wanted to talk to her again, but swore to herself to not show up again at his dorm when covered in blood, he would have to meet her at her place if he wanted to see her right after she was done with an EBEE mission.
Victoria was home when she arrived.
"Here you are, finally. I want to know everything. How did it go last night? And I'm not talking about the EBEE crap, you're alive, that's all I want to know about it."
Coralis walked to the liquor cabinet to pour herself a drink and brought the glass with her to her bedroom, where she grabbed a change of clothes.
"Better than expected, all things considered. I had to take off to Chicago right after mentioning that I was a mage, and so were you. I mean, he asked how you and his sister knew about the supernatural world."
"We anticipated that he would ask about me, but if it went better than expected, despite leaving right after ripping off the bandage, I am assuming there is more to it?"
"Sebastian dropped his sister off at his place before leaving for Chicago. She somehow convinced him to come to a flyball game and he wanted me to come back to his place after I was done in Chicago. Gods, I was covered in vampires and goblins blood and you know there is no way I'd use the dorm' showers. I washed up by his sink while we talked, but it doesn't truly replace a shower," said Coralis as she entered the bathroom.
"That's great news. He'll come around. I told you, if my dad could accept my mom, Frank can accept you."
Coralis walked out of the bathroom 30 minutes later.
"Frank called while you were in the shower. I think it was the first time I ever had an awkward conversation on the phone with him, if you can call that a conversation, so I am assuming that he is mad a me. We didn't talk much, but he's on his way here."
"He mentioned still being upset with you when we spoke last night, but he also said that he wanted to call you to see if you'd take him to the flyball stadium on Thursday."
"I don't have plans for Thursday, I'll gladly take him to the game if he wants me there. Do I need to hide our paraphernalia or do you think he'll be okay if he sees some lying around?"
"Hard to say. He saw me changing back and forth into Cheetah, which I'm sure he'll say something to you about, but I think I'll keep my elemental stuff hidden for now, until I know for sure he's cool with what we are."
Victoria started laughing.
"I remember very well the day he and Mark met with Cheetah when I wasn't home. He even picked you up, thinking I had gotten a cat."
"Holy gods from above, I remember that."
The bell rang. Victoria let him in.
"Hey," he said, briefly looking at her, and turned his sight to Coralis. "I can't stay here long. I have an early class tomorrow and I still got to finish my damn essay, but I wanted to pass by."
"Something to drink?" said Coralis.
"Sure, got coffee?"
"I'll start a pot," said Victoria as she turned around to head to the kitchen.
"To be honest," he said as he took off his jacket and sat down on the couch, "I didn't know what to expect coming here, if you're apartment would look different, now that uh, now that I know what you are, the both of you. I see it's no different than it always was."
Coralis sat on a chair across from him.
"We don't typically keep our paraphernalia out in the open. I mean sometimes we do when we're just the two of us, but when living surrounded by humans, we have to blend in. Even if you come here unannounced, you wouldn't walk into a haunted house. I mean, sure there are stuff we wouldn't be able to explain to unknowing humans, but we aren't witches."
"I realize that there is so much that I don't know and you'll need to explain to me the difference between a witch and a mage. Movies tend to portray witches as evil, but little is said about mages. I think that a lot of people, including me, thought they were synonyms."
"I hate witches!" yelled Victoria from the kitchen. "They are evils!"
"Most of there are, indeed," said Coralis, laughing.
"I also want to know. The night Mark and I saw you on the bus with Eva, and you both had spiderwebs in your hair, was it related to the grave desecration case we read on the news? Were you indeed meeting up with ghouls?"
"I don't know what was said in the human media, but it probably was. Graves had been raided by ghouls. When you saw us on the bus, we had just walked out of an abandoned warehouse we'd been searching, and we were on our way back to the cemetery. The ghouls had somewhat been summoned by witches."
"Didn't you run into them again a few months ago at the Healing Moon?" said Victoria, leaning against the kitchen doorway.
"Yes and no. Related to it, but witches weren't involved at that time. Elves were behind it and we believe elves were also involved the first time."
Victoria walked back to the kitchen and filled three mugs with coffee.
"Now I see what you meant when you told me she would answer about whether it was related to what we saw on the news, but wouldn't elaborate," said Frank, looking at Victoria while she handed him his cup of coffee.
"I heard that you want to come to a flyball game live at the stadium?" said Victoria, sitting down on a chair next to Coralis.
"Yes. My sister explained the sport to me in quite a lot of detail, saying that I must come to a game. I'm still mad at you, but I don't want to talk about it right now. Coralis said that, uh, you could escort me inside the stadium?" said Frank, looking at Victoria.
Coralis heard her hologram vibrating from the side table drawer. She cursed.
"Work?"
"Probably," she said, opening the drawer to retrieve it. "This is a hologram, I guess it's okay now if you see what it does."
She pressed to answer it.
"High Fay Ellya," said Coralis when she saw her holographic image coming out of the hologram, "how are you?"
"We've seen better days. I've gotten word that someone working for EBEE elder Alfredino fled the scene last night. Can you come now to my house?"