Demon Accords 8: College Arcane (4 page)

We followed him to the dropoff, which had a
conveyor belt to take dishes away, Caeco deliberately moving a pace
closer to him. From the sudden tension that formed across his
massive back, I surmised he was feeling vulnerable.

When he turned after dropping his dishes on
the belt, Caeco was holding her own plate in one hand and her steak
knife in her right. His eyes flickered down to the gleaming
stainless steel blade and then back up to us. We were both smiling,
but hers looked fierce and mine didn’t feel all that friendly. He
frowned then strode away, back to his table, which was right next
to the witch girl table. Both tables were watching us and I noticed
several additions to the witch table, a couple of brunette girls,
auras flecked with black. Ryanne looked concerned, but the rest
just looked like they were watching bugs or something.

“Come on,” I said, quietly. Caeco nodded
once, glancing back like she was committing faces to memory. Which
was silly because she would have done that at first sight.

“This whole social order thing happens kind
of fast huh?” she asked as we walked out the door.

“It started happening as soon as we and the
others entered the building. Now it looks like the lines are being
drawn. I don’t think Chris’s attention helped us in any way.”

“Ya think?”

Chapter 4

The door marked
Director
was easy to
find. As we approached it, it opened and a tall, thin platinum
blonde stepped out, spotting us instantly but turning back to the
open doorway. Her skin was dark and her hair almost white.

“You have my word that she will be safe.
We’ve already taken steps,” Gina said to the mystery woman. They
were a study in contrasts. Gina with her dark hair and curvy
physique, the other woman hard and lean, with hair so light it was
basically white, wearing all black and sporting some really fancy
forearm bracelets that were shaped kind of reptilian.

Caeco has that same look or almost that
same look
, I thought, even though they were different sizes and
shapes. Tall and lean versus compact and muscular, but both tough
and ready for a fight.

Gina looked our way and smiled, pushing the
door opened wider. The blonde glanced our way once more before
turning and slipping away down the hall. That’s how it looked. Like
she just sorta slipped away. Silent and graceful. A couple of steps
and then she turned the corner, disappearing from view. I was left
wondering how anyone could have eyes that big and that sharply
slanted and such a weird shade of light, light gray. They reminded
me of something—something that I couldn’t quite remember.

“Caeco, Declan. Come in, come in,” she said,
hugging first Caeco and then myself.

Behind her, the apartment opened up: more
brick walls, barnwood floors, lots of green plants. And a giant
wolf, with a little girl necklace. Toni Velasquez disentangled
herself from the massive wolf that was now famous across the globe
and studied us for a moment.

“Hey Toni, heard any good Chuck Norris jokes
lately?” I asked.

She thought about it while Gina closed the
door behind us.

“People call 911, 911 calls Chuck Norris,”
she finally said.

“Not bad, not bad. Did you know Chuck Norris
uses Tabasco as eyedrops?”

She snorted, then came running over to give
me hug. Caeco got the next one, while the wolf watched us with
unblinking eyes. Chris came around the corner, Toni’s father, Roy,
just behind him.

Gina led us into the living room, making a
hand gesture at the big black leather sofa. Roy shook my hand and
Caeco’s as we sat down. Toni squirmed in between us while the
grownups all found seats.

“So… what’s up?” I asked.

“A couple of things, Declan. A couple of
favors to ask, if I can?” Chris asked.

I nodded and he went on. “I’d like you to
look at the necklace, see if it’s okay, running properly or
whatever it is that it does. That sort of thing. I also wanted you
two to keep an eye on some folks for us.”

“Ariel and Ashley?” I guessed.

“Yeah. Ariel is the reason that my team and I
aren’t locked away in a cell under the Pentagon.”

“She took that picture, didn’t she? The one
of you in chains.” It was Caeco’s turn to guess.

“Yes, yes she did. And gave it to the
media.”

“She seems pretty shy,” I noted.

“She is. She’s also a pretty gifted precog,
but her gifts won’t help against any of the more predatory kids.
Its one of the things we’re worried about. Normal schools develop a
pecking order. In a school where a good portion of the kids are
deadly, well, let’s just say we don’t want any blood shed.”

“What about the other girl… Ashley?” Caeco
asked.

“Ashley has a unique form of telepathy that
doesn’t work on humans,” Gina said. “Not all of the portals lead to
Hell. Some lead to other worlds. On one of those worlds, Ashley’s
abilities allow communication between the two dominant species.
Without her, they are one mistake away from war. With her, they can
trade and coexist. If it were up to them, she would be wrapped in
bubbles and guarded at all times. But her father was able to
negotiate a deal, one that allows her to come home to Earth on
occasion and, in this case, study among her own kind.”

“But they’re worried about her safety here at
the witch and werewolf boarding school,” I guessed.

“Exactly. All of our staff and all of the
Oracle agents on site are watching out for her, but Chris thought
you two might be able to help a bit.”

Chris snorted at her words. “Gina, these two
are already more capable than most of Oracle, and they’re only
going to get more skilled.”

“I’m not downplaying their abilities, Chris,
I’m just telling them it isn’t their job. They have enough on their
plates,” she said to him before turning back our way. “We just want
you to be aware so you can keep an eye out. That’s all.”

“Okay, no prob. They seem nice. Now let’s
take a look at this necklace,” I said, turning to Toni, who was
wedged between Caeco and me. I reached over and gently lifted the
silver chain with the big black teardrop from around her neck.
Chris, Gina, and Roy all sucked in quick breaths.

“What?” I asked, startled.

“It’s just that no one but Chris has been
able to take the necklace off her. It… resists.”

I studied it with my Sight for a second. My
vision twisted so hard, I almost puked up my dinner. “Well, I
did
have a part in making it. Aunt Ash used my energy for
her spell, so maybe it recognizes me.”

“Is that possible?” Roy asked.

“Magical objects can develop a kind of
personality. Depends on the power and the sophistication of the
spells that created it. With this
thing,
who knows?”

“What do you mean?” Gina asked.

“It was created from what I understand is an
actual tear of God, infused with a portion of the aura of an… an…”
I sputtered out and Caeco filled in.

“Angel,” she said.

“Yeah, and the spell that created it came
from an ancient grimoire that
definitely
has a personality
and awareness,” I said, again opening my Sight and trying to look
it over. It was like trying to read a spinning book through a
blurry looking glass.

“Has it done its job at all?” I asked.

“Four times, with tremendous effectiveness,”
Chris said.

“Lethal effectiveness?” I asked, trying for
casual.

“Twice, and twice with less than lethal
responses,” he said.

“Really? Well that’s a good sign. Can I see
your necklace too, Chris?”

He pulled it off, over his head, and handed
it to me. Toni’s necklace was in my left and his in my right.

They looked identical, yet Toni’s twisted my
vision much harder than Chris’s and it seemed to weigh more, as
well. They were both easily the most powerful artifacts I’d ever
handled.

I tried my Sight again and was able to hold
the view a bit longer before I had to look away.

“It’s humming away. Actually, they both are,
but Toni’s feels different.”

“The purple man comes out of it,” Toni said
from her nest between Caeco and me.

“The purple man?” I asked her.

“Yeah, he looks like a purple Mr. Chris and
he protects me. Pushed the agent men right out the door, then he
sliced all their stuff in half.”

“Really? Government agent men?” I asked,
lifting my eyes to Gina and Roy for confirmation.

“Secret Service. Said they had orders to
place her in protective custody. Damnedest thing I ever saw. They
just got pressed right out the door, fell down the front steps, and
piled up in the street. They came back a few minutes later in
force, only the necklace chopped all their gear—guns, radios,
vests, battering rams, even their SWAT truck—right in half,” Roy
said.

“Selective response to a threat. I don’t know
you all that well, Chris, but that sounds a little like something
you might do,” I said.

He nodded. “If I could figure out how to do
it. It’s within the realm of my abilities, but I’d have to
experiment quite a bit to do all that in one aura blast,” he
said.

“So not only does it copy your style, it does
it in a very sophisticated manner,” I mused. “I don’t see anything
wrong with it. It weighs a bit more than your necklace, Chris, but
that’s not surprising, as it’s imbued with a portion of your aura
and a good deal of power that Aunt Ash put into it. I think it’s
okay.” Then I handed Chris’s back to him and carefully draped the
other over Toni’s neck.

The three adults looked at me, then each
other, before they all cautiously relaxed.

“Okay, great,” Chris said, standing up. The
rest of us followed suit, leaving Toni on the couch with a slight
frown.

“Thank you for checking it out, Declan,” Gina
said, looking relieved. Roy nodded and shook my hand again.

“No problem. In fact, since I’ll be living
just upstairs, I’ll take a glance at it from time to time and make
sure it’s up to specs,” I volunteered.

“That would be great,” Chris said. Gina
nodded before glancing at the clock on the cable box by the
television.

“Oh, it’s bedtime for one of us,” she said,
looking at Toni.

“Only if ‘Sos comes with me,” the girl in
question said, crossing her arms.

At the sound of his name, the big wolf came
up off the ground and shoved between Caeco and me to snuffle her
into a giggling fit.

“That’s fine, dear. Why don’t you say
goodnight to Declan and Caeco and Mr. Chris,” Gina said.

We accepted hugs and cheek kisses, then Chris
plucked her off the ground and put her on Awasos’s back and she
rode the beast down the hall, presumably toward her bedroom.

Roy thanked us both, then followed his
steed-riding daughter out of the room.

“Thank you, and I want you both to promise to
come to me with any problems or concerns as this whole academy
thing unfolds, okay?” Gina asked. We agreed and after another round
of hugs, she went to oversee the bedtime preparations.

Chris waited till she was out of the room and
down the hall before turning back to us.

“Listen, a couple of other things,” he said.
“First, I meant what I said about you kids not being obligated to
come work with Tanya and me or the feds. But I’ll tell you right
now, you two already have a standing offer from us for almost any
kind of job you could want. I’m really, really serious about that.
We could use you both on the team. And even if you don’t want to
sign up, I already have a paying mini-job for you. It’s a small
assignment that you can do while going to school.”

I looked at Caeco, then back to him. “Chris,
you’re already paying our way through college. What do you need?
We’ll handle it.”

He looked at us both a little intensely, then
nodded. Turning to a travel bag on the floor, he pulled out a
silvery-looking collar-like thing.

“This isn’t an exact copy, but I’m told it
operates the same way. See, when we got grabbed by Oracle, they
fitted collars like these on us, only they were all explosive,
shielded with depleted uranium and linked to each other and the
control computer.

I know I could have gotten out of mine, but
I’m also pretty sure that would have set the others off and I would
have lost everyone,” he said, looking bleak.

“Wow, that absolutely sucks,” I said.

“A no-win scenario,” Caeco agreed. “Losing
your team that way would have been horrible.”

“It would have been apocalyptic,” he said,
eyes flashing violet. “So, my request is for you two whiz kids to
come up with multiple options to defeat this kind of thing. Think
you can do it?”

Still pondering his use of
apocalyptic
and its ramifications, I took the collar from him and could
immediately feel it humming. Caeco touched it and I felt a little
zing of electricity that told me she was reading it with her
nanites.