ATTICUS

I stayed looking at the door while it was closing. I wanted to wait for them but I didn’t feel fine at all. My body weighed more than normal and both of my hearts were beating unusually slow.

“You didn’t drink enough blood for such a long day, smart-ass,” I said to myself and kicked the nearest wood cabinet, feeling all the pain of kicking the hardwood when I was so weak. I didn’t care, I deserved all the pain. I had been on the verge of feeding myself on Fenix. The hunger and anger had mixed, making me wish to drain him to the last drop.

I started to walk to the mayor's office, one of the doors of the foundation connected with the city hall, I had only to figure out which one. I tried to stop my mind. After all, everything was okay. I didn’t do anything to him, and to be fair, Fenix had been a pain in the ass. It wasn’t my fault that he was behaving like an asshole when I was bloodless.

Finally, the door that I was searching for. I opened, appearing on the second floor of the city hall. Only the lights of Elisabeth’s office were on, the rest of the floor was illuminated by the street light through the large windows. I looked through one of them, seeing the library just on the other side of the street. A cop car was parked just next to Lucas’ car. Not the chief’s car, Elisabeth must have called another person to fulfill her plan that this incident ‘stay in petit comité’.

I heard the sound of Elisabeth's telephone hanging up. She had a landline with a retro phone. This was her style, classy in the 20’s. Maybe old memories of her youth.

“Atticus?” She asked from her desk.

I approached the door, letting her see me. I had forgotten that most people didn’t have vision in the dark.

“Good night, I was searching for a place to take a break,” I said, a little embarrassed for some reason.

“You can use my coach,” she said, pointing to the very luxurious sofa in front of a small tea table while she was getting up. I didn’t think a lot about it. I was exhausted at that point. “Don’t be shy, I've known you since you were born.” She winked at me and left the office through a hidden door behind a bookshelf, which if I’m not mistaken was connected with a private garage in the back part of the city hall.

I sat down while the words of Elisabeth repeated in my head, ‘since you were born’. That wasn’t a good moment to think about it. Probably, there weren’t any good moments to think about it. I tried to focus my attention on other matters. That coach was comfortable. Elizabeth always had an exquisite taste, her office showed it. The only discordant thing was my scruffy barefooted friend and his very angry father who was pulling him to the side of Elisabeth's office door. Mr.Garcia set Lucas free and turned around.

"I have enough with your other five little brothers,” he growled to his son. Lucas looked down, avoiding the intense glance of her father. Mr.Garcia sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You're sixteen years old, it's high time you behaved as such," Mr. Garcia said, in a calmer tone.

"Dad, it's not my fault. I didn’t do anything wrong," Lucas said. His father looked at Lucas' feet, raising an eyebrow.

"And your shoes?"

"Okay, we heard a scream and I had to transform myself..."

"You heard a scream in the X-room," his father raised his voice again.

"Not, be-before in the fore-res-st." Lucas tried to explain. I tried to get up, but it was fruitless. I didn't have enough energy to give him a hand. I had been foolish trying so many times to dominate Fenix.

"Enough! We'll discuss your punishment at home. I'll take this for now," Mr. Garcia said, taking the phone from Lucas' hands.

"Now, sit and don't bother anymore."

Lucas looked at me and entered the office. He obeyed his father’s orders without a word and sat on my side. I give him a pat on his back to comfort him. The best that I could do at that moment.

“Are you okay?” he asked me.

“A little dry,” I answered.

Then the mayor opened the hidden door with my dad behind her. He was smiling and chit-chatting with Elisabeth until he saw me. He raced to me, ignoring Elisabeth who was talking with him.

"Are you okay, Atticus? You are pallid," he said as if pale wasn't my natural skin tone.

"I'm fine, some thirsty. I used my abilities a lot today."

He called his assistant, Gary, who just entered through the hidden door. Gary took a strawberry half-a-liter pop from his backpack and gave it to me. I opened it, and only the blood smell gave me strength. My father smiled at me and patted me on the shoulder.

"Take it all, I'm going to speak with Elizabeth," he said and grabbed my hand for a second to notice my heart beating. He breathed calmly and got up.

He had always been very protective and loving for a man who turns 500 years old in a few months. My dad, Mr. Garcia, and Elizabeth made the classic greetings and shaking of hands, which everyone made in this kind of meeting. Then, Elisabeth invited the two men to sit at a small round reunion table on the other side of the room. My father took a look at me before sitting and winked at me.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“Can we exchange families?” Lucas asked. “When you get used to the smell it’s not so bad,” he joked.

“I’m fine. Let me hear,” I whispered. I was really interested in the conversation which could put Rose in serious problems.

"Abraham, Raul. I thank you for your promptness,” Elizabeth said. “We have a boy who saw a witch ritual in the forest with the implication of a lord vampire and werewolf."

"Bear," Mr. Garacia corrected Elizabeth.

"Of course, werebear. Our children. I prefer not to inform the rest of the foundation's council. Do you agree?" Both men nodded in unison.

"Well, I erased his memories and we used the drugs excuse with his parents," my dad said. He usually sent someone of his confidence in this kind of case but this doesn't mean that he was used to erasing some memories every now and then.

"I know the boy is my neighbor, and he's a good kid, more or less,” Mr. Garcia said. “I preferred to tell their parents that he passed out near the forest. I had a friend in the hospital who could make a medical report with an excuse like stress or something like that."

"Well, gentlemen, we need to...," the mayor started to say when the doors opened with a strange wind, which moved all the papers from Elisabeth's desk. Suddenly, the direction of the wind changed, moving again every paper in the office but towards the door this time. Rose entered making a spectacular entrance with his hair moving like in a shampoo commercial, while Dorotea followed her with short steps and tried to not lose the pile of papers that she carried in her hands because of the wind.

"Dare daughter, you don't need to be so melodramatic."

"If you love the dramatic entrance," she said, blowing a kiss to his mother, who was enjoying Rose’s performance. She sat down at the table. "He wants a fairy contract to protect himself and his family from the foundation. And I think we should give it to him."

There was a second of silence until my dad laughed. I would have laughed If I wasn't recognizing Rose's expression. She was talking seriously, she really wanted to do it. What the hell had happened during the interrogation?

"Rosemary, has the ritual affected your mind?" Her mother asked sarcastically.

"We should, not only because he knows that it's a fairy contract but also because of this." She made a sign to Dorotea who distributed some papers to each one on the table. "This is the list of books that Fenix took from the library, books about real witchcraft, other types of hidden arts, and supernatural creatures were highlighted in blue."

Everyone at the table started to check the list. My father raised a brow. "But, there are dozens. Are we sure that he is human?" My father asked, looking at Elizabeth.

"I didn't feel anything strange when I analyzed him," Elizabeth said while she continued inspecting the papers carefully.

Lucas approached my ear. "Do you understand anything?" he whispered.

I told him to shut up in no good manners but I wanted to catch the whole conversation. The idea of Fenix, who had avoided my powers as if I would be a fool, was a magic user left me in a better position and also upset me a little.

"I have known this boy since his childhood. He played a lot of times with Lucas when they were children. I would have smelled something, maybe it’s a coincidence," Mr. Garcia said.

Dorotea raised her hand shyly. Elizabeth made a sight for her to talk. "The books have a protection charm which makes them look like normal books. We usually select boring books like old books about taxonomy or legal dictionaries. Things that people don’t really use, especially now with the internet. The probability that he took so many of these books randomly is 1 in 17583944.”

My father lay in his seat. “How come we haven’t realized it before?”

“He always takes various normal books with one or two magics. It wasn’t until Rosemary asked me to print his history that I noticed. I'm so sorry mayor," she said, bowing her head repeatedly.

"Calm. Don't worry Dorotea. In these circumstances, the best is talking with the kid before anything else, " Elizabeth said.

FENIX

The door opened slowly, creating a feeling of uncertainty that was driving me crazy. What the hell was that a horror movie? Lucas' father analyzed me with his glance.

“The mayor wanna speak with you, boy,” he said.

I got up, crashing against the table leg and doing a very funny pain expression. I mean, I guessed I did because I always do but Mr.Garcia didn't make the most basic gesture. He was a serious person but that was another level.

I followed him through the hallway. He remained in silence with a marble expression, although his wolf spirit was worried, very worried. I know, I know using other animals' spirits to analyze their emotions is not polite, but he was a policeman who arrested me illegally. I was using my self-defense right and I couldn’t avoid it at that point. Spirits were not easy to see, no matter how magical they were, they usually were hidden within the shapeshifter’s body. But, the emotions of Mr.Garcia were so close to the surface that his wolf spirit surrounded his body like a faint and ghostly shield.

He opened the door and let me pass first, giving me a push when I stayed still like ice on the door threshold for a few seconds. The mayor was sitting at an old wooden desk that must have been worth as much as my house. Behind her was the richest man in the city and blood witch, Abraham Santoro. Atticus' father.

I tried to gulp but my mouth was totally dry. The situation had escalated from bad to apocalyptic too soon for me. I mean, I could avoid Atticus' powers, but his father was some millions of levels up. The poker game had almost ended and I only had one poker chip. And I shouldn’t have used so many poker metaphors when my uncle cleared me out each Christmas.

I approached the desk after a second push from Mr. Garcia. He put his hand over my shoulder and sat me down in front of the mayor. He was rough and when I could see his face I didn’t need his spirits to figure out his mood. I tried to gulp again, but of course, I was still fucking dry.

Mr.Gacia placed himself next to Mr.Santoro, firm back and penetrating gaze. I thanked god that werewolves didn't have laser beams in his eyes.

Okay, doing business with a witch, a vampire, and a werewolf cannot be so complicated, right? right? I thought, almost panicking.

I noticed Rosemary in a seat next to me with her disconcerting smile, and Atticus and Lucas were on a sofa behind. I had never felt as observed as at that moment.

"Do you want something? A glass of water, coffee." The mayor asked me with a friendly tone. I only shook my head. "Well, then we're going to speak of business. Rosemary told us that you have information for us. We're listening!"

"Well, mayor, I will tell you when we sign the contract," I said without looking into her eyes. The situation was way above my level.

She put her arms on the desk forming an arc and put her head down in the arc, "We are the mayor, a famous philanthropist, and a police officer. You can trust us," she said in a way that made me feel secure. She wasn’t using magic, it was her skill to persuade and I had to clear my mind for a second to not fall into her trap.

"Well, I'm not trying to offend, but.” I started to rub my hands compulsively because of the nerves. “What I see is a powerful witch who can curse me, a blood witch who can erase my memories and drink my blood, and a werewolf who can hunt me and tear me apart with his claws."

Mr.Garcia pushed the table. "Have you spied on the foundation?” he yelled. “If you try to blackmail us, I can guarantee that anything you can imagine is a child's game compared to what I'm gonna make you."

"No-no-not sir. I'm not trying to blackmail anyone. I'm asking for the safety of my family and me.” Why did I say no to the water glass when I really needed it? “And I’m talking about real safety, not this strange simulation in which you disappear and people start to think that you died because of a heart attack or drugs."

The mayor and Mr.Santoro looked at each other. "Okay, we have to discuss this matter," the mayor said.

Then she made a sigh with her hand, some kind of letter o symbol which produced slight light at the tips of her fingers. My chair started to move out of the office. A group of translucent hands —each one grabbing a chair leg— were moving it. When they left me outside of the room, they closed the door and disappeared in front of my nose. I was going to need an intense inner debate to decide if it was the fourth creepy thing of the night or only super-cool.