Chapter 12

March 23, 1996

Coralis was in Denmark with Martha. The school had agreed to let her play in some weekend flyball games, provided that Martha would go with her: she was still considered a minor in their elemental laws and customs.

While they walked through town after the game, heading back to their hotel after stopping for coffee, three vampires started to follow them. They sensed that something was following them, but didn’t know how many people. They tried to lose their stalkers, but they didn’t know the city.

“What is it this time?” said Coralis. “I think I want to bait them in an alley to find out who sent them and why they’re after me this time. Lord Meozo better not be back again.”

“I think our stalkers are vampires. We should indeed get them to follow us into an alley, to at least get them away from humans. Lord Meozo cannot come back, you made sure of that.”

“Authorities said that 15 years ago and they were clearly wrong,” said Coralis.

“You heard Borin when you got back to school last August, even if he would have wanted to bring him back, there was nothing to work with. He and Yuril raided his lair and other known living places: they could not find any lingering essence of him anywhere. EBEE also looked into it. Whatever you’ve done, will need to be written down in books for teaching, we told you that.”

They turned left to an alley and stopped in the middle of it. From the other end of it, they saw four more vampires walking toward them. Coralis positioned herself in an attacking position. One of the vampires in front of them raised both of her hands, to indicate that they weren’t there to fight. Coralis and Martha turned around and saw the other vampires doing the same. They were all raising their hands, palms facing them.

“I am Nadine,” said the vampire in front of them, the one who raised her hands first. “We really don’t want to fight you.”

“What do you want from me then?” asked Coralis. “Who sent you?”

“We aren’t sent by anyone and it took us a long time to find you. Almost a year ago, you killed our leader, making you a stronger leader than he was. We need you to lead us.”

“I will never continue what Lord Meozo started. I destroyed him instead of following him, what makes you think that I have any intention of taking over his operations?”

“You killed him, so you’re the logical successor,” said the male vampire on the right side of Nadine.

The vampires wouldn’t take no for an answer and kept insisting that Coralis had to take his place. They were getting agitated and angry. Coralis had enough and killed them when the vampires tried to get closer to her.

“The school can’t find out about this or they would probably expel you because we’re in the middle of human territory,” said Martha. “You did what you had to do and I think you did the right thing: these vampires were turning violent. Swope would be proud; your combat skills were very effective. However, we both know very well that the school administrators probably won’t see it that way.”

“I don’t understand why they seriously thought that I would be remotely interested to takeover Lord Meozo’s position among his supporters, I thought I made that clear when I destroyed that thing.”

“That comes from ancient customs and traditions in many elemental and other mythical communities: whoever challenges a leader and wins by killing him, takes over the clan, pack or whatever group they have. Now, let’s clean this mess before it attracts unwanted attention here. Thankfully vampires are easy to clean up, but I’m still going to set up a basic ward before we get started.”

A fay working for the Elemental Bureau of Elemental Energy was in the area and saw the vampires following them into the alley. He followed them and watched. As Coralis and Martha started to clean the mess, he walked away to contact his partner, and intercepted them as they were leaving.

“I am Agent Sdyler and I work for the EBEE,” he said. “Don’t worry, you do not need to explain to me what happened, I saw everything. What I do want to know, is who is this young elemental who handled these 7 vampires,” he turned his attention to Coralis, “are you really the Blue Thunder who destroyed Lord Meozo last year?”

“Yes, she is,” said Martha before Coralis could say anything. She needed to focus on just being a student and play flyball, she didn’t want Coralis to also have EBEE after her, “she is a student and a reservist player for the Canadian flyball team. More importantly, she is a minor, so if there is anything that you absolutely need to know, you will need to go through me, I am Martha, her guardian. You said you saw everything, so I don’t think she needs to tell you more. We need to be heading back.”

The following week, two representatives for the EBEE came to the school to recruit her as an intern after she graduated, but she wasn’t interested: she only wanted to play flyball.

During the following months, she received a lot of letters from the EBEE, with different offers, telling her how she could still play professional flyball full time while being trained to become an EBEE agent. Considering her status as a professional flyball player, she wouldn’t have to attend the fast-flying training sessions.

More of Lord Meozo’s followers tried to contact her when she was in Montreal for the summer and others met with her when she was in London with Erik and Henry. Some of them even tried to breach the school perimeter. A group of elves tried to take her with them while she was waiting for Erik and Henry in Glasgow, before going to their parents for the End-of-Year holidays. She killed them all.

A panther form wasn’t convenient to be able to walk around a town unnoticed, so she practiced shifting into a smaller version. Looking like a black cat, Victoria started nicknaming her mini-panther version ‘Cheetah’.

Letters kept coming, from all kind of groups and she was growing tired of the constant attention from Lord Meozo’s followers.

In April 1997, she decided to accept the EBEE offer.

“Are you sure about this?” said Martha.

“Can’t say I want to do this. I want nothing to do with any of these groups, I really just want to be playing flyball for the next few years, but I’m really tired of not being able to go anywhere without having to either kill people or avoid them. If I am going to be leading any of them, it will be against them. If I join the EBEE, hopefully they will start avoiding me instead.”

“Can’t argue with you on that. I think that the EBEE wants you attached to their London headquarters, that is going to give you massive headaches just to try to conciliate your flyball career in Montreal and your EBEE training in London. That will not give you any room for socializing and dating.”

“It is what it is, I need to make a point. I needed to pick a side, so I picked one. It’s not like I plan on taking a husband or binding myself to a mate anyway, I don’t think that kind of life is for me. I’m fine with burying myself into work.”