Chapter 13

August 1, 1998

Coralis was lying on the couch, her legs hanging down over the armrest, in the middle of the living room of the flat she shared with Erik, Henry and Gus. She was exhausted.

“Tell me again why we have to go out for drinks?” said Coralis.

“Do we really need to remind you about what day it is today?” replied Henry.

When she had to be in London for training with the EBEE or help on missions, she stayed with Erik, Henry and Gus. When she had to be in Montreal for flyball practices and home games, she would mostly stay in hotels or in small inns located in a pixie area near the flyball field. Once in a while, she would sleep on Victoria’s couch, but she didn’t like to go there because there were too many people living there. After graduating, Victoria went to study in a human college: she wanted to get into human medicine and there was a 2-years program that she had to follow as requirement. She was living in an on-campus dorm.

“I know what day it is; I just don’t want to go out, I’m too tired and I have to go to Chicago tomorrow.”

“Ahhh come on!” said Henry. “Let’s go! Think we got some wakie beans left. GUS! Can you make a wakie elixir for sis, so we can then go?”

“Was on it before you even ask!” said Gus.

The four of them enjoyed going to shifter pubs when they wanted to go out for drinks: they didn’t like to be regularly interrupted by fans and journalists in elemental establishments and felt like they couldn’t really talk when surrounded by humans. There was a small werewolf town not far from them and they would usually go to the pub there for drinks.

“Chicago again? Let me guess, another vampire war?” said Erik.

“A better question would be why the heck the EBEE would get involved in the affairs of American vampires… and weren’t you supposed to be just some kind of intern in training with them?” asked Gus, while stirring the mini-umbrella in his margarita.

“I don’t know about all of that, but I’m definitely pulling more hours with them than I anticipated when I signed their contract. This is turning into two full time jobs.”

The following months, she spent all of her time between Montreal, London, Chicago and everywhere else in the world that had a national flyball team. In March 1999, she sat again with the boys in the werewolf pub.

“This is getting ridiculous,” she said to them. “I don’t want to hear one more time about why I shouldn’t be helping the authorities to protect the humans. Why am I supposed to hate them? I honestly understand why they need to be protected from us and why they can’t know about us.”

“Wait, so this isn’t just a vampire war in Chicago?” asked Erik.

“No, it’s really not. King Matthew’s brother went rogue and started a branch in which his vampires tried to enslave humans. They owned several bars and in their basement cellars, they kept humans in chains to be used as live blood bank. The American Elemental Enforcement Agency is a mess and won’t get involved, but I think we all know what would happen if humans find out that fiction isn’t fiction after all.”

“So the Chicago royal family asked EBEE for help? Wouldn’t the CMMA be closer to help? I thought the CMMA worked with all kind of supernatural,” said Henry.

“I think the CMMA is also involved, but I haven’t met their agents yet. I have mostly been placed to help protect the royal family and locate rogue vampires. This is just weird. Some elves are working with the rogue vampires, and they kept asking me why do I bother helping supernatural beings to stay hidden, as if they knew who I was. I mean, maybe they do, but I still don’t see why I should hate humans enough to want us to take them over. Yes, I do have a bad history with them, but I also know that not all of them are bad. There are bad apples on both sides of the fence.”

“Elves wanting to take over humans again?” said Erik. “I remember the stories that dad told us when we were kids. Before Lord Meozo rose to power, there were some elf and fay families working together, trying to stir up a movement that would bring elementals out of hiding and running human governments. Stuff like that.”

“Yeah, well a lot of vampire clans are also involved this time. I don’t know if Lord Meozo was involved with the new groups, but it seemed that they knew my parents. Even if people know me as Blue Thunder, if they sensed the same energy signature on me than they did on my dad, then they would know who I am,” said Coralis.

“Fun fact, if we are comparing bad people and mass murders that happened on either side of the fence… the elementals have had more of them than the humans will ever have in all of their history,” said Gus. “You’re correct Blue, if our people ever take over the world, there wouldn’t be any humans left within a decade. It would be bad. If they ever find out about us, we know they would hunt us down and most of us can hide, but if we hunt them down, they would go extinct. Doesn’t matter how I look at it: it would be bad, very bad.”

“If we consider our Fart in the Sea project, wouldn’t that make the humans just as deadly as us?” said Henry.

“Not if we succeed with it,” said Gus while chocking on his drink, trying to suppress a giggle. “These nuclear weapons would annihilate and destroy everyone. Mostly them, but including us, so Fart in the Sea is also self-preservation.”

“Speaking of Fart in the Sea, while I was inspecting a Chicago warehouse with Princess Veronica, I found a newspaper article talking about alleged nuclear weapons in North Korea. Think we should look into it?” said Coralis.

“On it!” said Gus.

“Sis, think you’ll be able to come with us at the next Fart in the Sea operation? We missed you last time and we almost got caught just before we were done deactivating that bomb. Henry pulled us an invisibility glamour just in time,” said Erik.

“Let me know when you go, I’ll figure something out.”