Chapter 11 Chapter 11
Beside me I heard Connor snort. I almost got whiplash from head whipping around to stare at the wolf. Seriously?
“Peacekeepers are magical cops. All species working together to maintain law and order in the magical world. They are kinda like the UN. Each species has their own government that is separate from the peacekeepers organization. For example, the werewolves have multiple councils that oversees all werewolves. There are hundreds of local council to handle all pack related issues for the immediate area. Above the local council is two regional councils in the US which all the local councils are represented and create the laws for the wolves specific to that region. The regional feeds into the territorial council. That’s the one that rules over all werewolves. Jeremiah Lobo, your grandfather, was elected the Head Alpha for the North American council and is on the territorial council.” I left out the part about him getting elected because he skipped a summit meeting. Few wolves actually wanted the headache of being on the territorial council and leapt at the chance to elect someone not in attendance as punishment for not attending. “The other species have similar structures. All the top level councils meet together to handle interspecies issues. The peacekeepers were created after The Wars to enforce the laws between species. They have authority over all the species. They are similar to the FBI mixed with Interpol.“ I explained in my best school teacher voice. His next question was clear in his eyes. I mentally braced myself for it. Wouldn’t be good to flip out on him on our first outing. But, seriously, what had his parents been teaching him?
“What were the wars?” He asked with innocence. Clearly not understanding the importance of what he was asking.
“First off, it’s pronounced The Wars. Capital T, Capital W. They’ve tried to give it names over the years.
The Species Conflict, Operation Eradication, The Life Wars. All of which suck. I did kinda like The Cavern Battles. But, The Wars sum it up the best. ” Ok, I didn’t quite keep the irritation out of my voice. I sighed and then began summarizing some of the darkest days in magic history. I’d only been a vampire for around a century when they had begun. The wizards had decided to eradicate vampires from the world to protect humanity. They chose an interesting way of going about that. Instead of coming at us straight on, they went for our primary food source. Humans. They unleashed plagues in regions with dense vampire or vampire infected populations. Not just any plague either. One designed to attack humans infected with the vampire virus or those marked as food. Witches and wizards were immune. It took my kind a few years to figure out what they were doing. But once we did, things got ugly. For about a century or so, blood was shed around the globe. After a particularly bloody battle in a cavern in what’s now Pakistan, a truce was struck. For the most part everyone went back to their lives and there was peace for two hundred years. Then the vampires got uppity and decided to wipe out the wizards and witches. And once again, it was on for another century or so. Once we reached another stalemate, a truce was declared and accords were signed. The accords put into place the beginning of interspecies laws. Previous to them, it was every species for themselves. Now, we worked together to create unity,. Of course some of the old vampires still resisted the restrictions put on them. I knew for a fact it was easier to teach an old dog new tricks then it was to teach an old vamp what they could and could not do. I paused a moment after my summery to let everything sink in.
I was ready for the follow up question of if I had been in any of The Wars. The first war I had fought beside my own kind. We were fighting for our right to live. The second war saw me fighting for the wizards. They had as much right to live as we did. What I didn’t mention was that my siding with the enemy had caused some issues with other vampires. Some of the old ones saw me as a traitor. Made things interesting anytime I had to deal with them. I was brought out of my thoughts when the computer beeped.
Looking at the spells that contained the known ingredients, I swore. There was only five listed. All of them nasty. I pointed at the first one. “That one.”
Connor raised an eyebrow in question. “It’s specific to werewolves. Two of them wouldn’t work on them. Of the two left, one would work. But, since his innards weren’t liquefied, I think it’s safe to eliminate it.” Connor and I nodded at Tristan’s horrified look. “The last one went out of vogue sometime ago.” I bounced my head side to side while making random hand gestures as I tried to remember the last time I knew it had been used. “I’m pretty sure I was in a corset at the time.”
“When was the last time you wore a corset?” The puppy was trying to keep the smirk off his face, but he was failing.
I slowly turned my head towards him and smiled before I answered his question honestly. “About a year ago.”
Judging from the gleam in his eyes he was enjoying whatever imagery was going on in his mind. Connor cleared his throat and asked why. He too had the look of a man picturing me in stilettoes, fishnets, and a corset. I briefly wondered if I was wearing a feather boa and a top hat in their mental image too.
“Vampire party with the theme of by gone eras. Oldest clothes won a bottle of blood from royals.” I laughed a little remembering all the clothes. While the pup looked surprised, Connor wanted to know if I had won. “Nope. Lost to a Greek who still had his toga from the Corinthian War era.” I paused a beat. “We all really wish he had worn something under it.” I snickered before returning to the problem at hand. After clicking on the most likely spell, I looked over the ingredient list and incantation.
Unfortunately, everything was easy enough to get. Why couldn’t they have needed a chimera feather or the hair of foo dog?
“All right. I think we’ve covered everything we can here. Let’s pack up and head back to my place. Connor, go secure the marble of doom while I shut down the computer. Pup, put up the talisman and put the chairs back where they were. “When we were finished with our tasks I ripped a portal to my place.