February 10, 2002The next day, Frank met his mother and sister at a restaurant they like going to for brunch on Sundays.“How is Coralis? Heard she’d been seriously injured last night,” said Stephanie.“I don’t know, didn’t talk to her today. I saw her last night. She was okay, didn’t have any injuries, but then had to leave in the middle of our date. I think she tried to call later on, I know she tried this morning, but I didn’t pick up. I am still a little bit upset that she left when it was supposed to be our time.”“What time was it when she left?”“What did you hear? Did she get injured? How bad?” asked Molly to Stephanie.“Hmm middle evening I’d say, was before 10,” said Frank.“You moron, shit happened after that. I was also called in to work last night, for an emergency. I heard her name mentioned a lot by patients. One of my bosses witnessed the whole ordeal. If your girl wouldn’t have shown up when she did, trust me, we would have had to treat a lot more patients than we did
February 15, 2002Frank couldn’t focus on his school project. He didn’t like that she didn’t call him back when he knew she was supposed to be with his sister. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and called his sister. Stephanie was busy preparing a pitcher of sangria, so she put him on speakerphone.“Is Coralis with you?”“No, she left a few minutes ago for Chicago. You do know that you are an idiot, right?”“I know that… that’s also why I wanted to talk to her. I paged her, but she didn’t call me back.”“Bro, I’m serious. Do you have any idea how dangerous her work is? She didn’t talk much about your fight, but with everything going on at her work, she now thinks it’d be better to break up with you, and that is if she makes it back alive.”“Wait, what do you mean by making it back alive? What did she say?”“Sebastian made her spill her instructions. They work in the same field, remember?”“Coralis is one of the best agents in our field. Technically, she’s only an intern, but her b
February 16, 2002 - noonShe arrived on the flyball field just in time. The game against Pakistan was scheduled for 18:00, but they had some practice time before it.“Spill. Did you talk to him? Did you make a decision?” said Sebastian as soon as he saw her.Coralis looked around to make sure no one would overhear them talk.“I stopped by his place before coming here but didn’t have much time to talk. If I don’t get called to go to Chicago right after the game, I’ll go see him and, well, I’ll reveal myself to him. I have to.”“Good call, I think he can handle it. What made you decide that, instead of ending things with him?”“He wants to move off campus. He thinks that I should come home to him, so we’d see each other more. Honestly, I like the idea of coming home to him, he got me at that, but there is no way I can do that if he doesn’t know what I am at the very least. Considering that I have a phone book thick of enemies, well, he also needs to know about what he’d be signing up fo
February 16, 2002 – 22:45As soon as she was back up in the sky, she called on Sebastian’s hologram.“I was literally about to call yours, assuming you also had to take off to Chicago. Want me to drop Stephanie off at Frank’s with a mute-ball? How did it go?”“Pager went off right after I got to the point of telling him that I was a mage and so was Vic, but couldn’t elaborate on the non-human aspect of myself. Hell, I totally forgot to mute his room. I honestly don’t know what he’s thinking right now, he looked like he was in disbelief, but I think he was about to freak out.”“All right, I’ll take Stephanie to his place. I will not repeat to anyone that you didn’t mute his paper-thin walls before getting started and will thank the gods that I never had to be in your shoes.”“Don’t worry about my brother freaking out, he’ll get around, I’m sure. If not, I’ll make sure to remind him for the rest of his life what he’s missing out on.”“Please don’t. I mean, thanks for talking to him, but
February 16, 2002 – 23:55Coralis stood in the middle of a clearing. Eva, in wolf form, was next to her, both in attack position. Goblins and vampires kept coming at them. A little distance away, Princess Veronica and her guards were fighting three vampires from Lucas’ clan. Prince Hendrick was patrolling the forest around the clearing, along with four of his loyal warriors, trying to locate their encampment.Prince Charlie, along with his two personal guards, was also patrolling the forest around, trying to locate Lucas’ camp. He knew he was a target, so he tried to stay away from the fights and stick to the shadows, but he wanted to know who was after him confront Lucas.Meanwhile, Frank was getting worried. Despite his confusion and mixed feelings about what had just been revealed to him, he wanted Coralis to come back to him.“Warzone? Are you serious? What do you mean by that? Is she okay?”“Yes, I’m serious. Frank, we didn’t lie to you. We couldn’t talk to you about our jobs and
February 17, 2002 – 2:45Sebastian turned around and looked at the commotion. A troll was charging Prince Charlie, a machete in his right hand, and Coralis restrained him just before he swung it at Prince Charlie’s neck. She stood a few meters away, her left hand stretched out toward the troll. She was in the middle of the field, a crowd forming behind her.“What’s going on?” said Stephanie.“I gotta go. Prince Charlie is getting attacked and Blue is interfering. I’ll call you back later.”Sebastian hung up and ran to where people gathered to watch the scene. Stephanie called her brother. Coralis stood still, focused on the troll, her hand still stretched toward him. Prince Charlie had his back against a tree and cautiously stepped away. The troll looked at her, broke through the restraining spell and charged her.“Sebastian just called me,” said Stephanie when Frank picked up the phone. She was so anxious that she sounded as if she was panting. “It was over, and he was telling me tha
February 17, 2002 – 3:20“Cheetah isn’t actually a cat; some of us can transform into an animal. I’ll explain when I see you later on, but Cheetah is me.”She hung up and went back to her group. Frank called his sister.“She just called me. I convinced her to come to my place, but she said she didn’t want to frighten me more. You saw her at your work a few times… is it really horrific? How?”“It’s not horrific, but she probably has blood all over herself. I mean, she had been fighting vampires and goblins all night, so she must be looking like a serial killer or something.”“Did you know about Cheetah?”“Yeah, I knew. She can transform into a black panther, but it’s not a practical form if she needs to walk around town without being seen, so she learned to transform into a miniature version, and well… that’s Cheetah. Think it’s your friend Victoria who started calling her like that when she’s in that form.”Meanwhile, Prince Hendrick was talking to his dad on the phone.“BLUE!” he sai
February 17, 2002 – 5:45The left side of her face was still swollen from the troll’s attack. Crusted dark green and red blood was covering her entire hairline, ears and forehead, and she had several scratches across her neck. She pulled down the hood from her cloak and Frank could see more crusted blood throughout her hair. He saw what looked like an animal bite near her right collarbone, but her cloak was covering half of it, even if it was shredded in some places.He wasn’t frightened by the sight but was worried. Coralis looked down and pulled her eyeglasses out of her cloak. She put them on and looked back up at Frank.“What happened to you? Do you need to go to the hospital?” he said while getting closer to her.She pulled a mute-ball out of her cloak and activated it.“Don’t worry about it, most of that blood isn’t mine. There is no way that I would use your dorm showers, but I do need to clean up. I must leave in an hour to go to London, but I’ll head back to Montreal afterwar
December 24, 2003 – 19:00“Sally has been killed?” said Sebastian.Samantha nodded and answered Linda’s question. Frank looked at his sister. He knew she was also worried. The doorbell rang and he jumped. Louis went upstairs to answer, followed by Lizzy.“Congratulations!” said Louis as he let Coralis and Audrey in. “We saw on the news. The UK is no longer hunting you down.”“And no longer stuck on house arrest in London,” said Lizzy as she hugged her daughter.“I told you so!” said Sebastian as Coralis walked down the stairs to meet with the others.“Don’t get too comfortable, we’ll be moving to the kitchen to eat,” said Linda as Coralis gave a confused look to Sebastian.Sebastian told her the discussion they had before she and Audrey arrived as Frank led her to the kitchen, his hand on her lower back.“By the way, Sebastian, Emery is now a wanted witch. He was 49th when I checked the lists after talking to MI6.“Frank mentioned something about names when I started calling you Blue,
December 24, 2003 – 16:30Louis handed Frank a drink after Linda collected their winter coats.“I remember that night she took down your former leader. I heard a lot about him, but nothing good,” said Stephanie.“Took down former leader? Is it the duel you mentioned last year when we were trying to get Audrey back?” said Louis, looking at Stephanie.Stephanie nodded to her uncle.“Frank us that you’re close to Coralis, are you like her?” said Molly.“Coralis? Ah yes, I keep forgetting she’s known under a different name. I’m not exactly like her. I’m a werepanther, a different type of lycanthrope,” said Samantha, following Frank to the basement.“I remember seeing her transforming into a panther the night she killed Dwayne,” said Lizzy.“Some mages learn to transform into an animal of their choice. Blue can transform into a black panther,” said Sebastian, leaning on the chair Stephanie sat on.“She looked like a black cat when she came back from that house with that Veronica girl,” sai
December 24, 2003 – 06:00Coralis was making coffee when Samantha woke up.“Good morning, Samantha! You’re up early.”“I couldn’t sleep. Are you sure it’s fine if I come with you guys tonight?”“Yeah, if they told us you’re welcome to come, then you are welcome. They’re very nice people, and they know about us. Well, they know about me and Sebastian, Stephanie knows about you, they won’t mind what you are.”“If they know I’m not human and still want me to come, I think that’s already more than I can hope for.”“Think about it, I rank 11th on the global list of witches to kill on sight and they still want me to marry into their family. What does that tell you?”“All I need to know.”Twenty minutes later, while the girls were making breakfast, Frank woke up. It had only been 5 days since Coralis returned home after a long absence and to him, it still felt like it was the day before.“Considering the time it was when you got home last night, shouldn’t you still be sleeping?”Coralis jump
December 23, 2003 – 22:15“LIEUTENANT YOUMIS?” said Sebastian, looking at him. “Wasn’t he supposed to replace High Fay Zaaro?”“Yes. These abominations reek of his essence.”A few minutes later, Coralis got back on her feet and stepped out of the circle.“Lieutenant Youmis is exhausted. I don’t think he will regain control anytime soon,” said Coralis.“And you said vampire essence was in the mix?” said Eva.“The second time was already worse than the first time. And now this? Why here? Why our pack?” said Emma, as Emery walked back through the portal, followed by High Fay Ellya.“I don’t know why, but we will find out. That’s also why I didn’t want to kill the wolves. We know we can reverse it. Once the connection to their human counterpart is restored, we can question them,” said Coralis, looking at the time on her phone. “I should call my mate before he gets home and worries if I’m not there.”“Ellya, we need to send a unit to capture Lieutenant Youmis. Blue Thunder said he was exha
December 23, 2003 – 21:00 The Northerners were playing at home that night. When the game was over and she and Sebastian were about to take off to go home, Coralis received a call from Emma. She signalled Sebastian to wait and put the call on speakerphone. Emma was in a panic.“BLUE, can you come RIGHT NOW?”Sebastian suddenly got worried.“Where? What’s going on?”“Is Stephanie okay?”“Here at Red Crescent pack. Yes, Stephanie is fine. She left Healing Moon at 9 to go home. She’s not here.”Sebastian was relieved to hear that and swore that if Stephanie still wanted it, he’d complete their bond when he got home, even if he knew Coralis was probably right: the mark was a seal.“I’ll be on my way. I’m close by,” said Coralis, ending the call, and took off, Sebastian following her.“What do you think happens this time?” said Sebastian, as he was trying to keep up with her.“I don’t know, but I’m guessing she couldn’t reach out to anyone at the CMMA. Remember the last time they got a hol
December 20, 2003 – 00:15 (Scotland Time)Coralis closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She wanted to rip their eyes out and strangle them, but she knew these girls were humans, most likely heading to the same destination as she. She believed Frank when he said nothing ever happened with that actress, but she didn’t like these girls talking that way about her man.She was thankful to have her wrist binds so she wouldn’t break storefront windows by accident. Her eyeglasses only prevented her from using her eyes to direct her elemental energy and to camouflage their elemental colour but without her wrist binds, her elemental energy still leaked through her pores and she could still use her hands to direct it. She walked away and headed to the bar before she did anything to these girls and ended up in jail.Her flight landed in Montreal early morning. She had a game in Mexico in the evening but decided to skip practice time just so she could spend more time with Frank before she had to
December 19, 2003 – noon“There is still a hold on your name, right?” said Erik.“In Scotland? Why not in London?” said Henry.“Yes, but considering Blue Thunder is technically a citizen of England, she doesn’t have jurisdiction over me. I could still be walking into a trap, however, so I still made sure of that. Not sure why she wants to meet there, but I think it’s better there than in London. Even with a hold on my name, I’m not too keen on walking around the SIS headquarters. Taking my flight from Scotland instead sounds like a better idea anyway.”She tried to call Frank on her way to Scotland but got no response. She hoped he was still asleep and tried not to overthink it, but she was worried. As she was hovering above the meeting spot, Frank called her back.“That was you trying to call, right?” said Frank as soon as she answered.“Yeah, everything okay?”“Yes. I was in the shower. Wanted to take my phone in the bathroom just in case you’d call, but my scattered brain forgot it
December 19, 2003 – 09:00Coralis and Andrew entered the meeting room, dragging a restrained Xanita with them.“What is this?” said Alfredino.“Xanita Aza is the one who killed Minister Luke Massina and we sent a copy of our evidence to British authorities,” said Andrew as he played the video timeline assembled by Erik and Henry. “Do you want to handle her yourself, or shall I hand her to the authorities?”“It seems we owe you an apology, Blue Thunder,” said Rolland, watching the video.“The warehouse we searched never had any cursed weapons. It was merely a ruse Xanita used to get Blue and me away from the hotel. Want to tell me again how in gods worlds Massina’s murder got pinned on my apprentice when we were nowhere near the vicinity of his hotel?”Phraton tried to say something but Alfredino quieted him, using magic to shut him up.“JORGIE! Jorgie Fluk gave me that tip about that warehouse!” said Xanita, panicked.“Oh, we know about that, don’t you worry. Unlike you, he’s been mak
December 11, 2003“WHAT?”“I still need to find evidence to prove it or force her to confess, but I was right. Blum was protecting someone. Xanita never received a tip about that damn warehouse.”“That explains why Gus could never find anything relevant or suspicious about it, besides someone tampering with their security cameras.”“Basic human material wasn’t difficult to tamper with. We probably were the only two elementals to have ever set foot in there. Do you know if Sebastian is available tomorrow?”“I don’t know. We don’t have a game tomorrow, but lately, I talk to him only when I’m in my London flat. Only place I can talk safely.”“I’ll check with him then. Remember when Xanita said she had a call to take and came back with that so-called tip?”“Yeah, and thinking of it, she was also the one who sent us to that warehouse.”“She had been talking to Jorgie. Erik and Henry are on their way back to where you guys live, they’ve been a great help.”“Jorgie? The same Jorgie who’s bee