Chapter 13
A few days later, Alec found himself back in West Ham, sitting at Allie's kitchen table. Catarina had accompanied him this time to finalize their plans to get the blood donations under way and help answer any possible questions that they may have on the proceedings. Across from them, Allie sat with her hands folded on the table.
"Last time we talked, I believe we decided we were going to schedule thirty teens a week to get their blood drawn?" Alec said. "Have you started organizing a list of who will give blood when?"
"I've put Gordie in charge of that. He already has a list of everyone on his computer after helping us plan the daily work schedules. It shouldn't take much time for him to create a chart for us on who will give blood each week," Allie explained.
"So, how does this whole process work?" Will asked, sending Catarina a skeptical look. He was obviously still uneasy about the whole idea, but Allie was just relieved that he seemed to have at least relented to her decision on this matter.
"There are a few health questions I would need to ask everyone to make sure they are acceptable candidates for this, but the donation itself should only take about eight to ten minutes per person,"Catarina patiently explained. "Afterwards, we suggest you rest for a few minutes and drink some water, so that your body can adjust to the slight decrease in fluid, but after that you can continue on with your normal day."
"Have you had any further complaints about this . . . arrangement since the meeting?" Alec asked Allie.
"Not really," Allie admitted. "A few disapproving stares and such, but nobody has said anything directly to me. Hopefully that means that most of them realize the good that will come out of this deal for us in return."
Alec nodded his head slowly at this.
"Do you guys have any more questions for me?" Catarina asked.
Allie and Will shared a short look before Allie responded. "I think we're all set with the donation process . . . but Alec, there is something else that we need to discuss with you."
"Go ahead."
Allie let out a small sigh before continuing. "As you know, we've been having a problem recently with some of our residents trying to get a group together to force me out of my position. Jason and Clark are basically on house arrest for now. We haven't wanted to risk them going to talk to Campbell and Harry behind our backs if we sent them out on their own. We've only been letting them out if Luke and Grizz are accompanying them," she explained. "We were wondering if we could send Campbell and Harry to New York with you and Magnus for a while, temporarily banishing them from West Ham until we can get the elections underway."
Allie caught the concerned look that Catarina shot Alec.
Alec frowned as he puzzled the request over. "If we did take them in for a while, was there some kind of punishment you wanted us to enforce on our end?"
Will shook his head. "We just don't want the four of them to secretly be meeting up and talking behind our backs, making plans to take power away from us by force," he elaborated.
An awkward pause followed as Alec and Catarina shared another apprehensive look between each other.
"So, you want us to let a psychopathic teenager have free range of Brooklyn and our people?" Alec asked hesitantly.
"At least he would be surrounded by adults in New York," Will noted, seemingly as confused as Allie was about the pair's sudden mood change. "Surely you have doctors or therapists or someone there that could help you handle him for a few weeks."
"Let me talk it over with Magnus. We'll see if we can work something out to help you with them," Alec relented after another short pause.
"Where is Magnus?" Allie asked.
"He got held up in another meeting," Catarina answered for Alec.
It had been over a week since he and Sam had had any form of a 'date night' and Grizz could tell how excited Sam was about their afternoon plans. Grizz tried to block everything out to focus on his boyfriend, but apprehension was tickling just under the surface of his skin.
Grizz poured the bag of chips into a bowl as he waited for the popcorn to finish popping in the microwave. With their snacks in hand, he ventured back into his living room to find Sam slipping his movie selection into the DVD player.
With a small smile on his lips, Grizz took in the scene. Sam had pushed the coffee table towards the side of the couch, freeing up the space between the furniture and the TV. One of his mom's fleece blankets was now spread out on top of the white carpet, creating an indoor picnic-like setup for their date.
After retrieving the remote, Sam took a seat on the blanket and held a hand out for one of the bowls as Grizz approached. Making themselves comfortable on the floor, Grizz sat close enough to Sam that their knees brushed against each other; the two bowls in front of them to share.
As the movie started, Grizz tried to pay attention to the storyline but it couldn't hold his attention. Instead, with his eyes on the screen, his mind played back the conversation that he had with Campbell the other day.
The fact that the psychopath could possibly know about his feelings for Sam was bad enough, but the taunting tone of his voice worried Grizz even more. It was the cruel look in his eyes. The promise that something more was being planned for them. Campbell wanted him to be scared, and his caustic attitude was working in his favor.
Grizz let out a shaky breath as he reached for another chip from the quickly depleting bowl. Shaking off the memory, he turned back to the movie, determined to enjoy the remaining time he had with Sam that night.
Soft fingers on his forearm drew Grizz out of his attempt to lose himself in the film and he turned, sending a questioning look towards Sam. The redhead tapped his knuckles against his chin, forming the sign that Grizz recognized as 'What's wrong?'
Grizz sighed. He had been putting this conversation off, but Sam deserved to know what was going on. Keeping secrets was not how he wanted to start off their relationship.
Picking up the remote, Grizz paused the movie before turning to face his boyfriend more comfortably on the floor.
"Do you know what your brother has been up to lately?" he started, signing what he knew.
At the mention of Campbell, one of Sam's eyebrows raised in surprise and he shook his head.
"Campbell has been making plans to overthrow Allie to allow Harry to take over as Mayor," he explained. "He even tried to get Jason and Clark to feed him information from the inside."
"Does Allie know?"
Grizz nodded. "Luke told her everything," he assured. "But now, Allie needs to figure out what she is going to do with Campbell and Harry. She can't just let Jason and Clark roam free with the possibility of them deciding to help them. She's going to talk to Alec and Magnus about seeing if Campbell and Harry can spend some time in Brooklyn."
"Yeah," Sam agreed. "That's probably a good idea."
"For another reason too."
Sam narrowed his eyes at this, silently encouraging him to elaborate.
"I think Campbell is on to us," Grizz said. "After the meeting a few days ago, Campbell said that he knows we have been hanging out together. He started questioning me, asking me why I was talking to you."
Sam fidgeted nervously on the floor. "What did you tell him?"
"I told him we were friends. I figured that would be better than admitting to him that we are dating," he explained. "It didn't sound like he believed me though. I assume he must have seen us together around town somewhere. I don't know what exactly he saw."
Seeing the redhead bite his lip gently, Grizz reached forward to grab his hand. "Hey, try not to worry about this too much, okay? If Alec and Magnus agree to let him stay in Brooklyn-"
Sam shook his head. "That would only buy us time. We would have to face him at some point."
Noticing the fear in his boyfriend's eyes, Grizz pulled the smaller boy closer to him, holding him in his arms.
In high school, he and his friends had seen Sam in the hallways sporting a black eye or other bruises over his skin from time to time. Grizz had heard different stories about them over the years, and not all of them were accusing his brother. But after hearing Sam talk about what Campbell was caught doing to their pet bird when they were kids, Grizz didn't have to think too hard about what he had really endured all his life.
The idea of Sam experiencing any further pain at Campbell's expense, especially over him, was inexcusable to Grizz. The thought of this boy in his arms being scared, bruised, and bleeding . . . He would have gone through it himself if it could have meant sparing Sam all of that pain, and he wasn't going to let it happen again.
Magnus sat in a chair at the small table that resided under one of the huge oak trees in the Seelie realm, tapping his fingers against the surface irritably. Other than the soft thumping, the forest was relatively quiet.
Both the table and chairs were made out of branches and vines that twisted and weaved their way into the appropriate shapes with a few leaves sticking out from various places.
The warlock sat up straight at the sound of crunching leaves and sighed in relief at the sight of one of his oldest friends.
"You're late," Magnus complained, but he allowed a smirk to play on his lips to let the Seelie know he wasn't actually that upset.
"I am sorry, Magnus," Merlion said, taking a seat in the other available chair, "but as you can imagine, the Seelie Queen has had a lot on her plate lately. She has become more demanding in her errands."
Magnus hummed in acceptance to this. "Has he made an appearance in front of the Queen yet?"
"Not yet," the Seelie sighed. "I'm afraid no one has heard from Pfeiffer since your city has appeared in our realm."
"How well do you know Pfeiffer?"
"We were kids together," Merlion explained. "He was always extremely cunning; even for a faery."
"Do you have any idea why he sent us here? What is he planning?"
"I have no idea," Merlion said. "And until he shows his face in the court, we can only guess at what he wants out of all this."
"We are not the only lives that he is messing with anymore, Merlion," Magnus groaned. "There is another town, from Connecticut, that has gotten caught up in this."
"What?" Merlion asked, an eyebrow going up in surprise. "I assure you, Magnus, this is the first I am hearing of this."
Magnus relaxed back in his chair at his confession. Seelies couldn't lie.
"Is it like in Brooklyn?" Merlion questioned. "Shadowhunters and Downworlders?"
Magnus shook his head. "Mundanes. All teenagers."
Merlion blinked in shock at this. "How did Pfeiffer get them here?" he wondered aloud.
Magnus wasn't sure if it was a rhetorical question or not, but he answered anyways. "They explained their side of things to Alec last week," he said before going into details of what his husband had explained to him about the bad smell and the kids leaving soon after for a field trip.
When Magnus had finished with his story, the Seelie shook his head in bafflement. "I'm afraid I don't have any answers for you at the moment," Merlion sighed.
The warlock nodded slowly in acceptance.
"They have already figured out they are in a different dimension," Magnus admitted. "They know something is amiss with the forest too."
"Yes," Merlion drew out the word as he leaned back in his seat. "Our vast, maze-like forest is probably puzzling to them. I would advise that they don't spend too much time roaming the landscape. They could easily get lost out here."
Magnus tapped his fingers rhymically against the table in the silence that followed.
"What about the dimensional doorway?" Magnus eventually asked. "Any luck in locating our portal home?"
"No, nothing yet," Merlion sighed. "Pfeiffer must have messed with the doorway; blocked off our ability to access certain dimensions. We should have found it by now otherwise."
"What about the mundanes? Do you think you could at least get them back home?"
Merlion shook his head sadly. "If Pfeiffer blocked off our access to your dimension, I highly doubt he would have left their portal open. Until we find him and figure out what he is planning, I'm afraid you are all stuck in the Seelie realm."