1-09

"Sorry about that," said the Professor, getting to his seat and putting his satchel on his desk and pulling out his notebook. He rummaged through the pile of paperwork to find a pencil and then looking at me. "So, how was the day?"

"Good," I said and I could hear my tone. The word abrupt, vague, something I didn't often do when answering except when I was hiding something. From the look of Professor Shane, I got the image that he knew this.

He stayed quiet, waited.

I let out a breath, a sigh and then said, "I met another clairsentient today."

"Oh?" he said, sitting forward. "That must have made you happy. Meeting someone like you. Someone with the same burdens."

I shook my head. "Not so much," I told him. "We didn't start on the right foot."

"Tell me about it," he said.

I took a breath and told him about the meeting, the words shared between the both of us before I'd abruptly called all that to a close. I told him about the thoughts I'd been harbouring since it all began, how casting boundary spells on the Lockwood Property had been harder because I was drawing from the wrong emotion and couldn't concentrate. I told him about the fact that a part of me wished she hadn't shown up in the first place.

"You seem to have very strong emotions directed towards someone you've only met for a few minutes," he said.

"It's kind of hard not to when she's saying the turmoil I've been going through has been me doing nothing," I muttered, my contempt running through my tone.

Shane gave a nod, sitting back before asking, "Is it possible, that it's not her you're angry at but yourself?"

"I don't understand your logic," I said after a moment, trying to wrap my mind around the statement.

"Well…you know Spiderman, right?"

"Watched the animated series and the movies. Was never into comics," I said.

"Whatever the case, all of the interpretations have this. Peter Parker became Spiderman because of something his uncle said to him: Great power, great responsibility. You have great power and unintentional though it might be, there's a part of you that subconsciously believes that you're responsible for the wrongs in the world."

I was quiet for a long time, again trying to wrap my head around the concept. Could that be true? Was it true? When I looked back, tried to think about everything I was trying to do then it seemed to be true at least in part, but overall I was doing all this because I wanted to. Or was that a lie I was telling myself?

"But," said Shane. "Think of the flip side of this." It was surprising that his statement hadn't cut off any of my thoughts, as though he'd waited for exactly the right time to allow my mind to run through its thought stream before posing another thought.

"This girl who's your age if not a little younger, she's had this knowledge running through her head and has felt compelled to act in a certain way. To save as many people as she can. Then she finds out that you've even had time to attend school."

"She's redirecting," I said.

"Yes," he said, with a small chuckle. "I think she might be. I can't be sure unless I speak to her personally. But this isn't about her. It's about you. Have you planned further than this morning. It seems to me like you're going to have to work together for the future of wolf kind."

I shrugged. "I've got too much stuff to deal with before the first light of the full moon tonight," I told him. "Dealing with her is something I haven't thought about in the slightest."

"You're selectively choosing not to remember that you've been thinking about her the entire day," he said. "Even forgetting that you've already told me, and in quite vivid detail, about the emotions she's been able to stir up."

"The way you're saying that makes me think your implying I have some sort of unresolved sexual tension," I said.

"Sexual attraction is not the only emotion one person can feel towards another," he said.

"And what emotions am I feeling towards her since you know me so well?" I asked.

"I don't know," he said. "I don't think even you know at this point. But let's make this one of our tasks. You've been keeping your journal?" I gave him a nod. "I need you to add another aspect. Trying and digging through your emotions, running down on why you're feeling them and where they're directed."

888

"The Council's antsy," said Enzo. He was my escort for the day and I could see it that he was a little uneasy, speaking on and on in an effort to keep his mind away from the place he'd spent so long being tortured. "Matter of fact I'm a little antsy. All this wolves and one bit means I'm dead."

"Tyler's blood might be able to help you, theoretically," I said. "Technically he's an Original hybrid and their blood can cure werewolf venom."

"You lost me at theoretically," he said. "Too much danger. I think I might spend the day indoor tonight."

"I'm a little surprised that you're scared," I said. "It doesn't fit my mental image of you."

"I quite being alive," he said. I snorted at that. Enzo took his eyes off the road, sparring me a look before he said, "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"The events are something I don't care for digging up, but you have it in you to kill someone to prove a point," I said. "Granted you'd be on the other side but you don't fear death."

"That sounds…stupid, honestly," he said. "Why would I even do that?"

"It's all a blur. It had something to do with Stefan and Damon, though. I get the feeling sometimes that being friends is a bad idea."

"And yet you still are," he said.

"For the same reason that a person is willing to buy land with gold deposits," I muttered. Enzo gave me another look before he shook his head.

"It's easy to forget sometimes that even with how young you are, you're as sneaky as the rest of us."

I gave a chuckle at that. "Oh, Enzo. It should be obvious at this point that I'm sneakier than all of you combined."

"Hubris," he muttered under his breath, loud enough for me to hear. "So what are we going to do about the Allied Council? Any words to alleviate their stresses?"

I groaned, running a hand over my eyes. "Can we just not to that tonight? There'll be over fifty wolves having turned and our wards might not hold up. I want to focus on that before I have to deal with people."

"By people do you also mean Josephine?"

"I don't know who that is," I said.

"Jules told me about the meeting between you two," he said. "You and the wolves' clairsentient trading it off with as little said ever. From what she said, the both of you walked off pissed at the other."

"Can we not please?"

"That's what you said to her," said Enzo. "Is that what you do when you don't know what to say? When you're stumped and want to end a conversation."

"Let's talk about Caroline," I said. There were small motions but I could see them, how his hands held the wheel tighter, how his gaze was fixed on the road and how his jaw looked more pronounced. "From what I remember last, you were courting her."

Enzo said nothing.

"I'm guessing things didn't go well. You're quiet." There was a small groan. "And you're going to break the steering wheel." His grip loosened. "What happened? I promise not to laugh."

"She got a better offer," said Enzo after a while. "Matt Donovan."

"Way-to-go, Matt," I said. Enzo sparred me a look. "I'm sorry. But Matt's been feeling a little left out of everything. A relationship might do him good."

"Stop thinking about him and think about me," he said. "I'm the one who got rejected here."

"I'm sorry," I said. "Um…I really have no idea how to console you."

"I don't need to be consoled," he said.

I snorted. "That pout sure isn't convincing me otherwise," I said.

"I don't pout," he said with a very pouty expression.

By the time we reached town I was reading through update texts Bonnie and Jared had been sharing with me, the amount of work they'd been doing while I'd been with Professor Shane. The pack of wolves had gotten so large that we'd been forced to ask even the Martins to lend a hand, something I didn't like but I couldn't do anything about.

The Martins as a whole was something we couldn't do anything about at least until Lucy returned. In terms of raw power my coven outmatched them, but they probably had hundreds of magical tomes which meant they had a lot of knowledge we couldn't replicate. All of it made worse by the fact that I the series they hadn't been really destroyed, it had just been coincidence after coincidence which had led to their eventual demise.

"So which way are we headed?" he asked as we entered town.

"The Lockwood place," I said not looking up from my phone. "They've got things prepared just waiting on me. We'll have an audience."

"The Martins?" I gave a nod. "Eventually you're going to have to fill me in on what we're going to do where they're concerned."

"Still haven't planned anything," I said. "Watching. Seeing their plan. I think I might dissuade them from the path they're taking. Get them on our side if I think about it too much."

"But you haven't?"

I shook my head. "I awful at making plans in the long term, it's easier if things happen and I react, you know? Spur of the moment like when we won that thing with Katherine and her witches."

"If I remember correctly, we just barely survived that," he said.

"We survived all the same," I said with an absent gestured. He turned into a street, taking him through the lower end of town before the prominence revealed itself. The properties got a whole lot bigger, a greater expense of space between one house and the other, and further still was the Lockwood property.

I got out of the car and walked into the house, moving through the living room and into a large drawing room that was already filled with circles and candles and blood. Bonnie was there and I gave her a hug, Jared a fist bump and Luka those one armed hugs that he loved to do.

"This will work? Haven't had much time to read over the ritual," I said to Mr Martin.

"Yes. But the spell is fickle, he said. "The connection brief. Whoever wrote this spell I think they didn't complete it."

"It serves our purposes," said Josephine. She was in the room too, beside her a younger girl who looked awestruck by the entire thing. When Josephine looked at me, it was with an anger and suspicion to it.

I took a breath and chose to ignore her.

"Let's get it started them," I said. I looked at the circles, noting the runes drawn in the smaller circles and surprised at the fact that there were four.

"Luka asked to join," said Bonnie. "Wanted the feel of being part of a coven that wasn't family. The power dynamic."

"Cool," I said. I found the earth symbol and stood within, the others chose their various places. Mason entered and so too did another vampire, one who'd found us while looking to have a daylight ring created. This was his price since he was young enough that he didn't really have any monetary wealth.

They sat in circles within the much larger circle and they waited.

We began the spell with Bonnie leading. She was good enough with Linking spells that she could do it without much trouble. It took us ten minutes to get the thing done, it would have taken a shorter time if it had just been me, Bonnie and Jared handling the spell.

Pretty quickly, it was done and we were working on the main projecting of the pre-evening. Josephine lead that and she seemed to be enjoying herself.

"It's something of a small ritual," she explained. "Letting go of the power you hold and accepting the lead of another. This goes further than just the ritual though because the emotion behind it, the intention is important. You lose have to be prepared to give up the privilege lo lead and if even a small part of you is against that, it means the ritual will take."

"I care more of escaping the curse than the power of position," said Mason.

"But are you ready to lead?" asked Josephine. "Are you prepared to make the hard decisions? This goes beyond anything you've ever done before, any leadership positions fail in comparison."

As she spoke I had an image of what she meant. Tyler creating a rebel faction of the hybrids and then having trouble gaining control of them through the power plays.

"I can do this," he said, confidence in his voice.

"No," I said, earning the attention of the others. "I mean, really think about it. Even beyond what you know. Werewolves are old. Old enough that their origins aren't something we can track. Certainly older than vampires. They way werewolves are is old too. How power is displayed is more animal than the plays between humans in the day-to-day."

"What he means is, you'll have to fight for your power," said Josephine. "Everything might be cushy now, everyone getting along so they can get away from the pain. But at the end of all this there'll be pushback. This is the problem that will come with leading a pack that is roughly fifty strong and is more likely to grow."

"Even beyond that there's the fact that, no disrespect, you're a kid," I said. "Immortal, sure, but all this responsibility is liable to make you crack."

"You're both saying I shouldn't do this," Tyler said, confused.

Josephine and I shared a look. "I'm biased," she said. "I want this too much to tell you no." She was looking at me as she said that.

"I don't think I can make that decision," I told him. "But you can. I'm just trying to tell you that be prepared. Leading isn't as easy as it looks. Also you might need to talk someone. I've found that helps if even a little."

"Let's do this," said Tyler after a moment's silence.

Josephine gave a short nod before she started the ritual. Burning a herb I wasn't familiar with and running it under Mason's nose. She then made a small cut on Tyler's hand with a sliver knife, dabbing a finger in the blood before drawing a symbol on Mason's forehead.

The moment the symbol was complete Mason's eyes let out a yellow glow, a deep growl passing through him.

"It worked," said Jared, excitement in his voice.

"Yes," said Bonnie. "But now we have to wait. Hope that Mason or Stephen don't die from this."

"In the meantime let's get you all to the safe grounds," said Enzo. "Hour or so before the moon's first light."