One Part Human (13 page)

She left the room, and Benny and the captain were on their own.

Captain Matheson smiled. “If I were in Smith’s pride, I would have ordered him to court you. I am not. If I were in Tremble’s clan, I would have ordered the same. In Argyle’s case, I would have talked to Mathias and gotten him to tell Argyle to take his head out of his ass. The problem lies in that I can’t encourage one without encouraging all three. It would be bad for morale.”

Benny blinked. “All three? I am supposed to take all three?”

Matheson blushed. “Not at the same time, but I believe that each of them offers you something unique. Two can even act as your mate if you want to start a family. I normally don’t butt into the affairs of my people, but this is an exceptional situation and you are all exceptional beings.”

Benny held up her hand. “Spare me. My ancestors have been down this road before. I don’t have lions in my bloodline, so Smith is viable. All of my fey ancestors are powerful, but lower grade, so a high-grade fey is desirable. This is a conversation my family has been throwing my way for a decade. Are we related?”

He chuckled. “No, but I know your aunt, Reedana. She is a persuasive woman.”

Her aunt Reedana was more siren than woman, but she did have a powerful way of speaking. If she wanted something, she could argue until you simply surrendered. The woman had stamina.

“Are you dating her?”

He laughed. “I am not that stupid. She is a friend of my wife’s.”

Benny chuckled, and she continued looking over the contract. Aside from the free rein to date her coworkers, there was nothing objectionable in the document.

She looked up at the captain and debated her options. In the end, there was only one.

“Can I have a pen?”

He handed it over to her with a flourish. When she signed her name, he did the same and grinned. “Welcome to the team, Agent-in-Training Ganger.”

Benny smiled. “It sounds weird, but I have been called worse.”

“That’s the spirit. Now, let’s get you a uniform.” He rose to his feet and offered her his hand when he was next to her.

With a sense of finality, she put her hand in his and let him guide her through the halls and down to get an ID badge created with a demon-scan override. It was a solid start.

With her ID, uniform, bag and orientation textbooks, Benny stumbled into the parking lot outside XIA headquarters.

Pooky was waiting for her with his motor running. Freddy was in the passenger’s seat.

Benny put her stuff in the trunk, and Pooky opened the driver’s door for her. Grinning at her friend, she first greeted the car. “Thanks for the lift, Pooky.”

Freddy was trying to look perturbed and failing miserably. “Well, since you won’t come to the mountain, my wonderful self came to you.”

“Hiya, Freddy. I would hug you, but Pooky is trying to look like a car.” She reached out and squeezed her friend’s hand.

“So, you have had a helluva week.”

Benny began to giggle and then howl at the understatement. “I am nearly done with the article for Julian. It should be ready to upload in about an hour.”

“He will be delighted, but he really wants to ask you to write a column about XIA training.”

“Sorry. I just signed a confidentiality agreement.”

Freddy laughed. “Damn.”

“I can hear your disappointment.”

Pooky drove them safely and sedately back to the Ganger house. Benny just enjoyed hanging onto her friend as a solid link to normality.

It was funny what a few days with the XIA made her think of as normal.

Her homecoming was warm, full of friends, food and drink. Her mother had called in all of her relatives, and they were there to greet Benny when she returned from her adventures.

When Benny got her parents alone, she asked softly. “So what did you do with her?”

Lenora smiled. “We mailed her back home. She will have to explain her failure to her father and her proposed mate. We can only hope they were not one and the same.”

Benny shuddered, and her father squeezed her shoulders. “Bleah.”

“I have felt a greatly reduced pressure on my own demonic tendencies, so I believe she has been trying to urge me into some sort of action in order to endanger you.” Harcourt was solemn.

Benny nodded. “It is possible. I know that you two are going to have difficulty dealing with my news.”

Lenora smiled. “What news?”

“I have been invited to train as an agent with the XIA. I have accepted.”

The hands on her shoulders tightened, but then relaxed. “It is the right thing for you, Benny. Even I can sense it, and I have little to no empathy.”

Lenora chuckled. “I am pleased for you. It is the first decision you have made for yourself to propel your skills forward. I am just surprised it took this long.”

She shared a moment with her parents before the cheerful chatter of the party went quiet.

Benny looked toward the door where the three agents were standing with nervous determination. She went forward to make the introductions, but Freddy got there before her.

“Everybody, these are Benny’s XIA agents. She will be working with them. Be nice.”

Benny grinned and made the introduction that mattered. “Smith, Argyle and Tremble, this is Freddy. Freddy and I have been friends since we were children.”

Freddy preened. “Play your cards right and I know all her secrets. I am amenable to bribery.”

Argyle smiled, Smith chuckled and Tremble kissed Freddy’s hand.

The tension was broken, and the party returned to its happy chatter.

Smith looked around the room, and he whistled softly. “I recognise a lot of the faces here. Is that a dragon?”

Benny smiled and hauled them through the party and out onto the balcony. She pulled up an aura of silence around them and sighed. “Thank you for coming, but why are you here?”

Smith chuckled. “Well, after the day we spent in bed together...”

She gave him a droll look. “Oh, shut up. Now, there are a lot of people inside that you will recognise from television and movies, as well as activists and academics. Be nice and remember you are not on duty. That said, thank you for coming.”

She went up on her toes and kissed Smith softly. Benny stepped away and kissed Tremble, sliding her hand up behind his head and pulling him down to her. Tremble held her gently as if he was afraid he would spook her.

She smiled at him as she drew back.

Argyle didn’t wait. The moment she turned to him, he wrapped his arms around her, dipped her and pressed his lips to hers.

Benny caught a glimpse of the crowd staring at them through the windows. Freddy flared up and shooed them away, shot her a thumbs-up and kept guard.

Argyle’s skin was cool, but it warmed rapidly where she touched him. When he set her back on her feet, her senses were spinning.

“Wow. Um, okay. I was just welcoming you to the gathering, but that took it to a whole new level.” She patted her hair and the agents were laughing at her.

Smith smiled. “Well, now that we have been officially welcomed, I saw a delightful buffet inside and I really want to meet that dragon.”

Benny patted his arm. “Stay away from Zora. Regick is really protective of her right now.”

Argyle looked toward the room. “I saw a gargoyle in there, and I have always wanted to meet one.”

Tremble straightened his shoulders and looked toward the gathering. “There are some high-court fey in there.”

Benny laughed. “Go. Socialise. Have fun. Try and find out which guests are toxic and which are not.”

Smith slid his arm around her waist, Argyle took the other side and Tremble put his hand on the vampire’s shoulder. They returned to the party en masse, and the joy wrapped around them and pulled them in.

★ ★ ★ ★

The ghosts sat out on a spectral balcony and had their own party.

Lettice poured for Jessamine and smiled. “I am so proud of how Benny has come through this.”

Jess nodded at the other ghost. “It isn’t over, but she has done well so far.”

Lettice smirked. “Even dead, you seers can suck all the fun out of life.”

Jess laughed. “I had to pull a lot of strings to get my remains assigned to the Ganger household. The mages didn’t want to let me that close to this kind of power.”

Lettice chuckled. “You are handling it well, and we have more than enough accumulated power from the family to rein you in if necessary.”

Jess smiled brightly, and the other deceased family members raised their teacups.

Their party included ice giants, two fey that had died during childbirth and a few mages in the direct family. The rest of the invited dead were family friends and ancient teachers.

Jess looked out over those assembled and Benny shining like a bright star in their midst. Three hundred years ago, Jess had known that she was destined to be the companion of a melded being, she just didn’t know how.

Her death at the hands of a lightning strike had escaped her precognition, but it had given her the charge to retain consciousness in the afterlife. The arrangements had already been made, and her transfer into a spectral being had been surprisingly natural. After that, she just had to wait until Benny entered the world.

In the strictest of senses, Benny was a relation. Across four generations and several removals, Benny was her cousin.

“Do you have any more directions for Benny?” Lettice smiled.

Jess looked over the party and saw the three men causally arranging themselves in a protective detail that was only visible to the trained eye. Benny didn’t have anything to worry about, and soon, she would be authorised to use all that she knew to defend those around her.

Jessamine Turing raised her teacup. “Nope. She is doing just fine on her own.”

Well, this isn’t really a start. The first book in this universe was
Under his Claw.
Dragons and sex and all kinds of shenanigans. Zora and Regick were the players.

Book one felt good to write and 60 days from the release of
One Part Human, Two Parts Demon
will be out in which we face Benny’s basic training and the side effects of her rather public exposure, as well as the actions of her parents thirty years earlier.

An Obscure Magic is a new universe with new characters, and at this point, I have over thirteen titles planned, ranging from valkryies, the inheritance of a magical practice ground, and how Freddy gains autonomy from the demon zone, plus much, much more.

I hope I am off to a good start in my little self-published universe.

Thanks for reading,

Viola Grace

http://www.violagrace.com

[email protected]

Viola Grace (aka Zenina Masters) is a Canadian sci-fi/paranormal romance writer with ambitions to keep writing for the rest of her life. She specializes in short stories because the thrill of discovery, of all those firsts, is what keeps her writing.

An artist who enjoys a story that catches you up, whirls you around and sets you down with a smile on your face is all she endeavours to be. She prefers to leave the drama to those who are better suited to it, she always goes for the cheap laugh.