the year, the whole class knew about my affection for Tasers, and what I usually did with the excess electricity, thanks to Jenks’s module on non-lethal weapons.
Our classmates laughed. Agent Krupp looked thoroughly confused, and Gina Velasquez arrived at our table with her eyes fastened on the two agents.
“Everything alright here?” she asked. A small hand slipped into mine and I turned to find Toni standing next to my chair, watching her mother.
I tapped Toni’s Disney watch. “Chuck Norris doesn’t wear a watch. He decides what time it is,” I said quietly.
She looked at me for a moment. “Chuck Norris can make pigs fly,” she said, giggling.
“What kind of madhouse are you running here?” Krupp asked Gina, her eyes on Toni and me.
“Why are you here?” Gina asked her back. “Why did you attend this event?”
Krupp turned her gaze back to Gina, eyes narrowed. “It was billed as a source of information on the new paranormal world.”
“Well, these students just gave you a huge amount of information in a brief conversation. Are you smart enough to figure it out?” Gina asked. Krupp just looked at her.
“Anyone? Did any of you skilled analysts pick up what they just fed you?” Gina asked the room at large. Every eye was on her.
“Krupp displayed arrogance and aggression in approaching two of our students, who she sees as suspects in a series of unsolved murders. Jetta and Mack are two outstanding young participants in the Arcane program. But they’re not inherently supernatural,” Gina explained. “But they’re here because they were exposed to the supernatural worlds when werewolves killed their parents and they tracked down the killers and saw to it that they were dealt with by the rest of the supernatural world. Now, for those who don’t yet know this, weres don’t hunt humans as a rule. A real rule, a life-or-death rule. Killing humans is a death sentence offense in the world of the two-natured. Krupp, did you check the DNA analysis of the dead suspects?”
“It was either not done or disappeared,” Krupp said, arms crossed.
“I would suggest that every unsolved death should start with a DNA test from now on. The first thing you should find out is what species you’re actually dealing with. All of your dead victims were werewolves, Krupp. The same werewolves that killed Jetta and Mack’s parents. Your prime suspect, Simon Masten, disappeared? I would suggest that the supernatural community found him guilty and passed sentence.”
“That’s murder and vigilantism,” Krupp said.
“Maybe, by strict definition. But what would you have done if you had realized Masten was a werewolf, and a rogue one that killed humans? Taken him into custody? Put him in a jail?”
“Of course,” Krupp answered.
“Really? Give me your handcuffs,” Gina said, holding out one hand.
Krupp studied her for a second, then looked around the room. Finally she sighed and pulled out her cuffs.
“Matthew, stand up and put your hands behind your back, please,” Gina said.
He grinned and did as she asked. Gina expertly cuffed him and stood back.
“There, I just subdued a werewolf suspect. Matthew, break the cuffs.”
Matthew, who was certainly fit looking but not overly powerfully built, tensed his arms and shoulders. The cuffs snapped with a sharp ping of steel.
“Lucky for me he cooperated with the cuffing. Imagine if he didn’t. What if he Changed?” Gina said.
“Isn’t that dependent on the moon?” a big guy in a black suit asked.
“Nope. That’s legend. Matthew can change whenever he wants, right, Matt?”
Matt held up one hand and it snapped, crunched, and grew two sizes larger with claws and hair. Chairs scraped as trained agents suddenly realized just what he was.
“Stand down!” Gina ordered, loud enough to command their attention. “Thank you, Matthew,” she said and he sat down, his hand returning to normal. He still had the bracelets around each wrist so I leaned over and touched his left one, the lock snapping open at my command. He nodded and held out his right wrist and I tapped that one, too.
I looked back and realized most of the room had just witnessed that.
“So Krupp, how are you going to arrest a werewolf? How could you hold him or her?” Gina asked.
Krupp grimaced. “But you can’t just let people kill each other.”
“First, thank you for saying people because that’s what everyone in this room is. Second, we live in a new world. One that started when a demon prince of Hell fought a fallen Angel on the streets of Washington, blocks from the White House, and lost.