Chapter Nine
No one spoke for a long moment as the car glided into the night. Finally Andre turned. "Perhaps it would be best to reveal some things to you slowly, things you must know. Alessandra has no care for your happiness. I would rather we gently reveal our world to you, and let you see other witches that are...nicer than Alessandra. In order to do that, we must go to a large congregation off witches, and that means a vacation."
That left me with too many questions. Why did Alessandra seem to not like me? How many witches were there? Was there truly a war? What things were to be revealed, what more could there be? But before I could ask Pierre and Julian began to regale me with promises of how wonderful the tropical island was. I knew there was something they were not telling me, but I had no idea what, and I couldn't get a word in edgewise. They went over tales of food and entertainment, and pristine beaches untouched by human hands.
It hit me then, I wasn't truly human. Most of the oddities in myself I had learned to live with for years might have been due to that. Had my epilepsy, a lifelong disorder only take from me by magic, been part of being half supernatural? I thought of that in horror, staring off into the night. How many times had I been punished for a seizure I could not control? What if I had been raised in a world of understanding?
That brought me to the hardest thought, the one that would haunt me all my life. Why had my mother abandoned me?
"Anna?"
Blinking, I turned back and smiled at Julian. Half listening, I knew where he had left off. "So Thunder Island is populated enough Alessandra won't pull her little stunts?"
"It's perfect," Andre assured me. "Since it must remain hidden, even from sorcerers, magic is limited there. You can pop in and out, but only to arrive or depart in a special guarded room. Even the food is brought in by wolves via boat. The locals on the islands around believe it's a private island, a corporate retreat. The council pays well to keep curiosity seekers at bay."
"No magic? Why do people go there then?"
Pierre was the one who answered. "Sometimes witches take a pack before they have children. Many go there to meet another witch and have a child who will not be a wolf. If you wish to have a child by another witch, you must go to a place like this. And without...witches are prone to...certain diversions which are available every evening."
"Many just like to swing," Julian said flatly.
Andre nodded, staring off into the night. "Still others just want to escape the human world for a time, and come there simply to relax and be able to be themselves."
It struck me we hadn't discussed the limits of our relationship. Still, they'd been trained to follow my lead and I knew it was up to me, so I smiled. "Well, let's try to keep to the latter. I have no interest in being a brood mare or swinging."
A ripple of relief seemed to go through them.
"Truly?" Pierre asked.
"Truly. I have a hard enough time keeping up with you three, and I desire no one else." Truthfully my love had always been selfish in one way. I desired their happiness above all else, but if they loved another it would hurt me deeply. Unfair since I had three loves, I know, hence why I thought of my personal caveat as selfishness. Still, new love was always selfish in nature, I knew that, and perhaps with time I would change my mind, but for the moment I wanted them all to myself.
No one replied, but Julian took my hand.
To my shock we went north, and not to O'Hare. Instead we went to the northwestern suburbs to former Palwaukee airport, now O'Hare Executive Regional Airport. It was for regional flights only, there was no way we could hop from it to some tropical island thousands of miles away.
"What are we doing here?" I asked.
"It's magic," Andre said with a wink.
We pulled up to a hangar with a private jet idling in front. A woman waited there at a red carpet, no kidding, and we stopped so my door was even with it a young man in a jumpsuit jogged to us. Julian jumped out and came around as the young man opened my door, and I took Julian's hand and stepped out.
"Mistress Witch," the woman greeted me as I alighted, bowing her athletic form low. "I'm Christine, your stewardess."
"Hello. This is Andre, Pierre, and Julian, and my familiar, Diego."
She looked shocked.
"Witches don't usually introduce their pack," Julian whispered in my ear.
"Well, this one does." Great, now I had to contend with a set of unwritten rules to a life I had not been prepared to lead.
The jumpsuit pulled out our cases, set them down, and handed Andre a ticket before hopping into the Cayenne.
Christine smiled, dazed. "Your bags will be loaded, may I show you inside?"
"Thank you, please." I gave her a smile and again she seemed puzzled.
"She wasn't raised in our world, she was raised among humans," Andre said, falling in step with Christine.
She stopped at the base of the stairs and turned back to me, disbelieving. "What?"
"It means I don't buy into slavery and power games, Christine. I can't think of a more pretentious, bigger waste of time."
"You lucky dogs," she said in French.
"I'm the lucky one," I replied in French, glad when my men smiled.
I let her go up the stairs with Andre, then let Diego run up, and Julian, Pierre, and I followed. There was a small galley and bathroom, a closed room, and an open room like a living room with fixed leather chairs around a table and two couches. Electronic gizmos were everywhere, and a wolf in uniform stepped out of the door at the front. I could tell wolf from human now because I could sense their magic which clung to them like subtle perfume. There was something about it that called to my own magic, but none called stronger, it seemed, than my own pack of lovers.
"Mistress Witch, I am Connell, your pilot."
I considered him for a moment, and turned to Christine. It seemed wolves bred for beauty. Even with all my magical enhancements I felt dowdy in the presence of so many brands of human perfection. "Connell, I'm Anna, not mistress, and this is Andre, Pierre, and Julian, and my familiar Diego."