Chapter 50

February 17, 2002 – 5:45

The left side of her face was still swollen from the troll's attack. Crusted dark green and red blood was covering her entire hairline, ears and forehead, and she had several scratches across her neck. She pulled down the hood from her cloak and Frank could see more crusted blood throughout her hair. He saw what looked like an animal bite near her right collarbone, but her cloak was covering half of it, even if it was shredded in some places.

He wasn't frightened by the sight but was worried. Coralis looked down and pulled her eyeglasses out of her cloak. She put them on and looked back up at Frank.

"What happened to you? Do you need to go to the hospital?" he said while getting closer to her.

She pulled a mute-ball out of her cloak and activated it.

"Don't worry about it, most of that blood isn't mine. There is no way that I would use your dorm showers, but I do need to clean up. I must leave in an hour to go to London, but I'll head back to Montreal afterward. I have a game on Tuesday, but I need to go to Winnipeg tomorrow. I would normally have stopped at my apartment for a shower or flown to my London's flat for that, considering I have to be in London in a few hours, but you wanted me to come here, so well, here I am."

"That doesn't tell me what happened. You all said something about a vampire war, Stephanie said you've been fighting vampires and goblins, Sebastian said something about your employer involved against you? Can you wash up by the kitchen sink? I got soap and towels. Oh, and my sister activated one of those."

"Hmm sure, I guess," she said, walking to his kitchen. She turned the taps and felt for the water temperature. "I don't know what they told you, but yes, I've been fighting against rogue vampires and goblins all night, somewhere northwest of Chicago. I've been assigned to that case a few weeks ago. Eva and I work for different agencies, and Sebastian works for the same one as Eva. As expected, it culminated into a full-blown war."

Frank dropped a few towels on the countertop next to his sink, along with a soap bar and a bottle of shampoo. She took her cloak off and dropped it on the floor at the end of the countertop. Her arms were covered with a mix of crusted blood, deep gashes and tooth marks.

"You want coffee or something else? You sure you don't need to go to the hospital?"

"Sure, I'll have a coffee. The mute-ball your sister activated ceased to function the moment she opened your door to leave."

Frank grabbed the coffee pot and was about to fill it with water from the sink, but saw her scrubbing blood off her arms, so he used bottled water from the fridge instead.

"It's really not as bad as it looks like," she continued. "I heal fast. Well, not as fast as a vampire or a werewolf, but I still heal fast. I cannot go to hospitals, or I would probably become a lab rat. They won't understand what they'll find in my blood."

"My sister convinced me to go see a flyball game. She called Sebastian so he could tell you, but he wasn't with you. When he called her back later on, she said she heard someone yell in the background 'Blue, No!', what happened then? Is your employer really against you? She didn't tell me about the mute-ball and well, we spoke on the phone afterwards."

She froze for a few seconds and stared at her arms.

"I don't think Sebastian is wrong about my employer, but I can't prove it. You need to understand that a lot of people want me dead, a lot of it comes from what my parents were working on when they were alive, well who they worked for," she looked at him, "hmm I now owe Sebastian $50. Stephanie either forgot that detail about mute-balls, or Sebastian forgot to tell her."

Frank was thrilled that Coralis was now opening up to him. Despite the disbelief from what he heard so far, regarding the supernatural world, he couldn't deny what he saw from his own eyes when she transformed from a cat to herself. He wanted to know everything about her.

"Why do you owe him $50?"

"He thought Stephanie could convince you to come to a flyball game, and I wasn't so sure about it, so we bet on it. As for your earlier question, I remember hearing that when I got back to the group. Sebastian said it was someone from the EBEE, my employer, who fled the scene afterwards."

Coralis wetted her hair and rubbed shampoo through it.

"I really want to go watch a game."

"I'll arrange that when I get back on the field on Tuesday, just let me know if you want to come to the Thursday or Saturday game. To go back to your question I was answering, when I got back to the group, I saw a troll charging Prince Charlie, the elder son of the royal vampire family of Chicago that I was helping, so I stepped in. The troll was controlled by a djinn. I defeated the troll and killed the djinn. If my employer was involved, I'll probably hear about it in a few hours, I'm going to their headquarters in London."

Frank served Coralis coffee while she was still busy washing her hair above the sink.

"So, vampires exist, so do werewolves, witches, trolls and djinns. What else is real? Is that situation with the vampires in Chicago over or are you going to have to go back there?"

"Hmm most of what you'd consider as lore is real, but for the most part, stories aren't accurate," she said while stripping down to her underwear to wash her body. "Elves, fays, pixies and djinns are also considered elemental beings, just like mages. As for the Chicago vampire situation, I think it's over for now, but I'll probably have to go back there at some point. I'll know more in a few hours."

Watching her washing off the blood and injuries like she was currently doing, by his kitchen sink, Frank became more convinced that if she meant to harm him or was dangerous to him, she wouldn't be talking to him about any of this and would have kept her secret to the grave. He wished she would have told him sooner, but he couldn't stay mad at his sister. He trusted that she would have said something if Coralis meant trouble to him.

"I want to go to Thursday's game, would that be possible?"

"Yeah, that'll be fine. We'll be playing against Spain, it's a good team. However, keep in mind that I won't be next to you during the game, neither will Sebastian, because, well, we'll be playing the game. As per our bylaws, for a human to be allowed to get into our stadium, they have to be accompanied by an elemental, to vouch for their behaviour."

She took a sip of coffee and scrubbed the crusted blood off her ankles.

"Sebastian's brother usually takes your sister in, but I won't have trouble finding someone who could take you in. If Lydia's sister comes or Sebastian's dad, or any other team member relatives, well any one of them would do it for me."

"I'm still upset at Vic, but could she do it if I ask her?"

Coralis stopped what she was doing to look at him.

"Yeah she would, unless she's working or got some other plans for Thursday. Vic is a huge flyball fan and, well, she knew the day would come when I'd have to tell you about us, so, honestly, she would probably cancel her plans just to come to the game with you."

"I'll call her then. Is it going to cost me something?" he said while picking up a piece of crusted green blood from the floor. "Is that blood? Or something else?"

"It won't cost you anything. We have a box reserved for friends and relatives. I'm their team captain, so I can invite whoever I want," she said while rinsing herself, and glanced at what Frank was holding in his hand. "That's goblin's blood."

She turned off the taps and grabbed a towel to dry herself. She looked at the clock.

"I have to get going. I should be back in town later today, probably early evening. Just let me know if you want to see me for another round of questions. I'll answer anything."

"I work this afternoon, but call me when you get back, we'll figure out a time to meet again."

Coralis dressed back up in her bloody clothes and drank the rest of her coffee.

"Guess I'll have to use your window again," she said looking at herself. "In case you're wondering, once on your balcony as Cheetah, a black cat in the dark, I'll activate an invisible glamour on myself, change back to my actual form, and take off on my flying stick."

She walked back to his window, transformed into Cheetah and jumped through it when Frank opened it. She made it to London and met with Andrew before entering the meeting room.

"Blue Thunder. We heard many stories, but we want to hear them from you. What happened in Chicago?" said Phraton.