Chapter 41: 33. Three for Three

I followed Kaylee into May's classroom and the two of us headed to our usual spot. We were both early for a change, Paige was the only one there ahead of us. Me and Kaylee set out all the little candles while we waited, then since Marissa wasn't here yet I went around the circle and used fire magic to light them all.

Brooke arrived while I was doing that, and a couple minutes later Marissa and Melanie showed up and took their seats as well.

Then Paige went around and cast the circle, and finally her girlfriend stood up and began the meeting.

"Welcome to our second-last Club Luna meeting of the school year," Brooke announced with a smile. This was the last Tuesday in May, next week we'd be in June and the very last club meeting before summer break was only about four weeks away.

Melanie interjected, "I guess the club shuts down over the summer?"

Paige shook her head, "We're usually pretty active over the summer in fact, but we don't have formal meetings like this. We'll have informal meetings at someone's house, or a coffee shop or even in a park or something."

"Things have been pretty quiet around town lately," our club leader said as she tried to get the meeting back on track, but a stifled laugh from Marissa made her pause.

The brash young witch smirked, "Quiet for you lot maybe. Some of us have been busy."

"Right," the tall blonde rolled her eyes. "Ok Marissa, enlighten us. You texted on Friday about a demonic invasion at the coffee shop, how'd that work out?"

The two grade ten girls exchanged a glance, then Marissa sat up straight as she held up her notepad. She made a little show of flipping through the pages, before she began reading off notes like some old-time TV detective about to reveal the killer.

"On the afternoon of Friday May twenty-first, me and Melanie encountered six unknown supernaturals in the coffee shop next to the grocery store where she works. My werewolf associate identified the six strangers as having a distinctly non-human, supernatural scent. I used my magic sight and determined that one of them was magically concealing demonic horns and a long spade-tipped tail."

Brooke and Paige and Kaylee were all making faces like they thought Marissa was just goofing around or something, but I couldn't help thinking both her and Melanie looked like they were taking this seriously.

"We made a point of eavesdropping on their conversation," the short blonde continued reading from her notes, "And learned that the six normally live in Toronto, but were spending the weekend at the resort in the valley north-east of town. Finally, we overheard them discussing a major event planned for two in the afternoon, Saturday May twenty-second. A follow-up event was scheduled to begin at six o'clock Saturday evening and was to last until midnight."

Our club leader sighed, "Are you going anywhere with this Marissa, or is this just you showboating again?"

"Ahem," the younger blonde turned the page in her notes before she started reading again. "Since the rest of you ignored my warnings, it was up to Melanie and I to handle the Incident on our own. Saturday afternoon I borrowed my dad's car, and the two of us went to the resort at about half past one."

Marissa paused a moment before stating in a sort of 'told you so' voice, "Melanie and I confronted one of the twins, who confirmed that she and her sister are both demons. She also warned us of a third demon present for the event, and she confirmed that the other four girls we'd seen at the cafe on Friday were succubi. I warned her that Melanie and I would be keeping an eye on their activities, and told her if they attempted anything evil we would stop them. The two of us stayed on the scene until about ten that night, and with the demons aware of our surveillance they kept a low profile and abandoned whatever nefarious deeds they were planning."

We were all quiet for a few seconds after that, till Paige finally looked at the wolfgirl and asked "Melanie is this for real? Or what's your take on it?"

"It's real," she stated with a shrug. "When we found them in the cafe on Friday I was freaking out because their scents were a hundred and ten percent not human. Then Marissa did the sight thing, and I did too. Sure enough one of the twins had horns and a tail. And yeah, we talked to the other twin on Saturday and she confirmed it. Three demons, four succubi."

After a sideways glance at her girlfriend she added, "I don't know that they were actually up to anything? Or that we stopped anything. The event was a normal human wedding, for all we know the demons were just there as guests? The one we talked to said one of the brides was her and her twin's human mom. But apart from that, everything Marissa said is true. We never saw the seventh demon, and I don't know what kind of demons the twins were, but we definitely had six demons in town on Friday, and at the resort on Saturday."

By the time she was done my eyes were wide and my heart racing slightly. The idea that actual demons could just show up in town and nobody would notice left me feeling really anxious. If not for Melanie's supernatural sense of smell nobody would have ever known there were demons around at all.

Kaylee seemed just as freaked out by the idea as me, she shook her head "I can't believe there were actual demons here. Like... That's pretty scary, isn't it?"

Me and Paige both nodded, while Marissa looked smug. And for just a second I thought I saw Melanie looking at me funny, like she didn't trust me or she was suspicious of me or something.

It made me feel sad again, since I'd been trying extra hard to be nice to her after that stuff back in March with my moms and everything. The worst part was that weird look just sort of came out of nowhere, like I hadn't said anything and the whole conversation didn't have anything to do with me. So I didn't get why she'd suddenly make a face at me out of the blue like that.

"Marissa," Brooke stated, "I owe you an apology. I honestly didn't believe there was any chance of real demons turning up around here. I'm sorry I didn't believe you. And I'm glad you two are safe after all that. That was very brave, and also probably incredibly stupid of you, to confront a group of demons on your own."

The others nodded, and I finally spoke up. I commented quietly, "Marissa's three for three since December. Werewolf, zombies, and now demons."

That put a wide grin on the brash young witch's face, but she actually didn't go over the top about it. Apart from the big smile she nodded, "Thanks Brooke, and Cass. There were a few tense moments on Saturday, but me and Melanie handled it ok. We had each other's backs."

"Did you get their names?" Paige asked. "The demons I mean? If there's a cluster of demons living in Toronto that might be something to warn May about, so she can pass it on to the council or whoever deals with that kind of thing."

The blank look on Marissa's face was all the answer we needed, but Melanie spoke up. "Didn't get the demon's names, but the brides were Emma Carter and Carol Ingram. The names were on a sign outside the reception. I'm pretty sure Ms. Carter was the demon girls' mom, so maybe that'll give May enough info to work with?"

"Or me," Paige grinned. "I can probably track down the rest of them myself with the mom's name. I'll see what I can dig up then give it to Brooke and she can pass it on to May."

That seemed to be everything as far as our local demonic incursion, so Brooke glanced around at the rest of us and asked "Does anyone have anything else?"

"Yeah," Melanie spoke up again. "Like Marissa said, it was a busy weekend. Sunday before my shift at the grocery store I ran into the not-werewolf wolfgirl in the cafe again, and this time I actually sat down and talked with her. We were both getting our before-work drinks like usual? So I introduced myself and told her I'd seen her wolfing around north of town. I asked who and what she was."

That led to a lot of surprised looks around the room. Brooke asked, "You told her you were a werewolf? Did you tell her about the club, or being a witch?"

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"Nah," our wolfgirl shook her head. "I didn't say anything about the club and didn't say I was a witch. I told her I was a werewolf though, and that I knew she wasn't a were but I knew she turned into a wolf somehow. So I wanted to know how she did it, what she was."

Kaylee asked, "What did the other Melanie say?"

Our Melanie grimaced, "So first off her name's not Melanie. It's Melody, like a tune or whatever? She says it drives her nuts every time the cafe screws that up, like she's been trying to spell it out for them since last summer? Melody, with a D, and they write Melanie D on the cup."

By that point she was smirking, but she got her expression under control again then continued talking. "Anyways so here's what I got. Melody's almost twenty, she's in her first year at the local college, she lives with her mom and yes that's Ms. Hughes the history teacher. Alison lives there too and she's Melody's cousin. And Melody is a natural shapeshifter! She can turn into just about anything, not just a wolf."

"I got the impression she's still pretty new at her powers though," Melanie added. "She said she doesn't have much experience turning into anything else? So I told her I'd only been a werewolf for just over a year and I'm only just getting the hang of it too. I offered to meet up with her though, incase she wanted to wolf around together? Like I can't teach her to be a werewolf but I could at least teach her more about wolf stuff. Like wolf social stuff, there's a lot more to it than just looking like a wolf."

That left most of the others looking impressed, like Brooke and Paige and Kaylee were obviously surprised at all the information Melanie got from the other wolf. And Marissa looked proud of her girlfriend for doing all that too. And it was kind of impressive, especially considering how Melanie was really anxious and anti-social when we first met her back at new years.

I was kind of impressed too, but I also couldn't help feeling sad again. Despite all the positive stuff, the part that stuck for me was even after six months of me trying to be nice and make friends with her, Melanie would rather go talk with random strangers and be friends with them instead of talking to me.

I'd apologized like twenty times for accidentally making her awoo at Island Lake last month, and I'd apologized at least twenty more times for forcing her to turn human back in December when she fell ontop of me. It just felt like no matter what I did though she was never going to forgive me, and that made me feel really sad.

Eventually I noticed the others were talking again, then when I realized they were talking about me I reflexively cringed into my big hoodie.

"Kaylee, Cass, have you two got anything new to report?" Brooke asked. "Any luck finding Cass's specialty? And Cassandra have you made any more progress in learning not to drain magic when you come in contact with it?"

I sighed and shook my head slightly as I stared down at the floor. And when it was clear I wasn't planning on saying anything, my girlfriend spoke up for me.

Kaylee sighed as well, "I'm starting to think maybe Cass is a true generalist? We haven't found anything that stands out as her specialty, and she hasn't found anything that calls to her more than anything else? On the other hand she's been able to cast pretty much any kind of magic she's tried. Where the rest of us have areas we're good in and things we're not so good at, she seems to be consistently able to handle everything?"

"But?" Paige asked. "There's a but coming up, right?"

My girlfriend nodded and grimaced, "She was doing really well for a few months. Like from around new years to the end of March or maybe mid-April? She got consistently stronger, spells were coming easier, that sort of thing? I'm sure I've mentioned this more than once, but it really felt like she turned a corner at new years and everything was falling into place for her. Except that kind of hit a plateau some time in the last month or so."

I sighed quietly and tried not to be too obvious about hiding inside my big hoodie. I could guess what the others were thinking though. The whole 'generalist' thing reminded me of a saying I heard a teacher say at one point. Jack of all trades but master of none. It meant I'd be average or adequate, but I'd never really be any good at anything.

"Sorry Cass," Kaylee half-whispered. Then she continued, "Anyways she's still doing really well I think? But the lack of a speciality and the way her progress kind of hit a wall has her feeling a bit down I guess, and she's a bit self-conscious about it."

Marissa asked, "What about the dispelling magic thing? You were making progress with that right?"

"Not really," I mumbled. "There was some progress but that stalled too."

Kaylee elaborated, "She can hold the effects off for a few seconds, but she can't control it enough to stop it? Like if she crossed into or out of the circle here, the best she could do is keep it stable for a few seconds after she passed through it. But even after she's not touching it anymore it'll still collapse a few seconds later."

"Thanks Kaylee," Brooke responded. Then the club leader gave me a sympathetic smile and said, "Don't let it get to you, ok Cass? There's always ups and downs, and you had almost six months of solid progress right? So it tapered off for a month or two, things will get better again."

I nodded slightly and gave her a weak smile in return, "Thanks Brooke."

That was all me and Kaylee had to report, and nobody else had anything to add for the meeting either. So Brooke brought it to a close, then everyone watched me dispell the circle.

Even that wasn't fun anymore. It was mostly routine, but it was another reminder of how I was different and strange. I didn't even know if I was human, and that freaked me out whenever I thought about it. At first I couldn't even understand how it was possible, but then I remembered how I didn't know I was a girl until last October.

So I was feeling strange and different and self-conscious about that stuff, and it didn't help that Melanie was staring at me again as I stepped through the invisible border. All the magic Paige put into it when she cast the circle collapsed then drained into my body, and like usual it sent a shiver down my back and the little hairs on my arms stood up for a second.

"Hey?" Kaylee asked quietly as she moved to stand next to me. "Want to hang out tonight?"

I shook my head, "Sorry Kaylee. I need to do some studying or Mr. Guthrie's going to flunk me."

That wasn't entirely true. I wasn't doing great in math but exams weren't for another three weeks so I had loads of time. Mostly I just didn't feel like being social, and math was a convenient excuse.

I saw the disappointment on her face though which made me feel worse, so I suggested "How about we plan for something special on Friday? Just you and me, no club or group or anything. My treat."

"Aww," she smiled. "That sounds great Cass!"

I smiled too, then we bid the others a good night before we headed out to walk each other home.