Fletcher stopped outside Major Simpson’s door as he heard yelling from the other side. Even the metal walls weren’t enough to keep the shouting match from echoing out of the room.

  Major Simpson had never shown up that morning for their daily interview. Fletcher had waited a full hour before going to find him, but upon hearing the argument, he was prepared to turn back around and return to the room to bide his time. If Simpson was already in a bad mood, the last thing he needed to do was paint a target on his back. He’d learned a lot about managing the Major’s moods during the last two months they’d been working together, and this was a clear sign to get out while he still could.

  As Fletcher turned to leave, he couldn’t help hearing something that caught his attention and caused him to hesitate.

  “Fletcher is plenty ready! He’s our one chance at this!” a female voice he didn’t recognize yelled.

  “I’m telling you, sending him in is going to result in a disaster. You have to find someone else or delay the mission,” Simpson replied with equal volume. “I’ve spent a lot of hours with that kid. He is not your man.”

  “You’re just saying that because you feel guilty over what happened at Vesi. He’s an Anders. He was born for a mission like this,” the woman said.

  “You’re putting far too much faith in him,” Simpson said.

  Fletcher was a bit offended and more than a bit nervous. Whatever this mission was, he knew he didn’t want anything to do with it. But more importantly, he knew he couldn’t be caught eavesdropping on a conversation like this, so without further adieu, he spun on his heels and left the office behind.

  Or rather, attempted to leave it behind. The door opened and someone grabbed his arm dragging him inside.

  “I swear Fletcher, I’m going to kill you for pulling this kind of stunt,” Simpson growled. “Let’s hear your pathetic excuse this time.”

  Fletcher was thrust into the room where he came face to face with two other people, a woman who looked to be entirely Human, and an elderly gentleman with fleshy-colored scales, meaning Fletcher couldn’t quite nail down his species type.

  “I-I was just coming to check on you. You didn’t show up. I waited over an hour,” Fletcher quickly explained, avoiding eye contact with the other two. “Sir.”

  “I was unaware checking on your superior was part of your duties, Lieutenant,” Simpson said. The man held murder in his eyes, and Fletcher was pretty sure the only reason he didn’t have a bullet in his head was because there were two witnesses standing beside him.

  “I’m sorry, sir,” Fletcher said.

  “How much did you hear?” the old man asked, coming closer to him.

  “Not much,” Fletcher lied.

  The man raised his bushy white eyebrow.

  “More than I probably should have,” Fletcher amended. “Sir.”

  “I’m going to make you regret being born.” Major Simpson grabbed his collar. “I swear to the deities.”

  Fletcher narrowed his eyes. “If you didn’t want anyone to hear your conversation, sir, perhaps you shouldn’t have screamed loud enough for everyone in the base to hear it.”

  Simpson’s fist curled tighter as the woman to their side laughed.

  “That’s Hazel’s son alright. Let him go, Major. Since he’s gone ahead and spoiled it for himself, we might as well ask him directly,” she said.

  Simpson released Fletcher’s shirt but continued to glare at him.

  Fletcher took a breath and turned to face the woman. “Ma’am.”

  “My name is Colonel Cardoso. This is General Martin. We’re from the Andes Mountain Base,” the woman said.

  Fletcher stiffened slightly. Another general? What could this be about?

  “I’m your mother’s counterpart in a lot of ways,” General Martin said. “She handles the war with the Unhumans. I manage our conflict with the Humans.”

  “I was unaware we had a conflict with the Humans,” Fletcher said. The entire purpose of the Mixed was to protect the Hexed, and while the Humans had a role in sending them away, it was nothing compared to the atrocities of the Unhumans.

  “A smaller issue perhaps than what we deal with on the Unhuman side, but understanding the Humans and their plans remains an important part of our work,” Martin said.

  “I see, General. I’m not sure what you think I can do to help with that. My days of being entirely Human have passed,” Fletcher bluntly pointed out. His thoughts returned to his current conversion percentage, nine-percent. Nearly a tenth of his true species was already gone.

  “While your Hexing is inconvenient in a lot of wars, I have reason to believe that it will actually help you on this mission rather than hinder,” Colonel Cardoso said.

  “And the mission?” he dared to ask.

  “A covert operation to feed false information to Human officials,” Cardoso said. “Specifically General Taki and perhaps even Secretary Walen.”

  Fletcher chuckled. “Okay, I’m definitely not your guy. I’m not exactly on good terms with those guys.”

  “The fact that they already know you is in fact key to this operation. You see, the higher ups on the Human side don’t believe you're dead,” Cardoso explained.

  “They… don’t?” That was news to Fletcher. But did that mean Javier knew he was alive?

  “They think the Unhumans used the bombing to fake your death so they could eliminate all Human influence on you. As to why, they’re not sure, but they believe you're a traitor to your kind and that you hold exceptionally valuable knowledge about the Unhumans,” Martin continued.

  “Oh,” Fletcher said. That wasn’t all that nice of an ending. He really hoped Javier didn’t believe that about him.

  “Our plan is simple. We’ll fake it like you are exactly what they think, a traitor Human living among the Unhumans. We’ll allow them to capture you, and then they’ll interrogate you,” Cardoso said.

  “You’ll feed them false information, information we want them to have. We’ll prep you on that beforehand. ” Martin filled in.

  Fletcher blinked in surprise. “That sounds surprisingly easy. Until they figure out I’m lying.”

  “We’ll get you out long before that happens,” Cardoso assured him. “There will be a team standing by for rescue. We’ll ensure every precaution is taken so you can escape with minimal risk.”

  “What’s so important about feeding them false information?” he asked.

  “If we can get the Humans and Unhumans to worry more about each other rather than rooting us out, it gives us freedom for our own operations, such as freeing more transports bound for conversion facilities and perhaps even another facility raid,” Martin said. “But time is of the essence. We’re in a prime position for strikes, if we can get the Humans off our trail.”

  “This mission has its risks, so we won’t force you to accept. But I need you to understand that you could be saving a lot of lives by doing it,” Cardoso added.

  Fletcher looked to Simpson. “What do you think, Major?”

  “You know it’s the right thing to do, but if you do this, you have to do it right,” Simpson said.

  “Thanks, Major Fortune Cookie.” Fletcher nodded and looked at Cardoso. “Okay. Count me in. I’ll do it.”

  “Good. Let's get you more details and plan out your training.” The woman motioned to Simpson’s desk. Fletcher sat down amongst the others, his nerves making feel a little unsure of his choice, but he trusted Simpson’s words. This was the right thing to do, and it sure as heck beat interviewing with the Major for hours every day. Anything that got him out of that couldn’t be too terrible.

  ***

  “So you have the details about the mission?” Fletcher asked.

  Addy chuckled and nodded. “Yes. That’s why I’m here. To get your [Skills] ready.”

  They stood in one of the [Skill] training rooms in Finnack, only four days after his run in with Cardoso and Martin.

  Fletcher glanced around. He’d already talked to his dad about this idea, and surprisingly, his father supported him. According to his dad, the training rooms weren’t equipped with surveillance equipment, so he was free to speak openly.

  “I… was thinking we could deviate from those orders a bit,” he said.

  Addy raised her eyebrows. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Fletcher. There’s a lot riding on this mission.”

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  “Nothing crazy. Just instead of putting all of my final points into [Frenzy], I was thinking I could hold one level back to use elsewhere,” he said.

  “[Read Thoughts]?”

  “Something new.” He shifted on his feet. “I was looking at the [Skill] list, and [Temporary Weapon] caught my eye.”

  “[Temporary Weapon]?” Addy whistled. “That’s a doozy. That one is like [Heal]. It’s pretty hard to attain. And then learning to use it is as or more difficult.”

  “I know it won’t be easy, but I’m going to be a prisoner among the Humans who think I’m a complete traitor. Surely you understand that I’d prefer to sort of have a weapon on me,” Fletcher said.

  Addy nodded. “That makes sense. How are you going to cover for not having [Frenzy] as high of a level?”

  “Lie. I’ll claim I put another level in [Dark Vision] since I’m pretending that’s where my [Read Thoughts] and [Intuition] levels are.” Fletcher flexed his hands. He’d thought through this quite a bit, and he was sure in his choice. While it was risky to keep deviating in [Skills] he acquired instead of going with the standard ones available to [Vampire], the chance for an ability like [Temporary Weapon] was too good to pass up. If he did have the unique ability to gain nearly any [Skill], why shouldn’t he use it?

  “Alright. I’ll help you. Let’s do that one first so we don’t accidentally use all your available points in [Frenzy].” Addy motioned to a nearby set of chairs. “Good thing Jeric isn’t coming to join us until later. He was pretty excited about getting to help you improve your [Frenzy].”

  “You mean he’s pretty excited to have an excuse to beat the crap out of me?” Fletcher asked.

  “So… [Temporary Weapon]. I think I can help you quite a bit with this one since it’s one of the [Skills] I have already.” Addy sat down, a small grin on her face.

  “Okay. Teach me.” Fletcher held his hands out.

  “First, I want you to read the [Skill] description.” She handed him a tablet.

  “I did back when I first picked this one out.” Fletcher accepted the tablet and glanced down at something he’d read only the night before.

  “Read it again.”

  Sighing, Fletcher did just that. Well, more of a skim since he already knew what the page contained. [Temporary Weapon] was a [Magical Skill] that allowed the user to conjure any kind of weapon they could imagine to use. The complexity was based on how much [Mana] they were willing to sacrifice while the duration it could be summoned was tied to the level of the [Skill].

  “Read it aloud,” Addy said when he tried to hand the tablet back to her.

  “Why?”

  “Do as you’re told.”

  Rolling his eyes at what he considered a rather ineffective teaching method, Fletcher did as she instructed.

  “Good. Now summarize it for me.” Addy’s face was serious.

  “Really?”

  “Yes.”

  Taking a breath, Fletcher briefly recounted the basics of the [Skill].

  “Good. Now I’ll show you how it’s used.” Addy stood up and held her right hand out. “[Temporary Weapon].”

  A glowing dagger appeared in her hand, small and sleek.

  Fletcher smiled. “That’s pretty cool. Can I hold it?”

  “Sure.” Addy held the knife out.

  Fletcher went to take it, but it disappeared as it left Addy’s fingers.

  “Right. It’s bound to the user,” he said.

  “And you’re sure this is the [Skill] you want?” Addy asked again.

  “Yes. I want to be able to have a weapon if I need it. Please,” Fletcher confirmed.

  She motioned him up. “Okay. Let’s see how this goes. Normally it takes hours of meditation and study to gain this kind of [Skill], but I have a feeling you won’t need quite so much time.”

  With that, she walked him through a set of standard meditations designed to engage his mind with his inner system and direct it to the [Skill] he was specifically wanting to gain. It all felt very weird for Fletcher since he’d never needed to give this kind of attention to things to gain [Skills], but since he hadn’t been able to gain [Heal] on demand, he recognized that some [Skills] would take help to attain.

  Addy was patient as they sat together while he meditated and, more often than not, chased thoughts that led him far away from his target. After thirty or so minutes, she had him move on to something else.

  “You do seem to gain [Skills] more through action, so maybe pretending to use the [Skill] will bring it on,” she said.

  Fletcher held his hand out. “[Temporary Weapon].” Once again, he felt a little weird doing things in what was considered the normal way. His [Skills] always activated by thought alone.

  Nothing happened.

  “Try again. And focus your mind using the meditation technique from earlier,” Addy encouraged him.

  He nodded and took a breath. “[Temporary Weapon].” He also channeled his mind to focus on the [Skill] and finding it and all the other weird meta stuff Addy taught him.

  Still nothing.

  “Maybe you need to have a greater need.” Addy put her hand to her chin. “Are you imagining a specific weapon when you say it?”

  “I was focused on the meditation,” he replied.

  “Okay. Picture having a dagger in your hand instead.” Her eyes shone with curiosity, and Fletcher understood that Addy was actually enjoying helping with him this quite a bit. He supposed it made sense since she spent a lot of time becoming an expert in [Skills] and Hexing.

  “[Temporary Weapon].” As he said it, Fletcher imagined the feeling of a knife in his hand, drawing on memories from training.

  [New Skill Acquired: Temporary Weapon, Level 1]

  [Activating: Temporary Weapon]

  A black, glowing dagger appeared in his hand.

  Fletcher grinned. “That’s what I’m talking about.”

  Addy smiled as well. “Well done! I knew it would still be easy for you.”

  He shrugged. “That didn’t feel very easy for me.”

  She shook her head. “It’s just not fair. I can’t tell you how many hours it took me to finally gain it. You’re incredible, Fletcher.”

  He nodded. While being part [Demanlic] was mostly scary and stressful, he did appreciate some of the perks that came with it.

  “Dismiss that. We don’t want you to waste another level in it since you’re going to need those levels for [Frenzy]. Let’s get started on that training. Jeric will be here soon to help.” Addy motioned his hands down.

  He released his grip on the weapon, and the magical object disappeared.

  [Deactivating: Temporary Weapon]

  “Good. Now go stand by the door. Since [Frenzy] affects so many physical attributes, there are lots of ways to train it. We’ll start with speed and agility. I’ll get the maze up.” Addy walked in the opposite direction to the control panel while Fletcher went to the door leading out of the room. He stood there, excitedly bouncing from foot to foot. He had [Temporary Weapon], which was a relief heading into this next mission. Of course, he was going to have practice with it since he wanted to be able to conjure something far more complicated than a dagger, but that would have to wait until he finished with [Frenzy].

  The floor shook as pieces of it rose up from the ground, creating a life-sized maze.

  “Okay. I want you to complete it in five minutes or less. Turn your [Frenzy] on. Go on my count,” Addy said into the intercom.

  It only took a thought for him to complete her instructions.

  [Activating: Frenzy]

  His muscles felt stronger, and he was itching to go.

  “One, two, three.”

  Fletcher took off into the maze, sprinting far above his regular speed. His feet pounded against the metal floors as he took corners at top speed, his [Frenzy] keeping his footing sure. Unfortunately, the maze was a confusing one, and as fast as he went, it wasn’t fast enough to find the exit.

  “That’s time,” Addy said over the speaker.

  The walls came down, leaving Fletcher standing in the middle of the now empty room.

  “Go back to the door. Try again,” she said.

  Luckily he had a good memory, so he could eliminate at least a few bad options.

  His [Skill] remained active as the maze reformed.

  Addy counted down, and he rushed back into it only to discover that she’d changed the pattern so he had to relearn it.

  Once again, he didn’t finish it in time.

  As the walls came down, he heard slow clapping from behind. Turning, he found Jeric waiting there with a mischievous smile on his face.

  “Running is a terrible way to level up [Frenzy]. Let’s do something more fun,” Jeric said.

  “I was afraid you’d say that,” Fletcher replied.

  “Mats are over there.” Addy motioned to one of the closet doors.

  “You heard her. Go get one out, [Frenzy]-boy,” Jeric said.

  As Fletcher went to the closet, a quick glance behind showed Jeric greeting Addy with a rather passionate kiss. Ugh. He was going to get beat up and be a third-wheel. That didn’t sound fun at all.

  He dragged the mat out and got it set up while Jeric stretched out. As he matched up with Fletcher on the mat, he still had a smile.

  “You’re too excited about this,” Fletcher said.

  “It’s been a minute, Fletch. I miss training with you,” his friend responded.

  “Uh huh.” Fletcher lowered down into his starting position.

  Jeric did the same.

  “Boys,” Addy said with a sigh. “Okay, go.”

  Jeric launched forward, and Fletcher dodged to the side, his [Frenzy] giving him the extra burst he needed to avoid getting grappled.

  He shoved his right fist at Jeric, but the man ducked it and sent a kick his way. Fletcher jumped back, barely dodging it, and then he doubled down, jumping forward with both fists out.

  Jeric dodged one but not the other.

  Fletcher gasped in pain as his punch collided with Jeric’s jaw. That hurt, way more than it should have.

  Jeric capitalized on his momentary lapse, and landed several of his own hits. Fletcher hit the ground and used his arms to cover his head.

  “Enough, Jer,” Addy called out.

  Laughing, Jeric held a hand out.

  Fletcher accepted it, getting pulled to his feet. “Jeez. That hurt. What the heck was that?”

  “[Toughened]. It makes my body physically hard,” Jeric explained.

  “I didn’t know you were going to use that,” Fletcher protested.

  “What? Did you think I was going to let you use a [Skill] and not use one of my own?” Jeric smiled at him.

  “If anything, you should be using [Frenzy],” Fletcher argued as he shook his hand out.

  “[Bloodhounds] don’t get [Frenzy].” Jeric cracked his knuckles. “Wipe your face and then get ready. We’ve got a long way to go to get you those extra levels in [Frenzy].”

  Fletcher sighed and dabbed at the blood leaking from his lip. He was trying really hard to convince himself that this was going to be worthwhile, but staring down an afternoon with training with Jeric, it didn’t look quite so promising. But he reminded himself that it was necessary for the mission, and that meant he’d have to suffer through it anyway.