127. Exculpated

"I can't believe you're ok with this," I said as I shook my head. "You don't know what she's capable of. You don't know what she's done."

Sue frowned at me, "Tegan we've already had this discussion. I know all I need to know about Katie's past, and I don't care. She's not like that anymore, you and Keira saw to that. As far as I'm concerned she's paid her debt to society and this is her second chance."

It was early afternoon and Kaitlyn was still at school. Susan and Elise got here about a half hour ago, now we were sitting in Sue's living-room having a light lunch with some cold drinks and a heated discussion.

Elise was sipping a vodka cooler and kept out of the conversation so far. I hadn't really had a chance to talk with her yet, apart from saying hello and exchanging hugs.

I shook my head, "You can't compare her to a human ex-con. It's not a matter of 'paying her debt to society' Susan. If it was, she'd be dead."

Sue glared at me and I realized I shouldn't have said that. She held back most of her anger as she responded in a tense voice, "Tegan if you ever say anything like that again, that will be the last time I speak to you, and the end of your visits here."

"I'm sorry Susan," I sighed. "If you knew what she's done, you might feel differently. Anyways I'm just worried about you. Honestly I'm worried about everyone in Cape Breton, knowing she's managed to make herself fully fae again."

She gave me another warning look then pointed out, "Tegan do you know where your 'evil fae mage super-villain' is right now? She's at high school. She regained her power at the full moon, that was two weeks ago. Since then, she's been at school every weekday. She spent last weekend helping me do laundry, and she's made coffee and breakfast for me more times than I can count. She does the dishes every evening after dinner, and after that she does her homework and studies for her exams. Those don't exactly sound like the actions of an evil monster."

I sighed once more but I had to admit she had a good point. Those really didn't sound like the actions of a six-hundred-year-old fae mage, evil or otherwise.

My cousin finally spoke up, "Tegan I remember you told me once you were hoping Kaitlyn would do one good deed or help one person, then you'd know you made the right choice with her. It sounds to me like she's done that, and a whole lot more."

"You're right. You're both right." I slumped back in my chair, then looked at Sue and said "I apologize for panicking. It's still a huge shock to me that she managed to reverse part of my spell. But I concede she hasn't done anything evil, and as near as I can tell she hasn't tried to undo anything else I or Keira did to her."

I added, "I'm sure Kelly and Keira are going to be unhappy when they find out Kaitlyn has access to her power again. But if you're confident she's not going to cause any trouble, I'll leave her with you."

Susan glared once more, "Don't you dare think about separating us Tegan. You left her with me over two years ago, Katie and I are family now. You won't be splitting us up."

"Sorry," I apologized. "Look can we leave this topic and move on? Kaitlyn said you and she were interviewed by some cops?"

Sue sighed, "Yes. A couple detectives came to see us three weeks ago. They were here for about two hours, they asked a lot of questions. How did we know you, where did we first meet, how often we heard from you, if we knew where you were, if we had any way to contact you, that sort of thing."

"Do you remember their names? Were they MacRae and Bernier?" I added, "MacRae's a tall guy in his forties, Bernier's a bit heavyset, in his fifties?"

"Yes," she nodded. "That was them."

Elise piped up, "Those are the two who talked to me as well."

She looked at Susan and added, "You and Kaitlyn are lucky they came and talked to you in your own home. I got dragged into a precinct and stuffed in an interview room for an afternoon."

"Crap," I sighed. "Sorry about that Elise."

My cousin shrugged, "It's ok Tegan. At least I didn't get the high-risk takedown, and they didn't rough me up or anything."

She continued, "They asked me the same sort of things. How we met, how often we talked, did I know where you went, all that stuff. I don't know if they believed everything I told them, but they didn't challenge me on anything."

"Katie suggested they're probably still watching us," Sue said. "If that's true, they're probably keeping tabs on you too Elise."

"Yeah probably," Elise agreed. Then she grinned, "They're not gonna learn much, other than I have a lot more fun than they ever will."

I rolled my eyes, "Still partying every weekend I take it? How'd things go with Ray?"

She scowled, "I dumped his ass. He was a twerp. He was with me when the cops turned up and he totally caved. They didn't even ask him any questions and he was blabbing about how you appeared out of thin air then vanished again."

I facepalmed, then a minute later I grinned. "Actually that's ok. I have no idea what the cops think magic really is, but sooner or later I'm going to give them a demonstration they won't be able to ignore."

I added, "Sorry your boyfriend turned out to be a jerk though."

"It's ok. We probably wouldn't have lasted very long anyways," Elise replied. She added with a sly grin, "He was pretty terrible in bed."

I just rolled my eyes again, then I caught the look on Sue's face.

She was staring at Elise with an expression somewhere between shock and curiosity. "You're uh, dating men now?"

"Yeah," Elise nodded. "Not just guys, I still see women too. I guess I never mentioned it before, but I'm bi. How about you Susan? It's been almost two and a half years, I hope you're getting out there and seeing people?"

Sue blushed, "This isn't the sort of conversation I ever imagined having with my ex er... Ex-spouse."

Elise suppressed a giggle, then forced herself to get serious. "Ok Susan, sorry if I'm making you uncomfortable. I just wanted to know that you're happy. I'd hate to think you're lonely or missing out on some companionship."

The tall blonde was still blushing, but she said "I'm fine Elise. I'm not really interested in discussing my sex life, or yours either for that matter. So let's just leave it at that."

She looked at me and changed the subject, "So you came back to check on Katie and I, and to check on Elise, to make sure we're all safe. I take it you're going back over again soon?"

I nodded, "Yeah. It was a lucky break Elise was here to visit, otherwise I'd have gone to see her this evening. Then at sunrise I'd go back over there. Now I can just head straight back at dusk tonight."

"And how are things going over there?" she asked me.

I sighed and rubbed my forehead, "It's been up and down. A lot of stress and tension, then some slow monotonous travel. Then some excitement. More boring travel, then a brief fight. Now we're sort of waiting for the next step? We've been training pretty hard for a week, and in a few more days we'll travel again. Then there'll be more waiting, then a lot more excitement."

Susan and Elise both frowned. Sue asked, "Are you staying safe?"

I actually laughed. Then I shook my head and replied, "No, not at all. I'm at the top of Otherworld's Most Wanted list right now. Soon I'll confront the king, and he might bring an army with him. On my side I have five fae and a pixie."

Elise looked worried, Sue just continued frowning at me as she scolded, "Tegan you shouldn't joke about that sort of thing."

I sighed again, "Sorry Susan. I'm not actually joking. Last week I killed a royal knight then sent his partner home in chains, with a letter challenging the king to meet me face to face. He's got soldiers, armies, mages, maybe armies of mages, and pretty much all of Otherworld backing him up. I've got me, the twins, a captain, a corporal, and a retired lieutenant, and a four-inch-tall pixie. And I'm probably going to win. I just hope I can keep the death-toll to a minimum."

Sue and Elise both just stared at me. They both looked a little pale now.

After a few moments Elise finally said, "I guess it's kind of pointless saying it but uh, be careful Tegan."

"I'll try," I replied.

Then Susan gave me a hard look and said "So Katie is a straight-A student with perfect attendance who helps me around the house with chores, while you're a wanted fugitive who's off killing people and toppling governments. But Katie's the one we should be worried about?"

I felt my cheeks go bright red, "Uh... Yeah. When you put it like that it sounds kind of bad I guess."

"Just a little Tegan," Sue replied as she continued giving me that look.

• • • • •

At dusk I pushed through the veil near Kaitlyn's high-school in Cape Breton, and emerged in the ravine behind my house in Ontario. Jumping one time-zone west meant I was ahead of the sunset, and had about an hour before dusk caught up to me again here. Plenty of time to check on things around the property.

Rather than tiring my leg with a walk I just teleported to the house. A wide grin settled on my face when I looked out the windows. Our property was surrounded by a thick forest. In only three or four weeks the trees had matured with the equivalent of about twenty years of growth.

The house was fine, but there was no electricity. That would be an issue once me and the twins came home, but we'd deal with it then. I had a seat in the living-room and picked up MacRae's badge from where I left it on the coffee table. I cast a clairvoyance spell while using his ID as focus.

It looked like MacRae was in the city, back at his own home. I assumed he and Bernier were still investigating me, but since I'd disappeared off the face of the Earth and they couldn't access the property, they'd scaled things back for now. I figured once I 'resurfaced' they'd be trying to get at me again. Another thing to deal with after we came back home.

Next I went into the storage room and grabbed a duffel bag, then went into the kitchen and opened the fridge. All the food had spoiled, but the booze would be ok. I started loading the bag up with all the wine and hard lemonade we'd bought for the long weekend last month.

Then I emptied the spoiled food out of the fridge and freezer and into a garbage bag, and teleported that out to the end of the driveway so it would be there whenever the next pick-up happened.

Finally I teleported myself and my duffel bag full of booze back to the ravine to wait for dusk. There was one more stop I wanted to make on Earth before I returned to otherworld, and by travelling further west I could catch a third sunset.

I'd have a longer layover at the next stop, heading out to Vancouver would put me three hours ahead of dusk. Unfortunately I didn't know any other waypoints that were closer to here while still being far enough west to get me ahead of the sunset. And I knew I could find what I wanted in Vancouver, so it was fine.

My girlfriends and clannmates back in Otherworld would be surprised when I showed up after dusk, but I hoped they'd appreciate what I was going to bring them.

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