Surviving Plagues (Artemis University Book 3) Read online

  “Yeah, I like it,” she agreed. “Super sleek and modern but we’ll get a counter on one side or a big popcorn machine, something fun.”

  “Perfect.” I sighed as I kept eating. “You still have to do the guest rooms if you’re going to force me to make so many decisions.”

  Izzy snorted, snatching the tablet. “Give me something to do, and I know more about this stuff for sure.” She winced and glanced at Mel. “I didn’t mean that to sound so snooty. It was a slight against my parents, not yours, as knowing how to run a house was part of my upbringing as a good wife knows these things. I’m sure your parents were more focused on your fight training, whereas I learned this stuff.”

  “Fine, then you be the wife of the house,” I muttered, waving for her to handle it.

  “Fine, but we’re having separate rooms and I’m saying now I have a headache… Always.”

  It took me a moment to get what she meant and I burst out laughing.

  Nice. It was nice she was trying after what she’d been through yesterday and I saw some actual excitement from her so at least she was hopeful.

  “I’m surprised Calloway didn’t recommend anyone since she knew I’d have to renovate,” I admitted to Mel.

  She rolled her eyes. “She probably would have but I already knew about the Higginses and booked them.”

  I frowned. “Why wouldn’t she have recommended them?”

  “Which Calloway?” Mr. Higgins asked.

  “Katrina.”

  He looked at Natalie and a few of their people before they all burst out laughing, like ridiculous laughing. When he calmed down he gave me a soft smile. “We’re a few price brackets below what she would ever have in her store or as her contractor.”

  “That’s stupid. Higher price doesn’t mean better quality always and what you guys just did was fast and that’s got value.”

  “The style and coming together was certainly there,” Izzy agreed.

  “Do we have before pictures?” I worried, not having thought of that.

  “I do,” Izzy told me. “I figured they might want them for their portfolio or even you for the history of the house. I took shots of all Mel said we’re working on this break.” She glanced around. “Well, I’ll get them of outside here too. I like taking pictures.”

  The Higginses stared at us with wide eyes or open mouths but I wasn’t done yet, chowing down as I thought about other options. There were more elites than just at Artemis that might start problems for the family because Natalie was at school there.

  I glanced at Craftsman. “Could you make that portal in the garage permanent?”

  “Yes, if I got the supplies and you helped me with the power. Why? What are you up to now, duckie?” He smirked at me, letting me know he was only calling me that again because of the people around but he wanted to use his more affectionate “love” with me.

  “That we need to do a super killer pool now for their portfolio and use some of that fae dust with it.” I glanced at Mr. Higgins. “Could one of you come now and again to feed the fae dogs? We’re having some issues feeding them to the level they need while at school and to not draw attention. If you did, you could have some of the fae dust and who wouldn’t want a new backyard if that was included?”

  I yelped as Natalie dove over Izzy and hugged me tightly. Wow, things really had been bad for them then. I patted her back as Izzy muttered her day was looking up if hot girls were lying all over her, which really broke the tension.

  “She’s an unknown and I’ve been out of the loop,” Mel explained when Natalie sat back down. “We were talking about getting pigs from the farm we’ve ordered from for the guards or now we’re getting one, but they’re humans. We can’t have them coming here with fae dogs.”

  “And we don’t want to kick out the fae dogs as they’re nice and well, yeah, fae dust is cool, but also protection,” I added.

  “But you have to keep it way on the DL,” Mr. Higgins muttered. “Yeah, we can help on that if we can come into the garage. I know a falcon shifter family who does cows, pigs, and more—and live too—for shifter hunts and parties.”

  “Live might not be a bad option for them,” Mel muttered. “As long as they clean up after themselves. Did that book say that?”

  “No, but I haven’t gotten far. I’ll check.”

  “I’ll handle this with Marc. You handle Calloway and getting her Izzy’s shots to lure her in. That woman thrives on a good value, and what they did in the kitchen was way better than I know others would charge those with money.”

  “Deal.”

  Natalie was already on her phone texting someone, which I didn’t understand until we wrapped up lunch. Her father, Charlie Higgins, came through the temp portal and she introduced me to him. They were both excited, checking with Izzy that she had the shots of the bedrooms we were heading to handle next.

  We went up to the master one and I watched as Charlie made the furniture disappear like a magic show.

  “Not everyone can flash items,” Craftsman muttered, giving him an impressed look. He chuckled when I just glanced at him to the missing huge bed, pointing with an open mouth as if asking what the fuck just happened. “He used the rune to ‘flash’ something, basically a short teleporting. It takes more than just the rune or power but exceptional mental focus like you have.”

  “Show me. Where did it go? How? What’s the range?” I rambled, going over to Charlie and practically bouncing on my toes I was so excited.

  “Trade secret,” he teased me, smiling when I deflated. “Just kidding. I knew why Natalie messaged me so I inspected the party room well and got the layout. The trick—like the prof said—is to also picture where you’re sending it. So I know it’s in the corner, as we’re going to set up a showroom for you of all the furniture in this wing.”

  “From there you can pick and choose, change them like we did cabinets and more,” Natalie explained. “I get why you’re hesitant as it’s all their stuff and you didn’t know them, but we’re going to change it and refresh it more than we did the dresses and clothes. We’ll make it yours.”

  “I gotta see this,” I whispered, darting out of the room and racing to the party room on the first floor. It was like a small ballroom off the fancy, massive dining room, but I wasn’t even thinking about messing with any of that yet.

  I gave a squeal as more furniture appeared. It was so awesome and made life so much easier.

  Magic was so cool. I needed this fun side, I really did.

  When the furniture stopped, I inspected the area left in detail and hurried back up to the group. I blurted to show me the rune and Craftsman made it appear on a cheat slip like his class.

  I nodded I had it and drew it on the dresser in the room, picturing where I wanted it in the party room. When it disappeared I raced back off, doing a victory dance it was in the party room.

  “Well, now I don’t feel bad we didn’t work out this morning,” Mel drawled as I came sprinting back into the room. “You’re getting it now.”

  “This is so fucking cool!” I blurted. “Can I do people?”

  “No!” several of them shouted together, fear in their voices.

  Craftsman went on though. “No, no people or living things. Some can do plants or trees, but that takes years of doing it to risk not killing the tree. Objects only and no farther than you’re doing now. Maybe in a few years you could do one end of the mansion to the other but that’s it.”

  “I could do across your acres but I’d be done for the day,” Charlie added.

  “Right, recharge,” I muttered, grabbing his hands and pushing power into him.

  “Shit, you weren’t kidding that she’s loaded with it,” he gasped, blinking between Natalie and me. “I thought my daughter just wasn’t used to it and made you seem like more but you are ridiculously powerful.”

  Whoops.

  He pulled me in his arms and hugged me. “Thank you for what you’ve done for Natalie and her friends. I’m tight with their parents
and we’ve all been terrified the worst would happen to them going to that school that only cares for the elites. You’ve given them protection and made it clear someone will go after those little assholes if they touch the girls.”

  “I’ll do more than go after them. I’ll fucking bleed them all over the quad,” I promised, seething at the idea some rich douche took advantage of the scholarship students.

  “Wait, don’t get angry and not let that energy out,” Craftsman drawled. “I swear your anger issues are at the very core of your power tolerance now that you’re not blocked.”

  I almost argued I wasn’t really that angry or bad but I realized he’d given me the cover I needed. I accepted it and charged them all up before helping Charlie get everything from the five bedrooms in that wing to the party room.

  “You and I will be in the other wing,” Mel muttered to Izzy, as she looked over the map of the house. “I’ll take the master suite at the end but the next biggest room is that first one. That should spread us all out so no one is all up in the other’s business. Even with privacy runes or charms, we can all do our own thing.”

  I was going to kiss Mel. That meant Izzy wasn’t in the same wing as me to see who might be coming to my room at night.

  Nice. No tripping over her if I wanted to bring someone to bed as well.

  “Yeah, sounds like the best plan,” I agreed, as I looked at the floorplan. “That’s the bigger bath too, Izzy, so you can get a nice tub and just spread out.” I almost said something about her bringing women home but I didn’t think she’d feel comfortable to do that for a while given this was all new.

  Plus, Izzy was pretty damn good at reading between the lines. If she was sure I was a fairy, she would know I couldn’t just have random strangers over.

  We headed back to the master suite that would be mine and Natalie took over. It had already been painted while we’d worked and I did like that they never wasted time.

  “Okay, so I’m thinking something like this,” she said as she wrote a rune on the wall. “Given what you were looking at and what I’ve seen from the colors you lean towards.”

  I nodded as she changed the wall to an anchor gray—dark but not too much—and a lighter silver with purple undertones on the accents like crown molding. She also did a section of the ceiling that way. “I love it.”

  “Good, then we’ll get thicker curtains. Last is the carpeting—”

  “Out,” I muttered, glancing down. “I’m more pretty floors with area rugs.”

  “Let’s see what you’ve got under it first,” Charlie suggested. “Otherwise you’re talking a lot of work.”

  Turned out I had hardwood floors under it so that worked out well. Mel suggested sanding and a natural look for the sealer instead of stain with the dark walls. It was perfect, really, totally me.

  “I was thinking this for the bathroom,” Natalie told me, handing me her tablet. “Bring the anchor gray in there and do white and gray stone accents like the fireplace in here. A nice large, separate shower, whirlpool tub you could swim in, and shrink back the vanity on the other side to make the room. One makeup area is fine with dual sinks and cabinets on the other side.”

  Mel moved over to see what we were looking at. “Yeah, keep that toilet closet for privacy and the walk-in closet is right there to change after. That’s perfect.”

  “It is,” I agreed.

  “Good, then they can get started with that as we go check out furniture and making it work for you.”

  “You are so your mother,” Charlie praised, giving her a loving look. “She’s so the boss of all of us.”

  “Which is why some of us haven’t gotten married yet,” Marc drawled. “Too many bosses in the kitchen would be a disaster.”

  “Or a lot of options for a client,” I argued. “If I didn’t like Natalie’s style you could have a bunch of different bosses that were designers—not that the women had to take that role.”

  “No, it’s not just my mate,” Charlie promised. “Our baby brother is the main designer and amazing. Natalie promised she had this job because she knew you and you’d be comfortable with her. Plus, she wants to add more to her portfolio on break.”

  Smart. True and smart, which I valued.

  We headed downstairs and she went to a king-sized bed that wasn’t the original one in the room. She’d left her tablet with her dad but she still had her phone and showed me a bed. “I was thinking of close to that but a darker color.”

  “How sturdy is that?” Craftsman asked and it took all my acting skills not to react. Mel snorted and he seemed to realize what he was asking and tried to play it off as best as he could. “It reminds me of the ones we have in the teacher dorms and they might fall apart if you look at them funny. I was just curious. I am the runes teacher and I’ve not worked closely with specialties using them like this.”

  I had a hunch and turned on my telepathy.

  “Sure, that sounds viable and not that I was wondering if I could fuck Tamsin all night on it and it wouldn’t break. Or tie her to it. Shit, my mind’s been there since she mentioned a sex swing. Maybe she’ll let me get restraints that go under the mattress if I promise she can use them on me too. I’d die if I tied her to the bed and just ate her all night. She’d like that and… You’re listening, aren’t you?”

  Busted! I coughed to cover the laugh and realized Natalie was talking, waving my hand in front of my face as if to dispel the visual. “Sorry, sorry, my mind went to what Mel was snorting at and that squeaky bed she had that—”

  Mel snorted again. “That is not the only bed I’ve broken, babe. You are not sleeping with the right guys if you don’t at least break something now and again.”

  “Not this bed,” Natalie argued. “It’s not a normal platform bed and completely sturdy if you wanted to screw the lacrosse team on it all together.”

  “Good to have goals,” I teased her, smirking when she flushed red. Oh, so she did like someone on the team, nice. I did agree to the bed and two of the nightstands, which she changed up to match.

  “Okay, time to teach you how to refresh everything to new since you’re such a quick study,” she said as she peeled off the bedding.

  “I have the allergy bags we ordered for all the mattresses,” Mel reminded me.

  I nodded and worked with Natalie on how to use the rune to turn back the clock on stuff. She was very clear on that and to be careful what to use it on and how. Awesome.

  After everything was done with my room, Izzy and Mel shooed me away to get to work on what I had going on. Fair enough.

  I sat in my new kitchen the rest of the day and ate to power up anyone who needed it while watching lessons from my online high school. There was a lot of flexibility with the program and it definitely wasn’t structured for someone who was currently the age for high school with live classes or normal semesters. But there were a lot of checks in place so people couldn’t blow it off.

  For instance, they used the same program for the lectures as training software companies used that you couldn’t skip to the end and call it done. I had to click each slide and it was monitoring how long it took me to get through the whole lesson. It warned us that if we just clicked through we wouldn’t get a decent grade. It seemed a bit much, but it was fine with me.

  If they were going to be flexible and understanding for me, I’d play their reindeer games. Plus it was how I got participation points towards my grade like sitting in lectures and easy quizzes at the end of the lessons boosted my grades.

  There were certainly worse ways to spend a break from college. I could have a whole semester done over winter break if I put in the time. And the best part? I could pick classes that overlapped with my actual needs.

  They had business classes that would teach me the computer and programs more than I currently knew. Those were the ones I was definitely signing up for that counted as electives.

  Some were even core requirements. This was definitely the better path than trying to cram it all i
nto one huge test that I learned all of high school.

  3

  Mel had ordered a fuck ton of catering from Olive Garden for dinner so even with all the crew eating we had a lot left over. Not to mention we were still loaded from the first round of trays from the grocery store.

  Apparently, there was more coming and I was glad Mel had embraced making things easier. We’d gotten through all the instructions for this place but there was a ton we didn’t have instructions for.

  Like that mountain of VHS tapes we’d recycled. Stuff like that would still need handling and a lot of it so really, we did need some friggin’ easy.

  But we were all wiped after the day so once the Higginses left via the portal—asking first if they could leave their trucks and materials here—the rest of us were ready to chill and do our own thing.

  Or I hoped not all of us. I was planning something different.

  There was a knock at the door and I turned with a smile, expecting the fly I wanted was about to get caught in my trap.

  “I’m really glad I took you up on your invite,” Darby whispered as his eyes raked over me. He moved away from the door, completely drawn in by what I was wearing and me.

  And here it wasn’t for him. I had packed the emerald green nightgown, which was really a sexy bra that had strips of fabric hanging from it so any way I moved the person got an eyeful of skin.

  I’d taken a shower in my new bathroom and had put it on in the hopes to have some fun tonight.

  I wasn’t sure what to say or how to explain this without saying too much, but I really didn’t want him to think I’d put this on in the hopes he pulled his head out of his ass and came by. Plus, I hadn’t really invited him.

  He licked his lips as he ran a strip of fabric between his fingers, getting a full look at my right hip and thigh. I heard a click as he opened his mouth, too distracted by what he was going to say—but didn’t—to realize what it was.

  “She’s not wearing that for you, mate,” Craftsman said from the door, locking it behind him. Oh, he had come in and closed it when Darby had spaced and left it open. “She’s wearing emerald green for me.”