Fae Second Chance

Chapter 10 - John POV

Chapter 10

John’s P.O.V.

I am so angry at my father as I storm out of the apartment.  No matter what I do it is never good enough for him.  My older brother is the golden child.  He married the correct women (her father owned a competing company so their marriage formed the ultimate merger), has the 3 perfect children that one day will inherit the kingdom, went to the right college, and got the correct degree, and now he is working as the VP of the parent company.  I have never wanted to be a part of the company or have any little brats running around.  I wanted to be in charge of something greater. 

My father used the war to his benefit.  He invested in the right companies and bought the ones that were going under and created the ultimate acquisition and merger company.  It has multiple smaller tech companies under his umbrella that are leading the world in research and design.  He has so many fingers in so many pies that it is hard to tell what his company actually does anymore.  He was angry when I turned down Harvard to go NYC to study political sciences.  He convinced me to go to law school after that.  He can always use lawyers, he told me.  Like that was a consolation prize.  Growing up I knew I had to work in his company.  So, I figured after college I would work for one of his companies and maybe run for county commissioner or something.  Best of both worlds, I had hoped.  But that all changed once I met My Amelia.

I remember when I first met her in undergraduate school.  She was the beautiful bright angel.  She would look perfect on any man’s arm and be able to hold her own with every conversation.  She was a few years under me, and we dated through my reminding time at undergraduate school.  I left for law school the next year with the idea of breaking up with her.  I needed to find the right type of woman to be my wife.  At law school, I started not doing so well in my classes and unlike undergraduate school the ladies in law school already had a man lined up and were not interested in me.  I went back to New York to visit Amelia one weekend.  I wanted a little sympathy and sexy time.  The week after that I realize that I was back on top.  The teacher agreed with everything I said and my arguments in class were always well received.  I decided after that to continue dating my Amelia.  She was my good luck charm.

I still did not introduce her to my parents anytime soon I knew that they would never approve and be furious.  She could not have children and she came from a middle-class family with no connections.  Yet I knew the more time I spent with her the better my grades were, and I was more popular with everyone.  By my final year, I finally decided that I was going to married her.  She was perfect, she could not have children, which was a huge plus for me, and just being around her, I felt like I could do anything.  The weekend I took her home was a disaster.  As predicted my parents hated her.  My father pulled me back into his office and handed me a folder.  In the folder was a report from a PI he had hired.  It had all the information about my Amelia, including the fact she was probably magic.  All the sudden everything that happened with my classes and classmates made sense to me.  I had somehow tapped into her power.

From then on, I knew I would marry my Amelia and keep her with me always.  Forget county commissioner, I could be president.  Laughing to myself, if the right opportunity presented itself, I could be king.  When my father finally accepted that I was going to marry her in spite of what he showed me (he thought I was in love), he started pushing me to bring her into the family fold.  Her gifts could be used to help the company.  He did not know about the persuasion gift that I could channel.  That was my secret.  But he figured she would have some type of gift he could capitalize on.

I kept putting him off about joining the company and I never mention to my Amelia that he wanted her there.  I never told her about her magic either.  She actually thought she was a pure human and as long as she didn’t know than I could use this.  I know this woman; she would never want to influence someone.  She wants to save the world not rule it.  So, I pushed her parents and her friends away and convinced her I was the only one to love her, who understood her.   I didn’t want anyone to have any say over her life but me. 

That all changed with this stupid assignment to Border City.  At first, I was angry to be here, put in the time out box like my father said.  But soon I realized I could use this time to find a way to use the magic’s power for my benefit.  I found an article from a researcher during the war era who was experimenting on the magic to figure out if he could extract their powers.  I figured he may be on to something.  Why should these animals have all this power to work in a company when someone like me could use it?  I started listing certain magics with powers that I would find useful.  I even included the mayor’s wife.  Using her ability to make marketing teams, I could do something so much better with that.  The only name I kept off the list was my Amelia.  Her gifts were for my use only.  I brought in a special team of advisors who think the way I do, and we are trying to figure out how to control these magic beings to do what we want them to do.  That is proving more difficult that I thought it would be.  It would be easier to capture one of them and perform experiment on them, but I was told under no circumstance to bring any undue attention on this research. 

It was all going well, and we were starting to make some headway until my Amelia decided she was bored and needed to work.  I should have put my foot down immediately, but I figured she would get into less trouble if she was working.  But all it did was make her want to be more independent and after all the time I took to get her under my thumb, I felt like all my efforts were unwinding.  The more independent she got the less I could channel her power.  I looked into her at work, and she was not using her gifts there, so there was no reason I shouldn’t be able to channel it.  For a little while I thought she may have figured it out, but there is no way for her to learn the truth and she is not smart enough to go search for the answers herself.  Yet, I was concerned so I had her phone tracked and except for a couple lunches here or there is she either at work or in the apartment.  So, the only explanation I have is that the more she thinks for herself and the more she is inadvertently controlling her powers.  I am going to have to put a stop to this soon and get her back to where I want her.

But first I need to deal with my father.  I am hoping this trip is short.  That all he will do is still complain about my life choices, try to get me to come work with the company, and then go home.  If he is here for another reason than I have more problems than I can deal with right now.  My father never leaves an opportunity alone.  If he has found some way to use my position here, he will.  I am lucky he does not have a branch here; Border City is too far from his beloved Boston, and he likes to be able to drop into his companies at any moment and stir up trouble.  He is extremely annoyed that he had to open a few international branches to get work done.  He is also a huge prepotent of allowing the magic into the human society.  He wants their gifts but in Boston where he can monitor everything.  Initially it hurt my elections a little because people see these magic beings as taking their jobs, but I distanced myself from my family enough to keep the votes.  Then Clark assigns this to me.

After I had been here a while, Clark told me the real reason I was here.  He needed to find a way survey what the magic had on their side of the wall.   I on the other hand decided it was the best way to find out what powers they had and figure out a way to use them.  The college organization I had joined was more than happy to assist in my endeavors.  My fraternity was not just a place for young men to get drunk and laid, it was also a place where you developed a network of people that had the ultimate goal to control everything.  They thought I could use this assignment, Clark forced on me to get control of the magic.  I knew that with my Amelia’s gift I could do more than get control of them I could lead them and with both the magic and humans under my control I could move onto the world stage.  Controlling them is the issue and it would be easier if I could channel them like I do with my Amelia.  I could ask for them for assistance, but I would have to tell them about how I was channeling my Amelia’s gift.  I knew that if they knew there was a way to channel the magic, they would jump at it in a heartbeat.  But I don’t want the higher powers to know about her.  If they did, they would take her away and use her for themselves and I would lose my most powerful weapon.  So, I work quietly in the background plugging ideas into the scientist’s head and asking pointed questions. 

I get to the office and see the map of the magic side of the wall.  This is the information Clark wants.  He needs to know what is on the other side of the wall so he can figure out a way to increase the tax revenues from this place.  It is all about the money for him, for me it is about the power.  There is not a lot of information there.  They do not trust us enough to give a clear outline of what resources and defenses they have.  What we do know is the magic side of the wall acts like their own country, ever since the government took away their voting rights.  It was a calculated response from the world leaders.  When the magic appeared, people were scared, and they blamed the government for the craziness that exploded around the world.  We needed someone for the human people to hate.  We couldn’t have them hating the elected officials, which would ruin our control of them.  So, we made the magic people the bogie man.  It worked well initially and then they had gifts and started using them.  So, the world leaders removed many of their rights and forced them into camps.  They convinced everyone that we needed a registry, so we knew who had what power.  The magic beings didn’t respond well to that and rose up.  Then the war started, and the humans were losing.  The governments of the world struck treaties with the magic people and moved them to isolated places.  We thought we could control them with resources and money, but they are talented beings and managed to create a society that thrived.  The government then used the fact to they were succeeding to convince the people who could still vote that it was their fault our lives are so hard.

I am staring at the map trying to figure out where to get more information when my phone rings.

“Hello?”  I am surprised to see it one member of the research team we brought here to evaluate my idea of using the magic’s powers.  They are situated at a warehouse on the human side of the city.

“Sir, we have some new developments that you need to see.”

“I’ll be there in a few minutes.”  I hang up the phone and I am excited.  Maybe they have found the breakthrough we need.  As I leave the office I run into the mayor.

“Where are you heading in such a hurry?” He asks jovially.

“I have a meeting I am running late too.”

“Really, I didn’t see anything on scheduled for today.”

“It’s with my team from DC.”

“You know we have a perfectly good conference room on level 3.”

“Yes, but they prefer to stay on the human side.  You understand right?  It is difficult to be surrounded with magic people.”  I almost choke on calling them people.  They are not human and do not deserve the same respect humans do.  The mayor is evaluating me closely.   He did not like the fact I brought in a team from DC, why couldn’t I use the people already here.  I explained that I have worked with these people for years and I trust them.  He groaned and grumbled, but ultimately, I got my way.  The truth is I do not have any idea who half of them are.  My fraternity sent them here to me, telling me they have the skills and knowledge that would help my task. 

The mayor scans me for a few seconds more and then says, “Fine, have a good day, John.” He turns to walk away raising his hand in a wave.

“You too, Mr. Mayor.”  I hate that he addresses me by my first name.  I am above him in every way.