Southside Coven: The Pursuit of Power (I)

--- Jon ---

“If it was me… I’d try seeing what I could do with it first.” He answered after a few moments. “I mean if worst comes to worst I could always just sell it if I can’t figure out anything to actually do with it.”

“That’s a valid point.” Val admitted, as Audrey cursed under her breath and Artemis let out a sigh of relief, the latina the only one of their coven without a real care about what they did. “If Artemis can’t find anything to do with the thing we can still sell it. I mean it’s not like the price will go down in a couple of weeks.”

“It will if we cut a few pieces off for her to see what exactly she can do with it.” Audrey pointed out with a growl before running a hand down her face. “But fine, I said Jon had the final vote so… fuck it. What exactly were you thinking of doing with the arm, Arty?”

“Oh, um, uh…” Artemis blinked before coughing into her hand. “Well I’ll need to go through some of my books, and look into a few new sources from Miss Edme but I’m sure I’ll have something that we can devote our-”

“You’ve got nothing.” Audrey cut in dryly, earning a grimace from the other girl. “Damn it, at least if we were selling it I could find us a buyer even if through Covenant. What exactly are you going to do if Delacroix tells you you can’t borrow her books? You know how restrictive she gets with that stuff.”

“Well… like you said if worst comes to, I can… make a call to Covenant for a book or two with my cut from the Haunt.” Artemis answered, looking less than comfortable with that idea, something that was underlined when Val let out a laugh.

“Chica, Audrey can handle Covenant or I can handle Covenant, you cannot handle Covenant on your own.” Val told her. “You’re too used to the Delacroixs giving you a soft sell since you’re basically familia at this point. If you went up against a real cut throat they’d rip you off in a heartbeat.”

For some reason Artemis’s eyes dashed to him with a touch of panic before she let out a growl and conjured a ball of flame into her hand. “I am more than capable of handling anything anyone throws at me.”

“Fine but don’t expect me to help you figure out your plan for this thing.” Audrey warned her, unbothered by the fire. “I still want to sell the arm off. In fact I think I’ll go ahead and start looking for a buyer if you can’t come up with an actual use for the arm beyond ‘research material’.”

(So much for letting me decide…) He sighed to himself, given how they were still arguing about this.

“Well… Um… we can…” Artemis floundered for a moment, her spell sputtering out as she struggled to come up with something when put on the spot.

“You can use the flesh as a contracting catalyst, the bones to form a practitioner’s talisman, or the blood to grow mutated plants for potions.” He listed off, remembering some of the reasons people bought the parts off of Demon Hunters. “There’s other stuff too, but those are probably the easiest to do without any other research or special skills.”

Both Audrey and Artemis blinked at him, not having expected him to cut in. (Even if just to stop their fighting.)

“R-right.” Artemis nodded, seemingly catching her footing with his assist. “Meaning even if I can’t come up with something more specialized for each of us, there’s still something on offer for each of us by carving the arm up between us.”

Audrey watched the other girl for a moment before eventually sighing. “Fine, you’ve got a month but if you can’t come up with something useful by then I’m selling the arm.”

“That’s perfectly acceptable.” Artemis nodded, bringing the matter to a close for the time being.

(Meaning I can finally get going to the hospital.)

---

“Whitaker, wait.” Artemis called after him as he started down the steps leaving the school.

(What now?) He groaned before turning around. “Yes?”

“I… wanted to talk to you.” Artemis explained, before her eyes darted to Aliyah who had turned to see what was going on. “Preferably in private.”

“Jon?” The other girl asked.

“Go on ahead, I can walk today.” He told her.

“Are you… sure?” Aliyah checked, before lowering her voice. “I’ve heard rumors about-”

“Rumors that are blatant lies.” Artemis cut in with a growl.

They both watched her for a moment -Aliyah cautious and him curious- before Artemis inhaled deeply and then exhaled just as deeply.

“Apologies, but… rumors about me are… greatly exaggerated.” Artemis smiled tersely, her teeth practically grinding against each other.

Given how Aliyah took a step behind him, (I’m guessing she noticed the pointed teeth more than the apology.)

“It’s fine.” He assured Aliyah, not pointing out that he’d already been looking for an excuse to avoid another awkward car ride given how clearly uncomfortable with him Mr. Jefferson had become after watching him deal with that (disgrace of a) cop.

(You’d think he’d appreciate us scaring off a predator…)

(Then again that was more a pig than a predator…)

Aliyah watched him for another moment, clearly not happy before nodding. “Alright, if you say so…”

He waved her off, waiting until she was out of audible range, before turning back to Artemis. “Now what do you want? I mean it’s pretty obvious you don’t like me so it’s got to be important.”

Artemis grimaced, and opened her mouth before closing it without arguing the point.

He waited a moment before turning to see if the Jeffersons had left yet so that he could get going on his own.

“Wait, I… I wanted to thank you for having my back at the meeting about the…” Artemis glanced at a nearby student, “thing we were discussing.”

“Uh-huh.” Given how she was keeping him from his Ma he wasn’t really willing to give her the benefit of the doubt there, and was pretty sure she was just buttering him up. “I just don’t like watching people yell at someone who can’t defend themselves.”

He could still remember what that was like.

Artemis winced once more before letting out a sigh. “That’s… fair…”

“Was there something else?” He asked after a moment, knowing that there was.

“Right, um, the way you instantly listed uses for the… thing.” Artemis began awkwardly. “That’s not the kind of thing someone would know without having done some research into… the thing’s source.”

“One nearly killed me on Halloween, of course I looked into them.” He answered bluntly, briefly recalling as (every bone broke and a few tore through flesh, the edges of his vision darkening as the pressure all around him grew ever tighter and he did everything he could to keep his little light from being crushed alongside him.)

“Again… fair…” Artemis nodded uncomfortably. “But the fact that you could look into them so soon after we fought it… together… That's more than I can say.”

“Because Ms. Delacroix won’t give you anything on Demonology?” He clarified, remembering what Audrey said earlier as well as .

“I don’t blame her for that.” Artemis was quick to tell him, seemingly more concerned with that than him mentioning Demons in public. “It’s just she… still sees me as the little girl she met a decade ago, and doesn’t want me to dabble in things she considers… dangerous.”

He… could sympathize with that, given how that was the same reason he was keeping his own research into Demonology from Miss Edna.

“That said, this is an opportunity I might not ever get again given the rarity of… things. At least not without putting myself at severe risk.” Artemis continued to explain. “Which is why I was hoping… you could help me with the thing instead. Given how you have access to resources I don’t.”

He considered it for a moment, not entirely sure if it was his place to help her with something her mentor refused to, especially when it came to something as dangerous as Demons.

(Which she already fought.) A part of him reminded. (And isn’t that why Miss Edna told you about the Corrupted?)

(That was different, the Corrupted were coming no matter what. If she stays away from Demons, then they won’t come for her.)

“Look if you help me I’ll give you first dibs on whatever we make out of the arm.” Artemis eventually offered. “I mean, as long as we make something for Audrey and Val to keep them sated I’ll even throw in my cut of it.”

He blinked at that. “Doesn’t that kind of defeat the point you were trying to make earlier? About using it to kit yourselves out rather than selling it off?”

“It does but at the same time… I’m an Arcane, just figuring out how to work with the Arm and the experience from using it will be enough for me to figure out a few new tricks for myself.” Artemis assured him. “But I can’t do any of that without your help, so if that means giving you my physical cut then… I will.”

He tapped his foot in thought as he considered that offer a little more than he had previously. Mostly because he hadn’t actually been expecting a piece of the arm given how he wasn’t really a member of the Southside Coven, but if he was being offered half of the arm -which even with how he’d only gotten started on the uses of in his books, was as valuable as its weight in diamonds- then it was something legitimately worth considering.

(Especially if we can use it to hurt the Horror.)

“I’ll… I’ll need to go through my things… figure out what I can bring with me but… give me a couple days and I’ll figure out something for us to start with.” He told her.

With his agreement Artemis gained an immediate look of relief. “Thank you…”

“Don’t thank me yet.” He warned her. “I still don’t know how this whole thing will turn out.” (But at the very least it’s worth looking into.)