Uncharmed

Chapter 8: Exchange

           Tania choked again. “W-what?”

            “Are you free next week?” Bredon repeated.

            “I…what…why?” Tania stammered, mind reeling by the suddenness of the question.

            “Well you’re nice, interesting and intelligent. You know what I am and don’t freak out over every little thing that that entails. And as an added bonus you’re really pretty,” Bredon said, smiling.

            Tania blushed. “But…we really only just met. I mean you don’t really know anything about me and I don’t really know anything about you.”

            “That’s what makes it fun.”

            “I dunno. I mean this is pretty out of the blue and well…” Tania trailed off as she got caught by Bredon’s bright grey eyes. Bredon was just as good-looking as Alex and he didn’t go out of his way to bother her but still… “I’m really not sure this is a good idea,” she finally murmured.

            “Why not? Besides it’s not like I’m asking you to be my girlfriend. I’m just asking for one date.”

             “I still don’t understand why. I mean we might have absolutely nothing in common. We could end up hating each other in a very short period of time and you still want to try it?”

            Bredon shrugged. “That’s the risk with all relationships.”

            Tania didn’t really want to admit she had no real relationship experience, having not had a boyfriend since kindergarten. The one date she had been on had been awkward in the extreme as it’d been set up by one of her friends and neither of them had had anything to talk about.

            “If you’re that worried about not having anything in common and not knowing anything about me then why don’t you ask me some questions? Then you can make a decision,” Bredon offered.

            “I…well ok then,” Tania agreed, not exactly sure about this. “Umm…are you going to school now?”

            He shook his head. “No. I finished my first year and am now taking a year off. Decided it was time to try again to get Alex to duel me.”

            “What university were you at?”

            “UBC. It’s where most of the non-humans go. There’s a handful who are profs and they help us with any…problems we run in to. It’s pretty much the best university for any of us in Canada. We’re practically on the water, surrounded by Pacific Region Spiritual Park and the campus itself is huge.”

            “If it’s such a good place why would anyone not go there?”

            “Well some people want a specialized program that might not be there, for others it’s too far from home and some people,” Here Bredon glanced in Alex’ direction, “Don’t want to ‘conform’ and rebel by going somewhere else. Each of the councils have a strong presence there and that makes some people uncomfortable.”

            Tania frowned. “I’ve been hearing a lot about the councils. What exactly do they do?”

            “They sort of govern us. Each council has a set number of members: nine for the Spirit Council, thirteen for the Elemental Council, eleven for the Vampire Council and twenty-one for the Were Council. Each council has a leader, that person is sort of like the president of each respective race and they run the council. The council creates, alters and gets rid of rules, help the members of their races with any problems and punishes anyone who disobeys the rules. Or they try to at least. It doesn’t always work out,” Again Bredon looked in Alex’s direction.