by Lauren Dane
He stepped back and after the two waved one last time, they were hustled from the room as reporters shouted questions.
Molly, Meriel and the rest of the folks up in Seattle showed up on the video screen. “Why was this even allowed? That wasn’t a press conference, that was a speech! They just gave those fascists free airtime for their hate message.”
“Did they just say they were going to kill us?” Gage nearly growled the question.
“Yes.” Rebecca took a steadying breath. “Molly, what’s the plan?”
“I’ve got some airtime of our own in the making right now. I’m going to one of the local stations and that will feed to the national affiliates too. I’m going to do some televised remarks that will also be broadcast on the radio and Internet. I’ll reiterate the talking points we’ve already discussed. Just remember this is exactly what we expected. We’re as prepared for it as we can be.”
Helena broke in. “I’m going to advise that all hunters be on heightened alert. This will spill over into violence against Others. Both men just called for our deaths. We’ll need to step up our security and the security at all the enclaves and our offices.”
“Definitely,” Lark agreed.
“Make it happen.” Rebecca nodded in Helena’s direction and Meriel did the same up in Seattle.
Meriel spoke again. “I’m going to check in with the COO to see where they’re all at and I’ll update when I get that information.”
Rebecca made quick notes and then looked back to the screen. “Thanks, Meriel. I’m going to issue a press release here as well, denouncing the hateful speech of Hayes and PURITY. Of course we have no idea what they’re talking about regarding the disappearance of these Others who were supposedly cooperating with them. If there was such a thing, how could one trust the word of a being who’d do that anyway?”
“Exactly. I’ll do the same, as will other covens and clans.”
The call ended.
Helena waited for a quiet moment with Rebecca. “Sasha will coordinate with your assistant on the details of all your appearances. We can handle the pre-recorded message here, but I’m adding two more people to your personal security and more to your home.”
Rebecca’s mouth tightened a moment.
“I know you’re an incredibly powerful witch. I’m personally totally sure you can handle pretty much whatever comes your way. But you have a family. You have a right to be safe in your home, as do they. You’re our public face and you need to be as safe as possible. Don’t make me frown at you, it’ll give me wrinkles.”
Rebecca’s mouth curved into a smile, and not for the first time, Faine realized how good she was at gauging people and how to approach them.
“And what about you? Hm? Who protects you, Helena?”
“I do.” Faine bowed to The Gennessee.
One regal brow rose. “Is that so, Lycian?”
“Yes, ma’am, it is my honor.”
“You and I clearly need to have a long lunch and catch up, Helena. In the meantime, I will assent to more security and I appreciate your attention to detail. It’s a weight off my shoulders to know how adept you are at this.” Rebecca paused. “I’m going to need you to come up with some contingencies to eradicate Hayes and Powers. They’ve declared war and we already have. We will not allow this nonsense to continue.”
From the corner of his eye, Faine watched Helena square her shoulders and stand straighter.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Keep me posted on that and everything else. This eradication is on a need-to-know basis. Keep it quiet.”
Helena nodded.
The room emptied and Helena turned to Faine with a sigh. “I was going to see if you wanted to grab a coffee. I can see that is not in the cards now.”
“Do your work. I’ll bring you some shortly.” He pulled her close and held her for long moments. She sighed, holding on, and he felt better.
“Thank you.”
“Your wish is my command, so keep that in mind when you want really dirty stuff.” He kissed the top of her head and stepped back, heading for the door.
She blushed and he liked it a lot.
• • •
TOSH waited to see President Sullivan. He’d met her on many occasions, and while he wouldn’t say they were friends, he thought her heart was usually in the right place.
She had a big job, he knew that. But this situation was far overdue her guidance and presence.
Joe Porter, her chief of staff, stepped into the room. “I’m sorry, Toshio, but she’s been called away and asked me to take the meeting on her behalf.”
Tosh stood. “I’m afraid that’s not going to work for me, Joe. You know why.”
Porter sighed. “It’s Marlon Hayes. The damn fool has just done a public statement. She’s got to put out some major fires. Tens of thousands of calls have just crashed the phone lines and the servers are overwhelmed. She’s got to deal with all that.”
“What on earth did he say?” Tosh had turned his phone off when he’d come into the room as was polite. He had no idea what had happened.
Joe blew out a breath. “He’s taking the Domestic Safety Act to the floor this week. He urged people to call in to get their senators to support it. Off the record?”
Tosh nodded.
“There were some very thinly veiled calls to execute Others. The president is concerned about violence and retaliation.”
Tosh scrubbed his hands over his face. “Is she going to take a position at least?”
“She’s going to call for calm and nonviolence. She wants the people to be heard on this. If she takes a position, she’s cutting that off.”
“Oh bull. Come on, Joe! The time for that has passed. She’s the president and this is her job. This is insanity. A United States senator calls for extermination of American citizens? And she’s not going to get on television right away and condemn that as un-American? He’s whipping up violence. She needs to be a leader right now.”
Porter’s mouth flattened into a line and Tosh knew he’d overstepped, but he didn’t care.
“I want a meeting with her. Please call my office when time opens up. And pray it’s not too late.”
“Senator Sato, you can tell me your concerns and I’ll forward them to the president.”
“No offense intended, Joe, but I don’t want to meet with you. I want her to look me in the eye when she tells me she’s got no intention of protecting the citizens of this country she was duly elected to represent. This has gone on long enough. Time is running out. I’ve got to go and deal with my constituents. Please do let me know when she’ll be available.”
He turned and left before Joe could argue, anger coursing through him as he did.
The hallways were far busier than usual. There was an undercurrent of not just gossipy Did you hear what Hayes said, but anger and, he was sad to hear, not all of it directed at Hayes and PURITY.
His assistant started to speak when he got back to his offices. “I know. I want to see the footage right now.”
“It’s queued up in your office. Go on in and I’ll get you some coffee. You’ll need the caffeine.”
He thought what he’d heard would have prepared him for what he’d see. But nothing could have. Nothing in the world could have prepared him for seeing a United States senator not so subtly call for the extermination of a sizable minority of the American population. It was more than sickening, it was outrageous.
Worse, that the president wasn’t on television immediately afterward was even more outrageous.
“Get me some time on the shows.” He didn’t look up from his screen as he spoke to his assistant. “We’ll need to get a statement up on the website within the hour, condemning any calls to violence and encouraging a real dialogue that includes listening instead of threatening. Get me Meriel or Molly from Clan Owen.”
“On it. Oh, and Senator Sperry is here.”
Well that was one nice thing at least. “Send her back. Get me immediately wit
h the rest of this.”
He stood as Delilah swept in and sat in a chair across from him. “I suppose you’ve heard.”
“I was waiting to meet with the president when it happened. Porter came out to tell me she had to cancel and why.”
Delilah only barely managed to stop from rolling her eyes. Tosh could see the effort it cost her to do so. “What’s her story then? Did I miss her speaking on the issue?”
“The president believes that taking a position cuts the process of input from Americans short.”
“Did Joe say that to you with a straight face? Because he should be ashamed if he could.”
“He’s got a job to do. I understand that.”
“I don’t. Come on, Toshio, they called for our extermination! How is the fact that anyone can stand there with a straight face and say the president won’t condemn such a thing an acceptable job? Huh? That’s not a job. That’s something to be ashamed of.”
“I refused to meet with him instead of the president. I want her to look me in the eye when she says she’s not going to stand up for all Americans.”
“Well, good luck to you. I can’t even get my calls returned.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“Do I sound like I’m joking? This is how it is now, Tosh. From a lot of people. That a colleague would stand up and call for my extermination in front of cameras without any sense of shame is telling. I’m here to let you know I will be on the floor tomorrow. I may get ejected.” Her smile made him a little sweaty, in good and bad ways.
“Should I set aside bail money?”
She laughed and took the teacup his assistant handed her with thanks. “No, I don’t think I’ll be marking that off Marlon’s Christmas list. He wants us to be that. But what I will be doing is calling this what it is. I will not wear a yellow star. I will not let them send me to a camp or exterminate me if I’m difficult, and I will say out loud to the American people that if they support this bill that’s what they’re doing. This is not going down the way it did in the thirties in Germany. I am a motherfucking werewolf and if I’m going down, I will take as many as I can down with me. “
He nodded. “I agree. I’ll be saying the same. Well, not the werewolf part.”
“Yeah? You stepped out of the middle then?”
“I was never in the middle, Delilah. I have always been on your side. But I will not be silent about this. This is unconscionable.”
His assistant popped a head in. “Senator Sato, I just sent the text for the press release to your email if you want to look it over. I’m also going to place a call to Molly Ryan in five minutes. She’s on another call right now.”
“Great. Thank you. Tell everyone we’ve got a long night ahead of us. Order in some dinner and let’s get this show on the road.” He looked to Delilah. “Want to combine efforts?”
“Yes. Let’s get some others in on this too.”
Chapter 20
THREE hours after the press conference, Helena found herself in front of the Defense arm of the COO, who’d called an emergency meeting after the speech. Familiar faces showed up on the screen, but she found herself shocked by what Lex Warden had just said.
“Can you repeat that?”
Lex Warden smirked but it was gone in moments. Damn he was pretty.
“I said we’ve elected you. You’re now in charge of this body. You know, you make the decisions as to all the military and defense coordination between Others.”
“Why?”
“I’ve watched you do your job. I’ve watched you do a job in what have been extraordinarily difficult times. You consistently make good decisions. Your judgment is sound. You are vicious, but not without reason and logic. You are well trained and fully capable of training others. You understand what it means to delegate and yet you do not hesitate to take responsibility when you need to. Now, more than any other time in our history, we need to work united. And to do that, we have to make use of our best. You are one of those. As Meriel will run the main body of the COO along with Cade, you will run this body.”
She kept her sigh inside her head. There were no other choices to be made. She would accept, of course. But fear trickled through her veins. The stakes were so high she just decided to pretend not to think about it.
“All right. I accept.”
Lex tipped his chin. “Good. Now, what do you need?”
Thank heavens she’d already thought in detail on this. “This is how it’s going to be. Our current teams of three will go to teams of five. These teams will be mixed with at least two witches. I believe the mix of different skills and gifts will be best used in that combination. The magickal backup is imperative, especially on any type of sweep or investigative work. Each enclave will have constant security. At least one team at the gates and another to sweep through the neighborhoods. That’s twenty-four hours a day. All leadership, wolves, witches, cats, Vampires, whatever, needs to have added protection. I can help with that should you want my assistance.”
She knew how tricky that part was. Others had been on their own for so long, they really hated to take direction from anyone outside their group. Plus, there were so many alpha males that it was difficult to tell them they needed to be protected.
Still, before Lex became the Alpha of Cascadia, he’d been his brother’s Enforcer for years before Cade went on to lead National, so she hoped that gave him perspective from her side of the table.
“Within three minutes of the end of that speech Hayes made, the first official death threat came in. Senate, House and White House servers went offline due to the overwhelming traffic. The phone lines were choked. Not all that was negative, I want to underline that. It is not our belief that a majority of humans feel the way Powers does. But there will be movement after this latest stuff. Our leaders need to be kept safe. Every public appearance should include a team that goes to the venue first and does a sweep and then locks it down until arrival. If they don’t like it, too damned bad. We can’t trust anyone else to keep us safe.”
“You’re right. I’m happy to start out and set that example. Tegan has been on me to up my guard anyway. I’ll get the news out to the rest of the Packs.”
Gibson agreed to do the same for the other shifters. She was meeting with The Gennessee right after this so she’d tell Rebecca then.
“The Vampires will do as you ask.”
Okay then.
“I’m working with Owen and the other Clans to make our people available to send to Others who need them for their security teams. The new enclaves have begun to consolidate our populations, which is helpful on many levels. But for areas that may not have a lot of Others of different types, we want to be sure they’re being protected. My assistant, Sasha, is keeping the list so please have your people contact her directly and we’ll get on that. Lark will continue to work on cross-training programs. The wolves and cats are particularly good at tracking and we have a great deal to learn from them. Faine and Simon Leviathan have graciously volunteered to continue to help train on all things battle and combat.”
She went over a few more things before everyone signed out and went their own way.
Lark stayed on the line. “Excellent job.”
“Yeah, maybe. Let me know if you need anything. I’m sending some people up to Oregon later today. They’re going to hook up with folks from Pacific. Are we covered in Idaho now?”
“Yes. We’re good. Cascadia land includes Idaho and they’re pretty organized. Most of their people already lived in close quarters and we were able to connect them with contractors and security people to get the place walled and hooked up to cameras and all that. We don’t have many witches out that way, but about seventy percent of them have opted to move into the enclave with the wolves. The rest will stay where they are, but have acknowledged the dangers and volunteered to call to check in twice daily. It’s the best we can do with Others in far-flung places who decide to remain out of the enclaves.”
“Don’t you dare feel guilty
for that. People are making their own choices for all sorts of reasons. We cannot make everyone safe. We gave them options, they will take them or not, but in the end it’s up to them.”
Lark laughed. “Seems to me, missy, I’ve had this exact conversation with you.”
“Yes. Well.”
“I’ll talk to you tomorrow to fill you in on what I learn tonight. Molly is doing a bunch of interviews. We installed some nifty new tech here so she can do sat feeds and doesn’t have go to the studio every time.”
“Good. I feel better knowing that. We’re having dinner with Mom and Dad tonight. Faine insisted so he can announce his intentions or whatever.”
“Mom’s gonna love that. When are you going to Lycia?”
“He wants to go as soon as possible. But right now things are sort of crazy and I’m not ready to do the binding thing yet.”
“Binding thing? You didn’t even tell me!”
“I didn’t? I just figured. Well, you said you knew he’d set his sights on me. How can you not know?”
“Well, the Ne’est thing is a whole different level! Jeez. You can take your time. He’ll wait. If he’s declared you’re his Ne’est, he’d wait forever for you. It’s not something more than ten percent of them do. It’s rare and it’s forever and it makes me so happy!”
“It’s sort of weird. Two sisters. Two brothers.”
“It makes sense I guess for them both to have that connection to us. Partly it’s at the DNA level, or so Simon tells me. We’re related.”
Helena closed the door and came back to sit in front of the video conference set. “So what’s it like? The binding I mean.”
“I was worried. That it would be too much, or that I’d feel trapped. But really? Do you sort of feel like when you enter a room he’s in, there’s like a cord of energy between you?”