by Lauren Dane
“Naturally, we are opposed to such measures and we hope that you, our neighbors and friends, our co-workers and fellow citizens of this great country, also oppose this legislation.
“That we have to beg to keep rights that are unalienable for everyone else is a humbling and disturbing moment in history. At base, this legislation is unfair. It is racist and patently hateful. Moving entire populations to camps? Chipping us so we can be tracked? I submit to you, my fellow citizens, that this is not American.
“Worry that we might interbreed and lessen the purity of humans, as expressed by Carlo Powers, smacks of the racism of the past that we have worked so hard to eradicate. Eradicating us? Well, that smacks of an entirely different type of racism, one that ended with the deaths of twelve million. How far, then, do we allow our fear and dislike to take us? This is a question you need to ask yourselves. Each and every American needs to ask it, and if your answer is that no matter our personal feelings we need to reject this sort of hateful legislation, I urge you, every last one of you, to call or contact your elected officials. This is happening right now. Today. And it’s imperative that your voices are heard.”
She paused and looked into the camera. “There have been accusations against us. Speeches that attempt to turn around what is truth and use it as a weapon to paint us as unnatural monsters. All I can say to that is that monsters are real. But they’re not werewolves or witches. They’re people who’d attempt to twist our democracy to use it as a weapon to harm those whose only crime is to be different. I reject the words of men like Senator Hayes and Carlo Powers and I hope with all my heart that you do as well. Thank you for your attention.”
The room filled with applause as Faine moved to Helena. “She did good. I can only hope people listen.”
“Me too, alamah. I spoke to Card, we’re on for tonight.”
She blew out a breath. “All righty then. Sit down and eat. They’re about to switch over to the feed for the floor debates.”
• • •
TOSH and Delilah entered the senate floor from the dais and took their seats. They had met with their caucus, made up of members from both sides of the aisle, all of whom were going to speak that afternoon in opposition to The Domestic Safety Act.
The anger he’d been holding on to all day long burned in his gut, fueling the fight. This was wrong. So very wrong.
For years he’d known the people he was going to argue with. Had respected most of them despite their political differences. But this? This was different. To stand up and support this bill made Tosh sick to his stomach. He lost respect for every colleague who would do that.
He did report to the special FBI Task Force what he’d overheard Hayes and Powers talking about. Kidnapping and that sort of coercion was obviously criminal. Plotting to bring back the thing that killed so many Others was playing with fire. Not only a threat to the Others, but to everyone.
He gathered his thoughts and his courage as the procedural stuff got done. The gallery was packed and filled with law enforcement. He hoped they could get through this without any sort of riots.
Hayes went first and Tosh tried his best to tune out all but what might be needed to be addressed in his own comments. It was more of the same. Incendiary. Hateful.
Tosh had spoken to his grandmother just an hour before. She’d told him to stand up and speak from his heart and he’d be fine. He smiled at those words and her confidence in him to do the right thing.
He looked over to Delilah, smiling at the look on her face. She wanted to punch Hayes, no doubt. But then he also remembered her words about what it would be for them after he’d gotten her in bed.
Much more pleasant to think on that than the garbage Hayes was spewing. Then again, if he kept thinking on Delilah in his bed, he might not be able to stand up when it was time.
And then it was and he hoped like hell he did his grandmother proud. He stood and moved to the podium, took a deep breath and spoke from his heart.
“Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, there are very few times in our history that one could truly call seminal or history altering. Brown v. Board of Education is one. The flawed concept of Separate But Equal was done away with once and for all, and over the decades since, our children of all races have benefitted from an America free of those arbitrary restraints. The women’s rights movement that resulted in the Nineteenth Amendment giving women the right to vote. The Americans with Disabilities Act. These were moments in our history when contrary to the easy thing, the courts and our elected bodies stood up and did the right thing.
“Right now we stand in one of those places. A year ago, my neighbor was a citizen. He and his family have run a bakery in my neighborhood for two generations now. And then when the Magister happened, we learned he was also a witch. One day he’s the guy who makes my grandfather’s favorite cinnamon bread, a third-generation American. A success story with four children and six grandchildren and a thriving business owner. His is the American Dream come true. He pays his taxes and is a model citizen.
“He is no different today than he was a year ago. Or six months ago. Or yesterday. And yet, people like Senator Hayes and his friends at PURITY want you to strip this man of his rights simply because we now know he’s a witch.
“Worse, they make thinly veiled threats of killing off those we don’t like. Ladies and gentlemen, this is not my America. We’ve seen this happen in the world more than once. How is this GPS chip they propose any more than a high-tech version of a yellow star and a tattoo? Or if we want to pretend they didn’t call for extermination of Others, any different from the internment camps my family was sent to during World War II? Or the reservations we sent Native Americans to? Will we post signs at the entrance that say Work Shall Make You Free?
“We are better than this bill. We are better than the fear Hayes and his friends are trying to manipulate so they can in one flick of a pen eradicate the basic rights and dignity of a large minority of this country. Your friends. Your neighbors. Your mechanics. The teachers, bakers, bricklayers, senators, mayors, bank tellers, hundreds of thousands of every day Americans who have done absolutely nothing wrong. Different does not mean we can’t live together. Different does not mean we have to fear what we don’t understand. We are smarter than that. We are better than that.
“We stand here on the precipice once again. We can continue to be the better people we are capable of. We are capable of the kind of action history will remember as bold and brave. Or we can repudiate everything we stand for and embrace this murderous bill and accept that our hands will be stained with the blood of innocents. The choice is clear. I will be voting no and I urge all my colleagues to do the same.”
He sat down and the smile Delilah sent him warmed him to his toes.
Delilah, who then took over at the podium.
“When I was six, my father died. Because of ridiculous medical bills, we lost everything and had to move to public housing. And from six until I was seventeen my family and I lived in a not-so-very nice part of Chicago in the projects. To many of you, Cabrini Green was a horror story you read in a newspaper. But for me? It was home. My older brother, who is now an electrician, was big for his age. He walked me and my sister everywhere. To and from school, later to my after-school job and then home again after my shift ended. We often went out together to escort my mother to one of her three jobs.
“Cabrini Green was closed by the city in 2010, but for me, the best day of my life was when we moved away from it to a small house in the suburbs. My mom still lives in that house. My sister, who is a small business owner, lives about three miles from my mother and my brother about half an hour away from them both.
“Senator Sato just spoke about the American dream? I’m living proof. I went from abject poverty and violence to college and graduate school on scholarship. And then I came back home and ran for office at the state level. Openly as a werewolf. And I was elected.”
She looked around the room. “The people of my district kn
ew what I was and they elected me. Not because I was a werewolf. But because they trusted me to represent them and their needs at the capital. I have represented the same area of Illinois now for over a decade. First at the state level and then at the federal level as a senator. As a werewolf. Openly.
“If my constituents feel like I’m not doing what’s right for them, they let me know. They call and they send me letters and emails and let me tell you, my being a werewolf has never stopped any of them from letting me know exactly what they think.
“What I’m trying to say is this: We don’t need camps. We don’t need GPS chips. We don’t need any of this xenophobic, racist hateful rhetoric that attempts to estrange us all from one another. So we didn’t know this time last year that there were witches and now we do. Is this an excuse to simply lose our minds and our dignity? We are Americans. This is a time when we need to come together and be an example of how to overcome adversity, not to act shamefully and hatefully because we are afraid.
“Earlier today, Carlo Powers stood in the hall outside my office and he called me a werewolf whore.”
Gasps sounded as people turned to look at Powers, who shook his head as if she were lying.
“Now, as a strong woman with her own voice, it’s not the first time a man who was threatened by that called me a whore or attempted to use my gender to try to shame me. But he didn’t stop there. He called me a werewolf whore. This, my fellow Americans, this is where their agenda leads us. Nothing good will come of this legislation. Nothing good ever comes from reacting with hatred to things we fear. We are Americans. We are entirely capable of taking this moment and turning it around and learning from each other. Let us join together instead of letting ourselves be torn apart. We can be stronger than the fear. Better than the haters. I’m voting no on this legislation and I urge the rest of my colleagues to do the same.”
Tosh was on his feet, applauding before he realized it.
• • •
“STOP thinking about that right now and focus.” Faine smacked her butt to get her attention.
“Hey!”
“Hey what? I’m trying to show you how your weight distribution is off with your kick and you’re trying to watch television.”
“There’s a riot in St. Louis, for heaven’s sake, Faine. I’m not watching a sitcom or anything.”
“There will be riots all over the place. You know it. You can’t do anything to stop it, and in an hour you’ll have other things to deal with, so get your head in the game or stop wasting my time.”
She sniffed, clearly annoyed, but turned the news down and gave him her full attention. Which was good. She was distracted and he realized that this thing they were about to do in DC was dangerous enough with her totally focused on it. She needed to let go of everything else for the time being.
“Your pivot is the issue here. You redistribute your weight at the pivot in a way that’s predictable. Anyone who watched you fight for more than a few minutes—and they should because you’re quite good—would see that flaw and they’d anticipate it. You leave too much of your body exposed for those seconds. Kick lower and snap your leg back as you pivot to cut that exposure down.”
He stood. “I’ll break it down here in four parts.” She watched him do it twice from two different angles.
“You’re doing like a hybrid of a few different styles. Instead of that lined-up karate roundhouse, you’re leading with that back leg to change your weight.”
“Yes. For your style, since you’re scrappy, I think it’ll help as you’re already sending your energy into the kick.”
“Scrappy?”
She tried it his way and by the third time she’d perfected it.
“Scrappy. You’re all over the place. Which is unexpected. You have all your focus, of course. But you’re not afraid to get in there and poke eyes or kick some balls.”
She shrugged. “It’s not an Olympic event. It’s a fight and sometimes to the death. If I gotta poke some eyes to stay alive, I’ll do so. And pull hair too.”
“You’ll get no argument from me.” And getting her worked up in a physical way would not only keep her mind off all the stuff going on just then, but the exercise would get her focused. She was that way, he realized. The more physical she was, the better able to lock out all the other stuff and get the job done.
“I propose that since we have a little less than an hour until Mei shows up we forget this and have sex instead.”
She underlined her point by pulling her shirt and bra off.
“It has been a very long time since I’ve had you.” He circled her and she gave him one of her I have a secret smiles.
“Like twelve hours at least.”
He laughed and gave in to the temptation of her skin. She was warm beneath his palms, pliant against his lips. The curve of her shoulder, familiar and still thrilling, the salty-sweet taste of her neck.
She pulled the shirt from his body and kissed across his chest, pausing, her ear against his skin above his heart, listening to the reassuring thud-thud-thud of his heart. “I know you’re trying to distract me.” She shoved his pants down and he sprang, hot and ready, into her hands.
He’d been kissing and licking up her neck but when she grabbed his cock and gave it a little squeeze, he growled and then bit, holding her in place as he took her to the rug.
Quick, clever hands got rid of her pants and underwear and they rolled, skin to skin, gasping at the heat and wonder of the feel of each other.
She ended up on top, urgency riding her. Blind need for him raced through her senses. He hissed, reaching up to cup her breasts. “Slow down.”
She shook her head with a grin. “I want you now. All of you.”
He cursed and she laughed, pulling up enough to grab him, guide him true and sink down, taking him deep inside her body in two moves.
She stilled. “Unless you’d rather do something else.”
“Get moving. You brought this all on yourself. Now pleasure me.”
Laughing, she bent to kiss him, grabbing his bottom lip between her teeth and tugging. He held her, big strong hands at each hip. He set the pace, guiding her with his hands.
She arched, taking him deeper, and he groaned. There was something so powerful about giving him pleasure this way. This big, powerful male who could easily use that strength to harm only used it to cherish and please. To adore.
She’d never been adored before. It was not overrated.
“You are the most exquisite thing I have ever seen. I can’t believe you’re mine,” he murmured when he stretched up to kiss her.
Sex after the binding was different. Better. The connection between them was deeper, his pleasure wrapped around hers, teased it. Took it and fed it back over and over until she nearly vibrated with it.
He let go with one of his hands and his fingers found her clit, sliding side to side until she was nearly blind with need. And then she exploded. His fingers dug into her left hip as he began to thrust back at her as she slid down on him over and over. He was deep and hard and she knew when he hit his own climax. He thrust up one last time and held her there on him as he arched his back. Her knees dug into the carpet, her nails digging into his side as he snarled her name.
Chapter 25
WHEN Tosh opened his door with a black eye, Delilah raised her brows and came inside. “Good thing I brought some dinner. What the hell happened to your gorgeous face?”
“Out front. There were protesters when I got home. One of my guards had to get three stitches because he threw himself in between me and a bottle.”
She put the bag of takeout down and touched his cheek. “This makes me very angry. To mar such perfection is to spit in God’s eye.” She kissed the bruise gently. “And it makes me want to rip someone’s throat out.”
He let go of some of his tension and pulled her to his body. “My lip is a little bruised too, I think.”
She kissed his mouth and he luxuriated in her taste.
“You di
d a great job today,” he said as she pulled back a little.
“I’m told I’m an excellent kisser.”
He laughed, taking her hand and leading her back through the house and into the dining room. “I meant on the floor. But you are an excellent kisser.”
“My office got so many calls the system overloaded four times. The server shut down more than once. My inbox exploded. I’m relieved to say it was eight in favor of me voting against to two to vote in support.”
He got plates and silverware out and she began to dish the food up. “I’ve got about those same numbers. More like seven to three, but still, a clear indication to vote it down.”
The House would hear debate on their version of the bill by the end of the week. He just hoped the people made their voices heard so this ridiculousness could be halted before it got any worse.
“Did you see the news about the riots in St. Louis?”
He nodded. “I’m concerned that it’ll get worse before it gets better. The little girl who was attacked is in critical condition. One hospital refused to treat her when they found out she was a shifter. The ambulance driver was nearly arrested for assault when he attacked the hospital administrator who refused to let them bring the child in.”
“That’s running in Chicago. Her family is an affiliated pack to Great Lakes. The COO told me they’ve sent guards to her family’s home and the hospital. There are already attorneys at work on the refusal-to-treat issue as well. Her mother appealed to the rioters to stop the violence. I don’t know if it will help.”
“How many death threats did you get today? Don’t deny it, the FBI interviewed me already.”
She sighed. “Six. I’m an overachiever apparently. Parrish only got one. Though once he speaks on the House floor, I’m sure he’ll try to beat my record.” She squeezed his hand. “It’s all right. I’ve got two extra guards and the witches warded my house, my car and my office. They’re not going to scare me into silence.”