by Jan Stryvant
"I don't doubt it," Sean agreed. "Do you think you could help us gather up all of the lycans here, so we could be on our way?"
"A lot of them are in bed with mages."
"Willingly or unwillingly?" Sean asked her.
"Unwillingly," she sighed.
"Well, then I think we should fix that, don't you?" Sean asked, smiling at her.
She looked up at him, Sean had shifted into his lion hybrid form again, and she gave a little start, and them smiled, "Yes, milord, I think you should. Please follow me."
"Wands out, boys," Sean told the others. "If they wake up, zap 'em."
Sean was surprised; the first six mages didn't wake up as the woman in bed with them got up, grabbed her things, and slipped out the door. The sixth one did, and found himself the sudden recipient of a cramping spell as he was then gagged and left lying on his bed.
"Is this everybody?" Sean asked when they finally came back to the front door. They had freed seventeen more lycans, only one of which was male.
The girl, who's name was Cindy, nodded. "Most of them can't afford more than one, if that, and their wives or girlfriends won't let them keep them around the house, so they keep them here."
"Okay. Sten, gather them up and let's go."
Nodding, Sten led them all to one of the vans that had pulled up and they all got back into the vans.
"Now where?" Peg asked.
"The Lux. Hopefully they'll be less of a problem."
When they pulled up at the Lux, the first surprise Sean got was that they were all quickly invited inside.
A man immediately came up and introduced himself to them.
"Hi, I'm Wayne," he said shaking hands with Sean, "I thought you weren't coming until tomorrow?"
"Yes, I figured there would be less in the way of hijinks if we showed up a day early," Sean told him.
"Well, let me round everybody up. If I understand what Mr. Troy told us, we can have lycans on the property, if they're willing to be here?"
Sean nodded, "That's correct. But they're all going to leave with me today; I want to be sure that no one is being forced into staying."
Wayne nodded, "Well, excuse me for a minute then. I guess tonight's dinner is going to be canceled."
"Oh?" Sean asked.
"We employ our lycans as servants and cooks mostly. Oh, some are used for security, because frankly we stink at it."
Sean watched while Wayne left the room.
"I must compliment you on the decor," Maitland said to one of the women who was waiting with them. "The last two places we were at were rather trashy looking."
"Oh?" she inquired.
Maitland nodded and smiled at her, "Totis Viribus, I can understand, they're really not much more than common riff-raff," Maitland said and the woman laughed and nodded. "But those so-called 'Tall Men'?" Maitland snorted, "Lots of very pretentious faux Greek architecture. Really quite disgusting."
The woman laughed then, "Oh, I know! I had to go to their place once! It was simply hideous!"
Sean watched in surprise as his Uncle continued to put the moves on the woman. His uncle was definitely a pro, he was charming her quite thoroughly.
Ten minutes later Wayne came back followed by a long line of lycans, each of which was dressed in what looked like a uniform of sorts, and was carrying a bag. When they had all filed in and lined up, Wayne raised his hand, and they all quieted down and looked at him.
"As of this moment, you've all been freed, as we discussed last night at lunch. We will miss all of you, and honestly we will be happy to take any of you back, as a paid employee, should you wish to return." Wayne paused a moment and then smiled at all of them, "And please, considering coming back. I think you'll all admit that we're going to be lost without you."
And with that, they all bowed to Wayne and filed out the doorway and Sean couldn't help but notice his uncle and his new lady friend were exchanging phone numbers before his uncle left to follow the others.
"I'm going to miss them," Wayne said looking over at Sean, "and I'm going to feel really bad if they don't come back."
"Because you'll have to do everything yourself?"
Wayne laughed, "Oh, heavens no! We can afford to hire regular servants if we have to! It'll just mean that we weren't as good to them as we should have been."
Sean raised his eyebrows at that and left then. Jogging a bit he caught up with the line of lycans as they got to the gate and several of Hunter's men were taking care of their silver pellets.
"Excuse me," Sean said to one of the older women, overall the group looked to be fairly evenly split gender wise.
"Yes?"
"What was it like working for these folks? Do you think you'll go back?"
She nodded, "Not like I know enough to get a job doing anything else. They're not a bad bunch, a little stuck up at times, but they mean well. And honestly?" she shivered, "I'm terrified of what my kitchen is going to look like when I get back here." She looked at Sean then, "Assuming you're going to let us come back?"
Sean nodded, "If that's what you want, it's fine with me. Do you think everyone will go back?"
"Nah, I suspect a bunch of the younger ones will want to go see what else is out there. Not sure I blame 'em, but I've gotten too used to it. The hard part is going to be figuring out how much to ask them to pay me."
"That's a problem I can live with," Sean smiled and went back to the van.
"So what's left?" Roberta asked.
"Well, we don't have to go to the Sorceress Guild, seeing as I already know that everyone there wants to be there," Sean grinned. "So I guess it's on to Goliard next."
"Aren't they the ones that Sawyer said we wouldn't be doing any favors by helping?"
Sean nodded, "Sawyer did tell us that."
"Any idea why he said that, Roberta?" Roxy asked.
"All they do is party and have sex." Roberta said, and then shrugged, "When they're not working that is. Word is that all of the lycans there, male and female, are pretty much there for sex. I'd find it hard to believe that they wouldn't want to leave."
"Have you ever seen one of them?"
Roberta nodded, "They take them out on the town all the time, dressed up in the height of fashion and covered in expensive jewelry. Rumor has it that their parties are pretty debauched, but I don't know of anybody who's ever been to one, they're not big on invites."
Sean sighed, "Well, I guess we'll find out soon enough."
The Goliard lived out in one of the nicer parts of town, up in the west hills. They had a surprisingly large mansion, and there were several large outbuildings scattered around the grounds.
As they got out of the van, Sean led the way up to the door and after shifting into his hybrid form he knocked on it, flanked as usual by Hunter, two of his men, and the girls.
A man, an obviously human man, wearing tight shorts, a tank top, sandals, and a dog collar answered the door.
"Yes?"
"We're here to free your lycans," Sean said looking at the guy.
"Damn, is it Monday already? I need to go to work!"
Sean blinked, "No, it's Sunday, we're early."
"Oh," he paused a moment and shrugged, "come on in then, but if you try and force 'em, we're gonna have words."
Sean looked down at him, "Oh?" he growled.
"Oh," the man nodded rather firmly.
"Girls!" The man called out as they came into a rather large living room, which looked rather comfortably decorated, "that lion guy is here."
Sean looked around the room, there were women sitting and lying around, as well as a couple of men, and they were all being waited on hand and foot apparently.
But what really stood out is that each and every single one of them were wearing a lycan collar with a tag!
"What the hell?" Sean said as one of the women came over to him, looking him over, rather curious.
"When Sawyer put those collars and tags up, we went out and bought one for everyone here," the guy shrugged.
"And what? They rebelled on you?" Roxy laughed, looking around.
"Worse, they threatened to leave us!" The man grumbled, "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go make somebody's breakfast," he grumbled and looked at the approaching woman, who gave him a pat on the butt as he went by.
"I'm Shauna, you must be Sean?" she said, shaking hands with him. He realized then that she was a cougar.
"Yes, I'm Sean. Just what is going on here?" Sean gestured to the room.
"Yeah, is this some kind of kink fest?" Roxy laughed.
Shauna smiled and looked around the room, "They gave us these collars last week, to prove to us that they really did mean what they've been telling us all these years."
"Which was?" Roxy prompted.
"That they loved us and wanted us to stay with them forever."
"And that led to this, how?" Sean asked.
"We told them, that if they really loved us, they would wait on us for a change, and be our playthings for a while."
"And they went for that?" Peg said, shocked.
"Yeah, we were all pretty surprised too!" Shauna laughed. "So now, they work all day at their normal jobs and then come home and cook, clean, scrub, and answer to our every whim."
"So I guess that means you're not coming with us?" Roxy asked.
Shauna shook her head, "The ones that wanted to leave, left already, and honestly, it really destroyed the person who had been their owner. I'm not kidding when I say that if you tried to force us, the men and women here would probably fight you to the death."
"And here I thought this was a den of hedonistic debauchery," Roberta giggled.
"Oh, it is," Shauna smirked, "but not in the ways that some people suspect."
"So, just how long is this punishment going to last?" Sean asked her, looking around.
"A year and a day."
"That long?"
"And then they have to marry us!" Shauna grinned.
"Ouch!" Peg laughed.
"Honestly," Shauna lowered her voice, "we never thought they'd go for it. Seems like they really did mean what they said."
"So, are you gonna marry 'em then?"
"If my Todd can keep this up for ninety days, I'll drag his ass down the aisle myself," Shauna giggled, "I was his 'pet' for almost ten years! Honestly I do love him; I just wanted to see him prove it."
"Well, call us if you need us," Sean said, and shaking his head he turned around and headed back to the van.
"Gee, I wonder...." Peg started.
"No!" Sean growled.
"But you'd look so cute cooking us breakfast in nothing but a little frilly apron!" Peg giggled and the others snickered as they headed back to the van.
Sean just grumbled at her.
"So who's left?"
"Well, the Solitaries are scattered all over the place, so there's no way we can deal with them, except by finding them over time, not that I suspect they have all that many. The Thaumaturgic Society and the Questers are both fairly small, so hopefully dealing with them will be quick and easy. Then it's back to the house."
Everyone nodded and they piled into the vans once more and drove off.
As it turned out, The Thaumaturgic Society and Questers didn't have any lycans, The Thaumaturgic Society because they didn't like them or want them in their house, and Questers because they couldn't afford it, being rather poor and seemed to have many of the same views on slavery as Eruditio did.
"I can't believe uncle Maitland was putting the moves on that woman," Sean said to his mother once they'd gotten back.
Louise chuckled, "Your uncle can be a charmer, when he wants to be, and he is planning on staying here a while."
"Oh?" Sean was surprised by that.
"He's very impressed by your cause and how you're carrying it out."
"But I thought faeries didn't normally involve themselves with humans? Especially not as lovers?"
Louise nodded, "Normally, no, they don't. Oh, they'll have their trysts with them. I suspect his interests in her are either because she's a mage, or perhaps she's part faerie, same as you are now."
"Is it that common?"
Louise shook her head, "No, it isn't, which would be all the more reason for him to be interested in her, if she is."
"Huh, learn something new everyday. Well, I need to get back to work."
"You really need to take a break, Son. You really are working too hard."
"Oh?"
"You know that nice steakhouse I took you to when you graduated high school?"
Sean nodded, he'd been rather surprised that his mother had even suggested it back then, considering how tight money always was.
"Why don't you gather up your wives, and we have a nice family dinner tonight?"
Sean smiled, "You know, I'd like that."
Full Circle
It was late, and he and Roxy were running through the backyards and cutting across streets. The Fellowship meeting had gone about the way he figured it would. Bill, Claudia, Chad, Jorge, and Ted had come up with a plan for securing Reno and the surrounding area after a week of constant work and deliberations. Sean had been impressed and had approved it immediately. While he had a fair amount of responsibilities assigned to him in it, at least all of the actual legwork had been spread out among the others. So he was happy with that.
When he'd presented the final plan, there'd been a lot of questions and some hesitation, even a few protests, as he'd laid out the new rules that they were all expected to both follow and help enforce. Sean could see that it was going to take awhile for everyone to get used to this new way of doing things, but he didn't mind, they'd figure it out eventually. Now that they at least had a plan to keep things under control, he could start planning for Vegas.
He'd taken Roxy's dad, his father-in-law aside and told him that he, Sean, would be telling him what to do from now on, and he was sorry if that upset him, but Sean was in charge now, and that was just that.
"Then why don't you sit at the head of the table?" Bill had asked him.
"Because it's easier for me if I just let you deal with them," Sean had chuckled, and earned an instant scowl from his father-in-law.
"You know that they're going to resist."
"Yeah, I know. And if it becomes a problem I'll come down here and read them the riot act. But honestly, Dad, I'm a twenty-one year old kid to them. It's going to take them a while to understand that I'm not exactly what I look like."
"My daughter tells me that you've got some sort of lion spirit inside of you."
Sean nodded, "Yup, he's been teaching me what I need to know, and helping me deal with all of this."
"Why?"
"Because I didn't have the time to learn it on my own. Because I had something he needed, and he wanted to make sure I got the best advice possible." Sean shrugged, "It's our way, if you're not born a lion, to put a spirit in with you."
"Our way?" Bill had said and looked at Sean a little funny.
Sean laughed, "Yeah, I'm one of them now. I'm not sure that I explain it in a way you'd understand it, but most people who get infected never truly become a lion. But I have."
"You're right, I don't understand it," Bill said, smiling. "But I can't argue with what you've done, success is its own proof after all."
Sean had left then, but that last bit had made him wonder, so grabbing Roxy he'd headed back off to the spot where it really had all started, after sending Daelyn and Cali home in the 'cuda.
Leaping over the last fence, Sean came to stop next to Roxy, who was standing there in human form, so he shifted as well.
"Wow, hard to believe it's only been a little over two months since we were here last," Sean said looking over the building. Half of the upstairs windows had been replaced, along with a fair bit of the wood surrounding the one where George's room had been.
The rest of the place looked okay, except that there were no lights on, the house was completely dark.
"Do you know I haven't talked to any of my friends
from here since the fire?" Roxy said as he stepped over and put an arm around her.
"I just can't believe all of this started not that long ago," Sean said, still shaking his head, "It seems like it was a lifetime has gone by since I was just another college nerd staring at the hot track star's ass and wondering what it would take to get a woman like that into my life."
Roxy laughed, "Apparently getting kidnapped and infected by a lion."
Sean looked at Roxy and grinned, "Totally worth it though."
"Think your old window is still unlocked?" Roxy asked with a smirk.
"Only one way to find out, right?" Sean smirked back at her and they both made their way around to the side.
"Looks closed," Roxy said, then watched as Sean shifted into his hybrid form and jumping up caught the ledge with his fingers.
Looking at the window, Sean could see that the latch was undone, so he simply pushed the window open and then pulled himself in. Once inside he looked around as Roxy crawled through the window a moment later.
"I can't believe that nothing's changed," Sean said, "I thought they had a fire in here?"
"It started in George's room remember. He's on the other side of the hall."
Sean nodded and went over to the door, he was a bit surprised it was locked, but as he was inside that wasn't much of a problem. Opening the door he looked out into the hallway.
"Okay, now this looks like they had a fire."
"Hmm?" Roxy said and looked under his arm.
Sean looked at the hallway and the wall of what had been George's room. The floor was burned in the hallway in spots, and the wall had been completely gutted and removed, along with the floor and all of the plaster in what had been George's room. All of the framing had been replaced however.
"Guess they're rebuilding already."
"Probably want to have it ready by next semester. I think commencement was last week."
"And to think, next year we were supposed to be seniors," Sean mused.
Slipping under his arm, Roxy when down the hallway to her old room and tried the door.
"Locked," she said and then reached into her pocket.
"You still have the key?" Sean said, surprised.