Head Down

by Jan Stryvant

  Pulling her tighter against him, as she tried to move away he gave her neck a nip, stilling her.

  "Yes," Roxy admitted in a soft voice, embarrassed, "I do."

  'Tell her you want them too, you idiot!' his lion suddenly spoke up, shocking the hell out of him.

  "I'm sorry," Roxy said in a very small voice.

  Sean let his hand slide down her body, and started to stroke her belly.

  "I'd like that too," Sean admitted and sent a mental raspberry to his lion. Like he'd ever say no to Roxy.

  Suddenly he found himself being kissed rather enthusiastically as Roxy had spun around in the blink of an eye, he would have complained about the pain of being dislodged so quickly and violently if it wasn't for the look in her eyes as she wrapped her arms and legs around him and held him tightly.

  "I love you, Sean Valens."

  "I love you too, Roxy Valens," Sean smiled.

  Fellowship Meeting

  Bill rapped his knuckles on the table and looked around as everyone settled down quickly.

  "Ryan, you still haven't found a new alpha?" Bill asked, surprised. It was going on three weeks now.

  Ryan shook his head, "No one expected Michael to step down, we're still working things out. It hasn't exactly been pretty either."

  "Why don't you just take over?"

  "Oh no, I don't want that mess!" Ryan said putting his hands up, "I didn't even want this job, but Michael didn't give me much of a choice."

  "So, why are we here today?" Boris the tiger clans head asked.

  "Is this about the attack on the sorceresses by Harkins' people?" Jorge the wereboar head asked.

  "No, but has everyone heard about that?" Bill asked looking around the table. A couple of heads shook 'no.'

  "Basically they launched a full out attack. Had their lycans using silver weapons. It would have been a slaughter if Sean and my daughter hadn't been there, seeing as they're both immune now."

  "The key point," Roger, the old cougar spoke up, "is that they were suiciding their own lycans, effectively. Throwing away a lot of them in the attack."

  Bill rapped his knuckles on the table again, to stop the conversations around the table that immediately started up.

  "Look, we all know that the Ascendants are assholes and vicious bastards to boot," Bill sighed. "I think our time to get fully involved in all of this isn't all that far away, especially as I got this delivered to me this morning."

  Unbuttoning his shirt, Bill reached inside and grabbing the metal tag that his daughter had sent him, he pulled if off the lycan collar he was wearing and dropped it on the table with a dull metallic chiming noise for all to see.

  "Is that?" Claudia asked, leaning forward a little bit to look at it.

  "Yes, that's it," Bill nodded.

  "Does it work?"

  "Yes, it works," Bill said and looked around the table; they all had that look on their face that gamblers got in the casinos when the thousand to one shot came in.

  Then they cheered.

  Picking up the tag, Bill stuck it back on his collar and gave them a minute to celebrate before calling them to attention again.

  "So he's making them now?" Clyde, one of the horse lycan family heads asked.

  "Yes and no," Bill told them. "The letter my daughter enclosed told me that full production would be a while yet, but in response to what happened at the guild, Sean put his health on the line and turned out several hundred."

  "Several hundred? How?" Jorge asked. "How can anyone turn out several hundred items in a day or two?"

  Bill shrugged, "I didn't ask. She told me two other things in the letter. The first is that you have to have a collar for these to work. The second is that they have one hundred of them that they're willing to sell to us, with collars. For a price."

  "They're selling them?" Jeffery, the head of all the bears in the state said looking a little upset.

  "I suspect that they have expenses," Bill said staring at Jeffery, "and you don't have to buy them if you don't want them. When you consider what these things do, along with the necklaces, they could ask any price they want. We should be happy that they're asking for so little."

  "What's 'so little?'" Claudia prompted.

  "Two million dollars."

  There were several outraged comments of 'how dare they!' and 'That's too much!' Bill gave them another minute to wind down.

  "I'll pay it," Claudia said.

  "Hell, I'll pay it too!" Roger said, "That's only twenty grand a piece! Any one of us could resell one of those for a half-million dollars, easily! And you all know it!" He growled, looking around the room.

  "Remember when I asked for a list of people you had to have protected?" Bill asked and looked around the table as they all nodded.

  "Well I want it tonight, by six. With reasons why. I'll then decide how many each of you gets, and I'll expect you to pay accordingly. If you're not willing to pay," Bill looked at Jeffery who didn't look very happy right now at all. "Then don't send me anything. He's selling us a tag and a collar for that price, and you know that collars alone have been selling for eight to ten grand now."

  "Can you tell us how they work?" Claudia asked.

  "I haven't a clue," Bill said and shook his head. "It's still metal, it's just no longer silver. Roxy warned me that if it comes in contact with too much, the shield effect moves off your skin and heats up. A lot. Enough to set things on fire."

  "That doesn't sound too bad."

  "As long as you don't go touching any silver, no. I picked up a one-ounce bar this morning. Let's just say that the effect was educational."

  "I want at least twenty," Ted from the leopard clans spoke up suddenly. "I'll pay triple."

  "Why?" Bill asked.

  "Why do you think? That acrobatic troop down on the strip has over a dozen of my people in it. With this, I can get them out of there, and hopefully nobody gets hurt in the process."

  "I want twenty as well," Claudia spoke up next.

  "Reason?" Bill asked.

  "Because I have an eighteen member strike team, with two helicopters, that I can deliver in fifteen minutes or less, anywhere in the Reno area. You sell me those and I'll send them to anyone on the fellowship who calls for help."

  "Someone has been planning for this, no?" Boris laughed.

  "From the moment I heard it was possible," Claudia nodded.

  Bill nodded as well, he wasn't surprised. Claudia always thought ahead.

  "Okay, meeting dismissed. Ted, we need to talk, I think I might just be able to help you pull it off without any violence. Everyone else, by six!"

  Sawyer looked up from his desk as one of his helpers escorted Sean and Jolene in from the back entrance.

  "Well, if it isn't my favorite rabble-rouser!" Sawyer said with a smile.

  "Hello to you too," Sean nodded and set the bag he was carrying on the table. "Jolene said you need more of these to sell?"

  Sawyer nodded, "Yeah, the bottom fell out a little faster than I expected. Still, eight grand ain't too bad. How many are in the bag?"

  "Sixty, think that will keep you busy for now?"

  "It'll work, for now. I'll probably have them all sold by Wednesday."

  Sean nodded and reaching into his pocket he pulled out twenty of the tags and dropped those onto Sawyer's desk next.

  "What about these?"

  "Holy!" Sawyer bent down to look at the metal tags and then back up at Sean, "Are those?"

  Sean smiled, "Yup."

  "Marx!" Sawyer yelled, "Get yer butt in here!" Sawyer looked at Sean, "How many more am I gonna get?"

  "The supply is kinda limited right now," Sean admitted, "but I'm working on it."

  Marx stepped into the room then, "What boss?"

  "Put this on," Sawyer said and picking up a tag he handed it to Marx.

  Marx looked at it, "How do I?"

  "Just touch it to the collar," Sean told him.

  Marx did so and Sean heard the faint 'click.'

  "How d
oes it work?" Sawyer asked.

  "It forms a shield along the surface of your skin. If silver touches the shield, it turns into rhodium. Too much and the shield will heat up and expand."

  "So it just works by turning the silver into something else?" Sawyer looked impressed.

  "Yup."

  "What's the range?"

  Sean took a moment to explain how the shield worked.

  "Interesting," Sawyer said and pulled out a small coin. "Here, Marx, take this, touch it to your skin."

  Marx did and they all watched as the silver changed shades.

  "It's not silver anymore, Boss."

  Sawyer laughed, "Oh, we're gonna make a fortune!" he said, rubbing his hands together.

  "Boss, what'd I tell you about not ripping off family?"

  "Who's gonna rip them off?" Sawyer laughed. "I'll just put them up for bid until the supply increases. You didn't complain about the necklaces, did you?"

  Marx shrugged, "You didn't go crazy on those."

  "And I won't on these either, now get back to work."

  Marx shrugged and reached up to pull of the tag.

  "No, leave that one," Sawyer told him, "things are gonna get crazy around here, you keep it. Just don't go touching any of the silver on me!"

  Marx nodded, "Thanks, Boss!" and left the room.

  "I'm shocked, Sawyer!" Jolene chuckled, "You gave something away for free!"

  "Eh, go stick you finger up your ass, Jo. As soon as these hit the market, people are gonna start acting nuttier than they already are. I'm gonna have to sell them through a cut out, or this place is gonna be mobbed."

  "Not to mention the attention you'll get from the mages."

  "Exactly," Sawyer nodded. "So, is there anything else you need before I throw you out of my office? You just gave me a whole hell of a lot of work to do."

  "What's the word on the Ascendants?" Jolene asked.

  "They're hunkering down for a fight. They figure Sean here is going to come after them for what they did to the gal's guild."

  "What about their lycans?" Sean asked.

  "No idea. I thought they'd try selling them off, so at least they wouldn't lose so much money when you went in there, but they weren't taking any offers."

  "You tried to buy them?" Sean growled.

  "And I was gonna take the money out of your profits too," Sawyer laughed, "cause who do you think I was gonna give 'em too?"

  Sean blinked, "Really?"

  "Of course! Buying things is always safer than fighting for them," Sawyer winked, "Unless of course you can steal them!"

  Jolene snorted, but Sean noticed she was grinning, "Anything else going on?"

  "The Vesti's appear to be digging in and gearing up. I think they expect to be next."

  "What about Sapientia?"

  Sawyer stopped a moment, "You know, they've been acting a little funny lately."

  "Funny?" Sean perked up, "How?"

  "They're not digging in or building any extra defenses, they're not even looking for you. In fact they've been doing business as usual and I think they're having a dinner party this Friday night."

  "Well, that's different," Sean said thinking about it.

  "You know, that's another curious thing that's going on, come to think about it," Sawyer said, rubbing his chin.

  "What?"

  "The Vesti's are the only ones looking for you now, the Ascendants have stopped."

  "Well maybe they're just waiting for Sean to hit them?" Jolene asked.

  "Nah, this isn't recent. They stopped over a week ago. It's like they're not even interested."

  "Well that is curious."

  "So, when are you going to hit the Ascendants? I need to get my bet in with the pool."

  Jolene sighed, "People are betting on this?"

  "Just us goblins, well, some gnomes are placing some pretty big bets too I hear."

  "I don't know, we're still planning," Sean told him. "Speaking of which, you wouldn't happen to have the plans to the buildings on their compound, would you?"

  "Well, maybe if you could do your old pal a favor, I got two am on Thursday night!"

  Sean sighed and Jolene just rolled her eyes as she grabbed Sean's arm and steered him out of the office.

  "I'll see what we can do, but if you don't send us the plans for the place, I can guarantee you that we won't be doing it Thursday night!" Jolene told him.

  "Later, Sawyer," Sean waved over his shoulder and let himself be pushed out of the room.

  "Now what?" Jolene asked Sean as they walked back to the van. Roxy and Daelyn were keeping watch, just in case anyone showed up.

  "I need to talk to Chad. Sawyer's right, we need to launch that attack and soon, so we need to get Chad onboard and have him start drawing up the plans for the attack. Plus," Sean smiled, "I just want to see how he's doing after the change."

  Jolene nodded, "Sounds good."

  Crossing Paths

  Sal pulled up outside the shop, it was a small gaming store stuck in the middle of a busy interchange over in Sparks. From what he'd been able to figure out, they sold everything from video games, to those stupid card games that the kids were all thrilled with these days.

  The place wasn't that old, from what he was able to learn, it had only been open for two years now. However from the number of kids in the place, apparently business was brisk.

  Stepping inside, Sal looked around; he should have come earlier, before school had let out. All the kids in the place with their snacks really messed up all the scents in the place. Most of them were sitting around a couple of tables off to the side and playing one of those card games, though a few seemed to be doing something with small figurines.

  Sal shrugged, it wasn't like he cared. Off to the right, there was a second showroom, and walking into that he was surprised to see racks and racks of video games. Old video games, some of which he remembered from back when games were new and everyone was interested in them, including him.

  "Can I help you, Sir?" a young man asked looking at him.

  "No, just browsing," Sal said looking around the room. "Is there really that big of a demand for these old games?"

  The young man smiled, "Lots of folks in their forties and fifties seem to buy them. Chad, my boss, even takes in old consoles and sends them out to be fixed and resells them."

  "Sounds like quite the entrepreneur," Sal said.

  "Oh yeah, he knows games unlike anybody I've ever met! You ask him about any game out there, and he can tell you all about it. Kids come in here all the time and try to stump him."

  "Oh? Where is he?"

  "He's the guy behind the counter over there with the blonde hair. You gonna try and stump him on a game?"

  Sal snorted, "I was never that big on games really. Well, other than the old card games."

  "Oh, like Mille Bornes?"

  "People still play that?" Sal said, making conversation as he watched Chad from the corner of his eye. For a guy who played games, Sal noticed he seemed to be pretty fit.

  "Oh, sure." the kid turned towards the counter, "Chad! Do we have any copies of Mille Bornes?"

  Chad glanced up, looking at Sal, "English, French, or both?"

  "Both," Sal said impulsively.

  "One left. Let me go get it," and with that Chad walked into the back.

  "Thank you," Sal said to the kid and walked back towards the counter. Looking over his shoulder he saw the kid leave the room, so ducking behind the counter, Sal slipped into the back.

  "Sir, the back room is off limits to customers," Chad said, turning to face him with a box in his hand.

  Sal stopped, back here away from everyone else, he could smell it clearly, Chad was a wolf! And from the way Chad's nostrils flared, it was obvious that Chad knew that Sal was a lycan as well.

  "I'm sorry," Sal said, lowering his voice, "I didn't want to talk in front of the humans."

  "Talk about what?" Chad asked, eyes narrowing.

  "I'm looking for your friend Sean. There's be
en a lot of rumors going around that he's got something to sell. Something for people like us."

  "I have no idea what you're talking about," Chad said, looking Sal right in the eye. "I haven't seen Sean since he started college. I've been way too busy with the shop and he's been too busy with school. Hell, he hasn't called me on the phone in over a year now."

  Sal had seen some smooth liars in his time, and if Chad was lying to him, he was definitely up there with the best.

  "You sure?" Sal asked.

  "The only thing I'm sure of right now is, that if you don't turn around and get back on the other side of the counter, is that I'm going to pick you up and put you there."

  Sal laughed, "Oh come on, I know you're a wolf and all that, but I'm still a lot...."

  Sal had put his hands up as Chad had taken two quick steps towards him, grabbed his hand and then started bending and moving it with incredible speed, and for all that he tried to struggle against it, the next thing Sal knew was that he was being frog-marched out of the back room, around the counter, and over to the front door.

  He tried several tricks that he'd learned over the years to try and free himself, but Chad changed his grip each time and applied a counter move that not only stopped him cold, but actually hurt.

  "I don't know what your problem is with Sean, or wolves," Chad whispered in his ear. "But this is a not the place for it. I got kids in here you moron, and some of their parents are some pretty powerful folk. Now you get out, and stay out!"

  And with that Sal found himself being pushed out of a side fire door, which closed behind him with a very solid sounding 'click.'

  Shaking his arms in his sleeves to resettle his jacket, Sal thought about going back in there for a moment and having a few words with Chad about his treatment. But there were kids in there, and that was definitely off limits. Also he really wasn't being paid to get into fights with any of the local wolves.

  Still though, how many of Sean's friends were wolves? For that matter, how many free wolves were there in Reno? Tony had told him last night that most of the wolves had their businesses outside of the city proper, as they didn't like running into mages. But there were a few who lived in town, and apparently even a small unaligned pack was living somewhere downtown.