“It is not a safe bet,” Sylvanis corrected.
“Kestrel is many things, but predictable isn’t one of those. All of this could be a ruse. We might head to Houston to only find they had already left there, and the attacks are actually going to happen somewhere completely different.”
She sighed. “However, it is the only clue we have as to where she might be, and we must take it.”
She seemed to gain some measure of determination as she spoke. “Gather everyone. We leave immediately.”
Stephanie and Jason left with the others.
“I’ll go tell Jesse,” Kat announced and headed toward the break area.
They watched her go. Clint had a sly smile on his face.
“What?” Jason eyed him.
Clint moved his head toward the direction she had gone. “For all of her tough talk and unapproachability, I think Jessie is wearing her down.”
Hank grunted. “God help him.”
They all shared a smile as they continued toward the gym.
“What do you think we will find when we get there?” Stephanie wondered at no one in particular.
Clint raised his shoulders in a non-committal shrug. “She’ll either be there or she won’t.” He turned to look at them. “But if she is there, and that motherfucker Boar is there . . . I’m going to kill him. No matter what.”
“I don’t know if I’m ready for an all-out battle,” she told them.
“None of us are, Stephanie,” Hank grumbled. “None of us are.”
They entered the gym to the sounds of grunts and growls as dozens of Werebears, tigers, wolves and foxes fought each other. No one turned as they approached as they were all concentrating on either kicking ass or not getting their asses kicked.
Before any of them could utter a word a loud, “Ten-hut!” came from the direction of the break room.
The entire room ceased their combat, turned toward the shout with arms at their sides and backs erect. Stephanie turned toward the command as well as Jessie and Kat emerged from the break room area.
Jessie addressed the group.
“It seems as if we got our orders, soldiers. We need to prep for immediate deployment. I’ll need you packed and ready by 01300. Dismissed.”
Everyone shifted almost as one. The collective sound of bones snapping, and bodies reshaping sounded like a dozen microwaves popping popcorn. It was a little unsettling. Quickly, the soldiers were out the doors and, Stephanie assumed, on their way back to their rooms to pack.
Jessie and Kat moved to join them.
“Sorry,” Jessie murmured.
Hank shook the apology off. “No need. Sylvanis put you in charge of them. They’re your men.”
Jessie nodded his appreciation for their understanding.
“Where are we going? Kat didn’t really fill me in on the details, only told me it was time to go.”
For a moment, no one spoke, and Stephanie realized, without Sylvanis, there was no clear delineation of who was in charge.
Kat stepped up.
“Houston. We have credible intel that Kestrel might be there along with her flunkies. Either way, something is going to go down soon, and we need to be ready.”
Jessie gave a curt nod of his head. “Sounds good. If you will excuse me,” he reached out and touched Kat’s wrist in a parting gesture that no one missed. “I’ll go pack.”
As Jessie parted, Kat watched him go for a moment before turning back to them. Stephanie, like the others of the group, were all giving her knowing looks.
“What?” she asked, not at all convincing on being confused.
Stephanie gave her a sly smile.
“Oh, come on!” Kat held her hands up and glanced skyward. “There is nothing going on!”
“I didn’t say there was anything going on,” Clint said with his half smile showing. “Did you, Jason?”
“Me?” Jason, with splayed hands and fingers to his chest in feigned shock. “I didn’t say anything of the sort. How about you, Hank?”
Hank snorted. “Leave me out of this. I know better.” He left them there.
Kat rolled her eyes and gave an exasperated sigh. “Very funny, guys. We are just friends.”
“With benefits?” Jason wiggled his eyebrows at her, and Stephanie elbowed him in the ribs and gave him a warning look.
“What?” Jason gave her a confused look. He was undoubtedly still thinking they should keep prodding this, but Stephanie knew Kat better. She would only take gibing for so long before she kicked someone’s ass, and Stephanie didn’t want it to be Jason’s ass that got kicked.
“We should go and get ready,” she told him. He still gave her a questioning and somewhat hurt look for spoiling his fun.
“See you guys.” She turned Jason around and led him off to go and pack. Not that they had much to pack. They had brought little since they had no clear idea about what they were to do or what would happen next. The one thing Stephanie did know — they were going to fight again. She hoped things would go better than their last encounter. Though she and Jason had not been there, they had lost Sim, and Kestrel and the others had escaped.
They were more prepared this time, but so was Kestrel. How many Weres Kestrel had at her side, no one knew. By Sylvanis’ estimation it could be hundreds. Sylvanis believed she would use them soon and in so doing, would leave herself vulnerable to attack. Stephanie hoped so. If they had to fight that many Weres, though they would be mostly Pures and maybe Weres, those who had received lycanthropy from a Pure, they would still have the numbers.
When the time came, the fate of the world could well rest in the balance and that fate would be determined by whether they won or lost. If Stephanie was being honest with herself, she didn’t like the world’s chances.
Chapter Fourty
Kestrel came to the end of her ring of power and closed it. For several days she had encircled the city of Houston, laying down lines of power, while members of E.A.R.t.H. planted the seeds of her plan throughout the city.
She was about to attempt something no other Druid had ever attempted before. The power it would require would leave her drained, but she felt, necessary.
Standing straight, she brushed the hoodie back from her head allowing her midnight tresses to be caught by the midday wind. The beads woven in her hair made soft clicking noises as they bounced against each other.
Shielding her eyes, she looked back toward the Houston skyline. She had to admit, if only to herself, there was something beautiful about how the buildings rose high into the sky, like metal trees reaching for the sun’s nourishment.
But they were not trees. They were an abomination, created my men who cared so little for the land they destroyed in order to leave their mark. They took from Mother Earth. They stole her life blood. Her tissue. All to create these monuments to their own destructive nature.
It needed to end. She, needed to end it.
Gordon stepped up next to her. He had been with her these past few days, shadowing her, much like Samuel had once done. He was not Samuel though. Samuel was dead. Taken from her by some unknown Were, wielding some unknown power.
She glanced at him sidelong. An impressive looking man, he had blond hair and bright eyes in a well-formed face. He had an arrogance to him she found attractive. A self-confidence from knowing he was likely the most attractive man in the room and the wealth he had accumulated from being a successful doctor made him more attractive. At least to many women in this day and age.
Where Samuel had a certain exotic look to him which had made him attractive, Gordon had manly perfection. While she could appreciate his beauty, she wasn’t attracted to him. He was a tool to her. Someone she could trust to keep her safe and entirely devoted to her.
Unlike Blain.
She grimaced. Blain she could not trust. She could trust his motivations though. He wanted power and would do what needed to be done in order to secure it. He was wary of her, but he held little respect for her. As far as Kestrel could tell,
he didn’t respect women in general. Something had happened early in his life to create this predisposed world view. Frankly, she didn’t give a shit.
Gordon and Blain. The only two Trues she had left. Well, besides Shae. She sighed and pushed the young girl out of her mind. Things were as they needed to be, no need to think any further about them.
She was glad for Gordon’s presence though. Given the loss of their anonymity, a run into law enforcement worried her and it would be well to have a True here with her.
Blain she had left to orchestrate the rest of her plan. He would be meeting her and Gordon in a bit. She would need them with her when she enacted her plan because she would be vulnerable.
She turned and moved to the car Gordon had waiting for them. Gordon took the driver’s seat. Though she had accepted this mode of transportation as a necessity in getting around in this era, she would not deign to drive them herself. It was a thing made from the guts of the Earth and used its blood as fuel.
They drove into the heart of Houston. They arrived at Sam Houston Park almost an hour later, a distance which, by horseback would have taken them twenty minutes.
Sam Houston Park, nineteen acres of green in an otherwise landscape of gray and black. The predominant feature was a small pond, and on this bright, sunny day, the park was filled with people, ducks and geese.
Blain waited for them. He stood within the open field which ordinarily would hold picnickers and people playing frisbee or flying kites. Blain’s dominance of the space kept wary people away. No one wanted to try and have fun around the man who brooded darkness and menace.
He looked so out of place in the lush green, with his dark, slicked back hair. He wore bulky clothes these days, unlike the tight leather he had worn when Samuel had spied on him for her.
He flashed his gap-toothed smile at her, somewhere between lascivious and condescending. She ignored it.
“Is everything ready?”
“Everyone is in place.” He indicated the radio he was using to send commands. He also indicated several others in the field. More Pures to help fight if need be. “Just give the word and the shit will hit the fan, lass.”
She chose to ignore his lack of using, My Lady, when he spoke to her. Some battles weren’t worth fighting.
Instead, she turned and took off her hoodie. She slipped off her sandals. She understood Blain would enjoy this next part, but she cared little for the man’s perversions. Pulling her blouse off, she exposed her bare breasts to the hot, dry air. Her pink nipples hardened despite the heat.
She could sense Blain and Gordon’s eyes on her back. She also knew there were others in the park whose attention she had now attracted.
Without any more consideration, she slid off her jeans. She hadn’t bothered with any underwear, knowing she would be naked to be one with the Earth for this next part.
Blain whistled appreciatively from behind her. Gordon and the others said nothing. Gordon had already seen her naked before, the day she had approached him to join with them. Though she didn’t doubt he examined her with as much lust as Blain.
She knew men wanted her for her body — long, shapely legs and a rounded, yet firm behind. She was shapely with wide hips and a thin waist. Her breasts were full and rounded and her dark tresses hung loose and shiny across her shoulders. Creamy alabaster skin, like milk, held not a single blemish.
Nestling her feet and toes within the soft velvety grass, she steadied her breathing. Closing her eyes, she sent her senses deep into the Earth, reaching out and connecting herself, bit by bit, with the nature which surrounded her.
Reaching out with both her hands, she angled them skyward and tipped her head back to bask in the sunlight. Its warmth, caressed her bare skin, and she drank it in.
The sense of the grass and the earth beneath her feet reached her first. She could sense the way the grass, its roots intertwined right under the topsoil, reached out and connected with the shoots around them. Worms dug tunnels, eating their way through, replenishing the nutrients into the soil as they went.
Shrews and moles moved tentatively about their underground homes, waiting for night where they would feel less vibrations above them, and they would be safer to explore.
Thin tendrils of tree roots grew thicker and thicker the closer they got to the base of each tree. Oak, Cypress, Walnut, Ash, Chestnut, Alder and many others. Young saplings and ancient giants all vied for the sun’s life-giving rays.
The vibrant ecosystem of the small pond, filled with fish, frogs, insect nymphs, turtles, and water beetles, filled her senses as she touched upon each living thing. Cattails, lily pads, arrow leaf and other lake flora were tiny sparks, like constellations in the night sky to her.
She could sense the ducks as they skimmed the surface before diving below to snag at the underwater plants. The air around the park thrummed with the vibrations of hundreds of wings as starlings, bluebirds, and cardinals flitted from tree to tree.
Kestrel probed out farther, deeper into the city. Life grew thinner as she ventured out. Trees grew sparser. Songbirds were replaced with pigeons and doves.
She needed to strain to find what she searched for, but she found them. First one, and then another. One by one she found them. The seeds she had spelled and given to members of E.A.R.t.H. to plant all over the city.
All throughout Houston, they had planted those seeds. They had planted them in people’s yards, in open spaces in front of the vast skyscrapers permeating this city. They had dropped them into shallow drainage sewers beneath parking garages and hotels. They had planted them all, for this moment.
As she touched upon each life within the seed, she gathered her strength. Thousands of seeds now awoke and teamed with life.
Kestrel began her spell.
Sylvanis sat with Kat, Jessie and Clint eating lunch in the small little restaurant in their hotel. They had arrived there the day before and gotten everyone settled. At her waist she had a deer-skinned sheath for her antler-handled knife. It had been hard to come up with the raw components for the knife, but she had managed. It gave her comfort to carry it. She had used her memory, as best as she could, to draw upon and re-create a knife like the one she carried during the war.
Her earlier self had been more proficient in fashioning weapons. The war had been a dangerous time and you never knew when your magic might not be enough, and you would have to defend yourself physically. She had carried it all through the war, until that fateful day she had used it to execute Kestrel before using it again to draw her own blood to create the spell which would see her reborn in response to Kestrel’s reawakening.
Jessie had sent out many of his men to scour the city in the hope they might spot Kestrel or the others of her group but had yet to find them anywhere. Houston was a huge city and it seemed unlikely they would find them, but they were men of action and sitting around waiting for something to happen wasn’t in their nature.
Kat, Jessie and Clint were engaged in conversation, but Sylvanis barely listened. They didn’t exclude her, but when they attempted to draw her into conversation, she would respond with simple one-word answers, not wishing to be an active participant in the dialogue.
She had much to think about as she knew, once again, she would have to face Kestrel in battle. It wasn’t something she relished happening again, but she knew it a necessity. She was the only one who could face her— should face her.
If she had been more suspicious of Kestrel that day all those millennia ago and had been able to discover her duplicity, she could have prevented all this from happening.
She knew all of this wasn’t truly her fault. It was Kestrel’s. But she couldn’t help but feel responsible. She could have stopped it after all. But she had failed.
Clint’s laughter broke her out of her self-recrimination, and she allowed a small smile part her lips. It was nice to see him laugh. He had been through a lot. Had lost part of his humanity. It was nice to see him get some of it back.
Picking up her
spoon she dipped it into her tomato basil soup and brought it up to her lips.
It never made it there.
With a clatter, the spoon and its contents struck the edge of the bowl and spilled into her lap, the spoon bouncing once before falling to the ground.
The table went silent as Jessie, Kat and Clint stared at her. She sat, unable to move, her mouth open and her eyes wide as she felt Druidic power swell within the city. Not only in one part of the city, but everywhere. Sudden realization hit her and dread, like submerging slowly into a freezing lake, crept up her body as she realized what Kestrel was about to unleash.
“Dear spirits. No.” she breathed out.
Chapter Fourty-One
Kestrel’s power snaked out through the soil, surging into each and every spelled seed. Her voice sang out into the park, clear and crisp and full of energy. The power built and gushed into each seed, layered over and over again.
Kestrel sang into the air. A song of power. A song of magic. For what seemed like eternity she sang the same lines again and again. Building the magic into a crescendo.
With a shout, she sent out her command. “FÀS!”
With such power spelled into them, the seeds planted throughout the city surged. Roots spread out like lightning, plowing through the earth. Like some sort of time-lapse video, the seed parted, and a tiny shoot sprung forth climbing for the surface. As they broke through the soil, they expanded and grew.
Buildings had no protection from the destructive power of growth. Trunks and branches forced their way through concrete and blacktop. They entwined metal girders and supports, weakening them.
Seeds closer to Kestrel received the flow of power first and like a feral beast they tore and ripped their way skyward. All over Houston, trees forced their way skyward. With a staggering rapidity, nature attacked!
The Gathering Page 42