by Amber Lynn
I was happy to see the pack house still in one piece when we got back to it. After removing my coat and helmet, I headed to the kitchen to check the status of what was available to cook. The quick peek I’d had in the fridge wasn’t promising.
“I thought we’d head to a diner or something in town,” I heard Elan say.
“Avery won’t eat anywhere she can’t watch the food being prepared, so we’ve all gotten used to home-cooked meals,” Rick answered.
They settled into the dining area, so I could be involved in their conversations. I found a couple loaves of bread that didn’t appear to be green, some cheese and enough cans of tomato soup to make us grilled cheese with something to dip it in. Locating a skillet, I turned on the stove and started buttering slices of bread.
“So, Elan, how have you been? I think the last time we saw you was in the fifteen hundreds over in Asia,” Nate started off the conversation.
The fact that Nate had met Elan and I hadn’t surprised me. Up until I met Eva, I’d thought we’d always run around together in the past. It made me curious what other people or beings only one of us had come in contact with.
“I’ve been good, just a little bored lately as you may have noticed. As you know, us Kapres don’t get together too often and most other uniques don’t like having a trickster around. It can make for a pretty boring life,” Elan stated.
“Yeah, but how many uniques would really know what you are? If you stopped using that strong tobacco, people wouldn’t be able to smell you from miles away,” Nate said. “That really is the only definitive indication that you are a Kapre. Otherwise you could just be a giant, and the uniques I know have no issues with giants.”
“I’ve stopped with the tobacco, but evidently after smoking it for so many years, the scent still lingers. Hopefully that will go away, because it isn’t something any of my illusions will mask.”
“Maybe a spell could make it go away,” I offered as I worked on my third sandwich. I figured with the extra-large people amongst us, I needed to make at least twenty. If the wolves would’ve had more skillets, I’d have put all four burners to use to speed up the process.
“We can talk about that idea after you’ve gone through your training, my little butterfly. Until then, you and magic don’t belong in a sentence together. I’d prefer if you didn’t even think about it.”
“On the subject of magic, what’s this about warlocks? You seemed worried I may be in cahoots with them, which I’m sure you know is laughable,” Elan said, laughing to prove his point.
It was just a little chuckle, but I could feel the walls vibrate. If he ever let out a full laugh, I was running for the doors. I didn’t want to find the house collapsing around me.
“We recently found a prophecy that says my girl over there is going to put an end to the soulless beings. We’re pretty sure a warlock has read the same prophecy and has decided to start a war against all of the uniques in order to stop Avery, who, by the way, and no offense when I say this sweetie, isn’t running on all cylinders. She cast a spell before her last resurrection that caused her temporary memory loss. She’s only gotten a sliver of her memories back so far,” Nate explained.
I couldn’t really take any offense, because he was right about me not being all there in the head. At first when I heard about all my past lives, I thought he was the one not all there in the head. After getting some of my memories back, I started feeling little tendrils that led to more, but I couldn’t connect them. The day I put everything together was going to be a day for mass celebration.
“That’s interesting, and all this activity is bringing the shifters together. Avery hinted that you may be revealing yourself to the human population in the near future. What are the plans for that?” Elan asked.
“Nothing has been decided, but we’re afraid the warlocks are going to somehow reveal us, causing the humans to turn against us. Not wanting to have to fight two battles at once, we’re thinking it might be good to show ourselves to the humans first, with Avery being our spokesperson. There’s a meeting planned for when we get back home, but now that we know it was you causing all the problems and news coverage, it may not be such an urgent issue,” Nate replied.
I finished my last sandwich and stacked them all on a plate. I poured the soup into six bowls and started carrying everything out to the table. When everyone else was situated, I took my own seat and watched the guys dive in.
“So, you don’t want to do the reveal anymore?” I asked as I nibbled on my sandwich.
As a group we stopped caring about each other talking with our mouths full early on. It was impossible for the guys to finish chewing before speaking, so I’d taken an “if you can’t beat them, join them” mentality.
“I’m not saying that, it just might not be as important right this second. I think we still have to because of the prophecy, but we have time now to carve out all the details,” Nate replied.
“Yeah, sis, you’ll still be able to go on TV and turn into the hot phoenix mama you are,” Rick said as he picked up his bowl and drank the soup out of it.
“I’m not really looking forward to that part, which shouldn’t be a surprise,” I said, slurping my soup with a spoon.
As we finished eating, Nate’s phone rang. He answered it and it was clear immediately that it was Joseph calling to report his findings. Nate said a few things to him and finished with “we’re on our way.”
“It turns out Joseph was almost done with his initial sweep and hit on something over by Plymouth. He’s pretty sure of the location the wolves are being kept, and so far hasn’t seen a warlock enter or exit the building. He needs Liam and Rick to tell him if there’s anything giving off an energy reading that’s not a wolf,” Nate informed us.
“I guess lunch clean-up will have to wait. How far away are we?” I asked.
“It will take us about an hour to get there, so we better get going. I don’t trust Joseph not to do something stupid and try to rescue his wolves by himself,” Nate replied.
We rushed to put our jackets and helmets back on, and ran out to the bikes. Within five minutes of the phone call we were on the highway heading northeast.
“What’s the game plan when we get there?” I asked over our radio.
“Hopefully, the guys will tell us there aren’t other energy sources around and we can extract the wolves without confrontation. I don’t doubt we’ll still have whatever battle is planned for tomorrow, but it would be nice to have extra forces on our side,” Nate replied.
“That sounds like best case scenario, how about worst case,” I said.
“The warlocks are lying in wait for us and we have a huge battle on the Mayflower,” Rick supplied.
“That won’t reveal us to the public at all,” I said sarcastically.
“Well, they could be nice enough to put us in a bubble like that last one did when he fought you,” Rick said.
“I’m sure niceness is right on the top of their lists of attributes,” Kyle said, joining in.
“You never know,” Rick said, and I could see him shrug his shoulders.
We were quiet the rest of the way towards Joseph’s location. Rick led the way to the vehicle Trey and Sean had driven the day before. I didn’t see a motorcycle anywhere, so I assumed Joseph had chosen to ride along with them.
“So, what are you getting?” Joseph immediately asked Liam the second he got his helmet off.
“Surprisingly, nothing strong. I don’t think there are any warlocks in the area. I can sense a mess of power from the building over there, but it’s being generated by multiple beings. I assume those are your wolves,” he replied.
“I’m picking up the wolves too. I can’t sense the warlocks, since they aren’t uniques, but I say we go in anyway,” Rick added. “If we run into trouble, there’s enough of us that we could get all the fighting done today and be on our way home.”
“How much canvassing have you done, Joseph?” Nate asked, not quite ready to just run in, weapons drawn. “
What can you tell me about the layout and number of exits?”
“I’ve sent Trey and Sean around the block a couple of times and they report there’s an exit in the back and a fire escape on the north side of the building. It seems to be a normal apartment building, so I don’t think we’ll have any surprises on the inside,” he reported.
“Okay, let’s head over. Berserkers, I’d like you to cover the back exit. Trey, Sean and Vinnie can take the fire escape and the rest of us are upfront,” Nate instructed. “By the way, Joseph, this is Elan the Kapre we were searching for, Elan this is Joseph the king of the wolves.”
They quickly shook hands, and Joseph introduced his two wolves. With that out of the way, we headed towards the building with Joseph in the lead. We followed him up a couple flights of stairs to a door that had an envelope addressed to The Filthy Hen. I assumed there weren’t many people out there who it could be referring to.
Joseph took it off the door and handed it to me. “Should I read it now or after the rescue?” I asked.
“Might as well read it now, it might give us an idea about what’s behind the door,” Nate replied.
I opened the letter and read it out loud. “We knew you wouldn’t be able to wait before trying to retrieve your friends. We’ve left them in one piece for you, to prove we aren’t afraid of you, no matter how many people you bring to the battle. A couple of them are still a little burned up from their fight against us, but I imagine within a week they’ll be back to normal. Meet us at three o’clock tomorrow afternoon in the Freetown Fall River State Forest.”
Joseph, not capable of waiting any longer, about ripped the door off its hinges, and then rushed in to check on his wolves. We followed behind him and found the ten of them alert and tied up with industrial-strength chains.
I grabbed Joseph before he got too far. “Any surprises we should know about?” I asked the kidnapees. I didn’t like to be fooled twice, and I didn’t have the energy to undo someone else’s spell twice within a short time period.
After they shook their heads from side-to-side, I let go of Joseph and helped him start the process of releasing them. The other troops with us looked around the room for any clues to help us figure out who we were up against.
“What can you tell us about the kidnappers?” Nate asked as soon as everyone was free.
“There are four of them,” one of them answered. “Three didn’t seem that tough, but one was totally badass. Those energy balls he was blasting left some really good scorch marks on Alan and Johnny.” The two mentioned lifted up their shirts to show six-inch circles of severely burned flesh.
“We tried to fight them off, but after we got hit with the balls, he said some kind of spell that just froze everyone. There was nothing we could do to fight against it,” one of the scorched victims said in a pleading tone, with his attention directed to Joseph.
“Don’t worry, we’ve seen the damage, and even witnessed one of their traps. There won’t be any punishment handed out. You guys will be some of the first to visit our fighting school, though, so you can hone your skills,” Joseph replied, and I saw the immediate look of relief on all of their faces.
“Thank you, Sir,” they mumbled as they bowed before him.
“Will they all fit in your truck?” I asked. “I’d like to get away from here as soon as possible, just in case we’re being monitored. I’m sure the warlocks have a good idea of what they’re up against, but I don’t want to give them any extra help.”
“Sure, they can ride in the bed,” Joseph responded. “They’ll need to get some food, so we’ll make a stop on the way back to grab some burgers. If you want to head out now, we’ll meet you back at the pack house within a couple hours.”
We made sure everyone got out of the building without running into any surprises, and was situated before we head back to New Bedford. When we arrived, we decided it would be nice of us to have the main house cleaned up before the wolves got back.
The berserkers lifted up the entertainment center and tried to right everything that had fallen off of it. Nate and Rick set the couch back together, in a very sad looking way, but we didn’t have any couch super glue on us, so it would have to do. I made my way around trying to straighten papers and knick knacky type things that were all over the room.
In about a half an hour, we had it looking as good as it was going to get, so I decided to check the cupboards to see if there was anything I could make quickly in bulk. All the work had left me starving. I found a bunch of frozen pizzas in the freezer, including a cheese one for me, which was surprising in a house of carnivores. I turned the oven on and began the process of cooking ten pizzas as quickly as I could.