“With you and Mordecai an item, you’re sharing energy with a god. This gives you a different classification. Still mortal, but with powers most mortals don’t enjoy.”
I shook my head. “We don’t know what we are yet. I’ve only agreed to go on a few dates with him and see what happens.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask him a few questions about that.” Cora looked from Apollonius to Mordecai. “I believe the Amakhosi is trying to repair his friendship — and possibly more — with Kirsten, but it appears to me that Mordecai is blocking those attempts. I thought gods weren’t supposed to interfere with us?”
Apollonius shook his head. “Their rules for interfering are self-imposed, and it’s more of a macro thing than a micro one. I don’t believe his actions with your Lion King qualify.”
She crossed her arms and scowled at Mordecai. “You’re thinking of yourself and not Kirsten. I like you, but I no longer think you have her best interests at heart, and this worries me.”
Mordecai shrugged. “I’m the one who originally pushed her into the Amakhosi’s arms. Perhaps something would’ve happened anyway, but it would’ve taken longer. I tried to give her someone, so I wouldn’t be tempted. He blew it. Not me.”
I shook my head. I wasn’t prepared to join this conversation, and I needed to figure out where Apollonius was going, anyway. “Does being a close friend with a god still put me into another category? And does this designation help keep me alive, or put me at risk?”
His face was a wall. Zero emotions, zero micro-expressions. “I won’t quibble over what to call your connection. I sense it, and it gives you a logical reason to have other-than-human energy, as does your stronger connection to this new Pack.”
Cora and I were still standing, while both men were seated on separate sofas facing each other. I took a few steps and sat in a chair in the same seating area. I tried to make it look casual, but I’m not sure it worked. The outdoor fabric’s texture reminded me we were outside, and I looked around us and took in the energy of some of the closest trees. I’d need to make better friends with some of our trees, but I planned to do so with the ones closer to the main house. I wished I could bring my cedar from the old house, but I wouldn’t risk killing it by moving it.
“So it helps me legally.”
“It might, but things could go either way, depending upon your actions.”
I crossed my arms and rubbed my opposite biceps. The day had been in the sixties and sunny, so I’d been okay with a lightweight long-sleeved shirt, but the temperature was dropping and I was chilled.
Seconds later, I was wearing a hoodie, and I glared at Mordecai. “Thank you, but please don’t do that without checking with me. I’d rather handle my own clothing needs.”
He lifted an eyebrow but didn’t say anything, and I rolled my eyes and looked back to Apollonius. “Is this an official visit?”
“My organization is leaking like a sieve, and I don’t trust certain information to go into official channels at this time. So long as I’m personally satisfied you’re on our side, not a lot of what I know will go into an official report.”
“But you have to make one in the next seven days?”
“I do, but I’ll be careful to not give your enemies information they can use against you.”
“Thank you.”
He tipped his head. “Aaron is worried we’ll have the first big fight in the next three to six weeks, but I don’t foresee it happening until after the first of the year — late January or perhaps into February. I’m not always right about these things, so you should plan for Aaron’s timetable, but I’m hoping you’ll have more time to get your Pack ready for a battle.”
“It isn’t my Pack. It’s Cora’s. She’s Alpha.”
“Of course.” He looked to Cora. “You’re an excellent leader. If you need to accept help from your employer in order to make sure your people stay safe, you should do so.”
She nodded. “I don’t have access to military grade armor unless I go through Drake. I’ll make sure my warriors stay as safe as possible.”
“Aaron and Randall have a treaty. It’s okay for you to have one with your boss.”
Cora shook her head. “Not yet. We need to find our balance first.”
“Don’t hold off too long.”
Apollonius disappeared, and I met Cora’s gaze. “What kind of treaty?”
“Safehouses — some of Randall’s Pack lives or works on the other side of town from the Pack lands, so they’ll go to one of the Drake safehouses in an emergency. Same with the Drake people being able to seek shelter on Pack lands. I’ll need to form one with Randall, Aaron, and the RTMC, but it means people will know we have a secure area, and more non-Pack people will know where it is if they come to us for shelter.”
“Some organizations have a mutual aid treaty,” said Mordecai. “If you can work one out with Aaron, it means the Pack will be able to train with Drake some, and go into battle with them. Otherwise, your Pack will have assignments separate from the Drake assignments. You’ll lose your top fighters because they’ll be called into work, and you’ll have to lead your Pack instead of acting with Drake.”
Cora sighed. “I know, but we need to find our balance as a Pack before I join us to anyone. I’ll do it after the next full moon, probably, but we aren’t ready yet.”
Mordecai nodded. “Don’t doubt your gut. If you know it’s the right path, take it, but be prepared for your needs to change. If you think you’re ready in two weeks instead of four, do it.”
“I value your advice. Thank you for giving it.”
He sighed. “I appreciate the wording, but you don’t have to be formal with me.”
He looked at her a few seconds, and I wondered what he saw. What he understood. Could he see into her head? Did he know her future? Her past? Her thoughts?
Mordecai sat back, when I hadn’t realized he’d leaned forward. “You’re upset with me.”
Cora shrugged. “A little. I think you’re putting your own wishes ahead of what’s best for Kirsten, and that can’t bode well for her.”
He smiled. “And you’re more concerned about what’s best for her than any political gains the Pack will realize by being so closely associated with me. You’re a good friend to her.”
“Why are the two of you being so careful with each other?” I asked.
“Gavin will be released next week,” Cora said. “You need to talk to someone familiar with Faerie about how custody of Gavin passes from the Siabhra to Abbott.”
“Aaron, Sophia, and I smoothed things over for you in Faerie,” said Mordecai. “Vampires aren’t allowed there, and you took one in without getting permission from Titania. You should take steps to never, ever take someone into Faerie like that again. In fact, you should stay out of Faerie. Period.”
“She’s obligated to go,” said Cora. “She made a deal. She delivered the prisoner, so she’s responsible for retrieving him and getting him back to his Master.”
“Wait. The Siabhra won’t just zap him home when his twenty-one days are up?”
The look Mordecai gave me made me feel as if I were a kindergartener complaining about having to learn both the upper- and lower-case alphabet. “No. You may come get him when the deal has expired. If you don’t, he can keep him until you arrive to collect him. You may assign an agent on your behalf. I’ll act as your agent, but you have to step into Faerie and make the assignment so the land can hear you say it.”
“But the land isn’t happy with you, and Aaron doesn’t want you to do that,” said Cora.
Something else was going on. “Ya’ll stop beating around the bush and just tell me what’s going on.”
“Aaron wants to take you into the Swan Castle and have you assign him as your agent in Faerie. While you do this, he and Sophia will mark your soul so anyone with Magic in Faerie will see you’re under their protection.” Cora glared at Mordecai and looked back to me. “Then Aaron can send you home and retrieve Gavin on your behalf.”
I
looked at Mordecai. “What problem do you have with that plan?”
“I want you one step inside Faerie, and then back here, at a gate no one will know ahead of time, so they won’t be able to lie in wait. Aaron says they can keep you safe in the doorless and windowless room in Sophia’s castle, but…” He shook his head.
“What if Aaron and Sophia take me in by whatever gate you choose, and I assign Aaron as my agent, and let them mark me however they need?”
“I don’t want them marking your soul. Other realms will see you need to be under someone’s protection in Faerie. It’ll keep you safe if you end up in Faerie again, but could put you in more danger while in other realms.”
“Okay. Good to know. I’ll have a talk with Aaron and Sophia soon, and we’ll brainstorm. I’d like to be with Aaron when he collects Gavin. I delivered him, I should retrieve him, but I’d rather not have to cut his arms off again to control him, so I should probably bring help.”
Mordecai crossed his arms. “Indeed.”
I stood to go to the kitchen, but Mordecai stood and stepped into my path. “Walk with me to the new house?”
I started to argue, but something about his tone made me go with him. I followed him to the backyard, and gasped when he waved his arm and I saw a waterfall and swimming pool — not exactly like his, but close. He let his arm down and the vision faded. “You need a pool, and the running water will help the energy.”
I nodded. “It was in the plans, but later.”
“Consider doing it sooner, but there’s something else. You need your trees.”
I nodded. “I know, but they’re too big to move with any guarantees that they’ll survive.”
“I can move them.”
I stared at him. Dumbfounded. “You’d do that for me?”
“The new owners have barely stepped foot into the backyard. They won’t miss the three trees you’re the most friendly with. Walk the area, figure out where the pool will be, and where you’ll want to put in a seating area to meditate. Tell me where you want the trees, and I’ll bring them.”
“No danger of killing them?”
“If they die, it means they’d have died anyway. What I do won’t bring physical trauma to them, and I believe they’ll be happy to be near you again.”
It took me forty minutes to figure out where I wanted them, and Mordecai sat quietly while I figured it out. When I showed him where, they appeared, and I wept. I held onto my cedar tree and cried elephant tears until I could barely breathe.
Cora came running to see what was wrong, and the two of us sat and meditated with our friends the trees.
26
As it turned out, retrieving Gavin ended up being a non-issue. I stepped into Faerie with Aaron, Sophia, and Mordecai. Aaron and Sophia put me under their protection so the land heard it, but they didn’t mark my soul. It was decided Mordecai was the best person to accompany me to collect Gavin, since he wasn’t as bothered by the weight of misery and despair surrounding the Siabhra and his home. Aaron could withstand it, but it would be easier for Mordecai.
And we assumed the necklace would once again protect me, which it did.
So, I arrived outside the gate with Mordecai, and twenty seconds later, Gavin stood in front of us, more insect than human. His eyes told me of the horrors he’d suffered, and my heart nearly broke.
Nathan might think I could torture people without it bothering me, but he was wrong. I felt awful for having to do this to Gavin, and yet, I’d do it again if I had to choose. He brought it on himself, and at least I hadn’t had to kill him.
We didn’t use a gate to get back to the Human Realm. Mordecai stepped us to a dungeon Abbott had asked us to bring Gavin to. He was waiting for us, and let us out while he went in with a large thermal case I assumed held lots and lots of warm blood.
“Mordecai knows how to exit, and I trust you won’t return,” Abbott said, his eyes on Gavin.
I was going to answer him, but Mordecai picked me up and strode down the hallway and up some steps before I could even see who was in the other cells.
“Wait,” I told him, halfway up the steps. “Wait! I saw people in the other cells. Why does he have so many prisoners?”
“Later. We must leave.”
We went up five flights of steps before we hit daylight. How many people must he hold in this dungeon? I had no idea where we were when we exited into what looked like a small cabin. He walked us to a rug in the center of the kitchen, stopped, took a breath, and we were suddenly back in the woods. Home. He’d brought me home.
“Why does Abbott hold so many prisoners?”
“New vampires. It takes years before they can be trusted on their own. The lowest level is for the newly turned — still mostly animals. As you move up the levels, the housing gets better. Furniture and entertainment options. No need for either of those things for the newly turned, though.”
I blew out a breath. “Can Abbott fix Gavin?”
“I don’t know, Kitten.”
The following months passed in a whirlwind. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and lots of Pack things to deal with. At first, I texted Abbott every other day to ask about Gavin, but eventually dropped back to once a week. His answer was always, “You saw him. You did this.”
I refused to apologize, but I still sent a text once a week, inquiring. I wanted Gavin to get better and learn from the experience. I’d hoped this was a better solution than killing him. Had I been wrong? I didn’t know.
We made a pact with the nearby hawks, so they’d keep an eye on things the three nights of the full moon. Cora would run all three nights, most months, which meant I needed to be home to run things while she was in wolf form. Having the hawks handle sentry duty made me feel a lot better. It meant we owed them security services for their events, and plus we paid the men and women who handled the actual sentry duty, but it was well worth the expense.
We trained with Drake security once, and with Randall’s Pack and the Ringgold Pack several times. We could work together in a huge battle, or we could split into three or more units to handle multiple ops at the same time.
But Cora wasn’t ready to sign treaties or pacts with anyone else yet.
By the time we reached the new year, Drake had various teams training for specific ops. Our Pack was assigned a warehouse owned by the local drug cartel, just west of Knoxville. We used the Drake gaming room to prepare for the op. The schematics of the surrounding land were put in, as well as images from inside the warehouse, so we could walk around the area as if inside a video game. Cora set it up with all kinds of supernaturals as guards — Celrau vampires, half-demons, various reptiles, owls, and jaguars. As always, I had the most trouble with the reptiles, though I don’t think my light weapons worked quite the same in the game as they did in real life. Close, but not exact. Still, it was good practice. We all knew where we needed to be, what our individual jobs were, and what we’d be up against to make it all happen.
I didn’t, however, expect to get a call at around ten o’clock at night telling us the attack would happen at 4:20 in the morning.
Randall had shown Cora how to set it up so she could text everyone, and we’d have a record in a spreadsheet of who’d responded, and how.
Bethany arrived an hour after we texted her, and she went right to work. She’d be in charge of everyone who came for protection. The new house wasn’t quite ready to move into yet, but the saferooms under the hillside had been ready for months. We left four armed guards, plus seven of the people who came for safety were more than capable of handling a weapon, should it become necessary.
So, while Bethany organized the food, bedding, blankets, and entertainment options for everyone who’d come, our fighting unit met in the old farmhouse and dressed for the mission. Our destination was a two-and-a-half-hour drive, to an old warehouse near the banks of the French Broad River, a little west of Knoxville.
We were in a Drake vehicle, with one of Aaron’s drivers. I ended up napping for perhaps an hour, and
Cora woke me before she started going over last-minute instructions. None of it was new, but some of the team would be handling explosives, so she felt the need to reiterate some safety details. Plus, Aaron had sent satellite reconnaissance taken a few hours earlier, and we had the heat signatures showing where everyone had been at that point. That didn’t mean they were still there, but it let us know there were only seven guards aboveground. However, there were an unknown number of Celrau living in an underground area on the property, and we’d practiced setting explosives in the ventilation shafts, too. It was imperative we get in and out without setting off any alarms. Once we were clear of the area, the explosives in the shafts would drop down and then ignite, followed a micro-second later by the aboveground charges.
The driver dropped us off a half-mile away, and we made our way through a wooded area to the warehouse. Ranger led three people, Kenny led two, and Cora and I were alone. We all wore black clothing, black caps to hide our hair, dark matte makeup to keep the shape of our faces from being easily visible, and glasses designed so we could see better in the dark, but no one would get a good look at our eyes. All of this was designed to throw off a visual determination of our identities and to thwart facial recognition software.
I knew the guard we approached was Celrau without being told, so I wasn’t too upset when Cora pulled a long blade and dispatched his head. Moments later, we rounded a corner and saw the other. I shot a laser and decapitated him before he could make a sound. I didn’t sense anyone else in our section of the building, and Cora’s body language told me she didn’t, either.
How do you blow a ten-thousand-foot warehouse used to manufacture and package illegal drugs to smithereens? It’s actually more complicated than you’d think.
Cora placed large charges on the supports, while I squirted fluid all over. I don’t know exactly what was in it, but I’d been assured whatever I squirted it on would burn. The bottle they gave me issued a thin stream forty yards out, so the job was easy. Cora joined me once she’d placed the charges, and pulled her own bottle of accelerant. The two of us walked the length of the building, squirting floor, ceiling, walls, and inventory. There were two buildings, with two guards on this one and five on the other. The other one housed the vampires underground.
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