Thaumatology 07 - Eagle's Shadow

by Teasdale, Niall

  ‘That buys us some time then,’ Lily said.

  ‘Some,’ Ceri replied. ‘If they can’t persuade him they’ll likely revert to plan A.’

  ‘Kill Wilson and have Levy take over,’ Nita said, nodding her agreement.

  ‘Oh,’ Lily said. ‘They’d need to be smarter about it, though. Two attempts on his life in quick succession?’

  Nita shrugged. ‘They have the cover idea, the Chinese trying to kill him. They will need another patsy, and that kind of thing takes time to organise.’

  ‘Not really. The guy in London was controlled, or possessed.’ Ceri frowned. ‘We’ve got the time it takes them to decide Wilson isn’t going to budge.’

  ‘Maybe a week,’ Nita said.

  ‘Is there anyone in the CIA you can trust?’ Ceri asked.

  ‘There are people I thought I could trust. Now… I just don’t know.’

  ‘Okay then, can you look up a number for me? It’s Edward Hoffman. He lives in Alexandria south of Washington. Is that Virginia?’

  Nita grinned at Ceri. ‘Starting to remember those geography lessons?’ She turned back to the screen and started typing.

  ‘History actually. The American Civil War.’

  ‘Ironic,’ Nita replied, ‘considering we’ll be doing it all over again if we can’t pull this off.’

  Black Crow Camp

  ‘The word is that the Secret Service have been stepped up to high alert,’ Kangee said. ‘There’s a suggestion that there could be more attempts on Wilson’s life.’ Ceri, Lily, and Nita looked at each other. They were sat on one side of the fire and Kangee on the other. That more than anything suggested he trusted Nita more than he had. ‘I need to check in again in a day or so to see if they can get any information on what Wilson’s thinking,’ Kangee went on. ‘The FBI have also been put on alert. They’re looking for the three of you.’

  ‘That’ll make life more difficult,’ Nita commented.

  ‘You’d be amazed how little three hot babes in a car get noticed,’ Lily said. She blinked. ‘I can’t believe I just said “hot babes.” Anyway, we’d need to get some new clothes. It’s just not going to work in baggy jeans and men’s shirts, but between that and Ceri’s magic we could walk out of a high security prison facility without being noticed.’ Nita nodded; she had to admit that they had walked out of Black Fields without even firing a shot.

  ‘Can you get me a gun?’ Nita asked. ‘Sorry to break the train of thought, but if we’re going back over the border, I want a firearm.’

  Kangee looked at Katrina, receiving a nod. ‘Do you have a preference?’

  ‘Browning HP Practical,’ Nita said without a second’s thought. ‘Chambered for nine millimetre rounds.’

  Kangee nodded. ‘I’ll arrange it. Who is this Hoffman you mentioned?’

  ‘Ed Hoffman,’ Ceri replied. ‘He’s a Secret Service agent. He was on the presidential guard detail in London and they put him on our table at the embassy ball. After the assassination attempt, he got left in Britain to follow up the investigation.’

  ‘He doesn’t think Ceri did it,’ Lily said. ‘He was born somewhere around here. “What used to be South Dakota,” he said.’

  Katarina nodded. ‘It wasn’t a huge state, but big enough that “around here” might be pushing it a little. The right part of the country anyway.’

  ‘Several of the presidential detail were swapped out when they raised the alert level,’ Kangee said. ‘My informant believes it was done on Levy’s orders.’

  ‘Taking out people he thinks he can’t trust,’ Ceri said. ‘I’m betting the new ones attend church regularly.’ She came to a decision and looked up at Kangee. ‘Can you run me into the city tonight? I think calling him as soon as possible would be a good idea.’

  The werewolf nodded. ‘We’ll use a payphone. One of the ones at the university.’

  ‘Sounds perfect,’ Ceri replied. She liked universities.

  Sioux Falls

  ‘Do you have a mate, Kangee?’ Ceri asked as they drove through the city streets. She was alone in the car with him since it seemed overkill for all of them to go, and this was something to say.

  ‘No, never met the right bitch. Almost a couple of times, but I never wanted one of them more than someone else did. You?’

  In a way it was an odd thing to ask a human woman, but he knew she was a member of a pack. ‘Yes. His name is Michael. He’s a grey, another of Alexandra’s Guard. His father was the Alpha of the Brecon pack.’

  ‘I got the impression that you and Lily were, uh, kind of intimate.’

  Ceri laughed. ‘We’re a bit more than "kind of". Lily moved into my house as a lodger about six years ago. At the time we had to be just friends. It’s a long story, but I was immune to her auras. She wanted me because, well, she’s half succubus, but it was good for her to have a friend without benefits at the time. Then I came into my power and we became lovers. I’d never had much success with boys before that…’

  ‘There’s your problem,’ Kangee said. ‘You should’ve tried dating men. Werewolves, preferably.’

  ‘As it turned out, yeah,’ Ceri said with a giggle. ‘I met Michael a few months later while researching pack behaviour. He wanted me for his mate the first time he saw me, but he had to understand that I was not going to give up Lily. We were friends for a long time before we were lovers, and a long time before I met Michael.’

  ‘So, what? You split your time between them?’

  ‘Sort of. I’m with the pack Wednesday and Thursday nights, so that’s Michael time. Saturday night he comes over to the house and we all get together. It’s important that we have time for the three of us to be together. It helps that werewolves tend not to get jealous, and Lily doesn’t either.’

  ‘So if anyone’s going to, it’s you.’

  ‘Huh, yeah, but I’m not that much of a hypocrite.’

  ‘Hypocrisy is intellectual, jealousy is emotional.’ He grinned at her. ‘I took a psychology course.’

  ‘You’ve a point, though. Yes. Maybe I just don’t get jealous.’ She frowned. ‘I’m not sure I’ve ever had the opportunity to find out. We’ve all been with other people since we hooked up, but it’s mostly been pack things or parties. We’ve all been at it, nothing to be jealous of.’

  ‘Something to watch out for,’ he said, his voice matter-of-fact. He was pulling into a parking lot as he spoke. Driving to the end of it, he parked up right beside a public phone and fished a handful of quarters from his pocket. ‘Good luck.’

  The call connected on the third ring. ‘Hoffman.’ His voice sounded tired.

  ‘Ed? I don’t know if you remember me. We met at a couple of parties recently.’ She could not think of a reason why his phone would be tapped, but better safe than sorry. ‘I was in the neighbourhood and I thought I’d look you up.’

  There was a pause before he answered. ‘The voice sounds familiar. What did you want?’ That didn’t sound good. He was not using her name either.

  ‘Well, you may have heard some bad things about me recently. I wanted to know if you believed them.’

  ‘I stand by what I said the last time we met.’ No hesitation at all, that was good. ‘Look, we can’t talk long.’ No, if they knew it was her they would be tracing the call. To a payphone, but it would give them an area to look in.

  ‘No,’ she said. ‘I’ll be in touch.’ She hung up the phone and went back to the car.

  ‘Any luck?’ Kangee asked as he pulled the car away.

  ‘He’ll help, but he thinks they’re monitoring his calls.’

  ‘Wow, these guys really want you.’

  Ceri sighed. ‘You don’t know the half of it.’

  Black Crow Camp, February 19th

  Ceri walked through the camp slowly, fairly obviously just watching people, and no one seemed to be bothered about it so she just kept on going. It was the first day she had had where she could just wander about, observe the pack, be herself for a while.

  The camp formed a rough
ly circular arrangement. The tent Ceri was sharing with Lily and Nita was not on the outer edge, but it was not far from it. Ceri made her way to the outer edge and began to walk the perimeter, looking for anything interesting and different. The wolves kept the entrances of their tepees aimed toward the centre and there was not much to see outside the big circle. However, Ceri had managed to attract a following of about ten children by the time she was halfway around.

  Werewolves did not have the ability to shift at birth and, contrary to popular opinion, they did not develop it at puberty either. Shifting, like the ability to work magic, was a function of the brain, and it was not until certain brain developments took place that wolves developed the capacity to shift. Even then they had to learn to do it and it looked like none of these kids had figured it out yet. Ceri was not exactly sure how she knew, but she knew. Something about the way they moved? Her supernatural senses? Whatever, they could not shift.

  The oldest looked to be in his early teens, perhaps fourteen, the youngest was maybe six. None of them were terribly shy, but it was the oldest one who was most interested and leading the pack. The interest from most of the younger ones was pure inquisitiveness; Ceri got the feeling they did not see many humans in camp, or maybe it had got around that this was the woman Luperca had asked Katarina to help. The teenager, though, was finding his place in the pack and at least part of that was to do with his sexuality. Ceri was an attractive woman he did not know and it was always easier to have a few naughty thoughts about a stranger…

  The kids followed her as she made her way into the tent village. Typically for werewolves confident in their nature, the people here were mixed forms. There were wolves sitting around, lazing in the winter sun, and there were man-form wolves conducting various activities, or just chatting. She passed a woman mending a pair of jeans who nodded to her, smiling. Everyone appeared to know who she was, so the kids probably did too.

  There was a group of women sitting around the fire in the middle of the camp and Ceri settled down in an empty space on a log without saying anything. No one commented and the woman beside her, pretty, white, and engaged in sewing buttons on a shirt, smiled at her. The children sat behind her, about six feet back, and started whispering amongst themselves. All except for the teenager anyway, who was too busy watching Ceri.

  ‘Hi,’ the girl beside Ceri said, ‘I’m Joan.

  Ceri gave her a smile. ‘Ceri,’ she said.

  ‘Oh I know,’ Joan said. ‘We all know who you are, even Chayton back there.’

  ‘That’s his name?’ Ceri glanced over her shoulder. The young man’s cheeks were colouring a little and he looked away when she caught his eye. ‘Seems like a nice young man. A little shy maybe.’

  Joan’s voice lowered. ‘We’re a little worried about him. Fifteen and he still hasn’t changed.’ He looked a little young for fifteen, but okay.

  ‘You know, I’ve never asked how you actually do it. I studied the process and I can repeat it on myself or someone else, but I don’t know how a werewolf thinks of it.’

  Joan frowned slightly. ‘I just… do it. One day I just wanted to change and the next thing I knew I was tingling and… wolf.’

  ‘I always theorised,’ Ceri said, nodding, ‘that it was essentially an enchantment woven into your genes. You have to power it, like a magician, like Luperca’s collar…’ She turned around and looked at her young follower. ‘Hey, Chayton, come over here, would you?’ The teenager looked around as though she must be talking to someone else. ‘Yes, you,’ Ceri said, smiling. Getting up he started across the brown grass, not assisted by some giggles from the younger children.

  ‘Uh… what?’ Chayton said. He was slumping, embarrassed, nervous.

  ‘Manners,’ one of the older woman called out.

  Chayton cringed. ‘Sorry, ma’am.’

  ‘Ceri,’ Ceri told him. ‘I don’t need you calling me “ma’am” to make me feel old.’ There was laughter from around the fire. ‘I just want to have a look at you. Stand still, and straight, and don’t be embarrassed.’

  ‘Uh… okay.’

  Ceri blinked on her Sight and cast her gaze over the young werewolf as he pulled himself up a little straighter. His medians were strong enough, the Chakral showing slight development, but perhaps less than she would have expected in a werewolf. That could be age; she was used to looking at werewolves who transformed regularly. Her eyes scanned slowly down from the base of his skull, not really noticing his cheeks colouring. She did notice the flickers of energy along his Tantric median and, when she got a little lower, the bulge developing in his jeans. Pushing back her own embarrassment, she concentrated on examining Chayton’s metaphysical structure.

  She frowned. ‘Were you in an accident or something?’

  Chayton looked at her. ‘No. I think I’d remember…’

  ‘No, you wouldn’t,’ Joan said. ‘You were about three. I was barely in my teens. It wasn’t an accident though.’

  ‘Elf-shot,’ one of the older women said, nodding.

  ‘Sort of,’ Joan said. ‘He was actually hit with a fae arrow. Lodged in his spine, if I remember right. Katarina got it out and healed the wound. There was a bit of worry about him walking, but it seemed like he recovered fine.’

  ‘There’s a swelling…’ Ceri began.

  ‘Oh, you’d noticed that too?’ Joan said and all the women burst into a fit of giggles.

  Chayton looked like he was going to bolt. Ceri reached out and grabbed the boy’s hips. ‘Turn around, Chayton,’ she said. ‘I need to look at your back.’ He turned around; it had the advantage of hiding his scarlet cheeks. ‘Sorry about this,’ Ceri said, and yanked his shirt out of his jeans.

  The scar was just above the waistband, a fairly small, thin, white line in his dark skin. Ceri nodded. ‘There’s a swelling in your Chakral median right under the scar,’ she said. ‘You can tuck your shirt in now.’

  He did so, turning back toward her with a curious frown on his face. ‘That why I can’t change, m… um, Ceri?’

  ‘Try for me. Just, want to be a wolf.’

  ‘I know,’ he said. ‘Dad’s tried to help me enough times.’ He closed his eyes and concentrated. Ceri watched the power build at the base of the median, the base of his spine. It flared up the line of his spine, hit the swelling, and then blossomed into the kind of energy sphere Ceri expected, except that it should have been running up to the crown of his head. He gave a grimace and let out a grunt of frustration.

  ‘Not comfortable?’ Ceri asked. ‘Maybe even hurts?’ He nodded uncomfortably. ‘All right, we know what the problem is. I’ll talk to Katarina tonight and see if we can’t come up with a way of fixing it.’

  Chayton’s face brightened. ‘You think you can?’

  Ceri looked at him. ‘I don’t believe in lying to people, no matter what their age, so I’ll tell you I don’t know. I’ll try, that’s all I can promise.’

  She knew he was hearing “yes, you’ll be fixed in no time” from his expression, but he looked as though he was trying to be reasonable. ‘Thanks, Ceri. Of course… if you can help… that’d… well, be great.’ He scurried off with his back straight, looking rather more enthusiastic than he had when he was following Ceri around.

  ‘You really think you can help him?’ Joan asked.

  Ceri turned back to look at her. ‘I really hope so,’ she said.

  February 20th

  ‘Good shopping trip?’ Katarina asked as the three women and Kangee filed into her tepee.

  ‘Please don’t go there,’ Kangee replied producing three fits of giggles.

  Katarina smirked. ‘I thought you’d been gone a while.’

  ‘We got what we needed,’ Ceri said. ‘I can’t thank you enough for this.’

  ‘It’s to our benefit too, dear. Any news?’

  They settled around the small fire and Kangee gave his news first. ‘The tension is building in Washington. The president has been moved to a secure bunker at Black Fields. Someone leaked n
ews of “intelligence” suggesting there would be further attempts on his life. No one knows for sure where the leak came from, but my source says it came out of Levy’s office.’

  ‘It made it onto a couple of the more right wing newspaper sites,’ Nita said. ‘Big, scary headlines. The more moderate agencies are being calmer, but they’re still reporting “unconfirmed warnings” of another attempt.’

  ‘There were some reports from the southern states of troops being recalled from leave,’ Ceri said.

  ‘The conspiracy sites were all over that,’ Nita added. ‘Someone out there is spreading a rumour that the whole assassination business is cover for a military move into Texas.’

  ‘It would be interesting to find out who started that,’ Katarina said. ‘They’re almost certainly right, for one thing.’

  ‘I’ll see if anyone can get anything on the source,’ Kangee said.

  ‘This is getting really bad,’ Lily said. ‘We can’t wait much longer.’

  ‘It’s New Moon tomorrow night,’ Ceri said. ‘We’ll go then. It should give us a better chance of getting over the border without trouble.’

  ‘And once you’ve got there?’ Katarina asked.

  ‘I don’t think we have much choice,’ Ceri replied, ‘I’m going to contact Ed Hoffman.’

  ~~~

  Chayton had his share of teenage hang-ups, but none of them concerned his body. When told to strip and lie down in front of Katarina’s fire on a bedroll which had been brought in for the purpose, he was climbing out of his clothes practically before Ceri was finished speaking. He had looked a little awed to have Lily in the tent, especially since Lily had swapped out her big, thick shirt for a tank top, but the spell Ceri was going to use required fairly large amounts of power, and far more residue in Ceri’s structure than she could shift in a day. Pulling the power through Lily meant the residual energy could be shared between them and dissipated faster. So Chayton had to put up with the full effect of Lily’s chest and moved to lie down as quickly as possible when he had undressed.

  Ceri looked across at Katarina. ‘His parents are happy enough with this?’ she asked. ‘You did explain it might not work? Something could even go wrong? It’s not something I’ve tried before and I know this one…’ She gave Chayton a light slap on the back. ‘…would let me do invasive surgery with a rusty spoon if he thought it would let him change, but…’