by Martha Woods
“Christine told me some things about the fights that your shifters and theirs used to have, it sounds like things got very bad there for a while. Do you know anything about that?”
“About their elder being killed before they were chased out into the forest? Yeah I know about that, but I was only a kid when it happened. Why’s that?”
“Well, it sounds like they hold a pretty massive grudge about that, if the stories I’ve heard about their daughter are anything to go off of. You have heard about that right? The daughter of the shifter elder, finally seeing a chance to have her revenge against all of you once she sees that there is someone else in the world that hates you just as much as she does.”
“Ah, you’re talking about that romance rumor, that ‘hate corrupts even love’ message that some of the others are so fond of?” He laughed, “Yeah, I’ve heard it. Not sure I put much stock in it, I don’t even know for sure if their daughter even survived into adulthood. We barely did, what chance would they have once they were forced to be on the run for the rest of their lives? But I suppose if they did… they’d probably hold quite the violent grudge, wouldn’t they?”
“I would say that they would. I don’t know if I buy the romance, but I know for sure that he’s involved with them, and if she is still alive then she’s likely the entire reason for him not being killed on sight. And given their shared hatred of you for what was taken… there’s likely no room for negotiating, is there?”
“With us? The shifters who took their place after killing their people? Absolutely no way in hell would they even think about an alternative to killing us.” He pointed at me, sweeping his finger across the wall of the warehouse. “You on the other hand might have a chance to do so, but I’m sure that they wouldn’t want to negotiate about anything other than handing us over to them on a silver platter. After all the trouble that we’re turning out to be I don’t think I would blame you if you did.”
“That’s a strange thing to say if you don’t want me to do that, don’t you think?”
“If you were capable of doing it then you’d already be thinking of it, there’s no point in denying that. People tend to think of what extreme they would be willing to work to first and then go backwards from there, it helps with knowing what you want to do. We’ve had to make those decisions on more than one occasion ourselves.”
“Well I don’t have any plans to sell you out, not now that I’ve gotten everyone on board with protecting you. If I was going to do that then I can assure you that I wouldn’t have gone through all that effort.”
“Good to know, but what are you going to do now? If negotiating is off the table and you don’t want to go out there and hunt them down, that limits your options substantially.” Nathan leaned forward, his face softening along with his tone. “I don’t want you to think that I’m not grateful for what you’ve done for us, I am, really. But without an actual plan all that’s happening is you are being put in danger alongside the rest of us. I don’t see much point in that, do you?”
He was right, our efforts so far hadn’t amounted to much in the short term, we hadn’t even gotten there fast enough to see the other shifters, let alone help fight them off. We were just being put in the line of fire this way, regardless of how far back I wanted to keep everyone. Sooner or later I was going to have to make a decision, and I figure sooner was more realistic in this case.
“I’ll get a defense together, you and yours are going to have to stay here for now while you heal up anyway, we can sort out what happens once all of you are recovered. I don’t think that they would be so reckless to attack you all the way inside the city but… what do you think? You know them better than I do after all.”
“Honestly?” He shrugged. “I think that they would attack the White House if they thought that they had to in order to get to an enemy. They don’t care about boundaries, or rules, they just care about results, that’s why we had to run in the first place. Hunters have some care for making sure average people don’t become aware of our existence, this one has no such worries, he’ll just kill whoever gets in the way and keep on with the mission.”
“I thought so…” I hated being proved wrong, even if it was just on a suspicion. What was I supposed to do against someone who didn’t even care about the masquerade? We were putting a lot of work into making sure that everyone remained hidden and safe, I didn’t appreciate that there were a group of vagabonds who didn’t give a single shit about all of that. It makes me feel undervalued.
“Look, maybe you don’t have to go out and seek them out for an attack, but if you’re serious about defending us then you need to prepare for that properly, you need to make sure that everyone is on the same page and ready to fight as hard as they can, because these people would love to take you off guard. The morgues in the last three towns are filled with people who weren’t prepared for them.”
“I understand, I’ll… I’ll think of something, obviously the vampires can’t be here around the clock but… when would they be most likely to attack? When were you most at risk?”
“We were in danger pretty much all hours of the day, but nights were particularly risky. Our senses are stronger at night, and though that means that we could defend ourselves easier they were much more vicious than they would be during the day. I think that would be your best bet, but I would prepare for day all the same.”
“Fantastic,” I sighed, already going through plans in my head of what we were actually supposed to do here. “Alright, I’ll start to get a plan together. If we have any luck at all we can… Nathan?”
“I’m sorry…” He groaned, clutching at his temple, “I took a rather nasty blow before, I didn’t really notice anything wrong until just now…”
“Oh dear…” Kneeling at his side and placing my hand on the back of his head, it was impossible to miss the very sizable lump under my palm. “You almost definitely have a concussion, did you tell any of the healers about this?”
“I didn’t think that it was much of a big deal, and there are so many more inside who are so much more hurt than me.”
“Well if you fall asleep you have a chance of dying, how is that for hurt?” Slinging his arm over my shoulders, I found myself once again trudging someone along when I should have just been enjoying a normal night alone. Someday, someday I’ll be able to have a normal night.
“Sorry about this,” He said, appropriately chided, “I guess I can be just as reckless as my brother sometimes.”
“From what Anthony said you’re constantly as reckless as your brother, I would really recommend that you change that. You saw how well that worked out tonight.”
“Yes, I did,” He said, “I’m pretty sure I’ll have to change a few things if I want to actually keep all of us alive won’t I?”
“If by a few things you mean most, then yes.” I shoved the door open with my foot, waving my free hand to get the attention of the healers. “But you’re not so bad. A few weeks of training not to be an idiot and I’m sure you could do great things.”
“Well, you know just what to say to make a man feel better about himself don’t you?” Smirking at the long-suffering healer who had no doubt looked him over first, he shrugged as he was transferred from me to her. “Hello, I’m sorry but I guess I forgot to bring something to your attention…”
Ok, maybe a lot of things would need to be changed. But he wasn’t so bad I suppose, once you get used to him at least.
Not sure how I feel about spending that much time around him.
“BIG ASKS AMY, we’ve been making a lot of big asks lately.” Cara had come to the office at my request, I’d felt bad about calling her in yet again on a day off but I figured given the circumstances she could forgive me on that. She wasn’t lying either, big asks were pretty much the only thing that I had been making over the last few days, dragging the werewolves and the vampires out of what could be called a modicum of safety, getting the witches involved with some… strange spy network that had popped
into my head on a whim. Of everyone I think that I’m the one who has the least risk placed on me, and even though that seems to be a thing with leadership it… doesn’t sit right with me.
Which is why the least that I can do is feel bad for calling her in on a day off. I can at least be held accountable for that much.
“There’s not many other options for what we can do Cara, believe me, I’ve tried thinking of them. There’s a lot of people that need our help, and who knows if this hunter would even think about leaving us alone even if we decided not to get involved.”
“I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be making these decisions, I’m…” She sighed, taking a sip of her coffee and chewing on her lip, “God, I don’t know what I’m saying. Things were so much simpler when the only things we had to worry about were studying and partying.”
“I had to worry about studying more thank you, it was you who got to go to all the parties.”
“I dragged you along to a lot of them, don’t lie.” Shoving my leg with her foot, it was impossible not to join her in laughter. “And you still passed, so don’t act like I wasn’t doing you a favor!”
“Alright fine, maybe I needed the chance to relax away from my books, I can admit that much. Don’t expect me to fall all over you in thanks though.” God I missed that time, even if I hadn’t met Damon and Vincent yet everything just felt so much simpler, I really longed for that time more than I thought possible in the last few months. When the biggest worry was how I was going to pay a bar tab or what I was going to wear to a party it’s hard not to look back on that with nostalgia, especially now that I had to deal with people losing arms and almost getting their eyes torn out of their heads. A few cracked nails next to that sounded like heaven.
“How are they doing?” Cara asked, “The shifters?”
“A lot of them are really hurt Cara, Anthony lost his arm. A few more are missing, they’re either dead or… I don’t know. I feel like I really dropped the ball last night, I was supposed to be on call.”
“You didn’t drop anything, you can’t predict everything that’s going to happen, no matter how good at your job you are. You need your rest away from all of this, everyone does, it was just bad luck that everything ended up happening last night. Don’t blame yourself for it.” Reaching across and taking my hand, she nodded slowly and ran her thumb along my knuckles. “If you really want to make it up to everyone, then just keep doing what you’re doing. I’m sure that all of them appreciate you sticking your neck so far out for them.”
“Nathan was, I just need to make sure that I don’t end up getting them even more hurt than they already are. Have you found out anything else since last night?”
“I put in the calls you wanted me to, the vampires are agreeing to keep a watch over the warehouse at night, and the hunters are keeping a low profile during the day. It’s still weird seeing them work together, they think so too, but they’re doing a good job of it.”
“Anything else?”
“Alexis wanted to know if she can do anything, or if you want her to stay behind the scenes for now.”
“Tell her to keep a low profile, I don’t want to risk all of them getting hurt when we don’t even know what the shifters are willing to do. Once we can figure that out… maybe we’ll look into getting her more involved, but for now she needs to stay away for her own safety.”
“Alright, I’ll let her know.” Pinching the bridge of her nose between her fingers, Cara blinked away what looked to be the start of a headache. “When this is all over I’m going to take a long vacation, I just want to warn you now.”
“Are you kidding me? I’m going to be putting in a request right next to you! I think I’m just going to crawl into a hole and sleep for a few months, that sounds like what I’ll need to recover from all of this.” Tapping my fingers along the desk, I flipped through the plans that I still had for the day in my head before humming to myself, “I think that I should be there at the warehouse if things go badly, just in case, you know?”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” She asked, “Won’t Damon and Vincent worry too much?”
“They’ll be fine, it’s not like we haven’t worked on separate things before after all. Only a few months ago Vincent trusted me on my own to walk in and try to save all of you, and that was when we knew that there were going to be loaded guns pointed at me! For all we know nothing is going to happen anytime soon, I’ll just be there to make sure that everything is running smoothly.”
“Alright, if you say so…” She sighed, “I’m not going to be the one who explains it to them though, that’s all on you.”
“Don’t worry,” I said, “I’m sure that they’ll understand just fine!”
“I DON’T UNDERSTAND.”
Well, I should have honestly expected that. Damon always was pretty stubborn after all.
“I just want to be there to show my support for everyone, make sure that they know that I have their back and I’m willing to be there with them through everything. I don’t want to be one of those leaders who sits back and leaves everything to the little people.”
“Well yeah but… what if someone comes along and tries to fucking shoot you? That’s also not good for a leader to do!”
“I know that you’re worried, both of you, even if Vincent isn’t showing it, but I’ll really be in no more danger than I would if I stayed here on my own. Probably less danger actually, I’ll be surrounded by armed hunters and vampires, if someone wanted to take a shot at me then they definitely wouldn’t have the clearest of opportunities would they?”
“I’m obviously agreeing with Damon here,” Vincent said, “Exposing yourself like this is a very unnecessary risk, everyone towns over who knows about our alliance knows that it is your brainchild. If someone had it in their mind to deal a serious blow, you would be the one with a target on your back.”
I wasn’t going to deny it, because they were absolutely right. But so was I, and that’s what was really annoying me about all of this. I was going to be in danger anyway, but Nathan and Caleb were in far more danger than I was, and I had made a deal to protect them from their enemies. What would it say about me if I decided that I didn’t actually want to have any part of that danger and sat safely in my apartment with a guard around me twenty-four seven? That’s not the kind of leader that I want to be, and I have a feeling that it’s not the sort of leader Joseph was telling people I was. He had to get people to believe in this alliance somehow after all, what better way than that?
“You’re still going to do it aren’t you?” Damon asked, “You’ve got that look on your face that you always get when we can’t convince you, I’m more than familiar with that look by now.”
Vincent didn’t even bother saying anything, moving over to the kitchen to occupy himself with whatever it was that he’d been cooking when I’d walked in. No doubt he was just as disappointed and annoyed as Damon was, but he had a better control over his emotions that came with being alive for centuries. Still, with literally five centuries worth of training you’d think that he would be borderline unreadable.
“I would say at least be careful, but that’s impossible in situations like this, we all know that.” Slicing through a carrot and sliding it to the side, he cut into a potato just a little too hard to be fully normal. “I take it that you don’t want us to be by your side through all of this either.”
Damon looked up at us, eyes instantly widening in alarm and his mouth hanging open in shock. “What?” He almost yelled, “You want us to just leave you on your own as well, while there’s a mad man with an army out there potentially preparing to attack?”
“I want you to trust me that I know what I’m doing, you trusted me to be alright when I had to deal with Tristian didn’t you?”
“That was different,” Vincent grumbled, “You know that…”
“How? How was it different?”
“It was daylight, I wouldn’t have been able to help you at all, no matter how m
uch I wished to. You will be watching this warehouse at night, when I’m fully capable of protecting you, when we both are capable of doing so, if you would only let us.”
“There are so many more people who need your protection, people who are literally incapable of defending themselves to even the smallest degree! I can handle myself, you’ve seen me do so! I’m not some fragile egg that’s going to break if you take your eyes off me for a second, I’m going to be fine!”
Vincent looked as though he wanted to argue more, one of flaws that we shared was that we just didn’t know how to let something pass, but to my surprise it was Damon that broke the momentary silence, clearing his throat and allowing himself a moment to think. “If you really want us to protect everyone else… then I’ll agree to that. I just want to know that you’re safe and protected, it’s not that we think that you’re useless, it’s that we all made a promise to protect each other, and that is a promise that we both take very seriously. If something happens to you when we promised that we wouldn’t allow it to happen, how do you think that will make us feel?”
“And how do you think I’ll feel if someone else gets hurt because you’re focused on protecting me and only me? We made a promise to each other, that’s true, but I also made a promise to them. I promised to protect all of them as best I could, and I intend to do that with every resource that I have at my disposal. I hope you don’t mind that I’m considering you resources for this.”
“I’ve been considered worse before, no offense taken.” Vincent placed his knife down, running his hand down his face and sighing into his palm, “I’ve lived through countless wars and fights, I hope that you trust me when I say that they are always messy. If you want us to focus on everyone else then I’ll respect that, so long as you respect the potential danger that you will be placed in, can you agree on that?”