“Yes?” his new deep voice replied.
“What about you or former you, I guess?” she asked, gesturing toward the body she had known as him.
“Dispose of it with Martinez if you need to be thorough and have no evidence of anything strange. I blended in and kept to myself so no outsiders should notice my disappearance and become curious though. Even if they did, the body was vacated and the original identity declared deceased a long time ago,” he said.
Liesel looked at Tyler. “Make Martinez’s body disappear, no trace anywhere. Stage a traffic accident for Gideon’s old body just in case, we need normal statistics around town anyway. The doc knows what is up and is smart enough to note the apparent cause of death and not the real one,” she told him.
“Yes ma’am,” he replied quickly, turning to assist his fellows who had already begun to clear the area.
Liesel turned to walk into the house, waving away Gideon’s hands as he attempted to help steady her. Then she stopped and turned to him. She put a hand on his chest and looked at it while she gave a small push that he did not react to. He stood perfectly still as if afraid to startle her, looking down at her. She looked up, then she looked up some more because Grimsley had been taller than whoever Gideon’s other body had once been. Her eyes searched his again, then looked over toward his old truck.
“Do you need anything before the fake old you’s death?” she asked, frowning. “I mean, do you need your keys or something?”
He shook his head. “No,” he said. “Jonah and I have a protocol for unplanned transitions.”
“Oh, okay,” she said. Then she turned and walked robotically to the house and inside, not closing the door behind herself or checking to see if Gideon or anyone else followed her. Her phone, still on her arm with the headphones dangling and twisted, began to light up and presumably ring but only the dust bunnies would be able to hear if it was. Liesel pulled the phone out of the arm band and pulled the headphones out of the jack.
“Hello?” said Liesel, having swiped to answer without looking.
“Liesel? Why do you sound like that?” asked Ingrid, her mother’s voice dripping with suspicion. “Is it your grandmother? Has she done something?”
Liesel looked down at the phone a moment, then tapped the end button without answering her mother’s questions. She dropped the phone onto a small side table in the hall and walked up the stairs. As she stripped and walked into the bathroom to shower, she thought she heard more cars and people coming and going from the property. Inside the bathroom she inspected her bruises in the mirror, already fading but still aching a bit, then washed away the literal blood, sweat, tears, and dirt along with the confusion and shock.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Liesel stepped out of the shower, toweled herself dry, and made faces at herself in the mirror over the vanity. “Get it together Liesel. You can handle this.” She said sternly, then stuck her tongue out at her own reflection. “Fine. Fake it ‘til you make it, girl.” She said. In her bedroom, she put on a pair of leggings in a galaxy print stretch fabric and an over sized black tee shirt and left her hair to air dry in whatever wild way it wanted to. She took a deep breath in, then released it, and heading back down the stairs. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she saw that the house was nearly full with visitors, at least the bottom floor. She looked around and saw Gideon leaning against the wall near the front door. He had ditched the suit jacket, tie, and shoulder holster. He had also untucked the shirt and opened the top button. She took the opportunity to look him up and down because he was observing her house guests. Intellectually she understood it was Gideon, even though the eyes she had looked into were green instead of brown, they were Gideon’s eyes. It was Gideon’s reserved gentleness. Gideon’s speech patterns. It was still going to take getting used to Gideon existing in the body of someone she had seen as a threat. She supposed it was better she had only seen Grimsley three times if you include that day’s assault so she didn’t have as much to overcome as she might otherwise. It also didn’t hurt that he went from being someone who blended into the background to someone who was sexy as hell in a big scary kind of way. She caught his eye and beckoned him over. He straightened and walked over and leaned down so that she would not have to speak loudly to be heard.
“We need to talk about what you know now,” she said softly. “If I don’t get an idea of what to do before I get the third degree, they will overpower my authority and I don’t have much as it is.”
Gideon nodded and followed her as she turned and walked up the stairs to go back to the bedroom she was using. She gave a little hop and sat on top of the low chest of drawers. Gideon sat on the end of the bed because there was nowhere else to sit and he could appreciate that she would not want him to loom over her at the moment at least.
“How much do you know that Grimsley knew?” she asked straight away.
“Everything. Skills are instinctive, like how to use a weapon or drive, facts have to be pulled up like a report from a file cabinet but they are all there if I dig,” Gideon answered. “If we… if a gauner takes a body that is brain dead, we only gain its muscle memory and whatever we bring to it. If we take a body by force, we retain everything but a degree removed,” he continued.
Liesel looked out the window and nodded. “Thank you,” she said.
“Liesel,” he said, tilting his head to the side to try and catch her eye. When she did look at him again, he continued. “Martinez was evil and Grimsley was a zealot doing terrible things. Even if they were not, they were hurting you. I have no regrets,” he said.
Liesel sniffled but did not cry. “I was so naive and you paid for it, Gideon,” she said in a voice barely above a whisper and on the edge of cracking.
“I don’t think anyone knows the depth of what they were doing. You had no reason to do anything different. Gertrude certainly didn’t follow any security measures,” he said.
“You knew I should be more careful,” she reminded him.
“No. I was paranoid because I care for you and men default to caveman like thoughts of protection and isolation more often than not,” he said in response.
Liesel ducked her head to try and hide a blush she knew he would see anyway but would have the good grace to not comment on if she was trying to cover.
“So, tell me everything we need to know about who Grimsley really worked for and what he was doing out in the desert so we can recover our people,” she said.
“Malachi Grimsley is or rather was the Special Agent in Charge of the Texas field office of the Bureau of Preternatural Affairs,” he began.
“Wait, what?” she interrupted, holding up a hand. “There is an entire agency in the government for this now?”
“They are monitoring therians and aurics of all sorts and have reports of phereins but don’t fully understand what is going on there. They have captured sample victims to experiment on over the years. That is how they developed tranquilizers that work fast on non-humans and that cleaning chemical they used that you tracked them by, ironically. They want more so they can see if they can make better weapons against them and then use their genetics to make better medicine for humans or purposeful evolution. It’s eugenics but no one is bothered by it because the other they united against are non human beings,” he said wryly. “Grimsley himself was on the receiving end of a phone call from a random concerned citizen telling him about Stewards and suggesting Zell as a good target for kidnappings because it was isolated.”
“Informant wasn’t wrong. As reserved as Grams is, most Stewards are pure pencil pushers these days and frowned on what they saw as a high level of fraternization with her charges,” said Liesel. “Who is this person? A Steward gone bad? How else would they know so much?” she asked.
“It was a man, called himself Abner Knapp. Grimsley was having him investigated but hadn’t followed up to review the information since what he passed on during the phone call proved fruitful and accurate when he kidnapped Trudie, John, and Co
dy,” said Gideon.
“That doesn’t make any sense,” said Liesel shaking her head. “Only supernaturals would know about Stewards and who would hold a grudge bad enough to turn not only on a Steward, which I can see honestly, but also a therian and pherein from a small community that stays out of bigger politics?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know, Liesel,” said Gideon.
“Are… are they still alive. Are they hurt?” she finally gathered the courage to ask.
“You were right, they are in that bunker meets warehouse in the desert. They were alive as of this morning. They were separated in isolation units and the plan is to experiment on them slowly, ramping up from blood draws to vivisection most likely but Grimsley didn’t concern himself with the details of the science, he saw himself as a savior of humanity. I don’t know what condition they are in,” he answered in measured tones.
“Do we have a chance of saving them?” asked Liesel.
“Before today?” he asked. “Absolutely not. Now that I have Grimsley’s body, we have a way to get in but it still involves an assault and the risks associated with one. We can save them but not without bloodshed of the humans holding them.” He said.
Liesel nodded thoughtfully, then sighed and hopped down from the chest of drawers. “Alright, alright. Shall we go downstairs and see if we can negotiate with the natives?” she asked rhetorically. Gideon stood and followed her out of the room and to the top of the stairs. The landing was the only part hidden from view. Gideon took her hand and gently pulled her to a stop. “Liesel, you don’t have to make these choices. You were not trained for whatever passes as normal situations for a Steward let alone confronting a federal enemy. You have a legitimate right to ask your council to step in to advise you or send someone else to be the interim Steward,” he said.
“Our birth rates are down, they may not have an interim, that is why they accepted me for this position,” she said in response to his latter statement.
“Liesel,” he said in a low chiding voice.
“I called the Council already, when I knew they had been kidnapped by professionals but didn’t know other details yet. They told me to cut our losses and prepare for defensive action,” she admitted. “I can’t do that, I can’t completely abandon Grams, hell, I can’t bring myself to abandon Dixon or Miller either and I have never met either of them. If the trustees hear it is a federal agency with a budget of any kind, they would tell me to raze the village myself most likely and go scorched earth.”
“I think that leaves your only option to go rogue from the Stewards and hope for the best. So now we set up a security system for the house and you go nowhere unarmed. Just in case,” he said, giving her hand a squeeze before releasing it. She found she missed the warmth.
They walked down the stairs and into the family living room, which was full to the brim with supernatural people but they had naturally segregated into their own species, she wondered if they realized and did it on purpose or if it was a telling thing about the relationship between the groups.
Liesel gave a loud whistle using her thumb and forefinger between her lips to get the crowd’s attention. All eyes snapped to her. “There are too many of you, get out. Unless you are giving a report on something you learned or did regarding today’s incident or you are the decision maker for your family, clan, or race; then you may stay,” she said. “Go on, I’ll wait a moment,” she said when the crowd did not immediately begin to disperse. Gideon glowered at them from over the top of her head and the extraneous helpers began to stand up and filter out to the yard or wherever it was they decided to wait at if they did not intend to immediately return to where they had come from when they received the alert call.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Still remaining in the room were Pearl Dixon, Trish Dixon, Lauren and Tyler, neither of whom she had a surname for yet, Zachary and Danielle Moore, Bianca King, Michael whose last name was also still a mystery to her, Jonah Gauner, Amber Gauner, and someone she did not recognize at all but wore the uniform of an Emergency Medical Technician and standing alone in the corner.
Liesel walked farther into the room to better address those gathered in the room as leaders. Gideon moved around from behind her to her side and still slightly behind, leaning against a decorative column at the entry to the room. Liesel took a moment to survey those in front of her. When her eyes landed on the man she did not recognize in the EMT uniform, she stopped.
“My name, although you presumably already know if you are here, is Liesel Bohm. Steward Gertrude Bohm is my grandmother. I am standing in her stead as Steward of this region and patron of this town until she can return to the position. You are?” said Liesel.
The man stepped forward. He was pale and freckled with burnt orange hair with a tight curl that was cut close to the scalp of average height and a moderate but strong looking build. “My name is Jamie Hall. I came into town this morning to find Steward Gertrude because of strange patterns Aurics in the area have seen developing. Ms. King was filling me in on your interim status when news of your attempted abduction came in. I tagged along when she came so I could share my news and see what needed doing,” he said.
“Why you, Jamie. I do not want to insult you under normal circumstances but these are not normal circumstances and your name was not among the leadership or the messenger lackeys of the Aurics in any of my grandmother’s materials,” said Liesel.
“Yes, well,” said Jamie, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “Most of my people, well, the Aurics in the region are in no position to risk discovery or disruption of their public lives and occupations. I fled my current job before I could be arrested so our elders decided I was in a… shall we say, unique position to assist you,” he finished.
“I see,” said Liesel. “I think I know what you are going to say now that I know more about my unwanted uninvited visitors but please share your information before we go further into what I must reveal to and ask of those assembled here today.”
Jamie nodded sharply. “Aurics keep very good records of the types and levels of extreme emotional disturbance, we think of them like a fisherman might think of rip tides on tidal charts. We feed off of high emotion of course but too much explosive emotion can overwhelm our numbers and too much negativity can cause mental health disturbances in the Aurics consuming the excess of the area. This way, we can keep areas balanced where possible and know where we are best positioned among the populace,” he said. He looked at Liesel to be sure she was following along.
“Makes sense so far, continue please,” she said.
“We have noticed an increase in emotional disturbance among supernaturals. The energy is very distinct from humans and we typically find it unhealthy to consume as it can alter our state of being as if the emotion was our own. At first the build up was slow and we could not detect a useful pattern and major population centers seemed unaffected so we felt it was a temporary abnormality, perhaps there was a political dust up or something we were unaware of among therian clans, for example.” He said. There were grumbles from the therians assembled but no outright growling or threatening gestures so Liesel said nothing and Jamie continued after only a brief pause to catch is breath. “When it did not disappear we were concerned that it was not a short finite period and sent a pair of our own to investigate and narrow the area of disturbance and see if they could identify the cause. The area was narrowed to this tri county rural area. There was one report saying they had become suspicious of disappearances and injuries that were seemingly unrelated except all of the victims were supernaturals. Then we received no more reports and both of them disappeared. We went to the hotel they were staying at and their belongings were all there with no sign of foul play other than two adult Aurics versed in private investigation techniques disappearing off the face of the earth with no trace,” he said.
“What are their names? Your missing investigators.” Asked Liesel.
“Andrew Jones and Daniel Lewis,” said Jamie.
“Thank you,” said Liesel. “Please, everyone take a seat or get comfortable however you can and wait until I finish to make any comments or ask questions.” She looked around the room at everyone but Gideon, who was still slightly behind her and she knew he would not interrupt, to be sure they would comply as best they could, before she started talking again.
“The non-humans in our region have been quietly under attack by a previously unknown government agency called the Bureau of Preternatural Affairs. They masquerade as being a field office for the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs and on some occasions other agencies that better suite their need for a lie in the moment during field work as was the case when Carlos Martinez and Malachi Grimsley came to the homestead on more than one occasions attempting to pass as being from the United States Marshall Service,” she said. “It seems this agency has been slowly kidnapping non-humans to research and experiment on them. Shortly before the abduction of my grandmother, John Dixon, and Cody Miller, a male individual calling himself Abner Knapp called in a tip to Grimsley telling him all about stewards and about our little town full of supernatural creatures.”
Everyone looked fairly in shock to Liesel, their eyes wide, some with mouths hanging open even, bodies leaning forward or tilted back. Then Pearl Dixon began to make an eerie low growl.
“They are experimenting on John?” she ground out in a voice much deeper than her usual one. Her growl triggered a low growl among the other canid therians and a tension seemed to overtake the feline therians, although they did not make the noises the others did.
Liesel looked at Pearl, well, looked at her face but not directly in her eyes, not wanting to trigger a werewolf in an already agitated state. “We need to maintain control. If we rush in there wild with no plan, we lose our people and they kill us or experiment on us too. Our loved ones want to be rescued, not see us fail in a grand but pointless gesture,” she said sternly. The therians worked to regain control over themselves. The tension did not leave their bodies but the low growling and rapid breathing calmed and went away.
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