Red Skies

by Jan Stryvant

  "Well, that's what he called it. He always returned them; he never kept them, or anything from them. Yeah, looking back it was stupid. But when you're fifteen, that stuff is kind of cool."

  "Your father must have loved that guy!" Sean snickered.

  "Eh, I used to have poor taste in men," Roxy admitted. Then she rubbed up against Sean. "But I got better!"

  "Couldn't you just mentally dominate someone and have them drive us there?" Sheila asked.

  Sean looked at her. "I don't think that would be fair."

  "You're a lion, whatever you do is 'fair'. Pay them for gas, maybe give them a little extra or something. It's a lot safer, and less likely to be noticed, than Roxy stealing a car in a small town."

  'She's right, you know.'

  'You would say that.'

  'No, think about it logically. You don't attract attention, you don't take any risk, and rather than having to report a theft to the police and wait for their car to be found and returned, they get it back immediately. Also, you can pay them some cash to assuage your guilt!' The First added the last bit with a chuckle.

  "Fine, you win. Let's find a road and flag someone down or something."

  "Awesome!" Peg said. "Now, which way is the road?"

  "That-a-way," Roxy said, pointing with her nose.

  Ten minutes later they hit the highway.

  "Which way do you think we should go?" Sean said, looking around.

  "Well, town's behind us, and there's not much between here and Grand Forks," Roxy said, changing back to human form and turning her phone on to look at the maps.

  Everyone shifted back then. They'd left the few weapons they'd had with Chad. Sean didn't want to try getting on an airplane with one these days. They'd even left their camouflage clothing, feeling that trying to carry something that looked like BDUs on an airplane might not go over very well, either.

  "That's closest, might as well head that way and see what we find," Sean said.

  "Wow, there really isn't a lot of traffic going down this road, is there?" Peg commented after they'd been walking a few minutes.

  "The border is only a couple of miles away, so I'm not all that surprised really." Roxy replied with a shrug.

  "Maybe the gentleman in the nice police car can help us?" Sheila asked.

  Turning, Sean saw that a police car was indeed slowing down and pulling off the road near where they were walking.

  "Can I help you folks?" the officer driving asked.

  Sean shrugged and hit him with a mental domination spell.

  "We need to go to the Grand Forks airport. Could you take us there? Or at least take us someplace where we could get a ride there?"

  "Sure, hop in."

  "Thanks!"

  Sean got in the front seat with the officer as the girls got in the back.

  "What happened to your car?"

  "It broke down. We called for a tow, but they said it would be a while, so we decided to just hoof it," Peg said from the back with a smile.

  "Good thing it's summer time up here, you wouldn't want to try that in the snow! No siree!"

  Sean listened as the officer called in that he was helping a stranded motorist and was heading to the airport.

  "You won't get in trouble for this, will you?" Sean asked, a bit concerned.

  "Nah, we don't get a lot of crime up here. If anything, it's kind of boring at times. Helping motorists is about the most interesting thing I get to do!"

  Sean nodded and listened as the officer proceeded to relate what his typical day was like, what Grand Forks was like, what the weather was like, and so on. Sean was sorely tempted to order the officer to shut up for the remainder of the trip, but he was a bit afraid to mess with the situation when it was working.

  At least the officer wasn't afraid to drive fast, so the trip wasn't as long as it could have been.

  "Thank god that's over," Roxy sighed as they got out.

  "This from a cop's daughter, no less!" Peg laughed.

  "The poor man has a dull job," Sheila said. "Honestly, I kind of liked listening to him."

  "Really?" Peg asked.

  "Of course. He's not out to fight anybody, kill anybody, or fight a war. He's just got a nice, plain life. You know, like the kind I'll never have."

  Sean grabbed Sheila, pulled her close, and gave her a nice long kiss until she started to melt. Then he let her go and, smiling at her, he took her hand and led her into the terminal.

  "That may be, but you wouldn't be getting any of that now, would you?" Peg snickered, and Sheila sighed and kicked her in the shin.

  "Let's see if we can get a flight," Roxy said, leading them to the ticket counter.

  "What happens if we can't?"

  "There's an Air Force base down the road. We make a few phone calls and see if we can call in a favor or two," Sean said.

  "But then everyone will know we're coming," Roxy said. "And we'd rather avoid that."

  #

  "Who was that on the phone, Hon?" Terri asked Steve as he hung up, looking thoughtful.

  "I guess you could say it was Sean's boss."

  Terri looked up at him from where she was running down some lines on helicopters for Sean's business manager, Deidre. They'd already bought three, and apparently she still needed more. "Really?"

  Steve nodded. "Apparently things are a little stranger than we thought."

  Terri snickered. "Your best friend was turned into a lion and has six wives, what could be stranger than that?"

  "Well, for one, we're apparently in the opening stages of a war with denizens of another reality that they like to call 'demons', because that's where our myths of demons come from."

  "Those guys who smell bad, they're demons, right?"

  "Got it in one," Steve said with a smile. "They used to be human but got possessed somehow. Anyway, Sean's boss and the other lions never thought to see if the demons were trying to influence people in the government. When Sean heard about those two guys, he apparently had a talk with his boss and told him to call me and tell me what's going on."

  "Why didn't Sean just tell you?"

  "That's the strange part; you see, Sean doesn't know."

  "Wait, what?"

  "Lions are apparently strong believers in compartmentalization. They're not going to tell Sean all about the war until he finishes what he's doing now."

  "Okay, that's weird."

  Steve shrugged. "Sean knows something's coming; that's why he told them to talk to me."

  "So are you gonna tell him?"

  Steve shook his head. "Not unless I have to; they seem to know what they're doing, and I don't want to mess with it."

  "If they knew what they were doing, they'd have known about the two stinkos our people found."

  Steve mulled that over a moment. "You may have a point, dear. But just missing one thing when you've managed to cover a million others isn't that big a sin if you deal with it when you find out about it. One thing is for certain, we're going to start sending our researchers out to check out all the folks our seven pigeons have working for them and who they meet with, and see how many more of them stink."

  Teri looked up at the clock. "You know, we have that dinner to go to tonight in four hours, and I'm sure the traffic is going to be terrible. We should leave now so we can get ready."

  "Maybe you should see about a helicopter for us so we can miss all that traffic."

  "I don't think Sean would appreciate that!" Terri laughed.

  "You let me deal with Sean; you can deal with finding us a place to live that'll let us land it on the roof."

  Shutting off his computer and standing up, Steve looked around the room. "Boz, Nell! Time to go. Granite, tell our driver to meet us down at the car."

  "Sure thing, Steve."

  "I can't believe we're going to have dinner with the president," Terri said with a grin. "And it's because of Sean of all people! Talk about unexpected!"

  Steve nodded and led the way down to their car. "Couldn't have happe
ned to a more deserving guy. Maybe one of these days I'll even be able to stop worrying about him!"

  The driver opened the door and Nell jumped in first, then Terri and Steve, followed by Boz. The driver shut the door, got in the front seat, pulled out of the parking lot, and took off down the street to pick up the highway. The apartment wasn't that long a drive; Steve wished they could have gotten one even closer, but unfortunately housing was at a premium in DC, which had made his decision to switch over to a limo today a good one. He really hated driving in traffic.

  The first indication Steve had that anything was wrong was when the limo suddenly lurched to the side and the door's window glass shattered and flew into the back.

  Both he and Terri were thrown around, bouncing off the sides the car, as something big slammed into the side of them. Grabbing Terri, Steve pulled her down onto the floor of the car and huddled on top of her. He could feel that whatever had run into them was still pushing them; the sound of a loud over-revving diesel engine was filling the back passenger compartment of the limo, along with the sounds of tortured mental and screeching tires.

  The car shook, tipped up at an angle, and started to bounce, the sound of the engine suddenly gone. After a few moments, the car shuddered to a stop.

  "Stay down," Boz growled, "and don't move."

  "How's the driver?" Steve heard somebody yell from outside the car. That was immediately followed by several loud gunshots.

  "Dead," a second voice said.

  "You sure?"

  "Of course I'm sure; he doesn't have a head left! Now let's get those two out and take 'em to the boss. Watch out for the dogs!"

  "One's lying back there up on the embankment, it ain't moving!"

  "Probably dead. Come on, help me with this door."

  "Let me put a couple of silver bullets in it just to be sure it's not one of them."

  Steve heard the sound of the door opening and someone swearing. Opening his eyes, he saw four men, all of them armed with guns. One of them immediately shot Boz, who just flopped when the bullet hit as if he was already dead.

  "I don't see no blood, so he must be dead!" The man then looked at Steve. "Now, if you don't want to die, I suggest you and your woman there do exactly as I..."

  The screams from behind him as Nell, in full hybrid werewolf form, tore into the man at the back of the group made him turn away for a moment, which was all Boz needed as he launched himself at the man, going full werewolf as he did so. Sean saw Boz's left hand rip the man's throat out, while his jaws opened wide and clamped on the shoulder of the man behind him, who started to scream. His screams were short-lived, however, as Boz put his right hand through the man's chest and killed him.

  Steve blinked and checked Terri, who was huddled below him with her eyes closed.

  "You okay, Terri?"

  "I'm fine, is everyone okay?"

  Sitting up, Steve looked through the open partition to the front seat. Whatever they'd shot Paco with, it had been nasty. His head was in pieces, and Steve could tell, werewolf or not, he was dead.

  "We need to get out of here before others come," Boz said. "Come on, out of the car, we need to move."

  Steve shook his head slowly and let Boz manhandle him a little as he got him out of the car, then did the same with Terri, who was even more shaken up than Steve was.

  A few moments later they were walking down the embankment to a street. Boz led them around a building and out of sight. Nell helped Terri, then Steve, brush the glass out of their clothing and their hair.

  "Okay, I called Granite and let him know what happened," Boz said, coming back around the corner. "They're sending a car, but we can't stay here. So let's keep walking."

  "But you're both covered in blood," Terri said a little breathlessly.

  Boz and Nell both shifted back into their canine forms and started to roll around in the dirt.

  "Now we're just two filthy dogs," Nell said in a growly voice. "Now lead, we'll follow!"

  Steve took Terri's hand and walked away from the scene of the wreck. It was no longer his problem; his problem right now was to get Terri home and safe.

  "Who did that?" Terri asked in a soft voice.

  "Sean's enemies," Steve said.

  "Paco's dead, isn't he?"

  "I'm afraid so," Steve sighed.

  "We're going to make them pay for that, right, dear?"

  Steve nodded. "Of course we are."

  Terri didn't say anything more, which was fine with Steve, as he didn't want to talk either. They weren't in the best of neighborhoods right now, so he was keeping his attention on his surroundings, but everyone could see the two large dogs cavorting around them that didn't hesitate to growl fiercely at anyone who either got too close, or seemed to be paying too much attention.

  It took Granite twenty minutes to find them, pulling up in a van. Two men got out of the back and helped them inside. Boz and Nell jumped in after, and the men closed the door behind them as the van took off.

  "Sorry I took so long. There's a tractor-trailer on its side on the highway blocking all the traffic."

  "Probably the one that hit us," Steve replied.

  "Probably. Where to, Steve?"

  "Our apartment. We have a dinner to get ready for."

  "You're still going?"

  "There's only two reasons for them to have attacked us tonight," Steve said. "Keeping us from going to that dinner was one of them. So we're going."

  "Got it, Steve. I'll have security send a few extras over to keep an eye on the place."

  #

  "So, how'd you like meeting the president?" Sean asked Steve as he and Terri entered their apartment.

  "Sean! What are you doing here? I thought you were in Canada!"

  "I thought about what you said. You're right, of course; this is where the fight is now. If we don't win this battle in Congress, things are going to get worse for all of us. Also, there's something else I realized."

  "What's that?"

  "That because you and Terri are still human, you're in serious danger, because the enemy sees you as weak links." Sean shook his head. "I heard about the attack, of course. I'd hoped to get here before anything like that happened, but thank god you're both okay."

  "It was a bit scary," Terri sighed, "and I'm still upset over what happened to Paco; we'd only met him this morning."

  "I'm going to talk to Granite in the morning about doubling our security," Steve admitted. "By the way, how did you get in here? The security in this place is supposed to be the best! Did John let you in?"

  Sean snorted. "Sheila let us in." He motioned to where she was seated with Roxy and Peg, whom they both now noticed.

  "Roxy! Peg! Sheila! I didn't even see you sitting over there," Steve said, a little surprised.

  "And that's why I'm here." Sean sighed. "Steve, you're human. This war—and it is becoming a war, I'm afraid—is with things that will eat you for lunch because you can't resist it."

  "So what, are you going to send us home?" Steve said, scowling at Sean. "I'm the only one you've got that can do this job, and you know it."

  "Exactly, you're the only one. I really hate to push you into this Steve, but you and Terri both need to become lycans."

  "What?" Terri gasped, and Steve just looked at him.

  Sean sighed and held up his hand, ticking off his fingers. "Three items that will never be mentioned again: Masking Tape, Lighter Fluid, Rear Window."

  Steve walked over to the easy chair and dropped down into it. "Gods, we almost got into so much trouble over that." He looked up at Sean. "Why?"

  "Because they don't want to kill you. Well, not your bodies at least. They want to possess you, control you. I guess they figure with you inside our organization, they'll be able to derail us?"

  "It'd never work, you can smell them!"

  "They don't know that," Sean pointed out. "Though once they've possessed you, they will. But it gets even worse than that."

  "How can it be worse than being murdered
and having our bodies possessed?" Terri asked, looking worried.

  "They don't just kill you. They eat your soul. No heaven, no afterlife; you're finished, kaput." Sean shook his head. "I can't let that happen to either one of you. I don't care if you hate me for it, but you're both becoming lycans. Tonight. Here."

  "Just like that?" Steve asked.

  Sean nodded. "Yup. The jokes about catgirls and catboys are about to become reality. Pick your poison, Steve, Terri."

  Terri turned to Steve. "You have had an eye for Nate at the office, I've seen you checking out her butt."

  Steve blinked. "You're okay with this?"

  "Steve, if it wasn't for Boz and Nell, we'd be dead, or worse. We knew what we were getting into when we came here." Terri grinned suddenly. "Plus, I know you've got a thing for catgirl ass, you're always staring at them!"

  Steve looked embarrassed. "I've just been wondering what your ass would look like with a tail, but if we're doing this," Steve looked at Sean and blushed, "Roxy's got the hottest ass of all the catgirls, it's almost as good as Terri's." Steve looked over at Terri again. "Plus, I think you'd look awesome as a cheetah."

  Sean nodded. "And you Steve?"

  "I've seen Roxy's dad; I wouldn't mind looking like that."

  "I wouldn't mind it, either!" Terri said with a giggle.

  "What was the bit with the 'three words?' Peg asked as Roxy got to her feet and shifted into her hybrid form.

  Steve laughed. "When we were in high school, I borrowed my mom's minivan while the folks were out of town for the weekend. Someone stole the rear window off of it while I was out at the mall, and like an idiot, I used a roll of masking tape and some plastic to keep the rain out.

  "Problem was, after a couple of days, masking tape leaves a hell of a residue."

  "So Steve calls me up and asks for help," Sean continued, "and we're out there until three in the morning getting this damn gunk off, and lighter fluid was the only thing we could find that would work without taking the paint off."

  "Lighter fluid?" Peg asked, "why'd you use that?"

  "It was after eleven when I got there, on a Sunday night; everything was closed."

  Steve nodded. "We were reduced to whatever was already in the house. We finally got it cleaned, and when my Mom and Dad got home that morning, 'someone must have stolen the window off the minivan while it was parked in the street that night'."