by Jamie Davis
Dean nodded, cringing inwardly at the way Ingrid called his companions his lady friends. Albion nodded too, and he along with the three werewolf pack members trotted off into the woods north of the cabin. They had to gather their forces and get back here before dark.
Ingrid watched them leave and turned back to Dean. “This is going to be our one chance to get Ashley, Dean. You understand that, right?” He just looked at her. “If they can’t have her for their portal, they will likely destroy her corporeal form, and her soul will be banished to the heavens until she can regenerate. She will be gone for the next one hundred years. We can’t have that. There’s a lot she has to do here on earth, so don’t screw this up.” She held his gaze for a moment longer and then looked up. “I’ve got to get going if I’m going to bring anyone back with me to help. See you in a bit.”
Dean watched in amazement as a set of white-feathered wings spread from behind Ingrid. She launched herself off the porch and into the air, shimmering a little and then she winked out of sight as she flew away through the trees. He watched for a minute then came back to the present when he heard someone clear their throat behind him.
“Are you done ogling your girlfriend’s sister, Dean?” Jaz said. “Because we’ve got some work to do here. If we are going to move quietly and without being seen in the dark by the Oni demons when they approach this house, we need to put some things in place. I have my amulet, but that just works for me. Joanna, can you create a spell of some sort to mask yourself and Dean from demon senses?”
“I have my hunter’s amulet, too, I just didn’t wear it because I didn’t want to give away who I was. You gave me the amulet on my thirteenth birthday, just before I left to join the coven,” Jo replied. The teen thought for a bit and said. “I could try something else for Dad, but I have to think about how I can pull it off.”
“Good,” Jaz said. She looked at her watch and then the surrounding skyline. “You’ve got two hours to figure it out and get it in place. Get started. Dean and I will pull together the gear we are going to need from the cases we brought in from the SUV.”
Dean watched the hunter take charge as they finally had a plan of sorts to act on. This was her element and he was impressed as she opened up the larger pelican cases and set to work. He knew she was right. They didn’t have much time.
21
The three of them set to work. Jo sat down on the couch and began going through her large satchel purse. She had components of her spells and other items in there, including a few items of spare clothing. Jaz called Dean over to where she was opening up the two large cases. He had suspected at the time that the cases carried weapons a hunter might need on their operations. He was half right.
When Jaz unlocked the rolling tumbler locks and lifted the lids, Dean did see a startling variety of weapons. But there were also the two medical bags with two tactical medical kits. She pulled the medical bags out and handed them to him. He took them over to the table and slid Ashley’s sword to the side so he could open them up and inventory their contents.
These medical kits weren’t the same. He had the two tactical kits they had used with the dryad attack. There was also a standard individual first aid kit also called an IFAK. It was meant to be carried by an individual and had basic trauma supplies to treat and manage immediate life-threatening emergencies. It held a pair of black medical exam gloves, a SOF-T tourniquet, a few various combat gauze dressings, plus trauma shears, a needle decompression kit and basic airway management tools. It was all packed in a black bag with elastic loops to hold everything in place when it was unzipped and fully opened. The bag could be clipped to a belt or pack and was small and compact.
The other small kit was a little bit larger and was contained in a small black backpack carrier. It had everything included in the first kit, plus additional supplies he was glad to see. There was a 500 milliliter bag of lactated ringers IV fluid and a full IV kit. He also found several quick clotting solution impregnated gauze dressings and various bandages. There was a surgical airway kit and some basic field surgery supplies including a small suture kit to do stitches. He was also happy to see a medication pack attached to the inside by Velcro. It carried small containers of ibuprofen and acetaminophen for aches and pains in the field, plus there were also small vials of morphine, and naloxone to counteract an overdose and syringes to administer them. There was even an epinephrine auto-injector for severe allergic reactions.
Dean wasn’t sure what he would need and opted to carry both since he wasn’t going to be armed. At least he’d be prepared to provide care for Jaz, Jo, and eventually Ashley when he got to her. He attached the IFAK bag to straps on the bottom backpack so that it would sit below the small tactical backpack when it was worn. He was adjusting the straps and making sure it fit comfortably when Jaz came over and dropped something on top of the pile of medical gear on the table. It took him a moment to realize what it was. It was an empty sword scabbard and belt. He looked up at her where she stood next to the table.
“What’s that for?”
“It’s for your blade, stupid,” Jaz said. “I took out the sword that was in there. It should fit your blade pretty well. You can’t just carry it in your hand the whole time.”
“I wasn’t going to carry it at all,” Dean told her.
“You can’t go on this thing unarmed, Dean,” the hunter said. “I need to know you can take care of yourself if everything goes to crap. Try it out and see if it fits, otherwise I’ll come up with something else.”
Dean thought about arguing further, but opted out. She was probably right. He needed to be ready to defend himself and if he took the sword along, he could return it to Ashley. She might have some magical use for its powers. He picked up the blade and the scabbard. The blade slide home and seemed to fit pretty well for being a replacement. Jaz nodded in approval and walked back to her cases where she was organizing her kit.
Dean took a moment arranging the sword and scabbard on the belt. He was trying to figure out if he should carry the blade like Jaz did across his back or wear it on his hip. He decided that he could attach the scabbard to loops on the side of the medical backpack. He removed the sword belt from it and set to work using some spare Velcro straps to secure the scabbard to the medical bag so the hilt would stand just over his right shoulder. It was a bit thrilling to envision himself in the rig and he put the assembled medical pack on and stood to check out the look in the mirror on the wall.
“Looking good, Dad,” Jo said.
“I really don’t think you should be calling me that, Jo,” Dean said. “I know it is true for you, but it just doesn’t make sense in my brain. You are from twenty years or so in my future, right?”
Jo nodded and looked disappointed. It must have been hard for her to hide her true feelings for the two of them when she first arrived. He started wondering what he would do in her situation and started feeling sorry for the teen. He remembered how much he had needed his mom at that age. His dad had never been in the picture and he had only vague memories of him.
“Okay, look,” Dean said. “You can call me Dean, or Dad, or whatever you want if that makes you feel better, but understand that I’m not there yet. I’m still wrapping my head around all of this. I know that it’s possible you are my daughter come back from the future to help with saving a kidnapped angel. It is going to take me some time to adjust to this, okay?”
He suddenly found himself wrapped in a hug, and then the teen bounced away with a big grin on her face. He smiled back at her and went back to admiring his getup in the mirror. He reached up and tried drawing the heavenly blade free. It slid out of the scabbard easily with a soft rasping sound of metal on metal. He couldn’t get the angle right to return it to the scabbard, though and figured that it took practice to do so. He shrugged out of the pack and then replaced the blade in the scabbard. He looked at his assembled pack on the table when he was finished. He was pretty much set to go. He turned when he heard the two women arguing behind h
im.
“No, absolutely not,” Jaz said. She shook her head for emphasis, her ponytail whipping behind her head.
“But why not?” Jo pleaded.
“I’m not giving you a gun, Jo, and that is that.”
“Look Mom, you need to get over this,” Jo said. “You raised me. Do you think you, the last Errington hunter, didn’t teach me how to handle weapons?” The Wiccan teen pointed to something in the case in front of Jaz. “Unload that Glock and I’ll show you I know what I’m doing.”
Jaz hesitated for a moment, then reached into the case and extracted a pistol that looked like the twin of the one she now wore on her hip. She removed the magazine and racked the slide to check and make sure the chamber was empty. When she was sure the gun was not loaded, Jaz handed it to Joanna.
Jo sat down with the weapon and, in a series of fluid motions that only came from long-practiced muscle memory, proceeded to take the pistol apart. When she was finished she had the component parts laid out on the cushion next to her. She looked up at her mother with a grin. Then she reversed the process in another series of well-practiced moves, handing back the reassembled weapon. Dean had never had weapons around his home growing up, so he wondered again about whether Jo really grew up in a house with him as the father. He did not think he would allow guns in his house.
Jaz took the reassembled gun from Jo without a sound, inspected it. She slid in the magazine and racked a round in the chamber, then removed the magazine. She pulled back the slide to eject the shell in the chamber and expertly caught the bullet as it was ejected into the air. She thumbed it back into the magazine before replacing the magazine into the pistol’s grip. The hunter stood staring at the girl on the couch before her for a moment, then reached into the case and pulled out the pistol belt with holster and three pouches full of spare magazines. She handed the pistol and rig to Joanna, who squealed with delight as she took them from her outstretched hands.
“So much for my mother-of-the-year award,” Dean heard Jaz mutter and then she went back to work organizing her own kit.
He saw she had pulled out a small backpack as well and was stuffing it full of blocks of something he couldn’t make out. The paramedic walked over and watched as she filled the pack.
“I don’t suppose I get a gun, too?” he asked.
“Have you ever even fired a gun before, outside of a video game?” Jaz asked him without looking up from her work.
“No,” Dean said.
“Then, no, you don’t get a sidearm,” Jaz said.
“What are those blocks you put into your bag?” Dean asked.
“C-4, detonators, and some preconfigured door breaching charges in case we need them,” Jaz said. “And don’t tell me it’s overkill. We have no idea what we are going to encounter when we get to the mines.”
“I wasn’t arguing, just curious,” Dean said.
Jaz glanced at him and snorted at his pack and sword arrangement.
“What?” Dean asked.
“It’s fine, but we need to get you out of that light blue uniform shirt,” Jaz replied. She dug in the second case and turned to toss him a black, long sleeve turtleneck. “Put that on. Your navy blue duty pants are fine, but you need a different shirt so you draw less attention, especially at night.”
“Thanks,” Dean said. He took off the pack, then swapped out the light blue uniform shirt for the new black turtleneck. He caught Jaz watching him change and wondered if she liked what she saw. She wasn’t hard on the eyes either, he admitted. If he wasn’t so committed to Ashley, he could see himself with a woman like her. Dean looked around, trying to find Jo. He asked Jaz.
“Where did our future daughter go?”
Jaz shot him a glance that wasn’t quite angry. “She went upstairs after I gave her the Glock. She’s your daughter, why don’t you see what she’s up to.”
“Jaz, I didn’t come to that decision lightly, you know. When I was asked to give up my firstborn daughter to the coven, I was thinking of all the people who were hurt or killed by The Cause in their terrorist vendetta.”
“Dean, I know that you think you meant well,” Jaz said. “But hunter children do not become witches. They are raised to be hunters.” She looked to the stairs and then back to Dean. “If she is my daughter, she’s the last heir to the Errington Clan after me. There is a lot that goes along with that responsibility. I can’t see a way I would give her up to be trained as a witch.”
“She’s good at what she does, Jaz,” Dean said. “And you must have trained her in some hunter stuff, too. I saw her field strip that pistol. It looked like she knew what she was doing. You thought so yourself, or you wouldn’t have given her the gun.”
They were interrupted by the sound of the teen coming back down the stairs. Dean glanced in her direction and was surprised at what he saw. She had changed out of her long skirt and baggy blouse and vest outfit. She was wearing a skintight black body suit. She had her long hair pulled up in a ponytail like Jaz’s and had a holstered pistol on her left hip and a Bowie knife just like Jaz’s on her right. Both the pistol holster and the knife scabbard had straps that secured them to her thighs on either side. She looked like something out of a spy movie.
“I don’t think you need to worry about her forgetting her hunter roots, Jaz,” Dean said. “Damn, in that getup she looks just like you. You could be sisters.”
“Where’s your sword?” Jaz asked Jo. “If you were raised by me, I’d have made sure you were given your blade when you turned thirteen.”
“I couldn’t bring it back with me,” Jo said, disappointed. “The coven said its magic wouldn’t penetrate the time travel spell’s field with me when I went through. Besides, you would have recognized it. It was Grandmother’s sword.”
“I suppose that would make sense,” Jaz said. “I would have given you my mother’s blade if I had been able to recover it from the explosion.”
“I don’t need it really,” Jo said. “I’m supposed to focus on my magic, Asha says. She says my attachment to weapons of war keeps me from reaching my potential.”
Another voice behind them from the cabin’s doorway interrupted them. They all turned to see who it was.
“Well, well, well. Don’t you all look like one big happy family,” Ingrid said, walking through the cabin’s doorway.
Dean just stood and looked at her. Two companions followed her into the room. The three Valkyries stood there, looking like they just stepped out of a Wagnerian Opera. They all wore gleaming armor, polished to a mirror finish. Each was holding a winged helmet under one arm.
“These are my battle-sisters, Elsa and Antonia,” Ingrid said. Elsa had a large two-handed sword she had propped point-down on the floor. Antonia carried a spear with an eighteen inch long gleaming double-edged blade at the business end. They both nodded in response to the hellos from Dean and his companions.
Antonia looked around and thumped the butt of her spear on the floorboards, giving a wicked smile. “So, when does the fun start?”
22
It was just after sunset when the shifters returned to the cabin. Mark, Dawson and Hannah came first with three other members of their pack. Albion and Arlo showed up next and were accompanied by a gray-haired, bearded man who was wearing furs and buckskins like something out of a mountain man movie. Dean guessed that was Old Barney, the werebear. Trailing behind Albion and Arlo were the dryads Anya and Zora. When Dean asked what they were doing there, they told him they were there to defend their valley. They said they could help with any wounded injured during the coming battle.
Dean, Jaz, and Joanna stood on the front porch facing the assembled shape-shifters and the dryads as night fell. The Valkyries stood off to one side, inspecting their weapons, as if they didn’t have a care in the world. He supposed they didn’t. This was the kind of thing they lived for. Jaz cleared her throat and went over the plan one more time.
“Okay, Albion, you and the rest of the shifters will wait inside the cabin with the lights on
to draw the attention of the Oni demons to you.” She waited as the group of shifters nodded.
“Anya and Zora,” Jaz continued, “You will be upstairs and stay out of the way until you are needed or called for.” The dryads both said yes, they understood. The hunter turned to look at the battle maidens.
“Yes, yes. We understand,” Ingrid said. “We stay unseen above the forest canopy until the demons are engaged at the cabin’s doors and windows. Then we swoop in and pin them against the cabin between us and the shifters inside.”
“Zis is going to be zo much fun,” Elsa said in her thick French accent.
“Right,” Jaz said. She continued, looking right and left at Dean and Joanna. “Dean, Jo, and I will be out to the side, in the woods, watching. Once the Demons are engaged by the Valkyries, that will be our signal to move from our hiding place and start heading south to the old mines.”
“Have you figured out how you are going to mask Dean from the demons’ senses?” Albion asked. “I can see and smell him clearly. The two of you are nearly invisible to me according to my Unusual senses.”
“Jo says she has a solution to that,” Jaz said. She hoped it worked. The witch girl had not been very forthcoming about what the solution was, just that she had worked something out. Jo had her own amulet, similar to Jaz’s, that masked her scent and cooled the heat pattern to hide it from Unusual senses beyond the normal visible light spectrum.
“Well, you three better get to your hiding places then,” Old Barney rumbled. “The forest is telling me that there’s trouble coming fast. The demons must almost be here.”
“See you on the other side,” Ingrid said. She and the other Valkyries spread their wings and launched themselves skyward, winking out of sight as soon as they left the ground. Dean knew that they could mask their presence from anyone if they chose to do so. The shifters started into the cabin with the two dryads, leaving the three of them on the porch. Jaz stepped down to the ground and headed to the northwest side of the cabin followed by Dean and Joanna.