by Jan Stryvant
'I am with you,' Sean's own lion said, speaking up clearly for the first time in a very long time. Embracing that, Sean shifted into his hybrid form before he spoke. It felt right somehow.
"John was a friend to me, a good friend, a dear friend. He was also a friend to the lions, all of us, as well as our children. He often helped me, back before any of this happened to me, before any of this started. Back when I was just a clueless young man ignorant to the real ways of the world. He was my friend, and he helped me even though I had little to offer him in return beyond my own friendship.
"When my duty found me, John never hesitated; he never questioned our friendship, he just continued with that help, with our friendship. I would have been helpless without him, I admit it. He did more for me than I could ever have done for him. I only stand here today because I had him at my side, protecting me, guarding my back, giving us things only he could provide.
"He showed me things I could not have seen with my own eyes. He told me things I would not have heard with my own ears. Things beyond even this world, he helped open me up to the great spirituality in the world that few know about, and fewer still have seen. He suffered great trials to help me, yet he never let those things come between us. Never, not once.
"I will be forever less than I was now that he is gone. I don't really have the words to say just how much I will miss him."
Looking down at his feet, Sean shook his head and walked back to sit beside Chad, not noticing how quiet it had gotten.
"We did not know you spoke our language," Kweeda said.
"I'm sorry, I meant no offense," Sean replied.
"None is taken; rest easy."
The next several hours were a blur for Sean. When it was finally finished, a member of the tribe gave him and Chad a ride back to the ranch.
Getting out of the car, they watched as it drove off, then looked at each other.
"Honestly, I always thought you would be the first," Chad told him.
Sean blinked. "What, because I'm a lion?"
"No, because you were always so restrained. We all figured you'd explode one day and die gloriously in a hail of bullets or something, while saving somebody in a grand and valiant action." Chad shrugged, then smiled. "Course, everyone figured I'd be the next to go, after doing something epically stupid."
"What I can't understand is, after all the people I've seen die—hell, all the people I've killed with my own bare hands—why the hell can't I deal with this?"
"Because this is the first time it's been someone you care about. Someone you look at and think it could have been you."
"I wasn't this bad when Sampson was killed."
"Well, you hadn't spent the year before that bottling up your feelings, either."
"What am I going to do? I destroyed the German Embassy and pissed off half the world, as well as a major country. We haven't even gotten into the real fight yet, and I may have just cost us our biggest ally."
Chad slapped him on the back. "Let Steve worry about the politics. The president already announced that the German Embassy had been subverted by our enemy and tried to assassinate you."
Sean blinked. "When did he do that?"
"While you were flying back here. He even released the evidence. The video of the ambassador turning into some sort of demon really looked good on the news. Between the shit John uncovered before he died and the stuff Steve's been dumping on them, I think the American people are still on our side."
"There was a video?"
"Yup. Steve told me the NSA guys were tapped into their security system by the time you got there. Took them a while, but they saw it all."
"What about the Germans?"
Chad sighed. "Oh, they're still pissed, I gather. But their government has been given an out now, to see if they take it."
"Why wouldn't they?"
"I only wish I knew," Chad said. "But I did get a message from Steve you might appreciate."
"Oh, what was it?"
"That if you try to leave Reno again, I'm to sit on you and break your legs!" Chad grinned.
"You know I can still order you around, Chad," Sean mock growled.
"Ah! But if someone who outranks you tells me to do it, well then, you're screwed."
"What, you got a line to the First or something?"
"Oh, better than that, I got a line to Roxy."
Sawyers Antiquities
The next morning Sean came out for breakfast and found a tired Adam already eating as well.
"I miss something?" Sean asked.
"Small gateway. It just closed about two hours ago. It opened while you were on the flight in."
"Wait, there was a gateway and nobody called me?"
"Sean, you were kind of busy. If it had been a large one, trust me, I would have called you. But I figured it would be better to let you say goodbye to your friend."
Sean stopped and thought about that; Adam had a point.
"Good call. Did Chad know?"
"Yeah, he knew, but he was pretty sure Max could handle it. Besides, it was just like the last one. Nobody came through it. They're definitely waiting for the next large one."
"Great, more things to worry about," Sean said with a sigh.
Adam nodded. "Such is the price of being the guy in charge. I know Chad, Maitland, and Jack have been spending a fair deal of time trying to come up with ideas. Chad's biggest problem is he doesn't want to use all his best ideas until the main gateway's open."
Sean nodded. "Yeah, he doesn't want to give them time to figure out counters to his best ideas."
Adam shrugged. "They're going to do that regardless of when he uses them. Personally, I think he needs to get over that and just roll with it."
Sean stopped and looked at him.
"What?"
"Why the hell aren't you in there with them? I think that's the best advice I've heard all day, and trust me, I've been getting a lot of it."
Adam gave him a goofy smiled and shrugged. "Hey, I'm just the face man. I'm supposed to sell the product, not make it."
"Yeah, well, start showing up. Obviously you've learned a thing or two over the years."
"Sorry about your friend, by the way. I know that doesn't help much, but, well…" Adam shrugged.
Sean nodded. "Thanks."
Sitting down, Sean took the plate of food Dania handed him and started eating. The girls trickled in after that.
"Wow, you're up early," Louise said, coming into the room.
"Don't blame us!" Daelyn said. "We let him have last night off."
"I'm sorry about what happened, Hon," Louise said, coming over and giving her son a hug.
"Thanks, Mom," Sean said and gave her a hug back.
"Why don't you grab the girls and your kids and get out of here for a while?"
"We do owe Sawyer a visit," Cali said.
"My uncle and my mom have been bugging me to see the twins," Jolene said. "We could stop by there on the return trip."
"If we're going down to Carson City, we should visit Daelyn's aunt and uncle, too."
"So, Sawyer's, lunch with Dae's aunt and uncle, stop by Sapientia," Roxy said, then looked over at Roberta. "Dinner with your Mom, Rob?"
"Just understand, we walk into the Sorceress Guild with this many kids, and they might not let us leave until morning." Roberta chuckled. "And it won't just be the women cooing over the babies; these are all Sean's kids, so the lycan men there are gonna want to see them as well."
"What about you, Peg? Do you want to visit anyone?"
Peg shook her head. "My sister and brother-in-law are being civil right now, I'm happy to just leave it at that."
"Okay." Sean nodded. "I'll let Travis and Oak know what the plan is."
"I'm going to have to go shopping for a bus one of these days," Daelyn grumbled.
"Maybe you should learn how to fly a helicopter," Cali said with a shrug, "I mean, they go fast, right?"
Daelyn looked over at Cali with a surprised look on her face. "Yo
u know, you're right! I bet I could get our hubby here to even put a bunch of enchantments on it to make it quiet!"
"What happened to calling me 'lion-boy'?" Sean asked.
"Oh, that's only when I want certain other things out of you!" Daelyn said with a laugh, as the others all grinned at him predatorily.
"Right," Sean said, getting up. "Gotta warn Travis!" He headed out of the dining room.
"Coward!"
"I know when I'm outnumbered!" Sean called back as he went out the back door.
"Sean! You're back!" Marx said as Sean walked in the door.
"Of course he's back!" Sawyer yelled from behind the counter. "Did you really think the kid was gonna let a few djevels get in his way?"
"Don't let him fool ya," Marx said in a low voice, "he was worried, but not so worried that he didn't cover a slew of bets."
"He bet on me?" Sean said, looking surprised.
"Course I did, Kid!" Sawyer called from the counter. "You think I'm gonna let easy money like that slip through my fingers?"
Sean smiled and shook his head as he moved out of the way for the girls to troop in with their babies.
"Wow! Brought the whole family down, I see!"
Peg laughed. "Hey, if you're gonna corrupt 'em, might as well have 'em learn from the best!"
"Well, I'll start with the oldest and work my way down," Sean said.
"This is Sarah, she's actually Sampson's daughter; then there's Roseanne, who is mine. Cali's daughter Alska; Roxy's son Sean, Junior; Jolene's twins, Nguvu and Mtawala; Daelyn's son Bernard; and Peg's daughter Sharon. Estrella here is my newest wife—she's a lioness, by the way—and we haven't had the chance to have any children yet."
"But he's working on it!" Daelyn snickered, making Estrella blush.
Sean chuckled and gave Estrella a pat on the butt as he continued, "Deidre and Sheila here are my mistresses, and their daughters are Celeste and Bethany, respectively."
"Wow, Kid. When the hell do you sleep?" Sawyer asked, laughing.
"I don't." Sean grinned toothily. "It's a lion thing."
"Obviously. Now, how about you all come in the back and give me a chance to start corrupting those young, innocent minds?"
"Lead on!" Sean said.
"Marx! Bar the door, back in an hour! Then come on back and join us!"
"You got it, boss!"
"By the way," Sean asked as they trooped after Sawyer, "remember that task I asked you to take care of?"
"Yup, got 'em all lined up. I had to siphon some money off of your profits, but they're all there if you need 'em."
"How much did you have to siphon off?" Deidre asked.
"Ah, the lovely Deidre, the siren with whom I'm always arguing money on the phone," Sawyer said with a grin.
"That doesn't tell me how much, Sawyer," Deidre warned.
"Just a hair under two million."
Sean whistled, and he thought he heard Deidre swear under her breath.
"Hey, doing it right ain't cheap! Don't worry, I covered a third of it with the winnings from all those bets I took from the people who were sure the Kid here was never coming back."
"I'm honored you think so highly of my husband and our house that you would risk so much of your own personal fortune," Cali said with a big smile.
"He knows I would have killed him if he'd bet against Sean," Roxy said in an overly loud whisper.
"I didn't get where I am by picking losers, toots," Sawyer said, then paled.
"Toots is fine in this case," Sean said with a smile.
"Thanks, I certainly didn't mean it as an insult, 'cause if you didn't kill me, her dad sure would!"
Sean wasn't surprised that Sawyer's office here looked a lot like the one back in Reno. What he was surprised by was that Sawyer was really good with children. Sean would have thought they'd have found his visage a little scary, but not a one of them did, and Alska and Celeste were actually comfortable with him.
"Who would have guessed you're a family man," Roxy said with a surprised smile.
"Eh, we goblins have a knack for it. Most of the scary stuff you hear about us in stories are just that, stories."
"So when are you going to settle down and raise your own family?" Jolene asked as she watched him distract Nguvu and Mtawala. "'Cause honestly, I would pay to see that! I figure if there's anything that can get the better of you, it's a bunch of little Sawyers running around!"
Sean was surprised to see Sawyer actually smile warmly at Jolene. "From the mouth of the former Miss 'my place or yours' comes the wisdom of the ages! If they don't get the better of me, I'll disown 'em! As for when?" Sawyer shrugged. "I'm thinking after this current business is over.
"Oh, before I forget, Daelyn, let your uncle know I got a couple of those machines he wanted, but he's gonna have to pick them up under the cover of darkness, and get them out of sight fast."
"What machines are these?"
"The ones that make ammunition for the rifles you guys use. Nobody would sell me one, so my people got a little creative."
"So you stole them." Daelyn laughed.
"'Stole' is such a crude word; we just expedited them to the front is all," Sawyer said with a big grin as he continued to play with the kids. "After all, you need them, House Valens asked Hà`kætunis' line for help, and if there's one thing we Hà`kætunis know, it's when to 'hoist the black flag and start slitting throats', as the humans like to say."
"Wow, it's gonna take a long time to repay this kind of generosity," Sean said, giving Sawyer a serious look.
"That's the idea, Kid. Of course, winning the war will go a long way towards doing just that. Oh, by the by, I heard about your problems in DC. I already sent my condolences to John's family. I'm gonna miss him, he was a solid kid."
"You knew John? Roberta said.
Sawyer nodded. "Known him for years. He and his father have done security and computer work for me since I moved to Reno."
"Did you know?" Roberta asked Sean.
Sean nodded. "After all this happened to me, John told me."
"Wow, I had no idea."
"That's 'cause he didn't exactly have a high opinion of magic users," Sawyer told her. "Which in the case of the Sorceress Guild wasn't really true, but you live, you learn."
"So, about those sites," Sean said, moving off of what was still a sore topic for him. "How do I find them when I need them?"
"Well, I can show you a map, if you can memorize it."
"I can do that."
"Can I look at it, too?" Estrella said. "It'll make it easier to share with the other lions."
"What about the rest of us?" Roxy asked.
"You can't accidentally spill what you don't know," Sean said. "Lions are immune to mind spells."
"Oh, I don't know about that!" Jolene giggled.
"That's only because I love you and I let you," Sean replied.
"Well let me show it to you; once you've got it down, we'll burn it."
"Burn it?" Estrella asked.
"I'm the only one with a map, and I sure ain't gonna keep that around. I'll actually be glad to get rid of it, even if the only people who know about it are all in this room."
Sawyer beckoned to Sean and walked out of the office, with Sean and Estrella following.
"One more thing, Kid. If any of those pukes in Washington give you trouble, you let ole Sawyer know. We got a few people keeping an eye on things back there if you need it."
"What about Germany?"
"We got a few there as well."
"Warn them to be careful; we found a lot of possessed and several traitors. There may be more."
"I'll be sure to pass it on."
Sawyer led them into a room with a couple of safes; ignoring those, he instead pulled the map out of a book on a shelf by the door.
"Why isn't that in the safe?" Estrella asked.
"'Cause that's the first place anyone's gonna look. Now, do me a favor and destroy that when you're done with it. I'm gonna go see if I can't teach Jo'
s kids a few tricks to drive her crazy," Sawyer said with a cackle and left them.
"He really likes her, doesn't he?"
Sean nodded. "Yeah, they're actually best friends, have been for years. But don't tell them that."
Estrella smiled, then surprised him by giving him a hug. "It's the little things you miss. I'm just so glad to be back."
Lunch with Daelyn's aunt and uncle was quite enjoyable, though about twenty more showed up than Sean or Daelyn had been expecting. They were all happy to see that Sean was back home, safe and sound. They were also sorry about what had happened to his friend John, and were more than happy to take his side over what had happened in Washington.
Sean was starting to realize just how much his allies were willing to back him, even when he thought he had gone too far.
When they stopped in to see Arthur and Jolene's mother, everyone was again happy to see him, though the topic of John and what had happened in Washington wasn't brought up. While they were there, Sean spied a book beside Arthur's chair on Atlantis. He suddenly realized he'd seen the book there before, which explained why the First had decided to tell him about it.
Sean covertly looked around the room while Arthur and Jolene's mother were enjoying Jolene's kids, wondering what other things he might learn. The First had obviously been paying a lot more attention to his surroundings than Sean had all that time he'd lived in Sean's head.
"So, not going to leave me with any deep thoughts?" Arthur asked as they said their goodbyes to head over to Roberta's mom's for dinner.
"Honestly, Arthur, I thought it would be best to let you enjoy your new nephews, or would that be great-nephews? Though I am a bit curious about the book on your desk there. I mean, it's been there for months now, I'd have thought you'd have finished it by now."
"Eh, Atlantis has always been a popular subject with the Eruditio. Joseph lent me that book himself, says it's a most comprehensive study on the topic. Of course, I'm sure you know all about it," Arthur said with a grin.
"Well, I don't know all that much, it was before my time. Though I have a friend who used to live there, lost his house when the waters came up, and eventually covered the city. Said it took almost a year."
"Another lion, right?" Arthur said, rolling his eyes.