Trying Times (The Valens Legacy Book 14)

by Jan Stryvant

  "I'll give you a hint: It was in what's now the Mediterranean Sea. It didn't go down, the water came up."

  "Joseph is going to kill you, you know," Arthur said with a snicker. "Everyone thinks it was part of the Canary Island chain and suffered one of those 'slumps' when the volcano collapsed."

  "People do love their drama," Sean said with a smile as he shook hands and left.

  "You had to do that to him, didn't you," Jolene said when they got into the van.

  "What, he doesn't know what happened to Atlantis?" Estrella said, looking at them.

  "No one does. Well, no one other than lions, I guess," Jolene said, looking between the two of them.

  "Oh, I'm much too young to have lived there, though Dad goes on and on about it if you give him the chance. He had this really nice house there that mom just adored."

  "Serves me right," Jolene said, shaking her head.

  Dinner with Roberta's mother Deanna did in fact turn out to be a big affair, and Sean just sat back in a corner, wearing Roberta's collar in his lion form, and enjoyed it. Though Sarah did make him give her and her friends 'horsie rides', or maybe 'lion rides' was a bit more apropos.

  Roberta still had her apartment there as well, and while it might have been a tiny bit crowded with all of them there, Sean didn't mind in the slightest. Tomorrow he could go back to saving the world. For tonight, he enjoyed the idea of being just another lycan.

  Local Hero

  Sean was sitting in his shop looking at the news on his laptop. There was a lot of heated rhetoric going on between Germany and the United States right now. Germany wanted Sean arrested and brought to heel, while the United States wanted to know why Germany was importing arms and supplying them to terrorist groups on their soil.

  The one thing that had happened, which no one had noticed due to all the noise, was the president had ordered the removal of all military assets from the Middle East. From the rumors on the internet, the drawdown was going impressively fast, and would be completed in ninety days.

  Sean suspected there was going to be a lot of abandoned equipment left behind. He wondered if maybe he should talk to Sawyer about that?

  Just then the alert sounded.

  Closing his laptop and jumping to his feet, Sean ran for the armor room. Sliding to a stop in front of his rack, he quickly stripped off his shirt and pants. Shifting into his hybrid form, he donned his armor and other gear, slung his sword, grabbed his rifle, and ran out to the lead helicopter, which was already spun up and ready to launch.

  "What's the word, Trey?" Sean asked as he jumped in the back.

  "It's a large one, Sean. The quick response team said there are a hell of a lot of demons on the other side; they barely got out alive."

  "Well, at least they got out," Sean said as Adam dove into the back, followed by the last few wolves of their squad.

  "We're good! Take us out!" Sean told Trey as the others pulled the doors closed.

  "So much for fun times with the wife," Adam growled, and several of the wolves laughed.

  "Yeah, I wondered why you showed up late," Hunter teased.

  "Eh, bite me," Adam grumbled back. "Just wait until your wife is expecting."

  "Where we going, Trey?" Hunter asked, still chuckling.

  "Fifteen minutes north of here. From what I'm hearing over the command com, Jack's western group should have people on site about twenty minutes after I drop you off."

  "Outstanding. I wonder if we'll get any artillery support?"

  "You're gonna have to ask Chad," Sean said. "Supposedly they got the new guns set up a few days ago."

  "Hey, did you hear," Dodger, one of the newer wolves on the team, piped up, "they're pulling everyone out of the ME and sending them here!"

  "Yeah, right," a couple of the other wolves responded.

  "He's right about them pulling everyone out," Sean said. "I saw it, too. Just everyone's so busy bitching about me still, the news isn't covering it."

  They all got a little quiet then; Sean knew none of them liked the way Sean was being torn apart in a lot of the media. Then again, Germany wasn't doing much better in the news reports here in the States; word had gotten out that the big shootout in the middle of DC was an assassination attempt sponsored by the German ambassador.

  In Europe the EU had forbidden any press reports about Germany's culpability, which wasn't helping Sean's case there any. Sean wondered how long they'd be able to keep it a secret in the age of the internet.

  "Think they'll end up here?" Adam asked.

  Sean sighed and nodded. "Sooner or later everyone is going to end up here."

  "Well, at least we'll have something to tell the kids," Adam joked.

  Sean listened with half an ear to the banter as he called up his frameworks and checked things. He really needed to check his stats page and look at some new spells or abilities.

  "Hey, Sean," Hunter called, getting his attention, "don't we get a break after this one?"

  Sean nodded. "Yeah, one three-day period with nothing."

  "Pity it's a sixty-hour-long window," Adam said with a sigh. "Just think of the party we could've had!"

  "Coming up on the LZ! Keep your eyes open, the zone is definitely hot!" Trey said.

  "Open the doors!" Hunter called.

  The moment Trey flared they all rolled, jumped, or otherwise scrambled out of the helicopter. Trey was leaving less than three seconds after they'd started to pile out. Sean still thought it all looked kind of silly, but it got them out quickly, and as a cat, he always ended up on top of the pile anyway.

  It only took them a moment to get sorted out, and then Hunter got them organized in a line and moving towards the gateway. Sean and Adam ranged ahead, looking for where the demons were setting up. When they got to the top of a rise, Sean could see the demons were heading for the same rise, so he threw a couple of fireballs at them as Adam unlimbered his rifle and opened fire.

  "Dig in here, boys and girls!" Hunter called out, and half the squad started digging, while the other half went prone and held the line against the approaching demons.

  Sean looked to either side of him. The rest of his troops had deployed and were coming up alongside to help hold the line, as Chad and Claudia's troops deployed to either side. They were in a big horseshoe-shaped line, with the gateway at the bottom of it. The Army was going to come from the direction of the open end, so Chad felt it was better to encourage the demons to go that way, into the superior numbers of Jack's regiment.

  Sean had dropped prone with the rest of the group, his own rifle unslung now, as he carefully took potshots at any of the djevels that looked to be doing anything important. Mostly he was just annoying them, because for every one that dropped, another was there to take its place.

  They immediately set about building some sort of barricades to protect themselves from the rifle fire, and as Chad had predicted, they formed up and marched off on the path of least resistance.

  Unfortunately for them, Jack's first regiment was already there, and they'd used their time productively, heavily salting the area with Claymore mines. They waited until they had the enemy column drawn out, then triggered them all at once.

  The resulting destruction and carnage was quite impressive, Sean thought.

  The Army then charged down to mop up the survivors of the explosion. While they did that, Sean's own sappers rigged Claymores around their positions. Chad was certain they'd try to break out again. After all, that was why they were here.

  For the first twenty hours, that was the drill. The djevels would build up an attack force, then they'd pick a new location and attack it.

  The forces defending the spot they picked would simply fall back, engaging them as they did, drawing them out, and the others would help, encircling them and defeating them once they'd over extended. Chad's tactics had become a lot more refined, now that he had greater numbers and better-trained officers to work with. Everything right now was about letting the enemy defeat themselves. He'd told S
ean he was tired of losing soldiers.

  The next twenty hours were different. They didn't launch any attacks, they spent a lot of time building up their defenses.

  "That looks pretty impressive," Sean said to Chad over the radio.

  "Yup, and I'm more than happy to let them waste their time building it. What's that black stuff they're using, anyway?"

  "It's what passes for wood on the other side of the gateway."

  "Does it burn?"

  "Yup."

  "Oh, that's definitely gonna help."

  "So when are you going to release the artillery on them?"

  "When they look like they're going to attack us again. Oh, the Marines showed up day before yesterday. Their pilots are all crazy, you know that?"

  "Is that a bad thing?"

  "Hardly, but if you see a bunch of black jags walking around, that's them."

  "They didn't want to be wolves?" Sean said, surprised.

  "None of the Marines wanted to be wolves. They wanted big, beefy, and strong. So they went for big cats, bears, and even some of the draft horses. When they join us on the field, you're going to see some changes in our tactics."

  "Assuming we don't lose ’em." Sean sighed.

  "Oh, stop worrying about it. Whether they like you or not, the fact of the matter is, you're the man in charge, and if they want to keep all hell from breaking loose, they have to leave you here."

  "Are you sure about that?" Sean asked, worried.

  "Adam's little rant about him pulling everyone back and letting all the humans get eaten if they didn't do things the 'lion way' was heard by everyone in power back in Washington. Trust me, Steve told me they got the message. Sure, there's a lot of people pissed at you, but it goes both ways. There's a lot of our people who are incredibly pissed that they tried to assassinate you. Haven't you noticed lately a lot of people get really quiet whenever you bring it up?"

  "I thought it was because they're embarrassed about what I did."

  Sean heard Chad's snort over the radio. "It's because they're pissed. Right, Jon?"

  "Yup, even our folks are upset!" Jon, who was Claudia's field commander, replied.

  "He's right, Sean," Adam said on the command line. "A lot of folks were upset over the fundie attack, then they find out others were pushing it, and now those others went after you? People don't like it when you mess with their gods, you know that!"

  "Guys, something's going on with the fort," Max called over the radio.

  Sean turned and looked; sure enough, they were up to something. Through the cracks and the gaps in the walls of the fort he could see a number of the larger demons, lords if he was right, standing around. There were five of them.

  "I think they're circling!" Sean called out over the radio.

  Sean heard Chad suddenly calling for a fire mission from the artillery units. Picking up his binoculars, he zoomed in as close as he could. As he watched, he saw them gesturing together. Obviously they were going to cast something. He was surprised by this, he had no idea djevels could circle, especially not the lords. This was definitely something new.

  The first few shells fell short, but after that, they marched them right up onto the fort. As Sean watched, the entire fort started to glow. The shells that had been blowing pieces off of it suddenly ceased having any effect.

  "Shield spell of some sort," Sean told Chad. "See if any of our other mages can identify it."

  "How long will it last?"

  "Until they stop casting it and it takes enough damage," Sean told him as he continued trying to figure out what they were doing. Only being able to see glimpses of them through the cracks in the poorly built walls was making it a challenge.

  "Uh-oh, they're switching to something else," Sean called as they all stopped a moment, then appeared to be doing something else.

  As Sean watched, mist formed around the fort; it took him a couple of minutes to realize it was some sort of frost effect. He could see the ground freezing around the fort, and quickly, too. Then it slowly expanded.

  "I think they're going to try to freeze us to death," Sean said.

  "That's a lot of ground to cover from here to there, Sean," Chad told him.

  "Yeah, well, we're not stopping them from casting, so I don't think they're worried about how long it's going to take them."

  "Can't you do anything?"

  "Too far for any magic I can do, and they've got a shield up around them that we can't shoot through. So, no. It depends on how powerful the spell they're casting is. If we can't counter it with something of our own, we're going to have to retreat when that wall of cold reaches us."

  "Time to pull some of those tricks out, Chad," Adam said over the radio.

  "Yeah, yeah. I know, I was just hoping to save it."

  "How long until you can use whatever the hell you're talking about?" Sean asked as he watched the slowly spreading ring of frost growing out past the fort.

  "That's going to depend on the crews."

  "Well, better get them started," Sean said.

  "Hold on a moment," Chad said. After a minute he came back on the radio. "Okay, I set them in motion, now we just wait and see."

  "What are our magic users doing?" Sean asked.

  "They're circling as well, and trying to see if there's anything they can do to counter the demons. But they're not sure where they're getting their energy from."

  "Probably the gateway," Sean told him. "I got power from here when it was open, so they're probably getting power from the onderwereld, especially standing that close to an open gateway."

  Sean took a moment to think about what he was seeing.

  "Anybody got any flares?" he called out.

  "I got a flare gun!" one of the wolves called out.

  "See if you can fire one just outside that circle."

  Sean watched as the wolf pulled out a standard flare gun, loaded it, and put one pretty close to the edge. The cloud slowly advanced. The flare was burning merrily, and continued to burn as it was circled by the ice, though it wasn't burning as brightly as before, and the flames stopped spreading.

  Once the fuel was exhausted, the flare went out.

  "I wonder what it does to a living creature," Hunter muttered.

  "Well, if you can find one, by all means find out," Sean told him. "Just don't use any of our people."

  "Yo! Speed, go catch us a rabbit, and don't kill it!"

  "Yes, boss!" a wolf said. Dropping his gear, he suddenly shifted into a full wolf and took off out of their trench.

  "We have a wolf named 'Speed'?" Sean asked.

  "Actually, that's his nickname; he is pretty damn fast, though."

  Sean shrugged and went back to watching the circle as it continued to expand.

  "Notice they haven't had anyone come through the gateway since they started this?" Hunter said.

  "Huh, actually I hadn't."

  "Makes me wonder what this spell of theirs is doing to their own people?"

  "Well, I'd guess they're inside the effect, so probably nothing. But anyone coming through the gateway wouldn't be."

  Speed came trotting up then with a struggling hare in his jaws. Sean grabbed it, making sure he didn't get bitten. Standing up, he walked within ten feet of the circle. He could feel the cold rolling off of it; it was definitely a powerful effect. Tossing the rabbit into it, he watched as it tried to run, then slowed quickly to a stop and laid down on the ground, trying to huddle for warmth.

  Within seconds, ice crystals formed on its fur, and in less than a minute it was covered in a thin film of ice, and was dead.

  Jogging back to the trench, Sean jumped in. "Well, that was educational. How much longer do you think we have until it gets here?"

  "Fifteen, twenty minutes?"

  Sean nodded and called Chad. "Order everyone to pull back when this thing gets within five feet of them."

  "That bad?"

  "Yup. Threw a rabbit in, it didn't last very long. So neither will we."

  "Our frie
nds took off from the airport a few minutes ago. They should be here soon."

  "Well, soon better be less than ten minutes," Sean warned.

  "Don't worry, these guys tell me they've done this before, lots of times."

  "Who are 'these guys'?"

  "Our new Marines, of course!"

  "I think that means we should be worried," Hunter said.

  The constant shelling suddenly stopped, and the sudden silence surprised everyone.

  "Incoming from the south," someone called.

  Looking southward, Sean saw an airplane, a C-130 actually, flying overhead very high up in the air. As it drew near, something big fell out the back, and a small chute opened on it, stabilizing it. A second, larger chute opened as it passed overhead, then it slowly come straight down, almost on top of the fort.

  "Head's down, everybody!" was suddenly broadcast over all the unit radios.

  "Take cover!" Sean called out and ducked down into the trench.

  There was a soft boom, followed a moment later by a flash, and then a much louder explosion that shook the ground and made his ears ring. Giving things a moment to settle down, Sean poked his head up and looked at the fort.

  Half of it was gone; the other half seemed to be on fire. The wall of cold was no longer advancing. In fact, it was melting!

  "What the hell was that?" Sean asked.

  "Improvised fuel-air explosive. Sort of like the 'Mother of All Bombs', only they made it with jet fuel and a few other things."

  "Well, it worked," Sean said. "Better start the artillery back up for a while, make sure we got them all."

  "Already on it."

  "Think they'll try anything else?"

  "If the lords we killed are as important as Stell tells me, I think they may have just shot their wad, but we still have about twenty more hours to go, so who knows?"

  "I really didn't want to show them any airpower," Chad said as Sean joined him in the recovery zone. The gate had closed, and everyone was sprawling out on the ground or sitting in one of the collapsible chairs spread out everywhere, as the attendants brought everybody some food and something relaxing to drink.