by Jan Stryvant
Dan shrugged. "I can't say it any better than that. He's just not serious. He's very relaxed and laid back. Has a good sense of humor, and just has this, this air about him. He knows he's powerful, but he doesn't seem to care." He shrugged again. "He's also really good at explaining things.
"I mean, if he was really a god, wouldn't he be a lot more strict, uptight, and demanding?" Dan asked, looking around at the others, all of whom shrugged.
"We can look into this later, a lot later," Aella said. "For now, let's get going. We have a lot of work to do when we get home."
"Buying new clothes and weapons hardly constitutes as 'a lot of work'," said Olivia.
"Need I remind everybody we bought a mansion? An unfurnished one at that?"
"Oh! Right!" Olivia replied, blushing.
"There's also Dale's old house," added Fawn. "That should be in Dan's name by now as well."
"Exactly," Aella agreed. "We've got a lot to do besides killing Weson. So grab your shit and let's get a move on!"
#
Weson swore and sat up straight, looking around his office. "Gods dammit!" he swore to the empty room. He felt the energy drain hit him, just like that. That could only mean one thing.
They were back!
Shuffling through the stacks on his desk quickly, he found the paperwork that had been delivered to him last Friday; thankfully, he hadn't thrown it out yet. Grabbing a pen, he continued swearing as he signed each of the documents, one after the other, writing in last week's date. He'd had a long discussion with Miles over the whole thing. The fallout from being labeled an oathbreaker would mean all the oaths that had been sworn to him would become void, ring or no ring; his staff could possibly turn on him.
Hitting the intercom button, he called his secretary as he made his way through the documents.
"Yes, Mr. Weson?"
"Call that guy from the bank. Jorgan, I think his name was. Ask him when he's coming over to pick up the papers! I've been waiting for days now!"
"I thought you didn't want to talk to him?" his new secretary said, sounding confused.
"I never said that. Someone else must have! Tell him I've got the documents, and I need them executed already!"
"I'm calling him now, sir!" she replied, properly abashed.
Finishing up the documents, he opened up the drawer on his desk. "And get the notary across the street up here, ASAP. I need her to notarize my signatures."
"Will do, Mr. Weson!"
Fifteen minutes later, the woman from the notary business across the street walked into his office.
"Yes, Mr. Weson?"
"I need these notarized. And I need the date to read last Friday."
"Umm, I don't know if I can…"
Weson picked up ten stacks of hundred-dollar bills from his desk and set it on the end. "Just do it," he growled.
He watched as she picked up the bundles and stuck them in her purse, then got out her stamp and book and went to work. She'd just finished up when his secretary buzzed him again.
"Mr. Weson, Mr. Jorgan is here, himself, to pick up the papers."
"One minute!" he said, releasing the switch. He looked at the notary. "Finished?"
She nodded.
"Use that door," he said, pointing. As soon she left, he told his secretary to show Jorgan in.
"Mr. Weson," Jorgan said, coming in, "this is highly unusual."
Weson sighed and shook his head. "I had these signed and notarized last week. I thought my secretary had called you to pick them up! Imagine my surprise when I found them still sitting here!"
Jorgan gave him a skeptical look. "I find that story hard to believe, Mr. Weson. This is a major financial document, after all. Irregularities like this, well, getting them dealt with is never cheap. There will be sticky wheels that will need to be lubricated."
Weson grumbled a moment, then shook his head, "Fine! It's my fault; I guess I shouldn't expect you to take it out of your commission! How much?"
"Oh, I'd say five hundred thousand would take care of it."
"Five Hundred Thousand?" Weson stormed.
"I can get the recording date set to Monday, as it should have been. Otherwise," Jorgan shrugged, "it won't be until tomorrow."
"Fine! How do you want it?"
"Cash."
"I have gold. Will that work?"
Jorgan smiled. "Of course it will."
Weson buzzed his secretary. "Have Dave send eight bars of gold up, and tell him to hurry."
"Immediately."
"Now, let me examine the papers. Just to be sure nothing was missed," Jorgan said with a smile, sitting down and going through all of them. When he was done, he opened his briefcase and put them inside.
One of Dave's people showed up, lugging a heavy canvas bag.
"Ah, good. If you would be so kind as to follow me down to my car," Jorgan said to the guy carrying the bag, who looked at Weson, then sighed as Weson nodded.
"Now I need to be on my way quickly if I'm going to get these all nice and legal before everyone goes home for the day. It was a pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Weson."
Weson scowled and watched as Jorgan left. Still, the deal was done, and it had been accepted. He'd have to reschedule the attack on Wiles; the tap on his powers wouldn't go away until they either left, or the terms of the contract, which was now only sixteen days away, were fulfilled. Knowing those demon bitches, they'd probably stay right up to the end to pay him back for attacking them.
If nothing else, at least Shannon's bastard kid was dead. Picking up his phone, he called Dave; he might as well set up a meeting for later tonight, to let everyone know those demon bitches were back in town, and they'd need to hold off dealing with Wiles until after they were gone.
#
"Carmine, Terry," Godfrey said over the phone. "Change in plans. Weson has just called off his attack on us!"
"Any idea why?" Terry asked over the phone.
"No, Alice didn't know. All she was told was that he called everyone in for a meeting, and when Yvette came back, she told them the attack wouldn't be until next month."
"That's…odd," Carmine said.
"Hana and her friends are back, aren't they?" Terry asked.
Godfrey nodded to himself. "Yes, I think that's most likely the cause of this."
"So when do we start our diversion attack?"
"Saturday, late Saturday. Spread the word tomorrow night that we spotted Daniel and we know he's going after Weson. Make sure some of his people hear. Then we can go all out without worrying."
"Today's only Wednesday; shouldn't we wait until Sunday?" Carmine asked.
Terry shook his head. "No, if we wait until then, they may have already attacked. We want Weson to commit everything he's got to going after them. Which he won't do if he's worried about us, so the sooner the better.
"Honestly, you sure we shouldn't launch on Friday, Goff?"
"No," Godfrey said. "We want Weson feeling a little worried, a bit desperate. He sees us go off on Dale, he'll feel like the pressure's off, and he's free to commit. Like you said, Terry, he'll see it as us taking advantage of the situation. That we felt safe committing elsewhere."
"Okay," Carmine agreed. "I'll get everyone ready."
#
"So when are we moving into the house?" Dan asked as he sat down on the bed in their Walmart hideout, drying his hair. It was nice to have fresh clothes again.
"Tomorrow," Fawn replied from her computer. "I'm checking with our realtor to make sure she'll be there with the keys. According to my finance guys, the contracts went through yesterday, so it's ours now."
"What's the story on Weson? Did he pay?"
"Yeah, he did," Fawn growled.
"I thought you'd be happy about that?"
"Something about it looks suspicious," Olivia told him.
"What? I thought this was all going through one of Fawn's people?"
"The deal was recorded Monday, from the looks of things, and the date on all the pape
rwork was last Friday, but it wasn't entered into the system until sometime today."
He shrugged. "Maybe there was a problem at the bank?"
"Daniel," Fawn grumbled, using his full name, "do you really think he signed the papers and had them ready to go after banishing us the night before? That he filed them with my people? What's the point?"
"I don't know, maybe in case we came back?"
"If that's the case, they should have been filed today."
"They couldn't be filed today," Wrath said, reminding her as she came out of the shower with Aella, toweling herself dry. "Remember, the deal had to be signed by Saturday."
"Most likely he just filled it all out when he found out we were back and bribed everyone to say it was turned over on time," Aella said with a shrug.
"He shouldn't have been able to do that!" Fawn growled. "That would mean he bribed my guy!"
"What's the big deal? You got your money, right?" Dan said.
"The problem is, we can't accuse him of being an oathbreaker now," she said with a sigh. "Part of the deal was, we'd waive all his oaths as long as he met our conditions."
"Well, call your guy and ask him why he did it, then. Most likely he thought he was doing you a favor. But there's no point crying over spilt milk. Now, hit the shower and get cleaned up; I want to hit the Zoo tonight and see what happened while we were gone."
"I'm still ordering stuff to be delivered to the house tomorrow!"
Sighing, Dan got up, walked up behind Fawn, and grabbed her by the shoulders, pulling her up out of the seat as she was typing.
"Hey! What are you doing!"
"Enforcing my will on my disobedient little sheep-gal. What's it look like I'm doing?" he said with a chuckle. "Now, don't make me spank you, or we'll never get out to the Zoo tonight."
"You were so much easier to control when you were human," Fawn grumbled softly.
"No he wasn't!" Aella laughed. "Now, hurry up. You're the last one, and I'd like to stop for some dinner along the way."
"Fine, fine! I'll go shower! Just don't blame me if we're all sleeping on the floor tomorrow night!"
Everyone laughed at her as she stepped into the shower with a snort. After the water came on, Dan walked over to her computer and sat down at it, looking over the screen.
"You think that's safe?" Olivia asked in a soft voice, coming over to join him.
He snorted. "I've been special ordering stuff online for years for my stepfather's businesses. Besides, the order's half finished. Wrath, you know what goes into a kitchen; how about coming over here and helping me finish this?"
They made it to the Zoo by eleven, which, according to the girls, was normally when things there would pick up anyway. As Dan understood it, demons liked to stay out later than humans. Usually because they were out preying on humans during the early evening at the mundane bars and clubs.
Then again, the Zoo was a 24/7 kind of a bar—which, seeing as it was unlicensed by the state and few mundanes knew about it, it didn't surprise him that most demons wouldn't show up there until the regular establishments were closing down for the night.
"Lofn! Wrath! Girls! You're still here!" Estaca called to them from behind the bar as they came inside. "Grab a table! I'll be over in a minute!"
The girls looked at each other, shrugged, then walked over to what was becoming their usual table, and Dan followed along. The place looked to be about as busy as the last time they were here, which wasn't very. There were maybe twenty people in the place. But he recognized Firreiro and nodded to him. He also saw that Vondro was here, too.
A waitress came over, and the girls ordered some sort of beer. He ordered the one mixed drink his brother had introduced him to. He noticed a couple of raised eyebrows, but honestly, he just wanted something to help him relax. The last week of worrying about his girls had been stressful.
Estaca came over not long after the waitress had left.
"I heard you'd all been banished!" she said, looking them over. "What happened?"
"We came back, obviously," Wrath said with a shrug.
"So it's true then? You were banished?"
"Yes, Estaca, it's true," Lofn said with a smile. "Weson attacked us up in Auburn in full view of the public."
Dan was surprised by the look of disbelief on Estaca's face.
"He must really be getting desperate! The news said it was some sort of fire! That there was a crazed bomber hiding out in the hotel who accidentally blew himself up, and that's what started it…I mean, we all heard the rumors, but no one was sure, and then all of you disappeared!
"How'd you get back?"
Dan made a small wave with his hand. "That was me."
"You summoned them?"
Dan shook his head, "No, I went and got them."
"You went and got them? You?" Estaca's eyes were wide now.
"Of course I did. They're my women, my mates. What kind of man would I be if I didn't take care of them?"
Estaca looked at Lofn and the others, back at him, then looked at them again.
"Is he serious?" she asked in a soft voice.
"Deadly serious," Wrath said with a nod.
Fawn giggled and bounced in her seat. "He even killed an idiot back home who had the nerve to put his hands on me."
Estaca looked at Dan again, not quite believing what she was hearing.
Dan shrugged, then looked up at the waitress, who was returning with his drink and a couple of pitchers of beer for the girls.
"You don't think we'd have tied ourselves to him if he wasn't dangerous, do you?" Aella said with a laugh as Estaca looked back at her.
"Ah! Thank you," Dan said to the waitress, grabbing his glass and taking a drink. She passed the mugs around, then set the pitchers on the table after filling the girls' mugs.
"But I thought…" Estaca blinked and frowned. "I thought you were all using him, and that he was just some human boy who'd gotten lucky!"
"Oh, I got lucky all right," Dan said and hoisted his glass up with a grin, "to the best and most beautiful women in the world, all of whom belong to me!"
The girls smiled and gave him one of those 'dawww' looks he enjoyed so much, then raised their mugs to him and took a drink.
"Daniel's a mage—actually, more of a wizard," Lofn said, looking up at Estaca again. "In time, I suspect he'll be quite powerful, and as we've told you before, he's not quite human."
"He's part demon," Wrath said.
"The best parts!" Fawn said with another giggle.
"So what has the competition been up to while we were gone?" Olivia asked.
"Well, there was the attack on you up in Auburn," Estaca said, shaking her head. "I still can't believe Weson would do such a thing."
"Weson's an idiot," Dan said. "What about the other two? Wiles and that Dale person?"
"My sources tell me Wiles went after Dale while Weson was occupied with…well, with you."
"Oh? What happened?" Wrath asked.
Estaca shrugged. "I don't know the details, but Dale's still there. Wiles is pretty careful about keeping a low profile."
Dan and the girls looked at each other.
"How do you know they attacked Dale?" Dan asked.
Estaca snorted. "All of us have a vested interest in who wins this fight, and ever since Wiles felt the need to actually show up here, of all places, I've got someone keeping an eye on him. We know who his lieutenants are now, and we're figuring out where he's getting his people from. Dale's never bothered us, so we've been ignoring him."
"Do you keep an eye on Weson, too?"
"Not closely. Too many have disappeared around him. And let's be honest here, I don't have a lot of resources or power," she said with a heavy sigh. "Up until now, none of them have ever come here, even though I'm sure they know this place exists."
"I'm surprised more of the local demons don't want to get involved. This is their home now," Dan said, looking around and taking another sip of his drink.
"Demons aren't the best when
it comes to working together; you know that, Dan," Aella said.
"Unless they're either forced to…" Olivia started.
"Or they have a strong common interest!" Fawn finished, winking at him.
"Well, I'm not gonna screw 'em all," Dan said with a laugh. "So maybe I just need to force 'em?"
"Force them to do what?" Estaca asked.
"Help us take down Weson and then Wiles, of course," he said with a smile. "This is going to be our town."
"Our town?"
"Well, mine and the girls. But really, think about it, don't you think everybody would be a lot happier if they knew someone who liked demons was running the show?"
"Ummm…"
"His father was a demon, Estaca," Lofn said in a soft voice. "He only looks human. The human mages will all think he's human, because they think Shannon, his stepfather, was his real father. So they'll accept him."
"Look," Wrath added with a growl, "anyone who helps us gets a blind eye turned to what they're doing, and our help when they need it."
"As long as they're not going around indiscriminately killing people," Dan interjected.
"And anyone who doesn't help us doesn't get shit," Wrath continued. "No consideration, no help when they need it, and they have to kick back twenty percent to us for the right to live here. Anyone who opposes us—not that I expect anyone here to take the side of one of those human mages—either gets out of town or gets dead.
"We're serious about this, Estaca. We're taking over, and we're going to run this town."
"Do you really think you can get the mages to back you?" Estaca asked as she looked them over.
Dan set his drink down and looked her in the eye.
"I don't have any problem killing to keep what's mine," he said with a hint of a growl to his voice, "and this town is going to belong to me before the month is finished! There'll be none of this flailing around these losers have been doing for the last three years."
Estaca noticed the others gave a small nod in agreement as Dan finished. This wasn't the typical idle boast of your average demon.
"So what do you want from me?" she asked cautiously.
"Two things. First, I want you to keep doing what you're doing. I'm sure keeping this place going hasn't been easy during all of this."
