by Jan Stryvant
#
Aella led the way into the bar, with Fawn following, and Lofn bringing up the rear. As they came in the door, they made a beeline for their table as Estaca came over, intercepting them halfway across the floor of the bar.
"Lofn! Fawn! Aella! It's so nice to see you! Where're the others?" she asked, looking towards the door.
"Daniel is out recruiting other mages to help us with Weson," Lofn said with a smile as they continued to their table, though at a slower pace now.
"He is?"
"Yup," Fawn said, "we saw Madura, and she advised us on who we should ask."
"Turns out one of them Dan already knew, so getting them onboard wasn't a problem."
"How's everyone down here taking it?" Aella asked.
Estaca smiled and shook her head. "A lot better than I thought they would. I've already got eighteen who are willing to commit, and there's more who keep stopping by every couple of hours to ask about it."
"Really?"
Estaca nodded. "You said put the word out, and I did."
"Any idea why everyone is so interested?" Lofn asked as they reached the table.
"Yeah, actually. Everyone knows what happened to you gals, and let's face it, you're pretty strong, all of you. If Weson managed to imprison you, then once he's in charge, what's to stop him from going after all of us? Then there're the demons we know he's killed, as well as the ones we all suspect."
"So self-preservation, then?" Fawn said with a laugh.
"Well, that, and wouldn't it be nice if demons were running this town?"
"Dan's going to be running this town," Aella said.
Estaca laughed. "And you all run Dan," she said with a smirk. "I've seen the way he looks at you all."
"Well, there is that," Fawn agreed with a grin.
"Don't forget that he's part demon, as well," Lofn pointed out.
"And a pretty damn powerful one as well," Fawn agreed.
"How can he be that powerful if he's only a half-breed?"
"It's like this," Aella said, lowering her voice and looking around to make sure no one was eavesdropping on them before continuing, "He's a sobek."
"Wait, a sobek? I thought there weren't any of them around anymore?"
"Oh, no, they're still out there, and trust me when I say you don't want to mess with them. The stories are true."
"That they eat people?"
"Swallow them whole," Fawn said with a grin. "It's hot!"
"You've seen him do it?"
"Twice!"
"But he's part human! How does that even work?"
Lofn sighed. "His father, his real father, is the Lord of Faiyum!"
Estaca's eyes got wide then. "By the fates of the twenty-nine! You're lying, you've got to be! How could that even…"
Lofn gave a short laugh and shook her head. "Yeah, that's how we reacted. I'd suggest not telling anybody about that, or they'll think you're insane."
"How do you think a boy like Dan is able to handle us?" Aella said with grin. "All five of us, and leave us panting for more?"
Estaca bit her lip, crossed her legs, and rocked back and forth a little.
"Do you think I could get him in bed?" she said in a soft voice.
"Oh, trust me, he's got plans for you!" Fawn said with a giggle. "Fun plans."
"Umm," Estaca said, blushing. "Are, umm, you going to be here for a while?"
"I thought we'd eat lunch here, and maybe you could ask everyone to stop by so we can talk with those who are interested?"
"Umm, yeah, right. Right away." She looked at Fawn. "He does?"
"Oh, yeah, he does," Fawn grinned.
"He likes your ass," Aella said, also grinning. "He really likes looking at it."
Estaca giggled, surprising all of them, then all but ran to her office.
"Why the hell is she so hot for Dan?" Fawn asked, looking at the other two as they sat down.
"Probably because he's got the five of us on the hook," Aella said.
"His father being a god probably has a little to do with it," Lofn said with a smile.
"Yeah, why'd you tell her that? We're not sure Wrath's right."
"What's the one thing all gods do?" Lofn asked Fawn.
Fawn shrugged. "I don't know, what?"
"The impossible. They all do the impossible."
"And rescuing all five of us was definitely impossible," Aella said with a laugh.
"And he did it twice," Fawn said after a minute. "Well, me and you that is, Lofn."
"Let's get a pitcher and order some lunch, as long as we're going to be here a while."
They'd barely gotten through their first mug of beer when Adestrar, or 'Hank', showed up.
"Hank!" Aella said with a smile and waved at one of the open chairs. "Have a seat! What are you doing here?"
"I heard you're looking for help taking down Weson. Where's Wrath and that boy of yours?"
"They're off recruiting mages."
"Mages? Why would they want to help?"
"Because Dan's father was a well-known mage whom Weson murdered."
"We're taking over," Lofn said, setting her beer down. "Daniel's going to be the new head of Sacramento."
Hank nodded slowly. "That's what Estaca said. That if we helped, we'd pretty much be left alone to do as we please, as long as we weren't killing anybody."
"If you're not stirring up the mundanes and risking the rest of us, yup, that's pretty much the way of it," Lofn agreed.
"Come on, you met him," Fawn said. "He's got no problems with demons; truth is, he's part demon himself."
"Well, I guess that explains what you all see in him," Hank said with a nod. "To be honest, I like the idea of someone who's got no problems with us being in charge of things. If Weson gains control, I'll have to leave my trains; probably be the same if either of the other two take charge."
"One, other one," Aella said.
"Huh? What's that mean?"
"We got rid of Dale a couple of weeks ago. It's just Weson and Wiles, and once Weson is gone, Dan's gonna send Wiles packing."
"Huh," Hank said, and then looked down at the table a moment before looking back up at Aella, Fawn, and then Lofn. "I think I should talk to some of my friends. If you've already dealt with one of them, that means this is going to be easier than I thought."
"Estaca will let you know when we'll need you," Lofn said. "Make sure she knows how to get in touch with you."
Hank nodded and, getting up, he walked away.
"That was a surprise," Aella said.
"Well, you know how Adestrar feels about those trains at the museum," Fawn said with a grin. "I wonder how many friends he has."
"Guess we'll find out, won't we?"
Over the next four hours, more than fifty of the local demons stopped by and talked to them; the number of different races that came by was impressive. Forty-one of them said they wanted in, and six more were seriously considering it.
"Estaca was right, there really is a lot of interest," Aella said.
"I wonder how much more we're gonna get?" Fawn asked.
"Hopefully more than we need," Lofn said. "Did you call the people over at Dale's and tell them to clear out?"
"Yup, took care of it right after Dan, Wrath, and Olivia left."
Lofn smiled slowly. "I'd love to see what kind of stir that's causing."
#
Terry set down the phone, a frown on his face.
"What happened?" Carmine asked, looking up at him from the other side of the table. They'd been planning tomorrow's attack for a couple of hours now.
"Everyone's clearing out of Dale's house."
"Everyone?"
"Everyone left alive. Like their tails are on fire, too! They're streaming out the front door, and either getting in their cars, or catching Uber rides."
"We've got to stop them! How the hell can we do any of this," she motioned to their plans, "if they're not there?"
"I think that's the point," Terry said and then swore, "Fuck
me! They didn't!"
"Didn't what?"
"Remember what the guy in charge there told us? The head butler, what was his name?"
"That's beside the point." Carmine sighed. "What did he say?"
"That they were under oath to Hana not to leave until they were released."
Carmine blinked and then shook her head. "Oh, fuck, Hana found out we know about Dale."
"And with them all leaving in the middle of the day, at once…there's no way Weson isn't going to find out about this. We need to call Goff and let him know."
"What I want to know is, how did they figure out what we were going to do?" Carmine said, glaring down at the plans. "Who talked?"
"It may just be coincidence," Terry said while shaking his head. "They only just got back; they obviously have better intel than we thought. They heard about the fight we had. Maybe they called the folks at Dale's and heard about it? So what's the point of continuing the charade if somebody already knows?"
"Unless they want to make sure Weson knows so he worries about us," Carmine said, looking back up at him. "This means Weson has to go back to worrying about us, which reduces the number of people he can go after Hana with."
Carmine's eyes got wide for a moment. "What if…what if Hana and them come after us first instead?"
"Why would she do that?"
"Because if Weson is worried about an attack from them, he won't be watching us? She could come in here and snipe us without fear of Weson launching an attack on them once they've taken us out?"
"I doubt Hana could take us out," Terry said with a smirk.
"Probably not. But the damage she could do would give Weson something to capitalize on, wouldn't it?"
Terry thought about that a moment. "I don't know, it makes more sense to go after Weson first, because Weson's been attacking Hana and her friends for years now. He's the bigger threat to her!"
"Okay, but then why'd she take Dale out?" Carmine asked. "Dale was the least threat of the three of us to her, to any of us! Hana obviously kept it a secret to keep any of us from figuring out what her real plans were. I mean, look at the blackmail! Why'd she do that if she was planning to stay? I mean, that's what we all thought, right? She wanted everyone to think she was going to take the money and run!"
Terry frowned as he considered that. It was pure luck they'd discovered the truth about Dale. Why had she taken Dale out first? Maybe Carmine was right; Hana was working her way up. If she came after them and took them out, it would leave her with a clear playing field to go after Weson without having to watch her back…
"It almost makes sense," Terry said, shaking his head. "But then why release Dale's people? She could have hit us while we were staging the fake attack! That would have made things even easier for her!"
"Because she didn't know! That has to be the answer!" Carmine said excitedly. "She didn't know about our plans and did this to throw us off track! We go back to worrying about Weson, focusing on him, and she hits us when we least expect it! We all think she's going after him first because she's mad at him!"
"That's…that's some sneaky shit right there."
"Yeah, well, didn't Goff say she was a completely underhanded, nasty bitch?"
"How long do you think we've got?" Terry asked, looking up at her.
"I don't know. We need to talk with Goff about this. That trip to Auburn must have been to throw us off while they were building up. A few days?" She shook her head.
"Get your things. I'll call him and let him know we're coming. We can reset our defenses from his place." Terry sighed and shook his head again, then looked up at Carmine. "And I think we better stick together and keep our gear handy. I don't want to lose you, hon. She probably knows about us, and will come after us the first chance she gets."
Carmine nodded and came around the table to give him a hug. "Yeah, if she's taking a bottom up approach, killing us before taking on Goff would only make sense."
Still Learning
They dropped George and his dad off at their house and then went home.
"So, how'd it go? Aella asked as they walked into the den, where Fawn was setting up some computer gear.
"Well, it went well," Dan said. "Both Royce and Takett signed up, and I told Herman to call Layton and see whether he's interested or not. Where's Lofn?"
"Oh, she's showing Boris and Marion their new rooms."
"You're kidding, right?" Dan asked, surprised.
"Nope! Marion knows how to cook quite well, and when Fawn here dangled the obscenely high salary, she took it in a heartbeat."
"Why'd she do that? Other than it being a lot of money," Wrath asked.
Fawn snickered. "Because I think a lot of her friends and coworkers didn't exactly approve of her new pet?"
"I don't think I want to know," Dan said with a shake of his head.
"Oh, it's probably worse than you think," Fawn said, still snickering. "But I think what they objected to the most was that Boris was pretty much running her life. Apparently he's talking to her, and I guess her friends thought she was going crazy when she told them things like, 'Well, Boris told me I can't do that.'"
"Are we just going to have him?" Olivia asked. "Or did he manage to get some friends to come help us as well?"
"I think we're going to end up with one or two more."
A buzzer sounded, and Dan felt something tickling at the outermost ward.
"What's that?" Olivia asked.
"Someone's at the back gate," Dan said.
"Who?"
Dan shrugged. "I'll go look. Might be George, or might be some of my old friends. Depends on whether George told them I'm back here."
"We'd better put up some 'beware of dog' signs," Aella said. "Wouldn't want Boris to kill any of the locals by accident."
"I'll talk to him," Dan said. "We definitely don't want any accidents, but signs would be a good idea, too."
"I'll go with you," Aella said as Dan headed to the back of the house. Going outside, he skirted the pool, and sure enough, George was on the other side of the fence.
"I'm surprised your dad let you come over," Aella said.
George laughed. "I just told him I was going out; I didn't say where."
"He call Layton yet?" Dan asked.
"He was on the phone to him when I left. I think you might want to call Royce and Takett and ask them to talk with folks as well."
"Why's that?"
George snorted. "I think my father has issues with you telling him what to do."
"Is that because of us?" Aella asked.
"No, it's more because of Dan's age. Dad's in his forties, and Dan and I aren't even twenty yet. I mean, from the looks of things, Dan's doing way better than dad ever did. He's got a number of hot and powerful women at his beck and call, he's got money, and he's obviously got power."
"Beck and call?" Aella asked with a slight growl.
George grinned. "Am I wrong?"
"Not really," Dan said with a laugh and hip checked Aella lightly. "But they're my partners, not my slaves."
"Well, maybe Fawn is," Aella snickered.
"TMI!" George said waving a hand.
"So what's up?" Dan asked.
"Eh, honestly, I just wanted to hang out. Scott and Greg don't know about magic at all, so I can't really talk to them about any of this. Plus they're both off at college now, anyway."
Dan nodded. "I can only imagine. I gotta go talk to our new security, might as well introduce you so you don't get bit."
"What, getting guard dogs?"
"Hellhound," Aella said.
"No way!"
"Yes, way!" Dan replied with a laugh.
"If you two start playing air guitar, I'm gonna smack you both," Aella grumbled.
"Ah, not a Bill & Ted fan," George said with a chuckle.
"More like that was so '90s, and we're about twenty plus years beyond it."
"Yeah, but it's still funny. So how'd you end up with a hellhound?"
Dan shrugged. "My father h
ad it in a trap or something, and one of Weson's goons triggered it and got eaten. So he sort of works for me. That reminds me." Dan sighed. "I still need to read through my father's notes so I can figure out what the spell is that's binding Boris."
"Boris?"
"Had to call him something."
They came around to the servant's quarters behind the large garage. When Dan had grown up here, they'd been more of a business office for his father, but the last owner must have converted it.
"Boris, Marion?" Dan said, knocking on the door.
"Hi, Daniel," Lofn said opening the door. "What brings you down here?"
"I wanted to talk about a few things with Boris. Mainly warn him not to bite George here, and to warn him that I do have a couple of mundane friends in the area who might show up unannounced. How's Marion?"
"We're going over recipes and her duties," Lofn said with a smile. "I'm also helping her settle in."
Boris padded up then and gave a soft woof at Dan.
"Hey, Boris! This is George, don't bite him, and if you need anything, let one of the girls know, or have Marion ask one of us, and I'm sure it'll get taken care of."
"Got it!" Boris growled in a surprisingly deep voice, then turned and padded back inside.
"Wow, he can talk, too! Awesome!" George said.
"First time I've heard it," Dan said with a shrug. "You coming up to the house soon, Lofn?"
"In a bit, Daniel. Is something up?"
"I want to start making plans for Weson soon. I also want to hear from you, Aella, and Fawn about how things went at the Zoo."
"They went well," Lofn said.
"That's for sure," Aella said with a grin. "Oh, we need to stop by Firreiro's soon so he can set that gem in the hilt of your mace."
"Oh, right," Dan said with a nod.
"So you're really thinking of taking Weson on in a few days?" George asked after Dan gave Lofn a hug and a kiss and they walked back towards the pool.
"Not like we have much of a choice," Dan replied with a shrug.
"I've never been in any kind of a fight like this before," George said shaking his head. "The idea of it is kind of scary, to be honest."
"Yeah, I know. I got shot my first time, and trust me, that sucked," Dan said with a sigh.
