by Renée Jaggér
“Dumbass,” she teased, poking him with her fingers. “You know that’s not what I meant.”
“I do?” He seemed genuinely confused. She recalled that he was a man and that, according to most other girls, men tended to suck at understanding...anything, really.
Grumbling with exasperation, she spelled it out. “How many couples do you know who come from the same backgrounds as the two of us?”
“Oh.” He nodded. “Let’s see… None.”
“Right,” she confirmed. “I’m thinking, well, how are people gonna react? Everyone already thinks I am weird since I didn’t want to get married to one of my own kind at the usual time like I was supposed to. I wonder if the situation we’re dealing with will make people a little more amenable to the possibility of us, uh, being together for a while.”
He folded his hands behind his head and lay on his back next to her. “We’ve already gotten Weres and witches helping each other out. I don’t think anyone will care. And if they do, we get a pass anyway because we’re special.”
She laughed. “That’s technically true, isn’t it? We’re each the local oddball. Plus I guess we’re heroes. Makes it easier than if everyone hated us. Would you still...” she swallowed, “still want to be with me if everyone did hate us?”
He rolled over on his side, facing her. “Yes.” He planted a kiss on her mouth. “I’m glad they don’t, but if that were the case, we’d run away to Tennessee or Singapore or who knows where and change our names or something.”
Bailey smiled. “I’d rather be around my family. And friends. But I’m glad you have that level of—” She stopped herself. “I was about to say ‘commitment,’ but I hear guys don’t like that word.”
Roland shrugged. “It’s possible that I’m warming up to it.” He pulled her close to him, and their lips met again, and their hands wandered.
Bailey and Roland were up by 6:52. They’d just poured themselves cups of Jacob’s coffee when someone knocked on the door.
“Uh-oh,” Kurt snarked.
Jacob answered it. “Hi, uh, Agent.”
Velasquez gave a sharp nod. “Hello. May I come in? I need to talk to Bailey.”
The eldest Nordin boy opened the door wider and stepped aside. “It’d be illegal for me to say no, wouldn’t it?”
“Correct,” said the agent. He strode over to the couch, and the werewitch and the wizard looked up at him with bleary eyes. “I have information for you.”
“Good morning,” Bailey drawled. “Jacob, get the man a mug of coffee since he obviously got out of frickin’ bed five minutes ago.”
Velasquez almost smiled. “Not quite. Listen. I was able to personally contact Aradia under the pretense of inviting her to eliminate you.”
Roland spat out his coffee. “You did what?”
Bailey put a hand on his arm. “Hold on. Getting her to attack me was always part of the plan, after all.” She looked at the agent. “Okay, then. Details?”
After accepting a steaming mug from Jacob, who along with Russell and Kurt watched him with wary eyes, Velasquez related how he’d gotten patched through to the goddess and convinced her that the Agency wanted the “shifter threat” taken care of, with them supposedly turning a blind eye to the whole affair.
“Obviously,” he added, “it was a lie. We do plan to aid you in destroying her, rather than the reverse.”
Roland raised his mug as if making a toast. “That’s good to know.”
Velasquez continued, “We are aware that the Venatori dispatched their Inquisitors and you had some difficulties with them, and we apologize for any inconvenience. We’re glad you’re safe. However, all this was probably inevitable. The idea is to bolster Aradia’s confidence so she oversteps herself and comes after you in the Other, where we can assure zero collateral damage, and then be rid of her. At which point, the tensions between the greater communities of both witches and Weres will have time to simmer down. The alliance you’ve forged is a good sign.”
“Thanks,” Bailey replied. “And while I’d rather have heard about your plan beforehand, I’ll agree it was a good one.”
“Yes.” The agent sipped his coffee. “Your brother makes this stuff well. My compliments.”
Russell grunted in irritation as Jacob shouted, “Thanks!” from somewhere toward the kitchen.
Velasquez elaborated further. “Neutralizing the witch-goddess will provide the best outcome for everyone except the Venatori, and frankly, fuck them. Our organization will benefit nearly as much as you people will. Things will go back to normal, and agent mortality will decrease by a significant margin. For now, I’ve convinced my superiors to shutter other, lesser operations in the western sector and shift personnel over to aiding you during the coming battle. We should have a large number of combat-ready units available. Fighting a goddess is nothing to trifle with, and it’s in our best interest to ensure your success since if Aradia survives, she’ll want revenge on us all. That could make life extremely difficult.”
“No shit,” Roland agreed.
“Agent,” said Bailey, “thank you. I’ve got your number. Stay in touch. Today we’ll be recruiting more witches from around the region to help us, and then we’ll issue the challenge. If Aradia doesn’t find us first.”
Velasquez shook their hands and went to his car, driving off at an unsafe speed on whatever his next errand was.
Jacob watched the man go, then turned to the couple. “You guys should have breakfast before you leave. I made an entire dozen eggs.”
“Sure.” Bailey squinted. “We still need Fenris back too. Roland, get me some eggs. I’ll be right back.”
She marched outside, cupped her hands over her mouth, and shouted, “Fenris!” into the sky as loud as she dared. Then she sent her mind out across the Northwest and into the Other, willing the deity to hear her call.
Nothing happened. She resolved to eat something, then attempt a proper magical procedure, but when she went back inside, Kurt was opening the back door. Heavy footsteps moved into the house.
“Here I am,” said Fenris. “I believe I’ve learned all I can for the time being. Are you ready for battle?”
Bailey sat down at the dining room table and scooped eggs onto a piece of toast with her fork. “Not quite. We still have to talk to the witches Dante mentioned. He did the preliminary stuff online yesterday. Think you can handle portal duty?”
“Of course,” the hooded man answered her. “We should move quickly, though. The Venatori are pulling all their available forces on the continent toward Oregon. And I suspect Aradia may have intuited my actions since she’s created a cloud of interference masking her movements. That means she might be preparing to manifest in your backyard. Not that I mean to alarm you, but that’s the reality of the situation.”
Roland grunted. “To save time, Bailey and I will shower together. Then we’ll snap to it.”
Jacob shot him a squinty look. “That’s my sister you’re talking about.”
The wizard blinked in mock innocence. “I thought I was talking about efficiency and water conservation.”
Twenty-five minutes later, Bailey, Roland, and Fenris stood in front of the house.
“For starters,” the werewitch said, “portal us to the middle of town. It’ll save a few minutes. Then we can gather Dante and everyone else, and from there, head off to Seattle.”
“Done,” said Fenris.
Dante gestured. “Okay. This is the place.”
Bailey peered at it. “A frozen yogurt shop. Man, I knew even less about the ways of witchcraft than I thought.”
“What,” Roland marveled. “You telling me you don’t like frozen yogurt?”
“More partial to ice cream,” she admitted.
Dante waved a hand. “They’ve got gelato, too. Anyway, come on. The two chicks I was talking to earlier said they’d be here most of the afternoon, plus there’s always someone hanging around, so we might get a third, a fourth, or more.”
At present, their
group consisted of Bailey, Roland, Dante, Charlene, three other witches, and one other wizard whom they’d recruited elsewhere in Seattle. The others were off on similar missions.
Dante had led them through a variety of places on his recruitment drive. Two clubs, one of which Roland had never heard of. A suburban mall where witches often hung around the antique stores. A New Age supplies outlet. A small library, not unlike the one where Bailey recalled going with Roland to test her magical potential. And finally, a line of business suites adjacent to the university.
They pushed through the door. A bell rang, and Dante waved to the guy behind the counter. “Hi. We’ll buy something in a minute, but first, we’re here to meet people.”
“Okay.” The employee shrugged.
In the rear corner sat two women, one about Roland’s age, the other in her mid-thirties or so. They were attractive in a slightly esoteric way and dressed in normal clothes.
Dante introduced himself, then the others. “And this is Bailey and Roland. I get the impression they’re kinda famous by this point.”
“Indeed,” said Deanna, the older of the two. “We weren’t sure what to make of you two at first, but we’ve all heard about what’s been going on lately.”
The other witch, named Shari, nodded. “Yeah. It’s scary as shit. Nobody’s safe anymore, and the Order is causing problems for everyone.”
They ordered frozen yogurt and talked as they ate it. Bailey wished the two sorceresses would show more haste, but she understood they needed to feel like they could trust the newcomers before they committed to anything.
Fortunately, it didn’t take long. The werewitch suspected that Deanna and Shari had simply wanted to make sure they weren’t being scammed or led into a trap. The other casters vouched for Bailey’s reliability and integrity.
“We’ll help you, then,” the older one concluded. “The last thing witches need is for the general public to start hating us again, just because of what the Venatori are getting up to.”
Bailey extended a hand. “Great. Shake on it?”
That seemed to amuse them. For a second, the werewitch felt like the backwoods hick she was, but she shook off the thought. There were far more important things to worry about.
Next, they collected another pair of Weres, a couple Roland had spoken to previously. Both were strong and around forty, and they seemed starstruck once they saw Bailey.
“Goddamn,” said Bill, the first. “Me and my wife heard about you, girl. You might be the biggest thing to happen to weredom since...shit, I can’t remember.”
The woman, Laurene, smiled and clasped the werewitch’s hand. “It’s an honor to meet you, seriously. You’ve done so much good.”
Bailey thanked and welcomed them. It occurred to her that urban Weres, having assimilated into human society, had a less pronounced division of the sexes than the traditional rural packs did. Among country wolves, it was rare for the females to participate in any kind of fighting except as a last resort. Not counting her, of course.
Having finished in Seattle, they called upon Fenris to open a portal back into the Other, and from there, they moved on to Tacoma, Olympia, Portland, Salem, and Eugene. Only one stop in each, since none had a witch community the size of Seattle’s, and most of the Weres in the Pacific Northwest had already joined them.
With daylight waning as they completed their tasks, they opened a portal to Greenhearth with a respectable force of forty-nine able bodies. Bailey imagined she could combine them with her allies from the Hearth Valley and manage the equivalent of a military company.
She only hoped it would be enough.
“Fenris,” Bailey asked before they stepped through the gate, “are we going to do it tonight?”
He looked at her with a blank, steady expression. “If you’re ready, I think it would be wise. Aradia will strike soon if we don’t move first.”
The girl closed her eyes, breathed in through her nose, and exhaled through her mouth as she walked through the shimmering door and emerged in a small park of Main Street back home. The others filed out behind her.
A crowd of locals had formed off to the sides since right in the middle of town was a cluster of men in black fatigues and helmets carrying bright silvery-chrome weapons. Their presence was obviously making the townsfolk nervous. They kept staring at them and whispering to each other.
Bailey, though, was happy to see that Velasquez had come through. She walked forward, seeking him.
The lean bronzed man noticed the girl and turned away from his troops to greet her. “Hello, Bailey. As you can see, we’re ready.”
“Wow,” she quipped. “For once, you guys are in town before us. We kinda assumed you’d make another dramatic last-minute entrance in the middle of the battle.”
Velasquez's mouth took a sour twist. “Ha-ha. The higher-ups have finally realized how serious this is. The force I have at present is smaller than the ones we deployed before, but these are our most elite guys. Two dozen of the best. It looks like you rounded up a good forty or so. Can you depend on anyone else here joining us?”
“Yes,” she replied. “Give me an hour.”
He nodded. “Are we planning on letting the games begin tonight?”
She flexed her hands, banishing the tiredness she felt through an act of will. “Yessir. Unless anything weird happens. I’d much rather we choose the arena ourselves and have time to get into position and all that. If Aradia attacks first, it’ll probably be while we’re in bed or sitting on the john or something.”
“Agreed.” The agent grunted. “Call me in one hour, then.”
“Deal.”
Since Bailey had previously informed most of the valley about what was going on, nobody needed much time to prepare before they added themselves to her honor guard. All the Weres who’d been with her through the temple both times, a smattering of humans armed with guns and cojones, and a handful of other wolves who’d drifted in from other towns or regions to join up or relieve the current patrols met up with her.
To be safe, she let Sheriff Browne and his deputies stay behind, along with eight Weres who guarded the town from either side in two groups of four. No one thought that the Venatori would bother with Greenhearth again, not when their deity had the chance to kill Bailey herself.
The werewitch ended her rounds at her house. Her brothers were sitting on the porch, waiting for her.
“Hey!” Kurt shouted. “You assholes need a permit to bring a parade out here. This is private property!”
Jacob threw an empty plastic coleslaw dish at his brother’s head. Then he turned to the crowd. “If you need us,” he stated, “we’re here.”
Bailey sighed and shook her head. “You guys are legal adults. I can’t tell you you’re not allowed to come. If you do, you’re under my command, so if I tell you to duck, you better fuckin’ well duck.”
Russell pointed out, “You’re the oldest. You make the plays, we back them.”
A lump formed in the girl’s throat, and she swallowed it and coughed. “All right. Come along then, dipshits. We got to meet back up with the government guys. Amazingly, they showed up early.”
Soon the army filled the town square. Before Bailey and Velasquez could confer, Fenris stepped into the center of the crowd from nowhere, as usual.
“All of you know who I am,” he proclaimed, “and if you don’t, you will soon. I must remind you of a very important fact: I cannot fight this battle for you. There are ancient and ironclad rules against it, despite our adversary breaking those rules. I can support and advise, but that is all. This fight must be won by mortals, whether werewolf, witch, or human.”
Velasquez smiled in a grim way. “We’re prepared to win.”
Bailey raised a hand. “We’ll go over tactics in more detail after we portal, but for now, the idea is that we’re going to head into the Other, then I’m going to telepathically contact the goddess and summon her. Challenge her, in a nutshell. From what Agent Velasquez has said, she’s like
ly to take the bait. All of you guys will hide until the time is right. Then I’ll need her lackeys off my back while I link to her and ground her magic, like with a lightning rod, draining her of power until she’s dead or until I can throw it back at her.”
Charlene quipped, “This ought to be something, all right. I thought I was good at magic, but...”
Fenris stepped closer to Bailey and spoke softly into her ear.
“I can help after a fashion, bending the rules but not breaking them outright. Rather than directly intervene, you can use me as a magical anchor to steady yourself while you siphon off Aradia’s energy. I won’t be acting or casting spells. It will simply be you drawing upon my reservoir of strength.”
She put a hand on his arm. “Okay. Thank you for the umpteenth time for all you’ve done for us.”
Turning to the crowd, Bailey announced, “Time to go.”
Fenris raised his arms, chanting, then made a motion like tearing open both doors of a wardrobe. A glowing gate appeared before him, wide enough for three men abreast, and gasps went around the square.
Bailey turned to Velasquez. “This’ll be you gentlemen’s first time off Planet Earth, won’t it?”
“Affirmative,” the agent responded and ran a finger under his collar. “Ought to be interesting. Let’s do it.”
Bailey went first, and over a hundred people from three species followed her.
They emerged onto a flat, swampy plain surrounded by hillocks covered with gnarled black trees, and slate-colored clouds filled a dark-indigo sky. Mist curled from the boggy ground. The area looked familiar, but Bailey didn’t know if she’d been here before since many places in the arcane realm were hard to distinguish from others.
Roland swept an arm before him as he stepped to the side. “Welcome to the Other! It’s the universe’s dumping ground for magical residue. Pretty cool, right?”
