by Jan Stryvant
"I'm sorry to hear that," Samis said.
"I'm sorry too," Daelyn said, and only listened to the rest of the discussion with half an ear as they quickly made their way back to one of the entrances to her hometown. Samis told the pilot where to land, and then both he and Daelyn jumped out and ran to the entrance, going down the elevator that led into the main corridor.
When they got to Grandmother Robin's rooms, she was already packed and waiting, Daelyn had taken the time to call ahead before getting into the helicopter.
"So, just what has your young man gotten himself into this time?"
"I don't know, Grandmother, just that it's bad."
"Well, let's go see then."
Daelyn picked up Grandmother Robin's bags and followed her down the hallway.
"If you need anything," her uncle Samis said as she headed back towards the helicopter. "Call me."
Daelyn set the two bags down, and then hugged him, "Thanks, Uncle."
"Hey, he's my nephew-in-law, he's family now," Samis told her with a smile. "Now, go."
Daelyn picked the bags back up and hurried after Grandmother Robin who was holding the elevator for her.
Fifteen minutes later, Daelyn and Grandmother Robin were following Claudia over to one of the larger outbuildings.
"Brian," Grandmother Robin said to the doctor as they met him just outside the door.
"Mrs. Gold," Brian said with a nod.
"You know him?" Daelyn asked.
"I was one of the people who helped train him in magical healing," Grandmother Robin chuckled, "unfortunately most dwarven techniques and magic can only be performed by a dwarf."
"Well, let's go inside and see the patient," Grandmother Robin said and opening the door she went inside with Dr. Brian following her.
"Just a minute," Claudia said and put a hand on Daelyn's arm.
"What?" Daelyn grumbled, she wanted to go inside and see her Sean, and just how bad he was.
"Roxy is getting out of hand; you need to get her under control!" Claudia said in a very soft voice.
Daelyn looked up in to Claudia's eyes, and almost snarled, "Roxy is my sister, I will not get her 'under control!' I will however back her completely and if you should try to step between us, I can guarantee you an ass kicking that will go down in local history for its epic content." Daelyn paused a moment as Claudia's face darkened.
"I like you Claudia; I know that even Roxy likes you, a lot. But you have to understand, family is family and family comes first. Always. Now excuse me."
Daelyn stepped into the room then and dropping the bags she ran up to Sean's side. The helicopter pilot had been right. It was bad, alright. There was a hole in his chest just below where the clavicles met, and his fur and his mane were burned pretty badly. Grabbing his hand, Daelyn couldn't help but notice that Sean felt strange, it made her fingers and hand tingle.
Looking up, she saw that Roxy was over with Grandmother Robin, telling her exactly what she knew, and then Brian, the doctor, filled her in as well.
Walking over to Roxy, Daelyn hugged her, and was surprised at how fiercely Roxy hugged her back, and then kept an arm around her, almost as if she was clinging to Daelyn for support.
"Brian, grab my black bag," Grandmother Robin said and walking over to Sean's body she started to look him over, "and if you can lower this bed he's on, I'd like that too."
"Yes, Mrs. Gold," Brian said while hauling over the bag, which was apparently fairly heavy for him. After setting it down by Grandmother Robin, he then did something with the gurney and it lowered, slowly, until Grandmother Robin told him to stop.
"This is gonna take a while, girls." Grandmother said without looking up. "I know neither one of you wants to be anywhere else right now. But you might as well sit down and relax a bit. Won't pay for either of you to be dead on your feet."
"What are you going to do?" Roxy asked.
"Find out what he's done to himself, of course. Can't do much until I've done that."
§
Sean came to in his lion's castle, or rather the throne room of the First One's castle. There wasn't anyone around, other than his lion, who was standing before him, looking down at him.
"Am I dead?" Sean asked, remembering the bright flash and the pain that had shot through him when the tag had exploded.
"Not yet. I did something after the tag exploded and the magic got away from you to halt everything that was happening."
"So, I'm alive?" Sean asked, feeling a little hopeful. Apparently his lion really did have some mystical powers that could save him.
"Not yet," the first sighed and shook his head, then looked down at Sean.
"Sean, do you know how long it took for me to think? To reason? Any of that? Look, when I first started out, all I could think of was 'kill food, breed those females, keep the other males away, roar' and that was about it. Then one day I wake up and everything feels different, looks different, is different. And all of us, my sisters, my brothers, my mates and my children, all of us were different. But we didn't know how and we didn't know why, and guess what?
"We didn't care! We were lions and we just went on being lions, even if we were more successful now, tougher, smarter, and a hell of a lot more cunning than before.
"Do you know how long it was before I understood that I could actually think? That I could have new ideas, that I could ponder things beyond, fight, kill, fuck, and eat?"
"Umm, No?" Sean said a little surprised at just how vehement his lion was getting.
"A hundred years, Sean! It took me almost a hundred long fucking years! And I was the first! It was years more before I could even get the others to start to consider it! There weren't any schools; there wasn't anyone else to talk to or ask about it, or to learn from by watching! I was the first, the very first on this planet to ever start thinking for themselves beyond animal instincts!
"It took me thousands of years to learn how to really take advantage of all that I was and all that I could do, and even then the carnage and destruction that I and the others wrought because we were still only barely more than animals, we were still locked far too much into the whole paradigm of 'fight, feed, and breed!' Even then, it took tens of thousands for all of us to start understanding just what we had done and where we had gone wrong, and we didn't even feel sorry for it or bad, because those were ideas alien to our existence.
"The deal we made to civilize the others, that wasn't made out of any consideration for what we had done in the past, it was so that their numbers would in time increase to what they once were and we could all live again! That was it, totally selfish and self-serving, because even then, we were still too tied into what we had first been born as and not what we had become. It took many more centuries of us living among humans, who had matured as a race one hell of a lot faster than we lions ever had, to start to realize that we didn't understand the gift we had been squandering, and that we needed to stop acting like the spoiled brats that so many of the gods of Greeks and Romans were portrayed as.
"So we grew up, I grew up, I started to think of the rest of you as 'people' and not 'food' you stopped being disposable and started to have actual worth and meaning to me! To all of us! We started to invest in our children for their own welfare and not just our own, we started this whole damn quest to free them and lead them to a better life than just being little more than animals who could turn into people and be house trained."
Sean stopped a moment and tried to figure out just where this was going.
"I'll tell you where this is going!" his lion said suddenly getting in his face and shocking the hell out of Sean, his lion was angry, no scratch that, his lion was fucking pissed!
"I did not spend all of my time on you, on helping you get six of the baddest kickass and most beautiful women as your wives so you could piss it all away in some stupid act of fucking heroics! Do you want to see your son with Roxy? Your daughter with Roberta? Do you want to have children with Jo, Daelyn, Peg, and Cali? Hell, do you ever
even want to get laid again?!"
Sean blinked and felt his jaw drop, "But you said others could come, would come!"
"I said that to shut that asshole down before he could ruin our plans! What, do you think I'm going to tell some fucking mortal the truth? Sean, leaders do not lead by senselessly throwing their lives away in some stupid self-serving heroic action! You have other people to do that! That's not your job! Your job is to be there, win or lose, and pick up the pieces afterwards, especially when you lose, so you can come back and win again! Do you understand me?"
"Wait, you lied to Joseph? Does that mean that no other lion can make the tags?"
"Yes! Why the hell do you think they aren't doing it already? You have to be a magic user to do that, you have to have the innate ability to cast and manipulate magic! There are a lot of things we can do, but that's not one of them! Why the hell do you think you're so important to us? To me?"
"Well why the hell didn't you tell me that?" Sean yelled back at him.
"Because I didn't think you'd be this fucking stupid!" his lion all but screamed it at him.
"Ah, shit," Sean sighed and all but wilted in on himself. "I," Sean shook his head, "I've ruined everything, haven't I?"
His lion snorted and growled a little and then shook his head, "Not yet. If there wasn't still a chance here, I'd seriously be considering ripping your consciousness to pieces. I like you Sean; you have to understand that you really are like a son to me now, but dammit if you haven't succeeded in really pissing me the hell off!" His lion snorted again, "I didn't even think it was even possible anymore." He shook his head and looked at Sean, "A leader has to take chances, and sometimes he has to take personal risks, in order to lead. But you have a responsibility to a lot of people out there, you can't do heroics, you can't throw your life away.
"I might be able to save you, but it's not in my hands now. Others have a role to play and there's sure to be a cost, because there's always a cost. Just understand, if you ever do something this stupid again, I will destroy you, do you understand?"
Sean sighed and nodded, "I'm sorry."
"Good, now go back asleep."
With that Sean passed back into unconsciousness, and briefly wondered as he slipped off, if he'd ever awaken again.
§
"Okay, Girls," Daelyn almost jumped and bolted upright in the chair she'd been all but sleeping in. Roxy actually did jump to her feet, tail lashing behind her.
"How is he?" Roxy demanded.
"Oh, he's in a bad way, there's no doubt about that, otherwise he wouldn't have done this to himself. It's really the only thing that's keepin' the boy alive, and only then because it's keepin' him from dyin'."
"Huh?"
"What she said, Grandmother," Daelyn yawned while nodding towards Roxy.
"For every second that passes by for him, an hour passes for us. In minute, he'll be dead."
"He's got sixty hours?" Roxy said in a whisper.
"That'd be the bad news," Grandmother Robin agreed with a nod.
"And what's the good news?" Daelyn asked.
"Why, that we've got two and a half days to try and save his life of course."
"But healing spells aren't working on him!" Roxy said, staring at Sean's inert body, "The doctor said so, otherwise he wouldn't be dying!"
"That's because healing spells work on people who are still alive. Sean's pretty much dead," Grandmother Robin said, causing both of the girls to look at her.
"What!" Daelyn and Roxy said together.
"When you die, or rather, when your body dies, you have about five minutes until you really die. Brain death is what they call it.
"Well, your man Sean there, his body died. Healing spells won't work, because he's dead. What we need is something that brings back the dead."
"I thought you couldn't bring back the dead! That once someone was dead, that was it!" Daelyn said, on her feet now and wringing her hands.
"Welllll," Grandmother Robin gave Daelyn a slightly crooked smiled, "it would be, if he hadn't done to himself what he did. His spirit, his soul, hasn't left his body yet, because of the slowing of time. Also, his body only just died. So if his wounds were fixed enough, his magic replaced enough, and his heart started again, he'd be alive."
"So, you have to heal him," Roxy said slowly, "but you just said that healing spells won't work on him?"
Grandmother Robin nodded, "He's in that gray area between life and death. I'm going to need to consult with some of our wisest men and women, the clergy, and the other healers. We're gonna have to come up with something, and I daresay it ain't gonna be easy. But at least we have a couple of days to do it."
"So what do we do until then?" Daelyn asked.
"Keep him safe. I don't think much can hurt him right now, but I don't think it would be best to chance it. If I need anything, I'll call your uncle and he can let you know."
"Thank you Grandmother."
"Yes," Roxy nodded, "thank you, Grandmother Robin."
"Now if the two of you will excuse me, I need to talk to Claudia about borrowing a few things while I wait for someone to come give me a ride back home."
"I can...." Daelyn started but Grandmother Robin raised her hand, stopping her.
"You have other concerns, Granddaughter, don't you worry about me none."
Daelyn nodded and smiled, then gave her grandmother a hug. Roxy gave her a hug as well, and then they both watched as she left the room.
"We need to get him home," Roxy said.
Daelyn nodded, "My thoughts exactly. How'd you get here?"
Roxy blushed, "I err, borrowed your car."
Daelyn smiled, "Anyone else, even Sean, I'd brain for that. You I trust not to hit anything with it."
Roxy smiled, "Thanks, Dae. By the way, I overheard what you said to Claudia earlier, I wasn't surprised, but all the same, thanks."
"Family first, right Rox?"
Roxy smiled, "First, last, and always. Now let's get him home."
Vestibulum, Monday
Morgan shook his head and took stock of the small group in his office. It was now late afternoon, too many people had been too tired or two wounded to even consider having this meeting until everyone had some time to sleep and recover.
There were eight other people in the room, Al Summers, who was bandaged up still; he'd been pretty badly hurt in the battle. Jerry Whyte who hadn't been in the battle, but who had taken part in the defenses here last night. Hadrian and Jeffries, two of the senior council members who had also been in the battle, but who'd escaped uninjured. Nick, one of their two main lycan handlers who had been in the battle, Mike, their other one hadn't come back. Then the three out of town members: Jones, who had come from Boston; Carol, who was here from Dallas; and Darrin, who was here from Charlotte.
All of the other out of town mages also hadn't come back, or in the case of three of them, were so badly injured that they still hadn't regained consciousness and would be bedridden for days.
"Okay, let's talk about what happened last night," Morgan said with a heavy sigh.
"We got our asses kicked! That's what happened!" Jones spat out as he paced back and forth across the back of the room.
"You got that right!" Carol agreed, but in less hostile voice, "I'd hate to think what would have happened to us if we'd hit them while their army was still there, instead of over here!"
"It was almost like they were waiting for us!" Jeffries complained.
"Our assumptions were wrong," Al said with a shake of his head from the wheelchair he was currently sitting in.
"How were they wrong?" Morgan asked while steepling his fingers as he rested his elbows on his desk and looked at Al.
"First, we assumed that their access to those amulets that protect them from silver was limited. They're not. Every single lycan we engaged last night had one.
"Second, we assumed that Valens was tight on his funding, because of all the fund raising we've seen. Well he had a lot of hardware out there to defend his
place: heavy machineguns, mortars, flamethrowers, we even saw one helicopter. He's well funded.
"Third, we thought we were only up against lycans, but there were at least two of the fey there. They came out as our forces drew near, and without any of our own combat mages in close supporting our troops, they were unstoppable."
"Didn't you shoot that helicopter down?" Morgan interrupted.
"Yes, and that leads to the next point, Valens is a top level mage. I don't know what that spell was that he did, but it took out close to a hundred of our troops. Didn't kill them either, just made them unresponsive to our commands, and when we tried killing some of them, we found they were beyond our reach."
"I saw that," Carol said, "it looked like he suffered some sort of magical backlash and was knocked down by it. Last I saw of him, they were carrying him off the battlefield."
"Did he look dead or alive?" Morgan asked her.
Carol shrugged, "He was unconscious and he looked pretty bad, but Al's right, we let our prejudices color our assumptions and we got our asses beat because of it. So I'm gonna say he's alive."
"So what do we do?" Morgan asked.
"We kill him," Al said, "regardless of the cost."
"How can you say that!" Jones blurted out and turned to face Al.
"Simply put, we can not allow a man or a lycan of that much power who is opposed to us to live!" Al growled looking back at Jones. "Today he says he only wants to free 'his people.' Well, what about tomorrow? What will he want then? And just what do you think it will do to us and our stature, if people find out that we lost to a lycan? What do you think will come of that?"
Morgan was surprised by the vehemence of Al's rebuttal as he fell back into his wheelchair, exhausted.
"Al's right," Jerry said, "and as the man in charge of our intelligence gathering, I feel this is my fault as much as anybody else's, probably more so," Jerry shook his head and surprised Morgan by actually looking as guilty as he sounded. "I should have known more about what was going on. I need to learn more about what's going on now.
