Wild Darkness bbm-4

by Lauren Dane

  Real agenda? Goddess, Helena rarely lost her shit, but she found herself having to hold it together instead of walking over and popping this fool in the face. She’d been trying for months now to get the Others to remember not all humans were this way. But people like Hayes and PURITY’s Carlo Powers were gaining traction, and that made it a lot harder to remember that.

  It went on this way for some time longer until he finally shut up and it was Tosh’s turn.

  “Two generations ago, my grandfather served this country in World War Two. He did so while his family was being held in a camp. He did so despite the fact that his pregnant wife had been removed from their home and his business had been taken from him. My father was born in a relocation camp and my grandmother nearly died because of the lack of real medical facilities and care. All because his last name was Sato. Even after the war was over and my grandfather, who’d been decorated twice, returned home, he had to spend the next several years getting his family’s life back on track because the government refused to return his business and he’d lost his home.”

  Hayes interrupted. “You see? His family listened and did what the government told them to. Even served in the military like his kind should have to prove their loyalty. What makes any of you think you’re better than that?”

  Sato interrupted, his face hard. “Senator Hayes misses the point, so let me be clearer. My kind, my family’s kind, is American. What happened to my family was wrong. It was a miscarriage of justice. It was not what this country should be. My grandfather was better than the people who harmed his family, yes, but the harm was done. People died. People lost everything and it did not make us safer. It did not make us better people. The Domestic Safety Act does not make us better Americans. It does not make us safer. It takes Americans and strips them of their rights. It depersonalizes them and puts them in camps. Some of the provisions in this bill bear a horrifying similarity to things done to the Jews during World War Two in Germany. Tracking chips. Camps. Restricted movements. Removal of property and redistribution to the government. How long before we put them on trains and steal their gold watches? This bill is wrong.”

  Helena wanted to stand up and cheer.

  But he wasn’t done. “Two weeks ago a so-called expert panel was here at the capitol to testify about this bill. Not a single Other was on that panel. Worse, when an Other—Molly Ryan—was given time by members of this body, the room was hit with three bombs and Ms. Ryan was severely injured. Today we have an expert panel with actual experts on it and I’d like them to each introduce themselves. Once we’ve got that out of the way we can get to questions and answers.”

  The introductions went fine and then the questions from the senators started.

  Lynn Reed, Carlo Powers’ second-in-command nationwide, was on the panel, just a few seats down from Molly. Helena caught the shift in her energy, the darkness inside her gut as she spoke. There was a great deal of hate, but more than that, a sheer greed for power. If it wasn’t Others, this woman would be screeching about something else. She liked scaring people, liked using fear as her cudgel to whip folks into a frenzy.

  “The proof is that these monsters lived next door to us for generations and never once revealed themselves until they brought down some sort of retribution on their heads. This thing that killed so many of them was divine punishment for their evil. Whatever pact they made to keep the remaining ones safe is what we need to know. Why haven’t they told us about this pact?”

  Molly sighed heavily. “We haven’t told you because there is no pact. No divine retribution for existing. What happened to us—to us and not you—was an ancient power. It was not about punishment. It fed on our magickal energy and we were able to defeat it, but not without a heavy cost. It has nothing to do with humans at all. And nothing to do with this bill, so if we could get back to the subject at hand, that would be a better use of our time.”

  “You don’t get to decide what we talk about.” Marlon Hayes sneered at Molly.

  Sato interrupted. “The hearing is regarding the Domestic Safety Act. As a matter of fact, it’s the topic and it’s quite helpful if we stick to that. We were all sent here to do a job. The people’s business. To get sidetracked by all this other stuff is not helpful. Nor is it the people’s business. So if we can get back to the topic at hand, please.”

  Hayes turned, red faced. “You’re insulting Ms. Reed when she’s answering a question.”

  “That’s enough, Marlon. The question was asked, we got a bunch of nonsense. Her time is up and so is yours. Moving on.” Delilah Sperry narrowed her gaze, daring Hayes to continue.

  Lynn Reed spoke from the table. “You’re going to spend eternity in hell, Delilah Sperry. I don’t have to listen to you.”

  Delilah waved a hand, appearing bored. “That’s Senator Sperry to you.” But Helena saw her energy, knew she choked back rage. Her wolf pressed against the woman’s skin, but she held it together.

  “My constituents voted for me knowing I was a werewolf. As for eternity, mind your own and get your nose out of mine. Now, back to the question. Ms. Ryan, can you please address the issue of registration and how it would impact the witches in your Clan?”

  Molly nodded once and smoothly dove in. Any time Reed tried to interrupt her she simply continued to speak and Helena thought a few times she might have even used her magick to hold the floor. But if she had, Molly was too damned good to get caught, so good Reed had no idea. Which was a positive thing because heaven knew if she thought she was being hexed to shut the hell up, she’d flip out.

  “The issue is,” Reed spoke again at the end of the hearing, “we don’t know that they haven’t been manipulating us all along. What if they decide to use their magic to harm us? Make us do something wrong? Maybe they’ve done that since the beginning. We have no proof they haven’t.”

  Molly’s mouth tightened, but she didn’t interrupt and Helena wanted to laugh, knowing her friend was annoyed.

  “I can only refer you back to reality. The reality where we’re sitting here in a room where some of you want to put us in concentration camps. If we had the ability to make you all our puppets, why would we allow people to bomb our schools and homes? Why would we sit here and listen to this hateful drivel when we could just use our power and make you do whatever we wish?”

  “You can’t prove you don’t.”

  What was this, third grade?

  “You can’t prove a negative. It’s impossible and it makes me wonder what you’re getting out of scaring people and stirring all this violence.” This from Delilah.

  “I don’t have to answer to you and your people.”

  “My people? United States senators?”

  The time was up. Many of the senators, including Sato, needed to be in other hearings, so it broke quickly, if not without some verbal sparring.

  Since it was no longer Other business and since Sato had a really busy schedule, his security people took over and Helena headed down to where Molly stood speaking with Cade Warden and Faine.

  Lynn Reed hung at the outer edges of the group, watching through narrowed eyes as she waited on Hayes to approach her.

  Interesting dynamic there.

  “Nicely done, Ms. Ryan.” Helena bowed slightly. “Ready? You have a few hours free and then it’s to the interview.” She didn’t say more than that. Although she’d used some magick to keep what she said quiet, she didn’t want to risk Molly’s safety. The more exposure she had to PURITY and the people at the top, the more she was convinced they were behind the major attacks. Not just the low-ranked idiots who got gung ho, but the very top.

  Molly looked back over her shoulder at Reed, who emanated so much negative energy it was palpable, even at a distance.

  “Yes, I’m done here.”

  “Brace yourselves. We need to go out that way and the hallway looks packed.” Gage came back from the doors where he’d peeked out.

  “Absurd that we can’t be safe in the halls of Congress, for heaven’s sa
ke.” Molly sent a glare Hayes’ way, but he was too busy slavering all over Reed to notice.

  Helena moved forward. “Faine and I will take point. Gage, you’re on Molly.” They began to move, the rest of her crew taking on their own places to guard the rest of the group.

  The hall outside was always loud, Helena figured. Daily work in Congress would be full of contentious issues as well as mundane stuff. Staffers moved through the crowds, some on phones, some heatedly talking amongst themselves. There were protesters for every cause imaginable on their way to hearing rooms.

  Normally she’d have found it fascinating. Now she just found it distracting and worrisome. A lot of people to keep an eye on. A lot of energy to try to wade through to get past the normal frustration and anger at issues not related to them in any way.

  She put out a low heat energy field around herself and Faine. He cut his gaze to her quickly and then was back on the job once he’d ascertained there wasn’t a problem. She’d experimented with something similar a few days before and it seemed to keep humans back. She didn’t need to hurt anyone; she just wanted to keep a space bubble around their group. Molly moved slow because she was still on crutches and Helena didn’t want her jostled.

  When they got to the main doors leading outside it was a whole new level of challenge. Several hundred people had gathered on the steps. Some holding signs with the usual and lame “God hates werewolves/witches/Others” along with the gamut of abomination, warnings of danger and violence, that sort of thing.

  A counter-protest was just steps away, meeting at the edges. In some places there seemed to be earnest discussion and debate, but in others there was jostling, angry, raised voices and the chance for far worse than words and shoving.

  So much potential for things to go bad in so many ways. She spoke to Faine, knowing that even with the din all around he’d hear her.

  “Faine, I’m going to need you to pick Molly up so we can move quickly. Gage, you’re on them. I’m going to clear a path.”

  Several of the Weres who’d accompanied Cade Warden showed up, ready to follow her lead. She explained what she needed and even Molly simply sighed and let Faine pick her up. Gage started to argue, but Helena lifted a brow.

  “I’m not arguing with your orders. I wanted to tell you something bad is coming. I can feel it.”

  She knew his gift was a sort of intuitive foresight of intention. If he felt something, it was out there and it was her job to deal with it.

  She nodded. “Keep tight. Keep alert.”

  Helena adjusted her spell, speaking under her breath to make the field around them a little larger and a little hotter. She added an aversion spell to overlay it. Nothing that would create an emotional aversion, but enough of a hint to back up and let them pass.

  Since the Magister it had seemed a lot easier to bend her magick to her will. One positive from all that negative, she supposed.

  She scanned the crowd as they went, her hands free should she need to repel anyone or use her weapons.

  Which was good because the moment the crowd recognized them, the angry voices raised and the crowd turned to face them. Helena cut toward the side, making a hole for the group. Her spell held and she only needed to push people back twice, more due to crowd surge than anything else.

  Helena was glad she’d called ahead for the cars to be brought for them. Having to wait at the curb for their ride would have only exposed them to danger for longer.

  They idled nearby. Safe harbor. She hustled the group in that direction, scanning the crowd for weapons, people’s faces for signs of violence, the air all around for any signs of impending negative action.

  Later, she figured she was so busy doing that, she’d missed the sick feeling emanating from the vehicle in front of her until a split second before the air sucked from all around them and then blew outward in a hot wave.

  Time slowed as Helena moved to respond, trusting Faine to deal with Molly as she called her magick fast and hard, yanking it from the air around her and the ground at her feet. It filled her instantly in a painful slice as she managed it. As she used her magick to push back against the explosion, to repel the flaming metal and burning tires.

  Dimly she realized the car behind it had also blown and she managed her magick to repel it as well.

  It filled her, raw power. Bright and searing hot. Her filters were down so she could take in as much as she could as fast as possible. It roared through her, responding to her will, but she knew enough to understand that could change.

  So much magick she knew she’d have trouble regulating it, keeping it from going wild and burning her to the bone. But she needed all she could get to keep her people, and the crowd behind her, safe from all the flying wreckage.

  She held it even as she tasted blood and her nose began to drip. Her skin burned and as the energy around her from the bomb died down, she shoved it all away, back to the twisted metal, which groaned as she hit the pavement on her knees, the blood from her nose and mouth staining the front of her shirt.

  Damn it. That much blood would never come out and she really loved that blouse.

  Her vision grayed at the edges as she swayed, fighting consciousness and beginning to lose.

  She heard Faine roar and then snarl. “Shit. Shit! Helena?”

  Faine had been watching the crowd, taking care not to hold Molly too tightly, not to bump her casts or injure her. And then he turned, noting Helena’s body language had stiffened, her focus shifted to the curb where the vehicles were.

  Helena was right in front of the vehicle and she shouted for them to get down and he felt the air suck away and then the taste of her magick as she pulled it from all around. He’d covered Molly with his body, expecting the blow of the flaming wreckage, but instead he’d watched as Helena had shouted in a language he rarely heard, her hands drawing runes as she wove the spell. He knew channeling that much power was dangerous for anyone, a fact underlined when her nose started to bleed.

  He heard Gage shouting at people to get back, heard the panic behind him as humans scattered. All he could do was watch, helpless as she took all that power and shoved it at the explosion.

  Molly spoke to him quietly. “She’ll be all right. She’s strong.” But her words were nearly a question. Not quite, but close enough that it only scared him more.

  He’d only held himself in place because he knew that if he’d disturbed Helena she could have lost control of her magick. And his job was Molly right then. He’d promised Helena and he couldn’t break that promise.

  But when Helena dropped to her knees and pitched forward, blood all over her face, he made sure Gage was there with Molly before he exploded up, running to her. He scooped Helena into his arms as the sounds of sirens began to break through the wall of power she’d kept between the car and the crowd.

  He shook so fucking hard it was a challenge to stand, but he did, holding her close, breathing her in until he was sure she was alive and would be all right. Her blood was everywhere, freaking him out.

  “Damn it, Helena Jaansen, you will open those eyes right this moment. You’re scaring me.” He gave her his best officer-issuing-orders voice and hoped the fear wasn’t showing.

  Her eyes fluttered open, unfocused at first, but then she seemed to grasp consciousness with a gasp. “Is everyone all right?”

  He growled. “Everyone but you, brown eyes. What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

  She sighed, turning her face into his chest. “Not failing.”

  Chapter 8

  “WE need to get her help.” He turned to Gage, still holding Helena.

  Gage held his hands up, approaching slowly, understanding exactly what it meant to be wild with the need to protect the woman you loved. “When the ambulance arrives, we’ll send her first. You go with her.”

  Helena stirred, trying to get down and he held her tighter.

  “Stop that.”

  “So imperious.” She blinked. So slowly he found his panic fighting to r
eturn. “Stop growling. I’m all right. The police are going to want to question us all. And I’m not leaving the scene.”

  “I’m taking over the team.” Gage sighed. “Temporarily. Helena, you’re covered in blood. You’ve burned yourself out handling that much power at once. I don’t even know what the hell you just did, but it had to have fried your circuits.” He said the last very quietly and Faine realized he wasn’t the only one who’d been amazed at what Helena had done.

  “In case you haven’t noticed, a riot is brewing. We need to get Molly out of here, along with the rest of the group. We need to be sure Tosh, Delilah and Parrish Carroll are all okay, along with all the Others who work here at the capitol.”

  “Caspar has already gotten on making sure Sato and everyone else is all right. You are not all right.”

  “I’ve called to have a car sent over immediately.” Before Helena could argue with Gage any further, Cade Warden stepped forward. “Ms. Jaansen, I’m in your debt for what you just did. I can see the physical toll as well. How about we get you back to the house where you can rest? Then you can have your needs tended by Others instead of humans.”

  “That’s probably best.” Gage nodded.

  Faine held her tighter. “Unless she needs a hospital, in which case, your need for privacy can be hanged. You’re not going to sacrifice her for that. I won’t allow it.”

  Things got very still for long moments. Even Helena stopped trying to move. Cade’s brow rose, but a smile fought at the corner of his mouth. Yes, yes, Faine knew he’d made a declaration on several levels, but he didn’t care. There was no way he’d allow Helena’s needs to be shunted to the side.

  “I’d never allow that either.” Gage put an arm around Molly’s shoulders. “She’s my friend and my boss. But she’ll be more comfortable in private, and treated by our own people. If it turns out she needs more care, we’ll get it for her. I swear to you.”

  Agent Anderson came jogging over along with several other FBI agents and cops. The rest fanned out, immediately getting to work. “Jesus. Is everyone all right?”