Red Skies

by Jan Stryvant

  "Executive Order. Really, Sean, learn the lingo," Steve said with a laugh.

  "Ah, okay. So have you figured out who's behind it yet?"

  "Not yet," Steve admitted, "but it's only been three days, so don't worry, I'll get it. But we came across something that made me think about your claim that there was someone behind this, some third party."

  "Oh?"

  "Yeah. Talking with Chad, he mentioned something that set me off, something one of my people mentioned this morning in our daily standup."

  "What?"

  "The smell."

  "Shit! Who was it? Where?" Sean growled. "How many?"

  "Only two so far. One's a campaign manager for one of our senators. The other was somebody a congressman was meeting with. I flagged it and told everyone to keep an eye out for it. At the time I figured it just meant they all lived in the same place, or went to the same restaurant, or something."

  "It means they're possessed," Sean said, still growling.

  "So Chad said. What bothers me is, why didn't they possess the congressmen and senators directly?"

  Sean shook his head as he started pacing back and forth in the room. "I have no idea, but if I had to guess, the building Congress is in might be warded against evil spirits or demons, like the Whitehouse is. Back when they built a lot of those places, they'd just dealt with the magic users and had recently negotiated the Treaty of York. So they probably decided to take the extra precautions to protect themselves."

  "I'm going to send out runners to each of the teams and tell them to start looking for this, and to be careful," Steve said. "Maybe we can trace them all back to a single point."

  "I'm starting to think I might know who that point was." Sean sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed.

  "Oh? Who?"

  "That Walker guy that Carl killed, and then Cali killed again when his body was taken over after he died. He was in league with the devils, he was a big man in DC, and had a lot of access."

  "I don't know, Sean," Steve said, thinking about it, "I think you're not looking at the whole picture."

  "Huh?"

  "Look, this has been going on for years, obviously. You told me Walker had to have entered into his deal years ago. Years, Sean. They didn't all just suddenly decide to do this because they saw you starting your crusade to free the lycans. Hell, until you pushed out of Reno two months ago, I bet they didn't even know about you!

  "No, this is something bigger. This has planning behind it, Sean. This has been going on for a lot longer than we have. We're a distraction, a bump in the road, a side act. Somebody is up to something else here. Walker came after us because we're a threat to their plans, whatever those plans are.

  "And we need to find out just what the hell it is they're up to."

  Sean paused for a moment to chew on all of that. He knew there was more going on, he knew there was a war coming, and he knew he was only being told the bare necessities because he had other things to concentrate on. Oh, it annoyed him that he wasn't being told everything, but being honest with himself, he knew that if they told him, he'd lose focus on this completely and start worrying about the next thing.

  "I'll see what I can do," Sean said. "I think I know someone who's got the whole story, I'll see if I can't get them to call you. Or something."

  "Well, tell them to get their thumb out and call me," Steve said in the kind of voice Sean knew meant he was worried about this. "I can't fight them if I don't know why they're doing it."

  "You're not there to fight them, Steve," Sean warned.

  "Just because we're not using guns doesn't mean we're not in a war here, Sean. Wars of words can be deadly, and I'm here in Washington, where everybody plays for keeps. Look, if you know somebody who knows anything about this, I need to talk to them, and I need to talk to them now. There's more going on here than just lycan freedom; I'm starting to wonder if that's just a side issue."

  Sean sighed. "I think you're right. Look, I'll talk to some of the other lions and I'll have somebody call."

  "Right. Later, Sean."

  "Bye, Steve."

  'Phone calls, Dad! Now! Have somebody contact Steve and fill him in on the things you're not telling me. Not telling me is one thing, but if what Steve thinks is true, not telling him is gonna hurt us.'

  'I'm working on it as we speak. Finding out about these possessions isn't something any of us expected. I'll have somebody get in touch with your friend, don't worry.'

  "So they're in DC as well?" Roxy asked, sitting down next to him on the bed.

  "Looks like." Sean sighed. "I just told the First to have someone contact Steve and fill him in on the things they're not telling me yet."

  "Did you remind him to call me?"

  Just then Roxy's phone rang.

  'Why don't you go hit the shower?' the First said.

  "I think that's them now." Sean smiled and, giving her a kiss on the forehead, he headed for the bathroom.

  Walking inside, Sean saw that both Peg and Sheila were already under the showerhead, getting wet and slippery. Stepping in behind Sheila, he slid his hands around her slick body, cupping her breasts from behind.

  "Uh, oh, look who's here!" Peg said with a giggle.

  "Sean!" Sheila gasped in surprise. "Just what do you think you're doing?"

  "I'll give you three guesses," Sean murmured and, lowering his head, he gave her earlobe a lick, "and the first two don't count."

  "Really, Sheila," Peg said, moving closer and leaning in to give her a kiss. "I thought you knew Sean couldn't resist wet and slippery women?"

  "That's the rest of you!" Sheila gasped and then started to shiver as Sean lightly nibbled on her earlobe.

  Peg snorted and started to lick her way down Sheila's body. "He cared enough about you to knock you up. He wants you to have his child, which means he wants you, too, Sheila. Just like I do..." Peg kneeled before Sheila and smiled. "Oh! Look at what we have here!"

  Sean purred as he felt one of Peg's hands caressing his shaft, and from the way Sheila suddenly started to squirm back against him, Peg was obviously teasing her as well. Letting go of her earlobe, Sean slowly nibbled his way down her neck. He knew from experience that Sheila really got off on having her neck bitten.

  Sheila was having a hard time standing. Peg's fingers, tongue, and teeth were teasing her. She could feel something sliding between her legs from behind, too, and she didn't have to guess what that was, as Sean's arms were probably the only thing keeping her on her feet.

  What Sean was doing to her sent thrills through her body once again, that the big lion was making love to this little fox. He was one of the kings, the rulers, and she was nothing more than a sex toy, designed for the pleasures of men. Yet he wanted more than that, he wanted her. She wasn't just a toy or a thing to him, she was a person. A lover.

  Then there was Peg. Sheila really did love Peg, and she knew Peg loved her right back. Peg had been the first person in her entire life to ever show her kindness and caring, and right now her loving, caring Peg was doing things to her that felt ever so wonderful. All while the warm water rained down over them, caressing their bodies and filling the shower stall with a nice warm steam.

  Putting her hands on Peg's head, she stroked her hair slowly, giving off soft gasps and moans. She could tell that Peg was alternating her attentions between her and Sean, and from the way his nips were getting harder, and his arms were holding her tighter, obviously Peg's talents were having quite the effect on Sean as well.

  When Peg finally guided Sean into her, Sheila was forced to put her hands on the wall of the shower and spread her legs as Sean began thrusting into her, his body bent over hers, his arms still holding her tight, and all the while Peg continued to tease and torture the two of them, driving them higher and higher, until with a human growl, Sean grabbed the base of her neck with his mouth, his arms holding her tight against his body as he went over the edge. Sheila gave a low moan of her own as Sean's actions caused her to join him in bliss.
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  "First?" Roxy said, answering the phone.

  "Alas, no," a woman's voice said. "He is not currently able to make phone calls, being as he's stuck in Sean's head."

  "Then you are?"

  "Violet."

  "How'd a lioness get a name like that?"

  "Mom was into flowers," Violet said.

  "Oh, so it wasn't because you're actually Violent and they couldn't call you that," Roxy grumbled.

  "What's your problem?"

  "I want someone to whack that 'First' upside the head for being a dick, that's all." Roxy sighed. "For someone as old as he is, he sure seems to be short-sighted at times."

  "It's a condition of old age," Violet said with a chuckle. "We all get so sure of how everything will go, because we've seen it so many times before that we get blinders and our minds narrow. We do what we can to avoid it, but things happen."

  "Okay, so what haven't you been telling Sean?"

  "How do I know you won't tell him yourself if I tell you?"

  "You don't," Roxy growled. "That's the whole damn point! I decide if he needs to know it or not. You've all been very stingy with information on the djevels! We never knew they existed until we ran into one. Then these 'rifts' or 'tears', you didn't warn us about those either, and now we have demons that can possess people? Yeah, that's something we need to know about, or we're going to start losing people to them!"

  "Oh, I wouldn't worry about them too much."

  "Why not?"

  "They can only possess humans; we're part animal, so they can't possess us at all."

  Roxy took a moment to consider that.

  "Is that why the demons are trying to get rid of us?"

  "You figured that one out?" Violet said, sounding surprised.

  Roxy's voice got lower and she growled a little deeper, "If you don't want me to hunt your ass down and tear a few stripes off of your hide, you're going to stop playing games. You knew the devils and the demons were behind the enslavement of the lycans and you didn't tell us?"

  "Calm down, there's no reason to bite off people's heads here. Well, at least there isn't yet. Everything you know about how lycans ended up working for the mages is true. The demons of the underworld only became involved when they found out we were successfully working to free them."

  "Why?" Roxy growled.

  "Well, because they'd managed, after many centuries of trying to infiltrate the Vestibulum and possibly some of the other magical institutions, to successfully do so. From what your friend Steve told Sean and the First, it also appears they've been making inroads on the governments as well."

  "You're getting off track!"

  "Oops!" Violent laughed. "Sorry, I do tend to wander at times. After a few thousand years, sometimes it's hard to come to the point. You see, every few thousands of years, the underworld and our world sort of 'bump up' against each other. During that time, stable gateways open. If enough material changes sides during this time frame, the gateway becomes permanent.

  "And by material, I mean souls and bodies."

  That stopped Roxy in her tracks.

  "Are you saying," Roxy asked in a soft voice, "that they're going to invade?"

  "Sadly, Roxy, yes. They're going to invade and try to take over. They mean to rule us, and they want to make the gateway here permanent. You see, to them, humans are food. They eat their souls."

  "What about us? Are we food, too?"

  Violet laughed. "Oh, heavens no! They can't eat us—we're not human, after all—and you non-lions, you're not human enough."

  "So because they can't eat us and can't possess us, they want us dead?"

  "Oh, it's not that! No, it's because we can kill them. Humans don't do very well in fights against the demons. The fae have no problems with fighting them, they've been doing it since time began. Dwarves, they do alright, but they're slow, and there's never enough of their fighters to carry the day.

  "But lycans? We're immune to many of their powers and effects. When they damage us, we heal. Tooth and claw we can fight them, and even kill them, though we tend to fare badly in the trade off. But give our people weapons that can slay the demons?" Violet laughed in a manner that sent chills down Roxy's spine and made her want to go out and kill something herself. "Oh, we're going to teach them once again not to mess with that which is ours!"

  "So you needed Sean to free them all so they could fight?"

  "We needed Sean to unite them all so they could fight!" Violet growled. "Lycans are a fractious people, Roxy, you know that, and we lions have been absent from things for far too long. We need Sean to free them, to be seen freeing them, to be their hero, their champion! So that, when the war begins, they won't dawdle, they won't be held back by the differing magical councils who only seek to save their own hides. No, they'll follow him into battle!"

  Roxy thought about that a moment. Sean had said a war was coming, and it was coming soon. However, he didn't know the specifics. She started thinking about the world and what the average person would think once demons started to appear in it.

  "They're not going to believe it, are they?"

  "Who?" Violet asked.

  "The people, the mundanes, humans! They're not going to believe we're being attacked by devils or demons, or whatever you want to call them!"

  "No," Violet agreed, "they probably won't."

  "They'll be slaughtered!"

  "Unless we're there to stop them," Violet agreed.

  Roxy ran that train of thought down. "And in order to stop them, not only do the lycans have to be freed, but they have to be...accepted."

  "Of course! No one wants to rally around a monster, right?"

  "No, no they won't. No one does, unless it's your monster, then it's not a monster anymore."

  "Exactly."

  Roxy nodded to herself. "Okay, I got it. I'll make sure to keep Sean pointed in the right direction, but the moment he needs to know, if you don't tell him, I will, got that?"

  "And you're the one who decides when that moment is, right?" Violet said a little dryly.

  "He's my mate, Violet. My first loyalty is to him. But I'm not stupid; if I was, I would never have grabbed him in the first place!"

  Violet sighed. "You do have a point. He's a good guy, and you've all done right by him."

  "Just when does this war start, anyway?"

  "As soon as the first major gateway forms, and no, we don't know when that is. Just that it's going to be somewhere in North America this time."

  Roxy was still thinking about that when Violet hung up her phone. Roxy debated calling her back, but she suspected the phone number was probably fake. Besides, what was the point?

  Sitting on the bed, she digested what she'd just learned and ran down the points in her head, replaying the conversation. It was obvious that the Canadian fight was no longer a priority. Chad could handle it easily, and the same for Mexico. They'd learned what they'd needed to, and it was time for Sean to move on to the next battle.

  And that battle was Washington.

  "Sean!" Roxy yelled, getting to her feet and walking towards the bathroom. Opening the door, she found Sean wrapped around Sheila under the shower, with Peg very much involved. Smirking, Roxy waited until they were finished.

  "Sean!"

  "What?" Sean said, looking both pleased and a little guilty for a moment, as he was still in a very compromising position, even if it was Roxy looking at him.

  "We need to go to Washington."

  "What, they tell you that?"

  "No," Roxy said, shaking her head. "Chad can finish Canada and handle Mexico without you. We need to get that bill passed, the one Carl said the president had threatened to take to Congress."

  "What about the silence?"

  "Screw that. It's not going to matter eventually. What is going to matter is that people know who we are, what we are, and accept it."

  Sean blinked.

  'Tell your wife there that someone just smacked me upside the head!' the First grumbled.


  'I'm sure you deserved it!' Sean laughed and shook his head. "Did you tell someone to smack the First?"

  "Yup. Now clean up and get out of there, we need to head back across the border."

  Sean gave Sheila a kiss and another squeeze, then slowly let her go.

  "After what Steve told me, it's probably best for us to be there to make sure none of our people get possessed."

  "Oh, don't worry about that. Lycans can't be possessed."

  "Wait, what?"

  "We can't be possessed. Only humans can be affected mentally by the demons. Part of why they hate us."

  "Oh, shit!" Sean said, and grabbed a towel to dry off.

  "What?"

  "Steve is human! So's Terri! Once they find out about him, they'll target him immediately!"

  "Why would they do that?"

  "Because it's a weak spot in our organization, that's why! I'd do it too! Come on!" Sean gave Peg a smack on the butt, making her jump. "We're going to Washington, and we're going now!"

  Somersault

  "Dammit, now what?" Peg grumbled as they padded across a field. Apparently all the ground between Canada and the United States up here was fields, and being the growing season, she was way too short as a fox to see anything.

  Then again, she figured she probably wouldn't be able to see anything in her other forms either. Who knew corn could grow so damn tall?

  "It's seventy miles from the border to Grand Forks," Roxy said. "There's an airport there; we can get a flight from there to Chicago, and then on to DC.."

  "You want me to walk seventy miles?"

  Sean laughed. "No, of course not. There's a town about ten miles from here. We're gonna steal a car and drive it!"

  "Oh!" Peg brightened up a moment and then frowned. "Wait, you're gonna steal a car?"

  Sean nodded.

  "Have you ever stolen a car before?"

  "She has," Sean said, pointing at Roxy, who grinned.

  "Is this one of those 'police chief's kids' things?" Peg asked.

  "Huh?" Roxy said and then shrugged. "One of my old boyfriends liked to 'borrow' cars a lot. I learned it from him."

  "He borrowed cars?" Sean asked, glancing over at Roxy, whose facial fur bushed out a bit as they were all padding along on all fours still.