Red Skies

by Jan Stryvant

  "Why didn't you just tell them what happened?" Peg asked.

  "Because I was fifteen and didn't have a license?" Steven said with a guilty look.

  "Oh."

  "Sean could have just left me there to deal with it myself, but he stuck it out, and even got in trouble with his Mom for coming home late. We swore never to speak about it again, but," Steve shook his head, "I guess it's just one of those 'guy' things."

  "No, no, I get it," Peg admitted.

  "Is this going to hurt?" Terri asked as Roxy came over to her.

  "Not really. But it is going to change your life."

  "How's that?"

  "Because cheetahs rule," Roxy said with a grin, and taking Terri's arm, she carefully bit her in the bicep, sinking her teeth in deep and keeping them in for a long moment.

  "You okay, Terri?" Steve asked as Roxy released her arm.

  "It stung a little, but now I'm feeling a chill running through me."

  "It takes about a minute for the changes to start," Sean told her as Roxy went over and took Steve's arm. "It's actually a fairly quick process."

  Roxy bit Steve's arm then, keeping her teeth in just a little longer.

  "Oh, shit," Steve sighed when Roxy finally let go.

  "What?" Roxy asked worriedly as she wiped her mouth.

  "I just gave Sean the power to actually order me to do stuff! Damn! How could I have been so stupid?"

  Sean just rolled his eyes; Steve had an ear-to-ear grin on his face. "Only you could make a joke out of all this."

  "So how long until we can shift?" Terri asked, looking at Roxy.

  "I would suggest both of you strip now, because you're probably going to shift here in a couple of minutes as your beast starts to assert itself, and I doubt you want to ruin your clothes."

  "Don't you have any of those necklaces?" Steve asked.

  "Jo and Dae will be bringing a bunch when they show up tomorrow."

  Steven nodded and started to take off his clothes; he was just starting on his pants when suddenly there was a cheetah standing on the floor looking confused. A moment later there was a second one. Terri had made it out of her dress, but hadn't gotten as far as her stockings or her panties.

  Roxy looked at Boz. "Is there a good place to go for a run around here?"

  Boz just nodded his head.

  "Peg, help me get Terri undressed. Sean, you can deal with Steve. Then I think Boz, Nell, and I are going to take them out and let them stretch their legs a little."

  "Sure thing, Rox."

  #

  Chad looked up from his map as Ruthelma walked up in her faerie armor. He had to admit she looked pretty damn sexy in it. However, none of her people following her were checking out her ass—strike that, one of them was looking at her ass pretty intently, that was probably the tiger, Jonathon, whom she was sleeping with.

  But from the grim looks on the faces of the rest of her crew, Chad suspected Montreal hadn't gone any easier than Winnipeg or Vancouver.

  "So how bad was it?" Chad asked as she stopped in front of him.

  "Bad?" Ruthelma smiled slowly. "Who said it was bad?"

  "I'm talking about the lycans, Ruth," Chad sighed, "not about how many of the magic users you undoubtedly slaughtered while laughing maniacally at their pitiful attempts to defend themselves."

  "I didn't laugh maniacally," Ruthelma replied.

  "She did giggle a couple of times, though," Jonathon said in a deadpan voice.

  Ruthelma turned and swatted him. He grabbed her head and kissed her, then let her go. When she turned back around, Chad could see the color on her cheeks, for all that she was frowning.

  "Nice to see you found a keeper, Ruth," Chad said. "Now, back to business. The lycans?"

  Ruth sighed and squatted down on the other side of the map, bringing her eyes level with Chad's.

  "They'd murdered about a third of them; they had mercenaries there defending the place. We killed everyone on the council, anyone who opposed us, and all the mercs. We left the women, children, and probably a quarter of the men alive.

  "What happened in Vancouver that caused my cousin to call me and change the rules?"

  "Pretty much what you found in Montreal," Chad said, and then filled her in on what they'd run into, and what Sean's reaction had been to it.

  Ruth looked at Chad with wide eyes when he told her how Sean had punished them. "He made them do that?"

  "Yeah, he was pretty pissed. Then we get to Winnipeg and find out their leader and couple of others were possessed by devils, and well, he killed all the men there and burned everything to the ground."

  Ruthelma turned to Jonathon. "Why can't you be more like him?"

  "Because then you'd be jealous of me," Jonathon said, grinning at her.

  "Anyway," Chad said, drawing her attention back to him, "we found out that it was their possessed leader's orders that caused a lot of what happened. Now ,Toronto here is a pretty good-sized place, they've got probably a hundred and eighty or so lycans."

  "That many?"

  "It's the major nexus of their smuggling operation," Max told her. "So they need a lot to protect their assets."

  "So we're getting a fair deal of help from the local Sapientia," Chad continued, "above and beyond what we need for the silence."

  "What's the local intelligence saying?" Jonathon asked.

  "That as far as they can tell, nothing has changed. They haven't hired any mercenaries, their kids aren't disappearing, and they seem to have the same number of lycan guards as ever."

  "Which means," Max picked back up, "we can't just run in there, guns blazing."

  "Why not?" Ruthelma asked.

  "Because none of us want Sean pissed at us?" Max said, in a voice that made it clear she thought it was a stupid question.

  Ruthelma frowned at her.

  "And because I said so," Chad said. "I'm in charge, and what I say goes. If we can win this with minimum outlay, that's how we play it."

  "So what's the plan?" Jonathon asked, as Ruthelma suddenly jumped a little, making Chad wonder where Jonathon's right hand was and what he'd just done with it.

  "We go up and ask them all nice-like to hand over their lycans and tell them if they do, we'll leave them alone."

  "Like that'll happen," Ruthelma grumbled while rubbing her ass.

  Chad wondered how Jonathon had gotten past her armor to do whatever it was he'd done.

  "That's why we have all these positions marked on the map," Max said with a smile. "The moment they say no, we attack in force."

  "And kill them all?"

  Chad sighed. "If they haven't been killing their lycans, we're not killing them. Now, let me tell you the plan and what your part in it is..."

  Five hours later, Chad and Max were with his command team as Chad got ready to approach the front gates.

  "Think they'll roll over?" Baron asked.

  "Think Ruthelma will behave herself if they do?" Max asked with a chuckle.

  Chad shook his head. "I honestly don't know, and I'm not taking any bets. As for Ruth?" Chad shrugged. "She's both our biggest asset and our biggest liability. If things go sideways really badly, I suspect she'll be drawing so much attention that it'll give the rest of us time to deal with it."

  Max leaned forward and gave Chad a kiss. "Don't you go taking any chances. Just remember, if anything happens to you, I'll be egging her on all the way."

  Chad grinned. "Wow, I have my very own doomsday device! Well, the night's not getting any younger. Come on, Jace, first squad, let's go see if they want to be friends."

  Nodding, they got out of the van and headed for their assigned positions. Max would be playing sniper, using the rifle Roxy had left behind, and keeping watch on what was going down. Baron was in the second-in-command role, passing out the orders and making sure everyone was following the plan.

  Chad took Jace and all of first squad with him as he walked down the road and around the corner, coming within sight of the front gate. He had a white fla
g out, same as last time, and was curious how they were going to react to it.

  "Can I help you?" the guard at the gate said when Chad finally got to it. He hadn't even bothered to grab a weapon.

  "We're here for your lycans," Chad said, looking him over.

  "Oh! Right. Yeah, we've been hearing about that. Also heard about what happened up in Winnipeg." The guard shook his head. "Let me call the council leader, Will Bayer, just a moment."

  Chad watched as the guard went to the phone in the guard shack, picked it up, and dialed a number.

  "Mr. Bayer? Front gate, Mr. Bayer. Those people from that lion are here. Okay, I'll let them know."

  The guard hung up the phone and came back out. "He'll be right down."

  "How come there aren't any mercs here?" Jace asked.

  The guard blinked. "Why would there be? We're here."

  Chad pondered that a minute. Will Bayer showed up rather quickly.

  "Oh, good! No one is shooting at anybody," he said with a sigh of obvious relief. "I already gave the order; everyone should start assembling at the gate as soon as they have their things." He turned to the guard then. "Crockett, you're relieved. Go get your stuff and join the others."

  "Thanks, Mr. Bayer," Crockett said, and with a nod trotted off.

  "While I'm pleased at our reception, I must say I'm a bit confused, Mr. Bayer," Chad said.

  Bayer shrugged. "I've known this day was coming for over a month now. When I heard about the other places," Chad noticed the distasteful look on his face when he said it, "I knew we were next. So I just told everyone to cooperate."

  "That still doesn't explain the lack of mercenaries or why you didn't get rid of your lycans like the others did."

  Bayer snorted. "I'm not fool enough to follow some stupid order just because a crazy old man gave it to me. Especially not after what your leader did to the Gradatim. Now that I've talked to Williams up at the Council of Sapientia in Winnipeg and heard about what happened to Watkins, I'm even happier I decided to go against his orders."

  "You actually violated your boss's orders?" a very surprised Jace said.

  "I run the biggest and most successful Vestibulum council in Canada, and possibly all of North America. I didn't get here by being anyone else's toady, and I can sure as hell see which way the wind is blowing. Doesn't take a crystal ball to see that!"

  Bayer smiled then. "Besides, I was told we could hire them if they want to come back. They're not going to be able to do that if they're dead, and they're not going to want to if I don't start making some concessions. All those stuck-up idiots down in the States are now going to be paying a premium to get their work done, training new people and all that crap.

  "Me? I'm just gonna hire 'em all back! I saw those numbers that Eruditio was shipping around to everyone. Like I said before, I'm no idiot."

  Sure enough, twenty minutes later all the lycans came out the open gates and followed Chad back to their vehicles.

  "So, do you think you'll go back?" Chad asked Crockett.

  "Yeah, I think we're all gonna go back for now. See how it all goes. Now that we've got a choice, a lot of us are starting to think we'll stick with what we know for now, but once we have some savings set aside, maybe we'll go try a few new things."

  Chad nodded and then stood there, watching everyone load up as Max caught up with him.

  "Everyone pull back to Sapientia?" he asked her.

  "They're doing it as we speak."

  "How'd Ruthelma take it?"

  Max snickered. "Not all that well, I think she wanted a fight."

  "You're snickering," Chad observed. "What happened?"

  "Jonathon put her over his knee and spanked her!"

  Chad turned and looked at Max, his jaw dropping.

  "He did what? And he's still alive?"

  Max nodded and laughed. "From what I'm hearing after talking to a few of the others, every once in a while she'll do something outrageous and he'll 'punish' her for it. Then they'll go off and have wild sex for like the rest of the day and into the next.

  "Apparently Sean's cousin is pretty seriously bent."

  Chad looked down at Max and started to stroke his chin thoughtfully. "You don't say..."

  "Hey! I'm only slightly bent!" Max said with a giggle.

  Chad laughed then as well. "I wonder when the wedding is going to be?"

  "Assuming they don't kill each other? No idea, but I thought Fae didn't marry mortals?"

  "You're forgetting about Sean's grandfather," Chad pointed out. "Maitland told me it happens, but no one has been able to figure out how or why. On either side."

  "Who knew Sean's cousin was such a first class perv." Max laughed, shaking her head.

  "Have you even noticed the armor that girl wears?" Chad snorted. "It's obvious. Now, let's get everyone packed up, we need to head back to Reno, here. I've got a campaign to Mexico City to start planning."

  And Justice For All

  "Morning, everybody," Sean said, coming into the conference room. He almost laughed at the surprised expressions on everyone's faces. Sean had made it clear that no one was to talk about his being here, so no one had told any of the people in the room that he was showing up this morning.

  "Where's Steve?" one of the team leads asked.

  "Steve and Terri are spending today learning how to be cheetahs," Sean said, looking around the room.

  "You bit them?" someone muttered.

  Sean snorted and shook his head. "Did I say 'lions'? No, I didn't infect them. Roxy did it, and yes, I all but ordered it. I had my reasons, and that's all you need to know.

  "Now, those people that stink real bad? They're demons, and we're going to go out and kill them." Sean looked around the room. "Today."

  Everyone in the room sat up abruptly.

  "Other than the first two, has anybody found any others yet?"

  Sean looked around; everyone was shaking their heads.

  "Okay, from this point forward, you find one, you pull back and call it in. We'll kill it as soon as possible. If the opportunity presents itself, kill one, but make sure somebody calls it in! These particular ones are weak enough that, with the right weapon, you can kill them easily."

  "What's the right kind of weapon?"

  Sean pulled the faerie sword he had strapped to his back out of the scabbard and showed it to everyone in the room.

  "We don't have a lot of these, which is why I want you to call it in, so I can come and kill it, or someone else who knows how to use a sword can. But if you don't have one of these," Sean picked up a crowbar that was sitting on the table, "iron will work wonders. So we're gonna issue you all old crowbars and tire irons. Just remember, it's gotta be iron. If you're really desperate, tooth and claw."

  "Seriously?"

  Sean nodded. "I've done it, but I'm a lion, so I have a few benefits you don't, like size and really sharp claws. I'd rather none of you try it; we can't afford to lose any of you, remember that! You're not expendable! Don't go one on one. They're not any stronger or faster than a human, but they are hard to kill and can take a lot of damage."

  "What about magic?" another person asked.

  "If the body they possessed has magic, they will too. If it didn't, they won't."

  Sean looked around the room. "Those of you who know where the two you saw already are, see me after this meeting. Now, time for the morning standup. Nate, you get to pick 'em as well as take notes."

  Sean listened with half his attention as they ran down what they'd been up to. They had taken Steve's order yesterday to heart, and were actively searching now for the 'bad smell'. Eight of them now knew it by heart and the leads had shuffled the teams on their own initiative, so each of those eight were now on a separate team.

  After they all left, the two team leads from the teams who had found the guys joined Sean at the front of the room.

  "Okay, you know where the guy who's the campaign manager lives, right?"

  "Yeah, it's in a nice part of town, we've al
ready checked it out."

  "Have you been inside?"

  "No, the security is too good."

  Sean nodded. "We'll go there first. Everyone, see Granite about a weapon. Any of you know how to fight with a sword?"

  They all looked at each other and shook their heads.

  "We'll have to see about fixing that. Now go see Granite and meet me by one of the vans. Whichever one of you knows where this place is can drive."

  "What about the alarms on the place?"

  "Don't worry," Sean said with a smile.

  Sean was sitting in the back of the van with a nervous Sheila and a scowling Peg.

  "Peg, all I need her for is to get us past the alarms and inside."

  "It's a demon's house, Sean."

  "Yeah, and she's carrying my baby, just like you are, by the way. If things go bad, hightail it out of there and let me deal with it. I need her skills, just as I need your skills. But I told you before, and I'm telling you again, I'm not going to put either of you at risk."

  "You better not! I mean it, Sean. You get her hurt, and I'll be pissed beyond all belief," Peg said in a low but growly voice.

  "Yes, Dear." Sean smiled and gave Peg a hug. He gave Sheila a hug then, too, causing her to jump slightly.

  Lowering his mouth to Sheila's ear, Sean whispered, "You need to be honest with me too, Sheila. I need this done, but you need to be careful. If not for yourself, then for my child you're carrying. Okay?"

  Sheila gulped and nodded. There was no way she ever wanted to fail Sean, but...there was no way she could risk his child, either. She had no doubts at all that if she got his kid killed, he'd punish her in the afterlife.

  He was a lion, after all.

  "Okay, we're here," said Clifford, the leader of the team assigned to Scheckley.

  "Who was the one who scented him first?" Sean asked.

  "I was."

  "Cool." Sean peeked out the window; it was a townhouse in a very nice area. They were all wearing overalls with the logo of a national cleaning company on them. Steve had set that up, claiming no one would ever notice them. Sean figured he was probably right, but he was also going to take advantage of Peg's abilities to obscure cameras and other recording devices.