by Jan Stryvant
"They got hit by that lion," Atticus said, looking over the rest of the report. "Wilston had managed to get his hands on one of the lion's women and took her hostage."
"By shooting up a bar in the middle of the city!" Rupert almost yelled. "What the hell was he thinking?"
"Probably that if he killed this lion, we'd forgive him," Atticus said with a sigh. "If he had, we would have, too. But apparently it didn't go as planned; five of our people died in the attack on the pub, including Lee, then nine more died when they hit the compound."
"They bombed them? Is that what I'm reading?"
"A combination of bad luck and bad timing," Brenda said, looking up. "I talked to Ethan about an hour ago. They were filling a van with explosives when they were attacked. Something caused it to explode. That's where they lost most of their people during the attack. He said there's two more people missing, and if they don't find them soon, they're going to assume they were killed in the blast as well."
"So it looks like we lost fourteen people, fourteen of our own, and this lion just managed to walk right in, and not only steal our property, but destroyed a quite a bit of it as well! What next?"
"I think it's a safe bet he's going to move on to Seattle next," Atticus said.
"I wonder why he didn't just come here first?" Brenda asked.
"Because we're too strong for him," Rupert replied.
"I'm not so sure of that anymore, Rupert," Atticus said, looking up at his friend. "He hit Ethan's place with an overwhelming force. They had helicopters and a lot of soldiers. Not just dozens, hundreds. They weren't all werewolves, either. I talked to Eldridge, he told me he saw several different breeds there, and they were all well armed, with wands as well as firearms. This isn't something that's just going to go away. This isn't some small-time revolt. This is serious. I think we need to start taking some serious measures ourselves."
"Such as?"
"We need to get rid of the lycans before he can use them against us."
"I'm not giving in to this kid! Or whoever the hell is backing him! I'm not letting our lycans go!" Rupert said hotly.
"Who said anything about letting them go?" Atticus said with a nasty smile. "Last thing I want is to end up fighting them when they come around looking for revenge. I say we just kill them. All of them. This is a war, Rupert, a war for survival. We need to deny them any more soldiers. We kill the ones we've got, then we kill the rest of them."
"Another night of the Silver Death?" Jim Hines mused. "But what about that silver amulet thing they've got now?"
"They're still making them; I'm guessing they still only have enough for their army. If we move first and start killing them, at least their army can't get any bigger."
Rupert leaned back in his chair and thought about it. They had over two hundred lycans here at the headquarters council, and that wasn't even counting the number in the hands of their members at their homes. He knew there were probably a couple thousand living in the surrounding area; a lot of lycans had come out west back in the early days. But Atticus had a point, these animals were always hot-headed, and once they were freed, it wouldn't be long until they started bitching and moaning about how they'd been treated. Next thing, they'd want revenge for the things that had been done to them.
"Call all of our other council leaders," Rupert said, "I think Atticus is right, we need to get rid of them now before they get rid of us. I'll take a vote; if everyone agrees, we'll start with our own, we'll kill all of our own lycans. Then we'll put together teams to start killing them in the surrounding areas. Sapientia and Eruditio are right; we don't need the lycans anymore. It's time they were done away with."
Rupert looked around the room. "All of them. I'm sure our other councils will see the light once we start killing them."
Josh was eating breakfast when his father came into the house in a rush.
"What's up, dad?"
"That lion hit us again! He hit Portland last night! Rupert has called for a meeting of all the council heads; they're going to vote on what to do about it."
Josh noticed his father glace sidelong at Rose, the female werewolf who'd been their cook and maid for as long as Josh could remember.
"What happened in Portland?"
Josh listened as his father ran down the list of what had taken place with only half a mind. He suspected a lot of what was being claimed probably wasn't true. Ever since the events of Las Vegas, Josh had started to doubt the things he was being told.
"What are they planning to do about it, Dad?" Josh asked when his father had finished.
His father glanced at Rose a moment. "Come up to my study, we can talk about it in private."
Josh felt a sense of dread, but simply nodded. Setting down his fork, he got up as his father left the kitchen.
"I won't let them hurt you, Rose," Josh said in a soft voice. "I've met that lion, and he scares the hell out of me."
Rose looked at Josh, shocked, as he left the room.
Following his father upstairs, Josh closed the door behind him and looked at his father.
"What's so secret that you couldn't speak of it in front of Rose? She's been with us forever, Dad. We can trust her."
"Rupert has proposed killing all of the lycans. All of them! We can't trust any of them, Josh. That's just the problem! This lion is raising them all up against us!"
"That's a lie, Dad, and you should know better," Josh grumbled.
"What! How can you say that?"
"Because they're all liars! If the lion wanted us all dead, why did he save me!" Josh yelled at his father, then snapped his mouth closed as he realized what he'd just said.
"Saved you?" Josh's father looked at him. "What are you talking about?"
Josh sighed and, walking over to one of the chairs in his father's study, he dropped into it.
"Everything I told you about what happened in Las Vegas was a lie."
"What! Why?"
"Because Blake was a complete scumbag, and I didn't want anything to happen to you, Dad. Plus I didn't want that lion coming after me after he saved my life, even though I'd been trying to kill him."
Cory Booker stared at his son. "Tell me what happened, Josh."
"Blake had been stealing stuff from his father for the last year, from that expensive collection his father has, taking it out to some fence in Vegas and selling it. At one point he needed my help. Told me he'd tell his father about some stuff he heard you talking about, about how you were plotting against one of the other council members to get your own place on the council."
"That's a lie!" Cory said.
"Yeah, that's what I said," Josh sighed, "but Blake asked who his father would believe? Him or me? Or even you, for that matter? He'd blame all the stolen stuff on you as well, I bet."
Josh noticed his father's face go pale.
"Then of course after I helped him, he blackmailed me with that, too."
Josh proceeded to tell his father about how Blake had been shown up by a magic user and then went after him later, only to crash when they found out he was a werelion.
"He saved me, Dad. When I told him I'd been forced to help Blake, rather than let me die, he saved me. Then he went and killed Blake."
"Wait, I thought Blake died because he wasn't wearing his seatbelt?"
"No, Blake was wearing it, alright. In fact, he forced me to take mine off so I could shoot at the other car. But it gets even worse, Dad."
"How can it get any worse?"
"The deputy who came in with the sheriff while we were talking to Atticus?"
Cory nodded. "What about him?"
"That was the lion, Dad. I got a real good look at him at the gas station where all of this started. He knows who I am, where I live, all of it! He told me not to make him regret saving me!"
"Damn," Cory said, sitting down.
"Yeah, and if Rupert kills all the lycans, what do you think is going to happen next?"
"He's just one man, son, what can he do?"
"Yo
u've heard everything they're blaming him for!" Josh yelled. "What can't he do? Call Mom, get Jen home from school. Let's get in the car and take Rose to that lycan sheriff in Las Vegas. Hell, have her hide in the trunk until we get out of town! If nothing happens, we can always say we killed her, but Mom and Jen were upset and we took them to Vegas to get their minds off of it."
Cory Booker looked at his son. Atticus was a nasty man, vindictive too, there was no doubt about that. His son, Blake, had been a chip off the old block, as they liked to say. He didn't doubt a word of what Josh had just told him, and the truth of the matter was simple; if he did this and his son was wrong, nothing bad would happen. If his son was right, they at least wouldn't be tarred with the same brush as the rest of Gradatim. In either case, he'd have his son's respect.
Twenty years of dealing with the often cut-throat politics that took place here, which had at times left his own hands dirty, made it clear what his choice was. He'd coach his wife, Julie, on what to say if anyone asked. Same for Jen.
Opening the door to the study he called out, "Rose, grab your things! We're going on vacation and you're coming with us! And be quick!"
"Thanks, Dad," Josh said with a smile.
"Run next door and grab their lycan, tell old Mrs. Smith we'll take care of him for her."
Josh nodded and, getting up, he ran for the door, stopping only to hug Rose, who smiled at him.
Gary looked around his office; the entire council was there and not a single one of them was older than him. Hell, one of them was only nineteen!
"I just got off of the phone with Rupert Spencer and all the other Gradatim council leaders, and I mean all of them. Rupert called everyone in."
"Why?" Dave asked from his wheelchair. They hadn't fitted him for a prosthetic leg yet, and Gary was seriously thinking of asking everyone to chip in and buy him a magical one, seeing as Dave had been the first one to throw in with him.
"Because they've decided to be complete fuckwads! That's why!" Gary yelled, throwing his hands up in the air. "It's not bad enough we all got our asses handed to us for trying to maintain an old and outdated belief! Oh no! Now he wants everybody to kill all their lycans!"
"What?!" Dave, Steve, and the others all said.
"What's the big deal? We don't have any lycans anymore," Niles said.
"The big deal is after that, we're supposed to start hunting down and killing all of the lycans in town!" Gary told them.
"Oh, fuck that!" Niles said, and the others all nodded. "Last time we tried that, I lost my father!"
"Yeah, you and me both." Gary sighed and, dropping back into his seat, he scrubbed at his face with his hands. "Dammit, tomorrow I'm getting married! I did not want to have to deal with anything this stupid before that."
"What are you going to do? Hell, what are we going to do?" Dave asked.
Gary heard several others mumble their agreement with Dave's question.
"Well," Gary said with a heavy sigh, "I know what I'm going to do. I just don't know if you all are going to want to do it, too."
"What's that?"
"I'm leaving Gradatim. For good. I'm gonna pick up that phone and ask Sapientia if they've got room for one more. I'm done with this bullshit. I said it up in the mountains, and I'm sayin' it again here and now." Gary looked around the room.
"What about the rest of you?"
"I'm with you, Gary," Dave said, and then pushing himself up onto his one leg, he glared at the others, "and you all are with him too, right?"
Gary watched as they all looked at each other and nodded. Steve looked a little worried for a moment, but then even he sighed and nodded.
"So, show of hands," Gary called, "who here wants to stay with Gradatim?"
Not a single hand was raised.
"Okay, everyone go get a can of spray paint, and paint over all the Gradatim emblems. I'm gonna call Walter Clark over at Sapientia and see what advice he has."
"What's the rush?" Steve asked.
"The very idea of being associated with such a stupid idea is making my skin crawl. The sooner we're gone, the better."
"Aren't you worried about Spencer and his goons down in LA?"
Gary snorted. "Reno's a lot closer than LA."
"Call Becker over at Eruditio," Dave suggested. "If anyone has good advice, it's always Eruditio."
Gary thought about that a moment and nodded. "Okay, I'll call him too."
"So, on to Seattle?" Chad asked Sean. They were sitting around a table, Chad, Sean, Steven, Jonas, Roxy, and Daelyn. Peg, Roberta, and Jolene were off with Cali.
Sean nodded. "I think we'll need to meet up with Jonas' fellowship first, talk with everyone, and make sure we know what we're getting into. Seattle is the biggest city we've come up against, so I'd expect the councils there to be a lot larger, as well."
"There's also a fairly large foreign presence," Jonas added. "There are a couple of Asian groups in Seattle we're going to have to deal with."
"I'm sure that will be..."
'SHIT!' the First suddenly yelled in Sean's head, and Sean felt it too: his whole body was suddenly on fire, every part of him seemed to burn and ache, the pain going on for almost an entire minute as it flowed over his body. It felt like he was burning up from the inside, being shot, stabbed, strangled, and every other way you could kill a person. Then just as quickly as it had come, it was gone.
"Sean? You alright?" Chad asked, looking at Sean, who had suddenly shifted into his hybrid form and roared loudly, and then just sat there, growling with his eyes glowing as he looked off into the distance.
Sean shook his head and held up a hand.
'What just happened?'
'A thousand of us just died,' the First growled.
'Us? Lions?'
'No, our people. Someone just slaughtered a whole lot of us. We're...we're talking about it.'
Sean waited a moment, his paw still up in the air, while the others all looked at him, concerned.
'It was the Gradatim. They executed all their lycans. It wasn't just their headquarters; it looks like all of their councils did it as well. We're still feeling a few small spikes as a few remaining groups are killed.'
'Are you positive?' Sean asked, growling himself, and started to think about the things in his father's book he wasn't going to share and just how he might use one of them here and now.
'Yes, I'm...' the First paused a moment as he saw the thought in Sean's mind, 'Yes, Son. Yes, let's do that! Let's do that to them now!' the First growled.
Sean lowered his hand and looked at the others. "The Gradatim just executed all their lycans. All their lycans. We are now at war with them. You are all to kill them, any of them that you meet, from this point forward.
"Chad," Sean turned to look at him, "I have to go back to Reno immediately. You're in charge. Handle Seattle any way you see fit. Jonas," Sean turned to look at him, "please give Chad your full cooperation. Steven?"
"Yes?"
"I need to rent a jet, and I need to rent one this instant. I need your help."
"You can borrow my wife's."
"You have a jet?" Roxy asked, surprised.
"Actually, we have two," Steven said, looking embarrassed.
"Thanks," Sean said and turned to Roxy. "Get the others, we're leaving now."
"Sean," Chad asked as Sean stood up, "how? How do you know what happened?"
Sean shook his head. "I don't know the details yet; I'll learn them soon enough. As for how I know about it?" Sean shrugged. "I'm a lion now. We're all connected, not just to the other lions, but to all of you. The abilities I have with other lycans? That 'mystical shit', as I like to call it? That connection goes both ways. I felt it when they were all murdered, and it hurt. Now," Sean growled out the rest of the sentence, "I'm going to make them hurt, too."
They all watched him walk out.
"What do you think he's going to do?" Jonas asked Chad.
"Damned if I know, but in all the time I've known Sean, I don't think I've ever se
en him that angry. And trust me; I've seen him pissed off before!
"But that's neither here nor there. He gave us a job to do, and I suggest we get to it. Whatever he's going to do, I'm sure we'll hear about it soon enough."
Consequences
"Dae, I need you to make something for me," Sean said as they sat in the back of Steven's private jet.
"What?"
"I need a device that will drop a silver bar down a tube when a timer runs out," Sean showed her the simple sketch he'd made on a piece of paper.
Daelyn snorted. "I could do that in my sleep, Sean."
"I also need it to have a small cup with blood in it that will pour out onto a rock fixed underneath ten seconds before the bar is dropped down the tube."
Daelyn looked at him. "Blood?"
Sean nodded. "Blood."
"You're going to use that recall stone, aren't you?"
Sean nodded.
"Are you sure it goes back to Gradatim?"
"I plotted it out after Sawyer told me about spinning it. It either goes right to their headquarters, or someplace close enough to it that it makes no difference."
Daelyn nodded slowly. "It'll take me about a half hour to make it."
"Make two."
"Two? Why?"
"I want to test the effect first, be sure that it works."
Daelyn nodded.
"What are you going to do?" Roxy asked.
"You know how I've been using the tags to power my enchanting?"
Roxy nodded.
"I'm going to overload one with silver and set it to release all of the energy at once."
"How big a bar are you going to use?"
"Five ounces for the test, twenty-five for the actual."
"Are you sure about that?"
"Worried it might be too big?" Sean asked, looking up at her.
"No," Roxy growled, "I'm worried it might be too small!"
Sean grinned at her. "I'll check my math, but I think a nice hundred-foot-wide fireball just outside of LA should get everyone's attention while dealing with the Gradatim issue rather effectively, don't you?"
