She withdrew her hand. "Just remember who started it."
He gave her the signature Rammel killer grin that oozed with promise. "We can discuss that later if you wish. I say you started it when you chose to come 'hello kitty'. With garters. Are they red?" The way he breathed the question into her ear made her eyes close as she gasped a little. It seemed to be a game with him to see if he could still make her blush.
They both realized things had gotten quiet and looked up to find everyone staring at them.
"Welcome back," Storm said.
There was more than one thing that could still make Elora blush.
When the servers were gone, Sol once again turned to Litha.
"Here's the thing. All this is so new to us. It's all uncharted territory. We probably can't even begin to guess the ways your father could be helpful at this point. Last Thursday I wouldn't have been able to guess in a hundred years that we were going to need his help with five French vampire from another dimension who got so drunk they destroyed their guest quarters."
Deliverance seemed to be enjoying Sol's quandary. At some point during the dinner, resistance to the idea of working with The Order had morphed into a game to him. He leaned toward Litha. "Ask him what are his three biggest concerns right now."
Litha looked at him. "You can ask him that yourself."
He pouted. "But I like having you moderate."
Litha shook her head a little, but asked. "What are your three biggest concerns? Right now?"
"Curing the vampire virus, but you may have accidentally brought us the means to do that quickly by picking up the Frenchies on the way to dinner."
Storm narrowed his eyes and a muscle in his jaw ticked. "She didn't pick them up."
"You know what I mean."
"Yes. You meant to say that my pregnant wife was terrorized by a gang of host monkey vampire who chased her here, with biting on their minds, at the very least."
Sol looked at Litha. "I meant no disrespect."
"None was taken, Sovereign. My husband can be very protective."
"Completely understandable."
Deliverance made a circular motion with his hand the way Sol sometimes did when he was losing patience. Sol found it infuriating to have his own abrupt and borderline rude mannerism turned back on him, but he smothered the bit of temper that threatened to erupt, knowing that a relationship with the demon would be a boon to Black Swan.
"The second matter of utmost importance is the proposed Interdimensional Breach Defense System that Monq is working on. The third is a matter of species survival. The werewolves have begun whelping males, almost exclusively. The king of one of the most powerful tribes was here a few days ago asking if there's something our science department could do.
"We can't really spare much time or attention for that, as tragic as it may be, because the defense system has become critical."
"Why?" Deliverance asked the question directly.
"Because there was an assassination attempt made on one of my knights by aliens from another dimension."
"How do you know?"
"Let's just say there was no question."
"What species were these aliens?"
"Elves."
Deliverance cocked his head to the side. "And how did they accomplish the intrusion?"
"Apparently by some sort of device designed for interdimensional transport."
Deliverance looked thoughtful. "Since that's against the rules, more or less, I might be able to help under a righting-a-wrong clause. I'll give it some thought. Meanwhile, I can help with the werewolves."
Sol was both shocked and captivated. "How?"
The demon smiled. "Like most non-human species, werewolves can survive riding the passes with someone such as myself. Most of their kind migrated to other dimensions hundreds of years ago when it became evident that humans breed like rabbits. That combined with the fact that they find difference distasteful made it an easy choice."
"Choice?"
"Yes. Some earth elementals gave them a choice between staying or migrating to human-free dimensional zones. Most left. A few stayed."
Everyone at the table was quiet while they absorbed that.
"So," Sol continued slowly, "you're saying that you are in a position to offer that same choice again. Stay or go to a place where immigrants would be welcome. A place where there are female wolves?"
"Um," Glen interjected. "Why don't they just choose human mates?"
Ram answered. "The Elk Mountain king told us that werewolves are seldom attracted to humans. Happens." Ram's look said, 'As you well know'. "But 'tis rare."
Glen searched Ram's face and looked a little angry. "He said that mixed progeny is looked down on, didn't he?"
Ram loved Glen. He didn't want to hurt his feelings and he really didn't want to embarrass him in front of the others. There were only two things that would be worse: not answering or not telling the truth.
"Aye."
Ram knew that Glen didn't have any family still alive. There was no one to give him a hug and assure him he was wanted, that he was special. No one except Ram and Elora, who had become an adopted family.
"To answer your question," Deliverance spoke to Sol. "Yes. I know where to find thriving werewolf colonies and societies. They would have to be asked if they would take in refugees, but wolves are more hospitable than some. I'm sure placement could be arranged. The question is, what would such a service be worth to you?"
"Dad." Deliverance jerked his eyes to Litha. She didn't call him Dad very often. "Could you really help with these two things?"
"Werewolves definitely. Defense? Maybe."
"Then would you do this for me? Please?"
The demon opened his mouth and seemed to be struggling with what was going to come out. "You know I need something in return."
"I'm going to give you something in return."
"What?" His expression was an odd cross between excitement and suspicion.
"Forgiveness."
"Forgiveness! For what?"
"Skinned knees, missed birthdays, missed holidays, missed prom pictures, missed graduations, missed..."
He held his hands up. "Stop!
"You forgive my debt for abandonment, neglect, and absence in exchange for helping your friends with these two problems. These two and only these two."
She grinned. "Yes! Twenty-six years wiped clean and you get grandemon privileges."
Just before clasping together, their right hands burst into flame. "Deal."
"Deal."
Sol looked at their hands. "I don't think I'm going to be able to manage that."
Deliverance laughed. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go get real dinner and let the vampire know you'd like them to report for duty."
"Thank you. Just one more question. It's a quick one - about your ability to move from one place to another."
"Riding the passes," Litha supplied.
"Yes. Who exactly can go along?"
"Elementals and ancients, vampire, elusives, and higher forms... We can navigate without assistance. Most humanoid species like elves and fae and most hybrids like werewolves can go piggyback - not literally, but you know what I mean. Most of the human variants can survive it, but not all. Transporting species that don't travel naturally is generally frowned upon, but as long as The Council keeps looking the other way..."
"By human variants you mean..."
"Humans from different dimensions have evolved differently and express different looks, strengths, weaknesses. Even here in this one dimension humans can be identified on sight as one of three categories that you call races. Imagine how many differences there are across dimensions."
"Are we a human, uh, variant that..."
"Can piggyback? Pure Loti Dimension humans?"
Litha interjected, "Loti is what travelers call this dimension."
Deliverance went on. "No. It's more pressure than your bodies can stand. You wouldn't want to see what happens." The demon shudd
ered for theatrical effect and not because he was personally fazed.
Sol looked at Glen. "What about someone who was part human? Say, one quarter werewolf?"
Deliverance followed Sol's gaze to Glen and said, "Let's find out." Moving almost too fast to see, he grabbed Glen's arm, pulled him to his feet, and vanished. Ram knocked his chair over trying to get to Glen. Putting his hands up, he was shouting, "Wait!" at the demon. For all the good it did.
Everyone present was frozen in shock, staring at the spot where Glen had been a moment before. As Storm looked at Litha, his face clouded over with anger that matched his nickname, but before he could say anything he might regret, Deliverance reappeared. Glen was a little wide-eyed, but otherwise didn't seem worse for wear. The demon laughed and slapped the kid on the back. "Looks like you're good to go."
In a near-recreation of events from the first attempt at a dinner party, Ram dived through the air, tackled the demon, knocking him to the floor, straddled him, and began pummeling his flawless, arrogant face with his fists. Deliverance giggled hysterically. When Rammel paused, thrown by the odd reaction, the incubus smiled smugly and looked at him through heavy-lidded eyes.
"You can't hurt me, but I might be lured into a little boy-on-boy action." He let his eyes wander slowly down Ram's body and then winked.
Ram would be hard pressed to remember a time when he was more infuriated. In that moment he learned that the phrase "seeing red" was based on something that actually happens when anger crosses the border of madness.
Ram's ego was raw and bleeding from knowing he was powerless to protect Elora and Helm. Rubbing in his face that he couldn't protect this kid they had practically adopted, not even when he was twenty-four inches away, well, the whole thing was just too much. The whole dimension jumping, popping in and out, it was more than a reasonably well-balanced elf should be expected to manage.
Snarling loudly he drew back his fist to smash that smile again, but Elora grabbed his wrist. She leaned down and whispered in her mate's ear. "Stop, Ram. You can't hurt him. You're only hurting yourself. Come to me. Please." She pulled on his arm, urging him to stand up as she kissed the knuckles that were broken and bruising.
Deliverance continued to taunt him. "I've got no problem with you being on top, just kiss me first and let me turn over. Maybe you can work off your mate's debt."
Ram tried to lunge at him again, but Elora had a firm hold.
Litha came into the demon's field of vision and stood over him with her hands on her hips. "Enough! That's enough. There are people in this room who care about that boy and my husband is one of them. What if it had turned out that he couldn't survive the passes?"
He clearly didn't like being reprimanded by his daughter. "I was keeping an eye on him. If he couldn't breathe or started to crumple, I would have brought him right back. There's no other way to find out."
Litha considered that for a minute. "So you're claiming he was never in any danger?"
Elora pulled Ram away.
Deliverance did a showy kip-up to get to his feet before staring down his daughter. "He was never in any danger. What kind of demon do you take me for?" The demon smiled in a disconcerting way that left a question mark hanging in the air, and vanished.
Slowly, everybody drifted back to their chairs. After a few seconds of stunned silence, Glen said, "Hey. If he's not coming back, can I have his lobster?"
They were just finishing Bananas Foster when a small atmospheric change preceded five vampire coming to dinner. "Hello, again," said Javier in heavily French-accented Anglish.
"Mr. Baka," Sol said, "are you ready to get to know your team?"
Baka looked them over. Truthfully, he was overjoyed. They were gods sent.
Litha's upbringing dictated that she thank Sol for hosting a lovely dinner, but she knew there was no way to say that without it sounding sarcastic. So she and Storm simply said goodnight. Two minutes later they were standing in front of their fireplace in their own living room on the opposite coast. Litha flicked a small fireball and hearth flames jumped alight.
"You going back to Edinburgh tomorrow?"
"Yes. But I'm not going tonight," she said it suggestively. "And, I'm going with a new attitude regarding contracts and negotiation."
"Good for you." Storm smiled down at his wife and pulled her as close as her growing tummy would allow. "I was so proud of you tonight. What you did was a great thing. You saved a species and, if he ends up helping us with the defense system, you might get credit for saving the world." She brought her hands around to his chest and reached up to start untying his tie. "And have I mentioned how much I like having a wife who provides the coolest transportation in the world?"
She laughed. "That's exactly what you said when you thought my dowry was an Aston Martin."
He pulled her tighter against the growing evidence that she still thrilled him. "If you had come with a bus token, you'd still be the one."
She melted. Just like she always had when he said such things. Just like she always would.
***
CHAPTER_8
Storm texted Glen to meet him in the solarium at eleven and got confirmation. Litha dropped him off, brushed her lips over his, and promised to see him for dinner.
Glen was early and nursing a large Brazilia coffee.
"Join you?" Storm joked.
"Yes sir. Would you like me to get you a coffee?"
"No. It takes a few minutes for my stomach to come to grips with being inside my body after Litha gives me a ride." He glanced around to see who might be within hearing distance. Then he seemed to get lost in thought.
"You know I'm dying here."
"Hmmm?" Storm turned back to Glen. "Oh. Yeah. So, okay, I've got to have your word that this is confidential. Not a sound to anybody. Right now we're just talking."
Glen nodded.
"Sol's getting married."
Glen grinned. "Wow."
"And he plans to retire in two years."
"That's nice. He... deserves it."
"He asked me if I wanted the job."
Glen's eyes went wide. "Whoa. Really? That's... shooting pretty high. There's nobody in the organization more powerful except Council members. Right?"
Storm watched Glen's reaction carefully. "Pretty much."
"So you're going to be the new Sovereign of Jefferson Unit. And I know you! Can I have your autograph? Will I get special treatment because you know me?" The kid was grinning and seemed genuinely excited about the prospect of being personally acquainted with the incoming boss man.
Storm couldn't help but chuckle. "No. You can't have my autograph. And, no, I'm not going to be the new Sovereign of Jefferson Unit."
"You're not?" Glen's excitement died as his brows drew together. "Why not? How could you turn it down?"
"I'm not going to be the new Sov here because you are. And I'd better not ever find out that you're giving people special treatment 'because you know them'." Storm put that last phrase in air quotes.
"I don't know what you..." The kid's forehead smoothed out as his grin returned. That gave birth to a good-natured laugh. "Good one. Is there a camera?" Glen was looking around for evidence of being punked.
Storm shook his head. "No camera, kid. And no joke either."
"Okay. I don't get it. What are you really trying to say?"
"Sol offered me the job. I said no, but recommended you."
"Me?!? Why would you do that?" He made it sound more like an accusation than a question.
"Got a feeling that you're the right guy for the job. When I was a vampire slayer, I learned to rely on gut feelings. I give them credit for the reason why I'm standing here right now breathing in and out. They're more reliable than eyes and ears."
Glen frowned. "But I'm a trainee. Not even..."
"I know. Sounds crazy. But there it is. What do you say? You interested?" The boy looked dumbstruck. "Sol and I talked about it..."
"And he agrees with you?" Glen sounded incredulous.
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"Not exactly, but for whatever reason, he thinks enough of me to be willing to give you a try. A... test of sorts. To see how you might handle yourself in different situations."
"So it's not like I'm being offered the job straight up. I'm being offered an opportunity to audition."
"Exactly. It's not a command performance. It's only if you want to.
"I don't want to give you the idea that the tests he has in mind are easy. In fact, I wouldn't lay odds on anybody else." Oddly enough, as Storm proceeded to make the prospect of occupying the Sovereign's chair sound more and more challenging, the more interested Glen became. "Have you ever heard of Z Team?"
"Z Team. No. Who are they?"
"Never mind. It's just as well. So you know, I should point out that the job is typically thankless and lonely and not nearly as glamorous as Hunter Division is cracked up to be."
"Yeah. Don't sugar coat or anything."
"Eyes wide open. Best policy and practice. Questions?"
"Well, when you say 'lonely'...?"
Storm shrugged. "That's the way Sol did it. I guess everybody who's ever held that job put his own stamp on it, sort of molded it to fit his personality. My understanding is that, as long as things run smoothly, the higher ups don't really care how you get it done.
"Sol's approach was to work 18/7." Glen winced at that. "I'm not saying it couldn't be done differently, but...
"Look, you probably don't know this. Sol recruited me."
"He did?"
"Yep. By the time I declared he was Sovereign of Jefferson Unit. My first active duty years were mostly in Europe. When I was assigned here, the place ran like he'd invented the job. Since I've never seen anybody else in that position, it's hard to say what could or couldn't be done.
"I can tell you for sure that there's one aspect that's constant and that's the ability to make quick decisions. Are you a person who can make quick decisions?"
"Yes sir."
Moonlight: The Big Bad Wolf (Black Swan 4) Page 11
