“Dah. Old ways are sometimes best,” he said.
“What else is did you find?” Tanya asked Stacia.
“It looks like the President will claim that the missile was a training situation gone bad. The current spin is that the Tomahawk was a dummy but mocked up to look real and that it was knocked down by an experimental missile defense system out of Lakehurst Naval Air Station. The media seems to be buying that. The satellite splashdown is still being labeled a coincidence, but there’s a ton of speculation. Some of the experts that the media have brought in have indicated that they’ve heard rumors of some new anti-missile technology and that’s led to the idea that the same system may have knocked down the missile
and
the sat. The government is going with a neither confirm nor deny approach, which makes everyone believe it to be true. Russia and China are up in arms over the idea that we can take out both their missiles and comm sats. So some people are less upset by the idea that the Navy is taking potshots because it seems like we have some sorta superweapon.”
“We do,” Tanya said, smiling my way. I smiled back.
“That’s a great spin. Makes it look like we’re having just a little oopsie with our uber tech but it’s all good. Sorry cops, but it was an accident and the missile wasn’t
really
armed. And our anti-missile ray accidentally brushed an old sat and knocked it down as well. Pay attention, China and Russia, because we’re light years ahead. Brilliant. I wonder who put that one together?” Lydia asked.
Tanya and I looked at each other. “Bishop!” we said in unison.
“She does have a certain rep,” Lydia agreed. “So Blondie, what else?”
“Not much, but I did find a little article, just a blurb really, deep in the
Washington Post
. It seems that staffers in the White House have been coming down with a strange flu-like illness. Almost skipped over it, but the reporter mentioned how puzzling it was, so for some reason, I looked for other mentions of it. Found a piece on the Web which indicated the sick workers were getting better and the illness had stopped. This photo was with the article so I printed it,” Stacia said, handing Lydia a picture. Tanya and I stepped up close, looking over Lydia’s shoulder.
“Okay werewolf Barbie, what am I supposed to see?” Lydia asked.
Stacia stepped up close on my left side, so close her body pressed slightly against mine. One green-painted nail tapped the lower left side of the photo of a small herd of doctors and nurses outside a hospital. Her razor sharp digit was tapping a woman standing outside the group, who I recognized as Nathan Stewart’s assistant, Adine Benally. Next to her was another woman who I didn’t recognize—but I did recognize that the tattoo on her arm was of a rune, a rune much like my young warlock friend Declan might draw.
“A witch? From Oracle?” I asked.
“That was what I wondered. Then I remembered that you mentioned that you told that accountant guy Bruce that the Book of Darkest Sorrow had been turned over to the White House. So maybe the illness was witch-induced and it took Oracle to cure it?” Stacia said, turning slightly, which brushed her chest across my upper arm.
I swayed back, just a hair, part of me regretting the distance, the rest of me trying to desperately to think of witches and magic. Spells, runes, the Four Elements, yeah like that. Don’t be obvious, don’t breathe in any female scents, focus, Gordon, focus.
On my right side, Tanya turned, her own body brushing me as she studied me for a second. I just kept looking at the photo.
“So you’re saying that old blabbermouth Bruce told his witch slut and they put a hex on the West Wing? Hmmm? Very possible. No other reason for Oracle to be on the scene. Wow, lupis loser, you might just have three brain cells after all,” Lydia said to Stacia.
“Which is two more than you, tramp vamp,” Stacia replied.
“Is that it?” Tanya asked, ignoring the banter.
“That’s it,” Stacia said with a shrug.
“Nice work,” Tanya said a little grudgingly. “What did you do all day?” she asked me.
“Ah, I split some wood.”
“
I
saw that. Anything else or just the wood?” she asked.
“It was a lot of wood,” I said, maybe a little defensively.
“Actually, he made friends with the farmer’s wife,” Stacia said.
Both Lydia and Tanya raised their eyebrows at me.
“Well, I gave Marnie the shopping list, she made us breakfast, let Stacia borrow the computer and brought us back all the stuff.”
“The Keeper made you breakfast?” Arkady rumbled from behind me.
“Yeah, for Stacia and me… and ‘Sos as well.”
“Hmm, a sympathetic Keeper is useful,” the giant said.
“And I’ll just bet she’s very
sympathetic
to at least one of our group,” Lydia said.
“Hey, I’m just a friendly guy, that’s all,” I said.
Tanya snorted, then picked up a couple of papers, moved to some hay bales, and started to read them for herself. Lydia did the same. Arkady and Trenton started throwing blades at a log, knives for the big man and a tomahawk for Trent. After a moment, Stacia joined in, both vampires teaching her how to throw. I decided it was a good time for a shower… a cold shower.
Chapter 14
When I emerged from the bathroom, clean and wearing fresh clothes, I found Tanya watching news on the little television.
“Anything new?” I asked.
She turned and smiled at me, patting the couch next to her. Sliding in next to her, I had no sooner sat than my lap was full of curvy vampire, jasmine and lilac teasing my nose.
“Nothing, really. Same old stuff. But your wolf seems to be correct. The general feeling is starting to move from questioning who launched the missile to speculation about the nature of the anti-missile system that supposedly knocked it down. Bishop is brilliant,” she said, leaning in and nuzzling my neck.
“Are you hungry? Want to feed?” I asked, more than a bit hopeful. Feeding Tanya is fun… really, really fun.
She sighed, her breath tickling my neck. “I had a couple for pints warmed up in the microwave.”
“Bah, why drink that crap when the good stuff is bubbling just under my skin?” I asked.
“Because it would not be fair to the others. They are not allowed to hunt while we are hiding, so we must make do with our
rations
, so to speak. If I get to drink from you and they don’t, it would be very, very poor leadership on my part. And no one gets to drink from you but me.”
“So how long do we stay in hiding—here—in nowhereville?”
“I’m not sure, Chris. I think we need to watch for some sign of a portal or Brianna, then approach in disguise. I would like to make contact with your reporter and possibly Nathan Stewart. I think he’s not against us or his pet witches; his precog or his other psychics would be lending a hand with the hunt. I think we would have been found already if that was the case. So a day or two, possibly three. I mean, come on—how long can it be before Demonic DuClair kills some poor bastard?”
“Yeah, I see what you mean. Any thoughts as to disguises?”
“Oh yeah, just you wait and see.”
She would tell me no more, no matter how I asked. Tickling didn’t help either, although it was the perfect segue for her to distract me from my line of thought.
So we followed the same routine that night and the next day. Vampires awake and watching, werewolf and strange hybrid sleeping for the nighttime hours. At daybreak, reverse. The second day was much more boring, as I had pretty much taken care of the firewood problem in one day. Marnie fed Stacia and I breakfast again, her loaf of a husband sleeping in while his children got off to school.
Apparently Jimmy had worked a few hours at a friend’s garage, heading to a bar afterward to spend his wages. Arkady had reported that he arrived home late and drunk. I could tell the security chief side of him was worried that Jimmy would talk out of school when he was elbow up at the bar. He had spent much of the evening listening to the family from his watch position, keeping tabs on their topics.
I stacked the loose wood then watched television till I thought my eyes might explode. Blah, blah, blah. Bored out of my mind, I went looking for a distraction. Stacia was reading through a new batch of papers and that wasn’t my cup of tea, so I explored the barn. Lots of decaying old junk, some of which was familiar from my years on my grandfather’s farm, a lot of which was just crap. Then out behind the woodpile I found a fire pit, complete with grate, and I set about grilling some lunch.
Part of our groceries was a whole twenty-pound turkey, but there was no way to cook it in the dungeon kitchen. The fire pit reminded me of one of Gramp’s old tricks. First I built a big fire and let it build up some coals. While that was happening, I retrieved a big industrial roll of aluminum foil I found in the milk room. A big square of that went on the ground with a foil-wrapped heavy stick poked into the ground like a spike. The bird got lowered onto the spike, a fairly new metal trashcan that I found got washed and lowered over the bird, and then I shoveled hot coals all around the can and on top of it. Another thought came to me and I went back inside to grab some potatoes, which I wrapped in aluminum foil and placed among the coals. After that, there was nothing to do but sit back and wait.
Ten minutes later, I had a big wolf sitting next to me, hungrily watching the trashcan from which much hissing and dripping was happening. Ten minutes after that, I had a blonde wolf in human form sitting on a log nearby, reading a paper while occasionally eyeing the smoking can, which smelled better than any trashcan ever had before. Two hours later, I pulled the can off the bird and revealed a golden brown beauty, which was in immediate danger from the wolves, both four- and two-legged.
Fighting them both off was more work than cooking, but ultimately I got it up on a log that was covered by another piece of aluminum foil and sliced off big chunks for the two carnivores crowding around me.
The bird and potatoes disappeared rapidly, leaving the three of us full and drowsy. The afternoon sun was warm and we all found spots on the grass to lie back and digest. I heard the bus deliver the kids home, heard Jimmy’s truck, and soon after, the sounds of dinner. The sun sets early in late October and it was getting dark when I heard the sounds of a family argument. The teen girl, whose name was Taylor, was crying, Marnie sounded upset, and Jimmy was angry. But the deep, dangerous tones of Arkady’s accent brought me straight to my feet. He growled, the girl screamed, and Grim
moved
me into the house so fast that anyone standing by the door would probably have been killed.
I was just suddenly standing between the giant vampire and the family. Jimmy, bless his lazy, good-for-nothing soul had put himself between the angry giant and his daughter, who seemed to be the cause of Arkady’s ire.
“What the hell is going on?” Tanya asked from the broken doorway, arriving just behind me.
Arkady did not take his eyes from me as he answered. “My Queen, the Keeper’s child has betrayed us.”
“How?” I asked in Grim’s deep voice.
Eyes narrowed, Arkady considered me for a moment. “I overheard them arguing. She spoke to her peers about you,” he answered.
“Marnie, please explain,” Tanya ordered.
“Taylor is on the cheer squad. The girls are… judgmental. She said something about guests to try to impress them. It got out of hand,” Marnie said, terrified.
Tanya moved Arkady back with a touch of her hand and stepped closer to the family. Grim was watching and feeling her emotions through our bond.
“Taylor, tell me what you said to your friends, please,” Tanya asked the girl. Brown hair and brown eyes looked back at my vampire and suddenly, another face superimposed itself over hers. A smaller, thinner, younger girl with dimming brown eyes and blood oozing from her neck, which was torn to shreds. The image waivered and Taylor’s rounder face swam back into focus.
“Ttthey aaren’t my friends. Only Lori is. The others are all bitc… nasty. Lori asked if she could come over and I said no, that we had guests. Hannah Belore heard me and said our guests were probably a bunch of drunken retards. I… I got angry and said that she didn’t know what she was talking about… that our guests were beautiful,” she said, looking down at the ground.
Tanya put her finger under the girl’s chin and lifted her head gently. “What else, Taylor?”
“They laughed at me. I got angrier. I told them how gorgeous you were and the other lady,” she said, suddenly noticing Stacia by the doorway. Stacia just smiled and nodded and the girl went on. “And I may have described him,” she said with a quick nervous glance in my direction.
“What happened next?”
“They didn’t believe me. And then Luke came to get me.” Luke was her brother’s name, I remembered. He was nodding.
“They were making fun of both of us as we left. They didn’t believe her at all,” Luke said.
“So then, no real harm done,” Tanya said.
“They should be punished my queen. It is a breach of the Keeper agreement,” Arkady argued.
“Oh, Taylor will be punished. Tomorrow at school is going to be hell,” Stacia said. “The bitch girls on her squad will be merciless.”