“Are we prisoners, then!” Mr. Chen demanded, clearly
upset by the private exchange taking place between Sasha and Rupert at the
suite door. “You have hidden my daughter and are holding her hostage?”
“No,” Sasha said in a weary tone. “Don’t you remember
before, we were the good guys? We saved you and called you and told you what
was going on.”
Mrs. Chen nodded and blew her nose on one of the linen
table napkins her husband had given her. “Then, you are still the police? The
side of good?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Sasha said, giving Rupert the nod to hit
the Chens with a little Fairy dust. “Your daughter saw something that she
probably shouldn’t have. Uh, she can ID bad guys. We thought we got all the bad
guys before, but we didn’t. They now want to make sure she isn’t a witness. But
all these good people here are on your side. They are even going to a lot of
trouble to make sure her wedding day is perfect. and, uh, that you
all are safe. It’s a part of our new uhmmm. Homeland Security
witness protection program.” Oh, brother. maybe Hunter was right.
She’d dumped the whole can of yeast in this loaf!
“And you will keep us safe?” Mr. Chen said, wringing
his hands. “And what of my store and friends?”
“We’ll make sure that whatever you lose, the people
who caused your problems will pay that back.” Sasha squared her shoulders. If
there was any truth to what she’d just said, this was it. The Vampires were so
gonna pay this nice family back for all the trauma and drama they’d
experienced.
Sasha stared at Mr. Chen and lifted her chin, then cleared
her throat, forcing authority into her voice. “So let the store stay closed for
a week or two. and uhm, once this nasty business is all over,
you’ll be able to go back to your old life.”
“And my daughter is safe?”
Sasha nodded. “Right now, she’s in good hands.”
“Shogun!” Hunter called out. “Brother!” He listened
carefully, cringed, and kept his eyes averted. He so did not want to be
standing at what had become his brother’s wolf den door at a time like this. It
was humiliating. Even the guards gave him broad smiles from where they played
cards in the next room. When there was no answer, the guards shrugged and went
back to their game.
“My timing is not good, Brother, but I would not.
disturb you. unless it was urgent.” Hunter waited and kept his gaze
to the floor. Finally, after a moment he heard rustling sounds but still didn’t
look up.
“Hunter?”
A wash of relief ran through Hunter. The last thing he
wanted to have to do was go inside the cell to get Shogun’s attention. “Yes.
my apologies. But there’s been a bit of a complication.”
“How so!”
Hunter closed his eyes. The angry wolf had entered his
brother’s voice and Hunter couldn’t blame him a bit.
“Vampires attacked Amy’s parents’ home and—”
A female shriek rent the air and within seconds the inside
dungeon door flew open. Amy stood before Hunter disheveled and wearing only a
sheet. Shogun was right behind her wrapped in a duvet.
“But we got to them in time,” Hunter said calmly.
Amy melted against Shogun’s body as he lifted Hunter’s
fist, inspecting it.
“You did battle for my parents-in-law?”
“Of course,” Hunter said, staring at his brother. “I
told you, your family is my family. Amy is now my sister, just as she is
Sasha’s sister. Also know that Sasha took a Vampire blade to her forearm, as
well. But we are whole.”
Shogun nodded. “It seems that I am again in your debt.
Forgive my irritable tone just now.”
“When it comes to family, there is no debt. When it
comes to one’s wolf, no apology is needed.”
Hunter extended his left hand and arm to Shogun for an
awkward warriors’ handshake.
“You need to get that looked at,” Shogun said,
glancing at Hunter’s right fist.
Amy touched Shogun’s chest and then turned to look at
Hunter. “My thanks are not worthy of your sacrifice. but please,
tell me, how are my parents? Where are they?”
“Right now they are in the castle.. I have
no idea what truths Sasha had to bend in order to get them to calm down. But I
am sure that she used all of her human diplomacy, and perhaps even some Fae
assistance, to help them relax. However, I suggest that you move to a better
suite. maybe arrange to be married in the castle after all. The
details I have left in Sasha’s capable hands.”
Amy buried her face against Shogun’s chest. “My
parents are here. They cannot see me like this—I’ll die!”
Garth sat across from Sasha in the medicine room
watching Silver Hawk perform an ancient Shadow Wolf healing. “We have a
different way,” Garth said, openly intrigued that the laying on of hands could
knit skin and torn muscle. “Our healing is branded with centuries-old magick.”
Silver Hawk nodded. “Asking the plants for their
nutrients before using them—out of respect for the part they will play,
observing Mother Nature’s rules out of respect for her natural earth
laws—asking the Great Spirit to guide my hands out of respect for Divine
Intervention. asking the cells within Sasha’s body to listen to my
energy and to heal, out of respect for the interconnectedness of all things
living. it is all miraculous and centuries old, therefore magic, too.
yes?”
“Yes, my friend, you are wise.” Garth gave Silver Hawk
a little bow from where he sat on a toadstool across the room.
Silver Hawk smiled and briefly looked up from the task
at the old wizard Gnome. “Words often get in the way. Magick, magic, healing,
faith, belief, medicine. The objective is the same: that her arm heals. If it
does, then what does it matter what we call it by name?”
Garth smiled as the wound on Sasha’s forearm slowly
sealed. “This is what I like most about the Shadow Wolves: You see all things
as being a part of the whole. You do not split things up and say, ‘Because you
are this sliver of life, you do not belong.’ That is truly the magick; it is
knowing that we are all connected. We are all of The One.”
“That is the missing element that the darkness does
not see. They are blind and angry and use hate to create great divides.” Silver
Hawk nodded and then removed the poultice from Sasha’s arm. “You must eat and
then rest, daughter. By the dawn you will be as good as new.”
“Thank you, grandfather, but I don’t think I can
rest,” Sasha said, leaning forward to kiss Silver Hawk’s weathered brown cheek.
“Like I told you, the Vampires tried to abduct Amy Chen’s parents, which can
only mean that they
know
they owe the Erinyes. Once Hunter comes down
here and gets his fist healed, we’ve gotta send a message to the Vamps that
we’re on to their game.”
“Eat, first,” Garth said. “I will bring Sir Rodney
into the Roundtable Room with Queen Cerridwen. They need to hear what your
investigation has uncovered. They also need to understand that we now know why
the Erinyes are attacking the Vampires and using Unseelie methods to do so in
order to create war.”
Garth stood and smiled a wicked little smile. “No need
to trouble yourselves about delivering a message to the Vampires. We will send
them a Fae message that they will not soon forget. Ah, Elder Vlad, you have
finally been had. He has killed sixty Fae and then learned that he has been
rash. That will not sit well with his hierarchy, I’m sure. and all
the more reason he must appease the demons, very discreetly. He cannot just
come out and admit that he has ordered our countrymen killed with no sure
evidence. Nor can he admit that he must give the demons what they seek before
another sunrise or there will be more Vampire tombs raided.”
“But as messed up as this whole situation is, doesn’t
that make you feel a little better about Queen Cerridwen?” Sasha said,
standing.
Garth shrugged. “Only marginally. She’s still quite
the icy bitch, for my tastes.”
“Darling, you are cooling our guests’ hot meal,” Sir
Rodney said, and then nodded to Garth to tap on the table with his wand to
break up the ice that was creeping toward Sasha, Hunter, and Silver Hawk.
“But Rodney, this is an outrage!” Queen Cerridwen
swept away from the round table and every footfall sent wide concentric circles
of frost across the floor.
Nonplussed, the wolves kept eating, needing the rare
steak to replenish them after the respective battle injuries sustained and the
healings performed.
“Now, my dear, I know this is infuriating, but save
the frozen daggers for the Vampires,” Sir Rodney said calmly, taking a liberal
sip of his Fae ale.
“What! Save it for the Vampires?” Queen Cerridwen
shouted, sputtering tiny snowflakes as she waved her arms about. “I will.
I will. ”
“Send them a very cold missive, milady?” Garth stared
at the queen.
Nervous servers hastened to Hunter’s side, insistent
on giving him more baby carrots, peas, mashed potatoes, and gravy, despite the
fact that all he’d said he wanted was the meat on his plate. Silver Hawk just
smiled and gave Sasha a sidelong glance.
“You’d do well not to tempt me with sarcasm, old
wizard, especially when icicles dance at my fingertips just now.”
“At your own risk, my friend,” Sir Rodney said, slowly
standing to stretch. “Our queen is in ill temper after hearing the wolves’
report, or has that fact escaped you?”
“I own up to no sarcasm, sire.” Garth looked at Queen
Cerridwen with an open, earnest gaze. “I am quite serious. We need to send the
Vampires a missive tonight, but they cannot read our silver-sent messages. The
queen, who has been the most savaged by their attacks, with the loss of sixty
of her countrymen, compared to a few of our guards that valiantly fought them
off in the bayou, should inform them of our displeasure and awareness of their
ruse.”
“Quite so?” Queen Cerridwen narrowed her gaze on
Garth, searching his expression for fraud. “You are serious.”
“I am, my queen. I owe you an apology. I judged you
from the past out of deep loyalty and love for my king.” Garth bowed toward her
and then stood straight, lifting his chin. “If we combine forces, what we send
should cast daylight in the midst of their night.”
“Oh. I see.. ” Queen Cerridwen
returned to the round table and waited for a chair to pull itself back so she
could sit. Hunter and Silver Hawk stood and Sir Rodney waited until she sat
down. “Thank you, Garth. I should like to repair any unpleasantness that fell
hard between us.”
“As you so wish, milady.”
“Good, then it is settled,” Sir Rodney said, sitting
down with Hunter and Silver Hawk while Garth remained near them with his hands
clasped within the sleeves of his robe. “There are a few points of order.”
Sir Rodney glanced around the massive circular table and
waited for everyone’s full attention. “First, the testimony of the Shadow
Wolves must be added into the records of the United Council of Entities. Garth,
send a Fae missive to them with the blood signatures of the leaders of the
North American Shadow Wolf Federation on it. We shall make it known that the
wife of Hunter’s brother, also our Southeast Asian Werewolf Federation ally,
came under attack to satisfy an old demon debt by those who’d already been put
to death by Vlad’s very hand for treason. This debt should have been satisfied
by the Vampire Cartel in some other way, and even the young woman’s parents
were attacked—he attempted to abduct them as hostages. The felonies involved in
this are numerous. In any event, all of that spurious behavior, my friends, is
a clear act of war.”
Hunter sat back from the table and laid down his fork.
“That’s right. I had forgotten how this really should be understood in the
greater context. An attack on Amy and her parents is an attack on the House of
Shogun, the house of my brother, thus an attack on the House of the North
American Shadows.. ”
Stunned, Sasha held her fork mid-air dripping au jus.
“Which means that no matter how the Southeast Asian Werewolf Federation may
feel about the internal politics involved with Shogun marrying Amy Chen, this
is still an act of war upon the House of Chen-Kwon.” She looked at Hunter and
then Silver Hawk. “We need to tell Shogun to get a missive to his people
overseas and any people he has here in the states to tell them that he’s safe,
Amy and her parents are safe, but that Vampires came after them.”
Garth nodded. “Perhaps our queen could assist in our
international communications needs by helping to get the word to the Werewolves
in a non-silver method?”
“Consider it done, Garth.” Queen Cerridwen gave him a
respectful return nod from where she sat.
“Thus, I believe a marriage would be prudent tonight,
before the missives are launched,” Silver Hawk remarked calmly, and then went
back to his plate. “We will need a valid marriage to add additional credibility
to our claims.”
“But when the attacks actually happened, my brother
and Amy were not yet—”
Silver Hawk waved away Hunter’s statement with his
fork. “They were betrothed, with an imminent wedding. This is the element of
surprise. The Vampires had no way of knowing how important that young lady or
her family is to our collective families.” He looked around the table. “The
answer is always in the stillness, in the shadows. Just as you saw the truth in
the shadow lands, my son. You saw the Erinyes chase the gargoyles out of the
demon realms because they’d been called by the Vampires. And the love of your
brother for Amy Chen was in the shadows, a secret that none of the Vampires
knew until it is now too late.”