Demon Hero: Dark Fae Hollow 1 (The Dark Fae Hollows), page 13
“True, but he didn’t do a very good job of loving you that way.”
Talon had been an incredible lover, but the way he came after me flashed into my mind. The sense of betrayal and pain had covered up the passion and beauty from the night before. In the moment, I couldn’t have cared less about anything I received from Talon.
“I had to have sex again to remember the good parts.”
“Well, I’m glad I could help.”
I tried to get a glimpse of his attitude, but his face was turned away from me. All I could see was the shadows from the trees above moving over the forms of his body as he got dressed. My mind was too preoccupied with problem solving to spend any further thought on the subject. I kept thinking about the consequences of turning over the address to Talon’s hideout. How long would they have before the strike force was executed? They would have to try a preemptive attack just before the Naturalization Process to make sure that went off without a hitch.
I had to figure out what the stakes were for all of this. What I really wanted to do was figure out a way to tell the future, but I didn’t know any magic that could forecast future events. Sure, there were enough divinatory methods available if that was something that a person wanted to invest time into learning. We didn’t have time for that, and even if I did visit one of my more magically inclined friends, there was no reason to believe that the message would be more than a vague interpretation of acting forces.
I needed to know specifics.
Another thing I needed to know was motive.
Sol had expressed a desire to find a ‘cure’, but the behavior I had seen in him recently didn’t seem to reflect that high of a commitment to his earlier goal. And I was more frustrated with myself than anyone else, even Talon.
“For gods’ sake,” I muttered. “At least Talon had his shit together enough to maintain a consistent goal.”
“What’s on your mind?”
“Level with me, Sol. What are your intentions?”
“About what?”
“All of this.”
“Well, I guess it’s fair that you ask. Honestly, I was thinking the same thing.”
“Let’s hear it.”
I sat down and hugged my knees. Ready to be receptive for a moment. I was done with thinking so hard — at least for now.
“So, I know our dynamic has been changing. I also know you have had previous relationships and they meant a lot to you.”
“Sol…”
“I’m not done.”
Silence.
“I just want you to know that I support your decisions, and I accept that Talon had an impact on you that I couldn’t possibly have had.”
I dropped my shoulders and waited for him to finish.
“I had a fun time sleeping with you, and I’d totally do it again if you were interested. But you’ll have to let me know, because I don’t like to play guessing games about what other people want.”
“Sol, what we shared was beautiful, but that’s not what I was talking about.”
“I’m confused.”
‘The revolution, Sol. The social unrest and impending collapse of civilization as we know it.”
“Well, I’m not sold on naturalizing myself just yet. I’m more than a bit concerned about the welfare of the rest of the community. We have established that we are living among a bunch of people who don’t have the same information or abilities we have. That’s not to say they couldn’t respond well enough in each scenario — or that they don’t have other things to bring to the table.”
He shrugged and then stretched. “It’s just that they can’t all turn into wolves and evade armed forces.”
I laughed, relieved and feeling a bit lighthearted myself.
“Agreed, so you’re at least not in favor of immediate Naturalization. It’s good to know there will be a bit of the wild inside of you for some time moving forward.”
I tried to make things light, but my heart was heavy. It was easy enough for Sol to tell, and he walked over to place a hand on my shoulder.
“What do you want to do?”
“At this point, I’m not really sure what I want to do. All I know is I want to minimize casualties and help spread equality and freedom as widely as possible.”
A lesser man would have scoffed at me. Sol didn’t. Intuitively, I knew Talon wouldn’t have scoffed either. Talon would have told me that he wanted the same thing, but that certain prices needed to be paid to secure that level of freedom for our people.
“That’s just it… Talon’s only doing this for the Fae, which is why he’s fucked up. The government is only thinking about the human agenda.”
“Oh, don’t you worry about that. The government always uses a pro-human agenda, regardless of what ulterior motives exist for the policymakers. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my time in this world — whether you are human or not, self-interest always has priority. Selfishness is the motivation for our actions. Just look at your idealism.”
“What do you mean?”
“You say that you want equality, freedom, and a lack of casualties throughout the entire process. On the surface, that seems like an altruistic motive. Underneath, we see all kinds of efforts to control and find security for yourself. Your fate is just as tied up into this as anyone else; perhaps more so, because of your genetics.”
“You’re saying my motives are some idealized form of personal protection?”
“That, and an interest in maintaining whatever moral codes you’ve managed to wrap yourself in.”
“Wrap myself?”
“Your identity. Who you think you are as a person, and what sorts of actions you would feel comfortable with. Every action we take reflects what we aspire to be. In that sense, our actions are self-interested. The real problem comes about when people have power, and they use that power to the detriment of others.”
He shook his head.
“Far too often, the highest positions in our government utilize their leverage for duplicitous ends. You can be sure that there is something nefarious on the far side of the Naturalization project. Something so dark and twisted that we can’t even conceive of it.”
“Fucking hell, Sol. I didn’t peg you for a conspiracy theorist.”
He didn’t strike me with words or actions. Instead, he was silent and solemn. After a moment, he spoke.
“All you need to do is look at my own genes. Why would a government who is comfortable manipulating human beings to become like me — be so concerned with eliminating members of the populace who have exceeded my current abilities since birth?”
All of a sudden, the menacing conspiracy that had only been hinted at unraveled in my mind.
“Isn’t it true that the Fae are familiar with basic magic from birth? Isn’t it innate?”
I nodded, thinking once more about Talon’s revolution.
“He’s trying to protect that…”
“As well he should. You are something special and wonderful. All of you. It’s too bad that the fight has to come down to bloodshed and lines in the sand, but it’s probably worth it.”
“I hope so…”
“Well, I know what role I’m playing in this grand drama of yours.”
“Mine?”
“Well, sure, aren’t you the star?”
He smiled and gave me a wink.
“I’ll give you a hint, it’s the same role within our relationship as it is within the bigger picture.”
“Feral fucker?”
He leaned in and gave me a kiss on the lips.
“Something like that…”
“The government is out of line. I wish I would have seen this earlier, but I was too afraid of myself to really let that reality sink in. I just hope there’s still enough time to make a difference.”
The two of us put our things together and gave one another one last comfortable squeeze. The timing for the two of us was unforgiving. We had just one moment to ourselves, but that was enough to provide the kind of healing I so dearly needed.
Sexual healing.
Not the same thing as a full night’s rest, but I was certainly not one to complain.
“I think we’ve established that the two of us want to do something about this shit. The problem is that we don’t have an unobstructed vision of how. If we move forward with violence, we are no better than our oppressors.”
“The problem there,” Sol said, “is that we are going up against an enemy who has all the weapons and all the power. I’ve got to be honest with you, Vee. You and I have been lucky so far. If we have another run-in with the police, I don’t think we are going to have such a clean getaway. These people might be spread thin now, but I promise that you and I are priority targets at this point.”
I nodded and paced around the clearing in the woods. The ground where we had lain not a half hour before was wet with the dew of the morning and the rains from the night before. There was some shelter from the trees, but it wasn’t exactly like we were free from the chill.
“I’m just not sure we can make it,” he said. “You saw how they had weaponized those Naturalization darts by loading them into modified rifles. You can bet that every single rifle they own is going to be in the hands of a trained operative on the day of the Naturalization.”
“I fucking know!”
I took a sharp inhale, raising my hand to the bridge of my nose. “Look, Sol, I’m sorry. It’s just I’ve been through this a thousand times in my head, and I’m not sure that going through it again is going to help.”
“Well, what don’t you know?”
“What?”
“If you know what I’m talking about, and you’ve thought through it all before, then what are the missing pieces of the puzzle?”
“Okay. I’ve got that. All right… well, we don’t know the attitude of the populace.”
He shook his head. “We can’t control that. If anything, we had better hope that our friend Charles can whip up some public awareness. Otherwise, we’re just going to have to find that one out on the day of the supposed protest.”
He shrugged. “If people show up and protest, then we can assume some of them care.”
“Okay, well, we also don’t know how long Talon’s got before the door to his place gets kicked down.”
“I’d say soon.”
“So we have to go warn him, but if we push him into the fight too soon, not only is he going to be off balance, but innocent bystanders might also get drawn into the fire.”
“You can’t count on militant extremists to be considerate of collateral damage.”
“No, you can’t. I imagine that goes for the police as well.”
“Absolutely. If things get out of hand, they’ll probably use those rifles on everybody, not just on the apparent Fae.”
“If I were Talon, I’d totally use subversion to my advantage.”
“Agreed, a guerrilla fight is the only way that revolutionaries have ever succeeded in battle against established powers.”
“We can assume they won’t start a war outright, but you can bet if Talon is successful to any degree, the council will get the populace to pass something out of fear.”
“The vote to pass the Naturalization enactment was unilateral, but you’re right, I doubt it would stop there. Especially if there was push-back from a marginal group.”
“That’s the answer. The push-back has to be from everyone, Talon needs to stop fighting, and the council needs to be forthright in its dealings.”
“Can I have my bar back?”
“I don’t blame you for cynicism, but we really need to focus here. We don’t even know what the government is capable of doing in their fight. I had no idea they had weaponized the serum into those rifles. For all we know, they could have ten other routes of administration.”
Sol had been getting a bit agitated, as evidenced by his increased level of fuckery, but once I mentioned other routes of administration, he sobered right up. Then, he got a look on his face that reminded me of Talon; it was the look of a military strategist. It was an expression like this that had predicted the strike that had freed Sol and his company from their own unit commander.
“Airborne,” he said simply. “That would be the easiest route of administration. Something like napalm would do it. They might have already tried doing something like that except the potency might not be concentrated enough.”
“How could we verify that?”
“Well, we’d have to break into a very safe place and look for ourselves. Though we can’t be certain anything will be there.”
“Where?”
“An airborne serum would have to come in the form of massive tanks. These tanks would also have to have some type of dispersant system, either from a plane, or even into the city water supply. The point is that it would have to be local. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have people gathering in one place.”
“I thought they were just going to have people line up and get shots. Like vaccinations.”
“Oh, they will. That will be the delicate front. Civilians would be scared if things were too aggressive. The proceeding must look medical, but you can bet that the rifles will be there. If it were my operation, I’d have a backup plan also.”
“We need to go do some recon.”
Sol nodded.
“If we can get some intelligence on what the police will do if things go sour, then we might stand a chance at persuading Talon to call it off…”
“Which will leave room for the theoretical protestors to make their stand, without being in danger of escalation, retaliation, or collateral damage.”
“It might not work, but we have to try. It’s our only shot.”
Chapter 22
The place was easy enough to find. We couldn’t get within four hundred yards with any kind of Fae magic. The psychic shields were so powerful that they spread outward, polluting the entire neighborhood. What surprised me more than anything was the fact that the building was located within one of the ghettos of Cora’s Hollow.
Sure, they had enough security to entertain royalty, but it was couched right in the middle of a residential zone for low-income folks. There was something unnerving about the complex. For starters, the rest of the buildings in the area had graffitied walls. What was most curious about the walls of this compound was that one could see their clean surface from the end of the block.
Above the corners of each wall were turret-styled sentry towers. The windows were all tinted, and decorations included barbed wires, cameras, and staunch men in uniform.
“This looks like a bad idea,” Sol said.
“Don’t be such a baby. We don’t have any other options.”
“How do you suggest we get in?
“We just have to get close enough to catch a glimpse at what’s going on inside. I bet the neighborhood kids have figured something out. We still have about an hour till daylight, so let’s make the most of it.”
We started by walking around the side of the block. There was a strict line of cultural influence between the compound, and the places that continued to trudge along in existence right next to the white wall.
“These communities have to be on the side of the Fae,” I said. “There’s no way I could imagine them supporting this sort of organization; it looks like the compound is literally a foreign interloper.”
“Probably a fair amount of Fae inside these buildings.”
“They are anticipating an attack.”
We had been walking around the perimeter of the city block, trying to get an idea of how to move forward with the recon mission. We ended up settling on an ascent within the open stairwell of one of the nearby collective housing buildings. Only passed a couple of people on the way up, but they were mostly minding their own business.
The rooftop was open, only through a bit of applied force on a fire door. Fortunately, the door had been long rusted over. The lock was weak, and the alarm system had been disconnected by the inhabitants of the building.
The roof was open and available. We had some room to ourselves, and could get a calm glimpse just inside of the compound. There wasn’t much to see, but there were a few tents off in the distance. They were large and officious. Each entry housed a guard. The longer we stayed there, the more disappointed I became.
“There’s literally no way in,” I said, “and we can’t see anything from this site. How can you even be sure this is the right place?”
“Shh.”
It was right before dawn, and we finally saw some movement in the form of approaching fire trucks. The vehicles lined up in a series adjacent to one another. One at a time, the trucks began running hoses from their main tanks into the back of the tents.”
“That’s not water, Sol… There’s no water back there…”
“C’mon, we should go.”
“Sol, you can’t be serious. We’re not even sure what that is.”
“We should go now. I don’t want to be here any longer, and I think we have enough info to give Talon what he needs to hear.”
Flying in and verifying crossed my mind. I had grown accustomed to the anti-magic field, and for some reason, had forgotten its effects on me. I tried to cast a spell, but lost the focus before I could do anything.
“Their rifles are the same. The fire trucks are loading liquid into those tanks… The clues are not in their favor.”
“Y’all are right about that.”
I turned and saw an older woman standing in the stairwell looking past the two of us. We had passed her on the way up and thought nothing of it. She was smoking in the hallway. The smoke had curled around her face and clung to the area where she stood. I was struck dumb by her appearance, but Sol appeared to function just fine.
“Will you tell us what you mean?”
She moved painfully slow toward our position on the rooftop, and then pointed to the tents where we had been watching the fire trucks load their tanks.
“There,” she stated simply.
I watched the way her skin clung to her bones and followed the direction that her wizened finger pointed.
“They have the tanks all right. My boys spied on them every day, lookin’ for something to do. One day, my boys stopped coming home. Next thing I know, there’s a report out for them about some gang violence or drug dealing. Something like that. They were never into any of that. Raised them right.”
