Simple Things, page 13
part #13 of The Valens Legacy Series
"Is that the only reason you're here?" Sean growled softly so as to not disturb Estrella.
"No. Our scouts have reported King Sladd's troops have stopped going through the portal, and appear to be changing their methods and regrouping."
"So it's not going well for them, then," Sean said, looking up at Første.
"No, it is not going well at all. How long before Brune En will lay her eggs?"
Sean grinned evilly. "This is only the first round. I've just won the right to mate; we haven't actually started to mate."
Sean almost lost it at the look of surprise in Første's eyes.
"Truly you are a most vicious race of demons!" Første said and backed slowly out of the room, pulling the door closed as he left.
"Yes. Yes we are," Sean agreed, then just laid there snickering as the door closed.
§
"Wow, this place hasn't changed at…oof!"
"Daughter!" the First cried out as he tackled her to the ground, hugging her. "Where have you been? What happened to you?"
"Father!" Estrella yelled, laughing, "I have a name you know!"
The First shifted into his hybrid form and, scooping her up off the ground, he hugged her again.
"Maybe if you hadn't been gone for over a thousand years I'd remember it!" He laughed and hugged her again. "Keairra! Our wayward child is back!"
"So I noticed," Keairra said, smiling. "Where have you been, daughter?"
"What, can't you remember my name either?" Estrella said, pouting as the First set her back down on the ground.
"Hmmm, name, name," the First looked over at Keairra. "We did name this one, didn't we?"
"Gee," Keairra said looking back, "I don't know. I mean it's been so long. And she didn't write, she didn't call. I mean, are you sure she's one of ours?"
"Mother!" Estrella growled.
"No, no, that's not your name," the First said, still looking thoughtful. "Give me a minute; it's right on the tip of my tongue…"
"Enough already!" Estrella growled. "I got trapped in the Onderwereld, and I've been stuck there since the last time! Okay?"
Estrella had the satisfaction of seeing both of her parents' eyes get wide, then they both hugged her.
"Well, you're back now, Estrella, and that's all that matters," her father said. "Umm, you are back, aren't you?"
Estrella shook her head. "Not yet. Sean told me…"
"Sean?" the First interrupted. "You've met Sean?"
Estrella blushed. "Umm, I've a bit more than met him, Dad."
"He didn't!" the First said, looking a little surprised. "No, wait. Of course he did!"
"Well, he is your son," Keairra laughed.
"Adopted son, right?" Estrella asked, looking around a little nervously.
"Yes, he adopted your father very quickly," Keairra said, still laughing, and for the first time she could remember, Estrella got to see her father actually look a little bit embarrassed about something.
Estrella smiled and gave a little sigh of relief. "Anyway, Sean thought I'd be able to reach you here as long as a gate was open."
"That explains the huge drain on our powers just now," the First said.
"I didn't cause any problems, did I?" she asked worriedly.
"No, it's okay."
"So you and Sean hooked up?" Keairra asked. "How did that happen?"
"He just showed up, said he had a vision," Estrella growled, remembering the confrontation. "I thought he was going to destroy everything I'd built, so I tried to run him off, and, well, he didn't take kindly to that idea."
"Oh, dear, I hope you went easy on him!" Keairra laughed.
"Hardly. He used magic on me and dragged me back home. That was a week ago. Since then," Estrella blushed, "umm…"
Both Keairra and the First burst out laughing.
"Looks like my Estrella finally took a mate, hmmm?"
Estrella shook her head, still blushing. "Let's just say it's been hard to find anyone who measured up to Father. Plus it has been over a thousand years! A girl has needs, you know!"
"How is Sean doing?" the First asked.
"Well. Oh he's doing very well," Estrella said with a snicker.
"How soon do you think you can get back through a gateway?"
"We're working on that. It turns out Sean killed one of the big local lords when he came through, so things are a bit of a mess over here, and we're trying to take advantage of it to grab a small gate, but the king has gotten involved and, we don't know, his army is huge. I don't feel safe enough to spend too much time here talking. It's all very complicated, and things don't work there quite the way they do back home.
"It's been really rough, Mother, Father," Estrella said as her eyes started to tear up a bit. "I didn't think I was ever going to be able to come home again! And, and I'm still not sure, but Sean's positive and he's big and he's strong and he's just as much of an asshole as you are, Father," she said, sniffing and smiling weakly.
The First smiled and gave her a warm hug. "Yes, yes he is. He's a real lion; surprised the hell out of all of us.
"Now why don't you go back there and make sure things are okay. This current gate only has a few hours left, and it's probably safer for you to go back before it collapses."
"Yes, Father," Estrella said and gave him a hug, then hugged her mother, and disappeared.
"That was encouraging," the First said, shifting back into lion form and sitting down. He still felt most comfortable in his original shape. "I'm starting to think we're going to win this one."
Keairra looked at him and smiled. "You forgot her name, didn't you?"
The First gave her a sly look, "It took me a minute, I admit. You?"
Keairra snorted. "Like I'd ever forget the name of one of my own children."
"Liar!" the First said, laughing.
"Well, it's been what, fifteen hundred years? I have to admit, I thought she was dead."
"I think we need to pass this on to Tisha and Adam. If nothing else, it'll make Sean's wives happy, and," he gave her a look, "I knew she was someplace far away, but I told you she wasn't dead. But this also proves a point we've all wondered about for a very long time."
Keairra nodded. "We can exist on other planes."
§
Estrella opened her eyes to find Sean snickering.
"What's going on?"
"Oh, Første came in to report on how things are going for Sladd, and he was impressed to see you really are a demon, based on all the blood and damage in the room."
"What? What did you tell him?" Estrella asked, looking at him with narrowing eyes.
"That of course you're a demon, and I only won the right to mate with you. I still have yet to actually attempt a mating, because that's even more dangerous!"
"I can't believe you said that to him!" Estrella all but yelled as she hauled off and punched him.
Sean laughed again. "See! See! I was right! The violence is inherent in the system!"
Growling, she smacked him again, but lightly.
"You're weird."
Sean grinned and kissed her. "But you love me anyway. So what did Mom and Dad have to say?"
"That they're happy to see me and not all that surprised to find out we've become mates. What did Første have to say?"
"Sladd's getting his ass kicked by my troops on the other side of the gateway and is resorting to new tactics." Sean looked at his watch. "I should have asked him how old that report was, because it's been over fifty hours now. That gate won't be up much longer."
"If Sladd's losing, it's not going to go well for the rest of us, I fear."
"Oh?"
"He'll call up all his bonded lords and other devils. Then he'll go around sweeping up everyone else in the area. He may even enter into alliances with some of the other demon kings and queens."
"He'd do that?"
Estrella nodded slowly. "You have to understand, they've been getting reports on how much food is on the other side of the gateway for many years now. But they all thought this was going to be an easy battle, once they got past the lions. They've been getting ready for a long time. Normally they don't launch major attacks until the main gate opens, but Prince Ansigt had this idea of going through in force, before the main gateway, so he could lay claim to a prime portion of the Earth for himself."
"And now that he's been taken out of the picture along with a lot of his people, the king's learned this is going to be a much tougher nut to crack?"
"Exactly."
"How many demons are there, anyway?"
"Millions."
"Well, damn."
"And that's just in King Sladd's domain."
Cascade
Roxy looked up as Adam stumbled into the conference room. Between the large gate he'd just dealt with, and Ryla, whom he was still apparently dealing with, he looked about as tired as a one-legged man at an ass-kicking contest.
Still, he was smiling, and he waved Roxy back into her seat and grabbed the last open spot at the table. As this was a conference of all the leaders, normally Adam took charge, because he was a lion, and that was the whole reason she'd brought him out here, to be the figurehead they needed until Sean got back. But the truth was, she was the one running things, with her dad and the other's help, of course.
"Sorry I'm late," Adam said, leaning back and yawning a moment. Snapping his mouth closed with a click, he looked at Roxy, Daelyn, Jolene, and finally Cali, and smiled widely. "I was called into a brief meeting with the First."
"What did he want?" Roxy asked, genuinely curious.
"He had some good news and some bad news."
"What's the good news?"
"Sean's alive and doing fine…"
"He is?" Cali of all people interrupted, leaning forward suddenly.
Adam nodded. "Apparently, my long-lost sister snuck through a gateway during the last pass and got stuck. Sean found her, and they're working together now, trying to get through one of the small gateways. It seems that little trick he pulled with the 'godly wrath' bit really messed them up over there."
"So what's the bad news?" Daelyn growled.
Adam took a deep breath, then sighed dramatically. "It seems he's now my brother-in-law."
Adam never even saw the coffee cup that hit him in the side of the head, shattering and covering him in coffee.
"Ouch! Hey! That hurt!" he growled, and looked over at Roxy, who was now smiling at him, sans coffee cup. Daelyn had picked up her chair and looked like she was about to hit him with it.
"Okay! Okay!" Adam laughed. "I'm sorry! I just thought it was funny, okay? Please don't beat me to death with that chair!"
Daelyn scowled at him, but then stomped back to her spot and set the chair back down.
"How'd you find this out?" Roxy asked.
"She show…" Adam looked around the room and remembered where he was, "I mean to say, she contacted the First from the Onderwereld. Sean had her call, probably because it wasn't safe for both of them to do so. He figured out when a gateway's open, it's possible for us to communicate with each other, though it's a lot harder."
"So we won't know anything more until the next gate opens," Bill said, speaking up.
"Nope."
"This is wonderful!" Chad said with a big smile. "Do you know what this means?"
"That we'll be gettin Sean back?" Daelyn said, looking at him.
"No! It means we can get almost real time intelligence! This is awesome! Now all we need to do is to find out if our weapons will work on the other side of the gateways, and we can invade!"
"Why would we…" Adam started, then stopped, "Oh, right! Rescue mission."
Chad nodded. "Then I can get him to take this damn hold off me so I can lead an army through and really mess them up!" Chad growled.
"Down, boy," Max said, patting him on the arm.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Claudia warned. "This is good news, obviously, but we haven't won the war yet."
"That reminds me," Adam said and nodded towards Jack, who was sitting there in his uniform. "The lieutenant there stopped by the other day and told me there are quite a few humans at the Guard base who are very interested in becoming lycans, so they can actually protect the base should the djevels try to attack it."
"And you're okay with that?" Roxy asked.
Adam smiled. "I told him if they passed muster with him, bring 'em on up and let 'em pick their poison. I mean, the base is important to us, right? So anything that helps them, helps us."
"You know," Chad said looking around the room, "that brings up another issue."
"What issue?" Roxy said.
"Numbers. We're losing people. Over the last few months, we've lost a lot of people, and while we've been able to replace them, as I understand it, the djevels aren't losing anybody. All of theirs who die come back."
"What about all the lycans we're training now?" asked Roger, the head of the were cougars.
"They're helping a lot, but they're not very experienced, even with our training. It takes almost six months for a soldier to finish his basic combat training, and we've been throwing these poor folks into the breach with a bare minimum after six weeks. Which is another reason, our casualty rates have been going up as the level of experience for our soldiers has been going down."
"So what are you proposing?"
"We've got a lot of trained infantry around here. The Reno Guard unit has been in the Middle East. A lot of the infantry and artillery people in the units the president is sending our way have been there as well."
"Wait," Bill said sharply, "are you suggesting we infect them? That's like several thousand people! We can't do that!"
"I'm saying we look for volunteers," Chad said and turned to look at Adam. "What's the position of the lions on that?"
Adam sat up and blinked, looking a little shocked by Chad's proposal.
"We can't just go biting people willy-nilly," Bill said.
"Why not?" Chad countered.
Adam raised his hand, obviously deep in thought.
"Because! It's against the rules! We could end up with all sorts of crazies!" Bill continued angrily.
"If we don't get ahead of this now, we'll be paying for it later!" Chad warned heatedly.
Adam looked at the two of them; they were about to get serious.
"Gentlemen…" he said.
"Look, you! I've been a lycan my whole damn life! I know the risks! You're just…"
"Shut up!" Adam growled loudly, exerting a little leonine influence in his words.
Bill and Chad immediately turned and looked at him, embarrassed.
"I'll discuss this with the First," Adam told them, "but I think I already know what his answer is going to be." Adam looked around the room, sighing, then stood back up. "So, after you two kiss and make up, figure out how to go about vetting and infecting all these people."
"Wait, what?" Roger said, looking up at Adam. "You really think he'll go for this?"
"You know the group we owned so badly at the large gate?" Adam asked, and everyone around the table nodded.
"They were the forces of a demon king. Now I don't know what you all think, but I happen to think when you piss off a king, he just comes back at you twice as hard and three times as big as the last time. If Chad says we need more soldiers, we need more soldiers.
"Jack, you're an officer, give them a hand. Roxy, you're in charge. I gotta go talk to the boss."
Adam walked out of the room.
"That went well," Claudia said, smiling.
Roxy nodded. "Alright, Dad, Jack, Chad and Claudia, start working on how to handle this and draft anybody you need."
"Why do I have to help?" Claudia protested.
"Because you've got the largest pack in the country?" Roxy said and shrugged. "I figure if anyone knows how to deal with large groups of lycans, it's you."
"Point," Claudia conceded.
"Look on the bright side," Chad said, smiling. "They'll all have their own weapons, and hopefully their own ammo as well."
"We do need more ammunition," Roxy said. "We burned through almost half of our stocks on the large gate, and with the small one added in, we're down to a third of what we started with last week. Do you have a delivery date yet, Dae?"
Daelyn nodded. "We'll be getting fifty thousand rounds tomorrow. Then every three days, we'll get another fifty."
"We're going to need more," Chad said. "Once word gets out how well this works, I suspect the folks down in South America are going to want it as well."
"And do not forget those 'roving gateways', or whatever it was our husband called them," Cali added. "Whoever is tasked to deal with those will most certainly want our bullets."
"Call Steve," Chad said. "Maybe he can get the president to force the companies making bullets to start making what we need."
"If we're going to end up infecting thousands of American soldiers, I think we're going to have to talk to the president anyway," Bill pointed out. "I'll also bring it up with the governor for the National Guard troops."
"Okay, I'll take care of all that after we're done here. Now, Jo, what's the status on the magical fence?"
"It'll be done by Tuesday. I talked to my uncle, and the test they did found a few issues they hadn't considered, but they got them all worked out last night."
"Great! What about those dem…djevels that got away from us last time?"
"If we loan them a helicopter, they can fly a search pattern and try to find them, but," Jolene shook her head, "even my uncle thinks we'd be better off using our own people to help track them down. Magically they just don't stand out that much from a great distance. If we can at least give them an idea of where to search, they're a lot more likely to be successful."
"Oak, talk to the teams, see if anyone wants to volunteer."
"Actually," Clyde, the representative for the horse families, interrupted, "I think my people would be better suited to the job. We can cover a lot more ground a lot longer, while hauling whatever we need to do the job."
Roxy and the others looked surprised.
"You sure?" she asked him.
He nodded. "We need to take on a bigger role, and this is perfect for us. The only other group who can come close to doing this are the wolves, and let's be honest, you need them at the gateways more than you need us."
