Times Like These Read online

  The First blinked. "Not helping?" he said with a growl of his own. "What do you think I've been doing? Where do you think you came from? Why do you think I had you infected? Why do you think I was in your head? Why did I have Sampson track down your father?

  "I've been helping for tens of thousands of years! Don't come off telling me that I haven't been helping, Son!"

  Roxy noticed that the First had taken several steps into the room and was now almost nose to nose with Sean. She also noticed that Keairra and Dienna were by the door and motioning to her to come to them. Dodging around Sean and the First, she made for the doorway.

  "Oh, right, helping!" Sean growled back. "Two thirds of the lions are off on holiday enjoying a never-ending party instead of being back here building up defenses and getting ready!"

  "There weren't enough lycans to support us all!"

  "You could have made enough! It's a big country! Hell, it's a big planet!"

  "Without a cure for silver, the mages would have killed us all! We would have been powerless against the demons! We didn't know if your father would find the answer, so we had to make choices, hard choices!"

  "Hard choices? You had to make hard choices? My life has been nothing but hard choices!" Sean yelled back at him. "You were just sitting on your ass on a mountainside. Well, now it's time for you to get off your ass and go to work! Hard choices my ass!"

  Keairra pulled the door closed and took Roxy by the elbow. "Let's go get some coffee while they work this one out."

  "Are you sure it's safe?" Roxy asked, looking back at the closed door.

  "Of course it is, just as long as we're far enough away," Keairra said with a laugh. "This has been coming for a while. The First has been taking Sean for granted at times and not listening to him."

  "And Sean's been doing the same with the First," Dienna added with a laugh of her own. "They're about due."

  "Due for what?" Roxy asked worriedly as they retreated away from the yelling coming through the door.

  "A leveling of the playing field."

  "So," Sean continued, "just what was this 'hard choice'? Which stupid lackey to get to do your dirty work?"

  The First shook his head and narrowed his eyes, growling slightly. "No, it was how much of North America we were going to nuke."

  Sean flinched, pulling back a little. "What?"

  "The cold war, the nuclear build up. You don't think that happened all by itself, do you? No, we helped that along. We knew the next gateway was going to drop right in the middle of one of the biggest population centers in the world. South America we could handle. But North America? No, we couldn't.

  "So, we made a plan. I made a plan," the First growled, taking another step forward. "I decided if we couldn't figure out the silver problem, if our children were still under the thrall of the mages, we'd carpet nuke the US and kill everyone. Kill as many demons as possible and deny them the entire food supply! If we had too many lions out when that happened, we'd have another die off, and then no one would be left to defend the rest of the world!

  "So yes, Son, I've been making some very hard choices, and it hasn't been easy!"

  "Why didn't you tell me about it? Why didn't you tell me about the gateway!"

  "I didn't know about the gateway..."

  Sean hauled off and punched the First right in the side of his muzzle, turning his head to the side.

  The First blinked and looked at him. "What the hell was that for?"

  "For not telling me the truth! For holding out on me!" Sean yelled, thinking about the episode with the US Marshals.

  "Son, there are things you're just not meant to know. There are things no one is meant to know beyond the First Pride," the First said in a calm voice.

  "Bullshit, Dad!" Sean yelled back. "You know what I carry around up here," Sean said, pointing to his own head, "you were there when I learned it! All of it! Spells that can cause so much destruction and so much harm that I tore pages out of my father's spell book and burned them."

  "Sean..."

  "No! No more bullshit, no more holding out. You need to tell me everything!" Sean said, raising a fist, ready to punch him again.

  "You're too young."

  Sean punched him, or tried to at least. The First dodged and punched him in the side, and with that, the fight was on. Sean knew he wasn't as experienced as the First was, but he didn't care; he was hella pissed, and he was going to lay the biggest smackdown on him that he'd ever gotten.

  When it was finally over, they were both lying on the ground, panting. All of the furniture in the room had been reduced to scrap, and there were several holes in the walls now. Sean's entire body hurt. He had no idea how the First was feeling, other than tired, but at least he'd knocked him down, twice!

  Of course the First had knocked Sean down about a dozen times, but that hadn't stopped him, not once.

  "Feel better now, Son?"

  Sean sighed. "Tell me, Dad. Tell me everything."

  "Let's not start this again," the First said with a wince.

  "Tell. Me. Everything. I've earned it, and you can not deny it."

  "Give me one good reason."

  "Other than getting your ass kicked again?" Sean growled.

  The First laughed. "I don't think this counts as getting my ass kicked. Sorry, Son."

  Sean rolled over and faced the First, looking into his eyes. "Then how about because I understand a lot of this more than you do? Deep down, you're still just a lion, Dad. Yeah, you've had hundreds of thousands of years to come to terms with your intelligence, with being self-aware, all that shit.

  "But I started out as a man. I was trained in a world of science and facts, not mysteries and superstitions."

  "Oh? And what about magic?"

  "If there wasn't a science to it, Dad, I wouldn't be able to cheat at it as much as I do. It still follows the rules; it just has a few extra ones that no one knows about."

  The First nodded slowly. "Okay, I'll buy that. We're part demon, Son."

  "What!"

  "We're part demon. That's why they can't affect us, and why they can't affect anything bred from us. At least not the way they can with humans. We're part and parcel a piece of them, so they can't use those powers on us. It's the very same reason we can kill them."

  "How? How can that be?"

  "When we found Mahkiyoc Aan Drues' friend, he wasn't alone. He was fighting with a demon prince. Fighting badly, I might add. But best I can figure it out, he had one of those weapons with him, so he had done a fair bit of damage to the prince before it had stopped working."

  "And?"

  The First laughed. "And we killed and ate them both!"

  Sean sighed.

  "Oh, come on, we were lions and they were both made out of meat, what did you expect us to do?"

  "I've tasted demon, Dad. How in the hell did you stomach that?"

  The First shrugged. "We'd eaten worse. Plus I think eating that alien helped. Eventually the demon started to turn into one of those puddles, but we'd already eaten the best parts, so we just finished up with the other one."

  Sean remembered something. "I thought you didn't remember what happened?"

  "Yeah, I lied. One of the few things any of us in the First Pride lie about. We didn't want anyone to know what happened." The First looked over at Sean. "And honestly? Until you talked to Mahkiyoc, we had no idea who or what he was, though we did eventually figure out the demon prince.

  "Again, we didn't know the why of it, and for a long, long time it didn't even occur to us to wonder about it. When we finally started to fight the demons, well, we figured out half of it. But not the other half."

  Sean digested that a minute. "And until Estrella and I came back, you had no idea you could survive on any plane other than Earth."

  "Pretty much."

  "And what about the lion la-la land?"

  The First shrugged again. "I don't know. For millennia I thought it was something that existed purely in our heads. We can manipulate m
ost things there by thought. It wasn't until you opened that gateway and Sampson went through that we even knew travel from it was possible."

  "What about those two US Marshals?"

  "I pulled you in to the fringes of it and then sent you back. You were already alive. So were they. The only thing Keairra, I, and the rest can figure out is, like the demons, when we're killed, we respawn. We just do it in our own private reality. Now that we can gate through to the Earth, well, death is only temporary. Assuming we can be killed."

  Sean blinked at that. "What?"

  "Son, we're gods. And with the number of lycans alive in the world today, you're going to find out that you don't age, you don't get sick, and you don't die. True, with modern weapons it probably will be possible to kill one of us now, unlike when I was younger. But again, so what? We respawn, then we gate back in."

  "I...I had no idea..."

  "Welcome to immortality," the First said with a sigh. "Trust me, it's not always as great as people think it is. That's why I didn't want to come back, why I wanted to stay there."

  "Huh?"

  "Son, I have lost so many lovers and friends to the sands of time that I don't want to lose anymore. It's easier for some, but I'm the First, the alpha male, the head of the pride. It's my job to keep everyone safe and alive. Losing people to the ravages of time, even if they're not lions, it still hurts."

  "I had no idea, Dad."

  "Well, we better get up and go find the others. I'm sure they think we've killed each other by now."

  Sean nodded and got back to his feet, slowly. The First had definitely given him a lot to think about.

  "Would you really have destroyed the world?"

  "The world, no. A part of it?" The First took Sean's hand as Sean pulled him to his feet. "You have to understand, Son, just how old I am and how much I've seen. Sure, it'd set the world back hundreds of years. So what? That's like a good night's sleep to me now."

  "You've gotten hidebound, Dad." Sean said. "We need to do this. We may be immortal, but all the others? They're not. Civilization is most definitely not. We got a good thing going right now, if we don't protect it, save it, who's to say what comes next is going to be anything worth dying for?"

  The First sighed. "Maybe you're right."

  "Course I'm right!" Sean said with a weak laugh. "But honestly, we just might have a chance to end this, end it once and for all. Wouldn't it be better to take that chance now, before things have gone too far, than to wait until we're desperate and grasping at straws?"

  "Let's go get some food, and I'll gather the others together and we'll talk about it."

  "See?" Keairra said to Roxy as Sean and the First walked into the mess. "They survived."

  "This happen often?"

  "Let's just say they have a bit of a contentious relationship at times. The First isn't used to anyone standing up to him anymore and, well," Keairra and Dienna both grinned, "Sean doesn't take shit from anybody anymore, not even him."

  "I think he likes it," Dienna added.

  Keairra laughed. "Yeah, but he won't admit it, not to anyone. Sean's the son he always wanted."

  "Living together in the same head probably had something to do with that," Roxy speculated.

  "Most likely," Dienna agreed. "Sean's got no fear of him, that's for sure, and he's made some pretty dire threats to Sean."

  "Really?" Roxy blinked.

  "And Sean just gets right back in his face for it!" Keairra laughed. "We've all made it clear, me and the other wives that is, that if he so much as hurts a hair on his son's head, we are going to spend the next ten thousand years making his life complete misery."

  "Well, thanks for that, I guess." Roxy said.

  Dienna shrugged. "When it comes to Sean, he's more bluster than threat. I don't know that we really needed to spell it out for him."

  "I do," Keairra said with a smug grin. "He can be dense at times."

  Sean and the First dropped down into seats at the table.

  "What are you all talking about?" the First asked.

  "You, Dear," Keairra said with a grin.

  "Good, as it should be. Now would you be a good little wife and get your starving mate some food?"

  "What, your legs don't work?" Keairra teased.

  "Puleeeeaaassssseeee?" the First said with such a soulful and pathetic look on his face that Roxy couldn't help herself and started laughing, loudly.

  Keairra sighed loudly and got up. "You'd starve to death without us, you know."

  When the First made his lower lip tremble, Roxy fell out of her chair.

  "Such a conman!" Dienna snickered and got up as well.

  "Where in the hell did you learn how to do that?" Sean asked, eyes wide in shock.

  "Disney movies. I may be old, but I'm not stupid." The First snickered, softly, then looked at Roxy on the floor. "You going to be alright down there?"

  "Give me a minute," Roxy said, still gasping. "That wasn't fair."

  "Course it wasn't. Now go get your mate some food, or I'll break out the big guns."

  Roxy scrambled to her feet quickly. "I don't think I'd survive!" she said, still snickering as she went off to get Sean some food.

  "So, now that you two got all that out of your system," Keairra said after she, Dienna, and Roxy had delivered their food, "what have you decided?"

  "We're going to talk about going through the gateway. Sean wants to go now, and I'm willing to consider it."

  Keairra nodded. "Who's going?"

  "I was thinking all of the Pride."

  "All of them? Raban's in Germany, Denup and Ing are in South America, and your sister is still in China."

  "And Reagjin is keeping an eye on Africa, I know. Everyone else. They're all here, or will be soon at any rate."

  "I was thinking three teams," Sean began.

  The First shook his head. "Two. You, me, the rest of the Pride, whoever you want, and maybe a few others will be in the first team. We'll be the ones looking for these 'weapons' of yours and having a little talk with Mahkiyoc Aan Drues about his life choices and those of his race."

  "Are you sure that's wise?"

  "Course I do, I'm your father," the First said and winked.

  "The second team will be much larger, mostly F2s, maybe some other lycans to balance them out. They'll be the ones running around and attacking the demons and making them worry about what's going on in their territory. I need to talk with Chad about some sort of diversions while we're in there. He's got a quick mind, I'm sure he'll have some good advice."

  Sean gasped theatrically, putting a hand to his chest. "You do take advice! Oh my god! It's the end of the world!!"

  The First sighed and shook his head. "Keep working on it, your sarcasm still needs practice."

  "So when are we going?" Roxy asked.

  The First shrugged, then scowled at Roxy. "Did you just kick me?"

  "Yup, now when are we going?"

  "Young lady, I'll..." The First turned and looked at Keairra, who was suddenly looking innocently at the ceiling.

  "Okay, fine. We will discuss this after we've gotten the Pride together and everyone has had a chance to speak."

  "So, soon then?"

  The First rolled his eyes and looked at Sean. "Well, at least now I know where you get it from."

  "Oh, please, I got it from you when you lived in my head," Sean said with a grin.

  "He's got you there, Dear," Keairra said.

  "Uh-huh. Just let me eat in peace and then we can gather everyone up."

  Sean looked around the room; the First was there with his wives, Keairra, Saf'kij, Jipouet, Peym, Nibisa, and Sasha, as well as a bunch of others he didn't know. Doing a quick headcount, Sean got eighteen who were going in this team.

  Sean started off introducing his wives, "This is Roxy, Daelyn, Jolene, Roberta, Peg, Cali, and Estrella. Daelyn, Roberta, and Jolene will be staying here, so they won't be on either team. And the rest of you are?"

  "These are Wendy, Mincibi, Rowan, Li
bmanov, and Kalif," Keairra said, pointing each of them out.

  Sean and his wives nodded and said hello. Kalif was the only lion; the other four were all lionesses.

  "So they're…?" Roxy asked, looking over at the First's wives.

  "Our Cubs," Sasha said with a huge grin.

  Peg snickered. "Must suck to have to be called 'cubs' for all eternity!"

  "Eh, it's not like we don't do the same to our own kids," Libmanov said. "And call me Libby."

  "Okay," Sean said, tapping the chart on the wall. "As you can see, we're coming up to the twenty-fourth, which means a new window. If we don't take that gateway, we won't have another one until after the thirtieth, as we're about to hit the second non-gate interval."

  "Well, let's go grab our gear and get ready to go," Rowan said.

  "Hold on," the First said, raising his hand. "We haven't decided if we're going to go or not. We're going to talk it out first."

  "Oh, come on father! We've been talking about this for the last hundred thousand years. We all want to go, even you. So let's just gear up and get ready. Esti did it, so we can do it too."

  "Really, Dad," Kalif spoke up next. "How long can it take? We go, see if we can find this Mahkiyoc guy, and find out what he's got for us, and what he can do. Esti's been there, it'll take what? A few days?"

  "And then what?" the First asked, looking at his children.

  "Who knows? It's not like we can make plans until after we find out what he can do for us. Worse comes to worst, I say we just eat him like his friend and move on."

  "Eat him?" Jolene said with a bit of a sour expression.

  "Hey, he and his unleashed this mess on us," Wendy growled. "I don't see any reason to leave the bastard alive when all is said and done. Do you?"

  "Umm..." Jolene blushed. "You may have a point there."

  "Course she does!" Daelyn said with a laugh.

  The First sighed and looked at his wives, who were all sitting there quietly smiling.

  "And?" he asked looking at them.