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  "And the Ascendants?"

  "Rumor has it that they're starting to stress over all this 'constant readiness' that they've been under since the weekend." Sawyer snorted, "It's only been three days and already they're whining."

  "What about the people they lost at the Guild?" Chad asked. "Has that affected them at all?"

  "Well, they weren't anyone important as far as I can tell, so I don't think so."

  "How are the tags selling?" Jolene asked.

  "Oh, I just got the auction running last night. We got some big shot from Chicago out here yesterday who wanted one, apparently word got out on the auction. So I had to get my web designer make some changes to the program."

  "Why's that?"

  "Cause we're gonna take him for every dollar we can squeeze out of him!" Sawyer laughed.

  "Hey, Marx," Jolene called, "I thought you were going to rein him in on those?"

  "Not that guy," Marx said from over by the front door, "that guy is going to pay."

  "Why's that?" Max asked.

  "He's a mobster. Makes his living off of other people's misery. Guy's like that, Sawyer can take them for every cent they've got, far as I care."

  "Well if it's okay with Marx, I'm not gonna complain," Jolene said to Max. "He's like the closest thing Sawyer has to a conscience."

  "That's pretty rich, coming from you, Jolene!" Sawyer laughed.

  Jolene shook her head, "I don't think I'll ever get used to that."

  "Used to what?" Max asked.

  "Him calling me by name instead of calling me a slut all the time," Jolene smirked.

  "Yeah, well, I'm too attached to my arms to go pissing off your boyfriend," Sawyer grumbled. "Besides, the kid's making me rich, and I got lots of respect for anybody who makes me that kind of money!"

  Cat and Mouse

  Sean stretched and yawned, then leaned back against his chair. He'd spent hours today working on the 'machine,' though why at this point he really wasn't sure. Now that he knew how to dump excess energy into the ground, making tags and collars had just become a whole lot safer. With Peg's help and under Roxy's watchful eye he'd made fifty of each this morning, then dismissed them to go deal with any prep-work for tonight that needed to be done.

  Sean wanted to improve the armor and protection on all of his people, as well as any that would be regularly helping him. But rather than build stuff the long 'usual' way, he had set the girls to seeing what they could beg, borrow, or buy, so that he could then just study it and make a tarball of the spells involved, and put them on something more suitable. Other than the firewall spell which had the side effect of blocking any attacks that went after the mind or its control over the body, he hadn't come up with anything all that earthshaking.

  He needed to work on that.

  Thankfully, Peg had seemed to fit right in with the girls. Roxy liked her because she was a lycan like her, and as Peg was both new to it, and younger, being only nineteen, Roxy had latched onto her like a younger sister. Well, almost a younger sister, Sean snorted thinking about last night.

  Jolene and Peg had connected on their both being magic users and surprisingly Peg was a lot more receptive to the idea of helping Jolene recharge her powers than Daelyn was. In fact Peg was a lot more receptive to a number of things that Jolene was already doing with Roxy.

  Apparently, though looking back now Sean had to admit it should have been obvious, Sheila and Peg had been sleeping together long before Sheila had infected Peg. That was why Sheila had wanted him to save her, while not full-blown lovers; they'd definitely been just more than 'friends with benefits.'

  Even Daelyn had a soft spot for Peg, because she understood the issues of being a social pariah, from when she'd become both an orphan and 'freak' from growing up to be taller than was considered acceptable for a dwarven woman.

  So it was settling down to just be one now slightly larger, but still happy, family.

  Though Roxy and Jolene had teased him quite a bit over dinner last night and then breakfast this morning about allowing him yet another wife. They'd both then rather loudly speculated on what he should be looking for in a fifth, or maybe that was sixth now?

  Finishing up the locking spells on the gold plate, Sean really needed to go stretch his legs a bit. Getting up and heading upstairs he went and grabbed his coat and hat.

  "Where are you going?" Peg asked, looking up from the laptop where she'd been working on his webpage. Apparently Peg had a bit of a flair for writing and he'd shown her how to do his facebook page updates and turned her lose on a wysiwyg webpage program to work on their website.

  "I need to go for a walk, wanna come? Maybe we can sneak down to the park and let our animals out to run for a bit."

  "Oh, that sounds good!" Peg said and jumping up she grabbed her own coat and followed Sean back down into the basement.

  "Why are we going down here?" Peg asked.

  "I don't like using our front door," Sean admitted, "sooner or later someone's going to be watching it. So we'll just take the tunnel over to Steve's place and sneak out the back. That way, if anyone is watching the building, they won't see me."

  "You think someone's watching the building for us?"

  Sean shrugged, "Oak and Demon have been keeping tabs on the area, and nothing has shown up yet. But sooner or later, I'm thinking someone will."

  "So better safe than sorry?"

  Sean nodded and led her down the tunnel.

  The tunnel itself was rather well made, for all that it had been built in about a week. Obviously dwarves knew their jobs when it came to building one. It had a smooth and level floor, was dry inside, and had low power LED lighting that was tinted red so it wouldn't mess with your night vision. It was actually wide enough for two people to easily walk side by side.

  So pulling Peg up against him and putting an arm around her, he did just that.

  "Is somebody needy?" Peg teased, putting her arm around him and leaning against him. She had noticed Sean wasn't shy about his feelings, and neither were the other girls.

  "I just like my women knowing how I feel about them," Sean chuckled.

  "Mmm, hmm."

  "Any complaints?" Sean asked.

  "I'll let you know if I think of one," Peg grinned. While she had to admit that this whole situation was kind of strange, Sean's feelings were pretty clear, and her 'sister wives' or other 'members of the pride' as Roxy had put it, all seemed to be fairly happy with the situation, and each other as well. All she knew was that last night had worked for her, and Roxy, Jolene, and Daelyn had treated her a lot better than her own sister ever had.

  The tunnel ended underneath a small concrete addition that had been build on the back of Steve's shop, there was a staircase that came up into it, and a locked security door that led outside, keeping it separate from the shop, so no one could accidentally end up inside the tunnel.

  Going out the door they both zipped up their coats, it was already after sunset, and it was definitely going to be a cold and breezy one tonight.

  Putting his arm back around Peg and nodding to the security guard, they cut through the back of the property coming out onto the street that ran behind the shop.

  "I don't know about going for a run," Peg said as they walked past a van parked on the side of the road. "Feels a bit cold for that tonight."

  "Yeah, you may be right, maybe just a trip to the burger place and back."

  "Is that all you ever do is eat?" Peg teased.

  "Us lions are good at three things, eating, sleeping, and actually I don't seem to get to sleep all that much these days," Sean laughed as Peg leaned into him.

  "Just be happy that we let you eat," Peg giggled.

  Sean hugged her a little closer, Peg had definitely come to terms with her life and become a lot happier in the last few days.

  Just then the wind shifted, and an unfamiliar scent blew by.

  Sal was sitting in the back of the van, debating how late he was going to stay here tonight. The temperature had dro
pped quite a bit in the last hour and it was going to be a cold one. He could just as easily watch the feeds from back in the warmth of his hotel room, though honestly, he didn't really expect to see anyone out on a cold night like tonight. A couple of vans had left the building earlier and hadn't come back yet. If anything Sean was probably in one of those.

  Looking up he heard a couple talking as they walked by the van, bundled up against the cold and leaning into each other. Sal almost had to smile at that, remembering some enjoyable strolls with girlfriends back when he was a young man....

  Where had they come from? This was mostly an industrial area and while people did cut through to go to one of the casinos near by, on a cold night like tonight, who'd want to make that kind of a walk?

  Sal didn't check the cameras he had set up on the van very often, they were only there for his own protection as this wasn't the street that the kid's building was on. Opening up the window with the van's rear camera, he ran it in reverse at ten times speed and watched as they popped out of an alleyway between two shops.

  Letting it run forward he waited until they were almost up to the van and pausing it, he swore!

  It was Sean Valens. Somehow the kid was getting in and out of the building without being seen. But there he was, and right now Sal wasn't going to look a gift horse like this in the mouth. Checking his gear quickly, he opened the back door of the van carefully, and then slipping out the back he closed it as quietly as he could.

  Peaking around the side he could see them about fifty yards away, they weren't exactly walking fast. Quickly ducking over to the other side of the street, where he'd be less obvious, Sal started to trail them, moving up a little closer. This street was nice and empty, no traffic, no open business for at least another thousand yards. He started looking for the best place to plan his ambush; he had a couple of high-powered wands that he could use to paralyze and crippled the both of them. He wasn't too worried about the girl, as long as she was out of commission long enough for him to grab the kid and go, that was fine.

  He'd have to use the big guns on the kid though. He wanted him restrained long enough to get a needle into him with a couple of those elephant tranquilizers he'd used in the past with rather marked success. Then he'd tie the kid up tight enough that he couldn't shift.

  Then it was simply deliver the package, get paid, and go home.

  Sal shivered a bit in the cold.

  Well, maybe not home, maybe Florida for a few weeks.

  Sean felt his lion sit up and take note.

  'What?' Sean asked.

  'Hyena.'

  'Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?' Sean asked.

  'I've never been a fan of them. Remember Chad said a lycan came in looking for you, that he couldn't identify?'

  'Shit,' Sean swore to himself as another thought crossed his mind.

  'Exactly,' his lion agreed reading Sean's mind.

  "What's wrong?" Peg asked as she felt Sean stiffen against her as they walked.

  "There's a hyena around here."

  "So?"

  "The hitman they hired to kill my father was a hyena," Sean growled.

  Peg shivered and readied a couple of defensive spells, just in case.

  "What are we going to do?" She asked him.

  "I don't want you to have any part in this," Sean whispered as they walked.

  "I'm your wife now, Sean," Peg growled. She'd just gotten him, she wasn't about to lose him!

  "This is between me and him, and I don't want to have to worry about him hurting you," Sean said.

  "Sean..." Peg started.

  Sean gave her a squeeze and lowered his voice, "Hon, you don't get to argue with me about this, understand?"

  Peg shivered, and it wasn't from the cold or with fear, she felt it, her vixen felt it. Sean, her Sean, was pissed, and her lion was about to open up a world of hurt on somebody, and maybe, just maybe, it would be best not to be around while he was doing it.

  Though honestly, the idea of watching did excite her just a little bit.

  Just as long as it was from a nice safe distance.

  "What, what do you want me to do?" Peg asked.

  "Exactly what I tell you to do," Sean said, "then once he and I are both away from here, go back home and tell them I may be a little late to the meeting tonight, but the attack is still on."

  Peg nodded.

  Sean called up his monitor program and his own defensive framework spells as well, then shifted Peg over to the other side of him, keeping himself between her and where he suspected the attack would come from as they continued to walk along.

  "When he attacks," Sean whispered, "Run in the opposite direction he comes from; keep me between you and him as long as you can, then duck out of sight between the buildings. I don't want him getting a clear shot at you."

  "Are you sure?" Peg asked. While she liked the idea of running away, face-to-face confrontations had never been her forte; she didn't like the idea of abandoning her mate. She would have laughed at that thought, if things weren't so dire, she'd finally found someone that she'd actually take a risk for.

  Imagine that.

  Sal had finally realized that there weren't any places better than just here and now. The street was empty and it wasn't going to get any emptier. Moving in closer he could hear them talking about getting some food, then suddenly the kid's head came up and he gave the girl a shove.

  Sal had two wands out; he fired the first one, a 'cramper' as people called it, at the kid, watching with satisfaction as he called out for his friend to run and then fell to the pavement, curling up into a twitching ball.

  The girl was fast, and Sal took a shot at her with the second wand, a paralyzation wand, just as she turned and dodged between two buildings. She made some kind of noise as she disappeared from sight.

  Just to be safe, he shot the kid with the paralyzation spell as well, that wand had several charges in it, unlike the cramper which was now spent and would take weeks to recharge.

  Running up to the kid, Sal looked around to make sure no one had seen anything. No one was around, no one was yelling, and he couldn't even hear the sound of that gal running away. Either she was far away now, or she was locked up for the next fifteen minutes. Sal didn't really care which. Pulling out the case with the hypodermics in it, he pulled out the first one and reaching down with his hand he grabbed the kid's jacket up by the neck and pulled it down a bit.

  The kid's eyes were looking up at him, and Sal hesitated for a moment, he couldn't recall ever seeing someone's eyes being open after being hit with the muscle-cramping spell in the past.

  "Woiseman?" Sean croaked at him, shocking the hell out of him.

  "Sorry, Kid..." Sal's voice was suddenly cut off as Sean's foot lashed out and kicked him hard in the stomach, knocking him back into the street! How was the kid still moving? He'd used that very same wand a dozen times before, the spell lasted ten minutes! No one had ever before come out of it that fast before!

  Sal switched mental gears and let go of the hypodermic case before he'd even hit the ground. No way was he bringing this kid in alive, he was gonna have to kill him.

  Sean had seen it when the spell hit, it was the same muscle-cramping spell he'd learned from when the Gradatim guards had shot him with it. The very one he'd loaded into the wands his own wolves now used. Apparently, it was a very popular spell for subduing people. Sean had really been expecting something a bit more lethal.

  Pushing Peg off to run, he simply collapsed on the ground and curled up, like he'd see those whom the spell effected do. The second spell, the paralyze attack, also had no effect on him, being absorbed by his firewall spell as well. Sean figured if Woiseman went after Peg, he'd used a few spells on him, but instead Woiseman had stopped and pulled out a needle. Sean didn't know what was in it, but he doubted it was any good.

  "Woiseman?" He asked, just to make sure he had the right guy.

  As soon as Woiseman, or 'Hyena' responded, Sean kicked him in the chest, hard!
So he wouldn't get stuck with whatever that needle was.

  Sal watched the kid spring to his feet as he himself rolled to his own feet. Getting up quickly he reached into his coat to grab his pistol. The four-fifty-four Casull he carried would drop damn near anything, as he had it loaded with highly magical silver bullets, it was without a doubt the deadliest thing you could shoot a lycan with. Though he doubted in this case the silver would have any effect.

  But each bullet had enough spells on it to cost Sal a cool two grand apiece. With that much silver, an enchanter could lay down a lot of spells, and Sal had paid for a dozen of them.

  "My name is Sean Valens," Sean growled at Sal, as he stuck a hand in his coat, "you killed my father." and then almost as an afterthought, Sean smiled nastily and added, "Prepare to die."

  "Hate to spoil your plans there kid," Sal said and drawing the pistol he fired two quick shots. No fancy headshots, not when your life was on the line. He aimed right for the center of mass, and watched as Sean grunted, as he was hit. Obviously the silver wasn't having an affect, but none of the spells were going off as either!

  Sean grunted as the two bullets slammed into him. From the surge of power from his shield, he knew the bullets had to have been silver. Considering the size and the impact, they must have had a lot of silver in them! Sean channeled the extra power into a quick healing spell from his defensive framework.

  "Silver doesn't work on me, or hadn't you figured that out yet?"

  "How the hell are you even still standing! There's enough magic on those bullets to kill a gorgon! I know!"

  Sean growled and counted his blessings, that when the bullets had transmuted the spells on them had been broken. He didn't doubt that a hitman who specialized in magical beings had gotten his bullets enchanted as he claimed. He was just happy that he didn't know that anything which changed the object, destroyed the enchantments.