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  "This Valens is a lot more powerful, stronger, and better equipped than any of us expected, and I should have known about it. Four months ago, this kid wasn't even on the radar, and now he's a major power? Someone's backing him, someone powerful, someone with experience and resources. I need to find out who that is, so I can cut him off from them."

  Morgan nodded slowly, and then looked around the room again, at each of them.

  "Al's right of course, we need to do whatever it is we can, to take Mr. Valens out. And if he's wounded right now, then we need to take advantage of that and strike before he's had a chance to recover, and while they're still dealing with the damage we did last night."

  "But that's suicide!" Jones yelled.

  "Perhaps," Morgan said nodding his head, "but we'll all as surely be dead if we don't deal with this here, and now, right?" Morgan stood up, with his hands on the table as he looked around the room. "We are men of action, and we will take action. If we fall, then at least it will be remembered that we died in the service of the Vestibulum, and that we died for the betterment of our comrades."

  "So, what do you want us to do?" Nick asked. "We don't have any lycans left, and I don't know how quickly we can call any in from any of our closer councils."

  "I'll take our case to the other councils, and make sure that they understand the gravity of what our loss means. I don't doubt that I can convince them to send us more help; it's just convincing them to be fast about it.

  But regardless, I need you, Jerry, to do whatever it is you have to do, to find out what Valens' condition is and where he is."

  "And then?" Darrin, who'd been quiet up until now, asked.

  "And then, we attack."

  "With what? We don't have anything to attack with!" Jones yelled.

  "We attack!" Morgan said and banged his hands down on the table. "Not a bunch of lycans, not a bunch of our people! We! Us! Those of us here in this room! I will lead us myself into this, as well as any who wish to follow! We will rise to this occasion and we will show all of those other cowardly councils and covens what the men and women of Vestibulum are capable of and why we, we alone. are fit to rule and lead the others!

  "We will either come back triumphant, or we will die destroying this upstart and any who support him! We will leave nothing to chance, which is why we will do this ourselves!"

  Morgan stared them all down, looking around the room, and smiled slowly as he saw the resolve form on all of their faces.

  "Dammit," Jones growled, "I'm in! I'd rather be dead than have to go home a failure!"

  "I'll be there," Jerry said nodding, which was a huge surprise to Morgan as Jerry had always avoided upfront confrontations, part of why he was such a good intelligence gatherer.

  "Me too," Al nodded.

  "I wouldn't miss it for the world," Darrin said with a smile.

  "I'm in," Carol agreed.

  Jeffries, Hadrian, and Nick all quickly agree as well.

  "Then it's settled!" Morgan smiled looking around the room, they'd be telling stories about this day years from now! Hell, decades from now! Whether he lived or died, he'd be remembered and people would speak of him in the same terms that they revered Jason Whitting, their founder. Finally, he, Eugene Morgan, would have the respect and honor that he'd always wanted. That he'd always deserved!

  "We will need to strike soon, unless Jerry comes up with anything to change our schedule, I say we attack Wednesday, ten o'clock in the morning."

  "You want to attack during broad daylight?" Darrin said, looking shocked.

  "They'll never expect it," Morgan smiled, "no one ever attacks in the daytime anymore."

  Al laughed and nodded, "No, they won't be expecting it at all."

  Mountain Home

  "Oh my god, he looks like shit!" Peg blurted out as Roxy laid Sean's unconscious body out on the bed in their room.

  "They can heal him, right?" Jolene fretted while Cali watched, quietly and Sean's mother Louise did her best not to cry at the sight of her son, lying wounded and unconscious on the bed.

  "Yeah, they can heal him, but it's not going to be easy," Roxy sighed.

  "What exactly happened to him?" Daelyn asked. "I mean I can guess," She motioned towards the hole in his chest, "but I'm not really sure."

  Peg spoke up, "I talked to Jon and them before they left. After the helicopter crashed, Sean was pretty frantic about the attack on us, and he started doing some serious magic. The silver tag started to glow, and eventually he started to smoke, and then it just exploded.

  "I then talked to all of the opposing lycans that had been around him, he had converted all of their pellets and all of their ammo."

  "How many?" Roxy growled.

  "Ninety-six lycans, and they were packing about a hundred rounds of silver ammo apiece at that point."

  "Damn," Daelyn said shaking her head, "That's a lot!"

  "I'm going to beat the ever loving shit out of that asshole the moment he's recovered!" Roxy swore. "I've warned him not to mess with that stuff! And he goes and does it anyway!"

  "How long until they can heal him?" Louise asked.

  "Grandmother Robin said he's got two and a half days left, and that she's going to need to do some special magic."

  "But she can do it, right?" Louise asked nervously as she saw just how much of his fur was burned or melted.

  Roxy nodded, "I don't think she would have told us if she couldn't. But she warned us that it wasn't going to be easy."

  "What do we do now?" Cali asked.

  "What do you mean?"

  "Our leader is out of action, we just went through a major battle, we are surrounded by enemies, and we have a lot of new people who have just joined us. If we don't show them that we're united and that we're in charge, things could fall apart very quickly."

  Roxy sighed as Daelyn and the others nodded.

  "You're right, Cali, we need to pull together and show everyone a strong front. So I guess we better gather up all of our leaders and tell them Sean's out of commission for a while and that until he's better, I'll be in charge." Roxy looked around the room, "Is that okay with the rest of you?"

  "You're always in charge, Rox," Peg laughed, "even when he is conscious!"

  Roxy smiled a little wanly, "There is something to be said for that."

  "I'll stay here and keep watch on him while you talk with the others," Cali said and started to go around the room pulling the shades. "I don't think we should leave him alone, it wouldn't be safe."

  Roxy nodded.

  "I'll stay for now as well," Louise said.

  "Okay," Roxy said, "Come on, girls. Let's go talk to the others."

  "Okay," Roxy said as she had all of the squad leaders, Sean's relatives, Oak, and anyone else who was important or in a position of responsibility gathered in the large living room.

  "Sean's not dead, but he's been badly hurt. It's going to be a few days before he regains consciousness and even then, I suspect he'll be a while recovering."

  "What happened to him?" Someone in the back of the room asked.

  "He suffered a magical backlash from over extending himself during the battle. He used his silver spell to remove all of the silver in a bunch of the people who were attacking. He figured if they weren't being forced to attack us that they would stop."

  "Well, they did in fact stop," Oak said. "So he was right about that. Still, I wish he would have been more careful! What are we supposed to do now?"

  "What we are going to do," Daelyn spoke up, "is to continue to build this place up, repair our defenses, and take care of the people we just gained. I'm sure all of you remember what it was like when you were first freed, right?"

  Most of the people in the crowd nodded.

  "So now you have to help them deal with it, just like we helped you."

  "Who's in charge?" Hunter asked.

  "I am," Roxy said.

  "So not much has changed then?" Hunter joked.

  "One thing has changed," Maitland spoke up.<
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  "And that would be?" Roxy asked.

  "Once word gets back to our enemies at the Vestibulum, that Sean was wounded, they're going to come back at us twice as hard, we're going to need to be ready for that."

  "You think so?" Jolene asked, looking concerned.

  "Yes. They just suffered a grievous loss and are going to be looking to both save face, and to be able to say that it wasn't a mistake. If they can come back at us again, but this time take out Sean, then they'll be able to claim that they won the war, even if they lost this last battle."

  Roxy considered that a moment and then nodded, "I'm afraid you just might be right."

  "Didn't you say that Sean told Joseph over at the Eruditio that if he died, someone else would replace him?" Jolene asked.

  "They'd still see it as a win," Maitland said, "even assuming that they've been told, or believe it."

  "Well, unless they can pull a bunch of lycan fighters out of their butts, I don't see how they're going to be able to do that," Hunter pointed out.

  Maitland nodded, "So if we should see them resupplying with more fighters, we'll at least have some warning that they're probably going to attack."

  Oak sighed, "Well I guess that means I need to get everybody back to work, just in case."

  "Exactly," Roxy agreed, standing up. "If you have any questions, find me, or ask Dae if I'm not around. Now, lets all get back to work."

  Everyone got up then, a few coming over briefly to ask Roxy a question or two before heading out.

  "I'll call Chad and talk to him about setting up some sort of watch on the Vesti's, Jolene said as they walked back to the bedroom.

  "I think it would be better if you and Dae go and pay him a visit," Roxy said. "Then maybe stop by Sawyer's on the way back and pay him a visit as well?"

  "Good point," Jolene nodded, "it'll be very interesting to find out just what he's heard."

  Jolene and Daelyn left then to go visit Chad and Sawyer.

  "Who's going to deal with the FAA guy when he gets here?" Peg asked.

  "You and Sheila can handle that one. I'll call our lawyer to let him know what's happening."

  "Okay," Peg nodded, "I'll go find Sheila and check the grounds to get an idea of just what we need to hide."

  "Cali," Roxy said as they came into the bedroom and closed the door behind them, "you're in charge of keeping Sean safe. Do what you have to do and no one comes in here other than us," Roxy motioned to the five of them plus Sean's mother.

  Cali nodded, "understood."

  "Now, I need to go outside and see just where we're at on cleaning up the grounds, then I'll see how the new people are settling in."

  Roxy discovered their new magical guest as she was doing the rounds, and immediately sent for Maitland.

  "What's up?" Maitland asked, coming into the small infirmary that had been set up in one of the buildings.

  "Apparently one of the enemy mage's groups cared enough about him, to save him from dying. But now I've got an unconscious and seriously wounded mage that I don't know what to do with. Sean had healing magic, but he's unconscious. Jolene has it, but she's not here. Peg can't heal much at all and I don't know about the rest of you?"

  "Philo has some skill in healing. Ruthelma does as well, but after last night, I doubt she has the power to right now."

  Roxy nodded and sent someone to go find Philo. When he turned up, she took the two of them into where the mage was in a bed, bandaged up with an IV in his arm. Several of the wolves from the different councils had fairly advanced paramedic training, in case one of their mages was seriously injured. But none of them were doctors or healers of course.

  "His name is Mike," one of the people, Jerigg was his name; standing by the bed told them.

  "Wow, he's quite the mess," Philo said, looking him over.

  "Can you do anything for him?"

  "Well, he's not getting that eye back," Philo said looking over the wounded man. "The rest of this I think I can heal, but it's going to take a few days. Honestly though, the best bet would be for me to stabilize him now, and then have someone drop him off at the Vestibulum's place."

  "Why?" Jerigg asked.

  "Because I'm not a very good healer, it's just a minor skill that I have. If there's anything seriously wrong inside him, I won't be able to fix it. Our best healer got taken out in the fight and won't be up for days."

  Roxy noticed that several of the people by the bed looked embarrassed when Philo said that.

  "I can take him back," Jerigg said.

  "They'll probably kill you, you know," one of the other men said.

  "I owe him," Jerigg said and shrugged.

  Philo nodded and kneeling down on the floor next to the bed went to work.

  "Roxy?" Maitland asked, "Are you okay with this?"

  "Hey, if he says he owes this guy a ride home and wants to risk his life doing it, it's none of my business. I'm just worried about how we're gonna get him there, not like we have a lot of cars we can just give away."

  "I'll call Ryan," Shia said, "I think he'd be willing to help us out."

  "Only one of you can bring him back," Roxy warned.

  They all nodded.

  "Now, let's leave them to it, I've got a lot more work to get done."

  "So, where to first?" Daelyn asked Jolene as they got into her car.

  "Sawyer's, I want to see just what he knows."

  Daelyn nodded, "Sawyer's it is!"

  "Please try to keep it under eighty."

  "Where's the fun in that?" Daelyn laughed.

  Jolene grumbled a little as Daelyn took off down the driveway. "Maybe I should have gotten Peg to drive."

  "She's had her license for less than a year; you really want to chance it?" Daelyn laughed.

  "Her I can threaten."

  "I'll try to keep it slow," Daelyn grinned.

  Jolene just kept her eyes closed until Daelyn told her they were there. Considering how smooth the ride was, maybe she had kept the speed down.

  Going in the back way, they found Sawyer behind the counter in the front room, which except for all of the merchandise out there now being different because of the attack last week, looked the same as always.

  "So, I heard you girls were all rather busy last night," Sawyer said without preamble. "I also heard that the kid got himself hurt pretty bad."

  Jolene looked at him, "Where'd you hear all of that?"

  Sawyer smiled, "With the sudden decrease in lycan domestics at che Gradatim, and at what remains of che Ascendants, they've had to look for someone else to deal with their daily housekeeping, and many of those housekeepers report to me."

  "They hired goblins?" Daelyn said, looking surprised.

  "Some, yes," Sawyer nodded.

  "Aren't they afraid of having everything stolen?" Daelyn asked with a snicker.

  Sawyer snorted, "Goblins are very careful about honoring their business deals. If you hire us to clean and tell us not to steal, we won't steal. Contracts are very important to us, you live up to them, or no one does business with you anymore."

  "So," Jolene asked, "how did they hear about what happened? You don't have anyone in the Vestibulum house, do you?"

  Sawyer shook his head, "No, not yet, but you have to understand that they spy on each other pretty heavily, especially after what the Vesti's did to the Grad's the other week. Everyone knows, now, that they went up to your place last night and that they got shellacked. There's also a lot of rumors that they hurt the kid pretty bad in the process.

  "So, I gotta ask, how is he?"

  Jolene sighed, "He's recovering. He overdid it magically and hurt himself in the fighting. Guess he panicked a little when he got back and saw all those people attacking us. I'd appreciate it, if you didn't spread that around, Sawyer."

  "It's already spreading around. Some even think he might be dead! You just might want me to discourage that rumor, before anybody gets any ideas you know."

  "He has a point, Jo." Daelyn said.

 
; Jolene nodded slowly, "Yeah, you're probably right. Okay, tell them he's not dead, he just knocked himself out. What else have you got?"

  "What, you think I'm running a charity here?" Sawyer laughed, "What do you have for me?"

  Now it was Jolene's turn to snort, "They sent about five hundred at us more than half of them were from out of town. We killed over a hundred, the rest belong to us now. Along with their weapons and their ammo."

  "Rumor says they lost a lot of mages?" Sawyer asked.

  Jolene nodded, "About twenty."

  "Twenty!" Sawyer jumped up.

  "Yup."

  "Woo hoo! This calls for a toast! Hang on just a moment girls!" and Sawyer ran off to his office and came back a minute later with a glass of what looked like champagne.

  "I thought you said this called for a toast?" Daelyn asked.

  Sawyer laughed and raised his glass, "It does! To more dead mages!" He yelled and them quickly drained the glass.

  "What? Don't we get any?"

  "Eh? You can get your own booze!" Sawyer snorted and then went back to his chair behind the counter.

  "Okay, so what else have you heard?" Jolene asked.

  "Well, the Ascendants are still blaming you all for what happened to their people."

  "But we didn't kill them," Jolene pointed out.

  "No, but you weakened them enough to make them easy targets for the Vesti's, who they also blame, and do blame more than you. They still haven't figured out what they're going to do about their local council. There's only eighteen of them left, but rumor is some of their other councils are going to send some people out to bolster their numbers while they decide what to do."

  "What about the Gradatim?"

  "They're finally starting to settle down, and they're keeping an eye on the whole situation. Word is that there's a lot of messages flying back and forth between their headquarters in LA and here. Apparently there's some concern that the reason the late Mr. McConnell was keeping them out of the link on events here, was because someone was planning on a change in leadership at the national headquarters."

  "Really?" Jolene asked surprised.

  "They're a pretty cut-throat organization, advancement isn't based on ability, unless that ability is sticking the knife into someone else's back and twisting it." Sawyer laughed, "Oh they had a little excitement the other week though, someone broke in about a week ago and stole a bunch of stuff. Already had a few back channel requests to buy it back, no questions asked, if any of it turns up in my place."