Chapter 12

Sunday late evening

Nexus Ranch

Near Harborton Washington

“Come to mama!” Lizzy cried as she clicked ‘enter’. “Yes!” she cackled as her final trade of the evening on the Hong Kong stock exchange went through. She had multiple automated programs that traded profitably for them day in and day out, but sometimes she still liked to make money the old fashioned way, by cheating the system.

Now the Nexus group was worth roughly 28 million dollars.Their operating expenses were negligible in terms of their cash worth and Lizzy could have made them even more but they all had agreed to either make their money legitimately or to take it from those who were already stealing it, usually from others who had also been stealing it. Lizzy knew they were barely skimming the surface of what was possible but their goal was to keep a sizable war chest while staying under the radar of governments and criminal organizations across the globe.

She was just about to strip off her nightie and go join Ben and Kelly when the messenger app on her phone dinged. What the hell? Her app wasn’t even on!

Hey girl, how was it?

Who dis?

It’s Tina, ur goddess girl!

No way!

Yes way!

Prove it!

Kay lookit ur pendant 2 fast one slow

Lizzy looked down at her owl pendant. It was pulsing. Two fast pulses followed by a slow one.She dropped it back to her chest with a gasp.

Awesome! How?

EZ peasy. Working w/ u on ‘puters figured out that the pieces are pretty easy to move at sub quantum levels.

Dang U smart

Aww thx! This 10000 times easier than appearing.

We can be Besties for reals!

Yay! So dish- how was ur first w/ dreamie Ben!

U were there! I felt you.

I blessed and ran to give U privacy

Thx ur da best!

I know haha, so give- was it good?

Lizzy paused. This was freaking amazing. Now they had an almost direct way of communicating with their gods. Athena was pretty good at getting in touch with their other god sponsors. This was huge.

Another huge plus, she’d be the only girl in her high school that had a goddess following her on Insta!

Monday early morning

Nexus Ranch

Near Harborton Washington

“No. No fucking way.” Ben fumed. “I can’t even believe you all are suggesting this.” said Ben

They were taking advantage of the first day of Spring Break at the High School to gather everyone for a discussion on Adona’s plan to protect the Fae and the Ranch from supernatural intrusions.

Kelly was a little worried. She’d never seen Ben like this. Ben had never been less than easy going and he always did whatever they wanted. Sure he might grouse a bit, just for fun, but Kelly knew that her and the girls had him wrapped around their collective fingers. She’d never thought that he would put his foot down on something like this.

“Ben dear, you know this isn’t like cheating at all. We know that you’d never do that and neither would we.” said Sarah.

“It feels exactly like cheating to me! I swore once that I would never do that to anyone I love. This is the same but multiplied by five.”

“Ben, we know you would never do anything to hurt us and if there were any other way we would never ask something so personal of you.” said Lizzy.

“I know I’m old fashioned, but I would be crushed if any of you were ever with someone else,” said Ben.

“I know that sweetie that’s why none of us would ever be with another man, or woman for that matter.” said Kelly.

“Ben, my dearest love. This isn’t about personal pleasure. This is about saving lives. It’s almost the same as you donating blood.” said Mei quietly.

“Well, if you donated blood with your dick it would be exactly the same,” said Sarah.

“Not helping Sarah!” said Kelly sharply.

“Sorry, you’re right.” said Sarah apologetically.

Kelly could tell that Ben was feeling cornered and hated what they had to do, Not for the act itself but for the turmoil it was putting her noble and considerate husband through.

“Okay. I tell you what. I’ll listen to what Jill has to say. She’s level headed and objective.” said Ben.

Kelly breathed an inner sigh of relief. Ben thought her traditional, conservative and family oriented mom would side with him. He didn’t account for Jill’s practical nurse side or the fact that she would do anything to make a child safer and they had over a dozen Fae children to worry about.

“So there’s no other way to make the wards powerful enough to keep the hell hounds out?” said Jill.

“No, even the smallest of protection spells need an element of sex magic to work effectively and this one would be huge.” said Adona.

“And this would be enough to keep them out from our lands?” said Jill.

“Yes, when coupled with the Fae magic, the holiness of the site itself and the extremely powerful sex magic that all of you share, then yes this will work and stay in place indefinitely. Certainly, long enough for us to hunt the hounds and those who released them.” said Adona confidently.

“And Ben, we don’t have the resources to guard them ourselves?” said Jill

“No, I can hire and train up some local security here but it’s going to take some time and we just have too much land to patrol. Besides, they wouldn’t know how to handle hell hounds anyway.” Ben said reluctantly.

Too late Ben realized where this was headed.

“Okay, then I say you have to suck it up and take one for the team big guy. This is to protect all those children and those wonderful people, not to get your jollies, so do the right thing. Besides it’s not like Adona is some stranger.” said Jill.

“Shit, alright fine. Set it up then and I’ll be there. Adona, I hope you understand my reluctance has nothing to do with you personally.” said Ben.

“I understand Ben. If this were easy for you, you wouldn’t be the man that I respect.” said Adona.

Kelly was relieved, she knew how hard it was for Ben to do this. She glanced around at all the girls and caught their eye. She stood and walked to where Ben was seated at their breakfast table and pushed his chair back then sat on his lap, stared into his eyes and gave him a deep soulful kiss.

“I love you with all of my heart and soul. Thank you for doing this.” she whispered solemnly into his ear.

Each of the girls in turn did the same. Adding their own touches to what they whispered. As Lizzy finished her turn Ben stood a little shakily with shiny eyes. Kelly could tell that his reluctance was based entirely on his fear of hurting them. Now, maybe he understood that what was needed of him wasn’t going to do that.

“Okay. I’m alright now. I do need a little alone time so I’m going to go get the Fae setup with some basic security and then go looking for some security people for the compound. Jill, Adona, girls sorry for being such a grump. I love you all.” With that Ben grabbed his baseball hat and jacket and walked out the door.

Kelly watched as Tom walked up to Ben on the porch steps and couldn’t help but overhear their conversation.

“So they’re makin’ yah have it on with a beautiful sexy lassie. Ah yah poor wee bairn. Must be a turrible hardship on yah laddie.” Tom said with a snicker.

“Shut up furball. It’s not too late to make a mantle ornament out of you.” said Ben as he strode off toward his old Jeep.

“Hah! Yah an’ which army would tha’ be? Besides yah still owe me a brew.” replied Tom haughtily.

Monday morning

Fae Encampment Nexus Ranch

Near Harborton Washington

Ben had undergone many field training sessions in his time in the Marines. He had even given quite a few himself, but this one had to be the most unusual. His trainees were all shapes, sizes, genders and ages. One thing they all had in common was a will for their children to survive.

“I understand that most of you have a type of allergy to iron and steel. So I’ve bought gloves and tape that you can use to protect your hands and body from the effects.” Ben paused while Jess (queen Rhiannon) translated for those that hadn’t yet managed to pick up any English.

Ben was amazed at how polyglot the Fae were. They picked up languages incredibly fast. He thought it might be because they all could read emotions and maybe even minds at least a little. It was something to keep in mind as humans began to interact with the Fae. A lie, even an unintentional white lie could seriously damage trust.

“I believe that many of you dislike these types of weapons, but until we can get protection around you they will allow you to spread out from this site and gather the food and materials that you need. We have wild folk around you that have agreed to keep watch and let us know if we have intruders but it might take us too long to get here.” Ben paused for the translation. “These weapons should at least badly wound the beasts if they attack.”

Ben then gave the assembled Fae a basic familiarization class in the weapons he had gathered for them. His old M1 Garand and some larger caliber bolt action rifles rounded out the dozen or so weapons he and Ferg had managed to put together. Lizzy was in the process of procuring more weapons for them and the Fae but it was going to be a few days before they got here.

“So what do you think of all this Ferg?” said Ben in a low voice.

“I gotta say life around you and your ladies just keeps getting stranger and stranger. But I like it!” the old man said with a laugh. “We gotta get Norma out here to see this. She’ll love that the Fae are here and she’ll be tickled pink to know that her George’s grave is a holy site now.

Ben laughed a little thinking about widow McReadie (Norma) discovering that elves are real. The old lady had specified that they take good care of the land she gifted them and Ben thought she’d really like that her legacy was to be filled with magic.

“Okay Ferg can you take it from here?” said Ben slapping the old man’s shoulder.

“I got it. Don’t worry your feeble little jarhead brain. I’ll run them through a fam fire and stick around tonight just in case.” replied Ferg.

“Thanks Ferg, you are a prince among men, even if you are an Army pogue.” Ben said with a smile as he turned to speak with Jess.

“Okay Jess, I think you are in good hands. Kelly will bring some more food and some building materials, tools and helpers out as soon as she can as well as all the first aid supplies that she can put together. Adona is working on a special ritual tonight that should ensure permanent protection around these lands from the beasts.” said Ben