Chapter 21

Monday morning
SODO district
Seattle Washington

“Attenhut! Get your arses in line you three!” Tom yowled.

“Take a chill pill, gramps we’re in line,” said Eenie as he shoulder bumped his brother Meenie.

“Yeah dude don’t have a stroke,” said Meenie as he swatted at Eenie’s tail.

“Shhh you two! Listen to the nice Mr. Tom” said MeinieMoe to her brothers with a look as stern as a kitten could muster.

“Silence in the ranks!” Attempted Tom once more.

Ben was struggling not to laugh as he watched Tom try to get his furry troops in proper marching order for the trip to the Nexus Ranch. They were all cooperating well except for the three kittens who didn’t quite grasp the concept of military discipline.

Tom’s “Irregulars” were more or less lined up in a cluttered alley behind an old factory deep in the industrial district just south of downtown Seattle. They were a dirty, bedraggled lot to be sure. There were 3 mixed breed adult dogs of medium to large size, an oddly subdued puppy of what looked like malamute and wolf parentage as well as an assortment of tough looking felines. Then there were the 3 tuxedo black and white orphaned kittens that Maria had named Eenie, Meenie and MeinieMoe.

Tom had ‘persuaded’ Ben and the girls that his troops could be useful in future ops. Ben thought that Tom was probably right. They had done a bang up job of surveillance on the warehouse and streets around where Maria and the kidnapped girls had been held. But Ben knew that Tom was secretly an old softie and couldn’t just leave the strays on the streets when Nexus was done with them.

After a quick interview with each of the strays Ben agreed to provide them homes and care with no strings attached, although any help they could give to support the ‘guests’ that Nexus might have on hand would be appreciated. Ben had witnessed firsthand how helpful animal therapy could be to those who had been traumatized by people. Tom and Joe had put many a smile on young faces that desperately needed one and Ben had a feeling that these strays could help as well.

As Ben watched them all file aboard the Magic Bus he was certain that Nexus was getting the better part of the deal. All the strays needed or wanted was some basic care and love, and there was never a shortage of that at the ranch with his girls around.

Late Monday morning
Old Bean Coffee Shop
Harborton Washington

Kelly slammed to a stop, nearly dropping the half caff caramel macchiato she had just painstakingly crafted for the blue-haired older lady at the front of the line. For an instant the warm smile she usually shared freely, froze in place as a black shadow passed over her visage.

Dell. It was the hated vision from her nightmares that nearly destroyed her, now present in the flesh. She almost panicked at the sight of him. For just an instant she was back to that horrible night, but then a warm glow that began in her wrists and quickly expanded through her whole body encompassed her. Kelly knew It was her goddess, Selu, giving her the equivalent of a celestial hug. The moment passed and Kelly knew that this sub human scum could never touch her in mind, body or spirit again.

In fact, she had to keep an uncharacteristically smug smile off her face. One word from her, or hell, just a gesture and Ben would gleefully pull this thing called Dell apart a limb at a time. Or better yet Sarah would, with a cheerful smile, dismember him over a period of days and Mei would hide the body and its parts while Lizzy stole all of his money. It was a satisfying fantasy but it wasn’t really who she was. And besides, without this scum stain of a human it was very likely that she never would be in this place in her life of abiding love and purpose.

But she absolutely refused to give him even the slightest satisfaction at seeing her discomposure.

“Hey Kell, long time no see. How are you doing sweet thing?” said a smirking Dell with a toss of his dark curly locks as he reached the head of the line leaning forward on the countertop so his weight room muscular forearms would pop out prominently.

Kelly could sense he was expecting her to stammer and cower instead she found cold steel flowing through her veins.

“Not nearly long enough, Dell,” she replied with a calm, neutral expression.

“Don’t be that way Kell. You seemed to have fun the last time we were together,”

“Really? All I remember is a sense of disgust at you and your friends. Oh and pity because there wasn’t any other way for you and them to get a date. Unless maybe it was with each other.”

Dell flushed red as his expected quarry bit back.

“Yeah, well better watch yourself bitch...” Dell began then stuttered to a stop as he realized every eye in the coffee shop was glaring at him. Including one very hard looking blond woman sitting nearby with a huge scar covering most of the left side of her face. Her right hand was positioned at the small of her back and the predator in Dell knew the look of a superior in the food chain. Instinctively he knew this woman could draw and kill him in a fraction of a second and think no more of it then taking out the trash.

Dell whirled and stomped out from the coffee shop.

The grim looking blond woman started to get up and then eased back at a slight shake of Kelly’s head. Kelly wasn’t worried about Dell and knew that justice wasn’t quite ready for him yet. She flashed Gunny Jean a smile and quickly took the next order as if nothing had happened.

With an inward smile she realized that Gunny hadn’t shown even a millisecond of hesitation at this unknown threat to her. For the first time Kelly realized she had a true new friend, she just hoped she could be worthy of the warrior woman’s trust.

Dell was infuriated. How could that vapid girl talk to him that way? If she only knew what Dell was capable of, how powerful he was, she would be terrified of him. He couldn’t let this stand. He would do unspeakable things to her and anyone around her and this time she would die screaming for the pain to stop.

As he stepped out onto the sidewalk the first thing Dell saw was a huge flock of birds near where he had parked his cherry red convertible ‘vette. Dell didn’t think birds of different species did this but there were seagulls and crows and sparrows and who knew what other kinds of birds all in a single flock dive bombing his car. As he got closer a large angry looking Rottweiler mix of some type positioned near his rear tire snarled at him, lifted a leg and pissed not only on the tire but on the entire side of his car.

“Get away from there you mutt! I just had it waxed!” Dell waved feebly at the monster as it finished its watering duties and wandered off nonchalantly with a disdainful look over its shoulder.

Dell continued shouting and waving until at last all the birds, chipmunks, squirrels, rats, cats, dogs and wildebeests had cleared away from his poor car. It had been chewed on, pissed on, spit on and shat on in every way conceivable and inconceivable. Cables had been gnawed, vents plugged, exhausts were exhausted and seats were unsittable. What was once a $80,000 sports car was now a smelly pile of metal, plastic, and faux leather.

Unbeknownst to Dell every animal within a mile of the coffee shop had picked up on his hostility toward Kelly. Somehow they knew that they weren’t allowed to harm Dell directly but no one messed with their goddess and got away with it completely unscathed.

His cherry red, convertible, 1973 ‘vette, Charlotte, was probably the only thing that Dell had ever loved and she was gone. Dell was determined not to cry but a choking sob left his throat as he called triple A for a tow and a rental.

He somehow knew that that bitch Kelly was behind this and he was going to add this to her bill of agony due.

Luckily Dell had gotten his rental car just in time to tail Kelly and her mustard colored Toyota wagon out of the parking lot next to Old Bean Coffee. Dell knew from what Sam had been able to find out that she would lead him back to those that had stolen his goods- twice! The rich old dudes financing everything would be ecstatic if Dell could locate the perpetrators of their humiliation.

Dell easily followed Kelly’s rather sedate pace out of the city hanging back several blocks. His plain blue Smart Car rental was pretty nondescript. Unfortunately for Dell, it was also pretty underpowered as he discovered when Kelly hit Hwy 101 and decided that she was running a bit late. The Toyota wagon was old but the engine was immaculately maintained and much more powerful than newer models and shot forward when Kelly goosed the engine. Dell slammed the pedal to the metal on the rental and was rewarded with a slightly higher pitched whine and an increase of maybe 5 miles per hour.

Shit thought Dell I’m going to lose her. At that moment he missed his ‘vette Charlotte even more. Dell realized that the only way he would ever get this stupid rental over 80 mph was if he pushed it over a very tall cliff; which was beginning to look like an appealing idea.

Thankfully, Dell was able to keep Kelly in sight just long enough to see her exit the highway. After what seemed an eternity to Dell he made the same turn off and was in time to see a flash of muddy yellow turn down a county road that led toward the river. Following as quickly as the little rental turd box would let him, he followed Kelly to where she made another turn down a long dirt driveway toward a large collection of construction sites and farm buildings on what looked to be a substantial farm or ranch.

As Dell approached the driveway he began to feel a slight push back of resistance. It was a really odd sense of slight foreboding that permeated his body. No matter, he wasn’t planning on taking her now anyway. He just had to know where the bitch’s pack was located.

Pulling to the side of the road, Dell quickly dug out a pair of high end Zeiss binoculars from his small day pack and exited the rental. He propped his elbows up on the hood to steady them and slowly glassed the compound.

There! He saw what looked like a large barn. As he looked closer he could see more than a dozen young women and girls moving around the outside engaged in different tasks, or just playing and talking. They had to be his merchandise. As he looked closer he couldn’t see any signs of security. No guards, no cameras, no enclosures of any kind. This was going to be a cakewalk Dell thought.

Dell would not have been as sanguine if he had been aware of the several pairs of eyes fixed on him from the treeline alongside the road. Or of the telescopic sight on the accurized M14 sniper rifle that was centered on his chest. A slight squeeze of about 2 pounds of trigger pressure by the slender Elven teen manning the rifle and a 7.62 caliber match grade round would punch a hole through his sternum and then shred his heart into so much wet confetti before blowing a fist sized chunk out of his spine. The young elf behind the trigger could feel the evil radiating off of this one but she and the perimeter Fae patrol had their orders. Observe and report unless there was an imminent threat. Even 200 yards away Aestra could hear her target exclaim as he obviously found what he had been looking for. The human then took out a digital camera and began taking pictures of everything around the ranch.

Aestra gave a slight sigh and slowly shifted out of her prone position as her target got back into the tiny rental car and drove off. She softly blew a strand of dark hair out from her face and shook her head. She had a really bad feeling about this human. Not that her experience with humans was so extensive.

In fact until 3 weeks ago she had never even seen one up close. Then she and her family had been rescued from their tiny encampment high in the mountains and given sanctuary, here in this beautiful valley along the river. For the first time in her young life she felt safe. Every day it seemed that the lines of worry in her mother and father’s face eased more. And her younger brother and sister were for the first time able to play and act like young children should. Also for the first time she had felt that she had a future that might be more than clawing for existence and fighting to stay alive.

When Queen Rhiannon asked for volunteers to help defend their new home it was an obvious choice for her. The Fae had long ago given up war, but this was entirely different and Aestra and everyone else that was eligible to volunteer for the Fae patrols did so.

An old human warrior they came to know as ‘Ferg’ was their teacher, mentor and combat skills instructor. Much to his surprise and to that of the Fae, they were naturals for the type of duties they were tasked with. Discipline and motivation were already deeply ingrained from their years of being hunted by the Demon Beasts. Any of the Fae were already experts at blending in and silently moving through the woods, but Ferg said the Elves were better than any Special Operators he had ever seen. They never needed drones as the Fairies provided air surveillance and were almost impossible to spot with a naked eye. The Dwarves were incredible combat engineers and just needed some tactical know-how to put up fortified points and create fire sacks for ambushes. If they needed overwhelming strength the trolls were even stronger than the dwarves, could literally lift a bus and were nearly indestructible.

Shooting their new weapons was not as instinctive for most of the Fae, but Aestra and a couple of the other Elves were inexperienced but more than adequate snipers. Their keen eyesight and ability to regulate their reactions during stress were key and Ferg had spent many days on his range working with them personally and honing their shooting skills.

Almost incidentally, Aestra and many of the other Fae had come to love the old human like a favorite uncle, even if he could be a harsh taskmaster. He was a mystery to Aestra. Her Fae senses told her that at Ferg’s heart was a stone hardened killer who could and would take life without a thought. But that wasn’t all he was, and she often found him laughing and playing with the Fae children as if he were one of them. He was never too busy to listen or to tell a story or joke with them and Ferg rapidly became a favorite with everyone in the Fae camp.

It was strange to her how humans could be so many different people in one. Some of the Fae still weren’t sure about their new hosts and were concerned, even fearful of this new detente. But Aestra was looking forward to working and living alongside them. Beyond that though she knew that all Fae owed them a debt. Duty, honor and loyalty were ingrained in her and Aestra was not going to let anyone or anything past her to harm her family or the humans that had given them shelter.

She shook her head once more as the corporal gave the order to continue the patrol. She kept thinking she should have taken the shot.

Dell was also unaware of the old Land Rover that had been following him as he was following Kelly.

Jean had slipped out of the coffee shop a few moments after Dell on her own initiative and decided to track the most immediate threat. She had parked where she could keep an eye on the front of Old Bean and as she slipped into the 1959 Land Rover Defender she had been restoring, she also had a front row seat to Dell’s travails with the animal kingdom. Uncharacteristically, she actually laughed out loud at Dell’s impotent attempts to keep his precious car from getting crapped all over. ‘Couldn’t happen to a nicer asshole’ she had muttered under her breath.

She submitted a sitrep (situation report) to Billy who was manning the security dispatch radios and was watch commander in her absence. She then waited patiently as Dell got his vehicle situation sorted. She knew Billy would notify the patrols to be on alert for anything unusual.

Dell had his fancy car towed and then a short time later followed Kelly out of town in a stubbie little blue rental car completely unaware of Jean following him.

Jean was tempted to do a PIT maneuver (pursuit intervention technique) on the pathetic excuse for a rental that her target was using. Then it would be a simple matter of approaching the target from the rear and putting 2 rounds from her Sig behind his ear. There were lot’s of places nearby to hide a body and then it would be done. No muss, no fuss, no threat. As she thought about it, Jean was surprised that this approach really appealed to her.

She couldn’t put her finger on it directly, but then it came to her. These people were family to her. Not once had they shied from her scars or treated her with anything less than respect and, well, love. The girls they had rescued all called her Aunty Jean and the men called her Gunny with deference. Ben’s women all treated her like a sister and Kelly in particular, always made sure she was a part of everything. Kelly, who was so beautiful Jean expected her to be standoffish and aloof was instead one of the warmest, most generous people she had ever met.