Chapter 7

Life was relatively calm for the next couple of weeks.

The construction downstairs was completed in record time and with a minimum of screw ups.

The staff was settling into their jobs with a preternatural smoothness.

And all of my ladies were happy and contented.

It was entirely too good to last.

3 weeks after Mieko left us, the Enemy made their next move.

Kiki had gone out shopping with Maeve for some odds and ends for the apartment, and I was sitting in the kitchen working on another invention idea.

Suddenly I felt a shock through my link to Maeve, then nothing at all from her.

Usually I could feel her emotions at least through the link. But now there was nothing but a blank where my beloved wife's mind should be.

I found myself on my feet sprinting for the elevator to the lower floor, intent only on following that tenuous link to Maeve wherever it might lead.

As I emerged from the elevator and headed for my car, the great steel door started rising and I heard the engine of the Caddy growl to life.

I saw Astrid open the driver's door, then scoot over to make room for me to slide into the drivers seat.

The big 501 engine of the Caddy roared as I floored the accelerator and steered for the now open door.

I turned right as soon as we hit the street, following the thread to Maeve, sending waves of love and reassurance that help was coming over our connection. I had no way of knowing if she was getting any of it, but I had to try.

I broke a dozen or more traffic laws as I sped down towards the downtown shopping district.

By some miracle I avoided wrecking the car or killing any stray pedestrians along the way.

I pulled up in front of a huge building and bailed out of the car as soon as it stopped moving.

I ran inside, followed by the rest of my Bond-mates. As we approached the elevators, the doors opened and a pair of paramedics came out pushing a familiar form on a stretcher.

"Maeve!" I bellowed.

The paramedics looked at us, then abandoned the stretcher and ran.

I stopped by Maeve and checked her pulse as the rest of the Heavenly horde set off in pursuit of the bogus paramedics.

Thank God her pulse was strong and steady and her breathing was deep and regular.

I checked her as best I could and found an ugly lump on the side of her head, her hair matted where she had bled freely from a cut in her scalp.

I scooped her up from the stretcher and headed for the car. I send a call along the link for some of the girls to spread out through the building and look for Kiki as I carefully placed Maeve in the passenger seat and belted her in.

I got into the drivers seat and took off for the Kerry's home.

I cursed horribly as I cast glances at my wife slumped limply in the seat beside me.

I knew that moving her was dangerous, but leaving her where she was would have been even more so.

The drive to the Kerry's townhouse seemed endless even though the clock on the dash said that it had only been a few minutes.

Brian and Ariel were waiting at curbside as I pulled up.

Brian had the door open and scooped Maeve into his arms before I could even get out of my door. He ran inside carrying his precious burden with Ariel running behind him chanting in a high silvery tone.

I followed as fast as I could move.

I found them in a bedroom just off the main hallway. Maeve was laid out on the bed and Ariel was kneeling on the mattress with her, holding her hands over the wound in Maeve's head, chanting and trying not to sob as tears streamed down her cheeks.

Brian stood by as helplessly as I did, his fists clenched and his jaw set.

Maeve let out a moan and raised her hand to touch her mother's hands where they rested on her head.

Ariel nodded at us, and Brian relaxed just a little.

He caught my eye and jerked his head toward the hallway. I went with him across the hall and into the little parlor room where we had spoken so often before.

"You did the right thing bringing her here," he said. "She was dying when you got here. Another few minutes and it would have been too late."

"Someone's going to die for this." I swore.

"It's time to call a council of war," said Brian.

Ariel joined us then. "Maeve will be fine in due time," she said wearily. "But she's going to need a lot of rest and no stress for a while."

"Did you know that Maeve is pregnant?" she asked me.

I explained the bargain with lady Meiko.

Ariel nodded as if this simply confirmed something that she had suspected.

Brian's head jerked as if he had been slapped. "The others are bringing in Kieko and a prisoner," he said.

"How is Kiki?" I asked.

Brian concentrated for a moment. "She's ok, just a little groggy from being knocked out," he reported.

I allowed myself to relax a little more.

"I want to be there when the prisoner is questioned," I said.

"Of course," replied Brian. "You MUST be there."

I gave him a wolfish grin.

We both headed for the door as the commotion downstairs heralded the arrival of the girls and their captive.

The Heathers stood on either side of a struggling man, gripping his arms tightly. My other Bond-mates were crowded in between the captive and the door, effectively blocking any escape.

I surged forward, eager to get my hands on one of the men who had harmed my wife.

I was brought up short by Brian's arm across my path.

"Not here, not yet," was all Brian said.

Something in his voice calmed me just enough that I didn't rip the prisoner to shreds on the spot, and I stopped trying to move forward.

Brian dropped his arm. "Bring him downstairs," he said to the Heathers in a voice that held the chill of an arctic wind.

Brian led the way, followed by the Heathers. I came right behind them, hoping that the prisoner would try something and give me an excuse to smash him into a pulp.

But we arrived in the basement without any further struggles from the prisoner.

Brian expertly bound the captive to a chair in the middle of the room. The girls protested as he shooed them out of the basement until he told them that they could go up and see Maeve.

They left, casting dire glances back at the man bound in the center of the room.

Brian closed and bolted the door, and then turned back to face our captive.

"Now then," he said in entirely too calm of a tone. "We will discuss who sent you to take Maeve."

The captive raised his head and spat at Brian. "The only thing I will tell you is that this is not over."

I was standing beside the captive and my fist traveled about a foot before crashing into the side of his face.

"Oh no," I purred. "You will tell us what you know. Or I will make certain that you spend the rest of eternity in agonies that you cannot even imagine."

Brian didn't say a word. He didn't have to.

I had the prisoner's full attention now. "What can you, a mortal, do to me?"

I patted his cheek. "But you see, I'm not entirely mortal."

Brian snickered and the captives face went white.

I was bluffing of course, but with Brian backing my play, the prisoner had no choice but to believe me.

"If I speak, will you give me your word to slay me cleanly and quickly?" the prisoner asked calmly.

"Aye, you have my word as House Kerry," Brian said at once.

The prisoner took a deep breath, then spoke a single name.

Brian nodded, then stepped behind the man and drove a small thin dagger up through the base of the skull into the man's brain. The prisoner convulsed once, then went limp.

Brian turned to me as he wiped the blade of the dagger on the dead man's sleeve and tucked it away. "I am sorry that you were not given the chance to slay this vermin to avenge the insult to your wife yourself."

"Maeve was your daughter before she was my bride," I told him, "you did right, the man is dead, and that is all that I care about."

Brian clapped me on the shoulder. "Then let us go back upstairs and rejoin the ladies. I have no doubt that they are eager to discover what we have learned."

"But what have we learned?" I asked. "Who is Stephanie?"

"I had thought that she was an ally," replied Brian. "Maeve's grandmother."

I thought back to the day of the wedding. "The heavyset gray haired woman who used a gold colored cane?" I guessed.

"Stephanie would never attend a party looking like that," Brian snorted, "No; Stephanie was the only other person besides you and your Bond-mates wearing a sword to the wedding,"

I remembered noting the lovely woman and her weapon, however she had vanished just before Meiko came over to talk to me and I didn't recall seeing her after that at all.

I said as much to Brian.

"Stephanie does not like dragons, nor do they like here. And putting those two in the same room for long would have resulted in mortal combat." Brian informed me.

We arrived at the bedroom where Maeve was being fussed over and cuddled by her co-wives.

All conversation stopped as we entered the room, and all eyes turned to us.

"Stephanie," Brian said.

Chyoko hissed like a cat. "I will give that bitch a taste of dragon-fire when I next see her."

Ariel came to her husband and threw her arms around him, holding him tight.

Then I remembered what Brian had said.

Stephanie was Maeve's grandmother.

Oh Shit.

Kiki came over and bowed to me. "I am sorry that I could not protect Mistress Maeve. I let my guard down and allowed myself to get careless."

I pulled the girl into a hug. "We all did," I told her. "We'll all have to be more careful in the future."

"You meant that you are not sending me away for my carelessness?" she asked incredulously. "Among my people, I would have been lucky if they slew me quickly for my transgressions."

"Why would we send you away? We all love you and hope that you are with us as family forever," I said "Everybody makes mistakes. We just have to learn from our errors and not repeat them."

From that moment on, I had Kiki's near fanatic loyalty.

"Bill?" I heard Maeve's voice calling my name.

I hurried to her side. "Here I am my love."

She held my hand tight and gave me a wan smile. "I hope that you won't mind if I take a nap now," she murmured.

I kissed her forehead, then her lips. "I will be here when you wake up." I promised her.

She sighed and nestled down into the blankets a little more.

I kicked off my shoes and stretched out beside her, still holding her hand.

Brian herded everyone else out of the room. "Rest with her until she wakes. No one will disturb you and you can join us later for the war council.
Then he slipped out the door and closed it softly.

I kissed Maeve once more, then dropped off to sleep with our fingers intertwined.

Maeve woke me up with a kiss, and I opened my eyes to see her smiling down at me.

"Wake up lazybones," she said.

"How are you feeling?" I asked.

"A lot better," she replied. "The side of my head hurts a little, but not too badly."

I reached up and caressed her cheek. "I was worried about you my love."

She snuggled down against me and laid her cheek against my chest. "Mother told me that you had saved me."

"I could do nothing less," I said.

She pushed herself up and brushed her hair away from her face. "Father needs to talk to us."

I stretched and started to sit up. "Well then, let's not keep him waiting any longer."

When we opened the door, Kiki was standing guard by the door, a katana in hand.

"Lord Brian is waiting in the great hall," Kiki said as she slipped the sword back into its scabbard.

She fell in behind us as we headed down the hallway.

Maeve looked a question at me, and I mouthed "Later," silently.

Brian was waiting with Ariel and the rest of the Heavenly Horde. To my surprise Lady Mieko was also there. I bowed to her and received a smile in return.

Brian motioned toward a wooden box sitting on a table in the center of the room. "My mother has declared her intentions openly now."

I opened the box and looked inside. Maeve looked and gasped, her hands going to her mouth.

Inside the box the head of a once pretty Sidhe girl sat in a pool of clotting blood.

"This was the girl who was replaced with a spy?" I asked.

Maeve swallowed hard and nodded.

I looked at Brian and he nodded somberly.

Shit

"OK, What next?" I asked him.

"Now we know whom," he said. "Why, we still don't know for certain. We had expected someone to strike at you, not Maeve."

"Maybe her men were simple meant to capture Maeve, not injure her so severely," Meiko said. "As much as I despise Stephanie, I cannot believe that she would willingly harm her own granddaughter."

I faced Brian squarely. "Even if the person behind this attack is your mother, I must respond. And I made a vow before witnesses that I would avenge this girl's death."

"She has stepped far beyond the bounds of family," he replied heavily. "It seems that I must also stand with you in this matter."

"Merely keep her allies off my back and I shall deal with her myself and in my own way," I said.

Brian sighed and nodded. "Thank you."

Meiko came over to stand beside me and gazed down into the box. "I knew this girl. She was a friend and an innocent."

When the gruesome box had been sent off to the poor girl's family, the war council began in earnest.

The debate ran on for hours, plans being suggested and rejected until I had finally had enough.

"All right," I said as I stood up. "I want this to be over quickly."

Ariel looked surprised. "But we haven't even decided upon a suitable response to her effrontery yet."

"There is only one response that I need, and that is her head in a similar box," I retorted.

Brian jerked back as if I had slapped him.

"I am sorry Brian, but I will not allow her to run free to plot more attacks upon my family. She already came close to killing Maeve whether by intent or by design."

Brian started to speak, but Dorothy interrupted him. "I think I know how we can do this without killing her outright."

All eyes turned to Dorothy, usually the quietest of the Heavenly Horde.

She held up a crystal and showed it around. "My family has the ability to draw the powers from another Sidhe and contain them in one of these crystals. Without her powers, she can be controlled and contained with minimal danger."

"Can these powers ever be restored?" Brian asked.

"Only if the original person who drained them wills it," she answered. "I can show you."

She stepped over to Bethany. "This won't hurt at all."

She pressed the crystal against Bethany's arm and there was a sudden feeling of being in the center of a vortex...

Bethany's eyes widened and she swayed against Astrid.

"All of your abilities and powers are now in the crystal," Dorothy told her. "Go ahead and try something."

Bethany closed her eyes and concentrate, but nothing happened. She tried again with the same lack of results.

Dorothy touched her with the crystal again and there was the vortex feeling again, then Bethany slowly faded from view.

"What would happen if the crystal were destroyed while my powers were in there?" Bethany asked when she reappeared.

"Your powers would still be trapped within the shards of the crystal, and it would have to be made whole again before you could regain them." Dorothy replied.

Brian sat back with visible relief. "If we can do this thing without losing one of you, then we will," he said. "But if it proves too dangerous or difficult, slay her."

I took the crystal from Dorothy and examined it closely. "Can you drain someones powers and pass them into someone else?"

"I, I don't know." She said uncertainly. "My mother would know."

"Ask her please, at your next meeting," I said

"As you wish," Dorothy said.

The war council broke up then, and the Kerry's limo driver took the girls home while I followed in the Caddy.

When we were all safe up in the apartment, Dorothy went off to visit her mother to ask about the information that I wanted.

Maeve was yawning, so I took her to bed where we were soon joined on the giant bed by the rest of the Heavenly Horde.

When I woke up, Dorothy was snoring into her pillow and Lady Meiko was sitting cross-legged on the bed by my feet.

I motioned for her to move, then I wriggled down to where I could get up without waking the others. I shrugged into my bathrobe and went to the kitchen where Meiko already had tea brewing.

"What do we do now?" I asked.

Meiko poured us each a cup of tea before responding. "Stephanie must be contained or slain," she said. "The hard part will be getting close enough to her for your Bond-mate to use her crystal."

I shook my head. "We may not be able to get that close without her killing one of us."

Meiko sighed. "I know. And the only way that I can see to get that close is for you to let her capture you. I have dealt with her in the past, she likes to gloat over her victims before destroying them in creative and painful ways."

I grimaced "Wonderful."

Meiko laughed. "Come now," she teased. "It's not as bad as all that. After all, you have been kissed by a dragon."

"Among other things," I leered.

She just winked at me and sipped her tea.

Dorothy came out of the bedroom yawning and rubbing her eyes. "Is there any more of that tea left?"

"Of course dear," said Meiko.

When Dorothy had seated herself and tasted the tea she leaned back in her chair with a sigh.

"I have an idea that might get you close enough to use your crystal to drain the powers from that bitch," Meiko said.

Dorothy opened her eyes and looked suspiciously at Meiko. "Why do I get the feeling that I am not going to like this?"

Meiko snickered. "That's because you have been around my daughter too long."

Dorothy rolled her eyes and poked her tongue out at the Dragon lady.

"Take off your clothes and stand on the table," Meiko instructed the Sidhe girl.

Dorothy shrugged and stepped up onto the tabletop and then slipped out of her robe to stand there nude. "What next?" she asked.

Meiko reached out and laid her hand on the girl's leg. Dorothy gasped as her form shimmered and shrank. In just a few seconds the shimmer solidified. Dorothy was now about 3 inches tall.

I leaned forward to get a better look. Dorothy was apparently unharmed by her transformation, but she wasn't happy about it.

Meiko touched her with a finger and abruptly Dorothy was her normal size again.

"Next time warn me before you do something like that!" She scolded.

I helped Dorothy down from the table and comforted her with kisses and hugs.

"I think I see your plan," I said to my draconic mother in law. "I smuggle Dorothy in with me in her shrunken form. Then when I let Stephanie catch me, she can give the old bag the surprise of her life."

Meiko nodded, her eyes alight with mischief.

Dorothy nestled against me with a sigh. "Only a dragon would come up with such a hair-brained scheme. I like it."

When the rest of the Heavenly Horde was awake and gathered around, we outlined the plan for them.

"I think that this will take a lot of planning before we even think about trying anything," Maeve said.

"No," I replied. "If there's one thing that I have learned over the years, it's that Murphy's Law is always lurking around for the chance to screw up intricate plans," I shook my head. "No, I will have to improvise on the spot."

Maeve was definitely not happy with my plans, such as they were, but she held her peace. "We should tell Father and Mother about your ideas," was all she said

I agreed wholeheartedly on that score.

Brian and Ariel showed up around noon, Maeve having called them as soon as the morning's war council had broken up.

"It might work," Ariel said. "But it will be horribly dangerous for both of you."