Rose: Briar's Thorn (9 page)

Mari looked at Daria and shook her head. “Baby, we could really use your contacts on the force right about now.  Even though you're supposed to be dead.  With the way the authorities are looking at us now, nobody would believe our warnings.”

Parker uttered a small, “Umm...”  She was holding a hand up.

Mari rolled her eyes and said with humor tingeing her voice, “Yes Parker?  You have something to share with the class?”

The young woman blushed, stuck her tongue out at Red, then dug in her oversize bag that seemed to have everything we could ever need in it.  She was surely prepared for the end of the world.  “I umm... I still have this.”  She held up a talisman that reeked of black magics.  “It's the moonstone talisman that Alister Slater, umm  Marcus used when Mari and Daria killed him.  It has the power to allow werewolves to change like it is the full moon.  Mari said it only works a few minutes, is that long enough?”

Ella snatched it out of her hands then stared at it then her girl.  “Where did you get this?”

She shrugged at the blonde. “When we all inventoried weapons earlier, Mari gave it to me for safe keeping.  She said we need to destroy it.  Ummm... nobody told me how.  I figured I would ask Gretta when she wasn't busy with the city walls.”

Ella stared at it then said plainly, “I can activate it.  Black magic is seductive, but I have two minds to fight the temptation.”

Snow muttered, “Oh Lord.”  We thought she was talking about the talisman, but she was looking toward the city instead.  She snapped her head to Red. “I know what I have been trying to figure out about the druid circles, why they are all interconnected in some way I couldn't fathom.  It is a focus!  The portal spells weren't for letting werewolves in, it is to let them out of the walls!  All of the druid circles form a focus for a massive portal directly in the center of the city!  They are going to attack from within!”

Mari was quick to ask, “Have you done enough damage to prevent it, by removing the ones you have?”

She shook her head.  “No, it would only take fifteen or twenty to make a connection.  I have just moved the center of focus from the geographical center of the city with the ones I have deactivated thus far.”  Her head snapped over to Parker. “Parker, map!”  The other woman dug in her bag and pulled out a map with all the druid circles mapped on it.

Snow spread it on the floor and started marking off all the circles she had dissolved.  She had made it almost half way around the city.  She counted the remaining ones and then started drawing straight lined between pairings.  She wasn't half way done when it was clear where they were all crossing. She muttered, “Downtown.  Right in the middle of downtown.”

Ella closed her eyes and shook her head then with a resigned look she turned to Daria and held the moonstone talisman out and Daria stepped up to her and Ella hung it around her neck.  Parker stepped back with her phone, knowing what came next.

Ella started speaking in fluent French. It was more of a chant and I could feel magics, dark as a pit in hell being pulled forth. I could see and taste the tendrils of it trying to attach to the darkness that resided inside of Ella, but they couldn't find purchase.  It was a huge amount of power, it seethed and flowed, looking for an escape from the constraints of the caster.  Then enough energy to power the entire city of Seattle leaped into the moonstone talisman and was simply gone.

We all looked at Daria and nothing happened.  She hung her head but then looked up again quickly as she seemed to shimmer and her fur undulated in waves as she started to change.  I had heard how painful her changes were like she were being torn apart and remolded each time.  But she didn't even whimper as she took on a human form, it must have been different in some way.

She was covered in a soft downy fur, with wolf paws for feet and claw-like fingernails on the ends of delicate, graceful fingers.  Her face was beautiful and covered with that same soft fur, her ears were still pointed and sat higher up and back from where they normally would be.

Then she stood up, almost seven feet of lithe, feminine grace and beauty and smiled.  Gods in heaven, she was sexy in that form.  A hybrid human wolf.  I have yet to see her human form, but it couldn't compare to this.

Maireni's eyes were twinkling and she was blushing as she whispered, “Daria... you're gorgeous.”

The Daria-wolf said in a purely human voice, “Thank you, love.”  And she reached out a long, graceful arm and placed her hand behind Mari's neck and pulled her to her and leaned down to kiss her.  I just watched the display with a smile on my face until Nicole slapped my shoulder.  I grinned sheepishly at her.

Someone cleared their throat, it hummed in the air like someone had tapped a crystal glass.  It was Parker.  She was blushing as she said, “Umm... aren't you supposed to be doing something?”  She held out her cell phone.  Then she swallowed though she wasn't looking away.  “And umm... I know you have fur, but, Daria, you're naked.”

Daria took the phone and winked at her. “I don't see you looking away.”  The playful look on the wolf woman's face was too cute.  In a single motion, Mari had grabbed her red cloak and wrapped Daria in it.

They shared a smile and then Daria was on the phone, calling the Chief of Police of the city proper.  I could feel the talisman's power draining, it took a minute of valuable time to convince the man that she was not dead, that faking it was a necessary deception.  She must have trusted the man implicitly, because she finally whispered into the phone that she was the Red Hood's hellhound, Fluffy, that's why she had to disappear.

Then she let him know that the city had less than twenty-four hours to evacuate.  She explained what we believed was coming, that nobody in the city was safe.  I could hear him telling her it was impossible, even if he could convince the mayor, there were just too many people in the city for what little time was left.

Daria was getting shorter and shorter and her voice was getting a growling tone.  She said, “I can't hold my human form any longer.  Speak with the Red Hood, she will have to be on speaker since her magics would fry the phone.”  She hit a button and said in an animalistic voice, “Chief, you arrrrre on speakerrrrrowwl grrrrrrrrr.”

The cloak fell to the ground as she fell to all fours and became a huge werewolf again.  She looked at herself with a look of sorrow in her eyes then down at the phone on the floor.  Red was kneeling with her arms spread wide.  Daria stepped into her embrace, then Mari took off the talisman and tossed it to Gretta, who deftly caught it.  Her eyes turned amber, then white, and I saw fine wisps of power pull apart the magic in the talisman and it crumbled in her hand.

Parker picked up the phone and moved farther from Mari, who looked up as she dug her fingers into Daria's pelt and scratched.  Red said, “Chief Mendez.”

A man's deep voice said, “Miss Damaschin, it has been a while.”  Then his voice took on an accusing tone.  “McQueen has been alive all this time and you didn't tell me?”

She repeated Daria and said, “The deception was necessary.  You know what the government types would do if they knew what she was, and got their hands on her.”

There was a pause then he growled out,  “You could have told me, trusted me.  She was one of mine and I thought we lost her.”

She nodded and closed her eyes. “I truly am sorry Chief.”  Then she exhaled and said, “We can discuss this later, I promise that if any of us survive the oncoming storm, I will bring Daria by to have a nice long chat.”  She added, “She's done Seattle proud sir.”

There was another pause and he spoke with less sternness,  “Yes... she has.  Can you tell me more about what is coming so I can talk to the mayor?”  Before she could answer, he confided in her, “You know, it was smart having McQueen call, I don't know if I would have listened to, or believed you otherwise.”

She nodded to herself. “I understand.  Believe me, I wish it were not true.  But whatever the Alpha's have planned, Gretta Snow can't prevent it, there are just too many druid circles left.  And we have it on good authority that whatever it is, is going to be bigger than simply a massive breach.  Our sources don't know if even we Avatars can face it.”

He asked, “And who are your sources?”

She chuckled. “You wouldn't believe me if I told you.  Let's just say that some higher powers are at work here.”

He almost groaned. “I'll probably need you here when I speak to the mayor.  If they okay it, it will be the biggest walled city evacuation in history.”

“
We are at your disposal.  But you are underestimating what we are asking it seems.  Not just the walled portion of the city needs to be evacuated.  Where do you think the Alpha's forces will go if they find the city empty?”

He snapped, “Shit!  Are you saying that the Seattle metro needs to be clear?”  He gruffed then asked, “Can't we just blow all of the druid circles?  Wouldn't that prevent them from making this... focus thing?”

Gretta spoke, “This is Gretta Snow, Chief.  It would, but it would leave the city vulnerable to the ferals at the full moon tomorrow night.  Even Ella and I could not seal that many breaches in a day.”

He cussed then said, “You ladies are a pain in my ass.  Okay, I'll call this number back if I need you to back me.”

Red said, “We will be waiting to hear back.”  Then she tilted her head and paused, looking directly at me, slowly smiling, then said toward the phone, “If we can't effect a full evacuation we need to get whoever remains as far away from the city core as possible into the area Gretta has already removed the druid circles from, we may have a way of containing them if none are air borne.”

He said in a voice full of exasperation, “Air borne?  What a clusterfuck.  Okay, stay near the phone.”  Then there was a click and Parker pocketed her cell.

We all turned to Nicole as she said with awe and wonder in her voice as she stared at Parker's pocket.  “What magic exists in this new world that you can speak to others through the air?”  I smiled at her and she grasped my hand.  I sighed and basked in the warmth of her touch.

Then Parker said, “That armor looks uncomfortable Nicole.  I think Daria has a spare set of clothes in her backpack if you want to get more comfortable.”  Daria gruffled and nudged her backpack toward my girl as Parker said, “The shower is just in there.”

Nicole picked up the backpack and then furrowed her brow and looked back.  I grinned and pulled her by the hand.  “You are going to love the shower.  You can bathe in a stream of warm water.”  I bit my lower lip. “I'll show you how to use it.”

Vines shot out from my back and yanked everyone's feet out from under them as they uttered as a teasing group, “Oooooooooo.”

After a long steamy kiss that made my body react in ways I have not felt in centuries, I showed Nicole how to use the shower.  I resisted the urge to ask if she wished me to help wash her.  It would be inappropriate, no matter how much I wanted to touch her pale white skin.  Now that I could touch the object of my affection, that is all I wished to do.  I had to push my libido back and leave her to it.

I shut the door behind me and leaned my back against it to get my breathing back to normal.  I looked around then narrowed my eyes at the women who were biting their tongues, holding back all sorts of inappropriately teasing comments.

I pointed a vine at them like an accusing finger and hissed in my serpentine voice,  “Not a word, the lot of you.”  Then I couldn't stop the smile on my face as I hugged my shoulders and did a dramatic spin before flopping back on the closest bed.  They all chuckled and I mumbled, “Love, dove, woman of my heart.  Can't believe she is here.  Heart, swirling, smiling, love.”

I paused in my mad rant to see the grinning women rolling their eyes.  Oh.  I felt like I was blushing though I knew I couldn't.  Parker flopped down beside me and grinned, saying, “You two are so bashful and cute when you look at each other.  I think she feels the same as you feel about her, what with that heated lip lock she laid on you.”

I shoved her shoulder playfully, her skin turning to that amazing, diamond like crystal.  Then I asked with hope tinging my voice, “You think?”

She nodded then uttered a “Gleep!” as Ella sat on her belly like a chair, then laced fingers with her.  Now those two were cute together.  I glanced toward the bathroom, wistfully longing for that same closeness with my silver Wolf Hunter.

A few minutes later a vision walked out of the bathroom, almost timidly.  She smoothed down the red tee-shirt that had white lettering which read, “One bark for yes.”  Her legs looked amazing in the lightweight capris.  Her wet hair was pulled back into a ponytail, revealing the delicate features of her face and her long, graceful neck.

I have this image of her, burned into my memory, it was the only thing that allowed me to maintain a shred of my humanity over the long, dark years.  An image of this magnificent silver clad warrior woman, with a strength of purpose and character that you couldn't help being inspired by.  It was a dangerous beauty.  But here and now, I saw her in a different light.  Standing there bashfully in modern civilian clothing, she looked so... cute.  And my heart fluttered as my smile grew.

I skittered over on vine-like legs and grasped her hands, catching her eyes and saying, “You look amazing, Nicole.  Can we talk?”  She smiled and nodded and I excused us.  I wrapped her in my black cloak to keep the chill air at bay and walked outside with her.  Then I wrapped an arm around her waist as vines extended from me, lifting us on long thorny legs to the roof and I sat with her.  I smiled then whispered, “I have missed you so.”  Then furrowed my brow slightly and prompted, “Tell me.”

She cuddled into me.  My arms went wide and my first instinct was to skitter back, so she didn't touch me.  I had to fight the urge and remind myself that, by some miracle, she seemed immune to my toxins.  I relaxed and tentatively wrapped an arm around her shoulder as she pressed a hand and her cheek against my shoulder and chest.

I sat there, not breathing.  I could hear the smile in her voice.  “You have no idea how many times I wanted to do just this.”  She stroked my collarbone with her hand, then snuggled in tighter.