“Yes,” Lucien stated immediately.
“Absolutely,” Callum agreed.
“I’m with this all the way,” Sonia added.
“Me too,” Leah said.
I just nodded.
Abel grunted, “You know what I think.”
“I’ll arrange the detail,” Gregor muttered.
“No,” Abel said. “We got mouths, we’ll deal with that shit. You got enough on your plate. Deal with that, and just sayin’, any of that we can take on, give it to us.”
Gregor looked to him and nodded.
Then, in a blur, he was gone.
My eyes drifted back to the TV.
“It’s begun,” Sonia said.
“It’s begun,” Leah repeated.
A chill slid up my spine that was highly unpleasant and weirdly familiar.
“It’s begun,” I whispered.
* * * * *
“My fellow Americans,” the president said on TV.
We all were sitting together in the library. All of us save Aurora, Teona, and the other witches. They were off somewhere trying to find Etienne as well as working like crazy casting protection spells on The Three, on our loved ones, who had since declared they were going with us, and on the teams that were right then invading the training camps.
Gregor also wasn’t there. He had shit to do.
If our morning wasn’t bad enough, through an email communication direct to The Vampire Dominion, as well as one to Callum, we learned that the rest of the concubines being held were murdered, the proof of this further atrocity irrefutable as they’d videotaped each life being blinked out.
One hundred and seven concubines gone, including another member of Leah’s family.
Now our bags were packed. We were ready to roll the minute we got the word.
“As you can see,” the president went on, “there are immortals in this world.” He gestured beside him to a handsome, blond vampire named Rudolf, a Council member, who had just extended and retracted his fangs. Also beside him was a wolf named Saint, who the cameras had caught transforming but now sat docilely, being pet by a beautiful, dark-haired she-wolf in human form, his mate, named Juliana. And last, there was a stunning, ethereal wraith hovering, seated over another chair.
The president drew in breath and locked eyes with the camera, but it didn’t pan in, keeping the immortals sitting beside him, who seemed normal and, more importantly, not aggressive, in the frame.
“They have lived among us as long as there have been humans roaming this planet,” the president went on gravely. “They are your colleagues. Your neighbors. They are productive, involved citizens. They pay taxes. They create jobs. There are some who are doctors who save lives. Nurses. Scientists who help to eradicate disease. Our existence with theirs has been harmonious for millennia. They have kept themselves hidden only for the purpose of our safety, however, there are many among us who know of them. Work with them. Take them as husbands and wives. Indeed, they are of us, human, just a different race. But as with any race, there are those who desire to destroy harmony.”
At this point, the camera panned in, broadcasting only the president’s face, which he’d arranged into a mask of concern and determination.
“I know it’s asking a great deal of the citizens of this great nation, but I urge calm. This faction…who attacked our own in Iowa and others around the world…is few. We, as well as the immortals, are aware of their existence. We are prepared to retaliate. We have more than hope that we will quash any further barbarisms perpetrated by this small, rogue offshoot before they happen. We have weapons to defeat it. And I promise, as your president, as your commander in chief, as a man who knows these races and trusts them, we, with our immortal brothers and sisters, will prevail.”
The president disappeared and we saw the newscaster.
Callum, who had the remote, turned the volume down.
“You think that worked?” Xun asked.
“Nope,” Moose answered.
I sighed.
“Is that true, you guys human?” Wei asked.
“Propaganda,” Lucien answered. “We were born of magic. However, that likely won’t be accepted very well at this juncture.”
“I hear that,” I muttered.
Lucien got up from the arm of the chair that Leah was sitting in, saying, “I’m going to find Gregor, see how things are—”
He didn’t finish.
Abel’s head turned to look over the back of the sofa where we were sitting, so mine did too.
A second later, I saw a blur materialize as Gregor.
He didn’t waste a second.
“The mission to take the training camp in Pennsylvania was successful. They’ve detained a goodly number of The True. Our jet is on standby.”
Everyone was on the move as he spoke.
And everyone stopped being on the move when, suddenly, Poncho’s auntie materialized beside him.
Her hair was wild, her face was caked in mud, as were her clothes, she smelled really, super bad, and she was in a serious state, arms waving, mouth moving a mile a minute to spit out words.
Unfortunately, all of them were Spanish.
Fortunately, Poncho was with us.
“Tía, despacio, por favor,” he said.
She nailed him with a look that I reckoned could pulverize rock, literally, seeing as she was a bruja, then she went on talking.
It seemed just as fast to me, but apparently it was slower because Poncho was catching it and he started translating.
“She says you can’t go,” he told us, then listened before telling us more. “She says you must remain here.”
“Fuck, seriously?” Abel bit off.