Going Under (10 page)

Sawyer, also a human, married to a shifter, spoke about the impact of the harassment
on his family. They’d lost his mother-in-law and a child when the Magister manifested.
Two local businesses refused to host the wakes and his wife had been attacked outside
their home as she was bringing groceries in from the car.

No one on the panel had any questions for either Freed or Sawyer. And then it was
Alison Moore’s turn.

“Thank you so much, Henry, for having me today.”

No one else had used first names. The senators on the dais had used
Ms.
or
Mr.
with the people testifying and those testifying had used
Senator
this or that. This woman had a serious set of stones, Gage had to give her that.

“I came here today to give voice to those so blatantly ignored by the media and our
legislators.
Honest
, hardworking human beings. No one seems to care that our neighbors have been monsters
this whole time. None of the elite seems to worry that our children could be infected
and turned into wild animals. Well, I’m here to tell you we human beings, the
true
citizens of this country, are worried and we want you to protect us.”

A few heads on the dais nodded and Molly took mental notes. She’d remember them. Also,
Alison Moore made Molly want to punch her. Every time she heard this hateful rhetoric
it made her crazy.

“We’re tired of protecting these special-interest groups at the expense of the majority.
At the expense of all the decent
human
beings in this country who are rightful citizens. All these
lawyers
. What do they need lawyers for? Hm? If you’re innocent why do you need them? All
we’re asking for is for you to classify these . . .
creatures
so we know who they are. All we’re asking for is for
us
to be protected instead of harmed at their expense. Don’t we have a right to know
if our neighbor is a witch? Many of our community are concerned at the satanic rituals
and demon-called walking among us. We’re God-fearing and this is our country.”

It went on this way for a few minutes more until her time was up and they gave her
an extra minute.

“Ms. Ryan, if you’d like to go next.”

“Thank you, Senator Albright, for having me here today. I’m thirty years old. Up until
a few weeks ago I was a lifetime resident of Chicago, Illinois. Though I hope you
won’t hold that against me.” She smiled. “I’ve even stopped carrying an umbrella and
I can order my coffee like a real northwesterner now. I was born here, in this country.
My mother and father were born here. My grandparents were born here. My boss Meriel
Owen’s family has not only been here in the country for generations, but they helped
build this entire region. We are not creatures. We are not monsters. We don’t call
demons and we don’t worship Satan. What we are, are citizens of the United States.
Just like Ms. Freed, Mr. Sawyer and Ms. Moore.”

Moore snorted. “You’re pretenders and liars.”

“I allowed Ms. Moore her time plus a minute. It’s my turn to speak and I’m sure we
can all agree, no matter our perspective, that democracy means we don’t speak over
each other. How can we understand each other if we don’t listen? Now, back to my points.
We understand why the human community is uncomfortable and afraid. We’re happy to
be as open as we can about what we do and who we are. We want nothing more than to
be left alone to live our lives as we did before. Yes, before you knew about some
of us.”

Senator Albright gave her a considering glance. “Just why did you keep your existence
a secret? If you’re not a harm to the rest of us?”

“Senator, all you need to do is look back over recorded history for your answer. We’ve
been burned at the stake. Drowned. Tortured to death. Imprisoned. Every time humans
found out about us, they tried to wipe us out. So we learned from that and kept what
we were private. Not to trick anyone, but to protect ourselves. And as many of us
have begun to suffer from the reaction to our existence, yet again, it can’t be that
hard to understand why we did it.”

She sipped her water. “We too understand your fear of the unknown. Of finding out
overnight that not only were there werewolves, who you’ve known about for several
years, but witches and vampires too. And yet, you can also look to see we have not
harmed you. When you didn’t know about us we did not perform satanic rituals in your
yards. We did not steal your children. We lived our lives just as you lived yours.”

“How do we know you didn’t? How do we know all our criminals weren’t witches or vampires
or whatever else unholy things? Animals disappearing, serial killers, war, famine!
How do we know you people aren’t responsible for everything bad?”

Molly looked at Alison Moore, not surprised by her ignorance, just exhausted by it.
“This is small-minded and petty nonsense. We’re not trying to track humans or take
away
your
basic human rights. We’re simply asking the same of humans. Anything else is a waste
of precious time and energy. And as someone who has lost loved ones, along with Mr.
Sawyer and pretty much every single Other I know, we understand just how precious
that time is now. This is our moment, as Americans, to shine. To set an example, as
we have over and over through our history. It is not time to crawl back into factions
and throw rocks. We want all that we had before the Magister showed up. That is all.”

Molly took up every last second before she let go, knowing many of the senators on
the committee had another meeting right after this one ended. It worked as they thanked
everyone for their testimony and headed out.

“Ms. Ryan.”

Molly turned to face the woman coming toward her. Her stomach clenched and it felt . . .
wrong.

Gage shoved her from the way so hard she hit the corner of the table on her hip, sending
a shock of pain through her body.

“Back up, right now.”

Power radiated from Gage, and Molly again found herself fascinated by how Gage used
his magick.

Police had come around, weapons drawn. Gage put his hands up. “This woman has something
in her right hand.”

The police moved toward Gage and Molly was not having it. “Did you hear what he said?
No! He’s not the issue. She is. At least get whatever she has before she drops it.”
Molly pulled every last bit of authority that had been hanging in the air and drew
it around herself. It worked as one of the police officers moved to the woman.

He held it aloft. “Looks like paint or ink. Maybe blood.”

The woman spit at the cop, who really got pissed off, spinning her and cuffing her
wrists.

Molly’s would-be attacker began to scream. “She’s a monster. They’re going to kill
us all! How can you all just sit there calmly while they take over? Every last one
of them needs to be killed. They are ungodly. An abomination on our lands.”

“Do you see what you’ve done, Molly?”

Molly turned to face Alison Moore, who wore that damned smirk again.

“Excuse me?”

“There is no excuse for you. You are unholy, a blight sent upon this land sent to
test us. We will not fail.”

“Ms. Moore, I did this. Back in third grade. I believe
I know you are, but what am I
would be the next line. But I’m not in third grade anymore and neither are you. So
let’s be absolutely clear on this. We will not allow you to terrorize or threaten
us. We want peace. We want to help you understand us. We don’t need you to love or
accept what we are. We just won’t tolerate being assaulted. You need to understand
that point.”

“Or what?”

“I’m not being coy. It would serve you not to be either. Lastly, it’s Ms. Ryan. You
don’t know me well enough to use my first name.” Molly turned back to Gage, who’d
just finished speaking with the police.

“She’s one of those flour-bomber types. They’re not going to punish her for it. She’ll
be fined. Are you all right? I pushed you out of the way a little hard.”

She rubbed her hip. “Oh, that little bit of fluff didn’t scare me. I just . . . it
felt wrong. I don’t know why.”

“I could feel it too. She projected menace pretty clearly.” He smiled. “You listened
to your gut pretty well there.”

“Hm. Let’s go before they get out the blood and try to make it a scene from
Carrie
.”

“I don’t know,” Gage murmured as he ushered her from the room out into the chaos of
the hallway, “might be nice to see that scene where she started blowing up cars and
shit with her mind.”

People pressed in on all sides, but she’d be damned if she allowed any of them to
make her afraid. Or at least to look it in public. She held her head up high, kept
close to Gage and Faine and hoped she didn’t trip.

“Next time we do this we’ll need more security and to leave by a different door,”
she said as they finally got to their car.

“Next time? What the hell do you mean?”

“Testifying. Not just here, but I’ve been asked to go to D.C. next Tuesday with a
group of Others to address a new committee they’ve established to deal with the Other
issue.”

“Issue? Like we’re measles.” Gage snarled it and she was glad Faine was in the car
behind theirs.

“Look, this is reality. We can’t pretend it away. Some of them do think of us as akin
to a communicable disease. We can’t get anywhere until more people
don’t
think that. And the only way to do that is to be out there countering what those
PURITY people say about us.”

“Why bother? I could have shut her up with the flick of my wrist.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh yes, that would have been peachy keen. Then she could have
talked about how we used magick on her to shut her up.”

“So?”

“So then she can get everyone wondering just what we do to
them
without their knowing it. We can’t give them anything else to use against us. She’s
dangerous, Gage. PURITY is dangerous. They will do whatever they have to to harm us.”

“So why are we wasting our time on diplomacy? Fuck this and those assholes. Why are
we even letting them get close enough to throw ink on you? They’re not worthy of your
time.”

“Of course they’re not worth my time. But that’s not the issue here.”

“So what is the issue here then? Don’t you think your talents would be better utilized
elsewhere?”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake, Gage! What do you think my talents are? I’m not a big badass
witch like you or Lark. I’m not some whizbang, awesome-at-everything witch like Meriel
and those other full-council witches. The God’s honest truth is that this is
exactly
where my talents are best utilized. I am good at what I do. Better than that hack
Alison Moore, that’s for damned sure. The issue here is that the walls are closing
in around us and fast. Every day there’s something new. More dumb legislation aimed
at stripping more of our rights away. The issue is, I’ve got to work to stop it and
I can. I am totally capable of doing it. Better than most anyone I can imagine. And
that when I do I will be slapping the spit out of those thugs in PURITY is just icing.”

“Your talents could be better utilized for something good. Where people don’t want
to hurt you all the time. That’s all I’m saying. Those PURITY people aren’t going
to change their minds. They like to hate something. They lost Russia and have been
looking for something else as the big-bad-evil ever since. We’re it.”

“I don’t care about PURITY. No, we won’t change their minds. Small minds are often
closed anyway. It’s everyone else. Do you want PURITY’s voice to be the only one out
there? Where we’re Satan worshippers barbecuing the family pet to call demons?” She
snorted. “God, they’re dumb. Anyway, if there is no answering voice, that’s who we
are. And I refuse to let that hang out there without being the counter to it. A woman
with my taste in shoes would never eat a kitten.” She sniffed.

Molly was hot with anger. It filled her body and fired her up. Oh, she was mad now
and it didn’t happen very often. But when it did, well, she didn’t stop until she’d
won. Until she’d vanquished the person who made her mad.

Only the situation was far beyond a cheating boyfriend or someone who stole a client.
This was big and she was quite sure she’d never felt like this. More than anger, she
was offended by the hateful things she had to deal with every single day.

“Also, PURITY has, oh, I don’t know, offended my something. In a big way. I’m so angry
at them I’m not articulate. That horrible, evil bitch is going down. Satanic rituals?
Oh my god, fuck them sideways!”

He laughed then. “You’re going to make me get into an accident with the stuff you
say.”

“Before I continue, I believe
your
next line is, “But you’re right and I’m sorry for being such a jerky dookie head.”

“‘Dookie head’? You just said ‘fuck them sideways’ and I get ‘dookie head’?”

“Rosa can’t abide insults to family. Or to people you like in general. So she’d get
so mad if you called your brother or best friend stupid or anything bad. Dookie head
was as rough as it got around their house.”

“So you like me?”

“Most of the time.” She gave him the side eye.

“Well, a guy like me can’t ask for much more I guess.”

“I don’t lose.” She said it quietly, but he heard it straight to his heart. She sounded
angry, yes, but maybe just a little bit lost too.

“I bet.” This woman sitting next to him nearly vibrated with magick. That ambitious,
hyperintelligent hardness, smoothed out by something else. A softness in her sense
of humor. Something she had already, but now it was more. He’d found himself charmed
by her several times a day. In fact, he thought about her an awful lot during his
waking hours.

So he felt the difference in her magick then. Hotter than before. Sharper.

“But you’d bet wrong because I did lose. I lost my dad, my sister and best friend.
I lost my firm. Something
I
built. Losing sucks. I don’t like it in any way. So naturally I can’t allow Alison
Moore to beat me. I’ve dealt with some icky people. Part of the job sometimes. But
she is . . . well, I can’t even think of a bad enough word for what she is. She is
a soul-sucking, dead-hearted, joy-killing, walking, talking bag of hate. And for that
she must be destroyed.” She picked a piece of lint from her skirt and sighed as she
said all that so matter-of-factly.