The Coming Storm (19 page)

“You’re not welcome here. You need to leave,” a man growled coming out of nowhere as he landed right in front of me. “No one comes here uninvited or without requesting an audience first.”

“We helped your people,” I blurted out as I held my hands in front of me. Suddenly there were over a dozen owls with huge fucking talon-looking claws on their hands moving in closer until I was almost pinned against the Hummer. Boston and Seattle jumped over them so they were on either side of me.

“Look, we just saved six of yours from getting beaten to death,” Seattle growled. “Hadley said it wasn’t safe for them to go back to base because the humans knew about them and to come here. He told us how to find you in his phone before he passed out.”

“How do we know you didn’t do this to them?” a man asked from the back. I looked at him, tall, proud, and he just
screamed
powerful and leader.

“There’s no logic to hurting them and bringing them back to you?” I offered, it coming out more like a question.

“If we were trying to gain access to the flock house, there would be,” Seattle answered for them.

“I don’t get it. Why would we want access to their house?” I glanced at it and then back to my brother.

“Owls are known for keeping lots of big things that are shiny and valuable in their nests.” Boston shrugged. “I’m sure lots of paranormals have pulled all kinda of crap to try and get access to the house for their treasures.”

“Okay, well, that’s great, but diamonds won’t do us any good when we’re fighting for our lives against human governments.” I still didn’t get it. I was completely missing something. “We’re going to need guns, weapons, food storages, technology, fighters, and medical supplies. I guess diamonds would buy those but we’d have to get them cashed in and that would take more time than we have.”

“Is he for real?” the director asked my brothers, but I answered.

“Yes. It’s been an
extremely
rough week so cut me some slack. We’re on our way to the PP to tell them what I found from the NSA about human governments planning to kill us all. We smelled blood, followed it, saw your guys getting their asses handed to them by some Air Force guys who got told early, and helped.

“I’m tired, I was shot at, and the man I love took bullets for me and is passed out in the Hummer, and we’ve been fighting, so I forgive him but, yeah, there’s a lot going on. And now we’re not going to make the PP by morning. They need this information for the safety of all. I don’t feel like playing games, whipping it out and who’s got the bigger cock, and I don’t want your damn diamonds!” I was breathing heavy at the end of my rant as sweat dripped down my back.

“Aurelo’s going to be fine, Chicago,” Seattle said gently.

“I know.” I nodded and swallowed loudly. “I think it just sank in that I could have died though. That man shot at me with the intent to kill me. That’s new. I killed a man tonight. That’s new too. I’ve not had a chance to process with helping Aurelo and then owls and I’m kinda wiped with the blood Aurelo took from me after fighting.”

“Then let’s get you inside and something to eat while I get the longer version of all of this from someone who’s not dealing with quite so much,” the leader said kindly.

“Director, they’re strangers,” a man hissed.

“Yes, but unless this man is an Academy Award-winning actor, that is not a performance people can normally pull off just to gain access to the flock house.” He turned back to me and stepped forward before extending his arm. “I’m Director Woodrow. Welcome to the Dayton flock house.”

“Chicago Niska. Thank you.” I took it and instantly felt better. He was strong. I wasn’t noticing in that potential suitor way but in that
everything’s going to be okay now that he’s here because he’s strong, old, and can handle anything
. Like a dad vibe almost.

The owls said they’d unload their wounded and give Aurelo a guest room while the rest of us talked. I could deal with being away from him for a while. The director seemed like a good guy after all. Minutes after we were comfortable in a formal sitting room, food and drinks showed up. I practically dove into a plate of sandwiches.

“Hungry?” Seattle chuckled nervously, eyeing me.

“I haven’t been eating much since I’ve been fighting with Aurelo. Now we’re going to be okay I think and the fight and the blood loss and this—” I shrugged. “I’m hungry.” I didn’t even feel bad for talking with my mouth full which was something I never did normally.

As I stuffed my face, Seattle, Boston, and Julus filled Director Woodrow in and all that had happened. When they were done, the man glanced between all of us with an open mouth for several moments before he caught himself and closed it while clearing his throat.

“Truly?”

“Every word is the honest to gods truth,” I swore, finally done eating.

The man licked his lips and nodded. “May I be blunt then and believe you have your father’s ability to keep personal opinions between only those in the room at the time they were spoken?”

“You knew our dad?” Boston glanced at Seattle as if not sure what to make of it.

“Yes. He and I were allies. I morn his loss as a person and for our people. He helped greatly when we had problems with the liaison for this area.”

Seattle shrugged. “We fucking love honesty. We rarely get it and what you say won’t ever leave this room.”

“It’s not that your plan is not a good one,” Director Woodrow hedged as though still wondering if his decision to trust us was the right one. “I simply do not have the faith you do in the PP. I wonder if giving them the only copy of this information is the best idea.”

“The coven has a copy as well,” Seattle assured him.

“And if the PP knows that’s where you’ve come from and doesn’t want this information getting out that will be the first place they go to get the other copy.”

“Why wouldn’t they want this getting out?” I felt my heart drop into my stomach. What the fuck was going on
now
?

“I don’t know that they wouldn’t. I don’t know that they would.” He shrugged and leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees before meeting Seattle’s gaze. “I simply find it’s best to always have several backup plans when dealing with the PP and planning for all outcomes.”

Seattle licked his lips and glanced at Milwaukee, who said, “Yeah, he’s a friend of Dad’s. I accessed the home computer and Dad has him on the contact in case of emergency or help needed list. I’d trust him and go with your gut.”

Oh so that was what Milwaukee had been doing on the tablet while we’d been talking! I hadn’t given it much thought or him any notice really, thinking he was bored or checking on things but it made more sense now.

“Smart. Very smart. Especially with what you found out, you should always check up on everyone,” Director Woodrow said with smirk as he nodded. “Gods knows I do.”

“Glass half full kinda guy, huh?” Milwaukee joked nervously.

He turned his gaze and focused on my brother. “No. I’m a realist. And the reality of life is that everyone will screw you if you give them half the chance. You understand that or you wouldn’t be checking on me without some signal from your brothers.”

“Normally I wouldn’t, but you guys seem to attack first and ask questions later. Secondly, Seattle did give me a signal. Third, we’re carrying the fate of all paranormals with us in what Chicago found. These aren’t normal times.”

“What signal? I saw no signal that would indicate him telling you to check into me,” Director Woodrow inquired, glancing between us.

Milwaukee simply shrugged. “He pushed me behind him, letting him and Boston take the lead to follow you and Chicago in. If he felt truly at ease and that everything was okay here, Seattle wouldn’t have cared who came in when. We’re part dog, Director Woodrow. Not much gets past us just as your vision is about the same as a telescope I would gather.”

“It is nice to have such perks, isn’t it,” he chuckled, shaking his head. “And here I was worried I missed something more overt. Good to know I’m not getting old and senile.”

“No, you got the drop on us and that’s not easy to do,” Seattle conceded, which I bet chapped his ass in about five different ways. “Getting back to the matter at hand, I was asking Milwaukee what I guessed he’d been looking up on his tablet because I would welcome your advice then. Boston and I were PP guards but we weren’t in politics and obviously didn’t have the same dealings you did with them. How would you precede if you were in our position?”

“I would make dozens and dozens of copies and leave them with my owls under the orders that if they don’t hear from me within a certain time limit then they are to disperse to other flocks. They then tell those directors what is going on and they have their people fly out and tell more packs, covens, and groups what is going on, giving out the proof. That way if I failed, all paranormals would not be caught unaware.”

“Director Fabian knows. He could do the same with his people since they could travel by their mist,” I hedged, shooting Julus a glance and feeling more confident when he nodded.

“Agreed, but the PP would know you came from there when you show up with Julus and Aurelo. Also the mist is a great deterrent but it can attract attention flying through the air or trying to sneak into another flock. Owls are just birds in our animal form, not drawing attention to humans and common for other flocks to accept at their doors. Then they would know the locals in their areas to pass on.”

“Like a ripple effect,” Boston muttered. “Smart, very smart.”

“Yeah, that’s actually a really good idea,” Seattle agreed, glancing at the rest of us. “We shouldn’t head out tonight with an injured man anyways. We can’t show up to the PP looking like we couldn’t handle this or we’re bringing trouble from the second we walk in.”

“I’d really like to be with Aurelo when he wakes up. You can’t just transfer all that information onto normal USB drives though, guys.” I sighed. They’d need my help on this.

“Go be with the one you love, young Chicago. I promise me and mine can assist your brothers.” He gave me a kind smile as if he understood the predicament I was in.

But it also made me a little nervous how eager he was to get his hands on our copy of the information. I shot Milwaukee a glance I hope said it all.

“Don’t worry, bro. I made dozens of copies and hid them on several servers when we decrypted it. If we screw up the files on your thumb drive, we have backups to our backups to our backups,” he assured me with a chuckle.

“Besides, we won’t mess up.” Director Woodrow gave me a knowing smirk as he stood and headed to the doors, all of us hurrying to follow. We walked out into a hall and down another corridor before he opened a big set of double doors. My jaw fell open at the sight before me. Inside was every computer geek’s wet dream system, and the amount of tech he had might have rivaled the NSA. “See, I think we can handle copying large, secured files.”

“I’m hard,” I moaned.

“Can I have a moment alone with it? I want to pull a Seattle with the Hummers,” Milwaukee whimpered.

“Yeah, okay, to each their own I guess,” Seattle snickered. “That does nothing for me but hurts my head. That looks like a bitch—” We both turned and snarled at him. He held his hands out in front of him and chuckled. “My apologies. I wasn’t calling your girl here a bitch just like you wouldn’t call my baby one. I was just saying a bitch figure out. But this is like Six Flags to my genius brothers. Have fun!”

“You have fun, Milwaukee,” I sighed as I looked longingly at the tech room. “I’m going to go check on Aurelo and stay with him.”

“Cheer up, Chicago,” Julus chuckled as he smacked my back. “Director Fabian adores you so much that if you asked, he’d set this up for you at the new coven location for one of those day passes I hear you’re going to let him have.”

“Really? You think?” I gave him a hopeful look before glancing back at the massive touch screens and networked computers that could run more processes than I could even come up with this quickly.

“Maybe a week’s worth of day passes.”

“Yeah, that’s still no hardship,” I snickered. “I would gladly give him that for free.”

If we ever got to see him again of course. We
still
hadn’t made it to the PP after all.

* * * *

Aurelo woke about a half hour after I joined him in the room we were given. I filled him in while we showered, still feeling awkward around him. Yes, I’d forgiven him and admitted how I felt, but that didn’t mean everything just went back like nothing happened for me.

I’m not even sure that made sense.

Like him reaching for me, and I flinched, forgetting we were okay now or maybe just hesitating because I was jumbled inside. Either way, he read it as I hadn’t really meant what I’d said and just did it to keep him alive. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I grabbed his arm as he excused himself and tried to escape from the shower.

“I need to go slow, Aurelo,” I whispered as I looked down at the pristine white tiles, not brave enough to meet his eyes. “This is my first relationship and it’s been very chaotic. I
do
forgive you and I believe you about not wanting Milwaukee and Paolo just being a crush or whatever and I’m not his replacement. But that doesn’t make the hurt of everything just go away. You could have died. You saved me.