Chapter 38 38
“Didn’t they already go after Jeremiah’s pack when they killed Cyrus?” Damn Tristan for making valid points.
“Yeah, but that was supposed to be a secret with no one knowing that they were responsible.” Thomas answered without looking away from his kids who were now singing about a fixer upper.
“We can protect ourselves against a vampire attack, but, if there are magics with them, we wouldn’t be able to hold them for long. This is a family town. We have roughly fifteen hundred residents. A third of them haven’t reached maturity yet. I won’t risk them. Is there any way we could take the fight to them or magically protect the town? Maybe something along the lines of the cloaking spell you put on the kids?” Matthew’s eyes changed briefly to the black/brown color of his wolf as he spoke.
“The peacekeepers are already out hunting them” Connor injected.
“As far as protecting the town goes, there’s a few things I can do.” An interesting idea popped into my head. “If you get Jeremiah himself to ask for my help.”
My request was met with speculative looks from around the table. Connor narrowed his eyes at me. Probably trying to read my mind to figure out what I was up to. He was just going to have to wonder because I wasn’t saying. Matthew finally nodded his agreement and excused himself to call Jeremiah. With the meeting adjourned, the remaining adult werewolves took all four kids to the back yard to burn off some energy. Connor agreed to stand guard while I popped home to make sure my house and Bask were secure. He was on the phone before I was out the door. Who did he talk to all the time?
I checked my wards as soon as I stepped out of the portal. Finding them intact, I moved into the house with caution, watching every shadow, just in case it moved. Bask’s snores coming from the living room were a welcome sound. There were no signs of an intruder in the downstairs. I paused my room search to scratch Bask’s belly. My vicious guard dog extraordinaire made a snorting sound and arched his ribs into my hand without opening his eyes. Wondering why I kept him around, I went upstairs looking for boogeymen. Once I was satisfied the house was secure and unviolated, I headed back to the spot in the living room that was the dead center of my house. I closed my eyes and reached out to my wards. Reaching out to each ward, I strengthen them to the point just short of being lethal and tied them to the armband I’d gotten out of my jewelry box. It was a simple gold band curling around my right bicep. The wards would alarm through the band to notify me if anyone tried to breach them. The house was now safe but, what to do with Bask?
Vera’s call interrupted my musing over how to protect Bask. She was on her way to the Lobo’s and needed safe passage thru the ward. Ten minutes later, I met her on the curb outside of the house. After I verified it was actually Vera and not someone impersonating her, I knelt down and grabbed the ward where it met the ground. Slowly standing up, I brought the ward over my head to create a small section for us to pass safely thru. Instead of the ward being an upside down bowl over the house, it was more like a chipped upside down bowl over the house. Once we were thru, I released the ward which snapped back into its original shape.
“Neat trick. Also, thanks for not zapping me.” She had a small red line on her forehead from where the rock had hit her but otherwise seemed to be ok. At the front door she put a hand up and looked at me. “I’m sorry about my ward. I should have set it to repel magic.” She made an irritated sound. “And not deactivate if I touched it. It was rookie mistake. I know better.” She looked at me with sincerity shimmering in her green eyes “I’m really sorry that you ended up having to kill Vinnie Hays. And that his family wants to kill you now.”
“Well, I could have zapped you. But I figure you got hit in the head earlier today. Didn’t seem sporting.” She gave a soft chuckle and nodded. “As for the rest of it, it seems you did miss the point of the exercise ten years ago.” She looked at me questioningly when I paused. “Even when you do everything right, everything can still go wrong. You can try to anticipate the unexpected, but, it’s called the unexpected for a reason. I have layer upon layer of wards on my house. Yet, some pests still get in. So don’t beat yourself up too much.” I smiled at her. “Don’t worry about the rest of it. I’m always on somebody’s to do list.”