*Jess?* Kevin said softly. *Planning meeting, or maybe council of war, in the south second-floor sunporch. Maybe you could come join us for at least a few minutes?*
*Sure.*
Jaisan paused in the middle of describing the strategy he and Aindry had used on a demon some time before, watching him. “Your attention just went away for a sec.”
Jess relayed the message.
Aindry stood up from Jess' loveseat and stretched. “They've been at it all morning. It's about time they remembered us, instead of Sam slipping off early and leaving us to fall back asleep.”
Jaisan sighed, wriggled off the bed and offered Jess his hand as he followed suit. “I hope it isn't everyone all together. I mean, they're all very nice and very understanding, and it's really very sweet of everyone to want to be here to help any way they can and they're worried about you...”
“Us,” Jess corrected. “Believe me. It's not just me. They're all bonkers that way. It's all three of us and Sam.”
Jaisan shrugged. “Worried about us and all. And the healers certainly need to be safe and inside the healing stuff in the walls and have people look after them, I wish we could be more useful for that after what they did for us. And no matter what Sam says about night-time we have been attacked during the day a couple of times so I could see being cautious although no one's mentioned that...”
“Because I doubt anyone's actually thought it. Seriously.”
“I can't remember not thinking about that. Anyway. For good reasons and all, but there are a lot of people in this house right now.”
“Which is why I bet it isn't the whole gang. You're no use in planning stuff if you're too scared to speak up. I really hope this means we can get things moving soon.” Jess waited for his siblings before starting down the stairs. “We can't just hang around forever and wait for someone to walk up to the gates and yell, hey you, come fight! I'm sick of waiting. I'm sick of running. I'm sick of other people rescuing me. I just want to fight these damned demons and get it over with so I can get on with my life. I did have a life, at some point.”
“Are you about done?” Aindry asked patiently.
“Probably not,” Jaisan said cheerfully, with an impish grin at his twin.
As tense as things currently were, having Jaisan back beside him meant more than he could ever have explained to his friends. Jess was pretty sure they hadn't separated farther than necessary to use the bathroom alone since he'd woken up with Jaisan there, and the majority of the time they found themselves instinctively within arm's reach if not actually touching. There was something intensely comforting in it, even though they'd been apart for a third of their lives. Differences had developed, and Jess figured it was going to take a long time to learn all of them, but it didn't matter. Together, they were both whole again, that empty spot inside that he'd forgotten even existed was no longer there, and all was right.
Other than worrying about whether they had a future of any sort ahead of them, anyway.
The second-floor sunporch on the south face of the house was, as always on clear days, brilliant with sunlight, the windows on the ends catching every last bit of the morning and evening sun. Though the space wasn't large, it had accumulated an old double mattress resting on wooden skids a few inches off the floor, the whole thing draped in bright magesilk, more magesilk layered so thickly over the worn linoleum that Jess couldn't remember what it looked like, and a considerable collection of pillows that were mostly magesilk cases with conventional stuffing. In theory, there were magesilk curtains, but Jess had never seen them drawn closed. The whole space was a riot of vivid colours, mostly fiery ones with hints of strong blues and greens here and there.
Not that it was the favoured hang-out of a couple of elvenmages, or anything.
Shaine, on one cushion in a corner, looked more resigned than appreciative, his own swirled water-coloured magesilks—the cut of which more than passingly resembled jeans and a T-shirt, though obviously with no metal hardware—glaringly out of place. Sam's faded blue jeans and burgundy T-shirt weren't much better, but her expression showed less discomfort with the colour scheme, as she shared the mattress with the two elvenmages. And with several plates of cookies, crackers and cheese, and similar munchies, most of them showing significant inroads.
“This room is ridiculous,” Jess told Kevin, not for the first time.
“Elvenmage space,” Kevin retorted. “Deal with it.”
Lori just smiled. “Sorry. Can't please everyone.”
“Sit,” Sam told them. “This does rather involve you so getting your thoughts on it would be good. We don't have forever to work out a plan to act on. The moon is full day after tomorrow.”
“Black wolf, demon wolf,” Jaisan sang softly. “Hunt by silver light, Wild strength, wild soul, Blessed by goddess bright.” He blushed, and sank down next to Jess on a pair of cushions against one wall; Aindry dropped down on Jess' other side.
“Very good,” Sam said, both surprise and approval in her voice. “And yes, that's the most relevant verse. For the most part, demons have less strength while the sun is up, and moonlight is reflected sunlight—not as effective, but it helps. Something odd happened when demon blood mixed with the wolf affinity for moonlight. Demon-wolves, at least Cassandra's line, are at a perceptible advantage in moonlight. So, the best possible conditions for fighting demons include doing it in the open while the moon's bright.”
“Okay, sounds good,” Jess said. “And it's only a couple of days, I might not squirm totally out of my fur and everyone in the house right now might not get fired or fail classes. So how do we get the bad guy's tail in gear so he shows up on Sunday night, and why am I thinking this part involves Kev?”
Kevin leaned back against the wall, arms crossed over his raised knees. “What, you figure I'm crazy enough to outright challenge a mage with combat skills I've never heard of and who can draw an unknown but probably very high amount of power through demon allies?”
“Do I think you're that crazy? Um, you might not want me to answer that one.”
Lori muffled a snicker behind one hand, then looked innocent when Kevin glanced in her direction.
“But, um, yeah, you're kinda pushing your luck with him and I'd really rather you didn't get creamed. So is there a way to do it that's, y'know, a bit less crazy, maybe?”
“Challenge this mage by Sunday?” Kevin said. “Yes.”
“Without getting creamed.”
“Alone, no.”
“Since those fool healers very kindly healed me along with you,” Shaine said dryly, “I now have my gifts full-strength for the first time in years. Not that a day and a half is enough time to relearn even what I knew before, and I was only half trained to begin with...”
“But neither will this mage,” Kevin concluded for him. “Considering that we were in an alley where I had minimal light to work with, and Shaine still had his gifts buried, we didn't do half-bad last time. We can do better now, even if it does have to be at night so the demons will come so you can kill them. At least we'll have lots of moonlight.”
“And two elvenmages are better than one,” Lori pointed out.
“Didn't we just talk about that? I don't like the idea of you being in danger unnecessarily. If something goes wrong, I'd rather he had nothing to make him go after you.”
“I'm going to be there, and nothing is going to go wrong,” Lori said firmly. “Short of trying to lock me in the house or tie me up, neither of which you can do since I'm more or less as strong as you, if a tad less obvious about it, and I have a few extra years of experience using it, exactly what did you have in mind to stop me?”
“Logic?” Kevin suggested. “For my peace of mind?”
“Right, whatever.” Lori shrugged dismissively. “You'd be more useful thinking of ways we can use lots of fire magic and some water magic against this Lucian.”
“Sort of like surprising a meren with fire magic. Only it'll be surprising an elf with water magic,” Jess said. It struck him as a good idea to derail this debate right now—the odds of Kevin winning were slender to none, god only knew why he was still trying. Or why Shaine or Sam hadn't already settled it.
Possibly Shaine was enjoying the show, actually. That would be like him. Sam more likely just figured Lori didn't need any help.
“Exactly,” Lori said.
“What if these demons tell him about merenai?”
Shaine shook his head. “They hadn't told him last time, or he would've figured out what I was doing, and that I was relying mostly on attitude. It's possible they've told him since, although I doubt it, I'm not a priority as far as I know and demons don't like giving away information they don't have to. Even if they do tell him, that'll take away the advantage of surprise but we'll still have abilities on our side that he can't match.”
Jess gave him an impressed look. “Wow. Strategy.”
“It isn't an ability unique to wolves,” Kevin pointed out.
“Didn't really think it was. What kinds of abilities?”
Shaine shrugged. “Like last time, when he was throwing light-beams around, I can do mirrors and bounce them.” A round disk of shiny ice materialized in front of him.
It was going to take a while to get used to magic from Shaine.
“Probably the most useful thing is to throw a siren-song at him.”
Aindry brightened. “And mess with his head? The way ours got messed with?”
“Something like that.”
“I haven't been able to find out any details about the bargains he's made,” Sam said. “Although what I have found corroborates what we suspected about the sort of demons he's making bargains with, and they're the ones that give the rest a bad name. The three that targeted Unity fit right in. However, since he has to pay for everything he gets from them, and the prices are probably not nice ones, it's unlikely that resistance to mythical types of magic has been high on his list of priorities. I doubt he'd have added it since even if he now knows about Shaine.”
“Believe me,” Shaine said, “whether he knows or not, I can seriously piss him off. Time to practice and get more of my skills back would be nice, but we don't have it, so we'll go with what I've got by Sunday.”
Jess frowned at him suspiciously. “Are you sure you're Shaine? You don't sound like Shaine.”
“Get a fucking grip, Jess. I did come from somewhere before I picked you up, and you're hardly one to talk about secrets.”
“Hey! I never...”
“Bullshit. Last May you came back after two weeks running around on four feet, and you didn't exactly come bouncing in the door to tell me you're a werewolf. If I hadn't thrown you out, you'd still be hopping back and forth trying to make up your damned mind where home is.”
Jess blushed. “Oops. But you had way more secrets than me.”
“If you dare start counting, you're going to get cuffed up the side of the head.”
Yep, that was Shaine all right, and it was a good time to change the subject. “So, this demon-mage isn't going to know what hit him.”
“Pretty much. We're trying to figure out ways to actually combine both kinds of magic, which would really be a bitch for him to deal with.” He stopped, looked at Aindry. “Sorry.”
She grinned at him. “Make it as hard to deal with as this bitch is going to be, and I'll be more than happy.”
“I'll do my best. “
“There's... something else,” Jaisan said uncertainly. “I'm not sure how much you can count on anything.”
“How so?” Kevin asked.
“Demon-luck. It's more real than you think. I think... that might be what happened to Unity, too many demon-wolves together, so the luck went crazy...”
Aindry sat forward to stare at him, wide-eyed, past Jess. “You've never said that before.”
He shrugged, eyes low. “I thought it a long time ago. It's just... if we're around, it might have an effect on things.”
Kevin bit his lip, mulling that over. “Sam?”
“I haven't the faintest idea,” Sam said, small creases appearing between her brows as she considered that.
“The string of unlikely coincidences,” Lori pointed out, “that have kept Jess alive, intact, and in Haven has been rather long. It obviously has a positive aspect.”
“True. Demon-luck is unquestionably real, although I think it's probably been strained to the limit keeping you three alive and getting you back together, and yes, usually it's a positive force. I don't know of any other situation involving a concentration of demon-wolves in one area on a sustained basis, so I don't know whether it's possible to overload it into negativity.”
To Jesse's considerable surprise, Shaine moved so he was kneeling in front of Jaisan and reached out to close a hand around his. “Look at me,” he said softly.
Shakily, Jaisan raised his head and met Shaine's eyes. Both of Jess' siblings were particularly wary of Shaine, though they were doing their best.
“Demon-luck might have played a part in it, but that is not what killed everyone. The warped mereni paranoia that makes them believe they have to protect themselves at any cost from any discovery, and the insecurity of a bunch of demons over anyone who can interfere with their fun, they killed Unity. You and the rest of your kind did not. It was not your fucking fault, understand?”
Unable to look away, Jaisan nodded meekly.
“Saying it was your fault is like Jess saying it was his fault that bastard beat him, or like a woman who got raped saying it was her fault for being in the wrong place. You can only be so careful of possibilities before you stop living and start just existing scared of everything, like the other merenai, and then it isn't worth it. You and the rest reached for what you wanted and you lost. It happens. You go on with your life with what's left. Sunday night we'll finish this, and then we can all get on with living in the present and leave the past where it belongs. Okay?”
“Okay.”
Shaine released him and went back to his corner, sliding down the wall to cross his arms on his raised knees.
“So that's the current plan,” Kevin said briskly. “Full moon, I call a challenge on this demon-mage after moonrise, he calls his demon pals so you can kill them, then Lori and Shaine and I thump him, and we all call it a night and go back inside for cookies. Sound good?”
“Sounds good,” Aindry confirmed.
“Good. Then we're going to get back to mage talk and some experimenting, which is probably going to be extremely boring for anyone not directly involved. Especially 'cause we have a lot to do and not much time and can't slow down much to explain. You three go figure out useful approaches for killing demons or something, okay?”
“We can take a hint,” Jess said, getting up; his siblings followed his lead. “Don't overdo it.”
“We won't,” Lori assured him.
Jess ushered Aindry and Jaisan out ahead of him, musing about how he should be past being surprised by Shaine but couldn't seem to get there.
“Where did that come from?” Kevin asked quietly, behind Jess.
Shaine laughed, but it didn't sound like amusement. “Someone who's still trying to practice what he preaches. Can we get back to work today some time?”
With much more to think about—which he hardly needed—Jess went after his siblings.