“Can I go to your place and pack you a bag?”

Helena turned to her mom again. “Yes, please. That would be so appreciated. And can you please pack some of those spell volumes? The ones I’ve been working through are on the dresser in my bedroom. Take Evan with you.”

No one would be traveling without a guard anymore. The world had just changed and if they didn’t change with it, more people would end up dead, and it sure wasn’t going to be her mother, if Helena had any say.

“Don’t worry, I’ve gotten used to it.” Rain rolled her eyes, but squeezed Helena’s hand. “I’ll run over and be back as soon as I can.”

When she entered the room, The Gennessee, because that’s most definitely who Rebecca Gennessee was right then, stood up and began clapping.

Blushing furiously, Helena looked to the side and then behind herself.

“Oh for goodness’ sake. Helena Jaansen, you’re a hero. Stop looking around,” her father said in her ear as they moved to sit.

She waved at them to stop. “Thank you. Very much. But I didn’t do anything special.”

Rebecca gave her a very imperious look. “You stopped an explosion. How is that not anything special? I can’t stop a bomb and I’m a Full Council witch.”

“To be honest? I think many of us can do far more than we could before the Magister. So if I can deflect the energy of an explosion, imagine what a Full Council witch can do?”

Rebecca nodded, sitting down. “You make a good point. Then again, my point still stands. What you did was an act of service and heroism. You saved lives and you, my darling hunter, did it on television.”

“On television?”

Rebecca laughed, clearly delighted to relay the news. “Someone in the crowd was filming with a cell phone. When the pigs at PURITY began to accuse us of setting it up to make ourselves look better, the camera video began to flow in. Some from people who counted us as enemies until the moment you would have died to protect them.”

Helena blew out a breath. This was double edged. Good that they were seen to have saved lives. But now that the humans knew they had this sort of power, who was to say that they wouldn’t want to try to harness that power for military use or worse?

She said as much, only more diplomatically.

Rebecca sat back, her fingers steepled in front of her mouth. “You’ve done a lot of growing up since you took this job. The Helena who came on to the squad with her sister wouldn’t have seen that nuance. You’re right, of course. Which is one of my reservations about getting too close with some of these humans in government like Agent Anderson. A nice man, yes, but he doesn’t serve two masters. He’s a government man and I don’t doubt that he’d throw you in the back of a truck and take you away where you’d never see the light of day if he thought it would serve his government.”

There it was. The baldest of truths out there. And some words when spoken couldn’t be taken back.

It was no longer their government. It was his government. The gulf had grown far deeper than they could manage to bridge with talking and debate.

“I agree. And it is my recommendation that we create a military arm of the Council of Others. We need to protect ourselves and send out patrols. We can no longer rely on the human authorities to protect us. They want to put us in camps and put GPS chips in our bodies.”

Rebecca nodded. “I will address all of Clan Gennessee, along with the Owen, who will address the Owen’s members. In that address, we will urge our witches to move into one of the armed enclaves popping up all over the West Coast. We will help as we can with expenses, but we can’t protect everyone in their own neighborhoods. We’re fortunate that a great many witches already tend to live in clusters. I’d like for you and your people to give me a concrete idea of who can be protected in the current population situation. And then how we can get those who are too far out or all alone in a part of town protected.”

“The group who runs the enclave Faine lives in down in Huntington Beach has two witches on their board. I’ll liaise with them about setting up other groups, as well as touch base with the hunter arms of different Other groups in our territory. There’s strength in numbers and shared resources will lessen the financial burden as well.”

“I wish we didn’t have to do this. But we do and I am fortunate to have such a fine staff to make it happen. Helena, I know you and Faine have to get back to Seattle for the big meeting. I’ll be joining you via video.”

“I’ll get you the information as soon as I can. I’ll start the calls now.” She nodded, standing.

“Your sister is well?”

“Yes. Shaken up. Simon had just finished construction on the house less than a year ago. Most of the furnishings and things inside were destroyed. But we weren’t. We’d been out on a run. But there was someone on the trail with a gun and silver ammo. They think they know what Simon and Faine are.”

“And they’re willing to kill. We knew this before. With Molly. With the countless Others who’ve been assaulted and killed since this mess started. And we need to be willing to defend ourselves with that same zeal. If it’s us or them, Helena, it will damn well be us.”

Helena agreed.

AFTER the meeting Faine held her up at the airfield. “I need to leave you for a few hours. I’ll see you in Seattle when you land.”

Helena narrowed her gaze his way. “What are you up to?”

He took her shoulders. “Twice. Twice in one day these humans have tried to kill what is mine to protect. This cannot go unanswered.”

Part of her thrilled at the possessive note in his tone and the other part, the one not near any erogenous zones, tightened up. “Yours?”

“Hush. You know it’s true and things are too dire to deny it any longer. I’m not playing silly games. You are mine to protect. I can accept that you need time to fully embrace what is between us. But I won’t accept that you don’t understand what is there. And what my nature is. I’m not a human male. I have more patience on most everything, but not this.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

His severity washed away on a smile. He kissed her quickly. “A first.”

“Ha. What are you going to do?”

“I’m going home for a bit. Simon is meeting me there. I’ll let you know the outcome when I see you when you get off this plane. You’ll be safe while you’re in the air.”

Safe as she could be anyway. Nowhere was totally safe. Not anymore.

“I’m absolutely sure this is going to mean trouble for me.”

His grin was back. A brief flash of teeth. “I’ll see you soon.”

She got on the plane and he got into a car and sped away.

He met Simon in the wide field just on the other side of the Veil. They clasped forearms and headed to the main house.

“What did you tell Lark?”

“I told her I was coming here. She’s . . .” Simon’s mouth flattened in a hard line. “She’s shaken in a way I haven’t seen. This was her home. The one place she felt safe, and now she doesn’t have that. She’s damned lucky I don’t just toss her ass through the Veil and move us both here permanently.”

Faine blew out a breath.

“I told her I had had enough and I was speaking to my father. I didn’t say what about exactly. I got the feeling she just assumed it was to inform Father of the bombing, and given the amount of things she has to manage today, I didn’t give her any more detail. Helena?”

“I told her twice in one day what was mine to protect was threatened and it couldn’t be borne any longer, and that I was coming here. I’m guessing her assumptions were the same as Lark’s.”

Pere’s soldiers came out to greet them as they moved to the house where their oldest brother and their father awaited them.

Cross Leviathan gave both his sons a raised brow as they entered his office and went to one knee. He touched the backs of their heads. “Get up and tell me what brings you here. Not that I’m unhappy to see you. I’m pleased, but I can see this isn’t a social call.”