Cat was still marveling at the "hospital" actually being a wing of the Boston Slayer Headquarters when Willow ushered her into the research room.
Then marvel turned to complete disbelief.
The research room resembled the launch room at NASA. Banks of big-screen LCD monitors lined the walls. Rows of tables filled with laptops, file folders, and busy people rounded out the image. "What is this place?" Cat had been hoping for a quiet corner and a laptop. A place to chat with Frost, who was no doubt coordinating the raid; a place to help with some of the hunt for evidence.
"Welcome to the heart of every Council HQ," Willow answered. "This is our telecommunications center." As she talked, she continued forward into the room. People who had been rushing along the narrow aisle between the tables jumped out of their way with mumbled apologies. Willow ignored it all.
Cat didn't ignore any of it. She decided to pay very close attention to her escort. Willow must be very highly placed in the Council. People almost bowed to Willow. Bow to a submissive? Some of the fawning masses were Dominants.
"You can work here." An empty station magically appeared as two of the Council workers grabbed stacks of files and ran. Willow nodded in satisfaction. "I've arranged a personal log on for you." At a wave of her hand, a man stepped forward and handed Cat a half sheet of paper. "Change the password once you're logged on then you'll be able to access the BPD mainframe. We use an encrypted system so all the data is secure. Just don't surf porn sites. Giles and his cronies take a dim view of that on Council time."
"Sure. Thanks. No porn." Cat dropped into a chair and stared numbly at the screen for a minute. The action in the room continued without her. Willow moved a few feet away and commandeered her own workstation. When she slipped a Bluetooth earpiece in and began to issue orders in a firm, quiet tone, Cat woke up. She typed the user ID and password into the waiting boxes.
In seconds, she was online. Someone set an earpiece on the table next to Cat. Frost was already on the other end of the line. She could hear him talking to someone in the background through the earpiece. Other conversations sprang to life from speakers embedded in the tables. Cat easily identified Faith and Jane. Shocked, she matched the multiple conversations to the individual monitors on the wall. Each of the raid teams was wired for audio and video; Cat would be as close to there as the images on the screen. "Frost, it's Cat. I'm with Willow at the Council HQ. How can I help?" she announced in a voice low enough to be picked up by the Bluetooth and quiet enough not to disturb anyone else in the room.
"Hey, Cat!" Frost's voice was loud and clear. "Tara called and said you wouldn't make it. We should have known better."
Tara. Cat smiled automatically. Wait. "Tara called?" Of course she had. She'd been clear in her expectation that Cat stay in the hospital bed. Her stomach churned with a mix of anticipation and unease. Cat wasn't some unbonded submissive now. Tara was responsible for Cat's behavior. Quickly changing the subject, Cat asked, "How does the case look? I assume we have arrest warrants for Parker and Stewart."
"And the rest of the Legion founders as well." Frost paused, and the line went completely silent. He was back a moment later. "Sorry, Cat. It looks like both teams are ready for the raid. I've got to go."
Cat hated to be shut out. Hated it. "I'll talk to you later." She tapped the button on the earpiece to hang up the call and turned her attention the monitors.
"This is Rizzoli. Do we have a go on Stewart?" Jane asked. Her voice filled the left side of the room, and Cat watched as a camera swung in a dizzying arc and stopped right on Jane. She glared at the lens before looking away.
While Jane waited for someone to answer her, the images on the right-side monitors began moving. "Let's go, boys and girls. We don't need a warrant for our part." It was Faith, with Tara at her side. Cat tore her eyes away from Jane, needing to make sure her bondmates made it through the fighting.
She could never have imagined what happened then, as Slayers swarmed around Faith and ran toward a darkened building. Bright, colored lights lit up the screen in blinding flashes. The illumination highlighted other, non-moving figures – one of which was Tara. Her voice sounded faintly through the shouts and battle cries of the Slayers, chanting. Cat couldn't understand the words. She did, however, understand how powerful Tara was when the colored lights changed to fireballs on a scale much grander than the tiny one Tara had used in the warehouse bar.
"Holy shit," Cat whispered. Tara was amazing. Cat felt a familiar tingle run along her nerves and sucked in a deep breath. This was not the time to get hot and bothered. Tara and Faith were nowhere near, and Cat was not about to make a display of herself in public again.
It was difficult to keep track of all of the raid teams as more and more of the monitors sprang to life. Jane's crew stormed through Jonathan Stewart's home during a party. Guests stared wide-eyed at the uniformed officers and detectives. The camera with Faith's crew was on the move. It bounced and hopped around so badly that, at times, Cat had to tear her eyes away.
Other monitors shared in the shaky images in different locations: an office building, a bar, warehouses similar to the ones Cat had visited with Faith and Tara. Scenes involving humans generally ended with handcuffed suspects. Ones with Slayers included magical pyrotechnics and clouds of dust.
The Legion was going down. Cat noticed that no one in the Council room was cheering, though. They all remained attentive to the monitors and their computer screens. Cat got up and moved closer to Willow, who had yet to stop snapping orders.
"Team Three, we have activity ahead. Wait for magical reinforcements." Willow's fingers moved so rapidly over the keyboard they appeared to fly. "I know you're ready to move in. I said to wait. We don't need to lose anyone because you have a hero complex."
Ouch. Cat felt sorry for whomever Willow had verbally shredded.
"Detective Frost, I'm sending a file we intercepted from Allison Parker's office. It's encrypted but we managed to break the code. It will help with warrants for bank accounts and more of the Legion's business locations." How did Willow keep track of everything? She seemed to jump from topic to topic without pause. Images and information flashed across her computer, and some kind of code scrolled on a separate monitor.
One of the men working on a laptop on the other side of the room held up a hand. "Willow! We need reinforcements for Team Seven. Two already down, and we've lost the video feed."
Spinning around, Cat scanned the monitors. One of them was ominously black.
The announcement opened the floodgates on other trouble spots. Voices rose around the room. Men and women shouted status reports and more monitors went black or held images of slain or wounded Slayers and cops. The Legion was fighting back. Adding to the horror, gunfire exploded through the speakers as at least three monitors lit with muzzle flashes.
Cat couldn't breathe. Fear ballooned in her chest. Faith and Tara were out there. The bond beckoned. She could reach for them and know they were fine in a heartbeat. But reaching for them could distract them at exactly the wrong moment. Cat fought the compulsion to check on her Dominants. Logic said if one of them had been injured, she would have already known. The bond was still there, still buzzing with the usual low-level hum.
Sinking into the chair nearest Willow, Cat kept her eyes glued to the monitor showing Faith's team. They were deep inside the building now. It was dark, so dark the video was backlit with the strange neon green of night vision.
Everything else, every sound, every image faded into the background. Cat's world played out on a single monitor. Faith's voice came through the speakers occasionally, shouting orders or taunting whatever vampire she fought. Tara was harder to trace. She was rarely in camera view. There were no flashes of magic lighting the scene. It stayed dark and green-tinged.
Minutes turned to hours. Cat never moved. Nothing mattered except the monitor. She was so intent on the action, she didn't realize that the fighting had stopped. Faith's voice had settled into a raspy growl. "Let's pack it up. Nothing left to kill here. Red, you need us anywhere else?"
"No, Faith. We have backup teams in position, and emergency medical crews are deployed." Willow was relentlessly energetic. "Head back to headquarters. Transport is on the way. Do you have wounded?"
Wounded. Cat stiffened and held her breath until Faith answered. "No. We're good. Nothing more than bumps or bruises."
They were good. Slumping over the table, Cat realized she was drenched in sweat and shaking.
"Gonna have to work on that faith, tiger. Me and T are one of the best teams the Council has." Faith's comment didn't have the ring of a boast. It was simple fact. "Nothing's keeping us from coming back to you."
"I'll be waiting," Cat fired back.
A trickle of amusement colored the link. "But not in bed like I told you," Tara added.
"I'll save that for when you get back here safe and sound." Cat didn't care that she'd spoken out loud. There were others doing the same throughout the room. Others who wore dazed, flushed expressions. She would bet each of them was bonded to a Slayer or witch in the field. "You can tuck me in, Ma'am."
Tara's surge of arousal and the sense of satisfaction was so strong Cat gasped. "Count on it, Cat. Count on it."
Their voices dropped away, and Cat pressed her hands flat on the table. Faith and Tara were on their way back, but they weren't there yet. "Willow, you have anything else I can do?"
Without glancing away from her computer, Willow responded, "I'll email you a couple of files, Cat. Read through them and… well, just read them, OK?" There was something in her voice that put on Cat alert.
She strode back to her abandoned workstation, and logged back in. There was an email icon on the screen. Sure enough, when Cat opened the program, Willow's email sat in the inbox. There were two attachments.
Cat clicked on the first one and skimmed the first few paragraphs before she realized what Willow had sent. Her eyes went back to the top of page.
Lehane, Faith. Senior Slayer.
Birth Date: 12/14/82
Status: Active
Slayer's Council Potential Identification Team, Entry 3/5/1998
At 22:04 Zulu, the PIT received notification of Slayer Lehane's activation. Lehane was not previously identified as a Potential. Notification beacons place Lehane in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Retrieval Team Two has been dispatched.
Watcher's Diary of Diana Dormer, Entry 3/14/1998
On first evaluation, Faith presented as aggressive with episodes of over-sexualization. Faith deflected any questions regarding her family members or her life in Boston. Based on the Retrieval Team's report as well as the medical report from Dr. Thaddeus Fletcher, I believe Faith suffered some type of childhood trauma or abuse.
Cat read the entire report in minutes and then read it again. It took three tries to close the file. No wonder Faith had never talked about her home life. It took all of Cat's self control not to throw the laptop across the room in a fit of rage. How could Faith have hidden this? Cat had been her submissive. Then again…Why hadn't Cat pushed for information? She'd known Faith hadn't ever wanted to spend time at home. That Faith had often seemed uneasy and anxious. If Cat hadn't been so selfish and self-absorbed… At least she had an answer about their bond now. It helped. A little.
"Are you alright?" A slender woman with long dark hair observed her closely.
"I'm fine." Cat's response was automatic and was met with the universal sign of Dominant disbelief, a raised eyebrow. "Really."
The eyebrow didn't lower.
"Janna!" Willow interrupted the stare down between Cat and the other woman. "When did you get back?" With a happy squeal, Willow threw herself into Janna's arms. "I wanted to call you a million times."
A smile lightened Janna's stern expression. "Yet you didn't. Such a good girl." They kissed and Cat turned back to the laptop, not wanting to witness their reunion. Janna was made of sterner stuff, though. She set Willow down on the table next to Cat. "I recognize you from Willow's description, Detective McLearen. Shouldn't you be in the hospital wing?"
Fantastic. Would every Dominant hound Cat until she was back in a hospital bed? "I haven't been cleared for the field," Cat admitted. "I can still work on a computer, though. There's no danger here." Except the holes punched in her emotions from the reports Willow had emailed.
Leaning forward, Janna peered over Cat's shoulder. "The raids are over. What are you…" She broke off and turned her attention to Willow. A Willow who studiously examined the toes of her chunky Merrell Wilderness Boots. "That looks like a classified personnel file, dragă."
"Maybe." Willow bit her lip before a flood of words flowed out. "She needed to know, Doamnă. Faith and Tara are my friends. Cat is their bondmate. They've been through enough without reliving their pasts. You know what I'm talking about…about things…what the past does to Faith. How she gets! And she's worse when Tara talks about her father."
She might have babbled on longer if Janna hadn't kissed Willow to silence. "You are lucky I agree with you," she said softly after pulling away.
"You do? I mean, you do." Willow bounced happily on the table.
Janna laughed and took Willow's hand. "Come. Let's give the detective time to finish her reports. I would imagine the rest of the teams will be returning soon, and there won't be a lot of time for reading after that." Hand in hand, they wandered to the far side of the room, leaving Cat alone at the workstation.
Cat closed Faith's file and opened the other.
Maclay, Tara. Hereditary Witch
Birth Date: 10/16/80
Status: Active
She had to wipe away tears as she scrolled through the information.
A/N: Despite hours of research, I wasn't able to locate any good information on the Romani language. The terms used by Willow and Janna are Romanian. Dragă means "sweetheart" and Doamnă means "Ma'am."