Chapter Ten

Plans

"How are they?" Chris asked Alexandra Styles when she re-appeared in the parlour where Orin Travis was holding court with his daughter, Chris, Vin, Buck and Ezra in the aftermath of the latest Erran attack.

This time, Chris was convinced the Erran wouldn't be returning, at least for the next few hours which meant they had to come up with a plan of how to proceed next. The Erran had acquired the Heart and despite scoring that little victory, the fanatics could not hope to carry out their plan of unmaking the world without the remaining Pillars, still in the possession of the Professor and Alex Styles.

After rescuing Alex from the Erran at her home and realising they might have a possible lead on where her father might have hidden his cryptex, it was decided by Chris, much to Vin's relief, Alex could not be left alone lest the Erran tried to abduct her again. When it was daylight, they would return to the vicinity of Seton Village and track down this mound dwelling William Styles was so interested in. Chris's gut instinct told him the Pillar was there.

"They're all sleeping it off," Alex explained after attending to the three men who were heavily drugged when she arrived at the Travis's home with Vin and his friends. Grateful she had taken her father's doctor's bag with her when she left the house, Alex found herself with three patients once the Erran were driven from the home. "They've been dosed with what might be Henbane. Normally its ingested but in this instance, it was injected through the bloodstream."

"They were using a blowgun," Ezra spoke up, having returned his arm to its sling now that it was no longer required to shoot. "I narrowly missed being struck by the wretched darts myself."

"What's it doing to them?" Vin asked, recalling the state they'd found Josiah, Nathan and JD, all muttering incoherently in their delirium. Whatever they were seeing, didn't sound pleasant.

"It's a powerful hallucinogen," she explained. "I think it comes from Arabia if my toxicology studies are correct. Fortunately, my dad kept a bottle of Antilirium in his bag, so I've administered a dose to all three of your friends. That should help them recover from its effects. Give them a few hours to let it pass through their system and they should be okay."

"Thank you, Miss Styles," Chris said with appreciation. Aside from Vin's obvious pleasure at being in her company, Chris was grateful they had Alex with them. Especially with the perilous condition they found Josiah, Nathan and JD. While he could not be certain what nightmares they were experiencing in their delirium, he also knew those were the least of a hallucinogen's side effects. Chris had seen people die from such poisoning.

Alex had recognised the danger immediately and set to work, making Chris grateful they had a healer in their midst, especially if Nathan was himself incapacitated, even a fourth-year medical student.

"Please call me Alex," Alex gave the leader of the seven a little smile, which Chris found to be radiant. At that moment, Chris could see why it had affected Vin like a bullet to the brain.

Alex had now turned to Mary who was sitting on one of the wing chairs, holding a cold compress to her cheek. "Mare, how's that compress feeling?"

"Oh better," Mary said gratefully, lowering the cloth from her cheek, revealing the ugly bruise on her face.

The sight of it made Chris Larabee's spine stiffen in rage once more. As much as she was a pain in the ass, that lovely skin had no business being marred by such an ugly bruise and the ex-soldier was not at all impressed by anyone who would do that to a woman. When he had battled the Erran female earlier, he had loathed to strike her until his life was in jeopardy but the rough handling of Mary and Alex to intimidate both women, had properly inspired his dislike.

"Mr Standish, is your arm alright?" Alex noted Ezra's sling with concern. It appeared she was not the only one who suffered at the hands of the Erran tonight, not after seeing all the injuries sustained by the group of people who had entered her life since meeting Vin Tanner.

Ezra exchanged a glance with Vin, who was trying not to stare at Alex but appeared unable to help himself, making the cynical gambler smile a little. If this was the young lady who had ensnared their unflappable Mr Tanner's affections, he could well understand the attraction. She was exceedingly beautiful and more refined than expected for a minimalist like Vin. However, he did note the affection was mutual, which pleased Ezra to no end.

Like Chris and Buck, Ezra still remembered the scrawny young boy who had scoured the ruined landscape of Northern France to find him a medic when he was bleeding into the mud. Whether or not Vin knew it, the five men he served with would always feel a little protective of him, no matter how old or capable he was.

"Yes, I shall survive Miss Styles," Ezra answered Vin's paramour. "Mr Jackson attended to it earlier in the evening but I was forced to discard the sling to deal with our 'guests'."

"Alright," she nodded. "I can give you a hydrocodone tablet for the pain if you like."

"You are an angel my dear," Ezra remarked, "but I prefer to medicate with cognac."

"He does his best work that way," Vin added helpfully, impressed with her doctoring. When they had spoken on the roof, he merely thought her beautiful and funny. Now he was seeing she was also kind and highly educated. Although her credentials should have intimidated him, since Vin's schooling was nowhere that extensive, Alex looked at him as if he were special and that overcame his fears regarding their compatibility.

"Very droll Mr Tanner," Ezra said good naturedly and raised his glass to Vin, before taking a sip in confirmation of the sharpshooter's point.

"Alexandra, I'm glad you're safe," Orin Travis said gratefully before leaning back into his chair, relaxing after the day's trials. "I had hoped to warn you of those men tonight, but it appears I was too late."

"It's alright Orin, you couldn't have known they were going to come after me." Alex said taking the empty spot next to Vin on the leather sofa. The sharpshooter shifted to give her room, his hand covering hers when she was settled next to him.

"Unfortunately, this doesn't change the fact, we need a plan," Chris spoke up. The leader of the seven was leaning against the mantle above the fireplace, trying to decide what to do next. It was obvious, everyone in this room was in danger, especially now they were all known to the Erran. "They've got the heart and to make it work, they'll need the remaining cryptexes."

"Which means, they'll be back," Buck grumbled.

"It gets worse than that," Ezra volunteered. "I believe Doctor Styles's anxiety regarding the mythology of the Tablet has direct bearing on the daughters of the men who uncovered the artefacts in the first place. It is most likely the reason he took such great pains to conceal his own artefact and why he was so interested in the mythology surrounding it."

"What do you mean?" Chris asked, not liking the sound of this one damn bit.

"Part of the ritual to access the Heart's power involves sacrificing them," Ezra explained.

"Hell," Buck cursed out loud. "You mean they're going to need Mary and Alex?"

"It appears so," Orin replied. "No wonder Will was so worried about keeping the artefacts out of the Erran's reach. Without the complete list of artefacts, they can't initiate the ritual."

"Would they need all of the ladies?" Buck asked, not liking the idea that any woman in their company would be in danger that way. Like Chris, each time Buck saw the bruises on the faces of Mary and Alex, he had to grit his teeth to stave off his rage. Growing up in a bordello where his mother Rose was a working girl, Buck had grown to loathe any man taking their fists to a woman after seeing how some customers behaved.

"I'm not sure," Orin answered truthfully, casting a look at both Mary and Alex respectively, his concern for their safety apparent on his face. "Your father was the expert on the Tablet." He said to Alex.

"All right," Chris nodded, absorbing all the new intelligence presented to him and quickly formulated a plan of attack. "In the morning, assuming the kid is in any shape to think straight, me, Vin and JD are going to head back to Doctor Styles's place in Seton Village. I want JD to go over his research on the Tablet and the details about the ritual. My hunch is, they don't need all your daughters to make it work. If so, they'd be already in trouble."

"How so?" Alex had to ask, being the only one in the room not aware of Chris's past.

"Hank Connelly's daughter Sarah was my wife," Chris said quietly, "she's been..." he paused a moment when the word caught in his throat. "Gone for five years," he continued after a second. Even after all these years, Chris couldn't bring himself to say the word 'dead'. He just couldn't.

Alex was dismayed by the sorrow she saw in the man's eyes and immediately felt guilty for inadvertently surfacing such an obviously still open wound. Sensing he would prefer she not dwell on it, she opted to push past the moment. "I'm sorry Chris," she said obligatorily. "But yes, that does make sense."

Chris realised what she was doing and gave her a little smile of appreciation, noting Mary's eyes fixed on him at that moment as well, an enigmatic look on her face as she studied him. Shaking off her scrutiny because he couldn't get a bead on it, Chris returned to their discussion. "While JD's doing the research, Vin and me will go try and track down the Pillar. Alex you'll have to come with us. You know where this place is."

Alex nodded. "Alright," she replied and felt Vin's hand squeezing hers and felt a surge of warmth at how good it felt.

"What about the Professor?" Ezra inquired. "Neither he nor Miss Travis can remain here. The Erran were chased off because of your untimely arrival but they are proving to be increasingly persistent. I do not doubt they will be back and soon."

"Ezra's right Chris," Vin added, looking at Orin. "They'll try to grab you and Miss Travis, not just for their ritual but for leverage. Chances are they'll need to use her to try and force you into giving them the Pillar."

"Wonderful," Mary grumbled. "If we don't give it to them, they're going to keep coming after us and if we do, they'll snatch either me or Alex."

"Maybe Vin is right," Buck sighed. "Maybe we need to destroy one of the pieces to make it impossible for them to carry out the ritual at all.

"Destroy?" Orin's expression showed his abhorrence to that idea. Like all scholars, the idea of destroying an ancient relic was horrifying to him but his distaste soon withered into understanding when he realised what the stakes were and how conclusive this action would be to ending the threat of the Erran.

"I don't think that would help," Chris replied. "I get the feeling if we did that, they'd kill us all out of spite. First things first, we get you and your daughter out of here. We need to hide you out some place they won't think to look."

"They've been watching us for a long time Chris," Orin sighed unable to ignore that reality. "For years as a matter of fact. I don't know where we could hide they might not know about."

The man's face was glum. His fears, Chris suspected, were not for himself, but for his daughter.

"I got a place," Chris replied after a moment, his expression unreadable and his decision not to elaborate was telling. "Pack a bag, tell the university you won't be coming in for at least a week. Miss Travis, I suggest you do the same. In the meantime, Buck when Nathan and Josiah are on their feet, we need to retrieve the Professor's cryptex. Where is it Orin?"

"Well I decided to keep it in the best place you keep anything valuable, in a vault at the bank." Orin volunteered.

"That sounds safe enough," Buck agreed. "No way they would try to break into a bank to get the damn thing."

"I am not so certain," Ezra shrugged not about to discount the possibility. "The actions of the Erran so far have proven they had little regard for our institutions or how much collateral damage they are willing to do to gain what they want. They attacked a museum full of the city's most illustrious citizens, with the intention of slaughtering them all to get their hands on the Heart. To say nothing of the fact, they managed to regroup after their initial failure to launch another attack on the same night. While it might seem beyond their reach to make the attempt, I would not put it past them."

"Ezra's right," Chris agreed with a frown. "We can't assume they won't make a run for it but the moment, they don't know where it is. That's the best thing we got going for us but Ezra's also right about how fast they put together another attack."

"What do you know about these Erran?" Vin asked. "I mean aside from the fact they're a bunch of murdering bastards who want to remake the world or something."

"William is the real expert..." Orin started to say when Mary interupted.

"The Erran existed from the first century," she explained, giving her father a look to let him know she could take it from here. Since Orin took her into his confidence about the Erran and the Pillars, Mary had conducted her own research into the cult and uncovered a wealth of information regarding the history of the Erran. "According to what I was able to uncover, they were worshippers of the ancient Mesopotamian deity Erra, who is the God of Chaos and Destruction, but were either wiped out or driven underground in the 6th century by the rise of the Muslim caliphate."

"It would make sense," Chris replied, hiding how impressed he was with her at having this information. Of course, she was probably still an opinionated pain in the ass, but still pretty to look at. "The caliphates weren't too tolerant of false gods once Islam entered the mainstream. They would have definitely placed any cult like that under persecution."

"Charming," Ezra frowned. "Because extreme behaviour has such a proven track record of stamping out the followers of such religions. I am certain the Romans thought they had seen the last of those pesky Christians when they fed the poor souls to the lions."

"Exactly," she flashed Ezra a smile.

Chris bristled inwardly, feeling a surge of irritation when the gambler returned it with his trademarked dimpled smile. For some reason, the idea of Ezra around Orin Travis's daughter rubbed him the wrong way, even if Chris had no interest in the woman at all, not in the slightest, even if she did have the most magnificent legs he'd ever seen and equally captivating eyes. Absolutely no interest at all.

"Go on," he said brusquely, shooting Ezra a look of annoyance for interrupting her when he wanted to hear what else she had to say. Yeah, that was the reason, an inner voice snorted in sarcasm.

From where he was, Buck Wilmington stifled the shit eating grin of knowing that would have surely landed him a knuckle sandwich if he chose to make comment about his observations regarding Chris's behaviour.

"Well it's probably why they disappeared for nearly twelve hundred years," Mary resumed speaking, noting the flash in the man's icy blue eyes, she couldn't understand. "In the late 1800s, they showed up in England as the Children of Erran, led by a man called Narseh Shah. Narseh was an Arabian professor who claimed to be the descendant of Adashir Shah, the first ruler of the Sassanid Empire. He managed to successfully convert a lot of rich aristocrats from London society, the kind that used to follow Aleister Crowley around."

"The psychic? Alex exclaimed, wondering if this story could get any more bizarre. Leaning into the sofa, she found herself resting in the crook of Vin's shoulder, feeling bewildered because she had no idea the tales her father told her had so much to do with his death.

"Yes," Mary nodded, the same. "In any case, it was Narseh who first introduced the idea of remaking the world using the old legend of Enki and the Tablets. These followers were devoted enough to fund him and so the movement grew. Now, I have very little about the specifics of the cult beyond that, but I do know that Narseh died, leaving the Erran in the hands of his two children. His son Adashir, named after the Sassanid king and a daughter Aisha. They were born in the 1900s."

"Chris," Vin spoke up. "He could have been the son of a bitch who escaped through the window, when I got to Alex. He was the one giving the orders and trying to get Alex to talk."

Upon mentioning it, Vin felt Alex shudder slightly at the memory of the encounter. She pressed her body closer to his, prompting Vin to wrap a comforting arm around her shoulders.

"And the gal with the fancy chemicals you and Ezra tangled with, could be the daughter," Buck pointed out.

"She did appear to be giving the orders as well," Ezra agreed with Buck's assertion.

"Well you can't stay here," Chris declared, even more convinced they needed to leave the place tonight. "You need to get packing," he turned to Orin. "I don't think we should wait around here until they make another attempt to get their hands on you. The Pillars you have in your possession is all that stands in their way of carrying out their ritual."

"And I guarantee you," Ezra said grimly, "the next time they appear, they will be coming back in numbers to abduct either Miss Travis or Miss Styles, possibly even both. If they wish the Professor to produce his cryptex, they will require the leverage."

Orin stiffened at the thought, casting an anxious glance at Mary who seemed no happier at the prospect. She'd seen what the Erran was willing to do at the museum and her throat still throbbed from where that behemoth almost choked the life out of her. She had no wish to be in their power again.

"Let's get moving," Chris noticed the fear in her eyes. "We'll get all three of you somewhere safe and then decide how to deal with the Erran."

This time his tone was nowhere as harsh as it had been, especially when he saw the vulnerability beneath the self-assured mask Mary wore to reinforce her ability to take care of herself.

"Where do you plan to keep us Mr Larabee?" Mary asked, indicating more than just herself and her father, but Alex too. It seemed both of them were going to be the price for their father's youthful follies.

"At the ranch." Chris replied, not meeting the gazes of any one of his friends.

"The ranch?" Buck exclaimed, staring at Chris in nothing less than shock. He hadn't heard Chris mention the place in years, not since Adam and Sarah had died.

"Yeah," Chris shrugged uncomfortably and noted both Vin and Ezra staring at him in puzzlement. "I own a ranch. I just haven't spent a lot of time up there, that's all."

Buck shot both men a silent order not to pursue the matter and take Chris's explanation at face value. Vin and Ezra caught the look and took the advice, perfectly aware if Buck was giving the warning, it was for good reason. It most likely had to do with the one subject Chris Larabee would not discuss with anyone despite their camaraderie. The death of his wife and son. After four years together, the rest of the seven knew that topic was absolutely off limits.

Later on, when time and discretion permitted it, Buck would explain to them about the Larabee ranch located between Santa Fe and Albuquerque.

Shortly before the tragedy, Chris had bought the property, intending to move the family there from the military housing provided by Kirtland Army Base where Chris was stationed at the time. Sarah had hated not having a home of her own and Buck knew they had discussed expanding their family, so the additional space was needed. Chris's father left him an inheritance after the man's passing and he'd bought it as a surprise for Sarah.

It was a surprise she would never see because two days after Chris signed the papers, Sarah and Adam died in a house fire. Chris had never gone back to the place, even though he still owned it. Buck supposed it was a good sign Chris had even mentioned it now, let alone offer it as a safe house for the Professor and the two ladies. Besides, Orin Travis had given them purpose when they were at the lowest points in their lives and strengthened the frayed bonds of their friendship into brotherhood.

They owed him.