Ilona Andrews own the kate daniels series.
A/N: The war begins...
Un-beta'd
Chapter 6 - Surprise-Not the good one
All of the shapshifters the Pack could reasonably do without assembled themselves in the Mole Hole. Emotions ran high as they remembered the terrible fight against Erra. The lives lost, the lives ruined. Curran and Kate were at the frontline, doing a last minute scouting of the land. Wind whipped at their faces. Every inch of the expanse was carved into their mind's eye. Too many lives had been lost to allow them to forget anytime soon. Curran held Kate close, inhaling the sweet lavender scent that was hers alone.
"Feels like deja vu, doesn't it?" Kate asked.
"Hell's a better place than this," Curran agreed. He kissed her on the head. "Somehow the Gods decided that I should be given you." Kate looked up at him, a snide comment on the tip of her tongue. She saw the look on his face and blinked. A smile slowly brightened up her face. Kate kissed him lightly on the cheek.
"You ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be." He tested the ground with a hand. "I don't trust her."
Kate's eyes widened. "Why-"
"I'm curious as to how she's going to go about securing us a complete victory. She's...confident. You saw for yourself in the interview. It's near impossible to have zero casualties in a battle, especially with the odds-"
"-stacked completely against us," Kate finished for him. She stared at Curran, worry clouding her dark eyes. "Curran, are you sure about this? Roland-" He silenced her with a long, thorough kiss that made her forget everything.
"-doesn't matter. I chose you out of my own free will and love everything about you. Even when you drive me out of my skull with frustration. If I didn't, there's no way in hell or heaven I was going to be paired with you." Kate scowled.
"Sure, sugarlips." Curran frowned, wondering where he'd gone wrong.
"Kate, I just want you to know I'd thought through everything. I didn't plunged into this blindly without knowing all the variables. I love you. I want to be with you. Forever. I'll still want you when I'm all old and wrinkly, and I still want you there to kick my ass." Kate's eyes softened. Something flashed through her gaze, but quickly vanished. Kate kissed Curran softly on the lips, luxuriating in the moment. Hot, wet and...
"Are you done?" They hastily broke apart. Cold grey eyes looked quietly at them; making no comments. Seleyda. Twin swords hung on her hips. The hilt of the daggers peeked out of the sleeve of her jacket. She turned her head for a moment, highlighting a small scar behind her left ear, and seemed to be listening for something. The scar looked like a bite mark. "The Pack's been assembled." She pressed the small bundle into Curran's hand. "Will you lead?" Curran was surprised. A smile quirked on the edges of her face. "You're the Beast Lord, after all. I'm just your humble servant."
Curran smirked. "After that rousing speech, I'd thought you were vying for the throne."
"Well I hope there were enough bathrooms nearby to fit all the couples." Seleyda winced. "Bad joke. Sorry." She looked away. "Thrones don't go well with me."
"Too much power?" Curran guessed.
"Too much variables." Seleyda smiled sadly. "...I have too strong a sense of morality. I couldn't bear to force my own will on others just because of a stupid crown on my head. I'm no god, and I have no wish to be burned at the-" She stopped. Her throat worked for a moment. Seleyda rubbed her forehead. "I just...don't want to become a tyrant. I don't want people to start hoping for me to become their guardian angel." She bit her lip. "I won't live forever."
Seleyda breathed unsteadily. "I wasn't sure which direction you were going for. I didn't think you'd actually help a teengaer who, before today, was a pain in the a-behind." The side of Curran's mouth tipped into a smile. "I needed everyone to listen to me, for the plan to work. The speech was the only way."
"Why didn't you use the word stake?" Kate asked. Seleyda flinched. "I just..." She looked at Curran. "I want to be sure."
"I was crucified when I was two. Left out in the wild for two weeks. I spent the time watching my mom die staked through her gut." Pain filled those cool grey eyes. "Now you understand?"
Curran took a step back, stunned with pain. "Angelique..."
"I wanted to save you the grief." Seleyda looked away, pursing her lips softly. Despite the shock, Curran zeroed in on her expression, trying to figure out where he'd seen it before, on another more familiar face. She looked at Kate suddenly. "Come with me." She looked back at Curran. "Don't...Don't miss." Curran blinked. Seleyda stared at him for a long moment. Something passed through them. She closed her eyes and quickle walked away. Seleyda stopped a few yards away. "You coming?"
Kate hurried over. "What is it?"
Seleyda put a finger to her lips. "No. Not yet." she half-sang, half-commanded in a single long note. Kate looked at Seleyda, hand touching her sword, Slayer. Then, Curran realized something.
She's scared.
"What did you do?" Kate demanded, horrified and curious at the same time. Curran looked ready to kill Seleyda, his eyes turning molten gold.
"Spell of silence. Forms an invisible wall that rebounds every syllable you utter," Seleyda explained. She adjusted her daggers nervously.
"You're scared," Kate realized. "Why did you pull us into this scheme of yours?"
"And you aren't?" Seleyda countered. She let out a tightle restrained hiss, her gorgeous grey eyes flickering away. "Do you love him?"
Kate jerked back as if slapped. "What?"
"Do you love the man?" She jerked her head towards a murderous Curran.
"With my life," Kate answered honestly. "Why?"
"...there's a chance that he won't be there tomorrow in your castle on the cloud when you wake up and the sun shines through the window."
"How big?"
"Eighty-seven." Suddenly, Seleyda found herself a hair's breadth away from an irate Kate. Her sword, Slayer, seemed to have jumped into her hand and was glowing eeriely.
"Why the fuck did you pull us into this?" She hissed. "This had better be a joke or I swear nothing will stop me from cleaving you into two!" Kate ended it with a low growl.
"The size of the facilities the LVIP is given access to depends on the amount of fresh meat they can safely gain access to without risking exposure to the PAD or MSDU," Seleyda managed. "The bigger the source, the larger the places are. The Death Valley branch was the size of a football field and that was the smallest of all the branches around the world. It churned out a hundred shifters annually. Try to imagine what a branch located in a city the size of Atlanta would be able to create, with five years of dogged trials and a willingness to use any patient they can find."
One loup shifter was a killing spree. A hundred of them was a complete massacre. With the added boost of strength and speed, it would be the worst-case scenario in hell.
"I'd hoped beyond hope that their quality isn't good. I'd hoped their resources had been failures. I'd gambled on the chance that their success percentile was weak. I was wrong. I can't stop it at this point of time, even if I want to. The shapeshifters are all still running a buzz high from my speech and bloodlust for the coming battle." Her eyes projected what her lips already said and cannot deny. I can't win this.
"What do we do?"
"I'm going to give you something. You don't ask me what it is and you don't argue with me on this." Seleyda gestured the situation around her neck. Kate released her, and nodded as way of saying she agreed. "I've coached Jezebel and Barabas on this." She passed Kate a necklace. An Elivish charm hung on it. Kate opened her mouth. "Nuh uh. You promised." Kate scowled. "Hit Curran with it. As long as this hits flesh, he'll go out like a light. The necklace also has a bomb feature that goes off in five seconds after impact. Throw it as hard as you can and run like hell when you hear Jezebel and Barabas' signal. Don't turn back, don't stop and don't wait. The moment the second signal sounds, everyone will stampede. You won't have time for anything else, I assure you." Kate limped slightly. "What's wrong with your leg?"
Kate grimaced. "It's my knee. Old injury. Acts up from time to time."
"Well, we can't have that." Seleyda bent down. Kate almost took a step back. Seleyda snagged her feet. "Hmm. Cartilage discrepancy. Broken several times too." Seleyda opened her mouth. A white fog escaped her mouth in a continuous stream, wrapping around the whole of Kate's knee. She gasped at the sudden burst of heat running through her leg, which melted into an intense coolness. "This will do."
"W-What did you do?" Kate stammered.
"I healed you." Seleyda got up. "Your medmage is really good." She smirked at something behind Kate. "I see my time's up."
"Wait!" Seleyda pursed her lips in annoyance.
"What?"
"Why are you helping us?"
"I don't want to leave something behind that's going to haunt me for the rest of my days because I didn't try to change it. I don't want to leave them-" she indicated the Taj Mahal in the distance. "-behind to creat more monsters. There are more than enough as it is outside. Never would be too short for the likes of the monstrosities we are about to face." Kate gave her a searching look.
"You killed all of them, didn't you? The one at Death Valley."
"Yes."
"Why?"
A cool smile tipped Seleyda's lips. "Because I fucking hate the undead." KAte frowned. Seleyda took the moment to dispel the charm on their surroundings. In an instant, Curran appeared and was doing a remarkable impression of a pointer at a pheasant.
"Are you okay?" He said carefully, drawing each syllable out.
"Y-Yeah," Kate answered distractedly. "I'm fine." Curran crushed her in a bear hug. A wererat in warrior form stopped in front of Seleyda.
" 'la' 'imb'e isssh reaaady, ma'aaam,' the wererat announced, his jaw making it nearly intelligible.
"Get the group ready," Seleyda said. A gust of wind blew at her. Strands of hair loosened themselves from her blond braid as they whipped across her face. Against the backdrop of endless land, she looked like Joan of Arc, readying for battle. The spell broke as she turned back to face the Beast Lord in all his golden fury with unflinching resolve.
"What were you talking about?" Curran asked, carefully drawing each word out.
A smirk caught the corner of her lips, and the faint impression of dimples peeked out. "Hi, Seleyda, how's your day assembling an army of homicidal maniacs that grow fangs and claws against another army of even crazier suicidal bordering on loupism shapeshifters that have had a lot of work done? By the way, could you tell me what the hell you were telling my precious mate, whom I treat like she's made of glass, that you had to do the magical equivalent of soundproofing me out of?"
"I don't need your smart mouth to make an appearance now, Farrer," he bit off. He squeezed his nose bridge in a mask of frustration. "Just tell me what you were telling Kate."
"Battle Strategies 101: Always Have A Backup Plan," Seleyda replied snippily. "Sorry, but members only." She smiled mockingly. "Mass chaos would make it very hard for the shifters to listen to me, wouldn't it? Especially with all the coddling you give to your mate." Her grey eyes flashed with lightning quick intelligence. "In fact, you're probably more distracted on a daily basis by her and can't finish any Pack business without talking to her every hour."
Happy gold sparks danced in Curran's eyes. "How did you come to that conclusion?"
Seleyda rolled her eyes. "Please. I lived with the same thing for the last two years. Besides, you started a brawl in the middle of our plans over how far from the battle is considered safe. Then Kate just about suffered an instant apoplexy when you decided that she was to be your little Pack princess, locked up in a tower for her own safety. I haven't even begun on Kate, with that episode when she realized you were going to be in front of all your followers to face a group of shifters that take trigger-happy-homicidal-maniacs to a whole new universe. And the one where the both of you broke a scouting tent over who gets first kill." Her grey eyes stared at Kate. "If I didn't know you, I'll swear you're a shifter too." She looked back at Curran. "It's as bagd as they come in terms of mating frenzy. Drew once ripped a reissued Porsche apart because he thought Ana was spending too much time on it and became her transport vehicle to any place she wanted to go."
"That's crazy." Seleyda raised an eyebrow at Curran.
"That's rich coming from the man who nearly tore half of Atlanta to pieces looking for his future mate when it was rumoured that she was with his chief of security." Curran looked slightly stunned. "Yeah. That made plenty of splashes in the shapeshifter gossip grapevine. And the Beast Lord of the Atlanta Pack running rampant in the city over a woman is worth knowing."
Suddenly, she froze. In reaction, so did Curran and Kate, but neither could sense anything. Seleyda's eyes rolled into the backs of her head and back. They flashed ruby red. A bolt of gold darted across her right eye and vanished. Seleyda pulled out a small, sealed ball of cloth containing something.
Quick as lightning, she threw it into the air. A dagger cleaved it in two. A shimmery powder with gold undertones burst forth. The wind picked it up as Seleyda rapidly sang several notes, carrying the powder across the army. The shapeshifters didn't notice, except for Kate and Curran.
"Seleyda," Kate warned, unsheathing her sword Slayer.
"Clam down. It's an amplification spell. Your followers are good, but not that good. LEt's just say it's a...precaution." She gestured at them. "Go on. You may need it."
Kate shook her head. "It won't work on me."
Seleyda rolled her eyes. "Magic begets magic. It will work." She shrugged. "Besides, it doesn't need to fight your magic. Your skin is as good a target as any, but not as potent."
Curran stared at Seleyda. He took a step closer and gently pushed her dark hair behind her ears. She shifted slightly, a look of uncertainty and distrust on her face. He stopped, resting the tips of his fingers on her ears and face. Their eyes met. An electric spark ran through them. Seleyda's eyes widened. Gold sparks danced in Curran's grey eyes, acknowledging its presence.
"You look so much like your mother," he murmured.
"Really?" Seleyda asked, sounding almost child-like in her curiosity.
Curran nodded. "It's almost uncanny."
"My liege." Mahon stood behind Curran, a mountain of a man. "We are ready." A flash of gold caught Curran's eye. Seleyda stepped back. Curran frowned.
"Do you have your weapons?" Seleyda asked. Her eyes had suddenly gone ruby red.
"Do you have yours?" Kate shot back.
"Sure." Seleyda held up her left hand. A bulky, cloth-wrapped item was in her hand. Metal glinted silver in the late morning light. "I'll start the countdown."
A/N: Whew. Finally. This was a hard one. Hope you all like it!