A hush hung over the conference room as if everyone was unable to comprehend what the sentinel had just roared into the Principal's face. It seemed like the mundane staff almost stopped breathing in stunned disbelief whilst every member of the SGC stiffened with outrage.
That interminable silence was unexpectedly broken by a voice from the door.
"That's because he beat the shit out of me in the basement of his son's house Sentinel Connors."
All the mundanes jumped at the words. Shocked, horrified exclamations almost distracted from Stiles entrance to the room escorted by the Sentinel and Guide pair who had helped him recover. Stiles' voice had wavered slightly but firmed as he walked towards the centre of the room where the Argents were surrounded. His protective escorts followed him.
Jim had his hand wrapped around Victoria Argent's wrist before she could withdraw her own hand from her jacket pocket. She hadn't even seen him move and her eyes widened, taken aback. Jim was pretty sure not much took this woman unawares. She moved like a predator herself. He shook his head at her with mocking disapproval, surprisingly not having far to look down at her face. She was a tall woman.
"I wouldn't do that Mrs Argent, drawing a weapon on a sentinel on SGC premises in front of other sentinels will just get your neck snapped like a twig." He offered the alarming words cheerfully, fully conveying they were meant as fact rather than threat, and his fingers tightening until he could feel her thin bones. Not enough to cause pain yet but completely underlying his willingness to do so.
He would never underestimate a woman again. Mundane or Gifted. Alex Barnes had murdered Blair in front of him in that damn fountain. Victoria Argent reminded him too much of Barnes for him to give her the benefit of the doubt. This woman would salt the damn earth if she thought it was necessary.
She blanked the murderous rage in her eyes and raised her chin in defiance. "How dare you lay a hand on me you freak? Who do you think you are? I have no idea what you are talking about. Release me at once before I call the authorities and have you arrested." She ordered calmly as if she expected to be obeyed.
"I know exactly who I am Mrs Argent. When it comes to Sentinel and Guide matters, I am the authorities Lady, my name is James Ellison, Alpha Prime Sentinel of North America. Don't you know you can't lie to a Sentinel? "
Jim's voice was cold enough to drop the temperature in the entire room. His eyes swiftly swept over their appalled, fascinated audience but then fixated on the way young Stiles was watching everything with his mouth open, fear on his face and painful hope in his eyes. "I want my Dad" Jim didn't think Stiles even realised that he had whispered the plea.
Jim's resolve hardened. That was it. The last nail in the coffin for any so-called calm and considered approach. His inner sentinel was going to put them down hard. These bastards had hurt the kid, one of his baby sentinels, who had instinctively been trying to protect his own pride.
Ellison didn't care if the Supernaturals were calling it a pack, for Stiles and his sentinel nature it was a pride and the actions of this group of psychopaths had and still were endangering that pride.
The Sentinel in him purred with predatory approval as Jim spoke. He leant closer and murmured just low enough for her and Stiles to hear "just like werewolves"
Victoria Argent went as white as her blouse. Ellison smirked with vicious satisfaction and then winked at the disbelieving kid.
Megan Connors had her own smaller hand wrapped round the throat of the ex-principal as soon as Stiles had finished speaking. She had raised her left arm until he was on his toes, his face reddening with fury and lack of oxygen. She pulled her right arm back to punch the old wanker in the face, repeatedly, except her guide had gripped it and held firm. "Caro" Megan protested fiercely but she wouldn't struggle and hurt her guide.
"He needs to answer questions Meg so you can't cave his face in." she offered with reluctant rationality.
Connors was just about to reluctantly agree with her guide and partially release the old git when Argent opened his trap and sneered breathlessly "Best listen to your pathetic guide you weak willed aberration. We all know you filthy mutants can't survive without each other."
Megan's arm was abruptly free, and Carolyn shrugged at her enquiring look. "Just make sure he can use a pen to write his responses".
Stiles had never realised how satisfying the sound of a nose breaking could be.
Blair considered the young werewolf as they sat in the back of the SUV. The kid still seemed quite dazed as he stared out of the window. Blair came to a decision.
"Rafe, we are going to drop Scott here at his home and you will stay with him until Jim and I can come to speak to both he and his Mom later."
Scott swung his head round, already opening his mouth to protest, when Blair held his hand up. "Nope, not happening kid, it won't do you any harm to miss one day of school and this morning has been hard enough on you. There is no need to add anything else to the mix today"
"What does that even mean?" Scott glared at him angrily, "I need to go to school so I can be with A.. um my friends" The clumsy attempt at dissembling nearly made Blair smile. Christ had he ever been this young. "And besides which I am not a Sentinel or Guide so you can't tell me what to do. I'm going to school" and the kid stuck his jaw out with all the attitude of a stubborn toddler just about to have a throwdown tantrum.
Before Blair could do more than raise one of his eyebrows the guide driver snorted with amusement and the unflappable Rafe actually laughed.
"As if your status is going to stop the Prime. Just settle down and enjoy the day off kid, Rafe is usually unbeatable at video games the asshole, but you might have a chance with your enhanced senses."
Scott's mouth dropped open as his gaze flickered between a smug faced Blair, the smirking sentinel, and the back of the driver's head.
Rafe pulled out his cell and pressed a button "we are going to the McCall place, I'm staying with the kid. You need to meet us there so you can travel with the Prime" he didn't bother with any pleasantries just cut the call.
"I am so reminding the Alpha Prime Sentinel that politeness costs nothing and actually makes life more pleasant for everyone. You have picked up his bad habits Rafe" Blair uttered with exasperation. Rafe turned that infuriating smirk on the Guide Prime but didn't try to deny the accusation. He just shrugged "You need back up Blair"
"I didn't say anything about that but…" Blair tailed off as the infuriating sentinel's smile grew wider. He rolled his eyes but turned his attention back to the young man watching the exchange wide eyed and fascinated as if he was at a sporting event. "Sentinels" he shook his head with mock exasperation, gratified when the kid offered him a small but genuine smile.
Miki Kamerci and Maya Carrasco slid into the SUV when Rafe and Scott had gone into the kid's house. Maya, the always elegant, always calm sentinel looked distraught and there was ice in her normally warm brown eyes. Miki, the chaotic intense unbonded guide looked murderous, her hands were shaking, the rage needed to find an outlet. The guide made no attempt to subdue her tumultuous aura.
"What the hell Miki?" Blair looked at the pair of them in concern, but it was Maya who responded and despite her attempt at a calm façade she couldn't keep the horror out of her voice.
"Blair" she drew a deep breath and tried again, "Blair, those hunters, the hunter council, they forbid their sentinels from…" she stopped again as if she couldn't even say the words. Miki hissed the words "their sentinels are not allowed to bond or work with guides Alpha Prime. Not allowed"
"They fucking what?" the driver erupted as he swung round to stare at Miki. Blair didn't even notice the interruption as his wolf manifested in the car beside him howling with heartbroken fury.
Blair's voice was utterly calm, but his eyes were suddenly the intense blue of the spirit plain and they were all aware how far away he was "oh they are so done. I vow as Shaman It will be my personal mission to make sure of that." He blinked and suddenly his eyes were focused again as he directed softly "Joel, take us to the school. Jim has Gerard Argent there. I will speak with him, after I've checked on Stiles"
Tension seeped from the sentinel's shoulders until Maya once more portrayed her unperturbable calm, the younger guide merely sat back and smiled with venomous satisfaction.
"Got to stop at the gas station first Sandy. Not like that perp will get away from Jim so you will have plenty of time to interrogate the old bastard" Joel commented cheerfully as he pulled away.
"Matriarch". The head of the Calaveras' family and current Leader of the Hunter Council heard her eldest son came into her study, but she was still reading Council reports. He could wait. Then she remembered and frowned. He was supposed to be on his way with his team to the latest werewolf omega problem in some little town near the border.
"Severo, why are you still here?" she queried impatiently her eyes still on the paperwork in front of her. When there was no response, she raised her head and saw the expression on his face.
She slowly rose from her desk, her hand instinctively reaching for the weapon that never left her person even in the security of her own compound.
He came to an immediate stop. He knew better than to get any closer. But the look he threw her way was not his usual impassive deference. In fact, she could almost believe he was irritated with her. "Dios Mamma, every damn time?" he spat at her. Of course, his senses had picked up her instinctive movement towards her weapon.
He hadn't called her Mamma since she had left him at the Council's hunter sentinel training camp when he was 12. When he was returned to the family at 17, he had addressed her as Matriarch. And it had never changed. Even when the immediate family came together and the usual professional boundaries were relaxed, when his brothers and sisters addressed her as Madre, Severo did not.
There was real anger in his normally impassive tone. Her gaze startled momentarily and then focused on him with that considering expression she used at the start of a hunt. His frown deepened as he continued "We hunt monsters. Sentinels are not monsters and how long will it take you to get it through your head that Sentinels do not turn on their trusted pride."
He picked up the fleeting moue of distaste at the word "pride" but Araya Calaveras refused to acknowledge Severo's jibe. Or even recognise the irony with which he had used the word "trusted pride". He had never trusted his mother to be anything other than a hunter first, head of the Council next and then family matriarch. The role of Mother had never even entered that hierarchy.
Active Sentinels were rare in Hunter families. The Council had always scoffed at the so called protect the tribe imperative of Sentinels. If that were true, then all their hunters would have been born sentinels. Instead, the sentinel trait could now only be found in the oldest hunter families. Those that could survive the taint to their name.
It had been many years since Hunter Sentinels were allowed to find their guides as it would necessitate leaving the Community because SGC guides did not understand the hunter way of life. The Council had decreed that they would train their sentinels and used all their knowledge, arcane and scientific, to ensure that those sentinels did not need a guide and were blocked from the attention of outsiders.
They trained their sentinels the way they trained their blood hounds, but they were never given a position of true authority, and they damn well never registered them with that interfering SG Council. No one else needed to know who their sentinels were. And a hunter never allowed a weapon to be taken away from them. Not while they still lived. Sentinels were merely weapons to the hunters. Their gifts were too uncomfortably close to the supernatural for true hunters to swallow. Araya Calaveras considered herself a true hunter. She had never forgiven her eldest son for being a sentinel.
Hunter born guides were even rarer. They were either dormant or when they came online, their gifts became so tainted that they couldn't form a bond with a hunter sentinel.
In Araya's experience, that made the sadistic bastards even better hunters. The Argent hereditary line was a perfect example of the power of a dormant guide. Kate Argent being the latest and her hunting skills were legendary.
Severo never took his eyes of the Matriarch as she in turn studied him. All hunters knew not to remove their gaze from a threat. Severo himself was nearly dormant now, he knew he wouldn't last much longer, and he had been considering his options.
He had his hija to protect, he knew she was gifted, had known since her birth, but she was not going to suffer what his own Madre had done to him. It was ironic that the Matriarch had not been as successful as she thought training her special weapon because he would destroy her and anyone else who tried that shit on with his precious Noa. Noa's mother was long gone.
It had been a political match for a newer family to gain some of the prestige of being linked to an original hunter bloodline. The only way a marriage to a sentinel ever occurred. Casual sex was never a problem because of a sentinel's reputation. But no one wanted the taint of being permanently linked to a sentinel unless there was some overt benefit to it. Children of such a match were incredibly rare.
The shame of bearing a child with a sentinel had made her reckless in the hunt. Or his Matriarch had her disposed of to ensure there were no more. He didn't much care. When he had found Noa, left abandoned in their quarters still in a diaper that was days old, weak and listless, he had determined that he was a widower that day because the next time he saw her the bitch she would die.
He never saw her again and the rest of his family got the message about any harm coming to his child when he put his mouthy cousin in hospital for nine months after breaking every bone in his legs. No even his Matriarch had protested too much.
He delivered the message with a straight face and the Matriarch would never know how much it amused him. Araya Calaveras stared at her son in disbelief. "Repeat that" she growled.
Severo quirked an eyebrow at her, but his face remained passive. "The Sentinel and Guide Council have called me in for latency testing. They have summoned all the adult sentinels in the hunter families in North America." The words were uttered with no inflection but there was a disconcerting gleam in his brown eyes that she did not like one little bit.
"How the fuck did they find out about you and the others?" She snarled with menace. "We have made many enemies Matriarch. Surely even you expected this to happen at some point".
Araya narrowed her eyes at her son. "Watch your tone boy, remember who you are talking to" Again, his attitude was disconcerting. It would bear thinking about. Perhaps she should increase the surveillance on him as a pre-emptive measure.
"You will obviously not be going." She shrugged as if that was the end of the matter.
Sentinels were not allowed to train at the S&G centre. The Hunters had a long-established process for obscuring any online sentinels. The Council had never allowed a hunter sentinel to bond with a weak SGC trained Guide. The fact that their sentinels rarely lasted into their forties because of the lack of compatible guide was taken for granted. Other hunters rarely had a long life expectancy so why should the sentinels be any different.
Severo was not impressed. "Have you thought this through Matriarch? They have found us once; they can find us again. Do you want to trigger a formal Sentinel hunt?"
And then the damned boy had the temerity to smirk at her. "I know the Council think the SGC is weak but even you should know that their bonded Sentinels are better than hunter sentinels when they get riled up enough."
He threw a piece of paper onto her desk. "That is the number of the Alpha Prime Sentinel of North America. I believe he wants to talk to the current head of the Hunters Council."
Araya stared at her son in silent fury, until he turned and left the room. The smirk on his face and the cold expression in his eyes made something clench in her stomach for a moment. Then she dismissed it. Severo was loyal to the family. The customary surveillance for a hunter sentinel had never shown anything else.
She stared at the paper as if it was a hissing viper ready to strike. "Alpha Sentinel indeed. I know how to deal with Alphas and Sentinels, I know how to deal with them very well. The S&G Council have no right to interfere with hunter business. They will regret it if they do. I will make sure of that personally."
Severo walked far enough away that he was no longer in the line of sight for the security cameras. But near enough that he could still hear every word uttered. She hadn't heard her son stop outside the door and unashamedly listen to her vicious muttering. He was also going to find out what the Alpha Sentinel Prime wanted with his family. He squashed the tiny hope that there might be a way out of this nightmare for him. But not for any reasons that his mother would understand.
Her desk phone rang and Severo focused his hearing. Gerard Argent, that old smarmy bastard complained to his mother with no greeting "The SGC have just come to the main high school in Beacon Hills Calavera. You need to convene the Council and warn them we may be coming to the attention of the SGC. The Council needs to prepare."
His mother snarled right back at him "Once again a day late and a dollar short Gerard. The Argents are responsible for Beacon Hills. Are you the reason the Alpha Prime Sentinel is trying to contact me? Because if by the actions of your family you have brought the SGC down on us, there will be repercussions that you won't have a chance to live to regret." She said no more as she cut him off.
Then she picked up the note and dialled the number she'd been given.
"Ellison this is Araya Calaveras. What do you want?"
"Your head on a pike would do nicely Calaveras, but as I can't have that yet, tell your Council to expect a meeting with the SGC very soon."
Araya Calaveras listened to the dead tone in shock as Ellison ended the call.
Notes: