Chapter 173 – Upset, Angry and Confused (Multi POV)

“Look, all I am hoping for here is getting them to back off. I want to handle this at my level and don’t want to take this up the chain again like when you were shot. Once these issues go that far up, people far more frightening than Thalla, the EVP of Operations, are looking at things and I don’t have the clout to hang with them.” – Jay briefing Kurt on how he wanted the meeting to go.

POV – Val

Walking out onto the sidewalk, Val had never been so glad to be leaving The Captain as she was that day. The normal friendly vibe was all thrown off with Don and Les making a fuss about the kids. She really wondered why they were causing a stink over something so small. They were ok with para’s after all. So what if their kids were dating them?

She briefly wondered if they had a sort of false acceptance. She had seen it before with people being outwardly supportive of something until it comes into their lives and affects them personally. She didn’t think that was the case, however, and they seemed more upset that they weren’t told earlier than any other reason.

Or at least Don seemed that way. Les was still very upset over the whole ‘Kate living with a pack of werewolves’ thing. Not that she would live in the Den with Calum, even if she did ‘convert’ as Jade called it. Nobody wanted to raise a baby in what was essentially a barracks.

The thought of her own little baby werewolf running around made her hum happily. She knew it would look completely human but liked to imagine a little fuzzball puppy thing terrorizing the local daycare. She shimmied, wiggling her hips a little as she walked, a sympathetic response to wanting to wiggle her tails.

Her emotions and stupid smile seemed to have caught her girlfriend’s attention because Kristi nudged her. “What’s got you so happy?”

“Hmmm. Oh, you know, just thinking about little werewolves running around.” She answered and took Kristi’s hand in hers as they walked.

“Oh yeah, I am sure Kate will be thrilled.” Kristi laughed, completely missing the idea of Val wanting to be the one having babies.

Kurt looked back over his shoulder from where he was walking beside Jay. “You know they are just regular babies, right? Like they don’t really shift until they are older.”

Val gave him a squinty smile. “I know, it’s just a fun thought. I like to imagine they will be fuzzy like little bipedal puppies.” Kurt just chuckled in a rumbling pitch that made her vixen want to roll onto her back for him to scratch her belly.

“I am sure they will be just fine with a normal child for the first couple years.” Kurt assured.

“Dibs on babysitting.” Kristi said out of nowhere.

Playing along with the puppy theme, Val hugged Kristi’s arm to her. “Do you think they will have babies’ breath or puppy breath?” she asked, making Kurt roll his eyes and go back to scanning his surroundings.

She always wondered how he lived like he did, with all the institutional training that still affected him. He never carried anything in his right hand if he could help it. He was always scanning his surroundings. His schedule was so set that he didn’t even need an alarm clock on most days.

If it wasn’t for the obvious love and affection he gave them, his regimented lifestyle would have driven her crazy long ago. Not that she didn’t appreciate it a lot of the time. She even liked some of the routines like the morning coffee on the porch or how he made sure they were all present for dinner.

Val’s happy little reflection time ended abruptly when she sensed Kurt tense up and his emotions radiated caution and anger. She peaked around him to see a woman in slacks with a bullet proof vest over a dress shirt. Her vest had a placard on the front that said ‘FBI’ in big, yellow letters and her face said ‘annoyed’ in a big, bitchy expression.

She felt the brush of Kurt’s mind against hers followed by his mental communication. “This is Director Perkins.” That simple statement told Val all she needed to know about the fey woman, and she wouldn’t be changing her mind. Not after the shit she pulled last time her and Kurt met.

There was a brief flash from her kitsune half. It was an instinct so strong it was almost a voice of its own. ‘We could curse her for all eternity. Make her suffer every day she lives.’ it practically spoke to her. Val didn’t know where that came from but suspected it was more of the traditional fox demon part of her heritage that she was trying to back away from. No, curses were definitely not her thing, and she would much prefer to burn the fey alive in the ever-lasting purgatory of her shadow flames.

Val had many talks with Inari on what she wanted to grow her domain into and also how to not compete with the goddess in her domains. Val wanted to move away from the traditional kitsune who were typically associated with blessings or curses, depending on their mood. Being isolated as a creature of fortunes both good and bad did not sound appealing to her.

They finished walking the remining few yards to the line of yellow tape that said ‘Police Line – Do Not Cross’ running from one lamp post to another, roping off an entire block. When they arrived, a no-name in a suit approached, one hand extended out to stop them.

“Do you have a reason to be here?” The agent asked in neutral tone.

Jay pointed to Director Perkins. “We are here to talk to ole Gretchen. She should be expecting us.”

The woman in question stormed over to stand just across from Jay. “I was expecting you hours ago because you told me you would be bringing them here in the morning!” she all but shouted.

Making a show of looking at his watch, Jay raised his eyebrow at her. “It is morning, if you want to wait any longer, that’s on you.”

“J-AH-HMMM.” Gretchen stuttered, a flush of red creeping up from her collar. “Just get in here. Your people have been absolutely no help whatsoever and I am about to have them brought up on charges for obstructing an investigation.”

“Oh, dear!” Jay gasped, doing a surprisingly good job at sounding genuinely concerned. “What haven’t they helped you with? We must see this sorted out right away!”

Gretchen clearly didn’t fall for the act but answered regardless. “They are refusing to answer any questions pertaining to the events of last night.”

“Such as?”

“Where do I begin? We asked who these people were, we asked where they came from, why they did what they did and what the Order was planning to do about it. They refused to say what happened or where his group went” She pointed to Kurt and the girls. “The only thing they did answer was how they were fixing bullet holes and broken glass when we let them.”

“So let me get this straight.” Jay stopped dead in his tracks, forcing her to do the same. “You asked my agents questions they don’t know the answer to and are getting mad that they don’t answer? Then you are threatening to arrest them for interfering in an investigation for not providing hearsay?”

Jay accompanied his words by opening his briefcase and making to pull out a stack of papers. Just like he had on two previous occasions. Gretchen paled and quickly tried to back pedal.

“No, that’s not what I was saying. I was just expressing my frustration.” She was waving her hands in the air between them in the universal gesture to stop. “They have been nothing but cordial and respectful thus far.”

“Well, that’s good!” Jay said in a very chipper tone as the papers vanished back into the briefcase before it snapped shut. “Glad we can be of support and get this part of town back to the way it should be. Now, shall we continue to my pavilion?” He pointed to a rather large pop-up canopy set to one side where the Arizona team was lounging and chatting amongst themselves.

As they approached the pavilion, Val noticed the 5 tall traffic cones extended around the corners of the canopy. Stretched between them was a bright blue caution tape that said ‘Oder Stabilitas – Do Not Enter’.

Val smirked and huffed a laugh as Kristi saw the markings and also chuckled softly to herself. Val hadn’t even known the Order had caution tape, let alone a sense of humor to print a parody of the standard police tape on it.

“Oh, hey boss!” Landa said as she quickly got to her feet and ran over to where 2 of the traffic cones were set next to each other. She pulled one away to reveal the opening in the long loop of tape.

“Landa, Taylor, Shanna. Good to see you.” Jay said cooly as he led the way through the gap and pulled up a folding chair to put on one side of a folding table. “Take a seat folks and we can get started.”

Kurt moved to sit on Jays right, taking a spot at the end of the table which left his dominate hand free to move. Val took her customary position just behind his left shoulder while Kristi and Rindi sat on Jay’s left. That left Penny and Anna to go sit over by the Arizona team on the side lines.

After she sat, Val immediately shifted her butt around in the chair and turned so one foot was touching Kurt ever so slightly. The tip of her shoe was just touching his thigh as she crossed one leg over the other. Then she began the process she always did when sitting around in a high stake’s environment.

It started slowly but she eventually manipulated the light around them, grabbing hold of it and bending it to give the impression that they were all sitting slightly to the right, by about a foot or so. Given their spacing, that would make any bullet aimed for their head pass between them rather than hitting.

She then began to obscure them from the outside world all together. The people directly around them wouldn’t notice, but anyone more than fifteen yards away would barely notice them. It would be best described as a photonic barrier, rather than an illusion, as she made the inside area darker and the light around it brighter.

The entire process took a little less than thirty seconds. An absolute age in an ongoing fight, but plenty of time for the stare down that Jay and the director were having. The best part was that nobody seemed to be on to her actions. Now all she had to do was settle in and see how the conversation played out. Hopefully in a calm and peaceful manner.

*****

POV - Kristi

Kristi wanted two things. Firstly, clothes that fit since after her body changes, all she had to wear was sweatpants and Kurt’s T-shirts. The second thing she wanted was to reach across the table and drag the fey woman back over it by her throat. Actually, now that she thought about it, just dragging over the throat and nothing else attached.

She despised the director with every fiber of her being, to the point of barely keeping her mask of calm serenity on her face. It didn’t help that her muscles surged with new strength with every beat of her freshly empowered heart. It also didn’t help that she was now seeing exactly what was under that fey glamor. But that was to be expected with her recent changes.

Forcing herself to take a deep breath, Kristi tried to calm down a little. She didn’t want to lose control of the tentative balance she had established in her body and soul. She also still needed to tell Kurt and Val about it. The night before hadn’t exactly been restful, despite her getting a few extra hours of sleep. Her physical changes were just the start of what she had gone through.

When she had fallen asleep, Kristi had entered a state of conscious dreaming, but it was different than her normal waking dreams. In this one, she had found herself in a space that she somehow instinctively knew was her spirit. A sort of halfway point where her physical body, mind and soul blended into each other becoming indistinct.

When she arrived there, she saw a massive ball of energy hovering in space, a quarter of its surface was a pale gold. The opposite pole, taking another quarter of the mass, was emerald green. It didn’t take her instinctual knowledge to guess that it was her draconic half and angelic half blended together. In the center of the ball, along the equator, the two colors blended together and filled in the remaining 50%. They formed a sort of pale green that reminded her of jade the stone or a similar rare mineral.

Surrounding the ball that was her spirit was a bright, silver-gold cloud which Kristi knew was the source of her ‘indigestion’, as Jay had called it. It was clearly the remaining energy she had taken from the angels. That cloud seemed to be slowly dissipating into… somewhere. She could see wafting, misty tendrils slowly pulling away from it and drifting off into the void around her.

At that point, Kristi was at a loss for what to do until she noticed the thin line of energy connecting the cloud to the smaller, angelic part of her spirit. It seemed to be making that part of her grow ever so slowly. She had mentally frowned at that, since she didn’t want to be more like an angel. That thought made her also realize that she didn’t exactly want to be more like a dragon either. She wanted to be like Kurt and Val. She wanted something… new.

Kristi focused on that little thread of energy that was trickling into her spirit and tugged it. She was surprised when it came away freely and almost lost control of it until she was able to focus again.

Now that she was holding the thread, Kristi wasn’t sure what to do. The thread had been attached to the angel part so maybe it could be attached to the draconic part? Would that work?

She willed the thread to latch onto the emerald-green portion of her spirit and was almost surprised when it just clicked into place. There wasn’t even a struggle as the energy began slowly filling that section of the orb.

Once again committing to her decision, Kristi detached the strand and then willed it to attach to the swirling, jade colored section. Once again, the thread attached with no issues and without the slightest resistance. That just left one problem, the cloud was dissipating faster than it was being absorbed by her spirit.

Thinking quickly about what she had learned, Kristi once again willed one of the vaporous tendrils that were venting into the void to attach to her spirit. It worked! She also felt another sensation that she had been unaware of. She felt less pain, not that she could feel pain exactly in this strange space. Still, she felt herself relax a little and tried another tendril, experiencing a similar lessening of the muted tension her physical body was feeling.

Kristi was smugly elated by the discovery and quickly attached the remaining loose tendrils to that core part of her spirit. Soon there were dozens of them all draining the cloud of silver energy into the hybrid part of her spirit and the cloud had completely stopped dissipating into nothingness.

She had stayed there and monitored her spirit for a while, not seeing any changes other than the cloud of energy growing smaller and smaller. After a while, she felt a strange pull in her mind. It was like a strong urge to just move away from the orb that was her spirit. She did just that and returned to a normal sleep, waking up late in the morning along with Kurt.

The rest of her morning had been rather shocking. Not only was she adapting to a new body, well newly proportioned body, but she could now see things that she couldn’t before. Everywhere she looked Kristi saw what she was beginning to think of as ‘truths’.

When she looked at Kurt she could see a sort of ephemeral shadow lurking over him. It took on the shape of a werewolf but seemed to not be the same as him. It was almost like it was taking stock of its surroundings and perpetually ready for a fight at a moment’s notice.

She also saw all the enchantments around her and was nearly blinded until she adjusted to the glow they seemed to create. She could finally appreciate exactly how special Kurt’s house was, now that she saw every surface faintly glowing from the runes he had carved into them. Those simple enchantments were completely overshadowed by the glow of their personal items, however. Looking from a floorboard to her storage ring was like comparing a candle to a camera flash in intensity.

Kristi’s musings were halted when Jay began speaking, breaking the standoff that had been stretching for an uncomfortably long time. “So, what is it you want to know from Kurt and his team?”

*****

POV - Rindi

Rindi was confused to say the least. She had gotten the mental message from Kurt about who the woman was and even recognized the agency she seemed to belong to. What she didn’t understand was the blatant hostility that everyone seemed to direct toward the fey.

She had picked up on the woman’s nature almost immediately. The fey always had a certain smell about them. Not a real smell, but one that wafted on the undercurrents just below reality. It was like their presence left a wake in the sub dimensions as they passed.

Still, given the context clues, Rindi decided that she wouldn’t like this person either. She always thought the fey were deceitful with their twisted ‘hospitality’ and rules. They weren’t at all like the one daemon she knew, Jay. He was always straight forward and presented everything in a certain order. In his world everything had its place and time, in counter point to something else that sat in direct opposition.

Looking around, Rindi let her gaze linger on Val for but a moment. She noticed that the sweet and fun-loving fox demon was already taking steps to care for them and casting her illusions. She liked that about her, always working in the background and never seeking recognition. She wondered if Kurt knew how much Val did for them every day but assumed he did.

Her eyes then landed on the domineering and protective Kristi. She was another person Rindi had come to appreciate. The unshakable martial confidence of a draconic race was always impressive. It was also nice how she let that nurturing aspect of hers to the fore more often than not. Where many would see a cold, imperious woman, Rindi knew her to be incredibly caring and supportive.

Rindi had to pause and mentally shake herself. Her new blended body was causing some issues with her mentality. She was normally able to easily compartmentalize and focus but, since the merging, she started having strange feelings and urges that often clashed.

She glanced at Kurt and immediately fought to suppress another shudder as she was hit by his presence. Unlike the fey who seemed to waft a noxious vapor around everywhere, Kurt was an enticing aroma. His soul radiated a certain warmth that was drawing her in like a moth to a flame. She fantasized about grabbing him, pulling him in and never letting go. She just wanted to…

Rapidly blinking, Rindi shifted her attention away from Kurt. It was hard, with her recent changes, to not peer into the three of them. While she had some ability to glimpse the souls of others, it hadn’t been so easy and constant like it was now.

Val soul shape was like a sparkling black mass that undulated and changed with every passing moment to whatever whimsical thing she desired. Kristi’s soul reminded her of a warm and welcoming hearth but brought with it the smell of a violent storm on the brink of forming.

Kurt’s soul was the strangest of them. In her limited experience, since waking up that day with the ability so see souls, she knew that they all had some sort of dichotomy and paradox but his was resolute in its identity. His looked like a monster, a beast wreathed in darkness and blood, filled with the promise of violence under the guise of duty. But the smell… the smell was like walking through the door and smelling home for the first time in years. That when combined with the look gave the impression that the beast was the guardian of the home, something to be loved and respected, not feared or cursed. It made her wa…

Rindi bit the inside of her cheek with her new, longer, fang-like canines. She couldn’t let herself get distracted by these sudden fantasies and daydreaming. It was unbecoming of her and would reflect poorly on her family.

Family. A word that rang like a bell when she thought it. Being part of something bigger than herself. A part of something where she could be weak when she needed and strong when she wanted. She desperately wanted that after her years of being denied, she wanted more.

Rindi’s eyes flicked back to Val who was still sitting next to Kurt and altering the visual reality they were in. She made up her mind then. She would talk to Val about how to join their family.

She wanted to know what she had to do to seize her place in the hierarchy. Maybe if she was lucky, she could be truly useful to Kurt himself. Perhaps even earning more than just his kindness and consideration. Could she earn his favor? No, that was too much. She wou…

“So, what is it you want to know from Kurt and his team?” The daemon asked the fey, pulling Rindi back to the here and now.

Reaffirming her attention, Rindi returned to the meeting at hand. She had to focus. Meeting first. Then talk to Val. Then figure out how she had changed and how to control the urges she was having. One step at a time.

Maybe Kristi could help her talk to Val? Should she talk to Kristi first or skip right to the matron of the family? Or should she talk to both of the-…. Focus, Rindi. She chided herself and mentally prepared for a grueling meeting that she would struggle to pay attention to.