Kingsley’s eyes turned sharp. “No. We should’ve had an attack by now. Even a mild one. Even a couple of mages showing up to scout. Something. Let’s go see the others. We need to talk business.”
“Yeah, we have some news of an ambush we handled that you’ll want to hear.”
Mimi and the kids sat on the bench as Jess leaned against the island.
“I told Aurora and Mac that they should come visit the house you designed,” Mimi said to Austin.
“At least there a body can sit at the island instead of in a strange spectator seat.”
“Here, Kingsley.” Jess reached into the fridge to grab his beer.
“Something’s up,” Kingsley told them. “I have a bad feeling. The pattern the mages have followed for the last several months has changed. I heard about your people going into town.” His gaze bored into Jessie.
“You gave me leave to govern them. They went into town, assessed the threat, and decided it was best to continue to ignore them. My people didn’t disturb anyone or reveal themselves in any way.
They made a mockery of themselves and left.”
“You had three groups.”
“Yes. I heard the other two groups also made mockeries of themselves as soon as they were told not to engage. Gerard got so drunk he flew into a building on his way out of town—he’s fine—and Ulric hit on the wrong girl and her girlfriend thumped him a good one. Not a single mage was touched. That’s not the reason for a change-up.”
“The garhettes, then,” Kingsley guessed.
Jess hesitated, glancing at Austin. “Possibly. This could just be their reaction to our catching one of their invisible mages. Or maybe they were banking on things going differently at the weapons deal today.”
“How’d that go?” he asked.
Her eyes lit up. “Excellent. They do not perform well in small spaces with large shifting creatures. They’d set up an ambush, and we ensured no one left. Right?” She looked at Austin again.
“No one got out of there, no. Nor will they. Our people are asking some questions of our own as we speak. We should hear from them soon.”
Kingsley’s gaze dug into Austin now.
“It’s not in your territory, Kingsley, nor affiliated with your pack,” Austin said. “You need to let us handle the mages.”
“You’d stoop to their level?” Kingsley growled.
“Sorry about eavesdropping, but your conversation reminded me of something,” Jess said, her voice firm and forceful. “You guys were just talking about those shifters challenging Austin and me.
You mentioned, Kingsley, that it was our right to use excessive force. To kill. Well, those mages challenged us. We are answering that challenge. With a shifter, it’s a brutal, gruesome fight to the death. Fine. With mages, it’s a magical terror-fest until they tell us what we need to know or one or the other of us dies. Same outcome, different way of going about it.”
Kingsley didn’t comment, probably because it was impeccable logic.
“The problem we’re facing,” Jess continued, “is that their magic is powerful. They had an
invisibility spell that was almost stronger than Sebastian’s potion.”
“What does that mean for us?” Kingsley asked.
“We’ll need to get through those mercenaries quickly,” Austin replied, “and hit the mages before they have time to thin our numbers too much.”
“The good news is, they freak out when a growling shifter comes at them,” Jess said. “The bad news is that they are likely going to leave a lot of space between the mercenaries and themselves for just that reason.”
“At least the weapons seem to be in decent working order,” Austin said just as a knock sounded at the front door.
“Hell- ooo,” came a voice, and he instantly recognized the speaker.
“Oh no,” Mimi said, obviously coming to the same realization.
In a moment, Patty turned the corner into the kitchen. She was wearing red lipstick on a big smile, her blonde curls bouncing.
“Hello, everyone!” She walked a little closer to Jess at the island. “Alpha. Naomi! I haven’t seen you around town. You should come out more often. We have some fantastic social events on the Town Green—that’s what we’re calling the main square. It just gives it a little flare, don’t you think? We have chess and checkers, Scrabble, Uno—it’s a real good time. Austin Steele! Great to see you again.
My gosh, you guys have been so busy! I barely see my little Olly. What do you think about all these garhettes, hmm? They’re ready to really stick it to those mages. We’ll show those gargoyles just how useful we can be, yes we will. About that, how’d it go with the weapons pickup? I know Nessa was a little worried, bless her soul, but you went ahead with it, so I assume you had a plan. And look!