To hell with this.

Apparently my stuff sucks so hard I can't even get a personalized rejection letter from these goddamn publishers. Frankly, I just don't see any appeal in continuing this, especially since trying to write just reminds me how much I keep running into a brick wall.

Maybe, later... a lot later... I'll continue on with this. Maybe. I don't know. For now, if you really care to know, and not be left hanging which I know is frustrating as hell, read down below for the summary.

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Aleda finds a job as a waitress at a local restaurant. She makes friends with the owners' daughter, who reminds her a lot of Val. Ryan is so busy trying to juggle all the Organizer stuff that Aleda ends up hanging out with her a lot and hunting alone--which Ryan doesn't really like, but he's proud of her at the same time.

One of the main problem is that there's just not enough hunters in the city, which not only makes it harder to clear out all the demons, but also means that there are fewer people in the lower echelons of the government providing new identification papers and such. Ryan, of course, tries to clear out everything himself but there're too many and he doesn't have enough time. When he finds out that Aleda's not just hunting, but trying to clear out the nests herself, he gets pretty pissed.

An incident involving a party in a nearby town and an assault on Aleda's friend ends in Ryan fessing up to what they really are. The girl eventually takes the news fairly well, and Ryan decides to go with it--he has a little chat with some of the folks in the local government trying to explain the situation and why there's absolutely nothing wrong with providing identification and other official records for his cousins. Some of them take it badly, and some of them take it well, and enough people are eventually sympathetic that he works out an arrangement that will allow the hunters to operate a bit more freely in the city, and even get a little help from the citizens themselves. Ryan also calls in a bunch of favors to cousins all over the place to get them to visit and help out. Talia comes, of course, and brings her newest boytoy (another hunter, this time!) with her.

The Council--well, Mike Connor--inevitably finds out what Ryan's done and they're pissed, especially considering what happened the last time word got out about what they are (see "Echoes in the Twilight" for more details).
He gets "asked" to fly out to New York. When he refuses, Mike and a bunch of others go to Bolivia. Aleda calls up her parents, aunt, and great-grandfather Seth, and Talia calls up a bunch of her friends, so they'll have some friendly faces there as well.

Mike brings up the assault on Aleda's friend as an example of why humans can't be trusted, but then Aleda speaks up about how well the girl and her family received the news, and how grateful they were that their daughter was unharmed. The end verdict is that while there are still a lot of wary hunters, there are a lot more, like Ryan and Seth, who are sick of having to hide.

Unfortunately, not everybody in the Bolivian government was happy about hearing what Ryan had to say. Before they can do any damage, however, a few of the more liberal-minded hunters (coughRyanSethTaliacough) pretty much kidnap them and set them on various flights to different cities with a little bribe money in their pockets. A few more hunters aren't too thrilled that they've interfered in human business, but they're overruled.

In the end, about an eight of the Bolivian government knows about them and has sworn to keep their secret, and there's a handful of humans who know as well. With all the extra help, Ryan is finally able to clear out the entire city. Because of this, just about everyone there loves him to pieces and wants him to stay, but he'd rather do good elsewhere. He hands the city back over to Mike Connor with an admonishment not to screw it up this time and heads off with Aleda to do pretty much the same thing in another city.

In other news, Aria had her kid in September and named him Rafael, after his great-great-grandfather and Talia is flipping out a little about finally dating somebody older than her.