Book Two: Welcome to the Brotherhood

Chapter Eight: The Whammy Chapter

January 20th, 2013

Herrera Mansion, Spain

A great debate broke out amongst those that were in the study in the time after; how could they simply choose who they’d prefer to see saved? Darien and Maliphis made the argument that the Brotherhood would be broken without Eduardo. Matthew and Anya both pulled for rescuing Gwen; after all, she had done nothing wrong, why should she suffer?

“Perhaps we can send an equal number of people after both of them. All of us could go,” Thrax reasoned.

But as Circe pointed out, “A couple of us aren’t going to be very effective against werewolves.”

It was Corona that spoke next. “From a purely emotional standpoint, Gwen would be the better pick. But from a tactical view, more people will be needed to get Eduardo out of Russia.” Some of the people present, especially Anya, were understandably outraged. Corona waited for their umbrage to die down before commenting, “You may not like Eduardo, and I can accept that. But with so many wolves guarding him, we’ll need more muscle to spring him out.”

“Agreed,” Maliphis said, adding, “Eduardo’s continued survival ensures that the status quo isn’t tipped in an unfavorable manner. Besides, we already have Jin going on her way for Gwen.”

All eyes turned to Balder, who finally reentered the room. “Not just her,” he told everyone. “My superiors just called. This whole situation with Eduardo and Gwen’s gone far enough, and they’re taking action.” He turned to Corona and stated, “I’m getting on the next plane to Korea. The Illuminati wants me to bring in Gwen for her own safety and for questioning. In truth, they probably want to know how on earth a ‘half-ghost’ could possibly exist.”

Midnight was adamant about not letting that happen. “I’m not letting your people pick her apart like some animal!”

Balder remained cold under Midnight’s angry tirade. “It would be enlightening for the scientists. Plus, if most of us are going to go save Eduardo and Halie, then if the Akimovs focus on getting Gwen back its possible she will die. ...And if worse comes to worse we can learn a couple of things.”

It was at that point that Ericka of all people snapped. “Gwen isn’t some piece of meat you can just poke and prod!”

There was a general surprise at Ericka’s outburst, and she quickly clammed up. As Circe whispered encouraging words in her ear, Balder approached her. “I’m not proud of some of the things I’ve done. But I do them anyway, because people die if I don’t.” He began to walk out of the room, adding, “You don’t have to like what I have to say. All I ask is that you accept it.”

A sour discomfort came over those who were remaining in the room. Corona got up from the couch and left the room, saying, “I’m going with him. You can stay here and complain about his logic, but I’m not letting him go out there alone.”

“I not staying here,” Anya growled. “Gwen out there needing help. Nikta likely coming for her. She need our help.” She stood up from where she was sitting, asking, “Who with me?”

“Going against the Akimovs is one thing,” Tiberio stated, “But the Illuminati? It’s suicide. You fuck with the Illuminati, they will hunt you down like dogs.”

Anya stood amongst her colleagues, staring at all of them as they sat there, not meeting her gaze. “I going after Gwen.”

She looked at Maeve and Parisa for a moment, the only two women in the room she genuinely trusted. “I have to go for Halie, Anya.” Parisa’s hands curled into fists as she reassured, “But I won’t forget what you’ve taught me. Good luck.”

Maeve stood up and said, “I know there’s gonna be wigs on the green, but I’d follow ye into the pits of hell itself.”

There was another great pause before another person stood up and joined them. “If she did nothing wrong,” Joey stated, “then she doesn’t deserve to be punished.”

“It’s not wise to fight the Illuminati,” Maliphis warned. “From my experiences, they’re almost as ruthless as Heaven’s Sword.”

“Mind iz made,” Anya replied. “No turning back.” She tried to read the stoic look on Tiberio’s face as she said this.

He licked his lips before yielding. “Fine. You all can take my jet to Seoul. Balder and Corona too – I can’t afford to obstruct an Illuminati investigation.”

“And Nikta?”

“...I suppose that all depends upon how well Jin can hide Gwen. And Jin’s not exactly the most subtle person out there.” He looked at his watch. “We don’t know how quickly Gwen’s plane is traveling, we don’t know how close Jin’s flight is to its destination, and China’s about eight hours later than here. But Jin might be able to get off the plane in time to retrieve Gwen. Keep in contact with her to coordinate your efforts.”

“Da. That waz plan.” Anya led Maeve and Joey out of the room.

“Now that we have that out of the way,” Tiberio said as soon as the trio left, “Who’s going to lead this mission?”

“I am,” Parisa claimed.

Darien objected, saying, “I said it before, and I’ll say it again. We can’t trust a neophyte swordswoman with this.”

Parisa shot a look at him as she said, “Don’t underestimate me. I’ve lead a bunch of expeditions before this at my old job looking for oil. I know how to lead.”

“The Nine have entrusted her for a reason,” Tiberio reasoned. “We may not agree with their judgment, but we must find the logic in their decision.”

“Their decision was a flawed one, clouded by fear,” Darien said through grit teeth. “I must say my gut feeling is that something horrible will happen.”

Maliphis contested, “A flawed decision or not, at least one was made. Now we must roll the dice and choose our destinies.”

“Obviously we can’t take everyone with us. I suppose our fearless leader should choose who goes and who stays.”

“Enough brother,” Tiberio curtly requested. “His words are crude, but his request is valid. It is your decision, Doctor Hataria.”

Parisa thumbed her chin as she thought on the matter. “Most of the people I’d liked to have taken with me are going to China. I know I want to take Ayane, Midnight, Mali, and Ain for muscle. Ericka seems to be made of some tough stuff, so she’s in. Maliphis can bring in long-range suppression. And there’s no telling what kind of security they’ve got, so I want Thrax and Gemeni with me.”

Kiki whined, “Oh, don’t take my bug love muffin away from me!”

Everyone stared at Gemeni as she claimed, “I have not slept with that woman.”

“Yet,” Kiki grinned.

“And you’re going to leave us behind,” Tiberio said rhetorically.

Darien turned to his brother and said, “I suppose since we’re already on the verge of losing one brother. To risk the entire family at the moment would be madness. Though I’d like at least one of us to be out there.”

“Maybe, but it would be better than doing nothing.”

“You can take my plane,” Darien told Parisa. “I may not like being left out of the loop, but that doesn’t mean I can’t help you.”

“Thanks for the assist,” Parisa said with some humility. “May Ahura Mazda watch over us.”

Seoul, South Korea

Gwen considered herself lucky that she’d managed to smuggle herself onboard the plane. The only reason that she could conceive of why the werewolf lackeys hadn’t sniffed her out was that she was hiding in a box full of spices. She could hear the pilot and another man talk to their brethren over the radio. Whoever they were talking to as they landed sounded angry; perhaps news of her escape had spread. The plane came to a complete stop as the conversation ended, and Gwen felt that the crate she was hiding in being lifted. She wished for a moment that she could shift into her ghost form, but the collar she was wearing somehow prohibited that.

“I don’t remember this crate being so heavy,” the man she identified as the pilot said.

“Who cares?” the other man asked. “You know how the guys here are. They need spices, we get spices.” The crate she was in was dropped to the tarmac, and she had to stifle a startled whimper. “You smell something?” Gwen panicked for a moment – had she finally been discovered?

“Yeah,” the pilot groaned. “I smell a bloodsucker.”

‘A vampire?’ Gwen could hear a couple of footsteps, as a familiar voice rang out in the cold air.

“Good evening,” Jin told the two werewolves, zweihander in hand. “My name is Jin Milborough, and I’m about to take you both to meet your makers. Any questions?” She waited only part a second before swinging her sword, cleaving both wolves in two before they could respond. “Hm, werewolves can be cut in half just like anyone else. So educational...” She dropped her sword for a moment as she took out her little book and wrote in it. After finishing her little note, she cracked open the box Gwen was hiding in, using her zweihander as a crowbar. “Huh, a sword as a crowbar. That’s pretty educational too.”

Gwen made her way out of the box, trying to get various spices out of her hair. “Thanks for the rescue.”

“No big,” Jin grinned as she led Gwen to a nearby Jeep. “Let’s get outta here. I got a nice place we can hide ‘til someone comes for us.” The two women crawled into the car and sped away from the plane. Jin looked at Gwen for a moment, asking bluntly, “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Starting up my computer,” Gwen told her as she zipped her backpack up. “Maybe I can find some way to get this thing off my neck.”

“How could it be so hard?” Jin asked as she reached over to rip it off. The instant she touched it, a strong electric shock coursed through her body, and she immediately pulled back her hand and placed it over her heart. “Okay,” she said with her mahogany hair on end, “that might explain it.” Jin drove the car onto a side road once the two women were in the suburbs and stopped the car. “Get out of the car.” Gwen did so as Jin opened up the glove compartment and took out two bottles of vodka. She poured one of the bottles out on the car seats and reached in her pocket for a match. “Shame we have to waste it,” Jin sighed, “But it’s for the best.” She threw the match into the spreading pool of alcohol and bolted with Gwen in tow as the drink was set on fire. Once they were a few yards away, Jin cracked open the other bottle and stuffed a handkerchief down its neck. She lit the piece of cloth on fire and threw the bottle at the Jeep, setting the car even further aflame.

“Why the cocktails?” Gwen asked.

“Thoroughness,” Jin explained. “Don’t want to be tracked. That and it’s fun to watch things go up in flames.” After watching the flames hit the gas tank, she led Gwen down the street and up to a Buddhist shrine. “We’ll stay here until the others come for us. I’ve got old friends in low places,” Jin grinned wider than usual. She knocked on the shrine’s door and a minute or so later, an elderly monk answered.

“It is late,” the monk said, “And – wait.” He looked closely at the two women before him. “Give me a second.” He reached into his robes and pulled out a large pair of glasses. “I can’t see the crickets from the grass blades without these things.” After putting on the spectacles, he finally could make sense of who was before him. “Kyounshi?!”

“Hey old man!” Jin hugged the monk as Gwen looked confused. “I need a place to stay for a few days. Think you can help?”

“No question,” the monk said with a smile. “And who is this woman standing with you? Not another girlfriend, I hope.”

“Nah, she’s just a friend of a friend. Name’s... er...” Jin scratched the back of her head and admitted, “I kinda forgot your name.”

“Gwen Tem.” Gwen stayed silent as she kept her backpack on and her computer in hand.

The bespectacled monk bowed in respect to his visitors. “Welcome. I hope that the shrine is not too uncomfortable.”

Jin and Gwen both thanked the monk as they made their way to the back of the shrine. ‘Hm,’ Gwen thought, ‘Computer’s been running a little slow recently...’

Moscow, Russia

Several time zones to the west, Parisa and her strike force stood in the hallway of a local hotel’s fifth floor. “Alright,” Parisa told everyone, “We’re only staying here the night. Get yourselves situated; we’ll be meeting in my room in an hour or so to draw up plans for tomorrow.”

As the group dispersed for a reprieve, Ayane followed Ain to her room. “Are you alright?” Ayane asked. “You haven’t spoken up since we got on the plane.”

“I’m a little nervous,” Ain told her. “Being around this many werewolves is sort of a field study for me.”

“A field study?” Rache said to Ayane. “She makes this sound like this is a field trip.”

“I thought it’d be because kafter are sort of on the lower end of the food chain when it came to werecreatures,” Ayane reasoned.

“No, I just thought that chatting up a bunch of bloodthirsty killers would be a great way to spend my time,” Ain sneered.

“...That wasn’t very funny.”

“I know,” Ain apologized. “I’m not exactly a funny person.”

Ayane thought for a moment before admitting, “Nothing wrong with that.” She paused before returning to their previous conversation. “A field study?”

“I’m a professor at Wisconsin University,” Ain explained. “Officially, I teach biology and folklore classes.”

“And unofficially?”

“I research the biology and origins of werecreatures. You could say that I’m trying to find a cure.” She thought for a moment before admitting, “I haven’t been able to find a cure for any of the three recognized werecreatures, and I highly doubt there is one for werecats. But I’m focusing on trying to force mental stability for now.”

“Stability?” Ayane found herself becoming more and more intrigued by Ain’s words.

Ain took a breath before starting to talk in earnest. “When transformed, newly created werecreatures are highly... feral. Their primal sides take over, and it takes some time for the human side to assert control when in a transformed state. And even when in human form their preferences are altered somewhat. Like a sudden preference for meat.”

Ayane absorbed this information before assuming, “Like a new vampire’s hunger for blood.”

“A vampire needs blood to survive. Their newfound desire for it is a natural instinct for survival. These changes are more subtle than that.”

“This is odd,” Rache said. “You’re actually going for a woman that I approve of. Haven’t seen that since... well... ever.”

The devil hunter tugged at her choker and her crimson hair. “You don’t talk very much.”

“Neither do you.”

“That’s something we’ve got in common,” Ayane said as she left the room and went back for her own. ‘Rache, how much moonlight we have?’

There was a brief lull, then, “We’re almost full up. We going for the blast, or we saving it for the augmentations?”

‘I don’t know,’ Ayane admitted. ‘We’ll have to see.’

Down the hall, Ericka was staring at her feet as her roommate stepped out of the bathroom. “Takes a while for the hot water to kick in,” Midnight lamented with a towel covering her midsection. “But it’s worth it.” Ericka numbly acknowledged her roommate’s comment. “You know, I have to give Circe credit. Snake woman knows her way around clothing. You look a lot better than you did Christmas Day.”

“Thanks,” Ericka said.

Midnight smiled at Ericka’s word of recognition. “And she speaks! You should do that more often.” She got no response for that. “What did Circe tell you that got you talking?”

“...That she wasn’t ashamed of what she was.”

“And why would she be?” Midnight asked rhetorically. “She didn’t ask to be half-medusa. You didn’t ask to be part succubus. And I didn’t ask to be part-werewolf. Not that I’m complaining about my condition,” she grinned. “Yeah, I’d like to have a human head, but I like everything else. I guess what I’m trying to say is that you can’t change the cards you’re dealt. You can only choose how to play the hand.”

Ericka looked at Midnight as she admitted, “You sounded kinda like Circe for a moment.”

The wolf girl grinned for a moment before saying, “Well, I’ve got more things up my sleeves than you’d think.” She reached for one of her robe’s sleeves before quickly realizing that she was essentially naked. “Except for at the moment.” Ericka looked away as red as a beet. “It’s okay to stare,” Midnight grinned lecherously at Ericka as the wheels in her head began to turn. “There’s nothing wrong with admiring another woman’s body. I do it all the time.”

“...You’re gay.”

“And proud of it,” Midnight admitted. “I think most of the women at the mansion are. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Ericka remained silent again and thought for a moment. She had been rudely introduced to the idea outside her old high school with Circe, and hadn’t been able to think of almost anything but how nice being goosed by her had been since they’d gotten back from Nebraska. Things from her past were beginning to collide in unexpected ways; yes, she’d never had a boyfriend, but was that merely because she had been so shy? Or was there another reason?

‘Seed planted,’ Midnight thought. “I mean, let’s put aside all the things that you think are wrong with you. How old are you?”

“Sixteen.”

Midnight nearly did a double take when Ericka said that. “Sixteen?” she asked incredulously. When Ericka nodded, Midnight laughed lightly. “Damn, I mean, that’s a shocker for me. You look pretty damn attractive for a sixteen year old.” She couldn’t help but stare as Ericka looked away with an even greater blush than before.

--

“What are you doing?” Parisa looked at Thrax, who was sitting Indian style on the floor with her eyes shut.

“Give me another few seconds please.” Thrax opened her eyes after ten seconds and smiled. “I had been wondering when I’d crack through that thing. I’ve finally got it.”

“Got what?”

“The blueprints,” Thrax smiled. “The blueprints that led to my shell’s construction. I’ve been trying to gain access to a copy for years now. Can’t believe they were stupid enough to put it on a server with Internet access...”

“So why’d it take so long?” Parisa was curious insofar that of all the strange creatures she had been cohabitating with, she found Thrax the strangest, even more so than Kiki.

“I honestly hypothesized that they were smarter than this,” the parasite admitted. “I can’t analyze the prints in my head though; I’d need to get this on a computer to try and make sense of where things went wrong.” She smiled as she admitted, “I can say what I want about the technology keeping me running, but I’m limited by biological factors.” Parisa nodded as she returned to what she was doing. “How long was I busy downloading the files?”

Parisa checked her watch. “Thirty, thirty-five minutes.” She looked out the window as she admitted, “You were still perfectly still the whole time. It was kind of eerie.”

“I’m fine now,” Thrax reassured her, “If a little estatic. What are you doing?”

Parisa was sitting at a desk she had moved in order to look out the window. ”I’m painting.”

“You paint?” Parisa nodded. “Do you mind if I look?” Thrax walked over and stared over at canvas Parisa was working with. “Pointillism?” Parisa turned away from her work to stare at Thrax with some surprise. “What? I personally prefer Romanticism or Impressionist works, but it definitely is better than that trash they call Modernism.”

“You... know about painting?”

“Yes.”

“But you’re... ah.. you’re not, um –”

“Not an organic?” Parisa nodded. “Well, my previous host, Francesca, had a bit of an admiration and appreciation for the arts. I suppose that’s one preference that carried over.” Thrax continued to look at what Parisa had been working on when she asked, “How old are you? Twenty-three? Four?”

“Twenty-seven,” Parisa admitted. That threw Thrax for a loop.

“Twenty-seven,” Thrax repeated. “If I may say, you look very good for a human your age.” Parisa stuttered at the compliment as Thrax said, “You said it on the plane that you wanted people to interact. Well, we’re interacting.”

Parisa cleared her throat. “I suppose. Thanks.”

--

Half an hour later, everyone who had come on the plane with Parisa met together once more. “I think I’ve got a game plan ready for tomorrow. We just need to run over it piece by piece.” She turned to Thrax, claiming, “You’re gonna run behind the scenes for us. You’ll be staying in the hotel; I need you to knock out any security systems they’ve got or at least to distract them.”

“It will be done,” Thrax claimed.

“Ericka, I know you don’t really have the stomach to fight, so I’m asking you to stay behind with Thrax and make sure you two stay out of trouble.”

“Thank you,” Ericka eeked out.

“Gemeni, I need you to handle any piece of electronics inside the compound that Thrax can’t access.”

Gemeni took off her wide brimmed hat as she said, “I can do that.”

“The rest of us will split in two teams. I’ll lead team one and I’m taking Mali and Midnight with me, and we’ll protect Gemeni. Team one’s objective is to go in as quickly as possible and retrieve Halie.” Mali smiled at the prospect of fighting, while Midnight nodded silently in comprehension. “Team two will consist of Maliphis, Ayane, and Ain. Your objective is to cover team one’s back and keep an exit route open for escape once we find Halie.”

“I suppose that means that we’re the ‘Plan B’, so to speak,” Maliphis intoned.

“Team two,” Parisa added, “will be doing most of the fighting on our way out of the building. The onus will be on team one to find Halie quickly without causing alarm.”

“And once the alarm is raised?” Ayane asked.

Parisa shrugged. “Do whatever it takes to stay alive.”

“Translation,” Maliphis grinned, showing off his sharp teeth, “Kill anything that poses a threat.”

“Let’s just get a good night’s sleep,” Parisa told everyone. “It’s not going to do us any good to stress about it.”

As the group dispersed, a solitary figure put down his binoculars and insulated himself further in his blanket. He pressed several buttons on his cell phone, and waited two rings for a response. “What do you have to report?”

“Your sources were as true as snow is white, Janus,” Red Fox spoke. “The Brotherhood has sent operatives to retrieve the captive. Including the green-skinned demon,” he added with a scowl. “Red Fox has the urge to slay them in their sleep like the white man slew my kin.”

“Bide your time, Red Fox. If all goes as planned, we may be able to add an ally or two to our cause.”

Herrera Mansion, Spain

Sera flipped open her cell phone and immediately became giddy when she saw who was calling. “Miss Maeve! I’m so happy to hear you!”

“I’m happy to ‘ear you too, lil’ one! Everything goin’ alrigh’ back at home?” Maeve was beaming at the sound of Sera’s voice; it sounded like Sera was coping with whatever hellish things the cultists in Ukraine had done to her fairly well.

“It’s really boring,” Sera complained. “Tiberio and Matthew are really nice, but Darien left for Brotherhood business and I haven’t gotten to play with Circe yet.”

“Well, you’ll just have to deal, I’m ‘fraid. I’m not gonna be back for a while”

“Circe’s stayed in her room playing games with Kiki for the past three hours,” Sera pouted. “And Circe said I couldn’t join.”

‘She better not have,’ Maeve thought. ‘I’d fucking turn her into a new piece of baggage.’

Sera added, “They sounded like they were having a lot of fun though. When do I get to play that game?” She couldn’t possibly know it, but Maeve panicked for a good half minute before finally managing a level response.

“I’ll tell ‘ye when ‘ye can play the game. Just – just don’t watch ‘em play, alrigh’?” Maeve seemed deeply disturbed by the thought of Sera having sex, especially with Kiki. ‘Thank Jesus she thinks it’s just an adult game,’ she silently thanked.

“Alright,” Sera relented. “It’s just not any fun playing hide and seek with Matthew. He finds me too quickly because he’s really good, and I find him because he’s not very good at hiding.”

Maeve chuckled at Sera’s situation. “Alrigh’, I’ll talk to ye later, okay?”

“Okay,” Sera smiled. “Come back soon! Mister Sean wants a kiss!”

“I’ll give Mister Sean a kiss when I get home.”

“Thank you, Miss Maeve! I love you!”

“...I love you too.” As the two women hung up their phones, Maeve began to weep with joy. This time, no one would take her child away from her.

January 21st, 2013

Seoul, South Korea

Usually, sitting alone and working on her homework was how Gwen usually spent her time. But she felt truly alone for the first time now since when she’d been forced into the Brotherhood. Jin was sleeping in a closet to avoid the sunlight, while the old monk had gone out to get some groceries for the three of them. She was busy drawing artistic interpretations for a few characters she would eventually render for her next big project. She looked at the drawing and shivered slightly. Perhaps she had done it unconsciously, but the three characters that she had drawn looked remarkably like Nikta, Anya, and Matthew.

Gwen decided to send in the submissions. By her logic, her teachers would not know who these people really were. She shut off her tablet as she took a sigh of relief. Regardless of how much she didn’t want to wear that collar, she had to admit that she felt a lot less pain while she was wearing it. Gwen was still chilled to the bone, but the pain was more bearable than it would normally be.

She heard someone walking through the house, and quickly assumed the monk had returned. “I’m sorry that I couldn’t come with you,” she hollered, “but Jin told me not to leave the house.”

“Really? That’s a shame.” Gwen’s heart began to beat faster at that voice. Clearly, the person in the house was not the monk with the large glasses. The door to the room she was in opened, and Nikta entered. “Such a beautiful woman shouldn’t be confined if she doesn’t want to be.”

Gwen stuttered wildly as she tried to explain why it was she left, but she was disarmed by Nikta’s charming smile. It reminded her of the one time she had seen Anya smile, but there was something behind this woman’s smile that implied another meaning. “Um, how did you find me?”

“Fate works in mysterious ways,” Nikta said as she approached the ghost girl. In truth, she had installed on Gwen’s computer spyware that allowed her to track where Gwen was. While this did slow down the computer somewhat, Nikta knew that no one would be the wiser. “I thought we could pick up where we left off.” Gwen was about to object when Nikta began nibbling on her ear. “You don’t have to be cold,” she hotly whispered into Gwen’s ear. “I can show you how we warm people up in Russia.”

As Nikta began lightly kissing Gwen’s collarbone, Gwen felt her resistance quickly fade. Sure, it wasn’t a great idea to let her do this, but there was something else to focus on at that moment besides the usual pain: pleasure. And Nikta’s kisses just felt so warm, made her feel alive...

--

The plane finally landed at Incheon International Airport, and those who were on board filed off. “Now lemme get some goddamn sleep,” the pilot demanded as he pulled his hat over his head and fell asleep.

“Is he always like that?” Balder asked.

“I think Tiberio said that he was,” Corona replied.

Joey checked her phone, commenting, “Jin sent me the address. It’s just a matter of tracking it down from there.”

“Then let’s get moving,” Balder stated as he ruffled his slicked back black hair. “There’s no telling if the Akimovs already know if Gwen’s here.”

As Balder began to walk away, everyone began to follow him. Maeve looked at their supposed leader and stopped dead in her tracks. She stared at him as he walked away, uncomfortable in every way imaginable.

“What wrong?” Anya hung back to comfort her old friend.

Maeve took several labored breaths before confessing, “I’m seein’ it again. Right ‘round Balder.”

Anya thought for a moment before realizing what she meant. “Raven’s Eye?” She shuddered uncomfortably as Maeve confirmed it.

“I saw it on the plane, but I thought it was just a trick o’ me eyes. But it ain’t a haze anymore. It’s gettin’ more intense.” Both women kept staring at Balder, keeping a certain distance between themselves and him.

“What’s with the intense looks?” Joey was curious as to why they were staring at him.

Anya addressed Joey by her second nickname.“Izzy, You know what banshees most well known for?” Joey shook her head as she began to walk at the same speed as Anya and Maeve were. “Banshees like Maeve famous for being able predict death.”

Joey knew at that moment what they were getting at, but hoped that they were wrong. “So what does that mean?”

“It means,” Maeve said, “that before the day is done, Balder is goin’ ta die.”