June 10, 2004 – 20:20
Liam stepped between Frank and Paolo, glancing at the other guard.
"You touch him, and I guarantee you that your head will roll before you see the colour of your dungeon wall."
Carlito and Sarah ran toward them.
"PAOLO! CHORRACE! BACK DOWN NOW!" said Carlito.
"But he's human," said Paolo.
"Don't you see they both passed the wards? His mate made our wards. He's under Alpha Collins's protection, just like Blue Thunder is," said Carlito at the two guards before turning his attention to Frank. "Apologies about that. Follow me, I'll take you to the packhouse."
Liam and Sarah were following them.
"I get it, thanks to this senseless witch hunt and supernatural war, we're all on edge with trust issues."
"For real! My wolves are on edge with trust issues, yeah, but your mate must be even more."
"Elementals definitively have it worse than us. They're getting killed out there," said Liam, holding Sarah's hand.
"Blue is coming here to dodge another capture-to-kill party," said Frank.
When the game ended, she didn't linger around and headed toward the back tunnel exit. In case he'd be followed if Clara and her crew couldn't find Coralis, Sebastian decided to go with her to the Red Crescent pack and leave from there. Coralis shifted into Cheetah as soon as she exited the players' area, but Sebastian wanted to let the bulk of people pass before shifting to his wolf form and waited with his hood lowered below his eyes.
She walked along the black wall of the tunnel, unseen by anyone. Once outside, she quickly crawled underneath a shrub and watched the people walking by. A few minutes later, she saw a grey wolf coming out of the tunnel exit between two couples. Sebastian bolted into the shadows of the trees as soon as he was outside and Coralis ran after him.
She struggled to keep up with him, as her mini-panther version was slower than his wolf. When she was satisfied that she was far enough from anyone, she shifted into her full-size panther and caught up to Sebastian.
Knowing the Red Crescent pack never saw him in his wolf form, he shifted back to himself when they arrived at the end of their road, by the gated fence. The fence was rudimentary and made out of round logs, low enough to allow wolves to jump over it easily, but high enough to be seen by humans. Coralis had designed the wards so that humans who were not marked by a werewolf, or accompanied by one, would feel confused when passing the fence and turn around.
"I'd be considering portalling my ass back home if my apartment wasn't warded against portals, to be honest. I should have asked Stephanie to come here with Emma after work."
"She's here already. I couldn't tell you before we left because there were too many people. I told Frank that you'd follow me here in your wolf form, just in case they'd follow you instead, and leave when danger was gone. He probably called his sister, because he messaged me back saying she will follow Emma here."
"Of course, he did. I guess that's how we know that you and I are truly family," said Sebastian, laughing. "Our mates are definitively making sure to have our asses covered."
They jumped over the fence and met with the two guards. They nodded at them.
"I don't like to hide from a fight, but tonight didn't feel like the night for it. The last time, I passed too many human cities on the ground below. If they learned that they couldn't catch me when flying, I'm sure they had a different idea in mind. Either Clara would have followed me from afar, or there would have been more of them with a nasty gas or something. They would have come prepared."
"Or force you to use a powerful spell to repeal them, one that could have been seen by humans if they looked up to the sky."
"Yeah, or that. When I flew Sonylla out of that building and had her throw fireballs at her pursuers, we were above forests, lakes and clearings. At most, we scared off a human camper if a burned one crashed on the ground beside them… holy gods from above, I hope we didn't."
"It's not like you had a choice. I don't think you did, or Emery would have said something about it and you know it would have been all over the press. They only pinned the burned-down building on Sonylla. If campers would have reported burned people falling from the sky next to them, you know it would have been pinned on her too," said Sebastian as they arrived at the packhouse.
Alpha Collins and his beta were waiting for them outside.
"I hear you're playing dodge the capture-to-kill party tonight," said Carlito.
"It's becoming a casual activity of mine lately. Thanks for letting me hide here for a bit," said Coralis.
Sebastian and Stephanie left in the morning. For the remainder of the month, Coralis did not go home. When she was in town for home games, she stayed in a guest room inside of Red Crescent packhouse, and Frank often met her there, catching a ride with Liam.
Not wanting to jeopardize the security of his apartment wards, Sebastian slept there after their games and Stephanie had her work schedule adjusted so that she'd work the nights he had a home game.
Even if she knew that her troubles weren't over, Coralis was glad to see the end of her flyball career, even if it wasn't something she truly wanted to do. She was getting ready to leave Argentina after her team won the semi-finals when her hologram went off. She tapped on it to answer it, and High Mage Finnas's holographic image came out.
"Blue Thunder, I don't know what you did to ensure that Clara Holia couldn't find you, but it's a good thing she never did. She was indeed planning on turning you in and she wasn't working alone. She has been apprehended this morning and is locked up in our cells."
"Do you know to whom she planned on turning me in and who else is working with her?"
She heard a knock on her door and opened it to let in Sebastian.
"We don't know to whom, but we know some of our former recruits who were trying to kill Sonylla Windflame inside that building in Calgary are still alive. We think they will attempt something after the finals tomorrow so we will have agents there just in case."