Lassiter turned red in the face angry, while Stephanie was just plain blushing. Probably because they were wired, and the swat team and every cop out front just heard their dirty laundry aired, including Pastrano, that piece of shit.

  “Oh, that folder is full of all sorts of interesting tidbits, so if you’re afraid the FBI director will be mad at you if you back down. Trust me, he won’t be, once he reads what’s in there, anyway. I also had a second copy put somewhere safe, if anything happens to me it will be released. All of it, including you dipshits fucking with me when I’m trying to save the world.”

  Lassiter growled, “Was that a threat?”

  I shook my head, “No, it’s called blackmail, moron. Now go away. There’s a few more tidbits in there about the president, the NSA director, and just for fun the director of homeland security. So seriously, go fuck off, and let me deal with a crazy goddess’s mess. Or, stop getting in my way, and help.

  “I’m an artist, you know. I even drew pictures.”

  Stephania gasped.

  I chuckled, “No, Steph, not of that. I’m also sorry for dragging you into it, you weren’t mean to me at all in my vision, outside of the prison ward, I mean. No, the drawings are of what would’ve happened if I hadn’t stopped her yesterday, and what will still happen if we don’t find out where she stashed a growing army of monsters in those three cities. The monster nurseries must be warded by magic because I can’t see where they are.”

  Stephanie looked both relieved and alarmed.

  Lassiter snorted, “You just confessed to blackmail and murder, and I can get you for assaulting an officer and interfering with a criminal investigation. Arson too.”

  I blinked.

  June said, “Technically, you can’t. It was the redheaded woman with him that compelled the officer.”

  I chuckled, “She makes a good point, you can only charge me with obstruction, murder, arson, and blackmail. Now go away. Seriously, you want to read what’s in there before trying to arrest me, or every top government official in this country is going to destroy your life, your career, and possibly have you shot. I’m a god, I’m a seer, and what I did was necessary to protect myself and our world. You know how messed up Clarissa was from her life, she’d have destroyed everything. Self-defense, and the defense of others. Anyway, I’m done talking. Go away, or try to arrest me.

  “Oh, you should also try really hard to make up with your wife, I wasn’t kidding about the anal, she loves it. It’d be a shame if you never got to experience that. Just ask your partner, you know, the one that you don’t think is a prick.”

  His hand twitched toward his gun, and for a second, I wondered if I just pushed too hard. But then he seemed to master himself.

  Lassiter asked, “Do you think you know what I’m going to do?”

  I pondered that for a moment, really concentrated on it and him. I couldn’t get the big stuff without sleeping, but I could get personal stuff while awake from people near me.

  “You stupid fuck. Enjoy… well, St. Croix. Not much of a punishment for being a stupid douchebag, is it? Sand, sun, hot chicks in bikinis. I’d send you to the middle east, or North Korea, but I haven’t been there yet.”

  I waved and he disappeared in a bubble of golden light. I adroitly caught the box before it hit the ground and gave it to the trembling witch.

  “Take that, Stephanie. Maybe the prick partner will have more sense than to fuck with the sun god. No wonder his wife cheats on him. He’ll be fine by the way, he really is in St. Croix. I might have missed the beach, by a few feet, but he’ll dry off. Have you tried to explain to them who and what I am?”

  Stephanie shook her head, mouthed, “They wouldn’t listen if I tried,” then blushed furiously before she practically ran from the yard. Speed walking like her ass was on fire.

  June asked, “What was he going to do?”

  “Order the snipers to fire as soon as he and Stephanie were out of the line of fire. They’re set up on the roof of a three-story house six blocks over. Then move in with SWAT to detain everyone else, once I was a corpse. You know, they let me go the first time around, just trying to avoid two days of torture here. Not trying to start a war with the U.S. government. We kind of do need their help. I even supplied all the info I gave them in the old future.”

  June nodded, “I know that.”

  I shrugged, “They’re still listening, I’m sure. Speaking for the benefit of our audience.”

  June asked, “How did you find out all that stuff?”

  She knew that, so was trying to help maybe.

  “It’s the way our power works, focusing on the ends, not the means. I just focused on blackmail material, and from who, my power fed it to me as easy as one, two, three.”

  She asked, “Is Lassiter’s wife really hot?”

  I shrugged, “She’s a looker. Not as pretty as Stephanie though, by quite a bit actually, but her body is killer.”

  She giggled, “I see. We’ve never discussed, or tried…” she mouthed, “Anal.”

  I grinned, then shrugged, “I don’t care, we can try it if your curious, but it doesn’t do anything for me as far as a thrill, and the other three flavors just plain feel better. I tried it once in college, wasn’t impressed. The taboo parts and the power trip don’t impress me either.”

  She smirked, “That works for me, too, I think. I mean, if you’re ever curious all you have to do is ask, but if not, I’m good with that. I’ve experimented with that flavor privatively, and it didn’t do much for me either as far as satisfaction goes.”

  “You know they all know out there we’re discussing anal, right? We’re not fooling anyone.”

  She gasped, “I thought we were talking ice cream,” then she broke down into naughty giggles.

  Brenna joined us, “Don’t be so sure, you’re a submissive minx, mistress. There’s a submissive thrill from it that you wouldn’t have felt at all, eating ice cream by yourself. It’s much different, when your big strong man feeds you that ice cream while your helpless,” she winked at me.

  June smirked, “So you like it?”

  Brenna shook her head, “Hate it actually, my body takes no pleasure in that flavor, so it just hurts, but I know for sure because I tried it once.”

  How the hell did we get on this topic? Oh, right, Lassiter’s wife.

  June said, “Me too, I don’t think submission will help if it doesn’t feel good at all, plus he doesn’t want it so that would ruin it right there.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t say I hate it, but why have plain spaghetti when I have lasagna, baked ziti, and pizza in the offing.”

  June giggled.

  Brenna nodded, “All true. I wonder when these guys will make a decision. I’m surprised they didn’t breach the moment you sent Lassiter swimming in the Caribbean.”

  “My guess is their pet witches told them the wards would be difficult to counter or breach with violent intent. There are also their careers to think of, they don’t know what’s in that book I wrote. Giving us a little time won’t hurt their careers, when breaching clearly might. I didn’t torture or hurt Lassiter, despite his intention to end my life. There’s also a coven and kid witches back here, and if they hurt them how will they ever trust their witches, and they’ll all get suspended and investigated.

  “Clearly, they need to show me as a clear and present danger before pulling the trigger, under all those circumstances, and I haven’t hurt anyone except for the crazy goddess bent on destroying the world. The only reason they aren’t gone yet is pride, and control, agents aren’t trained on how to back off gracefully, someone higher up on the food chain is going to have to order a pullback.”

  Brenna asked, “Will they?”

  I shrugged, “I have no idea. I stepped off the future’s path that I saw when I refused to be tortured for two fucking days. If this backfires… well people are going to get hurt. I’ll defend you and the witches here, otherwise I’d probably just leave and come back when they’re gone. I won’t use deadly force, but accidents happen in subdual situations all the time.”

  “Lassiter?” June asked.

  I shrugged, “Pissed. Wet suit, wet phone, and waterlogged gun,” I snickered, “A small price to pay for what he was about to try to do, and at least he’s in U.S. territory. Ah shit,” I looked up. I had to find the monsters, I didn’t have time for dealing with prissy government assholes that want to measure dicks.

  “Alright, release the information. Now. I have to make a point.”

  Brenna took out her phone, and sent a text.

  I started to glow golden, then brightened further as I rose into the sky. It wasn’t true flight as such, more floating along in a direction, but it didn’t take me long to reach the house and start glowing brighter, turning into a sun.

  A flash of light left my hands and slammed into the drone a quarter mile away at about ten thousand feet. I waited for it to fall with range of my powers, and then teleported it to the ocean of St. Croix, not far from where that fuckhead Lassiter was yelling into a borrowed cell phone.

  My voice boomed, “The information is being sent to all media now, and the physical copy to the attorney general’s office. All you fucks couldn’t back off, so now live with the scandals, arrests, and various divorces, and ruined careers. Chicago’s finest, please leave.”

  The government SUV went up like a fireball, and immediately teleported to the same place off the beach. Then Stephanie and Agent Pastrano were teleported as well, but I got them on the actual beach. All that was left was the cops and swat when the sun faded, and I sunk back into the backyard.

  “We should’ve taken the time to get a burner phone, instead of using our real phones on this side. Next time.”

  June giggled, “Next time we save the world and almost get killed for our trouble?”

  I nodded, “Yep, that one.”

  Brenna asked, “How did you know about the drone coming in?”

  I shrugged, “Not really sure. Small scale thing, related to my own safety and what belongs to me. I’ve been focused on being vigilant in protecting you all, and that information fit the intent, so my power just fed it to me, I think. Probably the moment some asshat in Washington ordered a missile in our backyard, I think it was there the whole time circling in reserve or something, but not really a threat until it was. Still haven’t hurt anyone, by the way, if anyone is still listening. I gave you a chance to take my testimony, now it’s time to hide under your desks as the shit hits the media fan.”

  June asked, “You seem really confident?”

  I shrugged, “Originally I was supposed to be compelled by Clarissa to destroy Chicago. I’m fairly sure the cops, FBI, and the military would’ve tried to stop me with everything at their disposal in that thwarted future. Chicago was destroyed in my vision, and countless other cities around the world, so they obviously failed. I’m not a minor god to be outmaneuvered or bullied, and definitely not tortured. Not when all I’ve done is guard and save the lives of Americans. They can fuck off if they want to punish me for that, or for their damned pride. If they took their heads out of their asses they’d know I was on their side.”

  June snickered, “Good point.”

  I sighed, “It also had to be done, sooner or later it would’ve come to this. They need to understand they don’t control us. They can work with us, recruit us and seek our aid, but they don’t control us, use us, or threaten us. I kept my promise, now they can live with the consequences of their actions.”

  Brenna said, “SWAT and the black and whites are heading out.”

  I nodded, “Including the snipers. The only question is if the military or FBI tactical teams will replace them, or if they came to their senses.”

  It wasn’t quite that simple as I’d made it out to be. They’d figure out soon enough my power could be blocked by a ward, I’d as much said so in my request for help in finding the monsters, so they might even try to take me down that way. Have a witch ward a missile, or some other surprise attack. I’d have to stay vigilant, and to depend on all my abilities to keep us safe. From witch wards, to my power as a seer, to just keeping alert and my eyes open. I couldn’t afford to depend on any one of those.

  After all, when trying to stop me from destroying Chicago, they’d have been coming after a mini-sun, which would be really hard to take off guard. So I really did hope they came to their senses, helped me find the monsters, and perhaps worked out an arrangement. But looking anything but confident right now and not following through on my threatened action, would only serve to embolden them.

  “So, Brenna, your granddaughters…” I trailed off as she held up a hand.

  She said, “They’re my precious granddaughters. They’re also eighteen and sexually active, and they make their own decisions. If you do anything about that, and take June along to watch or participate, well I don’t want to hear about it.”

  “Right, makes sense. I also wanted advice on drawing the line for myself, since you both have no expectations or lines that way. I mean, I know you two won’t care, but I think I’d do harm to myself and outlook, the way I see and respect women, if I was too free in sleeping with every beautiful woman that threw themselves at me…” I went on to explain my middle of the road theory, without specifically mentioning her twin granddaughters. Even if I did come to love my harem in time, and we built a true family, it wouldn’t be cheating if I had permission, and that was a heady thing for a guy to deal with.

  Sex had emotional fallout and a mentality impact, and anyone saying differently, was full of shit.

  She bit her lip, “I think you’re right. Normally I’d say being promiscuous would be fine, but you’ll have far more women throwing themselves at your feet than a normal man would. Anything in excess is bad for you, but the occasional tryst outside of your harem with special friends, should be fine I’d think.”

  I nodded, then looked at June.

  “I’m totally coming with you to watch. Ooh, maybe not. Maybe I’ll just use farseeing on them so I don’t get in the way.”

  I grinned, “Whichever you want, always, and you could never be in the way. I might take that middle of the road, but I’ll never sneak around on my harem. It’ll be in the open.”

  Except when it came to a certain pair of twins and Brenna of course, but that was at her request. It also wasn’t happening now, so time to move on. I had their numbers.

  June said, “Maybe, but we’re all going to feel that way, and you can’t take nine voyeurs every time you go out for an affair.”

  Okay, that was a good point, but I changed the subject.

  “So, any ideas on how we can search those cities. Can we get shifters, vamps and witches to help us if the government insists on being a bag of dicks?”

  June noted, “You’re cursing a lot today, you hardly ever curse.”

  I blew out a breath, then nodded, “Angry, at what they did and didn’t do to me. Then when I gave them a chance to take a softer approach and just accept my testimony and written statements, they tried to kill me. Twice. But you’re right, I’ll man up and stop being a potty mouth.”

  I shook my head, “Point is, they have to stink to high heaven, and they’ll need a lot of food to support their breeding and insanely fast growth. Witches of course can help identify newly warded areas that aren’t theirs.”

  Brenna looked dubious, “I’ll ask my coven to send the word out, and help search in Chicago, but the vampires don’t like us, and the shifters really don’t like us.”

  I chuckled, “What’s not to like?”

  Brenna flipped her hair, “I know, right? I have no idea why the filthy mutts don’t care for us.”

  I snickered, “I might have a guess, now.”

  Brenna fluttered her eyelashes at me.

  “We don’t get along. They try to bully us, and our lack of cohesion and our ability to be as hypocritical as humans bugs the crap out of them.”

  “The vampires?”

  She shrugged, “They can’t compel us or eat us, and we find them arrogant. They might accept a message from us though, and if they believe it, they’ll act to defend the city independently, so it won’t hurt to ask. A shifter would just burn the note without reading it, so to speak. Assume we’re up to something.”

  “Alright, personally?”

  She shook her head, “I also think your assumed timeline is off. Think about it, you saw them in two weeks and five days leaving wreckage and dead bodies behind, any humans that lived had to have fled. How long do you think it’d take a pure physical threat to destroy a city the size of the ones we’re talking about?

  “I suspect they don’t have orders at all, and the ward is both hiding them and holding them inside somewhere. That she planned to drop the wards when the time to go approached. With her dead, her wards will wear off in a week. That means your vision started after a week and five days of slaughter and destruction, before leaving for other cities.”

  Shit, she was right.

  “Okay, seven… six days to find them in three cities, when I doubted three weeks was long enough to find them in one.”

  June frowned, “But you wouldn’t have looked for them before the vision happened. Aren’t we assuming it will be hard, what if it’s not? There aren’t many places to hide that many monsters in one place.”

  I looked at June, “Sexy.”

  She giggled.

  “Alright,” I said, “Let’s assume big places. Let’s also assume they’re not underground, or the city workers and engineers would find them, stumble across them. So that leaves warehouses, abandoned theatres, closed arenas, condemned buildings, and unused government owned buildings.”

  Brenna asked, “Can you see the blank spots, the places your vision can’t penetrate, when you’re farseeing?”

  I frowned, then facepalmed. How did I miss such a simple solution?

  June snickered and blushed, equally mortified that she’d missed that, “I’ll get a list of locations in Chicago. Then we can eliminate anything too small, or that’s coven owned, and then check the rest.”

  “Good idea, I need to stay vigilant for the rest of this barbeque.” Or, the rest of my life, though I was fairly sure I’d see the death coming when I slept at night. Just like I saw the destruction of the world, when I couldn’t see who was behind it.