"Burning demons," Jester replied. "I think there was more than one left."

  Once outside, Stewart stood up and dragged Bruno further from the building, then quickly moved back to the entrance to help the others.

  "We lose anybody?" he asked Porto as he came out.

  "No, but keep an eye on Jester, he's got Tommy."

  Stepping inside and dropping to his knees because of the heat, Stewart fired into the smoke behind Jester as he dragged Tommy out of the building, being rewarded with a loud screech as he apparently hit something in the smoke.

  Someone grabbed the back of his harness and dragged him back out through the doorway as the roof started to collapse.

  "Thanks!" Stewart said.

  "No problem," Porto said. "Nice work covering Jester."

  "Everyone! Pull back and encircle! Let's make sure nothing comes out of that fire!" Jester transmitted between coughs.

  Getting back to his feet, Stewart joined the ranks. There were five wounded on the ground who were unconscious, but were almost fully healed at this point. Stewart suspected the ice spikes spell also had some added disabling component to it, seeing as lycans were quick to heal, and the demons knew that.

  Sure enough, after about twenty minutes, they started to wake up, Tracie checking on each of them. The rest of the squad stood around the building and watched it collapse in on itself while it burned.

  "Someone should probably call the fire department and tell them it's safe to come out now," Bruno muttered on the radio.

  "I did," Jester replied. "They asked if it looked like it was going to spread, and after I told them 'no', they claimed they had better things to do."

  "Humans." Somebody whose voice Stewart didn't recognize laughed.

  "Hey, can you blame them?" Stewart said. "A year ago I'd have been in hiding pissing my pants!"

  "Well, you're not hiding now!"

  "Yeah, but I think I still pissed my pants!" Stewart replied, a little chagrined.

  "What the hell was that black sparkly ball you threw at that demon?" Jester asked.

  Stewart laughed. "Nothing. It was an illusion. I wanted him distracted so I could cast a spell to knock down his defenses so I could shoot him!"

  "Sneaky Pete!" Porto laughed.

  "He was stronger than me, and if there's one thing I've learned from Sean, it's when to cheat!"

  "I just told Blue to go refuel," Jester said. "Looks like we're going to be here a while. Keep your eyes open. I think we got them all, but it pays to be sure."

  "Hey! Which one of you is Stewart Reese!" someone yelled.

  Looking behind him, Stewart saw Todd's older brother Gary, who was now the council leader since they'd left Gradatim and become an independent ally of Eruditio.

  "He's that big ass fox over there," Tracie told him. "Can't miss him, he's the only one not a wolf."

  "Cover for me," Stewart told the guys to either side. Safing his rifle, he let it hang by the sling and walked over to Gary, pulling off his helmet.

  Gary looked at him in shocked surprise. "Stewart?"

  Stewart grinned and nodded while sticking out his hand. "Yup! It's a long story, but it was this or die, and honestly? I just went head to head with some nasty magic-casting demon, and he came out second best. So, what can I do for you?"

  Gary shook hands with him, looking around at everyone. "Are you in charge here?"

  "Actually, no. That would be Jester over there," Stewart said with a jerk of his head to where Jester was standing guard with the rest.

  "Whatever it is," Jester called back to Stewart, "you know him, so why don't you deal with it?"

  "Guess I've just been delegated." Stewart grinned.

  "Well, first off, I want to thank you for coming down here and helping us out. None of us really knew what the hell to do, and," Gary shook his head, "we're just not ready for this. None of us magic users would last a moment up against those monsters, and we don't have any lycans here to help us with the fight."

  "What about Sapientia or Eruditio?"

  "They've just got basic security. Most of their folks went up to Reno to join the fight up there."

  "Guess I need to talk to the folks in charge when I get home," Stewart said, mulling it over. He'd run into Jack earlier today, and Jack had mentioned they were already discussing infecting soldiers in the military because of manpower issues.

  "If you don't mind my asking, what's it like?"

  "What's what like?" Stewart asked, confused.

  "Being a lycan."

  "Oh!" Stewart shrugged. "Magically I've got a bit more power. I'm stronger and faster, of course. But other than being able to shift forms? I tell ya, Gary, we were fed a line of bullshit. Oh, nobody realized it I guess, ignorance is bliss and all that crap. But I'm not really any different at all in the ways that count, and I've found out they aren't either," he said, waving to the rest of the team.

  "But they always acted so differently."

  Stewart snorted. "If we'd been raised the way they were, we'd have been the same way."

  Gary shook his head. "I can't call you a liar because you're the living proof. It's like I told everyone before, we've all been living a lie for so long, we forgot what truth is anymore.

  "Look, when you get back home, let them know we need help, and we're willing to do our fair share and pay whatever we have to. But right now, what we need most is someone to teach us what we should be doing. Because after today, I've realized none of us have a single damn clue."

  Stewart nodded. "I'll do that. Say hi to Todd. I need to get back to helping my friends keep an eye on things."

  "Bye, Stewart."

  "Later, Gary!"

  "That went better than I expected it to," Stewart whispered into the radio mic as he rejoined the others and put his helmet back on.

  "The times, they are a changin'," Jester agreed.

  Morning in America

  Steve looked around the conference room. When the events in Sacramento had taken place on Sunday, the president had had to cancel dinner. But Josh, the president's chief of staff, had called back within the hour to invite him to this conference on Monday.

  Looking around the room, he saw not just the president's abbreviated cabinet, who were often the ones in the room when he was there; all the cabinet members where there. As were several senators and congressmen, including Senators Conway and Scheckley, and Congressman Molson. All three of whom were now werewolves, and answered to him, via Granite and Tisha. Last, all the joint chiefs were there, as well as the head of the NSA, the Secret Service, the FBI, and the U.S. Marshals office. Even Duncan Roberts, the Sapientia leader, was there.

  Walking over to Duncan with Tisha in tow, Steve smiled and shook hands.

  "I'm surprised they invited you," Steve said to Duncan. "I thought you were all still trying to keep a low profile."

  "When they let the cameras in, don't be surprised to see me slip out the back door first," Duncan said with a slight grimace. "But like it or not, I need to be here."

  Steve nodded. "I think you should sit by me. I think it'll make people feel better if they think we're cooperating."

  "We are cooperating," Duncan said.

  "But how many times have they seen us together?"

  "Not once."

  "Exactly. So the first time they see us in a room together, we need to clearly be friends and set that image firmly in their minds, right?" Steve grinned and clapped Duncan on the back.

  Duncan shook his head and gave Steve an embarrassed look back. "Am I doing it right?"

  "Ah! So you do know the tricks of the trade!"

  "A little, but I'm obviously not in your league," Duncan admitted.

  " I promise not to hold it against you. You've met Tisha before, of course," Steve said and smiled as Tisha gave Duncan a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

  "You know, we really should have dinner, perhaps tonight?" Duncan asked. "So we can discuss the things I'm sure we're going to need to discuss?"

  "I'll be looking forward to it," Steve agreed.

  "Any word from Sean?"

  "Actually, yes," Tisha told him. "It's a bit harder because he's on another plane, but we're talking with him now."

  "When he gets back, I daresay the folks from Eruditio are going to want to lock him in a room with their biggest scholars and question him for a month!" Duncan said with a grin.

  "You know, something like that might not be a bad idea," Tisha said, pausing to think about it a moment. "But we can talk about it over dinner."

  "They're calling everyone over," Steve said. "We better get seated."

  Steve found it interesting that someone had thought to separate Duncan from him and Tisha, putting him on the far side of Director Kensington. When Steve asked for Duncan's seat to be moved next to his, there were a few raised eyebrows, but it only took a moment.

  "I thought the lycans and the magic users didn't get along?" asked Jill, the director of Homeland Security.

  "Oh, no," Steve said, smiling. "We get along quite well with everyone over at Sapientia, and also with the members of Eruditio; they've been quite helpful and supportive. Duncan here is actually a friend as well as an ally."

  "I didn't know that," she said, looking surprised.

  "Excuse me," Josh said, speaking up, "if we could call this to order?"

  Everyone got quiet and looked over at the president.

  "I'm sure you've all seen the news reports on TV from Sacramento last night?" the president asked, looking around the room. Most of the people nodded, but not all of them.

  "Let me bring you all up to speed then. As I've indicated to all of you, we are being attacked by creatures from another realm; they're best described as demons, because they eat human souls."

  The president looked around the room again. "I know a lot of you haven't been very accepting of this story, even with the surveillance imagery our satellites have been providing of the events out in Nevada. Well, how about we all take a look at what the average American saw on the news last night?

  "Josh, run the video."

  Steve sat back as a large monitor on the wall behind the president lit up and the news reports from one of the major networks started up. Steve had seen pretty much all of them; he'd been surfing the web as well as watching cable. They all started off the same, with a surveillance video from a bowling alley in Sacramento, apparently a fairly large one. Then from out of nowhere, a couple dozen demons burst into the picture and started killing men, women, and children. It was pretty horrific. Thankfully the quality of the security camera dulled the impact a little, but when some sort of obscene-looking monster rips off a little kid's head, it sticks with you.

  Steve didn't miss the looks of disgust on many of the faces in the room.

  There were other pictures, people's cellphone videos of the demons rampaging out in front of the bowling alley, then heading off past some buildings. A few of a brave police officer who had tried to stop them, and the price he'd paid for it.

  The next news report showed a circle of werewolves, with assault rifles, circling a burning building with several dead demons that were still dissolving on the ground by their feet. This video had been taken by a circling helicopter from some distance, so it was a bit blurry and shaky. But it was clear enough what was going on. The scene then cut to a later time when the fire was out; one of the werewolves was talking to a police officer for a moment, then a Blackhawk with a lion's head painted on the nose came in, picked everyone up, and flew off.

  The whole time, the commentators were reporting all sorts of speculation, and after the helicopter flew off, they pulled up recent file shots of the lycan 'outing' incidents Steve had been arranging for the last nine months, while discussing the rumors of some sort of war taking place in the Nevada desert.

  Looking around the room again, he could see there were a lot of very shocked people in the room.

  "This next bit comes to us thanks to the great people over at the NSA, who got a satellite focused on the area as soon as they could, once the news broke."

  Steve watched, very curious now; this was the kind of stuff you normally needed a pretty hefty security clearance to see. The video began, zoomed way out, then suddenly an icon appeared next to a small dot, and it zoomed in quickly, resolving on a helicopter circling something, then slid over to where a line of heavily-armed soldiers were moving in an attack formation.

  Steve was impressed; you could even see they all had tails, though there was no color at all. There was bright flash at one end of a building, then the firefight commenced. They watched it right up until the wolves pulled out of the now burning building and encircled it.

  "We have pictures of all the people who were murdered," the president said as the screen went dark. "Do I need to show those as well? Or can I safely assume you're all on board now?"

  "On board with what?" asked Phil Dirks, the senate majority leader.

  "The war," the president said.

  "What I want to know," asked the Speaker of the House, Janet Kirby, "is who owns that helicopter?"

  "We do," Steve said, looking over at her.

  "Am I to understand you have a military force running around in this country?"

  Steve smiled. "No, Ma'am. You have a militia running around fighting a war in this country."

  "And who do they answer too?"

  Steve nudged Tisha's foot.

  "Us," Tisha said. "They answer to us."

  "You?" the Speaker said, looking incredulous. "And who would you be, young lady?"

  Tisha shifted. Steve smiled as several people around the table gasped.

  "A god," Tisha said with a smile that was all teeth. "What are you?"

  Steve couldn't help but notice the president was smiling as he raised his hands. "Ladies, gentlemen, and yes, goddesses." He winked at Tisha. "Please, everyone will have the opportunity to have their questions answered. Now, as you may have noticed, we have a few people at the table you may not be familiar with.

  "First of all, this is Tisha, who you may have noticed is a lioness. I would suggest you all have a look at your briefing notes. The man sitting next to her is Steve Bryson. He is Sean Valens' representative here in Washington. Next to him is Duncan Roberts, who, for those of you who don't know, is the national leader of the Council of Sapientia. They're magic users. Yes, magic exists, for the few of you here who don't already know that.

  "Now before we start taking questions, Director Kensington of the Secret Service is going to fill you all in on the history of our current situation."

  "Why him?" one of the congressmen asked.

  "Because historically, the Treasury Department, and hence the Secret Service, has been the branch of the government to deal with the magic users and all related events," Kensington said as he stood up to address the others.

  Steve listened as Kensington quickly briefed everyone on the situation, going over what the demons were, what was known of them, the history of this event, what the lions' role was in it, and what had been going on for the last several months since the gateways had started to appear.

  "So what happened is, these lions and this Sean character screwed up!" the Speaker said.

  "No," General Baker spoke up as Tisha looked at the Speaker and started to growl, "that was our mistake. One of our officers committed a major error after being warned not to."

  "Oh? And what happened to him?"

  "He was punished. Quite severely," General Baker said.

  "Why haven't we just sent the Army in to deal with this?" Phil Dirks asked.

  "Because the more powerful demons don't need to touch you to rip the soul out of your body, or possess and control you," General Baker explained. "In fact, they only have to be able to see you."

  "What about the lycans?"

  "They can't affect lycans, which is why they're leading the fight. Furthermore, normal weapons don't affect demons. However, with the help of Sean's people, we've been working on developing weapons that can."

  Steve noticed that several of the people seated at the table were now looking through their briefing notes quickly. Both the Speaker and the majority leader's aides were going through the papers furiously, and leaning forward to whisper to them.

  "Where is this Sean Valens?" the Speaker asked. "Why isn't he here today, if he's the one running all this?"

  "Because he got stuck in the demon's realm while repulsing a major attack," General Baker almost growled out.

  "Sounds incompetent to me," the Speaker mused.

  "Yes, to you I'm sure it would," the general retorted softly.

  "Sean is anything but incompetent, Madam Speaker," Congressman Molson said. "I've met the young man, and I can assure you, he is quite dedicated to fighting the demons. I would hesitate to disparage the man, Janet."

  "Madam," Duncan said, speaking up for the first time. "Sean is the first person to go to the demon world who wasn't food. The knowledge he's gaining for all of us is quite useful."

  "If he's in some sort of 'other realm'," the Speaker said, motioning with her hands, "how can he talk with you?"

  "It is said that what one lion knows, all lions know. Is that not right, Tisha?"

  Tisha nodded.

  "Okay," the president said, regaining everyone's attention. "The first order of business is, I need Congress to issue a Declaration of War against these demons attacking us."

  "Why?" one of the congressmen asked.

  "To free up resources, and to allow us to fully engage in defending our people," the president said, looking at each of them in turn. "Understand, I'll be going on national television today in about two hours to make a statement. People are going to need to be convinced that, not only are we aware of the problem, we're moving forward—all of us, in a united front—to deal with it."

  "But if only lycans can fight them," Phil, the majority leader, spoke up, "what can we do?"

  "We can keep them supplied with weapons and ammunition, as well as airlift support and whatever other hardware they need."

  "Mr. President?" Steve asked, leaning forward.

  "Yes, Mr. Bryson?"

  "There's one other thing all of us, and the lions, would like you to consider."

  "And that would be?"