"Tastes better, too," Travis agreed. "That other stuff tastes like sawdust or chalk half the time."

  "I seem to remember having this conversation a few years back," Sean said as his mind wandered to another time and place. "Hard to believe this only started three and a half years ago."

  "Four years ago, I was still licking the hand that fed me and the rest of my team," Travis said, shaking his head.

  "What ever happened to that mage, the one who trained you and lost an eye?"

  "How'd you hear about that? Weren't you in a coma?"

  Sean grinned. "What one lion knows…"

  "…they all know!" the others chorused and laughed.

  "Mike left the Vestibulum and moved to Vegas. Trix, one of the female werewolves, went with him. Last I heard, he volunteers at the local shelter, and they live in a trailer park. I think he gave up magic."

  "What's he do for money?"

  "Um, we all send Trix a few bucks from our pay each month." Dean, said. "She's been taking care of him. Jerigg and a few others take turns making sure he's okay. When he finally found out how many of 'his' wolves died in that fight, Trix thinks it broke something in him."

  Sean sighed. "When we get home, tell Deidre to get Ted in Vegas to keep an eye on him. Better yet, tell Roxy's dad to do it. He helped us, maybe indirectly, but he helped us. So we owe him."

  "Right-o, Boss."

  Sean went back to watching the border while the others talked quietly about something else, but it was only a few minutes until Chet called back.

  "We're here!"

  Security stopped him at the gate, and they made him show ID, same as the wolves, which made Sean smile. Obviously word was passed pretty fast when the boss made a new rule. Pulling inside, after all the Humvees in his little convoy had been cleared, they parked and got out to stretch.

  "Sir, Major Heed reporting, sir," the major in charge of Fort 70 said, coming up and saluting. Sean smiled and saluted back. Major Heed was Army, artillery if he remembered correctly. Another Afghanistan veteran.

  "At ease, Major, and please, call me Sean. This isn't an inspection; I'm just trying to get a feel for how things are running out here."

  "Overall, things are running well, but we've only been in place for a bit over a month, si…Sean. However, I'm worried about the rainy season."

  "Oh?"

  "A lot of our IR gear has issues in the rain, Sean. This stuff was tuned for the desert. We got some tricks we picked up in the sandbox, sure, but we aren't sure how well those will work here. It gets pretty damn cold out here come winter."

  "How are you fixed for winter gear?"

  "Not as well as I'd like, but I'm hoping we all get winter coats as the weather changes. I grew up in Alabama, so for me, winter is supposed to be like 70 degrees."

  Sean nodded and made a note of that. As most of his soldiers had just come from a desert climate, winter gear probably would be an issue.

  "Well, give me the nickel tour, then if you could find a place for me and my men to spend the night, I'd appreciate it, Major."

  "You're staying the night?"

  Sean nodded. "Like I said, I need to get a feel for how this all works. I'm not a military man, Major. I've got a lot of experts who are supposed to take care of things for me, but as I'm sure you've learned, the map is not the territory, and sometimes you just have to see it to understand it."

  "Um, we don't have a lot of fancy billeting here, Sean. I mean, you can have my room, but…"

  Sean waved his hand, cutting him off. "Just put me and mine in one of the regular barracks if you've got room. Otherwise, we've got a tent, and we can sleep outside. I don't want to push anybody out of their quarters."

  "Umm, but you're a lion," Major Heed said, his voice going soft.

  Sean smiled. "Yes, I know."

  "But you're like, our god." Major Heed's voice got even softer.

  Sean blinked, and then it clicked. "You're a natural, aren't you?"

  Major Heed nodded. "Yessir. From the Yellowhammer Pack."

  Sean smiled, put his hand on Major Heed's head, and let a little of his lion power—or magic, or whatever it was—leak out. "Major, sometimes it does them all good to see that their leaders, their gods, don't need the trappings of power the humans do. I know what I am, and they do, too. Besides, why wouldn't I want to sleep with the men? You're all my children, my people. I like spending my time with you."

  Major Heed looked a little confused for a moment as Sean reclaimed his hand.

  "We've been with him for almost four years now, since he freed us," Travis said. "He's not just saying that shit; he means it. They care about us, they really do."

  The major shook himself and then drew himself back up. "You know, you hear these things, but until you finally see it"—he smiled—"it never really sinks in. We got enough space in one of the barracks for all of you. Now, let me show you our gun emplacements."

  Sean woke up to the sound of artillery fire. Sitting up, he looked around the barracks as his men woke up and looked around. Surprisingly the guys who were stationed there just rolled over, put their pillows over their heads, and went back to sleep.

  At that point, one of Travis' men who was on guard, Burt, came in. Seeing Sean was awake, he came over to them.

  "They got a fire mission. Apparently that breakout attempt is happening tonight, and there's a massed body of demons heading towards the gap between this fort and Fort 71."

  Sean grabbed his gear and quickly got dressed as a sergeant came in and turned on the lights.

  "Gear up! We got incoming!" he yelled, and as the soldiers groaned, he smacked feet with his hand as he quickly moved through the barracks, making sure everyone was up.

  "Let's go see what the major knows," Sean said. Burt nodded and led Sean out of the barracks as Travis and the rest of his bodyguards quickly fell into formation around him.

  The sound of the howitzers firing was a lot louder outside. He dug out his earplugs and quickly put them in, as the rest of his team did the same. Being magical, they worked amazingly well, yet they let you hear most other sounds around you, especially voices. Sean had a machine churning them out in large numbers and had been distributing them to his soldiers for months now.

  "Major Heed," Sean said as he entered the small command post, "what's the situation?"

  "Here, look at the map yourself, Sean," he said and handed Sean his tablet. "Intel says there's about 20,000 of them, and they're moving fast in this direction. I'm about to deploy my men to support the one fire team I've got out to the south of here. The Air Force should have a couple of gunships here in the next 15 minutes."

  "They'll be here by then," Sean said, watching the rate of advance a moment before passing Major Heed is tablet back. "Pass the word that I want at least two gunships sitting alert at each of the major bases from this point forward," Sean said, looking back at Travis, "as well as some of those new Apaches. I want at least two on alert at every base that's got 'em from here on out, if they're not already."

  "Got it!" Travis said, pulled out his own secure tablet, and tapped out Sean's orders as Sean turned to the large area map on the table before him. They had a detailed map of the area surrounding Fort 70, as well as Fort 69 to the west, and Fort 71 to the south.

  "What's the situation with Colonel Curtis at Fort 73?" Sean asked, looking over the map.

  "He's scrambling his men, and he's got a dozen new Apaches he said he'll have in the air before they make it to Route 81," Major Heed said, pointing to the road on the map.

  "Well, I guess there were a lot more demons loose in those hills than we realized. Travis, make a note for someone to talk to some geologists or something. If that area is riddled with caves, we might have a bigger problem on our hands than we realized up here."

  "Got it, Boss!"

  "So, where do you think they're headed?" Sean asked the major.

  "The general consensus is that they're going to hit 71."

  Sean shook his head. "No, that'd take too long."

  "It would leave us with a big hole that would take a few days to fix," Major Heed pointed out.

  Sean shook his head again. "That's not how they think, Major. They don't give two shits for anyone else, even the people behind them. The goal is to get out and get food, and to do it as quickly as possible. They don't use conventional tactics; it's very much 'every djevel for himself'."

  "Who do you think is running them, Boss?" Travis asked.

  "Could be a prince, though it's probably a lord. I don't see a prince risking his neck on something like this. Plus I think there's only two or three of them left."

  "If that's the case," Major Heed said, looking thoughtful, "I'd put them south of 71."

  "Why?" Sean asked.

  "Because Black Pine Peak is just two miles past the wall, and if they get up in there, we'll have the devil's own time getting them out. Pardon the expression," he said, looking a little embarrassed.

  Sean thought about that, nodding slowly. "I agree. Pass on to Colonel Curtis that's their target and let him know I agree with your analysis. Then call the Air Force and tell them I want them to firebomb this entire area," Sean said, pointing along the ridgeline that spread out from the peak to the north and south. "And if they don't have the bombs for it, they can find a bunch of fire mages and fly them up there. In either case, I want that place lit up and burning by sunrise!"

  "Yes, sir!" Major Heed said and immediately turned to his radio operator to send out orders.

  "Travis, get everyone mounted up, we're gonna join those folks with the fire team to the south of here and see what we can do to help them."

  "On it!" Travis said and ran out the door, with Chet hot on his heels.

  "Are you sure you want to do that?" Major Heed asked, looking back at Sean for a moment.

  Sean snorted. "I gave up on doing the things I wanted to a long, long time ago, Major. Keep an eye on the satellite feeds. There's always a chance that they're smarter than we thought, and this is all just a dodge for something sneaky."

  "Yes, Sean," Major Heed said with a nod.

  Sean trotted out of the room to find his men, who were piling into their Humvees.

  "I'll take the gunner's spot," Sean said as he climbed into the turret. Burt got out of his way, as Chet put the vehicle in gear and joined the convoy that was quickly driving out of the gates.

  "You know Roxy is going to have words with us for this, Sean!" Travis said with a laugh as they barreled across the terrain. Thankfully, whoever was leading the line of Humvees and other armored vehicles knew the route, so the ride wasn't too bad.

  "Only 'cause I made her stay home and miss all the fun," Sean replied with a laugh of his own.

  "Just like the good ole' days!" Chet said from behind the wheel. "Driving like hell to reach an overwhelming force in the middle of the night. I tell ya, the more things change…"

  The others in the car snorted, and Sean just shook his head.

  "I thought the idea of these forts was to cut down on this sort of thing?" Bert mumbled.

  "Obviously there are still a few bugs in the system," Sean replied. "Somebody pass me a tablet. I want to watch the satellite feeds and see what else is going on."

  "Here, use mine," Burt said and passed it to him.

  Taking it, Sean logged into his own account on the tablet and used his access to see what was going on. He didn't have his own tablet with him because he wasn't supposed to be going out into the field anymore. It wasn't just Roxy who was going to brain him; Daelyn and Estrella would also be having a few unpleasant words with him, he was sure.

  Still, how in the hell had a force as large as the one he was looking at gotten this close to the wall without anyone picking up on it?

  His phone rang, and he hit the button on his headset to answer it.

  "Where are you, hon?" Roxy's voice purred in his ear.

  Sean sighed. "I'm the one with his head sticking out of the turret. Should I wave?"

  He heard her snort. "The resolution on these things isn't that good—well, not the one I'm looking at! I thought we discussed this?"

  "You discussed it," Sean said with a grin. "I only provisionally agreed with it."

  "Sean…" she growled over the phone.

  "Rox, we got something like 20,000 coming at us, and nobody saw it. Not until they got so close we couldn't miss 'em. I need to see this with my own eyes. Has my order for the firebombing of the peak east of here gone through yet?"

  He heard her sigh. "Yeah, it just came across the comms."

  "Well, light a fire under the proper asses, and make sure they get it done. I doubt we're going to get all of them, and we can't afford a major breakout. Dad'll have my ass if he hears about this."

  "I'm going to call a staff meeting. If our intel is lacking, we're going to have to change everything."

  Sean thought about that a moment. Yeah, if this wasn't a one off—if the demons had some way of moving in secret, or if there was something else in play here—there were definitely going to be problems. Big, bad, problems.

  "Invite Sawyer," Sean said suddenly, an idea forming in his brain.

  "What? Why?"

  "Put him in charge of the meeting. Tell him what happened, and that I want to know why, then put him in charge and let him run wild."

  "Umm, are you sure about that, hon?" Roxy said in a worried voice.

  "If there's something underhanded going on here, I want an expert dealing with it."

  "And Sawyer's our expert," she agreed. "I'll call him next and get him in here. You're right." She laughed. "Suddenly I feel sorry for everyone who's going to be at this meeting."

  "As it should be," Sean said with a growl. "Now, I got work to do. Let Oak know I'll probably be calling for a pickup sometime tomorrow. He can take one of the Ospreys to come get us."

  "You know Dae'll want to go as well."

  "And you won't?" he asked with a laugh.

  "Just don't get in any more trouble than you already are!" she growled.

  "I'll do my best."

  "Love you."

  "Love you, too," Sean said, then clicked off the call, and went back to looking at the tablet. He could see the location of the fire team they were heading to on a small rise, a very small rise. But if Major Heed's thoughts were right, they'd only be on the edge of the attack, if that.

  He was still watching the moving mass of demons as they pulled up to the small earthen fort that had been created for the fire team to use. There was an old D-60 CAT sitting a few hundred yards away with a big ass blade on it. Obviously somebody had been using their brains.

  "Who's in charge here?" Sean asked as he hopped out of the Humvee.

  "Umm, you are?" a lieutenant said, coming to a stop in front of him and saluting.

  Sean tried not to roll his eyes. "I guess you're the soldier in charge, Lieutenant"—Sean looked at the nametag—"Vance?"

  "Yes, sir!"

  "Great, get everyone ready to move at a moment's notice," Sean said in a loud voice.

  "Sir?" Vance said, looking at him like he was crazy.

  "Major Heed thinks they're going to hit the wall to the south of Fort 71, and I think he's right. Once I'm sure, we'll run our asses down there and join the fight."

  "Yes, sir!" Vance said and turned around to face his men. "Sergeants! You heard the lion! Let's make it happen!"

  "That boy is going places," Travis said in a soft voice.

  "Why? 'Cause he listened to me?"

  "No, because he put his sergeants in charge!" Chet said with a snicker as he joined them.

  "You know," Burt said, looking things over, "you might want to get the combat engineers to build better defenses around the fire team locations."

  Sean nodded. "Add it to the list, Travis."

  Lycan Forces Headquarters

  Roxy looked around the conference table. Sawyer hadn't come into the room yet, though he'd arrived before everyone else. Apparently he had some calls to make, and people he was waiting to hear from. Everyone was sitting there, waiting, looking at the empty seat at the head of the table that Sean normally sat in.

  There were a lot of people at the table, though who was there had changed from back in the days of dealing with the gateways. It seemed it was always changing, when she thought about it. Daelyn and Cali rarely attended now, and usually only if Sean was there. Estrella was here, of course; she was still the most knowledgeable about demons.

  Her father still came. He was now Sean's liaison to the governor of Nevada and the governors of each of the states the 'Demon Exclusion Zone'—the DEZ, or as some folks now called it, the 'Devil Reservation'—overlapped. She'd warned him that Sawyer was going to be here and not to cause problems. She'd also told him not to let anyone else know. Her mother wasn't here; she was no longer part of these meetings unless there were medical issues to be discussed.

  Adam was here; he still viewed himself as Sean's second in command when it came to lion or lycan affairs, and he took his role seriously now. He was polite, always smiled, and was known far and wide to have a temper second only to Sean's. Raising his voice when he talked to you was the only clue you'd get that he was about to unleash a complete and total beatdown on your ass. She'd even seen him get in Sampson's face!

  Which Sean apparently found absolutely hysterical, though he hadn't told her why, other than to mumble something like, "Wait until I tell the First!"

  The only person Adam would bow to in all things was Sean, and usually to her and the rest of the pride, though his approach to her, Dae, and the others was to stand there, smile, and disagree until Sean ruled on who'd won the argument. While those arguments were rarer these days, he'd changed so much that she and the others had come to respect his opinions when his differed from theirs.

  Chad was there with one of his aides. Chad hadn't really changed at all, and while he didn't wear a uniform much these days, it was understood that in all things military, he spoke with Sean's voice. He was in command of all the lycan forces and anything else that related to the operations in and around the DEZ.

  Vincent Powers, their magical liaison, was there; as well as Roloff, the Dwarves' liaison; Claudia, the current representative from the Lycan Fellowship; and Clyde, now in charge of the lycan scouts who patrolled mainly outside the DEZ, and occasionally just inside the borders as well.