"Over here, Mrs. Harris," Stewart said and, putting his hands on April's hips, he picked her up as he stood, then set her carefully on the floor, and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

  "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" Mrs. Harris said with a wink.

  "If you'd come a minute later, you would have!" Stewart chuckled. "What brings you out to the workshop?"

  "You got a letter from Mr. Hampton, over in Nevada."

  "Oh!" Stewart took the letter she held out for him and quickly ripped the end off of it.

  "Isn't he that big enchanter outside of Reno?"

  Stewart nodded. "Yes, he is. I asked if I could apprentice with him," he said as he unfolded the letter.

  "Why would you go with him? Your grandfather here in Sacramento is a very successful enchanter."

  "Because my grandfather isn't talking to me, since my father gave him an earful about my mother running off with Art," Stewart said, not noticing the look on Mrs. Harris' face when he said that. Stewart wouldn't have cared anyway; everyone knew his mother was sleeping with Art now. The biggest concern for debate currently was when she had started.

  Some were even starting to speculate that Art was Stewart's real father. An idea Stewart was growing to like more and more after every minute he'd spent with his father these days.

  "This is fantastic! He's willing to take me on! In fact he wants me to come up this weekend!"

  "Why, that's wonderful, Stewart," Mrs. Harris said.

  Stewart's eyes ran down to the bottom, Gus Hampton was willing to take him on, but Stewart would have to pay for the privilege. He'd already known that would be the case; however Gus wanted a hundred thousand dollars, which was a lot more money than Stewart possessed.

  Looking up from the letter, Stewart smiled at Mrs. Harris; her husband ran the council, which meant she'd married for power, just like his mother, while Harris had married for looks, just like his father. She was still an attractive woman. He wondered briefly if he should use all the tricks Rachel and April had been teaching him get the money the 'old fashioned way', namely by sleeping with someone rich to get it.

  Mrs. Harris blushed slightly at the appraising look Kurt's youngest was giving her. He was an attractive young man, and the fact that he was looking at her like that when he had a sex toy standing behind him gave her a bit of a thrill.

  "Well, if you'll excuse me, Mrs. Harris," Stewart smiled, "I think I have a little bit of packing to do."

  "Please, call me Emily, Stewart."

  Stewart smiled back at her; he knew a come-on when he heard it. "Why thank you, Emily."

  Stewart watched as Emily Harris turned and walked out the door. He wondered if she was swaying her hips a little more now for his benefit.

  "She wants to sleep with you," April giggled.

  "I noticed," Stewart grinned. "Think I should?"

  "You'd sleep with her, when you have me?" April said with a pout.

  Stewart handed her the letter. "I need to come up with a hundred grand, and all I've got right now is ten."

  "Grand?"

  "No, dollars." Stewart sighed. "Between buying Rachel, then sending her off with enough money to take care of herself, then buying the materials to make those rings, and as paying for my father's food, I'm busted. Broke. Nada dinero."

  April 'awwed', then her eyes widened. She was worth twice that.

  "No, I'm never selling you," Stewart said as soon as he saw her eyes go wide, "but I was thinking of maybe tapping good ole Mrs. Harris, or shall we say Emily, and seeing if maybe she might wish to contribute to my apprenticeship fund."

  April laughed. "You'd leave her very satisfied, Master, I'm sure."

  "The only person I want to leave very satisfied is you!" Stewart laughed and, turning back to April, he gave a nice long kiss, which she happily returned.

  "So, shall we celebrate?" April giggled.

  "As much as I want to," Stewart sighed, "we need to go back home. I've got a lot of stuff I can pawn to my friend Todd. Once that's done and I see how much money I need, then we can celebrate."

  "What about…" April nodded to the door Mrs. Harris had left through.

  "She can wait until tomorrow, don't you think?"

  "Oh! Definitely, Master!"

  "Todd!" Stewart said as he opened the door. "I hope you got cash, 'cause I got lots of stuff to sell!"

  "Damn, dude, you rob a store or something?" Todd asked as Stewart set a large plastic tub on the counter.

  "This is only half of it; my new toy has the rest." Stewart sighed, then smiled as April came in carrying the heavier tub. She might be smaller than him, but she was still a lot stronger, being a lycan.

  "Wow! She's hot! What happened to the other one?"

  Sean grumbled. "My father happened. Bastard killed her after he gave me April."

  "Wow, that sucks, man."

  "Yeah, especially now that Gus Hampton up in Incline Village has agreed to take me on as an apprentice and I have to come up with the apprentice fee! I could have sold her to cover half of it."

  "Why not sell her?" Todd asked and nodded towards April.

  Sean snorted. "I'd have sold Rachel because having two was more than I could handle, but there's no way I'm selling April. Look at her! Do you think you could walk away from that?"

  Todd laughed. "Hells no! So how much do you need?"

  "A lot. I figured I'd sell off everything I could, then see how much more I needed, and maybe ask the old man. See if I can guilt him into paying because he didn't give me the chance to sell off Rachel."

  Todd nodded. "Well, let's see what you've got here." He started pulling things out of the first container.

  "Here, start with these," Stewart said and handed Todd all the magical items he had that he wasn't using himself.

  Todd nodded and looked at the labels, there was quite a bit here.

  "So, you going on the attack tonight?" Todd asked as he grabbed a note pad and started adding things up.

  "Attack?" Stewart blinked. "What attack?"

  "Dude! Where have you been?" Todd laughed.

  "Working. I just finished enchanting that," Stewart pointed to the ring of protection from mental domination, "and, umm," he glanced at April and smiled, "celebrating my apprenticeship."

  "Still, I'm surprised you didn't get a call. Hell, they even called me! It went to voice mail, since I don't answer my phone when my folks call anymore, but I called Chet, and he confirmed it. We're going to war."

  "Gradatim and the Ascendance?" Stewart said, looking around nervously.

  "Not against each other, twit!" Todd laughed. "The Vestibulum got hit by that lion guy up in Reno last night. He cleaned them out worse than you guys. He also left that Tobias schmuck lying on the ground, hogtied and naked in the middle of his own compound! Oh man, was he pissed!"

  "And that matters to the rest of us, why?"

  Todd shrugged as he pulled out a nice piece of artwork. One thing was certain, Stewart had good shit.

  "He went around to your council and my council, and all but begged them to join him on a quest to go up to Reno and slaughter all the lycans up there before this thing spreads any farther. Since we haven't lost our lycans yet, our council was more than willing. And as they're letting Harris and your dad plan and lead the attack, your council agreed as well."

  "But we don't have any lycans left to fight," Stewart said, flabbergast.

  "No lycans; magic users only. There'll be close to five hundred going up the hill around midnight; I guess they figure they can take him." Todd shrugged. "I think they're all gonna die."

  "Well, shit." Stewart swore. "I better hit my dad up for that money while he's still alive."

  "Why not just wait until he's dead and inherit everything?" Todd laughed.

  "Because knowing him, he left it all to the council, so as not to 'spoil' his children."

  "Dude, you really got the worst luck when it comes to parents. And with your mom up in Reno now, I suspect she won't be coming back, either."

  Stewart groaned at that, yeah, his mom was up in Reno now. So was Rachel. So was Cenna, and a lot of other wolves he'd known.

  "Can this get any worse?" Stewart complained.

  "Yeah, if everyone is dead, who am I gonna sell all this shit to!" Todd snickered. "Look man, I'll give you thirty grand for all of it. Everything.

  "Forty. You haven't even gone through most of it."

  "Yeah, but you showed me all the good stuff up front. Thirty-five, and that's only because you're a friend. After tonight, no matter what happens, I'm gonna be sitting on this stuff for a while."

  "Fine, thirty-five." Stewart sighed, then waited while Todd counted out the money.

  "Good luck with your apprenticeship!" Todd said as he handed him the money. "If you need a place to sell stuff, especially any special stuff, remember your old friend Todd!"

  Stewart nodded and, grabbing April's hand, he went back to the car.

  "You okay, Stew?" April asked as Stewart just sat there and looked at the steering wheel.

  "My Mom's in Reno. I sent Rachel to Reno. Hell, I was figuring I'd drop you in Reno on the way up to Hamptons, so I wouldn't have to worry about him getting his hands on you."

  "Why? What's in Reno?"

  "A lion that's freeing lycans, that's what in Reno."

  April stared at him. "A lion?"

  "They mean a lot to you lycans, don't they?" Stewart asked, looking over at April.

  "They're supposed to be our gods."

  "Well, I know they've tried to kill him several times now, and he just keeps coming back for more." Stewart sighed and shook his head. "I don't want to go to Reno to fight in some stupid war, but if I go back home now, my father is going to force me to go, I know it. Just like he forced me to go up there last time and almost got me killed."

  "So what are you going to do?"

  "I don't know!" Stewart sighed. "I just don't know. What do you think I should do?"

  "Huh?" April blinked and looked at him.

  "April, I changed your keyword to something so long, and so ridiculous, that even if I could remember it, you could reach over here and wring my neck before I could finish it. Then you could kick my body out the door, drive up to Reno, and be free like the rest of them. So why haven't you done it?"

  "Umm, I don't know how to drive?" April said in a small voice. Kill Stewart? Kill her master? If there was one thing she'd been told, again and again, you don't hurt your master, not ever!

  Stewart looked at her, then burst out laughing. "You mean to tell me that the only reason I'm not dead is because you can't drive a car?"

  April blushed. "No, I like you, Stewart. You've treated me a lot better than the rumors and the stories back at the kennels said you would. Then there's what your father did to Rachel, and how you protected her. I, I don't know where to go or what to do. All I know is, I was born to serve, trained to since I was a little girl. I…I'd be lost without you."

  Stewart smiled. "Thanks for that. But I still don't know what to do."

  "Why not just leave? You made that ring by yourself; do you really need to become somebody's apprentice?"

  Stewart nodded. "There still so much I don't know. The spells I'd put on that ring all evaporated when I took those two days off to make the new ones for you. I don't know how to stop that. There's other things, too, that I know nothing about."

  "Well, what do you want to do?"

  "I just want to…" Stewart sighed and lowered his head to the steering wheel. "I don't know what I want to do. I used to think all I wanted was a pretty little sex slave like you, and to play games and have sex all the time. But I'm learning life isn't that simple, and it's not going to leave me alone. I'm learning that you're a person, not an object. Hell, what I'm doing to you probably isn't even right."

  "But I like what you do to me," April said and giggled.

  Stewart started up the car, slowly backed out of the driveway, then turned down the alley.

  "Where are we going?"

  "If I sit in Todd's driveway any longer, he'll suspect something's wrong."

  "Is there anyone you can ask for advice?"

  Stewart thought about that. He'd always gone to his father when he needed advice, and looking back on that, it hadn't turned out well. In fact, the only times he'd ever gotten good advice were the few times he'd asked his mother.

  Who was up in Reno.

  If he went to Reno, he'd have to tell her what was going to happen. Of course she'd tell Art, and Stewart didn't doubt Art would tell the lion.

  But.

  But what if the rumors were true? What if Art really was his father, not the man he'd been calling 'father' for the last twenty-one years?

  Would that really be a bad thing? Especially after the things he'd seen his father do in the last few weeks.

  Nasty things. Spiteful things.

  Hell, his brother and sister had both left home years ago and were now telling him to do the same!

  "I think I need to talk to my mother," Stewart said as he turned towards interstate eighty. "She never did say goodbye."

  In The Money

  "Was that the detective guy I passed on the way up here?" Daelyn asked as she came into the living room carrying the box of parts for Sean's machine.

  "Yup," Roberta said, "our lawyer was here too, you just missed him."

  "Why were they here?"

  "They wanted to talk to me," Louise said, "about what happened to Gregory."

  "Gregory?"

  "Sampson." Roberta sighed.

  "Oh! Right. Umm, where's Sean?"

  "He went back to his workshop. Is that the machine he wants to enchant?"

  "These are the parts; I need to put it together yet. Just a heads up, a couple of young dwarves are going to show up in the morning with metal detectors to pick up all the bullets on the property."

  "Oh? I didn't think silver was worth that much."

  "Nope, but the stuff it turns into?" Daelyn grinned. "That's about five hundred bucks a bullet!"

  Roberta blinked. "Really?"

  "Yup! I need to stop by and see Deidre; I got almost a quarter mil for the stuff I brought over there."

  "Well, Sean'll be happy." Louise chuckled. "He just found out how much I paid to redecorate the house!"

  Laughing, Daelyn went back to Deidre's office and, after setting the box down, she pulled the sack of money she'd put in it out and handed it to her.

  "What's this?"

  "Two hundred and thirty-three thousand dollars. We got more coming in, though it may take a while."

  "Wonderful! The bank account was getting pretty low, there. This should tide us over until Sean starts enchanting stuff again."

  Daelyn nodded and, picking up the box, she went out the back door and headed over to Sean's workshop.

  "Rox!" she called, seeing Roxy walking across the yard.

  "Dae! What's up?"

  "Come with me, got something for ya!"

  "Is that the stuff for Sean's tag machine?" Roxy asked, catching up with her as she opened the door.

  "Yup! Hi Cali!"

  "Oh, great! My parts are here!" Sean said, coming over and taking the box from Daelyn. He set it on the table, then gave her a hug and a kiss.

  "I got something better than that!" Daelyn grinned.

  "Oh? What can be better than the parts for the machine that's going to make us all rich?" Roxy laughed.

  "Rhodium sells for over a thousand dollars an ounce!"

  "Whoa, what?!" Sean said, eyes wide.

  "Isn't that the stuff the silver turns into?" Cali asked.

  "Are you sure about that?" Roxy asked.

  "Yup! I got almost a quarter mil for what I brought over to Garth. He's taking twenty percent off the top. Turns out the stuff is rare, so selling it isn't going to be easy. He doesn't want people to figure out where it's coming from."

  Sean looked over at the pile of 'wasted' silver, as he'd been calling it, sitting in the corner.

  "How much is that?" he asked Daelyn.

  "A little over a hundred pounds."

  "So sixteen hundred ounces?"

  "Fourteen hundred and fifty; it's troy ounces, 'cause it's metal."

  "That's about one and a half million!" Roxy said. "Oh man! I better call my dad and tell him to hold on to the silver they're using in the machine down there!"

  "And I think we left another thirty or more pounds at the Sorceress Guild," Daelyn said. "I'll have to get Roberta and head back over there to reclaim it before they throw it out."

  "Damn, well at least this'll help with the money issues for now," Sean said, smiling.

  "Garth warned me he couldn't pay us all at once. He'll have to get it sold first, but still, we can print money!" Daelyn laughed.

  "I think that machine in the box is gonna end up printing us a lot more money, once Sean gets it enchanted," Roxy said.

  "We're going to be giving away a lot more of the tags and collars than we end up selling." Sean sighed. "Sawyer told me the price on the collars is down to four grand now. He thinks the tags are gonna drop below eight grand pretty soon too, with how many we've been pumping out into the market."

  "We should take some of that over to Sawyer," Cali said. "If Daelyn is offering her friend twenty percent, we could easily get the same deal from Sawyer."

  "Why?" Daelyn asked.

  "He's a goblin; if he can make a profit, he'll have ready cash to give us."

  "I sorta promised Garth I'd sell it to him."

  "All of it?" Cali asked with a grin.

  "Well, now that you mention it," Daelyn smiled, "I only told him I had a big pile. I didn't tell him how much. I think we could cut, say twenty-five pounds or so off the top and take it to Sawyer. My cousin Jocco should be showing up here in a truck shortly though, so we better separate it now, before he gets here."

  "I'll go get a couple of boxes," Roxy said and ran out the door.

  "While she's doing that," Daelyn said and went over to the box on the table and started to unpack it, "I might as well get started putting this together. When do you think you can get this enchanted?"

  Sean stopped and considered, "Tomorrow morning I can start on it, I guess. I've got a lot of stuff to lay down on it. The tags are a lot trickier to make than those amulets, after all. I think I can have it done sometime next week."