"I think I'm beginning to see the wisdom of Dad's approach to dealing with the djevels," Troy said with a sigh.

  "Getting back to Robert Knight, I'll talk to Cali and Peg, as well as our local contacts, and see what they can tell us," Tisha said.

  "Thanks."

  "Now, go roust your wives, because we've got to be on our way in an hour."

  "Will do," Troy said, and getting up, he left the room.

  Terri waited until the door had closed, then turned back to Steve and Tisha.

  "What do we know about this Robert Knight guy?"

  "Not much. Up until now, he wasn't anyone we cared about. He's a minor player in the Kirkpatrick campaign. They only hired him on about a month ago," Tisha said with a shrug.

  "I think I better call Sawyer," Steve said, pulling out his encrypted cellphone. "If anyone can get to the bottom of whatever it is, it'll be him."

  "Okay, I need Healy to fly around the rally site and check all the roads against this map," Tisha told them as Healy started her approach to the marked landing zone outside the venue.

  "What are these lines on the map?" Chloë asked, looking at it.

  "Those are possible escape routes if we have to leave in a hurry. From up here, you'll probably have a better perspective on the routes."

  "So who wants to keep me company?" Healy asked as she flared and settled them down on the ground."

  "I'd stay, but I've been to this venue a couple of times with my father," Chloë said, handing the map to Mira to look at. "So I think it might be better if I went with Troy."

  "I'll stay," Nadinc said, taking the map. "Troy's not here to deal with people today, and my eyes are pretty sharp."

  "Works for me," Troy said. He gave Nadi a kiss and Healy a pat on the shoulder, as she was still flying, for all that the wheels were on the ground. Opening the door, he got out and held it as Nadi got out of the back and moved up to the front, then ducking down, he trotted off after Tisha, Chloë, and Mira, who were over by the doors leading inside. As soon as he was out from under the blades, Healy took off and was quickly out of sight as she flew over the building.

  "Let's start at the stage," Chloë said, stopping Tisha.

  "I was going to start at the doors Steve's going to enter by."

  "There's three or four separate routes to the stage. I don't remember exactly, it's been a few years, but with my father's shows, we always secured the stage first. Then the dressing rooms, the green room, and the back entrances come last."

  "How about you lead, then?" Tisha said, motioning Chloë forward.

  "Thanks!"

  Troy looked at Mira, who just grinned at him as they followed Tisha, who was now following Chloë.

  "Hey! Stan! Get over here!" Chloë yelled as soon as they walked out onto the stage from the left side.

  "Chloë?" a large—as in over seven foot—black man stood up and turned to look their way. "Chloë! Where the hell have you been, girl! Your father was here just last week! Said you got married?"

  "Get your head down here and let me give ya a kiss! How's tricks?"

  As Troy watched, Chloë quickly strode over to the guy, who was almost as big as SJ in his hybrid form, and almost as ripped. Sure enough, he bent over, and Chloë wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

  "Sure your ole man won't get upset?" Stan said as he gave her a hug.

  "Well, seeing as he's a hell of a lot faster than you are, and he hasn't popped you one yet, I guess he isn't!" Chloë said with a giggle.

  "You know," Stan said, letting go of her and straightening back up, "you could have warned me about that before you waltzed on over here!"

  "And where's the fun in that?"

  By this point, Troy, Mira, and Tisha had come over.

  "Now, Stan, this is Troy, my husband, and this is Mira, one of my wives."

  Stan was already shaking hands with Troy when Chloë dropped that little bomb. Troy had already noticed Stan's hands were definitely bigger than his.

  "One of your wives? How many do you got, girl?" Stan said, boggling and looking over Mira, who grabbed his shirt, pulled him over, then rose up on her toes to give him a kiss on the side of the face, surprising the hell out of him with her lycan strength.

  "And damn! Are they all as strong as Mira here?"

  "Mostly, and I've got two others. Mira's a werewolf, Troy's a werecheetah, Healy's a werecougar, and Nadi's a djinn."

  "I sense a story coming on…maybe even a song or two?" Stan asked, giving her a hopeful look.

  Chloë laughed. "Damn, there's enough here for a double album! Trust me on that, but guess what?"

  "What?"

  "I'm a werecheetah now, too!" Chloë said and shifted into her hybrid form.

  "Oh, man, now you have to tell me what you've been up to! Your dad didn't mention you got bit!"

  "Well, come on and help me give the place the old once over," Chloë said as she shifted back, "and we can talk."

  "Once over?"

  "We're with the Bryson campaign. Troy's father is Steve's best friend, so we got sent out to help."

  "Oh! Well, that explains why you walked in here with Tisha there. You know, she may be small, but she scares me even more than you do!" Stan said and then laughed as Chloë kicked him in the shin, though obviously not hard enough to hurt him.

  "So why are you here, Stan?"

  "Ah, Joan's off today, so I said I'd handle the sound. Plus, I kinda like this Bryson guy more than that other one."

  "Oh? Why's that?" Mira asked.

  "Because he didn't dump his ole lady when they all went after her," he said jerking a thumb over his shoulder at Tisha. "Always gotta side with a man who don't back down when it comes to family. Then there's what he did for all those vets back in '24."

  "What'd he do?" Mira asked, looking over at Tisha.

  "Steve brought in a bunch of lycans to infect all the crippled and disabled soldiers who could be cured with lycanthropy."

  "Yeah, an one a those men was my dad. Momma told me she thought for sure she was gonna lose him until then."

  "Then how come you're not a lycan?" Mira continued.

  "Oh, I was twelve when Dad came back from the sandbox. Mom and Dad didn't want any more kids, so Mom never looked into gettin' bit, and well, Dad told me when I turned eighteen, if I wanted it, he'd talk to some lion about it, but honestly?" Stan shrugged. "I'm happy with me the way I am."

  "Good for you," Troy said, smiling.

  "Now, let me show you around. Nothing's changed since you played here last, Chloë, and while I'm doing that, you can tell me all about what happened."

  "Deal," Chloë said, smiling.

  Troy put an arm around Mira, who leaned into him as they followed Chloë and Stan. It became obvious quickly that they'd known each other for a long time and were good friends. Chloë told him about what'd happened to them, how Troy's brother had saved her, and how two of his other brothers had taken care of the guy who'd gotten them all in trouble in the first place. She even mentioned some of the stuff she'd helped Troy and the others with, though she didn't mention them starting the fire, just trying to rescue folks afterwards.

  During this time, they came to a closet door that hadn't been secured, and Stan pointed out that the door on the back of the closet led to an old janitor's station, and that had a ladder that led to the basement.

  "And once you get to the bottom, follow the arrows, and it'll take you to the basement of Jaffar's," Chloë said. "He still making that killer vindaloo?"

  "Oh, is he ever. Tell you what, when we get done here, how about we head on over for a bowl?"

  "Maybe after the rally's done, we can head back over?" Chloë asked and looked back at Troy.

  "Dinner would work," Troy said. "Get his number, and we'll call."

  "Works for me," Stan agreed, and he and Chloë exchanged phone numbers.

  Tisha was already on her phone while this was going on, getting a couple of her security detail to deal with the issue.

  "Well, let's see what other shocks we can give Tish!" Troy said with a smile, and they continued their tour. Once that was done, Tisha took them to the green room to make sure the buffet and drinks for the guests was being set up, then they checked the dressing rooms, followed by the bathrooms, to make sure there weren't any surprises in any of those places.

  Security was setting up as they checked each spot, then they climbed up the ladder to the catwalk and did a brief once-over up there as well. Stan left them at that point, as he needed to do sound checks.

  "What next?" Troy asked as they finished up with the front lobby and the rooms off of that.

  "We check on the guests, see who's late and who isn't coming. Make sure none of them have any issues, and deal with any last minute problems that come up."

  "It's not that much different than doing a show," Chloë said with a shrug.

  "I'm just glad you found that basement access. None of us knew about that one," Tisha said with a shake of her head while biting her lip. "Gonna have to add checking the back of the closets, along with the floors, walls, and ceilings in each of them, to the list."

  "How long have you known Stan?" Troy asked.

  "Since I was like twelve?" Chloë said with a shrug. "Mom used to travel with my father a lot back then. She played keyboards for him and was one of his backing vocalists. By the time she decided to stop touring with him, I was going along whenever I didn't have school, and sometimes even when I did."

  "You know, you need to figure out some kind of spell to keep anyone from messing with our ride so Healy and Nadi can hang out with us while we wait," Mira told him as they went to the back entrance the guests would be using.

  "I should probably call them and let them know what's going on; they gotta be getting bored by now," Troy said. "We've been here for what, an hour?"

  Getting out his phone, he looked up at Mira. "And there are a few spells on it for that very purpose, but I'd still prefer to have a couple of bodies out there we can trust, just in case."

  "Well, it's a big helicopter, maybe you should talk to Steve about adding a couple to our crew when he's not flying with us to stand guard duty?"

  "Yeah, I think I'll do that. I hate having to choose who stays and who goes when we do these things."

  "Afraid we'll be mad at you?"

  "No, I just don't trust any of you out of my sight!" Troy said, and then laughed as she hauled off and punched him.

  "Smartass."

  "Oh, the rest of me is pretty smart, too!"

  Healy flew up away from the landing pad, retracting the gear as Nadi buckled herself into the front seat, then picked up the map.

  "I think we got the better task," Nadi said with a slight smile.

  "Won't get no arguments from me!" Healy laughed. "Flying this thing is the most fun I've had outta bed in years!"

  "Better than Daelyn's Osprey?"

  "Hmmm…" Healy pondered that a minute as she took them between a few buildings and climbed up to eight hundred feet AGL. "That's a tough one. The Osprey is one hell of a lot of fun, too, but it's more airplane than helicopter. It's definitely better for longer distances, and carries one hell of a lot more cargo. But this is the kind of aircraft I can fly down the streets between the buildings."

  "So, gonna try to keep it?" Nadi asked with a mischievous grin.

  "There is no try! There is only do!" Healy replied, grinning back at her, and then they both laughed at that.

  "Well, there's the building beneath us, what does that map say?" Healy asked once she had them hovering above the building.

  Nadi showed it to her. "Let's start with the northern route. I'll tell you which way to go as I check the route below."

  "That works. I can keep my eyes open for traffic."

  "Great, head north," Nadi said, looking out the windscreen and down at the buildings and roads below. "Umm, move us to the right a bit…bit more. Okay, north again. Now turn to the east a bit…"

  Healy noticed Nadi was scribbling on the map.

  "I wonder if someone came out here and drove this route, or if they just looked at the map?" Nadi asked.

  "Why?"

  "Because there's construction going on, and while you can go around it, the traffic here is terrible. Let's go back and look at the next route."

  "You got it. How are your magical studies coming along?"

  "Slowly," Nadinc said with a sigh. "The starting exercises are all very hard, and honestly I haven't gotten a lot of free time the last few days to do them."

  "I'll talk to the others and see if we can give you some more time to study."

  "I don't know, Heals, there's so much we have to do right now."

  "Nadi, you're the only one here trying to learn a new skill. I already know how to fly, and Chloë knows how to play and write music. It's not fair to you if the rest of us don't make time for you to do your thing."

  "My thing was sex and pleasing men," Nadi said with a bit of a smirk.

  "Well, yeah, we all got that one, too!"

  "But I was trained for it."

  "Oh, trust me, I think Mira got herself a fair bit of training, too! You've seen her in bed with us!"

  Nadi giggled at that. Mira was shameless.

  "Okay, you have made a point. Still, I worry it will take time away from the rest of you."

  "We're going to be together for a long time, Nadi. All five of us. Now, which route next?"

  "Let's try the southeast one. Of course I'm worried about what to do once I've completed my current lessons. Turn south here."

  "Why's that?"

  "Mother Jolene is in Reno; we are in Washington. Southeast again."

  "Nadi, we're about to go on a campaign. We're going to be heading all over the place. We'll definitely be out that way at least two or three times in the next couple months. But don't worry."

  "East again, and why should I not worry?"

  "'Cause I'll just ask her to come visit for a few days to help with your lessons."

  "Do you think she would do that? We can go back to the starting point; this route is clear."

  Healy ducked her head in a nod. "Yeah, I'm pretty certain she would. Our in-laws want to help us. The whole family aspect is pretty strong with them. I mean, that's why they shipped Troy and us out here, after all."

  "You think that is the reason?"

  "Yup. And I wouldn't be at all surprised for them to come out with us to help when the election gets nearer."

  "Interesting. My family was not very close; quite the opposite, if I am being truthful. Now, head south."

  Nadi thought about what Healy had said, and even more about the fact that she had said it. It gave her a warm feeling inside that they were already pulling together as a family, even though it had only been a few weeks. Jolene had counseled her, when she'd asked, that lycans were often quick to solidify their family bonds once they'd decided to settle down. That was not the way the djinn typically did it, or the humans, from what she'd seen. But as first wife, it still made her happy to see it happening first hand.

  "This one is good, too; let us check the last one," she said, looking over at Healy. "What do we do once this is finished?"

  "I was thinking of a little sightseeing from the air," Healy replied with a big smile.

  "Won't we get in trouble for that?"

  "Not if they're expecting me to fly around here and know where to go! Nope, this is necessary."

  "That's your story, and you will stick to it."

  "Exactly!"

  Behind the Scenes

  "Well, that was interesting," Healy said as they got out of the car. "What time is it?"

  "A little after ten," Mira said and stretched while yawning. "At least the vindaloo was good."

  "Yeah, Chloë really knows her Indian food," Nadinc agreed with a smile.

  "How many of those people did we visit?" Chloë grumbled.

  "Just six," Troy said, looking over the list of people Steve had asked him to 'visit' and 'discuss' things with. Of course, Steve hadn't given him the slightest clue regarding what they wanted or what he was to say.

  He smiled as he thought about that. Obviously, Steve had just wanted the people placated, so Troy had acted like he was playing it straight, but honestly, when it came to stringing people along—well, there was a reason he'd had so many girlfriends before he finally got married. He was the gods-damned king of the string-along.

  "Personally, I thought it was fun!" he said, and then laughed as they all smacked him.

  "You would," Healy said and then laughed. "Now I see why Steve sent you. It'll be months before any of them figure out that you actually didn't agree to a damn thing. I mean really, 'exploratory drilling in the Caspian Sea on the lower mesotrophic gradient'? What the hell does that even mean?"

  "Only after the proper visas and work permits, don't forget," Chloë added with a sigh. "Troy, you could be a record company exec with lines like that. Though of course I'd have to divorce you, after I killed you, if you became one."

  "Guess I'll be telling Columbia 'no' then?" Troy joked, and Chloë smacked him on the ass, hard.

  "Anyone know what's on the agenda for tomorrow?" Mira asked.

  "I think another speaking engagement or two, dinner, followed by another television interview," Troy said. "Knowing Steve, he'll have another list of folks we need to placate or whatever it is while he's out glad-handing."

  "What the hell is 'glad-handing'? Healy asked.

  "That's when the politician goes out and shakes hands and kisses babies, all that kinda stuff," Chloë said with a sigh. "My father used to hate that shit. Now that he's famous enough, he doesn't have to do it anymore."

  "Learn something new every day, I guess."

  "So, now what?" Mira asked.

  "Bed!" Troy declared with a smile. "Before someone finds us and asks us to do something."

  "Umm, won't they find us if we're in bed?"

  "Then I guess we need to make sure we're doing something they'll be too embarrassed to interrupt, now won't we?"

  "We're all lycans, Troy, I'm not so sure that's even possible," Healy grumbled.