"What were you doing?"

  "Putting up wards," Sean told her.

  "Wards? You can do that?"

  Sean nodded. "I haven't had many opportunities to actually use the spell, but here? I figured better safe than sorry."

  Estrella nodded and pointed to the entrance to her tent.

  "You only want me for my body," Sean said with a grin, then ducked down, and slipped inside. He winced as she smacked him hard on the ass.

  "Idiot," she growled.

  "Damn! Now you're even starting to sound like one of my wives!" Sean laughed as he rubbed his butt.

  "Just go to sleep," she grumbled. "This isn't the time or the place for any shenanigans. I'll be in once I'm sure everybody's settled and I'm sure Første, Anden, and Tredje have things under control."

  "Got it," Sean said, looking around the tent as he pulled off the cloak. Getting out of his gear would be a pain in the ass in the limited space. Putting it back on, especially if there was an emergency, would be even harder. So instead of stripping off his gear, he shifted into his lion form and moved over to the far side of the two bedrolls, which had been laid out side by side. He laid down and closed his eyes.

  "Damn, you're big," he heard Estrella whisper as she came in.

  "All over, too!" Sean muttered back. A moment later he was rewarded with a tail smacking him over the head.

  "At least it won't be cold in here," Estrella said, and Sean could hear her stripping her own armor off.

  "Why not shift?"

  "Because they've never seen me do it, and if someone pokes their head in here, it could lead to complications."

  A moment later she poked him. "Where's your armor?" she asked as she laid down beside him.

  "I'm wearing it."

  "No you're not," came the softly growled response.

  "Magic," Sean sighed, and rolling onto his side he wrapped a heavy paw around her and pulled her under his chin. "When we get home, I'll show you how it's done."

  Sean awoke to a sudden ringing sound that lasted long enough for him to roll over onto his feet.

  "What was that?" Estrella demanded as he sidestepped to be clear of her.

  "Something came through the wards!" he growled. Launching himself out of the tent, he immediately shifted into his hybrid form and stood up.

  There were three raseri djevels, and they looked surprised as everyone in the camp suddenly came awake at the loud alarm. Sean saw one of the gnashers, probably one of the watchstanders, laying on the ground by the side of the camp the raseri were attacking from. It had a large metal dart sticking out of its chest.

  Calling up his offensive framework, Sean didn't hesitate as he hit the one in the middle with a fireball and charged the one to the left, quickly engaging it.

  All three were armed with swords, but the one in the middle was still dealing with the effects of the fireball, which had set its clothing on fire, so wasn't too much of a concern for Sean yet.

  "What's a lion doing here?" the raseri hissed while Sean's blade engaged it.

  "Killing your ass," Sean growled and kicked it in the crotch, his claws tearing deep gouges in the armor there. Momentarily off balance from the kick, Sean was able to stab it in the shoulder as his sword slipped up inside the raseri's guard.

  The raseri screeched in pain, obviously never having encountered something like a faerie sword before, and dropped its own sword as Sean twisted the blade and grabbed it by the throat with his left hand.

  Taking a moment to run the one still occupied with its burning clothes through the chest, Sean crushed the neck of the one he was holding, digging his claws in and ripping out a good portion of its throat in the process, before letting it drop to the ground.

  Looking over, he saw Estrella, wearing nothing more than a determined expression, making short work of the other raseri. Looking back in the direction they'd come from, Sean saw a couple dozen bonde, and behind them were a pair of råge as well.

  "Well, shit," Sean swore, and casting another fireball into the midst of them, he charged forward, sword leading, Estrella joining him almost immediately.

  "We need to kill the råge," Estrella growled as they waded into the bonde and started hacking them to pieces. From the startled expressions in their faces as he and Estrella slayed them, they'd apparently never dealt with an angry lioness before.

  "Obviously," Sean replied between swings.

  "No, we must kill them," she growled and cleaved a bonde down to its navel, or where its navel would be if bonde had navels.

  "If someone else kills them, they'll reform in a week, and everyone will know there's a lion here!"

  Sean's eyes widened for a moment, then narrowed. If they knew there was a lion here, it wouldn't matter whether they took the hellige or not. As soon as the others found out, they'd be marching on him and Estrella in overwhelming force, he was sure.

  Sean hit one of the råge with a cramper spell, smiling as it went down almost immediately.

  Unfortunately that had all but wiped out his mana, and the last thing he wanted to do around here was go negative.

  "Go get the other one," he told Estrella, "I'll deal with these!"

  Estrella didn't have to be told twice; she pulled away from the one she was fighting and quickly ran around the remaining bonde to attack the still standing råge. The bonde, recognizing her and the threat she represented, were more than happy to let her deal with their master.

  Sean wondered if perhaps he'd spoken too soon, as he started to find himself being encircled by the remaining bonde. They'd killed at least eight so far, but there were probably a good dozen or more remaining. He found himself having to constantly spin around, his sword held out to keep them from feeling brave enough to close, after one lost its head.

  By the time the gnashers from the camp got involved in the fight, Sean was panting heavily and bleeding from numerous cuts at the spots his armor didn't cover. They started cutting down bonde from behind, and Sean suddenly found himself forced into the line of bonde between him and the gnashers so he could deliver the killing blows.

  He was sure it wouldn't go well for them if the bonde reformed and told his secret, either.

  "Quit trying to kill them all!" Estrella yelled at him from across the field.

  Gasping for breath, Sean spun around and killed the one behind him that had just stabbed him in the back of the knee, causing him to drop down to a kneeling position, as his leg wouldn't hold his weight anymore.

  At that point it was all he could do to keep from being killed, as the remaining bonde, seeing an opportunity, swarmed him.

  Dropping his sword and going to work with his claws, he was stabbed several more times before Estrella and her troops killed the last of them.

  "What the hell were you doing?" she growled, looking down at him as he collapsed to the ground, a bloody mess.

  "You said they'd reform and tell on us," Sean said, panting.

  "No one listens to bonde, they're too low status." Shaking her head, she looked over at Første. "Get a couple of your people together and toss him in the back of a wagon."

  "Are you sure, Brune En?" Første said, eying Sean.

  "He'll be fine in a little while, but right now we need to move away from here and on to our target. This was an advance party, I'm sure, and the last place we want to be is here when the rest of it arrives."

  Estrella retrieved his sword as four gnashers under Første's guidance picked Sean up and tossed him, none too gently, into one of the carts they were hauling. For his part, Sean kept his muzzle closed and watched his mana levels. Once they got moving, he'd cast a minor cure on the worst of his wounds, then do his best to guide his healing so he could be back up on his feet as quickly as possible.

  By the time they reached their destination, Sean had been up and walking for several hours, once again wearing his cloak. Sean was impressed with Estrella's bravado, for she simply led him and her people up to the very small force left guarding the hellige.

  "Halt! This is the property of Prince Ansigt!" a råge said, coming up to her.

  Estrella's response was instant; she ripped his throat out with her claws, and as he fell at her feet, she drew her sword and ran it through his head, killing him.

  Looking up at the remaining bonde and gnashers, who were looking at her in shock, she growled, "If you leave now, you will get to live! If you do not leave now, I will eat your souls like I have eaten the soul of your leader!"

  As one they all turned to the south and quickly fled.

  "They'll know we're here," Sean told her.

  "They'll know we're here regardless," she told him.

  Sean looked over at the large round ring mounted in the middle of the platform. He hadn't gotten the chance to examine the one he'd come through last time, and his bomb had destroyed it completely.

  "Huh, it looks like a stargate," he observed. "The only thing it's missing is a control dial."

  "What the hell is a stargate?" Estrella asked looking at her.

  "You know, from…" Sean paused and tried not to blush, feeling rather stupid. "Oh, right, no cable. It's from a, well, let's just say it's from a story."

  "Første, get things organized." She sighed and followed him as he walked over to get a closer look. There was a small stone building off to the side of it, no doubt for the defenders who had to live nearby.

  "Ever been close to one of these before?" he asked her.

  "A few, but the only time I've been close to an active one was when I came through it."

  "I think we could build a simple palisade around it to help keep the others…" Sean stopped talking; he suddenly lit up with mana as his foot landed on something.

  "What the hell?" he growled.

  "What's wrong?" Estrella asked.

  Sean blinked and looked at it as he called up all his frameworks. It was a line of magical energy, a ley line!

  "There's a ley line here!"

  "How did you think the helliges were powered?"

  "I didn't know they were powered," Sean admitted.

  "Each of them lies on an intersection of ley lines," she told him. "The larger helliges lay on more powerful lines, of course."

  "You don't understand," Sean said with a smile, "I can use this to do things!"

  Estrella blinked at him, then nodded as realization dawned in her eyes.

  "Magic user, right. That'll make it easier when we have to defend this place."

  "Too bad I don't have any batteries."

  "What's a…"

  "Not important," Sean said holding up a hand. "I guess I should give your guys a hand setting up the defenses."

  "Yup, time to make yourself useful," she said with a grin.

  "Oh, I'll do that tonight in bed!" He laughed and dodged as she tried to swat him on the ass.

  Fallout

  Adam leaned back in the seat as Trey flew him back to the fight with another squad of soldiers. Roxy had at least gotten him a good bit of food to cram down his throat before he left, and he wasn't feeling as drained now from all the regenerating he'd had to do.

  "How's the fight going?" he asked Trey.

  "Not good. Are you sure you want to go back out there, Adam? You look like shit."

  Adam laughed. "Trust me, it feels worst than it looks! But I gotta do something; I can't just sit back there and let the others carry on without me. Honestly, I don't know how the hell Sean manages."

  "Well, begging your pardon, but Sean's a lot meaner than you are, Adam."

  Adam looked over at Trey, who glanced at him, grinning, then went back to flying the helicopter.

  "Sean—nice, friendly, always polite, always smiling, happy-go-lucky Sean—is meaner than me? Are we talking about the same guy?"

  "Sean had a rough childhood. Oh, he's friendly and nice and all that, until you piss him off. I've heard the stories, hell, seen some of it myself. He wouldn't have killed that colonel without making a dire example of him first. Hell, he put a bunch of magic users in a circle, handed them clubs, and told them either they killed one of their own then and there with the clubs, or he'd kill all of them!"

  Adam blinked and looked in the back at the wolves, who were all nodding.

  "Damn! And I thought Roxy was the mean one!"

  "Nope, she's all sweetness and light by comparison. Roxy will accept apologies and let you beg for forgiveness. Sean just kills you. And your family, your friends…"

  "Your pets!" one of the wolves in the back called out, laughing.

  "Okay, now you're laying it on a little too thick," Adam said, laughing along with him.

  "What you have to remember," Trey told him, "is just about everyone here is here because Sean kicked our ass and made us his. A lot of us have seen him at his worst, and trust me, I ain't scared of you none, but Sean? The last thing I ever want to see is him angry with me."

  "Because it would be the last thing!" one of the wolves agreed.

  "Got that right!" another one said.

  "Okay, now I'm really worried about messing this up." Adam sighed.

  "Ah, I wouldn't worry too much," Trey told him as he came in for a landing well back from where the fighting was going on. "The fact that you're going back into the fight after getting blown up makes it clear to the rest of us you're just as hardcore as Sean when it comes to winning."

  Adam's eyes were on the ground outside now as Trey brought them in. He could see the skirmish line was well back from where it had been when he'd left with the dead and wounded, and there were a lot more demons now.

  "Come on guys," Adam said as the skids touched the ground. "Let's go win this one for Sean so he doesn't wring my damn neck!"

  Piling out of the Blackhawk, Adam called Chad on the radio as he moved forward towards the line.

  "How bad is it?"

  "What the hell are you doing back here?" Chad asked.

  "Being what I'm here for, what's it look like?" Adam grumbled.

  "Okay, I'm not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth! Get up front in the center and see if you can rally the troops there to start pushing the devils back! And do something about that damn ridder, and the one behind him!"

  Adam blew out his breath and growled; maybe getting killed today wouldn't be such a bad idea after all.

  Course if he didn't do something about those ridders before he died, the First would have his nuts when he showed up.

  "Come on everyone!" Adam called out as he drew his sword and made his way through the fighters behind the skirmish line, directly towards the ridder who was doing a number on his troops. "I got rid of those damn bombs! Now let's kills these bastards and go home!"

  Adam hit the line growling. At least the armor he'd lost was on his weak side, so he was able to keep his left side back as he immediately engaged the ridder. With the ridder tied up— concentrating on Adam, who was doing his damnedest to kill him—the line surge forward, pushing back the demons, or at least stopping their advance.

  The fight was brutal for a few minutes, as the ridder obviously didn’t want to be pushed back off of his point, and Adam was damned if he wasn't going to kill this bastard. He got stabbed twice because the damage to his armor had left too many holes, but he was doing a lot more damage to the ridder, whose armor just wasn't up to snuff.

  Using a trick he'd learned from his mother, he knocked the ridder's sword wide and charged up into him. Body-slamming him and opening his jaws wide, he got the ridder by the neck and crushed it, then shook the body side to side like it was a stuffed animal.

  Adam felt it when the ridder shuddered and died. Spitting out the partially severed neck, he spent a minute trying not to throw up as the line surged forward a few feet to either side of him. He'd never tasted anything that bad before!

  Getting his retching under control, he moved forward and rejoined the line, spitting in the face of the demons as he tried to get the foul taste out of his muzzle. At least it seemed to be distracting them, he realized, as he easily killed one while it was wiping his spit out of its eyes.

  When the gateway finally closed, Adam could hear the cheer go up. He wanted to cheer as well, but there were still a lot of devils that needed to be killed, and now that they knew there'd be no more help coming, they were desperate. At least the biskop that had come through a while ago had retreated with the rest of his men before the gateway had collapsed.

  As wins go, Adam was sure this had been a costly one. Well, once they cleaned up the remainder, it would be.

  "How are we doing, Chad?" Adam called out over the radio, panting heavily. He was almost dead on his feet and couldn't wait for this to be over.

  "We finally got the upper hand. Pull back, Adam, before you get yourself killed; what's left of your tail is dragging, and losing you now wouldn't help us."

  "You sure?" Adam asked, stepping back and letting the wolf to his right and the jaguar to his left move forward to close the gap he'd just opened.

  "Yeah, I'm sure. Come join me in the rear."

  Adam nodded, not that anyone could see it, and hobbled back to the rear of the fight, where chairs were being set up, and both food and aid were being given. Obviously Chad was pretty certain they'd won if he was letting the support folks set up camp.

  "Sit down, take a load off," Chad said, looking Adam over. His left arm was missing just below the elbow, he had so little armor left now he might was well be naked, and his right foot was apparently only recently regenerated and not quite finished.

  "I think I should go back to base and see what Roxy has for me." Adam sighed. "I don't think I'm out of the doghouse yet."

  Chad nodded. "Yeah, I talked to her earlier; she's still a bit miffed."

  "I thought she was coming out here," Adam said, looking around, "but I never heard her show up?"

  "She's been dealing with damage control most of the morning. By the time she finished, the fight was under control, so I told her to stay back and hold the fort."

  "And she listened to you?" Adam said with a weak laugh.

  "She trusts me, Adam."

  "And she doesn't trust me," Adam said with a nod.

  "Give her time, Adam. You're new, and she's still upset at what happened to Sean. You being his 'replacement' is going to ruffle some fur."