Page 18 of War Games

“We’ll be safe here if they try to lash out after we start this,” Niko continued, oozing confidence in the idea and not seeming to notice the surprise of nearly everyone on the call. I was certain they were surprised for the same reason I was. Not that Heath and the werewolves were going to help protect us, but rather that Niko would dare talk about it in front of Hasan. We weren’t sure how he was feeling since the Germany incident, but apparently, Niko was leaving that behind him. We could only hope Hasan was going to choose to do the same.

“Have you two spoken about this? Can you explain a bit more, Jacky?” Zuri asked instead of letting anyone else jump in, including Hasan.

“Y-Yeah. While a few of the werewolves are younger, and we’ll be keeping them away from the edges of my territory and off patrols, they’re also training in case someone attacks.” I was trying to recover from Niko's outing that plan before I was ready or could mention it myself. I was now scrambling to explain. “Even if they can just defend themselves until Niko, myself, or any of the older werewolves can get there, it’s better than nothing. Older werewolves have been doing close patrolsfor some time, but we’ve extended the patrol to my boundary, so their noses can pick up anyone snooping around the outer edge.”

“Good, very good.” Subira seemed pleased, relaxing in her chair like this didn’t bother her at all, nor was she concerned about Hasan saying anything inappropriate. “I will require you, Jacky, to take at least one werewolf with you on your trips to see these witches as well.”

“What?” I couldn’t stop the word popping out of my mouth, nor could I cover my new shock. The curveballs in this conversation were being thrown too fast for me.

“You’re the youngest, and you’ve twice engaged with witches and ruined their plans intentionally. Three times, if including the original coup that led you to meeting the Everson family.” Subira tilted her head to the side, but I couldn’t read her expression. “Witches can be petty and personal, to their own detriment. You will be a target. Not just an annoyance to the witches you’re investigating but to any witches who think you’ve gotten too involved over the years, intentionally or not.

“With you also being the youngest, you are the easiest of us for them to attack, whether their goal is to kill or capture you. Anyone smart enough to plan an effective attack against you will also be smart enough to know it would be a crippling blow against this family, which will impact our ability to work with the werewolves. We’ll all be left more vulnerable to future attacks or them being able to further whatever plans they may have that could overwhelm us in the future.”

“Take Dirk with you,” Niko suggested when she finished. “She’s thinking of the same thing you and Heath were when you explained how the werewolves working here to protect the territory was important. Take Dirk, and on the days you don’t have anywhere to go, you can train each other.”

I turned slowly to my brother, exhaling a breath that left my cheeks puffing up and nostrils flaring.

“I don’t need a babysitter,” I hissed softly, knowing the mic would pick it up, but the words were intentionally directed at Niko.

“Well, you would be babysitting him,” Niko countered, smiling. “I’ll be out of town, so our training plans have gone out the window.”

“Training plans?” Hasan asked, finally breaking his silence, having ignored most of the talk about the werewolves entirely.

“I was going to train Jacky in weapons and hand-to-hand and train Dirk to fight more in his werewolf form since neither of them can join the pack for training. Landon would have to train Jacky since Heath doesn’t want to act that way toward her, and Landon won’t because if he hurt her, he’d upset his father. Landon won’t let Dirk join pack training because if anyone accidentally hurt Dirk, he’d kill them,” Niko explained to the group before turning to me again.

“But, Jacky, you fight extremely well as a werecat. It’s not a perfect translation, but you’ve seen the werewolves fight, too. I know he’s trained before in his werewolf form because Heath would require it in his first year, so he probably just needs experience and confidence. He’ll teach you more traditional weapons and hand-to-hand that I trained him in as he grew up. He’ll be rusty, but it’s just the basics. Basics are better than nothing.”

“Fine. When Dirk and I are driving around and interrogating witches, we’ll train each other,” I agreed, lifting my hands in defeat. “We’ll come back to this after the meeting. Dirk is with Carey at the gun range this morning.”

“Carey has good aim,” Jabari said, humming pleasantly. “That’s a good call.”

“It was theirs, not mine or Heath’s,” I said, dropping my hands to my side as I made a face. “She’s not old enough to legally carry, though.”

“Legally. We’ll figure out something to do about that,” Jabari said as he looked at something, fiddling with it on the side of his desk. “A spell to mask its presence, maybe something like the charm we get done on the cars, so we aren’t pulled over all the time. She’ll just need to not get arrested by your human police while she has it.”

“I’ll talk to herfatherabout whether she needs to carry a live firearm, and then we can work on something,” I said sternly. “Can we move on?”

“We should. There’s a lot to get through,” Zuri said, hitting a button, and I saw a muted symbol show up over Jabari. “Mother and I were looking into the potion that the witches made. It’s not entirely a potion. It can be drunk for short-term use, but the masking effect wears off faster. We found out how they are really using it.”

“It’s a soak,” Subira said, sighing. “You can put a piece of jewelry in it, so long as the material is able to soak in the liquid. That makes the object mask the magic cast by the wearer. When I was looking over the dead witches in Alaska, some were wearing leather bracelets, while others had leather cord necklaces. I could smell the potion on them. We made a few of our own. It can last up to a week between soaks, depending on the strength of the spell and how much magic it whips up for us to smell. Spells manipulate an energy that already exists since there is magic everywhere, all the time, in everything. We can smell it because the distribution of magic in the area has been altered and expended.”

“It also doesn’t stop magic from smelling at all. It makesusnose blind to it,” Zuri continued where our mother stopped. “We Moon Cursed. That’s why our blood is in the mix; it targets us and makes us miss it. This is important since other supernatural species can somewhat smell or feel magic when it’s used in any sort of spell. Father, they don’t have to get involved withour problems, but if you could take a handful of these to those supernaturals for testing, it would be appreciated.”

“I’m sure they will be glad to find out if the witches got one over on them as well,” Hasan said with a nod. “Based on your explanation, if their blood was used, would it be likely to definitely work on them?”

“I won’t ask them to do that sort of testing if they aren’t comfortable, but it would be good to know.”

“I’ll see what I can without the witches discovering this research, then.” Hasan started scribbling, taking notes for the first time during the meeting. “Now, allow me to explain what the other emails are, so I can step out unless there’s something else I must know.”

No one had anything to say that would keep him, so I sat down and listened as Hasan explained what he wanted from Zuri, Jabari, and Davor. Zuri would continue to research with Subira about the use of the charm, as well learning all about the type of magic my brothers and I had discovered in Alaska, which Subira had already been familiar with. Ways to break the control or block it entirely, and things of that nature.

Jabari was going to be talking to the oldest werecat warriors left on the earth about forming a hunting party whenever they discovered a witch who was involved. Hisao would be joining that once he was feeling better. So would Mischa. Davor was scouring every dark website that had witches talking. He was breaking into emails and everything else to see if they could find any suspicious talk.

Only Niko and I were going directly to witches, and I didn’t have any problem with that. I had a problem with something else.

“With that, I will leave?—”

“What about the identity of the boy?” I asked before Hasan could excuse himself.

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