Chapter 17
Abigail White barked directions at Number Twelve from the back seat.
“Left, then right on the second street. Look for the red mailbox.”
They were almost at the Van Crimson’s safe house near the hospital. Serenity Hospital loomed on the left—the largest building in town, while the Marnes Mansion loomed atop a hill to her right.
Abigail was still without her cask, and without her animal essence, but she did have Number Six wrapped around her shoulders, and a deficient memory of this horrible day.
She knew Khain had taken Paisley, but she dared not think about it.
She would have to meet with more vod soon, and she needed to appear human, nothing more.
She had to deny and decry who she really was, to stay free another day.
She knew bigger forces were at play than she could specifically recall at that moment, and she knew the vod would do their bumbling best to find Paisley, and she knew (hoped!) that Paisley would be recovered alive and unhurt.
She knew the Van Crimsons were gathering amongst members of her own family, all of them working together toward a common goal: get Paisley away from the vod without them knowing what she was, what any of them were.
Tethered foxen had no choice but to live in Serenity, where they always had to hide from either the demon or the vod, and sometimes both, and this was how they survived, always on the edge, which was why they could go dim, while the other shiften couldn’t.
The goddess Rhen had gifted the ability to them on order to help them hide.
Abigail stroked Number Six’s head, staring up at the Marnes Mansion.
It was a Serenity historical building, built in 1893.
The original owner, Moline Marnes, had been the wife of a deceased European shipbuilder and one of the original settlers of Serenity.
She’d had it built in gorgeous Romanesque Revival style, using local limestone as a construction material for all outside walls, adorning it with a prominent turret, and rounded archways.
Everyone knew it was haunted due to a ghostly figure being seen in the upstairs bathroom window at all hours, ever since Moline Marnes had died in the tub.
Eldred Van Crimson had bought the mansion in 1937 from the Marnes family.
He’d bricked off the entrance upstairs, then turned the ground floor into a for-profit museum of Serenity’s history.
The basement floor was home to several Van Crimson miscreants, and the secretly added sub-basement floor was used as a safe house for anyone with foxen blood.
The sub-basement floor was where Abigail was headed.
She directed Number Twelve to the lower parking area, hidden in thick evergreen trees.
He parked; she got out, carrying a fox-pelt-lined purse she’d brought from her store, and made her way to an entrance hidden with trellis and ivy.
It opened before she reached it, a massive foxen dressed in camo nodding at her and motioning she should enter.
He said nothing but dropped his eyes in respect as she passed.
He pointed her in the direction of the elevator which would take her down to the meeting room.
She nodded at him and his big head bobbed, reddish hair sticking every which way. Monk Van Crimson had never spoken, and no one knew why.
Abigail touched his arm so he would look at her.
She met his eyes, then she put her finger to her lips.
He went slack for a second, then nodded, as she went dim, as dim as she was able without her essence, which wasn’t very dim, in her opinion, but still was dimmer than any of her progeny could manage.
She did it with vvyst weaved into magic, so it was more like invisibility-with-scent-and-sound-coverage, than biological dimness, but it got the job done.
Her clothing and her purse also dimmed out.
The Van Crimsons were better at dimness than the White clan.
Dred, the elder, was so good at going dim that he was totally undetectable to all for a short time, even to other foxen, and even to the demon, which had saved his ass several times over the last 150 years or so.
Monk, however, didn’t go dim, just like he didn’t talk, and no one knew if he could do either.
He had a renqua though—a patch of tall grass.
He could shift into an oversized red fox, one hundred pounds bigger than any normal fox.
Dim, Abigail squeezed Monk’s arm. He squinted his eyes and cocked his head, trying to see her from the corner of his eye. He gave her a thumbs-up, then turned back to the door, watching the monitors above it.
She turned and moved down the hallway to the sitting room just outside the double doors, which were closed.
The foxen in the meeting room would be on the alert to anyone entering dim, but she was Abigail White, and she had ways to avoid detection.
She flicked her fingers to swarm more vvyst around herself like camouflage.
She edged closer to the door, trying to hear conversations on the other side, but it opened.
Rhogun Van Crimson came out, moving fast. He was big, with reddish hair and close-clipped beard, wearing jeans, boots, and a leather jacket.
He wore an eyepatch over his left eye, because of a birth defect that left the eye withered and blinded.
Abigail couldn’t see his renqua, but she knew what it was.
He, like many foxen males, had a renqua that symbolized their destiny, which was to be enslaved by the demon.
Rhogun’s was a padlock with a chain attached.
Abigail slipped in the door on Rhogun’s blind side, both lighter and faster than normal.
The meeting room was a large open area under the main house.
Abigail moved through the room slowly, her eyes on everything and everyone, as she listened to each passing conversation.
Near the door were two Van Crimsons, both teenage girls easily identifiable with their red hair.
They had their heads together and were talking quietly.
“Sage must be out of her mind with worry. Where is she?”
“In treatment somewhere, for that disease the females in the White clan get.”
“She doesn’t even know Paisley is kidnapped?”
“Probably not.”
“That’s so messed up. When does she get out?”
“Dunno. Whenever her period ends, I guess.”
Abigail pointed her index finger at the one who thought she was so smart, about to zap her with some electricity, or maybe give her a teeny-tiny stroke, but then she thought better of it, knowing she couldn’t afford to cause a scene. She moved on quickly before she heard any more.
In reality, there was no disease. Abigail had made it up as cover for what she had to do to keep her family safe. Sage was locked away tight, hidden from the demon, but not in a medically-induced coma, like these girls thought.
Abigail moved deeper into the room, sticking close to the walls, where tables and chairs were stacked in storage.
Across the room, a computer workstation was set up near a collection of couches.
The couches were full of her family members and a couple of Van Crimsons, most talking quietly or looking at their phones, all waiting for news of Paisley.
Reynard Van Crimson worked at the computers with Rissa standing behind him, her face twisted in worry.
Near them, Mina talked to Ellis White in low tones.
Abigail moved close enough to Mina and Ellis to hear their conversation.
“The vod have been all over the street. They’re still in my yard,” Mina said with a shudder.
“I’m never going back. I don’t even want my stuff,” Ellis White said. Ellis was Frannie’s father. He stood just under six feet tall, with short brown hair and a slim build, wearing brown slacks, cable-knit sweater, and shoes.
“Nana is giving everyone a stipend to replace their stuff, plus everyone gets a cabin at the Inn,” Mina said.
Abigail froze and stared at Mina, angrily, thinking she’d said nothing about a stipend.
Mina looked around suspiciously, like maybe she sensed something.
Abigail moved away from her, behind Reynard and Rissa, looking over Reynard’s shoulder at his computer setup.
Reynard had short red hair and a clean-shaven face.
He wore a foxen tactical uniform, which was remarkably similar to the uniform of the vod, except it wasn’t blue, it was camo-green.
“Can you put my picture on her license?” Rissa was saying.
“Sure can,” Reynard answered, typing swiftly on his keyboard, “But what if I just did this?”
Rissa leaned over his shoulder and watched what was happening on the screen. “Change Paisley’s birth certificate?”
“Yep. There you go. Rissa White as mother.”
“David Upton as father,” Rissa said dryly. “No thank you. I did not sleep with that playboy human.”
Reynard stood and pulled a piece of paper from a printer. He winked at Rissa, grinning and holding it out. “You know you didn’t, and I know you didn’t, but the vod are going to think you did.”
Rissa laughed and took the piece of paper from him. “This looks brand new.”
Reynard took it from her. “Don’t worry, you won’t have to show it to anyone. I’m changing it in the system and that’s what the hospital and the vod will see if they look it up, but they won’t.”
Abigail considered whether she liked the plan and decided she did.
Reynard used his family’s version of vvyst and had figured out how to digitize it years ago, so anything he did automatically and intelligently hid from the wolven, changing on the fly if it needed to, and always reporting back to Reynard for optimization.
A distant disturbance caught Abigail’s attention, making her lift her head. From somewhere in Serenity, a portal to the Pravus opened, and all the foxen in the room fell silent. The portal closed, and they all could sense the demon in the Ula.
Here we go, Abigail thought. She undimmed and strode to the center of the room. All eyes turned to her. A couple of the teenagers gasped.
“Khain is here,” she said, her voice quiet and even, her purse clutched in front of her. “As we all damn well know. The vodvod Crew Arcoal will save Paisley. So it is foretold. So it is seen.”
Relieved murmurs spread through the listeners.
“The vod will take Paisley to the hospital, and we will recover her quickly and efficiently and then go back about our lives as best we can. Those who wish to be part of the recovery team, line up here in front of me. You will see vod and vodvod, they might ask you questions, and so help me, anyone who loses their shit will be banished from Serenity, Tether or not!” She looked straight at Rissa when she said that, challenging her.
Rissa moved closer to Reynard and Reynard put a comforting arm around her.
Several people stood and lined up in front of Abigail. She surveyed them coldly, thinking, Everyone wanted to be part of history. She fished her phone out and called Number Twelve, telling him to bring the crate of bottles labeled ‘liquid vitamin’. She motioned to Reynard. He came jogging over.
“Smell them all. Anyone who scents like foxen must change their clothes.”
Reynard nodded. “We have a clean closet full of clothes to fit all sizes.”
Abigail was about to snap that she knew that, when a deep grinding voice invaded all their minds at the same time.
Don’t worry, pup, she’s not at home, I checked.
The group of foxen in front of her shuffled nervously, looking around, some of them cowering, some returning to the couches, and a few ran straight out the door.
Rissa cried out. Mina covered her ears. Ellis grabbed a handkerchief from a pocket and blotted his forehead with it, then dimmed out.
The two gossiping teenagers ran into the bathroom, holding hands.
Reynard snarled and growled deep in his throat, turning an eye to the ceiling, curling Rissa close to him and motioning Mina over.
She ran to him, and he held both females protectively.
Abigail noted each and every reaction, filing them away for future musing.
Everyone fell silent, listening. When nothing more was said, Abigail pointed at Reynard and said, “Go, we’re running out of time.”
He nodded, released Mina and Rissa, then plunged into the volunteers, smelling their hair and shirts.
Abigail stalked over to Rissa and demanded, “Cry.”
Rissa covered her mouth, crying softly, then working up to full-on blubbering. Abigail nodded. “Keep it up. Anyone asks you anything, you turn on the waterworks. Let Mina speak for you, got it?”
Rissa nodded, her tears subsiding.
Abigail gave Mina a bottle she’d brought from the Templum. “You’re in charge,” she said. “Right before you go to the hospital, give this to Rissa. It’ll make sure she cries for real.” She turned to Rissa, who looked worried, and said, “It only lasts two hours.”
She backed away, scanning for Number Twelve. When she saw him, she waved him to the door, then told Mina, “I’m gone. I’ll meet you at the hospital as soon as I can.”
They hurried to the car. Abigail had to get to the Templum and get Number Six to Ethedra immediately, before the vodvod Crew Arcoal hopped over to Ethedra’s world.