Hell Hounds
Chapter 55: Never-Ending Catch-Up Game

After the organized confusion of several teams leaving, the small group sat down to discover everything they'd missed.

"Where does the time go? How can it take so long to get everything done?" Aria stared at her phone in wonder.

"Because we are the least magical creatures of the supernatural world. A one-trick pony, if you will. We got the party trick of turning into a critter. What do we have here, anyway?" Yolanda pulled a yellow envelope from a pile Gregory tossed their way before storming into his office. He wasn't angry with him. No, that anger's reserved for the mother of his future pups. He'd found out she'd made a break from their apartment without Catherine or another Hell Hound beside her. He'd informed Yolanda she wasn't to worry about it. Her instructions were in the envelope in front of her. There'd be no screwing around since this was now an all-out war.

With the Fae now boldly entering human towns, a video began showing up on various websites and news outlets. They needed to combat this before it got out of hand. The mages claimed they possessed various solutions for that, and tonight, the Vampires would send out their people to fix things.

There was something frightening Yolanda felt at the thought of an army of vampires would go about changing humans' memories. But what else could they do? The mages could alter technology and make things disappear. But they couldn't alter a population's belief in monsters as a vampire could. But between a mage and a vampire, now that was truly frightening. Suddenly, no one saw anything and there's no video to prove it ever occurred. Murdered people became accident victims and victims of muggings by assailants that never existed. It was far from perfect, but it's easier to accept than the truth. Far safer for everyone, too. How many relatives of these victims would seek justice on the Fae? How many police with hero complexes would make it their life's mission to deal with administrating justice to the Fae? How many of those would come home in the end? Yolanda knew the total of survivors to return would be zero. They couldn't let that happen.

"They have me fielding a campaign of disbelief in the video with a group of mages. Not sure what I can do that they can't."

"Find the crap hiding in the dark recesses of the net? You're very good at that." Jaxon stated as he looked down at the papers before him. "They have me working with our old division once they are up and running here to field this away from conspiracy theory territory."

"Now I'm questioning all the conspiracies we've dug into. How much did we miss the first time around?"

"I know it's weird with an insider's perspective now. It's a similar job but with a whole new outlook and mandate. Keep them dumb, not find the truth."

"Well, not quite. We find the truth; we just don't advertise it to the public. Look at it this way. We find out the truth, fix it, and it's a need-to-know basis. You encountered what happens when the public sees what's real. Your division made you the brunt of their jokes. You're not taken seriously, passed over for promotion too, I bet.”

lan looked at Desire. "I'm hoping you're assuming a few things."

"It happens far too often, not to be true. Just remember now we'll respect you in the morning." She tried to joke, but Yolanda growled at Desire. "Sorry, poor joke. Okay, too early for that." Desire held her hands up to display her acquiescence to Yolanda.

"What about you Aria what do they have you doing?"

"I'm with Hal in searching the net and media sources."

"Yolanda? What about you and lan?"

"As expected, we're in the basement, keeping the weapons flowing with the Fianna down there. I don't think they'll be disappearing anytime soon."

Shaylah watched through the Bogart's eyes at the hunt as they searched for even a tiny shred of magic. What happened to this place after they left? This realm should brim again with magic. Everywhere they've gone so far, the magic elusively evaded them. The humans appeared to know nothing about magic or where to get it. The few wells they'd visited didn't even possess a spark of magic. It's like when they left, they took magic with them. How could that be? The elders always claimed magic flowed like water here. They'd lied to everyone. This was an insult that she couldn't tolerate. The hunt found no reference to the existence of their serfs. No wolves or witches. No vampires, or any annoying druids. This wasn't the world of gold and honey. It stank, humans ruled everywhere, and the wilds weren't wild. This world bored her already.

The humans were pathetic. They didn't believe what they saw standing before them. Many accused Shaylah of being a human in a costume, and her displays of magic were slights of hand. She removed them from her path with an irritated flick of her hand.

The Council of Ambassadors met formally now for an evening session. The session possessed all the high drama of a reality television program, and somewhere the formality disappeared. For a moment, Edith pondered whether the addition of the zoom calls contributed to the lack of formality. Either way, for Edith, it was a welcome respite from it all.

"I say we need to clear this blight from the Earth and let the chips fall where they may regarding the humans finding out about our presence. It'll be easier to change their minds if they see we are looking after more than just our interests."

"Have you forgotten about the mass panic of the witch trials? There are still locations where it's accepted practice to this day to hunt for vampires."

"They hunt vampires in regions we left centuries ago, and we would prefer they continue hunting there and not here. I don't believe it would be helpful to out ourselves right now. I don't believe anyone would benefit from it."

"It's happening now. The Fae don't care. They believe they can walk in and take over. With the use of their magic, they will take over in no time. If this happens, there's a benefit for anyone, and no saving the humans or us from huge losses."

The clanging of a gong reverberated from the computer's speakers. She'd need to recommend they change to something not so disruptive for their next meeting. With a series of wincing expressions and a few hisses, silence finally reigned again.

"Thank you. I believe we've

established the need to control this narrative rather than let the Fae do that. Currently, we have one of the few sources of wild magic hidden from them. However, with that said, we now have magic-starved Fae monsters roaming the world, exposing our presence to those who know nothing of us. We don't know their numbers, how long they've been magic starved, how desperate they are to get magic, or what skills magic. We

they have to locate sunet

have records that some can change the life force of other supernatural creatures into wild magic. This may or may not work with a human's life. force. We can't allow that to happen, period, end of the story. Now, currently, there are only a few incidents right now. I recommend we continue along those lines for now. They have brought it to my attention that we can truly hit the Fae where it hurts by cutting them off from the dream realm. If we cut them off from that realm, it will hamper their travel and ability to hide or use it to spy. I implore all with records or research in this line of inquiry to find out whether your faction may have any record of this being done in the past, or theory of how we can do it now, to come forward as soon as you can with this information."

Edith watched the speaker of the

.n

council reign, everyone, in and redirected the session into a far more productive direction. Gaining the attention of the speaker. "Remember, we have the Fianna on our side this time. We are currently not fighting two wars, as we did in the past. If the human population reacts badly to us, then we would again fight two wars at once. Are we strong enough to risk that? Please, everyone, think before doing anything that will complicate this for everyone Many of our numbers have mated, married, or bound to humans. We would force them to pick a side between their life partner and their family if the human population reacts badly. There are young caught in the middle of that war if it comes to be. It's logical to weaken them by removing what little wild magic is within this world from them and deny them the advantage of the dream realm. Weakened with only their weapons and fighting skills, will be hard enough, but with modern technological weapons being blended with magic by the Fianna. I believe we can remove these Fae from this realm. I believe we must work together as a show of strength. Turn them back so that there's nothing but strife awaiting them within this realm. Send them back and block them again. The ambassador of the Mages believes he's located the human group that opened the portals. A group's gone to find out more about these humans. We aren't sure what they believed they were opening or what they'd obtain for doing so, either. The rituals used obtained their magic from blood and magical items imbued before the Fae left this realm. I'm curious how these humans obtained the magical items and knowledge of these rituals. I've been told we kept them well hidden from the humans."

That sent a titter through the group while Edith waited to speak again. To Edith, this wasn't something she often did. Speaking to the assembly wasn't something she did well. It took her off her A-game. Allan spoke while she sat back and read the crowd. He spoke her words, announced their intents, and debated like a champion.

"Please have any information you wish to impart ready by tonight. We will compile and disseminated it to everyone by morning. As always, please submit it to the speaker's office before midnight

tonight. Thank you."

The meeting broke up shortly after that. They'd found a human cult connected to these rituals and sent a group to investigate the leader of the cult. As far as Edith knew, they found no supernatural ties

to this cult, and it was a rather new cult.

Allan popped his head in once the silence took over. "You finished? I think everything's packed and ready to go. I just want you to do a once over to make sure I got everything." After all these years, he mate still didn't know where all her hiding places were. It made birthdays and yule presents a surprise.

"I'm just making a couple of notes right now, and I'll be there in a couple of minutes. Is our portal still green-lit?"

"As of an hour ago, yes. I'll check again in the next twenty minutes."

"It'll be good to be home. I feel exposed here."

"I get it and feel the same way. Home is safe. But what place is truly

safe these days? It's not the old days where it took weeks or months

for news to spread. Now it's minutes. You know that better than I do. The Fae won't be able to keep up. They don't have any comprehension of what technology is or how it works. They won't have

any way to combat it or block it

without help from the humans. The Fae has nothing to offer a human, really. I can't wait for the first one to find out about a gun. Bet that'll hurt.”

"I knew I mated you for a reason. You, sir, are vicious."☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

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