I nodded that I understood, and the round robin continued with Kade.
“Once we knew about the religious fanaticism, we knew that convincing the humans that they were not doing their God’s work might be the best way to get them to leave. And the only way we could think of to do that was an online trip to the special effects store.”
Chuck snorted. “That’s what that huge rush delivery was last night?”
Kade smirked. “You’ll find the invoice in yourinbox.”
“The explosions?” Chuck asked.
“Colored smoke bombs and specialized pyrotechnics,” Sonny answered. “We had to get a permit from the county, but luckily I was able to talk them into rushing it.”
“Ditto for the burning bush and flame writing,” Colby snickered. “All special effects and movie props. It was a little over the top but worth every penny!”
Everyone sitting around the table was laughing, but I was still missing something, so I raised my hand again.
“Yeah, Julian?” Sonny saw me first.
“Um, what happened to the man who fell to his knees?” I asked. “And what was the reference to Lot’s wife?”
The room was suddenly quiet with everyone intently not looking at me for some reason. At the end of the table, a man Chuck had introduced as Sylas cleared his throat.
“You know that some shifters have different abilities?” he asked, his voice calm. I nodded and he continued. “Well, I can turn people to stone. In this case, it will only be temporary, but we thought that by invoking the reminder of Lot’s wife being turned to salt, we would increase the odds of keeping the Hunters from returning if they saw something similar. He will be fine tomorrow and won’t suffer any ill effects, I promise.”
Well, that explained everything. Well, everything but the giant serpent, but with no one else mentioning it and no sign of it on the film, I wasn’t even sure I’d really seen it any more. Score one for recurrent head injuries.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chuck
April 10, 2022
In the week since we’d banished the Hunters trying to force us off our property -without injuring even one of them, I kept reminding everyone who would listen- life at Omega Destiny, International was pretty much back to normal.
In typical fashion, Sylas had left with as little fanfare as he’d arrived with, sending me a text that he left after he was already home. The Böxenwolf Brigade and Bandito Bunny Battalion regiments had returned to their respective home bases, Colby was back in Blood Valley, Sonny and his husband were back in Sharon Hill, and Pete was scrambling to get everything ready for Easter with less than a week to go.
Julian had made a full recovery and was back home as well, but we talked and texted every day and had plans to spend some time together over the summer when school was out. I was still working long hours to catch up on all of the day-to-day paperwork, training programs, bills, and other fiddly things that had been shoved to the back burner over the past several weeks, but something was definitely missing.
“Got a minute?” Kade popped his head through my open office door.
“Sure,” I agreed, stifling the yawn trying to escape. “What’s up?”
Kade waltzed in and dropped into his usual chair, kicking his feet up on my desk. His husband followed close behind, shoving Kade’s legs so his feet landed on the floor before sitting down in the other chair.
“Hey Jeremy,” I greeted him with a smile. “Everything okay?”
“Yes, of course,” Jeremy said brightly. “Nothing’s wrong, there’s just a situation I needed to fill you in on and I got a response on one of our grant applications.”
“Okay,” I agreed, shooting a look at Kade. “What areyoudoing here, then?”
Kade laughed and rolled his eyes. “Mostly, I’m just here for the entertainment value when you hear what he has to tell you.”
Well, that didn’t bode well. The last time he said something like that…
I narrowed my eyes. “Are the Hunters back?”
Kade snorted and shook his head. “Nope.”
“Okay.” I turned back to Jeremy. “What’s up?”
