Arrow Inferno
Chapter 81: Jeremy Stanton vs. Ryan Hicks ~ Feral attraction in the midst of hatred… The battle!

***

The jackal stared at the bed on which he'd expected to see Camilla and felt his heart drop. She was gone. That meant only one thing... His death. He'd assured the Lord Command that Deloris was under his control because he had her daughter. Not only was there no daughter, but it looked like Deloris had led the pack straight to them. Oh, his death was so assured. There was only one thing to do at that point. Get his wife and run!

He closed the door, turned around, and came face to face with a...sex worker? The Jackal didn't know what to make of the woman standing in front of him. She was dressed in a sexy black leather outfit and had a whip in her hand...like a dominant about to work on a submissive.

"You, my friend, are a hard one to find," Paige said in a husky voice. "Going somewhere?"

"Look lady, I don't know who you are or what you think you can do but trust me, you don't wanna go up against me."

"Is that so?" Paige started circling around the sweating albino. Somehow she didn't think the cause of the man's terror was her presence. He looked really terrified. "You look scared. Hmmm..." She tilted her head and looked at the albino. "I don't think a wicked soul like yourself is scared of a bunch of wolves. I think it's something more. What could it be? Who are you so afraid of, pray tell?"

"You bitch." The Jackal hissed. "Thank your stars for whatever you idiots have done to weaken the fold. I would have..."

"Would have done what exactly?" Paige looked amused. "You think you can handle me?"

"Oh, I can handle you, little girl. I've been doing this since before you were nothing but an itch in your daddy's pants."

"Oooh, I'm shaking in my boots." Paige purred. "Big words for someone who looks like you've already shit your pants. I still want to know what has you so spooked. I heard you're dangerous and cunning. Oh, Deloris filled me in. Kidnapping the woman's only child. Now, that was a very wicked thing to do don't you think? Oh, and she told me about how you used your...gift...I'd call it a curse but hey, if you think it's a gift, let's call it a gift. Anyway, back to what I was saying. She told me about how you actually changed your appearance to look like Camilla when you initially went to her, in order to get her guard down and get her exactly where you wanted her. What do you call that? Copy Cat? Wait, wait...I've remembered what she said. Glamouring." Paige looked like she'd won a quiz contest. Glamouring was the ability to change one's appearance to look like another person, though it could also be used to change a person's age or clothing. "Alright, I'm out of here." The Jackal said and then began to shimmer into nothingness but Paige's whip flew so fast his world spun out of control. "Oh fuck." He groaned from his new position on the ground.

"I don't remember saying you could go." Paige drawled. "I'll like to have a...chat if you don't mind." Her smile was so sweet and innocent one might have thought she was talking about how great the weather was. The Jackal groaned. He knew that the end had come.

***

"What do you see?" Reynard Wyatt asked his Seer who was deep in a trance. She was one of the seven seated at the table.

Reynard could hear the screams of his people outside but he wasn't worried because he knew that even if everyone perished, he could bring them back. He was that powerful. The most important thing was to stay alive. He knew that despite the determination and obvious strength of whoever was attacking the clan at that particular moment, nothing could happen to him. After all, he had to have a kid to get defeated, right? Well, he had none. But he still needed to know who had the nerve to attack his clan. And what better person to tell him than his Seer? Raj was an upper-level warlock who had the power to perceive the past, present, and future events through premonition and divination. She'd served Reynard for centuries as his primary advisor and was very good at what she did. To say Reynard was shocked that Raj hadn't been able to predict their current situation would be a huge understatement. He planned on dealing with that later. At that moment, he needed to know who they were up against.

"It's the Stanwood Pack," Raj said in an eerie voice.

"Damn that albino." Reynard's angry voice rumbled through the room, rattling every loose object. "No wonder he's still not back. Tell me, is Jeremy Stanton here?" Something good could come out of all the chaos, after all, Reynard thought. He needed Jeremy.

"No he isn't." Came a voice that made everyone turn to look towards the door.

Reynard Wyatt looked up and did a double-take when he saw the young man standing inside his sanctuary. The fact that he was with a woman didn't really register in the warlock's brain. His attention was completely arrested by the white- haired, green-eyed man looking at him.

"Who...who the hell are you?" The Lord Command actually stuttered. "And how did you get in here?"

Reynard's face was filled with shock. Shock that he hoped the people in the room would assume was due to the fact that the two people standing before them had actually managed to enter a warded sanctuary. The only way anyone who wasn't his close confidant could enter was if he allowed it. Could the man and woman standing in the room be gods, Reynard wondered. He hoped they were. Because that would make everything more...acceptable. "Name's Ryan. I just heard you ask if my mate was around." Ryan responded quietly.

"Ryan?" Reynard looked even more shocked. Then he gave a sigh of relief. For a moment he'd thought... Never mind what he thought. "You mean the faggot who's mated to the coward Stanwood alpha?"

"My mate is no coward," Ryan said icily, taking in the scene in the room. The four people in there were obviously having some sort of a meeting with the white-haired man who he'd assumed was the wicked Reynard. Couldn't they hear the battle raging outside?

Reynard gave a cocky laugh. "Well, I thought so too but then...what brave alpha would up and run simply because his fellow alphas have been...killed?" He looked at the faces around the table with mock surprise. "Strange huh?" Then he looked up at Ryan again. "What kind of alpha allows his pack to go into battle without him?"

Ryan shrugged nonchalantly. "An alpha who thinks the battle in question is too...insignificant to waste his time on," Ryan replied.

Reynard Wyatt's eyes widened. Damn these cocky werewolves, he thought laughing uproariously. "Listen, boy, I admire your bravery and all but... You're just a small man who took a wrong turn in the theatre and somehow wandered onto the stage. Don't dare think yourself a player." He turned glassy green eyes on Deloris. "You must be the warlock the albino was talking about. You obviously squealed. Too bad. Seen your dead daughter yet?"

Deloris managed a comically confused look. "You mean the one who's kicking arse out there? She didn't look dead to me when I saw her some minutes ago." She gave the Lord Command a sweet smile. The only thing that betrayed Reynard's anger was the insistent tick in his temple. Deloris turned to look at Ryan. "How do you want to do this, Ryan?"