answer the call, though. This isn’t the Duty, so he’s not required to. I could also send in any of my own children, but only one is in the United States, and the rest are dealing with the political fallout. I need your wolves to back off, but that’s a discussion for another night. What about the pack in Phoenix?”
Political fallout? I wonder if he’s talking about the werecat he saved from death row. Wouldn’t that be a good thing? And he has a kid in the United States right now? Fucking who? Hisao would have let me know one of his siblings was my neighbor or passing through, right? Unless it’s him…
“It is a discussion for another time and unrelated to the matter at hand,” Callahan agreed with a small growl. “We’ll mobilize the local pack.”
Callahan’s words knocked me off the train of thought about Hasan’s family. Mobilizing the Phoenix pack was much more pressing than wondering about the old werecat family who scared everyone.
“They’ll take over securing Wesley and getting him out of the city without incident. We’ve never briefed the human populace about the Last Change, but we can use this to introduce the topic and remind them we are monsters if they aren’t careful. It’s not going to play out pretty, so there will be backlash we can at least prepare for.”
“Perfect. One mess becomes other messes. Just what we need,” one of the vampires said softly, then coughed to cover something else up. “We’ll get the nest to send out their best to patrol the night streets. They can pick up anyone wandering around when there’s a Code Black in place.”
“Will they?” I asked boldly. “It risks exposure and their lives, and let’s be real, the nest here is a collection of lackadaisical party animals.”
“If I tell them to, they will,” he answered coolly, and I knew I should have been afraid, but I didn’t really feel like being scared of my bosses, and he could go swim up shit creek. I was the one who had to deal with the actual monsters. “Kaliya, I think we’re all agreed that with the lack of Lord Cassius at the moment, or any backup, we won’t have any problem with you bending the rules until this situation is resolved.”
“Agreed,” a couple said at the same time. I knew the witches—weird ones.
One continued on her own. “With the fact a majority of the escapees are dangerous criminals and subject to the death penalty due to their escape, your official duty will be to track them down and kill or capture them if needed. Whatever you discover in the process, you can report to us, and we’ll have someone on hand to formally build the case. That way, no one gives us any trouble about having an Executioner doing this and keeps other Tribunal employees out of harm’s way.”
“So, dig into whatever I need to and send it your way. Can do. Pretty good at it. Going to let the prison know I’m going to be rummaging through their shit?”
“They’ll know by the time you get there, but don’t leave for the prison before dawn while we continue to monitor the situation there,” the male witch said with a bite. “Also, if you find Kartane, just kill him. We don’t tolerate traitors.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Hanging up now.” I did just that, leaving them to their meeting. I had what I needed.
Free rein.
It was time to really get to work.
14
Chapter Fourteen
“What’s the news?” Raphael asked as I walked back out to the dining and kitchen area.
“I can pretty much do whatever I want. We’re going to the prison at dawn. The Tribunal is going to use the locals to help contain the incident. The werewolf pack is going to try to capture Wesley. They’ll probably report something about Nakul, something I need to be prepared for. They’re reaching out to a local witch and her coven to try to pinpoint Levi’s location, and the vampires are going to run patrols, keeping other supernatural civilians off the streets and possibly reporting if they see any criminals who need to be cleaned up.”
“Sounds like battle plans,” he commented, his face serious in the low light of my new kitchen.
“It’s the end of the world,” I reminded him with a shrug. “They need all hands on deck, mobilizing behind closed doors as we continue to see how perilous this situation is. In the last eight hours, we went from having the