again. I did have to make one concession, however.” Herne looked over at me. “You aren’t going to like this.”
I stared at him with trepidation. “What did you agree to and why do I have a feeling that a target’s just been painted on my back?”
“I had to promise to lend you to them over the next few months if they need an outside eye on anything going on. Essentially, you’re on call—no more than once a month for each—if they have some case their investigators can’t, or won’t, handle.”
“What?” I stared at him. “You pimped me out to them?”
Herne grinned, leaning back and folding his arms over his chest. “Essentially, yes. I made them agree that whatever they call you in on won’t be too dangerous. And your work here comes first.”
I glowered at him, fuming. I wanted as little to do with the Fae Queens as possible. They might be clamoring to get on my good side now that they knew I was headed for Annwn, so to speak, but that didn’t mean they liked me and it sure as hell didn’t mean I liked them.
“It’s for the greater good, love.” Herne held my gaze.
One look into his eyes and I realized he had done everything he could to minimize their impact on me. The Fae Queens were wily, and they were smart. They knew how to get what they wanted and in this case, they seemed to want me.
“All right. I just hope that we’re always too busy when they do call.” Frowning still, but feeling somewhat mollified, I let out a sigh and darted a glance over to Yutani, who was suppressing a laugh. “Oh, go ahead, you yappy coyote. Laugh it up at my expense. I’ll probably need help when I go out there and you know who I’m going to take with me?”
“Whoever made the most fun of you?” he asked, his eyes still dancing.
“Right.”
“Okay, that’s enough, you two,” Herne said. “Now, to the press conference. I met with the mayor. The city council and the governor were also there. We’ve formed a special task force. We’ll have to have a member of both Fae Courts to sit on it, a member from the Vampire Nation, and a member from the Shifter Alliance. Also…unfortunately, from the Cryptozoid Association, since they’re now part of the United Coalition. Governor Elkins informed us that every state is forming a special task force like this to handle dealing with the dragons.”
“What does the UC think? We have to release the information about the dragons soon, or somebody’s going to snap a picture and then it will be too late to stop the rumor mills,” I said.
“I think the rumor mills will play havoc even once we let the info out.”
“So, you don’t think the United Coalition will try and bomb the dragons, are they? That might take out one or two of them, but it would only antagonize the situation.” I could see that happening, but I hoped that, for once, level heads would prevail.
“I hope not. That would be a mess. I’ll talk to the governor again as soon as I can.” Herne shrugged. “But we can’t regulate what other countries intend to do.”
Yutani was tapping away, taking down notes. “Do they know about Typhon in particular?”
Herne nodded. “I talked to my mother and father and they already talked to the Council of Gods and it was agreed that the leaders of the world needed to know how far reaching this whole matter is. They held a worldwide conference of all the top leaders, and at this point, everyone’s agreed to leave matters up to the gods when it comes to Typhon.”
“So the Wild Hunt and its sister agencies are to be the go-betweens?” Talia asked.
“We are, in the cities we’re in, but the Council of Gods is forming more agencies similar in nature, just for the time we’re dealing with Typhon. They won’t handle Fae matters, however.” He paused, then added, “I do know that not all members approved. There were a number of arguments, but after Zeus and the Dagda gave their word that we aren’t trying to turn the world into a theocracy, the protests died down.” He looked worried, though.
“You’re afraid the government will revoke its approval?”
He shook his head. “Not particularly. But one thing that does concern me is that some of the gods—not all, by a long shot, but some—might actually see this as a chance to take over power over