Page 17 of The Flame
Swag raised his head up while looking insulted. “I do not!”
His voice was a bit too close for Viper’s comfort. “God damnit, show yourselves, assholes!”
Again, Bullfrog and Swag laughed.
Diesel grunted and looked over at Steel.
Steel nodded at him.
They both then pushed Bullfrog and Swag in through the double doors.
The two men looked annoyed to be visible as they stumbled when they appeared.
“The hell you doin’?” Viper growled at the pair. “Fucking creeping around like that!” He looked pissed.
“Man, calm down will you?” Swag shook his head.
“Yeah,” Bullfrog backed him up. “Ain’t you ever seen invisibility before?”
“Well Bull, that question would be an oxymoron,” Swag commented.
“What?” Bullfrog asked. “You calling me a moron, Swag?”
Luther shook his head at the men and motioned for the pair of them to move out of the way.
They did but they both got one more chuckle in.
“Let’s move inside. We got some things to talk about,” Luther told them as he now appeared.
Captain grabbed at his chest and growled, “Don’t ever do that again brother, you about gave me a heart attack just appearing like that, holy shit!”
“Yeah? Well, there’s more to come, so watch your ticker, Captain. Now all of you...Move inside.” Luther growled.
Captain and Viper still looked spooked as they moved back.
Gabriel and the others watched as one by one, the group from the mountain became visible, then Rissa, Winsome and Amira showed up. Next, Kinsen, Jacks and Trent showed up.
Gabriel and a few from the People’s group came inside. They stood in one spot as they all looked around the room. They were curious of course, about why they had been called here.
Rissa raised her hand and the room went silent. She looked around and said, “I am Rissa and I called the tribes here.”
Gabriel, his sons and a few others stared back at her.
She nodded at them and explained it as best she could, “There are werewolves outside that want us to reveal the location of the Maiden. They are looking for her to rob her of her treasure. I blinded them to her location years ago when one of their kind stole my granddaughter from her mother’s arms, twenty plus years ago. He then pushed my daughter away and ended up hurting her. I had to put her in the tween, a place between life and death and leave her there this whole time. It was only when my granddaughter returned that I could combine our magic to bring her back. But her father, the one who originally took her from her mother, is of the wolves waiting outside. He followed her here and he brought some of the pack with him.” She looked around as her gaze paused at the Lords of Fire brothers. “There have already been attacks and we did quite well defending this place as wolves alone would have been easy to disperse but these wolves are now with the Coyote. He is out there waiting for a time to strike and you all have heard the stories of him, I am sure. You have probably even told them to your children, thinking they were only stories from the past. But I’m telling you now, the stories of the Coyote are very true. He is a trickster as you and generations of you have been taught. He also has a demon inside him. He wants only one thing and has for centuries...the Maiden’s treasure and it is our place to protect the Maiden. We cannot and will not give up her treasure. It would mean her death and ours too, as a tribe of the People. Several of the bikers here and three of the wolves have agreed to protect the Maiden and my family. I called you here to help them to do that. At first, it had been just the shifter wolves, but now we have a bigger task at hand. We have to deal with the Coyote as well and he has powers beyond even a shifter. We have to defeat him or he will never let the Maiden live in peace. And that means none of us will live in peace.”
The room had gone silent.
More of the People had gathered by the doors as they had also listened to the Shaman woman.
“Then we will do our part to defend the Maiden,” Gabriel stated while looking over at his son. “Just tell us what we have to do.”
“I thought the Coyote was just a myth? Just stories,” one of newly arrived People said.
Rissa shook her head. “The stories are very real. They are not just children's tales. A long time ago when I was chosen to become the next Shaman, one of the tests we had to complete was to look into the souls of others and tell the Shaman what we could see, if anything. At the time, there had only been me and one other left in the choice of next Shaman. When I looked into this other candidate’s eyes, I saw the Coyote but that disguise fell away under my scrutiny to show a demon there in this man. When the Shaman stepped over to look, he was blasted by the power of the demon and it was then when he cursed this man named TankaTae. The Coyote’s soul was sealed in Tanka’s body and he became a red wolf. That wolf is outside waiting for nightfall in order to come in here and destroy everything in his path.”
“Why would he do that?” Gabriel asked.
“Because I told Milo when he took my granddaughter that he would never find the mountain again. I cursed not only his sight but that of every wolf. They cannot see the Maiden,” Rissa told them. “The Maiden has been asleep for hundreds of years now and she must remain so. If they find her treasure, they will take it for themselves and think nothing about killing her in the process.” She looked around as more of the People of the tribes crowded into the clubhouse. “Our Elders often spoke of living off the land and never taking more than we needed. The tribes forgot that and began taking more and more and now there is very little left to sustain the tribes. We have to start giving back. We have to save the Maiden.”