Page 13 of A Little Red
“Right. Good to know. And warlocks smelling like shit weed led you to some sort of epiphany?”
“Two of them: one, Mom is paranoid and two, there’s a better way.”
“Yeah, well your better way hasn’t exactly produced a lot of results.”
“Yes, it has!” snapped Liam, annoyed. “Everyone conveniently forgets about it because bankrupting warlocks isn’t a trophy you can hang on the wall.”
“OK, well that’s fair,” agreed Paxton. “Most of the pack thinks paperwork is unfair fighting. So we don’t value it like we should. Sorry.”
Liam sighed. He appreciated his brother’s acknowledgement, but it would have been nice if any of the rest of his family would recognize his efforts.
“Anyway,” continued Paxton, “Mom’s been pressuring me to take your place in the meet and greets.”
“For fuck’s sake!” exclaimed Liam again, throwing up his hands.
“You know what,” said Paxton, “I’m going to tell her I’ll do it.”
“What?” Liam frowned at his brother.
“No, it’ll be better. If I’m in charge and I’m here then I take the phone calls and I can call you. And, if there’s enough time I can come into town. You can do all the meet and greet formality butt sniffs or whatever and then I can take them back here.”
“That is a really good solution,” said Liam, impressed with his younger brother. “Let’s do that plan.”
“Seriously,” said Paxton, “are you sure you’re feeling OK? I mean, you are agreeing to one of my plans. You do realize that, right?”
“Yes,” said Liam. “I also realize that you’ll have to come into the city and visit me more. I’m sure Mom will freak out butIlike the idea.”
Paxton chuckled. “I can’t say I mind it either.”
It wasn’t until he was settling down for the night that Liam realized that Paxton’s plan also meant that sooner or later he would probably have to tell Paxton about Scarlet. He shifted uncomfortably over the thought until Paxton kicked him. Then he tucked his nose under his tail and tried to let the breathing of the pack soothe him to sleep.
Episode 8
The Protest
Scarlet
The Thanksgiving holidays had slowed the protest down. No one wanted to deal with protests when they could be eating turkey. But by Saturday, the security thugs Azure had predicted were out in force. At first, they simply posed with their guns, displaying their threatening qualities like the predators that they were. They expected the protestors to be scared off by the display. They hadn’t counted on the protestors containing a high contingent of local townspeople who had no intention of rolling over for interlopers. They also hadn’t counted on Azure’s well-coordinated professional handling of the activists. Her press-releases were pre-scheduled and her troops had go-pros and body cams to record brutality. Something they advertised with stickers that they slapped onto the bulletproof vests of the Blackpool security employees. The stickers were scored like price tags to prevent easy removal, something that Scarlet was sure would be an unpleasant surprise later.
By Sunday morning things had turned ugly. Azure gave the signal and the Lucas siblings sat down. Their wrists were all handcuffed to long chains that wrapped around a trio of trees that had become the icon for the protest—they were each over three-hundred-years-old, survivors of America’s birth. The protestors held the line while Azure set the beat, her hand slapping on the pine needle covered forest floor, and began to chant.
They faced inward toward the trees, their backs to the security forces and the protestors. As Azure’s voice rose, Scarlet could feel Ochre’s answering hum like a buzz in her bones. She’d never had the affinity for the witchcraft style of magic that Azure did. The looping patterns and symbology of spells seemed dizzying to her. Azure always said Scarlet wasn’t focusing, that she was too much of a daydreamer and that if she applied herself, she could be good at it. But Scarlet wasn’t sure she wanted to be good at witchcraft. She didn’t mind helping Azure or learning the occasional spell, but she couldn’t help feeling that there had to be a better way to use the power she had.
Behind Scarlet, she heard an outcry as the line broke.
“Like the earth,” said Azure, although Scarlet had trouble hearing her above the shouts of the protestors. Scarlet felt one of the black-clad Blackpool men kick her back and she jolted forward, bracing herself against the tree.
“Like the stone,” said Ochre, plunging his hand into the soil in front of him.
“Like the roots,” said Scarlet, her hands were already on the tree bark in front of her, but as the words left her mouth the world slowed and the din muted and slipped away. She could feel the sap pushing up through the tree trunk and out along the spindly branches. She could feel the cold wind in the high tree-top and the pale sunshine on her leaves. She felt the web of the forest. She looked down at Azure and Ochre chanting in unison and realized that they were doing it wrong. The web was larger than the forest. The web went outward. The web contained all. The humans. The animals. The ones that were in between. Azure was trying to close the web and bring up the energy like a wall. That was wrong. It ought to be like really good sex. The energy had to go both ways. Why hadn’t she known that before?
Wolf.
She looked down and saw a red thread of energy that wrapped around her wrist. It pulsed bright and strong and she knew that if she followed it, she would find her wolf. But that didn’t do her any good. She didn’t need to reach him right now. She needed to reach the others. The ones who couldn’t hear the trees.
“Azure.”
Azure faltered in her chanting, but didn’t stop. Scarlet flipped a few branches in annoyance. Azure never listened to her. Fine. She didn’t need Azure to listen anyway.
