Desperate measures, p.1
Desperate Measures, page 1
part #8 of The Valens Legacy Series
Desperate Measures
Published by Jan Stryvant
Copyright 2018 Jan Stryvant
Copyright Jan Stryvant 2018
Cover Credits: eBook Launch (http://ebooklaunch.com/)
No part of this eBook may be reproduced in any form without expressed, written consent from the author. The material in this story may feature graphic depictions of a sexual or adult nature and is intended for a mature audience only. All characters in this story are fictional and of the legal age of consent for any activities they engage in. Any resemblance between characters, places, or things in this story, and people living or dead, actual places, or events, is purely coincidental. It's fiction; I made it up.
License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be copied and given away, or copied and sold, to other people. Got that? No copying, please! If you would like to share this book with another person, it would be really nice if you purchased an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use, please consider purchasing your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
#61777
Jan Stryvant Books:
The Valens Legacy:
Black Friday Book 1
Perfect Strangers Book 2
Over Our Heads Book 3
Head Down Book 4
When It Falls Book 5
Stand On It Book 6
Vegas Rules Book 7
Desperate Measures Book 8
Shadow
Table of Contents
Prior Planning
After Action
On The Home Front
Desperate Measures
Garth's Office
Stewart's Day of Reckoning
In The Money
Face The Music
In Death Ground
To The Victor
Bad Penny
Sawyer's Antiquities
Taking Notice
Saturday Morning
Sunday
Monday Morning Breakdown
War Plans
On The Road Again
Down Slow
Afterword
Prior Planning
"Here they come," Chad whispered softly. "Just like Art said they would."
Sean nodded and looked at the armed force coming down the dry creek bed.
"I guess Walter was right to be worried," Sean said and did a quick head count. There were about a hundred of them, all in werewolf form, and all armed with suppressed automatic rifles. The Vestibulum weren't very big in Sacramento, but as they did in all of their locations, they still kept an outsized force for their council. The local Council of Sapientia kept a much more reasonable one, which was smaller still since they'd freed everyone last week. The local Vestibulum council head had now decided to take advantage of it.
"Think we'll see this play out in other places?"
Sean shrugged. "Maybe, I don't know. I'm still surprised they didn't go after the local Ascendance council."
Chad shrugged. "I think they figured the Ascendance would be ready for them after Reno. They probably figured that if they took out Sapientia before you showed up here and took their lycans, they'd get their revenge on Sapientia for siding with you."
Sean shook his head in response. The approaching attackers were almost to the ambush point.
"I still think you should have tipped off the local Gradatim, or even the Ascendance; they could have wiped out the Vesti's while their forces were all over here," Chad grumbled softly.
"Maybe next time."
"Sadly, I'm afraid there are going to be too many 'next times'," Chad said and, putting the dog whistle between his lips, he blew on it, three short notes, then one long one.
The troops in the creek bed froze in place. They all knew the only ones who would hear the whistle were lycan troops.
Just then there was a loud thump, and a moment later a very bright magnesium flare lit up the entire scene. Suddenly the troops in the creek bed saw dark shapes to either side of them on the banks, and they all opened fire on the shapes immediately.
When none of the shapes fell to the ground rather than stop, they continued firing. If silver couldn't take out the enemy, massed fire was your next best bet; after all, a lycan body had limits to how much damage it could take. The problem with silver ammo was it wasn't exactly easy on a rifle, and by the third time they'd reloaded, running all their rifles on full-auto instead of firing in controlled bursts, it was starting to have an adverse effect. Rifles started to jam, and the pack leaders realized the shapes weren't actual people, just wooden cutouts, and they called for a ceasefire.
That was when the water hit them. Chad had had his men build a cofferdam a ways up the creek from them, and they'd spent all day filling it from a couple of fire hydrants. Ryan and his team had broken it open when the flare lit off, and now a four-foot wall of water was knocking them all down.
"I love it when a plan comes together!" Chad laughed, and Sean had to resist the urge to smack him when he pulled out a cigar stub and stuck it in his mouth.
"Sniper one," Cali's voice came over their radio headsets, "four mages down."
"Sniper two," Roxy's voice came next, "remaining two down, showoff."
"I love you too!" Cali's voice replied, followed by a giggle.
Sean grinned and shook his head. Cali and Roxy had been stationed to either side of the wash with high powered and suppressed air rifles which shot darts that Sean had enchanted earlier with a potent sleep spell. While they were non-lethal, they definitely weren't pleasant to get shot with.
"Well, time for me to go do the god thing," Sean said and, getting up into a crouch, he ran down to the net that was set up to catch all the soldiers as they were washed down the creek bed. They had stacked a pile of dirt there, and he stopped once he got to the top of it and looked down at the wet and bedraggled soldiers as they tried to untangle themselves from the net and each other, while the water quickly receded.
Sean nodded to the wolf on his right, and he was suddenly lit up by two very bright lights for all to see.
"Drop your weapons! You all belong to me now!" Sean growled loudly, putting as much force into his words as both he and the First could muster.
They all turned and looked at him, their jaws all dropping as they saw the big werelion all lit up and felt the power of his words rolling over them.
They surrendered.
Sean smiled down at them. "Thank you. You will all have your pellets dealt with shortly, then I want to meet with your pack leaders, In twenty minutes, we're going to take a ride back to where you came from, and we're going to free everyone else."
Sean nodded to the wolf on his right and the lights went out, and he stood there smiling and looking down at them as he waited for his eyes to adjust. When they did, he could see Chad's men moving among the troops, helping to untangle them, and taking care of their silver pellets. Cali and Roxy had shown up with Sten's team, who were carrying the gagged and hogtied magic users they had taken out.
Sean walked down to Chad, joining him as they waited for the pack leaders to come up. When they finally did, there were eleven of them, which was what the former Vestibulum lycans had told him to expect. The Vestibulum's teams were usually ten-member teams, half male, half female.
"So, which one of you is senior?" Sean asked, looking at them.
"I am, Sir."
Sean smiled and, following the First's prompting, he reached out and ruffled the fur on the werewolf's head. Damned if he didn't smile. Sean bet he would have purred if he'd been a cat.
"I'm Sean. You are?"
"Tracer, Sir."
"Sean, call me Sean. All of you, you're mine now; you don't have to 'sir' me. Okay?"
They all nodded.
"Yes, Sean," Tracer said.
"Now, we have maps of the Vestibulum compound, and we have troops over there ready to go. The goal isn't to kill anybody; this isn't a war, and I don't want to kill anyone unless there is no other way.
"That's why I want your help. I want you to tell us where your people are and how to get them out, quickly and quietly. I'd also like those of you who think you can help us do this without anyone getting hurt to join us." Sean smiled and looked around at all of them. "Okay?"
They nodded, and damned if their tails weren't wagging.
'This is almost too easy,' Sean said to the First.
'Take them when you can get them. Easy victories are the rare ones. Besides, this isn't over yet.'
"This is Chad, he's my general. Now let's go do some planning."
Tracer nodded. "If I may get my troops in order first, Sean?"
Sean nodded.
Tracer turned to the other ten leads.
"Sam, Race, Shin, get everyone ordered and find out where they want us to wait. Lark, take your team and police the area for any weapons that got washed downstream.
"The rest of you are with us."
Sean watched as the four nodded and headed off to do their jobs.
"Come on," Chad said with a wave, "we've got all the maps set up over in one of Sapientia's garages."
"Why are you here, Sean?" one of the werewolves asked him.
"Because I'd agreed to help Sapientia, should they come under attack after releasing their lycans from slavery. Also, I had to come here sooner or later, this just works out to sooner."
"You had to come here?" another one asked.
"The
"Are we going to be working for you then?" Tracer asked.
"Right now, yes. Once we get things squared away, no."
"But what will we do?" Tracer asked, looking a little uncomfortable.
"Don't worry; we will make sure everyone is taken care of. No one is going to be abandoned."
Chad led them into the garage they were using as a planning and staging area. Sean fell back as Chad called Tracer and the others forward to go over the maps and other diagrams he had. Once Chad had gotten those updated, he then went over his plan to rescue the remaining lycans, and made adjustments using the information he was getting.
Sean enjoyed watching Chad work; he was thorough, and he was quick. He wrote messages for each of the teams standing by at the Vestibulum compound with updated instructions. Then he quickly briefed the roving teams who would be going house to house to free the Vestibulum lycans who weren't living at the compound. Thankfully there weren't too many, as most had been called in to bulwark the Vestibulum's defenses while their little army was off attacking Sapientia.
"Okay," Chad told them as he finished updating his plan, "Tracer, you'll take your team in first; the rest of you," Chad motioned to the other pack leaders who were there, "I'll set up with the other vehicles so it looks like you're returning from the strike. Once inside, you lead the team you're with to your assigned point to take out the defenders, neutralize their pellets, and get them out of the compound."
"What about their magic users once we get inside?"
Sean spoke up from the wall he was leaning against, "I'll be dealing with them."
"What about the ones you captured tonight?"
"Walter Clark, the Sapientia lead, will be making a phone call once we're inside, telling their council lead that, as soon as we've left, his people will be released."
Tracer and the others nodded.
"Okay," Chad said, "let's go."
They took the same vehicles Tracer and his troops had arrived in over to the Vestibulum compound . Part of the plan was no one believed any of the magic users would even notice that the people coming back weren't the same ones who'd gone out. They'd see the leads, who some of them would know, and figure everything was alright. Chad was counting on the audacity of the plan, because it was the kind of thing that, up until now, could never have been done.
Sean sat next to Tracer with an illusion Peg had cast on him to make him look like the lead magic user who had gone with the attackers. His name was Patrick, and all of the wolves hated him because he was an obnoxious ass.
Peg was masquerading as another of the magic users, Daelyn was leading a small team of dwarven sappers who'd volunteered to help them, while Cali and Roxy set up with their sniper rifles from the branches of two tall pine trees in the area.
Jolene and Roberta were with the outside forces, along with four Sapientia magic users, to make sure the spells of silence held and none of the mundanes in the area were disturbed by the ruckus they were about to raise.
"Back already, Pat?" the magic user at the front gate said, as the two lycan guards in human form opened the front gate.
Sean nodded. "We got most of them," he said, his voice altered by another spell of Peg's to sound reasonably close to that of the man he appeared to be.
"Lose anybody?"
"Nope, all six of us are fine."
"I meant the lycans!" The magic user at the gate laughed.
"Eh, who cares? Some died, ask this one here if you want numbers," Sean said and pointed to Tracer, who grimaced.
Shaking his head and laughing, the magic user waved them through, and they drove inside the Vestibulum compound. Eleven vans, some of which had the markings for plumbing or electrical contractors on the sides so they wouldn't stand out.
As the last one pulled in, the back doors popped open, and one of Sean's lycans pointed a wand at the back of the magic user at the gate, hitting him with a cramping spell and dropping him instantly. Two of the Vestibulum pack leads Sean had captured ran for the gates and told the shocked lycans there to stand down.
"What's going on, Race?" one of the guards asked.
"We've come back to free the rest of you. That's what," Race said. "Now get those gates back open."
"Wait, what?"
"The lion, he's real! The rumors are true! Now get those gates open, we need to move quickly."
Race grumbled and, grabbing the gate along with Shin, they pushed it back open as the other four lycan guards stood there, looking at them in shocked surprise.
Three more vans immediately peeled off from the others and drove around to the backs of several key buildings. All the rest, except the one Sean was in, headed for the kennels, where most of the remaining lycans who weren't on duty were located. Daelyn and the sappers were in those three vans, along with some very unpleasant surprises.
"Okay, let's do this," Sean said as Tracer stopped the van in front of the main building in the compound.
Getting out of the van, Sean walked slowly towards the front door, stopping a moment to look around at how many guards there were. Surprisingly, there weren't any. The Vestibulum apparently felt secure enough behind their walls to not have nothing more than the guards stationed on it keeping watch. Two more of Tracer's leads peeled off to gather them up.
"I can't believe they don't have anyone standing guard here," Chad said, coming up to him.
"The rules for these things have been formalized for over a thousand years, and they still haven't quite grasped that we're not going to follow them," Sean grumbled in Patrick's voice. "Jo's told me that in some places, the entire council, all the members and their families, still live inside these compounds."
"One big gated community, huh?" Chad chuckled as he gave hand signals to the others. "Too bad they don't do that here, that would sure make our job easier."
Just then the door opened, cutting off further conversation.
"Patrick! Back already?"
Sean smiled; it was Tobias Hart, the head of the local Vestibulum Council.
"Oh yes, it went exactly as planned. Exactly."
"Where are Rich, Jeff, and the others?" Tobias said, looking around.
"Seeing to the curs and disposing of the remains."
"Well, why don't you come inside and tell me all the details."
Sean smiled. "Should I have Tracer here kill that bastard Clark? Or would you like to talk to him first?"
"Talk to him first?" Tobias said, looking confused.
"Oh, he's tied up in the back of the van."
"You captured Walter Clark?" Tobias said, his eyes going wide, and he immediately started walking to the back of the van, which still had the rear doors open.
"Too easy", Chad mouthed at Sean as he followed closely behind Tobias.
"Oh, I've been dreaming of…"
Chad rabbit-punched Tobias from behind just as he came around the open door and saw only an empty van. Grabbing his arms and pulling them back as he collapsed, another lycan ripped off Tobias' shirt and quickly stuffed it in his mouth, as Chad pulled a couple of heavy-duty zip ties off his belt and used them to fasten Tobias' wrists behind his back, then did his legs as well.
Grinning and shaking his head, Sean headed in through the now open door with Tracer and several other members of his team, leaving Chad to deal with Tobias.
Tracer nodded to the left and, turning, Sean led the way down the hallway.
"I'm surprised the place is so empty," Sean whispered back to Tracer. "They just sent you all off to murder a hundred people. Doesn't anyone care?"
"I don't think the rank and file was told," Tracer whispered back. "Door on your left."
Sean nodded and, turning to the door on his left, he grabbed the doorknob and suddenly found himself slammed up against the far wall. His body shook and convulsed as magical charges ran over his skin, while his defense framework fought to drain them off, leaving him lying on the floor, dazed and confused, the sounds of an alarm filling the hallway.
Tracer watched as Sean convulsed on the floor, the illusion he had been wearing disrupted by whatever magical trap had been on the doorknob.
"Shit," Tracer swore, "now what? Piper, Ranger, pick him up and let's get out of…"
