Wilderness hannah, p.3
Wilderness Hannah, page 3
part #3 of Damsel Series
Her buddy nodded.
“I’m going to go get them in a few minutes. They’re staging at Lashondra and Debbie’s. That... They’re not having an easy time, right now.”
Hannah understood that, at least in part. More than once in her life she’d been taken, threatened and even beaten. A bit. Not that much. Lashondra had been gone for ten years, and outright tortured. Debbie had been there for five or so, then escaped and gone for help. It was going to have an impact on them.
They were both strong, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t going to be fallout from the whole thing. Their relationship was already complicated, Debbie having started that as a man, like she had. It wasn’t her business, but being there for her friends was.
Life had taught her that one, firsthand.
“How is John doing?”
Kate just shrugged.
“I have no clue. He’s not really part of the club, you know?”
Hannah understood that portion of things, but instead of eating, got her phone and looked up the right number on it and dialed the man, directly. She hadn’t exactly been calling him once a week or anything. She had been on with Lash and Debbie, but not really doing her training with them, being too busy with the Tri-D stuff. Now that was kind of over. Her part of it, at least.
The cell rang, for about three minutes, with Kate actually looking at her watch, standing and then vanishing, coming back with Pleny first and then Carl. One of the men had a smile for her. The taller one scowled as if being on her phone was rude. That or unprepared for violence.
Except that she was holding it with her left hand, and literally had her forty-four on her lap, which she picked up to show the sour seeming guy. After two seconds, he actually grinned. Like he was happy or something. A genuine seeming thing. They all sat, not speaking, since she was on the phone, even if she wasn’t talking.
“What?”
The voice that came over the line sounded annoyed and a bit abrasive, but also like John. Not drunk or anything, either. The man did his share of drugs, so it could be just the anger hiding that, in the moment.
“Hey, John! This is Hannah de Peyser. Just calling to check in with you. We’re getting together in a few days, unless you’re too busy. What’s on your schedule?”
There was silence for a long time.
“Nothing I can’t cancel for a bit of Hannah. Do you need me to come now?”
She looked at the others, and smiled, not knowing if their secret identities were a thing known to John Fawks or not. The man was often on the other side in the game of good and evil, so she decided to find out first. Or possibly just not mention that at all. After all, while Luther had worked out that she got who he was, even behind a mask, Zip had always at least pretended she didn’t know who he was. Then again, everyone there knew each other in their real lives, from the show.
“That depends, where are you?”
“At mine, in London. You had to dial the number, so you know that.”
She nodded.
“I’m having friends in, but the only person I know who can teleport is Wisp and he’s not here...”
There was a laugh then, over the phone.
“Fifteen minutes? I can’t go whipping about, but I can open a direct place to place portal. Be right there.”
Then he hung up. So, she nodded.
“John Fawks is coming, to help you all make fun of my failure today? We should call up Red Cape and let him come in for that too, but I don’t think you brought enough food for that, Kate.”
That got a laugh, from the woman, and a smile from Pleny. Carl glared at her, but gave a single nod.
“You’re looking out for him?” The words weren’t sweet or kind sounding, but were just matter of fact, instead of seeming like he wanted to start a fight. Given that was pretty much the man’s natural fallback position, it meant something real.
Like he was growing as a person, or something.
Hannah took a deep breath and then blew it out, letting her cheeks puff up from it. It helped her to relax.
“Now I am. I... Well, I got busy and forgot about him.” That wasn’t totally true, so she swallowed, and shook her head. “Meaning I was avoiding the whole thing, being a wimp like I am. I talk to Lashondra and Debbie, but... I know that they need more than just that. They all do.”
She only meant her part in things, but the others all nodded. Carl even looked down at his plate.
“I suck at that kind of thing, you all know that, right?”
She nodded, and winked at the man, as he looked up.
“We know, trust us, we know.” Those words got her flipped off. Then she went on, smiling gently. “The thing there is that you don’t have to be smooth that way, or even know what to say. No-one really knows how to do this one. They were stuck in a demon dimension, and tortured, for a long time. Just... Take them food and pass out hugs, if they want them? Be there and make a point of doing things with them? We should make up an extra plate, for John.”
Kate did that one, and there was food left, even after that. Hannah had more on her plate than she could eat, and Carl had been given twice that. Pleny however, just had a normal amount of food. Looking down, Hannah nodded.
“I hear that the world has decided I need to eat more? Nice of them, I suppose.”
Looking down on her, being almost six-six, if not a bit taller than that, Carl nodded.
“No shit. Go up to at least three thousand calories a day, for now. That probably means eating four or five times, for you. Actually, count them. You’ll cheat, otherwise and not get enough. We should get you in some kind of muscle building program, too. You got anything for that in your bag of tricks?”
That was for Pleny, who smiled a bit and nodded.
“I do, actually. You were supposed to start on that three months ago, but you weren’t the only one who got busy, so I didn’t add that in. We can cover what you need for that, after dinner?” He stopped speaking, as a humming started, in the other room. Hannah hopped up, her side arm out, in her right hand, but not pointed at the orange and pink disk that was swirling behind her sofa when she got there. Almost instantly, swinging a medallion on a chain, John walked out of the thing, gasping for breath.
“Entui Entrious.” The language wasn’t one that Hannah knew, but it had the portal closing with a snapping sound, and a bit of a shockwave. It wasn’t subtle, but the man had made it all the way from London.
She clapped.
“That wasn’t fifteen minutes at all. More like two. Impressive.”
The guy, his dirty blonde hair shorter than it had been the last time she’d seen him, was sporting a beard now. Not a full one, but it looked like he hadn’t bothered to shave for a week. His eyes were bloodshot, as if he hadn’t been sleeping well. That or had been drinking too much or smoking some herbal remedies. He had an old tan trench coat on, which had seen better days, and black slacks could be seen at the bottom, over a pair of well used running shoes.
He grumbled then, sounding a little tired.
“You know, I’ve been practicing a bit.” He didn’t say why that was.
They all got it anyway. He’d been practicing, so that if any demons came for him, he’d be ready.
Kate simply walked over and gave him a hug. He took it, so that meant he got one from Hannah and a slap on the arm from Pleny. Carl managed a wave, from a respectful distance, even.
Then they moved to the table, in the other room.
Kate shrugged.
“We should eat. I think the plan was making fun of you, Hannah?”
She nodded, taking a bite of pasta in a cream sauce. It had several different types of cheese as well, making it into something odd that she’d never had before. It tasted fine, really. A bit thick, but part of that was because it had cooled some already. That was a danger of takeout food, so she pretended not to notice it.
“Yeah... I did not do well against that wolfman, earlier.”
John blinked at her.
“You were hunting werewolves? That’s a bit advanced, isn’t it? They’re tough. That thing about silver bullets is bullocks, too.”
Carl nodded, politely finishing chewing some garlic bread before speaking.
“No shit. This one was some kind of alpha, from what I saw. It ambushed people on a city street, so Hannah went for it. I counted twenty shots. All hit. Six headshots. Three of those were directly into the killzone. Then she stabbed it thirteen times. When that didn’t work, she ran, doing the weird stuff you taught her. It kind of worked, making it too hard to just take H here out. Still, you were going down. SX showed up and saved her bacon then. That was who you called, wasn’t it?”
She nodded.
“That was a lucky accident. I couldn’t actually pick a name. I hit things at random and started shouting. He just happens to be in my contact list. Four people died.”
Carl, never one to pull punches, or prove someone else wrong, and clearly having been looking at things more closely than she had, shrugged.
“Nine, in all. There was an attack going on before you encountered the situation. I’ve never heard of that kind of thing, but it was there. A werewolf attack in broad daylight, in a major city.”
Thankfully, Kate spoke then, so Hannah didn’t have to prove how clueless she really was about life.
“A werewolf? That’s a thing? I mean... I figured that it was, you know, someone doing weird science or someone’s mother having gotten busy with a rottweiler.” She didn’t even sound teasing about it. The world was a strange place, after all.
At least parts of it were.
John gave her a decently firm nod.
“They’re dead on distinctive. I’ll need to see the video, but big, about seven feet tall? A muzzle, brown or black fur and dark skin? Black claws at the end of the fingers?”
Hannah took a bite, but also nodded. That really was a good description of the thing she’d seen.
Carl nodded as well.
“I’ve seen them before, more than once. It was a werewolf. It also didn’t even stagger when it was shot in the head with a forty-four. I mean, it barely moved at all, and there was no blood. It was slobbering all over the place. That, H was hit on the back. She bled. If it got spit on its hands, then she might turn.”
Everyone looked at him, as if that were a harsh truth to be sharing at a meal.
Hannah just took another bite, so she didn’t have to show how freaked out she was. Then, schooling her mind, she made herself pretend to be calm before speaking.
“How does that work? If I’m infected, I mean?”
That got a shrug, from Carl, so John spoke to her. Pleny and Kate both seemed freaked out, but no-one was screaming yet.
“It takes a month, more or less. On the first full moon after that, so more than twenty-eight days, anyone who was bitten and lived through the attack will change. That’s magical though, so I don’t know if it has to be a bite or if saliva will be enough. Magic can have funny rules. This is a curse, not a contagion, like Tri-D. Then, it’s still magic. You can just go into the Never and handle this one, yourself, I bet. You won’t even need me to hold your hand, or anything.”
She snorted, then thought about what that really meant.
“I can’t get there on my own.”
Everyone else looked tight, but John winked at her, as if that wasn’t really a problem.
“You know at least three people who can get there, love. I don’t know if Wisp can do it or not, but I can, if it comes to it. The Moore as well. I don’t think Lash can instantly, but if it comes to it, she’d work it out. Deb is the prime choice for that one. I mean, she calls herself Nevernever for a reason, right?”
That wasn’t a thing Hannah knew the idea behind, to be honest, but Debbie could move into that world with a fairly low-cost spell, or so it seemed. There had been no mention of a real cost for it, at least, when that had been used. Then, she didn’t do it all the time, either, so it was possible it took something she didn’t understand or know about to make work.
It was tempting to give into her nerves and to call up Debbie right then, but the truth was, she had at least twenty-eight days. One lunar month. More than that, really.
“It isn’t a full moon today, is it?”
Carl shook his head.
“Nope. It’s the new moon, in fact. I looked it up. When a wolf like that should be at its weakest. That one soaked six shots to the head. One of those hit it directly in the left eye, and it did no more than shake its head over it. That really isn’t normal. Against any of that kind I’ve ever seen, you would have blown its head off in the first few seconds. It can take two or three shots to really take a strong one down, but this was over the top. The wrong time of the month, too.”
They all kept eating, and didn’t speak a lot about how much she’d failed that day. A little, though that was mainly because she could have called someone first.
Carl was philosophical about that idea, instead of being too demanding on the topic.
“I would have done what you did. Shot first and fast, trying to take it down. The reload was perfect, and when that didn’t work, you switched to a blade. You could have run then, but really, it can be hard to do that, once you start fighting. We have the fight or flight mechanism, not the fight then flight. We can work on that, but... I can’t see a lot you could have improved.”
John snorted.
“Except knowing what she might be facing? That might not have made a difference, today, but there are steps you can take against that kind of thing. Most couldn’t, but you have at least a pinky toe in the magical world. Even if you have to hire the work done, you should have some spells on you, for protection. I’ll work up a list for you? You’ll want to read up on them first, to make sure I’m right and all that.”
Pleny nodded then, his face almost blank.
“I want her to learn the spells, even if she can’t perform the magic herself.”
Instead of asking why anyone would waste time that way, John started to nod.
“I have some books I can lend for that? I’m not actually doing much right now, so... Why not? You can come stay at my place, in London?”
There was a smirk then, since the man lived in a crappy apartment that was barely big enough for one person. Still, she’d slept in a tiny hut, made of branches, and in a literal hole that she and her friends had dug into the ground, as well. His sofa wasn’t going to be worse than that.
“That works. You’re welcome to stay here, too. That way I can do my other practice each day, while I study up. I have my VR set up here and the gym is just down the street. Kate lets me workout there. I bet we can sweet talk her into letting you use it, too.”
The woman, who was still eating, nodded.
“No problem. Um... Not to be a witch, but... How are we going to make sure Hannah doesn’t transform into a wolf each month?”
She sort of had a plan for that, so shrugged. That pulled at her back, but the scratches, while annoying, hadn’t needed stitches and weren’t still bleeding. They hadn’t been before, at least.
“I’m calling in Debbie for it, and if that works, I’ll get over to the Never and do what John just said. I can fix this there, in a way that will stick. I’m actually decent with the magic over there, for some reason.” She knew why that was, of course.
Because she believed in herself. Enough for the magic to always work, at least. When that had taken place, she didn’t really know, but it had and it was unshakable now. It wasn’t even narcissism, which, honestly, she’d kind of thought it might be, at first. She was still filled with doubt about if she was doing the right thing. At the same time, she honestly knew, with an unshakable faith, that what she wanted to do there really worked. So, it did.
That was all.
Fawks smiled at her.
“That will work. It also gives us a potential fix for lycanthropy, if we find anyone who wants it gone, without blowing their brains out. I’ve known a few over the years who would have liked to have a chance that way. Even if it meant paying through the nose for it.”
She didn’t really need money, but it was possible there was another reason to get payment for things like that. For instance, John had to pay his rent. She did too, but her trust fund actually handled that each month. Technically she’d even made enough money to cover that kind of thing herself, having been on the television show. That had been about two million, all told. She wasn’t a big name or anything, but Kate’s agent had covered that for her, so she’d gotten more than she would have, otherwise. Plus, even if it hadn’t been much fun, she’d gotten real survival training out of it, in the second season, as well.
True, she’d probably never need that kind of thing, but it was better to know how to do it and not need it, than the other way around.
The last bag of food had pastries in it, which were passed out. They were good, but a bit rich, really. She ate about a quarter of hers, and was going to stop, being more than a little stuffed. Carl glared at her until she finished it all. She wasn’t left in pain, but it was more food, eaten at one sitting, than she’d managed in years.
Pleny stood up then, and glanced at the others.
“You three clear the table, and I’ll run over the new exercises with Hannah?”
Instead of whining about doing some rather light work, Carl simply hopped-to, as if that were a normal thing to ask a guest to do and the other two followed along. Pleny moved to the front room, then toward the door, where there was a bit more space.
“There are three factors in muscular growth. I’m going to cover an exercise type that will activate all of them for you, rather rapidly. It won’t feel good, but you can do what you need to, in about ten minutes per day. Once every ten days or so, to start with.”
Then, very carefully, he showed her the whole thing. It really wasn’t that hard.
He grinned, as she bent her arms, focusing on her biceps, contracting them completely, as hard as she could.
“You need muscle fiber recruitment, which happens more easily at full contraction. So, even not lifting a load at all, going into full contraction does part of what is needed. Then you need repetition. That will stimulate the release of the needed growth factors. Most people think that muscular growth is due to healing processes. That isn’t strictly correct. Muscle grows when the body orders it too, due to the release of chemical signals. It doesn’t grow because the muscle has been broken down and then heals. That said, you need time for the growth to happen, which means putting in an exhaustively massive effort, once a week or so. Every ten days for you, to start with. So, we’ll run through each muscle group, right now.”
