Start | Chapter Twenty Three Part Two| Index | Epilogue

A/N: Sorry for the skip last week. I had a bug and was sick as a parrot.

“Lost him,” Tanya murmured. She was kneeling by Caroline who was sleeping soundly in the spare room of Sarah’s cottage. “He used aconite to obscure his scent.”

Leisa swore violently but nodded. “Inevitable I suppose much as I wish he hadn’t. Did you get any sense of what he was planning to do next?”

“Not really, we only get the vaguest mental impressions. He was very tired though.”

“Hmm… yes we injured him badly. Perhaps badly enough to force him to hibernate for a while. We’ll need to be sure but hopefully we’ve got rid of him for a while. What are we going to do about this one?” She nodded to where Caroline was sleeping. “He’s messed with her head quite badly. She’s going to need some serious help and I don’t think The Order is qualified.”

“No argument there,” Tanya said. “Daniel knows some people, so I’ll let him arrange it. At least feeding her back up should be easy.” She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. “I’m glad he’s probably gone because I have a feeling we’ve far more dangerous things to deal with at the moment and he’d be a distraction.”

“Hmm?” Leisa said. “You mean the paralysis? Yes, that is very worrying. I hope it doesn’t happen again.”

“I hope so as well,” Tanya said. “But I doubt it.”

“Yeah,” Leisa said. “Me neither. What does Meredith say?”

“Not much,” Tanya said. “But I can tell she’s worried. Someone really doesn’t like werewolf hunters. I think she’s worried that they might start attacking the human ones.”

“And about Anna?”

“Oh, she’s cool with Anna as long as she doesn’t attack anyone, which I’m sure she won’t. We’ve been working on the evidence to show that she wasn’t completely to blame for her mistake. We think we can prove to the Council that the guy she attacked was Ragnar’s procurer and a serial killer in his own right. That should get the sword of Damocles from over her head regardless of what Rhiane says.” She rubbed her forehead. “We need to do something about Rhiane. She’s dangerously unstable.”

“Yes,” Leisa agreed. “The Order does have ways of removing Councillors.”

“It requires a super-majority vote and we don’t have one,” Tanya said. “Not yet anyway. I’m working on it. We lost one of the other vampire hunter councillor’s recently and I’m hoping to replace her with someone more reasonable. It’s not going to be easy.”

“Worthwhile things seldom are,” Leisa said. “But if one good thing has come out of this mess it’s that you, Meredith and Liam are talking to each other now. The three of you together might just be able to pull this off.”

Start | Chapter Twenty Three Part Two| Index | Epilogue