Chapter 20
On our way out, Mary tossed a drone into the air to make a quick map of the area, though it seemed we’d seen almost all of it, the shimmering walls of this pocket dimension visible from the site of our battle once the drone reached above the tree line. Karl decided this one was worth leaving open for now, as it seemed empty after our battle, so he had Mary set a circle under the portal and set a barrier to keep anything we’d missed from escaping.
An hour later, we were at the next portal. A total dud. The entire contents amounted to the bedroom of a medieval peasant’s cottage. A broken straw bed, dirty wooden walls, mud floor and no more. The mages quickly sealed it shut and we started heading for base.
A few minutes out from our destination we came across a van, obviously lost, and smelling of Werewolf. "We should likely stop and help them out you think?" Karl asked nobody in particular before pulling up beside them.
"You boys ain’t from around here are you?" Karl shouted out the window with an uncharacteristic drawl, making Mary giggle.
"It’s you! Damn you mages, where did you put the Safe House? We’ve been lost in these never ending wheat fields for hours!" A familiar voice called back. Oh, I know that voice, it’s Jake, the Alpha’s son from the Blue Moon Pack. Looking in the van I see his Beta Jurgen and two very similar Latino male humans.
"What brings you fine gentlemen out looking for my farm?" Karl teases and Mary whispers at me ’unless you’ve got a token or a mage with you, the farm house is invisible’ which strikes me as inordinately funny. I blame overwork.
The two weres don’t look overly impressed, so Karl just waves for them to follow. "You’re almost there, just follow us in"
A mere mile later we’re pulling into the garage, the barrier spell sending a shiver down my spine as always, and the two were’s mood definitely hasn’t improved. The fact they’d obviously just driven past this point when meeting us might have had something to do with that.
"Oh good, everyone came back at once" Narishma’s voice drew my attention to the elevator, finding her and a very excited Lala waiting on us. Wait, what is Lala wearing this time? A light blue Jumper with a unicorn on it and a yellow shirt? Narishma catches the direction of my gaze with a very suspicious seeming smile, but continues "Lala here is very excited to see you all, we’ve spent the whole day together becoming great friends." Ok, that seals it, the vampire definitely has something to do with dressing my favourite bunny up like that.
After unpacking our gear and sending it with base staff to our rooms, Karl and Mary peel off with Lala to take care of the day’s debriefings, leaving me to deal with a pair of frustrated werewolves, their human teammates and a smirking vampire.
"I know Karl already said this once, but seriously, what brings you two here? I thought you were dealing with the mess out on the west coast?"