"He'll be home in a day or two," Winkler promised. "We'll keep you apprised." Ashe handed the cell back to Winkler, who terminated the call. "You did very well, Ashe," Winkler smiled. "Don't let a bunch of old wolves and vamps worry you too much. Why don't you go see how Sali and Wynn are doing?"
"Okay." Ashe rose and walked out of Winkler's hotel room.
"Son, we removed the memory that you did anything at all. From everybody except Marcus, Winkler and Marco," Dalroy was coming out of Wynn's room as Ashe walked up. "I know that's a disservice to you, but the Grand Master, Winkler and your father want it that way. You'll be the unsung hero, I'm sorry to say." Dalroy gave Ashe's shoulder a comforting pat. Rhett, the dark-haired vampire, nodded to Ashe and followed when Dalroy moved away. Ashe muttered the same word his father had used earlier.
"Ashe?" Wynn said sleepily as Ashe made his way into her hotel room. Dr. Lang was there and dumping an empty syringe into a medical waste bag before stuffing it inside his med kit.
"You okay, Wynn?"
"She's good. Mr. Winkler got there just in time," Sali said, his eyes slightly unfocused. Ashe breathed a troubled sigh. Not even Sali was allowed to remember.
"Good to see you again, Son," Dr. Lang said, rising to leave. "Don't keep her awake too long, young wolf," he told Sali.
"I won't," Sali grinned. The doctor walked out of the room.
"Thank goodness," Sharon O'Neill rushed into the room, Jonas right behind her. "Wynnie, baby, are you all right?"
"Yeah." Wynn's voice was weak. "Mr. Winkler saved me." Ashe sighed, jerked his head at Sali and headed for the door.
"Ashe, I see this has upset you. But you have to know that Wynn might not be alive if you hadn't been there," Winkler held Ashe back while everyone else exited the jet the following evening. They'd arrived in Corpus Christi just before sunset.
"Yeah? I hear you got all the credit," Ashe muttered, moving away from Winkler's grip on his shoulder. Ashe climbed down the steps of the jet without another word.
"I'm fine, Mom. Stop fussing," Ashe tried to fend his mother off. She'd come to get him; his father hadn't been awake when the jet landed.
"Your father wants to talk to you when you get home," Adele said. "Ashe, this is for your protection, honey."
"Yeah. I keep hearing that word." Ashe watched as Wynn, Sharon and Jonas were loaded into the Anderson's car. Dori had rushed to hug Wynn the moment she'd gotten off the jet. Denise had come to pick up Sali, Marcus and Marco, who would spend a few days with his parents before going back to Dallas. Ashe sighed as he watched them drive away.
"Ashe, you did a good thing," his mother said, touching his arm. "Wynn is alive because of that. Be happy that you could help."
"Mom, she doesn't know who saved her. She thinks Winkler did it. And Sali's all over her, now."
"Is that what this is about?" Adele stared at her son. "I guess it had to happen sometime. Get in the car. Your father is waiting, I'm sure."
Broad-shouldered and dark-haired, the Grand Master stared at one of the captives from Tanner's wildlife preserve. Matthew Michaels, Director of the Joint NSA and Homeland Security Department, had asked the Grand Master to come while they questioned this particular captive.
"He says his name is Wildrif, no last name," Matt told the Grand Master quietly. Weldon Harper, Grand Master of Werewolves, looked Wildrif over. He didn't seem like much. Certainly not a werewolf; he could tell immediately by the scent. Wildrif sat in a steel chair set against a steel desk, his head bowed beneath a spotlight, the bright light shining on hair that could have been blond or brown. It hung long and unkempt about his face. Nothing was remarkable about his features, except the eyes.
"The Grand Master," Wildrif said, lifting his head and staring at Weldon Harper.
"How do you know that?" Weldon growled low.
"I'm a Foreseer," Wildrif's eyes were strange as he turned them to the werewolf. Weldon would have described them as crazy eyes. One was brown, the other pale blue. "I might have been useful, but my kind threw me out anyway. They don't keep the quarter bloods, you know."
Weldon had to work to keep from drawing an audible breath. "They threw you out," he nodded instead. He'd heard this before. Once.
"Yeah. No use for us quarters," Wildrif's giggle was tinged with insanity. "We're not immortal. The halves are, but it doesn't pass to the stinking quarters. But they'd better watch out," he giggled again.
"Why should they watch out?" Weldon asked, puzzled.
"Ir'Indicti. He's here." Wildrif laughed wildly and at length. Even a tranquilizer failed to calm him down.
"That's all he said? Ear-in-dik-tee?" Winkler pronounced the word phonetically back to the Grand Master. He'd phoned Weldon while pacing inside his private study.
"He spilled all kinds of information before that," Weldon grumped. "Told Matt that he could see the future for Tanner. That's one of the reasons Tanner was always ready for inspections and raids; Wildrif informed him. He didn't see us this time, though. I think it's tied up in that word he used. What do you make of it?"
"I'm not about to track the Bright Ones down a second time," Winkler said. "It'll just force them to follow me and hope it leads to the boy. Aedan placed compulsion on those two who came to Cloud Chief before, and they were blank-eyed when we set them outside the boundary and told them to get lost. Someone's leaking information again; I'd bet money on it. As to what Wildrif said, I'm not sure about that. It may or may not be tied up with Ashe. I'm not going to trouble him with this—he's upset with us at the moment, and understandably so. That poor girl would be dead if we hadn't taken him along, and Tanner would have skated, I think."
"Matt's working on what to do with Jack Howard and his two bodyguards," Weldon touched on a different subject.
"What do you think he'll do?"
"No idea, but I saw two of his vampire operatives walk in when I walked out of their office in Santa Fe."
"I can't wait to hear the story," Winkler chuckled dryly.
"We can't have a congressman just up and disappear," Weldon agreed.
"What about Tanner and his bunch?"
"Matt turned them over to me. They'll be taken care of tonight. The official story is they were caught smuggling illegal animals, which is true—we found all sorts of creatures on that preserve. They're also going to have footage of the piles of drugs found on the preserve that were imported from Mexico and South America. The story Matt will release is that Tanner and his bunch have escaped to Mexico and points south. There'll be a halfhearted search and that's it. No need to waste time or money on it. Matt's putting Wildrif in a mental hospital for treatment. I think he's as crazy as they come."