A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

At an impressive 80km/h (~50mph) of sustained speed, Erik, in his wolf form, ran through the mostly deserted outskirts of London, until he reached the English countryside.

Here, at the edge of a forest, he halted as he took an old brick phone from his personal dimension and turned it on. Instantly, he received a number of messages from the only person who had this number: Katya.

she detailed her brother Dimitri's appearance and elaborated on where he could find him. She also reminded him of the ideal time to strike—the first of the month, when the Council held their monthly meeting, and the Councillor keeping her brother would be away.

Which, by now, would be the following day for Erik.

The location she sent him was a place called Bamburgh, or more specifically, Bamburgh Castle. As it turned out, the human Councillor, Alexandre de Beaumont, was originally a Frenchman who immigrated to the UK after the Council formed.

At the Council's formation, Europe was divided into three roughly equal parts, with each race given one part to rule. This arrangement is technically temporary until the Council can smooth over the differences between the races and create a more integrated society.

However, until then, a French, human Councillor like Alexandre was forced to move to the UK because France was given to the shapeshifters, and the UK to the humans. Since Alexandre was accustomed to living in a castle back in France, he naturally chose one for himself here as well.

Unfortunately, according to what Katya had found out, this Frenchman walked straight into a trap by doing exactly what Aria LeFay had expected him to do.

Aria, the current leader of the Council shapeshifters, was a creature of guile and deceit, who maintained control through threats, blackmail, hostages, and other unsavoury methods.

Aria originally lived in the middle of the British Isles, before moving to France when the Council formed. But this gave her ample opportunity to leave a few traps behind in places where human Councillors might end up taking residence.

Katya didn't yet know how many Councillors of opposing factions where actually in Aria's pocket, but she suspected at least one more human Councillor, and one or two vampire Councillors as well.

Naturally, Erik immediately relayed this information to Liv using the long-distance sigil stone Elora had given him, warning her to keep an eye out and to be very careful of Aria.

At the same time, he received a short update from her, explaining that she'd reached Council space and was currently in negotiations with the vampire faction leader, Vlad Dracula the Fifth, on how best to get the ghouls the blood they need, and how to handle their integration into the Council.

According to Liv, she'd been welcomed with open arms, and Vlad appeared like an iron fisted ruler and a straight shooter, who cared deeply about his people, so she didn't predict any trouble with the future proceedings.

As a confident man, Erik naturally didn't see the need to remind her of his promise to her, despite the fact she'd be dealing with other men of her own strength in the future.

She was already his, and she knew it.

He continued reading Katya's messages, which stated she did not know exactly what kind of trap Alexandre had walked into, but she knew he wasn't much more than Aria's puppet at this point.

Just like she was, theoretically.

As a person whose personal power was possibly higher than Aria's, the wereserpent could only make sure Katya stayed in line, but not much more—and this was where Dimitri came in.

Since keeping him in shapeshifter-controlled territory would make it too easy for Katya to get to him, Aria had one of her other puppets look after him—Alexandre.

Fortunately, Erik would soon rectify this situation.

That was the end of the original message Katya sent him about a year ago, just after she left him and the others in Muonio. The next message she sent him was about a month ago, wondering if he would be saving her brother that month.

Then, the last message was from a few hours ago, and sounding a little agitated, reminding him that this was the last chance he had according to their deal.

Erik grinned slightly, and send her a message, that questioned what deal she was talking about.

Rather than send a message back, the phone rang almost instantly after sending the message, causing Erik's grin to widen. 'She truly cares about her brother a lot... I can appreciate that,' he thought, sympathetically.

But that didn't mean he'd take it easy on her. Spending eight years married to Elora, had ensured he gained a love of teasing.

So, he picked up the phone with an innocent expression, "Hello? Who's this?"

"Don't play with me boy!" Katya's loud, agitated voice immediately reverberated through his skull. Her eastern European accent became especially obvious when she was like this. "You've made me wait long enough! I want my brother back!"

Erik chuckled and started moving leisurely in the direction of Bamburgh as he answered, "You almost sound like I'm the one who kidnapped him!"

"Dammit, boy! I told you not to play with me!" she growled angrily, as Erik could almost see her narrowed eyes in front of him.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Deciding he'd had enough of playing with Katya's concern for her brother, and probable desire to stomp on Aria's head, he started smiling softly instead, "Don't worry, Katya. I'm on my way there now. Should arrive in about seven hours, giving me plenty of time to scout out the place before this Alexandre leaves."

Instantly, he heard Katya sighing in frustrated relief. Then, she grumbled softly, yet a little more like she was talking to a friend and not really meaning it, "As soon as we meet again to hold our duel, I'm going to beat that attitude out of you..."

Once again, Erik started grinning, "I look forward to seeing you try, Katya, but I think it might be you who ends up kneeling at my feet instead. Perhaps I'll have you kowtow for every time you've called me a boy."

"Ha!" losing some of her dourness, Katya barked an actually pleasant and happy laugh. "That will be the day!"

But then she got serious again, "Anyway, you don't need to scout the place, I've already sent someone ahead to meet you there. Although I can't get a squad large enough to rescue my brother in the vicinity of that castle without anyone finding out, I was able to get a single person. You'll probably recognize her..."

Erik's grin quickly widened when he realized the person Katya was likely talking about, 'Now that's an interesting development...'

Next, they started talking about a few more operational details, as well as Erik telling her about an opportunity to integrate the Enclave into the Council, like they've been wanting to do for more than a year already, thus setting some of their plans in motion. At the same time, he told her that Liv was a friend of his but didn't go into much more detail.

When they were done, Erik hung up the phone, send a message to Anne and Nora, and once again sped up to reach his maximum long-distance speed as he took off in the direction of Bamburgh.