=:= Samantha =:=

They were all feeling stunned, devastated.

Cindy and Zoe were sitting together on one of the big easy chairs, Zoe had her arms and her tail wrapped around the small witch. Cindy's eyes were still red from crying, but right now she just looked dazed. She was staring blankly at the fireplace.

Jessica and Kara were sitting together at one end of the leather sectional. They had an arm around each other, and Jess was resting her head on Kara's shoulder. Kara had a thoughtful frown on their face, Jess looked sad.

Ciara was sitting in the other big leather chair. She was crosslegged on the chair, hunched over a bit, looking a little scared, a little uneasy.

Sam and Nikki were on the leather sofa, at the opposite end from her sister and Kara. Sam had an arm around her wife.

Becky hadn't been that active in the coven. She was close to Cindy and Tanya of course, but she'd only really been with the coven for less than a year before she moved away to college. Sam hated to admit it now, but she hadn't really got to know the computer science student that well.

And of course, they'd all thought Becky would be safe. She was the most distant coven member, both in terms of geography and in terms of relationships with others in the coven. Even newer witches like Maria's girls had closer ties to the rest of them. The meeting in October was the first time she and Nikki had seen Becky in over a year.

With everything they'd learned about their enemy, it seemed like Sam and Nikki were the primary targets. As long as the two of them were alive, the others should have been ok. They all believed Becky would be safe. She kept coming back to that thought.

At long last, it was Jessica who broke the silence.

"What do we do now?" She wasn't addressing anyone in particular, she was staring at the floor when she spoke.

Nikki replied, "We keep going. All of us have magical protection now, and we know it works. The Goddess read Liam's mind, they have no idea we're all protected against both physical and magical attack. They still haven't even figured out that know we all know magic."

No-one responded to that for a few minutes, everyone was silent again.

Eventually Kara spoke up, looking at their Irish guest. "Ciara, you said they wouldn't attack anyone else until Sam and Nikki were gone."

The girl sighed, pouting. "They're not supposed to do that..."

"Not supposed to?" Cindy's voice was hard as she glared at the kid. She looked angry, as she half-shouted "My friend is dead! You said she'd be safe! You said they wouldn't hurt anyone else!"

Ciara cringed back into her chair, looking more and more scared as Cindy's voice got louder and angrier with each statement.

Cindy stood up and took a step towards Ciara, fists clenched as she demanded "Which one of them did it?! Who killed my friend?!"

Kara was on their feet now too, and stepped infront of Cindy. They were probably worried the small witch was going to try and attack the kid.

Cindy tried to step around them, but Kara put their hand on her shoulder and stated firmly "Sit down, Cindy. This isn't Ciara's fault, yelling at her isn't going to help."

Cindy tried again to get around Kara, but the coven champion tightened their grip on her shoulder.

The small sorceress glared up at Kara and demanded, "Let go of me!" Her voice was low, and she sounded almost threatening.

"That's enough." Nicole's voice had enough authority in it that for a moment Sam thought the Goddess was present. "Cindy, Kara, sit down. I know we're all upset, but I won't have any of us raising hands against each other. We're all family here, we're all sisters."

"She's not." Cindy said, glaring at Ciara. With her eyes still on the girl, Cindy demanded again "Which one of them killed my friend?!"

Ciara shuddered, then whispered "Christopher... He's the only one that would do it..."

Nikki stated, "Cindy, you're excused. Zoe, take her upstairs and see if you can calm her down."

Samantha watched as Zoe started to guide Cindy back towards the stairs. Finally the two of them disappeared into their bedroom, and Zoe closed the door behind them.

Kara sat down next to Jess again, but they were frowning. "She's going to get herself in trouble sooner or later. She's always been difficult."

Sam glanced at her wife, then looked back at Kara and said "We're all under a lot of stress Kara. Becky was one of Cindy's best friends, so let's give her some time. She's also been under a lot of pressure the past couple weeks."

Jess put her arm around Kara again and added softly, "It's also just past that anniversary for Cindy. You know she was moody around this time last year, and the year before... Just give her some time, ok?"

Kara shook their head slowly. "We're dealing with a threat to our survival. If she's unstable, then she's unreliable. And that's going to make her a liability."

Nikki sighed, "Noted. Thank you Kara."

Samantha sighed as well, then looked to Ciara and asked "Do you know why Christopher might have done this?"

The girl gulped. When she answered, her voice was soft, quiet. "Will thinks Christopher's mean and impatient and cruel. He thinks Christopher was probably frustrated... Maybe he wanted revenge because of what happened to Will?"

She gulped again, then added "Will also thinks Christopher enjoyed doing that stuff. Before he became a team leader, killing people was his job."

Everyone was quiet for a bit after hearing that. Finally Nikki asked, "Any suggestions? Comments? Questions?"

Kara nodded, "That file the Goddess gave us? There's pictures of the Brotherhood team. You should forward that to the rest of the coven. Make sure everyone knows what these people look like. We don't want anyone else getting caught off-guard because they don't recognize the threat."

"Good idea." Nikki added with a sigh, "We should have thought to do that already."

"I also think we shouldn't let anyone travel alone." Kara said. "Pair up, so everyone's got someone watching their back."

Jessica pointed out, "That's a good idea but it won't always be practical. Like, Tanya and Brandi probably spend most of their time together, but they have different classes at college so they can't always be together. Same with Maria's girls, they're mostly together, but they do have different classes and school schedules."

"I know," Kara replied, "I mean where possible. At least they can travel together to and from school."

Sam asked her wife, "What became of the guy that attacked you this afternoon, at the wellness centre?"

Nikki replied, "The Goddess took him. Unfortunately he had less information than William did. He was a junior operative I guess. His job was surveillance. Apparently this was his third visit? He already toured the winery, and had been snooping around the property taking pictures.

"Another reason to make sure everyone knows what these people look like, so we can spot them if any more come around." Kara stated. "What's the Goddess going to do with him?"

"She's already finished with him." Nikki said. "She actually copied what Zoe did with the man from Wales. Apparently the hospital in Newmarket has found a second abandoned infant."

Jessica commented, "I wonder what the nurses there are thinking? Probably wondering where these kids keep coming from."

Samantha just sighed. All of this was making her very uncomfortable. She didn't know what that sort of transformation would do to someone, and she decided she didn't want to find out. She supposed it was probably better than outright killing people. And she knew they couldn't just let these people go with a few harsh words and a warning. They were fighting for their lives, after all.

Still, she was uncomfortable. Using magic like this felt wrong to her. It felt like they were being forced to be as heartless as their attackers, and Sam worried that it would lead them to crossing some lines she didn't think should be crossed.

Everyone was quiet again at the moment, all of them lost in their own thoughts.

Jessica broke the silence again, saying "Something happened today at QSAW. That reverend guy sent his son in to see us. He wanted him to create an incident. Trevor told us he was supposed to start vandalizing the place. He had spray-paint and pepper-spray with him. The plan was, when we tried to stop him, then the reverend and his other followers would rush in to save Trevor, and then the police would come in and arrest Kara and me."

Samantha and Nikki both sighed deeply at this news. Ontop of everything else, this sort of headache was the last possible thing they needed right now.

"What happened?" Nicole asked.

Kara answered, "Trevor told us the plan, and dropped the paint in the trash. I think he was planning on leaving his family and letting us help him. His father was watching of course, and he tried to storm in when he saw Trevor wasn't following his instructions."

Jess continued, "The wards stopped the reverend but... Did you know they become visible when they're active?"

Sam and her wife exchanged a look. "Visible, how?"

"The runes glow white when they activate." Kara stated. "Trevor saw them. They blocked his father from entering, and the reverend tried to smash the glass on the door but the runes blocked that too."

Jessica added, "Luckily the runes are all on the inside, so nobody outside saw them. But it spooked Trevor and he ran off. The reverend went after him, and then a little later the rest of them packed up and left too." She sighed, "I'm sure Trevor will tell his father what he saw, and that'll probably bring the church folks down on us even harder."

Samantha just sighed again. Nikki closed her eyes and rubbed the side of her head.

Finally Nicole said, "Ok. One thing at a time. Jess, Kara, you're still with QSAW. It's in your hands what to do and how to do it. If things get too hectic though, I suggest you shut down and back off. We're already fighting a war with the Brotherhood, it's not a good time to get into another war with the bigots."

Jessica and Kara both nodded, Jess said, "We'll be there on Monday. I'm still hoping Trevor will come back. I hate to think what his father will be doing to him for failing his 'mission'."

Sam suggested, "I think we've covered everything for now. Let's all get something to eat, and then maybe call it an early night."

The others nodded, and Nikki got up and started towards the kitchen to make some dinner.

Jessica stood up as well. "I'm going to check on Cindy and Zoe, and let them know about dinner."

"Thanks Jess," Samantha said quietly.

=:= Zoe =:=

"Thanks Jess. We'll come down in a little while." Zoe said, then closed the door after the redhead left.

Cindy was curled up on the bed again, hugging her pillow. She wasn't crying at the moment. It seemed like her emotions were jumping around between grief, anger, and shock.

Zoe returned to the bed and sat crosslegged next to the small witch, her hand on her girlfriend's shoulder. She knew there wasn't much she could do to help, apart from just staying with Cindy and offering her support and comfort.

Cindy took a deep breath, then let out an equally deep sigh.

"How're you doing, cutie?" Zoe asked softly.

Cindy rolled onto her back, and her head wound up resting in Zoe's lap. Her expression caught Zoe a little off-guard. The small witch looked like she was feeling guilty.

"It's my fault Becky's dead."

Frowning, Zoe asked "What makes you say that? Because you didn't bring her the amulet in time? That wasn't your fault. You worked night and day on that enchantment, you couldn't have done it any quicker..."

Her voice trailed off as Cindy shook her head.

"I mean, she was only part of the coven because of me. She wouldn't have even been Becky if not for me. I messed up her whole life with magic, and now she's dead." Cindy's eyes were starting to fill with tears again.

Zoe ran her fingers through her girlfriend's hair and said, "I know Cindy. You've told me the story. It's still not your fault. You can't predict the future, and what happened in the past? Becky had long since forgiven you for that, and I'm sure she didn't regret how things changed for her. She was your friend. She was happy, and she was enjoying her life. The only one who's to blame for what happened is the guy who did it. And the people who sent him."

She leaned down and gave Cindy a kiss on the forehead. "You know who else isn't to blame Cindy, is Ciara."

The small blonde sighed and her expression shifted into a frown.

"Don't frowny-face at me, cutie." Zoe admonished. "I want you to apologize to her. You really scared her. She's just a kid, and she doesn't deserve you shouting at her."

Cindy continued frowning. "I thought you didn't even like her."

Zoe shrugged, "I didn't like her getting excited and pulling on my tail, and I didn't like being forced into babysitting duty. But she's not a bad kid. She's kinda like the rest of us. She's had a lot of shitty stuff happen to her, but it's not her fault."

Rather than respond, Cindy just sighed again. She still had the frown on her face too.

"This isn't optional Cindy," Zoe stated. "You're going to apologize to her, and you're going to do it before dinner tonight. Now c'mon, let's go downstairs and see if we can help set the table or something."

Zoe pulled her legs out from under her girlfriend's head, then got up off the bed. With another deep sigh, Cindy slowly got up as well.

Cindy hesitated, then said "You go. I'll join you in a few minutes, ok?"

Zoe's eyes narrowed as she stared at her girlfriend. "Promise?"

"Yes Zoe, I promise. I just need a few minutes, then I'll come downstairs."

"Ok." Zoe nodded, then left the bedroom and headed downstairs.

Ciara was still sitting on the big leather chair. She was curled up a bit, resting against the back of the chair, looking sad and upset. Samantha was sitting on the sofa, as was Kara.

Nikki was working in the kitchen, getting dinner ready. Jessica was getting the table set, and Zoe moved to give her a hand.

Once all the plates and cutlery were out, Jess and Zoe got drinks ready for everyone. Wine for Nikki, Jessica, and Kara, milk for Ciara, and water for Sam, Cindy, and Zoe.

"About ten minutes, till it's ready." Nikki announced. Zoe and Jess moved to sit down with the others. Jess sat next to Kara again, and Zoe sat in the easy chair where she and Cindy had been earlier.

A few minutes later, Cindy finally emerged from their bedroom. She came down the stairs, and Zoe could see Cindy had something in her hand. She was sort of trying to conceal it though, holding whatever it was off to the side and a little behind her.

She approached Ciara, stopping a few paces back. The small brunette looked nervously at Cindy, obviously still scared of her.

Cindy sighed, then said "Ciara? I'm sorry I yelled at you. I'm sorry I frightened you. I was upset about my friend, but I shouldn't have taken it out on you."

Zoe watched as Ciara just nodded slowly. She still looked anxious as she was staring up at the small witch.

"So... To try and make it up to you," Cindy said, "I got you a little gift."

She revealed what she'd been trying to hide behind her back. It was a small stuffed animal, a plushie in the shape of a little black cat.

Zoe was surprised, and she could see the others were obviously surprised as well.

Ciara's eyes lit up and a wide smile appeared on her face.

"Kitty!" she exclaimed as she reached out, accepting the gift. She immediately pulled the plushie cat in close, hugging it to her chest as she grinned "Thank you Cindy!"

"You're welcome, Ciara." Cindy replied, a small smile on her face as well. Zoe could still see a lot of sadness in her eyes though.

Nikki let everyone know dinner was ready, and they all moved over to the dining table.

Ciara kept the plushie cat on her lap as she sat at the table, and they all started to quietly eat.

"Where'd you get that?" Zoe whispered, leaning over close to Cindy.

Her girlfriend shrugged, replying softly "Toy store at the Pen Centre. I just teleported over and bought it, then teleported back."

Zoe smiled, whispering "Of course. You're sneaky and clever."

Cindy shrugged again. "You were right. I shouldn't have yelled at her."

=:= Christopher =:=

He paced the hotel room again, pausing to kick the bed once more. Not only had he lost the good mood he'd been in yesterday afternoon, but now everything was far worse. Christopher turned around and kicked the bed again, swearing to himself. The damned coed's body probably wasn't even cold yet, when Liam went and got himself killed.

With Liam gone, they'd had to quickly relocate again. He'd now lost two members of his team. He actually needed to request reinforcements! In all his years with the Brotherhood, he'd never been involved in a mission that had gone so incredibly wrong.

He turned and kicked the bed once more, trying to work out some of his anger.

According to Anthony, Liam had gone back to the vineyard to snoop around again. Christopher wanted to blame the man for getting himself killed, but the worst part was Christopher knew he'd never told Liam not to bother with the wellness centre. The man was just doing his job, trying to complete a part of his assignment that Christopher had neglected to cancel.

And now with Liam gone, his team was down to four men, and two of them weren't even field agents. At least Anthony had been helpful. Michael had been all but useless since their second week here. That left Christopher with himself and Gabriel as the only two men with field experience, and he didn't even like Gabriel. The man was soft, lazy, and undisciplined.

After they'd hastily left the hotel, the four of them had fallen back to a casino resort about 40 minutes' drive from the cultists' town. His suite offered a good view of Niagara Falls, but Christopher wasn't here for the view. Right now the only interest he had in the Falls was wondering if he could toss a few cultists off the edge.

He paused his pacing long enough to take a couple more ibuprofen tablets and check the time. It was nearly five in the morning.

He took a few deep breaths then moved to turn on the one-cup coffee maker in his suite. While the machine was brewing, he set up his laptop at the small desk. Nathan had insisted on a video conference, and of course they were operating on UK time.

A few minutes later, coffee in hand, he sat down at the desk and waited. Right at five o'clock sharp, the call came through.

Christopher clicked the icon, and a split-screen video conference began. His boss Nathan appeared on the right side of the screen. Nathan's boss Richard was on the left.

Christopher forced himself not to react. Having Richard sitting in on the call was a very bad sign.

Nathan skipped the pleasantries and jumped straight to the reprimand. "In all my years as UK Coordinator, I've never seen a single mission fail so many times, in such spectacular ways, Christopher. Your targets are a dozen young women and girls! These aren't skilled soldiers or fighters, Chris! You aren't facing a centuries-old fae or an ancient demon! Not only have you accomplished none of your objectives, but you've managed to lose one of our top field operatives, and an excellent surveillance man. You've been on the ground for three weeks, and what have you to show for it? You've lost a third of your team!"

Christopher stayed silent, accepting his boss's ire without comment.

Nathan continued, "You can imagine my dismay when I received your latest report. You broke protocol and killed a low-ranking cultist that we knew was neither the priestess nor the vessel. And while you were off on your little personal indulgence, your team was leaderless. Now you're asking me to send you more men?!"

It seemed like his boss had finally stopped for now. Christopher replied calmly, "I'm sorry sir. I felt that the cultist's death would serve as a valuable morale boost. It was my belief that it was necessary, to demonstrate to my team that the cultists could be gotten-to, that there wasn't anything special about them. It also proved that the Cardiff team shouldn't have failed last month." He took a breath, and added, "I also thought it would send a message to the rest of the cultists. That they're not untouchable. That we can reach them, they aren't safe."

Nathan just frowned, "It seems to me that the message you're sending is, it took a combat-seasoned veteran with nearly two decades of magical experience three weeks to find and kill a nineteen-year-old girl. And now the cultists will redouble their defences, they'll be even more paranoid, and they'll be even harder to purge. The priestess and vessel were already staying out of sight, now we'll have even less chance of getting either of them to show their face! If you hadn't already gotten William killed, I'd be relieving you of duty Christopher, and putting him in charge."

Christopher clenched his jaw, fighting to keep his anger under control. After a deep breath, he replied, "Respectfully sir, I feel that's an unfair assessment. We've been following protocol, up until yesterday. I admit my killing that cultist was against regulation, but prior to that, we've been doing everything by the book. And while the cultists might just be a collection of women and girls, they are after all backed by a deity. Neither Oracle nor any of our other seers have been able to even identify who we're dealing with. Whoever they are, they're not behaving at all like we've been trained to expect."

He paused, then stated "The team in Wales was beaten, killed. William was killed. Liam's been lost. I can't speak for the Cardiff team but I know William wouldn't have broken protocol. And Liam was doing his job. These people are obviously being closely guarded by their Goddess. She's playing a very proactive role in keeping her people safe."

"If that were true," Richard asked, speaking up for the first time, "Then how is it you were able to kill the university student? Why didn't the deity intervene there?"

Christopher sighed, "I don't know, sir. Perhaps because she was physically remote. She was some two hundred kilometers away from the rest of them. Or maybe she wasn't an active part of their group any more."

He hesitated, then suggested "In my opinion, our standard protocols aren't working because this is an unique situation. Whoever this deity is, she's not behaving as we expect. So I think we need to do things differently to beat her, and her cultists."

"What do you suggest?" Nathan asked.

Christopher had a grim smile on his face as he replied, "You've seen Liam's photographs of their home base. We're confident that the priestess and vessel are hiding inside, along with a handful of others. Liam was fairly sure the place was warded, so we can't just walk in." He paused, then stated "I want to level the place. A cube-van full of high explosive, parked right outside their front door. Two tonnes of ANFO or whatever else we can get our hands on out here, and that building and its occupants will be nothing but a memory and a smear of debris scattered up and down the escarpment."

He looked at the images of his bosses, hoping they'd agree to his plan.

Nathan sighed, looking weary. Richard was just frowning.

"Christopher," Nathan said, "That might eliminate the cultists, but it would also eliminate any chance of confirmation. We'd have no way to know if the job was done or not. And no way to verify that whatever their source of ancient knowledge is had been destroyed."

"But-" Christopher started, before Richard cut him off.

"The answer is no, Christopher." His boss's boss sounded impatient and angry. "You're already on thin ice, this is not the time to add insubordination to the list."

Richard sighed, then continued "Right now, things have gotten out of hand. I'm going to have to pass all of this back to Alexander."

Christopher felt the colour draining from his face, and on the screen he could see Nathan looking pale and uneasy now too.

Richard continued, "I agree, the situation is unique and perhaps our protocols are out of date. Or it's possible there's some angle we've overlooked, either with these cultists or their deity."

"So what are my orders?" Christopher asked. "Will I be getting the reinforcements I asked for?"

"For now, sit tight and stand by." Richard replied. "We'll not be sending you anyone else at present. I'm sure once Alexander has reviewed your reports and the current status, either Nathan or myself will have new orders for you and your men."

Christopher nodded, "Yes sir."

Nathan nodded quietly as well.

"Dismissed." Richard stated, then the call cut out.