Hmm, I wonder if there's any of that ham left. This bit of the program's being a real pain, I need brain food.

Eric almost walked right past Christian sitting on the couch, perfectly still, arms wrapped around Sid, gazing into space.

“Chris?” Eric asked cautiously. Christian was generally careful to keep trance work to the loft and library, so surely that couldn't be it.

Christian blinked, and focused on him. “Val just called. Sara called her.”

“What happened?”

“Sara's parents heard all the rumours...” Tears gathered in Chris' dark eyes. “They told her that... if she wants to live with them she has to follow their rules... and she's not allowed to talk to any of us. As in, me or any of my friends.”

“Oh, god.” Eric abandoned any thought of food, and crossed the living room to give Christian a hug; Sid slithered neatly to one side, still close but safe from being squished. “That's... I can't even think of a word for how awful that is.”

“They've never even met me.” Christian's voice broke, and he shifted position so he could huddle against Eric. “How can they judge like that when they've never met me?”

“They're just worried about Sara's safety. Granted, she's old enough to make her own choices, but misplaced protectiveness is still just protectiveness. We'll get it straightened out.”

“I give up.” The utter despair in his voice shook Eric badly. “What does the Fellowship want? Whatever it is, they can have it, if they'll just leave us alone.”

“That's exactly what they will never do,” Eric said gently, trying to force from his mind images of witches tortured until they confessed to anything to stop the pain. “If you give in to them, they'll give you no peace, ever again. You'll constantly have this one showing up trying to get you to form an alliance against that one, or another one pushing you to help do this to someone else, or someone telling you that you aren’t allowed to research that thing you just got inspired about.”

“At least they'd leave me my friends!”

“Not Mark.”

Christian went rigid against him. “No one can hurt him.”

“Do you think he'd stay if you did that? The Fellowship has rules about liminals and summoning, and having an insanely powerful predator around would upset them even if there was any kind of binding or control instead of love and trust. They don’t consider liminals people, and that includes lamias and kitsune. And you wouldn't have me. As much as I love you, I've seen too much of the Fellowship to be willing to share a house with it.” This is cruel, but god, if he surrenders to them in a moment of weakness, he'll never get free of them. I expected to be some use against the Fellowship when I moved here, but I didn't expect them to push so hard. Even against my strongest cousins, they were never this bad. Of course, I don't have any cousins who are strong and inventive and specialize in dealing with liminals, either...

Christian coiled himself into a tight ball, and the tears escaped. “Then what am I supposed to do?”

Eric reached behind him for the box of tissues, and handed them to him. “Be stronger than they are. You are, y'know.”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Well, you could move to Scotland. That's about your only other option. I'm sure Mark would go with you.”

“You couldn't, though. Or the others.”

“True.”

“It doesn't feel like they'll ever leave me alone.”

“They will. They have to run out of energy and resources and ideas eventually. Or realize that they’re already in a grey zone that’s not entirely inside their own rules, and they’re getting deeper into it every day. Most of them really don’t care one way or the other, it’s just a minority that unfortunately includes the people in charge, and they can’t keep going forever. We just have to hold on that long.”

“And... and Sara still won't be...”

“Either Sara will move out on her own, in her own time, and make her own rules, or she'll deal with her parents. She's a big girl, and smart as hell when she wants to be. Let her handle that. It won't happen with any of the others, Isaac's the only one still living at home, and his mother appears to trust his judgement. Sara's parents are just doing what they think is best for her, they aren't out to get you. They shouldn’t be doing it like this. They should be happy Sara found friends after moving and trust her to know you better than they do. But she’ll take care of it. She cares way too much about us and Val to just accept that.”

It took a while for Christian to stop crying; Eric stayed with him, but couldn't do much more. Nothing he could say would make the hurting go away, and he had no solutions to offer to this one. The tears did, finally, run dry, though.

“Come on,” Eric said gently. “Why don't you go wash your face, and I'll see if there's any juice made? Once you're a bit more grounded, it might not hurt to call your mom and see if she has any thoughts.”

Shakily, Christian nodded, and moved Sid carefully aside. The cat followed him to the little half-bath in the front hall.

Eric finished his journey to the kitchen, discovered that there wasn't enough fruit punch for two, and took another can from the freezer.

Christian joined him, and Eric handed him a glass of juice, then poured a second for himself. Sid hopped up on a chair and twisted himself into a pretzel to look at Eric upside-down with a small questioning mrrrp; Christian automatically began to rub his ears.

“Better?”

Christian shrugged, and took a swallow of punch. “I guess. I think maybe I will call Mom.”

“Good plan. Just let me grab a sandwich, and you'll have the kitchen to yourself, since god knows where Mark is.”

Christian halfway smiled. “I doubt even god knows. Thanks.”

“Any time.” Eric grabbed a couple of fresh rolls and the rest of the ham from the fridge, and a couple of cans of the root beer he liked. Christian perched on a stool and picked up the phone, and the blond quickly retreated to his room.

Eric prided himself on being level-headed and rational, but he did have a temper, and he could feel it waking up.

He switched on his computer monitor, waited while his modem connected to the usual music of static hisses and bonging sounds, and went looking for Lenore and Rapier. The former, while she hadn't spent as much time with Jade as he had, had nonetheless learned enough from the kitsune to have a truly evil imagination at times; the latter owed him a couple of favours, and his skills as a hacker far outstripped Eric's. Maybe it was high time the Fellowship discovered that they didn't have a monopoly on harassing others.

Hours later, Mark tapped on the door, and brought him a couple of take-out containers and a large bottle of cranberry-grape juice. “You haven't moved the whole time I’ve been home. Something particularly interesting happening online?”

Eric sat back and stretched, keeping an eye on the screen. “You might say that.”

“Okay, what gives?”

“Promise not to tell Chris? It'll just upset him.”

“If I don't see any need for him to know, yes.”

“Near enough. He tell you the newest crisis?”

“Yes. And right now, I don't dare switch to Lexa, because if I do, someone's going to die.”

Hmm, yeah... he brought Sara home to meet Chris, thinking it would be good for them both. From a lamia perspective, all he ended up doing was creating another way Chris could be hurt.

“I decided to fight fire with fire.”

Mark sat on the edge of the bed and crossed his arms sternly, but there was a wicked gleam in his golden eyes. Good, that was much better than watching Mark feel like it was his fault. “What have you done?”

“Recruited a handful of people to help. Some of whom invited other friends to join the fun. Various members of the Fellowship, all the ones I figure are the most likely to be the most aggressive and persistent about bullying Chris, are going to start having some problems. Credit cards being maxed out that were never reported stolen, cards reported stolen that haven't been, many many hours of overseas calls on their phone bills... I imagine a few people are going to have their phones disconnected very soon. Accounts all over the web, photo sharing sites and personal profiles in various places, being hacked and the content changed to stuff that's highly questionable that will at best lead to awkward questions. Subscriptions to interesting sorts of magazines: religious ones, parenting ones, kinky ones, whatever anyone can find that'll embarrass someone or stir up shit if someone else sees it. Pizzas with the most demented combinations of toppings possible, to be paid on delivery or paid out of hacked credit cards. Flowers being sent with intimate notes from someone else on the list. Requesting AOL CDs by the case. Things like that.”

“How many people are you going to owe favours to for this?”

“Better than half the people I originally asked are paying me back for advice, largely on attracting and keeping women. I'll owe a couple, but to tell you the truth, I just gave a group of people with high hacking skills but some level of moral standards—otherwise I wouldn't associate with them—a list of deserving targets and turned them loose, and they're having a great time coming up with ways to hassle them. There’s a bit of friendly competition, all trying to outdo each other on who’s come up with the most creative and potentially effective tricks.”

Mark gazed at him for a couple of heartbeats, then began to laugh. “Oh, god... I think you just proved that you have at least as much power as a witch or a lamia... That's priceless.”

“It's all just a matter of knowing the right people to ask. Don't tell Chris, though. He's having enough trouble at the moment. And you know what he's like about doing anything bad to anyone else, no matter what they've done. He'd just feel guilty.”

Mark nodded, the laughter fading away. “I'd have to agree.”

Eric kept watching the screen while he opened one container, found chicken curry, and rice in the other. “Thanks, by the way, didn't realize how long I've been at this. Harlequin is just starting to visit every online business she can find, she says she'll have as much stuff as possible shipped COD to the ones on the list, and she’s making sex toy shops a high priority. We’re slipping in notes and suggestions that if they stop, we will. Not naming Chris or anything, of course, nothing to point back here, but probably someone will figure it out. Someone will probably guess that I’m involved, if nothing else, since it’s not really a secret I’m better with computers than witchy stuff.”

“You do realize there are bound to be repercussions of some sort.”

“Fewer than you might think. Law enforcement is not keeping up with technology at all. There’s a small risk that the Fellowship will respond by escalating, but honestly, I don’t think they can without a majority vote that it’s justified or completely ignoring their own rules, they’re already pushing it to the breaking point—Chris really scares someone influential, Gran thinks, probably someone on the Council, but there are limits and they’re up against them hard. If it starts coming back to bite them on top of that, I bet at least some will want to just cut their losses and give up. And causing more divisions within the Fellowship is a good thing. But if there are any consequences, we’ll just have to do everything possible to keep Chris out of the way of them.”

“It's nice to know you're human enough to get angry. I've never seen you more than vaguely annoyed before.”

“Doesn't happen often.”

“Just as well for the world, if this is what happens.” Mark gestured to the computer. “Chris is in the library burying himself reading, trying not to think. I'd better take him something to eat. Have fun.”

“Oh, we will.”

* * *

Eric glanced over his shoulder briefly, then turned his attention back to frying eggs. Christian looked absolutely awful; he couldn't remember when he'd last seen the witch smile, unless it was back when they'd visited Margaret and Jade and Jacinth, and the bruises around his eyes made him look days dead. Come to think of it, he couldn't remember the last time Kit had wandered into his bed, or said yes to an invitation to go out. He even seemed to move in slow motion, like his body was too heavy.

“Two eggs?” Eric asked, trying for some illusion of normality.

“Please. I talked to Mom and Dad and Grandpa yesterday for a long time.”

“And?”

Christian shrugged, sinking down tiredly on one of the kitchen chairs. “They probably can't do much to help me, but at least I can do something to help them. There's a place in Mom’s family's land where a cattle raid went really bad, a long long time ago. One side had a moderately trained witch, the other side had a witch who didn't know he was a witch until he reacted to the threat. Everyone involved died. It appears one of my cousins got in a fight with a couple of local bullies, and not only had to use his gifts to get out of it, but got hurt enough to spill blood.”

“Uh-oh.”

“Yeah. Now no one remotely sensitive can stand to be in the area, and the local wildlife is avoiding it completely. Something nasty got stirred up in the land right there, and even Dad can't heal it.”

“So what can you do from here?”

“Grandpa is flying back sometime in the next couple of days. What Dad can't fix, some liminal or elemental might be able to. He's staying there to do what he can, and as a focus if we need one. Mom can’t get away from work on short notice, that’s kind of typical of medical care. Grandpa and I between us should be able to summon any of a lot of different kinds of liminals and negotiate with them. We just need to figure out what to call.”

“I can call Jade and see what she thinks.”

“Please. I really hope Mark can put up with Vadin being around, that’s a really different relationship than the house liminals, and Lexa has that whole thing about intruders trespassing in her territory. Grandpa likes hard beds, he'll be fine on the futon in the guest room.”

“Lexa tolerates what’s important to you even when she doesn’t like it. I don't think that's going to be a problem. Let me know when, and we can go pick them up at the airport.”

“Okay.”

“I'm sure between you, you’ll have it all dealt with in no time flat.”

“I almost hope we can't. Then they'll stay for a while. This kind of thing never happened before they left.”

Eric snuck a peek at Christian while he transferred the eggs to a plate that already held bacon. The toast popped up, right on cue, and he took the plate to the table. “Chris, your mom was here a long time. She missed her family.”

“So they left me to deal with this alone!”

He sounds like a hurt little kid. “I think I resent that. What exactly are Mark and I? Hallucinations?” He'd've liked to add Val to the list, if not Sara, but to mention one would be to prompt thoughts of the other.

“You know what I mean!”

“Yeah, actually, I do. Welcome to life as an adult. This is the first time things have gotten really rough since you've been on your own, and you want to just give up? I thought you were stronger than that! Damn it, you giving up is exactly why they're doing this!” He bit his lip hard, but it was already out; it hurt too much, watching Christian like this, it made it hard to watch what he said.

Christian raised his head from buttering his toast, and there was something other than depression in his eyes. Not necessarily something that boded well for Eric, but it was better than apathy. “Excuse me?” Soft as his voice was, there was a distinct edge to it.

Eric took a chance, praying he wasn't misjudging. “It's one thing to have them come back so you can do something together that none of you can do alone, and for them to maybe see what they can do while they're here. It's something else altogether to want them to stay so everything can go back to how it was when you were a kid. The price of being protected is the ability to make your own choices, you only get one or the other. You want the freedom to study whatever you want, to go to Kitty Corner with Lexa and stay until they close, to bring home a cat without asking anyone's permission? Then you pay for it by facing your own life and dealing with the shit when it happens. Even without your parents, you aren't alone. You have friends who are loyal enough to stand by you regardless of what we've all been accused of. Instead of wailing about how hard it is, get your act together and start looking at how many resources you have to fight it with.”

Christian very carefully set the half-buttered toast on the plate and walked out of the kitchen.

Eric sighed. Please, don't let me have said more than I should have.

He didn't see Christian again before he left for class, nor when he came home afterwards. He settled himself at his computer, tried to work on a program for school, but gave up when he realized he'd accomplished only ten minutes' worth of work in almost an hour.

Maybe he should go looking for Christian and apologize?

A hunch told him to stay here.

With a sigh, he got up to visit the bathroom, and returned to find Sid lying in his computer chair. The cat twisted to look at him upside-down and said, “Mrrrp?”

Eric chuckled, and dropped to one knee to pet him for a few minutes before gently evicting him off the chair. Sid made himself at home on the bed, instead.

“Eric?”

Eric pulled his attention away from his game, looked at the clock, and looked again. He would've sworn he hadn't been playing more than an hour or so. He spun the chair around to face Christian, hesitating in the doorway. “C'mon in.”

Not exactly Christian, Eric amended mentally, when the witch came into the light cast by the lamp. Kit, instead, which was interesting.

“Sorry,” she said softly. “I didn't react very well this morning. You don't get any points for tact, but you were right. And I didn't want you to be.”

“You're definitely right about the lack of tact. You'd think I could've found a nicer way to put it.”

“I think I really need to just snuggle for a while.”

Eric got up immediately and gave her a hug. “Silly. You didn't need to bother shapeshifting for that.”

Kit shrugged, and gave him something a little like her real smile. “Nothing to it. Female's the natural form for mammals anyway, male's just a variation on it. Making sure I can't get pregnant is harder. I didn't do that bit.”

“Point noted. Want to move that cat? Who is, incidentally, getting fur all over my pillow?”

“Don't need to move him.” Kit curled up carefully around Sid, who mrrped at her and began to purr. There was plenty of room for Eric to coil himself around Kit's back and hug her close. “Are they ever going to leave us alone?” she asked, more quietly.

“Once they know that nothing they do can beat you, yes.”

She sighed, pressed warmly against him, fingers rubbing Sid's ears and along the line of his jaw deftly. “Great. So we just have to live through everything else they can think of to throw at us.”

If only he could do something more to help... but he couldn't, so he ran a hand gently over her hair, soothingly. “We'll get through it.”