September 15, 2005 – 7:30
Coralis and her Head Crew slept at their headquarters that night. The property had two subbasements. In the northeast corner of the first basement, which was to become their war room, they lined up their sleeping bags, which felt like lying in an actual bed when in it, and in the room next to it, they set up a portable shower and toilet. They had a portable toilet outside for their workers, but neither of them wanted to walk outside to use it.
While she was putting her sleeping bag away, Frank messaged Coralis to let her know he arrived with his mother, sister and brother, and that they were outside the fence.
"Breakfast is here!" said Coralis, leaving the room with Sebastian.
"Oh good, I need coffee," said Chiwa.
Coralis delicately unlocked the front door and saw Stephanie and Molly standing across the protective fence, Frank and Raymond laughing behind them.
"I will admit, when I heard that you bought an abandoned building, and thank you for the liquor, I didn't know what to expect, but I certainly was not expecting a condemned building looking like it could collapse at any moment," said Raymond as she let them through the fence.
Coralis was about to close it when she saw Clancy, one of her shifter liaisons recruits, running toward them, holding his hard hat in one hand.
"Clancy! Glad you could join us this morning!" said Coralis as she introduced her third shifter liaison to her family.
"Thank you for hiring me, the honour to be here this morning is mine."
"The structure will not collapse on any one of us, don't you worry. Don't get fooled by its condition, that place is gold," said Sebastian, smiling.
"And you will not fall off through floors either. It will take us a long time to restore this place because we don't want people and neighbouring businesses to suspect what we are, but we couldn't pass on that building. The tip Raymond gave us was useful, it took no time to sign the deed and get the permits we needed," said Coralis, indicating them to follow her.
"I kid you not, the city was desperate to find a new owner for this place, so they rushed the procedures for us to acquire it and get the permits," said Sebastian.
"I can see why," said Raymond, chuckling.
Following Coralis and Sebastian toward a staircase leading to the floors below, they looked at the half-demolished walls and broken windows covered by pieces of plywood.
"I am guessing that you use magic to make sure the floors would be safe for us to walk on?" said Molly.
"Yes, same for the walls to make sure they won't collapse. There were holes on all floors. We secured the floors, walls and stairways using spells, but everything else will be done by workers," said Coralis, going down the first flight of stairs.
"That place must be infested with rodents and bugs," said Raymond.
"It was, but not anymore," said Sebastian.
"If you don't want people to suspect what you are, how can you have the work done without accidentally revealing yourselves to the workers? Won't they suspect the use of magic to secure the flooring and walls?" said Molly.
"Werewolves certified and part of the construction union are doing the works," said Coralis.
"We have wolf packs offering us members to help out. They would have done it for free had we let them, but with the amount of work that needs to be done, we insisted on paying them the ongoing rate. We'll also write down receipts and checks, just in case we get audited by the city or something," said Sebastian before answering a hologram call from his dad.
"Good to know, so no need to talk in codes when workers are here?" said Clancy.
"No need, but watch what you're saying if city representatives are here," said Coralis as Sebastian explained to his father where he could discreetly open the fence and the way to where their crew was.
"Smart. I have friends working construction who could have helped, but it's probably better to hire werewolves to prevent the risk of exposing what you are," said Raymond as they walked a hallway leading to their war room.
"Mark told me the same thing when I talked to him yesterday. The damn hunt might be finally over, but we still need people to believe they're humans. Why do you think Steph had all of them, including us, wearing hard hats and steel-toe boots?" said Frank as they entered the room Coralis's crew was in.
"Speaking of which," said Coralis, looking at Clancy. "As I said to you on the phone yesterday morning, don't forget to give me your receipts for your hat and boots, we will reimburse you."
Sebastian ended his hologram call.
"I so love these boots, I think I'll keep wearing them outside of our HQ," said Sonylla, putting them on.
"Welcome to our future war room," said Coralis while Panjik introduced himself to Clancy, Raymond and Molly.
Stephanie placed a tank of coffee on a table, and Frank distributed breakfast sandwiches. Ralphonse and Hector entered the war room soon after, along with Livia, Sebastian's mother.
"High Mage, how does it feel? It's about to be truly official," said Molly.
"Feels weird, I didn't want the role. I don't understand why they insisted that I take it. In my opinion, even if I know that I'm not the youngest and that Roz is barely older than me, I'm way too young for it and especially after what happened at the SK lab, I should never have been appointed as a sub-elder. I'm a Shadow Elemental member after all."
"Aren't they about to disperse?" said Ralphonse.
"Yes, they are, but I don't know when. I was considering remaining independent for a bit, maybe potentially working as a pack witch for local packs, or as a private investigator, something like that, while I watch how the reform pans out from the outside."
"It kinds of put you as pack witch of all local packs," said Stephanie.
"From what Eva told me, the wolves are one of the main reasons why they wanted her for that specific district. They even had to redraw their territory division because an alpha whose pack was right across D.Eight insisted on being in Blue's district for him to support it," said Sebastian.
"Let me guess, Alpha Gary?" said Sonylla.
"Same for the squirrels. We weren't involved in the war, but we saw what happened to the wolves. My clan is based near the White Moon pack, and my leader supported the reform because of Alpha Gary's request," said Clancy.
"Yes, it was Alpha Gary. Plus, she is well respected by just about all vampires in northeastern North America. People either respect her or fear her, but either way, she has influence, and we know she can lead. I agree with her reasoning, but I also understand where the elders were coming from, and why she's a logical choice for the position. At least for this district," said Ralphonse.
"I could have protested it because I never had a direct contract with the CMMA, so it was a job offer I could have turned down. In the end, I didn't because Frank thought it was a good idea. When I sat in jail in Sri Lanka, the three Core Elders made sure he was okay and that he was kept informed. That meant a lot to me as they didn't have to do that."
"True, that was Sebastian's job to keep him informed as your authorized elemental contact. The elders went beyond that," said Sonylla.
"Numerous times through this faction war and hunt, they went out of their way for me and helped me to keep Frank safe. I can't ignore that. Seeing that they cleaned up their house, maybe I would have been interested again to join them, provided it's not under Tobly, but I don't think they should have appointed me High Mage. Under this reform, I would have been fine working for Emery, but it is what it is. Mate is happy with it, so I'll deal with it."
"You couldn't decline because you attacked and killed an elder," said Panjik.