Chapter 5: Inmate Spells

Frankly, as chats with police who had arrived to find me standing in the middle of what looked like a warzone went, the three hours we spent down at the station with Sheriff Swan were actually rather pleasant. The Timberly's seemed perfectly willing to buy that the explosion that had redecorated their Bed and Breakfast had been the result of a gas leak, a explanation Thomas had helpfully supplied. The fact that the explosion had been directed inwards, and that there was no actual gas source to speak of, didn't really seem to occur to them. The sheriff seemed less inclined to buy that story, but he was pulled from the interrogation room by a phone call from his daughter before he could ask too many questions. With our hosts unwilling to press charges and no real reason to book us Thomas and I were quickly released with a warning not to leave town before the sheriff's office had a chance to finish their investigation.

The fact that the officer Swan had left with us had been a rather attractive blonde had probably helped too, though to her credit she made us fill out every single sheet of paperwork before slipping Thomas her phone number. We were then promptly reunited with Mouse, who as a consummate professional had spent his time in the station happily wolfing down the treats he had charmed out of every officer in the station. Meanwhile I got a bill for the tow truck they'd called for my car.

Sometimes life just isn't fair.

Leaving the station, we had then backtracked to the Timberly's Bed and Breakfast, where we were resettled in a much smaller room on the first floor, which also happened to have a far smaller bed, and no couch to speak of. For the moment, however, our sleeping arraignments were the furthest thing from my mind.

"Okay, the police have been dealt with, now," I paused for a moment, looking to the wall just to make sure no one was planning on coming through it before continuing. "Now, what the hell is really going on here?"

Thomas, who had also glanced at the wall suspiciously, turned back to me with a sigh, running his fingers through hair that had managed to stay perfectly coiffed through our battle and interrogation.

"Harry, how much do you know about the White Court?"

"Enough to advise against being related to one."

That earned me a dirty look.

"I know enough about the basics. That they're one of the major supernatural powers and probably the most human seeming of the four species of vampire, they feed on a range of different emotions to sustain their power, which stems from a demonic parasite, and they're entire culture is based around making sure everyone knows how clever they are."

Despite my somewhat flippant attitude, the White Court really were a seriously terrifying bunch. Not as physically powerful as the Red or Black Courts, at least not without expending a lot of power, in many ways they were even more threatening. While the Black Court had been nearly wiped out, and the Red Court preferred to control and dominate through raw power and conversion, the White Court was far subtler in their infiltration of mortal society. Want to get an idea of what I mean? The Red Court took over most of Latin America through helping to encourage numerous brushfire wars and counterrevolutions to throw the entire region into chaos while securing dominance over every power that really mattered. The White Court? They took over the porno industry. Not exactly impressive sounding, until you realize that one of their biggest weaknesses is the inverse emotion of what they feed on. Wrath, peace. Fear, courage. Lust, love. By flooding the market with pornographic movies custom designed to specifically cheapen the act of sex into a base carnal act, they've been working to systematically undermine and degrade their major weakness, all while staying completely under the supernatural community's radar. Black Court vampires will rip your head off, Red Court will blow up your neighborhood and systematically murder everyone you love, but the White Court will stab you in the back and make you thank them and ask for another.

Given my personal connection with several key members of the court I'd worked to amass as much knowledge about them as I could, but given that the White Court was built a web of deceit that made the CIA and MI6 look like high school cheerleader gossip, there was a better than average chance that most to all of what I knew was exactly what they wanted me to know.

Of course, my brother knew all this already, what with it being the reason why he had a perfect six pack after never working out a day in his life, and a life that was, if possible, even more screwed up than mine.

For a minute Thomas got that look that said he was having a rather serious conversation with himself, and I was forced to wait with my usual patience and restraint as I rubbed Mouse behind the ears.

Okay, so maybe I started humming the Jeopardy theme 30 seconds in.

Okay, so it was 10 seconds.

An entirely undeserved pillow to the face later, and Thomas seemed to come to a decision. "We're visiting my cousins."

I stared at him for a good long minute.

"Your…cousins." I knew Thomas had Cousins. I'd personally killed a few, and shed about zero tears over it. None of them had, to my knowledge, sparkled.

"You know, after all the long rambling explanations I've had to endure from you I feel like I should draw this out more. How surprised would you be if I said the White Court didn't always look the way we do now?"

Not very was the honest answer. Much as the various supernatural powers liked to make out as if they'd always been around, in truth they were just as prone to fluctuations as the mortal community. The White Council of wizards was formed in the aftermath of the Roman Empire, the Black Court of vampires had nearly been whipped out less than 200 years ago, and that wasn't even getting into the Spring and Autumn Fairy Courts. It figured that the White Court in its current form hadn't always been around, and for a group as big on appearances as them, this would be a big deal.

I indicated as much, and he shrugged, "Well then, there you have it. My own personal Clampett Cousins are getting into a bit of trouble and Lara sent me to check it out, and I brought you along for backup."

Okay, that was about the most useless bit of exposition I'd ever been given, and trust me, I've received some pretty useless exposition. Surging to my feet, I began to pace across the rather well worn carpet covered in swirling designs and flowers in faded pastel. "So you're telling me that there's a primitive offshoot of the White Court living in the Northwestern United States?"

"Yes."

"And this offshoot, that I've never heard of before, and which sparkles by the way, is having some sort of trouble?"

"Pretty much."

"And this trouble, which you have yet to describe by the way, is something that Lara, your Lara, the Lara who never does anything ever up to and including the delivery boy unless it plays into some grand master scheme that will likely result in her looking unbearably smug, the two of us beaten to hell, and a lot of innocent people dead, that Lara is so concerned about her extended family she's previously tried her best to murder that she sent her rogue brother and the wizard whose sworn to stop her to try and help them."

Thomas sat there on the soft comfy bed with the most enragingly enigmatic expression on his face. Bastard probably practiced in front of the mirror. "Yep. Also, you don't want to know how Lara tips the Pizza boy."

Suddenly the urge to set something on fire was very near and temptingly lifting its dress to show off a lot of leg. "Okay man, you need to give me something to go on here, either an explanation that actually makes some damn sense or a very very good reason why I shouldn't walk out that door and hitch the first ride back to Chicago."

Then Thomas, who had been doing his level best impression of a marble statue looked me straight in the eyes and said, "Because I need you to understand I can't tell you more right now, I need you to know that I have a good reason for not, I need you to trust me, and most of all," here he hesitated, and something broke through the ultra cool vampire mask for a moment, "Because I need your help man."

Well damn. There it was. It didn't matter that I was walking into a situation nearly blind, not a great place for a wizard to be. Didn't matter that I'd barely been in this town a few hours and already something insanely fast and deadly had tried to off me. Didn't even matter that by being here I was probably working right into the hands of one of the most deadly enemies I'd ever gone up against. No, none of that mattered, because Thomas was family. Whatever our differences, whatever our arguments, none of that mattered in the face of that single, inescapable fact, more solid than stone or steel. He was family, and I don't walk away when family needs me.

Not ever.

Sighing, I sat back down on the bed, taking a moment to tug my jacket out of the way so it didn't get caught. "Okay, where do we start?"

"The representative of my cousins in the area, a guy named Carlisle. Carlisle Cullen."

I'm pretty sure somewhere thunder was booming dramatically.