Cáel Defeats The Illuminati, Book 3: Part 15

A Butterfly wants to kill the World?

By FinalStand. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels.

Although Love is both fire and shadow, we often forget to take comfort from the coolness of the memories when the burning flames are absent
{3:00 pm Sunday, September 7th ~ last day}
“Now aren’t you glad we tagged along?” Pamela said loudly enough to draw attention from the onlookers. She was still beating me up for sending Juanita away and for running off with an avatar-Goddess of the Cult of the Jaguar. But we would have been drawing attention anyway.

See, I was in my least-favorite place to get beat up: the Full-blooded gym at Havenstone. Oh, the Amazons knew me by now. They knew Pamela too. It was my other four ‘guests’ which were drawing the attention/ire. Three were 'outsider’ women:
FBI Special Agent Virginia Maddox was known to a few of the Security Services and the Security Detail Amazons, who quickly spread the word about who she was. If they hadn’t, well her grey workout attire with yellow FBI lettering on it would have helped clarify any confusion.
The other two were New York Police officers Nikita Kutuzov and her mother, Larisa (aka 'The Desk Sergeant’). Those two were with me because Larisa had been insistent on coming and Pamela had publically announced it was a ’capital idea’, there-by vacating my veto.
“I thought you were a bigwig?” Larisa Kutuzov had accused me.
“I am, but she scares everyone,” I’d shrugged helplessly. Larisa then looked to Pamela, who shrugged as if she couldn’t understand why anyone would be afraid of her. So those two, dressed in navy blue workout attire labeled NYPD with golden lettering, were also accompanying me into Pain Central.
Had those three outsiders not been with me, it wouldn’t really have mattered in the 'attention getting’ department because my fourth guest was Chaz. Yeah, Chaz. Mind you, Chaz hadn’t wanted to come either, but Pamela insisted I might need help before all this shit sorted itself out.
Chaz wasn’t as 'pretty’ as me, but compensated by possessing the aura of a professional elite warrior ~ calm, detached and unflappable in a crisis such as calmly walking into a room where 200 women wanted to kill you:
... a third of them wanted to rape you, then kill you,
... another third wanted to kill you by raping you (Chaz was awfully 'manly’ after all),
... and the balance just wanted to kill you and move on to whatever was next.
Now, what the fuck was I doing in the Full-blooded gym? I had promised to meet Oneida to discuss our hastily revealed 'Warrior’s Love’ during this morning’s council session, right before Rhada attacked her. But why was Oneida meeting me in the gym?
As I scanned about upon entry, I saw Oneida and my heart sank. My bad day clearly was not getting better. A portion of the sparring mats closest to me had been cleared out for a circular meeting of kneeling Amazons, who were most certainly waiting for 'Yours Truly’. Thirteen Amazons were waiting for me. I knew them all, five intimately. Closest to my left were three members of House Zorja: House Head Jana, her Apprentice Marlene and my old buddy Elsa.
To their left were Shawnee and Oneida of House Arinniti. Opposite me was the Keeper of Records, Krasimira, with the augur Tadêfi and their guardians; Sikia and the persistently with Krasimira whose name I’d never gotten. Beside them were Mahdi and Rhada. Closing the circle were the Head and Apprentice of House Bendis: Klavdiya and Gale.
The moment I saw Tadêfi, any half-assed plan I was cobbling together flew out the window. Sikia was holding Tadêfi’s hand which she clenched when she caught sight of me. I hadn’t believed I would ever see the augur alive again, yet here she was. Fuck it all. I was vaguely aware of Pamela telling Chaz and Virginia to 'clear the road’.
“Ishara,” the Apprentice of House Maeve, Rhonwenn, decided to make a protest in front of the onlookers, “these strangers are not welcome.” She moved toward me. By the five companions she was bringing along, she expected some level of resistance. Fortunately, she was addressing me/us in Old Kingdom Hittite, which meant only Pamela and I understood what the heck she was saying.
“Rhonwenn,” I turned on her with teary eyes, “the Mother of my first born daughter is here when it was prophesied I would never hold her again this side of the cliffs. If I hug her, I can hug them both and show them I share my love,” I led with my heart’s song.
“First born?” Rhonwenn frowned.
“Yes...