Human Purity Alliance (Hypernaturals 4)

The Engine is Still Warm

When Anne, Denise, and I arrived at my house, Helen's car innocently parked in its usual spot as if it had never been gone. In IR, I could see the engine is still very warm. She arrived recently.

Fuck! Oh my God!

Denise and Anne exchanged a look, and I know they are both surprised to see it, and also slightly worried about what it might mean. They know Helen, and they knew she left angry. Specifically, Helen angry with/at me.

Denise and Anne have a deep respect for Helen, and part of that respect maps to a healthy fear. Helen is Council: Youngest member ever, as far as oral history goes. Strong. Ambitious. Influential. Dangerous as all hell. Anne and Denise are trained and practicing killers, but Helen is very good at everything. Politician. Fighter. You name it. Helen can kill both directly and indirectly.

As we went inside, I inhaled deeply, trying to catch a hint of Helen's mood from her scent. I could smell tears. She is not happy, but that required no Hypersenses as it is easy to see on her face and the way she held her body. Helen and Jessica sat with coffees at the dining room table next to the kitchen. Neither are doing backflips of joy.

I went to the kitchen and observed the coffee carafe. "Coffee Anne? Denise? It's decaf. Sidamo, medium roast. Freshly ground." I might as well use my Hypersenses for something useful, like coffee identification.

Both accepted and took seats at the table. Whatever Jessica and Helen had been talking about they tabled for now.

"What happened?" Jessica asked.

I thought that an odd question. She could hear from the boat.

I snapped to the why of that. Jessica beat us back home. That meant she left early because she had to dock the boat first. I had been so wrapped up in the HPA and my friends' conversations (not to mention Denise's goofing on me), I did not notice the 'Nightwing' power up and cruise away.

Jessica left and I did not notice. Fuck me.

Jessica had been there at first so math said she and Helen could not have had much time to talk.

"What part did you leave during?" I asked, sitting with my coffee after having served Anne and Denise.

"Before they brought the food." Jessica said. She sounded down.

"I did not hear any of it. Might as well start at the beginning." Helen said, waving her hand at all of us as if to extract information with a magical swirl of a non-existent wand.

In perfect timing, my phone rang. Morgan calling. I put the phone in the center of the table. "Hi, Morgan. Putting you on speaker with Jessica, Helen, Anne, and Denise. Sipping Sidamo decaf, fresh roasted and ground, in case you needed some color for that."

Morgan did not miss the bit about Helen being in attendance "Vera and Angel are here, also on speaker. After that meeting, I need Scotch. Doesn't even need to be good Scotch, only a great deal of it."

"We have a quorum it seems." Vera noted. Then she added: "Or Tequila. I could use that. I need to wash my brain out. God those people suck ass!"

We took turns reciting the conversation for Helen's benefit but also as a sort of comparing notes. We got the occasional color commentary from the phone like "Yeah: She said that, but you should have seen her face! What a fucking witch." Mostly the commentary came from Vera. Neither Morgan nor Angel contradicted her on any of the aspersions she cast.

It took an hour to recount, and several of our drinks were strengthened with liquor along to way: Jameson or Black Bush added to the others decaf coffee. I do not really like decaf. The processing changes the flavor too much for me in my post-Vampire sensory days. I did like Morgan's idea, however, and pulled out some Dewar's, and put it on a big cube. Only two fingers. Helen is here and I need to keep my shit together for a change.