How to Deal with War

Chapter One: Book One - Heather and Those Powerful Witches

[Warning! This chapter should only be read after the epilogue of How to Tame a Cat. If you read this before you finish HTTAC, you will likely find spoilers.]

~Chapter One: Book One – Heather and Those Powerful Witches~

"Stay behind us."

The whispered order makes Heather frown, but it is too late to argue about her position on this mission, as they are already at the scene and delaying the Hellion team here would be a terrible idea. With the enemy just a quarter mile down the road, it is only a matter of time before the witches notice the miniature army of sixteen demons sneaking through the dark forest in their stupid white uniforms.

To be honest, she did not really want to go on this mission, especially not after what happened the last time she worked for the demons. Because of the stupid cutting spell she was hit with in the stomach a few days prior to visiting her brother at his cabin, Cade started getting suspicious. If something happens this time around, only a few days before she will be seeing her brother again, it will be hard to get out of answering any of his questions.

However, just because she did not want to return to field missions right away does not mean she wanted to be sidelined when she is assigned a new mission anyway. At the very least, they could let her take down a few bad guys. While Heather knows, as the only Were among highly-trained warrior demons, she is the weakest link to this seventeen-person team, that does not mean she cannot pull her own weight.

Yet they refuse to let her shift. Apparently, since she is only on this mission as someone who can use advanced technology, she needs to retain her human hands. After all, this entire mission is just to retrieve files from a closed server in a demon-base-turned-witch-camp after the demons who lived here were overrun. She is also supposed to then wipe the hard drive to make sure no one else gets the highly-encrypted, top secret files.

Apparently, they don't teach Hellions how to use computers in training...

With a silent sigh, Heather obediently follows the well-armed group of Hellions in their pristine white uniforms, which cannot possibly be considered stealthy. It takes less than a handful of minutes before they happen upon the fallen base, which is nothing more than a cluster of cabins along the side of a usually-abandoned road. The cabins are clearly occupied, as all the lights are on and some even have smoke coming out of their chimneys.

Outside, there are five witches lingering on the porch of one of the middle cabins, which should be no problem for her team, but there is no doubt in Heather's mind that there are more inside or currently out of sight, which might be a little harder. Even if the witches are not as strong as the demons, they can still do a lot of damage, especially if they have numbers. If there are too many of them, they might even have to call for backup, which is forty minutes behind, waiting with the cars.

All of witches she can see are wearing thick cloaks to fight off the frigid night air of Montana, though it likely would have been wiser to wear actual coats. Since when have villains ever been rational when they can be dramatic?

Rolling her eyes, she hangs back at the edge of the forest when she sees the sergeant in charge of the team signal her to stop. While she would much rather stick with them, as she does need protection when she is not in the body of a giant cat with giant claws, Heather figures that there will be a fight the moment the witches see the demons and it would be safer to just follow orders until he fight is over.

Can't I at least shift until the danger is gone?

Sighing softly, Heather decides to sit at the base of a tree, half hidden by the trunk in case she needs to duck fully behind it to hide from rogue magic. Of the fights she has been in, she knows how messy the Hellions can be when using their magic. They seem to think brute strength and showing off their powerful magic will win them the battles. It is likely why they lost against the Fae, though she would never say that to a demon's face. It would likely lead to her hair being fried off, and she is rather fond of her hair.