Chapter 178: 140. Buried Secrets

"Finally!" the blonde wolfgirl stated as her ears twitched.

Nina and I looked at each other, then my little sister asked "You hear something?"

"Ambulance siren," Kaylee replied. Her tall fuzzy ears were twitching as well, so were Melanie's. All three pairs of ears were pointing in the same direction, sort of south and west. Then my girlfriend added, "They're probably still a minute or two away."

The five of us were waiting around next to the van, we had Rick Kovacs laying on the ground next to us. Almost fifteen minutes had passed since Cerys made the call, but the dispatcher warned it would take some time to get emergency services out to our location.

While we were waiting I'd conjured up a blanket and had it folded up under Rick's head like a small pillow. I'd have got a second one to put over him, but it was the middle of summer so I figured a blanket was overkill.

After another few seconds I could hear the siren too, and about a half minute later an ambulance came into view. There was a police car as well, and they both had their lights flashing.

Cerys waved them down, although it looked like they were already slowing anyways. The ambulance pulled off onto the shoulder just ahead of our van, while the police car stopped right on the road next to us. Then the two ambulance attendants emerged from their vehicle, while two cops stepped out of their cruiser.

"Kaylee?!" Mr. Holt gasped in surprise as he hesitated a moment.

My girlfriend gestured, "Dad c'mon! The guy's right here."

Alison Sinclair was carrying a couple bags of gear as she moved past Mr. Holt, but even she hesitated when she finally noticed what Kaylee looked like. The two cops were staring wide-eyed as well. In fact it wasn't just my girlfriend, all four of the new arrivals were also staring at Melanie and Cerys. In all the excitement followed by all the waiting, the two wolfgirls had neglected to switch to their human forms.

My girlfriend ignored the stares, she actually acted very business-like and professional as she stated "The victim is over here. He was laying on the side of the road, but we didn't see any injuries on him. There's no sign that he was hit by a car or anything? I think maybe he just collapsed?"

That was enough to get the two EMTs moving again, both Ms. Sinclair and Mr. Holt crouched down next to Kovacs and started checking him over.

Kaylee stood next to them as she continued, "I know you're not supposed to move people like that, but we were scared a car might actually hit him so we carefully moved him further onto the shoulder. And we put that little blanket under his head to keep him comfortable. He's been unconscious the whole time, we don't know what's wrong with him."

"Thanks Kaylee," Mr. Holt replied. "Can you please move back now? Me and Alison need to work."

Then one of the cops added, "Can you girls all come over here please? We need to take some statements."

None of us were eager to do that, but we had enough time while we were waiting that we came up with a story that would hopefully sound convincing. Kaylee already shared most of it with her dad, so the five of us just had to repeat it a few times.

"What's with the costumes?" the other cop asked as he frowned at the two wolfgirls and my girlfriend.

The small kitsune looked up at him and with a totally straight face asked, "What costumes?"

The two cops stared at her for a second, then looked at each other. If it hadn't been such a serious situation it almost would have been funny, watching the unspoken communication pass back and forth between the two men. Like they wondered if they should point out the fuzzy ears and floofy tails, or should they just pretend they didn't see any of that stuff. And after a moment they both wordlessly agreed to ignore the ears and tails, like it never happened.

After that it was pretty boring again as they interviewed each of us. Cerys went first since she called it in, but the basic story stayed the same no matter who was telling it. We told them we were going to do some hiking in the nature preserve since it was a nice sunny day, but on the way to our favourite spot we saw this guy laying on the side of the road. So we stopped to check on him, realized he was unconscious, and called nine-one-one.

At one point while my little sister was repeating her version of the story I noticed Ms. Sinclair looking at us kind of funny, like she didn't believe anything we'd said. For a moment I wasn't sure what to make of that, until I remembered the other thing Cerys relayed from Melody's text on Friday. The shapeshifter warned us that her dad might be working with the council again, and was possibly keeping an eye on Club Luna.

I also hadn't forgotten that those other council agents were the ones who lured us out to the cave in the first place. That's how they knew Melanie was a werewolf, they saw her wolfgirl form on the pictures their trail-cam captured. Which meant Alison Sinclair probably knew about the cave, and she'd know that we knew about the cave as well. She might not have known Rick Kovacs was in the cave, but the way Alison was looking at me and my friends left me thinking she suspected we had something to do with his condition.

That left me with a cold feeling in my gut, and I tried not to stare back at her. I couldn't help feeling uneasy though. Especially knowing that this incident was just going to make us look worse, like having the wolfgirls and my girlfriend being obviously non-human in front of police and EMTs was definitely going to get the council people uptight.

I was just starting to think about what to do when I felt that calm confidence settle over me. My anxiety spiked deep inside, even as not-me took control of things.

"Please don't hurt Ms. Sinclair?" I asked my other-self before she could do anything. "Melody's our friend, she asked us not to hurt her dad."

Not-me replied calmly, "Don't worry Cass. I'm not going to hurt anyone. I'm just going to take a little peek."

Fortunately nobody else heard either of us talking, or at least nobody reacted when me and not-me spoke to each other, so I assumed they didn't hear anything. Meanwhile we were looking over at Alison again, as she and Mr. Holt carefully moved Kovacs onto a stretcher.

And I wasn't sure what my other self meant by taking a little peek, but I assumed she was going to have a look in Alison's mind or something. Except if that's what she did, I wasn't aware of it. I didn't see or hear or sense anything unusual as we continued to watch the EMTs.

As they started moving the stretcher towards the open doors at the back of the ambulance my girlfriend suddenly spoke up.

"How is he?" Kaylee asked as she moved closer to them. "Is he going to be ok?"

Mr. Holt replied, "We don't know yet hon. He's stable though, so I'm sure the doctors will get him sorted out soon enough."

"You two know each other?" one of the cops asked, as he looked at Mr. Holt but gestured towards Kaylee.

Mr. Holt nodded, "She's my daughter. Now if you'll all excuse me, we need to get moving."

He and Alison got the stretcher secured into the back of the ambulance. Then Ms. Sinclair sat down next to Kovacs and continued to look after him while my girlfriend's dad moved back and closed the doors. He let the cops know they were heading to the hospital, then he climbed into the ambulance cab and they set off. That left the five of us with the two cops, who didn't seem to be in any hurry to wrap things up and let us go.

"Did you find anything?" I quietly asked my other self.

She replied, "Yes. I confirmed Melody's suspicions, Alison Sinclair is once again working for the council."

I gulped, "Please don't hurt her? I know you said you'd attack any council people you found..."

"I'm not going to hurt her Cass," not-me responded in a tone that made me think she was rolling her eyes. "I'm definitely going to keep an eye on her though. She's supposed to be watching us, but I'll be watching her."

That didn't make me feel much better, but before I could ask anything else all the confidence drained away and I was alone again, feeling a combination of anxiety and dread. On the other hand the cops finally seemed to be wrapping things up. It was only another minute or two before they let us leave.

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We all climbed back into the mini-van, then Cerys slowly pulled out and turned us around. Then we started off for home again, while the cops stayed behind.

"That was frustrating," Cerys stated.

Melanie added, "I'm sure it didn't help that we forgot to shift back to human."

"Although considering Kaylee's always got the ears and tails out maybe it wouldn't have mattered either way," the older wolfgirl added.

My girlfriend shrugged, "The cops got over it pretty fast."

"Alison Sinclair was staring at us though," Nina pointed out. "If she's with the council then she's going to report that three of us revealed the supernatural to the public. Or the cops and Mr. Holt anyways."

Not-me prompted me to say something, so I sighed "We need to talk about that. Not until we get home though, so Willow and Sasha can be part of the conversation."

"Ok Cass," Cerys responded. "We should have a club debrief anyways, so everyone knows what went down in the cave today."

Kaylee asked, "Are we going to let Melody know about any of this? I know she's not part of the club anymore, but she's definitely involved in this incident. She's the one who told us Rick was missing, and he's her friend. Or her boyfriend's friend, anyways."

The blonde wolfgirl shrugged, "I'm sure we'll tell her something. We'll figure out what exactly as part of our meeting."

We were mostly quiet for the rest of the drive home, apart from some discussion about grabbing something cold and refreshing before we got home. So we stopped at the ice cream place, and we made sure to get ice creams for Willow and Sasha as well. Then we went straight home from there, so we could all enjoy our cones together.

The cute sorceress and my cousin were both pleasantly surprised by the frozen treats, and all seven of us ended up sitting out in the backyard together. Then as we enjoyed our ice creams we took turns recounting the tale of our latest experience in the cave.

Both Sasha and Willow were especially curious about the pale green magic that seemed to be holding Rick in a kind of stasis, and my cousin agreed that it was probably a good idea that I didn't try and absorb that into myself.

"Frankly I have no idea what the different colour could mean," she commented between licks of her vanilla praline cone. "My guess though is it's something fundamentally different than any other magic we know. And considering you've seen divine, demonic, fae, and human magic and all four of those appear purple to you, that suggests this was different on a much deeper, more profound level."

Willow added, "It's a good thing your dispell worked on it. If it was that different then I'd have worried it was incompatible? Like a 'normal' dispell might not have worked on something so alien."

Cerys picked up the story at that point, with the four of us grabbing Rick's unconscious body and getting the heck out of there. Then she wrapped things up with the ambulance and police and stuff, and how Rick was in hospital now and hopefully he'd be ok soon.

We were all just about finished our cones by the time the story was over, and I had my last few bites of tiger tail ice cream at the bottom of my waffle cone. Then I felt that sense of confidence again, and I knew not-me was back.

"Cerys mentioned that the EMTs were Mr. Holt and Ms. Sinclair," my other self said to the others. "And with Melody's warning in mind, I took the opportunity to examine her father's thoughts."

Melanie grimaced, "Right. So what did you find out? Is Alison working for the council?"

"She is," not-me nodded, "But she's not doing so willingly, and she's not happy about the situation."

My other self continued, "Ms. Sinclair has been tasked with keeping an eye on the seven of us, along with my parents. She's also supposed to find out exactly what happened to those other agents."

Kaylee frowned, "What in the world is wrong with those people? They have to know that going up against a goddess is going to end badly for them."

Not-me replied, "They don't believe I'm a goddess. Nor do they suspect that Nina is a demon, or that our parents are angels. They don't know you're part-demon either, Kaylee. They know Cerys and Melanie are werewolves, and they know Willow is a sorceress. They believe the rest of us are witches."

"They don't even know May Hawthorne is a goddess," she added. "They think she's a rogue witch. They know she started Club Luna and has been teaching students magic, but that's about all they seem to know about her."

Cerys frowned, "Didn't Ms. Sutton tell them you're a goddess?"

My other self nodded, "She did, the council chose to disregard that part of her report. And Alison Sinclair in particular has reason to believe I'm nothing more than a normal mortal witch. After all, she was one of the attending EMTs when I was injured by May's magic last year."

The others were quiet for a few moments, until Willow spoke up with another question.

"So what are you going to do to her?" the sorceress asked. "Alison Sinclair, I mean? She's obviously inside your thousand-kilometre exclusion zone, and the council are ignoring your warning."

Not-me shook our head, "Nothing, for now. We all know she's watching us, but I will be watching her. We will not be surprised by the council again, I can guarantee that. So please, don't worry about Alison or the council. If the situation changes I'll let you know."

Cerys nodded, "Ok Cassandra. Thanks for the update."

"So that's about it then," our club leader added as she looked around at the others. "Rick Kovacs is in hospital, hopefully he'll be ok. And odds are nobody else knows about that cave, especially not the cops. Which is probably a good thing."

Sasha sounded uncertain as she asked, "Perhaps we should think about sealing the entrance? Even if it's not widely known, there are likely others who are aware of it. And I believe we can say it's probably not a safe place for normal mortals to explore?"

Not-me was still around, and she seemed to agree with that assessment. "It wouldn't take too much magic to arrange a little landslide on that hill, a few tonnes of dirt and debris should seal and conceal the entrance easily enough. We still have the coordinates, so we'd be able to find it again if necessary."

Everyone looked at Sasha then at us, then finally to Cerys for a final decision. And after a few seconds of thought, the blonde wolfgirl nodded.

"Ok," she responded quietly. "Cassandra, if you don't mind, maybe you can take care of that when you get a chance?"

My other self nodded once, "It will be done tonight."

~ End Of Episode Seventeen ~