Chapter 203: 157. Unlikely Ally

"I know it was only a short week," Violet commented, "But I'm glad it's Friday."

Sage nodded quietly while Jade agreed, "Yeah same. It's funny but I guess we had so much going on last weekend it wasn't very relaxing, despite having three days off."

Then Sasha asked, "Do you have any plans for this weekend?"

The purple-haired nymph shrugged, "Nothing special? I think we're just going to hang out and take it easy."

"I'll be visiting my woods again both tomorrow and Sunday," she added. "After not being there all week long I really feel it, you know? And I can tell the woods miss me too."

"I hope things will be ok for you over the winter," Sage said with a frown as her tail twitched back and forth. "It's not going to be too difficult for you, is it?"

Violet grimaced, "I honestly don't know? I imagine a lot of things will be dormant over the winter, but there's still plenty of evergreens. If I can get in to visit them once or twice a week it should be ok."

"How about you?" she asked my cousin and I. "Anything exciting planned?"

I grimaced, "Me and Kaylee are probably going to be watching another one of those live streams tonight? Those podcast people are doing a follow-up from last week."

It was late Friday afternoon and the five of us were all walking home from college together. The weather was ok considering it was basically the middle of October. The leaves had all turned colours though, and it was getting cold at night.

As we neared the corner where our neighbours would turn off to head to their place I asked, "Are you heading home now? Or did you want to come hang out with us for a bit?"

The three of them looked at each other, then Jade replied "I think we're just going home. I might see you tomorrow though, Melanie and Cerys invited me over."

"I'm pretty sure they want to talk to me about wolf stuff," she added quietly. "Whether it's good news or bad, I guess I'll find out then."

I had a feeling she was going to be disappointed, but I kept that to myself. I just nodded, "Ok then. Take care, I hope you all have a good evening."

The three of them bid me and Sasha a good afternoon too, then we went our separate ways. It was only a half minute or so from there to the house, and neither Sasha or I said anything else as the two of us walked the last couple dozen meters.

Just as we reached the end of the driveway we both heard the sound of a small motorbike or scooter come up behind us, and the two of us turned in time to see a girl pull up next to us on what looked like a little old-fashioned moped or something. Its red plastic panels were a bit faded, while the girl was wearing a pink open-faced helmet that had some cute stickers on the sides, like hearts and ponies and stuff like that.

She pulled right up alongside the Lunamobile then turned off the scooter's motor and set the kickstand. Then as she got off of it she pulled off her helmet and left it on the seat. Finally she adjusted her glasses before turning to look at me and my cousin.

I didn't know her, but I'd seen her at college a couple times. I'd spotted her in the halls once or twice, and I remembered seeing her in the cafeteria at least once.

She was about the same size as me. Her shoulder-length dark blonde hair was kind of messy from the helmet, and she didn't seem to have any make-up on apart from a bit of lipstick. She was dressed in white sneakers, blue jeans, and a pink hoodie. Over-all she had a sort of plain girl-next-door look to her, like if she did something with her hair and make-up and dressed up a bit she'd probably look pretty.

"Hello there," Sasha greeted the girl as the two of us moved past her towards the front door. "I don't believe we've met before. Was there something we can do for you?"

The girl nodded as she looked at me, "I need to speak with you, Cassandra."

"I can explain the subterfuge in private," she added in a half-whisper. "I believe you already know who I am. My name is Alison Sinclair."

I felt a little shock of surprise at that. But then Alison was a shape-shifter so she could take on pretty much any form she wanted. It left my mind racing though, as I wondered why she'd want to come and talk to me. Unless she wanted to change sides or something, like maybe she was going to quit the council and try to join us instead.

The other possibility was this was some elaborate ruse to get inside the clubhouse. Over a month had passed since Cassandra did all the protective wards and stuff, so there was no way for Alison to spy on us in there now. Despite seeing her in this form around the college a couple times I doubted she got any useful information there. Unless she overheard Sasha and I talking with our neighbours in the cafeteria, but even then we usually tried to avoid sensitive topics.

That's when my other self made her presence known. I felt the familiar sense of calm come over me as she sugested, "Let's let her in and see what she has to say."

I nodded and told Alison, "Um, ok? Let's go inside, we can talk there."

Sasha led the way and I followed behind Alison. The three of us went in the house, then into the living-room. The rest of the gang was already home, Nina Willow and the wolfgirls were playing video games while Kaylee sat crosslegged on one of the comfy chairs.

"Hey Cass!" my girlfriend greeted me. "Who's that?"

Melanie jumped to her feet with her nose twitching, "That's Alison Sinclair! I know her scent!"

Cerys Willow and Nina all got up as well, with everyone looking like they were ready for a fight or something.

"I know who she is," I told them. "She introduced herself outside. She said she wanted to speak with us, so I figured we should hear her out?"

Kaylee's tails were all twitching around as she gave Alison a suspicious look, "If you were just going to come and tell us who you were then why bother with the disguise?"

"Because I can't be certain I'm not being watched myself," the girl responded. "I wanted to warn you all, but I needed to do so in a way that wouldn't tip off any other Council agents that happened to be around."

A few uncertain looks were exchanged around the room, then Cerys asked "Warn us of what? Why are you even talking to us? We know you're supposed to be spying on us."

Alison nodded, "I know that you know. Why do you think I was so obvious about questioning Melody a couple months ago? I made sure she knew the council roped me into this, so she'd warn the rest of you."

Cerys and Melanie both looked suspicious, like they didn't quite believe that story. Meanwhile Cassandra asked me if she could take over, so I kind of pulled back while she moved forward.

"Why don't we all sit down and get comfortable, then hear her out?" my other half suggested. "There's no point jumping to conclusions just yet."

The others agreed, and everyone moved around to get seated. Cassandra and I were in one of the big chairs with Kaylee on our lap as usual, while Alison took the other chair next to us. Willow Nina and Sasha all sat on one of the sofas, and the two wolfgirls were together on the other sofa.

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Then our guest continued with her explanation, "In a few hours Laura and I will be getting on a plane and flying to New Zealand, for a four-week holiday. My coming here to see you first is a risk, but I wanted to let you know what was going on."

"I've been trying to convince the council to drop the investigation and leave you girls alone," she added.

Then Alison looked at me and Cassandra and stated, "I know you're a newly-ascended goddess, and I've told them that. They refuse to believe it though, because according to them there haven't been any new ascensions in more than five hundred years. So now they're sending someone else over here and I have a feeling things are going to get nasty."

There was a warning tone in her voice as she continued, "This guy is on their board of directors, and it's incredibly rare for someone like him to get personally involved in a case. His name's Carlos Nahuel and he's supposed to be an experienced demonologist, but that's all I know about him. Apparently he's assembled a hand-picked team and they're all due to arrive tomorrow."

"Go on," Cassandra stated calmly.

Our guest responded in a sombre tone, "There's a couple specific goals they want to achieve. First, they're going to try and determine if Kaylee and Sasha are under demonic corruption or possession. And if they confirm that, they're going to try and kill them."

Hearing that sent a shock of fear through me, while everyone else went completely silent.

"They also want to find out if Nina is the source of the corruption," Alison continued, "And if so they're going to try and neutralize her too. They also want to confirm that you're really a goddess, even though I've already told them that. So did Grace Sutton."

By the time she was finished I had a cold heavy feeling in my gut, and from the expressions on my friends' faces I could tell they were really uncomfortable with everything we just heard.

"Personally I expect the only thing Nahuel and his people are going to achieve is finding out first-hand what happened to Vargas and his team," our guest added after a brief pause.

Everyone remained quiet for the next few seconds, until Cassandra asked "Why are you telling us this? Why go to all this trouble, why take the chance to come here and warn us?"

"Because I'm on your side," she replied. "I know your club was never a threat to the general public, I know you've all done your best to keep things secret. You were never a threat to the council either, until they attacked you. So I've done what I could to try and convince them to drop it, and I made sure Melody would warn you that the council was still watching."

My other self asked, "If you're on our side then why wait so long to approach us? Why not talk to us yourself back in the summer, instead of tipping Melody off and hoping she'd warn us instead?"

Alison sighed, "Like I said, I can't be sure they're not watching me too. But now they're sending in the big guns, it's forced my hand. So I'm here to warn you in person. And to ask you for mercy. I'm here to ask you to spare my life, and the life of my sibling Arlene."

"Arlene managed to infiltrate the council a while back. Now she sits on their board of directors," she added with a grimace. "If you're going to wipe the entire council from existence, I'm asking you to please spare her along with myself."

We were all quiet again for the next few seconds. This time it was my little sister who finally broke the silence.

"Is Melody going to be safe?" Nina asked. "You said you and Ms. Hughes are going on vacation, but you haven't said anything about your daughter."

Our guest nodded, "The council don't know about Melody. Her name's been redacted from every report, any messages that mentioned her were edited or purged before being processed. That was Arlene's doing, by the way. She made sure to protect my daughter from council scrutiny."

"And yet Arlene is the one who forced you to work for them as a spy," Cassandra stated. "I can see that in your thoughts, you're only here now because she dragged you back in. So why do you want us to spare her?"

Alison replied, "If it wasn't me then it would have been someone else. Maybe someone who truly believed in their cause? Believe it or not, pulling me into it helped you. I made sure you were tipped off. I've been trying to get them to drop the case. And I'm here now to warn you about this new threat. None of that would have happened if Arlene kept quiet and they brought in someone actually loyal to them."

Our club leader looked at us and asked, "What do you think Cassandra?"

My other self thought it over then finally nodded, "For now I'm not making any promises. If this Carlos Nahuel and his team threaten any of us they'll find out the hard way what an angry goddess can do. For now I think we should all be a lot more careful and wary."

Alison looked around at everyone before saying, "If that's everything then I should get going."

"Not just yet," Cassandra stated. "Since you're here I have a question for you. Last March a council agent lured us out to a cave in a nearby nature preserve. Can you tell us anything about that location?"

Our guest shrugged, "I don't have any first-hand experience with it, I only know what I've read in Council reports."

"The Hockley Cave sits at a convergence of ley lines," she explained. "It first came to the Council's attention in eighteen-ninety-eight. They don't know exactly what it is, but they theorize it may be some kind of supernatural amplifier? As in, strange things get stranger around that cave."

She continued, "According to their records, ten to twenty percent of the mundane humans who go in there come out like Rick Kovaks. Confused, delirious, and with no memories of the experience in there."

"In the last hundred and twenty years only two humans have come out of that cave with some sort of gift," Alison added. She looked straight at Willow and stated, "You were the second. The first one was in eighteen-ninety-eight, and that's what brought the Council's attention there in the first place."

Then she added, "The cave has been dynamited, buried, filled-in, the works. But every time someone tries to seal it off it just opens back up again. So the council has done their best to keep it secret, to try and prevent curious humans from ever finding out about it. Vargas never should have lured you girls out there, that was a huge safety risk for everyone involved."

Once again everyone was quiet, until Cassandra spoke up.

"All right Alison," my other self said. "I think that's all the questions we have for you. Enjoy your vacation, and perhaps when this is all over and the dust's settled, you'll introduce Melody to her aunt. Or at least let her know Arlene exists, since I have a feeling she doesn't know she has another shape-shifter relative out there."

Alison blushed but nodded as she got to her feet, "Right. It's been too dangerous, but if... Yeah. After the dust settles, we'll see how it goes."

The two wolfgirls stood up as well, and they sort of escorted the teen to the front door. Basically they made sure she left without having the opportunity to plant any more bugs or listening devices. They even stood in the doorway and watched as Alison got her helmet back on, then made sure she actually drove off before they finally returned to the living-room.

"So now we've got another group of Council thugs coming after us," Kaylee stated with a frown. "What's the plan, how are we going to deal with them?"

Cassandra glanced around the room at all our friends before responding, "I think everyone should be extra careful. We should warn our neighbours too, since the council is probably aware of their involvement with us."

"I know Alison said only four of us were being targeted," she added, "But I wouldn't put it past these people to try and get to us through our friends."