Going Under (2 page)

Molly needed to be doing something. Anything. She grabbed her phone. “I need to call
Jim. Keep the bad words to a minimum.” Paige snorted as Molly dialed her attorney’s
office and was put right though.

She laid the entire story out for him as Paige plopped into a nearby chair and gawked.

He asked a few questions as they went and when it was all over he sighed. “You’re
the third client this month who’s been terminated for their status.”

She knew it had been happening nationwide to lots of Others. Rosa, her foster mother,
still reeling from the death of a child and her husband, had been asked to retire
early from her job teaching middle school. Though
asked
was a nice term for the pressure they laid on her to get out. Molly’s biological mother,
a human, had been harassed by groups of students under the flag of PURITY. PURITY,
who proclaimed to be about love and safety all while digging through trash and turning
people’s lives upside down by outing them, they way they had with Molly. They even
had a television show and a nationally syndicated column called
Know Your Enemy
where they published lists of names of Others. They may as well be wearing white
sheets; it was the same thing.

“This is a gray area, but I’m working on it with some other civil rights attorneys
across the country. I’ll get something to Aaron by day’s end. Do you . . . are you
sure you even want to stay?”

“How can I let them get away with this? If I walk away, I’m saying it’s all right!”
She knew that she didn’t want to work with any of these people ever again. But there
were principles in play here. And this was her business, damn it.

“I can get more money out of them to get you out the door. I can probably work it
so they have to use a different name. As part of your separation agreement. Even if
I win, and I don’t know if I can, do you want to be there with them?” Jim paused,
she knew, looking for the right words. “I’m sorry. You’ve suffered a lot over the
last several weeks. I just want you to know that no matter your choice here, I’m on
your side.”

She heaved a sigh and fought back nausea. She wanted to go home and hide under the
covers. Wanted to pretend the sickness of heart and soul hadn’t beaten her down.

“Take some time. You don’t have to make a decision right this moment.”

“Time.” She snorted. “Why should I have to? It’s unacceptable. They’re trying to push
me out for nothing, acting like I’ve committed a crime or something.”

“You haven’t done anything wrong, Molly. You know it and so do they. I’ll fight for
you as hard as I can. But you also know you’re not going to have anything to do but
ruminate over this until you make yourself sick. Just get out of there a while and
make it about yourself. Let me do the obsessing, okay? It’s my job.”

Molly blinked back tears of frustration. “I don’t have much to do here today. My clients,
the biggest ones, have fired me.”

That cut deep. Some of them had cloaked it in a bunch of talk about how they couldn’t
afford the controversy in this economic and political climate. This after she’d saved
them
more than once. These were people who she’d had dinner with, had spent time in their
homes.

“Go home. I’ll have something messengered over to your place in an hour or so. I’ll
lay out all your options and you can think them over. I’ll keep you updated.”

She hung up and looked to Paige, whose anger soothed some of Molly’s agitation.

“This is dumb. They can’t do this. Who freaking cares if you’re a witch or not? What
does it have to do with how you do your job?”

Molly picked up an award statuette. She’d won it only three months before. Three months
before when the world was different. She slid it into the large tote next to her desk.

“Fair or not, it’s happening all over the place.” She grabbed some of the photographs
from the credenza. A shot of Molly with her foster family, her
magickal
family, she supposed, at her college graduation. One of her with her biological mother
and her maternal grandparents when she’d accepted an award a few years back. Memories
of a different world. She placed them in the tote.

“Are you really going to let them do this? None of these dicks would even have a place
to work if it weren’t for you.”

“It makes me sad to think they’re going to drive this firm into the ground. All for
what? My witch cooties? They can’t catch it, for heaven’s sake.”

“It’s Angelica. She’s been agitating everyone with every single newspaper article
and Internet thing she can find, true or not. Like when your sister-in-law sends you
mass forwards filled with things a simple visit to snopes.com could tell her were
fakes.”

“I’m sure she’s a card-carrying member of PURITY. But that doesn’t matter. Aaron is
with her. As is Paul. That’s three of four partners.” She realized they could, and
would
, be able to terminate her contract. The knowledge was awful and unbearably sad. A
whole part of her life was being taken away from her.

Sad or not, she sure wasn’t going to go down without a fight. Or a financial settlement
that was far more representative of her value to the firm. She’d start over if she
had to, but she’d do it with the money she earned. And they’d have to change the firm’s
name.

Still, Paige wasn’t as fortunate to have all the options Molly did. “Look, I can probably
work on Aaron’s sense of duty and get you on with one of the others. We approved a
new-hire slot just a few weeks ago. You’re terrific and they’ll need you after I leave.”

“You’re not going to let them run you out of town like a criminal, Molly. I’m not
going to let you. Hell, you can get your stakes back and start a new firm, this one
working for Others. I’ll happily work for you there.”

Molly paused, resting her hip on the desk and thought about that idea.

“Oh, girl. I can see you’re taking that seriously.” Paige sat nearby. “Want me to
take some notes? Call some people? We can work out of your place for a while until
we get a new office.”

She smiled at Paige, who was also six months pregnant and couldn’t afford to jump
ship and risk losing her insurance and the healthy retirement plan she’d begun to
build.

“Even if I did that, you’re not in any position to up and leave this job. You need
the benefits. For the baby and for Mark too.” Paige’s husband had been laid off from
his job four months before and had been looking for a new one ever since. He had some
health problems, which made any risky moves by Paige even more precarious.

“You can’t possibly think I’d choose this place without you in it. After the way they’re
dumping you? My parents raised me right.”

“Yes, they did. And I appreciate the solidarity. More than you can know. But, Paige,
you’re pregnant. Your husband is unemployed. I can’t offer you health care, even if
I did start a new firm. Hang on until you have the baby and you’ve used your leave
and all that stuff. By then, well, at the very least I can get you on somewhere else.”

Pragmatism was something she couldn’t get around. Molly shrugged. “It isn’t right.
Not at all. I’m going to fight it, but in the end, I don’t think it’s going to make
a difference. Oh, I’ll get more money from them probably, but they won’t have to keep
me. And they won’t. Right now, all across the country Others are in a gray area legally.
And there are plenty of people who will use that.”

Paige’s pretty face fell as she accepted it. “This is dumb. I hate them.”

Molly laughed without humor. “Yeah, me too. Now, I’m going to take some of this stuff
home. But before that, let’s go to a late breakfast. You have my permission to take
the rest of the day off.”

* * *

WHEN
she and Paige came around the corner, Aaron was waiting for her at the elevators.

“You going to check my bag to make sure I’m not stealing pens?”

“Give me a break, Mol.”

“Don’t.” She held her hand up. “You don’t get to call me that. I’m leaving for the
day. I have the vacation for it. But I’m not quitting, or saying I’m going on sabbatical.
That’s not going to happen.”

“Why don’t you and I go to lunch and talk? Away from here.”

The audacity! “If you really wanted that, you wouldn’t have ambushed me here. You’d
have spoken to me in advance.”

“It was in the conjecture stage. And then Bright and Cleen called. I’m sorry.” His
gaze skated to Paige, hindered by her presence to say anything else.

Good.

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. She moved to walk past and he grabbed
her arm. “Molly, please. Be reasonable. You can’t just end a ten-year friendship.
I had to make a difficult choice. You should understand that.”

“I don’t understand it at all. I don’t understand you and I will grieve, along with
a boatload of other things, that you cared so little about our friendship and this
firm that you’d give in to this absurd demand. It’s terrorism, Aaron, and you know
it. You do this for them and what will they ask next? Who else might not be . . .
enough
for them? Hm? Talk about slippery slopes.”

She yanked her arm back.

“My attorney will be contacting you by day’s end.” She let the doors slide closed.

Chapter 2

“I
got fired today.”

Molly hung her coat up and turned to her mother, who stood at the table, pouring a
glass of wine.

Eliza’s eyes went wide and then narrowed dangerously. “What?”

“Partners’ meeting. They ambushed me before I even had a sip of my coffee. I go in
and they tell me I’ve violated my agreement by not disclosing my
nationality
and for bringing negative attention. Risking clients.”

Eliza held out the glass. “You need this more than I do.”

Molly took several bracing sips.

Her mother waited until she’d done so before she continued. “Tell me the rest.”

Eliza Ryan was the strongest person Molly had ever met. Her mother was her greatest
hero and role model.

“Well, you know PURITY outed me two days ago. Apparently this morning Bright and Cleen
called. Said they’d dump the firm if they didn’t dump me. I’m told I’m an abomination.”

Eliza’s brow rose. “I can guess who said that. Does Angelica still have a stick wedged
up her butt? Puritans, the whole lot of them. Oh, you were just fine to get them out
of trouble a month ago. But now?” Her mother sniffed before gulping her own wine.

“Not everyone is acting that way. Paige volunteered to quit and follow me to a new
firm if I started it. She threatened to quit anyway. Don’t worry, I told her not to.
She’s pregnant and she needs the benefits. It wouldn’t make a difference to them if
she quit and it would only hurt her. Plus the Troys—you know my neighbors with the
house across the street? Anyway, they came over when I got home today. With a big
basket of baked goods. She hugged me and said it would be all right.”

With that, the tears came. Because it wouldn’t be.

Eliza put her glass down and moved to gather Molly up into her arms. “Let it all go.
This isn’t right. It’s not fair and it’s not even American, for heaven’s sake.”

“I d-don’t think things are going to be all right. Everything is different. Anthony
is dead. Emma is dead. The guy who did my yard? Turns out he was a shifter. He’s dead
too. I don’t think I’ll be able to stave off being fired. My firm. I built that firm,
damn it.” Anthony Falco had been a father to her, Emma her sibling in everything but
blood and she missed each one of them every damned day.

Her mother rubbed a palm up and down her back. Up and down, over and over, just like
she did when Molly got sick or when she got dumped.

“
I’m
not dead. Nana Ryan isn’t dead. Rosa isn’t and she needs you now more than ever.
We all need you, Molly. If you can’t stay at the firm, you’ll do something else. It’s
who you are. I’ll help you in any way I can.”

“You have your own problems.”

Her mother snorted. “Thank goodness for tenure. The rest of the faculty—for the most
part anyway—are supporting me. I’ll get through this. Don’t worry about me.”

“Of course I worry about you! This is happening to you because of me.” Her mother
was being persecuted for no other reason than being a parent to an Other. It was absurd
and horrible and Molly felt responsible.

Her mother stepped back, holding Molly at arm’s length. “
No
. This is happening because people are scared. And because people with no values are
using that fear to whip them up into this frenzy that’s wrecking everything. You are
the best thing I’ve ever done. I won’t let a bunch of small-minded bigots make you
think anything else.”

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. The song told her it was Rosa so Molly mopped up her
face and answered.

“Hiya, Mom.” Rosa Falco had come into Molly’s life when she was thirteen. She’d been
the one to teach Molly about the other side of her heritage. The magickal side. The
Falco family had become hers too. So much so that she’d been calling Rosa
Mom
since she was fifteen.

Together with Eliza, they’d guided her, loved her and supported her. That her biological
mother shared her daughter without any apparent jealousy was a testament to Eliza’s
strength and love. And a powerful reminder that no matter how much Molly had lost,
she still had them.

“Turn on the television.” Rosa’s voice held a lot of anger.

“What? What’s going on?” Molly found the remote and turned the television on as requested.

“Watch and call me back.”

“Okay.”

She sat, her mother at her side.

On the screen, Carlo Powers, the leader of PURITY, sat across from a news anchor,
smiling. That smile made Molly curl her lip. A smiling fascist was still a fascist.

“Well yes, Bridget. We love
everyone
of course. But that doesn’t mean we have to tolerate their behavior, or let them
threaten our families.”

“Heard that one before,” her mother muttered.

“A few million times.” Eliza reached out to take Molly’s hand.

Bridget Patterson, the local network anchor, frowned. “Mr. Powers, there are those
who say your group’s weekly outing of different paranormals is only adding to the
increase in violence in communities across the country. They say outing is dangerous
for those you’ve exposed. Others have been fired as a result of your show. Attacked
in some cases. How do you respond to that?”

He cocked his head, the mean shining in his eyes briefly. “These paranormals are abominations.
They’ve lived among us for all this time secretly. They can’t be trusted. Can you
blame decent Americans for wanting to defend themselves against that?”

Molly’s stomach heaved.

“This man is dangerous, Molly.”

“No shit. Um, no crap.” She grimaced. “Sorry.”

“You get to use all the curse words for this sorry excuse for a human being. I’ll
write you a note.”

On the television, Bridget soldiered on. “Is that what you call it? Defense? Yesterday
in Kentucky a couple’s store was burned to the ground. They lived above it and the
doors were blocked from the outside so they couldn’t get out. They managed to escape
only because they jumped from a second-story window.”

He spread his hands, still wearing that smile. “Of course that’s wrong, Bridget. We
at PURITY don’t condone that sort of violence. I’m just saying that I’m siding with
decent human beings who feel threatened by these creatures. Decent Americans,
human beings
who want to protect their children against monsters like werewolves. We dealt with
them a few times in our history, it’s only reasonable to expect we will again.”

Loathing made Molly’s lip curl. “Yeah, by drowning us or burning. Is he aiming for
a new Inquisition?”

Eliza squeezed Molly’s hand. “Don’t joke. This guy is dangerous.”

And he’d been the one who outed her. This filth sat there with his smile talking about
decency this and that and he’d been personally responsible for the loss of her job.
Clearly they owned two different dictionaries when his definition of
decent
meant people got killed and had their businesses burned down.

It went on like this for another minute or two before the interview was over and Molly
sat back, finishing her wine in one gulp.

Her mother shook her head. “You can’t stay at your house anymore. Stay here with me.
It’s too dangerous now.”

“I’d say the same of you. It’s not just Others being targeted.” Molly flipped the
channel and paused on a different news show. “Isn’t that the witch who runs Clan Owen?”

The interviewer tapped a pen on his knee a moment. “There are those who say the paranormals
are dangerous. That you’ve kept hidden because you have an agenda.”

The Owen, as the witch who led Clan Owen was called, took a deep breath and maintained
her calm. “I can’t speak for all Others, any more than you can speak for all humans,
but I can tell you most of us kept our identities secret in fear of this exact reaction.
If protecting my people is an agenda, I suppose those making such claims are right.”

The interviewer smirked. “Meriel, if I can call you that, werewolves came out several
years ago. Some of the other shifters have been making that slow process. They’ve
been all right.”

“Ms. Owen is fine.” Meriel smiled and Molly snorted a laugh. “
All right
is a relative term. While there haven’t been the same sorts of murders we’ve seen
recently, they’ve faced job, health care and housing discrimination. Unfortunately
they’ve also been the targets of hate groups like PURITY as well. The shifters who
led the original coming out have been a model of how to do it, but they’ve not been
unscathed.”

They were sidetracking her, Molly realized. “They’re muddying her message.”

“She needs a public relations whiz, clearly.” Her mother gave her the side eye.

And then she sat back as Meriel Owen continued to be directed off the topic only to
fruitlessly try to get back on track. “She totally does.”

* * *

GAGE
stood off to the side, gaze flitting around the studio. Meriel had received a death
threat just that morning. He’d advised against the appearance, but Meriel did what
she wanted. Especially when she felt it was important.

She’d finished her interview and he cleared the exit, checking in with the people
posted outside to bring the car around.

“You ready?” He took position in front of her, blocking anything that might come their
way.

“Dumbasses,” she muttered. “Yes, yes, let’s go.”

Lark was there as well, and she got them all out to the newly armored car Meriel and
Dominic now had to use.

“I don’t think that guy likes you much.” Lark meant the interviewer who’d treated
Meriel like she was overreacting, while simultaneously making her feel as if it was
the fault of Others for remaining in the closet about their identities.

They drove through a large protest of PURITY members, who banged on the car as they
did.
Decent
of them.

“He was photographed at a PURITY fund-raiser just a few days ago. So no, I doubt he
likes me much. Which makes us even. Because I think he’s a scum-sucking pig.”

Dominic Bright, Meriel’s husband, grunted, kissing his wife’s hand as he kept his
gaze on the fracas outside.

Lark gave him a look when Gage moved a hand to the window toggle. He really wouldn’t
have rolled it down, but he wanted to.

“Ignore them.” Meriel shook her head.

“I’m ignoring my impulses, Boss.”

Lark laughed a moment but quit on an intake of breath. She’d been shot multiple times
just a few weeks before as they’d fought off the Magister and its minions. So had
Gage. Lark had been in the hospital for several days and was still healing. She liked
telling everyone she was too stubborn to die and too pressed to let anyone stop her
from doing her job.

Gage believed every word.

There was a counter-protest just across the street, which gave him hope, even in such
a dark time. Not all humans were bad and wanted to kill them. The humans out there
protesting in support of Others could be the majority if they played it right. But
it was hard to play anything when every single Other on the planet had lost someone
when the Magister manifested itself. Hard to be smart and rational when they were
getting firebombed and picketed and attacked.

PURITY had picketed his uncle’s funeral. The thought of it still outraged him.

Meriel spoke again, her voice strong and sure. “We need to continue a presence out
there, keep going. Keep our message in the public eye. We’re going to get a few hits
over it. But that interviewer in there can’t scare me.”

Like so many others, Meriel had suffered a loss due to the Magister. Her mother, an
incredibly powerful witch and the former Owen, had been assassinated just moments
after Edwina had aided in shoving the Magister out of their world. Meriel had been
trying to get her life back on track, but it’d been difficult when all this external
stuff kept happening. When she had to go to funerals and meet with Clan members who’d
been outed and faced problems keeping jobs and relationships.

Gage had been giving self-defense courses, along with Lark, to their membership. First
it had been to protect against the bands of mages who’d been bent on stealing their
magick. But that had been before the Magister. Now it was also about protecting themselves
from violence and intimidation from the humans like those in PURITY.

And they’d grown more adept at using their power. All of them had. His powers seemed
to have sharpened. What he’d been good at before, he was excellent at now. Desperation
could do that, he supposed. Still, it seemed to be something many other witches were
experiencing. Again, he wasn’t sure if it was that desperation gave them all a focus
they hadn’t had before, or if it was some odd side effect of the Magister’s manifestation
in their world.

He squeezed his hands into fists. Needing the sharp pain of violence and not having
an outlet. “I don’t know what they expect. We’re just living our lives, for fuck’s
sake.” Maybe he should shoot a few fireballs at them, just to give them what they
seemed to crave so much.

“It’s fear. Fear makes people irrational. They’re scared and people like Carlo Powers
manipulate that fear to their advantage.” Meriel sighed.

“Whatever it is, it’s got to be dealt with. They’re not going to find it as easy to
kill us this time.” Lark’s face darkened as she looked out the window.

Gage understood that sentiment very well.

Lark had them stop at the Owen offices to drop her off before he continued on to escort
Meriel and Dominic home.

Once they’d arrived at Meriel’s, Gage did a quick check with the guards posted full
time, before heading out to do a sweep of his own around their property. Seattle hadn’t
been nearly as bad as other cities across the world. While Meriel and Dominic had
had to deal with threats and pickets, there’d been no overt violent acts or attacks
on their home. That was something, he supposed.

Still, Meriel’s father had set ward upon ward, all around the property. It was a magickal
Fort Knox and it had given him something to do as he’d grieved over the loss of his
wife.