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He snapped back to the present as a computerized code was punched into a panel inside the pack’s network of caves "Welcome, Cole," the pre-recorded voice said as the metal door whooshed open

The wolves in thetelevision

"This one is bad," Cole said, clearly having seen the reports already It must all be on repeat Humans liked to do that "It’s a child"

"Not really," Cain said The witch must have made an atteet to her She ht look like on the outside, she wasn’t some defenseless street urchin

"It doesn’t matter It’s what the humans will think They see a kid there They don’t know that’s a two-thousand-year-old ic"

"I wouldn’t be so sure about that" A male wolf approached their circle and pushed a button on the re about the last letter and the new letter all day Mara transcribed it" The wolf handed a piece of notebook paper with careful block lettering on it to Cole He read it and then passed the paper to Cain

Dear Boss,

By now deep down people know it’s h when I reveal o

I’ll take the last one soon, then this bloody and unpleasant oes buht I will lead them to freedom They’ll know I have never been a threat to them, only to that which is unnatural I will be their savior

Be afraid Your hunting of humans will end, and I will run this world while you starve in caves and crypts, hiding fro near

I’m excited for the finale I hope you are, too

Yours truly,

The Cycler

Cain read the letter a coupleJack, even if the crazed lunatic wasn’t able to raise an army to carry out his plans, he’d planted the seed If the huenie was out of the bottle and there was no ain In a way, it was a with all the security breaches and the ic users, themselves humans It was bound to come out eventually

He looked up as the sound on the television got louder The protesters were in greater nuns and a fe ones They demanded that the va for the govern secrets

As far as Cain knew, the huovernments had been kept just as much in the dark as every other human, but it was natural to blame those in authority Several of the protesters wore costus, olf masks, demon horns It looked like a cross between a PETA protest, Mardi Gras, and a Halloween party

A pretty female newscaster appeared on the screen behind a desk back in the newsroom, her hands clasped in front of her "Well, Ji case we’ve had in a long tih even if he’s not just insane, it’s hard to understand how The Cycler can justify the brutal killing of a child Certainly that innocent little girl can’t be part of an evil eleible that got sed up by the crowd around him, while the newscaster maintained her practiced look of sad concern "I’ht out into the living rooms of the viewers "And now a look at the polls We’ve beenstory for the past couple of weeks, and the results of the last pollsupernatural is involved in this case and that The Cycler is telling the truth 28 believe he’s lying and si publicity or suffers fro 16 are undecided"

"What about other countries?" Cain asked "How do they rank in this sort of thing?"

Cole shook his head "About the saht at thewhen Anthony rises and speaks to the other vaain, and this time it was a talk shoith three woe A fourth woman, dressed more normally in a chic, black pantsuit, held arealwe’ve been together as a group"

The host looked confused "You enerations?"

"Oh, yes, that’s true also, but I irls and a couple of guys back hoether for close to a century now"

"But, that’s not possible" Theis possible" The witch held out her hand palm up, and a ball of fire appeared,terrified, while the cameras panned the audience for a reaction shot

"Why would they do this? It could backfire on theed "That episode aired two hours ago, they’re re-showing it The women say they need to come out of the broom closet and that that they don’t knohat The Cycler killed, but it h The network is claiain for couess is so and scary and that the witches who talked were killed I don’t have any evidence of that, of course, but it looked pretty real to me, what do you think?"

Cain nodded slowly "Oh yes, there is no way that was special effects The way the fire rises out of the palm is exactly how I do it And ould anybodyso serious?"

The dey didn’t work in his dilued to a TV twenty-four-seven, watching latest develop the old ones replay on a loop

"Well, that’s it It doesn’t ot minds of their own We can’t box this back up," Cole said

"Maybe we can," Jane said She’d been quiet since they got back "If demons and vamps are sent to all major influencers to backpedal on all this If those influencers believe what they’re saying"