Page 26 of The War is Coming

The bar fell into silence again.

“Is this your mate, or is he too good to visit my poor bar?”

Alex laughed. “No indeed. My sweetheart is currently resting, but you can be sure I will bring him along for a visit soon. This is my father-in-law, Donovan, Tudor’s father.”

Donovan had a quick look around, taking it all in. The inside looked dark, not just from the dark wood used everywhere, but from the dark colour decoration around it and the low lighting.

Remmy nodded to Donovan. “Welcome to my bar. First drink is on me. What can I get you?”

“A beer please, whatever you think I might like,” Donovan replied.

Remmy nodded and looked at Alex.

“My usual please, Rem.”

“So, what can I do for the Gargoyle Consort?” Remmy asked, picking up a glass and pulling a pint.

Alex leaned on the bar. “Information about an email and an island.”

“You talking about the call to arms from a demon?” One of the patrons asked, walking over to join them at the bar, putting his empty glass down. Again, all talking stopped, and everyone looked at them.

“I am. As you can imagine, I’m wanting to try and stop this war from happening.”

“So what, you want to find Rogue Island and kill them all?” A biker demanded, walking to stand in the middle of the bar. A man Alex hadn’t seen before.

Alex shook his head. “Why would I want to do that? No, I’m trying to find out how many rogues could potentially join Barnabus. I don’t need to tell you that a war in the shifter world would be a disaster for all of us. We’ve gone all this time keeping our world hidden from the humans; there is no way they wouldn’t notice a war going on around them.”

Grumbling met this.

“But this is bigger than us,” Alex added, looking around at those gathered. “Barnabus is trying to find the Spear of Hephaestus. If he finds that, he can also declare war on the Gods themselves.”

“He could potentially destroy the world,” Donovan said.

“Nonsense, no one is that stupid,” someone called out.

“Barnabus is,” Donovan said. “He’ll do anything and everything he can to bring about this war. He’s already tried to pit gargoyles against dragons. He used dream walkers to cause explosions, which resulted in both dragon and gargoyle guards dying. Thankfully, it didn’t work, and there is no rift between dragons and gargoyles. He is dangerous, very dangerous. The only way to defeat him is by all shifters working together,” Donovan added.

“That will never happen,” someone muttered. “Shifters don’t work together.”

Alex noticed that everyone in the bar was listening.

“They do now. My mate is the Gargoyle King; his best friend is Puff McDuncan, King of the Dragons. They both live in the Fortuna Pack, the Alpha of which is Blake Hayes, the Alpha King.”

The patrons started muttering.

“It’s true,” Remmy said. “I saw the email from the council. I didn’t know they all lived together, though.”

“My son, Tudor, and King Puff both joined the Fortuna Pack before they became kings. They are both happy to stay living there, so they can work together and bring their laws in line with each other.”

“Barnabus is also attacking smaller packs. The three kings have put together defence teams to help stave off the attacks, or to help when the call comes,” Alex said, looking at everyone. “These teams are a mix of different paranormal, all working together.”

Shocked murmurs were heard around the room.

“Times are changing, and we need to change with them,” Donovan said.

“And other paranormals are happy to work together?” someone asked in surprised disbelief.

Muttering started up again.