-Clever.-

  Using one of her own to cover and conceal the edge of the portal offered a protection that vampires couldn’t breach without alerting the others in the area. Jason had taken two small paw steps back deeper into the grass so he could give the bad news to the others when he heard Enas gloating about her victory.

  "Yes, take it all." Enas announced and Jester couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. “All the flesh you can corrupt or destroy, force these shells to wither or burst into pockets of vapor before your diamond eyes.” Squatting as low as he could, Jester witnessed the shadewraith that covered the portal come together and fly off in a howl with the others for their upcoming feeding frenzy. With Enas clearly addressing the others, Jason was able to get a complete look around the portal by using the plethora of sounds to cover his minor circle and take note of the quartz and how they seemed to be functioning.

  Once Jason memorized the setup so he could expin the situation, He shifted into a bat and within the confusion of the colonies, quickly flew back to the Mill undetected. Landing on the far side of the building where the waterwheel slowly churned the creek water that created a sound simir to that of rain spshing on rock, Jason shifted back into his normal form and smiled as he used some of the water to wash his hands, although they were already clean.

  Still thinking about his raccoon form, Jason swaggered back through the door and saw three sets of inquisitive eyes staring deep at him. “Ladies.” Jason deliberately kept quiet until he walked to Daniel and lost himself in her copper eyes. “Daniel.” He crooned, and lifted his girlfriend and gave her a slow spinning hug. “My dear, I had a fair bit of good luck.” He motioned for everyone to sit at the council table, then cuddled Daniel in his arms. “Alright. Whatever we are going to do, we need to do it quickly. I know that the crystals are the source of the song that has our brethren flying right into the portal.”

  “That confirms everything we know about the thing from Sylvie. So what do we do to stop the song?” Amber posed and pulled Jessica into her p. “We witnessed a huge pack of bats fly overhead and Daniel thinks that these aren’t local anymore.” Amber pointed at the small vampire.

  “Jason, I don’t know that this pce could have fed that many of our kind. They have to be coming in from counties or even other states.” Daniel offered with a worried tone in her light country accent. “Please tell me that your luck held out.”

  “I think so?” Jason added and reached for his phone and punched the number he knew for Kody. “Five quartz crystals with five different metallic things either attached or drilled into them.” He shrugged. “I have an idea what they are, and I was honestly tempted to pull them…” He looked around, “...but the st time something happened with removing metal, that portal opened.” Finally hitting the call button, Jester’s phone remained quiet as the dead for a few moments until Kody’s familiar deadpan voice came across. “Hey, Kody…” Jason took a deep breath. “I have Daniel, Amber and Jessica with me.”

  “Okay.” Kody slowly responded, with a confused tone in their voice. “I am a little busy here, Jester.”

  Familiar with the sounds of a blowtorch, Jason knew that Kody was indeed in the middle of something important. “Hey, I am just in need of…”

  “No. I am not building you something as well, Jason. I am blood busy here with Sylvie’s litany of things to do and test.” Kody uncharacteristically cut off Jason and began to hammer. “Sorry about that.”

  “..I get it. I only need a few questions answered if you could. I am okay to a point with music, but this is a little beyond me.” Jason knew that by Kody’s silence that he could continue. It was only after Jason felt Daniel’s hand rubbing his shoulder that the tattoo artist formuted what he was going to ask. “Kody, I saw and felt the energy from the crystals. I could tell that they were also the power that is keeping the thing open. I didn’t want to mess with any part of it because of the past and how An removed things and started it all.”

  “Makes sense on some level.” Kody snarked and kept working.

  “Look, If Sylvie wants us to fix this damned song, then you need to stop being a jerk and help.” Jason screamed into his phone.

  “Jason.” Daniel turned her boyfriend’s face to her and gave him a sultry and calm look. “I am sure they don’t mean anything. Be concise with Kody, please.”

  “Alright.” Jason sighed and went back to his phone. “Sorry Kody.” Jason waited a few seconds to see if Kody would reply and finally took it upon himself to expin what he’d seen. “I saw the five quartz and they all had five metal ptes or buttons embedded in them. If I had to guess it was almost causing them to resonate, but I don’t quite know how.” Without warning, Jason heard a loud bang and a reverberation coming from the other side of the phone. “What in the…yeah, like that.”

  Waiting until the deep sound stopped, Kody then spoke. “You are right, Jason. It's basically a tuning fork like you remember. I suspect that they are actually osciltors that are modified to change the output of the song.” Kody finally ughed. “All that magic and ability and they use human tuning to kill us.” A popping sound came through first then the sound of intense burning. “I think you will be safe enough to pull them out, assuming you can. If those things are actually part of the crystal like the endless power it’s seemingly generating, then it will mean everything rests with the brace.”

  A quick search on her phone and Daniel found what Kody was talking about. “Ah, Jason.” Daniel paused to show her boyfriend what she’d found. “Kody means those things are little tuning forks.” Daniel went on, “Looks like the little ptes lead to the small forks that…” She stopped, “...it doesn’t matter. What does is that Kody is right, we will be pulling the plug .. more or less.”

  “Thank you Kody, We know you are busy.” Amber waved to Jester. “Hang up the phone and let them work.” She ughed and id her head on Jessica’s shoulder. “I guess this means there are three of us and we go up there and pull them out.”

  Clearing her throat Jessica bumped Amber’s head so that her girlfriend looked up. “What about me? I can help.”

  Given the wide array of people that had been removed from Amber’s life over the st few weeks, the new huntress was not about to lose the st person that she shared a link with. “Jessica.” She sweetly offered, “If one of those things gets you, then there is no hope.” Amber cupped Jessica’s cheeks with her undead and cool hands, “None. We’ve not seen anyone live. Even their best wizard is entrapped.”