Snippet Time! Check out Snippet #06 from Night of the Unicorn

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“Could our bad guy be someone from the tribes? I mean they are right here with us.” Cat pulled up a map of Montana on her tablet.

“What do they have to gain Cat? You forget they are considered to be their own countries now. Why worry about what the Magnus family is doing when they have their own issues to worry about?”

Cat frowned and scrunched up her face. “What do you mean?”

“She means you should ask someone who was there at the time. There are or were almost three hundred Native American Indian reservations in the United States after the Demon War. A large number of the troops from the Southwest came from them. The war didn’t just take place in Europe. That maniac opened the gates to hell and the demons poured forth. Chaos is not how I like my world to be. I remember those times.” Ana paused and began circling the table. “As a country we managed to stay out of the early stages of the war. Our President kept us neutral even though we preferred to not sell to Germany. Then the demon sightings began. At first they were small and spread out. Prominent scientists claimed they were scouts or even lost demons from the war in Europe. That maybe, they tagged along by ship. Until the Hellmouth opened in California. I remember that day clearly. The radio reports at first claimed it was a hoax but soon the horror overcame it all. The War was here and it was real. Conception California was what it was originally called. Not much was there except a few tourists but the hole opened and out they poured. Santa Barbara was the first to fall. How Los Angeles didn’t get swarmed still surprises me to this day. Maybe it was the city of Angels. The National Guard was called in as was the military. We weren’t at wartime levels. Only about thirty-thousand troops were even in this country at the time. The only people that could get there fastest were home town militias and law enforcement groups. Thousands came from the reservations. I won’t get into details but the fighting was heavy. Lives were lost and even the politicians in Washington took notice. One of the first post-war suggestions was granting total freedom to both the Native tribes and the Weres. They deserved it.”

“Ana how do you know so much about the Demon war?” Chuck stared at her in shock.

“Everyone from that time period knew all of this. We needed to understand why sending troops to Europe was important. It was way before I joined the FBI. I got gathered up in one of the demon follower sweeps but that is a story for another time.” She paused giving Chuck a stare down.

“I had a very nice villa in the San Joaquin valley overlooking never ending fields of vegetables. I invested well and was trying to stay off most paranormal radars as well as that of the Government. I wasn’t exactly here legally at the time. After destroying San Bernadino to the South the swarm went North consuming San Luis Obispo. The Sierra Nevada Mountains are all that protected my valley from the coast. Flights of demons slid down them like kids at a water park. Many of the farm workers had no chance. My estate was protected but not from demonic Magick. I soon became one of the many refugees that were swept up by local authorities.” Ana threw up her hands.

“Sorry if I got off track. It was a trying time. After the war and destruction of the Demonic threat the reservations were set free. The Weres could leave if they wished as well as working openly unlike the past. The Natives were different. They already had lobby groups pushing for Independence and they got it. In spades. Each reservation was declared to be it’s own country having the sovereign rights as other countries have. President Long didn’t expect any of them to last without Federal assistance. But he was wrong. More than half are still in existence today.”

“Why not all of them?” Chuck asked.

“It brings us back to the original question. To be independent of our Government means no outside power, water, telephone, mail, and everything else we rely on to make life work. The tribal councils organized and managed to stay independent on more than two-hundred reservations. Many of the smaller ones were absorbed by the larger but the deal set forth by President Long was either you make it or you don’t. Land rights would revert back to the Government if you failed to make a go of it. Was it fair? No. But it did force the tribes to work together. The work they put forth along with the commitments they made are what earned them the two extra stars on the flag.” Bill pointed to the American flag on the wall with its thirteen stripes and fifty-two stars.

“That is what I meant by other commitments and issues. They are running a country. Officially they may not even be aware of the issue. We have to talk to the locals to find out. Tomorrow we’ll start with the locals and then the Blackfoot Nation. I’ve contacted Washington and they have sent a few guidelines for us to follow.” I took a big breath. “If you will excuse me I have a Unicorn and a potential crisis to head off. If you were traumatized by that place think how much Fergus was.” Standing up I gathered my notes. Anastasia and Chuck were at the motel when we returned. Now that we had both the SUV and the lab we could really get to work. But first I needed to console an old friend.