A full day of shopping and eating later, the trio spent a nice night in a fancy hotel and took off from the hotel’s roof the next morning.
But this time two of the fighters and one seriously large ship were waiting for them as they soared above the city, getting ready to head west.
QBS ArchAngel II, Orbiting Earth
Giles nodded to John and Eric. “Hey, guys, Bethany Anne asked for me?”
“She did,” John answered, eyeing the man. “Are you going to say anything arrogant, ignorant, or condescending?”
Giles raised his eyebrows. “Have you ever known me—”
“Since you were born, pipsqueak,” John cut in.
Giles shrugged and nodded. “Fine, that’s true. But have you ever known me to be that way?”
Eric turned in his direction, “Are you shitting me?” he asked, surprised. “Only since you could speak.”
Giles rubbed a hand down his jacket. “But have you ever known me to be that way with Bethany Anne?”
“No,” John admitted, “and that’s why we are reminding you. I don’t want to have to come in there and try to save your ass.”
“Well, thank you!” Giles smiled.
“Don’t thank him too much, Giles.” Eric winked. “We don’t like to clean up blood.”
John popped Giles on the back, his smile sincere. “Have a good time, but remember the daughter doesn’t put up with the same shit her dad does.”
“Right.” Giles nodded as John asked ArchAngel to open the door. “Hope to see you guys soon.”
—
Giles entered the suite, the sound of the door sliding shut behind him making him feel as if he were entering the tiger’s den—not that speaking with Bethany Anne was normally a dangerous proposition.
Unless you happened to have a mouth like his.
He wasn’t deliberately annoying, but history, knowledge, and learning were his life. He usually had no filter when any of these subjects were in play.
His mouth just might cause his demise.
Inside the suite, the Queen was talking with a female and a small android.
He knew who they were, and his excitement bubbled over. “Yuko, Eve?” The three turned in his direction, and the Queen raised her eyebrow. Giles put up a hand. “My apologies. I shouldn’t have interrupted you.”
Bethany Anne nodded slightly. “Giles, you guessed correctly. Please meet Yuko and Eve. Yuko, Eve, please meet the son of Frank and Barbara Kurns and our own space archeologist, Giles Kurns.”
As the three shook hands Bethany Anne continued, “He might be able to help you with the Kurtherian ship artifacts, which—”
Giles’ eyes lit up. “You have artifacts from the Kurtherian race?”
Bethany Anne rolled her eyes to the ceiling, praying for patience. “Giles?”
He continued peppering Yuko and Eve with questions.
“GILES!” she barked. Giles jumped and turned to her. “Take your questions out of here. Yuko, please introduce Giles to Akio, Mark, and Jacqueline on the way out. They might have some insights, and introductions can help smooth things over. Giles, acquire transportation and go down to the planet with them when Yuko and Eve are ready.”
“Certainly!” He put out an arm out to each of them. “Ladies?” he asked, his smile inviting.
Both Yuko and Eve shook their heads hesitantly, but they did accept his invitation and the three left her suite, chattering.
“Barnabas will be going with you!” she called, but the suite door shut right after and she wasn’t sure they had gotten her message.
Old Denver (Former USA)
The Weres in the compound looked up when Terryl pointed to the sky.
Seventeen heads gazed upward and those on the nearby rooftops turned, their guns by their sides. One chose to raise his before a companion on the rooftop across the street yelled at him to put it down and to get off the roof for “being a damned fool.”
Four airships were arriving. One was easily over a hundred feet long, and there were massive guns on the top and along the wings. There were two that looked like fighters, whose wings had an “X” design. They split off to circle the other two ships.
These weren’t from Earth. No, everyone realized these were from the armada that had come back.
These were the Queen Bitch’s ships.
The final ship was only about twenty-five feet long and continued toward the ground while the massive parent ship hovered some three hundred feet in the air.
Demitry, as the new Alpha of the clan, walked away from the protection of the main building toward the ship that had landed and was opening a hatch. It wouldn’t do, Demitry thought, to look anything less than an alpha.
Except that anyone paying attention caught his slight stumble when he recognized the girl who stepped out.
“Shit,” he mumbled, but he kept walking.
She was back.
The second person out of the ship was a day-walking vampire, but not the man Demitry had feared—not that it mattered. The third person to exit was a Japanese man, a vampire, and someone Demitry had heard of.
Akio.
Demitry stopped fifteen feet from the ship and nodded. That was as much respect as he was willing to give until someone forced him to bow. “Welcome, and peace be upon you in our home.”
Jacqueline nodded after she had categorized all the threats she could see. “Hello. I am here to retrieve my father’s remains.”
Demitry raised an eyebrow and turned toward the rock cairn that marked the return of the Dark Messiah and the absolute power he had manifested when he had destroyed not only their own Alpha but three vampire hunters who had come to acquire Michael’s blood.
Michael hadn’t seen fit to share.
“We have not touched it.” Demitry watched as the young lady and her…boyfriend, he guessed, walked together to the gravesite. He kept his distance from Akio too, who kept his eyes flitting from location to location. Demitry put up his hands, signaling to the lookouts to stand down.
He was responsible for the pack, and if one of the fabled pair could destroy so much with just his powers and his pistols, how much more could his mate accomplish with her starships?
He had no intention of finding out. Akio was eyeing him. “I’ve commanded them to stand down,” Demitry explained. “I don’t want any misunderstandings with my people.” He shook his head. “I offer my respect, and ask that you let me know if we can do anything for you.”
Akio walked toward the alpha, giving him a small bow of respect in return as he approached. “It is our intention to treat you as we are treated,” he told him. Akio looked around. “I believe the Queen will be pleased by your actions.”
When Akio glanced at them, Mark was comforting Jacqueline as her shoulders shook. Her face was against Mark’s shirt, no doubt getting it wet. “What are your challenges?” he asked the Alpha.
Demitry looked around and then at the massive ship over his head, which was big enough to cast a sizeable shadow on the ground. “Food, water, and power,” he admitted, “not necessarily in that order.”
“Hai,” Akio nodded, lips pursed, then asked. “Clothes?”
“Those we have enough of.” Demitry scratched his jaw. “But shoes and blankets?”
Akio reached to his shoulder, tapping something there and whispered softly enough that even Demitry’s hearing couldn’t make out most of the words. He did however catch “By request of the Queen’s Bitch” and “supplies.”
Akio continued looking around as he nodded in response to something Demitry could not hear. “Hai,” was all he said before returning his gaze to Demitry. “Provide me the needed sizes of shoes, and we will have the rest delivered.” He turned to the two young adults. They were still having a personal moment, so he turned back to Demitry. “You have kept her father safe. It is the least we can provide you.”
Demitry turned to watch the girl and her mate and thought to himself, I’ll accept the offer, and there was no fucking way we were
touching the cairn of a friend of the Dark Messiah.
—
Jacqueline held Mark’s hand, but she didn’t feel the touch as she finished her short walk to where her father had been buried and covered in rocks. It had been a long time since she was here, and the emotions she thought she had buried rose up afresh, sensitive and painful. The tears started falling before she spoke a single word.
“Father…” she got out before she turned her head and buried it in Mark’s chest, sobbing uncontrollably. Mark’s arm came around her, holding her as she allowed herself the opportunity to grieve and release the pain through the tears streaming down her face to soak Mark’s shirt.
Jacqueline reached up to wipe away the latest tears and sniffled, then turned back to the cairn in front of her. “You would be proud, Papa,” she said before she lowered her eyes, allowing the tears dropping off her face to cascade down to start a small puddle by her feet. A couple of minutes later she breathed in deeply, wiping her eyes and taking an offered piece of cloth to blow her nose.
“I did it, Papa!” She breathed out heavily. “I followed Michael. I learned what it meant to fight for your people…for our people.” She thought back to the battle in France with Sabine. “And for those I barely knew.” She reached an arm around Mark and pulled him a bit closer. “I’ve got someone I want you to meet.” Her tears started afresh, but this time she chose to talk through them. “God, how I wish you were really here to meet him.” She held Mark tighter. “You would be proud, Dad. I caught me a good one, and I promise not to fuck it up.”
“Hello, sir.” Mark’s voice surprised her. She looked up and saw the tears in his eyes. “My name’s Mark, and I’d like to ask your permission to marry your daughter.” He looked down at Jacqueline, who was staring at him with her mouth open in surprise. “That is, if she will have me.”
Peace descended over the whole Pack at that moment and everyone’s eyes turned to the two next to the cairn, who were kissing.
Those who were attuned could feel an extra presence around them before it dissipated, leaving everyone feeling just a bit better.
Later, Jacqueline watched as the ship above slid into place. The cairn—rocks, body and all—were lifted by an invisible field and pulled into the ship for transfer to, Jacqueline thought, the ArchAngel II.
Akio strode up to the two of them as they watched the cairn disappear into the ship. “We do not,” he told Jacqueline as she dropped her eyes to him, “leave our own. His body will be moved to a casket.”
“What would normally happen next?” Jacqueline asked.
“The Queen will ask you for your preference, but I can tell you that when she thought she had lost Michael, his casket was shot into the sun so his atoms could be distributed throughout the universe.”
Jacqueline looked at the ship as it rose higher, waiting for them to leave. “Then that is where my father will go.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Abandoned Airfield, One Hundred Fifty Miles North-Northwest of Chengdu
Giles stood over one of the crates Yuko and her team had liberated from Chinese soil.
“So how come you haven’t opened them all?” he asked.
Eve glanced across at Yuko across the pile of parts she was cataloging. “It’s like having a nerdier version of Mark around.” She chuckled, putting her hand over her face to hide her giggle.
Yuko couldn’t help herself and spluttered out a giggle, too.
Giles’ face turned pink. “Really? I’m nerdier than Mr. Computer-Head?”
Yuko nodded earnestly and Sabine piped in her agreement from the other side of the crates.
Knowing he wasn’t going to win this discussion, Giles turned his attention back to the three unopened crates. He started pulling at a strange lid while making prolonged grunted noises.
Yuko chuckled and moved toward him. “Let me help,” she said, bending down, flipping the catch, and removing the lid effortlessly. “What kind of archeology did you say you specialized in?” she asked, slightly mocking him with her eyes, if not her tone.
Giles grunted something unintelligible and peered into the box. “Things are usually a little more complicated than a catch,” he told her, trying to recover the part of his ego that had been flicked away with the lid. “We have to break codes and solve puzzles normally.”
“Which was obviously what you were attempting when you heaved at the lid, yes?”
“Well, erm, quite,” he agreed, his mind now firmly on the contents of the box. He started hauling pieces out, examining them and then putting each aside as he dove back in for the next piece.
Yuko moved to another box to help Eve with the arduous task they had committed to. “You know, he kind of reminds me of a kid opening Christmas presents,” she said ever-so-quietly.
Eve nodded, simulating the human mannerism. “Actually he reminds me of the previous century, when men had hundreds of television frequencies to explore.”
Yuko cocked her head, confused.
Eve continued, “You know, where they had that controller and sat in front of the screen all night? They would flick through one channel after another, and the joke was always that they didn’t want to know what was on the TV. They wanted to know what else was on the TV.”
Yuko snorted, and quickly covered her mouth and nose again.
Giles looked up, bewildered. “You know, it isn’t fair that you two are always ganging up on me. I’m new to this planet and you’re...merciless.”
Yuko straightened her face. “You’re right, and I’m sorry. It’s been a long time since we had someone around we could be so merciless toward. Forgive us?”
Giles pulled out another device, his attention captured. “Yes, yes, of course,” he muttered absently, turning the object in his hands. It was a strange metallic disc of some sort. Eve noticed it only because of the reaction Giles seemed to have toward it.
He stared at it for several seconds, turning it over now and again as if captivated by it psychically. It certainly wasn’t an object of beauty...which was why it seemed odd.
After a few minutes he snapped out of his somnambulistic state, set it down with the other things he’d taken from the crate, and continued his investigation.
“Got anything interesting?” Eve queried.
Giles shook his head, one arm searching in the crate. “Nothing that I understand…yet,” he called back.
Suddenly the massive hangar door shuddered and Barnabas appeared. He walked briskly toward them, covering the length of the building in moments. “I’m afraid we have a problem,” he announced. “I’m sensing movement out there, and I believe it’s on the approach. What kind of defenses do we have here?”
Yuko and Eve blinked at each other and Eve responded, “We have ourselves. This hangar was our nearest tactical option. As for defenses, that was it. We don’t have any heavy artillery here since you sent the others away.”
Barnabas’ face bore a mixture of expressions. It was as if he were trying to convey dismay, and yet in his eyes there was a glint of hunger.
Yuko recognized it. It was the same hunger that Sabine had shown for destroying things. It was the same hunger she’d felt within herself since her Michael-awakening. “Such a shame we’ll have to go out there with nothing but our Jean Dukes and our swords,” she said casually.
Giles paled, his eyes flitting between Barnabas, whom he knew, and the young Japanese woman, whom he did not.
“Don’t worry,” Yuko told him. “Archaeologists can sit this one out. Just stay inside and keep low. She waved at the crates. In fact, if you stay low amongst this lot, you’ll probably be pretty well protected.”
Yuko and Sabine had already trailed after Barnabas, who was almost back to the door again. Yuko spoke with Sabine, who nodded her head and turned around as Yuko continued.
Giles looked at the mess of parts and devices, still processing that they were under attack. “But what if they come for this stuff?” he called.
“Don’t let them take it
!” Yuko called back to him as she continued out the door, Eve catching up to her.
Giles shook his head, muttering to himself. “Don’t let them take it. And if they throw a missile my way...what am I supposed to do? Catch it in my teeth?”
Suddenly all the extra training seemed futile. If he survived this, he promised himself he would most certainly find a way—by hook or by crook—to make sure that he didn’t feel this incapable ever again.
—
Yuko and Eve stepped out of the hangar. Sabine had stayed in the hangar with Giles to repel boarders. They could see the chopper approaching in the distance even before their enhanced hearing picked it up.
But they had more immediate problems. Coming up past the old fence on the outskirts of the base were scores of soldiers in Chinese gear with blasters and guns and all kinds of equipment.
“Apparently someone in the Chinese hierarchy didn’t get the message.” Barnabas scratched his face. “Good.”
“Could be they got bought out.” Eve started moving in the direction of the box’s cabin. “I need my accessories for this one,” she said, moving as fast as her legs could carry her.
Yuko nodded, preparing herself by mentally picturing the ones she would obliterate first.
This was going to be bloody.
Very bloody.
Barnabas was ahead of them, his Jean Dukes drawn and the sword on his back ready if anyone got close enough for him to use them.
He stood poised. Powerful.
Yuko didn’t know how well he fought these days. It had been a while and it was not the kind of thing one tended to discuss. “Hey,” she began, coming up to him, “How was the last century and a half for you? And by the way, how up-to-date are your annihilation skills? Was that Ranger thing just an honorary appointment?”
She shook her head. FOCUS!
Whatever the answer, some of these bodies were going to get past him so she needed to be ready. The fate of those crates, and therefore the Earth as they were trying to leave it, was at stake.
Yuko drew her sword and adjusted her grip deliberately.
Dawn Arrives (The Second Dark Ages Book 4) Page 11