She spotted the weapon, then she spotted the sniper.
She jumped from her location to the first wall and started pulling herself up. There was nothing too tiny to use as leverage to climb. He was more than a hundred feet above her… seventy feet… forty feet.
She watched as he fired again. She moved across the face of the cliff trying to find a handhold, any handhold.
In frustration, she reached back and drove her fist into the stone, pulverizing a hole, aggregate shooting everywhere.
He was lining up for another shot. She wouldn’t be in time. Determination fueled her anxiety. Frustration pierced her anger.
The world flashed white. Suddenly she was falling down towards him from above. She punched the back of his head and his finger pulled the trigger as she came crashing down into his body. His head, however, had already hit the stock and shoved the barrel up into the sky. The shot couldn’t strike anyone down in the valley.
He wouldn’t ever be shooting anything again. His head had just about exploded from her punch. His blood was all over her hand.
We are down to almost nothing on our energy reserves.
“What the hell just happened?” Bethany Anne struggled off of the corpse and grabbed the sniper rifle to use the scope to see what was going on down in the valley.
You transported your body up above the victim, and, well, you know the rest.
“Yeah, but how did I do it?” Seeing the bear with the wounds looking like he was protecting a woman from two rather large wolves, one taking off into the bushes to her left. This left one harassing the bear.
“How much would it take to transport down there?” Bethany Anne pointed down to the clearing, at least a thousand feet away from where they were presently.
Too much. You would need a significant Etheric balance to make that jump. We will become more efficient using your reserves with every jump, but right now you don’t have it and you won’t be pulling it together for some time. Well before that is finished.
“How much blood?”
Excuse me?
“How much blood would I have to consume to get the energy needed? She needs me.” The anger was starting to show in Bethany Anne’s eyes. Her hatred of the strong preying on the weak, the anger of what was right getting lost to what bad people forced on others. This wasn’t happening to her, to that woman down below.
Bethany Anne decided that she was going to become that which the monsters feared. If they feared Michael because of his honor, they were going to fear Bethany Anne because hell hath no fury like a woman protecting her own. And the defenseless, were indeed, Bethany Anne’s own. There was nothing she wouldn’t do in life, or in death, that would stop her.
Well, I truly couldn’t say. We would need to try a little and then I could…
“Tell me when I’ve got enough.” With that Bethany Anne reached down and grabbed the body with her right hand, never taking her eyes from the clearing that she could see below. She lifted the two-hundred-pound corpse as if it weighed the same as a sack of potatoes and started sucking blood from the neck with incisors that grew as her eyes became red and then she just disappeared, the corpse falling back to the ground with a sickening plop.
The other wolf took off into the bushes. Alexi could hear the growling and could easily tell it had just become a two against one battle.
That left him the one, and this one wasn’t stupid. Every time Alexi tried to get a good position, the wolf would jump towards Ecaterina, causing Alexi to have to come back and protect her and swat the wolf away. He was unable to get any proactive offense going.
Then life suddenly got very weird.
Alexi was almost standing over Ecaterina, staring at the wolf who was obviously trying to decide which way to go around him to get to the girl as the snarling in the bushes escalated, when a woman, blood all over her mouth and right hand, appeared from thin air behind the wolf, picked it up with her left hand and slapped it with her right. The wolf’s head disintegrated. She dropped the dead wolf’s body and walked into the bushes towards the fight.
Oh, this is bad, thought Alexi. He could smell what this being was and while he hadn’t been around one in many, many years you never forgot the smell of a vampire, or the destruction they brought.
Well, if he died protecting Ecaterina, it wouldn’t be a mangy wolf he lost his life to. He moved to stand between the bushes and his precious niece, ready to take on death herself to give Ecaterina just one more chance at life.
20
Carpathian Mountains, Romania
Nathan was in a real quandary. The new wolf was moving into position and he was going to have to make the decision to stay here, or see if he could join up with the bear and try to make it a two against three fight. Hopefully, the big guy would recognize him and not just knock him ass over appetite the first chance he got.
Bears were notorious for being loners. They weren’t into big groups as animals, and the Were versions weren’t much different.
A sudden loud and meaty whack was heard from the clearing by all three of the wolves in the bushes. The wolf out there was suddenly quiet. A body hit the ground.
Only the bear could be heard moving a little towards them. And then all three wolves heard the steps, human steps.
Slow, distinctly human steps.
There was only one human out there and Nathan knew she wasn’t stupid enough to come into the bushes where three wolves were fighting.
Their own fight was forgotten until this new situation could be assessed, then a human female materialized in front of them and looked at all three.
Oh, holy shit, thought Nathan. If the blood on her hands and throat and staining her mouth didn’t give it away, the freaking blood red eyes were a big telling sign that he’d found the new family member.
Apparently, she didn’t need Michael holding her hand, and she was walking in the daytime.
Well, fuckity-fuck. This was going from bad to worse. If she was going to ask questions of the dead then Nathan was officially a goner.
He had hopes that she was at least neutral since he could still hear the bear near Ecaterina.
Then the newest wolf decided to end his participation by attacking her. Death by vampire was usually quick, at least in Nathan's experience, and this didn’t seem much different.
The wolf, at least eighty pounds, took off and jumped at the vampire who continued to watch both him and the other alpha as she casually plucked the jumping werewolf by the throat, stopping his leap in midair, then ripped his head back, splitting his neck and spraying the area with his arterial blood. She calmly pulled the body up to her mouth while keeping her blood red eyes on the other two. She sucked down the freshly killed wolf’s essence. Dropping the body at her feet, she stepped over it and calmly said, “Change back to your human forms or die. I won’t give you a third option.”
Nathan got busy, lying down to change back into a human and the other wolf seized the opportunity to try bury his teeth in Nathan’s neck.
He never made it to Nathan. The vampire was ten feet away one second and the next had the alpha slammed down into the dirt near Nathan, who was now fully human and naked.
She reached down, cocked her head as if thinking and then casually used her forearm to crack the other alpha over the head, not killing him, but rather knocking him from dazed into unconsciousness.
She grabbed the alpha by the scruff of the neck, like a puppy, and turned around, walking towards the clearing. “Get dressed, meet me by the woman.”
There was a reason Gerry always had Nathan communicate and liaise with Michael and his family. It was because he never, no never, got stupid around vampires.
Alexi heard a wolf jump, then a short bark of surprise and finally the ripping of flesh. He could hear the blood pumping out of the wolf. Then a moment later a body dropped to the ground as the vampire stepped over the wolf and gave the other two an ultimatum.
Alexi didn’t even have time to wonder if either would be stupid. He heard a body slam int
o the ground, another being hit and the vampire moving back in his direction, telling the remaining wolf to get dressed.
She appeared in the clearing with fresh blood around her mouth and down her throat. It didn’t seem like it bothered her too much. She carried the other alpha like a pup and casually threw him down at Alexi’s feet.
“Don’t let him go. Sit on him if you have to. I want answers and he’s going to give them to me. I’ll be back.”
With that announcement, and with the still unconscious wolf at Alexi’s feet, she disappeared towards the lake.
Alexi looked down at the wolf and considered just ending its life. But he decided that he didn’t really want to press a day-walking vampire’s patience right away.
The silver was beginning to really annoy him as the other guy, the one Ecaterina had brought up here, came out of the bushes. He walked past Alexi giving him a nod of respect and went over to his tent. He reached in and pulled out a bag. Getting out a change of clothes, he brushed off the dirt that was on his skin and got dressed. Then he took a first aid kit from his backpack. Walking over to Alexi and Ecaterina, he held out the kit.
“Do you mind if I clean up the wound? I don’t think it’s going away by itself and she can’t be comfortable in that position. You can keep an eye on large and stupid here better than I can. I don’t want to be in wolf form when dark, bloody and freaking dangerous comes back.”
Alexi moved over, resting a large dinner plate sized paw on top of the sleeping ugly.
Nathan gently pulled Ecaterina over the log and laid her out carefully on the ground. Opening the first aid kit, he pulled out the antiseptic wipes and started cleaning her wound.
By the time he was finished, the vampire was back after washing as well as she could in the lake. She walked into the clearing, obviously not caring if they wanted her there.
Nathan was holding Ecaterina up. The vampire was stunning, if you liked your ladies with dark hair and destructive urges. She came right up to Nathan and Ecaterina after sparing a glance at the bear holding down the wolf.
“How is she doing?”
Her voice was soft. Completely different from earlier, when her voice was death, just slightly warmer.
Nathan took a moment to respond to her, carefully weighing his words. “I think she’ll do OK. These types of wounds, on humans, can keep them out for a little or a long time. I think she’ll be awake before sunset. Look, I don’t think she understands anything about the UnknownWorld, so I hope you don’t feel a need to wipe her.”
Alexi would have held his breath if he was human. For Nathan to be forward enough to suggest a vampire go against Michael’s law of keeping humans as ignorant as possible regarding the UnknownWorld was pretty chancy, and gave Alexi a little insight into Nathan’s thoughts about his niece.
That’s when the wolf started coming around.
Bethany Anne checked on the woman in the werewolf’s arms. He was obviously caring for her, so she didn’t feel uncomfortable leaving the woman there.
His question was a little off-putting. Would she wipe her? Obviously that was some kind of rule or a suggestion or something about the UnknownWorld. She had heard the UnknownWorld term used a couple of times, but without the context of werewolves, and werebears or maybe she should just say Weres and leave it at that? No matter, she wasn’t wiping anybody.
It was an easy decision; people shouldn’t have chunks of their lives wiped clean. She didn’t know how to wipe anyone anyway. Although she could ask TOM, better to be ignorant if she talked with Michael.
The wolf was starting to move and fidget. She stood up and walked over to him so she would be visible when it opened its eyes.
She listened to the heartbeat, to the breathing, and was enjoying the fact that the wolf was trying to continue pretending it was unconscious. Probably trying to heal, she surmised.
Unworried, she walked over to the fire and picked out a small, partially unburned limb. She casually pulled it free of the fire and said to the bear, “You’ll want to hold him still for this,” and flung the limb onto the wolf’s flank.
That woke him right the hell up. The wolf was promising violence with its growling and barking. Too bad for it it couldn’t move worth a damn with more than a thousand pounds of bear holding it down.
Bethany Anne walked back over to the wolf, who followed her with its eyes and slowly stopped its useless struggling.
“You have two options. You can change back, or I can continue to cause you pain until you die. If you try to hold out on me, I’m going to get my pound of flesh off you whether you choose to give up early or late. So, what’s it going to be?”
The wolf looked like it wanted to bite her, but a second later, there was a naked man under the bear’s paw.
Bethany Anne looked over at the man holding the girl. “You got anything for him you don’t mind losing?”
He looked back at her, a little confused, but then dipped his head towards a tent. “Back in my tent, black bag, there’s another pair of pants and a shirt.”
Bethany Anne walked over to the tent, dug out the bag and grabbed some clothes. Walking back to the Were, she flung them at his feet. “Put those on, I don’t want the condemned to be naked.”
The guy acted affronted, “Condemned? I’ve not done anything wrong. That man is in our territory without permission! I’m just protecting my homeland. Stephen has allowed us to protect our territory for the past four centuries. It is how it has always been.” The bear had released him to let him dress.
Stephen was Michael’s child who lived somewhere near here. Towards the water, she thought. Not that she cared a whit what Stephen thought. If he allowed a travesty such as this to occur, he would be getting a visit from her soon enough. If he wasn’t awake, well, she would wake him the hell up by putting him in the sun until he chose to open his eyes, then they would be able to talk like sensible supernatural adults—right before she kicked his ass for being a careless twit. Unless of course, Stephen was the one who could walk in the sun as well. She couldn’t remember if that was Stephen or David. Either way, they would have a discussion after a proper introduction.
“You have a name?” Bethany Anne chose to sit down on a log. It helped the guy feel more comfortable, standing up and being in a higher position. It allowed her to setup a perfect and rational demonstration.
“I am the Alpha of the Brasov Pack, Algerian. You and these trespassers need to get off our land before I speak with Stephen and he speaks with Michael.”
This guy really seemed like he wanted to eat his own leg.
Calmly, Bethany Anne started the object lesson. “Algerian, you need to sit down.”
“I’ll do no such…” He landed on his ass before he could finish the sentence. Bethany Anne was back on the log, sitting there like she had never moved.
“Good of you to sit. If you choose to get up, I’ll find a few branches to impale you with until you choose to continue to stay on the ground. Do you understand the conditions, Algerian?”
He nodded his head, sullenly.
She looked over at the bear. “You need to get that silver out, I can smell the reaction with your flesh. Come here.”
21
Carpathian Mountains, Romania
Alexi was startled. He had stayed, mostly, out of the limelight because of the wolf’s antics.
Now she was looking at him. Part of him was still put out that all of this went down on his ground. He had been lord of this domain for the last thirty or more years, only to have been brought close to death because of the silver in the bullets from what he thought was a powerless pack. Now, he was taking orders from a woman that couldn’t weigh much more than a hundred and thirty pounds, although she was taller than average for a female.
Considering that the silver was hurting, he decided that going along was a good choice.
He walked over towards the vampire, who had stood up. He considered taking a bite out of Algerian on his way over, but he consoled himself with the
thought that werewolves probably didn’t taste very good.
She came around to his injured side and looked at the wounds. She cocked her head and seemed to go inside herself for a few seconds before placing her left hand on his back and looking him straight in the eyes. “You ready for a little pain? Because, if you bite me, I’m going to make you regrow your whole arm instead of a little meat that’s going to come out with the bullets. You understand?”
Alexi nodded his head in agreement. While he wouldn’t have believed it when he was on his way over this morning, he knew now that no matter what, if this woman said she would pull his arm off, he would be losing it. Well, he thought, she wasn’t that small for a human, but in his bear form she seemed tiny enough.
The pain was sudden, it was sharp, it was excruciating, and then it was over. She had jumped into her super-speed and apparently reached into his wounds and found the pieces and pulled them all out. He carefully kept his legs locked as he roared his pain.
“Give it a rest, you big brown baby. Now change.”
Alexi lay down on the ground, his side slowly mending. His desire to turn his head and bite her in the ass was fortunately overwhelmed by the desire not to get his ass kicked by a girl. In a second, he was naked.
“God, a year ago I couldn’t find a good man. Now I keep getting all kinds of hunky guys laying around naked. Go find something to cover yourself up. Ask your lady friend, if you need to, she’s awake.” She walked over to Algerian.
He looked over at Ecaterina and saw the man holding her looking down in surprise. He had been watching what was going on with the vampire and hadn’t noticed her waking up in his arms.
Ecaterina was being held in someone’s arms. Her head was pounding, but the pain was manageable.
The last she remembered, she was being held down by the guy over there in the jeans that looked a little too small on him. There was a woman next to the biggest brown bear she had ever seen; her eyes widened. She was talking to the bear and then, suddenly, it just appeared to become less solid and the bear roared in pain, but its legs stayed still.
Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Set One: Books 1-7, Death Becomes Her, Queen Bitch, Love Lost, Bite This, Never Forsaken, Under My Heel, Kneel or Die (Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Sets) Page 16