Her voice had a slightly hard edge to it, which became more telling the more she seemed to think about the day’s events.
“So, Mr. Lowell, were you sent here to search for Michael, and if so, by whom?”
Well, Nathan thought, here goes the pivot point. He put on his dry shirt and leaned up against another rock about ten feet from Bethany Anne.
“I was asked, as a favor, to see if I could find you and Michael by a man by the name of Frank Kurns. He’s the government representative that connects with the UnknownWorld groups. My company came under attack by, we thought, the Chinese, only to find out it was another group. Still not sure if it’s Vamps or Weres. He needed someone he could trust and was able to solve a problem for me that put me in his immediate debt. My coming over here was to wipe the slate clean.”
Bethany Anne stood up, wanting to think on her feet, and started pacing up and down the bank of the lake. Ten steps forward, ten steps back and repeat.
“What are you and Alexi, exactly?”
He was caught off-guard, as he had assumed Bethany Anne knew about them, “Most call us Weres.”
She stopped, looked him in the eyes and raised an eyebrow. “Nathan, you don’t go through any type of mutation from one to the other that I could see. One second you’re one thing, the next you’re something else. I have a general understanding how to make a vampire, but I’m completely clueless when it comes to, well, to you Weres.” She continued her pacing.
Nathan watched her for a minute, then scratched at his chin. “Well, we have another name, Wechselbalg. It’s German. It means ‘changeling.’ Don’t know if that helps or not. We have the whole conservation of mass issues with the different sizes. I’m not much for waving a wand over the whole thing and saying ‘magic,’ but I’ve done as much research as possible and haven’t figured anything out. You say you know how vampires are made?”
He was just trying to keep the conversation going. He was certainly not trying to get the inside information on Vamps and how to make, and potentially unmake, them.
Bethany Anne didn’t rise to the bait. “Yes. Yes I do. No, I won’t be sharing that with you right now. Not knowing how you change is going to be an itch I need to scratch until I understand it. Not to get very personal with you, but how old are you?” She stopped pacing and looked at him again, her eyes seemed suddenly very serious, very watchful.
God, he thought, I hate vampires. “I’m a little over eighty-four.” Next she was going to be asking him about robbing the cradle.
She raised an eyebrow. “You’re a very energetic eighty-four, Mr. Lowell.”
Nathan couldn’t understand why she switched back and forth from his first name to his last name. It was off-putting. Maybe that was the whole reason, keep him on his toes. Well, since she wasn’t trying to drain him of blood, it was going to take a lot more than just changing which name she was using to cause him to become flustered.
“Yeah, Wechselbalg are pretty long-lived. Depending on how much time we stay as our animal, we can live between a late normal human to almost two hundred and forty years, occasionally more.
It was his turn, he decided. “Since you seemed to be a little upset with Michael, I surmise that you haven’t seen him lately, or that you’ve seen too much of him?”
She continued her pacing. “Yeah, are you talking about my comment about cleaning up his bullshit?”
Nathan didn’t want to correct her, that was close enough.
“No, I don’t know where he is. So, from that standpoint Frank might know more about it than me. He left about six or seven months ago and I haven’t seen him since. Why does Frank want you to find him so bad?”
“Well, Frank was tracking Michael’s personal plane, Carl was using it, you know Carl?” She nodded that she did, “well, the plane disappeared over the English Channel, no bodies found, no wreckage. Frank works with Carl to get things cleaned up, certain things, that Michael’s family is better equipped to handle and it isn’t happening without a contact. Carl was the contact and the family isn’t moving much without the threat of Michael hanging over their heads. So, he’s lost a fair amount of people trying to keep a lid on the… problems.”
“Are we talking monsters, Mr. Lowell? Are these the problems Michael’s family took care of that even the Black Ops combat groups are cautious with?”
“Yes, probably.”
“OK, and you, Mr. Lowell? Tell me about Nathan Lowell, how are you someone that Frank Kurns feels comfortable talking with? No need to be humble, I’d like the real dirt.”
Oh, fuckity-fuck. Life just took the left turn into gibbering concern. He didn’t want to tell this lady anything more about himself. He wanted to go home. OK, maybe after a few more days with Ecaterina he would want to go home. Probably… perhaps.
Maybe the two of them could sneak out together? Nathan snorted. Like he had Alexi fooled.
Nathan went ahead and told her everything that was probably relevant to the situation. He glossed over his different companies and explained that his main company was a security agency for digital communications, hoping she didn’t clue in too much what that actually was. He wasn’t going to bet he pulled one over on her, but he could claim he mentioned it.
“So, you are the second to the main alpha of all packs in the U.S.? Correct? Good. I can work with that.”
Damn, translate that to, “I can work with you,” or one better, “You will work for me, slave!” Nathan sighed.
“Don’t look so down, Mr. Lowell. Carl told me about Frank, so I know he can be trusted and ergo, I’m piggybacking Frank’s credentials onto you. I need a contact to help me get into the game and you’re it. Just consider that Frank’s payback is going to take longer.”
Nathan felt like he had just won the nomination to be the first runner sent on a suicide mission. “How long might this go on? I do have those aforementioned businesses to run.”
“Well, until we find Carl alive, or I can replace you. Your concerns about your business are duly noted and we will look into that situation. I need your focus to be on helping me sort this fuster-cluck out.”
“You do know that the vampires really aren’t going to want to talk with me, right? Vampires don’t have a high opinion of Weres. Well, anyone really, so I guess I can’t make that a hate crime particular to Weres at all.”
“Nathan, by the time I finish with the local vampire family, they will be the most polite group you have ever met.”
Nathan couldn’t stop the snort before it escaped his nose. Ah damn, he had been doing so well.
“Not finding that very likely, Mr. Lowell?”
Crap, thought Nathan, back to his last name, again. “Let’s just say that my eight decades have provided a one-sided, no, make that a very singular experience when it comes to how vampires treat other species.”
“Yeah, I have that impression already. How did Michael keep everyone in line?”
“Lots of pain and death.”
It was her turn to snort. “Well, I could do without the death. But if you have to crack a few rotten eggs then maybe the rest of the carton will get the message. In fact, I’m counting on that happening. I think we’ll start with Petre and then check on Stephen.”
“Are you going alone?”
“Why, are you offering your services, Mr. Lowell?”
“I might be able to help with Petre’s children, but he’s probably too much for me to handle.”
“Well, I’m not sure how much I need you for your physical prowess, Nathan. But I will certainly need your cyber-security skills. Have you ever been on the darknet, Nathan?”
Well crap, he thought, she wasn’t fooled one bit.
“Yes, I’m familiar with it all. I was on the front line of hacking and cracking with early modems and enjoyed it. That’s how I started my consulting business. I might have a few old personas laying around.
Bethany Anne grinned suddenly. It was a nice grin, then it turned feral. “Wonderful. In fact, I’d love to talk with
ID10T-42, would you happen to know him?”
Nathan, who had made the mistake of getting comfortable talking with a vampire, realized it had been set up the whole time. How she knew one of his hacking personas was beyond him. She might be able to read his mind, for all he knew. He wasn’t sure exactly what a vampire could do, especially this one. “Yeah, yeah I guess I can get you in contact with him.”
“Good to know. I’ll need him to get me all of the security information possible on Petre and his home and offices in order to figure out how and where to make my introduction. I’m not sure if I’m going for sneaky or up front, yet.”
“You know that the family doesn’t appreciate any killing of their own, right?”
“Nathan, I appreciate the warning, but the previous methods of instruction haven’t seemed to work. I’m going to implement a new instruction regimen and I fully expect to have a few conversations before the acceptance. If I go to Stephen first, it will seem like I need his approval. When I reprimand Petre it will send the right message.”
Oh, Nathan thought, it’ll send a message all right. He hoped that she wanted to send the message ’this lady is suicidal.’
Nathan and Bethany Anne walked back to the clearing, making enough noise so that Alexi and Ecaterina could hear them approach.
Bethany Anne was good with going back early, her only concern had been Ecaterina’s health and she seemed just fine. With a proper guide, and the ability of three of them to easily see in the darkness, they were able to make good time.
Nathan had used his phone when he had a good connection to call Ivan and then let Ecaterina explain what they needed. Ivan came to the pickup point in a white van without any passenger windows. Ivan and Alexi rode up front, leaving Ecaterina, Nathan and Bethany Anne hidden in the back in case anyone was still looking for them.
Nathan called Frank and left a coded message that he was ‘getting close.’ Bethany Anne didn’t want any direct connection with Frank until after she took care of the Petre situation. One complication at a time.
Nathan assumed his stuff back at the hotel was a write off. With the pack members not coming back down from the mountain, he was sure that it would be watched. Bethany Anne considered going after it herself, but it would let the pack, and therefore Petre, know that she was in town.
Ivan was able to get them into a basement that had a good internet connection. There were two couches, not so comfortable, and one bedroom and full bathroom for the four of them.
After about a day in the confined space, and with the tension increasing pretty exponentially, Bethany Anne felt like slapping both of the guys. When she realized that they were both worried about her going all Vampy on Ecaterina’s neck, she had her first bout of uncontrolled laughter since waking up in the medical pod back on the mountain. Both guys at first just looked at each other, perplexed, until Bethany Anne was able to explain that she didn’t need blood to survive daily. Their introduction to her ripping heads off and sucking blood from the necks was related to the fight and the expending of energy.
Resting around the room was a net gain for her, so no need to for them to stress out and feel all needful of protecting Ecaterina.
Ecaterina thought it a little childish for the men to get all protective of her. She had been handling her own protection out on the mountains for almost all of her twenty-four years and suddenly she had these two guys suffocating her.
Ecaterina asked Bethany Anne all about what she did before she came to Europe and Bethany Anne shared her work in the CIA and then, without naming names, her work in her former agency.
Nathan’s hacker persona came through with a location the second morning, finding some plans for a nice little two story with basement, a little outside the city and situated on its own land. There were some notes about extra security in place, but the only thing that Nathan could confirm were some bills paid to a local security installation company fourteen months before.
They talked it over and it was decided that Alexi and Ecaterina would go and take a look at the house. They had the best woodsmanship skills. Nathan would be excellent in the woods, but he didn’t know the common ways to look for traps. The Brasov pack would know if they scented another wolf that wasn’t part of their pack. Alexi was a known local and while they might be concerned, at least he lived in the area.
Ecaterina going out like this didn’t sit too well with Nathan, but he was a big enough boy to know when to keep his mouth shut on the subject.
To keep Nathan busy, Bethany Anne had him researching more about Stephen’s territory and attempting to find any bank account information on Petre. They say, always trace the money to find out what’s important in a man’s life.
Well, it worked when she was tracking the dirt on politicians, anyway.
Brasov, Romania
They compared notes when Alexi and Ecaterina returned later that evening. They didn’t want to chance Petre getting involved and their best guess was he would be up at night. Sitting on the two couches, they went over the results from their reconnaissance around Petre’s house.
They had found a few regular traps and then hit the electronic versions. Petre was pretty well protected from anything coming through the woods.
“Damn.” Bethany Anne seemed a little annoyed that Petre would make this more difficult for her. “I don’t know enough about this guy to decide if I can just walk up and slap him around, or if he has enough muscle on the property to make life difficult.”
Nathan piped up, “Have you considered the Brasov pack?”
“No, not really. They’re in the back of my mind, but unless they can all jump me at the same time I should be able to fight my way clear of them.” Bethany Anne was quiet for a minute.
Nathan considered her comment. If she could take on that many at one time, just how strong was she already? If a child of Michael’s had become this powerful in less than a year, just how strong was Stephen?
“What if, beyond your ability to make Stephen see reason, he decides you have to pay for Petre? I still don’t like that you aren’t just taking the problem up with him.” Nathan wasn’t too happy with going outside the normal channels. He didn’t know what Michael would do about Bethany Anne going around the established protocols, and felt obligated to continue to encourage Bethany Anne to consider changing her plan.
Bethany Anne considered his comment, for the fourth time at least. She respected that he came from a culture where this was, literally, a life or death decision for them and his trepidation was rooted in that culture.
“No, I’m not going to effect change by following the old rules. Every vampire, because of Michael’s influence, only understands power at the end of the day. Essentially, Michael’s power. Michael and I talked about this on the trip over here. It was very rare that an attack would happen on American soil because Michael would get involved if Bill couldn’t take care of the issue. So, whoever out there is making this happen, they’re confident in their ability to take on Michael and his family.
“I’ve thought about this for a while. I think the forsaken have become empowered by a new way to attack. Apparently, from the footage and what Michael knows about a situation in World War II, there’s a method to use bodies to create a form of zombie Nosferatu. They’re intelligent enough to handle fairly complicated instructions and they really don’t have a will of their own. The ones in the explosion that killed Bill didn’t hesitate to blow themselves up.”
Nathan considered what Bethany Anne had just shared. “If they’re Nosferatu, then that pretty much makes them forsaken, right? None of Michael’s children allow a changed person to live if they don’t make it past that stage.”
“Unless we have another child or set of children that have decided to break from Michael, then yes. I asked Michael why they just didn’t bomb his residence back in America and he said that while possible, it would have been difficult for them to do anything permanent to him. There are enough video cameras in town they would have had a better ch
ance of backtracking evidence to someone. Plus, vampires never sleep where they don’t have a bolthole.”
Ecaterina spoke up for the first time since they had explained what they had found at Petre’s house. “What is bolthole? I don’t understand this word.”
Nathan jumped in, “It means a way out, a second, or third, way for him to leave the house, usually underground, and comes out far away.”
“So, if we find this bolthole, he will come out from there if his house is attacked?”
Bethany Anne took this question, “Yes. I could go through his house and if he got concerned before I could get to him, he could slip away and then I would have a bigger problem on my hands.”
“So, this bolthole is probably outside protected area. Uncle and I go and try to find exit and close it, if possible.”
Bethany Anne thought about that. She noticed Nathan grimacing a little—he didn’t like the idea much.
“OK, here’s what we can do. I need you and your uncle to go back and see if you can find any exits. They’ll be very hard to spot. If you can find one, we will probably do this. If you can find two, then I feel better than fifty-fifty we can contain Petre. I can get into the house during the day when he’s probably sleeping. Even if he tries to flee, he’ll have the sun to deal with so he would prefer to either get out with a closed van, or something similar, or hide in the house until the sun goes down.
“I’ll need a reason to be there, I don’t think that they’ll allow me to just walk up, and if I do something Vampy it will certainly cause me to lose the element of surprise.”
Just then, Nathan leaned towards her and sniffed in her direction. She raised an eyebrow at him.
“You don’t smell like a vampire. I just realized that. I knew you were a vampire back when you first came into the bushes, but you don’t have that…” He noticed her giving him a glare that just dared him to continue that sentence. “You don’t smell like a vampire is all I’m trying to say.”
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 19