7
Washington, D.C., USA
It was 3:30 in the afternoon when Frank’s phone rang. It was an unknown number.
“Hello, Frank Kurns.”
“Hello Frank, this is Bethany Anne.”
He straightened in his chair. “Hello Ms. Reynolds, I appreciate the phone call.”
“Not Ms. Reynolds anymore, Frank. The Nacht don’t have last names, we surrender them when we change.”
It was a quick and efficient way to inform Frank that he wasn’t speaking to the lady that left America anymore, this was a new woman, a different woman altogether.
“Yes, I see.” No, he really didn’t. But he needed to get his game hat back on. For almost a year he hadn’t spoken with Carl or any of the vampires, and he remembered how particular they could be. “Bethany Anne it is, then. I appreciate your call. Are you here in the States?”
“No, I’m presently at a train station in Romania. I was considering taking a commercial flight back and realized we might be able to work together. I need a fast way back to America. But I’d like a flight where I’m not concerned about mayhem happening to random people. I know you want me back there to see how I might be able to help with both your operations and the Were problem. Do you happen to have a potential solution?”
“Um, mayhem?” What was she into already? What had she started that had the potential to cause mayhem on a commercial flight?
“Yes, it seems that Mr. Lowell and I were tagged on a train from Switzerland to Romania and I’ve had someone try Rohypnol on me already. While I know I can take care of myself, I tend to be a little extreme in the way I dish out retribution.”
Frank considered his responses. So, his guy was made on the train, so he should come clean about that and he needed to see what he could set up for a fast trip across the Atlantic.
“Well, I can update you on the train incident. I had an agent trying to find Nathan and you to get information on what was going on. Nathan talked to me during the trip and I sent my guy a message to drop off before contact.”
“Was his name Paul Rutherford?”
“No it wasn’t, why?” Frank penciled in the name Paul Rutherford with a question mark beside it on a scratch pad. Something to look up later.
“Just confirming something.”
“OK, as for the transportation, I feel confident that I can get you here. I have an operation going down tomorrow night. If I can get you here in time, are you willing to take it on?”
“Most likely. What are the parameters?”
“We have a situation in the Florida Everglades. We think we have two forsaken down there. The alligators are getting the blame for people disappearing and I can’t have a major military effort as it’s too obvious. My smaller team is good, but these guys have been on the sharp end of this stick four times in three months and frankly, they are wiped. They’ve lost two men recently.”
“We have forsaken in the U.S.? Those ass-maggots. Yeah, I’ll be happy to go down there and help them. Just make sure you have the right gear for me. I didn’t buy any sets of ‘Florida Everglades Fatigues’ and I’m not ruining my Louboutins in that swamp.”
Frank just wanted to pull his phone away from his ear and look at it. ‘Ass-maggots?’ Bethany Anne was a whole lot of different from what he was accustomed to working with. He’d had a short voice message from Nathan this morning to treat her like the real deal and to not piss her off.
No one tried to piss her off when she was human. In light of her super-lethality anyone trying to piss her off was having a certifiable moment of stupidity. Frank hadn’t lasted this many years by making many mistakes.
But Nathan’s advice got him wondering just how powerful she had become. Apparently it didn’t take as long to grow into her powers as he thought it might.
“I’ll call you back in fifteen minutes with the transportation details. Send me your clothing sizes and I’ll have someone get a set of fatigues ready for you.”
“OK, that works for me. I’ll be at the main pickup location for the train station. Just a warning, don’t send an ass-munch to pick me up, you might not get him back, bye.” Bethany Anne hung up her cell phone and dropped the blood bag into a trashcan as she walked to the main pickup area.
Frank looked at his phone before hanging it up and pulling up his computer. Yeah, she hadn’t changed much from what his research had told him. Well, except now when she said ‘you might not get him back,’ he was pretty sure she didn’t mean that figuratively.
Now, he had to get busy if he wanted to make sure the team had the best shot for all of them to live through tomorrow night.
He sure hoped the team remembered to mind their Ps and Qs when she got there. She was a good looking woman and those spec-ops guys thought they walked on water. That might not fly with a woman that might just be able to walk on water.
Atlantic Ocean
Bethany Anne had been picked up in a black sedan by a female captain. The captain asked no questions, was very polite to Bethany Anne and took her onto an airfield about an hour and a half away. In the car was a flight suit and boots in Bethany Anne’s size. She changed in the car and hated leaving her outfit behind. She asked the Captain if the car had a box anywhere so she could bring her change of clothes on the plane.
Looking a little confused, the Captain explained that in a two-seat fighter jet, there wasn’t enough room to change your mind, much less carry an extra load of clothes. She would see that the box of clothes got shipped red-label Fed-Ex the next morning.
Bethany Anne was a little surprised that Frank would provide a fighter jet for her transportation. She later learned that pilots always had to have enough flying hours. Her pilot was a little short for fighters as he had been mostly dealing with larger transportation planes. When the chance came up to get some F-15 hours, he jumped on it. Had he known he was going to fly a gorgeous model to the United States, he would have slit his wrist for the chance. She could hear the smile in his voice, it wasn’t like some of the scuzzier comments she received when working in Washington D.C.
She took the compliment as it was intended and thanked him. They were going to refuel in the air and fly straight to Florida. She zoned out and allowed TOM to pay attention for a while. She noticed that she lost her ability to ‘feel’ what direction Stephen was about midway across the Atlantic, but she could still tell he was alive. She wondered if this ability would stay with her or would she lose it as her blood worked its way through his system?
A couple of hours later, the pilot came over the headset and directed Bethany Anne’s attention to the islands of the Azores as they passed over. The flight was peaceful. As peaceful as you can be in a jet flying as fast as they were. She finally decided to just go to sleep.
A few hours later, she woke up with the coast in the distance. She missed the mid-air refueling, being completely zoned out. The pilot was amazed she was able to sleep through the whole thing. All he knew about his passenger was that he needed to get her to Florida, fast.
She had been moved so quickly from his plane to the car he never got a chance to ask her for a phone number.
New York City, NY, USA
Ecaterina was looking around at all the strange and exciting city lights. Nathan had brought her over on first class tickets and had made sure that a limousine was waiting for them, with her name on the placard, when they came out of the security gate at John F. Kennedy.
Security was a two-hour nightmare for them. Especially since Ecaterina had never before been out of her own country.
Nathan was able to get them through the security, finally. She was excited to be in the limousine and he had the driver go through Times Square. It added an additional forty-five minutes to their trip, but he didn’t care. Her face, radiant with delight, was all the payment he needed.
She finally scooted close to him when they left Times Square. She gave him a shy smile and gently took his hand and rested her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes.
My god, he thought, I love this woman.
It had been over thirty years since Nathan had any type of serious relationship. His first wife had suffered when their child had been killed in Vietnam. She was never the same. While she eventually got through the grief, and a serious depression, she was never the same vivacious woman he married.
His first wife hadn’t known about him being a Wechselbalg. It wasn’t a serious problem in the relationship. It just meant that Nathan was always aware that their relationship wasn’t completely transparent. Now, due to Bethany Anne more than anyone, he had a chance to really enjoy a relationship, and this time there would be no secrets.
He felt like the most special pillow in the world that moment as he listened to her breathing as she slept against him.
He quietly told the driver to take the very long way to his house. He had the money to make this last a little while longer and he was going to do it.
New York City, NY, USA
Waking Ecaterina up in the limousine wasn’t the struggle Nathan thought it would be. She was instantly awake and quickly looking around. He realized she was acting no different than she would out in the forest.
God, he really loved this woman.
The driver grabbed all of the bags, only two of them were Ecaterina’s, and dropped them on the doorstep of his brownstone. Two bags to move to another country. God, he really, really loved this woman.
What Nathan didn’t know was that Bethany Anne had another three boxes being shipped over. Some of the things Ecaterina wanted to take along were not easy to ship on a commercial flight. They really frowned on firearms and ammunition. They weren’t wild about traps, either.
Bethany Anne wasn’t concerned and thought Ecaterina had an emotional attachment to the equipment so she got on her phone and rented a place outside Newark and had the boxes shipped there. Personally, Bethany Anne had an emotional attachment to the bear trap and had gone back to get it. She tracked it down to one of the Pack members who was quick to give it up. They could never do something too fast for Bethany Anne. She supposed they might have finally made the link between the unknown vampire and her.
Nathan had paid and tipped the driver before waking Ecaterina up. He had thought he might have to carry her in. Nope. In fact, she was ready to explore the neighborhood in the dark. He hoped the cleaning ladies had been there while he was gone. They did a good job, mostly. His only complaint was that they stuffed EVERYTHING in his kitchen into the pantry. Every single time. It made his kitchen look pristine, but he would find moldy bread there a week later because he forgot he had it when they cleaned for him and would buy another loaf. Eventually, he smelled the bread and would find all of the food and bring it back out. No telling what he would find this time.
He carried the bags inside as Ecaterina walked around the house, admiring the curios and knickknacks. He showed her the guest bedroom on the first floor, behind the kitchen. It had its own bathroom and shower and small closet. He knew the bed in that room was the best in the house as it was the room he gave to most of his visitors.
She smiled at him and gave him a peck on the cheek for bringing in her luggage. She wouldn’t have expected him to, but being curious to see the house she didn’t think about it until it was too late.
“Thank you, Nathan. I’m sure I will only be here a few days until Bethany Anne arrives and we will be going… somewhere. She used to live in Washington D.C., is that far?”
He smiled at her. “No, maybe four or five hours by train. Shorter for a plane and car, of course. My home is your home. Whatever you want, grab it. Don’t make me tell you again, please?”
Her radiant smile was with him as he climbed the stairs all the way to the third floor, which was his room. He showered and got ready for bed. On the nightstands by the bed were two pictures. One of his son and himself, and one with his wife, son and himself.
He grabbed the one with the three of them and looked down at it for a couple of minutes. He walked to his closet and pulled down a box of pictures. It was time to move on. Life has a way of healing all hurts in time. He put the picture frame in the box and put the lid on before putting it back up in the closet.
He shut off the lights and went to sleep.
Down on the first floor, Ecaterina was wishing that he had asked her to come upstairs. The distance between them seemed like a thousand miles. But, she was happy. Impatient, yes. But very, very happy.
Hopefully Bethany Anne wouldn’t get finished too fast, she thought as she turned off her lights to go to sleep.
8
Everglades, FL, USA
Bethany Anne was treated with kid gloves from the landing at the Air Force base to the forward operations center an hour and a half away. The jet taxied right into a hangar where they picked her up in a blacked out SUV. She felt like they were filming a Hollywood movie. She had to laugh at the whole episode. Black SUV, black leather, bulletproof glass and super dark tint on the windows. Who did they think they were transporting?
As the only passenger in the back of the Limited Edition Explorer (Go Ford, she thought), she only had the driver and his shotgun support to talk to. These guys were professionals. She asked why the tint was so dark on the windows and they looked confused before the driver, Eric, admitted that it was for her. The right front passenger, John, allowed that he was under the impression that the ‘agents from her group’ had an aversion to sunlight like their previous contact, Bill.
Eric was in a dark suit with white shirt and dark red tie. John followed the prescribed dressing regimen but substituted a classy medium blue tie. At least they weren't MIB, she thought. Well fuck, maybe she represented MIB since she was the one with the alien.
"Did you guys work with Bill very often?" She wasn't able to get Carl to open up about Bill very much on their flight to Romania, so she was curious about the agents’ insights into a true vampire. While Bethany Anne knew everyone considered her a vampire, she wasn't in the classic sense. Not what most considered a vampire to be, anyway.
John took up the talking and let Eric focus on driving. "Yes ma'am, I probably worked with him on about eight operations. He was scary as hell, no offense, ma'am."
Bethany Anne delivered the following comment with the most sophisticated English accent she could pull off. "John, you’re going to have to grow a fucking pair if you’re going to cuss around me. There isn't a cuss word you butt-munches have ever said that could possibly offend me, and I give ten points to whoever can make me laugh."
Eric had to pull the SUV over to the side of the road. He was laughing so hard tears were flowing down his face obscuring his ability to see. John was rolling in his seat. It didn't take long before the op center radioed asking if everything was OK. Their GPS showed that they had stopped. The voice seemed a little worried.
Bethany Anne took the mic from Eric who couldn't stop his laughing long enough to answer the request. With both of her escorts incapacitated, she clicked the mic and spoke into it. "Ops center, this is Bethany Anne. I need to stretch my legs after flying for so long. We will be back on the road in five." She clicked off the mic and stepped out of the vehicle to walk around, leaving John and Eric a moment to compose themselves.
They had needed just this kind of catharsis after their last half a year. Frankly, the team needed all of the help they could get but they were on eggshells around Bethany Anne. They didn't know what kind of personality their contact was going to have. They knew that she was a vampire and they knew the type of creatures that they were fighting.
Both John and Eric had been in the hangar when the fighter taxied right through the door. As the canopy disengaged and pulled back, the passenger in the back stood up and turned around and stepped down the stairs. Both of them had enough presence of mind not to say anything in case she was paying attention, but they had not realized that they were going to be picking up a female who made their eyes want to bug out.
She took off her helmet and handed it to the ground support guy. John and Eric noti
ced he never closed his mouth. John watched as two others helped take off all of the support pieces on her flight suit. She had waved to the pilot with a smile, walked over to the SUV and got in.
Inside the car, John and Eric could hear ops center ask, to no one in particular. "Did she just say she was going to walk around outside a bit?"
A few minutes later Bethany Anne heard John roll down his window and speak in a normal voice, “Ma'am, we have our fucking shit together whenever you’re ready." She smiled and turned back to the vehicle and walked the fifty yards at a normal speed. No need to freak them out when she had just got them settled back down.
She sat down in the backseat. "Home, James." Both John and Eric smiled and Eric pulled the SUV out onto the two lane freeway and gunned the engine to try and make up the lost time.
God, John thought, it feels good to have hope again. The two agents spent the next hour telling her stories about their time with Bill and trying to throw in various cuss words to see if they could surprise her. They didn't, but she almost made Eric pull back off the road one more time. John was just happy he wasn’t driving.
New York City, NY, USA
Gerry was going to strangle somebody before this day was through. He was presently in his office in Queens. Nathan had made it back the previous night and was supposed to arrive at midday. He’d been taking a huge amount of calls from the local pack for the last week while Nathan was out of town. Irene had tried to help him out, but the amount of butt kissing was pissing him off.
He had assumed that there wasn’t a large amount of politics in his pack when he talked with Irene and Nathan weekly. They never mentioned it. What he realized was that the pack members had found out that Nathan hated ass kissing, intimidation or any other form of manipulation. One idiot had tried blackmail only to find out that all of the darkest secrets he was hiding were completely exposed on his social media accounts.
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 28