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)

by Michael Anderle

  Then he received an email from an anonymous source that told him that his financial accounts would be hit next. Did he want to continue this blackmail effort? As the story got around, no one considered trying blackmail on Nathan again.

  Gerry’s phone rang. It was another pack member that, ‘Just needed to see him.’

  Gerry’s face broke out into maybe the first genuine smile he had all week. “Max, I understand but I am really busy through today. Tomorrow? No, I’m not available tomorrow but Nathan is back in town and I am sure he’ll talk with you. Should I tell Nathan you’ll call? Don’t bother? You’ll get in touch with him? Fine, I’ll let you do that.”

  Gerry hung up the phone and smiled in satisfaction. Maybe today wasn’t going to go so bad after all.

  Now, if he could just throw Nathan at the Council’s problems, life could get back to being good again. Unfortunately, as the Alpha of the Council it was his burden to bear. Nathan left him a short phone message that morning that he hadn’t found Michael, but that if the Council didn’t get their act together, they were going to wish he had. Gerry couldn’t understand that message at all. Who would possibly make them wish for Michael to be back?

  It couldn’t be the new Vamp, could it? He had heard some rumors from Europe that she was involved in the event in Brasov and had taken out another vampire, but he would wait until he heard from Nathan before believing that.

  Anyway, he would know more in a few hours.

  Everglades, FL, USA

  Agent Dan Bosse heard the front tactical lookout’s euphemism for sniper in his ear. "Sir, I have the vehicle in sight."

  "Understood, how does everything look?" Dan was hoping for the sniper to report he had two very alive agents in the front seat. This contact was unknown and although he was told she wasn't a meat-eating monster, he was paid to worry and bring his men back alive. Unfortunately, that meant working with these contacts to help his crew take down other monsters that made even his men lose sleep at night. It was a shame he couldn’t just napalm the whole area and save his guys the risk of dying tonight.

  Dan had worked with Bill for fifteen years and during all of the operations that Bill was a part of, he had only lost two men. Now, he had lost two men in the last month, not counting the others in the last twelve months.

  After working with Bill for so long, his team had attributed more of the success to their part of the operations than they should have. He hated to admit it, but his guys were getting slaughtered. If he needed to work with a monster to take down other monsters, he would do it

  "Sir, I have them on scope and you aren't going to believe this."

  "Spit it out, Killian.”

  "Sir, the agents are laughing. I can see the pickup and holy shit, sir, she is hot."

  "Killian, keep it professional. If you mouth off around one of these agents, you could lose your head."

  "Yeah, but what a way to go."

  Dan just shook his head. At least he had two agents alive and apparently in good spirits. It was the first piece of good news he had received that day. Well, that wasn't true. That remark on the radio when she said she was going to step out of the car to walk around in the daylight was a piece of good news.

  So long as she was even remotely as good as Agent Bill had been he was golden. Her ability to walk in the sun would give his team a huge tactical advantage.

  He walked out of the command tent when he heard the SUV approach. He stood there and watched Eric get out of the driver’s seat and step back to open the passenger door.

  The woman who got out of the back seat was not what he was expecting. If he was at a fashion show, perhaps. But not here in the Florida Everglades and he was further surprised to see that Eric seemed to respect her. He wasn't treating her just like a lady. Most of the guys who grew up in the South had those kinds of manners. No, he was treating her with respect. Like he would a superior officer that he got along with.

  Shit, if he didn't watch his step this woman was going to have all of his hardened men eating out of her hand. Well, if Eric and John were any indication.

  Now, if she can just fight, his night might not be so bad. He went over to introduce himself.

  9

  Everglades, FL, USA

  Bethany Anne appreciated Eric opening her door. He did it because he wanted to, not because it was the proper and required way to act. It touched her and made a very deep impression.

  She noticed the Agent-In-Charge come out of the tent and start walking over to them. She waited for him to come to her. She didn’t know for sure what he was thinking, but she had a good idea. After the stories that Eric and John shared, she knew any of the agents from her agency had been accepted as a tactical expediency. It wasn't until Bill died, no replacement appeared, and the massive amount of injuries and deaths had occurred on ops that it became obvious they were overmatched without help.

  So, she understood that this agent was hurting not only from the deaths in his group, but his pride, and he had to be wondering if she was going to be an asset, or a prima donna pain-in-the-ass problem.

  She hated not just walking over to him, but by making him come to her, it set the right precedent.

  He reached them and put out his hand to shake. “Agent Dan Bosse."

  She returned his grip with the same amount of strength as they shook hands. "Bethany Anne, Agent. I understand we have an infestation we need to get rid of quickly. How do you want to do this?”

  Agent Bosse was flummoxed for a couple of seconds. He had expected the agent in front of him to be, well not this, exactly. She was professional, polite and radiated capability. He had three decades on the teams and he could tell she had been in the pit before. "Thank you, Agent Bethany Anne. Please come with me and I'll get you up to date, and I have your requested clothes as well." Dan turned around and started walking back to the tent. If he didn't know better, from people he trusted with his men's lives, he would not believe this woman was more than what she looked like, a sophisticated model.

  By the end of the operation, Dan Bosse would know that he never, ever wanted to piss this lady off. Then he was going to go pray that she would be the only agent he would have to work with for the rest of his career.

  "Agent, it’s just Bethany Anne. One name, no last name and I am certainly not an agent."

  Dan turned to look over his shoulder. "Oh?"

  "Not like you’re probably thinking, Agent Bosse. I’ll help your team through the same contacts that you’re familiar with, but I don't have the same position in the family that Bill did before me."

  They went into the large tent being used for the operations center. There were two laptops and a couple of large screens set up to show weather radar and what looked like real-time satellite tasking on another.

  "If it isn't inappropriate, can I ask what your role in the family happens to be?”

  "It hasn't been formally quantified, Agent Bosse. But I think by the time I get to meet everyone, I'm confident some will call me Bethany Anne and to others I will be known as the 'Queen Bitch.'"

  He smiled at her. “With affection?" Dan was trying to figure out when this meeting went off track.

  "Oh God, I hope not. If I don't have someone upset with me, then I’m not doing my job correctly."

  Dan couldn't help himself. She was providing more insight into the other side than Bill had in his whole career. "What job is that?"

  This was the question Bethany Anne had worked the whole conversation to get to. "Agent Bosse, I'm here to crush the problems your team knows about, those you don't know about, and problems a thousand years in the making. If the supernaturals don't get their act in gear they better find a priest. Most of these para-humans only understand strength and violence, and if there’s one thing I'm good at, Dan…”

  He was looking at that beautiful, raven-haired beauty when her face lost the angelic look and his hindbrain started freaking out in gibbering terror. He had been through a hundred operations and had seen forsaken and two v
ampires from the family. He still occasionally woke up at night sweating from dreams related to the worst operations.

  But he became a believer when he saw the absolute personification of destruction and torment looking at him with blood red eyes and fangs sticking out of her mouth.

  A deeper, malevolent voice spoke, “I am good at delivering violent messages. Any questions?"

  Agent Dan Bosse just shook his head.

  Her fangs retracted and her eyes turned back to their natural color. She waited a few seconds for his heartbeat to settle down. "So tell me, who and what is the story behind the pricks who are the focus of the operation tonight?"

  Agent Bosse had walked into the tent a commander sharing information with, at best, a qualified support specialist. That changed. He proceeded to give the presentation as he would to a powerful partner who had the ability to rain death and destruction on the enemy.

  For the first time in ten years, he was wishing he could suit up and be on the sharp end. For the four agents going in with this woman were going to come out changed. He was sure their stories were going to become legend.

  Dan cleared his throat and started giving her the background. They had two Nosferatu, as far as they knew, holed up in a square mile of the Everglades he showed on the map. They couldn't track them down to get to them during the day. Somehow, they were protecting themselves from the sun. The best guess was with mud. It had taken a while to get satellite tasking priority when it was only suspected that a couple of people had been eaten by alligators.

  Then, a group of teenagers had been out having a drinking party. They claimed they saw a zombie kill a man fishing and then drag him out into the water where they both submerged, the man’s body still kicking.

  The news turned it into a story about an Everglades serial killer and their request for the satellite, which was on screen two as well as eyes in the sky with incredibly sensitive FLIR cameras, suddenly became the priority and tonight was their first opportunity to carry out the mission. The Florida State Police and State Guard were planning an operation through the Everglades in thirty-six hours. The preparation was happening now and the news was focused on that operation. The government was trying hard to let the populace know that something was being done about the serial killer.

  They needed to get this solved quickly, before it became a fuster-cluck.

  Bethany Anne asked how they operated when Bill was with the team.

  He explained that normally Bill would take point and the rest of the team helped with support. Basically, if anything got around Bill, they would try to kill it, contain it, or turn it around back at Bill who would then kill it.

  “OK, I get it. I’m the point. My job is to take down the baddies and my team’s responsibility is to help watch my back while I do it. If I get overwhelmed, they do what?”

  “Well, we haven’t had too many issues with that happening, yet. Unfortunately, Bill’s last encounter was the one that told us that bad things had escalated. Generally, the team has a point person and you’ll need to work out the details with him.”

  “Who will be my point person?”

  “John Grimes. He picked you up earlier.”

  “Oh.”

  “I had John and Eric pick you up to get a read on you. You were an unknown and they had to get a relationship, whatever it could be, resolved as quickly as possible. I have to admit I’m surprised you bonded so rapidly. Bill would talk with the team members when they first got introduced, but over time he became more and more quiet. Just coming in, doing the op and leaving. That reminds me, you don’t have a Carl equivalent with you?”

  “No. Carl is missing, if you didn’t know that. I’m hoping that we don’t have to get too technically advanced.” She pointed at the monitors showing the weather, spy and FLIR information with her eyes. “I think you might have it covered at the moment.”

  He looked back at the setup. While it seemed pretty advanced, especially with the Everglades as the backdrop, he would have felt more comfortable with Carl’s equipment and skills to back them up. He sighed.

  “I hope so. It’s been hell since Bill got taken down. I keep wondering when the other shoe is going to drop.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Dan’s face got pensive. “I think Bill’s attack was just the opening move. Our ops have been more frequent and more dangerous since that happened. Here, let me show you something.” He turned to the agent behind the monitors. “Barry, would you pull up the map with the operation locations pinned on them?”

  They moved behind Barry, looking over his shoulder as he pulled up a mapping program on the left monitor. The locations started in northern California and continued throughout the Southwest and Midwest, finally stopping in Florida.

  Bethany Anne grunted. “Huh, can’t take the show into the Atlantic. So this is a big one or they’ll turn and go up the coast.”

  “That’s what I’m thinking. It’s one of the reasons I was relieved to get any help from your group. If this is going to be bad, I’m going to need all of the help I can get.”

  “How have you set up the play?” She looked up at Dan, getting a sense of his emotions as well as his logic.

  “With you, I figure a five-person team. You plus a group of four. Grimes, Escabar, English and Jackson. I have an additional six shooters here with me and I’ve got medics. I’ve added a second medic because of injuries we’ve taken.”

  “OK, where’s my gear? I’ll get suited up. We have some daylight left and I want to get ahead. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

  Dan yelled out the tent, “Grimes!”

  John left the group of three men he was talking to, finishing the rest of his instructions to them, “…see that I don’t. I’ll bet you $500 I get off clean. You in?” Eric was the only one who declined the bet.

  “Can you get Agent… Can you get Bethany Anne her gear? If she says she checks out on something and wants it, see if we have it in the weapons locker.”

  John carefully kept his face blank. “I’ll do that, sir.” John had previously sensed a frosty attitude for the vampire contacts from Agent Bosse. He seemed to be thawing around this one. Well, she made him comfortable with her in one car ride, so he was only a little surprised that she was able to work with Dan.

  Dan left the tent heading for one of the white cargo vans that served as a separate command area.

  He walked over to Bethany Anne, ready to set the right tone. He smiled at her and said in a loud voice that carried well outside the tent. “Hey, fuck-face, what kind of guns do you want?”

  The sudden stunned silence was louder than a shout.

  Bethany Anne looked up at John who was smiling down at her. She gave as good as she got. “Listen, gutter ass, you had better do better than ‘fuck-face’ when you try that, or I’ll make you get down and give me fifty, with me standing on your back. You feel me?”

  John stopped smiling, but the sparkle was still in his eye. “Yes ma’am. Just how heavy are you?”

  Bethany Anne shook her head. “Don’t you know never to ask a lady what she weighs? Shit John, if you can’t cope with simple social rules I’m not sure you’re going to work too well out in the ’Glades. Wait, never mind. Out there I need muscle and testosterone. You’re good for that much, right?”

  John started with, “Lady?” He noticed Bethany Anne’s eyes went very narrow. “I mean, yes ma’am!”

  She smiled and said in a quiet voice, “Good. Now you better give me half of that score with those two newbies out there or I’ll yank your dick up through your throat, got that?”

  John swallowed. “Uh, yeah. I got that, Bethany Anne.” He pulled the box with her combat fatigues from behind the table. He still couldn’t completely wipe the smile from his face as he exited the tent. The fire team’s faces, except for Eric’s, were priceless.

  The Everglades had a musty smell occasionally enhanced, if you could call it that, by stagnant water. Bethany Anne was hoping that she could smell the Nosferatu before they
woke up. It was getting late in the afternoon and they had covered the search area pretty well. For a while, they were able to use a couple of Jon boats. Then they’d found a sizable mound and were poking and prodding into all sorts of nasty areas.

  Before the team left, Bethany Anne introduced herself to them. John and Eric she already knew and that went a long way to reducing trepidation that Scott English and Darrell Jackson felt.

  Agent Scott English was an ex NYPD SWAT team member. At 5’10” he was the shortest, but his chest was massive and his arms were illegal in three states. He had been part of a particularly nasty event in Staten Island three years before. The SWAT team was called into what they thought was a hostage situation on the fourth floor of a tenement just after 10:00 pm. The bottom two floors had been evacuated, but the team found blood all over the third floor and could hear screams on the fourth as they made their way up the stairs on both sides of the building. They were unprepared for the carnage and gruesome situation at the top.

  One violent thirty-two-year-old stockbroker, a black male, had literally started ripping people apart and biting them at about 9:30 pm that night. The cops were called. They found the perp eating a small girl on the fourth floor landing. Even after emptying their sidearms into David Aldwabi, he was able to grab the first officer, Lieutenant Matt Sanchez. Sanchez, a nine-year veteran, was killed when Aldwabi easily overpowered him. Aldwabi bit through Sanchez’s neck while he screamed in pain and held him while he bled to death. His partner, Sergeant Anthony Roberts, was able to call for backup before being killed by Aldwabi when he tried to help his partner. Aldwabi was too fast for Roberts and as he tried to backpedal, he tripped over a dismembered arm. Aldwabi reached down and quickly broke his neck.

  Scott and his team found Aldwabi cradling Roberts and slowly patting his head, staring vacantly in the distance. Unfortunately, Scott’s team leader yelled to Aldwabi to ‘Freeze.’ All that accomplished was the snapping of Aldwabi out of his unfocused state, and the screaming and gunfire began. Aldwabi was finally killed when the combined firepower of four SWAT rifles pulverized his chest and head. Scott’s team leader lost his left eye and ear because he followed protocol with a Nosferatu.