Eric continued to talk with John as he kept his attention outside their circle. “From when? When did you black out?”
John rubbed his chin with a finger. “Did I really drink blood from Bethany Anne? Am I going Vampy, guys?”
“Yes and no. She promised it would only heal you. She said you had to drink a lot more to become a vampire. Although, considering her upgrades it might be worth it!” Scott and Darrell agreed as they kept looking out into the night.
John stretched out his left arm and hit Bethany Anne’s vest, right where her left breast was.
She spoke calmly into the night, keeping her eyes closed. “I just spent a lot of effort to heal you, Mr. Grimes. If you don’t get your hand off my tit I’m going to waste all of that effort when I kill you myself.”
John moved his hand and chuckled. “Well, what do I spend the points on if not to buy a quick feel?”
Not wanting to banter right then, Bethany Anne just said with exasperation, “John, I have a headache.”
All of the men started laughing. Realizing what she’d said, Bethany Anne joined in. John finally got up enough to slide his vest back on. “God, Bethany Anne, couldn’t you have at least taken off my shirt nicely?”
From the ground, Bethany Anne replied, “John, you munchy butt lover, it was Eric who wanted you so bad he ripped it off.”
Eric looked down at John and made kissing noises. The laughing started again. The two rested for another five minutes and Bethany Anne started to stand up, reaching down and pulling the massive Agent John Grimes up without showing the least amount of strain. Bethany Anne cocked her ear. “Incoming helicopter, let’s try to look like we’re professional, men.”
Within sixty seconds, a black Marine Venom helicopter came flying in. It landed a hundred feet away and two marines with flashlights on their weapons jumped out. The four men created a circle around Bethany Anne.
There was no way they were letting any misunderstandings occur on their watch. She might look like the monster that hell kicked out, but this vampire, by God, was their vampire.
They got in the helicopter, the two marines the last on and one gave the signal. The black Venom turned off the lights and lifted into the air, heading towards the ops center.
11
Everglades, FL, USA
Agent Dan Bosse was counting his lucky stars, which were plentiful in the sky above the Everglades. They were far enough from any major metropolitan area so the light pollution was about zero.
A Marine Venom helicopter came in, turning its lights on and ruining his beautiful night view so he turned around and started walking back to the camp. He had needed a minute to get out of his post-attack funk.
He had a bunch to be thankful for. This could have been a monumental disaster. He had over twenty people on this op and everyone, including himself, would have been killed this evening had it not been for Bethany Anne.
He had no idea what she did, exactly. Apparently within a minute of the attack of the forsaken, she appeared and shot every single one. She didn’t kill any of them. She took off running after one of his agents that was getting dragged away. They found the agent about fifty yards behind the command tent. He would survive. They also found two forsaken with their heads almost gone from huge bullet wounds and one with its head twisted around and a large knife wound in the forehead.
There was an easily followed path eastward out of the camp. A mile or so outside of the camp there was a tree stump and a bunch of limbs. Two miles away they found six more forsaken. Two without heads, two with heads destroyed by bullets, one with its face in the ground, a large depression like a war hammer had hit it and a final forsaken with a large sapling sticking up out of it with most of its head destroyed by bullets.
Then, the story went that she showed up and demanded blood from a medic, ripped off his van door, grabbed some and started drinking it. Then she disappeared again. There was a shootout with Agent Grimes’ group and something else happened out there. The men were cagey over the radio.
He got back to the ops center and watched as the helicopter landed about thirty-five yards away. John and Scott were the first two off, then Bethany Anne and finally Eric and Darrell. They seemed to be providing a security cordon around her. For what reason, he had no idea until they got closer.
She looked tired. Exhausted actually. She was also covered in blood and filth. He could just hear her voice over the helicopter as they got closer. “…and if you ever touch my tit again, John, I will kick your nads from here to Miami. Are we clear?”
Dan looked up. John’s vest looked horrible and he had blood all over his chest, but he looked the freshest out of all of them. Like he’d just had a full night’s sleep and a great breakfast. Yup, there was a story here.
“Yes ma’am.”
John and the guys let their rifles hang on their quick-slings. John approached Dan. “Team Queen Bitch reporting in.” John suddenly grabbed his ear, yelped in pain and turned around to look at Bethany Anne. She just pointed at Scott who rolled his eyes.
Somehow, and he would have to figure out how, this woman had not only saved his command, helped kill at least fourteen forsaken and also brought back her team alive. Regardless of the blood and damage to John’s chest, everyone seemed in good health and spirits. Dan just shook his head.
Some other time. He wasn’t going to ruin anything with this woman tonight.
New York City, NY, USA
Nathan let Ecaterina sleep in. She was a little jetlagged. He left some bananas and apple juice on the counter for her.
He had left messages for both Frank and Gerry. He didn’t get as messed up from time changes when traveling. Having done it a lot in his life, it wasn’t a big deal.
He picked up some more food from the corner store and carried the two bags of groceries home. He went a little heavy on the fruits and nuts. He knew he could call in delivery for the major meals until they worked something out. But he knew Ecaterina liked to snack on ‘real food,’ so he got plenty.
He dropped off the food in the kitchen and went up to the second floor to catch up with the backlog of work for his security company and the other miscellaneous businesses he was involved in. He went through all of the local companies first. They never caused any issues and that was true this time as well. He made sure nothing in the finances for the real estate concern looked fishy and then closed that bank account window. He had scheduled a 10:30 meeting with the two main leads at his security agency and that was in just a few minutes.
He took the time to get a fresh T-shirt and dress shirt on and kept on his shorts. It had been brisk outside, but with a jacket he got away with not getting too dressed up. New York City had a few days of snow a week ago, but it had apparently melted almost as fast as it had fallen.
He had requested a Skype call with his leads, they couldn’t see lower than his shirt, anyway.
At 10:30, he called the first one and once he had him, conferenced in the second.
He asked about the Guardian project and both relayed that they were thankful for the help getting it implemented across all of their clients so fast. That was the main reason it wasn’t as bad a time as it could have been. Nathan was happy with that. Frank had bribed him with forty prime network guys if he would go and find Michael and Bethany Anne’s whereabouts. He had jumped at the offer. While Nathan was a world-class hacker, he couldn’t do the same job as forty incredibly competent network admins working simultaneously. It was a pretty easy decision to take Frank up on the bribe.
Since going to Europe he had met, and almost died for Ecaterina. The lady who right now was sleeping downstairs. He sighed. He knew she would go with Bethany Anne when she got back, but he hoped that she might be gone for a few more days. Maybe a couple of weeks? Or, if he was devious he could hack her airline reservations and keep changing them.
He grinned. To keep Ecaterina around he would do that to anybody in an instant. Except Bethany Anne. One, she would certainly find out. How she knew one
of his hacker personas he never did get out of her. Two, when she found out, life would become incredibly painful. He didn’t know exactly how, but he did know that she could be really creative when she dished out the pain.
Either way, Ecaterina was bound with her and he for sure was bound up with Ecaterina.
His ears picked up that Ecaterina had just gotten out of bed. A couple of minutes later he heard the shower start. He decided he would go upstairs and take another quick shower himself. While he hadn’t sweat much this morning, he wasn’t going to take a chance.
Ten minutes later, he came down dressed in jeans, a T-shirt, and sweater and carrying a black leather jacket for his trip to see Gerry.
He caught Ecaterina digging through the fresh fruits and eating an apple. She smiled at him and covered her mouth with her hand as she chewed.
“Good morning, Nathan.”
“A good morning to you too, sleepyhead.”
She pursed her lips. “What is this sleepyhead? Is my hair messed up? I brushed it after my shower.” She was patting her hair and then turned around to see if she could see anything in the reflection of the double oven.
“No Ecaterina, it means someone who was sleepy, who slept a long time.”
“Oh, so you think to already start on criticizing me on my first day here in America?” Her face became a picture of righteous indignation.
Oh shit, he thought, how does a woman turn the tables in a second language so quickly?
He was continuing down the path of deciding what to say when she suddenly smiled and said, “Gotcha, Mr. Lowell,” and bit into the apple again.
He grinned. Man, it felt so good to be off the hook! He had forgotten the downsides to a relationship. The reality was that women had so many cards they could play it was maddening.
Then he drank in her smile and knew it didn’t matter to him. He would take it all.
“Before you get too far into that apple, would you like to have lunch? I have a meeting with Gerry you can come to, or not. Whatever you want to do.”
She looked down at the mostly eaten apple. Took the last two bites and gave him a thumbs up. Walking past him she extended one finger and went to her bedroom and shut the door. Since she was wearing shorts he was not complaining.
Just one minute later, she came back out dressed for cool weather in a white jacket, blue shirt, jeans and tennis shoes of a brand he didn’t recognize. He supposed that they were European. He would see if she liked Puma, one of his favorites.
“Ready!” A lady who took just one minute to change? Priceless.
He didn’t want to drive around today, so he had called a taxi while she was changing.
They sat and talked about different foods she might like to try, waiting for the taxi to show up. By the time they had decided on New York pizza the cab was there. He had to explain to her that New York pizza was NOT going to be like anything in Italy or anything similar to the pizza true Italians made.
She was game. If it was pizza, she could get excited about it.
He decided to start with Joe’s Pizza in the West Village; they had the foundational New York pizza. It was pretty universally agreed that if someone was new in town, you took them to Joe’s. It took a while in traffic to get there and the apple from breakfast hadn’t lasted very long for her. She was hungry again.
They finally got to Joe’s and he paid the cab fare. The pizza joint is just a hole in the wall in a brown-brick building with a lot of outside fire escapes running up the building and a big white sign with “Joe’s Pizza” on it. The “Joe’s” was in script. Underneath was a red overhang with a walk up white marble bar on the right side of the door. There was a “24-hour ATM” sign on the left side. Inside, the room was narrow and long with the pizza counter in the back past a few stand-up tables. The drinks were in a self-serve stand-up cooler. They were so proud of the fact that Joe’s was shown in the movie Spider-Man they had it plastered on their hanging sign on the wall. On the other side were the customary pictures of famous and not-so-famous people enjoying themselves at Joe’s.
While New York was significantly dirtier than Brasov, Ecaterina didn’t seem to mind. A couple of times he noticed that she wrinkled her nose. He could understand that. He just appreciated that she didn’t let a couple of things she didn’t like potentially ruin her experience.
They got up to the counter and both ordered the two-slice and a drink option. Taking her to a table, he got to enjoy her eyes light up with pleasure as the deliciousness that was Joe’s played like a violin in her mouth.
He bit down on his pepperoni slice. God, he thought, it was so good to be back home.
He smiled. He was thinking, Hey Ma, look what I brought back from Romania. Can I keep her? His mom had passed away many years back, but he thought she would approve.
They finished their pizza and just spent some time walking around. Finally, he hailed a cab and gave the driver Gerry’s address.
It took too long and yet didn’t take long enough to get to Gerry’s building. He got out and held the door for Ecaterina, closing it behind her. He had paid for the cab with his credit card enroute.
They walked into the building and up to the security podium. The security guard took one look at Nathan and did a quick head bob to let him know he was good to go on up. The security guard then did a double take at Ecaterina.
Nathan decided she deserved two looks. If the guard took a third he would box his ears, though.
They got onto the elevator. It wasn’t the speediest elevator in New York but not the slowest. That might go to the elevator in the Prada store. He smiled, thinking that he should get Bethany Anne over to the Prada store if she hadn’t been there yet. She would love the fashion and then lose it when the elevator seemed like it was going nowhere fast. They even had curved benches for people to look through the glass to view the merchandise as the elevator ever so slowly crept from floor to floor.
The elevator binged and they got out. He waved to Stacey at the reception desk who waved back and then suddenly stopped as she realized the gorgeous lady coming off the elevator was following Nathan. Then, he stopped and made sure she caught up. Stacy was suddenly in a funk.
Nathan knocked politely on Gerry’s door before opening it. Gerry would have scented him coming down the hallway. Gerry had the air vents specifically directed to point the airflow down the hall and into his office.
Sneaky bastard.
It had taken Nathan a couple of weeks to realize that Gerry had designed a passive friend/foe detection system. He loved it. When one entered Gerry’s office, his desk was twenty feet away. On the right were a couch, coffee table and two chairs that faced the opposite wall. On the left was a large screen TV system and underneath the TV system some built-in cabinets. Behind the couch on the right was a little space to let someone get to the bar. It was pretty well stocked with different liquors. They were presented with lights pointed up through them as you would see at fancier bars and were very attractive. Gerry’s desk had two chairs facing it with a small round table between them.
Gerry got up from behind his desk to give Nathan a huge hug and a couple slaps on the back. “It is so damned good to see you again. Do you have any idea what a pain in the ass those people under you are?”
Nathan just looked at him, deadpan.
Gerry smiled. “Never mind, of course you do!” He turned to Ecaterina. “My sincerest apologies, my lady. I didn’t notice you when I saw my good friend show up. My name is Gerry.”
Ecaterina reached to shake his hand and returned the introduction in her sexy Romanian accent. “Hello Gerry, it is nice to meet you. My name is Ecaterina Romanov.”
Gerry looked over at Nathan, perplexed. Nathan thought maybe he was expecting someone else? Ah!
Nathan spoke up, “Gerry, Ecaterina is Bethany Anne’s close friend and in her circle of trust. I brought her here to America because Bethany Anne wanted to have a conversation with Michael’s child, Stephen, before returning herself. Ecaterina is s
taying with me.”
When Nathan put the emphasis on ‘staying with me,’ Gerry knew that Nathan was really putting a claim on her. The guys in the pack had better treat her gently or there was going to be hell to pay. That was just from Nathan. Gerry thought if Nathan didn’t get enough of a pound of flesh (without blood), then Bethany Anne would forgo the no-blood requirement.
Since she knew Bethany Anne, Gerry had to ask, “Ecaterina. Are you aware of Nathan’s, uh, peculiarities?”
“You mean that he turns into, what you call, friendly pooch?” Gerry saw Nathan wincing at this description. Oh, Gerry was keeping this description alive.
“Why yes, that he turns into a ‘friendly pooch’ is exactly what I mean.” Yup, Gerry could officially call it. Nathan was taken.
There were going to be ladies all over America unhappy with this relationship. Gerry had been shown a bulletin board where certain women had been sharing everything they knew about Nathan to try and figure out a way to hook him and reel him in. Gerry wondered how this one had done it so fast. Well, that would be a story for another time.
“Let’s sit. Would you care for anything to drink, Ecaterina? Oh, yeah, you too Nathan.” Nathan didn’t miss Gerry’s huge smile. Oh well, it wasn’t like he had seriously expected to hide his affection for Ecaterina.
But now she had called this wolf a ‘friendly pooch.’ He wasn’t sure if that was her lack of English skills, her deft handling of payback for the sleepyhead comment this morning or something else.
12
New York City, NY, USA
Nathan got along great with Gerry. Together, they had a working system. Gerry would stay in the top spot playing politics with everyone and Nathan would make sure that the pains in the asses in his personal pack didn’t constantly annoy him. The fact that working with vampires was his main occupation had now turned around and bitten him in his own ass.
He watched Ecaterina shaking Gerry’s hand. OK, so working with this vampire had benefits.
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 31