His easy gig turned a little worrisome.
19
New York City, NY, USA
Gerry was standing toe-to-toe with the Alpha of the Denver Area Pack, Jonathan Silvers. Jon was as salty as they came and had spent a lot of his time up in the mountains on his ranch. He had a nice spread out there. Most of his pack was of the live and let live mentality. However, his son was a prick of the highest order and because Jon had a large amount of land, money and influence, his son Pete felt that he was important as well.
The problem was that Weres judged your importance for what you had personally accomplished. The only thing Pete had accomplished was showing his ability to turn into a wolf. Unfortunately, two girls had seen him changing and one took video with her cell phone. This shattered the strictures and Jon was having problems with both his son and his council lead.
“Jon, you hard headed son-of-a-bitch. If you can’t get Pete to fix this mess either the Council will have to deal with it or Michael’s group will!”
“This isn’t your son you’re talking about, Gerry! Get off my case. Michael hasn’t been seen in years and the rumors all say he is dead.”
Gerry wanted to punch something. “Those are rumors! I’ve talked with Frank and we don’t know that for sure. I don’t need another massacre on my hands and it isn’t Michael we’ll be dealing with. We will be dealing with Bethany Anne, you cockeyed imbecile.”
Jonathan turned around to try and cool down. Yelling at Gerry wasn’t going to accomplish anything. Gerry was predisposed to never backing down in an Alpha argument, so Jonathan would never win that way. Plus, if it got out of hand Nathan Lowell was standing over in the corner of Gerry’s office. Jonathan was just lucky Nathan wasn’t in his pack. He didn’t really know if Nathan or Gerry would come out on top in a fight, but he had to respect any Alpha which handled Nathan as his second.
He turned back around to Gerry, trying to keep his voice calmer. “Look, I hear you. We have a new vampire here in the States, but you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t feel like believing she can be as vicious as Michael. That bastard was a cold-blooded and heartless killer. I hope to god he is gone and good riddance. I’m not promoting we reveal ourselves. But killing everyone who might make a mistake is too harsh. And that’s what Pete’s done. He’s made some mistakes.”
“So why can’t he fix his mistakes?”
Jonathan’s shoulders slumped. That was the root of the problem, wasn’t it? Pete wasn’t a mature guy and when he made a mistake he wouldn’t own up to it. Everything was someone else’s fault. It was infuriating to Jonathan. So he hadn’t dealt with it and it could be the cause of Pete’s death. He didn’t believe that the new vampire was powerful because he didn’t want to believe it. He couldn’t believe it if he wanted to hope his son had a future.
He looked up at Gerry and came clean. “Because I didn’t do my duty to make sure he would be a stand-up man. I went to work on my ranch instead of my son. It was easier to give him a cherry sucker than a spanking. So here I am worried that if you’re right, I’ve killed my son by being lazy instead of keeping him alive with discipline.” He was emotionally spent; he sat down on the couch in Gerry’s office.
Gerry didn’t know what to say to that. This sudden declaration caught him off guard. He wiped his face and sat down in a chair between the couch and his desk. He put his elbows on his knees and put his chin in his hands. “You got anything, Nathan?”
Nathan stirred a little from the spot where he had been holding up the wall. “I have little patience for Pete, if that means anything. But if you mean do I have anything to help this situation? I’m at a loss. We have two women that Pete has shown himself changing from a human to a wolf. That’s not only against the strictures, it was careless and stupid. Now, we have one video that thankfully is mostly too dark since he was being an ass at night and she had a crappy cheap camera phone. Pete doesn’t want to deal with the women anymore since he only knows how to put his head in the sand. The women are starting to think that maybe they can make money with this. What a cock-up.”
“What do you think Bethany Anne is going to do?”
It was Nathan’s turn to wipe his face. “Well, I can tell you her first reaction isn’t to snap someone’s head off. But she doesn’t suffer disrespectful fools at all. Which is just about the definition of Pete. So, I don’t have much hope if we get her involved. But I don’t know how to not get her involved. She has the ability to make this all go away.”
Jonathan latched on that comment like it was a lifeline thrown to him at sea. “How can she make this go away?”
Nathan looked at Jonathan. “Well, she can probably wipe the women so they don’t remember. But she isn’t really enthused with that option. She could wipe Pete back a few years and you could start over.”
Jonathan went white when he realized just how powerful she must be to accomplish wiping years of a person’s memory away.
“But again, she probably wouldn’t want to do that either. She could also just kill everyone. The girls, Pete and anyone who pissed her off. I’m telling you Jonathan, the best chance you have is what you just did and that’s to explain the problem and hope she sees a solution we don’t.”
Gerry hadn’t been expecting to be talking about Jonathan’s kid right now. They were supposed to be finalizing the plans for the people they had termed the ‘green’ team. As in, these guys are so green they don’t know enough to keep their mouths shut.
The Weres on the green team, however, thought it was a great name and assumed it had something to do with a fresh start.
Either way, this conversation was derailing them. Gerry had only taken Jonathan’s appointment because he was an important person on the council. “Jonathan, we need to finalize this meeting with Bethany Anne. The best idea, however, is to approach her with the problem. What do we have to lose? She’s going to be involved at some point and it might as well be earlier when she has a better chance to help.”
Jonathan relented, “OK, I agree. So, what do we need to finish up this meeting? You’re saying she agreed to a safe harbor?”
Gerry confirmed. “With the qualification that no one was too aggressive with either her or her team. If that happens then she can and will take care of the problem.”
“Is that why you left out Paul Gleason and his group?”
“Hell yes. That hothead wouldn’t be able to keep his mouth shut and we would be knee deep in blood in five minutes.”
Jonathan shook his head. “He called and complained to me and others on the Council. How he was able to string together ‘No Implementation without Representation’ boggles my mind.
Gerry snorted. “Coached, I’m sure. There are players on the Council starting power grabs. This is a pain in the ass and frankly something we don’t need. If we aren’t careful, we’ll have knives in our backs as well. I’ve been tempted to introduce them to Bethany Anne and walk out of the room. After a few minutes I would just work with whoever she left alive.” Gerry laughed darkly. “Still tempting, frankly. I understand she’s in town?” He looked over at Nathan.
“Yes, Ecaterina was picked up at my house ten minutes ago. She sent a text.”
Gerry grimaced a little. He knew how much Nathan cared for Ecaterina. “That has to hurt.”
Nathan just shrugged. “She’s not leaving forever, but the time I wasn’t with you I was with her. I’m going to fly back down to Miami with them and close on a property I’m getting near Bethany Anne’s little hacienda.”
Jonathan asked, “Where’s her house?”
Nathan smiled. “Smugglers Cove in Key Biscayne.”
Jonathan looked at him, “Damn, that is one expensive casa. Really?”
Nathan just nodded in the affirmative.
Gerry looked at Jonathan. “How the hell do I not know about this place, but my friend who lives on a ranch up in the mountains of Colorado does?”
Jonathan just smiled at Gerry. “Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous. It’s a sinful
habit I know, but I love Robin Leach’s accent.”
Gerry rolled his eyes. “OK, fine. Let’s get our own show going. I’ll meet you guys downstairs at the car, you driving, Nathan?”
“Yeah, I’ve got the Benz, let’s use that.”
Jonathan and Nathan left Gerry’s office to go to the garage under the building. Gerry went to freshen up really quick and then joined them. Gerry rode shotgun and Jonathan got in behind Nathan.
Bethany Anne had selected an out of the way place in Queens Rockaway Peninsula, Fort Tilden for the meet. It was a desolate area that had been used by the military for aircraft defense. Bethany Anne wanted it to be away from New York City so that the cops would take a while to get out there if things went bad, and she had an escape route that wasn’t the sewers of New York.
She expected somebody to be stupid. She only had four people with her, but she hadn’t limited the other team. She got Frank to allow the use of a couple of boats at a distance and a couple of small drones that couldn’t go above about a thousand feet. Still, with the 4k FLIR cameras they had, she should be able to get a read on what was going on before too many people got hurt.
She had asked Frank to capture as many faces for identification as he could with his promise they wouldn’t be tagged in the database as Wechselbalg. She gave him the name and he was actually familiar with the term. It figured she would be the last to get the memo.
Her team was using the latest and best protective gear she could buy. Ecaterina had purchased everything there in New York—a city that had access to just about everything legal and otherwise. Bethany Anne had made sure Ecaterina made it to Bobcat and the plane for safekeeping.
Frank couldn’t give overt military support for working against the Weres, no matter what he might want to do. Until they became a bigger problem they were American citizens with their rights intact, not forsaken. At the moment it was Bethany Anne’s game.
The five of them worked their way through Queens heading out the 278 to the 27 and finally turning on Oceans Drive. Bethany Anne realized why Michael ended up just slapping the shit out of people. Trying to keep everyone alive, when frankly they were of questionable help, was becoming a little harder each time she did it. Her patience was being worn down and she hadn’t even been doing this for a few months.
What was going to happen when she was a hundred years old? How about two hundred years old? Would she become so impatient that making a book of sins that told you in black and white what was OK and what wasn’t became the solution? She saw how well that worked for Michael but it was hellishly tempting.
It wasn’t the Stephens of the world that caused her problems. It was this situation with the Weres that got her down. She went into this meeting hoping for the best, but planning for the worst. Not only from a tactical perspective, but expecting the worst in people.
Her heart grieved that she was expecting to be killing again that evening. She gave herself a pep-talk. If they acted per the request, no one would die. It was a huge step up from the normal policy of the vampires. She was fighting from a superior position to facilitate equality of importance. There was no question on equality of strength. Between Michael’s wealth that he provided her with, Frank’s help in the government and her own abilities, it would have been a massacre if she had chosen to go down that path.
But that woman that went into the mountains in Romania hadn’t died. She still believed in giving a chance. Unfortunately, everyone in the UnknownWorld was playing a higher stakes game just because of who they were. You didn’t get to play by the paupers’ rules when you were born into royalty.
If your race is responsible for scaring the bejesus out of humans for centuries, you tend to get very cautious. You sneeze wrong and the pitchforks and flames come out. Except now it was twelve-gauge shotguns, Molotov cocktails, and then the military would start firing guided munitions.
Carl cut over to Flatbush Avenue using Avenue J and then went across the Marine Parkway Bridge to get over to Rockaway Point Boulevard.
She had priorities that wouldn’t change. She was responsible, as TOM had so helpfully reminded her, for the future of the whole damn planet. More important to her right now, she was responsible for the team that was with her right now.
She sighed and reached into the cooler that they brought along. Inside were five bottles of fresh blood. Her face showed the revulsion of drinking this stuff. But she couldn’t have it with her inside the meeting. Fortunately, TOM had worked out the problems with the poisons that usually caused the nasty smell of death around vampires. She asked him to squelch that. It wasn’t vain of her to worry about smelling bad, right?
She drained two bottles and left three in the cooler. Eric provided a rag to clean the area around her mouth. She appreciated the offer. By now, her personal team was aware she hated drinking the blood.
TOM hadn’t found any solutions for pulling the etheric charged components out of blood and helping make the drink a smaller, more energy concentrated liquid. Maybe she should find out which of Michael’s companies worked with blood? She would bet at least one or more already did. She felt like she was behind on her homework.
She put her game face on. Carl drove through the gate to the meeting place, which was inside one of the empty concrete bunkers that opened towards the city and the sea.
The car stopped and they waited in it. John spoke up after a minute, “Well, damn. I had our first attack to happen when the car stopped. There goes my $50.”
Carl said in a squeaky voice, “What? When were you going to tell me this?”
“I just did.”
“No, you didn’t tell me anything. You merely informed everyone that you lost a bet about us getting attacked right now.”
“Keep your panties on. The next possible ambush is as we get closer to the meeting place. You’ll be here in the car.” John looked over at Carl and got his attention. “But let me warn you that if you drive away with the car, I will find you and you won’t enjoy the discussion. Do you understand this minor threat or would you like me to escalate it higher already?”
Carl shook his head no. “I’m good. So long as you guys aren’t in the car, I’ll keep it locked and not much can get through this armor.”
“Very good.” John opened the vehicle and got out. Making sure his weapons were ready, John walked around the car. Eric was the next one out followed by Darrell and Scott. Once they reviewed the grounds for a couple of minutes they told Bethany Anne it was OK to come out.
They had decided that treating Bethany Anne this way would work for the Weres. They understood two things at an instinctual level. Power and respect. If you have the respect of the powerful, that is a level of power all of its own.
Bethany Anne got out of the SUV and sniffed the air. She could smell Were, but nothing else out of the ordinary. The saltiness of the sea was good to smell again.
John had speculated they would create burrows in the ground and jump up to ambush the SUV when they arrived. It was what he would do. Especially if they believed Bethany Anne was a weak vampire.
Eric was next with an ambush prognostication. His guess would have them hit right before they went into the tunnel. Bethany Anne was pretty sure that wouldn’t happen, but without the protection of the armored SUV, they couldn’t be nearly as blasé this time. The team formed up around her to make a point. While she was the deadliest of the five, they were there to protect her.
She sure hoped no one had considered shaped charges and ball bearings. That would put a damper on the rest of her life. She couldn’t smell any explosives, so she was mostly sure they were safe.
They had changed out of their travel uniforms, which were the black suits, white shirts and the underarm holsters. Now they were in their ops uniforms. They looked very deadly coming down the hill from the parking area.
She had procured some ops helmets to provide them information in a heads up display (HUD). The optic glass protected their faces and provided very small video views from camera
s embedded in the helmet itself. They had their AR-15s on quick-slings with the same setup they used when hunting forsaken. All of the ammunition they packed on this op was silver frangible and silver laced. Even the Bowies had been changed out.
Bethany Anne had requested input from Nathan. She liked how the Bowie she used on Algerian was so effective at getting his attention. She had Ecaterina work with the craftsman Todd Thames. Todd didn’t come cheap and when you wanted five specially made knives within twenty-four hours? Well, let’s just say the quote would have choked most people. But with lives on the line Bethany Anne just agreed to the quote and provided an incentive if he was able to finish early.
Bethany Anne had hoped the Bowies wouldn’t be necessary. However, she really liked the knife and it was better to be prepared than not.
John and the team knew they were working against supernaturals, but they had been ground on the crucible of the Nosferatu for months now. They were brothers who had fought and survived, bled and cried together. Now, John had a focus and a way to take the fight back to the sons-a-bitches who had been attacking his nation. This meeting was a speed bump to moving onward to bigger plans.
If the werewolves talked, great. He was all for talking over fighting but he wasn’t worried long term. He had, almost literally, drunk the cherry Kool-Aid when Bethany Anne had saved his life. He realized that his focus had turned to her focus.
He wasn’t blindly following her. He understood the mettle of the woman and he trusted who she was, scary vampire and everything else. If everyone here talked, great. But the first asshole that did anything more than yell was going to get a beatdown.
Scott, behind Bethany Anne, had to watch his quarter which included behind them. Both he and Darrell had their backward facing cameras on their helmets. It had taken the team an hour to get used to the technology on the flight up.
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 39