At one time, he loved his books. He spent four decades collecting the fine works of the time, rare copies of books that would be worth millions today. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been very careful with a female. For once, it had nothing to do with his vampire situation and everything to do with chasing two women at one time. The first woman saw him with the second woman and by the time he got back home, all of his beloved books were ashes in his fireplace.
He learned from that lesson never to have two lovers in the same city. Now, with this Internet his rule would have to change again. How these men could cheat and get away with it he had no idea. He was thinking that dates were good enough. Plus, there was this Tinder app he found fascinating. Ivan had caught him just going through the descriptions one after another. He almost blushed when Ivan winked and smiled knowingly at him.
Ivan had been changing his sleeping patterns to be closer to Stephen’s. Stephen would go to sleep at about 3:00 AM and wake up at 9:00 AM. Ivan couldn’t quite match him yet, but he was going to sleep about 1:00 AM and getting up at 10:00 AM.
The bell rang for the front door and Ivan called that he would get it. He hadn’t said hello to the person before Stephen could smell a vampire at the door.
This was a surprise. His daughter, Gabrielle, had come to visit.
Constanta, Romania
Gabrielle had heard the rumors that Petre had been killed. Not that she was terribly upset about that. She felt Petre was a bad choice to have been turned and nothing the waste of space had done had changed her opinion of him.
But that another vampire had killed him, on purpose, for his actions spoke of Michael. Gabrielle had never met the ultimate Patriarch. But if there was any vampire-on-vampire killing for Petre’s sins, then it could travel back up to the maker, her father, Stephen. She had traveled through Romania and found Petre’s house a mess. It had suffered through a fire, some vandals and the weather. She had talked to the local pack who spoke of another female vampire and a Wechselbalg who had killed Petre. She feared for her father’s safety.
She took another train and then a taxi to get to his door. She noticed that there was recent human traffic around the outside of the house. She could smell a man and she thought some scent of her father, but it was a slightly different scent than she remembered.
She heard the steps coming to the door and a voice saying that he had it.
The door opened and a most handsome man stood there, staring at Gabrielle before shaking his head and smiling at her. A very fetching smile.
Gabrielle returned the smile, her dimples complimenting her own mischievous smile.
The man opened the door a bit more, “My goodness! To what do I owe the pleasure of a beautiful woman showing up at Stephen’s door this time of the night?” She could hear his heart beating a little faster. The song of his blood and the smile on his face was so captivating. She had to smile at the flattery. It wasn’t often it came without any political machinations behind it.
It took Gabrielle a few seconds to register that there was another man behind this one who opened the door. She reluctantly pulled her attention away from the greeter and found herself staring at a very young and dashing man.
Her mouth just dropped open and she whispered, “Papa?”
The door opened wider to let Stephen step closer to Gabrielle, “My loving daughter, it has been too long!” He wrapped her up in a tight hug. Gabrielle could do nothing in her shock, she barely put her arms around this strong man who was holding her up in the air.
He set her down and brushed the hair out of her eyes. “Why don’t you come inside and let’s talk, you, Ivan and me!
Ivan barely registered that they had come inside before he closed and locked up the door. In a stupor he followed them. My God, he thought, what dimples!
“You are fed, Gabrielle? We would not want to use my technology instructor.” Stephen turned towards Ivan who had followed the two into the living room in the back. “Gabrielle, please meet Ivan Romanov. He was sent by Bethany Anne to come and get me up to speed with technology these last few weeks.”
Ivan stepped over to Gabrielle. She was a little short for a woman at 5’2” and had dark hair and an olive complexion. Her dark brown eyes lit up as she took his hand. He seemed back in control now. “Pleased to meet you, Gabrielle. Would you care for anything? There is food of course and we do have some blood if you need some? I have learned that Stephen prefers it warmed a little, it would be nothing for me to warm some for you.”
Gabrielle was trying to parse all of the information in the short introduction. Ivan knew about vampires, there was blood in the house and her father was so young! This man in front of her was certainly not a new vampire. “No, thank you very much.”
“Then I will leave you two to catch up.” Ivan turned to Stephen. “I’m going to retire a little early tonight. I’ll see you maybe before you sleep?”
Stephen didn’t miss the covert glances his daughter was giving Ivan. It looked like these two were smitten with each other. Ah! Life was so very, very good. “Thank you, Ivan. We will catch up with the application training tomorrow?”
Ivan smiled, “Yes. I’ll catch you up on Facebook and Twitter. You will enjoy them tremendously.” He nodded to Gabrielle with a smile and walked out of the living room towards his area of the house. Gabrielle could hear when he closed his own door. She turned around to her father.
“Training?” Her eyes were wide with shock.
Stephen smiled. He was younger looking than Gabrielle at this time, but she didn’t look too old for Ivan. Stephen, however, was having a fun time with all of the new slang and idioms he was learning. “Come Gabrielle, are you going to be a cougar with young Ivan here?” He actually got his daughter to blush. Life was tremendous!
“Papa!” She didn’t know where to start with her questions, then remembered what had brought her here. Her tone changed from one of shock to one of alarm, “Papa! I came here because Petre has been killed. By a female vampire, for actions against the strictures and now you have a human here who knows about vampires. Have you gone crazy?”
Stephen smiled at his daughter. Leave it to her to find out about Petre and travel to see if he was OK. “I already know about Petre. The vampire that killed him was Bethany Anne, the same one who helped me become this dashing young man in only one month. Gabrielle, she is now my Queen and I owe my whole existence to what she has done for me.”
Gabrielle leaned forward, looking closely at her father on the couch in front of her. He didn’t look age crazed to her. There had been vampires that had seemed to go crazy over decades and centuries and started acting in weird ways. “Why did she come here to you?”
He smiled, “She came here to have a discussion about my irresponsible parenting of Petre.”
“What happened?”
“She came right up to the door and rang the bell until I woke up. I had been sleeping for many years and had decided that maybe I was too tired for this life anymore. She told me she had information related to Petre and I allowed her entry. She told me that Petre had shot her and I didn’t believe her. I could not smell any of the vampire scent on her.”
“No?”
“Truly, we sat up in the front receiving room. She offered to let me smell her from a closer distance and walked to me. When she offered her wrist I became hungry and lost my sense and grabbed her wrist to drink of it.”
“You bit her, father!” Gabrielle was very traditional in her relationships with humans. She had never forced any human to give her blood. Then again, she was a very attractive female and males throughout all centuries have yet to find an effective defense against an attractive female.
“No, I tried to bite her. She boxed my ears and knocked me five meters across the floor. She walked over to me and when I complained she hit an old man, she told me she would break my ‘old man legs if I didn’t stop acting like a fucking moron.’”
Gabrielle tried to stifle a laugh and failed. It was obvious her dad didn�
�t harbor any ill feelings about the event.
He smiled, “You would have been cheering her. She told me to ‘get a fucking backbone’ and she expected more from one of Michael’s children.”
Gabrielle sat straighter, “She is one of Michael’s? So he is back in Europe?” She feared for when Michael would truly come back to Europe and enforce the strictures harder than she had. If she were a little more honest, she knew that she hadn’t been the most stringent on occasion and was concerned this Bethany Anne would talk with Michael about her.
“No, Bethany Anne doesn’t know where he is. He has disappeared and is possibly dead. She has taken over the responsibility for Michael’s family. I have Europe to clean up, as it is. In fact, that you are here is a blessing. I was to start looking to find you the week after next.”
“Why is that?”
“Why, because you are my new spymaster, Gabrielle. We are going to get Europe ready for a cleansing of these Forsaken and their political efforts. I have been studying with Ivan to get up on technology. I have spoken to Bethany Anne, who is back in America, and she has taken care of a major Forsaken problem they were having. These are interesting times, Gabrielle!”
“I’m going to be your spymaster, truly?”
“Well, maybe that is what we would call it in the past. You will be in charge of intelligence here in Europe reporting to me. I’m not sure if all of this will be in person or through the Internet and the connections that Bethany Anne will provide for us. That is, if you care to join me?”
Gabrielle was shocked. Her father rarely ever told her to do anything. But when he did it was presumed that she would do it to the best of her abilities. Whether she knew anything about the subject or not was inconsequential. That he was asking her to be a part of this task that Bethany Anne was leading was another reality change that was difficult to believe.
“I can choose?”
Stephen smiled. This was another aspect that Stephen loved about working with Bethany Anne. She had a few discussions with him about how she needed to change the future, but it would be with believers not conscripts.
He wanted Gabrielle to be with him on this wonderful journey and he was tempted to just tell her to do this, but his queen would be sorely disappointed in him once she found out. Stephen never doubted that she would find out. He would not, could not, bring shame to her.
“Gabrielle, I will answer any question that I feel I can without being untrue to my queen. I will let you know if you ask such a question. But know this. You can choose your own destiny.”
This time, Stephen was on the edge of his couch, earnestly speaking to Gabrielle. “Bethany Anne will not allow me to force you to join in this endeavor. If I should do this she would probably pull my arm off to beat me with it. It would be most painful I’m sure. She is of the opinion that most vampires respect only strength and trust me, she can bring that to the discussion. But she sat in that very place and listened with care and talked with me all night long. Finally, she gave me some of her blood to help me start coming back from the grave I had almost put myself in. I have given her my oath.”
He looked up and caught her eyes, his face one of somberness while he remembered that time.
“I gave her my oath in the old way, Gabrielle. Then, when I stopped taking her blood, I fell asleep right here on this couch. She stood guard over me the whole time I slept and I woke up with her standing over me, concern on her face.” It was obvious to Gabrielle that her father was truly taken with this vampire. It wasn’t the respect he would show his own maker, Michael. No, this was of a man who was following his liege.
Gabrielle couldn’t help but be captivated and curious about this woman. Her father had been dying slowly for centuries. He wasn’t made to be a vampire in his heart. He hated the act of changing a human to the existence of a vampire in exchange for helping him grow young again.
Yet, here he was in the best health she had ever seen. Healed both physically, emotionally and mentally. She finally believed he was not crazy from age, but truly happy and excited in ways she could not remember from before.
“And her blood changed you to this?” She looked at him, truly seeing how young he looked. Like he was in his mid twenties.
“No.” Stephen smiled at that.
“Then you have created another child?” The look of concern was back on her face. She knew her father from way back. His choice in who he rejuvenated had caused her to slap her head more than once. Petre was just a recent screw-up. Well, centuries recent.
He just shook his head, “No.”
Now she was confused. “How?”
“That would be one of those things that I cannot share unless you join me. I’m sorry, but I made a promise to Bethany Anne.”
She just stared back at her father. She was just too confused now at all of the new information he had thrown her way. She had decided maybe a rest would be good. Wait! “Did Ivan mention blood is in the house?”
“Yes, if I remember correctly he said he would warm it up for you.”
“So, you do not drink of people now? She has you drinking from bags, not people?”
“No, I choose not to drink from people. I have spent a while away, I might or might not have a bite or two when out on a date. I shall find out soon enough.”
“What? You’re going to go out on dates? Who are you going out with?”
“I don’t have any dates set up, but get with the times, Gabrielle. There is this app I found. It is called Tinder and the women in there are available and who such as I can resist?” He just about lost his composure when he saw how Gabrielle reacted to that statement.
If Gabrielle had thought she was shocked before, she damn near fell off of the chair now.
15
Atlantic Ocean, 7 hours out of American Waters
Sheikh Robban Rahid was in his cabin on his Superyacht, the Polarus. Oil profits in his country had been getting smaller and smaller as the price of oil kept going down. He had been unhappy with the tactics that the Saudi Royal family had undertaken to drive out the American competition and their shale drilling success. At a low price per barrel of oil, the American shale companies could not be profitable and would shut down.
Those in charge had dropped the price too low and the pricing got away from them. Now, his monthly allowance was less than ten million US dollars and he was taking his frustration out on a woman who joined him at his last port.
She had found him so gallant and exotic with his traditional keffiyeh and Armani suit. It was a very good disguise for the sadistic man he was when out of the country.
It wasn’t a well-kept secret that he was not loved. His predilection to hurt women had shown up early. At first, the guards would pay off the girls he had been rough with. Once they had to take a girl to the hospital.
When he went too far on a cruise out at sea, it was a simple expedient to throw the body overboard. Now on his boat and for his crew, it was known that your life depended on your ability to see nothing wrong and never speak of what you hear. What happened in international waters would stay out there unless you wanted to be left there as well.
The woman was on his bed, but barely aware of her surroundings. He had received notice that his monthly stipend would be reduced just minutes before. He had checked email while she was changing into something ‘a little more comfortable.’ He was addicted to his email and messages, even checking them in bed before he was going to have sex.
She had barely gotten into bed with him when he turned her over and forced a gag in her mouth. It had gone downhill from there. She was starting to get frantic before he had slapped her head so hard it rebounded off his poorly cushioned headboard. She lost most of her awareness after that abrupt hit. It was sadistic rape, pure and simple.
Atlantic Ocean, 6.5 hours out of American Waters
Bobcat flew Shelly with a focus. Nathan had uncovered the dirt on the owner of the SEA AXE that Bethany Anne wanted to purchase. Unfortunately for the Sheikh, the negotiati
ons were going to be very one sided.
There wasn’t one person on his yacht that wasn’t complicit in his activities. Nathan had tracked no less than nine deaths that he was positive happened on the Sheikh’s larger yacht. The SEA AXE was a support yacht only and was actually an hour ahead of the Superyacht on its way into Miami where the Sheikh was looking to port.
The team had flown Shelly to a small island a half hour from where the yacht would pass. There, they had refueled Shelly with the spare avgas they had brought along.
Nathan had reached out to the royal family and asked if they would consider selling the Superyacht and the SEA AXE through a drop account that was untraceable if anything ‘were to happen’ to the asshat.
The reply was very circumspect. Reading between the lines you could reason that if it didn’t make them look bad, they would be happy to sell the craft and show a financial responsibility Sheikh Robban had been completely unable to accomplish in his lifetime.
It took a little more time to finalize the deal as each side checked out the bonafides. Bethany Anne’s two million dollar down payment towards the purchase, pursuant to the original owner not being able to make the payment within forty-five days or give up the two million was a significantly strong verification tool. Twenty years back, the Saudis would have scoffed at that amount of money. But the truth was that Sheikh Robban was a disgrace to the family and at a hundred and twenty million a year in stipend a waste of money as well. If that tree limb was trimmed everyone in the family would throw a large party. While mourning his death, of course.
Now, Bethany Anne was dressed in her ‘go to meeting’ clothes and had added black face paint to the mix to keep the shine down. She wanted to get to the Sheik’s bedroom without interruption. She planned on dropping from the helicopter and parachuting within sight of the boat. At that time, she would slip through the etheric to get on the boat herself. Her job was to quickly incapacitate the crew with gas for those under the deck and physically for those up top. After that, Bobcat would bring the rest of the team in to help get the boat under control.
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 52