I certainly spend way more time writing than I should to call it a pastime, but it isn’t my main source of income right now. So, even if I paid to have a cover done by a professional, that wouldn’t qualify me as a professional.
I guess it’s good my hobby is generating income and I can write off the expenses. (Hear that, IRS?)
So, at the end of the day I realize this author who was stating their opinion was probably bemoaning the state of indie authors (such as myself) who released their story into Kindle Unlimited before triple checking the editing. I’m certainly guilty of doing this and I apologize to my readers who slogged through the stories before the cleanup efforts. You deserve something amazing. I don’t have amazing yet, but I can try for cool.
So, let’s try this. I’ll start the price for Never Forsaken - TKG05 at $0.99 for the first 24 hours when it comes out in January. If you sign up for my email list before then, I will make sure to email you at least twice to remind you of the reduced price coming up. I’ll email a couple of days before the release, and when it goes live. (Email list link below).
Unfortunately, I can’t make it ‘free’ without pulling down my Amazon book ranking.
< STEP OFF SOAP BOX>
If you want to help make the books better and receive an advanced copy, please consider the Advance Team project and email me: [email protected] or on Facebook and let me know your interested. I am thinking five positions at the beginning to keep it small enough to be manageable for me to handle.
Thank you,
Michael Anderle, Dec 2015
*All credit for me having ANY shoe knowledge goes to my wife, who still works to provide me with even a finger’s amount of fashion sense. Why she asks me to comment on her outfits in the morning still confuses me to this day. Second note, the suggestion to include special canines also came from my wife.
P.S. - The dog’s name will be Ashur
P.S.S. - “Protectores del infierno” - Protectors from Hell
P.S.S.S. - “Ángeles Oscuros” - Dark Angels
P.S.S.S.S. - David Down Under has permitted me to release his work, so I’ll be putting up his comments regarding military life on my website soon.
Never Forsaken
The Kurtherian Gambit Book 5
1
Germany
Underneath the snow and ice the stone building was centuries old. Carried into the small valley on the backs of slaves whose bones had long since turned to dust in the countless massive graves surrounding the castle. For hundreds of years, the trees stood silent as living headstones and the undergrowth covered the only physical remains of lives used up as self-serving expedients without a thought to the people who died to make this fortress.
David hadn’t cared about humans then, he cared even less for them now. Walking into the massive room beneath his castle, its size, over twenty feet wide and thirty feet long, rising over twenty-five feet in the air was an immense effort of time and lives, effort and lives he couldn’t be bothered to remember. He stopped, staring at the hermetically sealed container in front of him, rage infusing his countenance, his eyes red, his voice full of anguish and hurt, voice barely above a whisper that could still be heard to the four corners of the room.
“Father, Father. Why did you bring me to this? Instead of being locked up in this holding cell, you could be taking your rightful place at the head of our new order. You should have been the prince these cattle would have recognized and followed. Now, I am stuck with Anton, that degenerate mind-fuck and the lives of the Nazi scientists he has extended. Their pitiful existence needed to continue their research recreating the serum.” David stepped to the glass. “Why you sacrificed others to destroy the effort in Japan is beyond me. We were finished, we were complete. We had the answer in our hands, and your American lackeys destroyed it all in the inferno of their atomic bomb. All of our priceless research gone. All they left me was but a few samples to try and reverse engineer.”
David, a tall aristocratic looking man with dark peaks on either side of his forehead started pacing in front of the copper colored rectangular metal and glass container, iron anchor bolts holding it steadfastly and solidly to the bedrock beneath it.
“Now, I am forced to kill another sibling. Stephen has annoyingly decided that living is a better solution than just fading into the sun. I will have the blood of another brother on my hands. I’ve despised myself since I sent Hugo to the eternal sleep and now Stephen is forcing me to end his life.” His voice became harder. “This time, however, you are to blame. You brought this new woman into existence, and she pulled Stephen back from his final rest. Stephen’s blood will be poured at your feet, his death on your head. Your Bethany Anne is causing all sorts of trouble for Anton and Stephen is now beyond being a simple annoyance.” He stopped and considered his next steps. “Unfortunately I cannot allow his continued interruptions of my European plans. Eventually, he might impede the progress of projects which are critical. So, I tell you this and you may grieve in advance knowing your choices have already led to so many of our race dying… DYING!” David slammed his palm against the copper exterior, a deep ringing echoing off the wall.
He drew himself to his full height. “Do you know how many have died since she was brought forth? DO YOU? Honor is what you preach, but she is the most dishonorable of all. She treats humans as having value, werewolves deserving of respect. This filth she teaches cannot be allowed to spread; cannot be allowed to take root in any more minds than it already has. She has affected far too many of my plans.” He stopped, his voice dropping to little more than a whisper. “As powerful as she could become, it is with little happiness that Anton will have to kill her. She would be a supreme choice to become the new leader of our race.” David paused, envisioning a future that could not be. “Of our existence. Compared to her, even you pale in consideration. The cattle would form a line and the sheep would bleat out their willingness to sacrifice everything just to feel her touch.”
He turned around, looking up and into the distance from underneath so much ground. Up to where he imagined the sun must be shining, those rays which were too painful to see, to enjoy, and spoke into the air. “Someone who would take us into such a glorious future. Still, she must be sacrificed to the greater righteousness and make amends for the millions killed seeking our rightful place.” He paused imagining what would not be. “Pity, that.”
David walked towards the steps that would take him up to the castle proper, wrapped in his own thoughts, his anger from a minute before completely forgotten. He called over his shoulder before disappearing up the stone stairs, “Do say your goodbyes to Stephen, he won’t be long in this world.”
In the copper container a myst swirled from top to bottom and back again, agitated. The pressure inside was too great for the myst to become a flesh and blood being, a human form would immediately disintegrate. The myst had been in this container for a time that seemed an ongoing, never ending pain as its energy continued to fade. It had too much time to think, to listen to its child rail with rage and dishonor. Time for even a thousand-year-old being to consider the mistakes an unbreakable belief in absolutes might bring about. To realize his whole existence and knowledge had been laid low, his superior standards, broken on the anvil of reality. If the myst could weep, it would shed ten thousand tears.
The Queen Bitch’s Ship Ad Aeternitatem
So, what are you saying is going to happen?
Would a qualified ‘I don’t know’ satisfy you?
Bethany Anne snorted. How TOM thought anything of the sort was beyond her. She was standing in front of the pod-doc in TOM’s ship. They had been going through the results on the German Shepherd’s medical review for the last fifteen minutes. Well, as much as ‘push this button… hmmm… push that button and slide that digital representation up… hmmm… not sure about this… push this….’ could accomplish. She was getting a little impatient with the alien symbiont inside of her.
Ok, give me your unqualified be
st guess TOM. I’m getting a little impatient.
Really? When did we start with patience so you could reduce it? I thought if something was lacking in the first place, you couldn’t lose what you didn’t have in the beginning?
TOM, if it didn’t hurt so much, I would slap you smart.
Good for me you can’t at the moment, hmmm? Wait, what was that?
Bethany Anne grinned. TOM had become his own complete personality with idiosyncrasies she both enjoyed and deplored. She finally figured out the other night he could hear another trashy reality TV show that was vibrating down from the deck above and quickly went up and walked in on a group of Navy folks working in the kitchen.
She looked at the TV, walked over and yanked the plug out of the wall, which got everyone’s attention. “See this TV?” Lots of heads nodded. She reached down while holding the TV with her left hand and then yanked the cord out of the TV with her right. “This TV was giving TOM all sorts of bad human ideas that I have to listen to all of the time. Now, any TV that is running in here better be family friendly or the next one goes overboard with the person who was using it, capiche?” Lots more nodding. One or two were trying not to smile. Some of TOM’s comments had run through the grapevine and there was a small but growing cadre of TOM fans.
It was driving her nuts.
She quit woolgathering and got back to the task at hand.
Never mind what I said, what’s the diagnosis?
We have our own version of the Six Million Dollar Mutt?
Gott Verdammt! She was going to find John and slap the ever-loving shit out of him. TOM asked about that deplorable old TV show after he heard a conversation between John and Frank and now fancied himself a creator of new and better versions of reality. Maybe she should slap Frank for good measure.
Bethany Anne reached up and pulled aside the cover, which allowed her to view inside, and looked into the pod-doc. “Oh, holy shit. I don’t remember him looking like that when I put him in there, TOM. What happened?”
You’re talking to the air again.
“Shut up and just get on with it. Anyone inside this ship right now knows you’re in me.”
There is no one else in this ship.
There was a pregnant pause as Bethany Anne didn’t reply.
Ok, got it. It seems the pod-doc decided to move forward after we put the canine in.
Why would it decide to do that? I was under the impression that we were just checking it out.
Human error?
How could it be human error, you ass! I was the only one to set it up, and we both know I don’t know shit about how to operate your machinery, including Bones here!
Bones? Oh, Dr. Bones. Nice one.
Bethany Anne had pulled the Star Trek series to watch with TOM and they had made it through season one so far.
Well, Jim, it’s like this—I fucked up.
Bethany Anne was poleaxed for a moment, letting his words wash over her. She could feel his slight embarrassment through their connection. She straightened up for a second then bent back over and looked in the small window before standing up again.
“TOM, buddy, that might be a small understatement. We put a normal if pretty aggressive German Shepherd into the pod-doc. What I have in there is an all-white monster-sized German Shepherd with what I imagine are small knives for teeth and feet the size of horseshoes. I don’t know if he can eat a side of beef, but I’m pretty sure I don’t have enough cow on board for that dog. If the aggressiveness has been adjusted, I might have to kill it and that is a hell of a thank you for helping me in that fight.”
True, and I would feel bad about that. But on the positive side he isn’t ready to come out yet so we have a little time to discuss this situation.
“Situation, yeah, that about sums up this SNAFU. Well, take your readings and set them to give it what we can. If we’re going to change him—and that train has left the station—we might as well up the settings to 11.”
Bethany Anne, the settings don’t have an 11.
Turn of phrase TOM, it means we turn them up past what others can turn their … You know, I’ll just have to let you watch an old movie called Spinal Tap.
Ok, up to 11 it is.
Five minutes later, she turned to her right and took a step to translocate through the Etheric. She disappeared before putting her foot down.
The Queen Bitch's Ship Polarus
Bethany Anne completed her step by appearing inside her protected wardrobe. She unlocked the door and walked into her personal suite. Ecaterina was working at her desk. She was giving off a dissatisfied energy that Bethany Anne was able to almost feel, even if it didn’t touch her face.
Jumping up on her bed, she crossed her legs and put her chin on her palm, elbow on her leg. “What you got for me, Kat?”
Ecaterina was accustomed to Bethany Anne appearing from any direction. Since her human senses wouldn’t register so much of what Bethany Anne could do, she tried to dampen her reactions honed from years out in the wilderness. A wilderness, she could admit to herself, she was missing.
Ecaterina worked down the list of tasks.
“The Weres are on their way down to Miami. They will stop and talk with Nathan and Pete and then Pete will bring them down to us. Bobcat will pick them up at the closest airport, not sure which one that is, yet. Nathan is working on a project with Frank and Lance up in Miami at the moment so he’s staying there. Dan and the team are getting ready to have the meeting with the Weres. We’ve been able to track a little of what is going on in San Jose because of the newspaper and the reporter you guys helped. She has some sort of love-fest going on for you guys. Except, she says her butt was pinched.”
Bethany Anne retorted, “She wishes, it was a dart from my gun. I shot her to put her to sleep. We needed her quiet at the time and it seemed like the easiest solution. She was freaking out like a little girl.”
Ecaterina looked up over her laptop at Bethany Anne on the bed, and raised a questioning eyebrow. “She is young, maybe not a little girl, but she certainly had enough guts to try and get the story, no?”
“Yeah, ok. You might consider that rash, stupid, or any number of other things. I suppose you could attach bravery as an alternate possibility.” Bethany Anne said.
“In my country, freedom of the press is permitted, but we still remember when it was not so easy to get the truth out. I appreciate her effort to tell the truth even if we don’t personally want it known.”
“Consider me duly chastised. Her stories have helped us; at least the politicians aren’t trying to track us down. I don’t think we’ve gotten a single call in a week, right?”
“That is true, so I consider her an asset. Asset, this is the right term, yes?”
Bethany Anne thought about that. “Yes, she’s definitely an asset; nothing she has done has hurt us. You’re right, she is a benefit.” There was more going on with Ecaterina than she thought. “Are you missing Nathan? He’s only been gone a couple of days.”
Ecaterina looked back up from her laptop and pursed her lips. She closed the lid and frowned. “Nathan is not happy that I want to do more and we have had a disagreement. I don’t like being stuck on the ship all of the time when everyone leaves to go on operations. He thought I would be happy for a while with the new sniper rifles, but it was a ruse. A ruse? Maybe that is the wrong word. I am not unhappy to be with you, and I will take however long I need to be a part of your ops team, I am ready to be more than just… this.” She waved her hand over the laptop, “More than one who manages people and things.”
“You’re going stir crazy.”
“What is this? You mean my crazy is getting stirred up?”
Bethany Anne cocked her head. “Not exactly. It means you’ve been cooped up too long. You need to get out. If you were back in Romania, it would mean you had been too long in your house and needed to go to the mountains for a little while.”
Ecaterina agreed. “Yes, this is what I would do.”
Bethan
y Anne thought about the woman who had tended bar and went out to hunt, trap and live on the mountain. She was a free spirit and the other people on the ships probably needed a little R&R themselves. “Tell you what. We all need a little downtime. You aren’t the only one who is probably feeling the need to stretch their legs. Let’s figure out where we can anchor that has a good beach and is hopefully secluded. We’ll tie both ships up and have a day or two of fun. Make sure we have a guard, but we all need to stretch our legs. Good idea. Also, if you want to move to operations, you’re going to have to train harder, be better and generally get your ass back in gear. I haven’t thought about you for ops because you don’t train like you want to be on ops. Got it?”
Ecaterina said, “I understand, yes. Just do, don’t whine.” She opened her laptop back up and started jotting notes. She would need to get organized so she and others could enjoy some time off of the ships. It was one of the most beautiful and expensive prisons in the world if you loved to be on the land as much as she did.
2
Miami, FL, USA
Nathan and Pete waited with Frank by one of William’s armor-protected SUVs. Fortunately, there was a set of keys easily available as William had left that morning on a three-day stay-cation. He had met a woman at one of the clubs over the holidays and wined and dined her. Now, they were going to go clubbing around town for the next couple of days.
Three men waited for the Gulfstream to land and taxi over to them. Frank wanted to get the flavor of the new recruits, he said. Nathan assumed he wanted to add another chapter to his book in process.
Lt. Cmdr Paul Jameson was bringing the plane in for a slow stop. Nathan could see Paul wink at Frank and wondered what that was about. The door to the plane opened and the steps descended to the tarmac. Next to him, Pete stood at casual attention, his time with John’s group now ingrained in his posture and he was damn near a poster boy for Bethany Anne’s guards. He wore his uniform, with a patch on his shoulder. Nathan smiled as he remembered Pete’s conversation with the asshat back in New York. Pete had pointed to that patch and informed the troublemaker he wasn’t getting in the group since Pete had a vote and just voted him off the island, so to speak.
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 84