Duel Nature

by John Conroe

  “Our goal is to make sure that Chris’s grandfather is okay, then we’ll think about talking to Gina…maybe,” Tanya said.

  The two young Alphas looked at each other than nodded at us. “Okay, old man, let’s go see the old man,” Brett said to me.

  Chapter 20

  Seeing my undefeatable grandfather propped up in a state of the art hospital bed with I.V. tubes and heart rate monitors attached was a stranger sight than seeing a pack of werewolves Change under a full moon.

  My entire life, as long as I can remember, Alex Gordon had been the epitome of health. The single most solid part of my life was looking vulnerable and, well, kind of old.

  Sure, I knew that Gramps was in his seventies, which wasn’t young, but just a few months ago I had watched him crawl under a tractor to change the oil, dropping down and squirming like a thirty or forty-year old might. Now he was sitting in bed, scraping the last of his applesauce from a little disposable cup, his shaky right hand sprouting an I.V. tube.

  He nodded at Brett and smiled warmly at Kelly then glanced our way with curiosity on his face.

  “You look better than Len led me to believe you would be,” I said in my normal voice. His eyes narrowed for a split second, then recognition smoothed out his brow.

  “Actually, I look a whole lot better than you do!” he said with a grin. Then he pushed my hand aside to take Tanya’s. “But you, my dear, would be the hit of the coffee club!”

  Tanya gave him a sudden hug, moving much faster than a lady her supposed age could manage. Slightly faster than a bantam-weight boxer could manage, in fact.

  He looked over her shoulder at me with wide eyes that were suspiciously moist, then laughed, patting her back with affection.

  “The rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated,” he said.

  “You must be okay, if you’re quoting Twain,” I said.

  “Honestly, I feel fine. The doctors can’t find anything wrong with me, and in fact, they aren’t even sure I had an attack,” he said.

  “We think you were attacked,” I said.

  He looked at me in confusion for a second or two, then a light dawned in his eyes.

  “Drugs?” he asked.

  “So we think,” said Tanya, who moved to the other side of his bed and was inspecting his lunch. She sniffed his glass of red juice and met my eyes. “Cranberry,” she said, something brewing in her mind. Gramps glanced back my way. “Explain,” he demanded.

  So I did, which kept him occupied while Tanya ghosted around the room. Gramps watched her poking in drawers of supplies, but never saw her snatch a disposable lancet. Never saw the drop of blood from her index finger go into his juice, which she made sure he drank as she fussed around his bed. Gramps doesn’t know her well enough to realize she is not a bed fusser.

  I finished my narrative as he finished his juice and he was already visibly healthier. He was also only the second person to ever receive the gift of Tanya’s blood. Vampire blood, if given to a human, has amazing health benefits. The older and stronger the donor vamp is, the more powerful the effect is. Cancer, Aids, Alzheimer’s, heck, even old age itself could all be cured by vampire blood. Tanya’s is the absolute purest on the planet, a result of never having been human, but instead born into the vampire world.

  I could practically hear his heartbeat strengthen as we talked.

  “So…what next?” he asked me. I could tell he was already thinking up ideas and answers to that very question, but our relationship was ever his teacher to my student.

  “Well, now that I know you’re okay, I’ll have to set about contacting Gina if I’m going to have a chance to clear the record.”

  The door to the room opened behind us and a pretty brunette with dark brown eyes regarded us evenly.

  “There, see? My plan is already coming together!” I said in Gramp’s direction. “Hi Gina.”

  “Chris, Tanya. Hello Mr. Gordon. Brett, Kelly. How is everyone?” she asked with a slight smile.

  “You bugged the room,” my grandfather said, more of a statement than a question.

  “Yes. I told General Creek that it wasn’t a matter of if you would be here, but when,” she said.

  “He got all up in arms about securing the border, guards on the hospital, stuff like that. I told him none of it would make any of difference, that you would get past anything he could set up. I think it offends his sense of professional pride that you two would slide by all his gadgets and people. Hey, where’s your third? Where’s Awasos?”

  “We left him in Canada, but I would expect him pretty soon,” I said. “Should we be worried about the guard outside the door?”

  “I dismissed him and the others. The General should have known better. What was he going to do? Confront you with agents in the middle of a hospital?” she asked, with a shoulder shrug.

  “He’s listening right now, isn’t he?” Gramps guessed.

  She smiled a sly smile and nodded once, happy that she could use this time to say ‘I told you so’ without doing it face to face.

  “So, you heard our story, right?” I asked.

  “Yes, and it fits with wreckage you left in Saulte Saint Marie.”

  “What about Gentis? Has he told you anything?” Tanya asked.

  “Gentis is dead,” Gina said, her expression severe.

  “He was alive when we left him,” Tanya said defensively.

  “Are you sure? Cause he looked to have a couple of large wounds on his neck when I saw him,” Gina said, staring hard at Tanya.

  Tanya swore and yanked off her wig, peeling more of her disguise off, the thick cloth tearing like tissue paper.

  My link told me she had become a cauldron of emotion when Gina implied that Gentis had died from his bite wounds. She has issues about biting people to death, which would be odd for any vampire, let alone her. She was simultaneously angry and guilty.

  Not many people, vampire, human or were would be comfortable pushing Tanya to that level of anger, but Gina seemed unconcerned.

  “So what killed him?” I asked, guessing that it wasn’t my vampire’s bite.

  “We don’t know for certain. Poison most likely, but we don’t think it was self-inflicted. Possibly a remote signal to an implant. We’ll know more when the complete autopsy is finished,” she said, still watching Tanya.

  At Gina’s words, Tanya stopped shredding her outer clothes, which part of me was sad about, because I was curious as to what she had on underneath. Brett seemed to feel the same way up until the point where Kelly stepped on his foot.

  Tanya straightened and turned to look at Gina, comprehension flickering on her face.

  “Fuck you Gina,” she said evenly.

  “Right back at you Tanya,” Gina said, living dangerously. “You are, for all intents and purposes, godmother to my daughter. If you’re suddenly biting everything that moves, I sorta need to know about it. I’m not an empath. How am I supposed to know how you feel about it.”

  I had moved just slightly to intervene if my vampire snapped, but now my link told me she had calmed down at the mention of being a godmother. It also told me that she felt guilty about losing her temper and biting Gentis in the first place.

  “So now I can be fairly certain it was something you were driven to and not a regular thing,” Gina said, arms still crossed over her chest. Gina is, without a doubt, the single bravest person I’ve ever met.

  “They keep pushing him and pushing. It pisses me off,” Tanya said, without looking up from the pile of clothing she was shedding. Turned out she had one of her spandexy cat suits on underneath, which distracted me from the conversation for a moment. Brett suddenly found the heart monitor fascinating as Kelly watched him with a deadly stare.

  Gina’s expression softened. “I understand. I’ve told the President and General Creek that that kind of thing should be avoided.”

  Tanya looked up and met her glance, then they both nodded in understanding, which left me out because of my previous spandex caused laps
e of attention.

  “Wait. What?” I asked.

  “Never you mind, Chris. I’m not real happy with you right now. What’s up with detonating 217 federally owned firearms and wounding thirteen agents?” Gina asked, her frown turning into something of a glare.

  “They were shooting my bear…I don’t really care for people shooting my bear, Gina,” I said a little sharpish. “Ah, how badly were they injured?”

  “One guy lost a finger, the rest were burned and bruised. At least two had some hearing damage,” she said, staring at me. “You couldn’t have just rendered them inert? Where did the whole exploding thing come from anyway?”

  “Grim,” Tanya answered before I could. “If they push, they get new results Gina…each and every time!”

  Gina watched me thoughtfully while Tanya spoke, then glanced at the raven haired vampire and nodded. I ignored the looks and started pulling off my own costume, although I was going to have to live with the old man pants for the time being.

  Gramps had been watching this by-play with interest, but now he spoke up. “What about these AIR guys?”

  Gina looked at him like she was seeing him for the first time, then gave him a big smile, not at all like the severe look she had given me.

  “We’re working on that. In fact, I brought along someone to help us with that very issue,” she said, backing to the open door and then glancing out into the hallway and to her right.

  “Director? Now is fine,” she said to someone out of view.

  Footsteps followed her words and a moment later a snow white head of hair on top of a spry, black suited body popped into view.

  “Chris, you already know Director Stewart, but for the rest of you this is Director Nathan Stewart who heads up a special division in the intelligence world,” Gina introduced. “Director, this is Tatiana Demidova, Brett and Kelly Mallek, and Chris’s grandfather, Alex Gordon.”

  Nathan Stewart was beaming, a huge ear-to-ear smile, as he shook hands. A snowy mustache matched his full head of hair, making his blue eyes look far more alert and alive than most twenty year olds. I wasn’t sure how old he was; just that he always seemed hale and hearty, except for a slight limp in his left leg. Because of the limp, he carried a slim black cane that was topped with a thick crystal of some type, although I didn’t think he really needed the cane. I had scanned both him and his assistant when Gina and I had met them several months back. My Sight had shown that his ‘assistant’ Adine Benally was a were, her body riddled with the LV virus at levels beyond any I had seen before. Oddly, Director Stewart’s injured leg was also riddled with the same virus, but nowhere else in his body. Adine, I had found out, was a wereverine, the shortened name for a were wolverine. Wereverines are exceedingly rare, and according to both Lydia and Tanya, very tough.

  Stewart hardly knew where to begin, he was so excited to meet the individuals in the room, but he chose to start with Tanya, a not unwise choice.

  “Miss Demidova, I am so thrilled to meet you! I have to confess to being something of an admirer of yours for some years now,” he said, taking her hand in a way that was somehow old fashioned looking. She started to frown at his words, but he was already shaking hands with Brett and Kelly.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Mallek, congratulations on such a successful launch of a new Pack. I’ve never heard of a smoother beginning,” he said, then turned to Gramps while confusion flowed over the faces of the two Alphas.

  “Mr. Gordon, I know something of your own career and history, and I am honored to meet you. Your service to this country has been exemplary and it helps me understand, in part, how Christian turned out to be the exceptional person he is today!” he said.

  It was Gramps turn to frown, as Stewart delivered this last admiring and very cryptic greeting. His words made me wonder about the truth behind my grandfather’s military service.

  The room was silent, shocked speechless by his casual greetings that hinted at intensive personal knowledge. Brett was sniffing the air, trying to place a mystifying scent; Tanya had frozen, her emotions locked down, and Gramps was frowning dangerously at the Director.

  I decided to throw in before it got ugly.

  “Director Stewart heads a group of very special individuals, that he has never really explained, but I can tell you that his personal assistant is a wereverine, so I’m thinking his group is kinda like the X-men or maybe the Avengers or something,” I said.

  Everyone looked at me like I was crazy, although Brett’s eyes had a sudden gleam of recognition for the scent he had picked up on the Director. Gina just snorted in amusement and Stewart was giving me a look of slight admiration.

  “I don’t know as I’d characterize it quite in those terms Chris, but the comparison has a small amount of validity…very small,” he said. “But I have allowed my excitement to overwhelm my good sense and I apologize if my remarks touched on sensitive issues.”

  Somehow I had trouble believing the Nathan Stewart had ever done anything unintentional in his life.

  “Where is the stoic Ms. Benally, Director?” I asked.

  “She has posted herself downstairs on guard duty. She felt her presence might lend an…inflammatory essence to the situation.”

  “What exactly does your group of comic book heroes do, Mr. Stewart?” Brett asked.

  “Ironically enough, our mission is similar, at least in theory, to the one that the agents in rebus like to talk about,” he answered with a sardonic smile. “That is, we protect this country and its allies from threats that fall outside the purview of the more conventional intelligence departments.”

  “Supernatural threats?” Kelly asked.

  “Well, threats that utilize supernatural elements, such as hostile foreign governments or terrorist units that have supernatural help. But we also bring an unconventional capability to the table, and unlike the shadowy AIR people, we work for the President.”

  “What brings you to my hospital room, Director Stewart?” Gramps asked, with a sharp gleam in his eye.

  “I could tell you in all honesty that I’m here because Mrs. Velasquez felt Chris and his lovely..wife?...” he trailed off looking between Tanya and I with eyebrows raised in question.

  “Close enough,” Tanya said.

  “Anyway…on the chance that Chris and his wife, Tatiana would be here. I’m utterly fascinated with the two of you!” he said smiling ear-to-ear. “But the harsh reality is that I’m also tracking down anything I can find on the agents in rebus group. Their highly visible emergence from the shadows troubles me greatly.”

  “How long have you been aware of them?” I asked.

  He considered his answer, gazing thoughtfully back at me for a moment before reaching some internal decision.

  “Decades,” was his answer.

  “How long has your group been in existence, Director?” Tanya asked.

  Again he met her sharp blue-laser gaze for a moment, his eyes twinkling, before answering.

  “Decades,” was all he said.

  “That file you gave me…the one labeled ‘Brutal Asset’, was found while you were hunting them?” I asked.

  He nodded. “They share my interest in…unconventional assets…what you might call supernatural, although I believe that most of what we call the supernatural is a natural part of our existence, just not understood by our science at this time.”

  “So what’s the deal with the A.I.R. folks?” I asked.

  “From what I have learned, it seems they were founded under sound principles, but have been warped over the years by a misguided leadership,” he said, his right hand plucking at his mustache as he spoke. “A.I.R. does, in fact, protect this country. But its methods are beyond Machiavellian and its leader runs roughshod over the checks and balances of the Constitution in the belief that he and he alone knows what is best.”

  “Who is he?” Tanya asked.

  “That, my dear, is the billion dollar question. I’ve been hunting him for a long time and I have some ideas, but as of now…he’
s still a mystery,” Stewart said.

  A sharp electronic bleep sounded from his suit pocket. He was momentarily startled, then looked chagrined as he reached into his inside breast pocket and pulled out an extremely slim radio. The earpiece dangled from the unit and after a moment of confusion he simply pulled its jack out and held the radio up to his ear.

  “Stewart here,” he said into the unit.

  “Director, there is a were in wolf form down here following a scent. He’s got a broken chain around his neck and he won’t Change. He’s trying to get upstairs.”

  The voice I recognized as Adine Benally.