The Darkest Night (The Second Dark Ages Book 2)
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“What do ya mean we lost the left bank of batteries?” the Captain yelled as he helped his first mate get back to his feet. The engineer’s voice replied over the speaker, “I mean we blew out our capacitors and they sunk the power safely to the grounds. Unless you got a handy recharging unit, Captain, we just lost half our power!”
Miles ground his teeth. Losing half their power meant they were effectively screwed. He would need to decide whether continuing on would be better, or just letting the ship go down. The storm had been heading west, so trying to retreat would just putting them back in the path of the storm. Maybe the girl had been right, and waking the vampire is what he should have done. Now he had damned everybody.
That’s when three people materialized on his bridge.
---
The shared pain from his charges pissed Michael off, so his sudden appearance—eyes glowing as bright as those on the bridge had ever seen—wasn’t the gentle arrival he had hoped to accomplish.
“These two,” Michael spoke, “are good people. Find out what they can do and use them. I’m done with this fucking storm.” With that declaration, he pivoted and exited the bridge.
The Captain looked at the people Michael had dropped, their confusion matching his own.
“Ok,” The Captain barked, “what did you do on your ship?”
---
Michael left the bridge through the hatch to the deck. He turned the lock and slammed it shut.
His two charges, he noticed, looked weak, but seemed to be dealing with their sudden electrocution.
He darted over to them and pressed his hands together, rubbing them and willing the power to generate. There was no waiting or coercing. This time it would obey him.
Or he would go into the Etheric and rip that dimension a new asshole.
He pressed a hand against both Mark and Jacqueline, pushing energy to them to allow their nanocytes to heal them. Mark recovered first, his eyes darting to Jacqueline. He noticed Michael’s hand on her and moved his gaze up the arm to Michael himself.
Mark swallowed. He was apparently in no mood to talk.
Jacqueline gasped a breath, then moaned. “Oh God that fucking huurrrrtttt.” Her eyes popped open. She glanced over to see who was touching her, then back at Mark.
She slapped his arm. “What the hell, Mark? What did you do to get us electrocuted?”
“You two,” Michael ground out, his voice richer and deeper than normal. Both of them peered at him, but he was looking up at the clouds, his face a mask of extreme displeasure. “Just kiss and get it over with.”
He stood up, noticing neither Jacqueline’s surprise nor Mark’s narrowed-eyed look of determination.
---
The Captain sent the new people down to the engine room. Apparently they had helped in that area on the old ship, being useless anywhere else. They wouldn’t fight, but ability to work with technology trumped bloodthirsty every time.
Miles watched Michael help his two youths, then stand up and stride to the middle of the deck. Michael looked around as if he were seeing something no one else could.
All at once his eyes flashed red, bright enough to cause shadows as he threw his arms into the air. Blue energy left his hands to attack the weather, but lightning fought back and struck the figure on the deck. Mother Nature was not pleased with him, and didn’t take to his machinations to manipulate her will lying down.
---
Michael ignored the disintegration of his body as the Etheric healed him at the atomic level. He had spent over a hundred years inside the Etheric being put back together molecule by molecule.
He and the Etheric were old associates. Perhaps not friends, but certainly intimate nonetheless.
Michael kept his hands raised, pulling in the power of the storm and shunting it into the Etheric. At the same time, he pushed power back out into the air to change the temperature.
He was in the middle screaming at the storm. Although close, neither Jacqueline nor Mark could hear as they clutched each other. The power being unleashed mere steps from them was more than their minds could take in.
“You think you are worse than an Atomic Bomb?” Michael screamed, “YOU NEED TO BRING MORE THAN THIS!”
So Mother Nature hit him with three lightning bolts at once as he pulled in power.
“THAT TICKLES, BITCH!” he shouted back. If he had thought about it, he would have had to admit he was lying.
The pain was enormous.
His eyes narrowed, his will reinforced, his voice a whisper, “I promised her I would be back. I am the Dark Messiah, I am the ArchAngel, but more than that, my name is Michael Nacht and I stayed together for her. You are in no way more powerful than my fucking love.” Michael grinned maniacally as he remembered his friends from the past and what they might say in such a situation as this.
“SUCK IT!” he yelled, and started laughing as he pushed more etheric energy into the atmosphere. The lightning struck less, and the winds started decreasing.
Bethany Anne certainly wouldn’t get the same Michael back, but all things considered?
That was a good thing.
The Duke’s Residence in Germany
Lightning flashed twice before a low boom of thunder could be felt by the human guiding the large antigrav vehicle through the narrow brick walls of the estate to the landing pad inside.
His face was soaked due to the rain, but it would have been wet with sweat even had the weather been dry.
The last person in this position had failed to keep their focus and the vehicle had scraped against the wall on the way in.
The Duke had ripped the flagman's head off and licked the blood from his neck in front of a good portion of those in the castle that night.
There were many outside of this building who did not understand just what the Duke was. However, those within these walls were very aware, and were either here because they had sworn loyalty, or…
Because they were slaves.
Bryon Donnington had started out a believer, but it had only taken two weeks to understand the lie he had been fed. He wasn’t the follower of a great man, but of a monster. To keep his own head on his shoulders now, he needed to stop thinking about useless shit in the middle of a storm and make sure this damned vehicle made it down without scratching the paint.
Moments later, he flagged the driver to kill the engines. He saluted the car with a hand over his heart as he had been taught half a year back, then turned and walked towards his quarters in the Duke’s castle.
---
William “Duke” Renaud strode through the doors, which closed behind him. With hours to go until sunrise, he scowled at the weather. No sun to stop him from enjoying the outdoors, but he wasn’t willing to get his clothes soaked by staying outside.
He glanced at the map on the large table in his planning room as he walked in. A fraction of a moment later he stopped, then pivoted to his left and took three steps to look over the large map of Europe. He frowned and reached up to tap his lips as he concentrated on what had changed in the past four nights.
He spoke slightly above a normal level. “Gerard?”
Seconds later a man approached the door and bowed. “Yes sir?”
The Duke pointed at the map. “Why are we missing two Pack tokens in Paris?”
The man answered, “Sir, I was informed by Terrance that the leaders of packs Leleuand and Duval have not been back to the staging area outside of Paris in the last three nights.”
His master continued tapping his lips. “So, you believe they have decided to break the agreement?”
“I cannot say at the moment if they will remain absent, my lord. However, they have officially missed two meetings in three days.”
The Duke nodded his understanding. “We have the firstborn child of the alphas of both the Leleuand and Duval packs, correct?”
“That is correct, sir.”
“Ok.” The Duke turned back to his original direction and started walking towards a side
exit. “Do pull those two children out and videotape them being served to the Nosferatu, Gerard.”
Gerard nodded his head to the rapidly retreating shadow as he closed the doors to the planning room. “Very good, sir.”
Less than five minutes later, the Duke could hear the screams of fear as the two teenagers were pulled from their rooms. He smiled.
One mustn’t hesitate to mete out punishment; respect was so easily lost.
His grandfather, Michael, had taught him that just before William had been entombed by the same man.
CHAPTER SIX
Japan
Yuko fluttered around the base. Eve followed her and asked more questions than the usually patient Yuko cared to answer.
The little android stopped in exasperation as Yuko used the rag in her hand to wipe the top of a frame that had been on the hallway’s wall for the last two decades.
Eve pointed back down the hall. “This is as close to clean as we can get unless you wish to re-clean everything which hasn’t been touched in the last five days.”
Yuko ran the white cloth across the top of the picture and glanced at it.
Clean.
“So,” Eve continued, her hands on her waist. “Why are you cleaning again?”
Yuko turned to consider her friend and sighed. “If I have nothing to do, my mind runs scenarios about what might happen should Michael arrive and it isn’t perfect.”
“You think he will care about dust on top of a picture frame?” Eve asked.
“No… Yes…” Yuko blew out a breath of air. “Eve, how long have we been waiting for him?”
“Exactly—” Eve started.
“Stop!” Yuko put up a hand. “That was meant to be rhetorical, not a request for exact information. I have no need to be reminded of how old I am.”
“Which is why we celebrate your twenty-sixth birthday each year.”
“Yes, that was a good year,” Yuko admitted.
“What was his name?”
Yuko eyed the AI. “You know what his name was, but you are fishing for Akio’s name for him.”
“Available,” the AI answered.
“Sometimes, for a wonderful friend you can be such a bitch.” Yuko huffed and started towards to the living quarters.
“Perhaps,” Eve admitted. But you aren’t thinking about Michael arriving right now, are you?
Antigrav Ship ArchAngel
Jacqueline grabbed Mark’s hand and held on tight as she shielded her eyes from the constant barrage of searing light.
“Stop it, Michael” she yelled for what had to be the hundredth time. She cried out in frustration and gave up, rolling into the crook of Mark’s arm. She sobbed into his chest. “He’s going to die!”
Mark couldn’t see anything just then; his irises were regenerating after he made the mistake of trying to watch what was happening without eye protection. With one hand clamped on the pirates’ skiff and the other arm holding Jacqueline, he had nothing left to cover the brightness.
Then his curiosity got the better of him, and he tried to blink quickly to catch just a small glimpse of what the Pinnacle of Vampires was doing; it burned his eyes out in a flash…literally.
He sure hoped nothing happened to the ship in the next few moments while his eyes healed.
Mark wasn’t sure if Michael would truly be killed, but he sincerely doubted it. Michael had yet to seem impulsive. Mad, angry, irritated, short of temper, impatient, infuriating, incensed, enraged and occasionally annoyed.
But never impulsive.
“He’s just having a good time,” Mark yelled back to Jacqueline, hoping he got close to where her ear was. Moments later he could see her outline, and he smiled.
An outline was better than sheer white.
“Well, for having a good time, he’s scaring the hell out of me!” she snapped back.
“C’mon Jacqueline, it isn’t every day you get to be in the center of a storm,” Mark replied, his voice calming as he realized that the claps of thunder and other sounds resulting from Michael’s efforts had dropped off. He looked around, his mouth opening when he saw huge gaps in the clouds and swaths of blue showing everywhere.
Mark saw Michael with his arms crossed like he was daring someone to do something. Mark smiled as he turned to see who Michael was looking at, and his smile faded.
He nudged Jacqueline “You need to turn around, J,” Mark urged. “We got more company.”
“What?” Jacqueline turned to see what Mark was talking about, the ringing in her ears annoying the shit out of her as they healed.
That’s when her mouth dropped open as well. “Mark, why is there a black spaceship facing off with Michael?”
“Fuck if I know,” Mark whispered. “But as badass as that ship looks, I’m still going with Team Michael.”
Jacqueline nodded her head, not noticing her subconscious effort to keep her body pressed against Mark’s.
---
Akio, long time, Michael sent.
Hai, Akio replied.
Is there something you need at the moment, or are you just planning on hanging out there off the side of the ship? More to the point, where is Bethany Anne?
She took the fight to the Kurtherians.
Michael pursed his lips. How long?
Over one hundred and fifty years ago, my Lord.
Michael raised an eyebrow. My Lord?
Akio’s smirked for a moment. It seemed appropriate, considering all of the power I just registered inbound to this ship. it doesn’t look damaged, though.
Michael saw that the vampire and the Werewolf were still clutching each other. “This is Akio, one of the Queen’s Bitches.” Michael walked towards the skiff that was locked to the deck the two youths weren’t holding onto. He yanked up the canopy, looked at the controls, and reached in to flip one of the switches.
Nothing.
He grimaced and looked a second time. He moved two switches to the left and pulled up on the red one as well, and felt the small magnetic connectors disconnect from the decking.
Michael called, “Mark, Jacqueline, come here!”
They pulled away from each other and jogged over to where Michael was squatting beside the small ship. He pointed Mark to the back and Jacqueline to the front.
“On three,” Michael told them. Both reached to grab a portion of the ship, then Michael spoke.
“Three!”
The three nanocyte-modified humans tossed the little ship into the air, easily missing the larger airship as they heaved it off the deck.
Mark watched it tumble out of sight. “Sure hope we don’t need that.”
Akio, come, Michael told him as he turned to the other two. “Akio needs to land, so let’s move away from this part of the deck.”
“Akio?” Mark asked.
“The Dark One?” Jacqueline demanded.
Michael raised an eyebrow to Jacqueline as she watched the silent ship turn in the air as it worked to settle on the deck.
Jacqueline and Mark carefully didn’t ask Michael how much it hurt for half of his face to be regenerating. She could see the white of bone on his skull and along the left side of his jaw as he talked.
Whatever Michael had just done, she imagined a large part of his body was being rebuilt; she for one was glad he hadn’t been killed.
But God, it just had to have hurt.
—
“Captain,” his first mate whispered as those on the bridge stood transfixed, watching the umpteenth strange occurrence in the last week float about the height of a man above the deck.
Captain Miles O’Banion turned to look at the screen, then glanced through the port window to see how the clouds were dispersing.
“Just consider it par for the course,” he answered.
“What?” The first mate turned to see the Captain gazing out the window. “No sir, look at the batteries, sir.”
Miles looked over to his right and raised his eyebrows in surprise. The banks of batteries were both in the green.
Miles reached over and hit the call switch. “Engineering?”
“Aye sir,” the male voice answered. “I thought you might be calling.”
“I am,” Miles replied. “The readout up here says we have enough power to make it to Europe.”
“We do, Captain.”
“Thank you.” Miles let go of the switch, then bent to press it again and asked, “How are those two we sent you working out?”
It took a moment before his answer came back. “I’m not sure how you got ‘em, but I aim to keep ‘em so keep your Captain hands off of ‘em, ok?”
Miles chuckled. “I’ll take that under advisement.”
He released the call button and started towards the hatch. “I’ll be back. I’ve got to see this up close.”
---
Michael waited patiently as the sleek black Pod kept pace with the antigrav ship and landed on the deck. He smirked to himself.
He could feel the muscles in his jaw knit back together as he waited for Akio to exit the Pod.
Jacqueline was having a hard time not staring at Michael’s body in fascination, and Mark was busy examining the black ship.
Mark had a choice between watching a human rebuilding himself from the atoms of the Universe, a hot girl standing right next to him, or a black ship with weapons. He chose the ship.
He was a geek for sure.
Michael’s face was completely healed by the time Akio jumped out of his ship, walked over and then bowed to him. Michael returned the gesture. He noticed Mark bowing too, and elbowing Jacqueline to follow suit.
“Akio,” Michael spoke.
“My Liege,” Akio replied, gaining a smirk from Michael.
“Still trying to figure out how to address me?” Michael asked the younger man as he turned to point to the two youngsters. “The one focused on the ship is Mark, and the one focused on you is Jacqueline.” Akio exchanged pleasantries with them both as Michael added, “The one coming out of the hatch in a second is this ship’s Captain, Miles O’Banion.”
Mark, Jacqueline and Akio turned as the door opened. Miles found three sets of eyes on him. Everyone’s except Michael.
The Captain took a moment to allow the door to close behind him, then continued towards them. “Sorry?”