“Ok,” Mark agreed as Jacqueline reached the main hatch going out to the deck, his voice coming from right behind her.
So damned seductive.
“But if I win, you have to give me a back massage!”
“Guys!” she huffed aloud. “Ok, fine. But you better find the polish, too.”
“Deal!” Mark answered gladly.
Akio turned from the Pod to see the outside hatch open and Jacqueline walk through first, the look of a cunning strategist who had just checkmated her opponent written clearly on her face.
Akio breathed in, then released it.
That poor guy seemed so outclassed.
Japan
“Yes, Akio,” Yuko answered Akio’s question over the video feed. “Eve has reviewed all of the locations. I’ve tried to pin down the major forces: size and where they are located. The extra protection suits are on their way, and I’ll be there later.”
“You?” Akio answered, surprised.
“And me!” Eve answered from beside Yuko.
Akio, never known for expressions, lost his composure. He stopped talking for a moment, then bowed his head in their direction. “For our Queen.”
Both Yuko and Eve bowed back.
Antigrav Ship Michael the ArchAngel Returns
The black Pod lifted gracefully off the airship and turned east. It didn’t stay at the same height as the blimpy-looking ship, but rose higher into the sky and disappeared. Those on the ship watched it go, and Miles O’Banion stayed quiet a moment.
It was a strange family, and they had arrived by a strange method. Their actions had been stranger yet during the time they were aboard, from their banter to their support and honorable ways. There would be no one beyond his crew who would believe the story should he or his shipmates tell it.
First they would have to believe that Miles wasn’t out of his damned mind when he started the story with, “I met an honorable vampire…”
---
As they stored the luggage in locations that Jacqueline didn’t realize were available, she clenched her teeth.
It was obvious that the three of them would not be able to share the one back seat in the craft.
Mark was walking around the Pod, his hands gliding over the wings. The two wings could separate, Akio had told Mark.
“For stability reasons?” Mark had asked the Japanese man.
“No.” He replied.
He looked up. “More weapons?”
Akio shrugged. “Perhaps, but I doubt it. The people that built it just happened to like the ship design, and when they could make this one, I believe they did it just because they thought it was, well, ‘so fucking cool’ is how Bobcat and William said it.”
Mark stopped. “Wait, they designed this ship this way because it was cool?”
Akio nodded. “Yes. These ships don’t really require a specific shape. We had big rectangular boxes that went to the moon. This is built like an x-wing fighter from a famous movie a long time ago.”
Mark looked back at Akio with no recognition on his face.
“Hai, I see that I am going to be able to introduce to you the great film Star Wars,” Akio told him as the canopy rose. “In my time, it was considered the same as great literature.”
Michael raised his eyebrow as he turned towards the two men. Great literature?
Hai, many of us in Japan watched it multiple times. Akio answered.
I do learn something amazing every day.
What is best, Akio admitted, is we have all of the movies, even those I would not wish my enemy to have to watch.
The Phantom Menace?
This time Akio was shocked silent.
I was awake in the late nineties, Akio.
France, Near Paris
The land was dark as the silent black craft drifted down through the clouds to land outside of Paris.
The canopy opened as the ship stopped to hover a foot above the ground. Michael left as Myst from the ship and a second later the other three appeared next to it.
Jacqueline sniffed the air. “Not smelling particularly good right now,” she told no one in particular. She left to walk up a small hill about a hundred yards away to view the city remains in the distance. There were lights in some places, and the occasional noise drifted on the wind.
Mark unclasped the door that held their stuff. “Stop,” Akio interrupted and Mark looked up, confused.
Akio pointed to the city. “We will leave the gear in the ship for safety.”
Mark looked up into the sky. “Yes, up in the air will be safe.” Akio nodded his head.
“Mark,” Michael tilted his head toward Jacqueline. “Safety in numbers.” Mark nodded and started off at a jog to where Jacqueline was standing looking around.
Akio put a hand to his ear and then turned to the southwest. “Eve says we have company coming this way.”
Michael sighed. “This area is much more alert than America.”
Akio shook his head, his hand still on his ear. “She says it looks like one person in front, being chased by at least twelve more. Speed normal for a human, but those in the rear have elevated heat levels.”
Michael turned to the southeast. “Ah, exercise then.” He reached into the ship and pulled out his weapons.
Children, come, he commanded, then smirked when he heard Jacqueline’s exclamation from the other side of the hill. Her irritation at being called a child didn’t stop her from obeying, however.
Mark didn’t care one way or another.
Jacqueline’s annoyance, written in big bold letters on her face, changed to curiosity and then excitement as Michael tossed her staff to her and a sword to Mark. Michael pointed towards the southwest. “There is someone being chased. Perhaps human followed by Were. Ascertain the situation and react appropriately.” This time there was nothing but respect as both bowed low.
“Yes, Sensei.” Jacqueline and Mark turned and started trotting off in the direction Michael had pointed.
“They are good enough for twelve?” Akio asked, no judgment in his question.
Michael slid his coat on, then placed his Jean Dukes in their holsters. “Maybe, maybe not. However, they are out of practice. Let us watch them fighting and figure out where they lack in skills.
A moment later the black craft’s canopy closed and it rose into the darkness, Michael and Akio having left quickly and silently in the same direction as the other two.
---
“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!” Sabine ran swiftly, exclaiming between breaths as she made her way towards Paris. She had been walking towards the north when she had encountered the small group of people, and tried to come up to their fire.
Until she recognized what was being cooked. Then she had tried to back away, but was unsuccessful.
As soon as the ears, and then heads, swiveled in her direction, she took off. So far, the cat calls from those behind her, and the occasional wolf’s howl, let her know that her pursuers were still following.
Playing with her.
Fuck them, she thought. She could run all damned night if they wanted to keep playing. She wasn’t going to quit. They would have to deal with it and force her to go to ground.
That was when she noticed two people in front of her, coming in her direction.
“Oh my god, oh my god, oh-my-what-the-fucking-shit-is-this?” she gasped as she kept running.
She knew what those behind her would do, and she wasn’t too keen on being cooked over a flame herself. Perhaps the worst the people ahead of her would do was kill her, but perhaps they might not.
Either way, she kept her legs pumping.
As they came closer, she noticed they had peeled to her left and right and slowed down. Both had weapons, and they had left a space for her to run between them.
So she did.
She sped right through them, yelling, “Run!” She was a good twenty paces away when she glanced back to see that both had stayed in place. “Goddammit!” She hissed and slowed he
r pace. Finally, she bent over, spitting on the ground with what little saliva she could muster. She straightened up and walked to keep her muscles loose, all the time watching the two newcomers. “I almost did it.” She spat again. “Fuck it, I’ll slit my own throat.” She pulled a knife and was about to jog back to them when she was surprised by another two men who seemed to appear out of the night.
“Put that away,” one told her in an Asian-accented voice.
“Watch and learn, little one.” said the other. The tall bald man’s coat flapped in the breeze as the moonlight reflected off his skull.
---
“More meat!” Kiandra croaked.
Her pack of twelve growled in their throats when they saw the new two people in front of them. “Seis! Change and grab the girl.”
Seis and his mate stopped and stripped, morphing into their wolf forms before they quickly caught up to and then overtook the pack. They worked to get around the two newcomers, who had turned to see the original quarry being protected by two more men, each with a sword.
Seis howled to let the pack know there was trouble ahead.
Michael moved his sword to his left hand. “One moment, Akio.”
Akio looked over to watch Michael pull his coat back and raise his pistol to check the power level. “Seven should be sufficient to slow them down.” Michael said, then casually shot both wolves in the head.
Both heads exploded like dropped melons, the bodies flopping end over end in the dirt.
Michael returned the pistol to his holster. “I didn’t want to get more blood on me.”
---
“I’m guessing,” Mark said as he turned back from watching Michael kill the two wolves, “that Michael has ascertained these are bad people and killing them is an appropriate response.”
“Seems like a fair assumption,” Jacqueline agreed. “It’s like being told there’s a pop quiz or something, then being provided the answers by the teacher.
“That would have been nice.”
“Ok, I’m going to go for double or nothing,” Jacqueline told Mark. “I bet I can take out more than you can and if not, I’ll double the massage time.”
“I don’t remember there being a set amount of time in the first place,” he replied.
“It was five seconds, since you weren’t smart enough to confirm before the bet was placed.”
“Gott Verdammt,” Mark hissed. “What are you anyway, a lawyer?”
“Worse,” she replied, her eyes going yellow. “Competitive.”
Then she took off running towards the ten in front of them. “You fucking cheater,” Mark groused, then smiled. “I like that in my women.”
He dashed after her. If he won this bet, that made ten seconds. Then twenty, forty and more than a minute.
He wondered how many of these bets he could win in a row.
---
The pack slowed down as the two came at them; four started stripping, two burst out of their clothes and four more pulled their weapons.
It was going to be a free-for-all. Ten against two.
---
“She seems anxious to get started,” Akio opined.
“Oh, she’s just trying to get into Mark’s pants.” Michael admitted.
“She is trying to get into his pants?” Akio asked. Michael thought it was humorous that Akio found this surprising.
“Yes, he is a geek and won’t figure out she likes him until she knocks him upside the head with a large wooden stick.” Michael replied. “Well, larger,” he admitted, “than what she is using at the moment.”
“Do we need to get closer?” Akio asked.
“No, these pistols will hit them from here. I want to see how they do together. This should be interesting.”
Akio looked sideways at Michael, not sure if the ancient vampire was joking or serious.
CHAPTER NINE
Mark was getting pissed.
Seriously pissed.
He could read enough emotions to understand that the woman behind them had been running for her life ahead of this pack. She probably didn’t expect to stay ahead of the pack forever, but that wasn’t going to stop her from trying. Then, in an act of divine providence, she had run into the ArchAngel himself.
Who had told Jacqueline and him to take care of it. He looked at the four humans and six wolves coming at them, and thought about his own recent past.
His hiding who he was, his feeling of loss when the sister he had been trying to nurse back to health had turned on him even though he hadn’t touched her.
He had needed her blood to survive, but he had sat by her bed and fed her the soup he had heated up so she could survive.
Fighting the temptation to drink from her as he helped her back to health.
He still remembered those men in the alley, the Enforcers, who had planned to either kill him or strap him down for his blood.
Trapped.
Trapped like this woman, running from those more powerful than her. His growl caused Jacqueline, who was next to him, to glance over in surprise.
She did a doubletake when she saw how red his eyes were and that his teeth had grown.
“Oh, fuck,” she murmured.
She barely started to yell to Mark to fight with her when he ran towards the ten creatures. She took off after him. “Marrrk!” she screamed trying to catch up. “You fucking lunatic!”
Mark slammed into the first, a female Were whose eyes glowed yellow. Her mouth stretched and teeth elongating as well, for all the good it did.
He grabbed her head and twisted, slinging the body one way; her skull was still in his hands before he threw it at another attacker. His left-handed punch crushed the second human’s face in.
Then a new wolf grabbed his right leg in its teeth and tried to rip it off.
Mark reached down and squeezed the wolf’s skull. A small yip was all it got out before it popped. Another wolf jumped into the fray, running at full speed to hit Mark in the chest and knock him over. That was when Jacqueline arrived.
“There are no bitches here!” Jacqueline screamed as she shoved her staff through the skull of the second wolf. “Stop laying down on the job Mark and let’s kick some more ass!” she grated, kicking a human in the stomach as she parried a knife slash from her left.
The arm that held the knife disappeared when Mark’s sword cleaved it off. “I’ll have you know,” he replied, “I was just waiting for you to show up, seeing as how you seemed to be admiring all the guys without shirts.”
The two of them moved in to fight back to back. “What of it?” she asked. “I noticed you looking at the tits on the girl in the bridge who was ready to ...” She stopped talking when one of the humans and two of the wolves hit Mark behind her.
—
“Oh, this is about to get really bloody.” Michael commented, watching as the human got a knife into Mark.
“Why?” Akio asked.
“Because she is about to find out just how much of her father she really has in her.” Michael answered, “I hope the love that she feels is able to protect her from the curse.”
Akio turned back to watch the battle, realizing what he was about to witness.
—
“Marrrk!” Jacqueline screamed as her staff slammed into one of the wolves taking down her friend.
Her…
“You darrrre too touccchhh hhhim?” The guttural voice erupted from her chest as she grew. Her clothes ripping, the woman was replaced by a seven-foot-tall Pricolici. The eyes, yellow with a tinge of red around the edges, announced the death of all who would hurt her Mark.
Her Chosen.
Her Mate.
The male who had stabbed Mark stared in horror as Jacqueline grabbed his arm. He flew over her head as she pulled him hard.
But like Mark before her, she kept the arm for herself and used it to beat off a wolf that had chosen to attack from her right.
Two wolves chose to flee, turning around to head back where they came from.
&n
bsp; Neither had taken ten steps before their heads exploded in mist, bodies dropping to the ground.
—
Mark looked up in a haze of pain to see the change come over Jacqueline and hear her scream as she announced her proclamation to protect…
Him.
Him!
Never! he promised himself as feelings just about overcame him. Never would another asshat hurt this woman without him by her side. He had turned over on his stomach to get up and back into the fight when her foot shoved him down.
Gently, but firmly.
“I’llll talllk too yoouu innn a mmmooommment,” she ground out as she worked on the last human still fighting her. He looked up in time to see the claws on Jacqueline’s right hand enter the female’s chest and rip out her ribs. Then Jacqueline’s left hand grabbed the screaming woman and her right shoved back into the chest cavity. Before ripping the Were’s heart out as she announced, “Yyouuu wonnn’t bee neeeeding thiisss annyyymoorre.”
The look of horror on the woman’s face was complete as she realized that her heart was held in Jacqueline’s claws. She dropped to the ground. Jacqueline tossed the bloody heart on top of her and spit on the female. “Bitccch, he’s minnne.”
Both gazed around to make sure that everyone was dead before Mark looked up at Jacqueline, who had finally removed her foot. He smiled with his arms open and inviting her to embrace him. “Hey, sweetheart!”
---
Some distance away, Michael finished holstering his pistol, then turned away from the two towards the woman they had saved. “So,” he said as he and Akio walked towards her. “Why don’t we leave them alone for a little while and get your story, shall we?”
The girl looked at the two men near her and the half-wolf, half-woman in the distance. Her eyes rolled up in her head and she started to collapse into a heap.
“No,” Michael told the comatose girl as he jumped forward and caught her before she landed on the ground. “We can’t have you hurt yourself while fainting, now.”
—
Mark played with Jacqueline’s hair. “You know, we should probably find a place to get this blood off you. It’s going to be sticky.”
The Darkest Night (The Second Dark Ages Book 2) Page 6