Love Lost

by Michael Anderle

  They must have planted that information so she could remain underground. If they had, it certainly worked. He stopped any research on her a year ago himself.

  Unexpectedly, Adrian was told he needed to gather information from her previous manager in Washington D.C. Adrian had two men who had been with him for three years on this operation. They lived for the same reasons he did. However; these two humans inflicted atrocities on their own kind. Adrian never considered himself human. That person had died in 1737 and good riddance to him.

  They had cornered Martin Brennan. His guys enjoyed it as he tortured Martin Brennan. After only one false call, they had been able to catch him alone.

  During the interrogation, the man had tried to tell an ‘almost’ truth. Unfortunately for Martin, Adrian was very adept at telling the difference between truth and lies. He had started with Bethany Anne being dead to him. Maybe he was using the undercover work as a cloak to the truth. He had been telling the truth that he hadn’t spoken to her for a year.

  It was just a pity that failing to speak with her was insufficient to stop his pending death.

  Adrian wanted to take more time to enjoy the delicious pain Martin felt. He could sense his men’s enjoyment as he toyed with his prey. Adrian learned that the woman’s father was a General in the Army based in a state called Colorado.

  Adrian told Martin to call this Bethany Anne back from her operation or he would be killed. Martin had told Adrian to go fuck himself. That was when his anger got the best of him and he tore the man’s throat out.

  He had dropped the body in disgust. Both with himself for not controlling his anger and the human for being able to goad him so easily. The night wasn’t a complete bust; they had another name to use to get more information on this woman. It took almost 36 hours for their government contacts to find out that the General was scheduled to come to Washington D.C. for a military meeting.

  Adrian loved it when dinner came to him.

  Now, he was waiting a few blocks from the Generals hotel in a windowless van. It was well after sundown, he was at no risk from the sun. However; he didn’t want any video cameras to potentially capture what he looked like as they drove around at night. These cameras were a problem.

  He received a message on his cell phone that the General looked drunk and was heading for the alley shortcut back to his hotel.

  Excellent! Things couldn’t be going more right for him unless this Bethany Anne dropped into his lap. He stepped out of the van and started moving quickly to the alley, arriving before the General walked even a quarter of the way from the other side.

  Dinner was served.

  He got within twenty feet of the General before the man stopped and looked up, seeming a little surprised to find another in the alley with him. Bethany Anne’s father asked him, “How’s it going?”

  Adrian smiled, a polite meal - how delightful. “Oh, very good my friend, very good. Out for a stroll this evening?”

  “Well, actually I needed to pee. Seems the beer went through me a little too fast. You just surprised me. Forgive an old man for his impractical ways.”

  Adrian sniffed. What horrible manners this American had. Oh well, he would have to reprimand him for that before he killed him. Another reason to break more bones only increased his happiness.

  Adrian walked up to the General, “Oh, my good sir. I’m afraid your time to be forgiven is long past.”

  Killian got the click in his ear. He had sighted in on the Vampire as soon as he registered in his scope. He was a good looking guy and well dressed. Not in your typical vampire style, more New European from France. It didn’t matter, when he got the click in his ear he waited for the time between his heartbeat and stroked the trigger like he was petting a tiny animal.

  The Beretta slammed against his arm.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Adrian smiled at the alarm on the Generals face. He did seem to be burning off his alcohol haze quickly. Good, he hated when his food was drugged.

  The next second, his right arm was blown completely off and he was laying on the ground, blood pooling as it left him. His eyes turned red, his teeth slid out. He needed blood and he knew the closest source. He would grab the general, drink and then grab his arm and hold it there so his body could slowly re-attach it.

  When he turned around and stood up, there was a woman in front of the General. Where did she come from? He sniffed; it was a similar smell as the man. Ah! This was Bethany Anne. A feral smile showed on his face. She had figured out the trouble and had used her old man as bait. Very cagey for a human. Tough luck she wasn’t playing against a human.

  He looked at her straight in the eyes. She locked her eyes to his. “You will step aside while I feed from your father, I’ll deal with you next.” She didn’t move away.

  Bethany Anne looked at Adrian like he was a bug to step on. “Motherfucking cock-sucking ass-kissing bitch, I’ll do no such thing.” She let her robe drop. She was dressed like a military spec-operative. She had twin pistols and a sword on her back.

  Adrian stood for a second. No human had ever resisted his mental command. He ground out again, “You will…”

  That’s when she planted the sword from her back into his left pectoral and he felt himself get slammed into the concrete. It happened so fast that even his supernatural vampiric senses were having trouble keeping up. This blood loss must really be messing him up. He looked up and hissed through his teeth.

  She hissed back and her eyes were glowing red. Her teeth were longer than his. She had the sword stuck in the ground enough he couldn’t move without cutting a huge chunk of his arm off.

  Adrian knew fear for the first time in decades. Now he realized he had been played the whole time. Michael wasn’t dead, he had created another vampire himself and she was massively stronger than he was.

  She pulled a pistol out of a holster, the general spoke from behind her.

  “You know that will bring the police a little sooner, right?

  The pistol dropped back into the holster, Adrian felt a little relief. She yanked the sword out of his arm and stabbed him in both legs and cut his abdomen open. The sword slammed back into this shoulder again. He screamed in pain but her hand was over his mouth.

  “Don’t be a whiny bitch, you retarded cock stain. What is your name?”

  He gasped out, “Adrian.”

  Adrian would have tried to get away, but she had broken both of his legs when she stabbed him. He was weak from blood loss and there wasn’t a chance he could overpower this vampire. It looks like he had outplayed his hand. He really hated to be told he was whining. It kept him quiet for a minute. He heard multiple people coming down the alley. He could smell his guys, so she had even more help. She continued to look at him as she talked to the others, “Report.”

  A voice came from behind her, “Dan says Killian is clear. The Generals room is clean and we have the keys and the description of their van, it should be a couple of blocks away. We can use that for the bodies.” One of the other guys whimpered at that comment. Three humans came into view. A woman, a huge white man and a werewolf? What was the werewolf doing with them?

  The woman asked Bethany Anne, “This is the one that killed your friend?” Bethany Anne nodded her head yes. Of course, she could smell him back at the place he killed Martin. The human female kneeled down next to his chest. “This must hurt like a bitch, yes?” She had an Eastern European accent. He was getting angry. He could handle his treatment from Bethany Anne, but this cattle was beneath him.

  “You fucking cunt, if this sword wasn’t in me I would drain you dry.” He watched as she put a hand up and the large white man pulled a huge knife off of his chest and handed it to her. She quickly stabbed one of his eyes and he screamed in pain, trying to move his head away from this crazy fucking European.

  “Bah! This is no challenge, even Petre’ didn’t scream like this one when I took care of him. You will be respectful, little whiny bitch, my mistress does not appreciate foul lan
guage.”

  Adrian was shocked. Not only was his eye still in excruciating pain, but she admitted to capturing the vampire over in Romania. She stood up and looked down at him, “What? You thought my mistress kept me around because I look nice. No, I earned my way into this group by outsmarting vampires,” she looked at the other guy, “and werewolves. Who do you think came up with the plan to shoot off your arm?” She wiped the liquid on his clothes and handed the knife back to the big man with a ‘thank you.’

  John looked over at Bethany Anne, “I could do this all night, but we should probably clear out. What do you want to do with these two?” He pointed a thumb back at the two henchmen.

  She smiled, “I don’t need them for anything, and poor Adrian needs a little energy. Do you know of any volunteers?” The two men started whimpering. John spoke into a mic, “Wrap it up, back to the plane.” He grabbed the missing arm on the way out of the alley.

  Adrian’s two henchmen were found dead later that morning. No marks on their bodies. Two days later, the coroner report said that both smelled of alcohol, but no alcohol was found in their bloodstream. Both, however; suffered from not having enough blood in their systems to live.

  Flying to Miami, FL - USA

  The team, including Frank and Killian but without Darryl and Scott, flew back to Miami, Fl. Her Father now had a few extra days in Washington D.C to say goodbye to some friends that he might want to contact in the future, and finish out the political game for his retirement. Bethany Anne felt confident that Adrian was the main Forsaken here in the United States.

  Darryl and Scott were tasked with keeping tabs on the new CEO to be. Bobcat had scheduled William to go through the plane for one day and then button her back up for a trip back to Washington. If it still looked like the General wanted to stay a little while longer, Bobcat would grant William authorization to work on the plane in twelve hour increments.

  Adrian did not provide his maker’s name, yet. However; she felt that a trip to the Everglades early next morning would be a very educational opportunity. The team had learned from her discussions with Petre’. A vampire had to have a belief that it could live. She would call Stephen when they landed to find out more.

  Ecaterina had talked with Ivan for a few minutes on the way to the airport. Ivan was apparently having a blast and it looked like he and Stephen had a bromance. Bethany Anne had to agree that he was a fun guy and she hoped Ivan didn’t ruin Stephen for her.

  She snorted, here she was worrying whether a human in his twenties was going to ruin a vampire in his centuries. How messed up was that?

  She wished she had Stephen with her at the moment. Without a vicious reputation, she kept having to do things the hard way.

  Mind you, Adrian was going to die. He had killed Martin Brennan and that was a death sentence. That he had enjoyed it only added substantially to the torture during his expiration. She considered her options as she stared out of the window at the rising sun. Adrian had gone to sleep after he drank from his cronies. She felt it a fitting resolution to their end. Work with vampire, die by vampire.

  Good thing she wasn’t one. She snorted at that again. She prayed that wasn’t an omen for her team.

  Not one of them, even her father, had lifted so much as an eyebrow when she gave the command that allowed Adrian to kill those men so that he could live. They packed up and decided to just leave the van where it was. No use putting their DNA in it.

  She decided to see if TOM had any ideas.

  TOM, is there a way to bring about assured death with significant pain to Adrian? There are bonus points for anything that helps provide me a reputation in the Vampire community.

  I thought you already were getting a reputation in the vampire community? No community to speak of here in the United States, but you are known in various circles in Europe.

  So, I should get a T-Shirt that says ‘I’m big in Romania’?

  She got a feeling of sneezing in her spinal cord. She guessed that meant TOM was laughing. That was a new and odd sensation.

  If you want, I suppose you can.

  Yeah, but Adrian is from South America. I’m not ready to dive into that ‘pit of scum and villainy’ just yet.

  Why not send him?

  Who, Adrian? I want him dead. I can’t let him go back South even to spread stories about me.

  What if we reprogram his nanocytes to slowly stop working. He will age rapidly and then die a horrible death.

  Really? A vampire version of the wasting disease? What happens if he drinks more blood?

  Well, with reprogrammed nanocytes, each time he receives more energy, they would work that much faster to… What is your favorite saying here? ‘Fuck him up’? Yup, that would do it.

  How deliciously ironic that would be. If he doesn’t drink, he dies. If he drinks, he dies faster. The whole time he is talking about me. TOM, you just got moved from the couch to your own room.

  TOM was pleased at that comment. He and Bethany Anne had a very rocky start to their relationship since he had jumped aboard her body without permission. She hadn’t taken the intrusion very well at all. While he certainly couldn’t go anywhere, he could tell how she felt about him by where she ‘allowed him to sleep’. So far, there was the dog-house and the couch. Now she was offering him his own room.

  Do I get a furniture allowance?

  You get a sleeping bag, don’t push it.

  Damn.

  What do we need to do to prepare this nanocyte reprogramming effort?

  Well, like most of my nanocyte concoctions, we are going to start with a bag of blood and a syringe of your blood after I modify their core stage programming.

  How are you changing the programming when the blood is in the syringe?

  I’m not, I’m changing the nanocytes in your body. Before you stick me back on the couch, I’ll put in place a set of instructions to automatically reject any change in programming that is detrimental to you. They will be coded to your DNA and attack any nanocytes which are in your system which your nanocytes don’t recognize.

  Kind of like white-blood cells. Ok. You can have a cot in your bedroom too.

  Great, TOM thought, at this rate he would have his own house within five years. He got busy making the programming changes using the Kurtherian computer in Bethany Anne’s head. It would take at least twelve hours for enough of her nanocytes to have their programming changed before he would suggest they pull her blood. That would provide enough mutated nanocytes in the syringe to infect Adrian.

  For a Kurtherian, he mused, he was becoming pretty blood thirsty hanging around Bethany Anne.

  Miami, FL - USA

  The team had three SUV’s waiting for them back in Miami. One was for the crew’s equipment including Killian’s new toys. Bethany Anne had said hello to the sniper when getting on the plane. Killian had respectfully nodded and said hello back. He had been wearing his necklace on the outside of his shirt until he knew she had seen it. Then he had placed it inside his shirt.

  He had done well. That shot had been the linch-pin in Ecaterina’s plan. The General was the bait, she always started with the bait, and then there was a moment he was totally focused on his pain to allow Bethany Anne to get in place. Ecaterina had figured that once the vampire got off the ground again he wouldn’t place too much consideration on how a human got in front of the General so fast.

  It had worked wonderfully.

  The team already knew Killian, so that wasn’t a problem and Killian already knew about the Forsaken. On the plane Dan had gone over the core information related to the new structure of the group. Killian had decided to join under a six month probationary period. Every member of Dan’s group, which included TQB, had an option to force a vote to kick him off. While that wasn’t a big deal to Killian, when Dan took him aside and let him know that if he was kicked off, he would be mind-wiped back to before he knew about anything related to the Forsaken he was shaken a bit. The reputation of his mouth had certainly caught up to him.
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  He had to think about that for a little while before agreeing. He had a couple of years on the team before this latest op and while he had some good times, there wasn’t anything there that he would miss too much if he was forced to forget it. Realizing that he was just living a life, not making a life, he decided to join something bigger than himself. If he couldn’t command his own tongue, he deserved the punishment.

  He had decided during the operation that he was going to change. Well, this decision put paid to the reality that he would change or else he wouldn’t remember any of these people. That one agreement to Dan’s condition helped smooth the rough feathers of the team towards him. All of them knew the old Killian would have just been glib about the whole situation. This Killian had seemed to have considered the ramifications and acted like an adult.

  John had stuck out his hand and looked at him square in the eye, “Welcome to Team Queen Bitch, Aeternitatem.”

  Killian had grasped hand in a shake that would cement his future and it was special. “What is ‘Aeternitatem’?”

  John looked at him and smiled, “For Eternity.”

  Killian looked into Eric and Dan’s eyes and saw the agreement and determination in both of them. Should anyone have been able to watch Killian’s face at that moment, they would have been able to see the same change in his own demeanor. He wasn’t personally a religious man, however; you wouldn’t have been able to tell that by looking at his face at that moment. Whether it was belief, acceptance or determination of a man who understood that he had done wrong, who is to say?

  The Killian that had walked onto the plane in Washington was not the same Killian who got off in Miami.