CONTENTS
Dedication
Legal
Social Links
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Author's Note
To Family, Friends and
Those Who Love
To Read.
May We All Enjoy Grace
To Live The Life We Are
Called.
DO YOU HAVE A PREVIOUS VERSION?
I will have the edit history (editing and story additions / corrections) on the books Amazon page (so you can always tell). Unfortunately, Amazon doesn’t automatically download the latest version, you have to delete and re-download yourself.
EDIT HISTORY:
Release 1.0 : 11/11/2015
Version 1.1: 11/28/2015
Version 1.2: 12/17/2015 (Edited by James Coyle)
This book is a work of fiction, All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.
Copyright (c) 2015 Michael T. Anderle
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
Cover art by Michael T. Anderle
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Michael Anderle - Nov 11, 2015.
CHAPTER ONE
Brasov, Romania
Bethany Anne was waiting for Ecaterina and Nathan to give her the most important information she needed to focus on for the next day.
Where could she go shopping?
In the last eight months, she had been expecting to die, been introduced to a vampire, been subjugated to genetic changes to her body and had to eat people.
Granted, most of that time she was asleep. While she was asleep her alien symbiont was making changes to her body. But one had to admit that the rest of it was pretty damn disturbing and she was seriously in the need of some shopping therapy. Especially a good pair of shoes, well maybe not. Having grown 4-5”, her old effort to use high heels to accentuate legs that were just too short was not a problem for her anymore.
She could hear both Ecaterina with her exotic and sexy Romanian accent and Nathan talking. His good looks officially off the market if Ecaterina didn’t screw up. He was drawn to her like a moth to flame. This time, however; she was interested in him just as much and her normal self assurance had apparently been left behind. She was constantly doubting herself and worrying whether Nathan had any interest in her. Her self doubt was blocking the obvious.
Not Bethany Anne’s problem right now. She had a need to be dressed in anything but the ill-fitting rags she was presently wearing.
If you had asked most any man in Brasov, or the world for that matter, Bethany Anne was a knockout. Black hair and a stellar, lithe body would have most guys working hard to not look at her. They would be able to feel their wife’s and girlfriends eyes watching them like a hawk.
Both of the guys in the room with her right now, however; had seen her when she wasn’t her best. Mind you, this wasn’t a ‘bad hair day’ kind of not her best. But rather, it was a red eyes, fangs in her mouth, blood all over her face and hands as she killed supernatural wolves and drank their blood kind of bad day. It was a cock-blocker for both Alexi and Nathan. As well it should be for any non-sociopathic males.
She had been helping both Alexi and Nathan overcome a serious difference of opinion with a local werewolf pack under the command of the late and certainly unlamented Algerian. Algerian had received his marching orders from the vampire Petre’. Petre’ made the mistake of paying attention to Ecaterina’s ample cleavage instead of the bear-trap that crushed his leg when trying to make his sneaky escape.
Having heard the screaming and a sudden thud, Bethany Anne was worried about the spunky woman when she erupted out of the tunnel only to find Petre’ laid out on the ground, foot in the trap and Ecaterina buttoning up her shirt. That had made Bethany Anne’s day.
Ecaterina, in her present state of self-doubt, was worried that Nathan (who was the most cautious Were in the world when it came to being careful around vampires) would succumb to Bethany Anne.
Ecaterina shouldn’t have been worried. A boyfriend was the last thing on Bethany Anne’s mind at the moment. She didn’t have time for a boyfriend or even a friendly boy for that matter.
What Bethany Anne wanted was a solid pair of Christian Louboutin’s in the worst way. She needed to feel like a woman for a while. Her abilities not withstanding, she was more accustomed to projecting confidence behind the armor of a Coach purse, a pair of Christian Louboutin’s and a tailored suit. None of which should have blood stains on them. Something she couldn’t say for most of the clothes she had been wearing for the past few days.
If they didn’t hurry up and let her know what they were finding, she was going to start walking towards the center of town and pity the person who interrupted her therapy efforts. It didn’t help that she couldn’t understand or read Romanian and Nathan had decided he needed to ‘brush up on his Romanian speaking skills’ around Ecaterina.
Kiss-Ass, she thought.
Switching to English, Nathan got her attention and closed the laptop they had been using. “Ok, we think you should start at the Coresi Shopping Mall on the Northeast side of town and you can get yourself presentable with the higher-end stores. From there, you will present a, uhh…” At this point, Nathan got the look on his face that suggested his sense of self preservation had just kicked in. He ate whatever his next comment might have been and looked up at Ecaterina who had been standing behind him as he sat at the table.
Bethany Anne thought it was hilarious. According to Nathan, all of the other vampires in the world were hard-asses about comments that could be taken the wrong way. She didn’t feel she was that bad. Mind you, she still had a horrible temper and she was known to have kicked a few guys’ asses, or their twins. But she didn’t have the predilection to immediately just kill the offending person that Nathan assumed she had being a vampire.
He was such a good looking and dangerous man himself, that she couldn’t get over how very circumspect he became around her at times. Fortunately, he had broken through this conditioning occasionally. Michael, her ‘boss’ in a way, had spent a thousand years making sure that she followed his strictures on pain of death.
Michael, on the other hand, had disappeared. She wasn’t sure if that was due to enemy action or pre-arranged duplicity on his part to l
eave her to clean up his mess. If it was the former, then that was a pretty significant ‘tell’ that she was in over her head by a significantly large amount. He had a thousand years of experience and from what she could tell was the baddest ass for a group of bad-asses that had hardened military men feel the need to get religion when they came around. Dangerous men know dangerous enemies.
This led her to conclude there was a very good chance he was still around. Where, she had no idea. She hoped and prayed that it was trying to find out more about a serum which helped create intelligent Nosferatu. If the Forsaken, the splinter group of Michael’s Family which believes that humans should be a subjugated race and probably a cattle call, truly had a workable serum then they had potentially billions of easily created fodder for their army.
Since she knew nothing for sure, she couldn’t accidentally give anything away.
She had originally been created to take the place of Bill, a vampire who had been killed in an ambush in Virginia a little less than a year ago. She figured that getting back in contact with the government agent who was the liaison with Bill and see what, if any, operations needed her skills was a necessary step.
She also needed to talk with Stephen. He was one of Michael’s immediate children and lived on the other side of the Carpathian Mountains. He was the parent of Petre’, who she had killed and was still getting his imaginary dust out of her hair.
Nathan had wanted her to go get permission before she took out Petre’, but she decided that introducing herself to the UnknownWorld in a stricture bending fashion was required to get the respect that was necessary to move forward activities even Michael didn’t know needed to occur.
Activities that included eventually getting the World to prepare for a possible inter-galactic war.
But, before that happened she was going to get a nice pair of high-heels.
Washington D.C., USA
The phone rang two times before Frank Kurns, the liaison between the UnknownWorld and the Government picked it up. “This is Frank.” His rough voice, a little weak after almost a hundred years of living, wouldn’t win any Tony awards.
He was in his office, down below the ground under an old government building in Washington D.C. It worked out well for him and those he might have to meet who wanted to remain anonymous or out of the sun. There were two old tunnels which he could access from his level. One of the access ways was left over from World War II and one he had built in the 70’s. That access way didn’t show up on any plans for the building, historical or not.
The voice on the other end of the line was a mellow, deep male baritone. “Good evening, Frank. It’s Gerry.” Gerry was the lead of the American Pack Council and the Alpha of the New York Pack, Nathan’s direct Alpha.
“Good evening, Gerry. I had expected a contact from you for the last few days. How can I help you?” Since Frank had asked a favor of Nathan, Gerry’s second, a week and a half ago he had expected to hear from Gerry when Nathan failed to contact Frank for the last couple of days.
“I’ve got an update, if you can make heads or tails from it, and a concern.”
“Let’s hear both.” Frank got comfortable in his chair, this might take a while.
“First, the update. Not sure it makes a lot of sense to me, but my second sent me an email by a third party I’m not that familiar with. Says to let you know the lady was found, she was fully grown and no dad in sight. I’m going out on a limb here and assuming this has to do with Michael?”
“Yes, yes it does. I assume the fully grown part means that the woman is a vampire now. That isn’t going to set well with her Dad necessarily, but the other option would be she was dead. I’ll have to find out a way to make sure he at least knows she didn’t die. Although I do wonder why he didn’t pass this on to me himself.”
Nathan barked a little laugh on the end of the line. “Frank, you know Nathan. He is going to be pretty circumspect about anything he does around a vampire, even a young one that might not be all that strong. He would be concerned ‘daddy’ would show up.
Although, I’m not so sure she is weak. Nathan’s one of the most careful guys in my pack. That confirms my thinking. He must be with the vampire if he didn’t call you directly. I imagine she doesn’t want to talk with you yet.”
“Then why did he get a hold of you and why isn’t he concerned about updating you?”
“Well, I suspect she didn’t absolutely forbid communicating with me. He has a responsibility to try to keep me in the loop and through me, you. Why she isn’t communicating with you would be a question I have. Do you know much about this new vamp?”
Frank considered his responses. Right now, he needed backing any way he could get it. He had more operations going pear shaped because there wasn’t an operative of Bill’s capabilities he could rely on. He had lost over twenty-two men in seventeen raids, all of them black, because he didn’t have access to one of Michael’s Family to help him out.
Since Michael and Carl had disappeared, he had no way to contact and coerce any of Michael’s Family to help. Michael was the only vampire based here in North America that helped on this continent. There were some vampires in South America, but that was a Forsaken zone and Frank never connected with them. They would certainly be ones to bite the hands that fed them. Well, the hands, arms, necks and so on.
Frank answered Gerry’s question. “Yes. Her name is Bethany Anne Reynolds and she is, or was, an operative in a semi-black agency based here in Washington D.C. I’m not sure I have all of the particulars about how long it takes to convert someone to a vampire, but I didn’t think it took more than a week, maybe two. Certainly nothing longer than a month and she has been missing for over seven months. What did you mean earlier about not so sure she is weak? I’m pretty sure that Michael took care of her conversion. That should just about assure she is going to be pretty strong.”
There was a pause on the line. Gerry spoke, drawing out his word as he was finishing his thought, “Weeellll, that would make sense. Rumor has it that the Bravos pack in Romania where Nathan went has suffered several highly placed member deaths. Nathan didn’t say he was in the hospital and while I wouldn’t want to take Nathan on, I feel pretty confident that he didn’t take out the seven Weres that have been rumored to be dead right now. Oh, and one vampire.”
“What!” Frank was astonished at this information. He knew that given the right situations, Nathan Lowell certainly could have taken out seven pack members. So long as he didn’t have to fight them all at once. Frank would bet against any one or two Weres taking Nathan down by themselves. But, he highly doubted Nathan killed seven Weres and a vampire. One, his operation wasn’t to get involved, just to locate and report his findings. Two, Frank couldn’t imagine what would happen that might cause Nathan to get involved beyond the find-and-report request Frank asked him to do. It wasn’t like he had someone he cared about and Frank doubted that Nathan would lose his sense of self-preservation by falling for Bethany Anne, even as pretty as she was.
“Yeah. European Council has been hearing about some shady connections between the Bravos pack Alpha Algerian and Petre’, one of Stephen’s kids. Now, the council was contacted by someone from the pack in Bravos about mid-way down in the hierarchy. Seems someone cleaned out half the pack starting at the top. When this person went to get information from Petre’, his house was trashed from a fire with two burnt remains inside. One of the remains had an arm, and get this, a head missing. They found the burnt skull on the other side of the room. They found one other burnt crispy body. They figured out that these two bodies were the Were officers that hung with Petre’ for daytime protection. They were able to find Petre’s exits and found one that opened up about two hundred yards away. There was a bloody bear trap sprung by the hole. The could still smell a little of Petre’s blood on the trap, but no Petre’.
Frank’s mind was furiously trying to figure out the ramifications of everything Gerry was telling him. He needed to get more information and Fran
k’s advisor was most likely not permitted to contact him at this time, wonderful.
“Damn, Gerry. Now you’ve given me more than a headache, I’m afraid to ask what your concern might be. Want to share it with me?”
Frank heard Gerry sigh on the other side of the line. “Yeah, its the young and dumb. They haven’t seen a really scary vampire in years and now they are starting to act up. The council can put a lid on it for so long before either a vampire needs to take care of it, or the council will have to own up and make a decision which way they really want to go with this ‘not telling the world’ stricture. When we had Michael to lay the blame on, it was easy to just say it wasn’t in our hands to deal with. Now, Michael has gone missing for a while, at least that is the rumor…”
Frank could feel Gerry wanting confirmation, so he sighed and confirmed Gerry’s comment. “Yes, Michael is missing. Like I mentioned, Nathan was supposed to find and report on Michael and Bethany Anne. Apparently, he has found Bethany Anne and god only knows what else he has been up to. Except giving me an update, of course.”
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