by Amber Lynn
Chapter 10
The new faces of the paranorm world
We make our way to the war room and find our people, including Ryan, Phee, Sam, and a man I don't know, playing host to three of the people that were in the meeting yesterday. Good. We aren’t late. I didn’t think we had taken an hour to get rid of Lucy, but she was doing a good job in the role of an annoying gnat.
My first guess on the mystery man that looks to be fitting right in with my group is that he is Ryan's doctor friend. I am interested to hear more about his work and what he can do to assist in the fighting. I may also feel the need to thank him for bringing Ryan back online. I haven't had a chance to really talk to Ryan since we found him wandering in the woods, but he appears to be happy.
“We didn’t get a chance for introductions yesterday,” one of the men at the table says standing. “I am Anthony and I like to believe I am one of your father’s biggest supporters.”
“All of us here are supporters, so don’t let him sway you,” another man says. “I heard someone whisper that you would have passed out numbered nametags if you had known how many would have been in the room yesterday. I took the initiative and numbered myself as one.”
He points to a bright red nametag on his chest. A butt kisser, every group has one. I tend to dislike them on principle. You cannot trust the words coming from them as truth. So far, the two men both appear to fall into that category.
“Thank you guys for sticking around. Your loyalty has never been in question. There is no need for you to convince Nyx of that. We wanted to meet for a few minutes in a smaller group to talk werewolf affairs,” Dad says taking his seat at the table.
There were more werewolves around the table yesterday and that leaves me wondering why the others weren't invited to this meeting. I am going to have to ask someone for a hierarchy in hope that it will explain the situation.
“There are an awful lot of vampires in the room to talk about our affairs,” the man who has yet to speak says. Not a butt kisser, I like this one.
“That is because when we take back control, things aren’t going to go back to exactly what you remember, Joel. We have to consider the fact that humans are aware of us now and the news of the Collective's downfall will not inspire confidence in them. We have to come up with a solution that allows them to believe they are still safe from us going on a rampage and snacking on them,” Dad explains. Alex, Sebastian, and I grab our seats. I am still carrying Sophia. She is looking around taking in everything. Maybe she will notice someone flinching at the wrong moment and be able to tell us about it later.
“You aren’t planning on replacing the Collective with the same thing by a different name?” the grumpy guy asks.
“I wouldn’t say that. There isn’t going to be an organization dictating what we all should do. We have a unique opportunity to give the humans comfort and have great leadership for the rest of us in place. I will continue to lead the wolves behind the scenes and Sebastian will lead the vampires. The only difference is to the outside world, my daughter and her mates will be the face of our leadership.”
Crazy person say what? “Did someone forget to mention this idea to me?”
“There was no forgetting about it. You would have thrown a fit and tried to change things, but the decision has been made. I asked you three here to let you know before we made the big announcement. I know I am going to have to reiterate until I am blue in the face that we are taking things back to what they were and I wanted to practice on a smaller group first.”
“Aaron, I have always been behind you, but I don’t understand the need for the mask. Just tell the humans the truth. I would think revealing the corruption that is the Collective and letting everyone know that the world is safer after they are dealt with is the way to go,” the first guy, Anthony, suggests. I actually remembered the name without any clues. It is practically a miracle.
“We talked about this for hours and decided that Nyx would make a better face in this case. She is a young mother and if she learned to smile more, people might actually think she was approachable and likable.”
“You don't think the humans will have trouble understanding her having two 'husbands', as they would call it? It isn't something that happens in the paranorm world naturally and humans tend to be raised monogamous. This move may cause more trouble and confusion than it is worth. The wolves trust and follow you. The only time they have heard Nyx's name is if they were fretting over what assassin the Collective was sending after them. No offense,” the really big butt kisser says.
“I have a question. Just who was involved in this behind closed doors decision? You have been on solid land for what is it, two or three days? How could this big of a decision have been decided in that amount of time, without even consulting me?”
“We can discuss it later. The others will be arriving any second and everyone in this room right now is going to be on a united front when I share the news. There will not be any more discussion. We have bigger fish to fry and until they are cooked to a crisp, who is called our leader is a moot point.” Aaron brings out the top dog tone and me hearing voices in the hall stops me from telling him what I think of that particular tone and just what orifice it would fit in nicely.
The rest of the strategic leaders funnel in and take the seats they sat in the previous day. Part of me wants to call Aphrodite real quick and see if they all still hate me. I should have done that with the three that claim to be on Dad's side. I will probably still prefer my smaller knives in battle, but if I find that she has more special abilities, she may become my go to weapon.
“Let's start by hearing about any locale changes. Is he still in Scotland?” Sebby asks starting the real meeting. Those just joining us all look to be taking measure of those who were in the room before them.
“The games last two more days and all reports indicate he is staying for the end. We haven't gotten our hands on future travel itinerary, yet, but we are working hard to get it,” the man that gave the location yesterday says.
“Great. For the vampire side of things, most will be staying behind to take care of the battle here. I only want those with UV resistance making the full trip. This kind of thing is hard to plan for and if an opportunity comes in early afternoon, most of the younger generations will be stuck in doors. I would like to keep them here where they can do the most good.”
“It makes sense, but I know there are going to be grumblings about missing the battle,” someone says.
“I know, but filling the planes full of people that will for sure be able to fight in that battle is more important. They will be able to be part of what goes on here over at the Collective headquarters. There are plenty of generals there for them to fight with.”
“On the wolf side of things we are planning to mobilize one hundred troops to a place we have in Scotland where we can assess the situation and rehash any plans that need taken care of. I researched the site of the games last night and I don't really like the layout we are looking at,” Alex says. “With the humans around it will be hairy. I don't know if there will be a clear opportunity to call Stevens out with them around.”
“He is going to know we are coming and I doubt he will care about collateral damage. Do we know where he is staying? Is there any way to hit him there?” I am starting to wish everyone heard the birdie that said I like nametags. Since they didn't, bushy eyebrowed vampire asked the question.
“He does have a large estate that he rented out for the week. I am sure it will be well guarded, but I see no reason for humans to be wandering around throwing giant tree trunks,” location man says.
“Send me the address and I will see what schematics we can pull from online. The more I can find out about it, the better. I will be sending out a roster of the wolves I want to see in action with us in Scotland. Joel and Trevor are going to be staying behind to lead the rest in the attack on the Collective building here.
“I was hoping we would be able to leave this meeting w
ith a more clear cut plan of attack, but we have a location and the general idea is to kill Stevens and see if everyone else accepts the change in leadership. The people that don't are to be captured peacefully when possible and only slightly maimed if they put up a fight. I don't see any good in killing someone because they have been taught to follow a man blindly.”
“Who is leading the vampires forced to stay behind?” Alan's flunky asks. I had hoped he was somehow given the wrong time to show up today.
“Because of Alan's ways, all of his followers are being forced to stay behind. I don't see putting anyone used to his rule in charge. Nothing against you personally, Santino, but I have to look out for the greater good here. Luke is going to be in charge. If he believes he needs assistance, he can pick a second. I want to emphasize that even those that are not going with us after the man behind the curtain have an important job to do. Killing Stevens halfway across the world is not going to have an instant impact everywhere. We need those staying behind to enforce the change in leadership,” Sebastian explains.
It all sounds like a good enough plan for me. We won't know time of day or location until we can study Stevens more closely. It is a good start that will quickly evolve into a road map for winning. I wonder if the opposition can sense there is change on the wind. Any paranorm from my generation is going to find a lot of confusion in store for them. I will have to see if we can get educational materials prepared for those not used to the world outside of the Collective.
Dad starts in on his explanations for me getting a front office position in the human world. I don't want to argue in front of this group, but we are going to need to discuss this development. I just don't see how it is a good idea. Won't people be afraid of the fact that I am more than one variety of paranorm? Will it make the humans think that becoming a paranorm is even more of a contagious disease than they already do? I don't really want my life story out there for the masses to analyze. I kind of know how I came into this world and why I turned out the way I did, but as a private person, I don't think everyone needs to know and I think that is something that would have to be out there if people were to believe I really was a ruler.
My brain ramble has made me miss all of the objections, so that is a good thing. I don't need to hear people like Santino tell me what a horrible idea it is. The meeting breaks up and the grumpy faces leave the room.
“Okay Doc, let's hear what you have for us,” Dad says and I think the portion of the day I have been hoping for since I saw the man is about to arrive. My pom poms are waving in the air.
Chapter 11
Science just doesn't make sense
With everyone else leaving the room, my people take over the table for the discussion. Without the unknown people taking up my attention, I can actually get a look around the room. The table we are sitting around is made of a dark wood. It looks solid enough that we could all jump on top of it and do a jig without worrying about landing on the floor with butts full of splinters. For some reason, I don’t see us dancing anytime soon.
There is a floor to ceiling bookcase filled with older looking books, probably from Sebastian’s personal library. I don’t foresee me spending much time reading over them and I think the digitization assignment is going smoothly, so I can just do a search and bring up the passages that are important for a given circumstance.
The walls in the room are white, not stark white, just enough to look clean without blinding you. I already noticed that the wall behind us has a giant dry erase board and it looks like the ceiling has some kind of projection device built-in.
Knowing the guys, they probably have a projection screen that drops down. The house more than likely has a movie room somewhere, but Phee may get silly one day and repurpose this space for her own theater. If we can take care of business this week, she can have it.
Another observation on the space, there are no windows. To me that makes sense. You don’t want to give your opponent a chance to grab some binoculars and climb up the tree in the backyard for a view of your super-secret battle plans.
For the time being, if we added a little playpen in one of the corners, it would be perfect.
“Thanks for flying in, Carl. I am told you have been brought up to speed on how fast things are moving,” Dad says drawing me out of my brain vacation. “What do you have for us?”
“I am glad you called. As you know, I have been analyzing the changes to the blood and body after a wolf has been injected with the Collective’s serum, which is being called A5T1. Once in the bloodstream, it immediately targets bonds the person has at the blood level. In wolves, this would include their mating bond, obviously, but also regular bonds like those to your family. Once it has eradicated the connections the person has, or could have had in the future, it alters their DNA to add key warrior elements cultivated from other species. I have only been able to isolate vampire DNA in the mix, for sure. Vampire speed is the key side effect you would notice, along with enhanced senses that wolves don’t normally have.
“After several doses, the process is complete and you essentially no longer have the werewolf you started with. The new being is a hybrid of sorts and the warring parts of him, we have only seen it used on males, make him highly aggressive and ready for a fight. I don’t know who came up with the process, but it is amazing work. The outcome isn’t great for our side, but the genetics behind it is something I could study for years.”
Most of what he has said isn’t a secret. I have witnessed round one of the injections on a first-hand basis and it sucks. He left out the bits about it feeling like an atomic bomb goes off in your body after the injection.
“I think we were wrong when we thought that the Collective hadn’t used my blood for weapons of destruction. How much do you want to bet that the basis of their little serum is flowing through my veins?” I don’t think it is much of a stretch to get to that point. My hope is that they focused mainly on my vampire and werewolf genes since they could see them blended and knew what they were.
If any one of them knew that angel blood was lurking just a little bit deeper, I hesitate to guess what might happen. I don’t know that it would be something they could actually use, but having tons of soldiers able to call magic swords to them would be a very bad thing.
“They wouldn’t have to do a lot of work to see how the different species worked together, if that is the case. I know from my time trying to keep undercover that they were doing a lot of tests on your blood. It is how I found out about you. I don’t think they knew everything that we know now, though. I know Alex, and probably Sebastian, is hesitant to let anyone do more testing, but we should let Carl have a look,” Dad says. “Not that the Collective is going to be around much longer, but we should at least try to have the same knowledge that they do, especially if they are using it as a weapon.”
“If you can assure me that no one outside of this room will learn the results of said testing, we can talk about it,” Alex says. He doesn’t sound very happy about giving his permission.
“Whatever guidelines you want to put in place, I would follow,” Carl says. I don’t know what I was expecting when I heard he was a doctor. Paranorms don’t really have doctors, and I guess he is more of a geneticist than a doctor, but he looks like a normal guy to me. He doesn’t even have a lab coat or anything like the people who took my blood in the past did.
“The Fae is currently doing an analysis and I would be interested to see if the two methods find similar results,” Sebastian states. His methodical brain could probably spend days combing over strange blood tests.
Boring. It is weird messed up blood. I don’t really need to hear any more than that.
“We know essentially what this drug does to a person. You seem to have been able to reverse its affects for Ryan and the other wolves that have received the antidote. How easy would it be to get the rest of the hybrids fixed? In Fae, I heard grenades were used to administer your fix, is that something we can continue to do and how long does
it take to go into effect?” I am pretty sure I am just rambling off stuff because I don’t want to think about people analyzing my blood. I was out of it with labor pains when the grenades were used previously, so at least that part of my rant is legit.
“Don’t freak out, but the antidote is a mixture of angel blood and peppermint. I know that sounds really weird, but I was introducing different types of blood to the samples Ryan provided to see if anything helped. The angel blood seemed to do the most good when it came to aligning everything. I am sure I am not explaining this in a very good way, but I know the scientific stuff will be met with vacant stares so I am doing my best.
“Anyway, my working environment often has bottles that I haven’t gotten around to putting away littering the space. I accidentally spilt some peppermint in one of the samples one night and decided that I needed to stop for the day and worry about the mess the next day. Yes, I am a slob. The next morning I put the mess under the microscope for fun and found married cells. The abilities that were scattered before combined.”
He stops talking for us to let it settle in I guess or maybe to catch his breath. He rambles as bad as I do. It all sounds just bizarre to me and I really don’t care what his explanation is as long as he has something that works.
“You have access to angel blood? Is that something they sell at the grocery store?” I know grocery store isn’t the word I am looking for, but I don’t know where scientists get all their goodies.
“I carry it. It isn’t something that is easy to come by, even when you have an in with the angels. They for some reason just don’t want to part with it,” Hilda says. “I don’t store it out front, but the people that really need it tend to know to ask.”
If angel blood is the majority of the cure for the snake venom the Collective is using, it solidifies in my mind that they are using my gogo juice for their experiments. I wonder if they found a way to make a synthetic version because I know I didn’t hand over buckets full during my years there.