“If we played our cards right, we might be able to get one or two inside before the others attacked.” She hiked a brow at him hopefully.
“Possibly, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. These days, unless you have business there, they don’t let you close. We’d have better luck getting people inside the offices of Congress.”
“Attack both branches at the same time?” She closed her eyes and swayed in his arms while he nibbled and bit at her neck and ear.
“Of course, my love. The judicial branch isn’t important to our cause, but the legislative and administrative branches are key.” He pulled back and studied her map. “If we could coordinate the attacks so that the capitol area was first…we would definitely catch them by surprise.”
“Cripple them before they can react to the news. I like that idea.” She pulled form him and stood before the map again. “Make it so. I want Washington D.C. targeted first. All other targets become secondary.”
Samael gave her a mock bow. “As you will, my queen.” He walked to the door and bellowed for the watch commander. When the man came huffing to the door, Samael relayed the message. “Nobody else makes a move until D.C. has been leveled. Understood?”
“Understood, my liege.” The commander bowed deeply then spun and trotted off to spread the word.
Samael walked back inside and fell to the bed. “I think we send Gaius to D.C.” He stared at the ceiling blankly as he spoke.
Lilith turned and gave him a questioning look. “To ensure that our orders are properly enacted?”
Samael snorted. “To ensure that he blows himself up as many times as possible. If he’s in the first wave, then he’ll be amongst the first to return with a new body and get back into the field.” He turned and glared at her. “He needs to feel as much pain as possible for his insolence.”
Lilith smirked and stepped toward him, putting as much sway into her hips as she possibly could. “You truly hate the man, don’t you?”
“He dared to touch you.”
“Because his queen ordered him to please her.” She slid across the bed and ran her hands across Samael’s broad chest. “I made him take me. I made him please me.” She grabbed Samael’s chiseled jaw and pulled his face toward hers. “Does that displease you?”
“You know that it does.”
She smiled and crawled on top of him, straddling him. “I enjoyed it, you know.” She thrust her jaw out at him. “I enjoyed his taking me. I screamed out when he thrust his manhood into me.” Her eyes glinted with mischief. “I bit his flesh when he slapped my buttocks.”
Samael snarled and narrowed his gaze. “Why do you dare speak such things?”
“Does it anger you, my love?”
“You know that it does.” She could feel him trembling under him.
She leaned down and whispered into his ear, “I could feel him spilling his seed into me—”
Samael struck with such speed and ferocity that it took her breath away. His hands reached for her, pulling her off of him and pinning her face first onto the mattress. She felt him lift her hips into the air and her shocked expression quickly changed to a smile as she felt him rip her robes from her lower body.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she asked in mock protest, wiggling her bottom against him. “Stop, you can’t do this.” She buried her face in the sheets lest her smile give away her joy.
Samael quickly took her, forcefully and viciously, his intent to pound any memories of another from her mind and body. She responded in kind, thrusting back to meet him, stroke for stroke as her voice screamed, “Yes! Yes! Yes!”
She felt his large, strong hands grab her hips and pull her to him with each thrust. She could feel his grip tightening and feared she would be bruised, but didn’t care. She curled her fists into the sheets and shoved a handful of the cotton into her mouth to stifle the scream building in the back of her throat.
When he withdrew and spun her around, her eyes shot wide, not expecting to see the feral look in his eyes. He plunged back to the task and pounded her for all that his angelic body was worth. She wrapped her legs around him and grabbed a double handful of his leathery wings in an attempt to hang on.
Once Samael was finished, he lifted himself from her spent body and wiped himself off on her inner thigh. “Do not…mention…his name…again.” His voice came in ragged gasps as he stumbled back and leaned against the column.
Lilith lay on the bed, her mind still reeling and her body completely spent. She felt as though someone had replaced her bones with gelatin and wrapped them with rubber, calling it muscle. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she gasped for breath. “If you…say so…my love.” She tried to move and found that she simply had no strength. She knew the only thing that allowed her to survive the encounter was the fact that she was the queen of the dead.
“I know what you did just now.” Samael stepped to the corner of the room and lifted the large cask of wine. He pulled the cork and drank from it greedily. “Do not tempt me again.”
Lilith sucked in a large amount of air and shook her head. “Wouldn’t dream of it, my love.” She mustered her strength and rolled to her side. She felt as though she were bruised from the neck down. She cast a glance to his oversized form in the corner, still holding the wine cask. “Not for another few days anyway. Got to give a girl a chance to recover.” She tried to smile before she passed out.
7
Matt stepped back into his office and felt like a changed man. His mind was clear and his wolf was at ease for the first time in months. He sat down behind his desk and the mountain of paperwork that had been building up was finished in no time. As he sat back and noted the finished pile, he also noted the cup of coffee he had poured when he first sat down was still half full. He smiled to himself as he made the mental connection between Jenny and his sanity.
Matt stood and stretched, feeling anew. He stared out the window at the different operations going on like any other day, and his mind wandered to Jo Ann and Molly. He felt a minor pang of regret, a sorrow that he hadn’t felt in a very long time…almost like he had betrayed their memory.
Mitchell stepped over to the file cabinet and pulled the photo out from behind the files. He stared at their images and ran a finger along the edges of their faces. “It’s been so long.” The pain he normally felt when staring into their eyes was either diminished or gone. He still loved them both dearly, but another part of him, a bigger part of him, had found Jenny. He had bonded his life to hers. He had become one with her.
He placed the photo back in the cabinet and locked it then leaned on the corner of his desk. His mind raced back to their consummation of the mating and he smiled to himself. “It’s real now, Mitch. No going back.”
A knock at the door pulled him from his reverie and he stood and answered it. Major Tufo looked up and actually took a half step back. “Damn, you look almost human. What gives?”
“I feel a lot better.” Mitchell turned back toward his desk and took a sip of the cold coffee before sitting down.
“You look a lot…” Tufo paused and sniffed the air. “I’ll be a son of a bitch.”
Mitchell paused and gave him an odd stare. “What?”
“You did it, didn’t you?” Mark smirked at him. “I can smell her on you.”
Mitchell’s eyes widened as he realized what Mark was saying. “You can smell her on me?”
“Don’t worry. I doubt anybody else can.” He fell into the chair in front of Mitchell’s desk. “It’s subtle, but it’s there.”
“Great.” Mitchell rolled his eyes. “But yeah.”
Mark chuckled lightly and shook his head. “Well good for you. You needed someone in your life, buddy.” He kicked his feet up and propped them on the corner of Matt’s desk.
Mitchell glared at him until he removed them. “What did you want before you came in here and started sniffing my crotch?”
Mark cleared his throat and dropped a pile of reports on his desk. “Dailies. And I pr
omised Jack backup and transportation if he needs it. He’s out on a weapons run.”
“Weapons? We have plenty of weapons right here.” Mitchell picked up the daily reports and thumbed through them.
“These are some kind of special weapons. Apparently the head Elf lady said that his Kid Squad would need them…I don’t understand.”
“Kid squad?” Mitchell shrugged. “The operators he’s working with are…kids?”
“So to speak. I think the youngest is seventeen. Or the equivalent.” Mark held his hands up. “I don’t know the importance of it, but according to the head Elf lady, it needs to be these kids.”
Mitchell leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. “This is nuts, you know that?”
Mark shrugged again. “Look at it this way. That vampire? She’s gotta be pushing forty in human years. The gnome? Hell he has a beard that hangs to his—”
“I get what you’re saying.” Mitchell interrupted. He poured another cup of coffee and cradled it. “I guess if the Wyldwood dubbed these guys the army she wants, who are we to argue?”
“Agreed. The way I see it, we still owe her pretty big.”
“What do we know of these weapons?” Mitchell sipped at the bitter brew.
Mark shook his head. “Just that they’ve been hidden for a long time. But, I’m telling ya now, if they come back with a Viking sword, I’m claiming it.”
“Somehow I doubt that it’s Viking weapons.” Mitchel rubbed at his neck as he thought about it. “I don’t guess she gave a better clue what it is they’re supposed to be fighting, did she?”
“Negative. As of now, the leaderboards are quiet. The only thing happening is Jack and his team are out scavenging.” Mark sighed and stood up slowly. “So, I’m going to the chow hall, swallow a cow and maybe a pig or two, then I thought I might try to catch a few hours of sleep.”
“You heading home then?”
Mark shook his head. “My shift starts again in about five hours. Might as well stick around.”
“At least call your boss and let her know you’re okay.” Mitchell narrowed his gaze on his XO. “Consider that an order, Major.”
Mark sighed. “Sir, yes sir.”
*****
Jack stepped out of the glowing rock and took another GPS reading. It gave almost the identical reading as before. He glanced at the map and shook his head. “I think we came back out where we started.”
Azrael shook his head. “No, the creek is down there.” He pointed with a massive arm to below their position.
“The stars appear correct.” Kalen stared upward.
Jack shook his head. “They look identical to me.”
“They are different, Chief Jack.” Kalen pushed past the group and pulled his own map. “If this is correct, then we need to go up that ridge.”
Jack shrugged. “Lead the way.”
Kalen glanced to Brooke who stared off in the distance. He quickly shifted his attention back to the task at hand and began trotting up the ridge, the others falling into step behind him. Gnat had to practically run to keep up to prevent Azrael from stepping on him. More than once the large gargoyle offered to carry him but Gnat seemed more aggravated by the offer than thankful.
Kalen crested the highest point of the ridge and paused long enough to refer to his map again. Jack and Azrael closed on either side of him and looked over his shoulder as he pointed down the slope. “Past these trees should be a rock outcrop. The entrance is close to this.”
Azrael turned to Jack, “I can glide down and scout the area, with your permission.”
“Radio back if anything doesn’t feel right.” Jack turned to Brooke who was watching the way they had come. “Just below those trees. That’s where we need to be.”
She nodded absently, her eyes still glued to their rear. “I feel eyes upon us.”
Jack stiffened. “Where?” His voice dropped to a whisper and he lowered himself to a crouch.
Brooke shook her head as she slowly backed toward him. “I don’t know…but I know how it feels when I’m being watched. It feels that way now.”
Jack motioned to Kalen who had slipped into the Anywhere. He was effectively camouflaged and making his way past the pair. Brooke couldn’t see him, but she sensed him as he passed by. She sniffed the air and the scent of sugar cookies barely wafted to her nose. “He’s good.” Her own voice was a barely a whisper as she spoke.
Jack nodded as he crouched behind a large rock. “Yes, he is.” He scanned the area behind and below them with nothing catching his eye. “Are you sure there’s somebody back there?”
“I can’t see them. I can’t smell them. I can’t hear them. But I can feel them. They’re there.” She lowered herself further until she was barely off the ground.
Gnat popped his head up under her chin, his body slithering past her. “I’m not seeing anything either.”
Brooke glanced down and noted that he was nearly between her breasts and wanted to swat the wee beastie from under her until she caught her breath and realized that he wasn’t paying any attention to her dangly bits. She raised herself slightly and watched as the gnome continued to slither past her and behind another rock. He motioned to Jack using hand signals and Jack nodded, giving him the go ahead. Broke wished at that moment that she’d actually taken the time to learn the silent language before now.
She watched as Gnat slipped from rock to rock, working his way back the way they came until he was at the trail head. Their radios all crackled to life. “Chief Jack, this is Azrael. I see nothing of concern here.”
“Stand by.” Jack glanced toward Gnat and tried to see if he could spot where Kalen may be. “We may have somebody on our tail.”
“Do you require air support?” The urgency in Azrael’s voice was unmistakable. The giant ached for battle.
“Negative.” Jack slid out from behind his protective cover and brought his scope to bear on the trail. He switched on his IR and scanned the area. Other than Gnat, he saw nothing lighting up the night. Shaking his head, he keyed his coms. “Gnat, stand down. I’m not spotting anything on the scope.”
“I’m telling you, something is out there.”
Jack shrugged at Brooke. “Whatever it is, it isn’t acting in a hostile manner. We push on.”
Kalen suddenly appeared beside Brooke and his eyes were wide. “Chief Jack, something is out there and it moves quickly. At the base of the ridge, on the other side, near where we exited the gate.”
“Did you see what it was?”
He shook his head. “No, it was too quick.”
“If these weapons are that important to the Wyldwood, we need to retrieve them and move out.” He motioned to Gnat who was double timing it back toward the group. “Down the slope. Now.”
All of them turned and began sliding down the rocky slope, their feet slipping in the loose dirt and rock until they hit the tree line. “Move, move, move!” Jack waved them past him as he covered their rear. “Kalen, find that doorway.”
“On it, Chief Jack.” He ran past him, the map in hand. “Give me a moment.”
Jack scanned the ridge with his scope, his eyes darting from side to side looking for any movement. He thought he saw something once then decided it was a tree branch swaying in the wind. He walked backward, his eyes toward the ridge until he came alongside Brooke. “Any luck?”
“Keebler’s working on it.”
Jack stole a glance and noted Kalen standing before another large boulder, his arms raised and his bracelet glowing. He was muttering something as the rock attempted to glow. Slowly, light began to escape the seams of a hidden doorway then it suddenly slid open. “It won’t stay open for long, Chief Jack. This is not Elven majik.”
“Move, people, everybody inside.” Jack tapped each one at the shoulder to get them to go inside the large cavern.
He began working his way toward the rock and could almost swear he saw something moving in the shadows of the trees. He couldn’t be sure what it was as it moved too quickl
y and with the bright golden glow behind him killing his night vision, the intruder was quickly lost.
Jack heard the rock start to slide shut and turned and dove inside, the rock door slamming hard behind him. He rolled to his stomach and pulled his flashlight from his belt. Flipping it on, he came to his knees. “Everybody okay?”
“All accounted for, Chief Jack.” Kalen stepped beside him and helped him to his feet.
Jack swung the light in a low arc and examined the inside of the cavern. “Holy…”
Azrael stepped forward, a smile crossing is face. “Finally.”
*****
Laura walked the hallway of the hospital, the smell of antiseptic heavy in the air. She paused at the nurses’ station and noted the thin woman behind the counter speaking in hushed tones on a telephone. She glanced across from the desk where a board with room numbers with last names sat directly in eye sight from the station. She scanned the board until she saw, ‘Youngblood’ and noted the room number. Turning and glancing at the rooms behind her she took off in the direction of her father’s room, the nurse behind the counter still engrossed in her call.
She approached the door cautiously and raised her hand to knock. She paused and realized she wasn’t ten years old anymore and entered her father’s study. She was a grown woman coming to visit her ailing father. She pushed the door open and stepped into the darkened room tentatively. Her eyes adjusted quickly to the gloom and she saw her father lying in the bed, his once strong body now ravaged by time and disease, withered to a mere husk of who he once was.
Laura felt a lump rise in her throat, and the room seemed to tilt slightly as the walls spun. Breathe! She fought to stand straight and stepped further into the room. A body sitting in a chair stirred and caught her attention. It was Crystal; and Laura felt a momentary spurt of anger before her senses kicked in she forced the emotion to subside. She paused and stared at the woman who apparently wanted nothing more than to love her father for the years he had remaining. She slept in a chair next to him, her hand wrapped gingerly around his as both slept through the middle of the day.
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