Merrit appeared at Char’s side. She stamped a foot and snarled, wanting to carve out her pound of flesh.
“Leave it, my alpha. We all fight for you. Since Gene seems to have things well in hand, what do you say we go get Terry Henry Walton?”
North Chicago
Timmons, Sue, Shonna, and as many warriors as could fit climbed into the pod. It took off and pressed them heavily into their seats as it accelerated on an arc that would take it over Chicago, the lake, and back over land where they would start descending toward Mammoth Cave.
“Ted,” Timmons said. He and Sue started to chuckle, but sobered quickly. Terry was still missing, and they had no idea how the others were faring inside the cave.
“Are we doing the right thing, Sue?” Timmons asked quietly.
“Going back to the cave?” she wondered, unsure of what he was referring to.
“Being us, being a couple.” Timmons looked at the leather boots on his feet. What he wouldn’t give for a nice pair of tennis shoes.
Sue put a finger under his chin and lifted his head. “Now listen here. We were meant to be together. Period. End of story. Ted is Ted. No one betrayed anyone else. Are we not friends first?” she asked.
“Yes. We are all friends, much more than just running with the pack,” Timmons answered, looking into her beautiful blue eyes. He caressed her blonde hair, tucking a strand behind her ear.
“We could have left, but we didn’t, and we won’t. We serve our alpha, and in turn, she takes care of us, all of us,” Sue explained, ending with a big smile. “I couldn’t be happier, Timmons. So deal with it, or I’ll have to kick your ass upside-down, backwards, and into next week.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Timmons grinned as the pod accelerated downward. The screen showed an ETA of five minutes.
Sergeant Boris and his platoon wore grim expressions on their faces. They were ready to go back into battle.
Terry’s Prison
Terry’s nanocytes had been taxed to the limit during his confinement, but the food and water that Yanmei had provided were making the difference. His shoulder was feeling better with each passing moment. The workout had his blood pumping.
The workout. Only Terry Henry Walton would consider hand-to-hand combat to the death to be a workout.
He smiled as he flexed his hands, stretching his fingers until he made loose fists.
“Round two, fuckstick,” Terry growled and waded into the fight.
The Forsaken tried a front kick, but Terry was speeding up. He caught Kirkus’s leg, twisting and dropping to slam the Forsaken’s face into the floor. Terry back-kicked him to the groin, then spun and drove his heel into the side of the creature’s head.
Terry let go of Kirkus’s leg and jumped on the Forsaken’s back, raining a devastating series of strikes to the creature’s head.
When blood ran freely from Kirkus’s wounds, Terry picked him up by his legs and spun around, slamming the Forsaken into the wall. TH was enraged, his eyes glowing red. He looked for a weapon, but there wasn’t one. Only the chains and Terry’s empty shackles.
As Terry dragged the nearly unconscious Forsaken to the prisoner’s corner, Yanmei and Fu jumped away. They assumed that Terry was going to chain Kirkus to the wall.
Terry Henry Walton had no intention of leaving the Forsaken alive.
At one point in time, Terry had given Joseph a choice to join the pack or die. Joseph had capitulated. Terry didn’t know if he’d ever give another Forsaken such an option. Kirkus had left a bad taste in his mouth.
The colonel wrapped the chain around Kirkus’s neck, and Terry pulled and twisted, but the chain’s links were too heavy. They crushed the Forsaken’s neck skin, but they wouldn’t cut through.
He dragged the Forsaken to the doorway and laid the creature with his neck against the doorframe.
Terry slammed the door again and again. He braced the door against the creature’s neck and took a running start to kick the door closed with both feet. Kirkus’s head came free. Terry exhaled loudly.
The battle was over.
Terry ripped the door open and looked into what he had thought was a hallway but was actually a cave tunnel. Sweat ran off his fingers as he offered a hand.
“Come on. We’re leaving,” Terry told the two women.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Terry looked both ways down the tunnel. He noticed a sign that said Tuberculosis Hospital.
“I’ll be damned,” Terry said. He saw where the old building had been extended into the cavern. The eyebolts that he was trying to loosen were mounted through two feet of stone, held in place by heavy angle iron.
“I never would have broken those,” he mumbled.
He stopped his introspection and listened. The sound of a fighting Werebear was close by, and Terry got the impression that Gene was kicking someone’s ass.
“Come on!” he exclaimed, smiling. He knew Char and Cory were near.
Yanmei grabbed him and turned him. He started to put his hands up, but she leaned in and kissed him, gently running one hand down his face.
Clovis scrabbled to a stop and brayed at the Weretiger.
Terry looked up, and when he saw Char, he smiled.
She didn’t look happy.
“Hi, lover,” he ventured. She crossed her arms and looked at him.
Aaron strolled past, still in Weretiger form. He slapped Clovis with a paw, batting the dog to the side.
“Hey!” Cory yelled through narrowed eyes, unsure of why everyone seemed so tentative.
“Aren’t you something,” Yanmei said softly, taking a knee so she could look directly into Aaron’s Weretiger eyes.
Fu cowered against the wall.
Terry saw the Glock appear in Char’s hand.
“Trigger control!” Terry blurted when he saw her finger inside the trigger guard, the same way he’d seen it for decades. She refused to keep her finger off the trigger despite his best training efforts. Char raised the pistol and fired.
“Oops,” she said, a smile creeping into the corner of her mouth.
Terry winced and slapped a hand to his side where the bullet had left a tiny crease.
“That’s trigger control,” Char offered, stuffing the pistol back into its holster.
Charumati’s eyes sparkled purple and Terry was drawn to them, as he always had been. The rest of the world disappeared as the magic sparkled between the two lovers. They ran into each other’s arms.
“For Pete’s sake!” Cory exclaimed, her eyes glowing blue. “Did you just shoot my father?”
Char mumbled something into Terry’s neck as they hugged fiercely.
“Everyone should know a love like that,” Akio whispered.
“Where’d you come from?” Cory asked, shocked at seeing him next to her and Ayashe next to him.
“Japan,” Akio replied simply, before continuing. “I was nursing my wounded dignity, that’s all, Cordelia-san.”
Gene sniffed and grunted as he joined the group. He stood tall on his back legs.
“Don’t you dare, Uncle Gene!” Cory warned, but it was too late. Gene changed into human form, standing naked before the others. The first thing he did was tenderly scratch his chest, crisscrossed with cuts from the razor storm, before reaching around and scratching his butt. Cory stormed up to him and punched him in the arm.
He held his hands out in confusion.
Gene looked around, and once he spotted Fu, the only thing he could think of was that he was naked. He didn’t understand why it bothered him, but he only had one choice.
Gene changed back into Werebear form. He slowly approached the woman called Fu, lowering his head so she could scratch his ears, which she did while looking into his big brown eyes.
Two Weretigers stood together before the rooms of the abandoned hospital. No one had seen Yanmei change, but her clothes were neatly stacked on the floor. Fu picked them up and with a hand twisted into Gene’s fur, she stayed by his side as they joined Terry and Char.
&
nbsp; “Time to go?” Terry asked.
“Captain! Lead us out of here,” Char commanded.
“Aye, aye, ma’am!” Mark replied before turning the warriors around. Tail-end Charlie was now on point.
Char and her pack were in the rear. Terry stopped. “My stuff,” he said. Yanmei was a Weretiger and no help. Fu was with Gene and she would know, but Aaron, the only one of their group who spoke Chinese, was also in Were form.
“There’s nothing you need, because we’re not going to go digging around down there,” Char told him. “These booby traps were hell. We lost Adams. I thought we’d lost Akio and Joseph, too.”
“Adams?” Terry sighed. “Goddamn it! Fucking Forsaken.”
“Yeah, fuck those guys,” Cory said as she grabbed her father’s free arm in both her hands and held on tightly. Clovis ran ahead to bite at the strap hanging from one of the warrior’s packs.
“I taught her that,” Terry claimed as Char shook her head.
***
The pod hovered over the other three. Timmons and Sue looked for a place to land, but couldn’t see anything nearby. They could see Blevins and Heitz sitting in the jeep with their feet propped on the dash. They both looked to be asleep. Or dead.
Blackbeard, Geronimo, and Kiwi stood in the small space between the pods and waved.
Timmons made slow circles until he found a spot nearly a quarter mile away. He set the pod down and the Werewolves led the platoon on a fast run through the woods until they met up with the platoon standing guard duty around the pods.
Ted was in the recovered pod working with the computer interface. Timmons tried to storm in, but Sue stopped him. No one knew Ted better than her.
“Why?” she asked Timmons. He couldn’t answer besides wanting to express his dismay at Ted’s untimely departure. They knew it would only serve to drive Ted further into a shell.
Sue went into the pod while Timmons tried to find out where Char and the others had gone.
“First time flying the pod, Ted?” Sue asked with a smile.
“Piece of cake,” Ted said while continuing to touch the interface screen. Sue rubbed his back like she used to do a long time before. As he did back then, he did not acknowledge her efforts. “Wait for us to come back, Ted, and then we’ll all fly out of here. I have a good feeling about this.”
Ted mumbled something. Sue wasn’t sure if it was meant for her or not. It didn’t bother her. She left the pod, walking into Timmons’s waiting embrace, and Ted never looked up as he continued to manipulate the pod’s touch screen.
“The cave is this way,” Timmons said, pointing and striding away. Sue and Shonna fell in behind, as did Boris and the rest of his platoon.
They all noticed that the oldsters were sleeping, but the cover assembly was open on the fifty cal to prevent any discharges. Blackie had told them that Max had lit up Ted’s pod. The warriors were both impressed and appalled.
Maybe they were just surprised that Corporal Heitz could hit something. They knew his vision was going.
By the time they reached the cave mouth, Timmons had called a halt. He could feel that the group wasn’t far from the entrance and they were casually walking their way.
He felt Char and Terry Henry together.
“They’ve got him!” Timmons said. He turned to face the platoon and yelled, “They’ve rescued Terry Henry Walton!”
A cheer went up and continued as Mark and the first two warriors came from the darkness.
Mark smiled and nodded, stepping aside to help people over the last boulder and out of the cave.
They filed out, with Char and Terry Henry coming last. As usual, the Were folk bore the brunt of the attacks. Even Akio looked in bad shape, which was the first time Timmons had ever seen that.
Joseph had an arm over Merrit’s shoulder as the Werewolf helped him. Akio pulled Joseph to the side and handed him a sword that he’d been carrying on his back, forgotten in the turmoil of Terry’s capture.
“Damascus steel. You need a sword, Joseph-san,” Akio said. The Forsaken took the sword and bowed, unsure of what else to do.
Other members of the Force emerged from the tunnel carrying a body.
Timmons could sense something else was wrong, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
Char stopped when she reached the rest of her pack. “We lost Adams,” she said quietly before continuing to walk.
Sue gripped Timmons’s arm. “He was never the same after we lost Xandrie,” Sue whispered. “I hope he died with honor.”
Terry and Char stopped. They turned and walked back to Sue and Timmons. “He died in service to his alpha. He paved our way to my mate, and for that, among a million other things, he will be remembered fondly. Adams was a good Werewolf, an outstanding member of the pack.”
Char held her head high as she made sure that Adams was honored for his sacrifice. They would lament his passing later, but for now, this battle was won.
Terry clenched his jaw and nodded to the Force de Guerre as they greeted him warmly, lining both sides of the path to the landing site. Two Weretigers, four Werewolves, and a Werebear followed closely. In the middle of it all, Cordelia walked as both an insider and an outsider, her dog Clovis at her side.
EPILOGUE
“Company, Ah-Ten-Shun!” Terry ordered. The four platoons snapped to the position of attention, frozen in place.
“Warriors to be retired, front and center, march!” Terry commanded.
A small formation in the back of the company ordered a right face, forward march, column left, and proceeded marching until they were standing in front of Colonel Walton.
Captain Mark ordered a hand salute. Blackbeard and Lacy mirrored his motions.
“Ready, two.” And they dropped their salutes.
“At ease,” Terry ordered loud enough for all to hear.
He was ready to deliver a speech, but couldn’t find the words. He waved the group behind him to join him. Jim, James, Gerry, and Kiwi rushed forward.
Ayashe started shaking her head as she watched her parents add to the complete breakdown in discipline. Char joined her husband. They held hands as the groups converged. The platoons remained in formation until their platoon sergeants called them to attention and dismissed them.
Mayra had promised the best feast ever. One steer and two hogs were turning on three different spits. There was even a barbecue sauce made from sugar beets that the older people said rivaled anything from the before time.
Char’s pack squeezed in around her. Another one short, leaving them with only six. She knew there were three more in Kentucky and now they had a pod for their own use. She knew what she wanted to do with it. All she had to do was convince TH.
Cory, Marcie, Kae, Kim, Auburn, and the grandchildren watched from the side, talking among themselves as siblings would.
Joseph leaned more deeply into the shadows. It had turned into a very sunny day. He was feeling sated after being allowed to drain the cow’s blood before it was slaughtered. He would enjoy the celebration by spending time with his friend, Terry Henry Walton.
But first, there had to be a few words around the fire for those who had died--two privates, Adams, and Billy Spires.
Felicity wore a black armband in honor of her dead husband.
Terry worked his way away from the retirees to stand alone, watching those who had risked all to free him. He still didn’t think he had earned that, although he was happy that they’d come. Beneath the surface of his smiling persona, the fire burned.
His eyes glowed red briefly, extinguished through his force of will. Kirkus didn’t know what he unleashed. The war with the Forsaken had only just begun.
The End of Nomad Avenged
Terry Henry Walton will return in Nomad Mortis, June 2017
Author Notes - Craig Martelle
Written January 28th, 2017
I'm a lifelong daydreamer and student of human interaction. I have some degrees, but those don't matter when it comes to telling the story.
Engaging characters within a believable narrative- that's what it’s all about. I live in the interior of Alaska, far away from an awful lot, but I love it here.
It is natural beauty at its finest.
A couple shout outs to people as I named some characters within the book. I accidentally copied over the acknowledgements in Nomad Redeemed, so here it is, one book late. For Sue Catherman in honor of her 39th birthday (ahem), I named one of the She-Wolves Sue. Sue plays a role in this book as well and should continue as we go forward.
Micky Cocker did me a solid and gave me two names on short notice – Roman and Cassandra. As you see those characters, remember that Micky got to name them because she was so cordial as to buy a short-story anthology that I had put together – The Expanding Universe.
Norman Meredith came up with a nice plot link for the next book. Will Terry Henry Walton find his white whale? We shall see and it will make sense.
How many other people have helped me on this journey? Holy crap! The list is nearly endless – thanks to Diane & Dorene. They gave me a thumbs up just past the half way point. They have infinite patience in reading my unedited work to check character development and story symmetry. My editor, Mia Darien puts up with me. When she tells me it’ll take seven days, I always ask for six.
Some reviews that were humbling and that I really liked.
“I like the way Char just does what She needs to do, no messing around just do what you gotta do!!!!!! I gave a five star rating because I was impressed by the story!!!!!!This book is suitable for readers aged 15 to however old you get to!!!” – Thank you Doc for the very kind words.
“Craig Martelle takes on from Michael Anderle's Kurtherian Gambit Series and continues with Terry (TH) about (25 - edited) years after Bethany Anne left. I can't say enough how good this new series is. The Author has a fantastic story line, great character development and I love where he took the Weres, especially the new love interest Char (Bethany Anne would love her). TH has some work to do before BA gets back, and I can't wait to see how he gets civilization back on track. Bravo Craig Martelle and Michael Anderle!” – Thank you, Jakeybg. Our intent was to fill the gap in time and space with material that stayed true to TKG and TQB, while being a little different. I am very happy with how these novels have turned out and more importantly, with how well they’ve been received by the readers.
Nomad Omnibus 02: A Kurtherian Gambit Series (A Terry Henry Walton Chronicles Omnibus) Page 72