Nathan pondered that. While on the surface it was another innocuous religious nut job message, most of the UnknownWorld referred to Michael as the archangel and any new children of his as cherubim. The land of the Gentiles was typically America (or could mean anything outside old Europe, really).
The more aggressive groups under the American Pack Council had been gossiping for weeks about the rumors. They chafed under the rules Michael dictated and since he was rarely around to implement them, it left the responsibility for discipline to the council, which was not appreciated.
Until you could pin down what Michael was doing and why, supernaturals would keep as low a profile as possible—except the young and the idiots. Usually those two went together like politicians and lying.
Nathan sighed and felt the tension rising in his shoulders. Of all the responsibilities that Nathan had, Gerry never took away Nathan’s role as the liaison with Michael’s family, and for good reason. Nathan was never stupid. He could keep his anger on a really short leash around a vampire.
Michael would typically talk with Gerry over the phone, and usually Carl would call to set up the time and phone number so Gerry could be ready and apprised of the reason. Nathan hadn’t heard from Carl in a while.
Rumor was that the families were fighting again and one of Michael’s favorites was caught with his pants down and had died in an incredibly large flaming explosion.
Nathan didn’t have any real feelings for Bill, the missing vampire, except for professional respect. Bill did his job, Nathan did his and the few times they crossed it was respectful.
There were two types of vampires. Forsaken and Michael’s family. Another way to think about it was simply Michael’s family and every other vampire in the world. Because the size of the other team was pretty large, most werewolves would work with the dishonored, believing them to be the winning team. If not right now, then eventually.
Nathan, however, had enough contacts across the world to realize that the fight was pretty even. It was more quality over quantity. But even one loss, like Bill getting taken out, was a hit on Michael’s family. Kinda like your hockey player being put in the penalty box for a game or season.
So, enough rumors and the betting man, or wolf, assumed Michael was awake and was personally choosing another child.
A lot of supernaturals had been secretly talking about how they could eventually either take out Michael’s family or hurt them enough so Michael’s rules of the UnknownWorld would become irrelevant. They would talk tactics such as going after the top children, the most powerful.
Good strategy to become instantly irrelevant, was Nathan’s opinion.
Even though Michael’s family kept the evil in line, a lot of people just didn’t like knowing there was an ultimate authority figure with a stick up their butt about morality that had the ability to kick your ass if you didn’t toe the line. Kind of like a bunch of really rich, really powerful but bratty teenagers.
Nathan considered what he needed to do to find out what was going on and how this affected the American Council and his pack.
Well, fuckity-fuck. It looked like a trip to Upstate New York’s forests was going to be just a dream this time.
Carpathian Mountains, Romania
OK, Michael admitted, it was a little cold. He had been searching for most of the afternoon and had found the location of the cave entrance, but not until just before dark. Since he didn’t want the guides to go down the mountain at that time of day, he grabbed their focus and directed them and Bethany Anne into the cave. The guides wouldn’t remember any of this.
Even with his modified body, the subfreezing temperature was a little uncomfortable.
About a hundred feet into the cave, he gave the guides suggestions that caused them to go to sleep. They would be good until early morning when he would get them to pack their stuff up and go back to the village by a different route.
At this point, Bethany Anne started to get a little apprehensive.
Bethany Anne, Michael and Carl had talked for a while on the journey here. Carl provided her information on the day-to-day activities he and Bill had been handling since Michael really didn’t keep up with it. Carl then showed some of the footage from a couple of takedowns and had shared the shortened video presentation he had made for Michael.
Michael was expecting them to make a good team. Carl was very good with the systems and had been his liaison with the other supernaturals for the last fifteen years and knew who to talk with to narrow down the unknowns on their strikes. He had Carl provide some financial account details with Bethany Anne and explain how to get access to her accounts.
Michael hadn’t really kept up with his children’s families over the years. They had their areas of the world to protect and he had Canada and the U.S. Well, Bill had done the traveling, communicating and protecting until a month ago.
Michael knew something was incredibly fishy about what was happening. Typically the Forsaken wouldn’t try anything directly in the States since he was so close. While he had been sleeping, a lot, it was still never a good result for them.
So now, he needed to outthink them and give them a response that in their ignorance, they couldn’t possibly conceive.
And he had one.
Brasov, Romania
Carl was presently in Brasov, Romania. He had dropped off Bethany Anne and Michael a week and a half ago. This was old-world Transylvania. He would sit on this tarmac for about another eight hours and then be wheels up, headed towards England. He had received a couple of beeps on his satellite phone four days ago from Michael letting him know that they were at the location he was looking for.
Carl had a couple of contacts he wanted to touch base with in London. Since he was on the company’s time and had a few days to kill, he decided he might as well fly where he wanted. Sometimes, just sometimes, this job was too good to be true.
Carl didn’t know exactly how Michael ‘made’ children. As he understood it from Bill, Michael was the patriarch of all vampires, not just his family. There was Michael, and then six children underneath. Two had fled the family many centuries before and were the patriarchs of the dishonored.
Bill was chosen by Michael back at the end of World War II. He had one of his children actually transform Bill at the time. Bill had no idea why that was, but he was incredibly powerful for a vampire.
His sire, Stephen, was Michael’s third child and responsible for the area in and around the Mediterranean. He was probably the second most powerful vampire in the world. Stephen was 80% as strong as Michael but he was a little bit more easygoing. It was one of the reasons that the families around the world didn’t miss Michael so much.
While he was respected and loved to a great degree, most of his children really didn’t enjoy him around as it had caused untold amounts of stress in the past. Add the occasional problems with locals who didn’t understand the children fell a bit from the family tree, at least where honor was concerned. They upheld it, but they at least (usually) gave you a chance to make amends.
Not so much with Michael.
A few days later, the plane was heading to London after a stop in Frankfurt, Germany.
Carl had decided to land there on a whim, enjoying some especially good beer.
In Switzerland, Carl took care of financial responsibilities. He added Bethany Anne to the accounts Michael always provided each of his children. In addition to the normal accounts Bill had access to, Michael dictated three unfamiliar Swiss accounts with instructions to add Bethany Anne to those as well.
He provided DNA and personal information she would know. He knew a hacker might locate the information so he wasn’t providing it for a true thief. There was always a small chance, he knew, that her mind would be messed up from the transformation so it was an admittedly small test to make sure she was functioning mentally.
In both Switzerland and Germany, Carl started a low-level AI program he had on his laptop back on the plane and used it to pretend he wa
s talking with Michael back on the plane, keeping up appearances should anyone try to track Michael’s location.
The jet never made it to London. The plane disappeared from the radar approximately halfway across the English Channel in a sudden storm, common to those waters. The search lasted for three days before it was called off. They didn’t find any wreckage, the plane had just vanished.
11
Carpathian Mountains, Romania
Bethany Anne woke up slowly, trying to remember where she was. It was dark, so dark, and she felt like she was drugged. Trying to sit up, she bumped her head.
You might want to rest a minute, you have been under for a long time.
Lying back down, she rested a minute, pulling what cognitive ability she still had and thought through what the disembodied voice just said.
Wincing in pain, she whispered into the darkness, "Who are you, and where am I? Am I hospitalized?"
No, not hospitalized exactly. My nomenclature is a meaningless string of digits. You are on the surface of the planet Earth in a location called...
It all came back in a rush. Her sickness, Michael, Carl—and coming to the cave in the mountain. Michael had taken her into a deep, deserted area of the cave system whereupon they came out into an area that looked like it was a small, hidden valley. With a little searching around, Michael found the metal ship under hundreds of years of detritus. The ship was obviously not from Earth, it was the same one he encountered a thousand years or more in the past.
Things had started to become a little clearer to Bethany Anne. While incredible, if you looked at just the facts, you had to agree that this was a UFO.
She remembered thinking that if nothing else, she had a story for her father if she should ever get to talk with him again.
After finding the portal to go in, Michael explained that this was the place that had started his change with such pain as he had never felt in all of his human years.
After a good night’s sleep outside of the ship, it was Bethany Anne’s turn. Michael had warned her that she had to survive the transformation long enough to retain her own personality. If she did not, he would be forced to kill her immediately. Those that didn’t were no better than the worst of humanity, just significantly stronger and with a lust for human blood.
If she made it beyond twenty-four hours, then she would be past the worst of the trial. Michael told her before she went under that if she lasted that long, he would make a quick trip to the nearby resort town.
Michael had never mentioned another entity as part of the transformation.
...Romania.
"Water, I need water."
You don't need water at this time.
Thinking back to Michael’s comment about hours, she realized must have made it past the minimum twenty-four hours.
"How long?" her voice was getting stronger. She didn’t feel like she had cottonmouth this time. "How many hours was I under?"
Over 4,300
"I'm sorry, I thought you said, 4,300. Did I hear you correctly?"
That is correct. There is nothing wrong with your hearing. You are not using it right now.
God, she thought, I'm not coming out of this very well at all.
Bethany Anne inhaled, ready to try the conversation again. "Let me see if I have this right, I’m still in the ship, in an enclosed ‘something.’ I have been here a significant amount of time beyond twenty-four hours. I am conversing with you, but apparently it must be telepathic because I am not using my hearing. Do I have this right?"
Yes, to the time. No, to the telepathy. I am symbiotically attached and have created multiple connections with both your physical and neurological systems. I have spent the time since you fell asleep examining your physiology and have done my best to mitigate the sloppy programming which caused the painful transformation in the previous subject. Unfortunately, he was my first human and I was ill-prepared to accomplish the enhancements I was instructed to accomplish. He was caused much pain. I have had plenty of time to review the previous integration, so I was much better prepared for this effort.
Bethany Anne lay very still trying to parse everything she heard. There were so many tangents she could take from that data dump she needed a second to decide which direction to go. She heard her father's voice in her head, a memory from childhood camping trips.
"Sweetheart, if you’re ever out in the middle of nowhere, you have to prioritize. You need to be safe, you need water, then you need food."
This pretty much is the definition of nowhere, she thought, I’m not in immediate trouble that I’m aware of, but let's figure this out.
"Is my body in trouble?"
Negative. I have placed our vehicle in a sort of stasis. Until a few moments ago, you had only lived but fifteen minutes of your personal time.
Bethany Anne was starting to get a little concerned as the hints in the conversation were starting to come together. "Wait, did you say 'our' vehicle? Are you talking about the ship, or my body?"
Yes, this physical manifestation made of organic matter.
Panic was waking her just fine, Bethany Anne thought. “Wait, I didn't sign up for having a passenger! Disconnect your plug-ins and disengage, or whatever it is you did, undo it. Michael never said that he had an attached alien with him!"
Bethany Anne, that is not possible. My mission requires me to be able to support your planet in the coming altercations with the Z’terath. In order to accomplish this I must be able to move. This ship has been unable to translate locations since I crashed here many of your years ago. I have engaged and watched what radio and television I can receive along with the communication between aircraft if they are directly overhead. I have little knowledge of the bigger picture and if I cannot find out what is going on, your planet is eventually going to be in a galactic war that it will be ill-prepared to participate in, except as a minor footnote as a quickly subjugated race.
Furthermore, I made a calculated decision to connect to your nervous system while the transformation was occurring.
Bethany Anne felt a pang of embarrassment. Wait, she thought, I don’t have any reason to be embarrassed.
Comprehension followed like a glowing cloud of flame with the associated anger. "Are you telling me you fucked up? Your little 'calculated decision' somehow blew up in your face?" She started to feel up and down her body looking for the connections the... voice... said it had. This shit, she thought, was going to have to end right here, and right now. “Open this damn sarcophagus!"
There are no external connections, so you can cease your examination to locate them. Yes, I didn't realize that the virus used to transform your physical capabilities would affect my own efforts. I have no choice in this matter. I am permanently integrated into your body. The transformation took my physical body and created a mutation with yours. My mind, if you will, has been modified and I am presently integrated with your spinal cord. From here I have connections throughout, well, everywhere. However, I have been working for over 4,000 hours to bring you to consciousness. I don't understand enough of your motor coordination to accomplish movement. So, you will need to find the inner lock near your right hand, twist it in a circle and it will cause the medical pod to release us.
"Release me, you mean. You snaky alien symbiont. You are an unwelcome passenger and this discussion isn't over. What can be done, can be undone! If I could, I would kick your ass.” Bethany Anne started to try and move her arms. “You’re lucky I don’t really believe in self castigation. Mostly.” There was that one guy, Matt, a one-night stand in Baltimore she still gave herself grief over.
Bethany Anne was searching for the lock while directing her ire at her new 'roomie.' Finding it, she twisted her arm to get it to unlock. The inside of the pod started to glow.
"I am so going to give Michael a piece of my mind. Scary vampire or not, this is bullshit.”
There is no one near us.
"What? Why the hell not?" The pod finished opening and Bethany Anne, devoi
d of clothing and, she thought, buff as hell, got out of the pod on mostly steady legs. "Wait, did I say that out loud or are you reading my mind?"
Her point of view seemed higher than before. Confused, she looked down to see if she was on a small podium and noticed that her legs were different.
Her legs were definitely longer, shapelier, and drop-dead gorgeous. She had bemoaned the fact her whole life that her legs were stumpy and it was the only part she hated about her body.
Nope, she decided, not giving these legs back. Possession is nine tenths of the law. Well, it was when your friends were named Smith & Wesson.
Well, to be fair, they could also be named Sig Sauer, Heckler & Koch, Springfield, Beretta, Colt, Sturm, Ruger, Remington, Glock or Browning. All good friends when you’re in a disagreement with idiots.
Well, I am connected to everything in here.
Idiots that weren’t, she concluded, inside your own body.
"This shit just keeps getting better and better. Can you tell me what the date is? Michael said he would be back in just a couple of days. How many days was I under? When did he leave?"
Michael left approximately thirty hours after you entered the pod. He has not returned within the scanning range of the craft. You have been under a little over 179 days. I don't know the present date. I haven't been able to connect with the craft's radio devices since the, uh, transformation. Actually, the hours and date are probably mostly accurate.
"What do you mean, 'mostly accurate'?"
Plus or minus two percent.
Looking around the room with the medical pod, she pulled out a bench that was connected with the wall and sat down.
Safe, check.
"Is there any water in this ship?"
There are devices which can pull the humidity out of the atmosphere, but you don't need it.
"Why is that?" She stood up and started towards the door. If she didn't need water, then she was good for a while without food.
Because the energy needed for your body is not wholly in this dimension. Part of the modifications included creating taps into the Ethereal dimension where I draw energy. This allows you to go without food and water for an extended amount of time
Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Set One: Books 1-7, Death Becomes Her, Queen Bitch, Love Lost, Bite This, Never Forsaken, Under My Heel, Kneel or Die (Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Sets) Page 10
