Char’s lip curled as she snarled and glared at the creature.
“See, Joseph, that’s the rub. We’re not going to roll our people out to be your personal smorgasbord. Many of them were trapped underground for the past two decades with some Forsaken. Their necks are scarred from the feedings over the years. I find that thought repulsive and your very existence to be a blight on humanity.” Terry took a breath before continuing. His eyes glowed as he leaned close.
“Here’s the deal. If we let you go, and at some point in time, you bite one of our people, I will hunt you down and cut your limbs off, one by one. Then I will drag your half-living carcass around as I kill anything and anyone you ever cared about. I will burn down city blocks just to make sure. You will suffer greatly before you die. Look into my mind, Joseph. Can you see it?”
Terry thought about Melissa’s murder and his vengeance. He fingered the silvered blade hidden in his shirt, a remnant from that time.
“It’s not very pretty,” Joseph replied, finally standing but keeping his hands where they were. “I agree to your terms. I will not betray you or them.”
Joseph finally lowered his arms, carefully, and he swept one around the circle to take in everyone present.
Char snarled, the anger growing within her. Terry held his hands out to calm her and mouthed the words, “Trust me.”
She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Kaeden stood at her side, holding her hand and watching Terry.
The boy wasn’t afraid.
“Where are you staying?” Terry asked. Joseph shrugged. “There we go, trust issues. I asked you a question and need an answer. We will tell our people to avoid that area, but if you aren’t going to tell us, then we’re back to square one.”
Terry pulled his silvered blade and twirled it in the sunshine. “I live in the city, in the basement of the tallest building,” Joseph offered, looking at the ground. Terry pointed to the hat and motioned for Merrit to give it to him. The Werewolf snarled and kept his foot on it.
Terry walked up to the man, getting inches from his face. “I don’t know you that well, Merrit, but I’m your alpha and I’ve given you an order. If you don’t want to end up bloody and broken, I suggest you give me that fucking hat,” Terry growled.
Merrit looked quickly away. He’d learned the previous night that Char had removed Timmons’s hand. The new alphas would not tolerate disobedience or even disrespect. Merrit had just watched Terry Henry Walton beat the snot out of a Vampire without breaking a sweat. Even though the Vamp was a weaker daywalker, he was still a Forsaken, just like the one that had ended Xandrie’s life.
Merrit knew that Terry was not to be toyed with. He mumbled an apology, then picked up the leather hat, dusted it off, and handed it to Terry.
“Thank you,” he replied, snatching it from Merrit’s fingers and glaring at him for an instant before turning to the Forsaken. “Here.”
Joseph put the hat on his head, angling it slightly to best block the sun. “I will return in three days’ time to meet with you, Terry Henry Walton, and every three days thereafter, to demonstrate my good faith and see if there is anything you require of me.”
Terry thrust his hand out. Joseph looked at it. He didn’t remove his glove as he took the human’s hand, gripped it firmly, and shook twice before leaving go. Joseph bowed deeply to Char, then walked through the gap between Timmons and Shonna without looking at either of them. He walked away, limping slightly while holding his side.
They turned to watch him go.
“He’s my responsibility and none of you need doubt that I will do what I said I would if he betrays us. If that’s all there is to this happy meet and greet, we have shit to do and we’re burning daylight.” Terry scowled as he looked at the bunch.
No one seemed happy, except Aaron, and he was happy all the time, regardless of what was going on.
“Back to the base, all of you,” Char said in a low voice, not taking her eyes from TH. “We’ll be along shortly. I’d like to talk with my husband alone.”
CHAPTER TWO
“Everett, Hayden, tell me something of yourselves,” Adams asked as they sat around the campfire, somewhere along the Missouri River. The herd grazed at the water’s edge, shuffling slowly about. The cows from both herds intermingled as if they’d always been together, and they were equally tired, too.
The children of Eli looked at each other and then at Adams. They rarely spoke, and when they did, it was softly.
“What’s there to tell? We were born before the fall, lived decent lives and then we were refugees within our own world. Thank God—” The two crossed themselves. “—for our father who already lived a minimalist existence, off the grid, as they would say, before there was no more grid.”
Everett talked slowly, spoke deliberately.
“What did you do for fun?” Adams pressed.
“We would challenge each other in getting the chores done. After services on Sunday, we’d play rock toss!” Everett’s excitement increased and Hayden nodded and smiled.
Adams was from New York City. He had a vastly different idea of what it was like to have fun. Chuck the rock would not have been in his top one thousand things to do when trying to have fun. But this was a new world.
“Is it light enough? Show me what you mean and let’s play,” Adams suggested. EssCee and Lousy State leaned in. Alabama decided he wanted to play, too. Clemson and Vandy were at the far side of the small pasture, keeping the cattle from wandering off. They didn’t know there was a game afoot.
Those driving the carts had made a separate camp a little ways away, cordoning the cattle so no one had to play shepherd during the night. The cattle remained contained. Each morning when they rose, numerous people would count the heads to make sure none strayed during the night. Only twice did any of the Force de Guerre have to hunt down strays and drive them back to the herd.
Hayden jumped up first, but then stopped and waited, since she had been raised to defer to her brothers. Adams didn’t give a rat’s ass. “Hayden, tell us the rules,” Adams said.
She looked to Everett, who nodded slightly.
Adams wanted to punch them both. The five youngsters, only one of whom was Hayden’s, stood in a line behind their relatives. They wouldn’t ask to play, but were eager and ready if invited.
“You, too! Everyone plays. If Terry Henry Walton has taught us anything, it’s that everyone gets an equal chance to participate. Equal opportunity, but not equal result. You are what you make of yourselves, right?” Adams hadn’t heard Terry say any of that stuff, but Char told them how it was going to be. He assumed she got it from her mate because that wasn’t anything like what she’d said before meeting the human.
“You take one big rock and two small rocks. Mark the small ones so you know which ones are yours. First person throws their big rock. Then everyone else throws one of their small rocks. If someone hits the big rock, that round is over. Everyone goes to that spot and whoever hit it throws their big rock. You keep track of how many times you get to throw your big rock. If no one hits the target rock, then we throw the second small stone. If no one hits it again, then closest throws the next target rock. That’s it,” she narrated in an excited little girl voice.
They found their rocks and did their best to mark them. Everett threw the target rock to start things off. Lousy State went first. He wound up like a major league pitcher and lined a fastball straight into the target rock that was only twenty feet away. He hit it, much to everyone else’s dismay.
They trooped to that spot, where Lousy launched his target rock a good hundred feet into the distance.
“We don’t usually throw them that far,” Hayden whispered as the group pressed in on her, angling to get their turn to throw at the target.
“Looks like we have a higher level of competition,” Adams replied, making sure the youngest went first. They accurately threw their rocks, but no one hit the target. Everett and Hayden were the two farthest away, so they would go first
in the next round. Alabama had made the closest toss. He recovered his two small stones and got ready to heave his target rock as if he wanted to outdo his brother.
“Not as far, big dog,” Adams cautioned. The young man groaned, but threw the big rock a little closer.
Eli’s grandchildren huddled around Everett and Hayden. Everett leaned close to Adams. “I’m not sure we should be playing our game with the darkies,” he whispered.
Adams grabbed the man by the throat. “What the fuck just came out of your mouth?” Everett struggled to breathe. Hayden and the five children dropped to their knees and bowed their heads. “You look at them through the lens of their skin? I just lost my mate to a white-skinned demon. Do I clump you fuckers in with him? No. If I ever hear or see you do anything that suggests they are second-class citizens because they are different from you, I will beat you senseless and leave you for dead! You fuckers are the different ones, if you ask me. Now get the hell up there and play, it’s your turn, and the rest of us are waiting!”
The Weathers boys were taken aback. They’d never been exposed to anything like that before. The WWDE was the great equalizer, making most people equally dead, regardless of skin color or social status. Adams thought Werwolves were higher up the food chain than the humans, but he kept that to himself. He was in charge of getting the cattle and these people to New Chicago and by all that was holy, he was going to make it happen.
“Game’s on and I’m going to get serious and kick all your lame asses!” Adams challenged. The slight was quickly forgotten as Adams mixed the players up, then created a team challenge, forming teams with various players on each side.
After it got too dark to continue, Adams sent everyone to their blankets to rest. Tomorrow was going to be a long day, even though he had nothing special planned, tomorrows were always long days.
“Wait up, you two,” he told Everett and Hayden. “Please, it’s just us out here. We need each other, respect each other. We have a long ways to go, and I don’t have time to deal with hurt feelings or other bullshit, so please, everyone here is equal.”
Everett tried to apologize, but Adams stopped him. “That’s the end of it. We’ll play the game every night from now until we get to our new home, because it’s fun! I would have never thought about it, but it’s fun. We may even have to start a league because we have so many players.”
“What’s a league?” Everett asked.
“And that is for another day. Thanks for sharing your game with the rest of us. That made a good difference tonight. Listen. You can still hear them laughing.” Adams smiled and clapped Everett on the back. He hugged Hayden, probably longer than she was comfortable with, but he didn’t want anyone living in a shell. He was from New York City, and that was just how it had to be.
He turned to walk away, but there was a commotion near the carts. He took off running.
***
Terry was prepared for the fight of the century. He could see that Char wasn’t happy. In fact, he thought that she was furious, but that word probably didn’t cover how angry she was.
“You let a Forsaken go,” she said in a low and dangerous voice.
“Yes, I did,” he replied simply. She got close and swung with the considerable power in her body. Terry closed his eyes without raising his arms or defending himself. Char pulled her punch at the last instant, just clipping the tip of Terry’s nose and that was enough to flatten it against his face.
He grunted, but didn’t move. Kaeden started to cry. She picked the boy up and stood there.
When Terry opened his eyes, he saw the tears running from Char’s beautiful purple eyes. He didn’t know what to say, but he knew what to do. He hugged his wife as best he could with Kae hugging her neck.
“I know why you did what you did, TH, and I also know that you’re right. All I can say is these pregnancy hormones are a royal bitch,” she whispered, quickly collecting herself and smiling at Kaeden. “And he’s a Forsaken. Is there really room for them in a new world?”
She put the boy down and they each took a hand as they started walking back to the base. Not far off, Timmons was waiting.
“Would you look at that?” Char said when she saw that Timmons’s hand had grown back. She was surprised that she hadn’t noticed before then.
“I take nothing for granted, my alpha,” he replied humbly. She slapped him on the shoulder. “The process was quite painful, for reference, but Kiwi and Gerry saved our lives, Ted’s and mine both.”
“I love hearing good things that my people have done, just like the good work you and Ted did in the decision to move here and use the better plant. That was top notch, Timmons,” Terry replied.
“I had forgotten one other little tidbit that I figured you’d want to know…” Timmons stalled before saying the second part. Char’s eyes were still puffy and Terry’s nose was still flattened across his face. Timmons kept staring until Terry snapped it back into place, giving the nanocytes less to do. Kae giggled.
“There’s a Were-bear in the area. Ted and I sensed it up near Milwaukee, where we were fishing from the sailboat, but we hauled ass out of there before he got too close. We don’t think he followed us as that was, hell, a couple weeks ago and we haven’t sensed anything since.” Timmons looked out from under shaded eyes.
“You have a boat?” Terry asked. He used to love sailing.
“A Were-bear?” she asked, looking at Terry Henry.
“Please don’t punch me in the face!” Timmons blurted.
Char turned back to her fellow Werewolf. “Why would you think I was going to punch you in the face?” She leaned closer to him and he started to raise a hand to protect himself, but fought the urge and forced it back to his side. He leaned away, turning slightly in case he needed to run.
Terry chuckled. “Until that baby is born, I think we’re all going to be running for our lives,” Terry quipped. Char turned back, leading with the stink-eye, and Timmons bolted.
Terry started to laugh, while massaging his nose, which Kaeden found funny and laughed along.
Char couldn’t be angry with that. “You’re heading the right way for a smacked bottom, mister,” she told Terry, nudging him as he used Kaeden as a shield to hold her off.
“What should we worry about with a Were-bear?” Terry finally asked, his smile gone.
“No idea, honey. No idea at all, but the pack is back together, mostly. We’re better able to handle a Were-bear now if need be, although I suspect one would simply avoid the area. Too much Were blood here for him or her to enter our territory.” Char shrugged and started walking back to the base.
“Let’s hope that the bear steers clear, while planning what we need to do if it shows up. You know me—hope for the best, prepare for the worst,” Terry said as he looked behind him at the road where Joseph had been.
“Maybe we can talk the Were-bear into joining us? He might be able to teach Hank some manners,” Terry suggested, cocking one eyebrow.
“This isn’t a town, it’s a zoo!” Char declared.
Kaeden whispered into Terry’s ear. “What’s a zoo?”
Terry kept his mouth shut. It didn’t help that Clyde was barking somewhere nearby.
“I miss my dog,” he said to no one in particular.
***
Mark wanted a barracks for the Force personnel to call their own. On the side of the base intended for recruit training, there were numerous barracks of the type preferred by the military, but open squad bays, as Terry called them, didn’t work for long-term residents. He was strongly opposed to such an arrangement, although Mark was in favor, selfishly, as his way of controlling the people.
The sergeant coordinated with Corporal James to determine that there were no other spaces that compared. Mark decided that they would modify the barracks to separate out the living spaces, creating small rooms for each person. The barracks building was three stories high with one wing on each side of a central stairway.
James suggested that it would on
ly be temporary as scattered throughout the base, there was probably room for ten thousand people in a variety of homes and residential buildings.
The spaces in the recruit barracks were trashed with metal bunks thrown about haphazardly. Most of the mattresses were gone. Some of the windows had been broken out. There was a single enclosed room in each squad bay which the instructors used to use as an office. Mark directed Blackie to prepare that room, so it would look warm and friendly.
To Mark, the place was heaven. But when it came down to it, it wasn’t home. They needed something that they were missing. Mark ordered the platoon to continue working while he went in search of the missing piece.
An hour later, he found Mrs. Grimes.
“We’d like you to come live with us,” Mark asked, his hat in his hand and wearing his uniform, including his flak jacket as they always did.
“Why would I want to do that?” she asked, fishing for a compliment.
“Because we need you to keep us in line. We have a barracks, but we don’t have a plan. You saved us from having to worry about that stuff back in New Boulder. We need you to do that here. We have a completely separate room that is just for you,” he teased. “What do you say, Mrs. Grimes?”
“Let me see it first, before I make any decisions,” she replied.
“You miss us, don’t you?” he taunted the old woman. She produced her spoon at the speed of light and rapped it across his knuckles. He winced and muttered, “I don’t miss that, that’s for sure!”
She’d already decided that they needed her if they were going to be decent human beings.
She had a plan.
CHAPTER THREE
When Adams reached the carts, he found the people sitting around a small fire, relaxing after their evening meal.
Nomad's Fury: A Kurtherian Gambit Series (Terry Henry Walton Chronicles Book 5) Page 2
