The Darkest Night (The Second Dark Ages Book 2)

by Michael Anderle

  Sabine nodded. “You got my back, cousin?” she asked.

  “I had guessed,” Kirk joined the conversation. “There is always a Yin and Yang to everything. But what about the short one?” Kirk asked, looking at Eve.

  Eve turned to regard the young man. “I am an Artificial Intelligence, created by the first of my kind, ADAM out in space, and sent here to keep my friends sane as they accomplished their task to be ready when the ArchAngel returned. They are to keep him safe until the Queen returns. In the decades since, I have achieved my own sentience and powers.” She lifted a hand; it had a gun with a square barrel, two inches on a side, and a bunch of small holes in it.

  She turned back and aimed towards the right, where wolves were trying to run around and flank them. “While I am not a supporter of killing, I have found some who really do justify termination.”

  With that, Eve lifted her right leg and slammed it into the dirt; once, twice, thrice. “You need a good brace to fire this fucker,” she added, “It’s a new design using some of the Jean Dukes technology to get them going, then rocket’s kick in to guide to the targets.” She then leaned forward and squeezed the trigger. The little woman was tossed backwards as she yelled, “Wheeeee!” and slammed into Alan, who had been five feet behind her. He had tried to catch her but was barely able to slow down the two of them when the suddenly active android hit him. They continued to fly back another five feet before landing with a thump.

  A hundred yards away, twenty-five wolves exploded in gore. Behind him, Kirk could hear the little android apologizing to Alan with “Wow, more kick than I had realized, fucker went to fifteen.”

  Yuko snorted from up front.

  “Akio?” Michael called out. “Care to dance?”

  “Always, Master Michael,” Akio agreed and holstered his pistols.

  Sabine took a moment to slam her last two cartridges into her guns. She looked back at the guys she had come to join. “It’s time to get behind us!”

  Kirk and James stared at each other. “You sure this is your cousin?” Kirk hissed to his friend, who shrugged his shoulders and nodded.

  Akio’s humor could be seen in his eyes as he moved towards Michael.

  He was sure this dance would be one of the best of his life.

  He wasn’t disappointed.

  Michael spoke as the pack was crossing the final hundred yards. By agreement, no one had shot the Alpha yet. Michael’s eyes flashed red. “The interesting thing about Pack is that any time you take out the Alpha,” Michael shot his hand up, “it causes confusion. In battle, confusion is thy enemy.”

  —

  Adorjan, his focus on the bald man in the middle, was one of the first to know without a doubt that he was running straight towards his worst nightmare. The red eyes gave the man away; that he was in the sun provided the second most important clue as to how powerful a vampire he was streaking towards.

  As his skin and hair were engulfed in flames, he had no doubt which of the myths from the vampires’ past he had just been running towards.

  “Michael…” was his last thought as his blood began to boil.

  —

  “Son of a bitch,” James whispered as the Alpha of the wolfpack in front of them was consumed in flames. The wolf lasted another three leaps before he exploded, raining chunks of burnt flesh and fire across the lead members of the pack.

  Many had lost their will to fight but were being pushed forward by those who came behind them—those who had not yet seen what their Alpha had recognized just before he died.

  Two of the pack figured that it would be better to see if they could go to ground and hope their pack missed them. They split to the side rather than face the death they knew was waiting for them in front.

  One died, trampled by his pack. The other broke out, one leg shattered and one ear gone, but alive.

  In the middle, the dance of the two sword masters was beautiful to watch. Michael had exchanged the wakizashi for an Ulfberht. He took the head of a wolf to his right as he kicked the one coming straight at him in the chest and knocked it back. You know,” Michael mentioned casually, “I never understood why everyone always believes the katana is superior to a European sword.” Michael swung his left arm back, forming a serrated Etheric edge around his hand as he stabbed into the chest cavity of a wolf that had tried to duck and come under the one Michael had kicked back.

  “It started with the movies,” Akio answered. He brought his own katana down, slicing a wolf’s head in two from the top of the skull through its jaws. Another wolf was preparing to jump over his kill when its head exploded in gore.

  Yuko was on the job.

  “Then,” Akio continued his turn and ran a wolf through its chest. “Those that loved the romanticism of the katana continued the effort with Anime and Manga.” Akio pulled his sword clear, then pivoted on his right foot and swept his sword low to amputate two legs from the nearest wolf. When Michael reached across to slash a wolf through the back, Akio turned again and moved across to Michael’s unprotected side to remove the jaw of another one who was seeking to hamstring Michael.

  “Well,” Michael replied, not worrying about any area Akio had under control, “the Vikings themselves forged crucible steel.” He brought his sword around his shoulders and swung it up from the ground. The wolf that was jumping towards him received a slice in the chest and a boost that sent it flying over Michael’s head.

  He heard a shotgun blast, which he figured was from the one called Kirk.

  —

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” Mark asked, annoyed.

  “They really don’t want to give anyone a chance to get a sword or club in edgewise, do they?” Jacqueline replied.

  “Over here!” Eve called for their attention as ten new wolves circled the large group that was trying to get to the man they felt had killed their Alpha.

  “About damned time!” Jacqueline threw down her staff.

  “Uh oh,” Mark said. “Honey?”

  “Don’t honey me!” Jacqueline hissed. “I’m done playing second fiddle and waiting for Werewolf scraps!”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Mark huffed out. “Fine! But you better keep your foot off me or I’ll bite it!”

  Eve looked around at Alan, who was standing behind her, and shrugged her shoulders. The little AI turned again and took a step back as Jacqueline howled her challenge.

  —

  “Oh my god!” Alan retreated from the new monster in front of him, and involuntarily raised his weapon when a bullet whizzed by.

  He jerked his head around to see Sabine looking at him over her pistol’s gunsights. “Don’t make me put it closer next time!” she said.

  “Sorry!” he called back. “Just took me by surprise.”

  “You aren’t the only one,” Kirk agreed. James had his shotgun barrel in his hand, which had kept Kirk from aiming at the new monster in the group.

  Sabine turned back around and started shooting.

  Left, left, right, right, left.

  You are doing well, Gunslinger, his voice said in her mind, and Sabine smiled.

  —

  Of the ten Weres that had circled the large group, the grey female in the front was the hungriest. Bernase was a strong supporter of Adorjan, and had tried on multiple occasions to get him to commit to a relationship with her. However, every time she thought she had a chance, another female would intrude and she went back to living in obscurity again. Now Adorjan was dead, and these people had killed her dreams. While many of her pack mates were busy trying to get at the leader, the Alpha of the human pack, she and those following her would kill the others on the edge.

  She was eyeing the young woman—not the short one, she didn’t smell right—when the human threw down her pole in anger. Bernase wasn’t against a foe who acted stupid, and this would only make her easier to kill. That’s when the girl changed into a form from her kind’s own mythology.

  Bernase was about to attack a Pricolici. It took her only anoth
er second to realize that the man next to her was a day-walking vampire. Bernase lasted long enough to know she was about to join Adorjan before the standing Pricolici grabbed her head in a vice like grip and squeezed.

  Inside Paris.

  Gerard used powerful binoculars to view the skirmishes in the distance, and what he saw was most annoying.

  Not only was the group that was supposed to be attacking not yet in the city, but from what little he could tell, it looked like the fight was going against the pack.

  Hard to believe, but he had to work with what he could see, and he saw that the Weres had failed.

  He took off his backpack and placed it on a hook on the small wall that was still standing upright on the seventh-floor landing. Reaching into the left side of the pack, he pulled out a small transceiver and clicked the buttons twice and three times, then twice and four times in a predetermined signal.

  He repeated the pattern until he heard a long beep, then two beeps and one long one.

  Gerard placed the transceiver back in his bag. He looked back to the west and shook his head. It was annoying that they would have to bring all of the local packs into this battle. The cleanup was going to be a mess, and the sharing of spoils had just gotten more complicated.

  Weres could be such a pain in the ass when loot was to be distributed. However, it wasn’t his job to deal with issues; that was up to the Duke.

  His job was to make sure the city was subdued for his boss when he woke up later this evening. Now at least another two thousand Weres were on their way; they should be here right after lunch.

  —

  Blam! Kirk racked another shell into the chamber, then the slug from his shotgun blew the Were who was trying to get a bead on James in half. His rounds weren’t silver, but when you created enough damage, the job got done.

  Then a single bullet went into the Were’s brain, and the lights slowly went out.

  Kirk turned around to see Sabine aiming to her left, her right hand still pointed in his general direction. He rotated back to make sure no more attackers had made it around the Magnificent Seven to attack from the rear. Every once in awhile a sniper would catch one of the wolves, and it would slow down enough for his group’s rounds to tear it to pieces.

  He wouldn’t be able to hear a damned thing for a week after this fight, he suspected.

  He scanned all around, eyes flitting to Sabine, who seemed preternaturally calm in this environment; he had no idea why. It was as if she had been shooting for decades; hell, centuries. Her calm assurance with the pistols both he and James absolutely knew came from the strangers continued to baffle them.

  Plus, her weapons killed the Weres, and quickly.

  Then the young Asian woman yelled over her shoulder to Sabine, who nodded and smiled like a mischievous rat.

  “Oh, holy shit!” Timothy called out. “I think I’m getting a bullet boner!”

  —

  Yuko had been released. Released from the inhibitions in her mind against killing due to balance, due to responsibility and role. Her early life had been about hacking, computers, logic, and puzzles—the destruction of inanimate objects.

  Not wanton destruction like killing, blood and gore.

  Akio had demanded she learn weapons and martial arts, and due to her physiology, she was better than any human alive could ever hope to be. However, she lacked the one trait that would allow her to be one of the best in the world…

  She lacked the willingness to kill for a long time.

  She had been in fights, and she had defended and killed before through the years. However, in these last few minutes she had taken more lives than in her previous one hundred and eighty years of living.

  When she had told Akio she would be coming along and also fighting, she had made a decision—she was best as a follower. She handled the roles the Queen had placed her in over the years. However, almost all of them had been forced on her, moving Yuko out of her comfort zone.

  Yuko accomplished her roles well. But truth be told, she excelled as the right-hand person of a natural leader. Akio was not her leader; her leader was among the stars.

  Now Michael was here, and Bethany Anne’s commands had been explicit: she was to do whatever it took to help him be safe.

  Michael directed her focus and her guns towards the Weres that were attacking the humans.

  Earlier, she had slipped into her armor, and it had felt sensuous. When she dropped the same pistols she had used for over fifteen decades into her holsters, her body had reacted in a way that surprised her.

  She felt like a black widow, hungry for a coming orgasm of death. The feelings had left her confused, until Michael commanded them to attack.

  Now? Now her face was alight in the ecstasy of joining the skills honed over the century and a half with the newfound liberty brought about by Michael’s command.

  How could she up the amperage of the moment? She looked around and smiled.

  “Sabine!” she called.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Akio glanced around at the remaining wolves, and his eyes opened in shock.

  “Focus!” Michael called, and Akio’s sword sliced to his left, taking half the head off a wolf that assumed that because Akio wasn’t looking directly at him, he would be caught unaware.

  The Were’s death was proof of that mistake.

  However, Michael’s point was spot on. He thought about it a moment, and realized this was the first time he had been taken by surprise on the battlefield in…

  Hmmm, he couldn’t remember. He smiled when he realized it was due to a woman the last time, as well.

  ---

  Sabine backed up two steps and felt Yuko’s back against her own. “Right!” Yuko yelled, and Sabine swung to her right, Yuko in perfect synchronization with her. The gentle contact was a new experience for Sabine, as the two danced in a circle and fired their weapons, continuing to move.

  To dance.

  To feel each other’s power, keeping the entire battlefield in view as they turned together. Sabine didn’t need to wonder if her legs could handle this. She had run for sport all her life, and she didn’t just run over the flat streets in cities. No, she also ran through fields, over broken concrete, up mountains, and down ravines. Her feet never missed a step as the two of them rotated clockwise. If a wolf was far enough away, she left it for Yuko to take out as she focused on selecting targets and firing.

  God, why hadn’t she ever danced like this before?

  That’s when the pistol in her right hand clicked empty.

  “I’ve got you,” a breath spoke in her ear as if on the wind. There was a tug on her belt and her right pistol was replaced by one of Yuko’s. “Only fire that if you have to,” Yuko commanded. Sabine nodded.

  Fire left, left, left.

  She felt for the new pistol with her right hand, then Yuko commanded, “Let’s go left!”

  Sabine swung to her left, knees slightly bent, as the two women continued their sensuous dance of death.

  ---

  Michael glanced at the two women and smiled as he called to Akio, “Is Yuko acting out of character?”

  “Hai!”

  “She seems to be enjoying herself,” Michael added.

  “That is true,” Akio responded. “What did you do to her?”

  “Me?” Michael asked as the dead and injured wolves continued to pile up. The two of them had danced with their swords away from the group and were now some fifty yards away from the main group.

  “Yes, Michael. This is not Yuko as I have known her.” Akio mused. “So, I am making the supposition that you might have done something similar to the help I provided Sabine.”

  Michael chuckled. “No, I think you are just constrained by your narrow minded focus and purpose, Akio. I suspect I know why she is channeling her inner Bethany Anne, but you would have to ask her to confirm my guess.”

  “No mental suggestions?” Akio queried as the two continued their fight against the wolves. Michael had take
n one bite that he had almost healed from, and Akio had two bites and a slash across his chest that his armor had mostly deflected.

  “Not my style with my people, Akio,” Michael answered. He was pleased to realize that Akio’s questions hadn’t angered him. Perhaps he was changing, at least a little. He decided he liked this new Michael.

  “I’ll have to ask, then,” Akio agreed as he stabbed a Were that had gotten too close.

  “You can resupply my pistols if I go empty, right?” Michael called back.

  “Hai!”

  There was a pause before Michael said to no one in particular, “I’m getting bored.”

  Akio, his eyes opening wide, turned to see what Michael was going to do as he protected his own left side.

  ---

  “Oh shit!” Mark and Jacqueline both yelled at the same time.

  “That’s bad?” Eve questioned from their right, as two of the humans called from behind them to ask what the problem was.

  “Michael’s bored,” Mark called over his shoulder. Jacqueline stayed quiet. Speaking in this form annoyed her, and her blood lust was dropping.

  Mark turned to his left, then his right. He was surprised to see his love had changed back to human again, and was reaching down for her staff. “Damn!” he swore, and swung his sword to keep a wolf a few steps back as Jacqueline grabbed her weapon and stood up. “Give a guy a little warning,” he told her.

  Jacqueline purred her answer. “I knew you were up to the challenge, baby.”

  “Geez,” Timothy called over to James. “Another battle boner!”

  ---

  “Catch!” Michael twisted to his left in a circle, tossed his sword towards Akio and dragged his coat back to reach his pistols. He unclipped the straps that held them in place and yanked.

  As he finished his turn, Jean Dukes ready in both hands, Michael decided to see just how quickly he could react with the Etheric powering him.

  Wolves started evaporating in a hail of small, powerful needles. The kinetic power bucked the pistols in Michael’s hands as guts and entrails exploded into the air.

  ---

  “That is just gross!” Jacqueline covered her head as the wind carried a mist of blood and guts down on top of them. Yuko and Sabine had stopped their circling dance and held their arms over their heads. The humans were looking around.