“Think you got a big enough truck? You already have one big pickup,” Mickey laughed, walking over.
Glancing back at Mickey, “It’s not mine, this one is Besseta’s,” Kenneth laughed and heard the engine of the dozer crank up. He turned to where the dozer was parked in the trees with the other heavy equipment, and saw Besseta sitting in the cab with a wide grin.
“That’s not fair, I don’t get to drive my excavator,” Tiffany moaned, walking over with Jack and Jill in her arms.
“Yes, you will, Tiffany. Besseta won’t be able to knock all those trees over, and we will need to move the ones she does knock over. Just try not to let them hit the garage,” Kenneth told her, and Tiffany took off to the excavator.
Mickey’s kids started cheering when Besseta dropped the blade of the dozer. “Um, what are they doing?” Mickey asked.
“Expanding the garage, so Suzie has a home,” Kenneth answered, pointing at the truck. “We are also building a barn and stable, then clearing out forty acres for a field, so we can get some horses.”
Totally confused, Mickey just nodded. “What can we do to help?”
“Nothing today, but tomorrow, I’ll have supplies delivered and we can start building, but if you and the family want to get out,” Kenneth paused and pointed at the other truck. “How about driving around and buying up 9mm ammo, preferably hollow-point?”
“Can I buy some tools?” Mickey asked.
“Dude, I know you got the credit cards, buy what you want. Just use cash to buy the ammo. The keys are in the garage and the lockbox on the workbench has cash,” Kenneth grinned. “Let the kids get some stuff,” he added.
“Maria, get the kids!” Mickey shouted as he ran for the garage.
As Mickey pulled away, Kenneth heard the first crash of a tree that Besseta had knocked over. Watching Tiffany drive the excavator over and grab the tree, Kenneth looked at the trees where the horse field was going. “Sorry, but you have to go,” Kenneth said and started to unload the truck.
Chapter Twenty-Five
It was over a week later with a foot of snow on the ground, and Kenneth was standing in front of the new garage with Mickey. This part of the garage was over twenty-foot-tall and bigger than the original. Kenneth had wanted to make sure they had room, in case Suzie got friends.
The barn and stables were up and he was watching Besseta and Tiffany on the heavy equipment, working on the field. “I can’t believe you bought a dump truck,” Mickey said, taking a sip of coffee as the sun rose.
“Mickey, I told Besseta her truck had a dump bed and we could use it, but Besseta threatened to break all my cars if I put dirt in her truck,” Kenneth snapped. “I didn’t want to buy the dump truck, but Besseta did ‘in case we needed it’,” Kenneth huffed.
Mickey just grinned as he sipped his coffee. Kenneth, Besseta, and Tiffany had only gone to the house a few times, since they’d been back. They hadn’t slept and at night, he and his family would sit and watch the three, or more correctly the work, because at night they moved so fast, Mickey and his family couldn’t see them.
Not to say work didn’t get done during the day. Mickey was certain it would’ve taken twenty men to equal what the three accomplished during the day. At night, he was certain it would’ve taken eighty. The only time he helped was during the day. He was scared they would run into him by accident at night.
Looking at the far end of the field past the stables, Mickey saw the small cinderblock building that housed all the stuff from the basement to handle mercury. Kenneth had what Mickey called ‘spacesuits’ to work with the mercury, but it was agreed; only Mickey would go into the building. Even Mickey wore the spacesuit when he made bullets.
“You sure Maria can handle the Hydratrek?” Kenneth asked.
Turning around, Mickey looked at the large box-like vehicle on tracks beside the garage. “Yes, but I can’t believe you bought that, just so we would have a way to and from the house when the lake freezes,” Mickey told him. “Kenneth, you were the most frugal person I’d ever met, and Besseta spends money like she’s mad at it. Hell, Tiffany doesn’t even ask for prices, she just reads off the numbers on her credit cards.”
“Oh, Besseta gets so pissed when I want to be a cheapskate,” Kenneth said with fear. “It’s taking some time, but she’s wearing me down.”
“I thought Tiffany was going to cry when you told her the garage wasn’t going to be heated or cooled,” Mickey mumbled.
Remembering Tiffany pouting, Kenneth had known he would handle that, and ordered heating and cooling units. That was, until Besseta found out. Needless to say, Kenneth had them delivered that very afternoon and they were installed before the sun rose the next morning.
“You working with them on guns again today?” Mickey asked.
“Yep,” Kenneth nodded, seeing the dozer and excavator driving toward them. “We face werewolves like that again, I want them shooting. This hand-to-hand shit is for the birds.”
Having trouble picturing werewolves bigger than the one Kenneth had showed him in L.A., Mickey gave a shiver. That one had been over eight-foot-tall and Kenneth had told Mickey; it’d been a baby. “Kenneth, you kill all of those you come across,” Mickey mumbled.
“Don’t worry,” Kenneth chuckled.
“You want me working on the motorcycles or bullets?” Mickey asked.
Thinking about the two dozen used motorcycles in the garage that Mickey and Maria had driven around and bought for him, Kenneth cocked his head to the side. “Go ahead and do bullets. I can do the bikes tonight.”
Mickey gave a wave and walked over to one of the new four-wheelers, and headed for the reloading building. Watching the girls park the heavy equipment, Kenneth headed to the garage and waited on them. The dogs bounced around in the snow while Besseta and Tiffany walked to him.
“You two like that heavy equipment too much,” Kenneth chuckled.
“I’ll be disappointed when we finish,” Tiffany said, bending over and picking up Jack and Jill. “More shooting?” she asked with a smile.
“Of course. But first, come in,” Kenneth said, opening the door and walking in the garage. He led the girls to the back wall where the long tool bench was.
“Where did you get all the swords?” Besseta asked, looking at several dozen different types of swords laid out on the table.
“Delivered yesterday,” Kenneth answered. Besseta saw claymores, short swords, broadswords, one-handed, and even katanas. “You both said you’ve used swords.”
“Kenneth,” Tiffany said, putting Jack and Jill down. “At one time, this was how vampires fought. I was always more terrified of someone with a sword, compared to someone with a gun. That is, until I met you. The man who puts mercury in bullets.”
“Babe, you want us to use the swords to fight?” Besseta asked.
“We can kill faster with a sword than with our bare hands,” Kenneth told her.
Giving a laugh, “Trust me, I know. But carrying around a sword today makes you stick out,” Besseta told him.
“I’ll take care of that,” Kenneth winked as Besseta looked at the swords.
She leaned closer, thinking the swords looked different. “Kenneth, these swords seem…” Besseta paused, looking for the right word.
“Fatter,” Tiffany suggested and Besseta nodded in agreement.
“Compared to regular swords, they are,” Kenneth said, grinning. “Each is four to six times the mass of a regular sword. Regular swords are designed for humans, we aren’t human. Take that bastard sword for example; a normal one weighs about three and a half pounds. That one weighs fourteen.”
Picking up the short sword, Tiffany lifted it to look at the blade. “This is nice work,” she noted, then saw the blade was much thicker than she had ever seen. “Sometimes, you make me sick.”
“What did I do?” Kenneth snapped.
“I used swords to fight for thousands of years and I never once thought to have one made, based on vampire strength. Heavier, therefore
, more durable,” Tiffany grumbled. “You come along and make that judgment in seconds.”
“Um, sorry?” Kenneth offered, and Tiffany just rolled her eyes.
“Kenneth, I know you took kenjutsu classes and studied medieval sword fighting, but using them for real is something altogether different,” Besseta said, picking up a bastard sword.
“I wish you could’ve seen me when I went through my Renaissance phase, going to those festivals dressed as a knight,” Kenneth chuckled. “Yeah, I was a dork.”
“Festivals?” Tiffany asked. “Like you went to in college? They still have those?”
“Shit,” Besseta mumbled, dropping the sword on the table and walking away. “Out of all the shit in Kenneth’s life he showed us in his memory, you remember those medieval fairs?!” Besseta cried out, throwing up her hands.
Chasing after Besseta, “Besseta, going would be fun!” Tiffany cried out.
“Hmm, not sure how to handle this,” Kenneth mumbled as Besseta walked back, with Tiffany begging to go to a festival.
Stopping at the table, “Find a good festival for us to go to,” Besseta told him with a flat expression. Hearing that, Tiffany started jumping up and down, clapping. ‘This is your fault,’ Besseta shouted in his mind.
“Um, sorry?” Kenneth tried with Besseta this time, and it seemed to have more effect.
“So, you really want to try swords? I mean, do you think you can use them without dying?” Besseta asked, rolling her eyes and Tiffany stopped cheering.
“Kenneth, take her into the woods and bump uglies until she has a smile on her face,” Tiffany commanded, and Kenneth’s legs gave out as he dropped to the floor laughing. Besseta glared at Tiffany over Kenneth’s howls of laughter. “What? You’re bitchy and it’s been four days. For you two, that’s a drought,” Tiffany reasoned.
“Tiffany!” Besseta shouted and Tiffany just crossed her arms, and Kenneth kicked the floor as he laughed.
“What? You need some nasty time,” Tiffany snapped back.
“Kenneth, stop laughing,” Besseta sighed, rubbing her temples.
As Kenneth pulled himself up to the bench, he fought not to laugh, but wasn’t doing a good job. “Oh, I know the problem,” Tiffany smiled and pointed at Kenneth. Seeing the look of concentration on Tiffany’s face, Kenneth stopped laughing out of fear.
Kenneth felt his long-sleeve flannel shirt rip off. “Hey,” he groaned. “I liked that shirt.” The cold didn’t really bother him, or vampires in general.
Feeling a ‘mood’ coming on, Besseta rolled her eyes, but turned to see Kenneth standing there without his shirt. Suddenly, Besseta thought Tiffany might’ve had a point. “Baby, why don’t we go for a walk in the woods?” Besseta suggested.
“Babe, we really do have a lot of stuff to do,” Kenneth sighed and looked up just as Besseta leapt at him. “Umph,” he grunted and Besseta rode him to the floor.
“Bonnie, Clyde, let’s go play in the snow,” Tiffany laughed, heading for the door.
“Quit biting!” Kenneth cried out as Tiffany shut the door.
***
Pops of gunfire sounded over the water as Tiffany stood outside the garage, shooting targets on the other side of the parking area. Asphalt covered the area, forming a large lot from the garage to the trees and all the way to the dock and boat ramp. When her slide locked back, Tiffany dropped the magazine and slammed in a new one. Taking aim at the targets, the door opened behind her.
“It’s not my fault your pants are torn up!” Besseta shouted. “You need to move faster!”
Lowering the pistol, Tiffany glanced at her watch. “Only two hours, I’m shocked.”
When she shut the door, Besseta leaned back against the wall. “He was like that little pink bunny we see on TV. Kenneth just kept going and going. He wouldn’t let me catch my breath,” Besseta panted.
“Surprised you’re out here,” Tiffany smiled, raising the pistol back up.
“Maria is coming over with the kids,” Besseta huffed. “Hate to say it, but I’m kind of glad. It’s really rude when someone won’t let you catch your breath.”
Tiffany squeezed the trigger rapidly and clanks followed each gunshot when the bullets hit the steel plate targets. “That is rude, but in a good way,” Tiffany grinned, ejecting the magazine.
“I didn’t see you take one of the guns out when you left the garage,” Besseta said, and heard the boat crank up at the house.
“Went to the house and got one out of the safe,” Tiffany said, moving over to a small folding table and started loading magazines. “I don’t like the babies out here when we shoot guns.”
The garage door opened, and Kenneth stepped out wearing gray jogging pants and tennis shoes. “I’m glad I found these in the toolbox,” Kenneth said, looking at Besseta as she helped load magazines.
Seeing Tiffany and Besseta loading magazines, Kenneth headed back into the garage and came back out carrying three small gun cases. “Okay, here’s the guns we are going to use,” Kenneth told them, setting the cases on the table.
Putting down the pistol she was shooting, Tiffany clapped her hands. “Oh, a new gun!” she said excitedly. Kenneth just chuckled, opening the cases and moving one to Besseta and one to Tiffany.
Tiffany’s look of joy turned to confusion as she looked at the pistol in the case. “Is it a ray gun? Like those space movies have?” she asked hesitantly.
Running her fingers over the pistol, Besseta had to agree with Tiffany; it looked weird. “What’s the round thing on the back, if it’s not a battery?” Besseta asked and Tiffany was thankful because that was going to be her next question.
Taking the pistol out of the case in front of him, “This is the Calico Liberty 3 Tactical in 9mm. Nineteen inches long with a magazine capacity of one hundred rounds. The round thing is the rotary magazine,” Kenneth explained, taking the magazine off.
“One hundred shots!” they cried out in joy.
Nodding, “Yeah, our hand-eye coordination is a thousand-fold better than when I was human, but our kind and werewolves move fast, so I wanted larger magazines. I’m actually worried how fast leviathans can move. Secretly, I’m hoping they stay home and don’t come out to play,” Kenneth admitted.
The girls pulled out the pistols, inspecting them. “It’s long,” Tiffany noted.
“Nineteen inches,” Kenneth told her and then showed them how the pistol worked, ending with the safety and clicking it twice.
“You mean it’s a machine gun?” Besseta cried out with a grin.
“Machine pistol,” Kenneth chuckled. “I want us to learn to fire in three to five-round bursts at targets. Up close they can’t dodge, but two hundred yards out, I’m certain they could dodge single shots. So, we send out bursts of five, making it harder to dodge.”
“How do you load this thing?” Tiffany cheered, pulling the magazine off the pistol. Kenneth showed them how to load it, then pulled out a suppressor from his case and threaded it on the barrel.
“Makes it really long,” Besseta observed and then pulled the suppressor in her case out, putting it on.
“It adds seven inches, but I don’t want someone on the lake to hear full auto fire and tattle to the cops,” Kenneth explained. “I really don’t want the cops out here snooping around.”
Looking toward the trees, “Should we move further into the forest?” Tiffany asked. “Besseta does own quite a bit of land we can use.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Kenneth said as the party barge pulled into the dock. They all turned to watch the two older kids climb out and tie the boat up. “Damn, Maria can drive a boat.”
“They’ve been practicing,” Besseta laughed, grabbing a box of shells and started loading the magazine. “How hard is it driving motorcycles on icy roads?”
“A challenge, but the further south we go, the less snow we will face. I’ve outfitted some of the sport bikes with studded tires, but also have touring bikes, if it’s too much of a problem. We will be practicing bec
ause I like having the option of making distance while the sun is up.”
Finished loading her magazine, Tiffany slapped it back on the pistol. “I hate to admit it, but my motorcycle could almost go as fast as I can run.”
“Don’t be. That’s the fastest production bike in the world, currently,” Kenneth shrugged as the kids ran over with the dogs. The three put down the pistols and started playing with the kids. This was the first snow they had ever seen and were having a blast.
The oldest at eleven was Ciera and the unofficial leader of the kids. As Besseta picked her up and spun her around, Ciera gave a laugh and when Besseta stopped, she wrapped her arms around Besseta’s neck. “Besseta, do you have snowmobiles?” Ciera asked with a wide grin.
Confused, Besseta turned to the line of ATVs they had bought, parked near the garage. “Aren’t those snowmobiles?” Besseta asked and Ciera shook her head.
“No, we saw some on the TV and they had skis on the front,” Ciera explained and Besseta turned to Kenneth.
“Why don’t we have some of the ones with skis?” Besseta asked.
Putting Little Mickey and Carrie on his hips, Kenneth shrugged. “I bought two four-wheelers, and two quad cab UTVs that Mickey and Maria could use running around the property.”
“But snowmobiles look much funner,” Ciera grinned.
“Buy some of those,” Besseta commanded.
As Kenneth drew a breath, Tiffany put Little Tiffany and Phillip on her hips. “Use my credit card and buy some that they can ride,” Tiffany told him. “Just get each one a snowmobile,” she decreed.
Walking over with a strap on her shoulder connected to a cooler, Maria looked at Kenneth standing in the snow, without a shirt and in tennis shoes. Besseta and Tiffany were only wearing jeans and light t-shirts, while she and her kids were in thick snow gear. “Kenneth, you need to put a shirt on,” Maria shivered, then heard the kids let out a cheer about getting snowmobiles.
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