by P. Mattern
FULL MOON TRILOGY – FULL MOON FALLING FASTER
By P. A. Mattern and M. Mattern
Text Copyright © 2013 Mattern and M. Mattern
All Right Reserved
To Raven Teu for prescient wisdom and encouragement
Healthfeit thanks to my readers and
Beta Readers:Nora Bouvier, Cary Scholes, Raine Phoenix, Ruthie Cunliffe, Neerja Meyan, Brenda Aboeul-Kheir, Eve R. Pines
Much love to Mellisa Parfitz, James Marshall, and Laurie Ann Lucas for growing Full Monn Series page
Special thanks to Brenda Davis Aboeul-Kheir
Thanks to Irene Martinko for permission to use Sam Saddlebags children’s book
Jeremy Lungi for formatting contributions
And my genius son and collaborator Marcus mattern
And my beautiful daughter J.C. Estall
All characters in this novel are fictitious and any resemblance to individuals living or dead is purely coincidental.
“Although most consider me to be purveyor of light, my mission has never been to eradicate the Darkness, but to maintain a balance… it requires pragmatism and diplomacy. I do not try to remove evil from a world that was created to cradle and preserve it – and that would be a fool’s mission anyway. I am here to correct wrenched excess of any kind, and to preserve the counterbalance of light entities”.
- Yaya Wiscievisc, Full Moon Series
PROLOGUE
The United States five star General passed the first leather bound stack of papers to the Secretary on his right, and after signing the second also leather bound copy of the irrevocable contract, passed it over to Lord Earl Adrastos. Adrastos was sitting directly across from him, but at some distance given the size of the large rectangular granite table around which they were all gathered.
“The Government appreciates your assistance and cooperation, Lord Adrastos.” The General droned in practiced, formal tones. ”I’m sure that it was a difficult decision to furnish detailed information on your own kind, resident non-aliens as it were… we are eternally grateful for your assistance. The information you’ve provided will enable us to pinpoint key V-net information centers and ultimately dismantle them. We are committed to isolating and containing the V-net population, ultimately retraining them for possible military applications.
“And of course,” the General continued, ”You, your entire household, and all exceptions named by yourself in the future will be granted immunity from prosecution, electronic surveillance and electronic attachment, after the process of extrication begins.
I understand also that you have overcome a health crisis recently. I trust that you have fully recovered.”
“Yes.” Adrastos answered shortly, passing the leather bound contract over to his own team of human lawyers for perusal. He didn’t trust the government meat suits as far as he could throw them. But this opportunity to assist them for Immunity and a staggering cash bonus would assure his security in the upcoming turbulent times of the Great Upheaval and provide him with the sweetest, most desirable reward yet.
Revenge.
“Everything appears to be in order.” Lynch, the head of his legal team stated. Adrastos was pleased to smell fear emanating from Attorney Lynch, and noted that the armpits of the man’s expensive suit were soaked through with perspiration.
Adrastos’ entire contingent had been flown in by helicopters-the only way to access Faquier Hall in the remote region of Motuo County China in the Tibetan Autonomous Region. Adrastos had refused to travel by portal, considering it beneath him to travel with common vampires and other creature phylums- were folk, demons, fairies and the like.
As the meeting concluded Adrastos and his formidable entourage exited and made their way to the bank of elevators that would take them back to the rooftop helicopters awaiting them. As he was about to step onto the elevator platform Adrastos heard two of the Generals call after him.
Adrastos turned and waited dispassionately for the highly decorated military men to catch up to him. Looking downward from his nearly 7 feet of height at the 6’ tall Generals he intoned,
“Yes?”
The General with the blondish grey buzz cut winked at his companion before speaking.
“General Harris and I were wondering Adrastos what kind of movies you like. My companion here figures you to be a fan of the medieval knights in shining armor genre-you know, ”A Knight’s Tale”, “Tristan and Isolde”, movies like that.”
The buzz cut General’s buddy covered his mouth with his hand as if controlling a smirk. It was obvious that both men were poking fun at Adrastos’ and company’s anachronistic attire.
Adrastos studied the men intently without speaking. To their sudden alarm his eyes began to glow with a deep reddish light. Simultaneously Adrastos lifted his right hand and gave a slight gesture toward the men’s beltlines. An unmistakable hum of crackling electricity could be heard, and both the Generals instantaneously got startled looks on their faces as snakes of electricity ran up and down he lengths of their pant zippers, causing them to yelp and immediately yank their trousers down and off their bodies.
As they stood, wide-eyed and stunned, watching their pants burn in front of them in two small piles, Adrastos stepped back into the open elevators just as the fire alarms began to sound and the sprinkler system activated.
Looking directly at the motionless and incredulous Generals, he finally spoke.
“By the way, I’m really more of a “Kill Bill” aficionado.” He said in a pleasant and conversational tone just before the elevator doors closed.
Mitzi looked up from nursing her twin newborns as she reclined against a bank of oversized frilly pillows in her Southern monstrosity of a canopy bed. She was elated, floating on a cloud of joy as she cooed and kissed her fraternal twin sons. One had straight blonde hair and blue eyes the color of heaven, the other sported a cap of curly dark hair and had brown eyes the color of copper pennies.
She loved them both with every fiber of her being.
She’d given birth before of course, 25 years previously, but that experience had been nothing like this one. Both her birth experiences had involved some degree of pain-that much they had in common. She’d been a full-on human the first time she’d given birth, and when her first child Charley Rabbit was born it had taken her days to recover from the experience.
But she was a vampire now, and this time, even though she’d given birth less than an hour ago, she felt perfectly fine. Not to mention her body had snapped back into shape and healed instantaneously within minutes after the birth.
Really, she could have gotten up, carrying the twins with her easily and run a marathon with one on each hip-but the vampire Pierre, a trained Physician’s Assistant that had delivered her babies, had urged her to relax and enjoy the quiet before her husband Castor Noble returned. Pierre had gotten her comfortably situated in her own mammoth bed with the twins, and she couldn’t wait until Cass saw them. He had missed the birth because he was fighting Hybrids with the other vampires in their tribe, defending the vampire Fressenda’s cottage from attack… and from what Pierre had told her, the battle had been a hard fought one, with many casualties. Her own darling Cass had barely escaped with his life, she’d been told, and some of their friends had been killed by the hybrids.
But they had prevailed. And now that the Mavesla, the leader of the Hybrids was dead, there was a tenuous truce with his second in command, Balik.
Maybe there could be a time of peace, Mitzi mused. A space in time to raise her sons with Cass, the only male energy she’d ever been with besides her human husband, Sam, Charley Rabbit�
�s father, who had died in a car accident, leaving her a widow to raise their only son Charley into adulthood on her own.
Now all she could do was anxiously wait for the return of Cass and the others from the battle with the Hybrids.
She heard a bustle in the hallway outside of her bedroom and sat up straighter in anticipation, a tearful mist of pure relief shining in her eyes. Through the bedroom door burst Pierre, followed by Lux, who was supporting her beloved Cass on one side, and her own son Charley, who was supporting Cass on the other side. At the sight of her husband Mitzi’s heart practically leapt out of her chest as she looked lovingly on his handsome face, his shining brown curly hair, and the taut, muscular body that had loved her with such passion.
Cass looked back at her, staring. He was very pale. His shirt was open and bloodstained and across his chest wound a bandage that was wrapped several times around the uppermost portion of his torso.
“Cass!” Mitzi cried, instinctively leaning forward, her tears breaking free, ”My love!!” Mitzi would have held out her arms but they were already full of the sleeping newborns.
Cass stood at the bedside staring at Mitzi and the twins, but something was wrong, very wrong. He seemed slow to react. His eyes were glazed over. He seemed disoriented.
“Babies.” He murmured. ”They’re beautiful.” And then, as he looked at her curiously, he finished with,
“So who’s the father?”
Mitzi’s heart seemed to drop in her chest like the faceted disco ball at New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square,and then shatter like glass, the shards of it causing a jagged shock of pain to well up into her throat. Confused and disoriented herself, she looked helplessly at Lux and then Pierre. Lux gave a nod to Charley and together they guided Cass over to a loveseat a short distance from Mitzi’s massive bed. As soon as Cass was comfortably seated, they returned, their faces somber.
Lux sat on the edge of the bed, and handing one of the swaddled infants to Pierre to hold, he took Mitzi’s hand, his eyes kind, sorrowful, and searching hers before he spoke.
“Mitzi,” he said in a low voice, ”Cass was injured in the Hybrid conflict. He was injured saving the Palladium from being captured by an Oublier Demon that was loosed by the Mavesla, the leader of the Hybrids. But although he eventually killed it, it managed to bite him first, and the venom, Mitzi, the venom….”
Lux seemed to choke on his words and lowered his blonde head for a moment, clearing his throat. When he looked up at her again she could see that he was struggling to hold back his emotions.
“Mitzi the venom doesn’t kill, but it causes a forgetting. He received a big enough dose so that he remembers nothing past his first meeting with you and Charley at the Medieval Faire over a year ago. And he’s weak. His muscles are hypotonic. The weakness will dissipate eventually, but the forgetting may or may not be permanent. Even Dr. Caligare has no experience with this.”
Mitzi realized that she’d stopped breathing, and suddenly remembered to breathe again, filling her lungs with a gasp.
Her mind was reeling, but looking over at Cass, slumped against the overstuffed loveseat like the dazed and wounded warrior he truly was, she knew Lux was speaking the truth. Inwardly she felt as though she were crumbling like ancient statuary, pieces of her falling away into an endless abyss.
She felt destroyed.
She looked up at Charley, her son, and his face reflected her own incredulity and shock.
“I don’t know what to say,” Charley said soberly. ”But I’m so proud of you… Pierre told us Sephla went mad and tried to kill the babies, he told us how brave you were.”
Reaching down to ruffle the fine, soft brown curly hair on the sleeping infant Mitzi still held in her arms , he added, giving her a meaningful look,
“You still have US- your children. All three of us now. I’m sorry about Cass, but I’m here for you, as I always have been. And I’ll help with my younger brothers, I promise.”
He smiled slightly as a thought occurred to him.
“Have you picked out names yet?”
Mitzi felt another pang, juxtaposed over the intense maternal pleasure of feeling her tiny son suckle at her breast it caused her to feel more disoriented than ever.
“Cass and I picked out names beforehand, since we knew what we were having.” She said in a barely audible voice, staring at Cass as he slumped on the loveseat. “The first born, this little guy with the curly brown hair that I’m holding, is Coriander Pollux Noble, and will be called Cory. My little blonde darling, who is probably fussing because he’s hungry and Pierre doesn’t have breasts, is Absolam Lucienne Noble. Do you like the names?”
Charley chuckled as he leaned forward to kiss his new brother’s cheek. The baby cooed and reached a tiny fist out to bop Charley on the end of his nose, making both Mitzi and Charley laugh.
“He’ll be a fighter like his Dad.” Charley remarked, and then lowered his eyes as he was mentally kicking himself for the reference to fighting, when in the midst of this celebration of new life Cass was present physically, but absent in every other way that counted.
Pierre had transferred the blonde babe to Lux, and both the vampires came back over to Mitzi’s bedside.
“At least ONE of my nephews is named after me.” Lux commented. “Good move on Cass’s part,” Then he became sober again. “Not that he remembers naming either of them.” Looking at Pierre as though for support, Lux continued, ”Mitzi, Cass is… not himself. Apart from not remembering the past 18 months he seems to have lost his personality. He’s very literal. And kind of… kind of…”
“Stupid.” Charley finished for him. ”You can say it in front of me, I won’t flinch!”
Lux gave Charley a slight glare, ”Not really – what Charley said, but not what he was-mentally quick and analytical and sharp as a tack. Mitzi for the time being…” and again Lux reached for Mitzi’s small hand, ”I think it’s better if he stays with either Pierre and I or with Fress at the cottage after they get it cleaned up. Fress is planning on coming by tomorrow to tell you all about the battle. Until then - I know that I can’t even conceive of what a blow this is to you, being without Cass as he was…
But he’s just not the same vamp. At least for now. He’s a ‘stranger in a strange land’ as they say.”
As emotionally frozen as Mitzi felt at that moment-and at that precise moment she felt as though time had frozen as well-she still felt a warming wash of gratitude as she looked down at the twins in her arms.
They would sustain her, and heal her from this present grief. New Life was a thousand times more powerful than any other loss that Life could throw at her.
She kissed each of the babies’ heads, gathering them more closely into her. The love that surrounded them all was so immense that she imagined that even the air around them shimmered with a golden glow.
“I’ll be fine.” She said, looking at each of the concerned faces surrounding her, and meaning it .They had all perhaps (she thought to herself) forgotten that it was definitely was not her first rodeo.
Not by a long shot.
The next morning Charley was eating sugary, junky, multicolored kid’s cereal at the kitchen table at the cottage with Cass-the ‘new Cass’, the one without any memory of having been married to his mother.
Cass took up a heaping spoonful of the rainbow colored flakes in his bowl and said, ”So, Charley-must have been weird for you, my being married to your mom and boinking her after we’d been tight buds.”
Perturbed, Charley repressed an impulse to slap Cass’s overloaded spoonful of cereal away from his mouth and across the kitchen. Not because he’d referenced Mitzi so much but because he’d used the term ‘boinking’.
He decided to take the straight approach, since he wasn’t quite sure what kind of mentality he was dealing with.
“Yeah, it WAS weird at first, but when I saw how in love the two of you were, I accepted it.” He answered, looking into Cass’s guileless brown eyes for even a glimmer of
recognition-but there was none.
“And I’m the father of her twins?” Cass asked. ”Both of them? Because one of those little suckers doesn’t look anything like me, did you notice man? I don’t mind living up to my obligations, but I’m not paying for somebody else’s kid!”
Charley sighed, seemingly for the fiftieth time.
“It’s complicated. Just do the best you can. Talk to Fress-you know she’ll help you sort out the right thing to do.” Charley wanted to add ”And you might want to rent a few brain cells while you’re at it!”, some humor the OLD Cass would have appreciated, but decided to switch topics.
“So what do you want to do this evening after we finish cleaning up the rest of the cottage? I need to run out to check on my mom and see the twins for an hour, but then I’ll be free for whatever. Any thoughts?”
New Cass frowned as if trying to focus (or maybe he was just trying to make neurons fire, Charley thought), then brightened.
“Well I can’t work at the moment because I can’t really remember the material-I already contacted the University for an Emergency Leave of Absence. And Fress told me that your mom is having the marriage annulled, so… two young vamps full of energy…
I thought we’d do some club hopping and hopefully get laid! I could do with a fresh piece of tail-any phylum! Not feeling picky today!” he finished, grinning. His grin actually made him look more like his former self, wide open and mischievous.
“Sure,” Charley answered. It was his day to babysit New Cass and he really didn’t care what they did. He decided he’d ask Lux to go along as backup.
And whatever personality aspects Cass had lost, his pervasive and unrelenting horniness wasn’t one of them, because he continued,
“Did I ever tell you about the all-night session I had with a totally insatiable hot werewolf chick?”
A thousand miles away, Lord Earl Adrastos’ laughter echoed throughout his oversized chambers, and his First Seer Maung relaxed ever so slightly in response. It was good that Adrastos’ response to his most recent update was one of merriment, rather than anger.
