Coalition of the Damned - 03 (14 page)

Max’s mouth fell open as he stared at her. This is
most unusual
indeed. In fact, in his many centuries, he had never heard of such a thing. “Is he from one of the royal families?” he asked.

Once again she was puzzled. “No. He is human,” She a
nswered. “Or, rather, he
was
. He was created.” She shook her head to correct herself. “He says that they genetically altered him so that he is
like
a natural born wolf, but he was actually created.”

Max sat across from her completely dumbfounded. He didn’t know what to say. The humans were not only aware of werewolves, but were now creating them at will? By choice? Why wasn’t this scattered all over the news? Why hadn’t he read this in the newspapers? What the hell was she talking about? “Little pup, you need to explain to me what you speak of.”

Nadia sat back in her seat and began from the beginning. She explained how her Jack was a human hunter and Natashia had rescued him for Thorn, their Vampire master from an ambush. She explained how Jack had discovered that he and his fellow compatriots were infected with the werewolf virus and then later it was revealed that it was a genetic re-engineering that made them as if they were born with it. She told him how they took wolf’s bane to prevent the shift and that they had incredible strength and speed and agility, yet didn’t shift with the moon. She also told him how it was her Jack that theorized that a natural wolf who shifts prior to the full moon can keep control of their mind during the moon’s pull.

Max sat and listened intently to Nadia’s entire story, absor
bing every detail. “He sounds like a very intelligent man.”

Nadia nodded. “He is. With the heart of a wolf.” She studied her grandfather. “You didn’t sound surprised when I told you what Jack surmised.”

“About shifting prior to the moon?” he asked her. “No. I learned that centuries ago.”

A muscle in her jaw ticked and her fists clenched. “You might have thought to share that information. It could have saved many a wolf from being hunted for things they did without knowledge.”

Max gave her a haunted smile. “Little pup, that is one of life’s little secrets that every wolf needs to learn on their own,” he told her quietly. “When one comes in tune with their wolf, that ‘secret’ is revealed to them on its own. It is not something that should be revealed.” He caught her still glaring daggers at him. “It would be like having someone tell you how your life ends without ever getting to live it,” he tried to explain.

“I disagree.”

“You don’t have to agree. You don’t even have to understand. That is simply how things are,” Max said. Nadia shook her head at him as she turned back to her window. “Tell me more of Tasha. How has she been until recently?”

Nadia seemed surprised by his question. “She has been fine. She has been as she always had.”

“So, she’s always been a quivering, cowering, spineless whelp?” he asked, reclining in his seat and crossing his legs.

Nadia leaped to her feet, “How dare you? You know that she is not!”

Max hiked a brow in question and slowly turned his head toward the simpering mess that Tasha had now become in the seats across from them. “She certainly seems that way now.”

Nadia stared at her mother as if for the first time and co
ncern slowly spread across her features. She went to her and knelt at her feet. “Mother, what has befallen you? Why are you this way?”

Max watched them a moment while Tasha stared forlornly out the window and Nadia hovered over her mother. He chewed at his inner cheek and sat up. He went over behind her seat and placed a hand on her shoulder. Nadia felt a mild electric shock travel through her fingers. “What are you doing?”

“Fixing your mother’s mess.”

“I don’t understand…” she began to reply as a flood of em
otions hit her. Nadia felt her knees growing weak and her eyes watering from emotions she didn’t know she felt.

Tasha looked up at the two of them and croaked out, “No, please. She needs my strength.”

“Not all of it,” Max told her. He pulled back his hand and Nadia sat abruptly, catching her breath.

“What just happened?” she asked, her eyes darting between the two of them.

“You were overwhelmed and your mother loaned you her strength.” Max knelt beside her. “She gave you too much and it…changed you.” He stole a glance at Tasha trying to gather herself again. “Both of you. And not necessarily for the better.”

Nadia took a few deep breaths and exhaled very deeply. “I didn’t know we could do that.”

“Few can.” Max patted her knee reassuringly. “And it’s not wise to do so. It’s very easy to give too much of yourself and end up lost as Tasha did.”

Tasha sat up and cleared her throat. She squared her shou
lders and took a sip of the drink that Max had given her to wet her mouth. “I did what was necessary to aid my daughter with her first child.” She stated. She turned and looked Max square in the eye. “And I would do it again if I felt it was needed,” she added defiantly.

Max simply nodded and shot her a charming smile. “I’m sure you would, Tasha. A mother would do anything to protect her child.”

“Exactly,” she said, holding her head high and proper.

“Mother, I don’t know what to say.” Nadia’s eyes were w
atering. “I didn’t know that you were so worried about me.”

“I only wanted to calm your nerves and give you strength.” She stroked her daughter’s hand.

“Thank you,” Nadia said, laying her head in Tasha’s lap, a tear sliding down her cheek. Tasha stroked her hair and soothed her.

“It was nothing you wouldn’t have done had you known how, little one. Shh, think nothing of it. Just be still,” Natashia whispered.

Max watched the two and a twinge of regret hit his chest. He saw Nadia as a child sitting at her mother’s feet needing comfort and envied his son. He who molded the child in his own image, making her a warrior Lycan, educating her classically as he had been, following the same steps as Max and Victoria had when raising Viktor. Max remembered when Viktor was born and he chose the name. Victoria was so pleased that he had named their son after her, but in Max’s warrior mind, he had named his son Viktor so that he would grow to become a victor in whatever battle he chose to fight. He wanted his son to rise to any occasion and be victorious. But he never told Victoria the truth in why he chose the name. He allowed the Fates to direct his son’s path when he left the pack and the Fates planted the knife firmly in his back.

“We have quite a ride ahead of us. Why don’t you two try to get some rest?” Max handed them both blankets from the storage locker and showed them how to recline their overstuffed leather seats. “They’re actually quite comfortable.”

He dimmed the lights in the cabin and stepped to the forward area and flipped on the overhead light. He pulled out an ancient leather bound log book that he had carried for years. He flipped it open and carefully turned the yellowed pages, trying not to allow them to crumble. He knew what he was looking for and soon found it. A drawing of a face, a face he had not laid eyes on in nearly two thousand years, but a face he thought he would not forget. Still, he found the best artist of the time and had the face put into his book so that it would never be forgotten. The face of the Sicarii.

9

Laura had just stepped into Matt’s office when he shoved a scotch into her hands. “You’re going to need that.” His face was solemn.

“What happened?” she asked, her mind racing at the possibilities.

“Drink up first,” Matt insisted. Laura turned a cautious eye to him and sipped her drink then sat where he directed her. Mitchell leaned against his desk and watched her intently. “We got a call today.”

Laura waited for him to expound on his statement. “Who from?”

Mitchell sighed then slowly smiled. “Dominic escaped. He’s with Team Two at Aviano Air Base.”

Laura jumped up, tossing her drink as she flung her arms around Matt. “That’s wonderful!” she cried. “Oh, my God.” She found herself at a loss for words. Then a flood of worries hit her and came rushing from her mouth, “Is he okay? Was he hurt? How did he escape? What did they do to him? Is he—”

“They’re debriefing him now and we’ll get the report soon,” Matt interrupted her, trying to get her to calm down. “It looks like he may have broken his wrist during the escape, and he was a bit dehydrated, a little underfed, but they’re taking care of him. The biggest thing was getting him back on the shift-blockers b
efore it was too late.”

Laura’s eyes widened as she realized that she had never considered that Dominic hadn’t had his wolfsbane to take. “I’m so relieved that he’s alright. I’ve worried myself sick over him these past days, it’s just been constantly in the back of my mind.” She felt the weight lift from her shoulders, but she feared actually believing it.

Matt’s face hardened slightly. “I spoke to him briefly,” he said softly. “He’s a mess, Laura. They did…things to him. I don’t know what exactly, but he’s not the same.”

“What are you saying?” she asked, fear creeping into her voice.

“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “Either they found a way to break him, or…”

“Or what?”

“Or they found a way to turn him.” He didn’t want to say it, but he knew that anything he told Laura would remain safely between them. “Call it a sixth sense, but I have this nagging feeling that something is wrong.
Bad
wrong, and it comes from them getting their hooks into that boy.”

Laura tried not to think too much into his words, but she felt compelled to defend Dominic. “Could it be that you’re just r
elieved that he got away and now you’re worried? Like when Phoenix returned?”

“This is more than that. I guess you would have had to hear his voice,” Matt told her. He shook his head as he thought of the possibilities. “Physically, he’ll heal, but they got into his head somehow. I can just feel it.”

Laura paused and tried to imagine anybody breaking Dom, and she couldn’t bring herself to think of the way they did it. Her mind wouldn’t allow it. “At least he’s safe now.”

“We have that. And as soon as his debriefing is over, we’ll have hard copy on it as well.”

“Who’s doing it?”

“Team Two is bringing in a specialist. Someone they’ve worked with before. Supposed to be one of the best in Europe,” Matt said. “Guy does a lot of work with operators who’ve been in the field too long. He’s done a lot of work with our boys in the agency that were in deep cover work, too.”

Laura nodded and wrapped her arms around herself. “I’m glad they’ve got a specialist to help. But, Matt, this job is starting to be too much.” Mitchell studied her as she gripped herself tighter. She rocked slightly as she allowed herself to think too much about the events of the recent past. “I seriously don’t know if I can take much more,” she said more to herself than to him.

“You knew what you were signing on for, Laura,” he said softly. “And I need you too much now to let you go.” He rose and touched her shoulder in a friendly, supportive way. “R
emember, we have the end of the world to stop?” He gave her a boyish grin.

She snorted. “Oh yeah, like I could forget that,” she replied sarcastically. “If it isn’t the end of the world, it’s some kind of boogey man wanting to eat you, or some unknown monster wanting to destroy Tokyo or—”

“Yeah, well, technically Tokyo is outside of our jurisdiction,” he jabbed.

She gave him a sideways look. “Fine, Detroit then.”

“Pfft. Like anybody would notice if a monster tore up Detroit,” Mitchell shot back. “You could nuke that city and it would be an improvement.”

“Stop it, Matt. I’m trying to have a pity-party and you aren’t helping.”

“Sorry. I was just trying to lighten things up a little.” He held his hands up in surrender. “You’ve just been acting all doom and gloomy lately and it’s been a real buzz kill.”

Laura put her hands on her hips and glared at him. “With our job it’s very hard to be Little Miss Suzy Sunshine.”

“I know,” Matt said trying to be more understanding. “I just thought you’d be happier about Dom.”

“It’s kind of hard to when you’re telling me that he’s been compromised.”

“We aren’t sure that he has, it’s just a feeling.” Matt plopped down in his chair and rubbed at his head. “I wish that feeling weren’t there, though.”

“How soon until we get the report?” she asked.

“Probably not until we are set up at Groom Lake.” Matt was actually glad to have a subject change. “Speaking of, how are things coming with the bug out?”

“Most departments are about ready to go. It would have helped a lot to know what assets we could have when we got there, though. If we didn’t have to move all this radio equi
pment, it would save us a lot of room.”

“I know they’re set up for aircraft radio, but…I just don’t know what they’re going to lock up as ‘classified’ before we get there. Their base commander is supposed to call me any time now.”

“Do you know him?”

“No, this guy runs in different circles. He’s an academy man. Real up and comer, and although McAfee says he’ll play ball, I’m not holding my breath.” Mitchell’s features soured. “He’s going to see us as coming in to piss in his backyard, so he won’t be happy.”

“Ha! So besides the vampires we’re hoping to bait there, we may also have to deal with the base CO? Great.” She sighed. “Things just keep getting better.”

Matt nodded. “Just have our people pack the absolute min
imum that we need to operate. We’ll make it work once we get there. But we have a lot to do and very little time to do it in.”

“Any idea what kind of timeline we are talking about?”

Matt turned a serious eye to her and nodded. “This next full moon.”

Laura’s brows shot up on that one. “You’re only talking a couple of weeks, max.”

“Fifteen days.”

“We have to move our entire operations, get set up, bait the beast—”

“Don’t forget test the satellite.”

“Oh my God. Matt…we’re sunk.”

“Don’t count us out of the fight yet.” He began counting off on his fingers, “The Duty Officer reported that Viktor returned today, so hopefully he has some good news for us. Evan has been working on a few surprises himself. Jack’s wife and mother-in-law are on their way back so maybe they have some good news on the whole werewolf front. Not to mention we still have our Predator drones and the C-130 that can bring the rain. Even if we can’t stop the Sicarii himself, we can decimate his forces.”

“If we can’t stop him, he’ll be back. He won’t stop. Thorn says that he’s lost his mind or something and feels he’s on a holy crusade.”

“We will do whatever we have to,” Matt said, staring her down. “Whatever we have to do,” he reiterated, emphasizing each word.

Laura studied him a moment before asking the question that was nagging at the back of her mind. “Are you talking a nuclear response, Matt?”

He leaned back in his chair and repeated himself, “Whatever we have to do.”

*****

Fist Squad enjoyed a meal with the Greater Elves that was mostly vegetarian fare, though there was some roasted meat that the men thought may have been either a mountain goat or something similar. They had many different kind of breads ground from different wild grains and honey, berries and a sweet paste for dipping foods into that was heavenly, but they were afraid to ask what it was made of.

For the meal, the hunting party and other young men, now dressed in tunics, joined the squad and the atmosphere was much lighter. Donovan and Tufo were approached by the twin brothers Horith and Kalen and asked about the upcoming battle against the vampire horde. “There are many rumors about their numbers. Do you know how many they are?” Horith asked.

Donnie sighed as he shook his head. “We can only estimate and even then, we could be off by a wide margin. The vampire who is helping us said that—”

“There are vampires
helping you
?” Kalen asked, surprise more than evident in his voice.

Donovan smiled and nodded. He washed down the last of his meal with some elderberry juice. “Oh yeah. Surprises are everywhere,” he said. “We found out about this whole ‘Vampire Armageddon’ when we went to meet this one vampire to talk to him about…” he paused to try to figure out how to explain the circumstances, “well, it’s complicated.”

“Please, try,” Horith said, the shock still showing on his face. “Our experience with vampires is limited, but we’ve yet to find any that are trustworthy.”

Donovan nodded. “I agree with you there, buddy. But a
pparently, there are some.” He took a deep breath and plunged in. “Apparently, there is a whole group of vampires that actually remember what it’s like to be ‘alive’ and value life.
All
life,” He began. “They are a quiet group that keeps to themselves and sustains themselves on the blood of animals. They don’t kill the animals, they just bleed enough to sustain themselves. I guess…like milking a cow.

“Anyway, the other vampires who still feed on humans were setting them up as the patsies so that when the bad guys did something terrible and we would swoop in for the kill, we’d end up wiping out the quiet good guys.” He shook his head. “They were fighting their own version of a civil war and the more v
icious of the two were using US to fight their battles.

“So the vamps that feed on animals asked to have a sit-down meeting with our boss. And, it was during that meeting that all of us became aware of the upcoming Apocalypse.” Donnie shook his head. “Talk about timing.”

Horith looked to Kalen. “Would you trust a vampire? Ever?”

“Never. I don’t care if they did feed on squirrels and rabbits. I could never trust one.”

“Normally, I’d agree with you,” Donovan said. “But, we’ve also had a vampire working for us for quite a few years now.” Donnie watched their eyes grow wide with shock. “I’m sure you find it hard to believe, but he’s the nicest guy you’d ever want to meet. He’s as normal as you’d ever find.”

“And he works beside you?” Horith asked, looking about the room.

“Not
right
beside us, like, in the field, but back at our base. He is a scientist. He actually designed a lot of our weaponry.” Donovan pulled out one of their UV phosphorus grenades. “He designed this grenade. It still explodes like a normal grenade and sends shrapnel pieces in all directions like a normal grenade, but it also has silver nitrate inside which is poisonous to a vampire. And, as a one-two punch, it emits a high dose of UV light somehow that is like throwing a vampire into a tanning bed and letting them get a big batch of sunlight in a flash.” He reattached the grenade to his vest. “Pretty damned ingenious, and to be honest, they’ve saved my life more than once.”

Horith looked to Kalen once more and shook his head. “I do not understand how a vampire could help in killing his own kind? It doesn’t make sense.”

“It does if you understand that he hates vampires more than he loves being alive,” Donnie answered.

Mark had listened to their conversation with some interest, but he was more interested in trying to speak to the elder alone if possible. He saw Loren and Jack speaking and when Jack finally milled away, he excused himself and worked his way over to where Loren, the Wyldwood, stood.

“Excuse, me, Ma’am?” Loren turned to him and Mark was struck by her beauty just as he had been when she first emerged from the tree trunk. It took him a moment to realize she had addressed him and he nearly had to shake his head to think again. “I wondered if I might have a word with you, please?”

“Of course,” she said. Her voice was soft and low.

Mark did a quick glance to either side and lowered his own voice. He wanted to be sure that nobody else overheard their conversation. “I have a ‘little’ problem that I’m hoping you might can assist me with?”

“Perhaps. What is it?” she asked.

Mark tilted his head and shot her a ‘duh’ look. “This little pixie-pest buzzing around my noggin…I’d really like to have her vamoose!” he whispered desperately.

Loren glanced at the small sprite at his shoulder playing with the hair by his ear as Mark twitched his head. “Ah, the wee spriggan. Well, you really only have three options, fine sir.”

“Three? Three is good. Three is better than two. Let me have it!”

“You can kill her,” Loren offered.

“What?! No. I couldn’t kill an innocent little…well, okay she’s a pest, but it’s not like swatting a mosquito, okay?”