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  The command ops area was a battle field. She could see two Nosferatu with enough holes in them that they would stay down. One agent was being dragged, screaming, back towards the weeds behind the tent and the cargo van had four Nosferatu beating on it.

  She decided to get their attention. She pulled her .45’s and shot each Nosferatu in the head with each word. It probably wouldn’t incapacitate them, but it certainly got their attention.

  “Come. Try. Me. You. Eye. Less. Ass. Bashers.” That was actually a pretty poor cussing effort. Good thing no one heard her.

  TOM, how much energy?

  The portaling took a little over half your energy.

  Gott Verdammt! I can’t suck energy out of these creatures, can I?

  Well, as a last resort probably. Their nanocytes might cause yours problems we don’t need right this moment.

  You got that fucking right.

  Bethany Anne went into super speed and raced after the Nosferatu she had seen pulling the agent past the tent. She had eight of them from all over the camp racing to catch her while she raced to catch the one.

  This was going to be a challenge. She jumped in the air and shot two of them with all of her bullets and twisted back around before landing. She never broke her stride.

  She came around the corner and could see the Nosferatu looking over his shoulder from the pistol noise. She noticed the moment the Nosferatu realized she was coming for it. It dropped the agents leg and started running towards her.

  It wasn’t even a contest. Bethan Anne holstered her right pistol and grabbed her knife. She impaled the Nosferatu in the skull and used the knife to twists its head around as she ran past. The Nosferatu dropped to the ground like a rag doll.

  Five down, six behind me, one missing and my guys have another. Shit.

  She figured she could take them all, but she didn’t have a handy werewolf to grab and drink from. Well shit, she hoped werewolf blood wasn’t an acquired taste. Was it only a few weeks ago that even the thought of drinking blood made her queasy? Now, she was joking about it while she ran from six Nosferatu.

  Honestly, the running was starting to piss her off. She finally spotted a young sapling with a 3” circumference trunk. That was perfect.

  She ran by the tree punching it hard. The trunk shattered and flopped down and she kept running hard. She opened up the distance a little. She needed them to keep following her. Finally, she stopped and turned around. She figured she was about a mile from the tree. Waiting for the ravenous horde of Nosferatu she stood there with her thumbs tucked into her belt. As they got close, she raised her right hand and gave them the finger. Then, she disappeared.

  The Nosferatu started keening in frustration that their prey had got away. In frustration they ripped at the ground trying to get a scent. Twenty seconds later all hell broke loose when Bethany Anne, eyes practically glowing red came running back using the same trail they had just come from but this time she had a seven foot long, 3” in diameter pole made from the tree she had punched earlier and tore into the Nosferatu. Her first swing took two Nosferatu heads. They exploded in gore.

  The tree was almost wrenched from her hands when it connected with the Nosferatu. It felt really good to get her mad on. It was four against one now and she tossed the tree straight up 10 feet, pulled her pistols that she had reloaded when cleaning the limbs off of the tree. Shot two of the Nosferatu in their heads, re-holstered her pistols empty and caught the tree as it came down. Grabbing it like a spear she threw it into the chest of the Nosferatu on her right. Running at the last Nosferatu she dropped, sliding under the last one and grabbed its legs causing it to fall face first into the mud. Jumping up she turned around and jumped, kneeing the Nosferatu in its head crushing it, spilling brain matter all over her right leg.

  Gah, that was disgusting.

  The final Nosferatu was trying to pull the tree out of its chest where it had landed twenty feet away. She pulled her right pistol and used her left hand to reload. She had one reload left. Calmly, Bethany Anne walked up to the Nosferatu still trying to pull out the pole and blasted it into oblivion.

  She quickly reloaded the other pistol. She had one fully loaded pistol and one pistol with only three rounds. Checking with TOM, she didn’t have a good handle on how much energy she had left so she couldn’t teleport through the Etheric back to the command base. She started running, putting everything she had into it.

  Where was that last Nosferatu?

  —

  John was second guessing his decision to have Bethany Anne leave. The ‘one’ Nosferatu had somehow turned into two and they were playing with John and his team.

  They were completely screwed.

  That’s when Eric got involved. “Come get me you Ginormous Shit Eater! Both you spanky Love Nuts and your friend fudge slapper maximus over there!”

  The men started grinning. If Bethany Anne wasn’t there, then Eric was tunneling her spirit. The men got a better grip on their rifles and closed any gaps.

  They might go down, but dammit they would go down as Bethany’s Anne’s team, not as a group of ‘Stupid leg-humping cock-splurt wipers’.

  John took command. “On the count of three, Scott I want you to keep fucktard number one over in the bushes busy. Eric, you and Darryl turn around and let’s try to light up fucknut number two over here. If we can get one down we just increased our chances of living a million percent.”

  “One… three!”

  The staccato burst of gunfire was heard by Bethany Anne in the quiet as she was running back to the command center. Her team, her men were in a battle. She feared she knew where the final Nosferatu had ended up.

  Gott Verdammt! She raced to the campsite trying to figure out a way to get to them. The john boats were not only too slow to help her get to them in time, but they weren’t even at the ops center anyway. They were still out in the Everglades.

  Coming into the camp, she could see the men in defensive positions. One of them started firing at the sudden appearance of Bethany Anne assuming that anything suddenly ‘appearing’ wasn’t human. It took a second for the man to hear the cease fire and by then Bethany Anne had moved thirty yards away. She was in no position to be a target right then.

  She found the man she was looking for, one of the two medics that Agent Bosse had mentioned. Looking like a horror show with all of the blood, guts and brains on her plus the intensity of her gaze as she feared for her team it wasn’t a surprise the medic was speechless. “Do you have any bagged blood?”

  He just continued to stare.

  “Look, snap out of it! Where is the bagged blood, my team needs it!” Ok, technically she needed it to help her team but the guy didn’t seem like a clarification was going to help right then. He turned his body and pointed back to a van next to the bigger cargo van.

  “Over there, white insulated box. You can find it behind…” He realized she was already gone. He ignored his confusion and got back to helping Agent Florez in front of him.

  Bethany Anne was at the van door, ripping it open and grabbed the chest and put it on the ground. She opened the lid and pulled three packages of blood. Ignoring the people around her, she ripped the first bag open and started drinking. She finished that package, threw it on the ground and started on the second. She was halfway done with it when the people watching her were completely startled. She had disappeared.

  Everglades, FL USA

  The fight was violent. The men had clipped the second Nosferatu pretty good but it allowed the first one Scott was trying to distract to almost get to them before the men got their shit together.

  The Nosferatu, a old geezer when he was alive and considerably more mobile and dangerous now that he was changed, feinted left and then took off right. Darryl was unable to get a bead on him and he cut across pushing Darryl back into Eric behind him and grabbing John who was trying to get his gun on target.

  The Nosferatu grabbed his gun arm with both hands and broke it. He then backhanded John with his r
ight hand causing him to lose focus and the Nosferatu grabbed John’s knife and stabbed him hard, he landed over ten feet away.

  Without John to worry about, the Nosferatu didn’t have a chance as all three of the team opened fire. The Nosferatu jerked with the bullets slamming into him and finally lost his footing and flew back into the ground. Scott walked up to it and unloaded his pistol, demolishing his head.

  Eric went to John and told the other two to finish off the first Nosferatu. The knife was embedded pretty deeply in his chest, in his right pectoral.

  “John, I got to tell you, no more tattoos on your breast - it just isn’t going to look good with the scar this is going to cause.”

  John moaned and looked up at Eric. His every breath was a wheezing as the knife had pierced his lung. They didn’t have anything out here to give him medical help. He wouldn’t make it back with them carrying him to the john boats. “Have I told you you’re a real prick lately?”

  Eric grinned. “What has Bethany Anne told you about lousy cussing, huh? She is going to make you do 50 pushups.”

  John looked over Eric’s shoulder and smiled a little, “I don’t know, why don’t we ask the little rectal-hole dictator herself?”

  Eric turned around to see a very messed up Bethany Anne behind him. She was holding two bags of blood, one full and one just half full. She smiled at John. “So, it takes you to almost die to finally get points, is that it John?” She went on the other side of John from Eric and kneeled down.

  “Yeah, that white light has a way of focusing your creativity.” He coughed hard and blood was coming out of his wound.

  “Do you trust me, John? I can heal you but I can’t explain everything, we don’t have time. Will you trust me?”

  John looked up at her and realized he wasn’t looking into a monsters eyes, but rather hope, compassion and concern, wrapped in a package of blood and guts and the smell of gunpowder.

  By this time, Scott and Darryl had come over and were keeping watch over the area. You could hardly see farther than 10 feet without the flashlights.

  It was eerie quiet.

  John shook his head yes. Bethany Anne grabbed the knife in his chest. “I’m going to pull out the knife, cut my wrist and you have to suck as much of my blood as you can, do you understand me?”

  John didn’t open his eyes, but just nodded his head.

  Bethany Anne looked at Eric. “I need you to get that wound showing. Get the vest and his shirt ripped or anything you can do to access the wound while he is taking my blood.”

  Eric nodded. “Is he going to turn into a vampire?” He voiced the concern all of the men were having.

  “No. My blood will heal him. It would take a bunch more to turn him. Now enough talk, let’s get ready.”

  On the count of three, she pulled the knife back out of his chest and the vest, slit her wrist and as he gasped in pain stuck the wrist to his mouth reminding him to suck on it. She had to cut it twice more since it kept healing on her.

  Eric was able to get the vest off of the wound and cut away his shirts around the wound with his own knife. John stopped sucking on her wrist and laid his head back down and to the side. Some of her blood dripped back out of his mouth.

  “Gott Verdammt John, that shit is priceless!” She slit her wrist one more time and let it drip into the hole in his chest, forcing it down with her finger. She laid back, willing it to work faster. She grabbed the full bag and started drinking it. The half full bag had fallen over and spilled on the ground.

  She was a little overcome with the fighting, teleporting and now blood letting. She lay back just to close her eyes.

  Eric, Darryl and Scott had pulled out their flashlights and while two were pointed out into the Everglades, Eric watched in fascination as Bethany Anne’s fangs disappeared while she slept and then as the knife wound in his best friend and their teams lead started closing up right in front of his eyes.

  Scott had been talking to the guys back in the ops center. It was still a major mess over there. Agent Bosse had contacted Frank who had inbound medical support and additional agency support for clean up. No one at the little island knew what to tell them yet about John. If anyone found out what had gone on and John died, they feared what might happen to Bethany Anne if she didn’t wake up. They decided to say that they were getting John prepped and would be back in 30 minutes.

  Fifteen minutes later, John opened his eyes. He closed them quickly as Eric had pointed his flashlight at him raising his arm to protect his eyes. “Dammit, Eric. Shine that light out there where the bad guys are for fuck’s sake.”

  “Good to hear your voice, you pain-in-the-ass.” Eric smiled, but he moved the light out into the Everglades. Wouldn’t want an alligator smelling all of the blood and come seeking a buffet.

  “What happened?”

  Eric continued to talk with John as he kept his attention outside their circle. “From when? When did you black out?”

  John took two fingers and rubbed against his chin. “Did I really drink blood from Bethany Anne? Am I going vampy guys?”

  “Yes and No. She promised it would only heal you. She said you had to drink a lot more to become a vampire. Although, considering her upgrades it might be worth it!” Both Scott and Darryl agreed as they kept looking out into the night.

  John outstretched his left arm and hit Bethany Anne’s vest, right where her left breast was.

  She calmly talked into the night, keeping her eyes closed. “I just spent a lot of effort to heal you, Mr. Grimes. If you don’t get your hand off my tit I’m going to waste all of that effort when I kill you myself.”

  John moved his hand and chuckled. “Well, what do I spend the points on if not to buy a quick feel?”

  Not wanting to banter right then, Bethany Anne just said with exasperation, “John, I have a headache.”

  All of the men started laughing. Finally, realizing what she said, Bethany Anne joined in. John finally got up enough to slide his vest back on. “God Bethany Anne, couldn’t you have at least taken off my shirt nicely?”

  From the ground, Bethany Anne replied. “John, you munchy butt lover, that was Eric who wanted you so bad he ripped it all off.”

  Eric just looked down at John and made kissing noises. The laughing started again. The two rested for another five minutes and Bethany Anne started to stand up, reaching down and pulling the massive Agent John Grimes up without showing the least amount of strain. Bethany Anne cocked her ear. “Incoming helicopter, look like we are professional men.”

  Within 60 seconds, a black Marine Venom helicopter come flying in. It landed 100 feet away and two marines with flashlights on their weapons jumped out and came over to them. The four men created a circle around Bethany Anne.

  There was no way they were letting any misunderstandings occur on their watch. She might look like the monster that hell kicked out, but this vampire, by God, was their vampire.

  They all got in the helicopter, the two marines the last on and one gave the signal. The black venom turned off the lights and lifted into the air, heading towards the ops center.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Everglades, FL USA

  Agent Dan Grimes was counting his lucky stars, which were plentiful in the sky above the Everglades. They were pretty far from any major metropolitan area so the light pollution was about zero.

  A Marine Venom helicopter came in, turning their lights on ruining his beautiful night view so he turned around and started walking back to the camp where it was hard to see. He had needed a minute to get out of his post-attack funk.

  He had a bunch to be thankful for. This could have been a monumental disaster. He had over twenty-two people on this op and everyone, including himself, would have been killed this evening had it not been for Bethany Anne.

  He had no idea what she did, exactly. The stories were that within a minute of the attack of the forsaken, she appeared and shot every living forsaken. She didn’t kill any of them. She took off running after one of hi
s agents that was getting dragged away. They found the agent about fifty yards behind the command tent. He would survive. They also found two forsaken with their heads almost gone from huge bullet wounds and one with its head twisted around and a large knife wound in the forehead.

  There was an easily followed path eastward out of the camp. A mile or so outside of the camp there was a tree stump and a bunch of limbs. Two miles away they found six more forsaken. Two without heads, two with heads destroyed by bullets, one with its face in the ground, a large caved depression like a war hammer had hit it and a final forsaken with a large sapling sticking up out of it with most of its head destroyed by bullets.

  Then, the story is that she showed up and asked for blood from a medic, ripped off his van door, grabbed some blood and started drinking it. Finally, she disappeared again. There was a fight out with Agent Grimes group and something happened out there. The men were being too cagey when they were asked questions over the radio.