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  She smiled at Stephen, “Paula.”

  “My pleasure, Paula.” He smiled at her as she turned around and caught up with Evangeline and they went down the steps. At that point the second set of ladies approached them.

  Ivan just watched in amazement as ladies would come up to the table and within a short while, they had six attractive women sitting there.

  “Oh god.” Evangeline had been watching the dancers when she saw Mathis enter the club with his two lackeys. Both of the guys were easily over six feet and muscular. She had danced with him a few weeks back and then told him no when he wanted to leave the club together. She tried to lean back but he had spotted her face already and was pointing to where they were all sitting.

  Paula leaned over, “What is it?”

  “Mathis and his two friends. They saw me already.”

  Stephen had heard the conversation while he was talking with another woman to his left. He politely excused himself from that conversation and leaned back towards Evangeline. “Sorry, but I heard you say something you were unhappy about?”

  Evangeline glanced back at the stairs, so Stephen and Ivan looked as well. It was obvious who she was looking at since he had her in his sight and wasn’t looking at the people he was bumping into at all. He just ignored people's complaints and pushed his way through the crowd. Stephen was able to smell the Wechselbalg and the vampire as they drew closer. Stephen turned to Ivan, “You might need to bail me out in a few hours, this is one of the guys from our talk with Josef.” He stood up and gently stepped around one of the ladies' chairs.

  Evangeline looked over at Ivan, “What is he doing? Mathis is a jerk, and his two bully boys don’t care who they hurt! Is he trying to impress me?”

  Ivan looked at her, “Believe it or not, Evangeline, everything is not always about you. It so happens that we were discussing this guy with an acquaintance this afternoon. You can stop trying to figure out how to bolt, Mathis will not be bothering you tonight.” Ivan turned back to watch the altercation, under his breath he added, “I hope.”

  Stephen walked right up to the younger vampire who never looked at the guy who was staring right at him. Stephen finally got his attention by failing to move when Mathis tried to push him out of the way. Mathis finally looked to see who was blocking him. He turned his head so the two behind him could hear him, “Get this guy out of my way!”

  Why Mathis never thought to wonder how he couldn’t move the guy and yet his Were guards were supposed to accomplish it was beyond Stephen. He figured this Mathis must be taking something that affected his sense of smell.

  “Hello Mathis.” Stephen tried to look cordial, but he was starting to get irritated at having his first night out with ladies in over … well, too many years to count, ruined.

  Mathis looked at Stephen, trying to figure out how this guy knew him. The Were behind and to the left of Mathis reached over to grab Stephen’s shoulder and Stephen casually caught his wrist and broke it. The Were grunted in pain and pulled his arm back. Stephen looked at the other guy, “If you try that, I’ll just cut it off and it will be a pain to regrow, do you understand?” The other Were looked at his buddy and just nodded.

  Mathis finally caught on, “Look, I don’t know who you are, but I run Frankfurt. You need to get your little white ass out of my town before I take you out.” Mathis gasped in pain and slowly looked down. Stephen’s nails had grown and become like little knives. Presently, he had all five fingers of his right hand embedded three inches into Mathis’ abdomen.

  Stephen stepped closer so no one could see Mathis bleeding. Stephen lowered his voice so that only the vampire and Weres could hear him in the club, “No one runs Frankfurt unless I allow it, Mathis.” Stephen made the end of his name a hiss. “If you don’t come to me tomorrow night at 9:00 pm at the Steigenberger Frankfurter Hof, I will find you and I will take you to your maker so he can reprimand you. If he doesn’t satisfy me, I’ll just kill him and then kill you.” Stephen expanded his fingers and Mathis hissed as additional pain went through his stomach. “This underground you are running is over. Your partner has one week to leave Europe on pain of death. Every Were that is part of the underground will re-submit to the Pack council here, or will leave Europe within that same week. Do you hear what I am telling you, Mathis?”

  Mathis grunted as Stephen twisted his razor sharp fingers in Mathis’ causing new muscles to be sliced apart. He gasped out, “Who are you?”

  “I am Stephen, the son of Michael, and the bond-servant of the Queen, Bethany Anne. By her declaration I am lord of Europe and by my decree, your underground efforts are outlawed. Do you understand this decree, Mathis?”

  Mathis just sucked in as much breath as he could. Not only because of the continuing pain Stephen was causing him, but because this was the sun-walker and he had heard rumors of the female vampire. If she had one of Michael’s children answering to her, then the UnknownWorld was changing radically. This also meant their dead partner’s maker presently had his hand half-way into Mathis’ stomach at the moment. He nodded, “I’ll be there tomorrow night.”

  Stephen pulled in his nails and surreptitiously wiped the blood on Mathis’ clothes. “Now leave, Mathis. Take your two Were and get out of my sight. If you so much as think about failing to show up tomorrow, I’ll just find you during the day and drag you into the sun. No muss, no fuss and no mess. Stay away from any humans, you have these hours to do as I command.” He looked at the two Were who had finally realized how close they stood to death walking. “Take my commands back to your pack. You either submit, leave or commit suicide. If I find you I will make it a very painful death so you will be the lesson mothers tell their children about, do you two understand me?” They both nodded. “Now turn around and leave.” All three turned away from Stephen and walked back down the stairs. They were significantly less boisterous leaving. Stephen looked down and noticed he had some blood on his white shirt. “Gott Verdammt!”

  Ivan came up behind him, “I suppose we are done for the night?”

  Stephen sighed. “Yes, we need to sleep and prepare for tomorrow night. I’m afraid there will be no taking ladies back to my room tonight, it would be too dangerous.”

  “I thought as much. I’ve paid for all of the drinks, by the way, ‘Evangeline’ asked me to give you this.” He handed Stephen a napkin that had a lipstick kiss and ladies handwriting on it, ‘Call me, Terry’ and her phone number. He thought she had given him a fake name. He smiled and slid the napkin into his jacket. Maybe the night wasn’t a total bust.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  The Queen Bitch’s Ship Ad Aeternitatem En Route to Costa Rica

  Bethany Anne was in the medical room on TOM’s ship, going over the medical pod readings. It had been four days since Gabrielle had lain in the device and it was time to wake her up. She could use another two days of rest, but needs must and the devil was driving. Or in this case, the Nosferatu outbreak was the driver.

  She entered the code to wake Gabrielle up. TOM had explained how to make part of the pod cover transparent so she could see in, and Gabrielle would be able to see out. It wasn’t a big area, maybe six inches square but she remembered her first experience feeling claustrophobic when she woke up.

  She was standing over the pod looking at Gabrielle’s face when she opened her eyes. She had a strong sense of deja vu, she was there when she woke up her father, too.

  Gabrielle’s eyes went from staring into the distance to focused and quickly found Bethany Anne looking down at her. She smiled in recognition at her friend. She heard Bethany Anne explain how to open the pod from the inside, so she felt around until she found the lever and pulled it. The pod door opened on its own and Bethany Anne stood back, out of her way. Eric and John were out in the hallway, with the door shut.

  “I feel different.”

  TOM?

  It looks like a few deficiencies were detected and corrected. She is approximately an inch taller and her muscles have been tightened up. Her bon
es had some of the same work to strengthen them as you did. She can walk in the sun without any issues and generally, her nanocytes have been upgraded. She has a small direct pull on the Etheric now.

  That’s kick-ass, my own six-million dollar vampire girl.

  “Well, you’ve been modified some by the process. I can tell you that you will need a new wardrobe. You're about an inch taller, and by just eyeballing you, I’d say the inch is in your legs. You look a little tighter all over.” Bethany Anne pointed to her breasts, “Ecaterina is going to be jealous, no support necessary there. Not that a lot was needed before.”

  Gabrielle looked down, “Did I get enlarged a cup?”

  “No, at least TOM didn’t mention it, probably just a general re-shape. Good thing you don’t wear black spandex, or the guys wouldn’t be able to focus on their jobs.” Gabrielle stuck her tongue out at Bethany Anne who was making a ‘turn around’ gesture. “Yup, you get to learn how to get rid of the tattoo.”

  “That figures.”

  Bethany Anne turned around and grabbed the pile of clothes, “The pants will probably be a little short and it all might be just a touch larger than you are used to, but over all I think you'll like this.”

  Gabrielle started putting on the clothes, “I seem a little awkward at the moment.”

  “You're just getting accustomed to the new height and different size. Your muscle memory is confused. We will need to spar to get you comfortable quicker. Speaking of sparring, I had to pull you out of the pod early. We have some trouble.”

  Gabrielle looked at Bethany Anne as she pulled her shirt on, “What trouble?”

  “We are almost to Costa Rica, the power vacuum has caused all sorts of Forsaken fighting including random rampages by Nosferatu after their makers were killed. We are going in.”

  “What about Anton?”

  “That schlong midget is shoot to kill.”

  Gabrielle sat down on the small bench connected to the wall and grabbed the combat shoes, “I still can’t believe you are looking to kill one of Michael’s children.”

  “Believe it. Michael is either dead, in which case one of his kids probably killed him. Or he is captured, in which case see the kid comment just mentioned or he is purposefully hiding. If he is hiding, then Carl is probably with him and they are aware of what is going on. He’s welcome to pick up the fucking phone and call me, but I’ll just hang up on his ass. If he was going to deal with Anton before, it would have been centuries ago. That we have evidence Anton was involved in the worst of the Nazi atrocities is enough for me to condemn his sorry ass. Michael knew my background before he changed me, so it can’t be a surprise I care about the rights of the deceased. Even the deceased of seventy years ago.”

  Gabrielle could feel the righteous fury Bethany Anne barely held in check. There was no changing Bethany Anne’s mind on this subject. Either Bethany Anne or Anton was going to die, and Gabrielle was going to do her fucking best to make sure it wasn’t Bethany Anne. She stomped her feet to get them to settle in the boots and stood up. The clothes fit much better than she had a right to expect. “Then Anton had better say his final prayers, hadn’t he?” She smiled at Bethany Anne who nodded.

  Bethany Anne looked around the room and made sure it was clean. She turned and programmed the pod to close and to ready itself for use. Maybe she would be able to talk Stephen into the pod.

  She walked to the door and let it open before continuing out. John and Eric had been lounging against the wall opposite the door and stood up as she came out. They looked behind her and she noticed the surprise on their faces. Yeah, TOM had to have tweaked the Pod for attractive parameters. Both men took a second to get their game faces back on.

  Eric stuck out his hand to Gabrielle, “Are you finished sleeping? Ready to get your lazy ass up and help us take care of some Nosferatu?”

  Gabrielle noticed the change in Eric’s demeanor, this wasn’t a guy that was picking on her as a woman, this was a guy who was picking on his teammate when they wanted them aboard. She shook his hand, and then started squeezing while smiling. Eric grunted and then started to go down to one knee. “Eric, you sheep-loving ass herder. You can’t run into the light and hide from me anymore. You ready to make sure someone isn’t on your six so I don’t take a bullet to the chest?”

  “I will be if you don’t break my trigger finger!” Eric was able to smile. Gabrielle let go and then hugged both Eric and John.

  “Gabrielle, since you seem to be so happy showing off your strength, we need to go over to the Polarus and spar to get you ready again.”

  Gabrielle turned and looked at Bethany Anne, who was walking down the hallway towards the ships exit. John and Eric started to smile at her. Bethany Anne called out, “By the way, we will be working swords without protection. Hope you’re up to it.”

  Gabrielle’s face went a little white. Her team was decimated when it was the five of them against Bethany Anne alone. Now she was going to spar with her by herself? With edged blades? Oh, this was not going to be fun. She just looked at the two men whose grins were twice as large as they had been a moment before. She started walking after Bethany Anne and flipped the guys the finger over her shoulder. She called out to both of them, “Stop looking at my ass!”

  All she heard was the laughter from her team mates. The three of them heard Bethany Anne from down the hall, “After I finish with you, I want you to work on the team. Four guards against one highly capable Nosferatu.”

  She turned around to see John and Eric’s faces look like they had eaten lemons. She smiled and pointed to herself, “Payback’s this bitch, you two!”

  Eric looked over at John, “We can hope Bethany Anne puts her back in the medical pod, right?”

  John retorted, “You're the one who had to make the lazy ass comment.”

  Eric mumbled, “Seemed like a funny line at the time.”

  Bethany Anne waited until her team was with her. She hit the open sequence and when the door opened, John stepped off first.

  Washington D.C., USA

  Frank Kurns came out of his room at the Madarin Oriental Hotel, set his laptop bag down and turned to lock the door. A second later, Lance Reynolds opened his door a few feet over to his right. “Good morning, Lance.” Frank grabbed his bag again and shouldered it. He never liked the look of the backpack bags for men his age. Hell, even his new age. Ok, he just had to admit he hated the backpack look on anyone not in school.

  “Morning, Frank.” Lance turned to shut his door and put up the sign to let housekeeping know to stay out. Lance dealt with his own room needs as he had ever since his wife Meredith had passed away.

  Frank looked a little closer at Lance who noticed Frank’s scrutiny and looked back at him, “Yes?”

  “You seem a little, just a little, better rested this morning than normal.”

  “Bethany Anne.”

  “Ah.” The two of them started for the elevators. “I thought you were going to wait a while.”

  “She pulled a dirty trick.”

  Frank laughed a little, “Stuck the blood in your drink?”

  “No, emotional terrorism. She told me she didn’t want to watch her father age in front of her eyes, it hurt her too much and then hugged me like I was going to die that night.”

  “She cried on your shoulder, huh?”

  “Yup.”

  “Effective.”

  Lance just grunted his agreement. They hit the button to go down to the ground floor. “It worked.”

  The two stepped onto the elevator. Both had on D.C. power suits. Dark blue with with light colored blue shirts, Hermes ties which didn’t associate them with either party and black Oxford shoes. Ecaterina had dressed them.

  Now, the older man looked the younger as Lance took the lead coming out of the elevator. The valet brought their rental car around and Frank jumped in the drivers seat. This was his town, so he was the best choice to drive around.

  Their task was to find out what was going on with the revie
w into Bethany Anne’s companies and who was behind the research. If it wasn’t politically motivated, they might be able to set up a couple of meetings, answer some questions and leave. If it was politically motivated, they would have to find out if it was a setup by outside forces or inside movers trying to figure out someone to shake for political gain.

  Either way, they needed to squash this interest in Bethany Anne’s corporation before the information became too well known.

  They stopped at a small pancake house and got a booth. Both had coffee while Lance had pancakes with eggs and bacon and Frank simply had oatmeal.

  After their food was served, Lance started the conversation, “Any luck last night?” Frank had spent the evening in his room after going to his office last night. Some of the information he needed wasn’t in the core computer he accessed from his secured laptop.