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  “Yes, Ecaterina was picked up at my house ten minutes ago. She sent a text.”

  Gerry grimaced a little. He knew how much Nathan cared for Ecaterina. “That has to hurt.”

  Nathan just shrugged. “She’s not leaving forever, but the time I wasn’t with you I was with her. I’m going to fly back down to Miami with them and close on a property I’m getting near Bethany Anne’s Little Hacienda.”

  Jonathan piped in, “Where is her house?”

  Nathan smiled, “Smuggles Cove in Key Biscayne, Fl.”

  Jonathan looked at him, “Damn, that is one expensive casa. Really?”

  Nathan just shook his head affirmative.

  Gerry looked at Jonathan, “How the hell do I not know of this place, but my friend who lives on a ranch up in the mountains of Colorado knows of it?”

  Jonathan just smiled at Gerry. “Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous, it’s a sinful habit I know, but I love Robin Leach’s accent.”

  Gerry rolled his eyes. “Ok, fine. Let’s get our own show going. I’ll meet you guys downstairs at the car, you driving Nathan?”

  “Yeah, I’ve got the Benz, let’s use that.”

  Jonathan and Nathan left Gerry’s office to go to the garage under the building. Gerry went to freshen up real quick and then joined them. Gerry rode shotgun and Jonathan got in behind Nathan.

  —

  Bethany Anne had selected an out of the way place in Queens Rockaway Peninsula, Fort Tilden for the meet. It was a desolate area that had been used by the military for aircraft defenses. For Bethany Anne, she wanted it to be away from New York City so that the cops would take a while to get out there if things went bad, and she had an escape route that wasn’t the sewers of New York.

  She expected somebody to be stupid. She only had four people with her, but she hadn’t limited the other team. She got Frank to allow the use of a couple of boats at a distance and a couple of small drones who couldn’t go above about a thousand feet. Still, with the 4k FLUR cameras they had, she should be able to get a read on what was going on before too many people got hurt.

  She had asked Frank to capture as many faces for identification as he could with his promise they wouldn’t be tagged in the database as Wechselbalg. She gave him the name and he was actually familiar with the term. It figures she would be the last to get the memo.

  Her team was using the latest and best protective gear she could buy. Ecaterina had purchased everything there in New York. A city which had access to just about everything legal and otherwise. Bethany Anne had made sure Ecaterina made it to Bobcat and the plane for safe keeping.

  Frank couldn’t give overt support with military help for working against the Weres, no matter what he might want to do. Until they became a bigger problem they were American citizens with their rights intact, not Forsaken. At the moment it was Bethany Anne’s game.

  The five of them worked their way through Queens heading out the 278 to the 27 and finally turning on Oceans Drive. Bethany Anne realized why Michael ended up just slapping the shit out of people. Trying to keep everyone alive, when frankly they were of questionable help, was becoming a little harder each time she did it. Her patience was slowing being worn down, and she hadn’t even been doing this a year.

  What was going to happen when she was a hundred years old? How about two hundred years old? Would she become so impatient that making a book of sins that told you in black and white what was ok and what wasn’t became the solution? She saw how well that worked for Michael but it was hellishly tempting.

  It wasn’t the Stephen’s of the world that caused her problems. It was this situation with the Weres that got her down. She went into this meeting hoping for the best, but planning for the worst. Not only from a tactical perspective, but expecting the worst in people.

  Her heart grieved that she was expecting to be killing again that evening. She gave herself a pep-talk. If they acted per the request, no one would die. It was a huge step up from the normal policy of the vampires. She was fighting from a superior position to facilitate equality of importance. There was no question on equality of strength. Between Michael’s wealth he provided her, Franks help in the government and her own abilities, it would be a massacre if she had chosen to go down that path.

  However; that woman that went into the mountains in Romania hadn’t died. She still believed in giving a chance. Unfortunately, everyone in the UnknownWorld was playing a higher stakes game just because of who they were. You didn’t get to play by the paupers rules when you were born into royalty.

  If your race is responsible for scaring the bejeezus out of humans for centuries, you tend to get very cautious. You sneeze wrong and the pitchforks and flames come out. Except now it was 12 gauge shotguns, molotov cocktails, and then the military would start firing guided ammunitions.

  Carl cut over to Flatbush Ave using Avenue J and then went across the Marine Parkway Bridge to get over to Rockaway Point Blvd.

  She had priorities that wouldn’t change. She was responsible, as TOM had so helpfully reminded her, for the future of the whole damn planet. More important to her right now, she was responsible for her team that was with her right now.

  She sighed and reached into the cooler that they brought along. Inside were five bottles of fresh blood. Her face showed the revulsion of drinking this stuff. But she couldn’t have the bags with her inside the meeting. Fortunately, TOM had worked out the problems with the poisons which usually caused the ‘nasty smell’ of death around Vampires. She asked him to squelch that. It wasn’t vain of her to worry about smelling bad, right?

  She drained two bottles and left three in the cooler. Eric provided a rag to clean the area around her mouth. She appreciated the offer. By now, her personal team was aware she hated drinking the blood.

  TOM hadn’t found any solutions on pulling the Etheric charged components out of blood and helping make the drink a smaller, more energy laden liquid. Maybe she should find out which of Michael’s companies worked with blood? She would bet at least one or more already did. She felt like she was behind on her homework.

  She put her game face on. Carl drove through the gate to move closer to the area of the meeting which was inside one of the empty concrete bunkers that had opened towards the city and the sea.

  The car stopped and they waited in it. John spoke up after a minute, “Well, damn. I had our first attack to happen when the car stopped. There goes my $50.”

  Carl said in a squeaky voice, “What? When were you going to tell me this?”

  “I just did.”

  “No, you did not tell me anything. You merely informed everyone that you lost a bet about us getting attacked right now.”

  “Keep your panties on. The next expected ambush is as we get closer to the meeting place. You will be here in the car.” John looked over at Carl and got his attention. “However; let me warn you that if you drive away with the car, I will find you and you won’t enjoy the discussion. Do you understand this minor threat or would you like me to escalate it higher already?”

  Carl shook his head no. “I’m good. So long as you guys aren’t in the car, I’ll keep it locked and not much can get through this armor.”

  “Very good.” John opened the vehicle and got out. Making sure his weapons were ready John walked around the car. Eric was the next one out followed by Darryl and Scott. Once they reviewed the grounds for a couple of minutes they told Bethany Anne it was ok to come out.

  They had decided that treating Bethany Anne this way would work for the Werewolves. They understood two things, at an instinctual level. Power and respect. If you have the respect of the powerful, then it is a level of power all of its own.

  Bethany Anne got out of the SUV and sniffed the air. She could smell Were, but not anything else out of the ordinary. The saltiness of the sea was good to smell again.

  John had figured they would create burrows in the ground and jump up to ambush the SUV when they arrived. It was what he would do. Especially if they felt Bet
hany Anne was a weak vampire.

  Eric was next with an ambush prognostication. His guess would have them hit right before they went into the tunnel. While Bethany Anne was pretty sure this wouldn’t happen. Without the protection of the armored SUV, they couldn’t be nearly as blasé this time. The team formed up around her to make a point. While she was the deadliest of the five, they were there to protect her.

  She sure hoped no one had considered shaped charges and ball bearings. That would put a damper on the rest of her life. She couldn’t smell any explosives, so she was mostly sure they were safe.

  They had changed out of their travel uniform, which were the black suits, white shirts and the under-arm holsters. Now, they were in their ops uniform. They looked very deadly coming down the hill from the parking area.

  She had procured some ops helmets to provide them information in a heads up display (HUD). The optic glass protected their face and provided very small video views from cameras embedded in the helmet itself. They had their AR-15’s on quick-slings with the same setup they used when hunting Forsaken. All of the ammunition they packed on this op was silver frangible and silver laced. Even the Bowies had been changed.

  Bethany Anne had requested input from Nathan. She liked how the Bowie she used on Algerian was so effective to get his attention. She had Ecaterina work with the craftsman Todd Thames. Todd didn’t come cheap and when you wanted five special made knives within twenty-four hours? Well, let’s just say the quote would have choked most people. However; with lives on the line Bethany Anne just agreed to the quote and provided an incentive if he was able to be done early.

  Bethany Anne had hoped the Bowies wouldn’t be necessary. However; she really liked the knife and better to be prepared than not.

  John and the team knew they were working against supernaturals, however they had been ground on the crucible of the Nosferatu for months now. They were brothers who had fought and survived, bled and cried together. Now, John had a focus and a way to take the fight back to the sons-a-bitches who had been attacking his nation. This meeting was a speed-bump to moving onward to bigger plans.

  If the werewolves talked, great. He was all for talking over fighting but he wasn’t worried long term. He had, almost literally, drank the cherry Kool-Aid when Bethany Anne had saved his life. He realized that his focus had turned to her focus.

  He wasn’t blindly following her. He felt he understood the mettle of the woman and he trusted who she was, scary vampire and everything else. If everyone here talked, great. The first asshole who did anything more than yell was going to get a beat down.

  Scott, behind Bethan Anne, had to watch his quarter which included behind them. Both he and Darryl had their backward facing cameras on their helmets. It had taken the team an hour to get used to the technology on the flight up.

  When Dan had approached Bethany Anne with the idea to use these helmets yesterday as an option for the team load, she called and got the manufacturers rep who spoke to the both of them on a conference call.

  Fortunately, the manufacturer had a distributor in the Miami area which had a case of ten of the helmets. She just told them to ship them all via hotshot delivery and Dan and Scott had worked with them last night and passed them to the team before they took off that morning.

  Hopefully, adding this new hitch wouldn’t be a problem. However, they didn’t have the overhead support and other capabilities they usually enjoyed. The small drones were up there, somewhere. Frank was online but wouldn’t interrupt unless he had input.

  They spread apart as the team approached within twenty-five yards of the opening and all of them dropped sensors to help watch their back door. They approached the opening which was twenty feet wide and ten feet high. Nothing but concrete spray painted with graffiti and gang symbols. Ricochet’s might be a bitch.

  They walked through the opening on their side of the bunker. No ambush occurred. Darryl and Scott just lost their $50.00. It was now between Eric and Bethany Anne.

  Eric believed no attack would happen. Bethany Anne chose last and suggested something might happen during the talks. She knew Nathan wouldn’t be involved in a double cross. Not only would his life be forfeit, he wasn’t the type to turn his back on Ecaterina. At least, that was how Bethany Anne was reading him.

  So, that meant Gerry would be playing fair and therefore the main meeting was on the up and up. She had a talk with Gerry, Nathan and another alpha they had in the car by the name of Jonathan. She had talked with him related to a personal issue for just a quick minute. She said she would talk with him assuming they got through this meeting.

  The meeting was set for 4:00 PM. At this time of the year, Bethany Anne figured the sun would start to create long shadows in another hour. It should encourage the Weres desire to get through the meeting quicker.

  The general belief was vampires and Weres were stronger at night. Neither was really true. Bethany Anne knew that the etheric changes which Wechselbalg went through were powerful in either night or day. However; vampires were so secretive that no one realized that this was also true for Vampires as well. The team here might be thinking she wasn’t as strong as she could be in a few hours and would want to hit early.

  Since Gerry and the main council shouldn’t be a part of it, they unfortunately would be in the crossfire if not actively targeted. Or, they could think it would be a wonderful time to strike while she was weaker. It was a calculated risk either way.

  Gerry, Nathan and one more she presumed was Jonathan were approaching from the other side. She could see beyond them thirty to forty additional Weres. That group stayed at the other end of the tunnel. For the first part of the talks, the agreement would be for the main three representatives to talk in the middle with Bethany Anne and her protection squad.

  Both sides agreed if there was to be an ambush during the talk, this should get them to spring it.

  The headsets for the team included military grade bone conduction technology from BAE Systems. This technology used vibrations which passed through the teams cranial bones and directly affected the cochlea. This allowed for information to be given to the team and significantly reduced any chances of the Weres hearing her team’s communications.

  Frank’s voice came over the comms, “We have movement. We have ten incoming from behind you and I see a group of twelve joining the large group at the other end of the tunnel. That group is making their way through to the front. So far, that’s it. Twenty-two Tangos.”

  Bethany Anne knew all of her team heard the message, but Nathan, Gerry and Jonathan weren’t in the game, yet.

  They had agreed during their conversation that if Bethany Anne’s group was attacked from behind her side, that Gerry and his team would start the ball rolling and Bethany Anne’s group would support him. If it got too nasty, she would get involved.

  If the troublemakers started in on Gerry’s side, then her team would start the ball rolling to support the existing council and she would get involved with the first blood on her side again.

  Unfortunately, she had to stay out of it until someone drew blood or was stupid enough to target her directly. She argued against these rules. Both John and Nathan argued that they were playing for bigger stakes this time and she should just be a little patient and trust them.

  They were closing to within ten feet of each other. She put her hand up to her ear while looking at Nathan and mouthed very faintly ’10 behind me, 12 behind you.’

  Everyone on her team was already alert. Darryl and Scott had stepped over to the walls and knelt down ready to pivot and point their weapons behind them. John and Eric just looked past the group in front and watched the group in back. Bethany Anne’s responsibility was for the group directly in front of them.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  New York City, NY - USA

  Nathan heard Bethany Anne mentioned there were twenty-two uninvited guests joining the meeting. Her desire to keep the bloodshed minimal probably wouldn’t happen.

  He had been
studying the four tac-team members in her group. He didn’t know where she got them, but they were pretty fucking serious. Personally, he was glad they were here.

  With only Bethany Anne joining, more might try to join in the fight thinking to overwhelm her. He had finally decided Jonathan wasn’t going to turn on them. With the eight of them it was going to be an interested fight.

  The two behind Bethany Anne stepped sideways and took a knee, ready to turn around and support Gerry’s group going the other way. He imagined they also made sure no one in his group turned around. They were the guys responsible to protect the teams back and he didn’t sense any hesitation they might have being around a bunch of Werewolves.