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  He gave her a discreet update while he ate. “Our DC contact is having a lot of problems. He has lost a lot of men without Bill supporting the dangerous operations. He is getting heat from a few higher up in the law enforcement / military hierarchy since he can’t provide any resources except information. The rest of the family won’t talk with him without Carl who had his authority from Michael. So, no one here in Europe is getting any help, either. The problems are starting to jam up, and with so many deaths starting to happen it won’t be too long before someone is going to figure out there has been a substantial increase in deaths due to unexplainable causes.”

  Finishing his meat, he started in on his vegetables, “Now, we move to Gerry who is having a problem with the young and stupid and full of testosterone within the Were community. They have never liked the rules Michael put in place. The rumor mill is full of speculation that Michael is dead and there hasn’t been anything from the vampire community to quell that rumor in America. So, the council is having more and more troubles keeping a lid on the troublemakers. At least here, the council has run into an incident with a vampire involved. Well, involved proactively. Everyone knows if you go and tweak a vampire you should have your life insurance paid up. However; the problem has been that they aren’t doing anything without direction from Michael, or Carl in this case.

  Stephen isn’t awake, supposedly and Barnabas hasn’t been seen in a dozen years or more. Peter is awake in Asia, but he takes care of that area without Michael’s involvement. The last one, David, is supposedly over in Russia for the last five years and I have no information on him. I know he has one more, but I can’t remember his name.”

  Bethany Anne set her drink down. “I will have a discussion with Stephen. He isn’t on my good list since he hasn’t been paying attention. Petre’ was a fine example. I’ll get him motivated.”

  “How do you plan to do that? It isn’t like you can just throw him into the sun like Petre’. He is the only other vampire that the sun doesn’t effect.”

  “Nathan, everyone has a point of encouragement. If they don’t and I can’t trust them then I figure I can always elevate someone within the organization when a sudden opening at the top of the Family occurs.”

  “You know, you kinda scare me when you do that.”

  “What?”

  “Act like Michael. Where killing is always the first, last and potentially the only solution.”

  “Nathan, I don’t want to have killing them be my first choice. However; at the moment it is the only punishment that most of the Family seems to recognize.”

  As the waiter approached, they kept quiet while he took Nathan’s plates and returned with coffee for both of them.

  Bethany Anne continued, “However; you will notice Michael had a soft spot. Except for the Forsaken, he hasn’t directly punished his own children when they have had less than exemplary conduct.”

  “How would you attempt to do that? No offense, but going after Stephen, Barnabas or any of the rest is going to be too much for you.”

  “Nathan, have you ever had any kids?”

  “Yes, but I lost him in Vietnam.”

  Bethany Anne was reminded just how old Nathan really was. He looked like he was in his late 20’s or a very good 30. “Sorry to hear that. Did you have any problem punishing him?”

  Nathan sat back, thinking back over the years that he grew up. “Yeah, they say that little girls can tie their fathers around their fingers. It was a good that Adam wasn’t a girl: he had me tied up pretty good all on his own. His mother had to punish him more often because I would just slap his hand.”

  “Then you understand Michael’s situation. He recognized a character trait in himself that wasn’t working for everyone. So, he made a change.”

  “That change was you? How is bringing in a sister going to change the brothers?”

  “That’s just it, Nathan. I’ll let you in on a secret, one that you will keep on pain of death. He didn’t create a sister, but rather a Mother. As his Mother, I’m about to school Stephen on how upset ‘Mom’ really is.”

  Nathan could see her eyes glowing red behind her veil. Oh, fuckity-fuck, he thought. He had been concerned when he believed Bethany Anne to be a powerful vampire for her age. Someone that Michael might have a ‘talk’ to when, and if, he ever came back. Now he wasn’t sure that Michael could, or even would, correct her if he came back.

  Nathan desperately needed to get Gerry and the council to get the troublemakers in line and circle the damn wagons. He was pretty sure that if Bethany Anne had to come ‘fix’ things, it was going to be another bloodbath they would be talking about in another 150 years.

  Brasov, Romania

  Ecaterina was in the hotel room waiting for Bethany Anne and Nathan to get back. Ivan had gone to pick them up at the train station. She was emotionally tired from arguing with her mother.

  Why is it that mothers push on their children expectations of themselves? Ecaterina had never wanted a small house, a husband and two children. She had never played house at all while growing up. She had always been outside, or away on the mountain with her father. That her mother had continued to push Ecaterina into the mold of a family woman was a testament to her mother’s ability to ignore reality.

  When it had come time to speak with her parents, Ecaterina’s mother tried a massive guilt trip complete with crying and sobbing. When that failed to work, her mother told her father he needed to talk some sense into Ecaterina. Her mother went on to explain how bad his life was going to be if he didn’t help her change Ecaterina’s mind. It almost broke Ecaterina’s heart to see her dad suffering between two woman he loved. However; her dad had chosen to live with one, so as much as Ecaterina loved him she couldn’t take that burden off of his shoulders.

  At the end, her mother just went to her room and shut the door. Her father had helped Ecaterina take her luggage and put it into Ivan’s Mercedes. Her father looked at her, with a small smile on his face.

  “This is what you are, Katia. Your mother will realize her life in one of your other siblings. Maybe Ivan if he is able to stop helping every pretty woman and choose one, yes?” He smiled over at Ivan who had a long suffering look on his face.

  “She wants to have grandchildren and she had her plans that figured you would have kids before your brothers. I told her before this wouldn’t happen and she told me I would see she was right. Well, now you are leaving and worse she knows I was right. I’m sure she will calm down eventually. Don’t worry about me, I’ll just go to the mountain for a few nights if I need some peace and quiet. But don’t forget about us, ok? Send us an update, let us know what is going on.”

  She had promised her father she would email them from time to time. She didn’t know where she was headed but she did expect to end up in America.

  Her father started asking Ivan questions about Bethany Anne and Nathan, especially Nathan. His questions got so embarrassing that Ecaterina was blushing furiously and started to get mad at her father. He just winked at her, said goodbye and then they took off.

  She was embarrassed. Her father had just baited her and she responded. Now he knew she liked Nathan after she had spent all night working hard to keep the focus on Bethany Anne. Gott Verdammt!

  Constanta, Romania

  Bethany Anne decided to have Nathan take Ecaterina to America. She didn’t want any potential hostages around when she schooled Stephen’s family.

  She passed a message on to Frank that they would talk when she got back to the States. She used some of Nathan’s connections, he was so useful to have around, to get some bonafide genuine passports. With the contacts in Switzerland, she had a legal passport for “Bethany Anne” from the Swiss. Frank got word to her he would have a U.S. Passport for her waiting in England that she could pick up on her way over to D.C.

  It was amazing how much power a few billion dollars and over a trillion in assets provides someone. This was a little more than she was prepared to handle. She was going to need
a damn team of accountants to figure it all out. She had no idea how Michael handled it.

  Once Ecaterina and Nathan were safely on their way, she went to track down Stephen and give him the ‘talk’. Without Nathan around to caution her, she was getting a little madder each time she thought about the way he let Petre’ act and hadn’t taken care of the responsibility of that loose cannon.

  It took her three days to finally find his home, and what a home it was. Three stories tall, made of beautiful stone that looked like marble in the countryside outside of Constanța, Romania. The city itself was gorgeous. With streets that were paved with bricks from hundreds of years ago and bike racks setup for people to just grab a bike and go, Bethany Anne had wanted to walk around and see more. Unfortunately, she felt the pressure of getting back to America now with the situations Frank was dealing with.

  While trying to find Stephen’s house she had thought that she should, once again, follow the money. She found the oldest three banks in town and visited the first two to open an account. By dropping a million in U.S. dollars, she was introduced to the bank presidents. When admitting she might have more that she could deposit if she felt inclined they would bend over backwards to answer her questions. She hit the jackpot on the second bank. When she put the president under the influence, he admitted that his bank had a very wealthy patron by the name of ’Stephen’ that had no last name and he would be happy to give her the address and a letter of introduction to pass to him. She thanked him for the help and left.

  After getting lunch, Bethany Anne went back to the train station and searched around for a very lonely spot. She found one out behind the ticket booth. After that task was finished, it was just a few minutes to capture the attention of a taxi and headed towards Cupana. She had the driver leave her at a gas station about a 1/2 mile from the road that went to Stephens house.

  Admiring the view, she walked up to the house and rang the doorbell. It was a real f’ing bell, too. She pulled on a rope which passed through a hole above the door and rang a bell deep in the house. After pulling the rope three times and waiting twenty minutes she considered banging on, or down, the front door. Finally, she could hear slow steps making their way to the door. The door locks were turned and finally an old, wizened man stood in front of her.

  If her nose hadn’t confirmed it, and TOM as well, she wouldn’t have believed that she was staring at Michael’s son, Stephen.

  He was old. Not like “grandpa stop glaring at the girls, it’s gross” old. He was in the grave, just wait and close the coffin lid old. He had sunspots on his bald head and even his eyes looked like they had a light-grey film on them.

  What the fuck?

  “Yes?” His voice was a little wheezy, but not too bad.

  “Stephen?” She couldn’t help herself. She was expecting someone… younger.

  “Yes?”

  Well, what the fuck was she supposed to do now? If she bitch-slapped grandpa here, she might break his fool neck and although a consideration, she didn’t feel like hitting this bag of bones.

  “You got something to say, or shall I close this door young woman?”

  Yeah, that’s right. He couldn’t smell anything vampy about her. Well, he might not be able to smell anything at all.

  “May I come in? I have some news that you might want to hear. It’s about Petre’.”

  “Yes, of course. What has that little miscreant done now?” Stephen turned around and walked back into the house. He had let go of his live-in caretakers five years ago. He still had his groundskeepers come weekly and a house cleaning service came once a month to take care of dusting the house and vacuuming. Stuff that wouldn’t wake him up in the basement.

  Bethany Anne looked around. It was clean, but obviously no one lived here. They sat in the front room. It had 10 foot ceilings and drapes hanging from the ceiling all the way to the floor along one wall. A Roman bust sat on a pedestal in the corner. The furniture looked hundreds of years old. Shit, it might be his original furniture from hundreds of years ago.

  She got to the point. “That miscreant got involved in using the Bravos Were pack as his gang of hoodlums who then tried to assassinate an American Pack Council representative and a couple of locals. A human and a Werebear who lived on the mountain were caught in the attack and were also going to be killed.”

  “Well, what do you want me to do about it?” Stephen was still trying to wake up. This woman was beautiful, but he was way past the stage where beautiful woman did much for him, anymore.

  “Nothing, I killed him.”

  Stephen got a little jolt from that and opened his eyes a little more. “You?” The film seemed to be receding from his eyes as he woke up. “How? Why?”

  “The ‘how’ was by pulling him into the sun a little at a time when he wouldn’t, or couldn’t answer my question and the why was because he was being a little shit. Yeah, and he shot me.”

  Stephen was waking up fast, now. “When was this?”

  “A couple of weeks ago.”

  “You don’t look like you’ve been shot.”

  “I heal, really fast. You should know. Hell, Petre’ was healing fast. That was why I kept hitting him with the cricket bat. Well, that and I was pissed about getting shot. Did I mention the little shit shot me in the back?”

  Stephen’s eyes creased a little. “You don’t smell like you should to have been able to do that. You smell… normal. Why should I believe you?”

  “You want me to come over there and let you get a better smell?” She raised an eyebrow daring him to accept her offer.

  “Yes, yes, I’ll take you up on that offer young lady.”

  Bethany Anne walked over to Stephen and offered her wrist towards his face. In her last step, she switched over to vamp speed and the world went into super slow motion. She let her arm hang about a foot from Stephens face.

  She saw the moment Stephen decided he was going to get a bite of that juicy wrist and his incisors started growing. He tried to launch off of the couch and grab her arm with both his hands to bring her wrist up to his mouth.

  She didn’t want him to get his teeth in her. She felt she could eventually pry him off, but not only what a pain it might be, but she was sure her etheric energy would get drained and while turn about is fair play. The thought of drinking his geriatric blood just grossed her out.

  So, she grabbed his forehead with her left hand and pushed it back. Pulling her right hand closer to her chest, she was able to do a quick twist and break his hold. Using her right hand, she popped him in his right ear and he shot away to land 15 feet into the foyer. She started walking over to him. Stephen was lying on the ground moaning with his hands covering his ears.

  “Why did you hit an old man like that?”

  “I’m going to break your old man legs if you don’t stop acting like a fucking moron. Get a fucking backbone Stephen. I expected more from Michael’s child.

  He looked up at her suddenly, realizing that he was ‘playing’ with someone who not only had an idea about the UnknownWorld, but also knew who Michael was and how he was related to him. Which meant that she had to have had an idea how powerful he might have been, if he had rejuvenated in the last few hundred years.

  She had come alone, and had just boxed his ears across the house.

  “What is it you want?”

  “I want you to get off your bony ass and have a real conversation with me. You’re a pathetic excuse for a Family head, what the hell has gotten into you?”

  “You want to know?” Stephen gingerly got up and walked with a little decorum to the inside living room. At least in here the floors were carpeted if he got a beat down again. The way she had been able to easily break his hold, he didn’t have a chance of over powering her right now. Maybe after a rejuvenation…. Maybe!

  “Yes, I not only want to know, but dammit I need to know.” Bethany Anne sat near Stephen. Showing him that she wasn’t overly concerned with his attacking her again and giving him something she felt he
was desperately needing, attention.

  They ended up talking through the night. By dawn, it was obvious that Stephen was drowning in loneliness. Now, he needed etheric energy in a bad way. He was so bad off a teenager might be able to kill him.

  She considered what she could do about that. When she arrived at the house, she thought she was going to kick his ass, and probably have to kill him. Now, she wanted - no she needing to save him. Save him both physically and emotionally as he was hurting horribly. He cared and it was his achilles heal. He was hiding from his troubles by sleeping and he didn’t want to create another child so that he could grow young again.

  TOM, is there any way to safely move any of my etheric energy to Stephen without endangering me?

  Yes, you could give him some of your blood.

  I am not letting those geezer fangs bite me, hell no.

  Cut your wrist and let some drain into a bowl or a mug, he can drink it from there.