Chapter Twenty-Four

Advanced Pawn

 

Rock ground out as soon as we were in the truck and driving down the street going back towards Ashton's neighborhood, “All right, what the fuck was that all about?”

“That was making a nice, new enemy really pissed off at me and throwing down the gauntlet at it.”

“What's the Black Gate?”

I threw a question back at him instead. “What do you know about the Bermuda Triangle?”

“No. Fuck no. I really don't want to hear this right now.”

I shrugged, “You asked.”

Andre piped in, being a smart ass, “You did ask her.”

Craven was sitting back, laughing at us all.

“Why is it with you folks everything has to be the fucking twilight zone?”

“Hey, we didn't put this shit there.”

“No, you didn't. Ok, so what’s the Black Gate got to do with The Bermuda Triangle?”

I saw a young black teenager walk out into the street. “First, you better stop the car.”

“You're right.” Rock spotted him, too. The kid just stood there, as we stopped.

“Well, let's go see what the problem is.”

We all got out and moved slowly towards the kid.

“Are you all right?” I asked.

“My Houngan said to stop the black truck coming down this road at this time.”

“Your Houngan?”

“Yes, he said to give the woman who stepped out this.”

This was a white piece of paper that was folded and had a wax seal on it.

'Babe,' I could hear the warning in Andre's mind-voice.

I ran my free hand over the folder paper, but felt nothing malignant. I smelled it and the scent of frankincense wafted off the paper. That was a good sign, since the scent is used for pleasing the Gods and Goddesses in our pantheon. I assumed most other pantheons used the scent for very much the same thing.

“My Houngan's Lao is sweet,” the youth said, with a knowing look in his eyes.

I opened the paper, breaking the wax seal on it and read it.

What I read made me smile, “Tell your Houngan that our Coven sends our thanks and may blessings shine down on him and his Lao.”

He smiled back at me. “My Houngan added one more message for you. He said, 'Someday soon, you will have to do what you fear the most- not once, not twice, but three times more. He said the power of his Lao will be there for your draw when you need it.” He reached into his pocket and drew out a golden necklace and handed it to me. I took it and felt the power throb through the medallion. On one side, was the symbol for closed doorway; the other, held a symbol for open doorway.

“Keep the closed side outwards, until you need his Lao, then flip the medallion.”

“Again, my thanks to him and his house.” I put the chain on my neck with the sigil for closed showing and tucked it into my shirt next to my skin. It resonated with my power, until a harmony was settled between the two powers, then it went quiet against my skin.

The young man took off, having done his errand and Rock had his eyebrow trick working overtime.

“Wait until we get back to the wolven’s 'hood. I don't want to explain things twice.” Things were speeding up and we were running out of time for many things, but the one I worried about the most was the cub.

Wizard was waiting for us with a few sheets of paper ready for us to look over. He must have found a printer around here.

We all looked over this new information and all of the pieces fell into place for me. I was going to have so much fun tearing Plum Island apart. But first, I had deal with this shit here.

Rock got a hard look on his face. “This is what we have been waiting for.”

“What?” I asked him, as I was envisioning beating the shit out of some scientists.

“Not right now. First, we need to call General Pierce.” He snapped around to Wizard, “Forward the Intel and a report of everything that has happened with the investigation.”

Ah, I am not the only one who has put the pieces all together or was there something more going on then I knew about?

Right then, a sharp pain bent me over and made me gasp for breath. That was a warning signal that my shields had been infiltrated by another practitioner had come into the area not cleared for entry.

“Shit. Breach,” I yelled. I turned to look towards the park and went into a full-out run. Andre and Craven were hot on my heels and Rock was pounding right along with them. He had learned how to take his energy and turn it into inhuman speed for short durations. Ashton and his main guard kept up with us easily. We got to the park in mere seconds and we all saw the voodoo priestess bending down sniffing the ground. She saw us coming and stood up, sneering at us. With her left hand, she threw something on the ground and turned sideways and went through an astral doorway and was gone, closing the door behind her.

“Damn it.” That slippery bitch.

“What was she doing here, Cat?” Rock asked.

“Getting a scent for the ones who'd made it through her shields. If we’re lucky, she'll go after them first, for breaking her protection, aiding in her loss of the wolven.” I approached the area carefully, trying to find what I had missed earlier and what she'd obviously caught, or she wouldn't have left so easily.

I bent down to the exact spot where she had stood and sniffed at the grass. I could smell her and the herbs she had used for a summoning of an astral doorway. I snorted; amateur. I didn't need no stinkin' herbs to call a doorway, but I did need an exact direction to go- some sort of line or tie to the place or person I wanted to find or get to. I didn't know her or her haunts, so trying to track her through a doorway would be suicidal. I could wind up in an infinite number of planes of existence and an equal amount of different levels of those planes. Then I smelled it; the scent she had found. She would be looking for the power signature, but I knew that scent. The personal scent of General Robertson and the muscles in my back started to jump and twist in remembrance of my time with him.

I stood up, breathing in and out slowly. Andre's eyes widened and he came over to hold me, offering his emotional support. I could deal with this. I know I could. This was nothing more than bad memory and I was used to that. Feeling Andre hold me tight made me remember just how bad things had gotten for me and physical pain was nothing in comparison to that time without my mates. No, I could deal with this. The General had no hold on me. I smiled at Andre, letting him know I had it under control now and he stepped away.

'I love you,' I said to him on our private path.

'I love you more.'

Sexual heat started to rise up between us; but this, unfortunately, wasn't the time or place.

Instead, I turned to Rock. “General Robertson personally took this cub. It's his scent on the ground, though faint.” I loved being a vampire sometimes.

He took out his phone and hit speed dial for General Pierce.

He filled him in on the bare essentials and then listened for a minute. “Acknowledged.”

“Cat, we have to return to the base for debriefing.”

Ashton's worried look came back to his face. They all looked worried. “I can't leave them unprotected, Rock. I gave my word.”

Obviously, General Pierce heard me, because Rock handed me the phone, “Cat, we need you here for debriefing. The situation has changed.”

“I understand that, Sir, but can't we leave the squad here and my men and let me call in one more?”

“Who?”

“Gerard. I know he's there at the base waiting for us.” We always have at least one person on the base when any one of us is out in the field. This way, we can get things done quickly if the situation called for it like it did now.

“Fine. You and O'Hara's team come in and I'll have another squad waiting for you, but we can’t wait for the time it would take for Gerard to get there, even if I sent him out right now.”

“Sure, you can just tell Gerard I said code Dark one on one.”

“Code Dark one on one?” General Pierce asked, confused. “Hey, he's leaving. Where is he going?”

“Not to worry, he'll have one of my other siblings show up there in about 15 minutes. He'll be here with me in about 2 minutes.”

“Catrina, you have left something out again, haven't you?” Oh boy, he used my full name again. That usually meant he wasn't amused.

“I'll fill you in at the debriefing, but look at it this way. I just saved you time and money.”

I heard him sigh heavily, “Fine, just get back here, STAT.”

“Yes, Sir,” I snapped out and gave the phone back to Rock.

Rock said, 'Yes Sir' one more time, then shut the phone with that look back in his eyes.

Rock looked at me, “You really like pushing people’s buttons, don't you?”

“My psychological evaluation said I have problems with authority figures.”

“That wasn't in the FBI file.”

“No, it wasn't.”

“Why wasn't it in the files, Cat?”

“I paid a lot of money to a very talented person to take some of the worst things out of all of my records.”

“So, you're telling me, there is more about you that we don't know?”

“Yup. Seems like I got my monies worth, huh?”

“Shit.” Rock closed his eyes

“You have been pushing everybody's buttons today, Cat. What's up?” Wizard asked.

“I haven't been laid in a few days,” I snapped.

Wizard turned red from my frank answer and a few of the guys in the squad started laughing. I heard a few 'well, that explains a lot comments', too. Damn males.

'I can fix that,' Andre was smiling.

'How? I have to leave as soon as I get Gerard here.'

'Damn.'

'Yeah, see what I mean? I am getting cranky, damn it. All these fucking interruptions and shit are cutting into my time with all of you lately.'

'I'll make it up to you later.'

'Promise?'

He got a lecherous grin on his face, 'Oh yeah.'

Heat ran through my body again, but since I couldn't do anything about it, it was making me even crankier.

I whirled around to face the crowd. “Ok folks, give me some room and move it now. You're about to see something most folks never get to see in their lifetime.” I put my best circus entertainer voice into the order.

They backed off and I made a circle in the ground, blessing the area with white light.

I then focused on my inner power and also tapped into my mates powers. Then, I focused on my altar at home and the node of power I had built up there and tapped into it, as well. It may sound like I was tapping into a lot of power and I was. Bringing a whole person to you, took a lot of power. I wouldn't even need half of this power if I was just going myself from here to there on this plane. Closing down portals was a lot like that. It took an F-5 hurricane or tornado or a 6.5 earthquake to get enough energy to make a portal but it took very little to shut them down. At least for me. A typical magick user would need this amount of energy and then some, to close one himself. Being the daughter of a Goddess had some benefits.

I turned my attention to the bond I had with my brother, Gerard, and found him in my mind’s eye, standing and waiting patiently for me in a field outside of the buildings at Truax Field base. I made a doorway from the circle to him and like bending time and space for one single minute, folding the distance with WILL, making the two places meet for the time he needed. He then was able to step through the door and out the other side, appearing in the circle in front of me. I closed the doorway immediately, since it took a lot of power to hold it open. It also took a very strong mind to hold the focus that precisely. One single mistake, for even a split instance and he could be trapped betwixt and between forever, with very little hope of ever being found.

“Greetings, Sister.”

“Greetings, Brother.” And he hugged me.

“So, fill me in. What's the emergency?” he asked.

I told him everything that had happened. Since I knew his knowledge in voodoo and how to protect against it was as deep as, or deeper, than mine, I felt the wolves here would be well protected until I got back. But, I thought I had better prepare them for the bad news now, before I left. I needed everything in place if I felt the shit was going to hit the fan, for them to be able to move fast, if it did.

“Ashton.” He looked at me, finally taking his eyes off my son's bod long enough. Wolves were a horny lot, but I was not calling the kettle black. Nope, not me. “Craven and I have talked about the possibility of the Voodoo Priestess making life very hard for you here and now we also have a very bad General taking your people when he feels like it. We can't be here 24/7. We have other things we need to do a lot of the time. For now though, we are leaving these men here to watch over the area. They'll fight, if needs be, but I have to ask you, how tied to this place here,” pointing to the surrounding area, “are you and your people?”

“We can't go back home.” His expression had turned bleak.

“I didn't say that. I asked how tied to this particular place are you?”

His face cleared a bit. “Oh, well, we have seen other places through the TV and magazines we buy. As long as there are hunting grounds nearby- deer, elk and such, we would be happy, but...” his voice trailed off.

“But, what?”

“There are more that want to come here, too. They don't want to be there anymore and we have been bringing them over, bit by bit, as we rebuild here.”

“How many are here now?”

“One hundred and thirty two.”

“Including children?”

“Yes.”

Not bad. I knew of several places I could put them that we could guard better and easier.

“How many more want to cross over?”

“Another two hundred give or take a few.” I looked at him. ”Some get scared at the last minute and decide to stay. They don't want to leave so many friends behind.”

Another two hundred plus or minus. Shit, that overtaxed my own and my Earth-side mate’s personal resources. We owned a lot of land all over the world, but nothing big enough for so many people and with cubs. Children? What world would love to see more children playing in the streets again?

“How well do any of your people fight?”

“About fifty here now are strong fighters, alphas all.”

“How many are waiting on the other side wanting to defect?”

“Over a hundred, all with cubs marked for gleaning. We're trying to build as fast as we can, before the Solstice in our world. That's when my father has started Gleaning. Every Solstice now.”

Those people would not turn at the last second. With children, you would face hell rather than see them killed. But, hell wasn't what I had in mind for them, though it could get hot for a bit there.

“What do you know about fighting vampires?”

“What is a vampire?”

Shit. I took a deep breath and let my fangs slide out and hissed lightly at him. He didn't back up, but I saw his nostrils flare in agitation. This was a good sign.

“I have a place, maybe, if I can get permission where there will be no gleaning, no military threats and where people will appreciate the fact that you are wolven and would welcome you with open arms. There is, however, one small catch.”

His eyes took on a predatory look. “What's the catch?”

“There are bad vampires called the Draugralls that have been hunting these people for food and women. You would be asked to defend the people against these vampires.”

“You are Draugrall?”

“No, I am a different tribe of vampire.” I kept it simple for him because we didn't have much time and I still had much to do. “There are many tribes of vampires some good, some bad, some so-so. Do you understand?” I went into my drill instructor mode, as I did when training my children.

“Yes.”

“These kind though, are very evil and very fast. Their fangs are longer than mine.” I started circling around him. He crunched lower in his stance, keeping me in front of him. This was really good.

“They have claw-like hands with razor sharp nails they use like knives.” I pulled my knives out of my wrists sheaths. “Now, I don't have claws like those guys, but I do have blades. Silver-made blades that will burn you, just as the poison that is in the tips of their nails will burn you, if you get slashed. Do you understand?”

His chin tucked in and watched me closely, as I twirled my blades in front of him. “Yes.”

“You can't let them bite you. I have no idea what a vampire bite will do to a wolven, but I do know what it does to others and it can enslave the victim if it’s not cleaned out fast enough or if the vampire who bit the person isn't killed. Do you understand?”

I could hear the men behind me and Andre making bets and joking around. Ashton's pack though, watched every move and soaked up everything I was telling them, as well as Ashton and this boded very nicely for what I had in mind. Kla' din could gain that badly needed ground force. These guys had kept up just fine, on Rock's heels, when we made for the park during the intrusion.

“Yes.” And this came out in a low growl.

“There is a lot of advantage in fighting in human form, if you have swords and blades made of silver. Have you or your alphas ever trained with such, as a fighting technique?”

His grin grew sharp and evil looking. “Yes. Many of the Alphas are proficient sword-wielders.”

“That's very good. Then, that leaves shifting for quick recuperation if you get wounded. Guard yourself, wolf.” And that was the only warning I gave him, as I headed in for an attack, slashing my blades going for his chest. That damn wolf went right over me in a front flip and landed behind me. I turned to guard myself from this new direction. “Hey, why didn't you do that when you fought my son?”

“As you said, there is an advantage in fighting as a human, but a challenge fight has to be in wolven form, when one is making a bid for a higher position.”

I laughed out loud and swung my left leg out to swipe him off his feet. He countered by jumping in the air and swinging out with his leg, clocking me across the face.

I spun around from the blow and my men were silent for once. I actually got hit and they couldn't believe it.

I swiped at my lower lip, coming away with a bit of blood. I narrowed my eyes at him. “Oh, that's gonna cost ya.”

“Honey?” Andre sounded a tad worried.

“Got it, babe.” I went up in a defensive crouch and waited for him to move. He came at me with a whirl of blows and punches aimed at the upper half of my body. I countered and got a few fast kicks into his lower rib cage. Every time he pulled the acrobatics, I pulled back and guarded the flank he was trying to expose. Then, by making him come after me, which was proving to be his downfall, I back stepped and slashed out across his wrist. The second his eyes went down to look at the cut, I went in for his neck, lightly nipping it, then jumping back out of the way as he tried to punch me.

“Never let them get to your neck. Their bites are contaminated.”

I whirled in behind him and jumped in for a draw across his neck again with my blade. I pulled back at the last second, so I wouldn't make the cut for real.

“Never let them get behind you. They'll rip your throat out and gorge on the blood.”

I tapped into the power of my brother and mate.

Gerard was in my head, 'Cheater,' he tsked at me.

'Not if you win. You win- you live- Not cheating.'

I took the power, and faster then he could track me, I lightly cut him several more times on the arms, chest and once on his leg.

The pain of the burn from silver made him take pause, which had to be corrected.

“No matter how many times they slash you with their claws, don't stop to look. Don't let the pain be felt; keep fighting, so you can live.”

I put on a burst of speed again, moving around him and taking him down. “Once your enemy is dead,” I put the blade to his throat, “then you can see to your wounds. But, in battle, there are no wounds, no looking to see how bad it is. It isn't bad, if you ain't dead. So don't stop fighting until your enemy is on the ground not breathing, before you do anything else.”

I let him up after he saw he had lost the fight. ”A vampire isn't safely dead until you have taken its head off completely from the body. When the battle is over, burn all the parts of the vampire each and every time. Do you understand?”

For Ashton, getting his ass kicked twice in the same day, wasn't good for morale for him or his wolves, which he reminded me when he said, “If they move like you, how can we beat them?”

“We,” pointing to my family and back to myself, “are different, even from the norm for supernatural creatures such as you, such as the Draugralls. The Draugrall, you can easily take, if you are properly prepared for them. Plus, you'll have a back up of dragons and Sorcerers making victory easy enough with team work. That's why we are here and not there. What's coming here will really be bad, so we have to stay here until the battle is over.”

“We've seen nothing but mostly mere humans. They don't seem very dangerous.”

“But yet, you are missing people and a Dark Adept came in here after a Voodoo Priestess threw her magicks around and took a cub? Ashton, that is only the beginning. I swear, I am not lying, when I say things here are going to get worse. And because of that, we can't be here in this state all the time. There is more, but Craven and Andre will fill you in on the Prophecy and what it means to this world here.”

He could tell I meant a lot more and turned his focus back onto what mattered to him personally, his people, “What are the chances of getting them and the cub back?”

“I'll be honest with you. The first two, slim to none.” I had a feeling they were the ones General Robertson had experimented on. I doubted there was anything left, but I would look. “The cub, I have higher hopes for, since he is being used as bait.” Or, I swore to myself, I will take it out of Robertson's hide myself-piece by piece.

He sighed heavily. “If relocating again will keep my wolven safer, then so be it. But I want the right to bring everybody across now who want to come. It would be wrong to leave them behind.”

Admirable; I was liking this wolf more and more. “Done deal, if I can get my other mates to agree. It is, after all their world I am offering for home-steading. Give me a minute.” He looked around to see if another was coming, confused at what I was about to do.

I just closed my eyes and put out my sweetest vibe in the call. Hey, it couldn't hurt.

I reached out to my Kla' din mate, Ja' Callum. 'Oh sweetheart, light of my life, sweet release to my soul, gentle ruler of my heart.'

'Meshama,' he groaned, 'please tell me you haven't done something extremely bad again?'

Oh, how well he knew me, but for once it really wasn't a bad thing I'd done. Not really. 'I need some help for some people and you and your cousins are the only ones I can turn to on this one.'

'What people?'

'Three hundred strong of wolven that could make a very nice ground force that we've been looking for, to defend Kla' din. But, they need homes; they are refugees in a way.' I explained fast what had transpired. Information going mind to mind was faster than a computer. Pure information downloads that a highly trained Adept of the Arts can rapidly assimilate and use. You just have to be careful when you take information or give information in such a manner. The first time we did this, I had blocked out much of my brain from him, so he wouldn't be able to hurt or put something in my mind I didn't want. At the time, I didn't know him very well, but since then, there isn't anything I wouldn't trust him with, including my own soul.

'Oh Meshama, our son is too young for such a heavy burden.' Inside, I melted with love for this man who knew me so well already; of the pain I had buried, filled with concern for my young son. That he shared that same feeling and saw Craven as his son in spirit, showed me just how blessed I really was. Reluctantly, I had to push all personal feelings aside and look at this situation as objectively as I could. And use the incident as best I could.

'There is nothing that we can do about it right now. Maybe not ever, but be there for him when he needs help. These wolven now belong to him and by extension, to us. We have disrupted their plans here and they are also in danger, not only from General Robertson, but from the Bokor. We can't stay here to protect them, so the next best thing would be to move them where they will have safety from these people and be useful to us at the same time. I see it as a win-win situation right now. If you and your cousins agree.'

'Have Andre make a tunnel for us, I'll bring them and meet with these wolven of our son.'

'Thanks. You guys deal with this while the team and I go to debrief. Bring Bokaris Stones for the portal. My love to you.'

'My soul to yours, Meshama.'

I turned back to the group. “All right, here's what's needed. Andre, Ja' Callum needs a door to get here. He is bringing stones. With the portal cloaked by something so alien, General Robertson and the Priestess will just assume the portal has been shut down, as we did with some of the others. Ashton, get as many of your folks here, if Ja' Callum agrees to the deal. Fill them to the rafters of your homes until we can get a plane here to transport everybody in one shot to the portal of Kla' din. Gerard, take care of protection against voodoo on these people. She has had direct spiritual contact with them for quite some time. Especially Ashton here. Major Pearson, patrol the neighborhood and kill anyone looking like they want a piece of the wolven.” He nodded to me and went to deploy the men. Andre waited for me to move, so he could start the tunnel and I blew him an astral kiss goodbye.

“Craven, these are your people now, too; stay and help them get ready for transport. Make some plans for consideration and we'll hash them out later.”

On our private path I added, 'I am sorry so much now rests on you, but I have faith you can step up and do well. If you need help or advice, you know the family is always here for you. I love you, son.'

'Love you, mom. Hurry back, please.' He sounded so lost right then, I wanted to give him a hug, but had to refrain since we were on assignment as Mercs and not home as family. I settled for giving him a smile and moved off to get with the team and head back to the base while everybody here got things in order.

I thought I had done a good job holding my own personal feelings in, when I really needed to hit something, anything. One son on a quest that could turn into the nightmare I'd had to endure, another son cursed into the shape of a panther and now my youngest, loaded down with a responsibility a grown adult would have had a hard time with, being unprepared for it. I held my silence and did the job I had sworn to do.

Everyone had been quiet for the car ride to the airport, until Rock asked me, “Think he'll be all right?”

“He'll have to be.”