The second dark ages box.., p.33
The Second Dark Ages Boxed Set, page 33
part #1 of The Second Dark Ages Series
Seven wolves dropped in the distance, and were dodged by their packmates. None of them realized that their friends were not getting back up.
“Damn, I missed one.” She chewed on her lip. “Okay, that is upsetting.”
Akio looked at Michael. “She’s ready.”
“Why,” Mark asked, looking over at Jacqueline, “do I feel superfluous?”
“Probably because you two and Akio are our close support,” said Michael. He nodded to the wolves. “When they get up here, it’s going to be a melee. Make sure you protect Sabine.”
“Hello the group!” a voice called out behind them. They turned around.
“James?” Sabine said softly.
“Know him?” Akio asked.
Sabine nodded. “He’s my cousin. He’s the one I was coming to see.”
“Seems like it's family reunion time now.” Michael smiled. “New plan, make sure your friends don’t fire on those trying to help them.”
Sabine looked over at him and Michael answered her unspoken question. “Not all things that go bump in the night are afraid of the sun, Sabine.”
The woman turned to stare at Jacqueline, who looked at her and smiled as her eyes flashed yellow. “Oh. Ohhhh.”
You are the wind, Akio’s voice rippled through her mind and she nodded her understanding to Michael.
The humans were spreading out. A bald man in a coat stood in the middle of the group. Adorjan aimed at him, as any Alpha would.
Challenge accepted.
There were more humans behind the first ones; all of them had weapons. What this pitiful group expected to accomplish against his pack of five hundred Weres, Adorjan wasn't sure.
It was obvious that humans had learned of the paranormal and these people had found enough silver to kill his pack members that had tried to infiltrate the city.
That was one of the reasons the Duke had held off attacking so far.
Occasionally the Duke would send his son and that group of useless vampires into the city to foment more fear. It worked, to a point. What it also accomplished was offering the humans a way to figure out how to take down vampires, with all the practice they were given.
Garlic was useless; crosses were laughed at. Massive amounts of damage and burning solved the vampire problem just fine, though. Vampires, or Weres for that matter, were able to heal their injuries. However, if someone did enough damage it would overcome that ability and they would die.
Five hundred against fifteen and whatever number of humans were behind them?
His pack would be feasting on the bones before lunchtime.
“Sabine!” hissed James from behind her.
“Yes?” she answered, calmly looking out over the werewolves they could see amassing against them. The snipers behind them were firing downrange.
The fight would begin soon.
“You know how to use those things?” James asked, not understanding how his cousin was both alive and wearing pistols he didn’t recognize. The pistols were modified, for sure. She had some special cartridges that seemed to plug into the grips of the pistols, a total of six stored along the back of her belt.
Timothy, next to James, whistled. “Nice cartridges,” he said, and turned to wink at James.
“Tim, that’s my cousin!” he hissed back. “Don’t make the first person I shoot be you!”
“No, I’m good with you shooting Tim,” Kirk jumped in. “That’s just one less for me to worry about, and you don’t count. You’re her cousin.”
Yuko looked over at Sabine, who was rolling her eyes. “Are they fighting over you?”
Sabine looked back at the Japanese woman. “Last night I was running away from werewolves, now I feel like running towards them because of these jackasses behind us.”
Yuko shrugged. “It’s kinda cute, in a barbaric sort of way.”
“Barbaric?” Kirk responded.
Michael snorted from the other side of Yuko. “Watch the outside, people. Gunslingers, let’s start.” He put action to words and Kirk’s eyes about bugged out when the bald man threw back the sides of his coat and grabbed two pistols, then started punching holes in wolves some distance away.
Just what the hell were those pistols?
“Oh, holy fuck…” James whispered as fountains of gore exploded. He couldn’t quite make out what the hell was happening, but he could see the results.
“The hell…” Timothy said.
“That’s my line!” Kirk argued.
Yuko winked at Sabine. “I’ve got longer range, so be patient, young one.”
Young one? Sabine thought. How old are you? That’s when she noticed the delicate Japanese woman’s eyes flash red as she unholstered her two pistols.
“The thing about fighting just anyone,” Yuko stated as she raised her pistols, “is that you never know who was blessed to have met Jean Dukes in their past.”
Akio nodded in appreciation as Yuko started slamming rounds into the wolf pack. Yuko’s face showed no distaste for her kills. He wondered what was going through her mind just then.
The wolf pack was now only a quarter mile away. Akio unholstered his pistol and started shooting randomly. He decided that he didn’t want to only be close-in support.
Yuko was humming to herself, an ancient song she sang when she wanted to lose herself.
Michael started walking forward, both pistols continuing to fire.
Behind them, the men looked at each other, eyes wide in amazement. “The hell are these people?” Kirk whispered to James.
From in front of them, Michael answered his question. “We are the Magnificent Seven.” He and the one called Akio laughed at their joke.
Kirk, Timothy and James swallowed.
Had they heard them?
Inside Paris
“We will head out tonight,” the Duke said to Gerard, “and take out any remaining humans. If the Rehbolson Pack is unsuccessful by midmorning, send in the rest on my command. I wish to have Paris in my control before I go out at midnight, is that understood?”
His butler merely bowed and turned to leave as his master went into his secured room to sleep.
Tonight he would be the second most powerful man in Europe, and the most powerful human.
The other humans just didn’t know it yet. First Paris, then old France, and then Germany would fall, and eventually there would only be one trusted human running the empire during the day.
And only one trusted to get close enough to the Duke to help him sleep a final time, making the assassin the most powerful man in all of Europe.
The blood the Duke had shared with him already provided him with a superior body; he didn’t need hundreds of years to enjoy himself before someone else had the crown.
But he wanted enough years to make all of his slaving for the Duke worth it.
Chapter Thirteen
Adorjan could hear cries of pain coming from behind him as he maintained his relentless pace, heading for the humans who were not only shooting but killing his pack.
He would have to be deaf not to hear the sounds of his pack exploding behind him. He wasn’t sure how that had happened, but the people in front of them must have obtained weapons from before WWDE. When they killed them, Adorjan would keep the weapons for himself and perhaps, just perhaps, he might kill the Duke with them.
Wouldn’t that make all of these deaths around him worthwhile?
Those human bastards were actually walking towards his people, not running in fright as they should be. His growls and howls of anger were answered by those around him.
One hundred yards left.
“So, do I get to have some fun, or do I have to stay like this?” Jacqueline asked, the desire to change already feeding into her system.
Mark looked from his love to Michael, who was still shooting and muttering little adages. “Like shooting fish in a barrel” was one of his favorites.
Michael turned to the humans behind them. “If any of you dare shoot us in the back, I will personally rip your arm off and shove it up your ass.”
Sabine turned around and added, “Right before I shoot you myself. Don’t fuck with my friends.”
Everyone noticed that the two of them still aimed and fired while talking to them.
“The hell?” said two of the guys behind Kirk, James and Timothy as Michael and Sabine turned back around. Kirk sighed.
Then Michael holstered his weapon.
“Wait for it!” he commanded. “Yes, that means you, Jacqueline!” he added to the young woman.
“Did her eyes just flash yellow?” James asked no one in particular.
Sabine’s head whipped around. “Don’t make me shoot you, James!”
James shook his head. “You know?”
Sabine nodded. “You got my back, cousin?” she asked.
“I had guessed,” Kirk joined the conversation. “There’s always a Yin and Yang to everything. But what about the short one?” he asked, looking at Eve.
Eve turned to regard the young man. “I am an Artificial Intelligence, created by the first of my kind, ADAM out in space, and sent here to keep my friends sane as they accomplished their task to be ready when the ArchAngel came back. They are to keep him safe until the Queen returns. In the decades since, I have achieved my own sentience and powers.” She lifted a hand. It had a gun with a square barrel, two inches on a side, and a bunch of small holes in it.
She turned back and aimed towards the right, where wolves were trying to flank them. “While I am not a supporter of indiscriminate killing, I have found some who really do justify termination.”
With that, Eve lifted her right leg and slammed it into the dirt. Once, twice, thrice. “You need a good brace to fire this fucker,” she added. “It’s a new design using some of the Jean Dukes technology to get them going, then rockets kick in to guide to the targets.” She leaned forward and squeezed the trigger. The little woman was tossed backwards as she yelled, “Wheeeee!” and slammed into Alan, who had been five feet behind her. He tried to catch her but was barely able to slow her down when the suddenly active android hit him. They continued to fly back another five feet before landing with a thump.
A hundred yards away, twenty-five wolves exploded in gore. Behind him, Kirk could hear the little android apologizing to Alan with, “Wow, more kick than I had realized, fucker went to fifteen.”
Yuko snorted from up front.
“Akio?” Michael called out. “Care to dance?”
“Always, Master Michael,” Akio agreed and holstered his pistols.
Sabine took a moment to slam her last two cartridges into her guns. She looked back at the guys she had come to join. “It’s time to get behind us!”
Kirk and James stared at each other. “You sure this is your cousin?” Kirk hissed to his friend, who shrugged his shoulders and nodded.
Akio’s amusement could be seen in his eyes as he moved towards Michael.
He was sure this dance would be one of the best of his life.
He wasn’t disappointed.
Michael spoke as the pack was crossing the final hundred yards. By agreement, no one had shot the Alpha yet. Michael’s eyes flashed red. “The interesting thing about packs is that any time you take out the Alpha,” Michael shot his hand up, “it causes confusion. In battle, confusion is thine enemy.”
Adorjan, his focus on the bald man in the middle, was one of the first to know without a doubt that he was running straight towards his worst nightmare. The red eyes gave the man away; that he was in the sun provided the second most important clue as to how powerful a vampire he was streaking towards.
As his skin and hair were engulfed in flames, he had no doubt which of the myths from the vampires’ past he had just been running towards.
“Michael…” was his last thought as his blood began to boil.
“Son of a bitch,” James whispered as the Alpha of the wolf pack in front of them was consumed in flames. The wolf lasted another three leaps before he exploded, raining chunks of burnt flesh and fire across the other members of the pack.
Many had lost their will to fight but were being pushed forward by those who came behind them—those who had not yet seen what their Alpha had recognized just before he died.
Two of them figured that it would be better to see if they could go to ground and hope their pack missed them. They split to the side rather than face the death they knew was waiting for them in front.
One died, trampled by his pack. The other broke out, one leg shattered and one ear gone, but alive.
In the middle, the dance of the two swordmasters was beautiful to watch. Michael had exchanged the wakizashi for an Ulfberht. He took the head of a wolf to his right as he kicked the one coming straight at him in the chest and knocked it back. You know,” Michael said casually, “I never understood why everyone always believes the katana is superior to a European sword.” Michael swung his left arm back, forming a serrated Etheric edge around his hand as he stabbed into the chest cavity of a wolf that had tried to duck and come under the one Michael had kicked back.
“It started with the movies,” Akio replied. He brought his own katana down, slicing a wolf’s head in two from the top of the skull through its jaws. Another wolf was preparing to jump over his kill when its head exploded in gore.
Yuko was on the job.
“Then,” Akio continued his turn and ran a wolf through its chest, “those that loved the romanticism of the katana continued with Anime and Manga.” Akio pulled his sword clear, then pivoted on his right foot and swept his sword low to amputate two legs from the nearest wolf. When Michael reached across to slash a wolf through the back, Akio turned again and moved across to Michael’s unprotected side to remove the jaw of another one that was seeking to hamstring Michael.
“Well,” Michael said, not worrying about any area Akio had under control, “the Vikings themselves forged crucible steel.” He brought his sword around his shoulders and swung it up from the ground. The wolf that was jumping towards him received a slice in the chest and a boost that sent it flying over Michael’s head.
He heard a shotgun blast, which he figured was from the one called Kirk.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Mark asked, annoyed.
“They really don’t want to give anyone a chance to get a sword or club in edgewise, do they?” Jacqueline replied.
“Over here!” Eve called for their attention as ten new wolves circled the large group that was trying to get to the man they thought had killed their Alpha.
“About damned time!” Jacqueline threw down her staff.
“Uh oh,” Mark said. “Honey?”
“Don’t honey me!” Jacqueline hissed. “I’m done playing second fiddle and waiting for werewolf scraps!”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Mark huffed out. “Fine! But you better keep your foot off me or I’ll bite it!”
Eve looked around at Alan, who was standing behind her, and shrugged her shoulders. The little AI turned again and took a step back as Jacqueline howled her challenge.
“Oh my god!” Alan retreated from the new monster in front of him, and involuntarily raised his weapon when a bullet whizzed by.
He jerked his head around to see Sabine looking at him over her pistol’s sights. “Don’t make me put it closer next time!” she said.
“Sorry!” he called back. “Just took me by surprise.”
“You aren’t the only one,” Kirk agreed. James had his shotgun barrel in his hand, which had kept Kirk from aiming at the new monster.
Sabine turned back around and started shooting.
Left, left, right, right, left.
You are doing well, gunslinger, his voice said in her mind, and Sabine smiled.
Of the ten Weres that had circled the larger group, the grey female in the front was the hungriest. Bernase was a strong supporter of Adorjan, and had tried on multiple occasions to get him to commit to a relationship with her. But every time she thought she had a chance, another female would intrude and she went back to living in obscurity again. Now Adorjan was dead, and these people had killed her dreams. While many of her packmates were busy trying to get at the leader, the Alpha of the human pack, she and those following her would kill the others on the edge.
She was eyeing the young woman—not the short one, she didn’t smell right—when the human threw down her pole in anger. Bernase wasn’t against a foe who acted stupid, and this would only make her easier to kill. That’s when the girl changed into a form from her kind’s own mythology.
Bernase was about to attack a Pricolici. It took her only another second to realize that the man next to her was a day-walking vampire. Bernase lasted long enough to know she was about to join Adorjan before the standing Pricolici grabbed her head in a vice-like grip and squeezed.
Inside Paris
Gerard used powerful binoculars to view the skirmishes in the distance, and what he saw was most annoying.
Not only was the pack that was supposed to be attacking not yet in the city, but from what little he could tell, it looked like the fight was going against them.
Hard to believe, but he had to work with what he could see, and he saw that the Weres had failed.
He took off his backpack and placed it on a hook on the half wall that was still standing upright on the seventh-floor landing. Reaching into the left side of the pack, he pulled out a small transceiver and clicked the buttons twice and three times, then twice and four times in a predetermined signal.
He repeated the pattern until he heard a long beep, then two beeps and one long one.
Gerard placed the transceiver back in his bag. He looked back to the west and shook his head. It was annoying that they would have to bring all of the local packs into this battle. The cleanup was going to be a mess, and the sharing of spoils had just gotten more complicated.
