The second dark ages box.., p.75
The Second Dark Ages Boxed Set, page 75
part #1 of The Second Dark Ages Series
Eric whispered to John, “Did she slap him?”
“Tried,” John whispered back. “Michael grabbed her hand before she could hit him.”
Eric shook his head. “Should have just let it happen. That would have been enough.” He flinched the smallest amount when Gabrielle smacked his arm. “See?” He pointed to his wife. “Just take the hit, and they’re all better.”
“I don’t think that’s in Michael’s DNA,” John said doubtfully as Ashur chuffed in agreement.
“So!” Bethany Anne retorted to the last thing Michael told her. “Think this is challenging you?” She shoved Michael off his feet. His body disappeared, and she put her hands on her hips. “Why don’t you think about how to answer me politely while your ass sits in the Etheric until I come get it!”
Bethany Anne turned to her friends. “What?” she asked, jerking a thumb over her shoulder as she stomped toward them. “He needs to understand how to act around me when I’m pissed.”
Bethany Anne noted the exact moment their expressions changed to shock, and started to turn. She was halfway around when two large hands pushed her hard, throwing her toward her people.
She landed in the Etheric and rolled over to jump up, expecting an attack, but all she saw was Michael. He was ten feet away, his eyes glowing dimly. “You,” he told her, “have been spoiled.”
“I’m spoiled?” Bethany Anne screamed, her voice muted in the white mist. “You rank piece of fetid fish food!” She pointed a finger at him.
He interjected, eyebrow raised, “What, no ‘fuck?’ As in ‘fucking rank piece of fetid fish food?’”
Bethany Anne twisted her head left and popped her neck, then did the same thing on the right. She whispered, “I’ll feed you to the fucking fish, you gag-sacking dried-out cockroach-sodding bunghole-filler!”
Michael pursed his lips. “Does that mean you want it in both orifices?”
It took Bethany Anne only a microsecond to parse his question before her eyes flared red.
“I cannot believe you just said that!” She walked to her right, staring him up and down. “I see you got the coat, but I’ve no idea why you chose the hat.”
Michael turned with her, allowing his body a chance to limber up. He had heard Eric and John back on Earth talk about allowing the slap and while he could have accomplished it, that wasn’t exactly who he was.
Nor was he the type of man Bethany Anne might need. He wasn’t the type to be bowled over, which was why when she attacked, he pivoted and simply went down on one knee, lowering his head as she went past.
Surprised, she tried jumping, but her right foot just caught his leg and she stumbled. Falling forward, she stabbed the ground with one arm, kicking up into the air to pivot and turn around, landing on her feet.
Michael was standing there with his arms behind his back.
She shook her head. “You are a fucker!” she said as she walked up to him. She stabbed him in the chest again. “You owe me an apology!”
When he just looked down at her she twisted around, eyes flashing, took a step, and dropped out of the Etheric.
Chapter Thirteen
The entire group walked around the spot from which the pair had vanished in case they should suddenly reappear. John smiled at Akio and asked, “Did Michael upgrade?”
Akio shook hands with the men while Gabrielle hugged Yuko and Eve. The two of them introduced Gabrielle to Mark and Jacqueline, the young adults Michael had picked up in the old US.
Akio nodded slowly. “I think he is in much better control of his powers than when you last met him.” He sighed. “This might take a while.”
Just then Bethany Anne stepped out of the Etheric, her hair floating around her head. “MEN!” she shrieked. “Can’t live with them, can’t leave them on the side of the road when you’re done with them! URRRGH!”
An arm reached out of thin air and pulled her backward, and her body disappeared.
A microsecond later Michael stood where she had been. “Women!” He harrumphed. He wiped off a sleeve and reached up to set his hat on his head, but a hand snaked out of the air, grabbed his hat, and disappeared. Michael whipped around. “She did not just take my fucking hat!” He took a step and disappeared again.
Everyone looked at the empty spot for a second and then resumed their discussions. Ashur let them know he was going to walk around for a few minutes, then go back to the shuttle.
Akio pointed toward the two people the guys didn’t know. “Here, let me introduce you to Michael’s wards.”
“’Wards?’” Eric asked.
“Is that like kids?” John asked.
“Oh, goody!” Scott exclaimed, his eyes lighting up. He rubbed his hands together. “Does Bethany Anne know Michael has kids?”
“Give me back my hat!” Michael stormed into the Etheric, his head whipping around.
“What happened to your hair?” she asked as Michael spotted her. He strode in her direction as she walked backward, continuing to face him.
“My hat,” he demanded, holding out his hand as he came toward her.
She put it behind her. “You didn’t answer my question,” she ground out. “What happened to your hair?”
Michael dematerialized and the hat was ripped out of her hands. Whipping around, she threw a right hook, catching Michael under his arm just as he raised it to put his hat back on his head.
He whoofed in pain as at least two ribs cracked before he disappeared out of the Etheric.
She dropped out of the Etheric too, only to catch a foot to her abdomen. She entered the Etheric again as she was in flight and crashed back to the ground. “Gott Verdammt!” She coughed as she got up, looking for him. “Where are you, you bastard? I’ll rip your balls off.”
A moment later Michael popped back into the Etheric, but before he could find her she ran right into him, head down, shoulders set. Michael’s back cracked and he disappeared again.
This time Bethany Anne didn’t follow him. She looked around, trying to see where he was.
Unfortunately she didn’t think to look above, and Michael screamed “PILEDRIVER!” right before his elbow smashed onto the top of her head, tossing her out of the Etheric once more.
“OOOF!” he gasped when he hit the ground after she disappeared. Getting up, he scanned all around, then zipped forward a hundred yards, allowing the mist to hide him.
Soon enough, Bethany Anne’s sweet voice called, “Come out, come out, wherever you arrrree.” A second later she added in a slow, dark voice, “You toad-licking huphalump!”
Michael tried to gauge where she was, but needed a different angle. He faced where he thought she was and moved to his left.
“What, scared of little ol me?” she asked, her voice breathless.
Michael’s lips compressed. She knew how to push his buttons, even after all these years. “No,” he replied, stepping quickly out of the way in case she came at him. “Just playing with the mouse I’ve found.”
Soon enough Michael saw the red glow of her eyes and tore after her. His hat flew off as he ran forward, only to be shocked when the red he was following turned out to be two small red floating balls.
He never saw the punch.
Ejected from the Etheric, he hit the ground, and rolled over twice before he pushed up and disappeared once again from the park.
This time, Bethany Anne was standing not twenty paces away, hands on hips, eyes red. “Bring it,” she hissed at him. “You bitch!”
Michael looked around for his hat, which was fifteen feet away, and he walked casually over to it and picked it up. After studying it, he wiped off a bit of grass. “Well.” He placed it on his head and looked down to see all the grass stains. “That explains the clothes comments.”
He turned to Bethany Anne and popped his neck. “Technically,” he said conversationally, “My parents weren’t married when I was conceived, so I can be called a bastard.” As he started walking toward Bethany Anne his voice grew deeper and his eyes blazed red as his teeth elongated.
Bethany Anne heard him both with her ears and in her mind. “But no one calls me a bitch!”
>>Oh shit,<< ADAM remarked.
What he said, TOM agreed.
That was when Bethany Anne found out Michael had one button she might choose not to push again.
They went at it, blocking, kicking, and punching. Occasionally one or the other would be surprised and get tossed out of the Etheric, only to find the other waiting for them with a snide comment when they came back and started into it again.
“Seventeen,” Mark said aloud as the ten of them glanced at the action. This time it was Michael who dropped out of the air some ten feet above the ground. His body slammed to the Earth, only to jump up a moment later and disappear once again.
“Is it only me, or is this a weird way to greet your lover after a long time?” Jacqueline asked. “I mean, Mark makes me mad, but I don’t think that after a hundred and fifty years I’d fight with him like this.”
Mark eyed his girlfriend. “That’s good to know, I guess.” Jacqueline elbowed him in the ribs, to the chuckles of the others.
“I was thrown by the kiss, actually,” Eve put in. “I get update feeds from ADAM when Bethany Anne is here, and let me tell you—the fighting that’s happening on the other side is dramatic.”
“Probably just two alphas reasserting dominance.” Gabrielle sighed. “Bethany Anne hasn’t truly had to answer to anyone, and Michael still has that ‘I’m the ArchAngel’ thing going on.” She tapped her lips. “Although I think he was probably ok until she tried to slap him.”
“Michael is working to be a good man,” Akio told her. “He’s come far in becoming human again.” He shook his head. “Allowing someone to slap him, even his love, isn’t something he has worked on though, I can assure you.”
Bethany Anne appeared twenty feet in the air and fell to the turf, rolling twice before she kicked off the ground. She was gone a half-second later.
“Eighteen,” Eve announced.
“Who wants to bet on the number of times they show up before they kiss and make up?” Darryl asked.
“Twenty-seven,” John replied immediately. “Closest wins, ties on either side of the guess go to the person who chose the smaller of the two numbers,” he qualified.
Jacqueline scrunched her nose. “How does that work?”
“If one person suggests twenty-eight, and another thirty,” John explained to the young werewolf, “and the number is twenty-nine, then twenty-eight wins.”
“I’ll take thirty-five,” Scott piped up.
“Any reason you guys are going for odd numbers?” Eve asked.
Darryl shrugged. “Aren’t they just numbers?” he answered. He was thinking about the last few times one or the other had appeared when Michael and Bethany Anne both slammed into the ground. Bethany Anne was still arguing as they rolled for a half-second before disappearing. “I’ve got twenty-three,” Darryl told the group.
“Did she just call him a crusted bunghole of a space-zombie?” Mark wondered. “And that was nineteen.”
“That’s what I heard,” Eric agreed. “What the hell, I’ll go for the long shot. Forty-three.”
Yuko asked, her voice slightly timid, “Are we betting on which one will finally give in?”
John scratched his chin as the ten of them watched Bethany Anne appear, anger etched plainly on her face and her eyes flaming red. “That conceited gigantic—” she was yelling when Michael’s arm snagged her around the waist and she vanished again.
“I believe she has a lot of anger to release,” Gabrielle mused. “And Michael isn’t allowing her to walk away and cool off.”
“No.” Akio added, “Also, he does not want to hold this discussion in public.”
“She isn’t going to like that,” Gabrielle answered. “Well, the walking-away part. The not-in-public she won’t care about.”
Jacqueline smiled. “I’d love to know what they are saying on the other side,” she admitted in a conspiratorial whisper. She turned to look to Eve. “Did you say ADAM was keeping you up to date?”
“Not exactly like that,” Eve told her. “And I’ll take twenty-five.”
Akio looked at the android AI. “You have inside knowledge.”
“That’s ok with me,” Gabrielle allowed. “Twenty-one.”
“Wow, you’re thinking she’s almost done,” Mark exclaimed. “Do you know both of them?”
“Yes,” Gabrielle admitted, “although Michael was more of a boogeyman for most of my life.”
“Which has been hundreds of years,” Yuko told Mark as she pointed to Gabrielle. “Remember, this is Stephen’s daughter.”
Mark’s mouth formed a silent “O.”
Jacqueline’s eyes narrowed. “That reminds me…where is this Tabitha female?”
Gabrielle turned to Jacqueline, and noticed the slight surprise in Yuko’s eyes. Mark silently pleaded with his own eyes, imploring her, she felt, to minimize her answer.
She would have to get to the bottom of this, but Gabrielle had a rather solid suspicion. Jacqueline was obviously a werewolf, and Mark had the physical tells of a vampire.
Even if he was out in the sun.
Most female werewolves didn’t like to share. Gabrielle jerked her thumb upward. “On the ArchAngel. Why?”
“Just curious.” Jacqueline’s eyes narrowed. “Is she coming down?”
“I’m sure she is,” Eric piped up from behind her.
Gabrielle wanted to roll her eyes when she saw the blood—what little he had left, she guessed—drain from Mark’s face. “Along with her boyfriend Peter.” Gabrielle told them, trying to stave off a possible issue.
“Peter?” Mark interjected, relief in his voice.
“Yes,” John answered. “The Queen’s Guardians’ leader.”
Jacqueline’s focus locked on John. “The Peter?” she asked, her excitement palpable. “The one the Queen saved?”
“Yes,” John answered. “Did you know him?”
This time, it was Mark’s eyes that narrowed in annoyance.
She shook her head. “No, but my dad told stories of Bethany Anne’s saving him, and how he turned around. Hell,” she gushed, pointing to each of them, “he told me about you too, John.” She pointed to the others. “And Darryl and Scott and Eric.”
“Who was your father?” Eric asked.
“Gerry,” she answered.
“The Pack Council Leader Gerry?” John asked, and she nodded. “Damn! You obviously take after your mother.”
Jacqueline opened her mouth to protest, but what came out was a chuckle. “Yes,” she finally agreed. “My dad was a lot of things, but a fine-looking specimen?” She shook her head.
“Your dad wasn’t ugly,” Eric argued. “Perhaps not a ten, but not a two either.”
There was a woomph as bodies hit the ground, but none of the ten even flicked an eye toward the noise.
“Twenty,” Gabrielle commented.
“Dad would have appreciated your support,” Jacqueline turned to Eric, “but even I know he was a solid six, maybe a seven if he shaved.”
Darryl was going to ask where he was when the ten of them received a message.
We will be a while, Michael sent, followed by Bethany Anne’s, I’ve got some booboos to heal.
Then the ten were alone.
“Did she mean,” Gabrielle questioned everyone there, “that she had the booboos, or Michael had the booboos and she was going to make them better?”
No one spoke for a moment, thinking through what Michael and Bethany Anne had told them. “I’m not sure we will ever know,” John replied.
Gabrielle shrugged. “Ok, pay up, bitches!” Gabrielle winked at Jacqueline. “I won!”
After five more minutes with no sign of Michael or Bethany Anne, Akio wondered aloud, “Does anyone want to meet Michael’s cat?”
Chapter Fourteen
Etheric
This time it was quiet in the Etheric.
Michael was lying on the ground, his coat beside him, with Bethany Anne resting her head on his chest. “I am sorry,” Michael finally broke the silence. “It took a long time for me to reconstitute enough to come back to consciousness. I think I reacted in fear for a while. To awaken was to feel the pain of the bomb eating my flesh away tick by tick. I was fleeing the bomb area in my Myst form when the explosion caught up to me. I could not tell you how long it truly was before I might have been whole, but I am pretty sure I would not have been back before your team left the solar system.”
Bethany Anne sighed, thinking back to those times she had felt something in the Etheric. “You were there the whole time.” She reached behind her head and ran a hand down his chest. “I think I might have been just as upset with myself for leaving you there.”
“How were you supposed to know?”
“You dropped out where?”
“Colorado, near where the bomb went off.”
She turned on her side, leaving her head on his chest, and stared at him as he looked into her eyes.
“What?” he asked.
“That’s why I never found you.” A tear slowly formed. “You were there, but you weren’t solid. I could feel you, but I never found you…and I did look.” She reached up and put a hand on his face to feel him again. “I promise you I looked.”
Michael put his hand over hers. “You did what you had to do.” He made a face. “Except that part about sending my casket into the sun. That wasn’t necessary.”
She pulled her hand away and slapped his chest, the sound loud in the silence of the Etheric. “You ass! I gave you a moving eulogy.”
He grinned. “I know. It was beautiful.” He reached down to caress her face. “I need to tell you this, and I’ll say it again in front of everybody, but here goes…”
She looked up into his eyes, a tear of joy in one corner. “Bethany Anne, Matriarch of the Vampires…”
