Nos Faux Ratu Ch. 08

This story is a bit wordy and fairly long, so if you are looking for immediate gratification, you might want to look elsewhere.

The following story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance between these character and events and any real person or events is strictly coincidental . . . and pretty darn impressive seeing as it is a science fiction story. Do not reproduce or copy this story without the consent of the author.

In my magical, mixed-up world, characters don't worry about STDs or unwanted pregnancies except occasionally as a plot device. The author encourages the practice of safe (and hopefully satisfying) sex.

While this is a science-fiction story, it may at different points contain sexual behavior that might fall into other categories. You can rest assured however that there will be NO depictions of Non-Consent, Mind Control, or Incest for any purpose other than as plot devices, and certainly not for sexual arousal. Anything else is fair game.

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William Monroe, fifteen years old, resident of New Atlanta, awoke with the sun well into daytime sky. It was his first official day as a victim of kidnapping. Strangely, this was not quite as bad as it sounded, as it turned out he had been kidnapped by biologically engineered commando vampires, who were trying to protect him from being kidnapped by biologically engineered commando vampire-werewolf hybrids, all on behalf of his biological mother, who he had never met and thought was dead, who turned out to be a biologically engineered vampire commando turned into a REAL vampire the night before said kidnapping. All in all, it had been a full day. And night.

He peeked out of his door, only to find a long hallway that appeared empty. William wasn't fooled, as he had seen the security this place had the night before. He had evaded it for a while, trying to escape, before his mother had caught him. A lump formed in his throat. He had finally met the woman he had been looking for in the years since he'd discovered that he'd been adopted, but the reunion had been bittersweet.

It turned out that his mother had been a child and a victim of rape, and that William's biological "father," though it sickened him to use that word, was one of the most notorious serial killers in history. His mother had been watching him almost his entire life, looking over him but afraid to approach him. And he had come so close to walking away from her, because he didn't want to hear the truth. It wasn't the clean-cut, fairy tale story that all adopted kids dreamed about.

He still wasn't sure how he was supposed to feel about any of it. He felt bad for his parents, his adopted parents, because they were probably terrified right now. They had been given a ransom call to ensure that they were surrounded by police, just to help keep them safe in case the people who were after his biological mother wanted to use them as leverage to get to him in order to get to –

"Okay," he said to himself, "it's beginning to make my head spin." He went down the hall to the lift that ran up and down the twenty some-odd story building, all of which was owned by a woman, a vampire, who was more than two-thousand years old. She was totally hot too.

"Well hello there young man," someone said, the moment William arrived at the VIP lounge of Devil's Night, a club that catered to all the creatures which, until last night, had not been part of William's world.

"Hi . . . uhm, Nigel?" he said, struggling to remember the man's name. Up until now, he had just been "that dangerous guy dating Ms. Levenson," William's English teacher. He was another pseudo-vampire commando, and he was apparently really, really fucking dangerous. The other commandos who had defected from the group who were after William's mother all called Nigel "Death." Nigel had been one of William's kidnappers.

Nigel, along with Avery, the hot vampire's chief of security, had used one other person in helping with his kidnapping, and she was meeting with the other two at that moment. She was an insanely hot commando in her own right, though right now she was looking fairly annoyed.

"Hey," William said, his eyes looking at the woman's curves without asking for any permission from his brain. He was a teenage boy. What else was he going to do? "Uhm, where's . . . uhm --"

"Jenna will be sound asleep until dusk," Avery explained. "I'm assuming that was who you were wondering about?"

"Yeah. So that's a hard and fast rule then? Vampires and sunlight?"

Avery nodded. "And Jenna will be particularly susceptible to the call of daylight for a while, being brand new to the world of the Night Breed."

"Okay, it's so wicked cool the way you say that. 'The Night Breed' . . . like an old movie or something."

Caitlin grinned. William sounded so unlike his biological mother, but resembled her in so many ways that the differences were just darn amusing. "So, how are you doing now that your world's been rocked?"

William tried to think of something cool and manly to say, but drew a blank. "I'm freaked."

"If it makes you feel any better, so are we," the Nightwalker said, glancing at Nigel. "We started out by imitating a legend, only to wind up surrounded by them." She looked around, noticing that the Nightwalkers that had defected, along with with a few dozen lycanthropes and fae, were running the daytime show. The demons were downstairs, standing guard over the entrance to Devil's Night, and the vampires were all asleep. "Does she really trust us?"

Avery shrugged. "You mean Nessa? I think she is in a situation where she either trusts you, or fights this alone. She's powerful, but not stupid. And since Jenna trusts you, you're in."

Caitlin smiled slightly. Now, she was thinking about Jenna, and the brief time they spent together just before dawn. She found herself craving sundown like a junkie. 'When did you become a teenager again?' she thought to herself. "So what are your plans for the day?" she asked, trying to shake the image of Jenna lying naked on the bed they had shared.

"I dunno. Maybe go diving for the Loch Ness Monster?"

"Don't be silly," Avery said, still looking at the map covering the table. "Nessie hasn't lived in the Loch for a few hundred years. Things were getting a bit crowded."

The two Nightwalkers and one human standing next to him just stared for a moment. "Seriously?" Nigel asked.

Avery nodded without looking up. "She decided to try the deep ocean. She still pops up from time to time. She and Anabella are old friends."

"And the world just keeps getting weirder," William said. "Hey, can I help?"

"I'm not sure that your . . . that Jenna would approve."

"I know she wouldn't," Caitlin agreed, glancing at Avery, "but that's because he's her son. I say we give him something to do, or he'll do what he's already shown himself capable of."

"Causing trouble?"

"Yep."

Avery sighed. He looked around, then motioned for William to follow him. He took him back to the lift, then up a level to what looked like a security office. "Mabel," he said, calling to a large black man wearing a head-mounted display. "This is William Monroe, a very special guest of Nessa's. We need to keep him out of trouble, and I thought he might be good at piloting one of the surveillance drones."

"Drones?" William asked, his curiosity piqued.

"Yeah," Mabel said, taking off his display and giving the young man a once-over. "Nessa's got a number of state-of-the-art hover drones with negligible radar signatures that she sometimes uses to scout things out, usually when she's sleeping and can't go look for herself. She's kinda hands on that way."

"Indeed," Avery said. "Well, I'm willing to bet that young William is an adept video-game player --"

"Only one of the best," William interrupted, breathing on his fingernails and then buffing them on his shirt.

"-- so why don't you get him started." Avery looked straight at William. "Mabel will tell you the kinds of things we're looking for. We are trying to confirm the Fool's location . . . that's the man who wanted to kidnap you and use you against Jenna . . . and find out what he is up to. Within the next twenty-four hours or so, we are expecting a large number of highly trained operatives to arrive to replace the Nightwalkers who they believe were injured, but are actually walking into a trap. The Fool will turn them into what HE is, and they will be under his control. The bloodbath will then get worse, possibly even beyond Nessa's ability to control."

William gulped. "This isn't a game, is it?"

"No. It's no game. Your mother's life, as well as the lives of a lot of innocent people, will be decided by daybreak tomorrow. So if you're not going to take this seriously --"

"I will," William shot back defiantly. "I just found my biological mother. I'm not going to lose her again."

"Good man," Avery said, then headed back down to the VIP section, which was effectively now the command center.

"How's he holding up?" Nigel asked.

"He's a strong young man, I think," Avery replied. "So, what do you think?"

"I don't like this," Caitlin, also known as the High Priestess, said. "The Fool isn't just going to sit around. He'll have contingency plans on top of each other."

The land-line that Avery tended to use for business affairs began to ring, so he picked it up and listened. After a few minutes he put it down, his face a darker reflection of his already sour mood. "We have a problem."

Nigel was almost afraid to ask. "Which is?"

"Kidnappings."

A number of other Nightwalkers quickly closed in. "What? Family members?" the Tower asked.

"No, nothing to do with you all specifically. Criminals."

Strength looked confused. "Why is that a problem? For us, anyway."

"My friends in the local security forces didn't think it was a problem at all, at least at first. Since early this morning, a number of the less savory members of our population have been reported as missing, though no one was doing much about it seeing as they were both undesirable and had not been missing for very long. Still, some reports began to come in that some supposed criminals were being taken."

"Taken?" one of the Coins asked. "By who?"

"By the accounts of a witness, they were taken by a 'scary bunch of mother fuckers.' They were described as dressed all in black, incredibly hairy, and seemed almost more like animals than men."

"The infected Nightwalkers," Nigel hissed. "What is the Fool up to?"

Caitlin pursed her lips. "He isn't waiting. Maybe he's afraid that the new Nightwalker wannabe's won't be enough, so he's building up his army now. And if these 'undesirables' are weak spirited --"

"They'll be easy for the Fool to control," Avery hissed, "especially if he's dominant and alpha enough to boss around someone like Pegg. Fuck, this is bad." He walked away and got on the horn with the security center and made sure that everyone in the organization knew what to look for. Find the kidnappers, find the base, find the Fool. Easier commanded than done.

"Is Jenna going to be ready for this?" Caitlin asked of Nigel. "This morning, she zoned out completely when dawn came."

"I have a feeling that once the bullets start flying, it won't last until dawn," he replied. "And --"

A buzzing noise from the downstairs intercom interrupted Nigel's train of thought. Since Avery was otherwise indisposed, Ghede took the call. "Yes?"

*Uhm, this is Cresil. You know, downstairs?*

Ghede rolled his eyes. "Cresil, we've met dozens of times. I know who you are. Everyone knows who you are."

*Yeah, sorry, but . . . this is kind of weird. What exactly did Lawrence order?*

Avery and Caitlin and Nigel all looked at one another. Lawrence, Nessa's second youngest vampire child, had not mentioned anything about any orders. "Cresil," Avery started slowly, "maybe you should --"

*It ain't a trap. Trust me, I know his sigil. Whoever magically sealed these crates has his say so, and they were delivered by armored car. You know the kind.*

Avery's eyes opened. "Cresil, what kind of packages?"

*Big. Three of them, and the shipping addresses are from all over the damn globe. Weird thing is the driver said that he had seven more deliveries scheduled for today.* There was a pause at the other end of the line. *Holy crap! Ten deliveries? By magical armored transport? Avery, do you think --*

"Are the boxes eight feet long, three feet wide, and at least as deep?"

*Two of them. One of them is WAY bigger.*

Avery was rubbing the bridge of his nose. "She's going to kill him."

"What?" Caitlin asked. "Who's killing who?"

"Nessa is killing Lawrence," Avery growled.

"I thought that they were both asleep."

"For this, she'll wake up, risk light exposure, and kill him." Avery hit the intercom button. "Cresil, put all the cases in the safe rooms." He looked at Caitlin. "I need for you to do some damage control."

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Sundown . . .

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Jenna's eyes shot open when the sun sank below the horizon, to find that she was the last one away, and that the bed was crowded. Nessa's arm was hooked around her waist, and the elder vampire was whispering to the bed's other occupant, namely Caitlin. The Nightwalker's face was looking at Nessa, but her eyes quickly found Jenna's when that woman woke up, and both women smiled.

"You're here," Jenna whispered happily.

"I said I would be," Caitlin responded, her face breaking into a goofy grin. Then the grin went away. "But we need to get to work. Things have evolved." She recited what she had been telling Nessa about, namely the Fool's new "community outreach" program. Jenna's countenance became thoughtful as she slid out of bet(bed) and began to armor up. Halfway through the explanation, she noticed that neither of her companions had moved.

"What?"

Caitlin smiled again. "I was just really enjoying the show."

"Yeah, I kinda agree with her," Nessa contributed.

"Could we get back to the matters at hand?"

"Spoilsport," Nessa said, hopping out of bed in her skimpy lingerie and heading towards her closet. She stopped halfway there and held her head, causing Avery, who had been waiting nearby after leading Caitlin up to the bedroom, and Jenna to hurry to the redhead's aid.

"Are you --"

"Fine," Nessa whispered. "Just a little --"

Avery interrupted his boss, something of a rarity. "Nessa, you're still weakened. Between the energy spent creating Jenna and the fight with Pegg, you're not 100 percent. You know that, right?"

"I'm fine," Nessa growled back. She hated that Avery was right, but she couldn't rest. With the Fool on the move, growing his army, and with Nessa unable to call on her own lycanthropes, she had to use whatever assets she had left. "Have we located the Fool's base?"

Caitlin nodded. "It took us until an hour ago, seeing as he decided to move around until, somewhat ingeniously, he went back to where he started."

"Approximate numbers?"

Avery rubbed his eyes. He seemed to be doing a lot of that lately. "With moonrise, he probably had more than a hundred wolves. Most of them will be confused, barely more than wild dogs in their ability to plan, but if he's as strong as we think he is, that kind of mob could still be dangerous."

"And if the commandos show up, he may be able to coerce them into helping him, even without changing them. That would give him up to seventy guns."

"Any chance of defections?"

"If we had a few days to talk to them, before the Fool gets his claws into them, maybe. But we know that won't happen, because the Fool wouldn't give them a few days before changing them." Avery looked at Caitlin, grimaced, then looked back at Nessa. "Boss, there's another . . . situation."

Nessa glanced up, not liking Avery's tone. It wasn't fear, but something else. Resignation maybe? "What?"

"Maybe you should come down to the VIP lounge. It will save some explanation."

"Avery, tell me what's going on."

Avery was already on his way to the lift. "Jenna, this is something for you too."

"Avery," Nessa growled again, throwing a robe on and following her security chief. "This is not the time to try my patience. She got no response, even though she glowered at the man until Caitlin was able to throw her armor on and join them. Halfway down to the VIP area, Anabella materialized in the lift along side the rest of them.

"So, what'd I miss?" she asked, then glanced at Avery and blushed a bit. "How are you?"

"He's a dead man if he doesn't tell me what's going --" Nessa started to say, but then the lift arrived at its destination. The moment the doors opened, Nessa sensed something distinctly off. Not bad, not dangerous, or at least not to her, just . . . different. The lounge was dark, and the Nightwalkers were all somewhere else. But the vampires' eyes focused quickly, and they saw very distinct shapes. They were shapes that Nessa was very, very familiar with. Her eyes focused first on Lawrence, who stepped from the edge of the shadows to the center of the room.

"I'm sorry if this is a blow to your pride," he said softly, "but you are facing an unknown enemy, a threat to all Night Breeds? Without your lycanthropes? And you DID create a new sister. What did you expect me to do?"

"Obey my wishes," Nessa said, stepping forward angrily. "How could you --" She stopped, her dead heart beating just so that it could skip and get caught in her throat. A second voice came from the deep darkness at the edge of the lounge.

"Would you really strangle our baby brother for telling us something that we should have heard from you?" This voice was like a full-bodied coffee, strong and deep and one could not helped but feel a little bit energized by it. And the owner of that voice was every bit as scrumptious to look at as he was to listen to. And even Jenna knew who he was. She had seen him in Nessa's soul.

"Marcus?" Nessa whispered, her voice lilted up at the end like a question, though it really wasn't. "You're here."

Marcus was the epitome of what a Roman god was supposed to look like. Even in his designer Italian suit,, it was easy to see a body sculpted from marble, his smoothly shaven skin glowing with an olive hue. In Nessa's thoughts, he still had long, black, curly hair, though the modern incarnation of him was a little more Euro, with a short black ponytail, and his eyes shone with a mischief and desire that was almost physical.

"Where else would I be when my Nessa needed me?"

Nessa forced an eye roll. "Since when do I ever need . . . oh hell," she muttered. She cut off her denial and flew to the center of the room, allowing herself to be wrapped up in Marcus's powerful arms and be kissed as if time itself were coming to an end and that these two were going to make that last moment count. Jenna had seen her creator naked, in the throes of passion and lust, and in every other unabashed circumstance, but this was the first time she had seen Nessa wholly and truly . . . intimate.

Lawrence grinned. When he had called in Nessa's brood to help, he had known she would be pissed. Putting Marcus out first was at tactical move, seeing as the flame that existed between the two of them had been burning for two thousand years. Every time they got together, Nessa remembered what it had been like on that Mediterranean cliff all those years ago, and she remembered that she had, and still did to a great extent, love the man.

Jenna felt strangely out of sorts. This was Nessa's first, and she felt an irrational twinge of jealousy. She knew that her creator was not the settling down type, but . . . but she didn't even know what was bothering her. Already being made part of the past? But her jealousy evaporated when she felt a strong hand take her own, and looked over to see Caitlin. Jenna smiled. Caitlin was not the type to accept being second best to anyone, and Jenna would not treat her as such.