Coalition of the Damned - 03 (23 page)

Thorn chuckled. “I shall take that as a compliment.”

“It was meant as one.”

Mitchell interrupted their conversation, “Why would you have tried to kill him regardless of his actions?”

“He’s a vampire.” Max stated simply.

“And you’re a werewolf.” Matt shot back.

“True. But wolves can choose. Vampires
have
to feed on blood.” Max explained. Thorn remained silent as he spoke. “It wasn’t until Tasha explained to me about the
Lamia Beastia
that…well, to be honest, I wouldn’t have believed it had I not met him.”

“And you can tell simply by meeting him?” Mitchell asked incredulously.

Max looked at Mitchell as if he had fell on his head. “Can you not
smell
the difference?” Thorn remained still throughout the conversation as if he weren’t present. “He smells of mutton and beef and…goat?” He turned to Rufus. “Is it goat?”

Thorn simply nodded his head and gave a soft, “
Oui
.”

“And you can smell what he eats on him?” Matt asked, still unbelieving.

Max chuckled and shook his head. “Mitchell, for a wolf, you have an incredibly dull nose.”

“I try to use my
other
senses as well,” he said sarcastically. “Besides, I’ve never had a very good nose,” he added in a somewhat more quiet voice.

Max nodded and reached out for Rufus’ hand. “Do you mind, Monsieur Thorn?” Thorn shook his head and raised his arm to Max. Matt felt stupid and even embarrassed for Rufus as Max held his arm under his nose to him. “Take a deep smell.”

“Deep. Pull it deep into your sinuses and let it roll around in the back of your head then tell me what comes to your mind.”

Matt felt foolish, but sniffed deep of Rufus’ arm. At first he only smelled the detergent of his linen coat, then a musky c
ologne that smelled of sandalwood and pine. Then…there it was. He could smell it…it smelled of…
death.
He pulled again, deep into his sinuses and he could smell it,
under
the smell of death, he could smell something that reminded him of wool…of sheep. A scent that smelled of beef, raw steak. And a musky scent of…a goat popped into his mind. He turned to Max, his eyes wide in astonishment. “And you could smell this from a distance?”

“Easily,” Max said, releasing Rufus’ arm. “Thank you, Monsieur, for your assistance,” he said to Thorn.

“How is that…possible?” Mitchell asked.

“Practice,” Max told him. “Every time I go outside, I see something at a distance and I try to scent it. Sometimes I’ll close my eyes and sniff and try to identify something and then open my eyes and see if I can see it.”

Matt nodded and sat back thinking about what Max had just shown him. “Does this have anything to do with my lack of foresight and the silver bars?”

Max shook his head. “No, Colonel, it doesn’t. What it does have to deal with is your needing to hone your skills as a wolf.”

Matt nodded as if he understood, but he didn’t see how that helped him with his immediate problem. “I see now how I’ve let certain aspects of my…condition…slip. And I realize that I should be honing the skills that come with this condition, but I really need to address the here and now and the more pressing matters of—”

“Colonel, if it were actually a
pressing
matter, we would have already seen to it,” Viktor interrupted. Matt turned to him, but he was staring out of the deeply dark tinted window. Viktor slowly turned to look at him. “You won’t be needing your silver cage on the full moon,” he said simply.

Matt was shocked. “And what do you propose we do with me during this particular moon cycle? Chain me with silver?”

Max smiled at him and shook his head. “Colonel, you will be in close proximity. When any wolves are in close proximity, we are
pack
. And needless to say, I AM the alpha wolf, yes?”

Mitchell thought about what he was saying at the moment. “Are you saying you’ll be able to control me?”

“Like a newborn pup. Yes, sir,” Max responded. “You’ll do exactly what I say, whether you want to or not.”

“You do realize that I’m not a natural born wolf, right? I can’t control what I’m doing, full moon or not.”

“And you realize that it doesn’t matter, right?” Max replied. “Cursed or Damned, natural born or bitten, all within the sound of my voice will hearken and heed the call.”

Matt inhaled deeply and let it out very slowly. “It still feels like we’re taking a very big chance here.”

“We are not, I assure you,” Viktor stated. “It is not the first time that an alpha wolf has used his call to control a lesser wolf during the moon.”

Matt nodded, deciding not to take offense to the ‘lesser wolf’ comment. “Okay. As long as I don’t hurt anybody.”

“Oh, you’ll hurt plenty of people. Any vampires who get too close to the humans, I expect you to rip them asunder and lay waste to all,” Max said, his smile evil.

Matt’s gaze shifted from Max to Viktor and then to Thorn. “Present company excluded, of course.”

“I do not plan to be present where the humans are, Colonel,” Thorn stated. “I intend to lead my people into battle against the forces of the Sicarii.”

Matt sat up straighter. “Now hold on just a minute.” The other three sat back and simply looked at him. “I don’t know what you three have cooked up here, but let’s not forget som
ething here. This is still a military installation and a military engagement. And whether you like it or not,
I’m
the military leader here.” He allowed his statement to sink a moment. “Now, Thorn, I realize that you will have people on the ground and that you want to lead them into battle, but you need to keep in mind…we have a satellite that we intend to deploy that will saturate the battlefield with high intensity UV radiation. We intend to turn night into day.

“Max, I understand that you intend to go after the Sicarii yourself because you think you’re the only one who can handle him mano-y-mano and while I think that’s all noble, you need to realize that you’re going to have a handful of special-op co
mmandos backing you up, not to mention a couple hundred thousand vampires who are laying it on the line as well.

“And you.” Mitchell pointed at Viktor, “well, honestly, I have no idea what it is you think you’re going to do, but you all three need to get it in your heads that we need to work together. We may well go at this as a three or four pronged attack, but we need to coordinate everything.” Mitchell eyed them all as he sat back in his seat. “Look, fellas, I’m not trying to piss in an
ybody’s Post Toasties here. We just need to go at this logically. We need to figure out what resources we have available and utilize them to the best of our abilities.”

Matt glanced at his watch. “We’ll be at the base in a few hours and we can get settled in and I can get some info from Anderson. He’s the base commander there. They may even have some resources there that we’re not aware of. But once we have an idea of
everything
that is available to us, then we can start formulating some plans.

Max started to argue but held his tongue. He closed his mouth and nodded. “I agree, Colonel. Let us hold back on ma
king specific plans until we know exactly what resources are available and then try to come to some agreement on how best to utilize them.”

Thorn simply nodded at both men and remained quiet. His thoughts were on the
Lamia Beastia
and how many would probably be sacrificed in the upcoming battle. He cringed at the thought, but he also cringed at the thought of
not
fighting the Sicarii.

“By the way, thank you,” Matt said to Max.

“For what?”

“For being able to control my…inner beast,” he said, som
ewhat sheepishly.

“There is a lot you could stand to learn, Colonel,” Max said.

“I know there is. I just haven’t had time.”

“He’s been too busy hunting and killing his own kind,” Viktor said, venom dripping from his words.

*****

Nadia and Natashia loaded into the small Jeep and prepared to leave. They planned to take Max’s jet to Groom Lake for him so that once the battle was over he could depart straight from there. Max decided to fly over with Viktor and Rufus and asked his daughter-in-law and granddaughter to ferry over his luxury jet for him. As they prepared to leave, they saw Laura lugging the last of her bags to a Humvee.

“Ms. Youngblood, are you preparing to leave as well?” Nadia asked.

“Just loading the last of it,” she huffed.

“Would you like to ride over with us? We are taking grandfather’s plane to him. He is flying over with Rufus and father.”

Laura glanced around. The only people left were the skel
eton security crew. Matt had told her to catch a flight on the last cargo plane but she really didn’t look forward to being belted down to a folding chair in the back with the crates. “I, uh…should probably take the cargo plane.”

Nadia could tell that she didn’t really want to and pressed her a bit further. “It has
very
comfortable leather seating. And a liquor cabinet. And sodas. And chips. And other…refreshments.” Nadia blushed. “I’m sorry, I do not know how to entice you properly.” She threw her hands up. “But it truly is a very nice plane and there are more than enough seats,” she pleaded.

Laura glanced at the Humvee again. She gritted her teeth and pulled her bag off the back and put it with her other two. She slammed the tailgate shut and pounded on the back. The Hu
mmer started up and pulled out of the hangar. Laura slung a bag over her shoulder and tried to lift the other. “Lead the way.”

Nadia smiled and grabbed her other bags as if they weighed nothing and tossed them in the back of the Jeep. “It will be such fun!” she said. “Just the three of us.”

Laura looked over Nadia’s shoulder and saw Natashia standing at the door of the Jeep appearing bored. “Hurry, Nadia. The pilot is waiting.”

“A moment, mother,” she yelled. “Ms. Youngblood is co
ming with us. Won’t that be fun?!”

“Peachy,” Natashia muttered.

Laura cringed at the thought of being stuck with Natashia, but held her thoughts to herself. She took one last look around the hangar, feeling as though she were forgetting something. She grabbed one of the security staff and double checked the duty roster before signing out. She noticed that hers was the last name to be signed out so she was assured that all personnel were en route to Nevada, other than First Squad who were still in the field. She handed the clipboard back and sighed, taking one last glimpse at the hangar, hoping that they all would be returning safe and sound.

“We really need to go. The pilot is waiting,” Natashia said as she climbed into the Jeep. Laura nodded absently still staring into the hangar, the nagging feeling that something was being forgotten lingering in the back of her mind.

“I’m coming.” She climbed in the back seat.

*****

Sanchez strapped in to the transport plane and waited for the plane to start its take off procedures. Hank unbuckled and moved over next to her. “I have something for you.” He buckled in next to her.

“Yeah? What’s that?” she asked hoping for another box of doughnuts. “Will it make my ass fat?”

Hank smirked and shook his head. “No, I’m afraid I didn’t get a chance to get into town before we left.”

“Too bad, Padre.” She nudged him with her shoulder. “Those fat pills were the bomb.”

Hank reached behind him and pulled out a bundle that was wrapped in a wool blanket. He carefully unwrapped it and handed it to her. “Usually there’s a ceremony for this, but considering the circumstances…”

“What is it?” she asked, her brows knitting together.

“Your first katana.”

Maria unwrapped the blanket and revealed a shiny black scabbard with a leather belt attached to it. Her mouth dropped open and she found herself at a loss for words. “Oh, my God, Hank…I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything.” He lifted the sword and placed it into her hands. “You’ve earned it.”

“No, I haven’t.” Her eyes began to mist as her emotions ran wild.

Hank snorted at her. “Oh, yes you have. Trust me on that one.” He looked her directly in the eyes. “I’ve never been one to believe in reincarnation or previous lives or…well, any of that. It just goes against my beliefs,” he explained. “I understand that a lot of cultures choose to believe it and many religions are based on it, but for me, it just never fit. But you? The way you handle a sword and the way you fight? I can’t help but wonder if you weren’t a Samurai in another life.” He smiled at her.

“Hank, I don’t know what to say,” she said, her eyes tearing up. “This is the nicest thing anybody has ever done for me.”

“Somehow I doubt that,” Hank replied. “And a simple ‘thank you’ is fine for me. Besides, it’s the least a teacher can do for his best student.”