Wyverns Never Die, Chapter #2
Honeymoon from Hell #3
Sorry I’ve been out of it a while. I’ve just been getting over a cold. Mostly it just means I’m dragging like I haven’t gotten any sleep.
However, Wyverns Never Die, Honeymoon from Hell #3, comes out on February 5th, so I have do SOMETHING that looks like promotion.
So, free chapter.
Chapter 2:
Visions of the Future
One Week Later
Marco settled into Jennifer Bosley’s specially-designed train car, letting the gentle, rhythmic motions of the train relax him. Of course, this meant that he only thought of two things instead of three or four.
Amanda, on the other hand, only appeared to relax, dwelling on one thing from four or five angles. In this case, she could only concentrate on the weapons that had haunted them from Chicago to San Francisco. Where and how could the weapons have come from? Who had designed and built them? Why? Was it all just for money?
Without opening his eyes, or even picking his head up from the seat rest, Marco said, “I’ve been thinking about those job offers.”
Amanda blinked. It took a moment for her to recall what he was talking about. “You have decided between Merle’s SpecOps, the Mafia’s offer, or the Vatican? Or did you decide to stay a Physician Assistant?”
Marco’s smile was languid and content, like a lazy cat. Amanda would have thought “self-satisfied cat,” but that would be redundant. “Don’t you have an opinion, love?”
Amanda smiled. “Of course. They all have good points. I am uncertain about being a fixer for Enrico, or what it would entail. Being a Vatican ninja is useful, but do you wish to live in Europe? Would working with or for Merle require moving to San Francisco? I don’t think you have answers to those questions.”
Marco nodded. “I don’t. But I can speculate. First, how would you like a trip to Italy? For maybe a few months?”
Amanda blinked. Her mind immediately worked furiously to do the long-term math. On one hand, she loved Italy, after having spent the better part of a decade back and forth to Rome. On the other hand, Amanda was currently an assistant to Jennifer Bosley for the New York City Vampires Association. Would Bolsey let her go that long? Especially after and on top of the long honeymoon?
“Do you want the Vatican Ninja job?”
“Not particularly. But the training might be useful. Don’t you think?”
Amanda blinked, surprised. Her mental calculations ground to a halt. “You only want their training? What job do you want then?”
“I was thinking of being a consultant. Consulting fixer? Something like that. I wouldn’t really leave New York City, not when it needs fixing. Mayor Hoynes may be gone, but his policies remain, and they’re destroying New York. To fix it will take money … and killing a whole lot of people.”
Amanda chuckled. “Consulting means you can stay in New York, then travel, kill people, and make more money from Enrico. Yes. That is a good idea.”
Marco nodded and frowned. “One problem: I don’t know when or how long the training in Rome would be. I don’t really want to leave you that long. But you’ve got your work for Bosley and the VA. I’d hate to deprive you of all that and eat up that much of your time. I—”
Amanda leaned over, grabbed his wrists and pulled him in for a kiss. When she released him—and nudged him back before he got carried away—she said, “We will make it work. Who knows? If I stay home, I may be able to fix up a house while we are separated. If we get that far.”
Marco chuckled. “True. PA hours would have us living out of boxes for months. And that would only be if I moved into your place in Manhattan. If we both moved? Into a different neighborhood? Or just a different house? That’d be time consuming. My books alone would be annoying enough.”
Amanda frowned, her gaze drifting off to one side. “True enough. Don’t say that to Jen, though. She might buy us some place to live. I cannot imagine where that would be.”
“Either next door to her so you’re available, or in another country to avoid making you both easy targets.”
“I am certain that would be in her calculations,” Amanda said dryly. “And you?”
Marco shrugged. “What about me? Our residence is where we keep our stuff. Home is wherever I’m with you. If you want to keep your apartment in the Upper East Side, I’m fine with that. But if we move? I’d like to be outside Manhattan. Park Slope or Prospect Park. Heck, maybe out near Mary Immaculate Hospital in Queens, Jamaica Avenue. It’s a nice area. Good shopping. Get the right house, I can walk to work.”
Amanda laughed. “Assuming Enrico doesn’t buy you a house to keep you close to hand in case he needs you?”
Marco’s eyes widened in worry at the thought. “Just for that, we may have to move to Staten Island. It hadn’t occurred to me just how many different ways everyone can try to exert control over us.”
Amanda slid her hand up his arm, just feeling his skin. “I much prefer us, dealing with our friends, than thinking over more weapons.”
Marco blinked. “You’re still on that? Why? It doesn’t really concern us. Does it? We tripped over both by accident—unless you think Bosley planned for us to run into and kill Wheeler and Li?”
Amanda shook her head. “I doubt it. She is not shy about search and destroy, or using us to do it. She would have told us instead of having us trip over the two of them.”
“Trouble does just so happens to find us, doesn’t it?”
She smiled. “It is truly a gift.”
“Pity we can’t exchange it for something else. Next time, we keep the receipt.”
* * * *
At the end of the day, it was easiest to hold a war council in the Catalano household than anywhere else, short of the local church. But the pastor, Father William Rodgers, could more easily make a house call than empty his entire rectory. And none of the people at this meeting would be easy to hide.
To start with, Jennifer Bosley was too beautiful to hide. Blonde and buxom, with deep chocolate-brown eyes, she wore a gray suit with a skirt, showing off legs that would attract too much attention around a church.
“Do we believe Marco’s analysis?” she asked those assembled. Her accent was upper class and very English, as opposed to the South London accent she’d occasionally slip into. “That Li isn’t the end of these weapons?”
Police Commissioner Raymond Wilson shifted uncomfortably on the overstuffed leather couch of the Catalano living room. He was cleaning his glasses in his oversized hands. His Teddy Roosevelt mustache flexed as his mouth tensed before he spoke. In his deep voice, he said, “I’m afraid I do.”
Rodgers nodded. The old black priest said, in his “indoor voice” that usually carried throughout a church, “It makes too much sense, the way he put it.”
The mobster Enrico sighed. “It’s more credible than a politician working this by himself.”
Ibrahim “Bram” Jahavarian, a sniper for the Vatican ninjas, nodded. His soft olive features glanced around the gathering, wondering what he was doing here. “I concur. The problem is, now what? Li is burned. There are no more locals to interview, and no more leads to follow.”
Crystal Catalano, Marco’s mother, leaned back in her armchair. Her golden blonde hair was long and impossibly full for a woman of her age. But she was an eldar—what Marco referred to as “a Tolkien elf”—and no one asked how old she really was, not even Bosley. “We don’t have any new leads yet,” she corrected Bram. “But given everything we know so far, how likely is it that this weapons maker doesn’t try to go after Marco and Amanda?”
Enrico looked at her, eyes wide in shock. It sounded off, even to a mafioso. “Really? You’d do that? To your own kid?”
Bosley sighed. “She’s right. And we wouldn’t really do anything. They’ve killed Wheeler, a customer of this dealer, then they killed Li, the distributor. They’re already on their radar.”
Rodgers nodded, seeing the way the thought pattern was going. The priest lit up his cigar. “Someone will come for them, be it the maker or a disgruntled client who wants his shipment.”
Enrico blinked at the casual attitude, then he chuckled. “You’re right. It’s just good business to go after them.”
Wilson shook his head. He combed his fingers through his black hair. He was only slightly graying, and the gray was receding. “It may not be that easy in the long run. Is there anyone left alive from the San Francisco incident? Li’s dead. Shrimp Boy Chow is dead. Is there anyone or anything left behind that would lead back to Marco and Amanda?”
Bram chuckled. “Not the way they work.”
Enrico shrugged. “A few days ago, I received a gang banger from Chicago named Hammer. Marco left him alive, even recruited him. He’s all right. But I think he might be the last man—the only man—standing.”
Rodgers interjected, “And a Bishop Blackwood helped treat Marco’s wound in Chicago.”
Bram glanced back to Police Commissioner Wilson. “So what is your point?”
Wilson sighed deeply. “Point is that you’ll have to leak their names to get anyone to take the bait.”
Bosley held up a finger. “Not necessarily. Marco and Amanda are slightly famous.”
Enrico cocked his head. “Are you sure you don’t mean infamous?”
Bosley smiled. “Same thing. I’ve had to make numerous deals to make certain they could be allowed through multiple territories without being molested. If Li and Wheeler were as powerful as we think they were, anyone could connect the dots. Marco and Amanda show up, and then a powerful dark force dies.”
Crystal’s green eyes flicked to Bosley and she nodded. “If they have the right connections.”
Bram blinked, then looked to Bosley. “If you made all these deals, then why the hell are they even being attacked? Why didn’t any of us see this coming?”
Bosley sighed. “I made deals with the vampires of Chicago. Wheeler wasn’t even on the radar during those talks. He never even came up. Marco and Amanda had no intention of even going near San Francisco. Li just happened to be testing weapons in Napa as their train pulled in.”
Wilson blanched. He blinked behind his glasses. “You mean it really was just bad luck overall?”
Enrico shook his head. “Not entirely. Wheeler was already out to get them. Remember the zombie attack at the wedding?”
Crystal frowned. “Supposedly a demon named Day had Wheeler try to kill them.”
Bram flinched at the memory of “Mister Day,” a king of Hell. “He was an old enemy.”
Police Commissioner Wilson frowned in thought. “So it just happened that Day used Wheeler to try and kill our newlyweds? Wheeler happened to get weapons from Li? Who happened to test weapons near Marco and Amanda? What are the odds?”
Crystal looked long and hard at PC Wilson, her green eyes giving away little. “Just what are you saying?”
Wilson closed his eyes a moment, focusing his thoughts to a point. “I’m saying that either your son and daughter-in-law are the two unluckiest people on Planet Earth, or a lot of people, both ally and enemy alike, are being manipulated into putting these two in harm’s way.”
Bosley winced at the prospect… and that she hadn’t seen it before. “It makes a certain amount of sense. They brought down the Council several years back.”
Enrico scoffed. “Yeah. Taking down the vampire Illuminati puts you on a lot of radars. It tells people that you’re the one to beat.”
The Vatican Ninja sighed and shook his head. “They’re the ones to beat in New York. Outside of a semester in San Francisco, Marco never left the city. He prefers it. Leaving him and Amanda alone makes more sense.”
“Unless,” Crystal interjected, “there is someone out there with designs on more than a city. Something that is a threat to the world.”
Rodgers stared hard at Crystal. “So soon after the Council?”
Crystal stared right back at him. “Are there not old, foul things in the world that pre-date the Council? Something that could be biding its time in the dark? Waiting for its chance? Marco and Amanda would be a threat.”
Rodgers sucked on his cigar. He held it and let the smoke slowly drift out his mouth. “Perhaps. We believe the vampire virus goes back to the days of the nephilim, ‘when giants walked the Earth.’ So it’s not impossible.”
Bosley frowned and said nothing for a moment. She knew what Crystal was. “Should I even ask what you have in mind?”
Crystal shrugged. “It could be literally anything. The best historical, or even Biblical, record is only a few thousand years old. If prehistory is filled with giants and nephilim and vampires and things we cannot imagine? Imagine any horror from mythology. The worst horror. This could be it.”