WE HAVE CONTACT (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 12) (26 page)

“Cover your ears, boss!” John called from behind her. Bethany Anne stopped and told Ashur to stay out of the way as she allowed John and Eric to pass her up. Two steps ahead they both pulled their pistols and used head shots. She didn’t need to tell them they were close to the end.

Now, there would be no quarter provided.

She started forward and stepped around the guys, “John, Eric, you made a mess.”

Eric slotted a new clip as she walked by, “Do we have to clean it up?” He asked.

“No. Messes are the preferred results for tonight.”

“I’m going to file that under stuff I wish my mother told me,” Eric replied from behind her. At that point, a tiger Pricolici, probably about John’s height, stepped into view and roared a challenge down the hall at them.

“BA?” John called from behind her.
 

She shook her head. “No shooting him, I need to warm up.”

“Oh goody,” Darryl commented, “Will you be having the tiger ribs or flank steak tonight, Scott?”

“That’s … just disgusting,” Scott answered.

—

The two guards had been dispatched with calm efficiency.
 

It was now up to him to protect his clan’s honor, and their future. He had sacrificed so much to accomplish getting this far down the Clan’s path, and his daughter was the chosen one. Something that he had wanted for his whole life had occurred.

Now, he must beat off these intruders and keep her safe. His Empress needed him.

He changed. His senses came alive in the Temple. He loved to be in his warrior form, the power, the scents, the feeling like the world became still as he glided through it was overwhelming.

It was intoxicating.

He smiled, “I willll proteecct youuu, Emprressss.” He stepped into the doorway and spread his arms, roaring his challenge at the five humans and the white dog approaching.

The female in front smiled, her eyes glowed red and fangs appeared on the sides of her mouth and for once, his Pricolici form felt something he had never experienced in this form ever.

He felt fear.

He knew what he was looking at, and she was a thing of myth, of legends, of rumors at times.

She was a vampire.

He backed up. The hallway was not his preferred place to fight. It seemed she was going to accept his challenge, her two swords reflected the light.

He would need to be careful, to be smart.

She walked into the temple and glanced around.

—

Bethany Anne noticed Stephanie Lee sitting on a small throne and pointed at her with a sword, “I’ll be getting to you in a moment.” She looked and saw three other openings into the room.

Bitches take a door.

“I got this one,” Scott called aloud, staying in the doorway they had just come in. Ashur stayed with him.

“Left,” Darryl said and put action to his words.

“Close right,” Eric spoke, and John just went silently to the farther door on the right.

Bethany Anne cricked her neck left and right, as the tiger Pricolici looked at the guys, who had weapons drawn.

“Don’t even think about it,” Bethany Anne told him, “You couldn’t change their sheets, much less beat them in a fight.”

“Thennnn whhhyyyy arrreee youuu fightttinnngg meee?” it growled at her.

“Dude, you are just my warm up, are you the main priest?” she asked him, walked to her left holding her swords ready.

“Yessss.” He decided to ignore the men and watched the Vampire.

“Then you are this piece of trash’s father?”

“Shhhheee is thee EEmmmmppreessss!” He growled deeply, his eyes flaring in anger.

“She’s a trumped up skank who had to come home to hide with daddy when her plans all fell apart,” Bethany Anne replied.

Stephanie Lee’s lips pressed together. She looked to the closest one of Bethany Anne’s guards. The tall one on her left, but he was both watching her and the hallway.

Stephanie Lee could hear fighting from multiple directions.

“So, are you going to fight me, or stand there and look pretty?” Bethany Anne asked the male Pricolici.

Then, she took the initiative. She came in hard, slashing at him with her right sword. He dodged the first slash and jumped to his left when she came back around with the other sword. He kept on his feet, watching her sword work, looking for an opening. She seemed to stutter, switching forms, and he leaped.

He howled in pain when the first sword pierced his chest. She had played him, waiting for him to move. Her eyes, glowing red, matched the feral grin on her face. She batted his arms away with her other sword then reversed the blade and slit his neck.

—

Stephanie Lee watched as Bethany Anne lowered her sword, and her father slid down to fall to the ground. His eyes, seeking her out at the end, finally gave her the one thing she had desired her whole life.

Connection.

Stephanie Lee’s lips pressed together as she regarded the arrogant woman staring at her, her lips turned up, “You peasant! You have no idea of the abilities, the history, the time this Clan has worked to prepare the Earth to rise up!”

Bethany Anne casually cleaned her sword on the Were’s chest. Keeping an eye out for any movement from Stephanie Lee. “You speak as if I should give a shit, Stephanie.” She waved her two swords around before setting herself and smiled, “The only thing I care about right now, is making damned sure you receive my full retribution for killing my love.”

“Killing your love?” she barked, walking to her left around the temple room and opening up the distance between them. There was still fighting happening inside the walls. “What do you know about love? What do you even care about love? The person you just killed was my father!” Her eyes flashed yellow in the dimness of the temple.

“I’ll file that bit of knowledge under shit-I-don’t-care-about.” Bethany Anne’s voice changed, became darker. “You are nothing but a spoiled
sh
ǎ
b
ī
that seeks power and prestige because daddy didn’t love you,” she hissed as she walked to her right causing Stephanie Lee to change directions, “You couldn’t rule a girl-scout troop, much less the world, you trumped up soiled piece of trash.”

She is trying to bait you!

She will cause you to make bad decisions. Get her swords away from her, they let her fight you from a distance.

Stephanie Lee curled her lips, “What would you know about leading? Hmm? You’ve been given everything, haven’t you? Money, companies, even technology. You wouldn’t have anyone’s love if you weren’t powerful, so don’t stand there,” she hissed, “you hypocritical
bitch
and tell me how well I can lead! At least I am willing to fight with what the gods gave ME!”

Bethany Anne cocked her head, “What, you mean these?” she held up the two swords. “This is what scares your pretty little pussy-cat head?” Bethany Anne spoke a little louder, “John,” she tossed her right-hand sword the thirty feet to John, who deftly caught it. “Darryl!” she threw her other to her left where Darryl caught it. Bethany Anne cocked her neck. “So, what is your devious plan now that you have me without swords?”

“Well,” Stephanie Lee admitted, “It reduces your reach and unlike my dear, departed father, I’m not so slow!” She started laughing as her hands morphed into razor sharp claws, each five inches in length. Everyone in the group noticed that her feet had grown claws as well.

“God, someone needs a serious pedicure,” came from behind her. Bethany Anne snorted.

“Scott,” she said conversationally while watching Stephanie Lee, “Don’t make me laugh, please.”

“Fine, but you have to admit, it was a hell of a line,” he quipped.

Bethany Anne lifted her hand in the air and flipped him off.

Bethany Anne focused back on Stephanie Lee, just as two shots rang out, and Eric spoke from his doorway, “Sorry, a couple of cats thought they might interrupt the reunion.” Then another shot, “Wow, tough son-of-a-bitches.” Then another shot, “Fucking stay down! Don’t you realize this shit is over five bucks a round?” Bethany Anne continued to watch Stephanie Lee as the antics were happening behind her.

“Hey, dickless,” Darryl called out, “try hitting them instead of winging them and it might work a little better.”

“Look, have you ever,” bang..bang… “tried to hit,” Bang! “cats running? Oh, fuck this!” Bethany Anne could feel the escalation of fear from Eric and then could visualize from the sounds when the first cat reached him, still dealing with the pain from the silver rounds Eric had pumped into it. The sickening sound of a body being ripped apart and then the plop of a dead body parts dropped to the stone floor, “Hey! No running away…Damn you, I can’t leave my post you son-of-a-…Awww, dammit!” There was some shuffling behind her, ‘Oh! Sorry, I didn’t realize everyone was waiting for me. Do continue.”

Stephanie Lee’s voice was low, acidic, “You will scream for hours when I finish with your queen!” She glared at Eric who shot her the finger.

Stephanie Lee turned to Bethany Anne, “Your people are undisciplined, rude and immature!”

Bethany Anne smiled, “Just the way I like them, come here and have a piece of me you jumped up fuck-brained syphilitic ass-ugly butt sucking pile of leftover dick tips!”

“You are the most banal of them all! That you have even touched the mind of one of the blessed race is a disgrace I shall rectify!”

“Oh God…did she say TOM is from a blessed race?” John cut in.

Stephanie Lee’s furious gaze turned towards John who shrugged, “Oh, my bad! Yeah, I’ll get behind Eric when it comes to the screaming part…I’ll stand in line like a good undisciplined, rude and immature whatever-the-fuck you say in Chinese.”

Eric added, “That’s Ok, I’ll let you cut in front of me.”

“Hey tit-less,” Bethany Anne called Stephanie Lee’s attention back to her. “You’ve really gone and fucked up.” She started walking towards the Leopard Empress, her eyes deepening their red, her face breaking out with red lines of Etheric energy, her fangs growing.

Stephanie Lee took a step back, “What…what are you?”
 

“Are you happy now? You retarded wayward glory hole reject! You have the full attention of the Queen Bitch in the
flesh
. Claws?” Bethany Anne yelled, “You think CLAWS are the fucking answer?”

Bethany Anne stepped close enough for Stephanie Lee to leap towards her, slashing down to eviscerate the woman. Bethany Anne put her arm up in a block, Stephanie Lee’s arm was sliced off as it hit.
 

Her left arm, already swiping down, received the same result. Then pain screamed in her body as it tried to deal with two stumps.

I’m trying to shut the pain down! What did she just do?

There has to be a way out of this body! If she dies, WE die!

FIGHT YOU BITCH!
The two Kurtherians screamed in Stephanie Lee’s mind.

Stephanie Lee ignored the voices in her head as she stared numbly at her two bloody stumps, her body trying to heal enough to stop the bleeding.

Bethany Anne’s face was smiling, her fangs fully extended, “I don’t need any claws! I’m AM the Queen Bitch. And my love patiently, lovingly, taught me how to use the Etheric ... you failed alien genetic experiment!”

Bethany Anne lifted her right hand, and Stephanie Lee watched as it changed, growing a copy of her own set of five-inch nails, razor sharp. The woman in front of her now looked like the goddess of death.

Her death.

A deep, malevolent voice spoke to her, “Stephanie Lee, you have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found
ass
-tastically inadequate and a fingerlicking trampy bollock fucker. I’ve been waiting for too damned long for this moment. Now
die
for your sins!”
 

Bethany Anne plunged her clawed hand into Stephanie Lee’s chest easily cutting through the ribs, and ripped out her heart.

Looking at her own heart beating in front of her, Stephanie Lee barely heard the faint screams from the aliens inside. She dropped to her knees, the temple swimming in her vision.