Nos Faux Ratu Ch. 06

"Because it would have got you excited, and your system simply cannot handle that kind of excitement. And we are NOT taking you off your medicine."

"I'm useless to you," she hissed, though she had little energy to put into her objection. "I will not just lie here. Do you know what it is like to be helpless?" she asked, her voice cracking. "I do. I know it far too well. I won't do it again."

Ghede sighed. He knew of her story, but only because Nessa had told him. He had hoped she would speak of it on her own, but she had not. Death, Caitlin, Nessa, Anabella, and Avery were the only ones who knew it. Anabella and Nessa only knew because it was Avery who had uncovered the truth. Ghede knew that in the end, Nessa would be able to help her more than he could. It did not mean he was not going to try.

"Do you know what would happen if we allowed you to change?"

"I would become --"

"You would become a thing like the Fool. They discovered tonight that he is an alpha. That means that others like him, especially the wolves, will either want to run from him or serve him. Unless you came out stronger, he would either likely kill you or --" Ghede stopped. Normally he was not quite so careless.

"Or what?" she asked.

A feminine, sorry, angry voice floated across the room from a dark corner of the room. "He would take you for his mate." Nessa stepped out of a darkness that Jenna's Nightwalker eyes had been unable to penetrate. "He made his intentions very clear. He figured that since you were the most powerful female Nightwalker that you would be the most powerful werewolf hybrid. The animal part of him is seeking his mate. You."

Jenna shook her head slowly in disbelief. "This is no time for jokes."

Without so much as a sound, Nessa was standing over her, the vampire's face contorted into rage. Jenna had never seen this side of her friend. It was ugly. And for a moment, Jenna was afraid.

"Do I look like I'm joking?" Nessa asked coldly. "And you want to just give up? You want me to hand you over to him as his new bitch?"

"Nessa, that is not helping," Ghede said.

"No, let her continue," Jenna said, her voice low and shaking.

"I've invested a lot in you," Nessa continued. "Letting you change means making the Fool stronger."

"I didn't realize you had so little faith in me."

"You've been weak before," the vampire shot back, and instantly regretted it. She saw a wound open up in the young woman that was deep and bled in a way that no bandage could stem. "Jenna, I didn't mean --"

"I know what you meant," Jenna replied, bitterness filling the cacophonous sounds coming from her lips. "I let the Messenger do what he did, so why not the Fool? That's all I'm good for, right? Being raped by a stronger --"

"That is NOT what I meant!" Nessa said. "Jenna, I . . . I'm sorry. I'm just so angry I don't know what to do, and I needed to take it out on someone." She was trying to figure out some way to counter the damage that she had done, but she just saw Jenna shrinking away from her. She was going to open her mouth when her intercom came on. One of the doormen was telling her that someone named Lawrence had arrived.

"Send him up," Nessa said, speaking to the ceiling. She did not know why she did that. It was not as if her intercom were actually godly. "Jenna," she added, her gaze drifting back to the woman in the gurney. But there was no conversation to be had. The injured Nightwalker had shut down. She cursed herself, then looked at Ghede, who just shrugged, with an unspoken "This is your fault, fix it," floating in the air.

A few minutes later, a new man appeared from the lift area. He was very . . . British looking. Immaculately pressed slack, a dress shirt complete with sweater vest, and very proper-looking circular glasses. He was built lean and was handsome in an unassuming sort of way, and his eyes sort of sparkled as if he was enjoying some hidden joke.

"Nessa," he said warmly, though he pulled up when he sensed her mood. "I came as quickly as I could. What happened?"

She hugged him, then turned and walked out to the balcony, closing the door behind them. "Lawrence, I find myself in a very . . . unique, situation."

"Unique? For you?"

"Yes, apparently I have in fact NOT seen everything," she said, her mouth trying to smile, but her spirit not truly feeling any real joy. "I'm glad you're here," she told him.

He sat next to her and put an arm around his maker's shoulders. "Nessa, tell me what's going on.

She did. At great length. From the moment she got orders from the Council until the fight of a few hours previously, including her the events surrounding Jenna's presence.

"Wow," Lawrence said, rubbing his glasses. He really did not need glasses, or to clean them, but there were some habits that were hard to break. Even after being dead for a century. "You really don't have normal problems, do you? Did you ever consider calling us?"

"I can't show weakness," she said. "I didn't want to." She rubbed her hands on her pants. "I don't know why. It's not like I really need the hassle of running a territory."

"You do it because you do it better than anyone else. You like being in charge, you LOVE being the center of attention, and you don't want someone like Garon Pegg taking over and abusing power."

"I don't know how I'm going to deal with him. But first, I have to deal with the Fool. Lawrence, I've never seen anyone move like that. One on one . . . I don't know if I would have been able to beat him."

"Well, his organization has been weakened. I know you wanted to avoid it, but you need to just wipe him out. If you move quickly --"

"He'll be ready. He's fucking smart, and he adapts. He's already learning to control his alpha status. I just have to figure out what he's going to do next, and my best insight into his mind is lying on a hospital gurney, barely hanging on to life, and I just basically set her therapy back to where she started."

Lawrence looked out over the New Atlanta skyline, holding Nessa close. "What were you trying to tell her?"

"That she needs to stop giving up on herself. Gods above, I just got her to the point where she didn't blame herself for getting tortured and raped, and then I tell her that she was being weak again. I really don't think well when I'm angry."

"Then don't get mad," he told her. "Like the saying goes, get even. I can help with the computer part of your plan, assuming that Ghede can pull off the magical part, but we'll need to move quickly if your assessment of this Fool character is correct. Can you talk to one of the other Nightwalkers about possible courses of action?"

She nodded. "I can talk to Nigel, or maybe that new girl Caitlin. I should bring them up to seen Jenna. Maybe they can do something for her."

Lawrence stood up and offered Nessa his hand. "Let me know if you want me to call the others. We could have an army here within 24 hours."

"That's exactly what I want to avoid. Besides," she said, looking towards door, "this has become very personal."

Lawrence paused at the door. "Nessa, have you considered --"

"Considered what?"

"Your friend. There is another way you could save her. There is one way to counteract any lycanthropy virus that exists."

Nessa's eyes popped open. "You're not serious? I . . . she's way too injured. I'm way too injured --"

"Speaking of which, were you going to tell me about your wounds?" He spun her around like she were a child and pulled her coat down, revealing nasty, jagged scars down her back.

"I'll heal, but it is going to take time."

"You need to feed, preferably from a fresh source."

"So you want me to feed off Jenna and then --"

"I would probably be forced to stake you myself if you tried to feed off of her right now. But there are others around who can donate a pint or so. And then yes, you might want to seriously consider that particular option with Jenna. She obviously means something to you."

"You haven't seen the inside of her soul," Nessa explained. "You can't understand. I couldn't trap her in that state."

"You said she had started to heal."

"With 'started' being the operative word."

"It would not be the first time that you saved 'damaged goods' though, would it?"

That earned him a smile as Nessa said, "You were pretty fucked up, weren't you?"

"I was dying. So is she."

"There's a difference between contracting cancer and ripping your own soul into sections and then living alone with if for fifteen years." She kissed Lawrence on the forehead. "I need to go fix things with her."

"Think about it," he told her. "Promise me."

"I promise," she said, then slipped back inside. There actually was not much to think about. It made perfect sense.

She walked over to Jenna, who was sitting as still and quiet as death, a nearby heart monitor being the only thing to break up the oppressive silence. She sat quietly next to her friend for a moment. "Jenna, please open your eyes. I need you. I need your head in the game. I want to get you and Death and the High Priestess to help me figure out what he's going to do now. And I need you to forgive me for being an insensitive bitch."

Jenna slowly turned her head. She looked like hell, and felt much worse. And she was crying. The tears were small, but the hurt that caused them was huge. "You just lost a friend," she whispered. "You're entitled."

"No, I'm not. Not for saying something like that to you. I just want you to stop giving up on yourself, because I haven't."

Jenna gripped the sheet covering her from the waist down. "I don't want to die. Dammit, I hate sitting here like a child, with my only options being to let the virus potentially turn me into a slave again, grow weaker until the medicine kills me, or hope you can kill the Fool before I die so that what? I can turn into a werewolf that might be dominated by something else somewhere down the road? There are really powerful lycanthropes that could do it, right?"

Nessa nodded. "It's possible. Lycanthropes can live a long time if they're powerful. Some of the oldest are called Primals, and they can make pretty much anyone their bitch if they choose. So yeah, it would always be a threat."

Jenna took a deep breath and then wiped her tears away. "Thank you for being honest."

"It's the least I can do."

"Nessa . . . I just got used to the idea that I could actually have a life."

"You still can. You will." Nessa cocked her head. "The guy that came in here a second ago . . . his name is Lawrence. He's one of mine. I would like you to do something for me, and it requires a lot of trust, more than I probably deserve right now."

"What do you want?"

"I want you to let him in, like you let me in."

Jenna shivered. "Why?"

"Because I want a second opinion. I want to see if your spirit is recovering the way it should. Because . . . because there's a way I can give you a fourth option."

"What is it?" Jenna said, trying to sit up, then falling back to the bed with a slight coughing fit.

Nessa gripped Jenna's hand. "I could make you like me."

"Like . . . what?"

"You wouldn't have to pretend to be a vampire anymore. I can give you the real experience."

Jenna stared at her. "Are you serious? I thought . . . but why --"

"It just didn't occur to me to save you from one disease by infecting you with something else. That's why I gave the gift to Lawrence. He's probably the smartest person I ever brought over."

"I thought --" Jenna stopped.

"That it was always about sex?" Nessa smiled. "No. Oh, I had sex with him all right, but that's not the driving factor for me in making my choices. And before you ask, there is no one thing."

"Why me? Why now? Wouldn't that weaken you? I won't risk --"

"And that's the 'why'," Nessa interrupted. "Because you think of others, and you deserve time to think of yourself. Now is because if we wait, the other options suck. And it will only weaken me for a day or so." Nessa gripped a little tighter. "For the first year, you would be a bit susceptible to my suggestions. I can't help that. It's sort of a fail-safe for if a new vamp goes all blood lusty. You grow out of it."

"But you're hurt --"

"I'll heal, and faster than you."

Jenna smiled weakly. "So what's the catch?"

"Besides being under my influence? That we don't know what will happen. You've been bioengineered to the point where . . . well, you saw what happened with the Fool and the others. They're stronger, yes, but --"

"They're also completely insane?" Jenna turned her head. "I don't know. But he's got to be stopped." Her head came back around. "How many did you say he lost?"

"After deaths and defections, he's maybe got a couple of dozen. Why?"

Jenna's eyes fluttered a bit, and her breath became ragged. As Ghede hurried over to adjust her medication, she whispered, "Ask Death about . . . (cough) . . . Roanoke Protocol." She was trying to explain something else, but her body rejected the idea of staying conscious a moment longer.

"Nessa, we need to do something about her soon," Ghede muttered. "I'm running out of variations of healing and medicine, and she's getting so weak she might not survive changing into anything."

The vampire nodded, then took the lift down to the lounge. The Devil's Night had been closed for the next several days, making it the official headquarters for the "war" effort. She found Nigel and Caitlin conferring with their fellow Nightwalkers. She waved them over.

"Yes?" Nigel asked.

"How's Jenna?" Caitlin added.

"She's . . . well, she's not good. She's out again. But I asked her what the Fool might do next, then she muttered something about the Roanoke Protocol. Do you --" Nessa had been planning on asking if they knew what it meant, but the glance the two exchanged indicated they did.

"Why would she bring that up?" Caitlin asked her comrade.

"It's not as if he suffered complete --" Nigel paused mid-sentence and began to roll over ideas in his head.

"Okay, anyone want to clue in the non-military person?"

"It's not standard military," Caitlin said, still looking confused. The DoD always thought there was a chance that the corporations might figure out about the Nightwalkers and move against them. We're good, but we could stand against all of those special forces combined for very long. It's expected that we'd suffer severe casualties. Any survivor could send a coded signal to HQ, and then the DoD would --" She stopped and looked at Nigel. " Oh crap."

"What would they do?" Nessa asked, looking from one fake vampire to the other.

"They would send a full contingent of special ops forces to a pre-defined location. A whole new set of Major and Minor Arcana. They'd be given fangs, but otherwise wouldn't be bioengineered. They'd meet up with survivors, take over, and pretend like nothing had happened," Nigel explained. "Just to help give the corporations a sense that the Nightwalkers were immortal. It's all weird PsyOps crap. Even without the bioengineering, they'd be a pretty damn formidable group."

"Wait. So you're telling me that a bunch of new commandos are going to show up?"

Nigel nodded. "A bunch of highly trained personnel that will do whatever the Fool tells them too, who have no idea what's been going on here, and will make perfect new recruits."

Nessa rubbed her face with both hands as if trying to scrub the notion of yet more hybrid werewolves from her brain. "This isn't good. Where is this meeting place?"

"It would be at the original base – Caitlin started.

"And we know where that is," Nessa interrupted. "Good."

"-- unless the Fool specifies somewhere else in the distress call."

"Fuck!" Nessa began prowling in a circle, stopping every now and then to wince in pain.

"Have you had one of the medics check out your wounds?" Nigel asked.

Nessa absently waved the comment off. "I'll live. I just need to eat."

"Eat? As in --" Caitlin asked, pointing at her neck.

"I don't need fresh, but it would help. If the Fool is looking for more recruits, I need to get get back into fighting trim. How long do we have?"

"If the Fool sent out the message today, then you have about 72 hours. He'll hole up somewhere until then --" Caitlin explained, only to be cut off by Nigel.

"No, I don't think he will. Some of what he told you," he added, looking meaningfully at the vampire, "disturbs me."

"Which parts?"

"The parts where he seemed convinced that Jenna would come looking for him," was the grim response.

Nessa's eyes slowly widened. "You think he knows?"

"Yeah. I think that he knows."

"Either one of you want to clue me in to what's going on?" Cailtin asked.

"I would, but it's Jenna's story to tell."

"But she told me about what happened to her," the High Priestess argued, then remembered to keep her voice down.

"How much did she tell you? Exactly?" Nigel asked. When Caitlin was done. "She trusted you with a lot, but she has many secrets."

Caitlin looked from one to the other. "I want to help, but it's going to be hard to do if no one talks to me."

"I'd rather Jenna do it," Nessa said, getting an affirming nod from Nigel. "And to do that, I need to save her."

"Save her? I thought you just said she was out --"

"She is. And she's dying." Nessa sat down on the ground. "No medicine we have seems to work for her. It was designed to help normal humans against the normal lycanthropy virus, neither of which apply to her. Keeping her on the medicine will stave of transformation, but it looks like it would also kill her. The other option is letting her turn into one a hybrid werewolf, which might very well make her more susceptible to the Fool's influence, and he made it pretty clear what he wants her for."

"You're not serious?!" Caitlin hissed.

"He's an alpha werewolf now. Before, he just wanted her back because she's a good asset. Now, he sees her as the only choice for his mate. And I won't let her go through that again." Nessa straightened her back. "And that's why I need to get healed up. The sooner I get my strength back, the sooner . . . well, the sooner I can bring her all the way into my world."

Nigel furrowed his brow. "Wait, what do you mean?"

"I've offered to make her into a vampire. The vampiric virus will kill absolutely any other type of pathogen, and I'm pretty damn confident it'll work for her. But I have to do it soon, because she may not survive much longer."

"It's that serious?" Caitlin asked.

Nessa nodded. "Vampires can't even turn their own baby vamps until they're almost fifty years undead, and then only once a year. It's helped keep our numbers in control. I haven't turned anyone in a century, so I've got enough juice to bring Jenna up to speed quick, but it takes a toll on me."

"And you need blood, preferably fresh, in order to heal?" Caitlin asked. When Nessa nodded, the Nightwalker female began removing armor. "Take mine, if it'll help."

Nessa smiled slightly. "Are you sure you want to do this? I mean, I can guarantee it won't hurt --"

"That's good."

"-- but it will allow me to know you," Nessa continued. "In a very deep way. You don't have any secrets, do you?"

"I'm sure I do, but nothing worth Jenna dying for."

Nessa moved forward and touched Caitlin's face. "You aren't even vaguely afraid, are you?"

"Actually, I'm kinda scared shitless," was the response, "but being afraid isn't going to do us much good. Will I be enough?"

"Perhaps," Nessa replied demurely, and she was not just talking about her blood. "Come with me then."

"Why? Can't we --"

"Are you a screamer?" Nessa asked, arching one eyebrow and giving a wicked, decadent smile.

"Am I a . . . oh. I see," Caitlin replied. "So the stories are --"

"Can be quite correct in that regard. Some vampires thrive on pain, but I only know one way to feed," Nessa purred.