Nos Faux Ratu Ch. 08

Finally, the embrace between Nessa and Marcus ended.

"Ahem," came another voice from the circle, as a dark-skinned man with kind eyes stepped forward.

"Aaron!" Nessa said happily, hugging the man almost as enthusiastically as she had Marcus.

Jenna went back to her journey through Nessa's soul as each of her creator's vampiric children stepped forward to embrace the woman who gave them eternal life. Marcus was the oldest of course, followed by Aaron, who had been a Byzantine merchant when he and Nessa had crossed paths. Next came Abayomi, an Egyptian Farmer, then Theo, a Germanic trapper. The first of Nessa's female children was Costanza, a Spanish dancer, then Hildr, who may well have been the exemplar for the notion of a valkyrie. Then came Margaret, a British tavern wench, and then Leon, the Renaissance painter.

The ninth of Nessa's children was quite possibly the largest once-human being that Jenna had ever seen. Shinmatsu was six-and-a-half feet tell and weighed close to six hundred pounds. Jenna remembered from Nessa's memories that he had once been yokozuna, or grand champion of sumo. When Nessa hugged the behemoth, who still dressed in the ceremonial robes of his sport and the rank he had achieved, she approached him with a more quiet dignity than the others, but her face showed just as much love, and that love was returned.

Nessa moved on to hug Cilia, a Dutch actress, then turned and slugged Lawrence in the arm. "We'll talk she said, glowering at him. He grinned as he rubbed his arm. The wind had mostly been taken out of her sails already. She loved all her dark children, making sure to talk with each of them every month no matter how busy things got. Each of them had a brood of their own, except Lawrence who was taking his time. But all of them always made time for Nessa.

Finally, Nessa addressed them as an assembled unit. "Well, since you're all here," she started, then turned and looked at Jenna, "I would like for you all to meet Jenna Owens," she said, holding out her hand and inviting Jenna into the circle. "She has only been a vampire for a few days, so go easy on her."

Like a warm breeze, Marcus swept over to Jenna and took her hand. "Lawrence," he started, kissing Jenna's hand, "when you said that Nessa's new daughter was a beautiful woman, you fell far short of the reality."

Jenna glanced nervously over her shoulder at Caitlin. "Compliment or insult?"

Caitlin laughed. "Compliment." When she saw Marcus's confused expression, she explained, "Jenna has never really seen herself as pretty."

"Doesn't she own a mirror?"

She looked at Jenna. "Do you?"

"No."

"Well," Marcus said, "take the word of a man who knows the subject matter, young Jenna, you are an angelic vision."

Jenna looked back at Caitlin, who rolled her eyes and said, "It's a compliment."

"Thank you?" Jenna responded. "Can . . .can I have my hand back?"

Marcus smiled and let her go. One by one, the other members of Nessa's brood came over, smiling and giving her a hug and often a kiss on the cheek. Nessa's people were apparently very touchy. Well, all of them except Shinmatsu, who simply gave a small bow and said, "Welcome," in a voice that was as deep as a well and calm as the surface of a pond.

"Thank you," she replied.

He leaned in and whispered into her ear. "It's a lot to take in. Don't worry. It scared me too."

Jenna looked at the man who was bigger than her old sleeping tube. "Something scares you?"

"Yes," he replied, his "e" sounding more like an "uh" sound. "Nessa and Marcus's complete lack of discretion. And spandex." While his face remained stoic, one eye winked. It made Jenna smile. "And that smile," he said, "proves Marcus's point better than his words ever could."

After a few moments, Nessa pulled Jenna aside. "Hey, I'm sorry you had to meet everyone like this. I was planning on gathering everyone together after things calmed down --"

"No, it's . . . it's okay. I'm just a little . . . freaked?"

"Don't be freaked. Like I said before, we can never replace what you lost," she whispered, bringing Jenna's head in and pressing foreheads together, "but we can be your family too. I wish we had more time, but we need to deal with the Fool."

"I know." Jenna looked around. "We just need Nigel to fill me in and . . . wait, where's William?" she asked, beginning to panic.

"He's upstairs in the security office," Avery said soothingly. "I gave him a job using a remote surveillance device. He's been happy as a pig in slop all day. I did have to stop him from spying down women's shirts."

"I'll talk to him," she said absently. "He shouldn't be doing that."

"He's a teenage boy. Unless you gouge his eyes out, he'll do that."

"Who's William?" Marcus asked. "Oh wait . . . the son," he said, eyes widening. "If he is half as fetching as his mother, then I may someday have some competition for women's affections," he added with a smirk.

"I think I like him," Jenna told Nessa.

"There's a reason I made him a vampire. How could I let women for the next two thousand years exist without him?"

Caitlin made a gagging sound.

Nessa laughed. "Fine, we'll stop patting Marcus on the back for his ample masculinity. Not that you have anything to complain about," she added, grinning and glancing from Caitlin to Jenna. The Empress and the High Priestess latched hands. 'Young love,' she thought. Any pang of jealousy she might have had was overwritten by pride.

It was Jenna who first decided to get down to business. "I know that you all traveled a long way, and I hope . . . hope to get to know you all soon," she said. She had almost choked on the word hope. She still felt fluttering in her spirit when she contemplated another word. Family. This could be her family. "But you came here because of a dire situation that Nessa is in, and we need to settle matters tonight. The Fool, my enemy, has a taste for blood now, and he craves more."

"More?" Leon asked.

"He wants a holy war against the corporations. He wants the power to spread fear. And he wants me. I'd rather he find only the grave."

Most of Nessa's brood had awakened only shortly before Nessa and Jenna themselves, so they needed to be brought up to speed. They were given a crash course on recent events, including the Fool's latest endeavor.

"This is disturbing," Marcus said, looking at a map of the city. "He may be an alpha, but he is inexperienced."

"What does that mean?" Caitlin asked.

"If a single alpha could truly control that many wolves by sheer force of will, then one of the European wolves would have done it centuries ago. Garon Pegg used his alpha status, but he also paid people, and he knew how to use his power. If a pack grows too large, it is natural for other alpha wolves to strike out on there own."

"Are you talking a wolf plague?" Ghede asked, shuddering involuntarily.

"What's a wolf plague?" Jenna asked.

"Imagine a biblical plague of locusts, except with really big locusts, with really big teeth. And if these new wolves are also untrained and wild --"

"Things start to spiral out of control," Jenna muttered.

"And we have feral, incredibly powerful, incredibly dangerous creatures with human cunning and voracious appetites," Nessa growled. "Well, thanks for reminding me of that."

Marcus leaned over and kissed her neck, causing his red-haired sire to shudder in a way that usually led to naughty things. "I would rather do things that did not distress you, but alas, current events will not allow it."

"He's really good at that," Jenna whispered to Anabella, who was staring on with a mixture of amusement and contempt.

"Remind me to tell ya 'bout what they got up to in the 1700's. At one point, the Marquis de Sade decided that things were gettin' a little weird and went home."

"She met the Marquis?"

"Let's just say she influenced some of 'is writin'."

"What does that not surprise me?" Jenna stopped and looked around. "Nessa," she said at last, "are you sure we should involve them?" she asked, gesturing at the other "children." "They're hitting the ground cold with no context --"

Nessa just shook her head and raised her hand. "They're here. They won't stay out of it, even if I asked them too. Which I won't, because there are thousands and thousands of years of survival experience between all of us."

"Besides," Marcus added, "our mother needs us, and our sister needs us." When he saw Jenna's confused expression, he smiled. "That would be you."

"Not all of us are fighters," Abayomi said.

"But we have worked together more times than you can imagine," Cilia added.

Aaron continued with, "So trust us. The moment that this 'Fool' came after our family, he made it our fight."

Nessa kissed Jenna on the forehead. "It makes sense. We can't risk Nigel and the other Nightwalkers getting infected, so they're going to have to stay back and keep the new wolves from spreading. The only thing that will stop the lycanthropic virus is fae blood and the vampiric virus, so it makes sense for the undead to go in as the shock troops."

"When did you start using phrases like 'shock troops'?"

The red-haired matriarch of the vampire clan raised an eyebrow. "Remember that this isn't my first barn dance. The logic is sound and . . . no Lawrence, this doesn't mean you're off the hook for calling them . . . they're the best choice to do this. Marcus is one of the greatest warriors that I've ever known, and Shinmatsu is nigh invulnerable. Theo is one of the sneakiest bastards I've ever known, and Hildr invented the concept of pillaging and burning."

"Invented, no," the blonde viking woman said, "but I did copyright it."

"I still don't think that would hold up in court." Nessa glanced at Jenna. "Are you okay with this?"

"Nessa," Nigel said, "there is one problem. Some of those Nightwalkers under the Fool's control could still be saved. Is there going to be no attempt to take them alive?"

"We've tried to play it safe up until now, and it has bitten us in the ass. If I had just stepped in like Pegg wanted to, this would be over and done with."

"Do you really want to be like him?" Jenna asked. "Your whole platform has been to try and end this with minimal bloodshed."

"That was before they killed Ipos," Nessa replied coldly.

"So what?" the Chariot said, standing with the other Nightwalkers, "One of yours dies, so that gives you the right to kill anyone you want?"

"We didn't ask for this war."

"Neither did they," Jenna whispered. All eyes turned to her. "The Nightwalkers were just doing their jobs. They didn't want to become monsters, but resisting the Fool . . . resisting their commanding officer? We need to give them a chance."

"This cannot be allowed to spread," Nessa replied. "This has become bigger and more volatile than anything we had expected. And you want me to what? Go into an enclosed space with werewolves and ask them to surrender? They're wild animals right now, all of them. And a cornered animal WILL defend itself violently. That isn't a condemnation, just an observation. It's in their nature."

"Then we draw them out," Jenna replied. "I've seen the armory. There is plenty of containment gear, hardening foam, stasis bombs, the works. We get them to come out, and then our Nightwalkers and the rest of your people can contain them."

"If the Fool comes out, we've solved nothing. They won't surrender with him goading them."

"He won't," Jenna whispered.

"And why not?"

"Because I'm going in first. Alone. And I'm going to kill him."

There was silence. "Jenna, no more suicide missions. No more going it alone."

"This isn't martyrdom, Nessa. This is tactics. I'm the one that the Fool wants. I go in and even if I don't kill him outright, I keep him occupied while we flush the rest out."

"Absolutely not," Nessa shot back. "You're forgetting about the Hanged Man, or the rest of the major arcana. We know the Hanged man is fanatically loyal, and if any of the rest of them are loyal too –"

"Jenna, I know you're trying to do the right thing," Caitlin said, standing at her friend's side, "but they're right. You can't go in alone, which is why I'm going with you."

"Absolutely not," Jenna said vehemently, shaking her head. "You're susceptible to the mutated virus. You need to stay outside with the others to make sure that we capture as many as possible."

"I am NOT letting you go in alone," Caitlin growled. 'I can't lose you now that I'm truly beginning to know you,' she thought.

Jenna missed Caitlin's discomfort, but Nessa didn't. For some reason, it made her proud. And happy. She sighed. "Okay, we go for the capture, as long as everyone agrees that ANYONE who is given a chance to surrender but doesn't has to be put down. I absolutely will not allow this to spread. Clear?" When everyone eventually nodded, she continued, looking at Jenna. "And Caitlin is right. There's no way in hell I'm letting you go in alone."

"She won't," Marcus said. "I will go in with her."

"And I," Shinmatsu said solemnly.

Nessa looked at her brood. "Hildr, Theo, are you two in?"

Theo, a rugged looking mountain man just grinned, then responded with a thick German accent, "You even have to ask?"

"That makes six going in," Nessa said, then found herself cut off by her ancient Roman soldier.

"Six?"

"Yes, six. Jenna, me, you --"

"You're not going in," Marcus said with an air of finality. "I won't allow it."

"Oh crap," Lawrence said, taking a step back.

Jenna noticed that a number of the brood took similar stances, and she felt Shinmatsu tugging on her shoulder.

"Won't 'allow' it?" Nessa replied acidly.

"Okay," Jenna whispered to the big sumo behind her, "Even I know her well enough to say something like that."

"You are not at full strength. The attack on your person, the creation of a new vampire, the fight with Pegg . . . you need to rest," Marcus said stiffly.

"They killed my friend. The Fool has all but threatened to rape Jenna, they went after her son, and he wounded me personally. I am still the sheriff of this territory, and you do NOT get to dictate --"

The two of them argued for several minutes, with Marcus moving in and out of misogynistic bravado and the pleading of an old lover, and Nessa just growling and yelling, all the while looking like she wanted to jump Marcus's bones. Their's was a complicated relationship.

Jenna finally had enough. She slammed a fist down on the table, putting a hole through it. People stopped talking. "We are wasting time," she said coldly. In an instant, the new, emotional Jenna was gone, and the Empress had returned. "Whatever issues you two have, shelve them." She looked at Death. "I think I know how we can drive them out. When I fought the hanged man the first time, the most effective weapon I had was pepper spray."

While nodding, Ghede was the first to speak. "New lycanthropes often take time to acclimate to their new senses."

"We keep reminding ourselves that these new creations are animals, so let's treat them like animals. I go in --"

"WE go in," Shinmatsu said evenly.

"Fine, we go in and we unload with flash-bangs and any other kind of grenade that we have that over-stimulates the senses."

"We have a variety of gas grenades that would do the trick," Avery said, staring at Jenna approvingly.

"And," Caitlin added, "their stronghold becomes their weakness. The warehouse was chosen because there were only a few ways in, but that means there's only a few ways out." She glanced around. "We set up containment traps and snipers with tranquilizers here, here, here, and here, and we have a legitimate chance of rounding up survivors."

Nigel sighed. It was time for HIM to make a concession, especially if he was expecting Nessa to go along with this. He grabbed a red marker and drew a line all the way around the warehouse, with several streets of separation from the main building. "This is the line of containment," he said solidly. "Anyone fleeing the building who is not contained by this point . . . is too dangerous to be allowed to escape."

Nessa acknowledged the concession. "This means we can bring some of our lycanthropes back into the game. If we keep the Fool and the Hanged Man contained in the building, then our people will be safe from his influence. They chase any squirters to ground. The rest of the non-combat intensive brood can help with that. Lawrence, head up the remote sensors, make sure nobody gets out without you knowing it."

Avery glanced at Jenna. "You know William is up in the security office right now. Did you want --"

"Let him stay there," she said. This seemed to surprise Avery, so she explained, "If we don't let him help by controlling a remote sensor, he'll probably try to get involved another way." She did not mention that she was choosing between the lesser of two evils. He would be safe, but he might have to watch Jenna die. 'He's strong,' she thought. 'Stronger than I was.'

Suddenly, an iffy plan had become a reasonable plan, and people began to armor up. Lawrence would set up the net-comms, the others would form a perimeter, and Nessa's warriors would go in.

"Crap," Anabella said, "that means I need to get mah beatin' stick."

"Why?" Nessa asked. "You're not going in."

"Says who?"

Jenna sighed as the two old friends began to argue. "How does anything every get done with these people?" she asked of the massive sumo.

"Once someone says 'go,' they will be professional," he assured her. "Until then . . . well, you do not live for thousands of years without developing a stubborn streak."

"When they stop yelling, tell them we'll leave in an hour. I have to go talk to someone," she replied. She headed toward the lift, being stopped temporarily by the assembled rebel Nightwalkers.

"Thank you," one of the Coins said.

"For what?"

"Standing by us. Trying to save our friends."

"Don't make me regret it. You all know that the standard protocols we used to live by would have dictated the termination of our enemies."

Caitlin smiled. "Yes, but you seem to have developed a strong dislike for protocols."

Jenna liked the way Caitlin smiled. "Be ready to go within the hour," she said, turning back toward the lift. She stopped, spun around, and pulled Caitlin to her and pressed her mouth to her lover's lips. The rest of the Nigthwalkers started to chuckle, even as Caitlin's hands reached around and grabbed Jenna's ass.

"Uhm, sorry about that," the Nightwalker said. "Those things have a mind of their own."

Jenna wanted to crawl into Caitlin's bodyarmor and feel that soft skin, so she wasn't about to chastise anyone for wandering hands. "Be ready," she whispered, her voice carrying over the scant inch or so separating their lips. "I want you to make it through this because --"

"Because what?"

Jenna put her mouth next to Caitlin's ear. "Because I've never had a . . . you know, a girlfriend. Before."

Caitlin stared, then just smiled. 'How much did it cost her to say that?' she wondered. She kissed Jenna's nose. "You've got one now. Now go visit your boy, then lets finish this thing so that I can show you some of the advantages of having the proper companion." Then, in a huskier whisper, "And next time, we can get started as soon as the sun goes down." She patted Jenna on the ass, then rejoined the other Nightwalkers.

When Jenna got up to the security floor, she was still smiling absently. She should have been nervous or focused or anything but happy, yet that was how she felt. She saw her son sitting in front of a set of monitors near some of Nessa's other technical staff.

"Hey," she said, approaching him nervously. They had had a good talk the night before, but she still was not sure where they stood.

"Hey," he said, turning and standing, wringing his hands. "So you're leaving in an hour?"