Duel Nature (4 page)

The blonde automatically caught the crystal
container, eyes widening at the implication. She looked up at
Tanya, then me, finally turning to her Master in panic.

“Master you can’t think…., I didn’t do it…..
why are you accusing me? You don’t have proof!” she said in a
flurry.

“What’s your name?” I asked. She jumped when
I spoke to her, as if she was shocked that I could actually talk
and form words.

“Chantel,” she answered, then turned back to
Langsford to continue her pleading.

“Master, you aren’t going to let them accuse
me, are you? They have no proof.”

He looked at her stricken face for a moment
then turned back to Tanya.

“What proof do you have of Chantel’s guilt?”
he said, which struck me as a very odd way to phrase things.

“Actually, none. But both she and the rogue
reacted to seeing each other when we came in,” Tanya admitted.

“That’s hardly proof, Ms. Demidova,” he
said.

“Oh, it’s not any kind of
proof at all. But it is suspicious and I find it unlikely that the
two would know each other if she wasn’t his Maker,” Tanya said.
“But vampires operate in tight knit groups, closer than a similar
mix of humans would be. I’m willing to bet
someone
in this room knows if it was
Chantel or not. My hope is to clear this up now, rather than have
to bring in a Reader, like say Nika, to get this solved.
“

Readers are telepaths, and Nika, who was
almost as close to Tanya as Lydia, was one of the most powerful in
the Coven. Older vampires could block her, but bringing in a Reader
was akin to a lie detector test in the human world. All vampires
would be expected to lower their mental shields and cooperate with
the investigation.

“The goal here, Master Langsford, is to clear
this up as quickly as possible, so Christian and I can get on our
way. Bringing in Nika would most likely turn up all manner of other
problems and issues, don’t you think?” she asked.

Every territory of vampires in the Coven was
run by a Master, none of who desired the upper echelon to delve too
deep into their personal kingdoms. Nika would rip through the
Chicago Coven’s secrets in minutes, finding indiscretions,
mistakes, and crimes against the vampire society. Every Coven had
them and every Master wanted them kept buried.

Langsfords eyes glittered as he mentally ran
through the implications.

“Chantel, my dear, I’m afraid you must own up
to this,” he said after a moment. Wow, nice to know your boss had
your back – not! But then vampires are just people, violent, blood
sucking predatory people, but people nonetheless.

To give her credit, Chantel wasted no time in
protesting her innocence, she simply fled at top speed. Her rush to
the door went unimpeded, either by Tanya and I or any of the
Chicago vampires. But when she yanked opened the door and went
through it, she ran into a wall of brown fur. The furry barrier
stood nine and a half feet tall on its hind legs and weighted a
solid thousand pounds. Those figures aren’t guesses, I know them
because I measure and weigh the furry wall on a regular basis, in
both of his forms, to keep track of his growth.

Chantel bounced off of Awasos’s massive bear
form and into the arms of two vampires, too shocked to resist.

Chapter 4

The rest of the trip went fast. Chantel was
tried, judged and sentenced by Langsford, who then oversaw her
execution. Tanya, Awasos and I witnessed the proceedings then left
Chicago quickly.

“Master Langsford will, of course, blame us
for this, Chris, so we don’t want to hang around waiting for
retaliation. Better to get out of the city,” Tanya said, as she
drove the big SUV North on I-94. Within several miles we found a
rest stop, where we pulled over and went over the car with one of
Chet Akins sophisticated bug scanners. Sure enough it had two
trackers on it, one under the lip of the hood, the other in left
rear wheel well. We got back on the Interstate and continued
north.

After a time she exited the Interstate and
took side roads, finally stopping at an Italian restaurant outside
of Milwaukee. I ate enough ziti and pasta fagioli for both of us,
bought a family-sized takeout tray of eggplant parmesan and another
of lasagna for Awasos, then we stopped in a small park near one of
the hundreds of lakes in that area and I fed Tanya, while Awasos
terrorized the nocturnal wildlife.

When she had finished her dinner, we called
Citadel on one of the encrypted cell phones that we carry. Tanya
gave a pretty full report to Lydia, including the names of the
deceased vampires and the identity of the rogue.

“Only two dead?” Lydia asked over the
speaker, her voice incredulous. “Jeeze Chris, this is no time for
you to develop self-control, I’ve got a lot riding on these
visits!”

“There really is a pool?” I asked. I hadn’t
heard of it until Tanya mentioned it back in Chicago.

“Yeah, but sadly I’m
forbidden from participating.
Some
people think I would use my position to influence
the results,” she replied in mock outrage. “But I do consult with
the ones in the pool, offering my expert opinion…for a
fee.”

“Gee Lydia, that’s
shocking!
Who
could
believe that you might lead Chris to believe that this vampire or
that vampire had been courting me for years before he came on
scene,” Tanya said, smirking in my direction.

“Wait, vampires have been courting you?” I
asked, suddenly getting angry.

“Damn, it would have been easier than I
thought!” Lydia, blurted.

“Hah! Caught you Lyd!” Tanya said into the
phone before turning to me. “And yes, Chris, many vampires sought
my attention before you came along.”

“They still do,” Lydia said.

“What? Who?” I demanded.

“You’re so not helping Lydia. Stop baiting
him,” Tanya said while touching my hand. My anger fell away as her
touch and our bond fed me reassurance.

My demon tainted blood is a
huge boost to my combat skills, but it’s hell on my temper.
Everyone gets angry and annoyed from time to time. The standard
frustrations of everyday life guarantee it. The aggressive driver
that cuts you off, the old lady counting change to pay for her
groceries and holding up ten people, the loud mouth who cuts line
at the Burger King; they’re all going to raise our blood pressure
and make us see red. The difference is that my demonically altered
blood
urges
me to
take action, to make the violent images that run through my head a
graphic reality. The standard run-of-the-mill anger management
class is sooo not gonna work for me.

But I’m getting there, bit
by bit. Tanya can calm me with a touch or word. Oddly, Awasos, my
furry were-bear-wolf (not sure what else to call him) is also a
good influence on my violent temper. His huge head, in either form,
has a tendency to shove itself under my hand when I’m struggling to
keep from quite literally tearing the head off the
90
^th
guy
of the day to hit on Tanya, right in front of me like I wasn’t
there beside her. She handles them adeptly, often making them look
like fools, but ultimately leaving them unharmed. Still my anger
bubbles just beneath the surface, so I have to keep control, keep
my dark side reined in. But hey, we all have problems,
right?

“They never believe that you could have
Chosen me, because I’m not vampire,” I stated, my voice flat.

“Vampires are the original racists Chris,”
Lydia said over the speaker, “which is why they flock to Tanya –
she’s the purest of our race.”

Tanya slid across my lap, straddling my
thighs and holding my face in both white hands.

“Listen, this Rover
assignment is all about us – “ she shook my head slightly, “ –
meeting the Darkkin world head on and
educating
them on who we are. Do you
think that any Chicago vampire would fail to take you seriously
after tonight?”

I shook my head side to side.

“Chris, wanna bet on how fast the word of
Citadel’s death pool spreads from Chicago? Langsford’s people are
some of the biggest gossips in the Coven,” Lydia said.

Tanya looked into my eyes, gauging my
expression, all while reading the bond that we share.

“Okay, back to business,” she said,
concluding I was reassured. “Lyd, we’re gonna want a new vehicle, I
don’t trust Langsford not to retaliate,” she said into the
phone.

A dark form moved by the edge of the clearing
we were parked in. The heavy bulk of Awasos in bear form moved out
of the gloom, his shape outlined by the faint light of dawn that
was beginning to show in the eastern sky.

“Already on it. I’ve gotta white Tahoe
waiting for you in Milwaukee,” Lydia responded. “Here are the
directions.”

I lifted Tanya off of my lap and slid out of
the vehicle while she talked logistics with the little vampire who
was her closest friend, confidant and girl Friday.

All of our vehicles came
equipped with boxes of non-perishable food, stuff like granola
bars, trail mix, protein shakes and the like. It was considered
standard equipment for any car that
I
would be traveling in. I grabbed the
current ride’s offerings and headed over to my bear. He was
sprawled on the ground looking east, head on his paws, but his
massive skull swiveled around to me as I approached.

“Hey bud, wanna snack?” I asked, flopping
down next to him. Silly question. Weres are always hungry and the
only were-bear-wolf in existence had a metabolism higher than mine.
I ripped open a case of blueberry Cliff bars and piled them in
front of him, holding back two for myself. We munched quietly,
listening to Tanya and Lydia plot plan the next leg of our
trip.

“Ferry?” I asked around a mouthful of dry
protein bar. “We’re really gonna take a ferry across Lake
Michigan?”

“It’s the most direct route to Michigan and
our next assignment is in the Upper Peninsula,” Tanya
explained.

I poured three chocolate energy shakes down
Awasos black hole of a mouth, then sipped one of my own as I
thought about crossing the lake. Water can be an issue for
supernaturals and there seemed very little natural about me these
days. Weres and vampires are denser than humans, especially weres,
so swimming is problematic. Vampires can go long periods on a
single breath, but not so weres. An accident in the middle of Lake
Michigan could be a real issue for Awasos, myself and to a lesser
degree, Tanya. Of course a basic life vest or in Awasos’s case,
several life vests, could go a long way toward mitigating the
problem. I made a mental note to keep a close eye on the Coast
Guard required safety gear on board the ship.

Dawn was fast approaching as we finished our
snack, Tanya starting to yawn as the sun’s presence weighed upon
her vampire mind. She had a pretty good tolerance for sunlight and
could walk in direct light, but it still made her sleepy. Our
routine was now honed after three months on the road. I drove in
the mornings, she drove in the early evenings and we shared the
driving during the dark of night. We could, and had, driven
straight through to many of our assignments without rest, but if
time wasn’t a factor we generally holed up in the middle of the
day, both asleep, with Awasos on watch.

Time
was
a factor in this case, both to
remove ourselves from Chicago’s zone of influence as well as get to
the next problem, which I still didn’t know the details
of.

Tanya handed me the directions for the next
vehicle switch, then curled up in the back seat, protected by the
special window tinting that all Coven vehicles were equipped with.
Awasos ambled to the back, changing form in mid-step from a 1,000
pound grizzly to a 250 pound wolf. He just fits much better in the
SUV in the smaller form, plus the extra 750 pounds would absolutely
kill our gas mileage – gotta stay as green as we can.

The speed and smoothness of his change was
still shocking to me. I’ve seen many weres change from human to
animal or beast-man form and it is never an easy process. For young
or new weres it’s downright painful. But Awasos moves between wolf
and bear with liquid ease. Never mind that losing 750 pounds of
mass flies in the face of everything I learned in high school
physics. Chet, my brainy buddy back at the Citadel, has no problem
with it, but is still intensely curious about the mass balance.
When I asked him about Conservation of Mass once he just shook his
head. “Dude, that’s in a closed system. Awasos lives in a very open
system,’ he said, gesturing at the world around us. “Plus, quantum
physics seem to indicate that even a system we think is closed,
really isn’t.”

“So where does his extra mass go or come
from?” I’d asked.

He shrugged before replying. “Maybe some
mountain in Peru is suddenly short a boulder or two, maybe it comes
from inside the earth itself, or maybe it’s the elusive Dark Matter
from the cosmos around us. I haven’t gathered enough information to
form a hypothesis yet.”

That shortage of data wasn’t for lack of
trying though. Chet was continually using some new piece of
high-tech gear to gather information from my furry friend. I had
worried that Awasos might get annoyed by Chet’s science projects,
but just as he loved Lydia, he loved Chet as well, often hanging
with the lanky and definitely geeky tech specialist. Chet also
helped me track Awasos’s growth which had been nothing short of
incredible. Only nine months old, he was already larger than
ninety-five percent of all wolves and the same size as a Kodiak
bear four times his age. Of course, it’s hard to predict the growth
pattern from a creature whose mother was an exceptionally large
Kodiak and whose father was a mythical Norse god-wolf.