Or he really was self-absorbed, to name a ship after himself. While the information was belated, he preferred to think he was romantic over the truth.

  Inside a Secret Location In France

  William Renaud had spent the better part of his slow atrophy toward death in a tomb, planning what he would do should he ever get the chance to live again.

  Two grave robbers had given him that chance after the fall of mankind and the rise of the paranormal. He remembered the moment again, as his agitated mind cast about.

  The tomb Michael had chosen was in a mountainside, with granite walls and floor. William had tried to dig his way to freedom, and so had been obliged to regrow his fingers over and over again. He had finally despaired. Instead of seeking to understand his selfish ambitions, he had instead spent his time exploring the power which made him more than human.

  More than those who were rightly beneath him.

  He ignored the desire to continue to fight his sentence, and chose to believe that the future was where he should focus. So, he reviewed the tomb and set traps in good locations. Traps to capture the mind of any who might find this place, to bring them to him. William suspected he would be weak when he awoke—if he awoke—and would need the distance they had to travel from the cave entrance to subjugate his food.

  In the end, it hadn’t been needed.

  The two grave robbers had been frozen in place, barely able to scream in fear when they woke William with their delicious scents of both food and freedom. He had been able to enjoy the first, Enzo, as pitiful screams filled his ears with their delightful sounds while his legs and arms thrashed around. His partner Elliot finally had found the ability to move and tried to run.

  Too little, too late.

  William had walked easily over to the youth as he crawled, crying, across the floor towards the entrance that opened to the one thing he needed most.

  Freedom.

  He could hear nothing outside as the sobbing boy tried to escape.

  William grabbed him by the foot when the entrance was just a body length away and dragged him screaming back into the cave so he could rest forever next to his friend.

  Together in death as they had been together in life.

  It took two days for William’s body to heal using the fresh infusion of blood. While Enzo’s clothes might have fit him, they were too bloody to wear, unfortunately.

  “I do apologize,” William had told the body, face fused in a rictus of fear, “for my bad table manners. I was much more patient with your friend Elliot.” William had pointed to his partner. “His clothes are a bit small, but I believe I might have other options soon,” he said to the two unhearing bodies as he stripped Elliot of his clothes.

  “So very soon.”

  It took William a month of capturing and killing humans to realize that the world he had been reborn in was both more and less advanced than the one Michael had shut him away from.

  So he set about learning more, to enhance himself and gain the ability to create his own progeny. His daughter Valerie had been an unexpected surprise. His own father, who had been banned as Forsaken over a century before his demise, had explained how useless trying to turn a female would be. William had gotten it right the first time and never tried again. Why challenge his perfect record?

  His other early child was a man, and when the two children fought, he could sense the strength of Valerie against Donovan.

  She had the spirit to win, but Donovan had the necessary understanding that life wasn’t fair and the willingness to do what it took to conquer.

  William had spent decades training Valerie before he set her on her path. She would either make it in this new future or die.

  She broke, and then she died.

  He was sure Donovan had been involved in her death, but William had been too focused on his own efforts to attain power over the humans, with their technology and society, to keep fully abreast of what was going on.

  Then it became time to send Donovan to New York City-State and that was what bothered him now. He had received no reports of Donovan’s success.

  The bed squeaked as William got up and padded to his shower to clean off. His mind was troubled, and from the centuries in the tomb, he knew what that meant.

  The future was agitated.

  He needed to leave this location and seek safety. Whatever had happened in New York had failed and he needed to go to ground elsewhere and determine what was bothering him.

  He needed to feel the safety of earth and stone around him once more.

  “Gerard!” he yelled. Moments later his trusted servant rapped on the door.

  “Sir?”

  William called out as he toweled dry, “Prepare the main car and the diversion. We are leaving as soon as it is dark.”

  Chapter Eight

  Antigrav Ship ArchAngel, Over the Atlantic

  Inside the meeting room, the ancient map was laid out on the table. Akio was pointing out different locations.

  “Here and here in Germany, here in England and at least here and here,” Akio tapped two locations, “in France.”

  Michael nodded slowly. “So, a minimum of five locations where the Duke could be, and if he is who I think he might be, he’ll have more.”

  He looked towards Akio. “What assets do you have in space?”

  “Space?” Mark’s voice interrupted quickly, followed by the sound of Jacqueline’s slap.

  “Shhh!” she hissed. The two men ignored their whispered conversation.

  “We have four satellites available. The rest have decomposed or we have lost them over the decades. They will do searches to see if we can ascertain location, but it could take us a while to confirm a specific location since he has antigrav vehicles.”

  “How… annoying,” Michael replied.

  Akio simply shrugged.

  The captain sat in a corner listening to the two vampires speak about technologies, times, cities and history that he had never expected to hear about from two who had lived it. Now they were using his maps to locate the source of evil that had landed him on this ship in the first place. It had been a while since he had dared to hope that his future wasn’t going to just be duty, then death.

  Michael turned to the captain and asked, “When will this ship be landing?

  “Three days, provided we don’t encounter any adverse wind conditions,” Miles answered quickly.

  Michael thought about the answer a moment before replying, “I want you to change the name of this ship and fly her to Germany.”

  He looked over at Akio. “Prepare your ship, we’re leaving shortly.” He turned to the younger paranormals. “Grab your stuff and take it to the ship. Don’t leave anything behind.”

  Mark and Jacqueline left immediately. There were times to ask questions of Michael…

  Now wasn’t one of those times.

  Captain Miles O’Banion stood up and wiped his hands on his pants. “What should the new name of the ship be, sir?”

  Michael smiled. “I want you to change it to Michael the ArchAngel Returns,” he answered as he walked towards the door. “When you arrive in Germany, this ship is yours to keep, Captain.” Michael stopped at the door and looked the captain in the eye.

  “What about the original owner?” Miles asked.

  “He won’t be around to ask about it anymore,” Michael replied. “I’ll answer the question you had when you first met me, Miles.” The captain’s shock at being called by his first name was evident as Michael continued, “An honorable vampire is as rare as a unicorn. Even rarer actually,” he said before stepping into the hallway on his way to his own room to grab his last few items.

  “There is no way we are all going to fit inside this ship!” Jacqueline hissed as they walked down the hallway towards the hatch leading to the deck.

  “I bet we all fit, and I bet we all make it in one trip,” Mark said.

  “I don’t see it,” she replied as she pushed through the hatch to the outside.

  “Bet you!” Mark closed the hatch behind him.

  Jacqueline turned around and pointed at him. Mark stopped suddenly when Jacqueline’s finger appeared right in front of his face. “But I’m not doing this for a chore or pushups or some shit. You have to do something real.”

  “Like?” Mark asked, his eyes crossed as he stared at her finger.

  Jacqueline dropped her hand, her eyes narrowing. “You have to paint my nails.”

  Mark’s brow furrowed. “Huh?”

  “You know,” she waved her fingertips in his face, “fingers, paint. It’s decoration.”

  “I am aware of the existence of fingernail painting, but I’ve never seen you do it.”

  “That,” she answered as she turned around and picked up her bag, “is because we’ve been living a Neanderthal existence. I’ve heard that in Europe, people still try to look good.”

  “Okay,” Mark agreed as Jacqueline reached the main hatch.

  So damned seductive.

  “But if I win, you have to give me a back massage!”

  “Guys!” she huffed. “Okay, fine. But you have to find the polish, too.”

  “Deal!” Mark answered gladly.

  Akio turned from the Pod to see the outside hatch open and Jacqueline walk through first, the look of a cunning strategist who had just checkmated her opponent written clearly on her face.

  Akio breathed in, then released it.

  That poor guy seemed so outclassed.

  Japan

  “Yes, Akio,” Yuko answered Akio’s question over the video feed. “Eve has reviewed all of the locations. I’ve tried to pin down the major forces: size and where they are located. The extra protection suits are on their way, and I’ll be there later.”

  “You?” Akio answered, surprised.

  “And me!” Eve said from beside Yuko.

  Akio, never known for expressions, lost his composure. He stopped talking for a moment, then bowed his head in their direction. “For our Queen.”

  Both Yuko and Eve bowed back.

  Antigrav Ship Michael the ArchAngel Returns

  The black Pod lifted gracefully off the airship and turned east. It didn’t stay at the same height as the blimpy-looking ship, but rose higher into the sky and disappeared. Those on the ship watched it go, and Miles O’Banion stayed quiet a moment.

  It was a strange family, and they had arrived by a strange method. Their actions had been stranger yet during the time they were aboard, from their banter to their support and honorable ways. There would be no one beyond his crew who would believe the story should he or his shipmates tell it.

  First they would have to believe that Miles wasn’t out of his damned mind when he started the story with, “I met an honorable vampire…”

  As they stored the luggage in locations that Jacqueline didn’t realize were available, she clenched her teeth.

  It was obvious that all three of them would not be able to share the one back seat in the craft.

  Mark was walking around the Pod, his hands gliding over the wings. The two wings could separate, Akio had told Mark.

  “For stability reasons?” Mark had asked the Japanese man.

  “No,” he replied.

  He looked up. “More weapons?”

  Akio shrugged. “Perhaps, but I doubt it. The people that built it just happened to like the ship design, and when they could make this one, I believe they did it just because they thought it was, well, ‘so fucking cool’ is how Bobcat and William said it.”

  Mark stopped. “Wait, they designed this ship this way because it was cool?”

  Akio nodded. “Yes. These ships don’t really require a specific shape. We had big rectangular boxes that went to the moon. This is built like an x-wing fighter from a famous movie a long time ago.”

  Mark looked back at Akio with no recognition on his face.

  “Hai, I see that I am going to be able to introduce to you the great film Star Wars,” Akio said as the canopy rose. “In my time, it was considered the same as great literature.”

  Michael raised his eyebrow as he turned towards them. Great literature?

  Hai, many of us in Japan watched it many times. Akio answered.

  I do learn something amazing every day.

  What is best, Akio said, is we have all of the movies, even those I would not wish my enemy to have to watch.

  The Phantom Menace?

  This time Akio was shocked silent.

  I was awake in the late nineties, Akio.

  France, Near Paris

  The land was dark as the silent black craft drifted down through the clouds to land outside of Paris.

  The canopy opened as the ship hovered a foot above the ground. Michael left the ship as Myst and a second later the other three appeared next to it.

  Jacqueline sniffed the air. “Not smelling particularly good right now,” she told no one in particular. She left to walk up a small hill about a hundred yards away to view the city’s remains in the distance. There were lights in some places, and the occasional noise drifted on the wind.

  Mark unclasped the door that held their stuff. “Stop,” Akio interrupted and Mark looked up, confused.

  Akio pointed to the city. “We will leave the gear in the ship for safety.”

  Mark looked up into the sky. “Yes, up in the air will be safe.” Akio said.

  “Mark,” Michael tilted his head toward Jacqueline. “Safety in numbers.” Mark nodded and started off at a jog to where Jacqueline was standing, looking around.

  Akio put a hand to his ear and then turned to the southwest. “Eve says we have company coming this way.”

  Michael sighed. “This place is much more alert than America.”

  Akio shook his head, his hand still on his ear. “She says it looks like one person in front, being chased by at least twelve more. Speed normal for a human, but those in the rear have elevated heat levels.”

  Michael turned to the southeast. “Ah, exercise then.” He reached into the ship and pulled out his weapons.

  Children, come, he commanded, then smirked when he heard Jacqueline’s exclamation from the other side of the hill. Her irritation at being called a child didn’t stop her from obeying, however.

  Mark didn’t care one way or another.

  Jacqueline’s annoyance, written in big bold letters on her face, changed to curiosity and then excitement as Michael tossed her staff to her and a sword to Mark. He pointed towards the southwest. “There’s someone being chased. Perhaps human followed by Weres. Ascertain the situation and react appropriately.” This time there was nothing but respect as both bowed low.

  “Yes, Sensei.” Jacqueline and Mark turned and started trotting off in the direction Michael had pointed.

  “They are good enough for twelve?” Akio asked, no judgment in his question.

  Michael slid his coat on, then placed his Jean Dukes in their holsters. “Maybe, maybe not. But they’re out of practice. Let’s watch them fighting and figure out where they’re lacking in skills.

  A moment later the black craft’s canopy closed and it rose into the darkness. Michael and Akio left quickly and silently in the same direction as the other two.

  “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!” Sabine ran swiftly, exclaiming between breaths as she made her way towards Paris. She had been walking towards the north when she had encountered the small group of people, and tried to approach their fire.

  Until she recognized what was being cooked. Then she had tried to back away, but was unsuccessful.

  As soon as the ears, and then heads, swiveled in her direction, she took off. So far, the catcalls from those behind her, and the occasional wolf’s howl, let her know that her pursuers were still following.

  Playing with her.

  Fuck them, she thought. She could run all damned night if they wanted to keep playing. She wasn’t going to quit. They would have to deal with it and force her to go to ground.

  That was when she noticed two people in front of her, coming in her direction.

  “Oh my god, oh my god, oh-my-what-the-fucking-shit-is-this?” she gasped and kept running.

  She knew what those behind her would do, and she wasn’t too keen on being cooked over a flame herself. Perhaps the people ahead of her would kill her, but they might not.

  Either way, she kept her legs pumping.

  As they came closer, she noticed they had peeled to her left and right and slowed down. Both had weapons, and they had left a space for her to run between them.

  So she did.

  She sped right through them, yelling, “Run!” She was a good twenty paces away when she glanced back to see that both had stayed in place. “Goddammit!” she hissed and slowed her pace. Finally, she bent over, spitting on the ground with what little saliva she could muster. She straightened up and walked to keep her muscles loose, all the time watching the two newcomers. “I almost did it.” She spat again. “Fuck it, I’ll slit my own throat.” She pulled a knife and was about to jog back to them when she was surprised by another two men who seemed to appear out of the night.

  “Put that away,” one told her in an Asian-accented voice.

  “Watch and learn, little one,” said the other. The tall bald man’s coat flapped in the breeze as the moonlight reflected off his skull.

  “More meat!” Kiandra croaked.

  Her pack of twelve growled in their throats when they saw the new two people in front of them. “Seis! Change and grab the girl.”

  Seis and his mate stopped and stripped, morphing into their wolf forms before they quickly caught up to and then overtook the pack. They worked to get behind the two newcomers, who had turned to see the original quarry being protected by two more men, each with a sword.

  Seis howled to let the pack know there was trouble ahead.

  Michael moved his sword to his left hand. “One moment, Akio.”