Artiface of Strength Ch. 13

This too, lasted for some time, but eventually John opened his eyes and he saw the Lady was seated near them. "Beth," John said softly, "she's here."

"You don't have to stop on my account," the Lady smiled gently. "I made you wait a long time for that kiss, and it was beautiful to behold."

Then seeing that John had begun to rise and stand in the presence of his Goddess, the Lady quickly waved him off, saying, "No John...sit here with me as though we were friends. Between the two of you, you've logged almost eight hundred years in my service. Please, sit and talk with me."

"Yes, Lady," they both responded.

"Beth, you pleaded with me to give you a new job if I was going to take your old one from you. Would you like to know what that job is now, or would the two of you like to go on an extended honeymoon first? You have earned quite a break from your responsibilities, you know."

John and Beth looked one another in the eye for a moment, some unspoken conversation taking place. Beth eventually smiled and turned back to the Lady, saying, "You know that I've never been a patient woman, and to tell you the truth, as long as John and I will be together," she said, taking her mate's hand in her own. "I think we'd rather know now."

The Lady saw John hide his grin when Beth said 'we', knowing full well that John would have taken the time off, but she began to answer Beth's question even so, "When Were die, you've always burned their bodies and wished them a safe passage to the this side, but in truth, most Were have chosen to be reborn back upon your Earth, alive again, but reincarnated with no memories of their previous lives. Once in a very long while, one of you will ask to be reborn here on this side, here in this very garden. But when they choose this path, they are only born as a wolf, for there are no Were here yet.

Beth sucked in her breath, fearful that her choice was going to be between being forced to be reincarnated without John, or with him, but without the intelligence to really enjoy him.

Reading her expression, as well as her mind, the Lady said reassuringly, "No Beth, don't fear that choice, your choice will be different; let me continue..."

Beth nodded and the Lady continued, "Those who have chosen to be born here have been waiting for their Alpha to arrive and call them back to their humanity. When their leader arrives, he'll be able to restore their human sides and then the Were will have their true beginning here. This time, there will be no humans to interfere with your destiny; this world will belong exclusively to you."

"...and that's our choice?" John said. "You want us to lead the Were here? That's going to be our new job?"

The Lady giggled, and then answered with much mirth in her voice, "Well sure, it would be your job if you were actually, and finally dead. I mean, there is no question that you two will be the ones to get things started here eventually, but John, neither one of you is quite dead just yet."

"But we were shot!" Beth gasped.

"Yes, but with silver," the Lady giggled again. "Those poor, deluded idiots became trapped by their own European legends about Werewolves and silver. Imagine thinking that those silly stories were actually true! So they shot you, but they shot you with your own base of power—silver, the same silver that your mountains are riddled with."

"Umm..." John started, "then why are we here if we are not dead?"

"I wanted to offer you a honeymoon, but unfortunately for you, your mate is overly eager to get back to work," the Lady said with an almost evil grin.

Then thinking some more, John said, "So that's why it burned so badly!"

"Yes John, it was healing you as it broke down into your body."

"So where are we now?" Beth asked. "I mean, where is the other us, if those bodies are not dead."

"You lie on a slab in the Air force morgue. You'll wake up before the doctor's start their examinations of you though; your wolf, Jefferson, has everyone much too stirred up to think clearly enough to autopsy you right now."

"He what..." John asked in confusion.

"Your war plan, John. He is implementing it just as you wrote it; he's following it to the letter. He's exactly like everyone else in the whole world, he believes you to be dead, well...except for Ja-mul, he knows better, but he's letting everything explode so he can get a better deal for the People from the American President."

John rolled his eyes at this, which probably wasn't the most polite thing to do when conversing with one's deity, but then again, this was Ja-mul that they were discussing and she was probably used to that. Then something truly frightening occurred to John, "Lady, what happens to Di-yin when they die?"

Her face lit up in a devious smile before she responded, "They get the same choices, except that most of them will eventually opt to be reborn here...as coyotes."

"There are coyotes here?" Beth asked in surprise.

"Not many, and to be honest, most of them are pretty bored," the Lady replied. "There are not any Were here for them to torment yet. And before you go and get upset about that, just remember, I never said that this was going to be Heaven, that's a human idea. The coyotes, the bears and the 'gators will be here to make sure that you don't get too comfortable. You'd find that to be awfully dull."

Both Beth and John frowned at this tidbit of information, but the Lady did nothing but grin at their displeasure, showing a bit of her Xwun side for a change, and less of the Goddess while she waited for their next question."

Beth hit upon it first, "So...if our job isn't to lead the Were here on this Earth, what is it exactly?"

The Lady smiled, her Xwun side once again repressed from view, "you'll have to decide that one for yourselves. From this day forward, until you two show up here truly and completely dead, you are officially on your own. You get to define your own jobs for once in your lives. So since we all know that both of you will always be true to your inner selves, and well as to me, go have yourselves a run; make love in the grass. You've got a few hours before you'll wake up back there on those icy slabs. Go... run, live.

John leaned over and nipped his mate's ear quickly, and then without looking back at her again, he dashed off into the welcoming forest. Beth merely laughed at his challenge and followed her sexy wolf deeper into the green.

~~~

It was still dark when the motorcycles pulled to the front of the security gate that barred entrance into the Waters mansion. Joseph was no warrior, but when it came to communications and technology, there was none better. He had Burton's system bypassed in only seconds and the warriors were rolling into his complex on their modern bikes. None of them were riding their noisy Harleys on this mission.

Their caution was not necessary however, because when they pulled up to the mansion, they were told that Waters had already fled. William's oldest friend sat there on the front steps. He was obviously cold and bored from his long wait, he greeted them with, "Damn Will. It's about time that you showed up; the stupid bastard locked me out and I've about frozen my ass off sitting here waiting for you!"

William replied, "That's okay, Phil. Joe will have us inside before you know it."

Phil said, disbelievingly, "You know that the ugly bastard has a state of the art security system, right?"

William shot back, "My men tell me that Joe can get into anything, and they never lie."

"Don't you mean, 'your wolves', Will? I saw the same video that everyone else did." Then belatedly noticing that Florence was there with William, Phil looked abashed and said softly, "my condolences, ma'am."

Florence just nodded her acceptance, but she did not reply.

"How long ago did he leave here, Phil?"

"Sorry Will, I'm really not sure; he just called me and said that he was going to have to go underground for awhile 'til things calmed down. By the time I got here, he was already gone. I got here around midnight I guess."

Phil then jumped as the door popped open behind him, revealing a very smug Sam standing on the inside of the entryway. "Looks like it is clear, Alpha," Sam stated quietly.

"Let's go inside and talk, Phil," William said, causing Phil to jump again.

To Sam, William sent, "Tom and Joe are in the security room?"

"Yes Alpha," Sam sent back.

"All right men," William sent to the rest of the warriors, "search it all and rip it to shreds. Just don't touch the children's rooms, I will do that myself."

As the sounds of wanton destruction began crashing around them, William led Florence and Phil up the stairs and to Noah and Sarah's rooms where he intended to do a far gentler search. When they arrived in Noah's room, he went directly to his son's dresser and opened the bottom drawer. "What are you...?" Phil started to say, as he saw William reaching into the back of the drawer, as though he were rooting around for something specific.

Florence answered Phil's question for him, "I'm betting that he is looking for a message from his son. Looks like he is expecting that Noah left him a message telling us where Liz has taken them."

"I think I can answer that one," Phil offered. "The bitch called me the other day, and she said that she was flying to Italy. I can't swear that she actually did what she said, but that is usually where she flies off to when she gets mad isn't it?"

William grunted noncommittally as he continued to dig through the mess that his son had left behind him. Then he said, "Ah, here it is," as he pulled out a grungy pair of socks that had been rolled up into a foul-smelling ball."

"Dude, he keeps house like you do," Phil prodded.

"Yes, but can you imagine Liz deigning to put her lily-white and manicured hands on this?" he said, holding up the foul pair of socks.

"Not a chance."

Then Will unrolled the socks and pulled out a small note written on a scrap of paper. Florence asked, "What does it say?"

"Not much, it just says, EZE, but I have no idea what that means. I thought it would say, 'Rome' or 'Naples' maybe. Noah isn't much of a speller though; sometimes deciphering his notes can be a real chore."

"Is there a city in Italy that starts with Eze...?" Phil wondered.

"Not that I know of," replied Will.

"Try the info-nerd," Florence suggested.

"Hey Joe," William quickly sent, "my son left us a note but we don't understand it. It says EZE in capital letters, and we are wondering if that might be a city in Italy. Noah isn't a very good speller though; so it might just be the beginning of a word or even a misspelling. Can you put your researcher brain on this and see if you can come up with any ideas for us."

"Yes Alpha, we are winding it up in here anyway, but tell your friend that his car has been bugged. Looks like they have a small camera hooked up above him somewhere. It's probably in a visor or something."

"Thanks Joe."

For the next hour or so, William and Phillip did their best to catch up, sharing what they knew and what had happened in their lives since they'd last seen one another. Occasionally, they would be forced to raise their voices over the sounds of Burton's mansion being permanently rearranged by the warriors. William quickly extended an offer of employment to Phil and it was promptly accepted, and Phil took pains to explain that Liz had been blowing up his cell phone for several days. He'd known that she was up to something, but he hadn't been sure what it was. He'd grimaced when Will had explained about his car being bugged, but his old friend had reassured him that no one was upset at him. Indeed, the video would be a boon now that they knew about it; they'd just use the link to plant false information.

"Alpha," Joe sent "I've got nothing in Italy, but evidently EZE is an airport code. Could that be it?"

"Where is it?"

"Buenos Aries. EZE is the international airport there."

"What do you think, Phil? Joe says that EZE is the airport in Buenos Aries. You think Burton is worried about extradition?

"When did you talk to Joe?"

"I'll explain later, but what do you think?"

"Well... she said Italy, but I was pretty sure that she was playing you there, and then you said that Noah can't spell worth a damn. I doubt if a kid could spell Buenos Aries...so maybe."

"Joe, are there packs in Argentina?"

"Yes Alpha!"

"Call them and ask them to be on the lookout for Burton and Liz. Let them know that this is the man who owned the jet."

"Yes Alpha."

Then William grinned at Phil and said, "Let's go have a conversation in your car. I want to tell you about all of our packs in Italy, and how they are scouring the countryside for Liz and the kids.

Phil had a confused look on his face as he asked, "You have packs in Italy?"

Will grinned evilly and responded, "Not that I'm aware of, but I can drive to Argentina. I can't get to Italy."

Phil replied, smiling, "Let's go have that conversation."

Throughout the past few hours, Florence had not said much to anyone; the shock of seeing her parents 'die' was still much too raw for her. She was a wolf however, and even though she did believe that her parents were now safely on the other side, she was still hurting. "Sam...Tom...have you two found Burton's desk?"

"Yes Madam Alpha," they responded gently, well aware of the enormity of her loss.

"Piss in it!"

"Yes Madam Alpha," they replied without comment.

By the time the warriors finally mounted up and sped away from the mansion, they had found and removed or destroyed every record in the building. They'd taken every scrap of paper; every hard drive from the computers, as well as completely cleaning out the contents of Burton's wall safes, both the obvious one, and his hidden one. They'd left nothing behind them but a wrecked house and a somewhat damaged desk.

It was just now 9 a.m. though and the President had begun to speak to his frightened nation. "My fellow Americans... good morning and remain calm. As you surely know by now, late yesterday America was attacked by an internal threat that none of us believed was real. The entire nation has certainly seen the video from Sacramento and I have come before you to say that what you saw there was entirely real. Were do exist, and we have inadvertently declared war upon them.

The two Were who you saw shot and killed on that runway were the leaders of the Were society here in America. They were not at fault for what happened there; they had been kidnapped and drugged by rogue members of our own United States Army. After they were taken, and even though they had warned everyone that it was against their religion to leave the ground and that they would react badly if forced to do so, they were trussed up and forced on to a plane by traitorous members of our own military.

John and Beth Billington had been cooperating with our people within Homeland Security and indeed, were on their way to meet with me here at the White House and conduct talks to protect the peace between our two peoples. While on their way here, they were kidnapped by a rogue unit of our own military and in that attack, a loyal member of the Army was killed, giving his life while defending the Were from attack.

After they were taken and drugged by these traitors, they were flown out via plane from a private airstrip in an effort to sneak them out of the country. At this time, we are still not sure of where their final destination was to be, or who else might have been involved in their plot, but all of us clearly saw how that played out. The Billingtons defended themselves and were subsequently killed in the conflict by a member of the rogue team. You all saw them die while sharing a kiss.

Following their deaths, our nation's Were struck back in anger, believing that our Government had ordered this killing. And despite the fact that they attacked us all over our nation, they clearly took pains to make sure that their attacks killed no one. They attacked our infrastructure, but not our people. They obviously went out of their way to avoid inflicting civilian or even military casualties. They were sending us a message, and I want to say that we've heard it clearly, but I want them to hear my message as well.

We did not order the operation that took your leader. We were not aware of it, and we consider that operation to have been an act of treason, an act calculated to cause war between our peoples. We ask... I ask... for you to take a step back and let us, once again, try to talk through our differences and become friends. I'm told that Were have been in this country since before it was a country, that the Were have been here as long as the Native Americans have been on this continent. Our friends to the north in Canada, and to the south in Mexico have both been contacted by members of their countries' Were, and we are expecting that Were probably exist world-wide as well.

My fellow Americans, the Were are with us to stay, and it sounds as if they have always lived peacefully beside us. It is important to note that their attacks have only happened here, and only because their leader, their Alpha, was kidnapped and then killed. So...I've come before you today to ask for calm, and to ask for the Were society for a cease-fire to these hostilities so we can speak together and search for peace. We openly acknowledge that our people were at fault even though we did not know what they were doing, and that we'd like to begin again.

We do understand that you could have attacked our people, rather than our buildings, but chose to stay your hand. We will now stay our hand and instead reach out to you so that we might avoid further bloodshed. We have your representative with us. I understand that he is your Di-yin and he has offered to help mediate a solution to this crisis. We also are holding the bodies of your leaders and stand ready to deliver them to you with full honors so that you may lay them to rest..."

The speech continued for quite some time, but the President was wrong about one thing; he didn't have control of the bodies any longer. Even as he was speaking to his terrified nation, John and Beth were regaining consciousness, and coming slowly back to life just as the Lady had said they would; painfully and naked, in a cold room, lying on a slab, and covered only in a shroud. They took their first wheezing breaths, gasping as one, both their mouths as dry as a desert; their lungs struggling to draw oxygen and life once again.

Beth rolled over on her side and she saw that John had done the same, and while they coughed, small bits of metal fell from their chests and scattered across the top of their slabs. Neither knew it at the time, but these shavings were all that was left of the silver that they'd absorbed into their bodies; these remnants were only the impurities from the silver used to cast the bullets. Their bodies had rejected them as being useless for repairing the damage.

"It hurts like Hell," Beth gasped.

"Almost as badly as a Venom hangover," John replied, trying to cover up their pain with a dose of humour.

"Oh Goddess, I am thirsty!" Beth said, ignoring John's poor attempt at humour.

"...and naked," John said, forcing a lecherous grin. "Like I said, worst hangover ever!"

"Thanks for the warning ass-head," Beth shot back, "I will do my best not to get machine gunned ever again. Will that work for you?"

"Ass-head? Is that any way to speak to your mate the first thing in the morning?"

"Fuck you, John!"

"Gladly, but umm...shouldn't we be looking for a way to get out of here instead?"

Beth didn't bother to respond to that, instead she just mumbled to herself. John assumed that she was disparaging men once again, but he didn't push his luck for her eyes had started to flash that look of homicide. Instead, he began to explore the room where they were held. He quickly spotted several liter bottles of the purified water that most medical installations used for irrigation; he grabbed two of them and presented them to Beth as a peace offering. She drank one of them gratefully, and John was likely almost out of trouble when he offered, "You know... you sure are grumpy in the mornings. Will I have to put up with this every day?"