Chapter 7

Jeanette hugged the rear wall of the warehouse, her suit was set for stealth so she could not move quickly or she would be detected. Joshua covered the rear entrance while Radu held to front entrance keeping it covered. The mesh mask obscured her features but not her vision. Switching to night vision, she did a slow scan from left to right.

Pressing into the wall she got the buckling sound she wanted from the buildings metal skin. Mentally she spoke, "Where are you? Come out, come out where ever you are." The noise got the desired affect when a large humanoid jumped into a sliver of light showing through the roof's skylights. Her earpiece crackled and she heard Joshua's voice, "Moving one click to your right sis, two shapes, Class C threat."

Radu had moved when he saw the one shape form, his body shimmered and shrunk to his wolf's persona. Jeanette rolled her eyes and then whispered into her transmitter, "Nice move mutt, kind of hard to disguise a white wolf in the dark."

Pressing further along the wall to the one click Joshua had indicted, Jeanette stepped into view and spoke sweetly, "Show time boys!"

Then she began to do a pirouette and je a tae landing to the right side of the beast and kicked its head hoping to clean its clock and ding, ding, ding ringing its bells. "That is one and wait for it, here comes the two!" She spun around to a round house and kicked its head a second time.

The beast looked at the oddly dressed faceless human in front of him, blinked and limbered forward trying to grab or claw the form that danced back just as the white wolf hit it with its weight in the center mass of his frame.

The momentum was enough to off balance the oversized shag rug wannabe and sent it toppling backwards, leaving little time for recovery; Radu tore out its throat sending an oozing mess spewing over the wolf and the floor. "Just great mutt now you are gonna need another bath!"

Shifting back into human form Radu appeared with blood over his jumpsuit. She could imagine that sly mischievous smile that made his eyes sparkle as he said, "I kind of was hoping you would offer to give me a . . . "

Before he could answer the second beast swept forward carrying him across the room to hit the rear wall and make a cookie cutter imprint of his body. "Shit! Damnit to hell!"

Jeanette shouted as she flipped over the body of the dead demon beast landing behind the second beast. "No time for a tranq, JB we gonna have to send it to the promise land of hell."

Seeing the bulldozer she used it to carry her forward, Jeanette bound up the flat side of the lift and propelled herself up and to the shoulders of the huge monster, her signature move that would either kill the thing or send it into a frenzy trying to dislodge her. Landing with legs around its neck, she used her body to try and break its neck or topple it off of Radu.

The Olympic move at first appeared to work in toppling until the thing caught its balance and righted its self and drove backwards with its body to slam Jeanette's body into the same bulldozer she had used to launch herself onto the beast's shoulders.

With an annoyed "uggh," Jeanette waited for impact and forced herself to stay limber so the force was absorbed into the lower portion of her body. "Bastard." She muttered as she tried a second time to break its neck.

Finally she had enough leverage and twisted and heard the pop, crack she expected to hear. "Say good night Gracie."

She muttered flipping over backwards and away from the beast as it began to fall back. Dislodging herself from its shoulders she used the weight of her body to counter balance and sent it face forward to land with a sickening thud on the edge the dozers tines.

Radu stood up shook his head and looked at the two dead demons known as beast demons. Not smart but prone to do a lot of damage. "Two to grab and bag." Radu called into his transmitter to the retrieval team, "Sending coordinates." He pressed his bracer's button controls then turned looking an oozy bloodied mess. "Nice job Net, you just seem to thrive on this."

JB moved to his sister and Radu, "No more signs of the third one, I think it went through a slip stream, so it got away and is no longer on this plane."

From the open doorway of the defunct factory building a single beam of light split the darkness and the half sleep filled voice, shouted, "Hey what is going on?" The light flittered over their forms and all he saw were three human shapes with no faces in strange costuming.

The security guard thought he had just seen alien invaders, dropping his flashlight he turned and ran off into the night screaming "They have landed, they are real! They are invading!" His hysterical words were drifting off into the blackness of the night as he headed for his car.

Jeanette glanced to her two partners and quipped, "What is his problem?"

JB chuckled, "I think he saw aliens."

Jeanette laughed pulling her mesh face mask off, "Really where?" She did a dramatic pose to peer around then back to Radu, "Oh he must have meant you!"

She lightly punched him, "Tag you're it." She pressed her button on her bracer and before Radu could tag her back she had moved into the time fold leaving only the soft giggle of mischief behind.

Radu sighed, "She does that every time, dinner is on me."

J.B. was a younger version of his father, with a shock of dark brown hair falling a little longer over his dark brown eyes, smiled at the vampire. "Better to be on you than you. Come on she is gonna beat us to the showers." The time fold opened and together they moved at a more sedate pace into the darkness and time.

Jeanette rolled over and moaned, it had been a long night and she had one heck of a nasty bruise on her hip. Blinking a couple of times she rolled over to look at the alarm clock and saw it was going on noon. "Crap." She sat up and stretched from the small of her back.

Yawning and stretching her arms over her head she glanced down and saw she had just fallen into bed with her bra and panties. "Damn I really must have been tired." Standing she felt stiff and needed to stretch her muscles.

Moving to her closet Jeanette pulled out some old sweats and moved to the center of her room. She found the center of her room was comfortable enough to do Pilates. Rolling up her area rug, she found her old yoga mat where she had left it, as padding for her carpet.

Going through her paces she did her stretches and took time to look over her old room. At one time this room had belonged to her Grandmother Naomi, it did not matter that her grandmother Naomi had lived over two hundred years ago.

After all her father had been a vampire for as many years before his friend Julia Hoffman Stokes had found a way to beat the evil bitch, oh now she had to be nice, she really meant witch with a capital B, one Angelique Bouchard's curse which was cast for spurning her love.

Finally, she moved into the plank position when a soft knock announced her mother's arrival. "Nettie?" Vicki poked her head around her door.

Jeanette smiled as her mother moved into the room glancing down at her prone daughter. "Lunch is ready sweetie, Josette left about an hour ago to take a ride on the beach and Clara packed a picnic lunch for her."

Jeanette was disappointed, she really had wanted to ride with Josette and have a picnic on the beach.

Anticipating her daughter's reaction she gave her an indulgent smile. "I thought you might like to join her so I had Clara fix her enough for two and I had Marty bring over Amos. He is saddled and waiting for you out front."

Jeanette shot up from the floor, kissed her mother's cheek, pivoted on the balls of her feet and raced for her swimsuit. Pausing in mid flight as her mother had cleared her throat and dangled the beach bag from her fingers. "Looking for something?"

Jeanette smiled brightly, snagged her boots from under her bed, kissed her mother's cheek, grabbed the bag and headed out the door with a backwards call "Thanks Mom!" Vicki chuckled; it did her heart good to see her daughters home and finding some relaxation. It was as she always hoped and wished.

Life had treated them well over the past twenty-five years. She was able to watch her children grow into responsible hard working adults that were successful in their careers. She only had two more to get through college and on their own and then she and Barnabas could take that world cruise.

She allowed her a moment to morn the loss of her poor little boy, Roger David, still born a year after the twins had been birthed. She knew that would be the last child she would carry and it had been so special to her to be blessed with that pregnancy.

She and Barnabas had not been trying for any more children and that pregnancy had been a surprise. They had thrilled at the thought of the house being filled one more time with the squeal and happy laughter of a wee one. When she went into labor, she had waited to hear the cry as her baby was born. When no cry came the heartbreak was almost unbearable.

No she had refused to think of it as just a stillborn, it had been her baby boy, her Roger David Collins. So, they had a private funeral with a tiny casket laid to rest in the family mausoleum. On the date of his birth she had always gone to the crypt to put flowers on the marker.

She would run her fingertips over his name and date of birth and date of death. She would suffer her grief in silence and spend a little time speaking with him, telling him about his brothers and sisters how much he was missed.

She would shed her tears, compose herself and then leave, to return once again for his birthday. Little did she realize that whenever she would visit that child's grave she was never alone, always hanging in the blackness of the shadows that filled the solitary crypt was a demi god with vengeance in his heart. Her grief was his joy.

Baal, who had perpetrated the ultimate deceit of all time, had watched as she moved to the crypt, and suffered her grief and he would give his superior look knowing full well that he had her children. The twins he had impregnated in her. Oh how he had relished that time, when he had attained his supreme revenge and the taste of his victory had been as sweet as the lovemaking they had shared.

Oh he had been clever, his possession of Barnabas while using him as his avatar when they made love he took more than carnal congress with her, he took a little bit of her essence with him while making a conquest of her in bed, it had become a drug. So greedy he had to make love to her over and over and over until he knew she had conceived and not with just one child but two.

He chuckled at the thought of how he had disguised himself as the Obstetrics Doctor newly hired by Collinsport Hospital to see her through her pregnancy. Sitting and chatting with her, pretending that he was concerned with her and her pregnancy in her waning child bearing years.

Listening to her confessions along her fears and joys with the impending birth of her last child. Oh how sweet it had tasted to deliver such a cruel blow to her upon delivering a stillborn child. Her grief fed him and his needs to see her suffer. There were times, he wanted her to see what she had but knew to do so would open him up to retaliation though what they thought they could do to him was beyond him. He was a demi god and virtually untouchable.

He managed quite successfully to have established himself as a member in her community, and had even laughed when he had introduced her to their children. How her eyes had lit up when she complimented him over how beautiful they were and how lucky he was to have such a blessing in his life.

For each compliment she lavished on him in regards to his children was a hard won victory and added to his succor that was revenge. The more she suffered the happier he was and the more he wanted to see her suffer. Though in his nostalgic and feeling generous moments he wondered what life would have been if she had shared his life and their children with him.

There may come a time when he would take over Barnabas' body completely and have that joy of knowing she had lost one of the most important people in her life. He would wait before he made that grand a move; he just wanted to savor what he had now in her presence.

He had shared dinners with her and her family and his family. His children bereft of a mother that had deserted them at birth. Oh how she would look at him with a sympathetic gaze and then offer to allow them to come to her home and share in activities with her children.

It was all he could do not to giggle with glee knowing they were her children and would share time with their brothers or sisters. Oh how he loved watching her as she read to them and encouraged their studies. He particularly enjoyed how she would kiss their little foreheads as she sent them on with their father.

He would covetedly watch her with her children, she made a magnificent mother and a part of him started to gnaw on what kind of mother she would have made for their children. Then he would become distracted or had to return to his domain of the under world to devise some new treacherously horrible new play to launch against his brother Caan, and that whore that held his attention.

He should have killed her when she was younger when he had the chance, but killing her would be too merciful. No, he would wait and he would make them all pay. They would regret the day they challenged and then betrayed him.

It pleased him to try and kill her with his minions he sat in her pathway, he had been particularly proud of that nasty demon wolverine he had set on her at the age of twelve. Then when she turned to mist he was incensed. What exactly was she, a day walker? How was this possible?

He would need to investigate this further. So, he would sit and brood thinking of all the ways he would punish them both, again to be distracted by something that would require his attention. Until then he had his little joys in watching her suffer.