Chapter 6: Behind Enemy Lines.

Anikah sat pondering her next attack on the unborn child. The large skyscraper she was in swayed slightly as the hurricane continued its un-relinquishing attack on Miami. She wasn't worried about that however, as she sat on the top floor, tapping a pen on a desk, she was worried about the newest information she had gotten about the whereabouts of Kathleen and her sister. The last she heard of the minions she had sent to retrieve the vessel was almost three days ago and she was more than a little anxious as she stared out the window at the angry storm.

A soft knock at the door signified that her dinner had arrived, as well with any luck more information. "Enter" She stated richly, she pushed the security button so that the person on the other side of the door could get into the room. Moreen, her assistant bustled in the room holding more than Anikah thought humanly possible. This should have been no problem for her, considering she was a lower bred werewolf. The smell of fresh steak filled her nostrils and Anikah got up graciously to receive her dinner. Sighing Moreen handed her the covered dish and dropped a few files on her desk. Anikah glared down at them, God she hated paperwork.

"There's more information on where the prophesized child is." Moreen, finally spoke up.

Anikah glared up at her trusted assistant of 12 years over her meal. "When did you find out?" She asked lucid.

"Just now I got a call from Jamaica. Apparently those two you sent are dead. I called Paris; there's been no word about two female vamps walking around. I got Adam to find out as much as he could but so far information is limited." Moreen stopped talking and turned frightened eyes out the window as lightning hit the building beside theirs, the ground shook under their feet. Anikah didn't even bat an eyelash as her glare swept over her assistant and the younger of the two werewolves in the room.

"You're keeping something from me Moreen. If I didn't know you better, I would swear that you are blatantly lying to my face. Do you wish to say anything in your defense before I tear your head off?" Anikah asked stoically, although her eyes were anything but. They began to glow a feral yellow as another bolt of lightning reflected in her eyes and was followed immediately by the rumbling of thunder and a snarl that left her mouth.

Moreen had paled. A hand slowly rose until it covered her mouth. "I-I couldn't help it…" She stuttered. "You can't destroy this child; you could bring around the end of the world and reveal us all to the humans. He was supposed to bring us peace with the humans and those damned witches." She said raising her chin slightly as if proud of her pitiful statement. Anikah wasn't impressed. Anikah swiftly stood and Moreen fell to her knees, "Please… No… God…" She cried tears escaping her eyes and falling on the expensive marble flooring.

Before she could say anymore, silver flashed and in one swift motion Moreen's neck was slit, ear-to-ear. Anikah stared down at her with cold un-forgiving eyes as she wiped off the blade of her silver Kanaka. "I would have thought you would have stopped believing in God after working for me so long." She stated coldly staring down at the still sputtering employee of twelve years, as she groped around the room, clutching her neck in an attempt to find precious oxygen. Unlike most wounds she had sustained during the years this one would not heal, she had been cut with silver and silver was the only thing that stood in the way of her immortality. "I also would have thought you had seen enough body-bags leave this room to know who the fuck you were dealing with." She added dropping the crimson stained, white silk handkerchief; she had used to wipe the blade off carelessly onto Moreen. Who was now on the floor, her foot twitched slightly until the convulsions stopped completely.

Disgusted with the happenings of that night, Anikah strode over to her desk and pushed the button for intercom that carried her voice straight to her two personal bodyguards. "Get up here and clean up this mess." She spat sitting back onto her leather chair, in front of her desk and opening the folder Moreen had bought to her earlier. It contained yet another invitation to the Oscars, a small smile crossed her face as she thought about her latest movie and she glanced up at the poster still hanging on the building beside her. Of course she was on the front, in character of course, smiling back at herself. Actress of the year would be hers, once again and so would the child.

For once Anikah smiled, her white teeth glinting off the raging storm outside as she observed the once trusted assistant, lying on the white marble floors, in a pool of her still warm, scarlet blood. That smile quickly vanished however and Anikah dropped her gaze back to her food and the script. She took a sip of wine and ignored the two men cleaning up her office as she continued to think.

DUSKATTHEMANSIONDUSKATTHEMANSIONDUSKAT

Slowly Tad descended the stairs and was hit in the face with the smell of coffee and bacon, this made him walk quicker, and he was hungry damn it… errr… darn it… he had to stop doing that, it could get his head bitten off. He valued his head. He entered the kitchen and the food was set-up buffet style, no one bothered to look up as he entered the room except for Ally, who smiled and gave him a little wave. Tad waved back and headed toward a plate, his stomach rumbled and he took a fist full of bacon and some scrambled eggs. Chris was wearing an apron and manning the frying pans on the stainless steel stove, spatula in hand. Then he went for the toast and waited quietly for Michael to finish with the butter before going into the vacant dining room and sitting down. Well this was different… He hadn't sat down at a table in someone's house to eat food in a hell of a long time… heck, heck… he REALLY had to stop doing that. Why the hell were they keeping him here anyways? They could have killed him.

He was facing a sliding glass window, it had a nice view of a forest and the on-set of dusk, in the distance the clouds were still a crimson red as the sun continued it's rotation around the earth. It was quite peaceful to watch the sun go down and not worry about where he would be sleeping that night. Although, he was still confused as to why that was. The forest looked pretty large and the trees were silhouetted by the beautiful sunset. He sighed and took a sip of coffee, glad for the peace, being alone brought to him.

That peace however, was abruptly banished when he heard a slosh of a packet of blood falling on the table. Putting down his coffee cup slowly; he looked up. Sonja stood in front of him, grinning slightly. She flicked a strand of her long, dark purple hair out of her eyes, which were sparkling ferally. "Good evening." She stated, plunking herself in the chair across from him and blocking his view of the sunset, Tad watched as she put one of her black leather boots on the table and draped an arm over her bent knee.

Tom walked into the room as well and stood in the corner. "Sleep well?" he asked cocking an eyebrow.

Sonja glanced at him for a second before laughing at Tad's expression and picking up her packet of blood. "Have you ever been on a dirt bike?" She asked bluntly as she punctured the bag with her elongated teeth and took a thoughtful sip of her breakfast. Tad frowned at the strange question, but shook his head no.

Sonja shrugged and looked up at Tom, only then did Tad realize that un-dead vampires surrounded him. "We still got that small army of ATV's downstairs right?" Sonja asked Tom, who nodded affirmative. "Ah, anyone can drive those things, shit; we finally got enough for a good game of paint ball." When Tad raised an eyebrow at her 'shit' she shrugged, "I got nothing against it, hell, half the house could care less, Tom, I and a select few can tolerate the profanity, it's my little sister you got to watch out for." She commented shaking her head. That's when Ti, Michael, Dena, Christina, Bob, Riley, Ally, Tamara, Tara, and Selene decided to enter the room.

"Ah, free for all then?" Christina asked.

"Who's in?" Tom asked, nodding at Christina's assumption and cocking an eyebrow. Ally, Tamara, and Tara shook their heads no.

"I don't know how you guys can play that game, it's so reckless." Tamara said shaking her head.

"Hey we're young." Sonja said with a wink in Tad's direction.

"Yeah, 900 years young…" Tamara grumbled exiting the room. Some people chuckled and Sonja shrugged.

"I can ref. If you guys want." Tara said stepping forward.

"Looking at the one's playing, I wouldn't call that a bad thing." Bob said shaking his head at the room of evilly grinning super naturals.

"Ally what about you, why aren't you playing?" Dena asked frowning.

Ally shrugged, "I guess I'm not into it tonight, I'll come watch though." She added, not wanting to miss the chaos.

At this point Tad was getting worried, "I erm, think I'll sit this one out too, see how this works." He said shifting uncomfortably. The room nodded, excepting the explanation.

"Right, we got limited bikes and a pack of ATV's, who wants a bike?" Sonja asked, everyone just assumed she would be on her dirt bike.

Tom nodded and accepted one of the bikes and so did Michael, Selene and Riley. "Right, everyone else good with ATV's then?" Sonja asked. The rest of the room nodded.

"What's everyone else going to be up to?" Tom asked. Ti made a face,

"Baby shopping." He said finally. The rest of the room nodded and set off to their respectable rooms to ready themselves for a paint ball game in the forest, on wheels.

Tad stayed where he was during the oddly swift and silent hurricane of movement until only Sonja and he remained where they had been originally. She ignored him, "Hey Tom!" She yelled at the buff tall black haired man. He turned around. "You tune the dirt bike?" She asked.

Tom nodded, knowing full well that he was the only one, other than herself who she allowed to touch her bikes. "And I wiggled the bolt Son, don't worry about it." He said grinning.

Sonja nodded solemnly then looked back up. "Don't get too cocky man. You touch my Ninja and there's still hell to pay." She said before finishing her blood and heading towards her bedroom.

"Wouldn't think of it." Tom commented dryly as he turned around and headed back towards the garage.

10MINUTESLATER10MINUTESLATER10MINUTESLATER

A large crowd of super naturals where crowded at the back of the mansion, waiting in front of the forest, armed with different colored paint ball guns. Tad watched from the balcony with Ally, they were in control of the sound system that was hooked up in the forest for just this kind of thing; as well as watching the monitors that received footage from the cameras hooked up through out the forest, where they would be watching the action. Tara was just below them and getting ready to start the action.

Most people were just wearing the regular paintball suits and full-face helmets, spattered with paint from previous games. Ally had one of those herself. She didn't know why she had decided not to play, she was feeling a little uneasy, like something was on the brink of happening, she wasn't sure what yet, but it was like it would change everyone's lives forever. Sighing, she decided it was probably nothing, she had felt this way before and nothing had really happened.

Other riders were wearing full riding suits. These included, Tom, Sonja, Michael and Riley. Who were all slightly more seasoned on a motorcycle or ATV. All of them were wearing full-face helmets; some like Sonja's had graphics on them. It was a tense couple of seconds before Tara finally spoke up. Ally glanced over at Tad whose brow was furrowed as he figured out what was happening. A smile crossed her face but it faded away as she listened to Tara's familiar speech.

"You all have ten minutes to position yourselves. If I hear even one paintball being fired with in those ten minutes, that person automatically loses. Don't use your machine as a weapon, we learned that the hard way," Tara glanced at Sonja who shrugged. "Time-out area is over there, my suggestion to you is use it. We all know how long these games can stretch out for, erm that is… GO!" Tara cried, she took out a gun and shot it in the air and the group of people was off.

"Slightly vague rules aren't they?" Tad asked Ally who nodded.

"From Tara, they're always vague." She agreed.

"She's the only human around here isn't she?" Tad asked.

Ally nodded, "Yep, she helps out at Christina's bar. When she's not dodging work by spacing out. She helps out around here as well." Ally explained, a blush crossed her face as she realized they were all alone. In an attempt to keep up conversation she pointed at one of the monitors, "That's Riley." She said pointing out her friend, who had gotten off her bike and was now staring into the nearest camera, knowing full well that Ally was watching.

Both Tad and Ally watched as she brought down her paintball gun, knowing full well ten minutes wasn't finished and mouthed, "BA BA BA BOW!" and moved her gun back and fourth. Ally laughed.

"So what's her story?" Tad asked.

Ally stopped laughing and looked Tad in the eye; he looked genuinely interested, "She was born a Vampire so long ago that we don't know exactly how old she really is, and her father was a lycan and had had a son with what was his wife until she was killed not long before her mother came along. Her brother was the lycan master Lucian who was killed a while back now, by the stuck up Vampire Kraven. Her mother and her had to run when the vampire council found out about her and her father. When she was still young her mother was killed and she left their home to come to Paris where she found this mansion and started to train herself for probably over a hundred years, and then she started to take in vampires and lycans who needed either a place to stay or protection. Then of course I came and so did everyone else, and then the rest is history." Ally shrugged. "She's my best friend." Ally added laughing again at Riley's antics.

"It must have been hard for her, losing her mother and having to leave her father when she was so young and then living by herself." Tad commented.

"It's been hard for all of us, that's kind of what brought us together." Ally commented smiling.

Tad nodded. "What about him?" Tad asked motioning to the screen right in front of him. "That's Ti. He; as you probably noticed is also a human; he came to us from South America seeking a cure for lycanthropy because his sister was turned and didn't survive, he didn't find a cure but he found us and learned to accept what had happened to his sister and has helped a couple new lycans get through their first change and accept what they were." Ally explained, "He's also our technology whiz and a great fighter." Ally added.

Tad nodded, "That I can understand. I guess you can too." He added cocking an eyebrow in Ally's direction; she nodded.

"Yep, Tara and I were friends before I was bitten though, so when she found out she brought me right over to Bob who is Christina's uncle. I was lucky." Ally said blushing slightly.

For a second Tad felt a tang of jealously wipe over him, his own spotty past coming back to him. When he found out what he was he couldn't stand it and ran off from his job as a cartoonist. (heh… stickman CHRISTINA) He then joined a group of burglars and soon moved up the chain, eventually losing everything in a stupid bet and ending up on the street. Living off the only skills he knew to make money, stealing stuff. A shot rang out through the forest tearing Tad from his thoughts and Tara grinned up at them.

Tamara, the only remaining person in the house came out and shook her head, "Who the heck gave her a gun, does no one have common sense around here?" She asked striding over to Tara and pulling the gun out of her grasp.

"I believe it was Sonja." Ally said helpfully.

Tamara snorted and said something that sounded a lot like, "It figures" under her breath, before re-entering the house. Tad and Ally chuckled and Tara was looking down at her hands that had once held the gun, a look of loss slowly making its way across her face.

"What about Dena?" Tad asked motioning towards the lycan riding down a stream on her ATV and shooting an un-seen foe somewhere beyond the cover of trees.

"She's a DNA wolf, she was born lycan and her family is one of the main lines. She left them; she couldn't stand their sense of royalty anymore and just needed to have some adventure. Hence, she's here." Ally explained, she was now watching Christina and Riley side by side, complete Star Wars style and were shooting back and fourth.

"Christina, is fairly new right?" Tad asked.

Ally nodded and explained what happened last year, "She was human, up until a few months ago, and obviously she's made a lot of progress. She's very strong." Ally said nodding.

Tad nodded, "So Bob helped?" He asked.

"Oh, he and Ti help everyone. George and Chris helped this time as well; they're good at that kind of stuff." Ally said nodding.

"Damn…" Tad whispered Sonja was about ten feet in the air, having just gone over a jump; a grin was plastered on her face as she shot dark blue paint balls at Tom who was right behind her. Her eyes glowed light blue and she hit him in the chest and helmet repeatedly. Tom was holding his own and equal look of menace on his face as he flew just under Sonja, and they both landed perfectly with the help of their vampire strength. "Those two I think I need to know about, just in case they kill me." Tad said watching them speed off into the forest once again.

"Sonja and her little sister Kathleen were apparently the daughters of a pirate captain and grew up on the ocean, before they were both bitten. Nobody really knows what happened after that, but we met them about 10 years ago when they came into Christina's bar hiding from someone, they are loyal allies, and extremely good fighters, Kathleen especially hand to hand, and Sonja with guns, swords and of course anything with a motor. They are really good friends to all of us. Especially Sonja with Tom, they went out for a while a few years ago, but she cut it off when she thought Tom was getting too attached to her. He still loves her; he made that clear from the start. We all know she feels the same, except maybe herself, she can't seem to lose that sense of freedom." Ally said deep in thought. Tad nodded Tom and Sonja made sense.

He turned back to the monitors in deep thought about all the information he had just received and saw Selene and Michael riding into the clearing to attack Christina and Riley who were in full out battle with each other. "And them?" Tad asked finally. Ally gave him a condensed version of what they had done to the vampire and lycan community and finally explained what had happened with Craven. Tad was very pale by the end of that conversation.

BABYSHOPPINGBABYSHOPPINGBABYSHOPPINGBABY

"Awww…!" Vandhana exclaimed holding up a small pink jumper. That shopping trip had just been full of 'awwws and Oh cutes!' and it was now starting to get on Kathleen's nerves. No one seemed to care that she didn't WANT to have a baby. Chris and George had taken Jo down to the toy section so that she could pick out what she wanted. Leaving Kathleen with Vandhana and Lisa, who were now 'awww-ing' over baby tubs.

"Which one do you like Kathleen?" Lisa asked. Kathleen just shook her head and sat down on a bench, her feet were killing her.

"I don't care, pick what you want." She grumbled dismissing the question with a wave of her hand. Lisa just shrugged and went back to Vandhana.

Suddenly she felt a sharp pain. Kathleen really wanted to think that she was just imagining it, but it happened again. "Oh crap, here we go… right here. It had to come right here in the middle of the bloody mall." Kathleen grumbled as another pain shot through her body. She lowered herself to a lying position on the bench and hoped that Vandhana or Lisa hadn't heard. They hadn't, but she heard the running footfalls of 3 people coming her way and she wasn't sure whether to be relieved or pissed off.

Chris and George came running towards her; George had Jo's hand and she was looking curious. "Jo said something was wrong, we came right away, how bad is it?" Chris asked observing Kathleen's state and running a shocked hand through his light red hair.

"Obviously bad, I didn't even know I was pregnant until 3 days ago!" Kathleen screamed angrily.

"Right, when was the last contraction?" George asked.

"Before this one." Kathleen grumbled crankily.

"That's damned helpful! If you want help Kathleen you're going to have to tell us what's happening, we've read every book we could on pregnancy." Chris said glancing at Jo, who looked disappointed at his language, but nodded up at him to continue.

"A few seconds then… not long…" Kathleen said looking pale, for a vampire and scared. That's when the pain decided to heighten another tenfold and Kathleen screamed as she saw lights behind her eyes.

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Well I hope you liked that chapter and I know it has a cliffhanger but if you have a problem with it then take it up with my co-author Writer-By-Day, because she was the one who wrote this whole chapter and I think she did an awesome job if I do say so myself. Well, remember to read and review because the more reviews the faster the updates come.

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