Bitten (Book 1 - Book 4)

On Monday morning, Francie wasn't in the conference room. No one said anything to her about why. Other than Uri, Natalia saw no one she could even ask. She knew to do her job. No one bothered her, except for Ravi who paced up and down the hall a number of times. Right before lunch, he stopped in

“Where's Francie today?"

“I don't know,” she said.

She didn't even have any sort of excuse to offer.

“Keep up the good work,” he said, and he left.

Uri arrived a few minutes later.

“Lunch?” he said.

“Coopers?”

"Of course.”

“Let's go.”

They were in the limo before Uri engaged in conversation.

“Was Ravi pacing the hallway?”

"Yes. He stopped in and asked about Francie a few minutes before you came to get me for lunch.” "He's very distracted. I've had to cover for him a number of times.”

“Bad for him. Good for you.”

He nodded, but he looked a little concerned.

“This isn't a good time,” he said.

“Want me to tell Sherri?"

"I already have. She told me to mind my own business.”

Natalia looked at him carefully because of the tone of his voice.

“You're pissed off,” she said, surprised to see him so since he was always so calm and collected. “The bank is my business,” he said in a serious voice.

“Is she supposed to stick her nose in everyone's business?” Natalia said.

“No. When she lost out last year being Council head, everyone thought it would ease up. Not happening. Mirren can't control her.”

“Can anyone control a Viperian woman?”

Uri smiled and brushed her cheek with his hand

“The one person who should be on the Council is Tia. I would actually pull my candidacy if she had run.”

"Can't have three family members on the Council?”

“No, although, she and Mirren aren't family.”

“But they are family to you.”

"Yes."

"Between the bank and me, I can't see you having much time for the Council.”

“That has been discussed,” he said.

The limo pulled up to Coopers.

As usual, they bypassed the line and were seated immediately.

“I actually want the soup and sandwich special today,” she said. “Ham and swiss sounds good.” The waiter brought three glasses of sanguine tea. Before Natalia could ask why, Moralis scooted in beside Uri

“We have to talk,” Moralis said.

“Where?”

“Can I pick you up tonight?”

"You okay going home alone?" Uri said, looking at her.

“Yes, no problem.”

"What's the topic?’ Uri said to Morals.

"We'll talk tonight.”

"Okay."

"So what is up with your President? He missed our meeting,” Moralis said

He picked up his tea and drained it. As soon as he put the glass down, the waiter brought in iced tea for all three of them.

"Someone's been messing with him.”

“Nattie. You have Uri,” Moralis said, but there was a playful tone to his voice.

She laughed.

"Not me.”

“Sherri,” Uri said under his breath.

"Good topic for tonight,” Moralis said. “Have you seen Grazie lately?”

"Yes. He was over last week for knife throwing lessons.”

Uri nodded at her.

“You any good?” Moralis said, looking at her.

“Just don't stand in front of her,” Uri said.

“I can hit the target,” she said.

The waiter came with their lunch and the conversation stopped. They all dug into their lunches. Both Uri and Moralis were done with their lunches before her. Now that her appetite was back to normal, she liked eating slower.

“Do you work for the bank, Moralis?" she said.

“No and yes. I work at Major Mortgage Financial. We do a lot of the underwriting for loans that the bank puts together.”

"Doesn't mean much to me,” she said. “I don't know all of banking, yet.”

“Banks can't do it all. We help and make it look like the bank does it all,” he said.

“They're on the twelfth floor. He might as well work for the bank,” Uri said.

“Mortgage company pays better,” Moralis said with a smile.

“I have billions at my fingertips,” Uri said

"Speaking of billions, was that auditor problem due to... Sherri?”

He mouthed her name, hiding his lips with his hand.

“No. That was actually the work of Sophie.”

“Damn. Don't piss her off.”

“Hell, no.”

Moralis chuckled as if Uri had told a joke.

Uri chuckled as well.

Natalia rolled her eyes at the vague reference to Hell

“Not a fun place,” she said.

"You took her to Hell?” Moralis said, showing astonishment.

“I don't control where I'm sent. Seems of late I get sent to who knows where whenever Nattie is with me."

“And she still hangs around you? Dedicated woman.”

“Lunch is over,” Uri said, sliding over and bumping Morals to have him move. “I have to go find a President.”

They all rose.

“Can I ride back with you?” Moralis said. “I walked here. Had to get out for a bit.”

“Sure.”

Traffic was moving slow past the restaurant making them have to wait a few minutes for the limo to pull up.

"Who's your driver these days?” Moralis said once they were in the limo.

“Bonnie.”

“Shit. Don't piss her off either.”

He looked back with a grin. Natalia couldn't feel any vibration, but from his reaction, he had gotten a response back from Bonnie.

“She's the best driver I've had,” Uri said.

"Anyone who'll go to Hell and back with you is the best,” Moralis said.

He was totally serious.

The limo pulled up to the bank. As a group, the entered the building and stepped onto the same elevator, but Moralis got off on the twelfth floor.

"See ya, later,” Morals said.

Uri just nodded.

Natalia returned to the conference room and continued her work. It was a lot slower without Francie's help and not as much fun. Time seemed to slow down. Ravi passed the conference room a few more times after lunch, then he stopped coming. She didn’t see him or anyone else.

Natalia found she actually had to watch the clock. No one was going to tell her it was time to go home.

“I should put an alarm on my phone,” she said to herself, but she didn't.

It was actually the guard who paced by that reminded her. It was a few minutes after five. She packed up her satchel and headed out. The guard locked up behind her. Uris office was dark, and his door was shut. She assumed it was probably locked.

Natalia felt strange getting into the limo by herself. She felt like a lot of people were watching because Bonnie had opened the door for her. They were probably really thinking she was an auditor with that kind of treatment.

“Thank you,” she said to Bonnie.

“You're welcome.”

She had always thanked the servants when she was growing up, despite her mother never did. Most of the servants were nicer to her than her mother.

“No reason to stop,” she said under her breath.

She watched out the window, now knowing every turn and every street name. There seemed to be a little static in the air as if there was a radio on, but she ignored it as road noise from the limo tires. Once home, Bonnie pulled into the garage and shut the garage door. Natalia knew to wait until the door was closed.

Bonnie left her seat to hurry around to open the door for her.

“Thanks. Have a good night, Bonnie.”

Bonnie nodded and headed toward the guest house. Natalia headed toward the door to the house. Uri had pulled ahead more than usual when he last parked his car. She paused to see the best way around it. There was more room if she went around the rear, but she was already at the front so she slowly edged around it.

Before she got to the house door, the light on the garage door opener blinked out. There were no other lights on in the garage.

Natalia stopped. She knew how many steps she had to take to get to the door so she really didn't need any light to find her way there. However, the garage didn’t seem as dark as it should have been. She did a slow spin around. When the limo came in to view, she stopped. Despite, she had seen the limo a number of times at night, this was the first night, she saw the symbol. There was a glowing red V on the side of it. Uri's sports car also had a red V.

“So Viperians always know what or who is Viperian,” she said to herself. “Everything is marked.” The marks faded just a little as her eyes adjusted, then she found she could see everything, not just the red V's but every detail of the garage as if there was a bright light on. At first, it was like seeing a black and white movie, with the only color being the V's. Then slowly, the color bled in. The dart board with its red, white and green striping was now clearly visible.

“I can see in the dark.”

She remembered the question about if she could see in the dark and how it was related to her hearing. She didn't understand how they could be connected other than they were all senses that had improved.

“My senses have improved.”

The dart board glared back at her piquing her curiosity.

“Did all my senses improve?”

Natalia set down her satchel. She walked over to stand in front of the board in the position where she always threw. With care, she unsheathed her knife. She stared at a red area under the fourteen which was to the left of the board, then brought back her arm, doing exactly what Grazie had told her. She did it in slow motion without releasing the knife, then looked to see where the knife was pointing. It was hard to tell, so she closed her right eye. Then she closed her left, opening her right. Either way, the knife was way off. She tried the trick of holding up her left hand, creating a circle with her finger and thumb. She held it up until the board was in the circle, then she closed her left eye, looking through her right. The board wasn't visible. She looked through her left eye. The board was visible.

“Left eye dominate,” she whispered.

She closed her right eye again and moved the knife, so it was pointing at the red area. She went through the motion again. The knife was closer. She repeated and adjusted, going through the motion. On the sixth try, she sped up and released the knife.

With a thud, it hit the red area, exactly where she had been looking.

"Oh, my word,” she mouthed, staring in astonishment.

That had to be a coincidence, she thought. An accident. Pure luck.

She walked to the board and pulled out the knife, having to give it a good yank.

This time she aimed for a green area under the four which was on the opposite side of the board. She went through the motions, again with her right eye closed. After only a couple of practice movements, she released the knife.

With a thud, it hit the green area under the four.

She spun around with excitement, before retrieving the knife.

She tried a third time, this time aiming for the bullseye. After two practice tries, she let the knife go. The knife hit the bullseye with a thud.

“I got it,” she said in a whisper. “Oh, my word. I got this.”

She did a half dance, wanting to tell someone. Then, she paused.

“I'm not going to tell anyone,” she mouthed to herself. “Not even Sherri.”

She retrieved and sheathed her knife, then went back to pick up her satchel. When she opened the door and went into the house, she almost ran into Mag.

“Are you okay?" Mag said.

"Uri pulled up further than normal, then the lights went out,” Natalia said, trying to look exasperated.

She sidestepped around Mag. She headed upstairs to put her satchel in her office and then go change.

Once she was changed, she stepped into her office and shut the door. She didn’t turn on the light. Now she knew why Uri's house was always so dim. She understood why he would go into the bedroom at night and fail to turn on the light. He didn't need to.

She stepped back out and went to the master bathroom. She turned on the light and checked herself out in the mirror. With care, she peeled off the skin covering her mark. It was much more prominent that she remembered, even from this morning. And it glowed.

She fingered strands of her hair. There was nothing until she looked closer at the roots. There were red, blue, and green glowing strands.

"Wow."

She left the bathroom and again, almost ran into Mag in the hallway.

“You alright?” Mag said, looking concerned.

“Yes, of course,” Natalia said.

She stepped into her office, turning on the light, then retrieved her tablet out of her satchel.

Nope, not telling any one, she thought when she followed Mag downstairs.

She settled in the dining room, eating her dinner at a leisurely pace while she read her books. There were now lesson plans and homework that popped up. She didn’t see deadlines for them.

“This isn't high school,” she muttered. “My pace.”

She chuckled.

“Yeah. As fast as I can.”

She stayed at the table, hardly noticing when Mag cleared her place. It was almost ten and she was just finishing up the assignments for one class when Mag passed through toward the front door. She heard steps on the stoop. Mag opening the front door.

“Evening, Mag.”

“Evening.”

Natalia rose and met Uri in the living room. He smiled and put his arms around her.

“Good meeting?” she said.

“Yes,” he said as he hugged her. “Did you enjoy your evening alone?”

"Absolutely. Homework.”

She noted glowing strands in Uri's short hair. His mark was still covered up.

“You going to tell me what was discussed?”

“Nope,” he said, sitting on the sofa.

Mag appeared with sanguine tea and cookies.

Uri dove in to snarf cookies. He chugged his tea.

"Did you even get dinner?”

He shrugged.

“Do I have to learn to read your mind?”

He smiled.

"How's Mr. Sturt.”

“Dead.”

“What?”

“He developed a blood infection. He died this morning.”

“That's not good. Is the bank in trouble?”

“No. We were cleared of any neglect.”

"Sophie in trouble?”

"No."

“Did Ravi ever get Francie's phone number?”

Yes:

"How? Let's have more than a one word answer, please,” she said.

"He's upper management. He accessed her personnel file.”

“I thought she didn't even work at the bank.”

“Ursula had to make a file up real quick. The Council decided he needed to get a hold of Francie. Francie then broke it off with him. And quit her job... at the bank.”

“I'm assuming this all happened this afternoon?”

“Yes. Then, Ravi went home early.”

“He was really smitten with her.”

"Apparently 50.”

Natalia felt sorry for him. She felt sorry for his wives.

“Bed?” Uri said.

The cookies and tea were gone.

“I'm with you.”

Natalia was having a weird dream when she woke. The clock showed it was two am. She rose and used the bathroom. Her vision was perfect and she felt like there was a light on somewhere.

She lingered in the bathroom, sitting on the toilet while she thought about her dream. There was a party and the lights had gone out. Everyone was fumbling around except for her. She could see perfectly. In the distance, she heard music and she found herself searching for it. It was like static at first, then it turned into a full orchestra piece. However, in her dream she couldn't find the source of the music.

Static, like she heard in the limo earlier.

Natalia rose and slipped her robe on. She trotted down the stairs toward the garage door. She liked that it opened without a noise. The garage floor was cold on her feet.

The limo was there, but she didn't have a key to that. Uris car keys hung on a hook right by the door. She grabbed them and went around to the driver's side door. As quiet as she could, she slid in and shut the door. This was the first time she noted that no lights turned on. Usually, when a car door was opened, the overhead light would go on. She wondered if his was broken.

She turned the key, but didn't start the car.

The dash lit up, but it wasn't very bright.

A voice spoke, causing her to jump, even though it was soft as if it was playing far away.

"System activation. Two patrol cars within a four block radius. No check points.”

She was hearing the car talk.

“Patrol cars within a three block radius and advancing.”

Natalia turned the key back and pulled it out. She put it back on the hook and went into the house. She stood at a front window, peaking through the curtains. A few minutes later, she saw the two police cars pass. They were cruising slowly, but soon passed beyond her vision.

Her ears picked up footsteps. A few moments later, Uri wrapped his arms around her.

“Can't sleep?”

“Thought I heard a noise. Two police cars passed.”

“There's a patrol that routinely cruises through our neighborhood,” he said.

"So much security. Is it at all possible...to move around without anyone knowing? I mean, everything is bugged. Everything is watched.”

“You mean like me?" he said.

"Yes. Or me.”

She felt him smile since he had his head down by her ear.

"Have you ever?” she said.

"On dark nights, before I had you,” he said. “I roamed around Hell. I was one of the few that made Hell... hell.”

“How do they track you? Is it something you can remove?”

Uri raised a hand to his mouth. She could tell he licked a finger, then he slid his finger along her bracelet. It fell off into his hand.

"You don't wear the earrings any more,” he said.

"Your saliva removes my bracelet?”

"And puts it back on,” he said.

"And you?”

He released her. She spun to face him. He opened his robe just a little by his neck and fingered a chain. It was very fine. He moved it to a link and tapped. She had to lean in to see where a fine wire attached two links of the chain.

“A slight pull and it comes apart. I figured out how to detach the chain long ago. A wire holds it together,” he said.

Uri smiled big as if he was really pleased.

"What?" she said.

“You can see in the dark.”

She hadn't realized that the room they stood in was totally dark. There were no lights on and no street light shining in the window.

“Don't tell anyone.”

“Never,” he said, taking her back in his arms. “Never.”