Ghost With Cats ~ Book of Eloh #1.Draft

It was after midnight, the stars looked like diamonds over the crystalline white landscape as fifteen armed men entered the grounds of the New Moon Springs estate. Snow crunched under their boots in the sub-freezing air so cold it hurt to breath in deeply. There was no other sound in the night around them. Two mercenaries stood vigilant by their vehicles at the gate. Soon their job would be accomplished and they could all go back to a warmer climate.

^..^

Annie had gone out to the cavern pool for one last swim. She hadn’t been to the retreat since before her parents died and she felt like she wouldn’t be back for a very long time. It all seemed so strange. She floated in the warm mineral water as she remembered coming here when she was little. Rabbi Jakob had hair then, well a little hair. Her father was still an Air Force Officer then. She remembered the summer a tall, dark-haired man who always wore long sleeve flannel shirts and sunglasses had lived in the caretaker’s cabin with his little brother. She couldn’t remember their names, but she was sure it was Truh and Tal. It was so strange to realize her mother, who had always loved and cherished her, had also loved and cherished the one she had fallen in love with. She breathed out and let herself sink to the bottom.

Annie admitted to herself, she was in love with Tal; someone she should absolutely not be in love with. Someone not even of her world. She knew the stories from Opir about how the sons of the angels has chosen among the daughters of the princes and their children had been the mighty men and wise women of legends. He had believed Truh was one of these legendary beings, similar to what Rabbis Isaac and Jakob believed. The descendants of Abraham, in spite of thousands of years of conflict, were still being chosen to be contacted by those who dwelt in the heavens. She floated herself back up and slowly inhaled. It was all so crazy, but what wasn’t crazy was that her dead parents’ research had been used to lured Tal here and she had to make it right by getting him and his servants off her world alive.

A flash of light caught her eye. A straight line of green swept across the room through the mist. Quietly, she inhaled and sank again, swimming silently to the furthest end of the pool. She quietly surfaced, grateful she had not turned on the pool lights and praying whoever it was didn’t know how to. There was only one. He wore privatized military grade gear, comm silent. He moved past her carelessly, he didn’t think anyone would be here, alone, at this time of night, with no lights on. His careless attitude gave her a chance. She cursed herself , it was stupid to come here empty handed.

Rule #1 for surviving : Always have your tools.

He hung out at the door, smoking, obviously not wanting to leave the warm cavern for the single digit temperature of the night air. Her robe hung in the changing room next to her towel, her boots carelessly tossed under a bench, but mostly out of sight. She slipped quietly out of the water, berating herself succumbing to the temptation to swim naked in the luxurious water in the middle of the night, as she and her mother often had.

She heard his comm chirp as she stood behind him.

“Gate Secure”

“Stables Clear.”

“Cabin Clear”

“Garage Clear”

“Pool Clear” the man in front of her said.

“Close on house”

Six voice confirmed, including her gatekeeper. She was shaking, but he had not noticed her taking the knife from the back of his gear belt.

Rule #4 for surviving : You are the only one who will save you.

He clicked off his comm and turned to throw his cigarette in the pool, there was a naked young woman wearing only a necklace standing there.

“Hello,” she said, smiling “Are you with security?”

“Uh, sure, I’m security,” he lied, looking her up and down.

“Where’s the towels?” she asked innocently in a high childish voice.

“Towels?”

“Didn’t they send you to bring more towels?”

“Uh yeah, they’re in there,” he lied, pointing at the changing room.

“Thanks,” and the naked girl bounced into the changing room, and quickly to the side.

He shrugged and followed, clicking off his comm. They only had orders to bring the three men, the aliens. He thought malevolently about what he was going to do to the girl and was very surprised by his throat being cut with his own knife.

As he lay there, bleeding out on the floor, a shaking Annie puked and sobbed. She pulled his comm out of his ear, turned it on, and listened. They were closing in on the house. She grabbed her robe, wrapping it tightly around her, and sat down to pull on her boots as she prayed. Her mind screamed for Tal to hear her, “Please Tal wake up, you’re in danger, wake up.”

Rule #3 for surviving : Always expect the worst, prepare for the worst, and pray for the best.

She took the man’s weapons, careful not to look at his blood again, it smelled awful, and she wanted to puke again, but instead she slipped out into the frigid darkness and carefully ran back toward the house. She had to get there before the mercenaries.

^..^

Tal sat up in bed, he had awoke from a nightmare. He had never had a nightmare before. Annie was swimming, and the water turned to blood, and she screamed for him to wake up. His mind reached out to her room down the hall to see if she was having one of her dreams, but she wasn’t there. She wasn’t in the house. Others were.

Silently, he rose and lifted the sword from its case. His mind touched Vorn and Bries. Both woke up instantly. Annie was at the pool, she was armed and on her way back. Boaz was awake in his house, hidden under the floor as men searched it. Tal was standing behind the door when the man open it. Silently, the folded steel blade ended the mercenary. Tal laid the man behind the closet door. He stepped out into the dark hall and looked over the rail. The invaders were wearing strange head-wear to see. He dropped silently to the first floor and took six steps to kill the one there, eight more steps and the one by the front door was also dead. He pulled the bodies out of the open easily and into the office. A third opened that door, but Tal closed it after him, his sword ending that one without a sound. He heard the sound of Bries’ crushing blow to one. Vorn’s two had died completely silently.

The rear door silently opened, a slight scuff of boots being dropped, and bare feet quietly stepped across the tile of the kitchen. Tal caught Annie, pulling her away from the base of the stairs moments before two armed men stepped to the top of the stairs. Quietly, they stood in the coat nook at the back of the kitchen’s mud room. Tal could feel Annie trembling, he couldn’t tell if she was cold or scared.

She pulled his head down by hers, their ears touched and he realized she has acquired one of their communication devices. They listened as the intruders sounded confused, their handler wanted to know why they hadn’t found the aliens yet. Part of their team was missing. There was a tap on the window, it was Boaz. Annie made some hand signals at him that he seemed to understand. He made some back, she nodded, and he slipped away.

“Four more in the woods approaching in the house, two on the road by the gate, he says come to the pool.” She breathed against his ear, it tickled but oddly he enjoyed it, like he enjoyed having her in his arms. Tal knew there were still at least two in the house, he needed to think about them but he was struggling to focus.

Suddenly she added, embarrassed, “I need to get some clothes.”

He looked down at Annie in the moonlight, and realized she is wearing only a wet robe and her cat pendant. He was not expecting that or the sight of her firm cleavage pressed against his chest. His breath and his focus left him. This was not the time to be distracted.

“Are you serious?!?” He whispered back harshly, trying not to freak out. He had completely lost his ability to concentrate on the threat for a moment.

A nearly naked female running around a battle was not something he ever dealt with, ever trained to deal, or even imagined having to deal with, not in all his sixteen years as an Admant. Females were never even allowed near a battle in the kingdom, they were too few, too valuable. And yet in his arms was one, who was not only armed and participating in a battle, but doing so in only a robe and her pendant. His world was so different from hers and he had never realized just how different until now.

Tal breathed out slowly and forced his mind back into battle mode. On the porch, there were footsteps. He took her hand, and they silently fled to the study and its spiral staircase to the upstairs loft. There was a creak above them. He started to pull her back, but she shook her head and signaled him to come upstairs to the loft. Silently, he trailed her up the stairs. What she did next shocked him. After dropping the assault R-79 in a chair, she worked at tucking a handgun inside her robe where it was secure and invisible. She flipped her wet hair, making it fuller, and for a few moments completely exposing her breasts. Annie peeked around the corner at the enemy. There are two checking to rooms on this level.

Rule #2 for surviving : Always have a plan, another plan, and an exit strategy.

Tal stared at her in disbelief, not moving as she loosened the neck of her robe, so it hung off seductively one shoulder. Then twisted it so her opposite thigh showed, making it obvious she had little or nothing under the robe. He had never realized how tiny her waist or curved the shape of her body was. She always had so many layers of clothing on. He had not paid attention to what she had worn to the pool the other day. Her body was as beautiful as her soul. He swallowed, fighting down the urging of his predator to bite and ink her for his own, to breed her, and to kill all who threaten what it wanted as theirs like a raging animal.

“Be ready,” she whispered before peeking around the corner again.

Tal shifted nervously in the darkness, “Anneliese?“.

“What?” she demanded harshly but quietly, sensing his reluctance to act.

He swallowed again, then whispered quietly,“Do you mean to.. um.. make yourself look desirable?”

In the darkness, he could see her clearly, and was aware that she must not realize how clearly, because she rolled her eyes at him. She stepped closed to him and he could see down her robe, from the ample curve of her breasts to her navel. He had never wanted a female the way he wanted her in this moment.

She leaned toward him and whispered angrily, “That’s the point, you twit, they have night vision gear. They can see me. They will think I am a helpless girl who just woke up. I’ll lure them back here, you take care of them with your sword, okay? If I shoot them, it will make too much noise.”

He just nodded. She was naked under the robe his predator reminded him, and Tal forced himself to breathe. Telling his predator that its needs will have to wait for another time. He must protect her now.

She slipped down the hall behind the two men and opened a door, like she wandered out into the hall. The bed in the Vorn’s room is unmade and she was petite enough to have easily been hidden by the comforter.

“What’s going on?” she mumbled sleepily, rubbing her eyes.

The men turned to face her, then lowered their guns, “Hello gorgeous, just be a good girl and be quiet, and you won’t get hurt,” one said.

“Too much,” The other laughed.

“You’re not wearing much but why don’t you just hand over that robe so we don’t have to get rough when we search you.” Both chuckled more.

Annie made a frightened squeak and turned to flee, running toward the loft. They chased her right into Tal’s blade.

She ran back to her room past the top of the stairs. Another one saw her flee into her room from middle of the stairs and hurriedly followed, revealing over the comms that there was a naked girl in a robe upstairs. He did not see Tal in the loft at the other end of the hall dispatching his companions, or that Bries was watching from the bathroom door. The intruder followed Annie into her room and closed the door behind him. The handlers were yelling at them to quit chasing the half-naked girl and find the aliens. Bries heard a muffled thump as he crushed the heads of the two who came rushing up the stairs behind the one who followed Annie into her room. He felt he must protect her.

When Bries opened her door, he’s surprised to see the man was laying on the floor. There was a blanket over him and feathers floating in the air from one of her pillows. It had a bullet hole through it. She was getting dressed quickly. She put her fingers to her lips. She pointed at her pack, Bries nodded and held up his, Vorn’s, and Tal’s packs, and the sword case. She nodded and pointed out, they closed the door quietly behind them. At the end of the balcony, they watch Tal soundlessly drop to the first floor between the another two intruders who just entered through the front door. Neither fired a shot. Even in the darkness, Annie could see Bries’ wide grin.

Vorn stepped out of the shadows, “Your boots and coat, Master. I have completely wiped all traces of our presence here.”

“Very good, Vorn. We are to meet Boaz at the pool. There are still two out there, be wary,” Tal cautioned quietly.

Annie was pulling the night vision gear off one of the intruders. “Do you want a set?” she asked, trying not to gag, as she wiped the blood off her hand, before she started dumping the weapons from the dead mercenaries into an empty carry sack.

“We do not require such devices, my lady,” Vorn responded as he too gathered the dead's weapons.

She inhaled sharply, staring wide-eyed at Tal, he could see her blush in the darkness. “You don’t?” She squeaked.

Just to goad her for causing him a lapse in concentration twice during the battle, Tal responded coolly, “I regret nothing.”

“Ohhhh.... ooohhhh, I am gonna to make you pay, Admant Vanth Tal,” she drawled in a deadly tone and glared up at him. She didn’t think she had ever been more embarrassed or angry in her life.

For a moment, feeling the rage radiating off her, Tal was actually fearful of the tiny, human female’s revenge. He knew she meant every word but his predator seemed happy with her determination and ferocity .

^..^

Quietly, they slipped out into the darkness and down the path to the hot springs pool. Boaz had released all the horses. The handlers on the stolen comm were demanding for anyone to respond. No one did except the two at the gate. Vorn copied the frequencies associated with the comm device before he put it back in the deadman’s ear. The warmth of the hot springs made the smell of dead mercenary’s blood very strong. Annie vomited again while Boaz was telling Bries not to worry about the cats, there was a catflap in his back door and they would be safe and warm there until the next Caretaker and the cleanup crew arrived. Boaz opened a door hidden behind the lockers and they fled down the passage Boaz and Vorn had used the day before. Two miles away, they drove out of a tunnel on the other side of the mountain onto a road, then they disappeared into morning traffic.

^..^

At the operations control, a man in a very expensive suit, yelled profanities at several people, as a woman watched from the other side of a mirrored wall. She smirked. She decided they were all fools.

“I told you it wouldn’t be that easy.” She said as he walked back into the comfortable room.

“It was three men and a women. Against over a dozen of the best trained mercs I could buy,” he complained as he poured himself the bitter gold liquid he seemed to like so much. “Only the two at the extraction point survived.”

She flashed a cruel smile, “How many were shot?”

“Just one, we think the woman shot him.” He answered, drinking.

“How many had crush injuries?” the woman asked malevolently.

“Three. And two more with broken necks.”

“That was his sword pet, and his Cypher.” She purred, “How many had blade injuries?”

“Nine, Why?”

“Well, the female did buy the Admant a sword. She basically sang your men’s death song herself. I told you, it is not our tech that makes him a great warrior, he was born a great warrior. He was made one of the Twelve Defenders when he was just 15.” She took the glass from him and drank the rest of it, “He doesn’t use the tech you seek to win at warfare, he is the tech you seek. He can direct over 30,000 with only his mind and his Halo. Soon, he will be out of your reach, then I will have to kill him myself like I killed his brother, and our little agreement will be null.” She smirked showing her pointed teeth.

Bents scowled at the tall female with black-emerald eyes. She was as cold and hard as he was, but she had access to the technology he wanted. He only needed to kill her enemy on his planet to get it but the task was proving to be much harder than he thought it would be. Bents turned and stormed out of the office. She signaled his assistant. He is such an obedient pet, for one not made.

“I want to know everything about this Dr. Anneliese Winters-Dove: her family, friends, everything from the moment of her birth to what she will eat for breakfast tomorrow.” She smiled coldly.

Her enemy, Admant Vanth Tal had an ally, she would find out Dr. Dove’s weakness, just as she had found out that Tal’s weakness was his brother Truh’s fool’s quest. The women of her family had spent generations spreading their agenda, among the Eloh, and for few generations here.

Things are just starting to get interesting, she thought. Perhaps she could make an ally of Dr. Dove, she seemed a strong and self-determined female, one not opposed to killing males when needed...