The flight to Tabatinga was uneventful. Khloe had been quiet throughout the flight except for some whispers with Talia. I was worried about her and how she would handle this situation. I wasn’t worried she would break down and cry but more the scorched earth to anything that got in our way. My wolf agreed with that line of thinking and while I had no problems killing anyone who stood between us and our goal. I was more worried about the collateral damage that could happen. Our plane arrived and taxied over to a hanger and as the loading deck lowered I noticed a beat to crap Chevy pickup. Khloe looked around me and said, “Oh, they’re already here. Good, I wasn’t sure if we would have to wait.”
I looked at her skeptically as she and Talia exited the plane with our duffels and I helped our group with our equipment containers. When we caught up with Khloe and Talia, they were chatting with a man in a Red Sox ball cap on and a graying beard. He was wearing cut-offs with a simple blue tank top and flip flops.
“Dorian, this is Patrick.” Khloe introduced us and I shook his hand. He had a firm grip. We exchanged pleasantries and then loaded up our gear, while Khloe, Talia, and Kim got in the cab with Patrick. The rest of us all climbed in the bed with our gear. First thing I noticed was that they had all geared up with tactical vest and our secure communications system. Everyone carried side arms in holsters and Joseph had his M4 out but had it within arm’s reach below the side of the truck.
“Where’s my gear, Joseph?” I asked and he pointed to the case at my feet. I opened it and proceeded to gear up. I pulled out ammo cans and loaded both my pistol and M4 magazines with silver. I wasn’t worried about anything other than Kirin, his vampire priests, and whoever else allied with him.
“Boss, what do you think this Kirin will do with this book?” Joseph asked.
“He’s not going to get it if I have anything to say about it. I’m more worried about what he has planned for this planet.” I said and I looked over to our destination as we approached the fishing docks. Tied up to the dock was a god’s honest U.S. Navy River Patrol Boat. From where we sat it looked armored and judging by the tarp covering something on the bow, I would say that it also carried at least a twin mounted .50 caliber machine gun. Just what kind of fishing charters did these guys do? “It’s like this, Joseph, Kirin is a two-thousand-year-old vampire who everyone thought was dead for the last five hundred plus years. From what I have been told he was worshipped as a god down here for like fifteen hundred years before he was overthrown by the combined forces of the local shifters and vampires from Europe. Spain to be exact. Turns out some of the Spanish Conquistadors were vampires. Now he shows back up after all that time and I don’t think he’s going to just let what happened lie? First thing he does is to take out two of the vampire elders. Not going to lie to you guys, this isn’t going to end well.”
The guys and I all jumped out of the truck as we pulled up next to the patrol boat. I directed Alan and Steven, armed with M4’s, to take up watch positions front and rear of the boat. Joseph and I began moving several duffle bags loaded with our gear onto the open deck. Khloe, Talia, and Kim took up positions to watch our back while we worked. Kim had her M4 at the ready while Khloe and Talia stood, arms loose at their sides, next to both of their pistols in holsters. After the duffle bags were loaded I grabbed a gun case that was left in the truck. “Hey, be careful with my baby,” Kim ordered.
My eyebrows lifted in surprise. “Your baby?” I questioned.
“Yep, that’s my sniper rifle you’ve got there.” She replied.
“Gotcha!” I said. Who would’ve thought she was the team sniper?
We made our way onto the boat and I scanned the buildings along the road next to the docks. Someone was watching us. Both my wolf and I could feel them. Joseph looked at me and nodded. “You feel them too, don’t you?”
“Yes, I just wish I knew who it was. It could be just about anyone besides the vampires. It could be a witch’s circle who got some premonition or foretelling about that damn book.” He looked at me skeptically. “Hey, it’s that vampire sorcerer’s version of a ‘Book of Shadows’ but is all designed around the use of death magic. I’m sure there is a witch or fifty out there that would love to get their eager little hands on it.”
Khloe was introducing everyone to who must have been Sal. Turns out that Sal was the engineer and Patrick was the Captain. They had served together for most of their twenty years while in the Navy. When Khloe’s dad invited them down for a visit, they stayed.
“Patrick, I’m sure Khloe told you where we need to go but for my own piece of mind this isn’t your standard fishing boat.”
He looked at me and laughed. “Yeah, we thought the same thing but learned quickly with all the drug runners on the rivers of the amazon you need a little something extra if you get what I’m saying.” His implications were clear. “Also, we keep a well-stocked armory and the engines on this beast are top notch. We can push almost 30 knots or about 35 mph on the river. Not much can outrun us if we have to run.”
“Good, I would like to take off as soon as we can.” I looked at Khloe and she nodded, knowing what I was about to say and indicated that these two knew about our world. “We have unseen eyes on us and I’d rather leave them before they get the courage to show up and try to stop us.”
Sal nodded and went below while Patrick moved up to the controls to fire up the engines. Patrick asked Alan, Steven, Kim, and I to throw off the ropes tying the boat to the dock. Alan and Steven went to the front while Kim and I went to the rear of the boat. Khloe joined Patrick at the controls while Joseph and Talia kept watch along the docks. Almost as if I ordered them, several someones came running towards the docks while we idled away. “Patrick, get ready to hit it. We’ve got company.” I dropped down into a shooting stance and pulled my M4 to my shoulder just as Kim brought hers to bear. “Contact Docks!” I yelled to alert everyone on the boat.
There appeared to be a half-dozen individuals armed with an assortment of your typical drug dealer weapons, you know AK-47’s or the Chinese knockoffs. They were yelling something to us in what had to be Portuguese because it sure didn’t sound like Spanish. “Don’t fire unless they fire first,” I ordered and got a nod from Kim. It appeared that we were going to make it out when suddenly I felt a charge in the air and smell of ozone.
“Oh, shit! Everyone down!” I yelled as a flash of lightning struck the water near the rear of the boat.
Then I hear, “No. The. Fuck. She. Didn’t.” Khloe came aft, the tattoos on her right arm began to glow as she gathered power and pulled out her wand.
“Khloe get down!” I commanded and she completely ignored me.
“That bitch called lightning down on us! I’ll show her.” I noticed that her eyes started to glow just like her tattoos. This could only be bad.
“Patrick, gun it as soon as you can.” Kim had returned fire at the drug dealers, witches, or whoever they were. She made them scatter along the dock. Her shots more accurate than theirs.
As they dove for cover, they revealed someone about the same height and stature of Khloe. She also had what appeared to be a wand out and pointed at us as we continued to move farther into the channel. I raised my M4 and fired off a three-round burst at the witch as I figured that I would end this before Khloe did something she would regret. The bullets just stopped about a foot from the witch and the bitch smirked at me. Then I was blinded by the flash of lightning Khloe called down on the witch. The concussive boom knocked down everyone around her. I felt the engines throttle up and then we were gone. I continued to blink as my eyes tried to clear the after image and sensed Khloe as she knelt next to me and wrapped her arms around me.
“Don’t worry, hun, I’m not going to snap and kill senselessly.” She said as she kissed my forehead. She must’ve sensed my concern because after she said that I relaxed and felt the tension leave my shoulders and neck.
“I admit I was worried there for a minute.” I stood back up and looked around to make sure everyone look alright. Khloe kept her arms wrapped around my waist.
“Thanks. We just found each other and I’m not planning on doing anything that could mess us up. Let’s go talk to Patrick and see how long this journey is going to take.” She backed up, grabbed my hand and led me over to where Patrick and Talia were talking.
I looked over to Joseph and said, “Have Steven and Kim keep an eye out behind us and Alan up front and then join us at the helm.” He nodded and passed on my instructions. He was a solid guy and if Talia was serious about him then I would include him in our discussions. She would tell him anyway. I have never pulled the brother card on her but I needed to know if this was serious.
After I made sure that Talia, Patrick, and Sal were ok, I pulled Talia aside to have my brotherly chat about her boyfriend.
Talia stood in front of me and she looked, dare I say, unsure of herself. Seriously? She must have it bad for Joseph if she’s like this. It was so out of character for her. “Talia, you and Joseph?”
“Yes, I’m sure and so is my wolf. He helps keep her calm much like what Khloe does for your wolf.” She answered as I nodded in agreement.
“He understands what it means, right? I mean you are more dominant than him. He’s ok with that?”
She snorted at that and answered, “You still don’t get it, do you. We…” as she pointed at the two of us, “don’t have a choice in it. It is all decided by our wolves. The only difference is Khloe isn’t a wolf and yours doesn’t care about that and has claimed her as his mate. Same thing with mine and Joseph’s wolves and his is fine with mine being more dominant. Besides, you know that mom has never pushed all that dominance BS unless some douche pushes it and mom just smacks them down.”
“That’s what I’ve always liked about how mom handles the pack. Other than that, are you happy? It kind of happens fast. I know I wasn’t expecting Khloe even though from what she tells me you’ve been selling me to her for years.”
She looked over to where Joseph and Khloe were sitting and answered, “Yes, I am. You never had a chance once you came home for good. She wasn’t going to be following you all over the globe but she knew once you came home you’d be hers.” She chuckled softly, “look at us, the perpetual bachelor and bachelorette, now mated. Who knew?”
“I bet dad had one of his famous feelings. So, mom probably already knew before we did.” I pulled Talia into a hug and at that moment I realized how much I had missed my sister in the last ten years.
Talia walked over to Joseph and Khloe while I went to talk with Patrick about our destination.
“How long is it going to take us to get to the coordinates we were given by Khloe’s clan?”
He pulled up a laptop and a satellite map with our destination marked along with our drop off location. “From what I can tell, it looks like it’s about 20 miles inland from the river. It should take us about 2 days to reach the drop off point and I would say another two to hike inland.” He said as he zoomed in on our two points of interest.
“Do you think that they will follow us?”
“Probably not them. They were just locally hired thugs.” He thought for a moment then continued, “If this book is a valuable as Khloe says, I wouldn’t be surprised if run into more trouble.”
I nodded my agreement. “You’re probably right.”
“Why don’t you go and take care of our girl. Sal will have something whipped up for dinner in no time. Nothing to watch but jungle flow by.”
I took his advice and grabbed Khloe’s hand. I led her to the bow and sat down with our backs to the cabin of the boat so that we overlooked the oncoming river and jungle. I put my arm around her and pulled her close as I kissed her temple.
“Talia said you two talked about Joe.”
“Yeah, just wanted to make sure. I imagine if you had a brother he’d have the same talk with you about me.” I said as I inhaled her scent. I noticed for the first time that she smelled of rain and the mountains. I don’t know if that was the scent but it was the feeling her scent gave me. “I think when we get to the drop off point some of us should shift and go ahead in animal form.”
“You want me to scout ahead in my falcon form, don’t you?” She asked leaning into me.
“Yeah, you’re small, fast, and I think the shadows from the canopy will provide you with cover. I also think Steven and Alan should go ahead in wolf form. I might even ask Talia to go as well. I would prefer our better shooters to stay human and I think that is me and Kim.” I mused.
“Why not Talia and Joe in wolf form with Steven and Alan available with rifles and they can help carry our gear? That way both you and Kim are free to shoot.” I thought about what she had suggested.
“I think that is a great idea,” I replied tilting her head up so I could kiss her soft lips long and slow.
A while later a delicious aroma made its way to where we were sitting. Khloe stirred next to me. “Smells like dinner is almost done,” I said.
“Sal is a really good cook. I wonder what he conjured up on his BBQ.” She said as she stretched and got up and helped me to my feet.
We made our way aft towards the table that was set up under an awning. Man, the array of food that Sal had put together was amazing. There was grilled piranha, and BBQ alpaca, along with a selection of grilled veggies and some rice. It smelled great and I couldn’t wait to dig in. I think I might have growled a little. That had their heads turning my way.
“Well, at least we know my brother is hungry.” Talia offered as she laughed at me as she set about fixing herself a plate.
Dinner was great and after we worked out a watch as Patrick didn’t want to keep moving up river during the night. I couldn’t blame him since there was very little in the way of navigational beacons on the river.
The night passed by without incident and we were back underway as soon as Patrick had enough light to pilot the boat by. Around 10:00 am it started to rain. I don’t think I have ever seen it rain that hard. We all took turns standing in the bow with a rain poncho on. It was miserable. The rest of us all huddled under the awning or down in the cabin out of the rain. The rest of the trip up river went pretty much like that. We were all happy when, on the end of the second day, the rain ended and we arrived at our drop off point. It was nondescript shoreline and jungle.
We unloaded our gear and told Patrick and Sal to continue up river and come back in four days. That would give us enough time to hike through the jungle to the temple and back out. This would serve another purpose too as it would lead anyone following the boat away from where we disembarked. They agreed and took off.
I explained to everyone the plan that Khloe and I had come up with. Both Talia and Joe agreed with our plan and began stripping off their clothes to change. Khloe followed suit while I went over our marching order. The four of us gathered up the other’s clothes and stowed them in their packs.
Talia came out of the brush first. I would never mistake her for any other wolf. She had the exact opposite markings that I had. White coat with black socks on her paws and her tail looked like it was dipped in black paint. Her eyes were even more arctic blue when she was a wolf. Joe followed her out and he was a little smaller than Talia his coat was grey with white tips on his ears. He padded along Talia and nuzzled her. About then I heard a screech and turned in time to see Khloe come flying toward me. I put my forearm out for her to land on. She preened for a minute as she got her feathers all in their proper place. I stroked her head with a finger.
“Alright, everyone knows the plan. Let’s head out and hope what we’re looking for is out there.” Talia and Joseph took off into the jungle, followed by Alan, Kim, and Steven. As I looked at Khloe and said, “No heroics, ok? You see something, you come and get the rest of us.” She chirped a reply that most likely told me to go jump in the river. She leapt into the air beating her wings as she followed Talia and Joseph.