Michael saw his two charges out in the storm, arguing by a boat he knew hadn’t been there when he had left the ship. He had obviously failed to detect the intruders on the way to the pirates’ ship. He wanted to roll his eyes in frustration.
Didn’t the two of them realize they were in a Gott Verdammt storm?
They needed to get over their damned issues and become friends or partners or something. This dancing around was for the young.
Which they were, unfortunately.
God, he missed Bethany Anne.
The ship was in trouble and he had to make a fast decision. Considering their height, he could catch it before they hit the seas below.
He took the two humans onto the ship and rematerialized in the middle of the bridge.
—
“What do ya mean we lost the left bank of batteries?” the Captain yelled as he helped his first mate get back to his feet. The engineer’s voice replied over the speaker, “I mean we blew out our capacitors and they sunk the power safely to the grounds. Unless you got a handy recharging unit, Captain, we just lost half our power!”
Miles ground his teeth. Losing half their power meant they were effectively screwed. He would need to decide whether continuing on would be better, or just letting the ship go down. The storm had been heading west, so trying to retreat would just putting them back in the path of the storm. Maybe the girl had been right, and waking the vampire is what he should have done. Now he had damned everybody.
That’s when three people materialized on his bridge.
—
The shared pain from his charges pissed Michael off, so his sudden appearance—eyes glowing as bright as those on the bridge had ever seen—wasn’t the gentle arrival he had hoped to accomplish.
“These two,” Michael spoke, “are good people. Find out what they can do and use them. I’m done with this fucking storm.” With that declaration, he pivoted and exited the bridge.
The Captain looked at the people Michael had dropped, their confusion matching his own.
“Ok,” The Captain barked, “what did you do on your ship?”
—
Michael left the bridge through the hatch to the deck. He turned the lock and slammed it shut.
His two charges, he noticed, looked weak, but seemed to be dealing with their sudden electrocution.
He darted over to them and pressed his hands together, rubbing them and willing the power to generate. There was no waiting or coercing. This time it would obey him.
Or he would go into the Etheric and rip that dimension a new asshole.
He pressed a hand against both Mark and Jacqueline, pushing energy to them to allow their nanocytes to heal them. Mark recovered first, his eyes darting to Jacqueline. He noticed Michael’s hand on her and moved his gaze up the arm to Michael himself. Mark swallowed.
The Master was apparently in no mood to talk.
Jacqueline gasped a breath, then moaned. “Oh God that fucking huurrrrtttt.” Her eyes popped open. She glanced over to see who was touching her, then back at Mark.
She slapped his arm. “What the hell, Mark? What did you do to get us electrocuted?”
“You two,” Michael ground out, his voice richer and deeper than normal. Both of them peered at him, but he was looking up at the clouds, his face a mask of extreme displeasure. “Just kiss and get it over with.”
He stood up, noticing neither Jacqueline’s surprise nor Mark’s narrowed-eyed look of determination.
—
The Captain sent the new people down to the engine room. Apparently they had helped in that area on the old ship, being useless anywhere else. They wouldn’t fight, but ability to work with technology trumped bloodthirsty every time.
Miles watched Michael help his two youth, then stand up and stride to the middle of the deck. Michael looked around as if he were seeing something no one else could.
All at once his eyes flashed red, bright enough to cause shadows as he threw his arms into the air. Blue energy left his hands to attack the weather, but lightning fought back and struck the figure on the deck. Mother Nature was not pleased with him, and didn’t take to his machinations to manipulate her will lying down.
—
Michael ignored the disintegration of his body as the Etheric healed him at the atomic level. He had spent over a hundred years inside the Etheric being put back together molecule by molecule.
He and the Etheric were old associates. Perhaps not friends, but certainly intimate nonetheless.
Michael kept his hands raised, pulling in the power of the storm and shunting it into the Etheric. At the same time, he pushed power back out into the air to change the temperature.
He was in the middle screaming at the storm. Although close, neither Jacqueline nor Mark could hear as they clutched each other. The power being unleashed mere steps from them was more than their minds could take in.
“You think you are worse than an Atomic Bomb?” Michael screamed, “YOU NEED TO BRING MORE THAN THIS!”
So Mother Nature hit him with three lightning bolts at once as he pulled in power.
“THAT TICKLES, BITCH!” he shouted back. If he had thought about it, he would have had to admit he was lying.
The pain was enormous.
His eyes narrowed, his will reinforced, his voice a whisper, “I promised her I would be back. I am the Dark Messiah, I am the ArchAngel, but more than that, my name is Michael Nacht and I stayed together for her. You are in no way more powerful than my fucking love.” Michael grinned maniacally as he remembered his friends from the past and what they might say in such a situation as this.
“SUCK IT!” he yelled, and started laughing as he pushed more etheric energy into the atmosphere. The lightning struck less, and the winds started decreasing.
Bethany Anne certainly wouldn’t get the same Michael back, but all things considered?
That was a good thing.
FROM MICHAEL >>> GOD BLESS THE JIT TEAM.
In the last three (3) weeks, they have made at least 3 books much better.
Including: Ell Leigh Clarkes AWAKENED, Craig Martelle’s Nomad Avenged and my The Darkest Night. Not only that, but they jumped on The Darkest Night so damned fast…
WE ARE RELEASING EARLY!
The Darkest Night will release tomorrow, NOT Friday like we thought.
(Thank you JIT TEAM!)
Michael
