Bad Choices (Hypernaturals 8)

Are You In?

As much as I would like to avoid this whole thing, it is time to get ready to go back to Galveston.

Marvin is fine. Better than fine. When I came out of my coma, after the change-over, I was one-hundred percent of my best human day and started uphill from there. At least until Arnold came along a damn near killed me. I started doing all the normal things I did before immediately. Some abnormal things too, like looking for Jessica. I did not want to be fussed over, I wanted to get to work and get my life back. Find the woman that turned my life upside-down, even if I did not understand exactly how much she did that. Marvin will be the same.

He will under the watch of Skye, who is about beside herself at the idea that her husband is now like her: A Vampire. As dreams go, this one is way out there in the fairy tale, dream come true space for her. She spent forty years sneaking into his (their) house, and after a great night or weekend, hypno'ing him into forgetting they had been together. In a sense restarting their relationship over and over. He could remember her only as long as she was there and let him. Now they have a Vampire lifetime to be together.

I wonder what happens now that everything changes for them. They are ecstatic now, but one hundred years from now? A thing that is different about my marriage is that it started with us knowing that we have centuries (barring being killed along the way somehow, and that could happen. I have been in numerous fights and gun battles already, in my short life). It was a group of us and we loved each other and no matter how much I had pounded into Helen that she is loved and that she is ours, her history and her long life meant she might choose to leave us for a while. I would not like that, but I would be there when she came back.

If her relationship with Rachel is an example, she always comes back. The way Vera and I kept falling apart and getting back together except for centuries, not years.

Skye and Marvin started together as humans and had human expectations about how long they would be together. 'Till death do us part' was going to be less than a century. Now, for Morgan's parents, it is many times that, at the shortest.

I am not going to mention any of that or borrow any trouble. It is the good news. It is done, and the bright spot in our lives at the moment.

The kids are all down for the night, and I looked in on my four girls. Laura slept seriously. Diana smiled in her sleep. Rachel Helena has a mischievous look. Nakoma I studied for a while. Mostly... Well... she looks asleep. I scent her contentment, and I am happy with that. Children should feel safe. They lose that soon enough in this world.

To be sure we are unmonitored by middle of the night wake-ups, we went out to the RV. Helen, Jessica, Morgan, Rachel, Angel and I.

Angel opened the meeting by asking "How does this pervert meeting thing work? Is this like the Flintstones? Where a guy wearing a funny hat opens the meeting, they all thump their chests or pull down their pants or something, and then they haul out the drugged girl, and everyone has a turn at her?"

Jessica took exception to that. "They never had a meeting of the 'Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes' that had little girls presented for sexual molestation. I watched all those cartoons."

Angel gave that a dismissive shrug. "I was being silly so I wouldn't be sick. How does this work?"

We all looked at each other. Obviously no one knew. Morgan finally said "When I uncovered that sexual slavery ring out at the Executive Retreat, it was not a sharing scenario. Rich and powerful men checked in, picked a victim from a menu with pictures on it, and then had sex slaves to match specific tastes brought to their rooms or cabins. This is new territory for me. At the Executive retreat, it was not always underage. It was not always girls. All that unified it in that particular situation was the sexual slavery aspect. It was otherwise every age and ethnicity, although white girls were the majority. Part of THAT fantasy was that they sold white women to men of other ethnic origins. A sort of 'payback' scenario it seemed."

Angel looked ill. "And you took these people down? All the way down?"

"Yes. Not the way we are planning for this group." Morgan gave Rachel a hand wave. "Rachel published everything and embarrassed the international law enforcement into doing something. It seems they were waiting for 'bigger fish' and letting the sexual slavery aspect of it continue. The LCPF is a very specific perversion. For example: Pierre was unhappy that Nakoma is already nearly fifteen. Andrea's mother must have just been barely able to get pregnant at all. He wanted the same thing with Nakoma so that he could be done with older girls. Give his sisters the child they demanded and go back to what he likes. This group is men, all men we think but perhaps not as we have not met them yet, who want to have sex with little girls. There are groups exactly like this that target little boys."

"Priests?" Angel asked. There has been a recent news series about more priests victimizing young boys in a church back up east. The news was actually not about the fact that it happened, but that it was covered up by the church, and the priests that were involved merely moved to other churches where they could start it all again. In some cases more than once.

"Not ONLY priests. They are the ones getting the press lately." Morgan replied. "I can tell you from my days on the force that the numbers are quite disturbing. The ages can be as well. When we found the LCPF and what they were going to do, with or without Nakoma, Adrian and I talked about it. We have to do something. There is an active plan to harm a little girl. He and I can not sit idly by. We have to be the ones doing something. We have the power. We cannot wash our hands of this. Nakoma is safe, but these men are out to ruin some as yet unknown to us little girls life, and already ruined who knows how many lives before now. This absolutely stops here."

"In case Morgan is being unclear, we are planning, in a cold-blooded and premeditated way, to kill them. Anyone that shows up to harm a child does not leave alive. This is who Morgan and I have decided that we are, as people. This is not a Vampire mission. No Vampire secrets are at risk in this situation. We expect no help from the Vampire community, and in fact, they may not like us taking this kind of risk. Fuck them if they do." I told Angel, very solemnly.

"No. I was clear on that." Angel nodded. "I am fine with it. If I was Vampire, I would help. Jessica? Helen? Rachel? You are here so you are in?"

"With great power, Adrian?" Jessica asked.

"Yes. Pretty much." I said.

Jessica nodded her agreement. "I support my wife and my husband on this completely. Nakoma may be out of harm's way, but these people are a threat to all children like her. They must be erased from this planet, the same as if there were a Vampire threat."

"If I had been the one to find these... Things. I would kill them myself if need be." Helen said.

"I want to help. How can I help?" Angel asked

"I think you will find, Adrian, less censure of this particular plan than you might expect from the Vampire community. As I said, I am working on Sanction. I expect to get it. In any case, regardless of that, I will be there and I will help." Rachel told me. "As you are aware, I was very young when I was first raped, when I was a human. I can prevent that fate for someone else, so I must."

There is no doubt that the other four are just as committed to the destruction of the LCPF as Morgan and I are. Angel has some additional skin in the game, since they included her in their weird plan, and targeted her daughter.

Morgan handed Angel the address of the meeting. We figured it out from the directions. "I need everything about this address. History. Floor plans. Current ownership. Any security. Whatever you can find."

Angel said "On it. Tomorrow night, in this RV, everything I can find."