Chapter Two.
Mitch
A conference in Inverness.
Mitch raised a glass of whiskey to his lips and sniffed. Only the best from Diar.
Diar owned the hotel they were staying at, and the only guests present were those he’d invited.
Mitch had booked an extra week here. He needed time away from London, from his father and grandfather.
Plus, Inverness was at the end of the country.
Mitch wouldn’t let his family’s obsession derail his life.
“You okay?” Diar asked, sitting opposite him.
“Family,” Mitch replied shortly.
“Not again.” Diar winced.
“I’m not lucky like you,” Mitch responded, and Diar snorted. He, too, came from a Hunter’s lineage, but he’d badly injured his legs. Because Diar wasn’t one hundred per cent fit, they’d cut him loose. Turned their backs on him in the blink of an eye.
“That bad?” Diar asked, motioning for the waitress to bring two fresh whiskeys.
“You’ve no idea. They want me to rejoin them. Go into the family business of committing blind murder. Those assholes are also excusing the assassination of humans. Because, you know, they’re killing traitors.”
“Not surprised,” Diar said.
“They call the Uile-bheist murderers, yet I don’t see that.
Sure, the Uile-bheist kill any Sealgair Uilebheist they come across, but do you blame them?
Jesus, even scrubbing my eyeballs won’t rid them of some of the images I’ve seen.
The Sealgair Uilebheist are getting off on torturing them,” he muttered.
Mitch smacked his lips together as the waitress appeared. She placed two glasses down and nodded before leaving.
“That’s why you and I differ from them. We never bought into this blood feud. My family couldn’t wait to get shot of me.”
Mitch eyed Diar. “Do you think I don’t know?”
“Know what?” Diar asked, with a warning in his eyes.
“That you jumped that day on purpose. You deliberately fucked up your legs,” Mitch said.
“I wasn’t going to become like them, I’d rather have died,” Diar stated.
“You nearly did!” Mitch exclaimed.
Diar’s question came after a few moments had ticked by. “Why did you keep quiet?”
“Because you accomplished what I wanted. Escape. Shit, I envied you, Diar. Alfred locked me down even harder. Alexander suspected what you’d done and was worried I’d follow suit.”
“Mitch, if they’d thought I’d attempted suicide or injured myself on purpose, I wouldn’t be sitting here. Like you, I took guarantees, but they don’t want me, which is fine,” Diar said, not looking bothered.
“They still want me, the great, wonderful heir to the Weideman name and reputation. Seriously, the whole shebang makes me sick. I had to resort to threats this time; they were dropping hints that if I didn’t obey, they’d have me killed.”
Diarmad sat up straight, and Mitch noted the worry on his friend’s face. “Will they come for you?”
“No. I told them over a dozen people had files that I’d crafted.
That if I died suddenly, accident or not, those individuals would set the information free.
Alfred hated that but couldn’t do anything about it,” Mitch said and released a bitter laugh.
He knocked back the last of his whiskey and picked up the second glass.
“Nowhere in this world is safe from them,” Diar warned.
“Only one place is, and that’s the one I wouldn’t be welcome in,” Mitch agreed.
He’d long thought that the Uile-bheist had gathered together and holed up somewhere.
He’d no idea where, as the planet was massive.
Mitch harboured no ill feelings toward them and strongly believed his theory was accurate.
Kill them, and the Sin they held rampaged unchecked.
Mitch had enough evidence to know he was correct.
The Sealgair Uilebheist were not saving mankind but condemning them. But there would be no convincing them. Mitch was clueless about what to do. He couldn’t allow them to continue to destroy the Uile-bheist, but he had no clue how to contact them, let alone help them.
“It’s a conundrum, isn’t it? A Sealgair Uilebheist wants to aid the Uile-bheist,” Diar mused.
“Yup, that’s one I don’t have a solution for.” Mitch scowled as he looked over the loch. There had to be an answer somewhere.
Jess/Loch Ness Monster
Jess walked into the tower and saw Mary Worth staring into her mirror network. “Problem?” she asked, concerned.
“No,” Mary replied. She looked smug, as if she knew something Jess didn’t, and that annoyed her. Jess hated secrets and felt inclined to poke Mary in her eye, but Mary wouldn’t tell.
“Disease needs to eat. Do you have anything for me?”
“Yes, and you’re going to love this. The irony,” Mary stated.
“Oh?”
“Loch Ness. A guy has been dumping oil into the loch, it’s contaminated,” Mary said.
Jess frowned. “Looks like the Loch Ness Monster is about to revisit her stomping ground.”
Mary nodded as Jess walked through the mirror into the dark sky of Scotland. The air was cold here, and she shivered.
Jess shifted into the Loch Ness Monster, or Ness for short, and paddled into the loch.
The water was even colder, but that didn’t matter.
As she glided underwater, she reached out with her senses and sought the offender.
Ness heard several boats and swam under them, investigating to see if they were the culprits.
The culprit was active right now, or Mary wouldn’t have sent her through.
Finally, after two hours of searching, she found him near Drumnadrochit.
Ness gritted her teeth and growled underwater. Scum! She dived underneath, checking what he was dumping, and an oil drum nearly hit her. Furious, Ness flicked the vessel with her flipper. It rocked wildly, and the man on board yelped.
She watched as he peered over the boat and into the loch.
I see you, Ness thought, and Disease raised its head. It was hungry, and the victim above would provide a wonderful meal. Disease could sense that the oil drum held bacteria that would cause contagion.
Ness whacked the boat harder this round. She wanted the culprit’s attention. The fool leaned over one more time, and Ness lunged.
Ness struck hard, and it rocked violently, and he fell into the water. She grabbed him and dragged him down as Disease attacked. Her Sin drank extensively from the man as she raced along the loch bottom, keeping him with her.
After thirty seconds, she rose above the water and swam into a small bay, prey still clutched. Disease drank deeply. She felt how satiated it was already.
Damn, the guy must have been riddled with infectious intentions.
As Disease ate, she considered how the Sins fed.
They were basically cannibals. The Sins were attracted to their own kind.
Abuse to abuse, Bloodlust to bloodlust, etcetera.
This man knew the risks of dumping contaminated waste into the loch but cared little.
If he spread disease and illness, it wasn’t his problem as far as he was concerned.
And Disease loved people of that sort. Sins could feed in one of three ways.
They could pull the life force from the victim’s body, they could go mouth-to-mouth, or they could physically bite into a vein and drink from that.
The Loch Ness Monster didn’t like the taste of blood, and so she allowed Disease to feed the first two methods.
The man collapsed into a heap, and Ness knew he was dead. Disease had settled inside her, calm and full and happy. She’d leave the body here, but the boat needed to be found so his crimes would be exposed.
As she slipped back into the water, a yacht approached with a stunned observer on board. Oh well, what was another Loch Ness Monster sighting?
Mitch
He stared, astonished, as what could only be the Loch Ness Monster rotated its head and blinked.
Yeah, blinked. Then, dismissing him as irrelevant, it dived and paddled away before disappearing when it hit deep water.
Holy crap, he couldn’t believe what he’d just seen.
Mitch had the yacht’s forward lights on, and a plan formed.
Mitch eyed the wake of the creature and turned the yacht to follow.
If it rose again, he’d film it. But damn, it could move fast.
To his surprise, he saw the trail head toward a boat that rocked violently from side to side.
A female cried out, surprising him.
Mitch squinted, trying to see what was happening in the dark. He hit the floodlights, and moments later, a woman hauled herself out of the water and onto the boat. Had the monster knocked her in?
She looked disgruntled as he approached, and then she dived overboard again.
Mitch flinched as the boat exploded. Pieces flew everywhere. Several struck Diarmad’s yacht, which would no doubt piss him off. A ball of fire rose high in the sky, and a loud whistle pierced the silence of the night.
“Shit!” Mitch exclaimed as he crouched until the debris finished falling.
He jumped up, racing to the side of the yacht, scanning the water, searching for the woman.
Despite the floodlights and the flames, he couldn’t see any sign of her.
Frantically, Mitch kept looking and then spotted her lying on a piece of boat.
He stopped the engine and raced towards the stern, yanking off his clothes.
Mitch paused, kicked his boots off, and dived in.
He swam strongly over to the woman, moved her hair aside, and checked for a pulse.
Finding one, he turned her over, put her into the recovery position, and began swimming toward the yacht.
Annoyingly, Mitch struggled to get her out of the water and ended up dragging her up the steps.
He rushed down to the cabin, grabbed a blanket and a first-aid kit, and hurried back. The woman still lay unconscious on the deck, and Mitch once again checked her for a pulse. Sighing in relief at finding one, he examined her for obvious injuries.