**Approximately 4575 BC Western Norway**
“Ary! Aryanna, you worthless child, get out here!” My father’s voice carried across the village, nevermind just into our home. I ran out the front door, letting the heavy hide fall into place behind me
“I am here, father.” I breathed out as I reached his side. A man stood with my father and looked me over. I could only imagine what he saw—a skinny ten-year-old girl who barely had the strength most of the time to complete her chores. I sported a head of reddish hair that cascaded to my shoulder blades and bright green eyes. I was covered in mud most of the time, hey you try bathing in icy cold rivers. I barely reached my father's hip in height and weighed maybe four and a quarter stone. I could not help but wonder why he would want me, for whatever it is he had in mind.
“This is Rasmus,” my father indicated the man next to him, “You belong to him now. He has given good silver for you. Go gather your clothes and be back out here swift.” He waved a hand at me to indicate I should go.
I stood in place and stared first at the man called Rasmus, then at my father. I realized that my summation had been correct. My head turned back and forth between the pair of men. Father realized that I had not moved and raised his hand to strike me. Rasmus stopped my father’s arm effortlessly and shook his head.
“I have given you the silver promised. Do not strike that which is mine.” Rasmus hissed. “Go on, child, gather your things.” Rasmus’s voice sounded like he used too much breath to form each word.
The exchange between my father and Rasmus spurred me into motion, and I ran into the house. I went to the corner where my pallet was and grabbed the small pile of clothing that was mine. Stuffing all into a travel sack, I pulled my heavy fur cloak over my shoulders and went back outside. I walked over to Rasmus’s side, and with my head facing the ground, I waited.
“What makes you think you have permission to take the bear cloak with you?” My father’s hand reached for my cloak. Again Rasmus stopped my father, but then I surprised both men when I spoke up.
“My brother killed, skinned, cured, and fashioned this cloak for me! It has not to do with you at all!” I stepped back behind Rasmus after my outburst, sure that my father would strike me this time. I heard Rasmus mumble.
“I knew I had made the right choice.” Then a bit louder, “Folke Liamsen, you have given your only daughter to me for silver. If the cloak was made for her, then it is part of the deal. Do not tempt my patience anymore.” Rasmus put a hand on my left shoulder, and we turned to the pair of Norwegian fiord Horses tied to the fence. Rasmus took me by my waist and placed me on the back of the reddish colored horse. He then tied my bag behind me and mounted the black horse. Rasmus looked at me and then taking the reigns, he held them out to me, silently asking if I knew how to ride, or did I need to be led.
I dropped my eyes and head. “I do not know how to ride, sir.”
Rasmus smiled. “I prefer your honesty to any false knowledge; some pretend.” Rasmus kept the reigns in his hand and kicking his horse into motion, and he pulled mine along behind.
We traveled for three weeks, talking only when setting camp, and even then, speech was at a bare minimum. Rasmus would tell me what he wanted to be done, I would do what he asked, and then we would settle to eat. After dinner, we each roll up into our blankets on either side of the fire and sleep. This was to be the pattern every night, followed by cold salted venison and an apple to break my fast in the morning.
It took only a week or so for me to notice that my companion did not eat dinner or break his fast in the morning. Rasmus had a tooled leather bag, perhaps twice the size of a waterskin that he drank from every three days. I never asked what he drank, somehow knowing that I did not want the answer.
Around midday, three weeks having passed, Rasmus pointed out the village of Vinjeora sitting on the banks of a river. I chuckled at myself for the observation. Pointing out that a village perched on a river here in Norway was like stating that the sky was blue or clouds were white. It was a given. Like my home village of Sandsad, there was no wall around the village, just miles of wooden fence. The fence was for keeping livestock and children coraled more than defense. We rode up to a house, and Rasmus dismounted, signaling that I should remain mounted. I had over the three weeks, become adept enough at riding that I needed no assistance from Rasmus except for saddling and grooming the beast that was much taller than I.
Rasmus came from the house a few minutes later with a girl in tow. She was my age, about a head taller than I, and had long, straight black hair. She was pretty, I suppose, and I felt immediate jealousy of how close she clung to Rasmus. Her father watched with a huge smile on his face, similar to the one I remember my father sporting as he watched me ride away. Rasmus lifted the girl to his saddle and then mounted behind her. The jealousy I had felt before compounded, and I had to work hard not to let my feelings show.
Rasmus and I rode north, and we stopped at last next to a broad set of hills that created natural valleys between them. In one such valley, one of the mountains had a small cliff. Against the cliff was a half-circle log palisade that had an iron-bound gate and surrounded a log home that was built right up against the cliff face. I could feel my eyes open wide, looking at the structure and wondered how one man had created such a dwelling in the middle of nowhere.
I had learned that the girl we picked up in Vinjeora was named Galia. Like myself, Galia had been treated poorly by her father, and after getting what he could from various neighbors for the girl’s services around their homes, he had decided to sell her outright. I do no know how Rasmus got word to her father so that he would be the one to purchase Galia, but it didn’t matter. It turned out Rasmus had a hatred of those who abused women, especially children like Galia and I.
Once we reached the palisade, Rasmus dismounted, leaving Galia in the saddle. He opened the gate and led his horse inside the yard. I followed, and then the gate was closed. It was easy to determine why Rasmus had gone in first, as two large Norwegian Elk Hounds came running to him. The pair of dogs looked at Galia and me as if they were wondering if we were good to eat.
Rasmus waved me off my horse and then to move closer to the hounds. I approached as I would any other animal, slowly and with my hand stretched out, palm up. The pair of dogs sniffed at my hand, then my legs, back, and everywhere else. Soon they were licking me, and I smiled.
Galia didn’t fair as well. She dropped from the saddle, then cowered before the pair of dogs. I looked to Rasmus to see if he wanted me to help the girl, but he shook his head.
“Galia, you must not show them fear. They will never see you as someone who lives here if you constantly cower. Stand up, girl.” Rasmus was not cruel, but he offered no further assistance. Galia stood after a few minutes and mimicked me, holding out her hand and letting the dogs sniff. The pair of hounds seemed satisfied, but they did not lick her hands or face. They walked over and stood on either side of Rasmus and me. I was surprised but said nothing.
******************
I woke in my bed, feeling the hot emotions from those days still burning. I cocked an eyebrow, wondering why, after so long, I dreamed of those early days in my life.
I called Dani and let her know about the email that she should have received. “I want you to have a full team do the research on this one. I want nothing to be questionable if we go forward.” I had walked from my bedroom to the kitchen while we were talking.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Dani was surprised. “You’re taking a job from an outsider? That’s not your normal MO.”
“I am not taking a job, Dani. I want to be sure that I am not being played. If there really is a Priest in Senor Andross’s company who is using his position to kidnap and sell children overseas as slaves, I will do what I always do. I will take no money from Senor Andross or anyone else. I also want to know who the Priest is selling the children to, and I want to follow that.” I was still tired and a bit snippy.
Dani let out a held breath, “Now that is the Aunt Anna, I know and love. Go back to bed and get some sleep, I will have a team research this thoroughly.”
I disconnected the call and plugged my phone into its charger. Pulling the phone, I had taken off Andross’s nephew out of my bag, I started to pull it apart. I snapped the sim card in two, yanked the battery out and dropped it into a glass of water, then checked the rest of the components inside the phone’s case. I spent about ten minutes looking at the various pieces when I found what I wanted. A small tracking chip, about the size of a grain of rice, was embedded into the mainboard. I popped it out of the plastic where it was set, then placing it into a glass beaker, I poured a small amount of hydrochloric acid in with the tracker and swirled it all around ‘til the tracker was dissolved.
My car and house were both protected against unauthorized signals being transmitted. The few moments I was outside of either my car or home should not have been enough for the signal to be pinpointed. Then again, I had not stayed alive for as long as I had by allowing my paranoia to take a break. I double-checked that the alarm system was on full alert status and then went back to my bedroom and to the ensuite to shower.
Very light scrapping woke me around six-thirty a.m., and I lay in my bed listening. The scratching noise was followed by the sound of a woman cursing. The next noise I heard was a plasma cutter. I then listened to the circle of glass being removed from one of the windows. I knew the music well. I rose from my bed and quietly dressed, paying attention still to the sounds in the dining room. I could hear the light grunts of whomever now had their arm stuck through the hole in my window as she tried to reach up to the latch. Poor thing was about to have an awful day. When she was able at last to grab the lock and turn it, the window did not unlock. The original latches on the tops of the windows were there mostly for looks. Each of them had been repurposed to activate a switch, and once fully turned, the trap sprung.
As the young woman who had her arm in my window just discovered, a razor-thin sheet of polymer plastic slid out of the casing to the side of the window and slid very quickly to cover the entire opening. The girl would now be lying on the ground, holding onto a stump, staining my lawn with her blood. The girl’s arm, from just above the elbow, was on my dining room floor, staining my Persian rug.
I left my room and picked the offending appendage up off the floor and dropped it into a plastic bag. In my kitchen, I tossed the bag into the trash, grabbed a cleaning solution, and a rag from under the sink. I had the mixture made special as I had several Persian rugs in my home, and they tended to attract stains. I sprayed the bloody spot and then began blotting the stain with a clean rag. The entire time I was listening to the team outside applying a tourniquet to the window’s unfortunate victim. Once they had their team-mate set, a four-person team moved to the front door and began working on the lock.
I sighed and shook my head. I knew that by bringing the phone home, I was taking a risk, thus the reason I brought it to this house. My primary residence was on the top floor of Bondevik Security, where I was always close to my family. Dani and Johan also had apartments in the building. This was to keep anyone from figuring out their schedules and capturing them on the way to or from work. This house was a decoy for times like tonight, and a place to gather the family for barbeques and other get-togethers. I would need to find another home to purchase now that this one was compromised.
I walked to the door and listened for a moment. I had grabbed my phone off its charger on the way there and watched the four-person team begin setting charges on the door. I smiled as I walked to the door and input a code on what looked like an alarm keypad. A mild hum started up from within the walls surrounding the door and the door itself. The hum was low enough in volume that I could just make it out with my preternatural hearing. The house looked like any other adobe-style house in Texas. Between the stucco on the outside and the pine-boarded walls inside, was a four-inch layer of bullet-resistant fiberglass panels. The windows were all bullet-resistant glass as well, but anyone who knew how to cut this type of glass could get through with persistence, thus the added traps.
The front door was a pair of solid oak panels with a layer of nanowire mesh between them. The door was also bound in iron straps, giving the whole thing the look of a classic fort. The nanowire was also in the walls around the door. I owned a tech company based in Ontario, Canada, that had spent many years researching how to create a “force-field.” My team of techs had designed this system that ran a stream of charged photons through the nanowire in the door. This generated an area of energy that negated the effects of kinetic energy.
This morning I set the field and also turned on the recording system. My techies were about to find out how the field worked against shaped C4 charges. I mean, really, no sense in wasting valuable data. I moved to the dining room, standing just around the end of the wall where I could watch safely but be able to rush out and confront my attackers if necessary.
I watched the camera feed on my phone as the four-person team worked, and then braced when they ran for cover. A moment later, I felt the house shake as a loud boom echoed from outside. I waited for any debris to pass by, but nothing came my way. I looked at my phone and saw nothing but snow. I guess the field didn’t protect the cameras. Oh well.
I peaked around the corner, and from the inside, the door and walls appeared intact. I looked at my phone again, switching cameras to one that watched the front of the house from the trees lining my property. I could see that the doors were singed, and the hinges were probably buckled, but the field had held. Johnathan, who ran the lab, was going to be pleased.
The four-person team approached the door, and it was evident that they were arguing over what went wrong. I could see two of the males getting angry, and I could just imagine they were each blaming the other. I chuckled, then using my phone, I accessed the intercom system at the door.
“Good morning!” I tried to sound as chipper as I could. “Did you knock? I thought I heard something, but it was such a light tapping, I wasn’t certain.”
One of the team, a woman, stepped up to the door. “Anna Bondevik, you will come out of the house immediately. The Crusade for Humanity’s Purity, with authority given directly from Rome, charges you with being a creature of the night. Come forth into the light of day and receive your punishment of God’s pure light!”
I turned off the mic on my phone, so the woman wouldn’t hear me laughing. I will, to this day, never understand why people think Vampires could not stand the sun. I got my laughter under control and then tapped my phone’s screen. “I do not know what you are talking about. I also have no desire to open my door to people who just tried to break into my home. You will have to wait until the authorities arrive.”
I had just finished speaking when the sound of sirens reached my ears. I waited until the police had shown up and corralled my attackers, then turned off my defensive systems and muscled my front door open. Yep, the hinges were definitely warped. I stepped out into the bright sunrise and stretched. It was this very feeling that had driven me to face my front door east so that I could enjoy the morning. With confidence, I walked over to where the group of crusaders was being held and announced.
“Ok, I have stepped outside, now, would you like to explain why you attacked my home?” I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow at the woman who looked to be in charge of this group of idiots.
The Crusaders all stared at me with confused looks. The woman in charge yelled in defiance. “Pedro was clear! He got a good look at his uncle’s research, and he told us you were a Vampira!”
I rolled my eyes. “Would this Pedro be the nephew of Mr. Vandross?”
The girl nodded. “He is one of us. He was supposed to do a favor for his uncle and then join us at another Guarida de Vampiros to assist with a cleansing.”
“Pedro is in the custody of the Policia Federal in Mexico. His errand for his uncle was to arrange a meeting between myself and Senor Andross. He decided that a trip across the border to kill me himself was in order. I was able to subdue him and had the Policia arrest him. I have diplomatic ties to Mexico, and they were not happy about someone with political clout being accosted on their side of the border.”
Fortunately for me, Mexico and Texas were not currently on amicable terms, and the US was, as usual, trying to play referee, only to upset both sides in the process. When the San Benito PD was finished, and the Texas Rangers had done their strutting around, I was allowed to go back inside the house. I called Dani, had her put the call on speaker so Johan would hear, and laid the entire thing out. I told them both I would be back at the office soon and disconnected the call.
We had been in Texas too long. It was time to move. The primary front companies would remain where they were, and Dani could handle the day to day remotely, but the family needed to move. I would follow up on Benedict Andross’s request and investigate the child trafficking, but then I was going to need to deal with Senor Andross.