The Great Pack: Deathless Book 4 Read online

  Contents

  No Such Thing As Werewolves

  No Mere Zombie

  Vampires Don't Sparkle

  The Great Pack

  Prologue

  Chapter 1- Five Years Later

  Chapter 2- Splitting Up

  Chapter 3- Salvador

  Chapter 4- San Francisco

  Chapter 5- Melissa

  Chapter 6- Santa Rosa

  Chapter 7- Ark Lord

  Chapter 8- Emotional Baggage

  Chapter 9- Arrival

  Chapter 10- Hades

  Chapter 11- Chamber of the Sphinx

  Chapter 12- The Black Knight

  Chapter 13- Alicia

  Chapter 14- Angel Island

  Chapter 15- Yukon

  Chapter 16- Windigo

  Chapter 17- Medico Roberto

  Chapter 18- Anna

  Chapter 19- Out of Contact

  Chapter 20- Meetings

  Chapter 21- Up to Speed

  Chapter 22- Tricked

  Chapter 23- Summons

  Chapter 24- Hades

  Chapter 25- Lima

  Chapter 26- Blur

  Chapter 27- We're Going

  Chapter 28- Deathless of Silicon Valley

  Chapter 29- The Power of An Ark Lord

  Chapter 30- Mercy

  Chapter 31- Yosemite

  Chapter 32- Sobek

  Chapter 33- Research

  Chapter 34- Be Nice to Elia

  Chapter 35- The Fate of Anubis

  Chapter 36- Mobilization

  Chapter 37- The Amazon

  Chapter 38- Mapinguara

  Chapter 39- The Natives

  Chapter 40- Bonding

  Chapter 41- Downtime

  Chapter 42- Hunting

  Chapter 43- The Great Pack

  Chapter 44- Learning

  Chapter 45- Books

  Chapter 46- Struggle

  Chapter 47- Swarmed

  Chapter 48- Report

  Chapter 49- The Song

  Chapter 50- Elia

  Chapter 51- El Dorado

  Chapter 52- Matron Davina

  Chapter 53- Picked Off

  Chapter 54- Under Seige

  Chapter 55- Outmaneuvered

  Chapter 56- Jordan

  Chapter 57- The Lab

  Chapter 58- Percy

  Chapter 59- Time Dilation

  Chapter 60- Stand Off

  Chapter 61- Human

  Chapter 62- Calculated Risk

  Chapter 63- Found You

  Chapter 64- Council Meeting

  Chapter 65- It Begins

  Chapter 66- Perfect Target

  Chapter 67- Subject 3199

  Chapter 68- Taken

  Chapter 69- After Her

  Chapter 70- Hunter or Hunted

  Chapter 71- Uh Oh

  Chapter 72- Call To Arms

  Chapter 73- Transformed

  Chapter 74- Desperate Defense

  Chapter 75- Ann

  Chapter 76- Parlay

  Chapter 77- Modulators

  Chapter 78- Yosemite

  Chapter 79- We Need An Army

  Chapter 80- Marshalling

  Chapter 81- Change of Plan

  Chapter 82- Firefight

  Chapter 83- Payback

  Chapter 84- Flanked

  Chapter 85- Saw That Coming

  Chapter 86- Plans Within Plans

  Chapter 87- Saving Trevor

  Chapter 88- Ark War

  Epilogue

  No Such Thing As Werewolves

  Whenever I pick up the later book in a series I’m always torn. Should I re-read the first books, or just dive right in to the latest? I usually want to do the latter, but I can’t always remember what happened in the previous books. The following section is for all those people like me who can’t quite remember everything that went down in No Such Thing As Werewolves, No Mere Zombie, and Vampires Don’t Sparkle. I’ve decided to recap it just like a TV show. For those who just finished Vampires Don’t Sparkle feel free to skip to the prologue.

  In an announcer voice ‘Last time, on deathless…”

  A giant black pyramid bores from the earth in Peru, and a team of soldiers have been dispatched to investigate. They encounter a werewolf dressed in Egyptian style clothing, which tears through their ranks before escaping. They bring in a team of scientists to help them investigate the pyramid, and quickly find the central chamber is full of very lethal radiation. They desperately seek a way into the pyramid’s control room, while the escaped werewolf with the bad fashion sense (Ahiga) begins slaughtering innocents. Some of those innocents rise as werewolves, and a plague begins spreading across South America.

  The desperate team of scientists recruits Blair Smith, a brilliant anthropologist working at a local junior college as a teacher. Blair finds a way into the inner chamber, where the team discovers a woman sleeping inside of a high tech sarcophagus the ancients called a rejuvenator. Unfortunately, the act of opening the door to the inner chamber injects Blair with an unknown virus and Blair dies (it’s all very sad, really). Within hours he rises again as a werewolf and begins slaughtering his former companions.

  Blair wakes up in a small Peruvian village not far from the pyramid, where he meets Liz, a beautiful young redhead from the United States. The pair are pursued by Commander Jordan, the leader of the forces controlled by the mysterious (terribly mysterious) Mohn Corp. Liz is killed and brought back by Blair as a werewolf, and we learn that female werewolves are much larger, and much scarier than males. The pair flees north, deciding that if they can get to California Liz’s brother Trevor might be able to help them find some sort of cure.

  Meanwhile Ahiga tries to catch up, because he realizes Blair has inadvertently stolen the key to the Ark (the pyramid). That key is required to wake the woman inside, who Ahiga refers to as the Mother. It turns out she’s the progenitor of the entire werewolf species, and when Ahiga finally catches up to Blair he tells him that without her the world is doomed. He explains that the world is about to enter a new age. The sun will go through a Coronal Mass Ejection, which will wipe out nearly all technology. This CME will also activate a virus that will turn all the people who currently have it into zombies (oh crap).

  Blair decides to be a dumbass and tells Ahiga to go screw himself. He and Liz continue on to California where they meet up with Trevor and begin investigating the werewolf virus. It turns out Trevor is a helio-seismologist who just so happens to be investigating a giant sunspot (what a coincidence, right?). He confirms that a CME could royally screw the entire planet, and agrees to help Blair and Liz get back to Peru to wake the Mother.

  Before they leave, Commander Jordan and his comic-relief sidekick Yuri show up with a bunch of soldiers in power armor. They blow up Trevor’s house and his ’67 Mustang, but fail to catch Blair. The werewolves escape back to Peru where they gather some furry allies and invade the Ark. They battle Mohn Corp’s ever growing army, and there are casualties on both sides. The werewolves win and wake the Mother, who slaughters poor Commander Jordan and every soldier under his command. It’s very sad, because by this point we feel bad for poor Jordan.

  In the epilogue, the asshole author (that’s me) dropped a really, really messed up cliffhanger. One of the scientists had the virus that would cause her to turn into a zombie when the CME hits. Not only does she turn into a zombie, but Trevor gets bitten within the first 30 seconds of the zombie apocalypse. Poor readers were left wondering what would happen to Trevor.

  No Mere Zombie

  Did the asshole author answer the question right away? Nope, he made you wait until chapter 5 to find out what happened to Trevor.

  The book opens in 11,000 BCE just
before the Arks went into hibernation. Irakesh, the son of Ra (the Mother’s greatest enemy), concocts a plan to sneak into the Mother’s Ark. When it returned, he planned to steal the access key for the Ark of the Redwood, located near San Francisco.

  Fast forward to the present. Jordan wakes up, his last memory the Mother ripping his arms off (ouch). He quickly realizes he’s a werewolf, and has no choice but to join Blair, Liz, Cyntia, and Bridget in their fight against the endless sea of zombies washing over the world.

  Led by Isis (the Mother), they attempt to save as many people as possible, setting up a refuge at a church in Cajamarca. Unfortunately, that plan goes to hell when Irakesh steals the access key and runs for it. Liz and Blair pursue, but have no choice but to turn back to protect the Mother’s Ark when Irakesh sends an army of zombies to invade it.

  We finally learn Trevor’s fate. He’s become a zombie, and can’t remember who he is. Fortunately, Trevor quickly discovers he can grow smarter by consuming, you guessed it, brains. He begins to recover his memory, and is one of the zombies Irakesh seizes control of.

  Irakesh realizes Trevor is smarter than most zombies, and begins grooming him as an apprentice. They head north, aiming for a Mohn installation in Panama that Irakesh learned about by snacking on an officer’s brain. Cyntia, love sick for poor Trevor, leaves the others to go find him. She eventually catches up to Trevor and Irakesh, and is recruited by the deathless.

  Cyntia begins feeding indiscriminately on zombies, people, and even other werewolves. Irakesh encourages this behavior, because he knows it will make her stronger. Of course it also makes her crazy, so maybe not the best long term plan.

  Blair, Liz, Bridget, and Jordan pursue Irakesh knowing they must stop him and recover the access key before he can reach the Ark of the Redwood in San Francisco. Isis remains behind to repair the catastrophic damage done to her Ark during the final battle with Mohn in the previous book.

  We get a new point of view character, Director Mark Phillips (that’s THE Director). He’s squirreled away at the Mohn research facility in Syracuse, New York, where Mohn Corp is experimenting on zombies and living in luxury. Unlike the rest of the world, all their technological toys survived the CME, including their nifty X-11 power armor.

  It isn’t all rosy for Mark, though. He’s learned that the Old Man has some dark secrets. He’s not what he appears to be, so Mark begins investigating. He dispatches Yuri to Panama to recover the nuke they’d intended to detonate in Peru, and to learn what happened to Commander Jordan.

  Meanwhile Blair, Liz, Bridget, and Jordan are hot on Irakesh’s trail. They arrive in the city of Medellin to find an encampment protected by werewolves. It turns out they know two of them, Doctor Roberts and Steve (aka Captain Douchey). They have a tense reunion, but it’s broken up by an army of zombies sent by Irakesh to ruin their day.

  Trevor, Irakesh, and Cyntia make it to the airport where Mohn has their secret facility. They find the airplane carrying Mohn’s nuke, which Irakesh decides to steal. By now Trevor has developed the powers of a deathless, and has regained all his memories. Unfortunately, Irakesh is mentally dominating him. Worse, Cyntia is growing more powerful and more unstable by the day.

  Blair and company finally catch Irakesh at the airport. There’s a big battle with lots of pew pew pew, rawr, etc. Blair’s side loses, Irakesh gets away, and Yuri arrives just in time to capture Jordan and Liz. They’re brought back to Mohn corp in Syracuse.

  Blair, Bridget, and Steve decide to pursue Irakesh, but not before Blair sleeps with Bridget (yes, his cheating ex. Poor Liz). They catch up with Irakesh in Larkspur, just before he finds the Ark of the Redwood. Blair once again gets his ass kicked, and this time the cost is higher. Bridget dies, and even though she cheated on him, we still feel bad because she redeemed herself at the end. Well most of us feel bad. Some fans wrote in to say the bitch got what she deserved. Heartless, people. Just heartless.

  Meanwhile, Director Phillips continues his investigation of the Old Man. It turns out the Old Man is really old, nearly two hundred. He serves a deathless named Usir, a name we later learn is a synonym for Osiris.

  The Director starts a brief civil war, freeing Liz and Jordan. He arms Liz with Object 1, a super-powerful magical sword. Of doom. Since that’s a really long title, let’s just call it what the Director does: Excalibur.

  Yuri pilots Liz and Jordan to San Francisco, where they link up with Blair and Steve. They attack Irakesh on the Golden Gate bridge. During the fight Trevor (very predictably) breaks free from Irakesh and joins the good guys. But not before shooting Jordan in the face. Again. It happens like four times in the book.

  Unfortunately, they aren’t able to stop Irakesh. He detonates the nuke he stole, destroying a chunk of the Golden Gate bridge. He channels the energy from the explosion into the Ark of the Redwood, charging up the battery and giving him control of a fully powered Ark.

  Meanwhile an enraged Blair attacks Cyntia, desperately seeking vengeance for Bridget. Cyntia’s much stronger, and more powerful, so he comes out on the losing end. His body is shattered and broken, but before Cyntia can kill him Liz uses Excalibur to slay Cyntia and drain her essence.

  The heroes are in pretty bad shape, especially Blair. He realizes their only hope is throwing everything they have left at Irakesh. Steve convinces him to give up the access key to the Mother’s Ark, which powers up Steve.

  Irakesh attacks, showing what a fully-powered Ark Lord can do. The heroes get their collective asses kicked, and it looks like this is going to be the last book since Irakesh has basically won.

  Then Blair throws the hail Mary. He uses his shaping to alter Irakesh’s helixes. Since Irakesh is a deathless, and the Mother designed the access keys to only work for werewolves, the key leaves him. It shoots into Blair, who is now a super-powered Ark Lord. He turns all the zombies on the bridge to ash, and kicks the crap out of Irakesh. The heroes teleport inside the Ark, where they imprison Steve and Irakesh.

  Director Phillips calls Jordan using a satellite phone, warning him that the Mohn Corp is compromised. He lost his civil war, and the Old Man is handing Mohn over to a deathless named Osiris. They’re heading to London, where Very Bad Things (tm) are happening.

  Just to throw a little salt on the wound, the book ends with Steve telling Irakesh he can light walk (teleport) from the cell, so they can escape and head to the Ark of the Cradle, where Ra rules.

  The cliffhanger for No Mere Zombie wasn’t as bad as the one in No Such Thing As Werewolves, but we were still left with a lot of questions. You’re about to get answers, because you’re holding Vampires Don’t Sparkle, the third book in the series.

  I hope you enjoy it!

  If you do, please consider leaving reviews for any or all books in the series. I’m an indie author, and reviews are vitally important to my success. You might also consider signing up for the mailing list to hear when Deathless Book 4: The Great Pack is available (or my other tie in series, Hero Born). If you do, I’m happy to give you a free copy of The First Ark, the prequel that explains a bit more about who the Mother is and where the zombie virus comes from.

  Vampires Don't Sparkle

  Vampires Don’t Sparkle opens with a prologue showing Osiris, the super handsomest god ever, having his Ark jacked by his brother, Set. Instead of riding into the future with a sixty-inch TV and a fridge full of Guinness, he’s now doomed to die alongside everyone else. He’s pretty bummed about this, and slightly annoyed at his asshole brother, Set. But at least he has an awesome haircut.

  Chapter 1 picks up after the incredibly lame cliffhanger at the end of No Mere Zombie. Not good lame, like having Trevor get fucked at the end of No Such Thing As Werewolves. No, this cliffhanger rightfully pissed a lot of people off, because Blair was stupid enough to let Steve and Irakesh live instead of killing them on the spot. That would have been the smart thing to do, right? It’s what I would have done. But Blair isn’t me. Blair was a borderline alcoholic junior college teacher thrust into u
tter chaos, then given godlike powers with no instruction manual.

  Anyway, back to the story. Jordan and Trevor are helping to set up Angel Island, when they see a trio of strange light pulses fire from the Ark into the sky. They aren’t sure what they are, and these pulses are never mentioned again. Astute readers pointed that out often in emails, and I promised there was a reason for the pulses. That reason is revealed in The Great Pack.

  As soon as Blair realizes that Steve and Irakesh have escaped, he gathers his pack, and they pursue. Blair uses the Ark’s light bridge to teleport them to the same coordinates used by Steve. They arrive in a strange place called The Nexus, which has been constructed by the Builders, the same people who constructed the great Arks (explained further in my Project Solaris spin-off).

  Inside is a holographic figure who introduces itself as Ka. Those of you who read The First Ark will recognize Ka immediately, since it was Ka who helped Isis create the first virus. Ka tells Blair that Steve and Irakesh have gone to the Ark of the Cradle. This is a major ‘oh shit’ moment, because Blair realizes that Steve will sell them out to Ra. He wants to pursue, but I couldn’t just make it that simple, right? It turns out the Nexus is damaged, and it’s going to collapse unless Blair stabilizes it.

  Trevor and Jordan catch up with Steve and Irakesh on the light bridge in the Ark of the Cradle. There’s a brawl where it looks like Trevor and Jordan are winning, but then they’re ambushed from the shadows. Anubis, the jackal-headed god, wrecks their faces and Jordan and Trevor are captured by Ra. Weak.

  Meanwhile, the Director finally wakes up. For those who don’t remember, he was captured by Leif Mohn at the end of No Mere Zombie. Mohn gives the Director a Bond villain speech about taking him to his master, one of the gods who survived from the last age. This god turns out to be none other than super handsome Osiris. =O (That’s my shocked face). Somehow Osiris survived to the present without an Ark.

  Osiris is super charismatic, and also totally not based on the author’s six-year-old imagination of The Best Character Ever. He starts a slow mental chess game with Mark, starting with turning him into a vampire. Why? Well the title is Vampires Don’t Sparkle, so clearly we need vampires. Vampires turn out to be a modified strain of the zombie virus, but they appear more human and prefer blood to devouring brains. They can also teleport, which is basically a short range version of light walking.