Retaliation

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Command Container, Siberia, Russia

The attack on the column had complicated matters. Boris had decided to travel to confer with Lev, leaving Danislav, Janna, and Paul to co-ordinate operations. They had managed to identify several NVG bases of operations and had conducted spoiling raids to keep them on their toes. The captured heavy weapons were used here, to increase the evidence that it was Chechen irregulars that were responsible. It had left Janna with a problem, though since this interrupted her training with Boris. To adjust to the change, her training switched to a different form of battle, as the wolves that Danislav convinced to help him with her training attacked in numbers.

Training against wolves for a werebear her size wasn’t challenging until the attackers numbered more than five. Then, especially with her inexperience, it became a whitewash for the wolves. They were experienced at working as a group, almost on an instinctive level. Her size became a disadvantage against that many. She couldn’t move fast enough to avoid getting hamstrung. Against that many, she couldn’t keep them from getting one of their team into position. From there on it was bad news. She usually managed to take out three before one reached her throat, but that was simply not good enough.

So she had contacted Ecaterina. They had talked for a while about many things, including her pregnancy, baby and how happy it made her. Eventually, Janna brought up the Pricolici form.

“I cannot shake the feeling that he is deliberately holding me back. I have encountered it before you know. Men who believe, somehow, that women need to be… restricted in their responsibilities because they are weaker.”

Ecaterina snorted “I know exactly what you mean. My Nathan did the same sort of thing to me some time ago when I was human. I don’t think it is the case this time. For two reasons. The first is that the most common trigger for that form is an extreme loss. Nathan thought I was dead before the first time he changed. From what you have told me, the death of Boris’s mother caused his first change. He wants to spare you that pain. He loves you, even if he isn’t showing it.” She smirked as Janna blushed a furious red at the comment.

She continued in a more serious tone “He is also worried about whether or not you will succumb to the form. The Pricolici form is very intoxicating. I have felt it, the call to change into it because I can, not because I need to. And he has hunted down people who have lost themselves to it. That is another fear he has. You cannot blame him for that. It is similar to all of the older vampires I have met. They each have regrets and are, for lack of a better term, a little broken. They have an aspect of… having seen too much.”

Janna nodded “And he is as old as some of the younger vampires in the group you are talking about. He has a lot of ‘baggage,’ I think that is the American idiom. I cannot believe I just called someone over four hundred years old younger. It all seems so unreal still sometimes.”

Ecaterina burst into laughter. “So is there anything else I can do for you?”

“I need someone to train against, though. He is so careful as if the training will break me. Holding back because I still need to learn more. You don’t know any werebears do you?”

Ecaterina broke into giggles. “Oh, I do actually. Yes, indeed. My uncle happens to be one. Would you like me to ask him?”

Janna nodded eagerly “Yes. Please. It looks like Boris will be gone for another week. He has decided to see the refugees to the border before he returns. I want him to feel I am completely ready when he returns.”

So Janna continued to train as a werebear against a werebear. Alexi couldn’t deny his favorite niece’s request. The woman who supported Bethany Anne arranged for it to happen.