BELLATRIX (Frank Kurns Stories of the UnknownWorld Book 3) Read online

  CONTENTS

  Dedication

  Legal

  Series List

  Social Links

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Author Notes - Natalie Grey

  Author Notes - Michael Anderle

  The Queen Bitch Is Back

  DEDICATION

  To Family, Friends and

  Those Who Love

  To Read.

  May We All Enjoy Grace

  To Live The Life We Are

  Called.

  Bellatrix

  Frank Kurns Stories 03

  JIT Beta Readers

  Heath Felps

  Venus Cousins Glaspie

  Michael Horgan

  Dorene Johnson (US Navy (Ret) & DD)

  Keith Kell

  Jed Moulton

  Thomas Ogden

  Michael Pendergrass

  Hari Rothsteni

  Randy Slocum

  Robin Stonecipher

  Diane Velasquez (Chinchilla lady & DD)

  If I missed anyone, please let me know!

  Editors

  Stephen Russell

  Thank you to the following Super Help

  for putting together a SERIES TIMELINE

  Keith Hellis

  Timeline Here:

  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwImbYUAN598WTVkLXJuMXZpOEE/view?usp=drivesdk

  Bellatrix (this book) is a work of fiction.

  All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

  The Kurtherian Gambit (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds)

  are Copyright (c) 2016 by Michael T. Anderle

  Complete Book is Copyright (c) 2016 by Michael T. Anderle

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Michael T. Anderle.

  Version 1.01

  Natalie Grey

  Kurtherian Gambit Series Titles Include:

  BELLATRIX

  Frank Kurns Story 3 (TKG 13.25)

  ** The Dark Years Illuminated **

  The Queen’s Knight

  January / February 2017

  The Knight’s Response

  February / March 2017

  The Knight Has Had Enough

  March / April 2017

  Michael Anderle

  Kurtherian Gambit Series Titles Include:

  First Arc

  Death Becomes Her (01) - Queen Bitch (02) - Love Lost (03) - Bite This (04)

  Never Forsaken (05) - Under My Heel (06) Kneel Or Die (07)

  Second Arc

  We Will Build (08) - It’s Hell To Choose (09) - Release The Dogs of War (10)

  Sued For Peace (11) - We Have Contact (12) - My Ride is a Bitch (13)

  Don’t Cross This Line (14)

  Third Arc (Due 2017)

  Never Submit (15) - Never Surrender (16) - Forever Defend (17)

  Might Makes Right (18) - Ahead Full (19) - Capture Death (20)

  Life Goes On (21)

  **New Series**

  The Second Dark Ages

  The Dark Messiah (01)

  (Michael’s Return)

  12.25.2016

  The Boris Chronicles

  * With Paul C. Middleton *

  Evacuation

  Retaliation

  Revelation Dec 2016

  Restitution 2017

  Reclaiming Honor

  * With JUSTIN SLOAN *

  Justice Is Calling (01)

  Claimed By Honor (02)

  Jan 2017

  The Etheric Academy

  * With TS PAUL *

  ALPHA CLASS (01) Dec 2016/Jan 2017

  ALPHA CLASS (02) Feb/Mar 2017

  ALPHA CLASS (03) May/June 2017

  Terry Henry “TH” Walton Chronicles

  * With CRAIG MARTELLE *

  SEE ABOVE!

  SHORT STORIES

  Frank Kurns Stories of the Unknownworld 01 (7.5)

  You Don’t Mess with John’s Cousin

  Frank Kurns Stories of the Unknownworld 02 (9.5)

  Bitch’s Night Out

  Anthologies

  Glimpse

  Honor in Death

  (Michael’s First Few Days)

  Beyond the Stars: At Galaxy's Edge

  Tabitha’s Vacation

  Natalie Grey Social

  Facebook Here:

  https://www.facebook.com/Natalie-Grey-393234677682987/

  Michael Anderle Social

  Website:

  http://kurtherianbooks.com/

  Email List:

  http://kurtherianbooks.com/email-list/

  Facebook Here:

  https://www.facebook.com/TheKurtherianGambitBooks/

  CHAPTER ONE

  Alec Nikolaev lifted the latch and pushed open the door into his parents’ kitchen. At almost six feet tall, he had to stoop to get in the older, shorter, doorway. The first few flakes of an early snowstorm clung to his black hair.

  “Hello, Mama.” He went to where his mother, far shorter than he was and now grey-haired, was kneading bread with the sort of intensity that masked worry. She always baked when she was worried. He kissed her on the cheek. “Why did you need me here in the middle of the day?”

  She gave him the answer she often gave: “It’s your sister.”

  Alec walked to the kitchen table and slumped down in a chair with a groan, “Mama, every week you tell me to get Yelena to quit her job and move home.” He decided this time, he was going to go to the wall with his mom.

  She needed to finally accept the truth.

  He continued, “Mom, she clearly doesn’t want to come back. She’s a grown woman, she gets to—”

  “She came home.” Was his Mom’s curt response, hand’s strangling the dough.

  Alec’s mouth dropped open. “What? When?”

  “This morning.” His mother licked her lips. Her shoulders were hunched. “She took an overnight train.”

  Alec felt a prickle on the back of his neck. “And? What aren’t you telling me?”

  His mother finally gave up on her kneading. She sighed and wiped a floury hand across her forehead, and paused to pick her words.

  She was a woman who could argue with her children for hours, almost without drawing breath, but now she didn’t seem to know what to say. “She’d been crying,” she said finally.

  She looked older, suddenly. “But she wouldn’t talk about it. She said everything was fine. But she was still in her work clothes, and she didn’t bring a suitcase. It looked like she just walked out of the house without even a coat, and bought a train ticket.”

  Alec knew just what his mother was suggesting, but he had one question.

  “Mama….” He tried to smile. “You’ve wanted her to break up with Ciprian for months, and come home. Why don’t you look happy?”

  His mother went back to kneading, with more force than was necessary once again. She had complained non-stop since Yelena had taken a job a few hours away. His mother hadn’t liked the job. She hadn’t liked Ciprian, Yelena’s boyfriend. She called Alec every few days to plead with him to get Yelena
to return home. Now, though, she didn’t seem to be celebrating.

  She was sad. She looked over at him, finally. “I didn’t want her to be unhappy,” she said finally. “I never wanted that.” Then, she whispered her greatest concern, “And, she’s broken, Alec.”

  Alec sat, frozen. He and Yelena were twins. When they were children, they always knew when the other one was upset. That had faded over the years, especially when they began to live further apart.

  Alec had woken up the previous night from a sad dream he couldn’t remember, and sat at his own kitchen table late into the night. He was feeling like his heart was broken and not knowing why.

  Now he wondered if it had really been him who had been sad … or Yelena.

  What had happened?

  He pushed himself up without a word and went down the low-ceilinged hallway to his sister’s bedroom, all the way at the back of the house. He half-expected to hear music.

  When she was a teenager, Yelena would play music far too loudly and dance all evening until someone pounded on the door and told her to stop. Now, nothing. He raised his hand to knock on the door, and then thought better of it and just pushed the door open. His sister was sitting on her bed, staring at nothing.

  She looked terrible. Her black hair was nicely styled, her skirt suit was tailored, but she was too thin and she appeared so exhausted that her eyes looked bruised.

  Her makeup had long since worn away, but he could still see the shadow where her mascara had run and she hadn’t washed it off properly. Her fingers kept working over one another, twisting.

  She looked over at him dully, her eyes lifeless. “Hi.”

  Alec tried to conceal his shock behind a smile, “Mama said you were home.”

  She smiled back, the sort of emotionless smile she would give in the law office where she worked. She opened her mouth to say something witty, to tease him—he knew she was planning to come up with some story so she wouldn’t have to tell him the truth. Yelena never wanted to tell anyone when she was hurting.

  Their parents had always used Alec’s sense of her, to figure out when something was wrong, and even then she would lie.

  She couldn’t pretend this time, though. She crumpled.

  Her shoulders hunched and tears began to run down her cheeks. When Alec came to sit by her on the bed, she leaned her head on his shoulder and he wrapped his arm around his beloved sister, and held her close.

  “It’s going to be okay.” He didn’t know what else to say.

  “No. It’s not….” She gave a choking sob. “It’s not going to be okay. Work is terrible, and getting worse, and I caught Ciprian with….” She tried to steady herself. “With our downstairs neighbor. Again! I didn’t even grab anything, I just left. I wanted to beat him into the floor with my bare hands and I knew I shouldn’t do that.”

  She gave a watery laugh.

  At least there was a spark of the feisty sister he remembered. Alec gave a grateful smile and squeezed her shoulder. “I dunno, I probably would have.”

  Her laugh turned into a sob. “Alec, I didn’t know where else to go. He said he would never see her again, but he….” Her voice trailed away. “God, how could I have been so stupid? I was proud of myself for getting him when everyone else wanted him, and he was just a jerk the whole time once we were together.”

  Alec felt a hot wave of anger course through him. His sister had been a fighter at one time. Once, she would never have allowed a guy to walk all over her, but she’d fallen hard for Ciprian. Alec understood why their mother hated the man—he was arrogant, cold, and he clearly didn’t care about Yelena at all. But, Yelena had refused to hear a word against him.

  He let Yelena cry, her tears soaking his shirt. He didn’t know what else to do. The feeling of helplessness only made him angrier. After a while, the sobs stopped, and he tried to think of something to say. Something that wasn’t promising to kill Ciprian.

  “You could stay here for a while,” he suggested.

  She picked her head up. “What?”

  “I mean; you’ve got your room here. You could stay for a couple of weeks, until you find a new job.”

  I have to go back. He saw the words come to her mind, but to his shock, she didn’t say them. She stared at him for a moment and she looked terrified. Then she nodded. “I’d like that,” she whispered.

  Her eyes filled with tears again. “I don’t want to go back. I hate my job. I’ve hated it for months but I didn’t want to say because I knew Mom would tell me to come back.” She sighed, “Have I mentioned I hate my job? It was a mistake moving there, I don’t want to go back.”

  “Then you don’t have to.” He promised her. He brushed her hair behind her ears. “Hey, you remember Dmitri?”

  Yelena sniffed and wiped at her eyes. She nodded. “Yeah, why?” When the two of them were younger, they had spent whole holidays at Dmitri’s kennel, learning how to train the dogs, and playing with the puppies. Dmitri had been forty or so then. His public demeanor was gruff, but he’d been kind to the two children.

  “Well, Inger—one of the bitches now—just had another litter. I bet he’d let you help out at the kennel if you wanted.”

  Yelena shook her head, dispirited. “I’d just get in his way. When we were kids, it was fine, but now I would be imposing.”

  “No, you always had a way with dogs, remember?” Alec nudged her. “You really did. I bet he’d ask you to help, if he knew you were back.”

  Yelena smiled back, chin trembling. The thought of staying here was crazy. She had a job back home. All of her things were in the apartment she shared with Ciprian. She couldn’t really stay here, could she?

  Maybe just for a couple of days. She could call in sick to work. She smiled recklessly back at her twin. “Okay. I’ll stay. Probably just for the weekend.”

  Alec knew better than to push her, “Uh-huh. You get some sleep, okay? I’ll take you to see the puppies tonight.”

  __

  Yelena hunched her shoulders against the winter wind outside the kennel. She was wearing some of Alec’s old pants and a heavy down vest, warm enough for early winter, but her fingers were going numb holding the phone. “Ciprian—”

  “Just come home, Yelena.” He sounded desperate. “I messed up, baby. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  “What you were thinking again, you mean?” She retorted. When she walked in on him with their neighbor, she remembered that she had only felt tired and numb. Now, she could feel herself starting to get angry. “You said you’d never even talk to her again. How did this happen?”

  “Yelena—”

  “You know what?” she snapped. “I don’t even want to know. I have to go.”

  “Yelena.” It sounded like he was crying. “Yelena, please.”

  “I have to go,” she repeated, but she was shaken. Ciprian never cried. He would yell and be cold with her, but he never cried.

  She could hear him sob, “Yelena, I’d give anything to have you back.”

  Her voice went cold, “How can I believe that when you couldn’t stay away from her? You’ve been a jerk for months, Ciprian. You don’t deserve to have me around.”

  “It’s different now!” He sounded panicked, like a prize was getting away. “When I realized you were gone, I went crazy. I’ve never been that afraid.” He paused, just a second. Just enough time to feel…honest. “Tell me I haven’t lost you, baby.”

  You haven’t. Of course I’ll come back. Yelena bit her lip.

  She knew she shouldn’t say those words, but she had been weak when it came to him. Ciprian was the one guy wanted by every other woman she knew—and she’d won him.

  Unfortunately, the satisfaction of winning him had blinded her to how much of a jerk he really was.

  “Please.” His voice cracked again. And then, desperately, “At least think about coming home, Yelena, please. It’s not just us, it’s your job. It’s everything.”

  “I hate my job,” she spat out.

  “Yo
u’ve been having a hard time—that doesn’t mean you should walk away from everything! You have friends there. We have a life together. You can’t just throw it all away! If you—”

  “Fine.” Gott Verdammt! She’d give anything to make him stop talking.

  He echoed everything she’d been thinking last night. This was crazy, people didn’t just quit their job and move back to the town where they grew up. She was being a baby, and she knew it. She looked down at the ground.

  She didn’t want to go back to it all, but Ciprian had a point … didn’t he? She might not stop herself from saying something, but damned if she would totally capitulate to that ass. “Fine, I’ll think about it.”

  She hung the phone up before she could say anything else. Putting the phone back in her pocket she stamped her feet to warm herself up. She should go back in, but needed a moment or two to think.