Blueblood 3: The Others - 17. Tel Aviv

Amasis was staring at the destruction in disbelief.

Colin came up behind Amasis and put his hands on Amasis’ shoulders. “It’s not gone. It’s just secured.”

I came up also and took Amasis’ hand. “We need to go,” I said calmly and led him further toward the SUVs. That was another thing Amasis wasn’t ready for.

Amir came up and got behind Amasis. “I told you about these chariots that didn’t need horses.” He waved at one of the vehicles.

Amasis nodded. “You did, son,” Amasis said in a near whisper. “I heard what you said.” He touched his own chest. “It’s so unbelievable.”

I nodded. “I can’t know how you’re feeling. I can imagine, but no one can know how this affecting you.” I waved at the SUVs. “For a while…until you adjust.” I said and hurried forward. “And you will adjust. You’re very smart.” I touched the nearest SUV. “It’s a machine. It’s not magic, but it will get us out of here.” I looked at Colin. “Are we going back to Cairo?”

Colin shook his head. “No, we’d be in danger there.” He looked at Stan. “Is there anything on the satellite images?”

Stan was shaking his head. “I’m waiting for another pass. It will be overhead in a few minutes.” He said again walking and looking at the laptop at the same time.

“Where will we go?” I waved at Amasis. “He doesn’t have a passport!”

Colin nodded. “We’re going to Israel.”

“Why Israel?”

“We’re allies,” Colin said. “There’s an embassy in Tel Aviv. We’re going there.” He looked at Amasis. “It’s a little travel to get there, it will take several hours.” He looked at Mark and Chuck. “Someone needs to call Ruben. Talk with him and have him call Senator Cook or Congresswoman Chance or both. Have them call Israel and get us cleared to cross the border there.”

Chuck nodded and pulled out his satellite phone. “I got it.” He dialed.

Amasis was listening and trying to understand our quick conversations and all that was happening. “It really is…happening.”

I nodded. “It’s really happening.”

Stan let out one of his victory shouts. “Yes!” He said smiling. “Okay, it looks like they survived.” He counted. “Yes, they all live.”

Colin nodded and shrugged. “I guess that’s good.” He smiled at me.

“Yes, Colin. Life good. Death bad.” I said bringing him into a kiss.

Colin smiled. “Which means we need to go because they are alive.”

I looked again Amasis and waved at the SUV. “There will be many instances where you won’t understand what’s going on. That’s fine, but you trust us, don’t you?”

Amasis nodded. “I do.”

This was all too new for Amasis, but I got him to sit in front on the passenger side. Everything was fascinating to him; from the comfortable seat to when Colin started the SUV and the engine came to life, startling Amasis and the air conditioning came on once it started. We liked music and the SUV’s stereo came on, too.

Colin touched his ear. “Can you hear me, Alex?” He nodded at the voice in his ear. “Let Ruben know we’ll be entering Israel through the border at Nizzana. We’re going through the desert. It’s a rocky path we’re taking, so we’ll go carefully.”

I sat right behind Colin. Stan sat in the middle seat and plugged the power cord into the socket. Mark beside on his other side.

Stan patted the computer. “There you go, Buddy. Power.” He said to the computer. I didn’t have to see Mark roll his eyes to know he did it.

Amasis said from the passenger side. “This has been…” he looked at his surroundings. “This is a chariot?”

Colin nodded as we started to move. “It is.”

Amasis had no idea what to expect, but he was trying to accept it. “This music…” he said looking at the dashboard. “…is from invisible musicians?” He held his hands up to the vent. “Cool air is breathed by this chariot!?” He waved. “We’re moving with no horses and I don’t see anything pulling it!”

Colin shrugged. “But we’re moving. It will be a few hours’ ride. So, sit back and relax.” He looked in the rearview mirror at me. “Do you know what day is coming?”

I hadn’t thought of it, but I remembered. “I do. We missed Thanksgiving. Where are we going now? We haven’t found The Others.”

Colin nodded. “We found out about The Others. We’re coming back, but for now, we need to go back to the United States.” His emerald eyes in the mirror told me what he meant. “We need to go home.”

“The plane in Cairo?” I asked.

“I had them go back after we got here,” Colin said a shrugged. “I didn’t know how long we’d be here.”

Going was…it wasn’t difficult, but it was slow. The ballooned tires helped as we went. Stan worked out a route using the satellite imaging. We were a caravan of three SUVs and two cargo vans, also with those balloon tires. It was because of this length of time that was a good thing. The border station on the Egyptian side was first. We arrived from a southwest direction of the town. What pleased me were the military vehicles waiting with US flags. Border guards from both sides were there waiting with the military from the United States. We went through the passport checks and there was a question about Amasis and Amir, but a man in a suit came up and presented papers from a briefcase that told of political refugee status and Amasis and Amir were allowed in to be in the custody of the US Embassy. I grinned as we were then escorted by the military all the way to Tel Aviv. Amasis was looking the whole way once we got to Nizzana. I watched as Amasis got sadder and sadder. When we got to the fertile areas of En Sharuhen he wasn’t even looking anymore. I think it was just too much, too soon.

Once at the embassy, there were some things to go over before we got to a hotel making it late in the afternoon. We got a suite with connecting rooms for Amasis and Colin and me. Now Amasis was very despondent. He did grab the walls of the elevator when the door shut and began to move, but seeing we weren’t upset he settled down.

I went in after we checked in to check on him. He was looking out the window at the beach below. The hotel was a luxury hotel on the beach and we were on an upper floor. He stood with his arms behind his back as he just stared. I walked over to him and he didn’t move.

It was a few minutes before he said anything. “This is not my world.” He said softly and sadly.

I thought about how best to answer. “It’s not mine either,” I said which caused him to look at me surprised. I shrugged. “What the world is, is the world. It doesn’t belong to anyone. It simply is.” I turned to look at him. “Should we have left you? Sealed you in your wonderful city? Or should we have just killed you?”

He gave a shaking nod. “I don’t know. Maybe.” He waved at what he saw below the people and the cars that drove on the street he could see and the city lit for the evening. “I don’t know any of this.” He said sadly. “Since we left my city, I haven’t really understood anything.”

I nodded. “It’s all new,” I said. “You need time. It will become familiar eventually.”

He walked away and sat on the bed. His eyes widened as he bounced on the mattress. “Even this!” He patted the bed. “What’s this stuffed with? It’s very springy.”

I smiled as I came in and sat by him. “There are air pockets in it. Foam filled and made to make sleep more comfortable.” I smiled. “Humans are very resourceful and finding ways to be comfortable. When we got in the vehicle…the horseless chariot…we as people found a way to make even that travel more comfortable. We came up with ways to entertain ourselves and make travel more comfortable by making it cooler or warmer as needed. You experienced that the first time today.”

Amasis nodded. “Enclosed and even the ride itself had no real jolts.”

“I don’t want you feeling overwhelmed by this world. Gabriella had the same problem when we rescued her.” I said. “Technology changed a lot recently. Colin, as long as he has been alive, progressed on the edge of society, so it was easier for him.”

“I shouldn’t exist!”

I nodded. “No, you shouldn’t, but here you are!” I smiled. “Most of them shouldn’t be here. Burke, Alex, Willie, Gabriella, and Colin should be dead by now. Relationships that are relationships now, should never be. Mom and Willie, Gabriella and Alex, George and Burke and certainly not Colin and me, but Colin and I are married. My mother is married to a man that should have died of old age when she was a baby. Gabriella should have died of old age or been an old lady when Alex was born. George and Burke should never have even met…” I touched his arm. “You should just be a boring notation in history books I have read at school. We shouldn’t know each other at all, let alone be friends! I have a good friend who was a pharaoh of Egypt! That’s something in itself. Not many can claim that.”

Amasis nodded smiling. “And you? You didn’t say you shouldn’t be here.”

I grinned. “I was born in it this world. There was no adjustment for me.”

Amasis looked startled. “You were born in this world? How old are you?”

“I was born only thirty some season cycles ago.”

Now, Amasis’ eyes widened. “You’re barely older than Amir!”

I nodded. “That’s right.” How did I make this easy? I couldn’t. “You can choose ways to look at this. It can defeat you, or you can look at it as a challenge. You have lived longer than any human being I ever heard of.” I shrugged. “Some might view that as a curse, others see it as a blessing. The advantage here is; you have people here that are the same as you. We won’t necessarily die on you. We can and probably will, but it’s not certain when.” I smiled at him. “Soon, we’ll be taking another kind of chariot.”

Amasis looked wary at me. “Oh? What’s special about this one?”

I chuckled. “It flies.”

Amasis looked at me wide-eyed. “I was told there were strange things moving in the sky over the past cycles. Those are chariots?”

I nodded. “With hundreds of people on it. You’ll be one of them soon.” I got up. “Now, the best thing we can do…it will help you adjust. In the morning…we’re going shopping.”

“Shopping?” Amasis asked.

I nodded. “You need clothes,” I said. “Chuck will want his pants and hat back. Colin will want his shirt back and shoes.”

Amasis grinned and stood up. He pulled on his crotch again. “The undergarment?”

I chuckled. “I don’t think Colin cares if you keep it.”

Amasis shook his head. “No, no…I want to give them back.” He pulled again. “It binds and pinches. They sell garments that might not?”

I patted his arm. “We can shop for those you may like, too.” I reached over and grabbed a remote. “Now, I’ll introduce you to the fabulous world of modern toileting!” I watched his eyebrows rise. He was fascinated! Like many people I heard about from remote areas in the rural South that had outhouses to use, he was flushing just to see the water come in and out. Then I showed him about TV and how to use the remote, about the channels and even how to use the translator to understand the languages if he didn’t know them. We finally had to leave when Colin came in complaining about being hungry again. It had been several hours, so he was hungry. So was Amasis.

When Colin and I settled in for the night, Colin came to me as we got in bed.

“How’s he handling all this?” Colin asked.

I nodded. “He’ll be okay. He just feels out of place here right now.”

Colin smiled. “We have a few days as the government offices discuss what to do.” He chuckled. “What do they need to do? He’s coming with us, but he needs permission to stay in the United States.”

“Do you think there will be a problem?”

He shook his head. “We have two powerful people agreeing to let him in. It’s just the red tape.” He stretched next to me and started to come closer and stopped. “Should we…do this?” He asked.

“Do this what?”

Colin rolled his eyes. “You know what I’m asking about. It’s our nightly thing! I don’t think there have been too many nights when we didn’t make love.” He thumbed to the door behind which was Amasis. “He may come in.”

I laughed. “He’s not a child. He knows what we’d be doing if he saw us making love.”

Colin frowned and gave me a sardonic look. “Oh, you don’t mind if he sees?”

“He’s been alive a long time, I’m sure it will be nothing new to him. I’m sure as many times as he married to both male and female, he probably did it all and could give us tips!” I said pulling Colin close. “He’s already seen us naked, and we’ve seen him, but he’s pretty tired. He’s fascinated with the TV. I don’t think he’ll be up for a few more hours. He's pretty tired.” I said running my hands over Colin’s chest. “A few hours enjoying each other?” I asked.

Colin smiled kissing me. “I like that idea.” He began kissing me deeper and with more longing.

It was the next morning when we went to get breakfast Amasis knew a little more and was sharing what he’d found out.

“So, this is a country of Hebrews?” He asked. “They were nomadic before!”

I nodded. “This has been a country for a while now.” I looked at him. “They were once slaves to the people of Egypt.”

Amasis nodded. “Not for a few thousand cycles…” he smiled. “…years.” He grinned. “I am trying to learn more English.” He tapped his translator. “I was seeing…watching that magic window…what you say is TV. I was listening and understood some…the languages changed a lot, but I realized, they were Hebrew here. This is Israel. A country made up of Hebrews.”

Colin nodded. “You got it.”

I watched as both of them were eating well. “We’re going to get Amasis and Amir some clothes. Want to come?”

Colin nodded. “Sure. We won’t be leaving for a few more days.”

Amasis looked again a little wary. “Then we will take the flying chariot?”

Colin nodded smiling. “It’s called a plane. We’re taking you to where we live far across the ocean.”

Amasis smiled. “You two are very kind. Thank you for doing all this.”

The mall was also fascinating to Amasis. He looked at everything. He marveled at a lot of what he saw we had in this world now. Electronic gadgets must hit all males in our very DNA, he was spellbound looking at all the TV, stereos, computers and all those things. I showed him where there was music like he heard in the SUV he could get and play anytime he wanted on a stereo. Even Amir was a little unprepared for a lot he was seeing. The most important thing was for Amasis was he found some undergarments that didn’t pinch or bind. The shoes he would just have to get used to.

It was at the mall as we got something to eat that Colin breached a subject.

“We came to your city originally, Amasis, because of the Others,” Colin said. “Those you called The Old Ones.”

Amasis nodded. “They were pretty well taken care of. I hadn’t seen one in a hundred cycles.”

“But they didn’t originate in your city?” Colin said.

Amasis shook his head. “No. We had the records about them, but they originated elsewhere. A place near the original capital of…” he said a word, but the translator beeped. “…later it was called Thinis. They were taken to many places and released in the wilds north of Egypt. From what I understand, in what you now call…Europe. They were some released to go North, South, East, and West. They knew how to survive. They were primitive but resourceful.” He thought. “From what I understand, the creator of these creatures wanted a force that would overtake an enemy; providing that our own people would be immune to these creatures.”

“They would go, attack the people in these countries, wipe them out…” Colin said.

Amasis nodded. “The people would die he thought,” Amasis said. “They would die in simple sunlight.” He shrugged. “Some would live, but they would attack his own people.”

I nodded. “They pretty much did that. These creatures don’t attack us, because we already are vampires. He wasn’t making a race of vampires, was he?”

“I don’t think that was his intent,” Amasis said.

Colin frowned. “How did you become a victim?”

Amasis frowned. “I really can’t remember.” He said. “It was so many cycles ago. I remember I fought in a fierce battle. I was wounded and when I woke up…” he shrugged. “…I just thought I’d fallen in that battle and I was in the afterlife. I was making that afterlife better. I survived because I was stashed away in what was going to be my tomb. It wasn’t finished. I was sealed in, but I was there, couldn’t go out, so I didn’t.”

I smiled. “You were in battle?”

Amasis nodded with a smile. “I was a warrior! I was not just Pharaoh! I would never lead a campaign I wasn’t involved in.”

Colin nodded. “That explains why we probably never have seen them in The Others in the United States.”

I nodded. “We have wild vampires, but those are the ones that have given up.” I sighed. “The Others…” I waved at Amasis. “…the ones he calls the Old Ones never were taken to the New World.”

Colin sat back as he thought. “The danger is far from over.” He said to us. “Those men…the militia….whoever sent them know who we are. They know where we live. We’ll see them again.”

“Are we moving on?” I asked.

“We need to see what Stan has gotten from those scrolls,” Colin said.

“He did get them all, right?” I asked.

“All the ones that were there, yes.” Colin nodded. “Now, we’ll find out if that builds a database we can use.”

I grinned at Amasis. “And you’ll be with us. You get to be part of a big celebration in the United States.”

Amasis raised his eyebrows. “Oh? Celebrating what?”

“Christmas!”

We were finally cleared to leave Israel. We were given the papers needed for Amasis and Amir complete with pictures and documentation needed. The camera flash startled Amasis, but he weathered it well. Amasis looked as we arrived at the airport and looked at a plane for the first time.

He nodded. “Okay, it does sort of look like a bird.”

Colin slapped Amasis on the back. “That’s because it is a bird! Now, we’ll be riding in one.”

It was the Holms' Laboratories plane again, so less hassle with the authorities. I showed Amasis and Amir what to do when we got onboard. I showed them the seatbelts and told them what they can expect. I spoke of turbulence and Amasis’ and Amir’s eyes widened when I talked about that. Chuck, Shelly, Mark and Stan were flying commercial to New York. They had lives other than chasing vampires. I sat by Colin and put my seatbelt on.

“I felt like a stewardess or whatever they call them…flight attendant?” I went into the voice I’d heard many times as the flight safeties were given. “In case of loss of cabin pressure, the masks will come down and put the mask on yourself before attaching one to your child…”

Colin chuckled. “I’d listen to you.” He smiled at me.

We were good until the plane’s engines suddenly got louder and we began to move. I watched with a grin as Amasis’ eyes widened the faster we went and kept getting faster. When the nose of the airplane left the ground Amasis let out a slow sound that got louder to become a small yelp with the rear wheels left the ground and we began rising. Then he started breathing faster as his grip on the arm of the seat became tighter, his knuckles were white.

I reached over and pried his hand free. “It’s okay,” I said. “We’re flying and will do that for a long time.”

Amasis nodded too rapidly, but couldn’t say a thing. George came offered to give him a light sedative.

Amasis didn’t answer. I walked to George. “Give him a few more minutes. When he realizes what he fears never happens; he might calm down.”

George nodded and promised to watch him.

Colin smiled as I sat down beside him again. “Some people never get used to flying.” He shrugged.

“But they know about planes,” I said. “He never heard of one or even knew what they were until a few days ago.”

Amasis finally went to sleep and I relaxed.

Mom reached over to me. “Son, William and I…”

I looked up at her and smiled. “You mean…my Dad and you.”

Willie chuckled beside her. “Well, you had a father.”

“And I remember, but you have that job now,” I said. “You’re Dad now.”

Mom smiled at Willie and looked at me again. “Your Dad and I have some news.”

I sat back a little in my seat. “I’m not going to be a big brother.”

Mom swatted me lightly on the arm. “No, not that kind of news.” She smiled shaking her head. “We’re moving out.”

“What!?” I asked in shock. “You’re going to leave Wentworth!?”

Now Colin was listening. “You want to leave Wentworth Manor?”

Mom frowned, but Willie shook his head. “We’re not leaving the two of you, we’re just moving to a place of our own.”

Willie nodded. “We want a place of our own. Besides, the house is getting crowded. You have Amasis and Amir now…”

“I still have the house on James Island. The lease will be up at the first of the year. We’ll move in there.” Mom said logically.

Then Gabriella leaned over from her seat. “We’re moving out, too.” She said holding Alex’s hand who rose beside her. “It’s better for all of us.”

Colin looked from Gabriella and to Mom. “Everyone is in danger now that those people are after us.”

“Are we more safe at Wentworth?” Gabriella asked. “You two were kidnapped right from Wentworth! On your wedding day!!”

“Which we knew that would probably happen!” I protested. I looked over at Burke who was about to say something. “…and we’ve already been through that, Burke, don’t reopen that.” Burke gave a shrug and settled back next to George.

“Assign what security you think best, Daddy.” Gabriella said as she smiled at Alex. “I have my protection here.”

“We land in Charleston.” Mom said. “But Willie and I will be checking into a resident’s hotel there until the lease is up.”

“Alex and I will be checking in there, too,” Gabriella said and looked at Mom. “I seem to remember a woman that was in the real estate business.” She smiled. “Care to help us look for a house?”

Mom smiled. “I’d be happy to!”

Colin was slowly letting it sink into his mind. “Fine.” He sighed. “I guess they all move on eventually.”

I looked at Colin and waved at my mother. “That’s what I’m supposed to do, that was my job! I was her child. She’s not supposed to move out. I’m supposed to grow up and move out. Not her!”

Colin patted me on the hand. “Well, she is.”

“My mother got married and is moving out.” I sighed.

“So is my Gabby,” Colin said sadly.

I looked at Colin. “Are we supposed to cry or something now?” I frowned. “I wouldn’t have minded a little version of Willie, that would have been fun…” I smiled at Colin, “…or another me.”

Mom laughed. “Oh, no, the world could not handle another you, Devon.”

Colin pulled me kissing my temple. “I don’t think that would be so bad.”