The School of Hard Knocks Book 1: She is the Principle 

In the much-anticipated return of Baba Yaga and Bethany Anne, she is everything you would hope she would be.

She is the Principle snippet – 

Beyond Empire Borders, High Tortuga

The planet formerly known as Devon appeared to be at peace from afar.

However, appearances can be deceptive.

In the jungles that covered the southern continent, the cries of prey animals rose in a lament to the inevitability of nature’s cold cruelty.

On the inhabited northern continent, in the city of Thon, another aria arose to taint the silence of the night. This sister ode was dedicated to the end of life brought by the cloaked figure bearing twin katanas as she ghosted through homes and businesses.

Those who had spent their lives evading Justice had brought her avatar to their doors.

Bethany Anne, Empress of the Etheric Empire, removed the blood of the corpse at her feet from her blade with a thought that drew cleansing energy from the dimension her Empire was named for.

The corpse in question belonged to the last link in a trail of corruption she had eliminated, starting at the top and working her way down to…

Bethany Anne pressed her lips together as her internal monologue faltered. Fuck. What was his name?

>>Karrog Baijom,<< ADAM supplied.

Please continue, Bethany Anne, TOM requested. I was enjoying your narrative.

>>It was reminiscent of the old David Attenborough nature documentaries,<< ADAM added. >> I think I prefer the screams of the guilty for the soundtrack instead of the mating calls of animals.<<

There was a certain appropriateness to it, I agree, TOM concurred.

Way to kill the mood. You two suck the fun out of everything. Bethany Anne returned the clean katana to her back harness and stepped into the gently swirling gray mists of the Etheric. She took a second to orient herself, then started walking in the direction of the safe house. Stephen and Lerr’ek would be wondering why she was late to their ops meeting. Anyone else making an overt move to muscle in on Lerr’ek’s businesses?

>>You mean your businesses?<<

Same thing. At least until I’m ready for people to know I’m here.

TOM snickered. Don’t tell me your sword arm is getting tired?

About as tired as you are of living. Bethany Anne’s annoyance was directed at the attempt at a hostile takeover, not at her two onboard companions and closest friends. As a woman, being contradictory is my right. As a leader, it doesn’t sit well with me to expect a standard from Lerr’ek that I’m not going to adhere to.

Fairness is subjective, TOM countered. Since Lerr’ek’s rivals refused to accept that his holdings were not up for grabs, one might surmise that it is entirely fair that they’re now doing business in the big stock exchange in the sky.

Bethany Anne snickered despite her frustration. I can never decide whether my influence on you is a good thing or if I’ve corrupted you beyond redemption. Then you say shit like that, and I don’t care.

>>By all accounts, your tame Zhyn has acted like he took your command to heart,<< ADAM offered, knowing her well enough to surmise this wasn’t what she’d had in mind when instructing Lerr’ek to initiate Phase Two of his takeover strategy with a methodology that was, well, alien to the Zhyn. >>That is the only metric that matters, right?<<

I wouldn’t go so far as to describe Lerr’ek as tame. Bethany Anne had to appreciate the effort the Kurtherian and AI made to guide her past her rising temper. The time I took to educate him about where he sits in the food chain brought him into line. He has a lot to prove before I will trust him.

>>But you intend to give him a chance?<<

Whether he is teachable is up to him. I’ll give him the same as I give anyone who hasn’t been with me since the start. Bethany Anne pulled up her hood to hide the distinctive features of her Baba Yaga persona before she stepped out of the Etheric and onto the crowded sidewalk. Enough rope to either hang himself or pull himself out of the hole his previous actions have gotten him into.

High Tortuga, Northern Continent, City of Thon, Undisclosed Location

Lerr’ek’s two companions at the table had nothing on his bulk. However, they were human, or one of them was.

Who knew what the woman with skin as black as the absence of light, hair bright as starlight, and eyes as red as blood was?

Deadly if your Zhyn ass pisses me off, Bethany Anne’s voice cut into his thoughts. So pay attention, Lerr’ek.

Stephen answered Lerr’ek’s pleading glance with a shrug, a glint of amusement in his eyes.

Lerr’ek sighed, a habit he’d picked up since having his life co-opted by the new mistress of the planet. The singular saving grace of Baba Yaga’s unequivocal takeover of his business interests was that his rivals had suffered a more permanent fate in addition to losing their livelihoods.

The jury was still out on whether they had been given the easier deal, and since he was lacking in clairvoyant abilities, there was no way to find out without committing an act of supreme stupidity.

He hadn’t gotten this far in life by being stupid.

“I apologize, Mistress. Where were we?”

“We were discussing alternatives to genocide for dealing with the irredeemable fuck nuggets who are resisting my efforts to clean up this dumpster fire of a planet.” Baba Yaga’s gravelly voice had the effect of sharp claws running down his spine. “And for your information, I am every bit as human as the Empress.”

Lerr’ek didn’t miss the threat in her reminder that he had been granted the knowledge of her true identity. What was more fearsome, the Witch on any given day or the Empress unrestricted by the weight of ruling?

His mind scrabbled for purchase on the sliver of sanity he was able to retain in the presence of Death personified. He gulped at the sight of the razor-sharp teeth that showed when her lips curled in a wicked grin. She was enjoying this.

“Mistress, the Northern Continent is all but yours. You have a controlling interest in all extraplanetary trade, and on-world trade will soon follow. The rest of the planet will fall into line once the people realize your rule means an end to living under the heel of the cartel.”

“The balance of power is shifting in my favor,” Bethany Anne agreed without acknowledging the tremor in his voice. “Just not fast enough for my liking. Existing is not thriving. The gangs, both on the streets and in the government, are running wild in the belief that they can fill the vacuum I created when I took out the cartel’s leadership.”

“You did drive the majority of the remaining criminal elements underground,” Stephen reasoned.

“Underground is not six feet under,” Bethany Anne corrected, her nails tapping the table in an audible indication of her impatience. “There are one-point-six billion people on this planet who have no understanding of what it means to live free of the artificially created scarcity that has me wanting to burn the pillars of this planet’s society to ashes and start from scratch.”

“Which you cannot do without involving the Empire,” Stephen reminded her gently.

The red light in Bethany Anne’s eyes faded and she sighed, then pushed back the hair that had fallen into her face. “Not happening. This is my personal project. I need a place away from the Empire, and I refuse to allow the people living in that place to exist in substandard conditions.”

There it was. The reason beyond primal fear that had inspired Lerr’ek to swallow his pride and resolve to do as his Mistress commanded without question.

She had dropped him into the Etheric and broken him without showing a drop of emotion. That was nothing new to a male who lived in a world where the strong did whatever they wanted to the weak. It was the tender side she had exhibited as she put him back together again that had brought him to what humans called a “come to Jesus” moment.

She was a scary-as-shit, easily moved to violence, emotionally fractious dictator with a hair-trigger temper. She was the living embodiment of everything good in this universe and would live and die for those under her protection.

Lerr’ek’s head should have spun with the dichotomy Bethany Anne/Baba Yaga represented. However, he saw that the two halves were simply different facets of a whole, one he would follow into the burning center of a star going supernova.

Her laser focus never wavered from her determination to drag the planet out of the gutter. He utterly believed that she would succeed. After all, she had done the same for an Empire that spanned galaxies. What was one planet in comparison?

All he had to do was survive long enough to see that day.

“What do you have to say, Lerr’ek?”

Her voice snapped Lerr’ek out of his wandering thoughts. “If I admit I wasn’t listening, are you going to hit me?”

Bethany Anne shrugged. “That depends. Were you thinking of solutions to the pushback I’ve been getting about renaming the planet?”

Sensing that whatever he did would trigger the trap he saw lurking in her eyes, Lerr’ek chose honesty. “No, Mistress. I was considering the choices that led me here.” The deep blue of his skin darkened around his neck at the admission.

Silence followed as Bethany Anne ceased her relentless tapping. She fixed him with a soul-searching stare. “Elaborate, and don’t bother with any ego-stroking bistok shit.”

Lerr’ek shuffled uncomfortably under the scrutiny of the two humans. “I came here because this planet is rich in resources. Ores and other raw materials. It’s close enough to the Empire to support trade without being folded into it. There’s an overabundance of business opportunities, whatever sector you deal in. If you hadn’t come here, I would have owned it all within twelve cycles, and I would have stripped it bare before moving on to the next opportunity.”

Bethany Anne’s eyebrow arched. “Then it can only be a good thing that you have been leashed.”

Lerr’ek shook his head. “I’m not so sure. There is an untold multitude of people who think like me. The farther out from the Empire you travel, the more apparent it becomes.”

“It was just as apparent inside the Empire before I beat some damned empathy into anyone who thought fucking others over was the way to live.” Bethany Anne saw he was still formulating his answer and waved her hand for him to continue.

“It’s just the way it is,” Lerr’ek told her. “Nature running its course on a larger scale, and with a more refined intelligence guiding that mindset. Those who have the drive to act in favor of the many typically lack the resources to act any higher than at a local level. Those who make it get overrun by entities more ruthless than they have the capacity to comprehend.”

Stephen nodded in understanding. “There is a middle ground between total exploitation and benevolent anarchy.”

“Anarchy can be benevolent?” Lerr’ek snorted at the thought. “I would assume a lack of structure inevitably leads to collapse. A middle ground? That’s new thinking for me, but I can see how your extended lifespans allow you to reap the benefits of investing in long-term growth.”

“Those benefits don’t just fall into my lap,” Bethany Anne clarified. “And they don’t just benefit those closest to me. What does post-scarcity mean to you?”

Lerr’ek shrugged. “Honestly? Not an awful lot. Life competes for its share of finite resources. It’s how it has always been. From microscopic single-cell entities to the behemoths that travel from nebula to nebula feeding on the energy of supernovae, whoever commands the resources gets to thrive.”

Bethany Anne adjusted her assessment of Lerr’ek’s intelligence. “Hmmm. Okay. You understand that cooperation increases the ability of any given species to thrive?” He nodded. “Can you picture a society—like the Etheric Empire, for instance—where that cooperation is extended to ensure that many otherwise disparate peoples can live without competing for resources?”

Lerr’ek shrugged. “I can imagine that working, right up until the moment fear of reprisal from the Empress ceases to be a motivation for said cooperation. It goes against instinct to place anyone who is ‘other’ in equal standing to the group. Surely you have psychologists in the Empire?”

Bethany Anne’s lips twitched. “There are universities and teaching hospitals full of them. Many have been researching ways to subvert that genetic imperative for generations. The result of the research that has been implemented is that the Empress could step down tomorrow, and the member states would find a way to continue coexisting for the benefit of all. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions from that.”

Stephen’s reaction was too subtle for Lerr’ek to notice, but someone else read the slight stiffening of his body.

That is skating very close to the truth, TOM commented.

I’m not about to spill all my secrets. The time will be right soon. Then I’ll tell those who need to know that I’ve been working up the rebellion that’s going to allow me to abdicate without consequences, Bethany Anne told him.

>>Stephen already suspects your interest in High Tortuga is more than a distraction,<< ADAM pointed out. >>He moved Jennifer here.<<

I’ll tell him when I’m ready, Bethany Anne stated, her inner voice icing over.

ADAM and TOM chose not to push the issue and reap the consequences of making her repeat herself a second time.

Bethany Anne laced her fingers together and rested her hands on the table. “I can accept that your experience has created a mindset that is contrary to the expectations I have for my people.”

“In some ways, yes,” Lerr’ek agreed. “I understand your determination to realize your goals, even if I have never encountered someone who combines that relentlessness with…what was the human word?”

Bethany Anne brushed his mind. “Ethical and moral responsibility?”

Lerr’ek pointed at her, nodding as he filed away the concepts for later examination. “That. Yes.”

“Are you capable of growth?” Bethany Anne noted the doubt that creased the Zhyn’s features. She had seen every reaction to variations on that question over the years, and his doubt gave her hope for his ability to make the changes she wanted to see. It meant he understood the challenge she was setting him and was invested in the possibilities presented by meeting her expectations.

“Are you willing to move beyond acquisition for the purpose of accumulating power and wealth, knowing that my way will bring you both those things without creating suffering for those who don’t deserve it?”

Lerr’ek considered her question. “What about those who do deserve it?”

Bethany Anne’s smile revealed those razor-sharp teeth again. “Payback,” she told him, “is a bitch.”

The School of Hard Knocks Book 1: She is the Principle is coming this week December 31st. What better way to start the new year than with everyone’s favorite vampire?