Manipulating Mikey (First Wave Book 8)

by Mikayla Lane

  There was silence for a moment and he was starting to worry they were back on non-speaking terms when he heard the voice.

  “I like Harry.”

  Mikey thought for sure he hadn’t heard the beast correctly.

  “I’m sorry, what did you say?” he asked.

  “I would like to be called Harry.”

  “Really?” Mikey asked with a grimace. He wasn’t particularly fond of the name, although he didn’t hate it either.

  “Yes.”

  “OK, then. I’ll name you Harry.” He’d no sooner said the words than he felt like he’d been electrocuted.

  It lasted only seconds, but when he opened his eyes again he felt fine. Different, but fine.

  “Was that it? We’re bonded?” he couldn’t help but ask.

  “You bonded,” Lauren whispered as she stared into his eyes.

  “You can tell?” he asked her as he looked down at himself to see if he had another tattoo or something.

  “Your eyes. The beast bonding creates swirls like storm clouds. Like mine,” Lauren answered.

  Mikey grinned as he looked into her eyes.

  “Wow, for a guy not good with commitment, I just tackled two life-long ones. And you know what? I’ve never felt better,” Mikey admitted before he tackled her back to the mattress.

  Lauren giggled, feeling pretty damn good herself. This was what she’d always thought being bonded would be like, and she had to agree that she’d never felt better either.

  They lay in comfortable silence for long moments with one of Mikey’s legs and an arm sprawled across Lauren and his head on her chest.

  It’s like we’ve known each other forever, Lauren thought.

  She just wondered if he was thinking the same thing when she heard a soft, rumbling snore and looked over to see his face. Sure enough, he was sound asleep and looked like an adorable little boy with his mouth slightly open and his face relaxed in slumber.

  Instead of being angry, she felt wonderful that he felt comfortable enough to sleep with her, and she shifted a little so she’d be more comfortable and fell asleep.

  *****

  Grai stood on the roof of what used to be his children’s compound in Paris and watched the chaos in the city, his fists clenched with rage at what had happened to the beautiful city of innocent souls.

  “Grai, I think the dark prime may have somehow tracked them here after Angel was revealed in Washington, D.C. It looks like the damage was timed to occur while those animals did that,” David said angrily as he gestured towards the emergency lights that blanketed the city.

  “But is the dark prime or the Relians responsible for that?” Grai demanded through gritted teeth as his heart bled for the people of Paris.

  “No,” Traze said as he stepped up beside his brother. “They knew about it and did nothing to stop it so they could do this, but they didn’t plan any of what happened out there.”

  “Should we go out there and help?” Blade asked, itching to do something.

  Grai thought about it and shook his head.

  “If they didn’t have the subjects down and the situation contained, I’d say yes, but right now we’ll just get in their way. However, if we uncover anything about this or anyone responsible, I will issue a kill on confirmation. If everything has been documented, we need to get out of here,” he said.

  A kill on confirmation was the harshest sentence that could be given among the beast worlds, and everyone agreed that it was more than justified in this case even though it encroached on human affairs. There were some injustices that shouldn’t be ignored by anyone with a conscience.

  David called everyone to the roof and the transport arrived minutes later to pick them up. As they all boarded and sat down, Grai turned to Traze.

  “Send the vids to my comm as soon as you can. Lara’s too. I’ve already let her know what happened here. I think she can tell us what the hell that writing is,” he said, hoping Lara could translate it. He had a really bad feeling about whatever the message was.

  “What about Chris and the others? Are you going to tell them?” Traze asked.

  Grai sighed heavily and leaned his head back against his seat, trying to figure out if he should tell the kids or not. If David was right, and they were followed to Paris after the incident at Satalis’s house, then they could be in danger, and he had to warn them to be more vigilant.

  “Yes, I’ll notify Chris and the others as well. They need to know to double their security. Especially with Angel, Dree, and Charlie being so vulnerable,” Grai said, running his hands over his head as he contacted his son.

  After waking him up, Grai was able to tell Chris everything he knew and assured Chris that he would let him know what he found out while they investigated it.

  He opened his eyes and looked around at the somber group and wondered briefly when any of them had slept last. It had been one of those weeks where nothing had seemed to go their way, and they were due a break.

  “Is it me, or has the whole damn world gone crazy in the last few weeks?” Blade asked, shaking his head in anger and frustration over what had been happening around the globe lately.

  “Don’t dwell on it,” Grai advised, knowing it was a slippery slope. “We cannot intervene in their affairs. We’re already doing too much with the kill on confirmation orders that may be issued.”

  “How much of the world do we watch burn before we step in?” Traze demanded angrily.

  Grai turned sharply on his brother.

  “You and I, we are not in any way human and have no say in this! So back the hell off! If and when the hybrids decide to bring a cause before the Alliance, it will be considered by all!” Grai growled at his brother, daring him to challenge him.

  Traze narrowed his gaze at Grai before backing down. Not because he was afraid of going head to head with Grai, but because he could tell that his brother had a plan, and he would wait to see how things played out before taking his own complaint to his brother personally.

  David watched the exchange between the two brothers closely as he sent small bursts of calming energy to Traze in order to help ease the nearly volatile situation. He’d been shadowing Traze more often and had resorted to calming the man-child without his knowledge to keep him from erupting on someone.

  Traze was dangerously close to losing control, and David knew that he was going to have to talk to Grai about it. It wasn’t a conversation he wanted to have for many reasons, but the top one was that he thought Grai was under more than enough stress right now and didn’t need his angry little brother added to his problems.

  Grai was already more than aware of what was going on with his brother, and he’d already made up his mind what he would do about it. The only thing he was waiting on was the end of the human holidays which had always been Traze’s favorite time of the year.

  *****

  Mikey awoke with a start and sat up quickly, looking around the room for what had awakened him. Not seeing anything, he moved to lay back down with Lauren when he heard the slight whimpering sound.

  He had a feeling he knew what it was and slipped from the bed, trying not to wake up Lauren. Mikey pulled on his pants and grabbed a shirt before he opened the door and pulled it closed behind him.

  His bare feet barely made a sound as he walked quickly down the hallway, buttoning his pants and pulling his shirt on as he went. It didn’t take long before Mikey found himself outside, headed towards his bedroom window and the small figure he could see standing beneath it.

  “Emily . . .” Mikey began before he gasped in shock. “What happened to you? What’s wrong?”

  Her image was no longer vibrant and strong like it had been the previous times that he’d seen her. Her face looked gaunt and pale, and it was obvious she’d lost weight. Although still unsure if she was a figment of his imagination or not, Mikey was concerned with the sudden and drastic change to her appearance.

  “Indrid?” Emily whispered, her tear stained face looking around as if she
couldn’t see Mikey.

  “Emily, it’s Mikey. What’s wrong?” he asked with concern.

  “Mikey? Is Indrid with you?” Emily asked as her head swung around as if to see where he was.

  Mikey stepped closer to her and waved his hand in front of her unseeing eyes.

  “Emily? What happened to you?” Mikey whispered in fear for the girl.

  “Mikey, I need you to find Indrid. It’s important, please. If you don’t find him . . . we all might die. Please, I’m begging you,” Emily whispered as tears streamed down her face.

  Mikey reached out for her, to offer comfort, and her image wavered and disappeared.

  “Emily?” Mikey called out, his hand still stretched out where her image had been.

  “I believe that you should try to find Indrid,” Harry whispered in Mikey’s mind.

  “So she’s real? It’s not in my head?” Mikey asked his beast as he rubbed a hand over his head in frustration.

  “She is very real and appears to be in grave need of assistance,” Harry assured him.

  “Damn it! I knew it!” Mikey muttered before he took off at a run toward the end of the city and began a systematic search of each building to look for Indrid.

  At this late hour, there were few people awake, but he asked everyone he encountered if they’d seen the odd man or if they knew how to reach him. Each of the answers had been the same: Indrid showed up randomly, and the only person who could easily reach him would be his son, Mikal, Grai’s adopted son.

  Mikey finally ended up back at the kitchen, and he fell into one of the chairs exhausted. Looking at the clock on the wall, he saw that he’d been searching the city for hours and still hadn’t found a way to help Emily.

  He stood again and wandered around the large kitchen trying to figure out how to make a pot of coffee, knowing he would need it if he was going to wait for someone to wake up so he could get hold of Mikal so Mikal could get Indrid.

  Damn, this is so confusing and crazy, he thought.

  After rummaging through what seemed like every cabinet in the room, he finally got a pot of coffee started and sat back down at the table.

  He sighed in helpless frustration as he ran a hand over his head then laid his head on the table, trying to think of any other way to get ahold of someone that could help him. His last thoughts were of Emily as he drifted off to sleep to the smell of freshly brewing coffee.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Lauren shivered and reached out beside her for Mikey’s warmth and was met with an empty bed. She sat up and pulled the covers around her shoulders as she looked around the dimly lit room for her mate.

  “Mikey?” she called out, hoping he’d just gone to the bathroom and hadn’t left her after taking her virginity and bonding with her.

  When several minutes passed and Mikey still didn’t appear, she slid out of bed and pulled on clean clothes. She wrapped a sweater around her to ward off the chill in the air and quietly opened the door and slipped into the hallway.

  Lauren went to Mikey’s door and swung it open to see if he’d gone to his own room. Not seeing him in the bed, she stepped inside and looked around.

  “Mikey?”

  OK don’t panic, he probably went downstairs to get something to eat, she thought with a confused frown and shut the door behind her as she headed downstairs to the kitchen.

  Lauren breathed a sigh of relief when she saw his head on the table, sound asleep. She looked up at the coffee mug being held out to her by Disc while he held a finger to his lips with his other hand, and she moved silently over to him.

  “Thanks,” she whispered as she took a sip of the hot coffee. How long has he been like this?”

  Disc shook his head and poured himself another cup of the unusually strong brew. Someone—he guessed Mikey—had made it pretty potent this morning which was his favorite way of making the brew as well.

  “I’m not sure, but I’m guessing it was while he was waiting for the coffee to finish,” he suggested with a grin.

  Lauren’s brow furrowed in concern as she wondered when he’d slept last and if he was having sleeping problems. She pulled out her comm and began running scans on him while Disc looked at her curiously.

  “You think something is wrong with him?” he asked.

  “I just want to make sure there isn’t a physical reason why he’s not sleeping well,” Lauren said a little defensively.

  Disc chuckled softly so he wouldn’t wake his exhausted cousin.

  “Can you blame him? It’s been a heck of a few weeks for the guy, and laying a family on him so soon after he found out he wasn’t human probably didn’t help,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders.

  Disc could more than understand why Mikey was having trouble sleeping. He didn’t think he’d sleep too well either if he was tortured by his own government, rescued by aliens, found out he was an alien with strange abilities, met his mate, and then had more family sprung on him.

  I wouldn’t sleep for a month, Disc thought.

  Lauren checked the scans and shook her head. All it told her was what she already knew—he was physically fine but sleep deprived. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something more to this than that.

  With a heavy sigh, she turned to Disc.

  “You’re a spirit walker right? You can visit his dreams?”

  Disc almost choked on his sip on coffee.

  “Are you serious? You want me to invade his dreams?” he asked incredulous she’d want to do that.

  “Something is wrong,” Lauren said, feeling like she had to explain herself. “This is the most peaceful place on the planet, and he can’t sleep. His scans show he’s physically fine but sleep deprived. Which means it has to be psychological. I can’t help him if I don’t know what’s wrong.”

  “He’s physically fine; leave it at that. The rest will work itself out,” Disc assured her, not wanting to violate his newly found cousin’s dreams.

  “What if it’s more than that?” Lauren argued.

  Disc put down his coffee cup and faced Lauren.

  “I understand that you’re mates and you care for him, but I would suggest you abandon the idea of invading his privacy like that. Trust issues are the hardest to overcome in any relationship, so I suggest you try asking him before considering something so drastic,” he said, hoping she’d understand and give up.

  Without another word, he walked quietly out of the kitchen to avoid waking his sleeping cousin.

  Lauren folded her arms over her chest and watched him leave. He had a point; it was a bit privacy stealing and drastic to have him spirit walked, but something was wrong with him. She could feel it.

  “Emily,” Mikey breathed on a sigh in his sleep.

  Lauren’s spine went ramrod straight, and she tightened her arms around herself as she held to breathe to see if he would say anything else in his sleep. Not that she really wanted to hear anything else after listening to him utter another woman’s name after he’d just took her virginity.

  She watched Mikey reach his hand out, as if to touch someone and she found herself walking closer to him as his lips moved.

  “I’ll find him . . . I promise,” Mikey muttered as his hand reached out again.

  His hand dropped to the table sharply and Mikey jerked up in the chair and looked around as he fought the memories of the dream he’d been having. He turned to see the horrified expression on Lauren’s face.

  What the hell? He thought, trying to remember why he was in the kitchen.

  “Emily!” he said, remembering how terrible she looked and how he’d looked for Indrid.

  “Yes, you’ve mentioned her several times in your sleep. Who is she?” Lauren asked, unable to hide the deep hurt in her voice.

  Mikey spun around to face Lauren and ran a frustrated hand over his face as he realized how it must sound to her.

  “No, no Lauren. It’s not what you think, I swear to you,” Mikey said as he walked over towards her and took her hand in his. “It
’s going to sound crazy, but I’m going to tell you. Follow me.”

  Lauren looked down as he tugged on her hand, her hurt warring with her need to listen to him. She finally gave up and let him pull her outside.

  Mikey smiled down at her, grateful that she was going to give him a chance to explain.

  “Not long after I first got here, I saw a woman right down here,” he said as he pointed towards the spot under his window where he’d see Emily. “She said her name was Emily and that she was looking for Indrid.”

  Lauren shook her head and looked at Mikey curiously.

  “We don’t have anyone named Emily here,” she said, trying to figure out what Mikey was talking about.

  Mikey ran his hands over his head in frustration as he stomped around the area where Emily had stood each time.

  “I know! She said she came here a few times to ask the angel, Indrid, for help. She said she’s real, alive somewhere, I don’t know where, but that she needs Indrid’s help,” he said, feeling stupid that it made no sense to him either, but he knew it was important.

  Lauren shook her head in confusion. This wasn’t what she expected him to say at all. Not even close, and she was trying to understand what he was saying.

  “Indrid is an angel?” Was the first question that came out of her mouth.

  “No!” Mikey said, shaking his head. “She—Emily—thinks that he’s an angel. She said she’s come here before to ask the angel, Indrid, for help when she needed it. She was surprised that I could see her. She said that no one else ever saw her but Indrid. Then me.”

  Lauren was beginning to understand now.

  “She’s like a ghost or something? Something your ability lets you see?”

  Mikey grinned broadly and nodded emphatically.

  “Yes! But when I first saw her she looked vibrant, her colors bright and strong. Then I heard her tonight while we were sleeping. I came down to see what was wrong, and she was barely there; she’d lost a lot of weight and was pale. She said they all might die, that I have to find Indrid,” he said, his worry increasing the more he remembered what she’d said and how she looked.

  “Are you sure she was real?” Lauren couldn’t help but ask.