by Mikayla Lane
When he looked to Indrid’s smiling face he saw the rainbow of colors exploding around the man. His aura was the most unique Mikey had seen, and now it was even brighter, the individual strands glowing with a life of their own as it pulsed like a heartbeat around Indrid.
“Now you understand,” Indrid said with another knowing smile.
“Wait, what does he understand?” Lauren asked, wondering why Mikey was suddenly struck silent.
“I can see it more clearly,” Mikey said in wonder. “But how will that help us find her?”
“Close your eyes,” Indrid said with a smile as Mikey closed his eyes. “Now remember Emily and the energy you saw around her last. When you see it clearly in your mind, open your eyes.
Mikey did as Indrid asked, curious what would happen this time. When he felt he could clearly see the energy that had surrounded Emily, he opened his eyes and gasped.
His eyes had opened to the walls being peeled away as he began to see through them all the way outside to the exact spot where he’d seen Emily each time. The colors still surrounded the empty spot, just as it had when Emily had stood there, only they were duller than any of the other colors he’d seen.
“All energy leaves a trace if you know how to see it,” Indrid explained.
“I have to admit, that is cool as hell. But how is that going to help us find Emily?” Mikey asked, still not understanding.
Indrid sighed heavily and shook his head as if he were disappointed in Mikey.
“You can follow the trail of her energy,” he said, as if that explained everything.
Mikey barked out a laugh until he realized Indrid wasn’t kidding.
“Wait, you expect me to be able to follow her trail from what? 13 years ago to now? It would take just as many years to act like a visual bloodhound and find her! We don’t have that kind of time,” Mikey argued, incredulous that Indrid would even consider it.
Indrid closed his eyes and took a deep breath as if trying to remain patient.
“With one of the ships that disappear it would only take a week, not much longer,” Indrid said.
Mikey and Lauren looked at one another curiously for a moment before Lauren finally understood.
“One of the cloaked transport ships. I might be able to get a pilot,” she suggested with a shrug at Mikey. She didn’t see any reason not to give it a try.
Mikey didn’t think he had a snowball’s chance in hell of finding her this way, but they were long past any other options.
“Fine. But what about Grai? I’m supposed to be looking at the footage for his brother,” Mikey said as he pointed towards the wall where he’d been watching the vid’s earlier.
Indrid cocked his head to the side as he looked at the paused footage on the wall, then back to Mikey.
“I believe you can do both since all we will need is for you to verify that we are still travelling in the correct direction. Once we get close enough, I should be able to find her.”
Indrid looked intently at Mikey, as if challenging him to do it.
Mikey threw his hands up in the air.
“Fine, I will give it a try if Lauren can get the ship,” he said, giving in when Lauren looked at him expectantly.
“The ship will be ready in one hour. I’m going to find us a pilot,” Lauren said as she kissed Mikey’s cheek and left the room.
Mikey narrowed his gaze on Indrid.
“Are you damn sure we can do this? Because we can get a location from Emily when she comes back,” he argued, not wanting to have Emily show up and they’d be gone.
“If she looked as badly as you said, then she won’t have the energy to come back. It is our only chance to find her in time,” Indrid said. His concern for the girl was obvious in his voice.
“What is she to you?”
Mikey hadn’t intended to ask that so bluntly, but now that he had, he wouldn’t take it back. There was more to this than Indrid was telling him, and he wanted to know what he and Lauren would be walking into.
“I have no answer for that,” Indrid said.
“Then why are we doing this?” Mikey demanded, frustrated that Indrid wasn’t being honest with them.
“You mistake my words; I honestly don’t know why I feel an attachment to her. Since the first moment I saw her as a frightened but determined child, I knew that she would be important to me. At first, I was curious why I felt the way I did, but it didn’t take long for her to burrow into my heart,” Indrid explained as he looked into Mikey’s eyes.
Mikey sighed and nodded his head. That was a good enough reason for him. He was learning really quickly that some things you just had to trust your instincts about, and this was one of those things.
Besides, he wanted to find the girl as well, but he knew why he did. He’d seen the desperation and fading hope in her eyes. He’d been there himself until Grai and David came along, and he was determined to pay it forward—starting with Emily.
“Maybe, if we get to her in time, you can figure it out. Just make sure you warn me before you decide to blast me in the chest again,” Mikey said before he went back to viewing Grai’s vids until they left.
Indrid smiled to himself and turned his back to Mikey, pretending to watch the scenes unfolding on the wall in front of him as his own mind whirled with the possibilities of what was wrong with Emily.
True to her word, Lauren came bouncing into the room with a bright smile on her face, and Mikey knew she must have been able to get a ship. Part of him was a little nervous about being able to follow Emily’s trail while the other part of him was anxious to get started and get to the distressed girl.
“OK, get your gear, gentlemen; we got a ship!” Lauren said, excited about going on a mission.
With my mate! She thought. OK, not exactly a mission, but it’s a start.
“Do we have a pilot?” Mikey only half teased.
“Of course!” Lauren laughed. “Let’s go.”
“What about Grai? Won’t he wonder where we are?” Mikey asked.
Mikey didn’t want to piss the leader off. Not when he had every intention of asking Grai if he could train for a mission team—after he talked to Lauren about it, of course.
“They just got back a few hours ago and are exhausted. I sent him a message about what we’re doing and told him you’d still be reviewing the vid. If he has questions or anything he’ll call us,” she assured him.
“I have all I need and am ready to depart,” Indrid said.
Mikey and Lauren stared into each other’s eyes for a moment, enjoying the feel of the energy bonds tightening between them before Mikey turned to Indrid.
“I need five minutes to grab some gear.”
Without another word Mikey pulled Lauren from the room and down the hallway.
“I may need more than five minutes,” Lauren said as she struggled to keep up with his quickening pace.
Mikey suddenly stopped, pulled Lauren into his arms, and kissed her soundly. He pulled away just as she melted into him and the kiss.
“I need a lot more than five minutes with you, which is why we’re hurrying. Because if we don’t leave in the next five minutes, I’m going to spend the next five hours making love to you before we leave,” Mikey admitted, then headed back down the hallway to their rooms.
“Good, because the transport we got has soundproof private quarters so we can do that later,” Lauren said and giggled when Mikey growled low in his throat.
“How did you get a transport for a half-baked reason like this?” Mikey asked as he moved to the half packed bag he already had in his room and started throwing things into it.
“I have connections. Meet me in my room when you’re done.”
Lauren grinned broadly before heading into her room and packing her own bags. She didn’t have time to really think about her clothing choices, but she did manage to hide a few intimate surprises in there before Mikey came in.
“Ready?” he asked as he threw his bag on her bed and came behind her to ki
ss her neck.
Lauren sighed and leaned back into him, her eyes closing as his warmth enveloped her.
“Yeah, just give me a second,” she said as she went into her bathroom and grabbed a few things.
She finished packing and closed her bag before Mikey picked it up in one hand and his bag in the other. Ten minutes later, Indrid, Mikey, and Lauren had ported to Dillon, and Mikey was standing in awe of the ship that Lauren said they’d be using.
“This thing is huge!” he whispered in awe.
Lauren laughed and pulled him towards the opening.
“We have to live on it for a week, so it better be a decent size,” she said as they entered the craft.
They walked down a corridor, entered an area behind the cockpit, and sat down beside Indrid before securing their harnesses for take-off.
“Lift off in 5,4,3,2 . . .,” a familiar voice said before the craft lifted off and shot out of the docking bay.
“You may now remove your harnesses; we have achieved cruising altitude to our destination of 30 miles north of New Orleans, Louisiana. We will arrive in 20 minutes,” the voice said again.
Mikey looked up in surprised as Discorian exited the pilot area.
“Hey! You’re the pilot?” he asked.
Disc chuckled at him.
“No, that would be Crator, I’m just the co-pilot, and Lauren thought that my gift might help if your Emily is out of consciousness,” he explained.
“How could you help?” Mikey asked.
“I am a spirit walker. If her consciousness is disturbed, I may be able to reach her spirit and get a location,” Disc said as he sat down across from them.
“Damn,” Mikey said. “How does that work?”
Disc laughed while Indrid paid close attention to the conversation.
“I have no idea; it just does. Like your gift. When we get close enough to a location where I can sense her energy well enough, I can use it to try and track her spirit,” Disc explained.
“So you can mess with people’s dreams?” Mikey asked.
“I could, but I don’t,” Disc said with a shake of his head. “Like any gift, there is a potential for abuse, and I carefully walk a fine line between intrusion and assistance.”
“I’m glad you’re here,” Mikey admitted, grateful that he wouldn’t be the only one trying to use a weird gift to find Emily.
Mikey looked up in panic when Crator came in from the cockpit.
“Who’s driving the ship?”
Crator grinned.
“It’s on autopilot to our destination. This isn’t like a human plane. This thing could fly itself for weeks if we preprogrammed in the destinations,” he explained before flinging himself into a chair next to Disc. “What’s the game plan?”
When everyone looked at one another, Mikey spoke up.
“I thought we were going to the last place Indrid knew Emily was so I can try and get her energy signature and follow it.”
“I’ll jump out with you so I can see if I can catch any energy remnants that I can use,” Disc added.
“I will also go with you,” Indrid said.
Twenty minutes later, Crator dropped them several feet from the charred remains of the cabin that Emily had shared with her mother so long ago.
Mikey, Indrid, Disc, and Lauren picked their way through the swampy ground to the where the small cabin had once stood. Mikey looked at the overgrown, burned shell of a home and shook his head, doubting they’d find remnants of anything in this mess.
“Come here,” Indrid said as he stood in the middle of the wreckage.
Mikey helped Lauren through the weeds and muck until he they stood on the charred wood floor next to Indrid. Mikey looked around and sucked in a breath as he knelt to the floorboards and touched one of the charred wooden slats.
“She was here,” he whispered.
“This was her room,” Indrid replied as Disc came up to stand beside them.
Disc knelt next to Mikey and placed his hand on the floorboard for a few minutes before he shook his head and stood.
“It’s too weak for me to get a good lock on it.”
Mikey ignored what was going on around him as he turned his thoughts inward.
“C’mon Harry, it’s up to us buddy,” he whispered in his mind.
Mikey looked up and grinned with pride.
“I can see it! Hot damn, I can freaking see the energy trail!”
Lauren squealed with happiness as Indrid smiled knowingly and Disc patted Mikey on the back.
“Let’s go then!” Disc said as he called to Crator to port them into the ship.
Once they were inside, Crator turned to them from the cockpit.
“Give me a heading.”
Mikey was heading to a window to find the energy trail again when Lauren flipped a switch and the bottom of the ship shimmered and became clear.
“Oh damn, that rocks!” Mikey uttered while he looked beneath them for the colored trail of energy that would lead them to Emily. “Northeast! Head northeast!”
Mikey sat on the clear floor and watched the ship follow the energy trail in amazement as Indrid moved to sit beside him.
“You must look for a location where it is obvious that Emily has stayed for more than a few days. We will stop and see if the energy is strong enough for Discorian or me to trace it as well,” Indrid told Mikey as he looked beneath them.
“What do I look for?” Mikey asked, hoping he wouldn’t screw this up.
“Your energy footprint is stronger in places where you have spent a lot of time. It is why some human spirits can leave a print that sensitive humans can see and feel. You will know it when you see it,” Indrid explained.
Mikey wasn’t sure about anything at that point, but if he saw any change in the energy path he was going to say something about it. They couldn’t take any chances and waste any time. He didn’t think that Emily had that kind of time left.
“OK someone tell me about this girl. Is she a hybrid? What’s her gift?” Disc asked, curious about the woman they were tracking.
Indrid nodded his head as he looked up at Disc.
“Yes, she is what you call a hybrid. Her gift . . . is similar to yours,” Indrid was still cryptic enough that it finally got to Mikey.
“How about you tell us what her gift is, and maybe knowing it will help us find her,” Mikey muttered, not taking his eyes off the faint trail beneath them.
He heard Indrid sigh and looked over at the man, more curious than ever about Emily’s gift.
“It is a little difficult to explain,” Indrid admitted before deciding to tell them what he knew. “She is not just a spirit walker, although she can do what Discorian can. She is a spirit magnet. They are drawn to her because she can help release them from the chains that bind them to the nether realms between worlds. She can also walk many realms in her mind, which is why she can come to Base Beta.”
“So . . . she can talk to ghosts or something?” Mikey asked, not sure he understood what Indrid was saying.
“Wait, no . . . yes. He’s saying she can walk the death realms. Right?” Disc asked, his eyes alight with fascination.
Indrid nodded solemnly, hoping to help them understand the reason the girl has hidden herself away.
“She walks the death realms in many worlds and through the rainbow bridge. If their spirit is clean, they can reach her here, in this world,” he explained.
“Gods be damned! The poor girl! Who the hell thought it’d be a good idea to bombard the girl with that?” Disc asked, feeling anger on the girl’s behalf.
“I don’t get it. Someone explain it,” Mikey said in frustration. He was getting tired of feeling like he was working with partial information.
“From the moment of her birth, she has been besieged by the dead from many different worlds. Even in her sleep, she doesn’t dream, her mind takes her to other realms where she is inundated by their dead. Among the realms, she is known as a soul executioner. I do not know what your people
would call her gift. She is someone divinely called upon to deliver final sentence upon a spirit with the ability to dispatch them to their proper destination and end their turmoil and misery in the nether realms. She is an angel of final soul death,” Indrid said.
Mikey looked at Indrid with the same horrified look that was on the faces of everyone in the ship. Even Crator’s mouth hung open in shock.
“Gods . . . no wonder why she hides away from the world,” Lauren whispered in horror.
“That’s not a gift; that’s a nightmare,” Disc said, shaking his head as he wondered if she was even still sane at this point.
“So she’s surrounded by the dead from many worlds?” Mikey asked, making sure he had it right.
“Yes,” Indrid said. “Every moment of every day, she is surrounded by the dead looking for a way past the nether realms they are trapped in. Their voices ring in her mind all day and throughout the night as they beg her for release.”
“They never leave her alone? She can’t make them go away?” Crator asked in shock.
Indrid shook his head sadly.
“I tried to help her learn control, but yes, that is what she faces. It is easier for her to be away from others because they interfere with every part of her life and heavier populated areas have more dead that are drawn to her.”
“Is she even still sane?” Disc had to ask.
His own gift could be a heavy burden to bear and he couldn’t imagine having the nightmare that Indrid called Emily’s gift.
“I do not know,” Indrid admitted.
Chapter Eighteen
Mikey rolled over and stared at the ceiling in the cabin he was sharing with Lauren. They’d stopped to get a few hours of sleep, but Mikey couldn’t seem to shut his mind down. Between the search for Emily and hearing about her gift, his mind whirled with the information overload.
No matter how Indrid had tried to explain Emily’s gift, it sounded like a sugar coated hell to him. Everyone else seemed to agree with him. Honestly, it creeped him the hell out to think of ghosts being real, but to think that Emily had to see them and speak to them every moment of every day made him shudder.
