Niklosi's Nightmare (First Wave Book 10)

by Mikayla Lane

  “We’re not doing your job for you,” Irwin added with a glare. “If you can’t be bothered to even get to know the person you’re rejecting, then you don’t deserve her, and we’d prefer that you leave.”

  “I’m not rejecting her!” Nik argued even though he knew he’d essentially done exactly that.

  “You can lie to yourself all you want, but you’re the only one who believes you,” Dennis replied, crossing his arms over his chest as he held Nik’s gaze.

  Nik couldn’t stand to look at the disappointed expression on Dennis’s face and looked at Irwin. He regretted it the moment he saw the same look on Irwin’s face.

  “What do you want from me?” Nik erupted, throwing his hands up in the air.

  “Not a thing,” Dennis replied.

  “I believe I already asked it of you, yet you’re still here,” Irwin said as he picked up the cup of tea that was in front of Nik and took it to the sink.

  Nik sat back in surprise because he’d just taken a sip a few minutes ago, and the cup was still half full. He struggled to remember what they’d asked of him and couldn’t believe the answer that came to him.

  “You want me to leave?” he asked incredulously.

  “Yes,” Irwin said, turning from the sink.

  “What about getting to know her and her beautiful soul and all that shit?” Nik argued, bothered that they wanted him gone.

  “You don’t deserve her, and that’s not going to change anytime soon, so there’s no point in you remaining here and causing her pain. Leave,” Irwin replied, a hard edge to his normally jovial tone.

  Dennis stood up from the table and glared down at Nik.

  “I believe you know where the door is?” he asked.

  Nik stared in shock at him before looking at Irwin to see if they were really serious.

  “You’re seriously kicking me out?” he asked.

  When neither man said a word, Nik got angry and crossed his arms as he glared back at them.

  “What if she wants me to stay? What if I want to stay? You can’t stop me from getting to know my mate,” Nik argued.

  What the hell is wrong with me? he asked himself. They’ve given me a way out! I need to take it and run.

  “I’m not leaving until I talk to her,” Nik said instead of walking out of the door and immediately mentally kicked himself.

  What the fuck am I doing? he growled at himself when he saw Dennis’s eyes flash an unnatural green.

  “That train left the station; it’s time you did too,” Dennis boomed as he held a hand out toward Nik’s right hip pocket where he kept his port stone. “Port!”

  One moment Nik was standing defiantly in front of Irwin and Dennis, and the next he was staring into the surprised face of Disc.

  “Man, what the hell? I’ve been trying to reach you for a while,” Disc said as he moved around Nik and towards the exterior door. “They need me for this new plan, so keep an eye on the ship for me.”

  “Wait!” Nik barked out as he grabbed Disc’s arm to stop him from dropping to the ground. “What do they need you for?”

  Nik couldn’t stop the rush of jealousy that ran through him. He had been forcefully kicked out while Disc was going to be able to go down there and be around BJ. He didn’t like it at all.

  “Grai didn’t give much detail. Just said they needed my ability,” Disc said as he looked pointedly at his arm where Nik was still gripping him tightly.

  Nik immediately let go of Disc’s arm.

  “You’re a spirit walker though,” Nik replied, trying to figure out why the demigods would need that ability.

  “I don’t know, maybe I’m going to terrorize them in their sleep,” Disc grinned at the thought. “That would actually be fun as hell. Anyway, I’ll see you later.”

  Nik reached out to stop him, but Disc was already on the ground where Irwin and Dennis were waiting for him. He watched as the two men greeted Disc like an old friend and led him into the house. He clenched his fists and growled in anger.

  I should be the one to help! I was the one who started this shit by being caught. I should be the one to fix it! he ranted in his head.

  Nik paced around the ship until he looked in the cockpit and saw that it was empty. He checked the auto-hover and made sure the ship was fine before he stormed back to the bunk area and rudely slammed open the alternate pilot’s privacy screen.

  “I need you to handle the ship,” Nik growled rudely as Decano blinked at the sudden, glaring light.

  “Is Disc alright?” Decano asked as he swung his legs out of the sleep pod and stood.

  “Yeah, he’s fine. They need him below. I’m heading back down, and you’re the only other pilot,” Nik explained, trying to rush Decano so he could get back on the ground.

  He was trying to convince himself that he was only doing it because he refused to be kicked out. He had more to say, and he wanted them to listen.

  Besides, they have no right to keep me from my mate if I want to see her or get to know her, he insisted to himself. Not that I want to, but if I did, they can’t stop me!

  “OK, buddy. I got things here,” Decano called back as he headed into the cockpit.

  Nik smirked as looked down into the small clearing and tried to throw himself out of the door. He bounced off of thin air and crashed to the floor of the ship. He stared at the doorway in stunned horror.

  “You alright? What happened?” Decano asked as he came running from the cockpit.

  A sick feeling came over Nik, and he pointed at the door.

  “See if you can put your arm outside,” Nik asked a surprised Decano.

  “What?” Decano replied, wondering if Nik was OK.

  “Just please, humor me. Put your arm outside of the door,” Nik repeated as he sat up and slowly stood.

  Decano shrugged and headed over to the door and put his arm outside for a few seconds before pulling it back in.

  “You OK?” Decano asked when he saw the expression on Nik’s face.

  Nik nodded mutely as he moved to the doorway next to Decano and slowly tried to put his arm outside of the door. His hand met an invisible wall.

  “Gods damn it!” Nik roared at the invisible barrier in rage. “You can’t fucking keep me from her!”

  Decano slowly backed away from the angry Valendran, trying to figure out what the hell he’d missed while he’d been asleep.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The next morning, the sun was barely peeking over the horizon when BJ walked out of the woods. She headed past the mercantile before she casually walked down the town’s main street towards the police station and the waiting military. She felt no fear as a few men in uniform saw her and ran inside her station, most likely to warn the major that she was there.

  She knew she was right when she saw the major storm out of the station and stand in the middle of the road with his arms folded across his chest, his expression one of embarrassed anger.

  With her shoulders back and her head held high, BJ stopped directly in front of Major Kyle Morris. She was more than ready to get it all over with so the unwanted mate hovering above would finally leave.

  Kyle stared in surprise at the woman who walked confidently towards him. Gone were the haphazardly pinned pigtails, the crumpled uniform, and the blackened teeth. Instead, what stood before them was a beautiful and self-assured woman. It was exactly what he had expected to find to begin with, and he couldn’t help but wonder what caused her to stop the charade she’d been playing.

  “I see you weren’t smart enough to leave while you could. Now, you’re in danger, and you’ve put me in a position to not only protect my own people, but you as well,” BJ snapped at the major.

  Kyle shook his head, wondering if he’d heard her correctly.

  “What the fuck are you talking about? And what the hell happened to my prisoners?” Kyle barked back.

  “Your damn prisoners did escape, you fool! I didn’t lie about that! I have no idea what the hell they were, but they damn sure w
eren’t as dangerous as what we’ve been dealing with around here, so it didn’t concern me until you showed up!” BJ growled back, putting her hands on her hips.

  Kyle slapped a hand over his face and slowly wiped his eyes before staring at the angry cop.

  “What. The. Fuck. Are you talking about?” Kyle screamed in her face. “Why the fuck have you been lying to me? Where are my prisoners? And what dangerous shit are you talking about? Because I don’t give a flying fuck about your rabid rodent problems! Call an exterminator or animal trapper!”

  BJ snorted and shook her head before she moved around the major and headed into her station.

  “You’re a damn fool if you think our only problem is some rabid rodents. Follow me, and I’ll give you a crash course in real problems,” BJ shouted behind her before slamming the station door.

  Kyle looked around at the startled faces of his men and understood their confusion. He was tired of being confused and played by the backwoods cop. He clenched his fists and roared at his men.

  “Keep a secure perimeter around the station! No one near here unless I order it!”

  Kyle barely registered the men’s affirmative responses before he stormed into the station with Greg close on his heels. They both stopped for a moment when they saw BJ opening a wall safe that they never even knew was in the office.

  Kyle stormed over to her and pushed her away from the safe. He didn’t know what she was doing but refused to be played again, and he snatched a few folders from her hands.

  “You’re not touching anything until I get some answers. The truth this time!” Kyle said as his anger came through loud and clear.

  BJ stepped away from the safe with a grin and sat down at her desk like it was a normal work day.

  “Well, if you sit down and calm yourself, I can explain it to you,” BJ replied calmly. “In fact, what I was getting out of the safe to show you is the explanation you’re looking for.”

  Kyle looked down at the stack of neat manila envelopes he’d taken from BJ and gave half the stack to Greg. Kyle sat across the desk from BJ while Greg took the desk next to them. Both men began ripping into the envelopes.

  “They were actually categorized and in order,” BJ warned as the two men looked oddly at the photos in their hands.

  Kyle looked at the front of the envelope he’d ripped open and saw in neat handwriting:

  DEMONS, MISC. UNEXPLAINED CREATURES

  Kyle looked at BJ incredulously. He couldn’t believe she was still trying to lie to him, and he could feel his anger boiling over.

  “I suggest you look at the pictures before you get all worked up,” BJ warned.

  “Oh my god . . . what the hell is this?” Greg whispered as he stared at a particular picture.

  “That’s what I’d like to know. We’ve been seeing this stuff for years. The reason I came back from St. Louis was because Buford was getting too old to try and keep the people safe. We’ve used the hillbilly ruse since I was a child to try and keep people away. When your prisoners escaped, I just figured you’d leave,” BJ explained with a shrug.

  “What the hell is this? Another joke?” Kyle accused as he shuffled through the pictures in his hands.

  “You think so?” BJ asked as she launched herself out of her chair and headed over to the inoperable camera equipment. “Want to see what wrecked your camp outside?”

  Kyle looked over at Greg with narrowed eyes, wondering what game the cop was playing with them this time.

  “Come on, I’m just going to play what the cameras caught that night. You were here with this equipment, I couldn’t have doctored it,” BJ assured them, even though she knew what was on them.

  Mojo and Fiorn’s team had doctored the images before uploading them to the main hard drive in the station while she’d walked down the street. It had gotten everyone out of the office so they wouldn’t see the equipment turn on while the download took place.

  They hadn’t needed to do much to the video though; the sibiox blended so well in the dark, it was almost impossible to tell what kind of animal they were.

  BJ hit the rewind button as Kyle and Greg moved to stand behind her, keeping her in their line of sight. She turned to them.

  “You want to watch the whole thing or the pertinent parts?”

  “Just show us what the hell you’re talking about,” Kyle ground out between gritted teeth. He was quickly losing his patience with the cop.

  “OK, it looks like you guys came inside here. We’ll start here so we can see what trashed your camp,” BJ said as she stepped back from the video monitor to watch with the men.

  “Whoa!” Greg erupted moments later. “What was that?”

  Kyle stepped closer to the monitor to get a better look. It didn’t help much; it still appeared to be a group of black blurs completely destroying his camp.

  “That’s what is called a howler. We don’t have a clue what they are, where they come from, or why they appear to stay in the Ozark region. What we have figured out is that they come out in a cycle. To feed,” BJ explained while Greg looked at her in horror.

  “It’s got to be a wild cat of some kind,” Kyle said with a shake of his head.

  He hit the rewind button on the video until he saw the moment he went into his tent, and he let it play from there. He wanted to see what had left the paw print outside of his tent.

  “From what we can gather, it’s a dog of some kind. Which is why they call it the howler. It lets out an ear piercing shriek when it finds prey in order to call the rest of the pack. Then they converge to kill,” BJ told them, lying through her teeth.

  “That was hunting us?” Greg whispered.

  “Wait,” Kyle said. “I thought you didn’t have working video?”

  Kyle immediately hit the rewind button, trying to see if it went back far enough to have caught images of his prisoners and their escape.

  “If we got them, it’s on there,” BJ said with a casual shrug. She already knew what they were going to see.

  “Is that an anomaly of the equipment?” Kyle asked Greg when they saw images of Nik and Traze covered in a bright spot that obscured their upper bodies completely.

  BJ laughed without humor.

  “Yeah, that’s another problem around here. The damn demons or butterfly people or whatever the hell they are,” she said with a sigh as she pointed at the pictures still in Kyle’s other hand.

  “We still aren’t sure if they’re the ones who cause the terrible visions people get, or if it’s the howlers, or something else,” BJ told them as she stood beside the major.

  “Visions? Of what?” Greg asked, completely enraptured by what he was seeing and hearing.

  “I’ve never had one,” BJ said with a shrug. “But the people who’ve had them say it’s the most terrible or most beautiful thing to happen to them. It’s hard to figure out. What I do know is that some of the biggest assholes in this town became some of the best citizens overnight. It scared them that bad.”

  “What did they see?” Greg asked.

  “Honestly, it’s going to sound crazy, which is why I didn’t want to have to try and explain any of this. They said they were shown hell because of the things they’d done and warned it was where they were headed if they didn’t change,” BJ said with a shrug, as if unable to believe it herself.

  “Hell? Seriously?” Greg asked in awe.

  “Knock it off!” Kyle snapped angrily at the captain. “She’s fucking with us again! Can’t you see that?” He turned accusing eyes to BJ. “What game are you playing this time? I’m not falling for it twice!”

  BJ held her hands up and shook her head.

  “You’ve been here the whole time; I pulled those pictures out of that safe in front of you. They’ve been in there for years. Look at the dates,” BJ suggested, knowing those pictures had indeed been in there for decades.

  Each police captain of Baker’s Creek added more pictures to the safe in the event that they ever had to use the “Hail Mary” plan. Now that
plan would pay off.

  “Look, major,” Greg said in awe as he held up a grainy black and white photo. “The caption says 1912. There’s dozens of them in here that are pre-1950.”

  Kyle shook his head before yanking the photo away from Greg and staring at it closely.

  “It’s the only way for us to even try and deal with it,” BJ said with a sigh. “I started taking the pictures and putting them in the safe when I took over for Buford. It’s the only way to convince yourself that you’re not insane, that you really are seeing this crazy shit. I think that’s why all the captains before Buford and I started taking the pictures to begin with.”

  “What’s the earliest date?” Kyle asked as he flipped through the pictures in his hands.

  There was no doubt that they were real original pictures; the older ones looked just like others he’d see from the same time periods. They even felt the same. Some were really thick, others the old instant kind you had to shake to develop. The only clear ones were the most recent.

  “The oldest is 1896, but it isn’t in here. It’s hanging in the mercantile. It was taken when the family first moved into the home, and you can see one of those . . . butterfly fairy things in the trees behind the house,” BJ admitted, knowing they’d probably go to the mercantile to see it.

  Of course they wouldn’t realize that it was Rolantro in the picture, and he was blessing the home for the family. But it would help prove her point.

  Kyle suddenly had an idea and he turned to BJ.

  “What do you think they are? I mean, you say butterfly people but could they be . . . I don’t know, aliens or something?” he asked, wondering if he’d stumbled upon an alien base.

  BJ pretended to consider it and shrugged.

  “I wish I knew. Don’t you know what it is? Don’t you guys have a division of the FBI or something that investigates . . . crazy shit like this?” BJ countered.

  Kyle and Greg just looked at one another and shook their heads. If there was a unit for this kind of thing, they’d never heard of one. The only team that tracked anything weird was them, and they’d never handled anything like what they were seeing and hearing about.