by Mikayla Lane
Cal and the other animals had been as steadfast as Reven and the girls that Jax would be back and had refused to leave, forcing them to be accommodated. Grai, with the help of Bayla and Melina had gotten all of them medically treated and well-nourished in the last five days.
Jax would be really happy to see how wonderful they look; Reven thought, looking at the now shiny coats of fur and wings of those in the docking bay. It never registered in his mind that they were all slumped on the ground in various poses.
Reven turned to his mate and smiled, knowing she would be really proud of the children for helping the animals and for the way the others had become so used to their presence, they had begun learning their names from Bayla and Melina.
Squirrels, birds, rabbits, coyotes and even Cal had become temporary substitutes for Jax, and the aliens, hybrids and wild animals had formed a unique bond over their shared love of their fallen friend. Reven had caught several of their people bringing special treats for the animals and stopped their work to pet or talk to one of them.
Out of respect, they gave the animals a wide berth, allowing them to approach when they wanted to or needed the contact and encouragement. It was becoming an hourly occurrence to see a bunny hop over to someone for a pet or cuddle or a squirrel, bird. Even the coyotes and bears were much more emotional than anyone could have expected and required a lot of attention.
It had been like floodgates opening, and more than one person was seen smuggling a new friend home at night. They would bring them back the next day for their vigil with Jax, so no one saw anything wrong with it. The animal was much happier and less sad, and it was obvious that it wanted to go home too.
He smiled as he looked out of the door and there on the floor, his own new friends were waiting patiently for him. Reven opened the door slowly, so as not to scare them, and held it open until they hopped, ran and flew into the room.
“Good Afternoon May, Gam, Sid and Zat.” Reven said greeting his friends with a slight bow.
He propped the door open as Zat flew from the floor to the bed to sit at Jax’s feet, his dark, penetrating stare looking over every inch of Jax. Reven leaned down to pet the others while Zat used his large curved beak, to pull a piece of fluff off of her blanket before dropping it to the floor.
“I didn’t see that. Thank you my friend.” Reven said to Zat as he allowed May to climb up to his shoulder and picked up Gam and Sid to bring them over to Jax.
He joined the large, majestic hawk at the bed and put the two rabbits, Gam and Sid on the blanket and watched them hop up to Jax’s face. May, being much older than the rabbits allowed them their time with Jax. Reven gave the squirrel a gentle pet as she nuzzled his neck.
Reven hated that he couldn’t speak to them directly the way his beautiful mate and child could, but he and the animals had figured a lot out between them over the last five days; he thought with a smile.
He never thought he would say it, but he respected them. Greatly. While some of Jax’s people friends had even given up hope, these beautiful and loyal creatures had been here every day and every night.
He turned to Zat when the bird began to bob his head and give short, throaty screeches. Moments later, he heard the tell-tale sign of small feet pounding quickly towards the room.
“Thank you my friend. I am glad they are back as well.” Reven told the bird as Melina and Bayla came flying into the room.
“How is she?” Melina asked with a bright and shining smile as she carried Bayla towards the bed.
The animals screeched and chittered their greetings to the children, and the girls returned them happily. Bayla swung her arms up and down and screamed at the top of her lungs in excitement.
When everyone settled down, Melina laughed. “It’s good to see you too Zat, May, Sid and Gam. How’s mom and our baby sister doing today?” She asked with a smile as she looked at Reven.
Reven couldn’t help but smile. He always did when she called Jax ‘mom’. Melina had woken up four days ago and had started calling him Dad. He hadn’t stopped smiling about it since then. The children were the brightest spot in his life through these dark days. His new friends a real close second.
Their family was finally complete; he thought as he looked at Wolfen and Cal sleeping together in the corner. All they were missing was for Jax to wake up. He couldn’t help the sadness that overwhelmed him.
Zat nudged his hand with his beak and gave him a throaty grunt-like screech. Reven smiled at the bird, grateful that he had stopped the thoughts that would crush him if he let them. He wouldn’t let those doubts or that sadness, wear away at the hope and confidence; he felt that his mate would return to him. And their family.
Reven turned to answer Melina’s question. “She’s the same little one. She’s still fighting, and more connections become active in her brain every day. Our baby though, is growing very well. Amun said she’s very strong. Just like her mom.” Reven said with a watery smile as he remembered Amun showing him a picture of his new daughter. The only true, original part of Jax he would ever have back.
He rubbed May distractedly as she nuzzled his neck again to try to comfort him. He almost chuckled at how he’d gone from resenting these wonderful creatures to relying on them to help him keep it together for the sake of his family.
Melina smiled at Reven, already knowing Jax’s condition. She turned away to frown, not wanting him to see her concern. Something was wrong; she could feel it in herself and everything around her.
For days now, she’d been feeling a push at her energy, as if someone were trying to find her. To get inside. She had been easily fighting it and hadn’t been too concerned until Bayla told her that she started feeling the same thing last night.
Melina glanced at Reven’s haggard face and tired eyes and couldn’t bother him with it. Not right now, she thought sadly. Besides, she’d gone through Bayla’s energy and knew that the push wasn’t nearly strong enough to bother the baby. At least not yet.
Melina made up her mind to follow the energy the next time it happened and see where it went and who it belonged to. If she found anything serious, then she’d tell Reven, she thought as she looked at Reven and forced a smile.
He was looking worse every day. He barely ate and never left the room except to stand in front of it to greet and speak to the animals outside and thank them for their strength and loyalty. She was getting really worried for him.
Melina knew that he was continuing to send energy to Jax, even though she didn’t need it, her body was repairing itself. Slowly, but it was. He was even sharing it with his new friends, including Cal and Wolfen.
She shook her head sadly, knowing it was the bonds that he had created with them that was allowing the animals to keep him going. He still hadn’t realized that it was the animals, she and Bayla that flooded him with energy to keep him going. If they weren’t, he would have collapsed from exhaustion days ago, the lack of food, sleep and energy taking their toll on his body.
It couldn’t go on; she thought, but she didn’t know how to fix it. He wouldn’t listen to the doctor or the other adults; she knew he wouldn’t listen to her either, even if she did know how to fix it. Which she didn’t.
She looked at Jax’s pretty face as she sat Bayla next to her. Her mom needed to wake up. She had to fix this; Melina thought, trying to blink away the tears that were forming in her eyes.
“Hey, let’s pick a game.” Reven said, pulling Melina out of her sad thoughts.
Taking a deep breath, Melina pulled herself together and gave Reven a smile. “I get to pick this time, you and Bayla picked the last one.”
Melina turned to the small bookcase in the corner and grabbed a military strategy game that would take hours to play. It was one of their favorites because of Reven’s experience and her unique perspective on combat. She was learning a lot from him and enjoyed the challenge.
It had the added benefit of keeping Reven’s mind on something besides Jax, partially anyway. She’d take what she
could get, Melina thought as she started to set up the game on the coffee table.
They spent hours on the game while Bayla played with a sleepy Cal and Wolfen. Someone from the kitchen brought them a huge dinner that none of them were all that hungry for, although she tried to force Bayla to eat.
Reven only had a few bites before he started absently pushing the food around on his plate. Melina found even her appetite was gone after only a few bites, but forced herself to eat more, knowing she needed to.
They finally gave up on dinner, and Reven made sure the animals had plenty of food and water before grabbing the girls and putting in a popular cartoon movie for them. He cuddled on the couch with them until the children fell into an exhausted sleep.
Reven looked down and picked up Bayla first. He kissed her sweet face before he laid her in her crib and covered her with her blanket. Next he carried Melina to her bed and did the same, brushing her hair back before he turned off the TV and went back to sit beside Jax.
Reven picked up her right hand into his own and kissed the back of it before enclosing it with his other hand. He leaned his head on their hands and breathed out a sigh.
“Jax, I know you’re in there. Keep fighting baby, just keep fighting and come back to us. Please…” Reven said brokenly before his head dropped to the bed, and he fell into an exhausted sleep beside his mate.
*****
Ivint paced the conference room before turning angry eyes to the others that brought him here. “You will leave him the hell alone! You have no idea the strength of that man, and you will believe my word when I tell you that he will be fine!”
He was pissed. They had gone behind his back and now they wanted to make him force Reven into something that he would never forgive any of them for and Ivint wouldn’t blame him.
Grai shook his head sadly. “Ivint, just listen to him. I agree with you; I really do. I think he should be left the hell alone with his family, as he sees fit. I did until I heard what Amun has to say. Listen to him. Please.” Grai said, he’d resort to begging if he had to, the situation was becoming too dangerous.
While Ivint was quiet, Amun bravely spoke up to his commander. “Sir, I’ve been tracking the energy, trying to figure out a way to help or speed up her recovery. What’s happening is that the animals and the children are giving their energy to Reven, who is giving it Jax.”
He paused for a quick breath before continuing. “The problem is that they are quickly depleting their own energy trying to sustain Reven, who is keeping none for himself. He doesn’t realize that he is weakening them all.”
Kintaq, head animal doctor interrupted. “Several of the smaller animals had to be taken to intensive care because they were on the verge of death. They still had to be sedated to stop them from trying to continue to give energy they didn’t have to spare! More than half of those animals in the docking bay are too weak to go outside!”
He was pissed as hell that no one seemed to consider the sacrifice these brave and loving creatures were making for their friend. Kintaq loved Jax like a sister, their shared love of the creatures giving them a unique bond, and he knew she would be screaming at them for not doing something for her friends. She would never want them in such danger, especially not for her.
Grai sighed, his weariness showing. “The same thing is happening to the children. Their teachers have noticed a marked change in their behavior. Melina is too tired to participate in any physical activities, and Bayla has stopped standing and crawling.”
Ivint turned startled eyes to Grai. “What?”
Amun nodded his head. “Sir, the scans show that the children have stopped growing, and their energy levels have depleted by half. If it continues, the baby will be in a coma in five days and the child in seven. But, we’ll lose Reven long before them.”
Amun was desperate. He was losing them all. Something had to be done. He was so sure of it that he had agreed with the others that if they couldn’t convince Ivint to help that they would do something without him.
Incurring the forever wrath of their commander was not on his list of this to accomplish in life, but this had to be done, and he would weather it to save Reven and the children. Even the animals they had all come to respect.
“How is this possible?” Ivint whispered as he sat heavily, putting his head in his hands.
Amun continued, knowing they were getting through to him. “We don’t know. However, we do know that the energy is going through Jax’s beast to the baby inside of her. The scans are showing a rapid expansion of energy that is changing the beast inside of the baby’s developing brain.”
Amun walked over to lay a hand on Ivint’s shoulder. “Sir, we have no idea what is happening to the baby. Her vitals are really good, but that could change at any moment, and we have no idea of the long-term effects of something like this.”
Grai cleared his throat and stood. “Something must be done to protect these children. This cannot continue another day.”
Ivint ignored the silent tears slipping down his face and nodded his head. He knew they were doing the right thing. He only hoped that Reven would agree when it was all over. Somehow he knew; Reven would never forgive this betrayal.
*****
The foreign energy pushed at the man, prodding at his barriers to see if they could be penetrated before moving on to the older child, then the youngest.
Finding its target, the energy invaded Bayla’s cells, learning her strengths and weaknesses. It took its time in her mind, going through every memory, every emotion and experience.
When it had them memorized, the energy moved on to the connections in the toddler’s brain. It ran through the first one it found, following it to the older child, where it formed its own connection, bypassing the exhausted girl’s defenses while it piggy backed on Bayla’s energy.
Heading back to the toddler, the energy found the next connection in her mind and followed it to the man, where it easily formed its own connection with him.
On and on it moved, and once it exhausted the connections in Bayla, it moved into Melina’s mind to inspect and raid, growing stronger with each memory, each piece of itself that it left behind in the unsuspecting victims of its invasion.
Now that it had finally found a way inside the weakened people and animals, it ran rampantly through each one, using their memories to see through their eyes. Their experiences and emotions fed its power, expanding it and mutating it to suit its own needs.
Using its new power, the invading energy easily read the intentions of the others upstairs and quickened its pace to ensure it was done with its task before they could stop it. It couldn’t allow that.
It used the new connections it had made to pull even more energy from the people and animals, unconcerned about the amount it was taking. It knew exactly what it was doing and magnified the stolen energy, adding its own as it manipulated it and changed it.
When it knew it was ready, it sent the manipulated energy back out in a powerful and stunning wave that rocked the room and everything in it before spreading to the animals outside. Leaving none of them untouched, before pulling back.
The animals were the first to respond. The birds took flight in a cacophony of sound. Beating wings and screeches erupted as they took to the air. All work stopped in the docking bay as they watched the birds swoop, dip and fly in a circle near Jax’s room.
The coyotes and cats began to howl, growl and roar as they got up and paced restlessly in front of Jax’s room. The smaller animals ran in between the legs of the larger ones, each adding their voice to the rising wave of sound taking over the docking bay.
They were quickly joined by other animals that were coming back in, through the open-door topside, until their numbers were almost doubled and the sound became almost unbearable.
It was the muted sound that wakened them in Jax’s room, starting with Bayla. She was the first to realize the change in herself, the invasion of the foreign energy, and she screamed at the top of her lungs.
>
Chapter Twenty-Two
Grai was the first to be warned that something was wrong in the docking bay. He turned to Traze.
“Pull up the docking bay.”
By now, the others had heard the news through the Shengari’ and were waiting to see what was going on as well. They were shocked when the images came on the screen.
“What the hell?” Risk whispered as they watched the animals.
“Damn!” Traze said as he turned down the sound on the vid because they couldn’t hear, the animal sounds were too loud.
Grai turned back to Traze. “Can you pull up inside Jax’s room?”
Traze shook his head as he stood with worry. “No, we didn’t have time to set up vid in there.”
Grai cursed as he and Ivint stood and took off out of the door to the docking bay; the others were right on their heels.
