by Mikayla Lane
“I’m so scared. I can’t survive losing her again.” Viper whispered hoarsely before sitting back down heavily and putting his head in his hands.
Both brothers were surprised when Ratoka stood angrily and turned to point his finger at them.
“Enough! Enough of this pity for yourselves and your pain! You! You! What of her? We have no idea what she went through growing up on a world not her own. Or how much of her mind remembers the past.”
“And because of you!” Ratoka pointed an accusing finger at Viper. “We may never know because you didn’t listen, and you have forced the past on her! Do you even know if she is mentally stable enough to handle it?” Ratoka snorted in anger when Viper looked away, his guilt-ridden green eyes spoke volumes.
“How dare you criticize the gift that you have been given, because you don’t like the way it was wrapped!” Ratoka spat, stamping his foot in a fit of temper, before continuing.
“Yes, you are hurt. Yes, the pain of the past is painful. However, the chance you have been given, the chance to not only have her back but for her soul to be found… it’s a miracle. So pull yourself together right now because she just woke up, and as I have feared, her mind is slipping into the past and skewing her reality.”
Ratoka didn’t wait for the brothers; he turned and headed toward the road and stood in the middle of it. Viper and Dread were emerging from the woods when they heard Amun’s message through the Shengari’.
“The woman has awakened too soon. She is very frightened and wants Viper here now. I would appreciate you coming soon since she has a sharp object pointed at my back.” Amun had said the last so reluctantly that even a sliver of his embarrassment came through as well.
If the situation wasn’t so serious Viper admitted to himself that even he would have bust out laughing and teased the hell out of Amun like others were doing right now. However, he needed to get to his mate.
“Where’s your vehicle?” Viper demanded of Ratoka as, he ran from the woods with Dread close on his heels.
The brothers watched with only mild surprise as a black SUV turned the corner and skidded to a stop right in front of the robed man, who didn’t even flinch, even though there were mere inches between his leg and the bumper.
Chapter Ten
The doorway had a mist quality to it, and Lara could feel her body changing as she went through it. What she thought would be another room or a hall was a rocky terrain, a light grey mist hanging thickly in the air.
Even the smell of the air wasn’t right, Lara thought, feeling her throat become scratchy. Which seemed to compliment the throbbing pain shooting up and down her spine as she moved. She couldn’t see very far in front of her either; the mist was too thick to penetrate. What the hell was this place? She thought; a sliver of fear skittering up her spine, making her tense up and hurt even more.
“Hey! Stay calm. Don’t hurt him. He’s the doctor; he healed your shoulder and your spine. Everything is all right. We’re the good guys.” Niklosi Jevasari said with a calm he definitely didn’t feel.
The sound of the voice crashed through the fog in Lara’s mind, and the rocky terrain turned into a long hallway. Lara held the weapon tightly to Amun’s side, staring around him at the other men blocking her exits. Lara shook her head to clear it and tried to pull herself together.
Damn, she thought to herself; this was a really bad time to lose your fucking mind. Yeah, this was going to be another great day for her book of bad days; Lara mused. She could cross off tripping through wonderland from her bucket list too.
She’d deal with her loss of sanity later though. When she knew Viper was safe, as she had promised. Even though she had no idea how the hell she’d get either one of them out of this.
Lara looked hard at the man who had spoken. “You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t take your word for it. I want to see Viper, then I’ll let him go.” Lara said, closely watching the four men blocking both paths down the long hallway she’d stepped into with the doctor.
In the few moments, they had stood there; more people had filled in at both ends of the hallway, much farther behind the four men who were already there. Lara watched in surprise at the smiling and laughing people that were milling around as if this were a spectator sport or reality show. She knew the mass of her ass wouldn’t garner this much attention.
Where the hell was she? Lara wondered in confusion. This place didn’t seem any less creepy than the place with the mist. Trying to clear her head, Lara focused her attention on the four men who were the closest danger to her.
There were two on each side of her, and they were all dressed the same, but the one who had spoken and the one next to him were pretty damn huge. The two on the other side were a lot smaller, but farther away from her. None of them had drawn the weapons that were prominently strapped to their thighs; Lara thought with surprise and relief.
“We’ve notified Viper; he's on his way here right now. It’s going to be a few minutes. Why don’t you put that down, and we can talk while we wait for him?” Niklosi asked, hoping the woman would stand down. He hated the thought of accidentally hurting the brave human after all she had been through to save his friend Viper.
“Yo forest ninja! We can call him. Here I’ll dial him for you.” Traze said pulling out his comm and scrolling through it.
“No! He has to be brought here!” Lara snapped, scowling at the young man and his too eager face.
He seemed way too happy to be here, for some reason; she thought. It seemed kind of sick and odd that her world was falling apart, and people were down the hall laughing and this kid was acting like this was a comedy play or something. It was all a little more bizarre than Lara had expected.
“Ok… geez! Try to be helpful and look what it gets you! See this is where the human women always confuse me!” Traze grumbled crossing his arms over his chest and pouting. The other three men, including the doctor groaned.
Lara just stared at Traze for a moment while her mind tried to remember what Viper had said about the aliens. She turned narrowed eyes on Traze and asked, “What do you mean humans? What are you?” Lara unconsciously grabbed tighter to Amun as her mind raced.
“Traze, shut the hell up!” Niklosi warned the boy through the Shengari’ hoping Lara wouldn’t get frightened, and the weapon would slip.
“Oh come on! Viper said himself that he told her about us so why the hell would we have to be so hush-hush around her? Especially when you know damn well she ain’t going anywhere now.” Traze argued with Niklosi before realizing he had said everything out loud. Not privately through the Shengari’.
“Oops!” Traze actually blushed, while everyone else growled lowly causing Lara to tighten her grip on Amun and the weapon even more.
Why the hell were they growling like that she wondered, it didn’t sound… normal. “Yeah, let’s pretend I fell down your rabbit hole. Tell me what the fuck you are.” Lara demanded angrily, wondering what the hell was going on and where she had ended up.
“Hey, we’re the good guys. We were there in the forest and got you and Viper out of there. Just calm down while we wait for him to get here.” Niklosi said, trying to de-escalate the tense situation.
The woman was intelligent, and he knew she wouldn’t fall for any trick. She had even turned down speaking to Viper on the phone. It was a smart move; they could easily have been threatening him on the other line, now she was still in charge, and Niklosi didn’t like that. Too much could go wrong. And it did.
“I said, what the fuck are you?” Lara hissed at Traze.
“Oh come on! Let’s be friends already! Ok, ok… I’ll show you mine, and you show me yours.” Traze said with a huge grin while Niklosi and Decano yelled “No!”. David grabbed for the stupid boy, but was too late.
Lara watched in horror as the young man, barely more than a boy, transformed into a huge, hulking… she didn’t know what the fuck it was! The hair on his head had peeled backwards as it had grown, causing it to become a patch o
f sorts of the back of his massive neck and shoulders that had doubled in size.
His whole body had increased dramatically, and his mouth hung open showing several rows of razor-sharp teeth. Hands that were tipped with deadly looking talons were rising at her, and it emitted a single, low roar.
Without thinking, Lara shoved the doctor at the two closest men. When they went to grab for him, she rolled behind his back, grabbed the first weapon from the closest man and fired two shots at the beast. She watched as it went down and quickly held the gun to the back of the large man she’d taken the weapon from.
Lara’s hands shook as she held the man’s shirt, her back was on fire, and she struggled to keep her knees from buckling because of the pain.
“Oh my fucking God! She shot me!” Traze yelled from the floor, clutching at his stomach.
“You scared the shit out of her you idiot! What did you expect?” David asked him angrily, before slapping him in the back of the head. Damn, he thought, now she had a freaking gun. Just wonderful.
Lara just watched on with horror as the beast she’d shot had turned back into the young man, he had been moments earlier. Was she losing her mind, she thought? No! These were the bad aliens that Viper had been talking about! That’s why they hadn’t brought him to her yet, she thought. They’d been captured by the enemy!
“Yeah but did you see the look on her face? Oh my God I am going to have to look at that on the vids later!” Traze said laughing as the now free Amun slid across the floor to look at his wound.
“You better be damn glad she doesn’t know that your center mass in your other form is different when you shift back, or you’d be dead you fool!” Grai growled at his brother through the Shengari’ as, he, Viper, Dread, Ratoka and Jax drove recklessly down the mountain to the port stations at the office.
“Just shut up! All of you, shut up! I need to think!” Lara yelled, tired of the chatter and whispered voices from the people milling about down the hall. Had she lost her mind? Had she really seen that with her own eyes? Was this one of the government’s secret mental hospitals?
Most people didn’t know they existed, but where did they think top scientists; agents from the alphabet agencies and military commanders went when they lost their minds? Willingly or unwillingly, she thought. They couldn’t let someone with those kinds of secrets in a regular asylum where they could easily mutter their secrets to staff and other patients.
No, the government had become much more secretive and sinister than anyone could have guessed. A place like this would be perfect for them to make someone disappear. With trained staff on hand to keep you drugged until they found out what they wanted to know, and you outlived your usefulness; Lara thought as her panic rose.
“Hey! Hey! Calm down now. I can feel your fear and panic rising. Just breathe for a minute. No one has hurt you, and no one will. Just calm down.” Niklosi was pissed as hell. Not only did the situation go from bad to worse, but now he had his own weapon pointed at his back.
Niklosi bowed his head in embarrassment when his best friend, Balduen Skardard, teased him through their private mental communication path. “Oh hell man, I’m with Traze on this! I want to watch it on the vids, with popcorn. Over and over and over…”
Niklosi wasn’t sure what was worse, getting bested by the young human female or the fact that Balduen was on his way over. Not to help, but to witness his humiliation. This just wasn’t his day; he thought as he watched more people come into the hallway to see what was happening.
“Yeah, no shit! Calm the hell down before you kill someone! I told you we’re the good… what the fuck man?” Traze ranted from the floor until David smacked him in the back of the head again.
“Just shut up. Your mouth and your antics got us into this mess. Now shut the hell up until Viper gets here.” David said, as he squatted next to the injured man-child.
It was moments like this where David regretted accepting the responsibility of training the boy. Grai and Ivint had thought it was a great idea since Traze seemed to respect the human male. It also had a lot to do with the fact that one smack from him seemed to bring the outrageous young man to heel. At least temporarily.
Lara just watched the strange interactions among the group nervously. The additional people filling the hallways only scared her more, even though they were keeping a healthy distance between them.
“Well what the fuck, she’s gonna be the one who’s embarrassed as hell when she finds out, SHE SHOT A GOOD GUY!!!” Traze yelled the last at Lara as he grunted in pain at Amun’s prodding of the wound in his stomach.
David not only slapped him in the back of the head, he gagged Traze with a black bandana he pulled from one of his pockets. When Traze went to pull it from his mouth, David held up one finger. Traze stared at it for a second before slumping back down.
“Fuck you.” Traze muttered from behind the cloth before finally falling silent.
Lara wasn’t sure if she imagined the collective sigh she heard from those around her or not. She had to admit that she was relieved the boy was quiet. He had a point, if she was wrong, she was going to be humiliated over this. More importantly, Viper would be humiliated that she had treated his people this way.
They had healed her. She knew there was no way she could have survived those wounds. Hell, even now, her back was on fire; she couldn’t imagine how bad it would be if they hadn’t done something to help it.
She’d seen similar damage on the battle field and knew that back wounds like that were almost impossible to survive. With the infection she had in her shoulder already weakening her body, she wouldn’t have stood a chance.
Her nerve was faltering the more confused she became, and she wasn’t sure what to do anymore. Everything was too messed up. There was only one thing she was positive about.
“I promised him I would keep him safe. I have to keep my word. I have to know he is safe, and that you are his people. I’m tired of the death and the killing. I don’t want to hurt anyone. Just let me talk to Viper and make sure he’s safe. I can’t… leave another man behind.” Lara couldn’t help the catch in her voice, memories of John dying alone on a dirt road thousands of miles from home flashing in her mind along with memories of Viper. And memories that weren’t really memories. At least not hers, she thought.
“We can understand that and respect it. We would do the same for one of our own. If we had known that was what this was about, I would have handed you a weapon so you’d feel comfortable and left you alone until Viper came.” Decano said, meaning every word.
Lara looked surprised as there were murmurs and nods of agreement, even the wounded young man nodded his head. It rocked her confidence in the fact that these might not be the bad guys even more.
“Thank you. If I am wrong, I truly am sorry. But if I’m not and you are the enemy, and you’re holding Viper… I will kill every single one of you that I can in order to get to him. Just so we understand each other…” Lara said, the steely tone of her voice ensuring that they understood her very well. She was surprised that the men chuckled.
“We can respect that as we would do the same thing in your position. We had thought wrongly, that Viper had explained everything to you, and that you were aware of where you are and who we are. When we’re done I bet half the people, here will want to shake your hand for shooting this fool.” David said, ruffling Traze’s hair like he was a small child and not a six-foot four man who turned into an eight-foot tall monster.
Lara was even more surprised at the chuckles, grins and whooping the last brought to those even farther down the hallways. Apparently, the annoying man was well known; Lara thought. She was stunned when she had to fight her own grin.
“Do not doubt that we respect your abilities and your loyalty to the Tezarian. Viper is a good friend, as are his brothers, Dread and Drago. I am Decano. Although I am sort of the same species as the young fool over there, I like to think I am not nearly as annoying.” Decano told the young woman, giving her a nod
of respect.
“I’m Lieutenant David Jacobs, former Navy Seal and full-blood human. The young fool is Traze T’Alq, brother of Grai, who built this place and many others we use as command centers.” David said, hoping the names would jog Lara’s memory if Viper had told her about them.
Lara just looked at the man strangely; she recalled the names. Viper spoke of those people. She shook her head to clear it; she had to stay focused. It was obvious they were trying to use the names to convince her that they were the friendlies, but they could have just as easily tortured the information out of Viper.
“I’m Niklosi Jevasari of Valendra.” Niklosi said, trying to distract her from the negative thoughts he could feel in her energy.
Amun stood and held his hands up to show Lara they were empty… and covered in the young man’s blood. “We have already met. I need a few things from in there to help him. Can I go get them?”
Lara was wracked with indecision, but remembering how hard it was to find a weapon in the medical room made the decision easy for her, and she nodded her head to the doctor.
Amun wasted no time and hurried through the door. Lara was surprised when moments later he returned with an armful of supplies and what looked like tools.
“Yoo Hoo! Niklosi! Hey bro, you look like you’re constipated or something man. You ok?”
Lara watched in fascination as a huge blond man, with a beaming smile casually walked through the crowd down one of the hallways and strode towards them. It didn’t escape her notice that he was heavily armed and decked out in what looked like armor. She recognized the logo on the chest piece, but not the style that he was wearing.
“Don’t move any further!" Lara warned, feeling Niklosi’s body tense.
“Baldy, I’m going to kill you myself when this is over if you don’t do what the hell she says.” Niklosi growled at his friend, not liking the feel of Lara’s determined energy.
Balduen just stopped halfway down the hall to them and laughed. Lara was baffled at what the man thought could be funny about this situation. Granted, the odds were definitely not looking good for her. In fact, she was surprised that they hadn’t disarmed her already.
