She moved deeper into the caverns, exploring the chambers and venturing into areas that she hadn't visited in quite some time. Suddenly she saw something that made her heart pound faster and a smile come to her lips for the first time since the day that Bannack left.
"Do you remember what I told you about the compact?" she asked, looking into the mirror at him.
Bannack nodded.
"Whatever reflects in your mirror, reflects in mine."
"Yes. And do you remember what happens when something reflects in my bottom mirror from the top?"
"It becomes real."
Loralia nodded and looked back across the cavern.
Bannack crouched down behind the barrel he had pulled into the middle of the street and glanced over at Lynx who sat beside him. The others had remained in the buildings on either side of the street, poised beside the windows and doors to watch what was happening, but staying out of sight.
"Are you sure that this is going to work?" Lynx whispered.
"It has to," Bannack answered. "In order for it to, though, you have to believe that it will. Loralia can only make this happen if you completely believe that it is going to work the way that she intends it to. If you don't, it won't exist, do you understand?" Lynx nodded and Bannack nodded back at him, "Good. Now we have to be completely silent."
The two warriors fell silent and Bannack glanced down at the compact in his hand. Loralia's face gazed up at him from the glass, her beautiful lavender eyes calm and focused. Nervousness flooded through Bannack, but he knew that he had to steady himself so that he could do his part of Loralia's plan properly. After several minutes of waiting, he heard the rustling sound that told him the Covra were approaching. The sound seemed louder and deeper than it had before and Bannack knew that meant there were more of the creatures this time as if they had sent more to seek revenge on those who had destroyed three of their number just hours before.
"They're coming," Bannack mouthed to Loralia, not making a sound.
Loralia nodded. Bannack lifted up slightly so that he could look over the barrel and watch the Covra approaching.
"Patient," Loralia mouthed to him.
Bannack watched until they were close enough that they would be able to see him clearly and then stood, pulling Lynx up with him so that they were standing in the middle of the street, open to the swarm of creatures approaching. He could feel Lynx tense beside him, but Bannack stood steady. Lynx adjusted his grip on the blade beside him. It was meant as both a ruse and a backup plan just in case Loralia's idea fell through. They waited for a few more tense seconds, the time seeming to drag past as they allowed the creatures to get dangerously closer. Bannack's heart pounded in his chest and his head felt like it was swimming. If this didn't work, the entirety of the group could be killed, many by each other's hands.
In an instant, the plan mobilized around him. The Covra climbing along the outside walls of the buildings got close to the windows and doors, and the warriors inside started to shout. As they yelled, the creatures paused and started to retreat from the sound. They started moving backwards back down the street, but several of the warriors streamed out of the building and made a line across the street, blocking them with a wall of sound. The creatures turned and started scurrying more quickly toward Bannack and Lynx, unable to go anywhere else.
"Are you ready?" Bannack asked, looking down at Loralia.
"Just hold your compact so that the bottom mirror is straight upright and the top mirror is tilted toward it. Go!"
Bannack turned the compact in his hand and held it as Loralia instructed. There was a moment when nothing happened and he felt his stomach turn, but he closed his eyes and forced himself to believe with every bit of his existence that she would create exactly what she intended to. His eyes still closed, Bannack suddenly heard the hissing, screeching sound of the Covra dying. He opened his eyes and found himself staring at a massive slab of brown and grey rock.
After several long seconds the screaming stopped and a chilling quiet settled over the street. Finally it broke with the sound of Loralia laughing.
"We might not be able to communicate with our thoughts, my love, but how many of the other warriors can do that?"
Bannack could hear the other warriors cheering and shouting, but it took a few moments before he was able to get his thoughts together enough to walk around the stone slab toward the cheering. When he did he saw the green blood of the Covra soaking into the dirt of the road, dripping from the rock spikes protruding from the front of the slab.
"What is that?" he asked.
"The floor of one of the caverns," Loralia told him, "I used to play on them when I was younger. I remembered how sharp they were."
"You are incredible."
"No, darling, you are."
"What, now? Is this thing just going to stay here?"
"If you think that it is part of settlement now, then it is. If not, when you close the compact, it will disappear."
"Then it will stay, forever a reminder of what destroyed the Covra."
Suddenly Loralia's eyes grew dark.
"This isn't the end, Bannack," she said solemnly.
The words hit him and the sound of the celebrating warriors seemed to fade.
"What do you mean?"
"I can still feel them. They're angry, Bannack. There's more to come. You need to save the Light Ones or very soon they will be lost forever."
(To be continued in Part V…)
Book 5 – The Alien’s Guest
Chapter One
Lynx dropped his bag back to the floor of the bedroom and looked around. It looked different now bathed in the first faint streaks of early morning light. He could see the stains of the Covra blood on the walls and the floor, and a piece of one of their legs sat next to the bed as a grisly reminder of the battle that had happened there the day before. The air was still heavy with the smell of the healing ointments that Ciyrs had used to seal up his wounds after the healer had drawn all of the venom out of his body, and just that scent brought a shiver down Lynx's spine. He didn't want to think about what he had gone through with the Covra or in the aftermath. All he wanted to do was climb back into bed beside Rain's locked, sleeping figure and rest.
His body still weak from the healing process and even more tired now that the adrenaline from the battle in the middle of the street had seeped out of him, the warrior removed his shirt, kicked off his boots, and very carefully climbed into the bed so that he could resume his place close to the wall. Rain was still locked, unmoving and unchanged from the first moment he saw her, but he found such great comfort in being near her. His body surged with aggressive, all-consuming desire that confirmed to him yet again that this beautiful woman was intended to be his mate. Then his mind filled with anger that he had to look at her in this locked state without any idea of how he could remove her from this frozen state that the Covra had put her in so many years ago.
Wanting at least a moment of seeing her breathing, Lynx drew himself closer to her and rested his hand on Rain's stomach. He felt the intense, pulling feeling through his body that he had become accustomed to after spending the night going through the town and touching each of the locked people so that he could see their last moments before they were locked. It had been exhausting, but it had enabled him to determine the Covra's weakness and, with the help of Bannack's truly astonishing mate, create a plan that would eliminate them. At least, that is what he thought he was doing. Once they were gone, however, Loralia had confided that she knew the battle with those terrifying creatures was far from over. There was more to come.
Lynx couldn't think about that now. He was lost in the moments of Rain's life just before the Covra crawled out from under her bed and locked her in her sleeping state. They knew now that the Covra had done this because they were weakened and knew that they would be unable to defeat the Light Ones, the inhabitants of this settlement. Instead of continuing to fight or surrendering, they chose to lock the Light Ones in place j
ust as they were in the moment they were attacked. What Lynx didn't understand was why the Covra had chosen just to lock them in place and not to kill them. Once frozen, they were completely vulnerable to anything that the Covra wanted to do to them. No matter how weak the creatures were, they could have found a way to destroy humans that were unable to move in any way. There had to be a reason that they had kept the Light Ones alive other than just the fact that they held a tremendous grudge and enjoyed coming back to explore the settlement and cast their gleaming, vulnerable eyes on the people that they were holding in indefinite suspension.
When the vision of Rain's final moment was over, he settled down beside her and stared into her pale, peaceful face until his eyes couldn't stay open any longer and he fell into a deep sleep where he hoped he would meet her and be able to hold and touch her as he had wanted to since the moment he first saw her.
What felt like only moments later, Lynx heard the door to the bedroom open and he sat up sharply, ready to throw himself back into battle, but it was only Pyra standing at the entrance to the door staring at him.
"The men are awake," he said, then glanced toward Lynx's lap, "It looks like you are, too."
Lynx looked down and saw the blanket tented up, balanced on the raging erection he had been sporting nearly continuously since the first time he laid eyes on Rain. He took a pillow from behind him and slammed it onto his lap.
"It's her," he said, tilting his head toward Rain, "I can't help it."
"I know," Pyra said, the hint of a smile coming through his stern exterior, "Trust me. I remember what it was like when I first got around Eden. That was miserable. I was hard all the time, no matter what I did, and I was so pissed off at everything that I felt like I could have killed whatever got in my way. She was not the biggest fan of me when she first met me, either, which didn't make the whole situation any easier. At least she can't yell at you."
He said it playfully, but as soon as the words came out of Pyra's mouth, Lynx felt anger roll over him. Pyra's expression dropped as he obviously saw the change come over Lynx, and he held up a hand as if to show that he meant no harm by the comment.
"You're right," Lynx said, "She can't."
"I'm sorry," Pyra said, "I didn't mean…"
"Let me get dressed and I'll meet you downstairs."
Pyra closed his mouth and nodded before turning and leaving the room, closing the door behind him. Lynx was smaller and less experienced than Pyra, but the younger warrior could tell that his leader was not willing to put him to the test. A Denynso warrior who had found his mate but had not yet completed the bond was an unpredictable and volatile creature, and adding the tension of being away from their compound, the battle, and the seemingly hopeless locked state of the Light Ones was only working to push Lynx toward an edge that could have disastrous results.
Once Pyra left, Lynx looked down at Rain. She was the most beautiful thing that he had ever seen, with coppery hair that shimmered in the sunlight and lashes so long they curled on her pale cheeks. Her full lips held the tiniest hint of a smile, that touch of expression that made someone looking at it wonder if he was actually seeing a smile or if he was just imagining it because the rest of her face was so peaceful and lovely. It was a smile that Lynx had seen on sleeping faces before, but hers was so entrancing he couldn't seem to take his eyes away from it. He wished that he could see what she had been dreaming in that second that the Covra locked her; that he could know what had given her such a sense of peace and contentment in those last moments.
Lynx suddenly heard voices drifting up the stairs from the floor below and realized that all of the warriors must have come to meet at the house after Ty and Vax woke from their healing. He knew he couldn’t stay in bed and continue to stare at Rain, as much as that was exactly what he wanted to do. He had to go downstairs and be a part of the confusion, the questions, and the chaos that had ensued since the first Covra had arrived. Usually the Denynso were incredibly organized, strategic warriors, but this had thrown them completely out of control. Not only were they far away from the compound that was the only home that any of them had ever known, but they were up against an enemy that they didn't understand and fighting to save a people who they didn't even know if they could save. They had managed to come together to lure the Covra and force them into the spiked wall that Bannack created with Loralia's help, but now they were at a loss. They didn't know where they were supposed to go from there, and they would need every single one of them to figure it out.
Moving carefully to prevent jostling Rain, Lynx climbed out of bed and dressed. He longed for a hot bath, but he knew that was going to have to wait. For now he would have to settle for running Rain's brush through his tangled white hair and hoping that Ty had gotten enough of his strength back to make sure that there was breakfast for them to eat while they were talking.
Before he left, Lynx took another glance at the photograph that was sitting on the table beside Rain's bed. He still hadn't told any of the other warriors what he had discovered on the back of that picture, and he was still unsure if he should. Releasing the picture from the frame again, he slipped it into his bag and started downstairs to the waiting men.
Chapter Two
The warriors were gathered around the living room, making the space look small with their massive size only magnified by the fact that that there were so many of them there together. Lynx stepped into the room and all of their eyes turned to him, burrowing into him with the intensity that said they all expected him to do something, but he wasn't sure what that was. He paused at the door and looked back at them, for the first time distinctly aware of the pairs of orange orbs that stood out against the contrasting blue, green, and grey ones that stared back at him. He had caught sight of his own eyes in the mirror above the vanity in Rain's room while he was brushing his hair and noticed that they were still their usual shade. He wondered if they flickered orange when he was near her like he had seen happen to some of the other men in the early days of them finding their future mates but before their bonding was complete.
This thought brought painful tightness to his throat and a rock to his belly. Would he ever be able to complete his bond with Rain? Would they ever be able to look into each other's eyes and truly be together, or would he be left to long for her for the rest of his life knowing that she was there, but frozen in place for eternity?
An even worse thought hit him then. He suddenly wondered if when they destroyed the Covra they also destroyed the link that kept the Light Ones alive.
"We have to figure out how to unlock them," he said without waiting for any of them to say anything to him first.
"That's exactly what we were just talking about," Bannack told him from his spot near the fireplace where the other men had seemed to be watching him before Lynx came into the room.
"How long have you all been here?" Lynx asked.
"Only about an hour," Pyra told him, "Ty and Vax were still sleeping after their healing and we thought that after everything that you went through last night you could probably use a little bit of extra rest."
Lynx nodded.
"Thank you," he said, knowing that they were probably right. The night before had been rough on him and his body still felt like he could use more sleep, "What were you saying about unlocking the Light Ones?"
He was still cautious about the way that he spoke about the people of the settlement, keeping with the name for them that they all already knew from the information they found in the abandoned, burned prison rather than revealing that he knew anything else about them that the others did not.
"You were there when Loralia told us that the Covra aren't gone. There are more to come and she is pretty positive that they are going to be strong enough that the Light Ones aren't going to be able to survive when they come."
"So what do we do?" Lynx asked.
Bannack let out a deep sigh and looked at Pyra.
"We don't know," Pyra said, "We were hoping that there was something m
ore you could tell us about them, something else that you noticed when you were watching their last few moments. Anything."
Lynx shook his head.
"I told you everything. I can't think of anything else that I saw that would have any meaning. I only saw them locking them, not waking them up."
"And they locked them by stabbing them with their legs just like they did when they were fighting us?"
Lynx shuddered as he remembered watching the Covra's sharp, gleaming leg puncturing Rain's belly and her body going completely still. He nodded.
"Can you show us?" Ciyrs asked.
Intense protectiveness flooded through Lynx and he felt the anger and aggression surge within him. He didn't like the thought of any of the other men, not even Ciyrs, looking at Rain, especially if they wanted to expose her belly so that they could see the injury that was inflicted by the Covra. He knew, though, that they had to have as much information as they possibly could if they were going to have any chance of figuring out how to wake the locked residents of the settlement, and that meant having to trust the other men of the tribe, particularly their healer, with his mate.
"Not all of you are going to fit in the room with her," he said.
He wanted to find a way to limit the number of the men who were going to be close to her and looking at her in such a prone and vulnerable state, but he also was trying to control his anger and not hurt any of their feelings by obviously trying to exclude them from the situation.
"Just Ciyrs, Bannack, and me," Pyra said carefully as if he were coaxing permission to get near Rain out of Lynx and being cautious not to upset him for fear that he would rescind the permission and the hopes that they would be able to help these people would be completely futile.
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