by Mikayla Lane
“No more games. Tell me what’s going on, son,” David insisted as he called out to Traze to keep everyone away while he talked to his only child.
Chapter Five
David watched half a dozen emotions cross Tiernan’s face before the boy’s shoulders slumped and he burst into tears. David pulled Tiernan close and held him tightly as the child cried softly against his chest. Although David’s heart was breaking for Tiernan and what they’d lost over the last 10 years, he was determined to find out what was going on and save his son.
“Tiernan, please talk to me. Tell me what’s happening,” David whispered as he caressed the boy’s soft hair and rubbed his back.
Suddenly the door flew open, and two angry couples looked ready to rip him apart before Tiernan turned to them with a tear-streaked face.
“He needs to know now,” the boy whispered.
Immediately the anger was wiped from their faces, and the two couples backed away from the door.
“Come, we’ll help Tiernan explain it to you,” Rex said wearily.
“You better keep your shit together,” Carol warned as she walked towards Jenny and Kurt’s RV.
“Don’t be scared. I won’t let her hurt you,” Tiernan whispered as David picked up the boy and carried him outside.
David was going to ask him what he meant but decided against it as he followed the two couples into the other RV. The first thing that struck him was the slight growling sounds emanating from a curtained off area in the back.
Jenny and Carol stood in front of the curtain and looked to Tiernan before they opened it and left the RV leaving David to stare in open-mouthed shock at the scene in front of him.
“You! You bastard! You killed me! You sent me the devil to kill me!” Jodi screamed in rage, her hands clawing at the air in front of her.
The only thing stopping her from reaching David and Tiernan was a shimmering gold collar and chain holding her in the curtained off area.
“Jodi,” David choked out, stunned at how much she’d changed over the years.
Her once shining dark eyes were dull and lifeless except for the rage in them. Her long dark hair hung limply around her shoulders where they once bounced with every move she made. Her curves were gone and replaced by a thin frame that didn’t look strong enough to support her.
“Did you and the Devil come to finish me off? Is that it? That why you’re here? Do it! Do it now!” Jodi shrieked in rage.
“I’m sorry, Momma,” Tiernan whispered and buried his face in David’s shoulder.
“Sorry? You’re sorry? I should have killed you years ago you evil bastard! Why didn’t you die?” Jodi screamed at the boy, making Tiernan shake in fear and sadness.
David stumbled back in shock and rage at what she was doing to their son. Without a word to his once beloved wife, David stormed outside the RV and walked with Tiernan until he found a secluded spot and sat on the nearest bench. When Tiernan moved to get out of his lap, David only held him tighter.
“How long has she been like that?” David whispered.
“The last 8 years we’ve known her and long before that,” Jenny answered as the two older couples walked up to them.
David tried to stop the shudder at the thought of his son listening to that every day of his life.
“She’s anomalous. I know some people that might be able to help,” David suggested, still trying to absorb what was going on.
“We are aware of your Dranovian friends, but this goes beyond that. The things she’s done . . .” Jenny said, then turned away so David couldn’t see her face.
David looked at the others and wasn’t too surprised when Carol reached down for Tiernan.
“Come on, Tiernan, let’s get everyone some food,” Carol said with forced cheerfulness.
The only reason David let the child go was that he recognized the looks being cast by the other three and knew he was finally going to find out what the hell was going on. He was proved right the moment the boy was out of earshot.
“Jodi pulled into our park eight years ago. We knew right away that things weren’t right with her and Tiernan’s power was the only thing keeping her together,” Jenny began.
“That first night we heard a commotion and found that she’d beaten the baby in the head with a rock and was trying to throw him in the fire. If she hadn’t been screaming at him and awakened other campers . . .” Kurt let the sentence hang, and David felt like throwing up at the images forming in his head.
“We took him from her, and it was easy to see that she’d done it many times before. He had terrible scars on his scalp where she’d been trying to beat the devil out of him,” Rex growled.
“We couldn’t take her to the human doctors because they’d get her DNA and possibly find us, and we couldn’t fix her, so we tried to help Tiernan keep her as stable as possible. But as his power wanes, so does the threads keeping her sanity intact,” Jenny stated as tears slipped down her cheeks.
“What’s wrong with my son?” David demanded, the need to save the boy foremost in his mind.
He’d leave Jodi to the Dranovians, preferring not to think of the woman who’d tried to murder his son. More than once.
“Jodi had done considerable damage to Tiernan’s beast through the beatings, and when the voices told her the Ancient pod would rid Tiernan of the devil inside him, she forced him to eat it. His other Prime beast is dying while the Ancient is fighting to keep Tiernan alive and preserve the brain tissue being destroyed by the other as it perishes,” Rex explained, his sadness and fear for the boy evident in his voice.
David could barely breathe, his mind was in chaos as he thought of losing his son before he could even get to know him. He’d seen some big miracles while working with the Alliance and knew there had to be a way to save Tiernan, he just needed more information to find out how.
David heard a whisper in his mind a second before a whirlwind appeared in front of them and Mikal solidified, his nearly identical father beside him. Although David had been warned, the other three hadn’t and freaked out at the sudden appearance.
Kurt and Rex immediately stood in front of Jenny as both men pulled guns from their waistbands.
“Who the hell are you? Are you Night Walkers too?” Kurt demanded angrily.
“They are friends of mine!” David snapped, moving to stand in front of the two men. “They can help Tiernan and Jodi!”
“Dranovian and Night Walker? What games do you play?” Rex growled.
Indrid took a small step forward and raised his hands in the air.
“We are Wind Walkers, not Night Walkers. Although both are Hyperborean, we are vastly different. Neither is the enemy you think,” Indrid stated, unafraid of the hybrids.
“What the hell is a Night Walker?” Mikal asked his father through their private energy path, wondering why Indrid hadn’t warned him.
“While my son and I walk the wind, others of our kind can walk the night. Like the Sibiox they walk in shadows and darkness, but they aren’t evil. Dark is the absence of light, not the cause of evil,” Indrid explained, feeling the confusion around him, even from Mikal.
“What the hell are you saying?” David demanded, looking worriedly at Mikal. “Why are you here?”
“Your wife is anomalous, and I may be able to help her. Your son is another matter entirely, and I need to bring someone to look at him,” Mikal stated, willing to do whatever it took to save the strange and powerful boy.
“What does this Night Walker shit have to do with any of this?” David asked, looking at Indrid, afraid he already knew the answer.
“Your wife is a Hyperborean hybrid. The voices she hears that are causing her madness come from other worlds. Night Walkers are especially attuned to the darker realms because their power is more intense. Like the Dranovians among the beast species, the Night Walkers are our most powerful,” Indrid explained, trying to remain as calm as he could though time was running out for all of them.
“My son?” Dav
id croaked out.
“The only thing stronger than your son right now is Tristan. If we do not help them soon, the boy will become second only to the Dark Prime in the destruction he can bring about on this world,” Indrid warned.
“What the fuck?” David roared in rage. “He’s not evil! You just said he’s a Night Walker and they aren’t bad!”
“The beast destroying his brain in its death is beginning to remove his conscience. He will become a destroyer of everything without remorse, and there are few that could stop him,” Indrid stated, knowing there was no other way.
“That can’t be true. Tiernan loves us,” Jenny argued.
“In another week the boy will no longer love anything or anyone,” Indrid countered. He couldn’t let them hide from the truth.
“Wait, you have to be wrong. Jodi looks nothing like any of you. Half of you seem albino while you guys are dark. Jodi only has dark hair and eyes,” David said, sure they were wrong about his wife and therefore his son.
“Like my Dranovian son and his mark of Dranan on his neck, the Night Walkers are blessed with unnaturally dark hair and eye color. Their eyes reflect the impermeable darkness that they walk among. I am not wrong and each moment we waste here is a moment lost forever,” Indrid chastised. He wasn’t sure if it was already too late to help them.
“Mikal?” David asked the only person he trusted among the group.
“I know the truth of his words and someone who can help us. I need you to trust me. I will not allow harm to come to your family,” Mikal promised, hoping the doom and gloom his father spoke of could be avoided.
“I don’t trust any of you, and no one is taking that boy from us,” Jenny snapped.
“You are most welcome at Beta, which is where we must take them immediately,” Indrid offered with a slight bow of respect to the woman.
“We can’t just leave the others,” Kurt warned.
“Traze is more than capable of leading them to Dillon, and with a little overhead support, nothing will happen to them,” Mikal suggested.
David knew damn well that Traze was going to flip out over this, but he didn’t care. His only thoughts were for his son, and the wife he never knew was so different.
“How are we getting there?” Rex asked, willing to do anything to save the boy he loved like a grandson.
Mikal just pointed above them, and seconds later a large ship flashed into view before it disappeared again.
“My brother Declan is waiting for us.” Mikal waited for the word to port them all to the ship.
“Is there another ship that will stay with the others?” Jenny asked.
“There are two up there now, do you need to see them?” Mikal asked as he spoke to all the captains privately.
Seconds later all three ships blinked into view then disappeared again.
“We must go now,” Indrid warned.
“What is your rush?” Rex snapped.
“That boy is being stripped of his humanity. He’s the most powerful being my people can produce and has an ancient Prime in his brain. Think of what he is capable of!” Indrid growled back, trying to make them understand the urgency of the situation.
Shouts erupted around the campground and chaos ensued as people began fleeing from a bonfire in a field.
“The boy!” Indrid hissed as he disappeared.
David and the others took off running towards the screaming people, and when they finally broke through, they stared in shock at the scene before them.
Jodi held an unmoving Tiernan by the throat, suspended over the roaring fire. What shocked David the most was that only parts of Jodi were visible, the rest of her appeared to blend completely into the night sky and her eyes held a darkness he’d only seen when passion had taken hold of her. Now madness fueled the fire in her eyes as she shook Tiernan’s small body.
“The evil has to be destroyed. It’s taking him over. I have to do it,” Jodi whispered as tears streamed down her face.
“Hold Night Walker!” Indrid roared throwing his hands up to create a barrier between the child and the flames licking at his shoes.
“Jodi! Please don’t!” David yelled out.
“David?” Jodi whispered as she whipped around to look at him. “Is it really you?”
David’s breath caught in his throat when it looked like the woman he remembered was back.
“Jodi, please don’t hurt our son,” David croaked out.
“David, save him from me,” Jodi shrieked and burst into tears, Tiernan slipping from her grip.
Moments later, Mikal snatched the boy as he fell into the fire and whisked him into the ship above, taking no more chances.
“Port all of them!” Mikal growled to Declan as he laid the unconscious boy on some seats.
David was beside Mikal the moment he reached the ship, quickly followed by Carol, Rex, Jenny, and Kurt. Indrid was the last, and he carried an unconscious Jodi in his arms.
“What the hell happened?” David demanded of Carol.
“She broke the chain and grabbed him before we could stop her!” Carol explained, trying to stem her tears as she looked at the blood dripping from Tiernan’s head where Jodi had hit him with a pan from the stove.
“The boy’s power is waning fast. His energy can’t control her any longer. We must hurry,” Indrid warned Mikal.
“Go Declan!” Mikal called out, and the ship shot through the sky towards Base Beta.
“Can Tristan help him?” David asked Indrid and Mikal, hoping he wouldn’t have to watch his son die.
“There are many energies needed to help him. We will all do our best,” Indrid assured David as he manipulated the boy’s energy, strengthening some areas and weakening others.
“How is she a Night Walker? How could I not have known?” David whispered, still in shock.
Indrid shook his head.
“Only a quarter of her is a Night Walker, the rest is human. It is enough to give her great power and allow her to call on the dark realms. The Prime beast given to her brain from your son during conception allowed her to open doors that she didn’t know how to close. Humans call most of those who can communicate with the realms schizophrenic,” Indrid explained while he tried to stabilize the mother and child.
“Is that why she’s tried to kill him?” David asked, desperate for an excuse for what his wife had done to their precious son.
“It is the duty of my people to remove the spirits of the shadow realms from the humans when they become possessed. She would have misinterpreted the anomalous beast she saw within the child and even if she didn’t, the spirits that possess her body, would have tried to destroy him anyway,” Indrid explained, struggling against the power of the woman and her son.
“What are you?” Jenny bluntly asked, tired of not understanding what the strangers were talking about.
There was no time to answer before the ship landed and the door opened to Base Beta leaving everyone silent as they stepped outside into the second sun and were greeted by a herd of wooly mammoth.
“Oh, my,” Jenny whispered as she and Carol looked around in amazement.
“I got your message,” Thjodhild called out as she rushed to meet them. “The Med Lab is ready for them both.”
Indrid turned to Mikal and gave him a pained look.
“You must take the boy to your friend now. He is beyond our help here. For now,” Indrid said sadly.
David looked between Mikal and his father and panic set in.
“What the hell do you mean? You said you could help him!” David snapped, waiting for one of them to explain themselves.
“David,” Mikal began, “your son needs my help as a Dranovian before anything else can be done for him. Your wife can be helped here. You must choose where to go.”
David could tell that the mere suggestion bothered Mikal and it only drove home how close David was to losing his son.
“I’ll go with Tiernan. Will you stay with Jodi?” David asked, turning to Jenny and Carol.
“They stay with Jodi, we go with Tiernan,” Rex stated, his eyes daring anyone to say otherwise.
“Call to me when he’s ready for us,” Indrid told Mikal before he carried Jodi to the Med Lab, closely followed by Jenny and Carol.
Mikal went back into the ship with Tiernan and waited for David, Rex, and Kurt to come inside. David pulled Tiernan from Mikal’s arms and cuddled the too-thin boy close to his chest. Feelings of love, fear, and panic swamped David as he struggled with the horror show that had become his life in a few short hours. Every second of joy he’d felt at the discovery of his son had quickly turned into an all-consuming panic of losing Tiernan.
“Is this what he was trying to tell me in the nightmares? Did I cause this because I didn’t understand?” David asked Kurt and Rex, praying he wasn’t the reason this was happening.
As much as Rex and Kurt wanted to blame David, they couldn’t allow the devastated father to bear that burden.
“No, this wasn’t what he was saying. Tiernan was lied to daily by Jodi. In the eight years we’ve been looking out for them, I can count only a dozen times she’s ever appeared lucid,” Rex admitted, shaking his head at what the woman had done to her son.
“It twisted him up inside,” Kurt added. “Tiernan never knew the truth from the lies and was determined not to tell you enough in the dreams to actually find them. He just wanted to figure out what was real and what was in her head.”
“Even at two, that boy was trying to protect Jodi and take care of her. He’d already been restraining Jodi and keeping her stable enough to provide food and shelter. When the government came after them, it was Tiernan who guided her to us,” Rex explained, running a hand through the boy’s soft hair in affection.
“By three he could talk like an adult with the help of the ancient Prime. We think it was the Prime who accelerated his learning skills. More out of necessity than anything else. It wasn’t long after they came to us that Jodi began to decline faster while his brain matured well past adulthood,” Kurt explained, smiling at the boy’s achievements while his heart bled for the child that never got to live.
