by Mikayla Lane
“Chris! We’re here!” Mikal said, pulling Chris from his memories as Declan opened his door.
Chris strode towards the front door and was a little surprised to see Dante open it. He turned to Mikal.
“Please tell me that you didn’t tell the girls too,” he asked.
“Of course not—just those who could help us get this done before the girls find out on their own,” Mikal argued, pushing Chris inside the house.
“Siggy’s in the basement,” Dante said as he shut the door behind them and headed to the stairs.
Siggy was still typing rapidly at a comm station when they came down the stairs.
“Where is she?” Chris asked without hesitation.
Siggy turned and looked over at Mikal and Declan before he nodded towards the table in the middle of the basement.
“Let’s sit down, and I’ll tell you what we know right now,” Siggy offered.
“I don’t want to sit,” Chris put his arms across his chest in determination.
“Sit the hell down,” Mikal said as he and Declan pushed Chris to the table and pulled out a chair for him.
“What the hell is wrong?” Chris demanded as he began to fight his brothers. “Tell me!”
Mikal shook Chris by his shirt collar for a second to get his attention.
“Sit down,” Mikal growled.
Chris wouldn’t have had a problem getting into a physical fight with his brothers. They’d done it hundreds of times over the years as they grew up together, and he wasn’t afraid of it. He was worried they wouldn’t tell him about Quinn until he sat, so he glared at his brothers before he dropped into the chair.
Mikal sat on Chris’s right while Declan took his left. Just the way his brothers were acting told Chris that something was terribly wrong.
“Is she . . . hurt?” he asked, afraid of the answer.
“We don’t know, Chris. We know the last time she was seen, she was perfectly fine, as was the child,” Siggy said. “That was the same day that the limousine picked her up.”
“Who does the limo belong to? What have you found out?” Chris demanded, his stomach in knots as he waited for them to tell him where his mate and child were.
“We hacked into a local bank’s security cameras and were able to get the license plate of the limo,” Siggy said as he pulled up information on his comm before flicking it on top of the table in front of his brothers.
“The plate belongs to a corporation, and it took a while to get through all the bullshit companies to find out who really owns it,” Dante added as he touched the table and pulled up a website.
“That is the company that owns the limo that Quinn got into,” Siggy said, keeping his eyes on the table and the information showing the dark prime, Satalis—also known as John Rothfeller—to be the company’s owner.
“No!” Chris shouted as he saw the name. “No!”
“Calm the hell down!” Mikal growled as he grabbed Chris’s arm to keep him in the chair.
“Oh, god! What have I done?” Chris roared in fear and rage.
“Listen to me, Chris,” Siggy said as he put his hand on Chris’s shoulder. “This goes far deeper than you think. It wasn’t targeted towards her; she unwittingly stumbled into it, but we have a chance to get her.”
“We have the element of surprise, Chris,” Mikal said gently. “He’ll never know we’re coming or that we even know what’s going on.”
“The problem is there may be more women being held with her. She stumbled into something big, Chris,” Dante added, keeping his voice low. “There was no way to know this was going on. We knew his reach was pretty far, but this, this is the most malevolent thing we’ve seen yet.”
“Tell me everything,” Chris growled low as he clenched his fists. “I want to know exactly what we’re dealing with, because when I go get my mate and my child, I’m going to destroy every bastard who was a part of this.”
Chris looked up at his brothers, his blue eyes sparking with his power, determination, and hatred for the man holding his precious family.
“Whoa,” Siggy warned, seeing his eyes. “Back off, Sparky. You need to calm down before you blow all the damn electronics in here.”
Chris did his best to roll back the energy spiking through him, but only managed to calm it a little. His brothers were stepping back from him as he was suddenly struck with something hard before he lost all energy and slumped in his chair. He looked at the door and groaned.
“Damn it! I thought you said you were telling only who was necessary,” Chris growled as he glared at Lara.
Lara snorted as she came into the kitchen quickly followed by Viper, Dread, and Trick.
“You better be damn glad we followed Siggy from the compound,” Lara retorted as they filed into the chairs around the table. “From what we’ve read of the files on the way here, we’re going to need all the damn help we can get.”
“No shit,” Dread agreed. “Not only does the dark prime own the clinic Quinn went to, he owns dozens more free clinics just like it around the world. Have you seen any of this?”
Chris looked so shocked by the news that Dread and the others who just came into the room couldn’t help but notice.
“We were getting there when we had to fear for the computer systems because of Sparky here, and then you walked in and opened your mouths,” Siggy growled in irritation at them for dumping it on Chris like that.
“Sorry,” Dread apologized, feeling bad for Chris.
Dread couldn’t begin to imagine the emotions that had to be running through Chris before Lara shut them down. He looked at Lara, and she nodded her head, having thought the same thing. She was going to have to keep Chris calm while he was briefed, or he’d knock out the power to most of D.C. in his anger.
Of all Grai’s adopted children, Chris had been the first, but he was also the most physically powerful. With his intense power came an instability that could be easily affected by his emotions and lack of concentration. This particular situation was going to test every limit Chris had ever had and some he never knew.
Lara and Dread looked around the table, wondering if the others knew what they were getting themselves into.
“We all know, and we’re in,” Mikal said, figuring out what Lara and Dread were silently communicating about. “He will rein in his emotions and remain stable.”
Chris glared at Lara and Dread for a moment before letting go of his irritation and nodding his head.
“Trust me, I don’t want to unleash on anything other than that bastard and his minions,” Chris argued, understanding very well why they were concerned about his stability.
Chris knew what he was capable of when he lost control of his emotions and his power. It was what had alerted Grai to his location when he was a child.
He still didn’t remember anything that happened in the days before Grai found him. It was August 11, 1856. The only reason he remembered the day was because it was the day after the Last Island Hurricane.
He had stared at Grai’s outstretched arms and it was as if he’d opened his eyes for the first time. He was standing on a sandy beach surrounded by debris and bodies that ebbed and flowed with the still-rapid swells of the churning sea. His throat was raw and burned in pain. He was naked and covered in bloody scrapes and cuts.
Grai kneeled in the sand several feet away from him, a horse standing near half of a broken boat.
“Little one, calm yourself. You are alright. Breathe, little one,” Grai said, looking worriedly at the boy.
Chris remembered taking a deep breath and looking down at his feet, his innocent mind not understanding the glowing blue that surrounded his body. Moments later, it was gone.
“Come here, little one,” Grai said as he stood and ran to Chris.
He scooped the boy in his arms and held him tight to his chest.
Chris had felt the warmth of the strong chest that held him closely and the fear in the man for Chris’s safety. He burst into tears and clutched Grai as if he were his only li
feline.
“It is alright, I’ve got you, little one,” Grai had whispered while he cuddled the small, shaking child. “Where is your mommy?”
Chris had sat back in Grai’s arms and pointed out to the sea where a several wooden posts denoted where the resort island had been only the day before. The once flourishing tourist island was completely submerged beneath the waves. The tears streamed down Chris’s face.
“We used to live out there,” Chris whispered.
Grai had looked around at the bodies littering the beach and the dangerous debris, and he wrapped Chris in his shirt.
“What is your mommy’s name?” Grai asked gently.
“Mommy,” Chris said with a sniffle.
Grai chuckled and hugged him close.
“Of course it is.”
Grai carried the boy to his horse and launched himself into the saddle. He’d taken Chris to his home a few miles away and cleaned him up before leaving him with Koda to search the beach for the boy’s mother. Her body had been found in the marshes a week later.
When Chris was older, Grai had explained that he’d been searching for survivors when he’d seen what looked like an electrical storm in the sky above the beach and had followed it. He found Chris crying hysterically while blue lightning arced violently around him, scorching the debris surrounding him as it made a circuit from his fingertips to his toes.
It was then that Grai knew that Chris commanded lightning, and it was his emotions and concentration that could determine how mild or how lethal his gift could be.
It was later when Chris learned he could lightly zap someone like a static shock, or he could call down a storm that could cause a building’s implosion and kill everything in a wide radius around it.
As he learned the dark prime had his child, Chris wanted to focus every bit of his lethal power on the animal who held the lives of his family in his evil hands.
Chapter Three
Quinn sat quietly in the old, over-stuffed chair as she looked out the window onto the snow covered grounds below her. She rubbed her swollen belly as she tried to keep the tears from spilling down her cheeks.
It’d only been a week since her arrival, but she’d figured out it was a terrible mistake within the first few seconds of getting in the limousine. The chauffer had locked her in the back the moment he’d shut the door, telling her it was for her own safety, but she’d known it was a mistake. She could feel it.
Every internal alarm system she had went off, and whether it was the sudden fear swamping her or the stress, she’d puked all over the back of the car. She’d tried to get the driver to stop at a store so they could clean it, but he’d ignored her, keeping the glass up between them.
Quinn shook her head, wishing she’d listened to Chris all those times he drilled into her head not to trust anyone willing to give her a handout—especially not the government—but everything he’d ever taught her went out the window the moment he turned his back on them.
His abandonment gave her no choice but to go to the free women’s center in her neighborhood. Even with working part time three jobs, there was no way she could afford insurance.
It was the free clinic, supposedly run through grants from wealthy benefactors, that had led her to captivity—and most likely her death—and an unknown future for her precious child.
Quinn wiped the tears from her eyes and rubbed her stomach as the miraculous child inside of her tumbled around. Not wanting anyone to hear what she was saying, she spoke in her head, hoping that against all odds there was a way for the child to hear her.
“Shh, baby. Don’t be upset. Mommy is just a little sad,” she whispered quietly in her mind, trying to calm the restless child inside of her.
When the strong movements slowed to a stop, Quinn smiled to herself.
“Aren’t you a smart boy! If what they told me is true, then maybe your beast can understand me,” she whispered, hoping it wasn’t just a fluke that the baby had stopped moving at that particular moment.
Quinn sucked in her breath and held it as a tiny, thin, blue arc of light erupted from the top of her stomach and circled it before disappearing. She quickly covered her stomach and looked around the room, hoping no one was spying on her.
“Oh, little guy, you can’t do that or they’ll drug us again,” she whispered in her mind, desperate to stop the baby from drawing their captors’ attention.
The electrical problems should have been Quinn’s first clue that something was very wrong about her pregnancy, but she’d shrugged off most of the strange things happening around her as nothing more than her imagination or her eyes playing tricks on her due to lack of sleep.
She had to be grateful to her captors for telling her the truth though, otherwise she would have never found out her baby’s father was an alien.
A hybrid, she corrected herself, remembering what they had called Chris. They’d spent the last week trying to get her to tell them who the father was, but all she’d say was that it had been a one night stand with a drifter she’d picked up in the bar. It was at least half the truth anyway—a one night stand 10 years in the making. It was enough of the truth for her to convince them that they wouldn’t find him.
The thought of Chris brought fresh tears to her eyes, and she patted her stomach. Quinn didn’t blame him for the situation she was in. This she’d done to herself by letting her guard down and ignoring all the warning signs—the first being the constant equipment failures anytime someone tried to do an ultrasound of the baby.
Since there was no doubt in Quinn’s mind who the father was and when conception occurred, the doctors had been desperate to get an ultrasound and try to see why she was so large so early in her pregnancy. The moment the wand came near her abdomen, there was a loud “pop,” and the machine began smoking before it shut down.
At her next appointment they had another machine, and this time she’d barely walked into the room before the outlet the ultrasound machine was plugged into sent sparks shooting towards the ceiling. As she was being rushed from the room, the power went out in the entire building.
After that they’d tried to get her in at the county hospital, but no one would take her without insurance or prior payment, and there was no way Quinn could afford it. Then her doctor told her about this place. The doctor explained that it was more like a retreat privately funded by the wealthy and designed to handle special cases like hers.
The doctor had promised she would never be asked to give up her child—all they wanted was a chance to study the pregnancy for scientific purposes. She would be paid for her time and would be able to help others who were having unusual pregnancies. Quinn should have known it was too good to be true.
“Nothing invasive,” they’d promised.
Damn liars, Quinn thought angrily.
If she wasn’t a prisoner, she might feel bad about the six people who had died since her arrival. The only consolation she had at the moment was that no one could touch her, or even get too close, or they risked being victim number seven of the bizarre phenomena surrounding her son.
They were frightened enough that they’d put her in what appeared to be the oldest section of the estate. The walls were a thick stone, the windows narrow but tall and chest level. There was no electricity in that entire part of the building.
The only reason she knew that was because she’d been watching the lights go by overhead until they’d suddenly stopped, and all she’d seen was old, grey stone until they’d pulled her off the gurney and put her in the bed. Then they’d locked her in and they hadn’t let her out since then.
Quinn pulled her feet into the seat of the chair and tried to rub the cold from them. She’d barely thought about moving the chair closer to the fire when she felt a small flutter in her stomach that travelled down her legs and to her feet. Her mouth gaped open as her feet began to warm.
Oh my, she thought, trying to understand what it meant and why the strange occurrences were increasing.
She’d he
ard what her captors had said about hybrids and their abilities and that they suspected her baby could manipulate electricity, but this was intelligent thought and response, and it wasn’t the first time that it had happened either.
Quinn thought back to all the odd little things that had happened since she’d gotten pregnant.
The TV always ended up on cartoons no matter what channel she’d left it on when she turned it off or left the room.
Ultrasound machines kept breaking, and the heater cranked up in the apartment when she was cold. The alarm clock turned off on its own when she was tired; it was all weird, but it was as if someone—or something—was trying to protect her and the baby.
Yeah, that’s not nuts at all! she thought with a disgusted shake of her head.
Her entire body flooded with warmth, and Quinn couldn’t stop the sudden rush of tears that came into her eyes at the comforting gesture.
Oh, baby, what are we going to do? she wondered. I don’t know how to get us out of here.
She’d tried everything, but there was no way to get out of the solid wooden door, and even if she could fit out of the small window, she was three stories up, and her baby would never make it through a fall like that. The full, working bath in the adjoining room only had another tall, thin window, but there was no door.
Quinn sucked in a breath when she heard a sharp knock at the door.
“Ms. Williams, please remain seated so that I may put your tray on the floor,” a nasally voice called out before a tray was slid under the large gap at the bottom of the door.
“Is it poisoned again?” she asked sarcastically as she looked through the small window cut out in the door to try and see her captor.
Quinn had never even considered that they would taint her food until two days ago when they’d brought her breakfast. She had just reached for the tray on the floor when she started feeling nauseous. When she stood she was fine, but every time she reached for the tray she became dizzyingly nauseous until she threw up in the tray.
It was then that she’d heard the cursing outside and knew something must have been in the food. She’d accused them of trying to poison her, and someone outside the door had admitted there were only “additional vitamins and calming medicines” in her food.
