by Mikayla Lane
Quinn shook her head at those memories, with a huge grin on her face.
Your daddy came to see me one time when I was having terrible pain. I didn’t call him because I didn’t want him to see me like that, but he arrived on my doorstep with a gallon of my favorite ice cream, cramp relief pills, a box of tissues, and my favorite chick flick.
I don’t know if you can see what your daddy looked like from my memories, but your daddy was huge. What guys call a man’s man. He was strong and tough—even dangerous at times. To this day I can’t begin to imagine the looks he must have gotten when he bought those pills for me. But he didn’t care. All he wanted to do was make me feel better, and he did.
He stayed with me for the entire day and night, curled up on the couch with his arm around me, holding me when I cried over the stupid movie and letting me have most of the ice cream.
Quinn laughed again as she looked out of the window onto the estate grounds.
Your daddy was a big believer in doing something as opposed to talking smack and never doing anything. He looked for solutions and did something about it. If I was hurt, he’d find a way to fix me. If I was sad, he’d cheer me up. And sometimes, I just needed someone to push me in the right direction.
He always told me that there were few situations that were not in your control, and if you stopped feeling sorry for yourself long enough to do something about it, you could find a way out.
Quinn no sooner said that in her mind when she looked around the room with narrowed eyes. She felt another flurry of kicks, and Quinn rested her hand on her stomach.
Settle down for a moment, little guy. There’s something I’m missing here. What the hell am I missing? Quinn wondered as she paced.
Better yet, what am I in control of here? Quinn had barely spoken the thought in her mind when a blue arc of light zinged around her belly before disappearing.
“Wait,” Quinn whispered almost breathlessly. “Are you saying that I can control your power?”
Another arc of light zinged around her belly, and Quinn gasped before slapping her hand over her mouth to contain the laughter and hope that rushed through her.
“We need a better way to communicate if you’re going to give mommy a crash course in using your power,” Quinn said excitedly, before slapping a hand back over her mouth and vowing to only speak to her baby and his beast in her mind.
Chapter Eight
Angel and Dree giggled and tried not to drool as they stared into the bakery window at all the luscious treats on display. Drago and Liam were staring down at least half a dozen curious men who’d come out of other shops and businesses the moment the women appeared on the sidewalk.
“I swear, if we’re not careful, I’m going to buy out the whole damn shop,” Dree only half teased.
“Maybe someone should have done some better research and realized that this is one of the top 10 towns in this country for being gender skewed!” Shane grumbled through the shengari’ so his family could hear. “They stick out like strobe lights in this place!”
“Someone shut him up before I dump his ass in a compost heap,” Angel threatened before she threw back her shoulders and stormed into the bake shop. Dree was right on her heels.
“I’m tempted to punch him in the damn mouth for being right. Why the hell didn’t Siggy warn us that this place didn’t have any women?” Liam muttered to Drago as they followed the women into the bake shop to the stares of the men in the street.
“They do!” Siggy argued back through the shengari’. “Just not very many.”
“Knock it off, guys,” Mikal said. “We’ve never checked demographics before, so there was no reason to check this time.”
“I’ll damn sure do it in the future,” Siggy said, not liking that the women were definitely being noticed.
He’d relied solely on the reports given to them by Fiorn’s team, and he certainly hadn’t been thinking of the gender demographics when he and Dante had reviewed the information.
Angel and Dree ignored the men and their arguing and began asking questions about the baked goods to the handsome man behind the counter who appeared awestruck by the two beautiful women.
Drago felt a slight niggling and looked around the store for any potential threats. He barely noticed a young girl near the end of the counter. The girl’s head was turned, but Drago could see her blond hair tied back in a ponytail and part of the red shirt she was wearing.
Since the preteen was the only other person in the shop, he turned to look out of the store window at the street beyond when he felt a slight brush of air near him. He turned around and didn’t see anything, so he assumed it was the ventilation in the shop, and he went back to watching the street for any dangers.
Drago felt another stir in the air of the bake shop, and this time he gathered the area’s unique energy and manipulated it with his own before shooting out a ball of energy at the man behind the counter.
Drago watched the shimmering ball hit the man in the chest before it scattered around the shop, bouncing around like sparkling little flickers of light before they gathered to the far side of the wide, glass counter.
The human behind the counter never even noticed the energy that hit him, and Drago leaned down to look more closely at the breads and sweet treats offered in the glass case, pretending an interest he didn’t feel.
Drago slowly made his way further down the counter until he heard a wild scrambling and saw a flash of red shirt before it was gone, presumably out the back door of the shop.
“Head to the back door! We got a hybrid—or something!” Drago called out through the shengari’ before he took long strides out of the shop.
He hit the street and tore off around the row of shops to the carpark behind it and skidded to a stop when he saw three of his brothers stalking through the small alley behind the building. Drago’s eyes scanned the area looking for the barely-noticed girl in the red shirt who’d been in the shop only moments earlier.
As Drago stalked angrily towards Shane, Cade, and Dane, he mentally kicked himself for not looking more closely at the girl in the shop.
“There’s nothing here. What did you see?” Shane demanded, his eyes scanning the area non-stop for whatever had alerted Drago.
“Liam, get the girls out of there,” Drago warned through the shengari’ as he looked at the deserted area.
“We’re already on the move,” Liam answered back.
“We’re following as back up,” Alex added.
Lara and Viper came running into the back alley and slowed when they reached Drago and the others.
“What did you see?” Lara asked as she stepped closer to Drago, noting the odd energy traces surrounding him.
“It was a young girl. Blond hair, red shirt. She was in the bake shop, and I didn’t think anything about it until I felt something trying to probe my energy. When I moved towards her, she disappeared. I mean, like Mikal and Chance disappeared,” Drago admitted, frustrated that he didn’t catch the girl or even get a good look at her.
“Let me see what I can find out,” Lara said as she closed her eyes and held her hands out around Drago.
There was a slight golden spark before Lara stepped back and shook off the strange energy.
“It’s a hybrid . . . of some kind, and she’s really damn unique,” Lara said. “She’s also far too young to have gotten to this level of development without help.”
“So Satalis’ hybrids know we’re here?” Drago asked.
“I don’t know,” Lara admitted.
“Everyone, get back to the compound, now!” Mikal ordered through the shengari’ as he appeared beside Drago and Lara.
“What is it?” Chris asked as he ran up to the others.
“Chance and I saw two of Satalis’ hybrids in the general store ordering supplies. They didn’t see us or know we were there, but everyone else may not be so lucky,” Mikal said.
“How do you know they were Satalis’?” Cade asked.
“Because
I almost expulsed them in the middle of the damn store,” Mikal admitted. “Get out of here. We’ll meet back at the compound.”
Everyone left, heading to the various SUVs they’d taken to town. Since Liam had already started back with Angel and Dree, Drago got a ride with Lara, Viper, and Chris.
Chris sat behind Viper, with Drago beside him, and he huffed as they headed to the only road that led to the compound.
“Lara, is there something you can do to find out if they know we’re here?” Chris asked.
They were still several hours from five o’clock when they were supposed to determine the parameters of the multi-continent assault, and Chris was scared to death that Satalis’ people would hide Quinn or kill her before they could get to her.
“Siggy! Damn it!” Alex snarled through the shengari’ from a car much further down the road. “Why the hell didn’t you tell us that they’d be travelling the same damn road? There’s one in a car behind me!”
Chris looked behind them and felt the telltale crackle of his energy spiking.
“We got two, one girl in a red shirt that sounds like the one Mikal saw in town and an adult female driver,” Chris said.
He smacked the back of the driver’s seat a little harder than necessary before pulling out the 9mm handguns stored in the specially made compartment while Drago and Lara did the same.
Chris double checked the clips and slammed them in before racking rounds into the chambers. He was more than ready to do what he had to do to get information from Satalis’ hybrids before they died.
“Somebody call Dad; our party is starting early,” Alex said through the shengari’. “The fool just rammed us off the road.”
“Are you ready?” Viper asked as he grinned at Lara.
The moment Lara nodded, Viper spun the wheel of the SUV and sent the vehicle skidding sideways on the narrow, two lane road. While the SUV was still skidding sideways, Chris opened the door and stepped into the middle of the road. The others followed behind him, leaving their vehicle empty as it continued sliding and began to roll.
Chris had bare seconds to open fire on the car speeding towards him, blowing out the two front tires before he allowed his energy to consume him and launch him through the air. He did a controlled tumble over the roof of the car, landing on his feet behind it before the car slammed into their now-stopped SUV.
He stormed towards the smoking vehicle watching as Lara, Drago, and Viper surrounded it with weapons drawn. The closer he got to the car, the more he felt the shift in his energy that told him he was near an anomalous beast.
As Chris passed the back seat he stole a glance inside, looking for the girl in the red shirt, but the seat was empty. He got to the driver’s seat, reached inside the shattered window, and pulled the woman out, uncaring that he’d ripped her leg open on the broken glass before he dumped her on the road.
“Watch your words!” Lara warned him sharply through the shengari’. “If you give them any clue you’re looking for Quinn we’ll never get her.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Deacon interjected. “My big ass is parked right above the place, and Gun and his teams are all over the perimeter; no one’s going in or out.”
Lara gave one shake of her head to warn Chris one more time, and he nodded his head, unwilling to take any chances even if they thought the place was surrounded. He knew how evil Satalis was and didn’t put it past him to order Quinn killed before they could get inside the estate.
He moved to stand in front of the shaking, stunned woman without an ounce of pity for the blood pooling around her leg and her obviously shocked state. Since she’d rammed the car into the SUV with the intent on hurting or killing them, Chris couldn’t muster even the most basic of sympathies for her.
“There’s no one else in the car,” Viper called out. “Are you sure you saw another one?”
“Where did the girl go?” Chris asked the kneeling woman who began chuckling.
“She’s gone. You’ll never find her, Dranovian dog,” the woman sneered, showing bloody teeth.
Chris felt the crackle of his energy at the insult and rolled back his gift as he knelt a few feet in front of the woman.
“Woof, woof . . . would you look at the cocky bitch kneeling on the ground bleeding out. You can die now or five seconds from now; it won’t matter a bit to me either way,” Chris said, his voice low and tinged with a dangerous undertone that the demented hybrid wasn’t aware enough to recognize.
“So kill me now, dog. I have nothing to say to you,” the woman growled as her face twisted with hate.
Chris moved so fast that even Lara had a hard time tracking his body as he grabbed the woman by the back of the neck and threw her backwards onto the road.
“I have a better idea, bitch!” Chris growled as he stood above her. “I’ll talk to the real you before I allow her to kill you both.”
Chris began to draw his energy around him, not realizing that he was creating a maelstrom of wind and electrical energy that began arcing violently around him and the woman.
“Castani retarninian,” Chris began the ritual words to destroy the anomalous beast, ignoring the woman’s horrified screams.
“No! Please! I’ll tell you anything!” she screamed as she clawed at her own face, digging her nails so deeply into the flesh that rivulets of blood began to run down her cheeks.
“Sobleki bosarn captavi,” Chris continued as his energy spiked and arced around them.
“Please . . .” the woman groaned as if in great pain before her eyes began to glow in a golden light.
Chris never heard the others screaming at him to roll back his power or saw Lara trying to penetrate the swirling maelstrom of energy surrounding him and the woman like a tornado.
“Sonotangi eventi!” Chris roared the last of the words of expulsion.
Suddenly, his body was thrown back against the whirling wall of wind and lightning behind him as a beach ball sized mass of energy exploded from his chest.
Chris was suspended in the air by the residual power as the ball struck the woman in the chest and appeared to spread over her body. There was only a loud ‘pop’ before the woman completely disappeared from the road. The only thing that remained to show she was ever there was the blood still pooled on the ground where she’d lain.
The wind stopped so quickly Chris was dropped to the ground, his knees thumping loudly as he crumbled on the road in an unconscious heap.
“Son of a bitch!” Mikal roared as he appeared nearby and strode angrily towards his brother.
“What the fuck just happened?” Drago growled as he looked around them in disbelief.
The tall grasses that once stood on either side of the road were now flattened in a circular pattern that mimicked the winds and power Chris had generated. Both vehicles lay crumpled in the middle of the road; their SUV had flipped several more times from the impact of the car before landing several hundred feet away.
“It looks like crop circles, damn it!” Drago muttered. “How the hell do we conceal that? And what are we going to do about the vehicles? And why the hell didn’t someone warn us that he’s a one-man planet killer?”
“He’s not a planet killer!” Mikal shot back as he knelt at his brother’s side. “He’s powerful, but not that powerful.”
Viper raised his eyebrows and spread out his arms to call attention to the flattened landscape and the missing body.
“Do you normally vaporize an anomalous one?” Viper asked incredulously.
“You’re being over dramatic; we have no idea if she was vaporized. Now focus,” Mikal argued as he checked his brother for injuries.
“No,” Lara said, rapidly shaking her head in shock at what she’d witnessed. “No, she’s vaporized. Guaranteed. Nothing remains.”
“You’re not helping!” Mikal snarled at Lara as he hefted Chris over his shoulder.
Lara cleared her throat and shook herself out of her stunned disbelief.
“Mikal is right—Chris isn’t a
planet killer, and we need to clean this up quick,” Lara agreed.
Viper snorted and stared at his mate like she’d lost her mind.
“Not a planet killer; he just vaporizes people! I feel so much better now,” Viper said sarcastically before he threw his hands up in frustration.
Moments later they felt a warm wind above them, and a transport de-cloaked. They heard the warning through the shengari’ and stepped out of the road before several bursts of light shot out of the craft, completely destroying what remained of both vehicles with controlled decimator charges.
When nothing was left but the blood in the road, some scorch and skid marks, and the crop circles, Viper laid a light stone to the blood until it turned to dust as everyone ported into the ship. He looked around at the crop circles and shrugged his shoulders. With no clue on how to get rid of the irregularities in the field, he ported to the ship.
No one saw the flash of red in the tall grasses further down the road as the ship cloaked and shot through the sky towards the old mine compound.
Mikal laid Chris down in a seat and nodded at Liam, who was piloting the craft while Deacon remained hovering above Satalis’ estate in another cloaked ship.
“How bad was it?” Liam asked.
Mikal shook his head and responded through the shengari’.
“It’s the worst I’ve seen to date. If we don’t get Quinn soon, he could easily turn into a planet killer,” Mikal admitted, his tone tinged with fear for his brother and them all.
“Dad said if we need to move on the estate now, we need to let him know,” Liam said as he expertly piloted the craft into the docking bay beneath the old parking lot at the compound.
“We need to get Chris awake and get geared,” Mikal replied, looking worriedly at his still-unconscious brother. “Tell him 20 more minutes.”
“Let me help,” Lara said as she slid from her seat to kneel in front of Chris.
She took his hands gently in her own and closed her eyes as a pair of golden lights traveled down her arms and into Chris’s hands before they moved to his head. She moved back to her seat when Chris jerked awake.
