by Mikayla Lane
Satalis, looking shell shocked from everything that had happened, finally pulled himself together and called on his backup craft to find out when it would be there. He sighed in relief when he was told the ship was close.
The moment the second craft de-cloaked, Blade used the transport he’d dropped Grai with to begin ramming the ship and firing on it while the Dranovians split themselves between attacking Satalis and the new ship.
Within minutes, Satalis and his team disappeared into the craft and were gone.
“Where’s my son?” Grai roared as he shook his weapons at the sky.
“Dad!” Siggy screamed as he ran up to Grai and the others. “I’ve got his comm signal! He’s in Scotland!”
“Right over the border, huh?” Blade said with a knowing grin as he walked over to Grai and pulled him towards the transport he’d landed moments earlier. “Let’s go get your kid.”
“What the fuck just happened?” Dread demanded of Grai.
“Nothing! We lost the bastard, and my son is missing!” Grai growled as he headed towards the battered transport.
“Grai, he almost killed everyone! What the hell kind of power does he possess?” Dread growled back.
Grai suddenly stopped and turned towards Dread.
“My son,” Grai began, then thought better of it. “All of my children possess powers that were given to them by the gods to protect this world from our own. They’ve sacrificed everything in order to fulfil their duties, and I’ll not stand here and answer as to the methods they use to do it. If you wish to take your people and leave, then do so.”
Without another word, Grai went into the waiting transport as Deacon landed to pick up another team to back them up.
Dread fumed as Mikal divided the Dranovians, and they either ran into Deacon’s ship or back into the house through the hole in the kitchen to re-secure the portal.
Drago laid a hand on his brother’s shoulder and got Dread’s attention.
“I don’t care what they can do because it’s their job. What would you have done in that situation and with that kind of power, knowing what Satalis has done and is capable of? I’m more concerned with what and who the hell that girl was,” Drago said before he turned and ran into Deacon’s transport with the Dranovians.
Well, I guess I know where the both of them stand on this, Dread thought as he watched Viper head into the transport as well.
Dread had just made up his mind to follow when Blade lifted off with Grai and his team to find Chris, and he was left running like an idiot to catch Deacon before he left. Dread was a little surprised when Deacon waited for him.
“Brace yourselves,” Deacon called out. “We’re going for fast not flair.”
Everyone grabbed hold until the craft levelled out but remained tense, unknowing what they would find when they reached the location where Chris’s comm signal was coming from.
“What the hell ability does that little girl have?” Declan asked as he replaced his clip with a new one.
“Who the hell can disappear like that besides Mikal?” Shane added.
“She’s a portal,” Lara said, shocking them all.
“How the hell does someone become a portal?” Alex asked, sounding unconvinced.
“She’s a prime. A damaged one. She’s a boutariaja. A traveler. Where laustio are warrior class, she’s a portal maker. Which explains why Trick and I couldn’t get anywhere on the one in the basement. She helped Satalis create it,” Lara explained.
“Oh hell! You’re telling me he’s got prime working for him too?” Declan muttered, wondering how much worse this could get.
“I’m not so sure she’s working for him,” Lara admitted.
“Damn it!” Deacon said a few minutes later. “Better hurry! Dad’s already running towards four—repeat four—on the ground. One is Chris.”
Everyone stood quickly and prepared to drop.
“Drop in 3, 2, 1 . . .”
Chapter Fourteen
Quinn woke to a light humming sound and kept her eyes closed as she did a quick self-assessment to determine if the headache was gone and if she was still alive.
“It’s OK now. You can wake up,” Ainsley whispered.
Quinn opened her eyes and saw that it was just getting light outside, and she was laying in one of the twin beds she’d seen the day before.
“What did you do to me?” Quinn accused as she sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed and faced Ainsley, who was sitting in the matching bed.
Ainsley shook her head sadly.
“I told you that I would never hurt you. We didn’t do anything to you, we only made sure everything went OK so you and Christopher could go back to Chris,” she whispered.
Quinn ran her hands through her hair as her thoughts ran riotously through her head, and she tried to piece together what had happened the previous night.
“What are you talking about?” Quinn asked in confusion.
She couldn’t remember anything after the blinding headache had struck.
“If you listen, you can hear it now. There’s nothing wrong with yours or Christopher’s, so we’ll make sure Chris finds you,” Ainsley said before she stood and headed out of the door.
Quinn could hear her inner voice screaming in her mind to go to the girl, and she hurried after her.
“Ainsley! Stop!”
Quinn sighed when the girl didn’t slow her stride, and she had to follow Ainsley into the kitchen to get her attention. Fiona turned and smiled from the sink.
“You’re up! I’m so glad everything went so well for you. Did you try it yet?” Fiona asked.
Quinn turned to Ainsley who refused to look at her and tried to remember what the girl had said.
“Uh, no. Ainsley was trying to explain it to me when I kind of freaked out on her. I’m sorry, Ainsley. Can you please explain it again?” Quinn asked, not understanding why she was so driven to comfort the girl.
She’d thought about it at least a dozen times and still couldn’t begin to understand why she still trusted Ainsley and couldn’t stop caring about the kid.
Ainsley slowly turned towards Quinn, but kept her eyes downcast when she spoke.
“It’s your gift from Christopher and his beast. You’re not a hybrid and can’t have abilities like we do, but the boy children—and only the boy children—can penetrate the mother’s brain with certain enzymes. Among those enzymes is a single cell from the beast that imbeds itself in your brain and grows. As it grows, it slowly evolves your brain so that it can make itself a home.”
Quinn looked a little horrified and sat heavily in a chair at the table as she tried hard to figure out if something was now eating her brain.
Oh God, it explains the headache. I’m dying, Quinn thought in horror.
“Don’t be scared,” Ainsley said as she reached out a hand to Quinn and smiled shyly when Quinn took it. “Last night, that gift matured, and we helped you bond with it so no one will ever try to kill it, or you.”
“What is it?” Quinn asked as her voice shook.
“Your son and his beast gave you the gift of life and extraordinary senses,” Fiona said with a compassionate smile. “But the best part is the gift of a friendship that can never be replaced. Talk to it.”
Talk to what? Quinn wondered as she looked around the room for who Fiona and Ainsley were talking about.
“They are speaking of me,” a voice boomed loudly.
Quinn shrieked and spun around in her chair, looking for who spoke.
Ainsley giggled and shook her head as she put her hand back on Quinn’s.
“I think that means he’s spoken in your head. That is your gift. Without the enzymes provided by your son, the beast’s spawn couldn’t live in a normal human brain. The first four months of your pregnancy, the male child floods the mother’s brain with the enzymes needed for the spawn to survive,” Fiona explained.
“Then, a few weeks before birth, when the enzymes and the spawn have made permanent evolutiona
ry changes in the mother’s brain, the beast begins to embed itself permanently into your brain,” Ainsley added with excitement. “Then the son makes a final enzyme push into the mother’s brain to help with the bond.”
“Evolution is pretty incredible, huh?” Fiona said with a gentle smile as she set a cup of tea in front of Quinn.
Quinn just looked between them as she tried to comprehend what they were saying.
“You . . .” Quinn’s voice squeaked and she cleared her throat. “You’re saying that the creature in my son’s brain put one in mine?”
Ainsley nodded her head excitedly.
“Isn’t it the coolest thing? I mean, you only get heightened senses and can talk to it and others, but isn’t that the sweetest thing? And Christopher did that for you,” the girl almost shook with excitement as she patted Quinn’s stomach.
“You also get an extended life,” Fiona added. “Sometimes that’s not a blessing.”
“I have a beast thing? One of my own?” Quinn whispered as she tried to grasp what was happening.
She couldn’t help but wonder if she was still asleep and this was all a dream.
“Please don’t scream again; I’m trying to modulate my voice so as not to frighten you again. This is new to me as well, and I am trying to adapt quickly to your needs,” a voice said softly in Quinn’s head.
Quinn shrieked and clutched her head.
“Don’t panic!” Ainsley warned as she put her hands on either side of Quinn’s head. “It’s your beast. It’s your friend now. Talk to it; it only wants to help. He can help you use Christopher’s power if you need it.”
Quinn felt like she was going to hyperventilate, pulled her head away from Ainsley’s hands, and put it on the table as she tried to control her fear and panic.
“The child is right, I only want to help you and be a companion,” the voice whispered softly through her mind.
“Who are you?” Quinn asked.
Ainsley burst out laughing until she saw Quinn wasn’t amused, and she cleared her throat.
“You can talk to it like you’d talk to yourself in your head. It lives there and can hear you. You can talk to him all day, and no one would ever know,” the girl explained with a sly grin that told Quinn she’d done it herself.
Quinn blushed when she realized she’d asked the question out loud. It didn’t stop her from trying again in her head.
“Who are you?”
“I am friend, protector, companion, and advisor. I am the son of the beast that resides in your son. My duty to my father is to keep you alive and protected for Christopher’s sake. My duty to you is to always be here for you when you need someone and those times when you don’t realize you do,” the strange voice whispered through her mind.
“What is your name?” Quinn asked, a little overwhelmed by it all.
“It is my honor to be named by you,” the beast replied.
“You’re not a pet . . . or a stray dog I picked up! Fuck! I haven’t even named my own son! Ainsley, now you, and his beast all call him Christopher! Why the hell would I name you when I haven’t even named my own son!” Quinn erupted out loud, her mind and emotions spinning out of control.
Quinn felt the loving warmth rush through her just as Ainsley reached out and held her hand and squeezed it gently.
“It’s OK to be a little scared, but your bond with your beast is perfect. He’s a friend,” the girl said as her eyes pleaded with Quinn to try.
“Oh God!” Quinn whispered as she stood, knocking the chair over as she realized the ramifications of what happened. “I have a beast! You gave me one of those things that Chris kills!”
“No!” Fiona, Ainsley, and the beast in Quinn’s mind yelled at the same time.
Ainsley picked the chair up, and Fiona flicked her wrist, and Quinn was completely paralyzed where she stood.
“Calm yourself before you do something stupid and get hurt!” Fiona chastised and gently helped Quinn sit in the chair.
She kneeled down in front of Quinn and shook her head at the fear in her eyes.
“We’re not going to hurt you. I’m keeping you like this for a few minutes while you talk to your beast so you don’t hurt your son. When you’re calm and less startled, I’ll release you to move again.”
Fiona stood and nodded to Ainsley. Both of them left Quinn in the kitchen alone.
Oh God, I’m paralyzed, Quinn thought as she panicked.
“It appears to be one of Fiona’s abilities. It is comforting to know that she’s never used it on you before now. She is right; you were dangerously close to tripping over the chair you knocked over,” the beast whispered in her mind.
Quinn couldn’t believe the relief that swept through her when she heard that voice.
“Beast! Can you do something about it? Can you release me?” Quinn asked, hoping like hell the creature could help.
“I cannot. I can assist you in using Christopher’s ability, but that would not stop the paralysis,” the beast replied.
Quinn could hear the sympathy in the creature’s voice, and for some strange reason it made her feel better.
“I’m sorry you’re in this situation with us now,” Quinn said in her mind.
“I am not. Although I cannot remove the paralysis, I know that Ainsley would kill Fiona before she’d allow her to hurt you,” the beast replied.
“I don’t know who to trust,” Quinn admitted to the beast and felt like a weight had been lifted from her just says the words to somebody.
“I do believe that Ainsley is the only one I would trust at the moment, but I sense no malice in Fiona,” the beast said with such confidence that Quinn believed him.
“How can you know that?” Quinn asked, wondering how a strange creature in her head could be so confident over a situation it was only viewing.
“I retain my abilities even though I reside in a recently evolved human brain. I can fully sense the abilities of others and calculate risk assessments, counter attacks, and defenses using Christopher’s abilities,” the beast explained.
“I can also sense and discern their emotions through their energy, and I honestly sense no malice or deceit in either of them. Last night there was a moment when we were in danger of not bonding correctly, and they exhausted themselves lending their energy to assist us. I cannot believe they would do so much only to harm you the next day.”
“They really did that?” Quinn asked, tears swamping her eyes as memories flashed in her mind.
She remembered that—or at least pieces of it. She was in so much pain and was paralyzed again. At the time she’d thought it was from the intense pain, now she assumed it’d been Fiona trying to keep her from flailing around and hurting herself.
She could clearly remember Ainsley’s face above her as something wet hit her cheeks. The girl had been repeating over and over that it would be OK and that she had to be strong for Christopher.
Is that real? Did it really happen? she wondered, not expecting a reply.
“I retrieved the memories for you. It was a very . . . stressful event, and you pushed them far into the back of your mind. I believed seeing them now would help you,” the beast said, its voice strangely comforting to Quinn.
“Thanks, it actually did help. So . . . how does this work? Do I need to eat special things to feed you? Can you eat after midnight?” Quinn asked, unsure what the hell she was supposed to say to the creature who now owned brain space. In her brain.
Quinn was startled by the bark of laughter in her mind and the chuckling that followed.
“I remember seeing that movie in your mind as I matured,” the beast explained. “I have no particular requirements and will not turn into a voracious creature if you get wet. Continuing your bathing practices would be wise since your sense of smell is much more heightened than it was prior to our bonding.”
Quinn grinned; she couldn’t help it.
“Was that a joke?” she asked in surprise. “You have a sense of humor?”
�
��Of course. I am a fully functioning species. The only difference between us is that I require you in order to survive,” the beast replied.
Quinn felt stupid for even thinking it, but she swore she could feel the creature’s humor and not just hear it.
“You can. In the same way that I can feel yours. We are fully bonded,” the beast replied to her unspoken thoughts.
The first thing Quinn thought of was all the personal things she didn’t want a voyeur to witness whether it was in her head or not. She grabbed the tea cup and was wondering how to broach the subject of privacy when she realized what she’d done.
“I’m not paralyzed!” she whispered as she stood to prove it to herself.
“Fiona released you not long after you accepted me and ceased to panic,” the beast said. “Which only convinces me that they truly do not wish any harm to you or Christopher.”
Quinn sighed at the name again and rubbed her stomach.
“Does the little guy really want to be called Christopher?” she asked, wondering if her heart could take hearing the name every day.
Whether Chris found them or not, Quinn knew there was no way they would ever be able to be together. It wasn’t just the lies that had driven such a wedge between them; it was also the lack of trust. She’d never keep his son from him, but she had no intention of letting him stomp all over her heart again. She’d lost 10 years to him already; she’d not lose another second.
“Yes,” the beast confirmed. “It is the name he would prefer to be called. Although, I do believe he’s pretty open to nicknames.”
Quinn snorted and shook her head.
“He’s definitely his father’s son. Not even born yet and acting all macho and tough. Does he have any other demands I should be aware of?” she asked teasingly.
“He’s not happy about your plans for broccoli or pastel clothing. I do believe he’s already planning on making his unhappiness loudly known if you try to put him in that mint green sleeper with the pastel bears,” the beast replied, his humor clear in his voice and the few times he chuckled.
“Wow!” Quinn whispered as she ran a hand through her hair, feeling a little overwhelmed. “Holy cow . . . this is what it’s like to have a super smart kid? How the hell am I supposed to keep up with a child like this? He can fry me if he doesn’t like my broccoli casserole!”
