Chris (Second Wave Book 4)

by Mikayla Lane

  Chris couldn’t help but watch Ainsley, who looked even younger than her 11 years as she slept against Haruki’s side. Angel had placed a warm shawl around her, and the girl appeared to be sleeping soundly, but Chris and his siblings could feel and see the fight the girl dealt with every time she closed her eyes.

  Where a normal beast would watch out for its host and protect them both while the host slept, Ainsley’s beast fought her sleeping mind and body for control. Even as she slumbered, a part of Ainsley’s mind remained active, fighting to maintain control and keep the anomalous leashed.

  The one time Chris and Haruki felt a slip in her power, she’d woken herself enough to refortify her defenses against the beast. Chris and his siblings found themselves greatly respecting the young girl’s strength to fight and contain a being with so much power, and they had all sent her their own energy more than once so she could sleep more deeply.

  “We got it! Peru!” Lara yelled out with a happy grin.

  Haruki cursed at Lara through the shengari’ as Ainsley woke up, rubbed her eyes, and looked around sleepily. She smiled up at Haruki, and Chris swore he saw his brother’s heart melt for the sweet girl.

  “Ainsley, can you bring Fiona to us?” Lara asked as she came over to the girl.

  Quinn sat up to pay attention, and Chris groaned at the loss of her body heat and energy. He comforted himself with the knowledge that she’d stayed near him and grabbed his hand as she listened intently to Lara and Ainsley.

  “I think so. She said she trusts you more because you let us go the last time,” Ainsley admitted. “Where do you want to take us?”

  Grai smiled at the girl patiently.

  “Would you like to go with us and see it first so you can make sure it’s OK before you bring her there?” Grai asked, not the least surprised when the brave girl nodded her head.

  “Then let’s go! Are we going through the portal again?” Quinn said with a beaming smile as she turned to Chris.

  He could feel the exhaustion in Quinn’s energy, but he knew that she would never go to bed without knowing if Ainsley would be OK, and he just nodded at her.

  “Yeah, it’ll be quicker that way,” Chris agreed, and everyone stood to go.

  “Everyone is going?” Ainsley asked, looking up at all the men a little nervously.

  “I told you we’d protect you,” Haruki said as he rubbed her hair until she smiled. “We’re going to make sure it’s safe for you guys too.”

  Haruki looked like he’d been punched when Ainsley threw her arms around him.

  “Thank you,” she whispered.

  Quinn couldn’t help but notice the tough men looking away, wiping at their eyes and shuffling their feet over a young girl who needed help.

  That was the Chris that Quinn knew, the one she had been more than proud to call friend. She turned around and put her arms around him, a little surprised at how quickly he pulled her close and how tightly he held her.

  “Thank you,” she whispered to him.

  “Anything for you,” Chris whispered back.

  He wasn’t a fool; Chris knew it would take more than that to seal the rift he’d created between them, but he was hoping it was a good start.

  “Good, because I need a back rub so bad I’d kill for it, and my feet need it too!” Quinn said, only half-joking.

  “Oh hell, if he’s passing out foot rubs, I want to be next,” Angel shouted out with a laugh.

  Chris groaned dramatically and shook his head before he looked at Quinn with pitiful eyes.

  “You see what I’ve had to deal with all these years? Can’t I get any mercy?” Chris teased as Angel threw a roll of bread at him.

  Ainsley disappeared and reappeared in front of the roll mid-flight and snatched it before it got near Quinn and Chris. She grinned back at Angel as she took a bite of the roll.

  “To-go food! The best kind,” Ainsley smiled up at Quinn and Chris.

  “That was impressive,” Chris admitted to the girl. “I guess we should go.”

  It was an interesting sight for the residents of Base Beta to see the Dranovians, their Tezarian teammates, and three heavily pregnant females walking through the streets with determined steps as they led the young girl to the portal.

  Indrid suddenly appeared beside Grai.

  “If it is acceptable, I also would like to come and see if I may be of help to them in their recovery,” Indrid offered.

  “I’d be grateful for any help you could give them,” Grai admitted, glad Indrid had asked.

  Mikal nodded at Indrid and Chance, and the three of them disappeared and went to the location in Peru.

  “That is so cool!” Ainsley whispered when she saw them disappear.

  “You can do just about the same thing!” Haruki teased. “How can that impress you?”

  “No,” Ainsley said with a shake of her head. “It’s totally different. They separate their particles and become one with the air; I only play with strings and open a door.”

  No one really understood what Ainsley was saying, but no one bothered to ask since they’d reached the portal and began stepping through.

  Quinn smiled encouragingly at Ainsley as the girl held Haruki’s hand tightly, obviously a little frightened of the portal in front of her.

  Moments later, they were moving through a hallway, and Ainsley was grinning from ear to ear as Haruki began explaining the rooms and places they were passing as they headed to the main center of the compound.

  Everyone fanned out, taking a different area to inspect and ensure it was empty to satisfy the nervous girl.

  After the tour, they gathered in the middle of the hangar, and everyone looked expectantly at a beaming Ainsley.

  “What do you think?” Haruki asked the girl.

  Ainsley looked up at him with tears in her eyes and smiled.

  “I think you’re the best,” she whispered hoarsely and then disappeared.

  Most of the room gasped while a few cursed at the now missing-girl, and Haruki roared in anger.

  “What did someone say?” Haruki demanded as he looked around at the startled faces. “Don’t give me that look! Someone scared her away!”

  “Son,” Grai began as he walked over to Haruki. “She looked emotional. Maybe she just needs—”

  Suddenly Ainsley reappeared with a shocked Fiona by her side.

  “Ainsley I’ve told you . . . oh my god, what have you done,” Fiona said as she looked around and realized she was standing in the middle of those who could kill her beast.

  “Fiona,” Ainsley began when Grai stepped forward.

  “Fiona, wait. It was our idea,” Grai said, taking the woman’s anger from the child. “We want to help.”

  “It’s not a trap,” Ainsley added, her voice pleading with Fiona to listen.

  “What do you mean help?” Fiona asked, her voice and manner cautious.

  “I come! I help too,” Sergei muttered as he shuffled over to the tense group. “As a human, I am blissfully ignorant of whatever energy they have and can try to treat them.”

  Grai seemed surprised by the suggestion but readily accepted the help.

  “Wait a minute,” Fiona said, shaking her head in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

  “They want to give us this place to heal,” Ainsley excitedly told her. “They want to help us try to heal and not have to deal with the crazy humans or Satalis.”

  “You are our people,” Grai told Fiona. “We are few, and every one we can save is a blessing for all of us. I will not deny that this works for us twofold and gives us a chance to monitor you. But you need not fear that anyone will harm you while under our protection.”

  “What of those we can’t fix?” Fiona whispered.

  Most of the Dranovians shifted nervously and looked away from Fiona and Ainsley, unwilling to admit that they would do what they had to in order to protect the innocent.

  “I understand,” Fiona said with a sad nod of her head. “All we would ask is that you allo
w us to determine when that time has come and let us be the ones to put both host and beast to final sleep. It is what all of us would want.”

  “Friend in life, friend in death,” Ainsley added, her voice tinged with sadness.

  Without consulting his sons, Grai nodded his head.

  “I believe you have earned the right to make those decisions. Dr. Rostovic will help you utilize everything in the lower medlab to find a way to help. Provisions will arrive regularly, and if there is anything you need, just ask,” Grai offered.

  Fiona cleared her throat and looked at the floor for a moment before raising her eyes to Grai.

  “I need to know if you have a secure area here,” she said as her voice wavered slightly. “Secure enough to contain a seriously damaged hybrid.”

  Grai almost thought twice about his offer but quickly shook off any reservations.

  “There is a secured area,” Grai said as he pointed towards the far end of the hangar, “on the other side of the emergency medlab.”

  “There’s an energy disrupting barrier system already in place,” Haruki added. “It will nullify any hybrid abilities.”

  “I may need help getting someone here,” Fiona added, her voice shaking a little. “She’s my sister. The humans . . . they keep trying to exorcize her because they think it’s a demon controlling her. They’re beginning to scare me.”

  Dread narrowed his eyes and stepped forward, surprising his brothers.

  “I will go and assist,” he said and noticed everyone staring at him. “I’m not Dranovian, and since my energy is different, I may not cause such a disruption in her.”

  His brothers didn’t believe his explanation; they’d noticed a change in him since their return from Europe, and they were concerned.

  “I will go as well then,” Viper added.

  “Would be happy to help,” Drago said, his face unreadable.

  Dread was going to argue when he saw the expressions on his brothers’ faces, and he knew it would do no good to try and dissuade them.

  “I’ll go too since I can help keep her calm at least until we can transfer her,” Lara said.

  “Ainsley can stay here while you go, right?” Quinn asked as she pulled the girl closer to her.

  Grai looked at Fiona, unsure how she wanted to extricate her people from the humans.

  “If we’re going to keep the humans from searching for us, we need Ainsley to ‘disappear’ everyone from the building,” Fiona explained, wishing Ainsley could stay.

  “Isn’t that going to be too much for her?” Quinn asked.

  “Not if she just needs to take everyone into a cloaked craft above the location,” Haruki suggested as Ainsley looked up at him with hero worship.

  “I can do it!” Ainsley agreed with a beaming smile.

  “Let’s get it done then!” Drago said as he stared intently at Dread.

  Chris surprised Quinn by hugging her close. She barely had time to wrap her arms around him when he pulled away and looked down at her.

  “I need to go with a few teams and provide backup in case they face any resistance. Stay here with Angel and the others, and keep Christopher and yourself safe for me,” Chris whispered before he gave her a heated kiss.

  Quinn was just getting her wits back when she realized Chris was walking away from her.

  “I need teams one and two on the deck for support!” Chris called out. “Teams three and four, provide base security.”

  “Come with me, little one. I will be going with you,” Haruki said to Ainsley as he held his hand out to her.

  Quinn watched nervously as Chris and Ainsley disappeared into one of the ships parked in the hangar. Everyone scattered to their assigned tasks, and she hugged herself, feeling like a part of her was leaving with Chris.

  “Yeah, you love him,” Angel said with a sigh as she threw an arm around Quinn’s waist and hugged her. “Too bad, because I really wanted to see him squirm for a while longer.”

  Quinn gave Angel an irritated look, and Angel just laughed.

  “Oh come on! I’ve had years of his crap, and he was an asshole about Drago, so I thought he deserved some of his own garbage thrown back at him,” Angel said defensively.

  “Hey, guys,” Dree interrupted. “We could probably get the living areas ready for them and make it homier.”

  “That’s a great idea,” Quinn agreed, needing something to distract her until Chris and Ainsley returned.

  Quinn gave the ship one last look before she went inside the base’s living areas with Angel and Dree. She never saw Chris staring out of the window of the ship as she went inside.

  Quinn had wanted something to keep her busy, but she quickly realized Angel took “busy” to a whole new level. Within 20 minutes, more than half of the teams Chris left behind were helping them put clean sheets on the beds and stocking the pantry with the non-perishables that had been stored in the lower warehouse.

  Quinn was working with the women to whip up some breads and baked goods so the anomalous hybrids had something to eat when they arrived, but even the happy chatter couldn’t stop her from worrying. After several hours of no word, she looked over at Angel in exasperation.

  “Why aren’t they back yet?”

  Angel and Dree looked at one another, and Dree looked away. Angel sighed as she turned to Quinn and set down the bread dough she’d been working with.

  “I’m sorry; we forgot that you aren’t on the mind paths that we are. We thought you knew. They encountered resistance. The humans didn’t want to release their blood donors, and there’s a problem with Fiona’s sister,” Angel admitted, cursing herself for not remembering Quinn wasn’t on the shengari’.

  “Is everyone all right?” Quinn asked, sitting down at a stool just as her legs began to feel weak.

  “Yes! Everyone is fine!” Dree rushed to say, reaching across the counter to squeeze Quinn’s hand in support.

  “Not the humans,” Angel said before Dree elbowed her in the arm. “What? I’m telling her the truth.”

  “Thank you,” Quinn said. “I appreciate that. But why can’t I be on that mind path? Fiona and Ainsley said I could communicate with others through Atarma.”

  Angel and Dree looked quizzically at one another before they studied Quinn so intently she squirmed on the stool.

  “I don’t see anything. Do you?” Angel asked Dree.

  Dree shook her head slowly from side to side as she narrowed her eyes at Quinn and leaned forward.

  “No . . . I don’t. Could it be dangerous?” Dree asked.

  “No! I mean . . . how could it?” Angel replied.

  “Would you stop looking at me like a specimen and tell me what you’re thinking?” Quinn huffed.

  Quinn felt like strangling both women when they looked at one another one more time before Angel finally spoke.

  “We can try letting our beasts help yours to form the connection necessary to get on the main paths of the shengari’, but we honestly have no idea if it will work,” Angel admitted, looking excited but not really confident.

  “Or if it could cause damage,” Dree added, glaring at Angel for not mentioning it.

  Angel rolled her eyes and turned back to Quinn.

  “We also don’t know if it would cause damage because we have no real information on your beast or how it works in a human. But . . . if they told you could do it, then I don’t see why they would lie to you,” Angel said with a nonchalant shrug.

  “I am completely capable of making the connection if one of their beasts will show me the path,” Atarma whispered through Quinn’s mind.

  She couldn’t help but feel the excitement that vibrated through her beast at the thought of joining with others like himself and learning more.

  “Atarma said he can do it if one of your beasts will show him the path,” Quinn said, hoping one of them would at least try.

  “I think we should try it,” Angel said as she headed over to Quinn’s side of the counter.

  Dree grabbed Angel�
�s arm and spun her around.

  “Don’t you think we should wait? For a doctor at least? Or someone else?” Dree suggested, not liking this idea at all.

  “What could go wrong?” Angel asked, wondering why Dree was so concerned. “Either Atarma can or he can’t. If he can’t, no harm done; if he can, then she’s not going to have to rely on everyone else to tell her what’s going on. Our family is hard enough to deal with, and I don’t think she should feel separate or out of the loop if we can avoid it.”

  Dree nodded her head. She understood that completely, and agreed with Angel, but she still had too many reservations.

  “I think we need to wait for Amun or Lauren. Or hell, let’s go down to the medlab and have Sergei monitor it,” Dree suggested as she tried to quell the bad feeling she had.

  “Look, guys,” Quinn interrupted, wondering if the two women even realized they’d just kept her out of the loop while she stood right in front of them.

  “I appreciate all the caution and concern, but the only people treating me like a freak right now is the two of you,” Quinn added. “I’m human, not a china doll. If Atarma is the same as all the other beasts, then this should go like what you’re used to. Can we at least try it before we panic?”

  Quinn looked between the two women and knew Angel was more than willing while Dree was the hold out. She clasped her hands together and leaned across the counter as if to beg.

  “Please? Just try it, and if anything goes wrong, we stop,” Quinn suggested, seeing the indecision on Dree’s face.

  “I think we should at least try,” Angel said then shrugged at Dree. “I’m a prime so this should go pretty easy.”

  Dree snorted and shook her head.

  “You set your dresser on fire last week when you tried to use your power to shut the drawer,” Dree accused.

  Quinn’s eyes went wide, and she was beginning to reconsider the idea when Angel put her hands on Quinn’s head.

  “Oh please, I was doing that. My beast will be doing this,” Angel argued.

  Quinn was getting ready to suggest they wait for someone else when she felt the warmth rush through her mind. At first it felt pleasant, and she closed her eyes to allow the beasts to do what they needed. Then the heat increased and a pressure began to build in her head.