by Mikayla Lane
“Dog’ee, can you take us back to where we were by following Gibly’s scent?”
“I thought dogs were good at tracking?” the sheriff asked. He had gotten used to the aliens, but the talking cat was a new one.
Dog’ee’s fur stood on end, and he hissed and spit as Rebecca tried to calm him down.
“Easy, Dog’ee,” Rebecca whispered, glaring at the sheriff for upsetting the feline.
Joe was pretty oblivious to Rebecca as he stared at a talking cat.
Yeah, he thought, scratching his head, I really need to talk to Grai more often about this whole alien thing.
“Cats are better than dogs! They can barely smell anything beyond their own stink!” Dog’ee finally said.
Rebecca grinned, petting the adorable cat.
“You’re hired, Dog’ee,” she said as she stood, completely missing the look of horror that crossed Gracus’s face.
Dog’ee let out an ear piercing yowl of happiness before jumping, bouncing, and spinning in a circle.
“I get to go-o, I get to go-o and find Gibl-y, with the hy-brids, Oooh ooh oh!” he chanted in a sing-song voice.
Ivint didn’t give Gracus a chance to complain.
“Get them some gear!” Ivint shouted.
Sheriff Joe looked at Ivint.
“It’s a good idea if I take them out there. I’ll tell the owner they’re with the US Geological Survey and they’re doing studies to see if there could be more aftershocks after the . . . earthquake that caused the landslide,” Joe said, gesturing at screen still displaying the destroyed mountain and mid-air alien rivalry. The fight would soon be on the ground if the situation couldn’t be controlled.
Ivint nodded his head, immediately impressed with how easily a man of the law could weave such a believable tale that would keep the humans from discovering their presence. He just hoped the ruse would work and they could get the situation under control.
Gracus raised his hand, anxious to get going and get Tricia and the boy out of there. As well as everyone else.
“My team! Outside and ready to leave in five!”
Sheriff Joe nodded and looked to Ivint.
“I’ll get them inside and have one of my deputies keep guard over the entrance,” he said before walking to the door to wait for the teams.
Just when Ivint thought that they were finally getting somewhere, things began flying around the room—all towards Balduen who was striding toward him, fully geared. He was followed by a seriously pissed off Dare.
“You’re not leaving without me, you damn misogynist pig! That’s my family in there too!” she yelled, smacking him in the back with a book before he could deflect it.
Sheriff Joe stood in the doorway, hand on his gun, wondering if he was supposed to shoot the items flying at the big blond guy or if he should just step back outside and let the aliens handle this domestic situation. His lawman side kicked in and he stayed just inside the door to make sure the angry woman—and the man— would be safe.
He’d seen far too many domestic situations get out of control, and aliens or not, no one was getting hurt on his watch. Joe winced as a remote control bounced off the man’s head before Balduen turned around.
“Enough!” he yelled. “You have our son who you should be back home taking care of! We will bring them home!”
Dare crossed her arms over her chest and glared at her mate. “The Valendrans—meaning you, you big oaf—are not wanted here! You’re the damn problem! And he’s your son too! There’s several days’ worth of breast milk in the freezer, and you know how to change a diaper, so get to it big boy!” Dare screamed at him.
Several female hybrids giggled, and the Valendran men cringed. Everyone tried to get out of the way of the angry couple.
Balduen turned several shades of red.
“You’re. Not. Going!” he roared.
Shocked gasps echoed throughout the room when every available object in the room began floating in the air around them, heading towards Balduen. People began moving slowly out of the way until Balduen was left standing alone in the middle of the room, surrounded by dozens of projectiles.
Baldy looked around at the books, magazines, tissue box, glasses, and other various items poised to strike him. He threw his hands up in the air and faced Dare.
“Oh, real childish! You’re still not going!”
Dare laughed, the items moving closer as she narrowed her eyes.
“Try me!”
Ivint finally whistled, getting everyone’s attention.
“We don’t have time for infighting! Now get yourselves under control and save your damn power for someone who deserves to have it unleashed on them!” he huffed in exasperation.
Ivint had never asked for Balduen to come to begin with. Looking around the room and out of the still open front door, he sighed. He hadn’t asked for half of the people here to come, but they’d heard their people were in danger and were coming from duty stations around the world to help.
Most were Grai’s people, as he should have expected. The rest were a mix of Tezarians, Valendrans, and hybrids who had all come to admire and respect the missing leader and wanted him back. The group was only going to get larger when everyone found out that now Tricia and Tristan were also lost to them, somewhere inside the collapsing mountain.
Dare and Balduen were continuing their argument when Ivint whistled again.
“I said, enough!” He turned to Balduen and shook his finger at him. “Put it aside! Have we learned nothing from the strength and resilience of these women? You still think them less? Even the humans allow their women to go back to war or dangerous careers after a child is born!”
“I didn’t want Tricia and Tristan to go out there either,” he continued. “But, they did. Now, we’re going to do everything we can to back them up and get them out! If that means letting every damn hybrid we have go, then that’s what we’ll do!”
Ivint paused and looked around the room at the dozens of female faces.
“It’s not our decision. Whether we like it or not—it’s theirs.” Ivint nodded to the women who began to cheer and Balduen sighed, dropping his head in defeat.
Dare looked at the closest hybrid.
“Where can I get changed into my gear?” she asked.
Dare headed to where the girl had pointed, followed quickly by Cari and Jess who were carrying their own gear. Balduen smirked when Scaden and Amun gasped and sputtered at the sight of their mates.
“Yeah, it’s a real fucking party now, huh?” Balduen asked them sarcastically.
Amun had to remind himself to close his mouth.
“Who the hell gave Jess war gear?” he asked.
Scaden ran a hand through his hair.
“Cari is empathic! How the hell can that help anyone?” he yelled to anyone in general.
Ivint turned to the whining men.
“Back off! That empath told us when we were being led into a trap to get Jess, and she’s the same one who could feel the Council’s emotions from a distance you can’t even calculate without the comm! She can stand outside the damn door and project terror at that damn mountain and still get more done that you three are just standing here complaining!”
Niklosi cleared his throat to get Ivint’s attention. He was on the comm near the mountain, and someone had projected him onto the screen.
“Sir, Sarex arrived with David’s team. She’s one of the precogs . . . I’ll let her tell you—” he said before disappearing.
Sarex immediately replaced Niklosi and she didn’t bother with pleasantries.
“Sir, the hybrids in the ships have every intention of following orders! I’ve tried to initiate contact, but they are blocking any attempts I make. And there’s more of them, sir. There could be thousands within this whole range. I’ve seen images of huge tunnels, hundreds of people . . . places big enough to hold all those ships and more,” she said worriedly.
Ivint turned to look at the 3D image of the mountain range that was on t
he conference room table near the screen Sarex was projected on.
He looked to Reven, who was looking worried over his own missing mate.
“Expand that from the cave entrance they went inside, to the cave that Gracus and Rebecca came out of,” he said.
When Reven was done, they all looked at the hundreds of miles of mountains they might need to cover to find their people. Ivint turned to Sarex.
“Is there any way to narrow down where any of them may be? Can you sense any of them? Or another entrance?” he asked, hoping for something better than this.
Sarex shook her head.
“I can only see the future and right now . . . I’ve seen the outcome change many times already. I will go farther in with David’s team to see if I get anything else. Dree’s the psychic; she’s getting closer to the ships to see what she can get from the pilots. She’ll report when she knows something,” Sarex said before she disappeared.
“Niklosi!” Ivint yelled, hoping to get him back. Ivint hadn’t expected Tricia’s hybrid teams to begin reporting back to them and was incredibly grateful that Grai’s pregnant mate had thought of it.
Ivint sighed in relief when Niklosi reappeared.
“Sir! They’re heading closer to the ships. The hybrids said the energy is making their power go ballistic! You can almost see it sparking off them,” Niklosi said in surprise.
“Have you seen Jax’s team?” Reven couldn’t help but ask, since his still-angry mate was refusing to talk to him through the Shengari’.
Niklosi nodded.
“I saw her about 20 minutes ago. She’s heading in about a mile west of David’s group, who was a mile west of Tricia and the entrance . . . before . . . well. . . They are spreading out in a line as best they can to cover more area,” he said.
Jax broke in on the open general comm that everyone could hear in the field,
“Be damn careful guys! I got animals coming to greet us! And they are not being led by me! Repeat, they are not being led by me! There’s another animal chick out here using them as well, so don’t think it’s safe to go near anything!” she warned.
Reports began pouring in from the other hybrids in the field that they were facing the same challenge. Another psychic was trying to pick their minds, another telekinetic was rolling dead logs down the mountain at them, large groups were feeling unreasonable fear — everything they had was being thrown back at them.
Ivint leaned his hands on the table with the 3D image and wondered how the hell they could win a war with both sides so evenly matched without both sides losing everything.
*****
Grai awakened slowly and flexed his aching jaw as he looked around the darkened room. He sent out his senses and was a little surprised when he felt the increased activity in the energy around him. Moments later a large tremor shook the room and he used the upheaval to help him knock the chair over onto its side.
He sighed when he realized that being closer to the floor wasn’t going to help him out of the damn chair. He’d hoped to break the heavy wooden chair or at least make it easier to wiggle out of the metal straps at his wrists, ankles, and chest, but the chair and straps were holding too damn well.
Grai sighed and tried to calm himself. He sent out his senses again and tried to manipulate the increase in his to help him break free again to no avail. Although, he was a little impressed at how much more power he seemed to control in here, which told him that he was in the mountain along the ley line.
Grai wasted a few minutes trying to rock back and forth in the chair to see if something would give, even though he knew it was pointless. He cursed a long line of things he would never say around another living creature and then thanked the Gods for the fact that his brother, Traze, wasn’t here to see what he was about to do.
With a deep breath, he drew the energy inside of him and shifted into the hated Relian form that he hadn’t used in hundreds of years. His wrists and ankles broke free as the bands snapped beneath the pressure of his growing and expanding limbs. The chest band was the last to break, but it snapped with such force that it flew into the door and bounced back at him.
Grai felt his head begin to grow and immediately pulled the energy from the shift, not allowing a complete conversion, his goal accomplished. He refused to wear the form of the monsters he came from unless he absolutelyhad to, and something inside was telling him he had to get the hell out of there. Now.
Grai stood quickly and listened at the door for any sign that someone was on the other side. He didn’t hear anything, and even his beast, Death, the symbiotic parasite in his brain, could detect nothing near them.
Grai ran his hand along the door until he found the handle and wasn’t surprised that it was locked, even though they had him secured to the chair pretty well. He figured it fit pretty well with the paranoia he thought Fiorn was suffering from. Either way, even his strength wouldn’t get it open.
He held the heavy metal handle for a few minutes as he gathered the increased energy around him and directed it into his hands the way he’d seen Tristan do. He tried releasing it into the handle a couple of times and failed miserably.
He closed his eyes in frustration and tried it again, thinking of getting out of here, of finding True and his people and getting back to his son and Tricia.
With his eyes closed, Grai never saw the tiny wisp of golden energy roll across the wall and hit the door handle right before another tremor threw him out of the now-open door and into a well-lit, but empty hallway.
Grai quickly looked both ways, unsure which way to go until he heard pounding footsteps coming from the left, and he took off in the opposite direction. He never saw the golden string of energy spring up in the hallway behind him and trip the security team headed his way to prevent his escape.
All Grai knew was he needed to get his people and get back to his family. The energy was thicker and stronger in the hallway, and Grai pulled in as much as he could and sent it out in a net to find his people.
Chapter Three
Countdown Clock to Human Discovery
22:00 Hours
This is a WSBC Channel 9 News exclusive update. Garfield County Sheriff Joe Scarborough just confirmed that a short, intense burst of rainfall in the Burnt Tree Ridge area has resulted in a landslide. Federal and local authorities are working together to evacuate the area. Thankfully, there have been no reports of injuries at this time. People are asked to avoid the area and follow the directions of the authorities to ensure the safe evacuation of everyone.
Experts with the US Geological Survey detected some seismic activity at the site and will work from the Adventure Caverns site tomorrow to determine if there was an earthquake or if the slide was caused strictly by rainfall.
Tricia held Tristan close as she watched the room they had just stood in slide down the mountain. Her back was killing her and reaching around she managed to yank a large rock out from under her before she lay back down on the ground.
She had taken several deep breaths when Tristan began pushing at her and fighting to get up, grunting angrily.
“I know, baby. Give mommy a second, please,” she said tiredly as she pushed herself to sit up and look around.
“Gibly, are you guys ok?” Tricia asked as she looked at the cats who were sitting there, staring at her.
Gibly, the largest of the felines, stepped forward and bowed.
“We are well and accounted for. Do not worry too much, he’ll get the hang of using the energy here soon,” the cat said a little shakily, hoping he was right.
Tricia looked around at the rubble surrounding them and shook her head.
“Tristan, honey . . .” she breathed out, wondering how to make him understand that he had to rein it in a bit.
Before she could think of anything, Tristan screamed and bucked against her until she let go of him. He crawled a few feet away, and his right hand began moving wildly in the air. Golden swirls of energy spun and grew to the size of a basketball before Tristan st
ood and slapped the golden ball against the tunnel wall.
Tricia and the cats watched as the large ball imprinted itself on the wall before breaking into dozens of smaller balls that raced down the tunnel ahead of them. She looked nervously at Gibly, wondering if that was some kind of charge Tristan was sending out and if they needed to run. Or something.
Gibly smiled and nodded his head.
“He go bring his daddy to us. We can go ahead now,” he said as he turned with a swish of his tail and led the way down the partially lit tunnel, followed by Tristan whose right hand was again manipulating golden energy strands.
Tricia leaned heavily on her arms and rocked herself to her hands and knees before standing. She grabbed her back with both hands and leaned back, groaning in pain.
Yeah, Grai owes me a month of backrubs after this, Tricia thought, as she patted her swollen belly before following Tristan and Gibly down the tunnel.
The walls and floor of the tunnel flashed on and off periodically as they went farther down the tunnel.
Looks like someone is having problems with the electricity, she thought, pretty sure that Tristan had caused it with his powerful blasts of energy.
Tricia saw another door in the distance and rushed forward to try and stop Tristan from blowing them up along with the door this time. The last few times had been pretty damn scary, and she wasn’t sure how much more her nerves could take.
She got to the bulkhead door and grabbed the wheel handle, right before her son got there.
“Wait!” Tricia said, trying to hold him off as he pushed and grunted for her to move.
Tricia let go of the door to try and talk to her son, but he whirled around her and had his hands on the wheel before she could say anything. Tricia was getting ready to duck the blast she knew was coming when she saw him release a small golden ball from his hand. It ran around the wheel until it began to spin too fast to see.
Tricia reached for her son, expecting a blast when the ball stopped and the door clicked open. She bent and rested her hands on her knees as she tried to slow down her panic and racing heart.
