by Mikayla Lane
Leif turned blazing blue eyes on the man, while Tara raised an eyebrow at him.
“You can do as I said or you can explain to the delicate flower why you disobeyed me!”
The man backed up with wide eyes.
“Aw hell, man, swinging junk hypnosis it is,” he agreed before leaving the room, quickly followed by everyone but Tara.
Leif looked at Tara’s smirking face and snorted.
“I don’t want to fucking hear it. You said it yourself: if you’re right, we’re in shit. If you’re wrong, we’re still sitting here waiting for a boy to bring it down around us. I had no choice,” he said, defending his actions.
Tara shook her head.
“I think it was the smartest call you could make. Your next one should be to take your mate somewhere safe and try to calm her down. You’d do better to get her on your good side because . . .” Tara grimaced as her hands gestured around his face and body. “This ain’t working for ya. And you’re not looking . . . your best.”
Leif turned stunned eyes to her.
“Did you forget the part where, before she woke up and set my ass and balls on fire, I looked damn good!”
“I bet you gave her that boy-model, trout pout look!” she said before laughing loudly at the thought. “I’d have busted you in the nuts for that look too,” she added with a chuckle.
Leif refused to comment and admit he had given True that look. His pride, his ass, and his balls had been through enough hits for one day, and he wasn’t going to willingly inflict more damage on himself by giving Tara another reason to laugh.
Instead, he shifted True’s weight in his arms.
“Can you get the door? I’m getting her somewhere safe. I want you to come with me so we can strategize a suitable response to the aggression for the next few hours,” he said.
Tara grinned.
“One the delicate flower would approve of?” she asked.
Leif chuckled.
“Oh, the flower is not feeling so delicate, I think,” he said, shaking his head at the shit storm heading their way.
Tara looked over at Leif.
“You sure she won’t make things worse?”
Leif burst out laughing.
“How could it get worse? Seriously, how?”
Somewhere, the Gods were laughing at him.
Chapter Four
Countdown Clock to Human Discovery
21:00 Hours
This is a WSBC Channel 9 News update. Evacuations of the White River National Forest continue in the wake of a recent landslide in the Burnt Tree Ridge area. Authorities are asking for your cooperation in avoiding the area while the severity of the landslide is determined. We will continue to provide updates as they become available.
By the time they had gone through a dozen different doors, Tricia was so tired and sore she was ready to scream. If it wasn’t for the massive amount of energy in this place, she wasn’t sure she could have made it this far. As it was, she was using her power almost entirely to stay on her feet and control the pain that had worked its way to her hips and stomach.
As far as rescuers went, she had to admit that this had to be the most pathetic attempt in history. By the time they reached Grai, she was sure he was going to end up having to carry her out of there. Still, she smiled as she watched Tristan lead her by the hand towards another door.
Tricia would have never imagined the day would ever come where she would find herself in a situation like this, relying on her amazing boy to save them all. She couldn’t even finish the thought without the tears springing to her eyes.
But there he was.
My little warrior angel, she thought, before a sharp pain doubled her over and left her gasping as she used both hands to cling to the wall. Sweat popped out on her forehead as the pain confirmed her worst fears. She was in labor. Two weeks early. For a pregnancy that only lasted five months, it was way too early, and she feared for her unborn daughter.
Tricia was startled out of her thoughts by Tristan’s little hand moving across her stomach, as if rubbing the pain away for her. Surprisingly, it actually worked and Tricia was able to stand and take a deep breath.
She looked back the way they had come and knew that they wouldn’t be able to get back down the now destroyed mountain, leaving them to continue forward. She was still trying to think of their options when Tristan patted her belly.
“Baby,” he said and rested his head against her belly.
Tricia held him close for a moment then pulled away and looked into his eyes as he held her gaze. She knew the warrior inside was still there and paying attention.
“Tristan, the baby is coming. I’m in labor. We need to find Daddy soon,” she said, knowing that he understood her. For the first time, she actually knew he understood her, and the thought brought the tears again.
She took a deep breath and calmed herself as Tristan nodded, his eyes sparkling oddly as he turned and looked at the tunnel walls. He walked several feet back where they had come before he raised his hands to the wall.
Tricia grabbed the wall as she felt the floor tremble violently beneath her feet again, and she dropped to the floor and covered her stomach as she turned away.
This time the cats also knew it was coming, and they piled themselves around her body to protect her as the wall exploded around them. Tricia looked up to check on Tristan and watched the debris part around him as if it knew better than to touch him. It was the only way she could describe it. Not even the dust touched him, and while she and the cats were covered in dust, not a pebble had touched them.
When the violent shaking stopped, Tricia and the cats stood and walked to, Tristan who was now standing in a jagged hole that led to another tunnel. They stepped through into the new tunnel where Tristan led them down a few feet before placing his hands on the wall again.
This time Tricia and the cats stayed back as Tristan’s hands glowed before the wall exploded outward and around him, debris raining down everywhere. There was another tunnel through the hole, and Tricia chuckled and patted Tristan’s hand.
“Making a nice little shortcut through their tunnels, huh baby?” she asked while Gibly and the cats snickered.
Tristan looked up and gave her a beautiful smile before his eyes turned dark. He jerked his hand out of hers and darted forward before throwing a golden barrier between them and a group of hybrids rounding a corner toward them with weapons drawn.
One of the hybrid males stared at the heavily pregnant woman, small boy, and the cats.
“Uh . . . put your . . . uh . . . weapons down? Now!” he sputtered.
He was nudged in the back by a smaller female.
“What weapons you idiot? She’s holding her belly and the boy is holding nothing!” the woman said.
The man turned to her, “What the hell do you want me to say then? Please stop blowing up my damn mountain? And, by the way, what the fuck kind of creature are you and that kid? Yeah, that sounds much better!” he spat at her.
Another piped up, “They’re defenseless, damn it! What the hell are we doing here?”
Tristan acted like they weren’t even there as he put his hands on the wall again. Within seconds, the tremors began and the hybrids shrieked in fear as the wall exploded around Tristan. He stepped into the hole and held his hand out for his mother while the cats all stuck their noses in the air as they passed the stunned hybrids who had been protected from the debris by the golden barrier Tristan had erected.
“Damn it, stop blowing up my home!” the male hybrid yelled as he pounded on the golden barrier.
Tricia stopped and turned to the young man, bravely facing him because she knew he couldn’t touch her with Tristan’s barrier between them.
“Give us back his father and our people or we’ll take your home apart piece by piece until you do!” she said angrily, before climbing into the hole and following her son into the new tunnel.
She almost cried in relief when she saw a much larger tunnel this time, wit
h what looked like a modified four wheeled vehicle just sitting there. Tricia shuffled her feet as fast as she could to the vehicle, praying there were keys in it, while Tristan stepped into the very middle of the tunnel and looked both ways.
Just as Tricia started the ignition, Tristan knelt on the ground and placed his hands down flat before rubbing them in circles. The rock floor looked like it had begun to smoke before several bowling ball sized, golden balls popped up through the rock and rolled down both sides of the tunnel, disappearing from sight. Tristan smiled as he stood and walked over to his mother and climbed into the vehicle with Gibly.
Tricia was getting ready to ask which way to go, when Tristan held his hand up and pointed. “Good enough for me, baby,” Tricia said as she put the vehicle in gear and sped down the tunnel.
*****
Grai was so damn turned around he had no idea where he was. Every hallway looked the same, as did most of the rooms. There were no markings, no maps, nothing. And although the energy was really strong, he still couldn’t reach anyone through the Shengari’.
Either he was too deep in the earth and too far away from his people, or the energy was blocking the smaller connections. He didn’t know which, but he was beginning to get frustrated.
And where the hell is everybody, he wondered as he ran down another empty hallway.
Grai hadn’t even heard anyone since he’d outran that bunch after he’d gotten out of the room. It had been at least an hour, and he was beginning to wonder if it was because they knew he wasn’t getting out.
Grai slowed to a stop and looked back the way he had come, startled to see several golden balls, the size of baseballs, rolling on the floor behind him. Grai’s eyes narrowed in suspicion, and he sent out his energy to find out what the hell they were as he took a step back. The balls moved forward when he did.
A little stunned, Grai took a step to the left and watched as the balls followed him. He tried it a few more times with the same result before his beast, Death, assured him that he had no damn idea what the balls were.
“Great!” Grai muttered under his breath. “What the hell are you?”
He watched in fascination as the half dozen balls broke into smaller balls, which broke into smaller ones before they all began rolling around on the floor.
Grai choked and fell to his knees, his hand shaking as he reached out to touch one of the balls spelling out the “S” in Tristan’s name on the floor. He gasped as the ball rolled up his finger and rested in the palm of his hand.
“No . . . you can’t be here! How did they get you?” he cried out and clutched the golden ball in his hand, fear for his son and his mate almost crippling him. They couldn’t get Tristan without going through Tricia, and his mind raced over what could have gotten them captured.
The ball began to vibrate in his hand until it was uncomfortable to hold, and Grai opened his hand and let it roll back to the ground where it rejoined the others, and they rolled around again. This time they spelled out “No” and then “Come” before the smaller balls rejoined each other into the larger ones.
Grai just stood in amazement as five of the balls stayed behind him while one darted out in front and headed down the hallway. Normally, he would have questioned it, but he was out of choices and options. His son and Tricia meant everything to him and he’d follow them into hell if he had to. With renewed purpose, Grai took off running after the golden ball.
*****
True came to again in another bed and immediately jerked herself upright, thankful she was still clothed this time. She growled when she saw her hands were taped again and had already started tearing at it with her teeth when she heard, “I wouldn’t recommend that.”
True snorted, looking up into the moss green eyes of a hybrid. She quickly noted the woman’s small frame and short, dark hair, with overlong, fringed bangs. True saw the woman’s weapon in its holster and calculated that she’d could get the tape off and fire a few shots before the woman could brandish the handgun.
“Who the fuck are you?” True demanded, trying to keep the woman distracted.
The woman laughed and fanned herself dramatically.
“Oh my! Well, my name is Tara Djornav. I’m 372 years old, but I really think I look good for my age! I like long walks on the beach and German white wines are to die for!” she said, batting her eyelashes.
True stopped chewing on the tape for a second and just blinked at the woman in shock.
“What the fuck?”
Tara laughed.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t be in the mood for levity either. So let me give you some truths that you might care about. I know you’re damn good with that fire, and you can probably do some serious damage, but we’re hybrids and we have no intentions of killing each other so my body will heal. You won’t heal from me though,” Tara said, eyeing True to make sure she was listening before she continued.
“I’m a Mind Reaper. I can not only pull all your darkest secrets from your mind and share them with the world, but I can put things in there that will fuck you up for the rest of your life. No Band-Aid can fix what I can do. Do you understand?” Tara asked the girl.
True narrowed her eyes and finished chewing off the tape. She pulled a few bits from her mouth as she sized up the dark haired woman in front of her.
“Why are you telling me this?” she asked, wondering what Tara’s agenda was. Not that she cared, or feared the girl and her threats of mind games, she just hoped that Tara would give her some useful information.
Tara grinned.
“Now we’re talking!” she said, slapping her palms on her thighs before she leaned forward in the chair. “I know you’re not happy about being here. I don’t blame you. You and the others, well you kind of caught us at a bad time. We’re going through some management problems and things are a little messed up.”
True held up a hand to stop the girl.
“Seriously, at what point was I not supposed to just go mind blank on that, and hear only, ‘blah, blah, blah’,” True said sarcastically as she eyed the closed door behind Tara’s chair.
Tara saw her eyeing the door.
“If I’m boring you, I can go get Leif instead,” she said.
True’s eyes got huge.
“No! We’re good! Caught you guys at a bad time . . . management problems . . . check,” True said quickly, thinking she stood a better chance of escaping the crazy woman in front of her than the large, burned fool who was probably pretty pissed off by now.
Tara laughed.
“You know, all joking and swinging junk aside, he’s a really great guy. You could do so much worse as a mate. But—” she said, trying to stop the tirade that True looked ready to start. “I know we got bigger problems right now than you finding your mate in here. Right now, our fighter craft are in a standoff over the mountain with yours. The forest is filling with your people and mine. If something isn’t done, hundreds—if not more of us—will die,” Tara said before True jumped off the bed and faced her.
“Whose fault is that? You want this shit to end, then let us go! Take me to Grai!” True argued.
Leif walked in his bedroom door just as his she-beast was screaming at Tara. He was tempted to shut the door and come back later, but he couldn’t do that to Tara. And there had to be a masochist side to him that he never knew about before, because he was willing to risk having his remaining ball singed just to see True again. Although he prayed like hell it wouldn’t come to that.
Leif inwardly flinched under the glare of her stormy, grey eyes, knowing his one good ball was in danger of being roasted, and he hadn’t even opened his mouth yet. If this is what his grandpa went through with his nana, then he truly had a reason to pity Legendary Ass 1.
Although, he thought, the pity will wear off between now and when the delicate flower arrives. At which point I’ll be cheering on said Flower, as she shoves a stick up Ass #1’s ass and jerks out the offending creature that crawled up there this time.
Leif jer
ked himself out of his musings when he heard Tara speak. “It’s a little more complicated than that right now,” she told True.
True raised her eyebrows, pretending not to notice that the hot guy again looked hot and freshly showered and clothed. With a force of will she didn’t even know she had, she kept her blue eyes trained on Tara’s green ones.
“Complicated how?” True asked as she pointed in the general direction of the door, ignoring Leif. “You let me walk out. I go find my people. We leave. War’s over.”
Tara sighed.
“We can’t do that. The entire place is on lockdown now. It’s not that we can’t let you outside, it’s that we aren’t in command. Part of those management problems I mentioned . . .” Tara said, looking to Leif for help.
True narrowed her eyes at them. Something was wrong here. She could feel it.
“So, what exactly do you expect me to do?” she asked, more out of curiosity than compliance.
True had no plans of doing anything they wanted until she saw Grai. The blond ass made a fool of her already by getting her to agree to the connection through the Shengari’; she wasn’t going to let him make her a fool again.
Leif folded his arms across his chest, watching his mate as she spoke for longer than five seconds—without flinging fire or insults. It took him a moment to realize that both women were looking at him.
Hell, he thought, this isn’t a good thing. Not where either of these women is concerned.
As Leif looked between his best friend and his mate, it dawned on him just how screwed he was. True was just like Tara, who was just like his nana. Leif sighed, prayed for more patience than a Zendarian Priest and slid into a chair closest to the door.
When Tara stood, Leif jumped to his feet and blocked her.
“Where the hell are you going?” he asked her quietly, directing his eyes to where True was glaring at him with suspicion.
Tara quirked an eyebrow at him before turning to look at True, perching on the edge of the bed. Tara shrugged.
“I have problems of my own to deal with right now. You’re on your own. Besides, she’s your mate! You two have to learn some common ground and work with that, damn it!” she said as she stepped forward to leave and Leif still blocked her path.
