by Mikayla Lane
Leif sighed. “No . . . that’s why dad is here. Because it’s only going to piss the old guy off even more when he realizes that you guys turned both of us . . . to the dark side, muah haha,” he said with a grin.
True threw her arms up in frustration. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” she said, really sick of the one eyed jerk.
Leif shook his head sadly. “No, the old fool is pretty determined. So, you going to help me get the supplies or not?” he asked, hoping she’d agree so they could spent some time alone.
True sighed. “Fine! For the kids . . .,” she said as she followed him down the line of vehicles to one that wasn’t blocked in.
Leif chuckled, knowing that it wasn’t just for the kids, no matter how much she tried to convince herself that was the case. “Besides, we need to figure out where the hell Traze and Tara are at,” he said, trying to reach his friend through the Shengari’.
He’d just started a vehicle and was backing it up, when Tara said, “There’s a bunch of us holed up in the northwest garage area. The damn Ass sent a strike team after the kid.”
Leif turned to True with a worried frown. “Get on! Traze is in trouble. Again,” he said as he revved the engine.
True hopped on with a sigh. “What’s he done this time?” she asked with concern as she held on to Leif.
Leif sped down the tunnel and said, “Fiorn sent a strike team after him. Tara and some others have him blockaded in garage.”
True was surprised. “How are we going to get him out?” she asked.
Leif shook his head. “I don’t know yet. But, I’ll figure it out by the time we get there,” he said with a grin.
True snorted. “Why do I get the feeling that I should be worried?” she asked, only half joking as the sick feeling in her stomach grew.
Leif chuckled. “Oh come on! I think I’ve done pretty damn good so far! Give me some credit,” he said.
It was the last thing he said before they rounded a corner and they were hit with blasts from pulse weapons. Both were thrown from the vehicle, knocked out from the blast before they impacted the ground roughly. Leif was unlucky enough to hit the wall before hitting the floor with a loud thud.
Fiorn smiled smugly. He’d caught his traitorous grandson and the she-bitch who’d turned the boy against him. He eyed the fiery redhead with disgust, only a slight amount of regret at the large bruise on her face and the cuts and scrapes on her hands and arms.
“Get them in lockup! Apart! I don’t want that bitch anywhere near him again!” Fiorn roared at his personal strike team.
When one of the females tried to tend to True’s wounds, he roared in fury, “Now!”
When everyone began to scramble to do his bidding Fiorn added, “And find a way into that garage! I want that damn mutant!”
Chapter Twelve
Countdown Clock to Human Discovery
13:00 Hours
This is a WSBC Channel 9 News special update. Garfield County Sheriff Joe Scarborough has confirmed that a concerted effort is being made to reach the location on foot or on all-terrain vehicles.
Many residents have called the station with their opinions on what’s caused the disturbance. Some have called it God’s wrath on America or the beginning of the apocalypse. A few have blamed it on the presence of aliens. We spoke to one of the seismologists at the Adventure Caverns, and he assured us that every effort is being made to determine what precisely caused the landslide and that news would be available soon. Stay tuned for updates as they come in.
Thjodhild Erikson, aka ‘Delicate Flower’, aka Nana, went through the portal without skipping a step. Her anger radiated from her as she spared the hybrid team waiting for her a small smile before launching into her questions.
“What the hell is going on? Where is my son, my grandson and his mate? What’s the status of those damn ships in the air? Get them the hell down!”
One of the hybrids cleared his throat, “Ma’am, they are refusing to comply. They say they are under orders from Fiorn . . .”
The man never got to finish. Pulling out her own comm the DF tapped irritatingly at the screen for a few seconds before turning on a broadcast to their craft in the air above the mountain.
“This is Thjodhild, I am ordering you to get back inside the base now!” she said, waiting for their reply. It didn’t take long.
“Ma’am, please . . . Fiorn revoked your authority as well as both Leif’s. I’m sorry . . .,” the male hybrid said.
The DF shook her head. “Me too. Because, I may not have the authority over you, but I do have authority over our weapons. If you won’t comply, you can eject. I suggest you do it. Now,” she said before she pressed a button on her comm and launched missiles at her own craft, before continuing her walk across the room.
Various curses were heard from the pilots before they ejected and the mountain and surrounding forest was rocked by the impact of craft debris.
Thjodhild looked at her personal staff and security detail and ordered, “Get out there and get the fools. Make sure you put them in custody so they are well aware next time that no one has the authority to revoke my own. Not even my fool mate. And get the craft debris cleaned up too.”
She sighed and continued, “Get one of our ‘scientists’ at the Adventure Caverns to explain the explosions away as . . .,” she said, looking around at her team for an excuse.
Her longtime assistant and friend, Darina, offered,” I’m sure they can come up with a better excuse but I would think that the landslide could expose pockets of methane and natural gas . . .”
The DF nodded, “Sounds good. Get one of them on it, now.”
Darina walked beside the DF as she left the portal room. “Your son is in the old chamber hall with the mutant and his family. I believe he’s had a change of heart about following Fiorn. Your grandson, Leif and his mate have been imprisoned separately in Fiorn’s personal interrogation area, there is one other mutant, trapped by Fiorn’s strike team in one of the garages,” she said quickly, excitement running through her and the others at what the DF was going to do next. Whatever it was, it was going to be spectacular.
The DF nodded her head. “Get to the boy in the garage and get him safely to the chamber hall and with his family. Now my grandson and his mate . . .,” she said, thinking carefully with narrowed eyes.
Darina grinned. “You did say that Leif thought she hated him . . ., who could blame her after what Fiorn has done . . .,” she said slyly, knowing her friend and leader didn’t need much pushing to end up with an acceptable idea.
The DF looked at Darina with a calculating smile. “Take them to Beta Station. But, keep them knocked out until they get there. I should have this over with soon,” she said with a twinkle in her cerulean blue eyes.
Darina and the others chuckled before sending teams to do as she ordered. Darina looked at her comm and shook her head. “It appears your mate is heading towards the old chamber hall. By his cocky stride and the arrogant energy he’s exuding, I assume he plans on bartering the life of Leif’s mate for their surrender,” she said, knowing the fur was going to fly really quickly now.
The DF stopped and turned in the tunnel and looked at her team. “Well, it looks like he’s going to force my hand before I can get things under control. Damn, the ass! Fine! He wants to play the bastard, I will treat him like one,” she said as she stormed off in the opposite direction. Towards the old chamber hall.
As she strode down the tunnels towards her mate, the DF contacted Blade, having no doubt that he had followed her directions to the letter.
“It is time,” she said, allowing her anger to burn with each step she took towards her son and her mate.
*****
Ivint and the others were talking with Blade over the 3D image on the table when Blade jerked upright and turned to the screen on the wall showing the ships.
“She’s here . . . be ready,” Blade said cryptically, before the ships exploded on the screen.
Ivint a
nd the Valendrans gasped in shock before Ivint yelled out, “Who the hell fired? Who fired? Damn it!!!”
Blade chuckled and shook his head. “Your people didn’t fire. The DF has arrived and she didn’t accept their refusal to obey her orders to descend,” he said with a laugh.
Reven was astonished. “She killed her own people because they disobeyed orders?” he asked incredulously.
Blade laughed. “No, she told them to eject first. Trust me, they did. But, Fiorn is going to go ballistic over the loss of the ships. She is requesting your presence in the old chamber hall,” he said with a challenging grin.
Reven sputtered. “She just shot down her own craft and you want us to go inside there?”
Blade grinned. “She’s a little extreme in her measures . . . but she gets her point across. Besides, I think it’s safe to say, she’s not happy about what’s going on and she’s willing to punish her own to make it right,” he said with a shrug.
Ivint looked at Blade in shock. ‘A little extreme’? he thought. She shot down her own ships! He couldn’t help but wonder if they’d just traded one psychopath for another.
Blade chuckled. “If it makes you feel any better, she invited all of you. Weapons and all,” he said.
Reven looked at Ivint like he was insane for even considering it. The woman obviously wasn’t any saner than Fiorn and they had truly gone from being in a bad position to being in a worse one. Just that quick.
Ivint considered his options and knew he didn’t have much of a choice. Fiorn’s mate held his people, and their future in her hands. And he hoped like hell she wasn’t as crazy as she seemed.
Ivint called out, “Scaden!”
Reven sighed and shook his head as Scaden walked up to his father. “Sir,” Scaden asked, wondering if his father was seriously entertaining the idea.
Ivint sighed. “You’re in command while we’re gone. Reven and Niklosi, get your teams together and be outside in five,” he said.
Blade waited until the men left before he turned to Ivint. “You aren’t making a mistake. The DF may seem crazy, but where she comes from, if you aren’t willing to do things a little differently, you won’t get respect. And she’s earned every damn bit she’s gotten,” Blade said, trying to ease the commander’s mind.
Ivint nodded, not really feeling any better about dealing with the woman. “Any advice?” he asked, surprising himself.
Blade chuckled. “Yeah, too much to go through before we get there so I’ll give you the highlights as we go. It would do well for your seconds to hear it too. We need to get there quick, so call one of your ships so we can transport,” Blade said, anticipating the storm he knew was coming.
*****
Grai and Leif Sr. looked up from the plans they were reviewing for their defenses when they all heard the multiple impact explosions above them.
Some of the children began to cry and were being comforted as everyone wondered what had happened. For a few moments anyway. Word got around very quickly that the DF had arrived and she was really unhappy.
Grai looked at Leif Sr. as he wiped a hand down his face and sighed. “My mother is here. Trust me that is only good news for you and your people. Not so much for my father,” he said with a slight grimace.
Grai looked around as an excited air of expectant energy permeated the room as the mountain hybrids continued to trickle in, everyone staying against the outer perimeter of the room. Leaving only the four vehicles with Grai and Leif Sr. in the middle of the room. He’d ordered Decano to protect his family and the rest of his people to hide among the mountain hybrids while David camouflaged his team on the platforms above them.
Everyone turned to the commotion coming from the south tunnel when Gibly came flying into the room screaming, “The one eyed man is coming with a team of twenty hybrids!”
“Fuck!” Leif Sr. said as he turned to look for his son to send him to safety.
He tried to contact him through the Shengari’ and not getting a response he cursed and turned to Grai. “Can you get True?” he asked, dreading the response.
Grai whipped his head towards Leif Sr. “What the hell are you talking about? She was right here!” he said, trying to contact her as he looked around the room.
“Gods damn that boy!” Grai roared, turning with fists clenched towards Leif Sr.
Leif held his hands up. “I didn’t do it. They probably snuck off and got caught. My father is going to use her to barter your surrender. Don’t agree to anything. My mom is here, she probably has them by now and they are safe. Just stall him until she comes in,” Leif Sr. said, hoping to head off a catastrophe. He may be angry at his father but, he didn’t want him dead.
Grai turned to the tunnel and called out to his people, “Do not engage the fool or his people! Yet!” He clenched his fists and began pulling the energy of the ley lines into his body.
The energy in the room heightened as Fiorn Erikson strode arrogantly into the room and stopped a few feet from Grai and his son.
Fiorn barely spared his son a disgusted glance before he turned to the mutant. “Obviously, you know I have your hybrid and my traitorous grandson. You can either surrender yourself and your people or I will kill you right here,” Fiorn said with a sneer of disgust at the Relian mutant.
Grai crossed his arms over his chest and laughed as Fiorn’s men surrounded him and Leif Sr. with weapons trained on his head. Grai didn’t even note the weapons as he smirked at Fiorn.
“I don’t think so, old man. I hear your mate has arrived and she isn’t real happy with you. I think I’ll wait to talk to her,” he said, noting how many weapons began to shake in the hands of Fiorn’s team as they looked at their leader nervously.
Fiorn turned bright red and clenched his fists in rage.
“You dare to mock me in my own home? You’re an abomination!” he roared in fury.
Grai snorted.
“You are nothing if not consistent in your ignorance. Tell me, old man, which part makes you hate me so much? The fact I wouldn’t be here if you weren’t such a failure? Or the fact that I’m not the monster you hoped I would be?” Grai asked, shocked at the flicker of emotion he saw in Fiorn’s eye before he shuttered it.
Grai watched with narrowed eyes as Fiorn took two steps closer to him, the man’s fists shaking with the desire to hit him. Grai couldn’t help but wonder just what nerve he’d hit with the man. Where Fiorn had been barely controlled before, he was really close to losing it now.
What stopped him was the commotion coming from the North tunnel and the whispers among everyone in the room that, “the DF had arrived”. Grai watched as Fiorn looked warily around the room and began walking in the opposite direction of the North tunnel, while his team looked nervously between Fiorn and the North tunnel before they put away their weapons and began to walk slowly away from the center of the room.
Grai was more than a little startled when a tiny, blond woman came striding into the room, fully geared for war. He estimated her to be no more than 5’1” and couldn’t weigh more than a hundred pounds. And that was probably fully geared, he thought as he turned to Leif questioningly.
Leif nodded his head, never taking his eyes off of the woman. “Yes, that is my mother. Do not let her size fool you! If you asked me who the deadliest thing in the room was . . . it’d be a toss-up between my mother and your son. Just watch,” Leif Sr. said honestly.
Grai watched in bemusement as the tiny woman, who looked no bigger than a child, strode past him like he didn’t even exist, her eyes trained on the one eyed man behind him. Her waist length blonde hair floated behind her as her piercing blue eyes glared daggers at her mate.
Ivint, Niklosi, Reven, Blade, Traze and Tara, walked into the room at the same time that Grai turned as he heard the wind whip nearby and he gasped at what he saw. It took a lot to shock Grai, but, the tiny, beautiful woman who walked into the room, managed it easily.
*****
Fiorn caught the small hand axe a hairs breath away
from his chest and he roared at his ‘delicate flower’, “Gods be damned woman! Stop . . .” He shut up in order to dodge several throwing knives.
Thjodhild Erikson, aka ‘Delicate flower’, aka Nana, stormed into the center of the room, pulled out her gun and aimed it at her nervous mate. “You have two damn seconds to explain yourself,” she said, keeping the weapon trained on him.
Fiorn huffed out in anger, his chest heaving with his deep breathing. With clenched fists he roared, “They came! They brought that . . . that! Damn mutant thing! To MY home! I wanted to know why! Then the damn child started ripping apart . . .,” Fiorn began, but didn’t get far.
Nana put her hand on her hip and shook with a fury of her own, the other hand holding her weapon steady on her mate. “It’s true?! You attacked a child? A baby? You’ve turned into a damn monster! By the Gods, I’ll gut you like one too!” she said storming towards her mate before she pulled the trigger and shot him in the shoulder.
Fiorn roared in pain as he tried to duck behind a stone chair, his bulk making it look more comical than anything since most of his body was still exposed to his mate’s deadly aim. Hybrids scattered to get as far away from him as possible. Fiorn’s own team now missing among the crowd.
A single male hybrid rushed to Fiorn’s side to assist with the wound when the DF yelled, “If you lend that monster any assistance I will shoot you next!”
Everyone watched in silent awe as the hybrid scurried back to where they were hiding as the tiny little blonde stalked across the room towards the large man hiding behind the chair. Fiorn peeked out and tried to smile and explain, “My sweet flower, let me explain . . .,” he began before she took aim at him again.
Thjodhild stalked around the chair and faced her mate. “Explain that you tried to kill a child and a pregnant mother? Why would I care what excuse you used to convince yourself that such a thing would be acceptable? You heartless bastard!” she yelled before pulling the trigger again and watching him howl in pain as he clutched his thigh.
