As one Ava and Mira turned to face the stairs. Locke and Tristan on each side of them. They took the steps one at a time until they reached the porch. A wave of sound punched them sending them sprawling over the sidewalk.
“Where is Ava?” Locke shook his head to clear his vision. She was gone.
Chapter Seventeen
“Ava!” Locke raced up the steps and into the house.
Ven pulled him back before he crossed the threshold. “Is this what you learned in Enigma One? Seriously, I’m starting to wonder why I respect all of you.”
“Locke.” Cade, his commander's voice reached out to him. He had gone through hell with his brothers. He didn’t meet Ven until he came on the ship, but he watched over him as he grew into a young male. They all did. Ven would give his all for them and Tristan always watched over them and patched them up even as he was being surly. They were family, and they loved Ava as much as he did, but as a sister, not a mate. He loved Ava, of course, he did. Why else would he charge through a door without thinking?
“What do we do?”
“We avoid the trap on the other side of the door,” Ven tilted his head toward the door.
Locke took measured steps until he got there. Placing his hand on the handle, he swung the door open. There was a vortex in front of the door; it swirled blue and white. It gave no indication of where it went, but he wasn’t expecting joy and peace on the other side of it.
“We have to rescue the children then go after Ava.” Mira and Tristan walked up beside him.
“Do you feel any traces of Ava in that vortex?”
He turned to look at Mira before turning back to the vortex. They should recruit her for their team, she thought well under pressure. He reached out on the surface not feeling a bit of Ava. Spreading his legs, he planted himself as he allowed his mind to deep dive into the vortex looking for a hint of Ava.
He stumbled backward, shaking his head. Wherever she was she didn’t get there through the vortex.
“Tristan and Mira will seal the vortex. The rest of us will look for the children. Change shapes.” Cade allowed his inner werewolf to take over before he jumped the vortex. With his humanoid eyes, it looked to be about twelve inches in length.
Locke followed his commander jumping over the vortex that was at least as long as a football field. If a human entered this house, there was no way for them to avoid the trap.
“The Shadows come up with something new every day,” Ven retook his humanoid shape.
“I know I should complain, but right now I’m amazed at the new ability you helped us discover that means we don’t come back half dressed in torn clothes.”
“He does have a point.” Cade turned to wait for the others.
“I wonder if we are feeding off the energy they are releasing or vice versa?” Cade looked around for traps as he pondered his question. “I don’t see anything down here.” He took out his green shield that allowed Shadow traps to become visible.
“Upstairs is where I would hold children,” Ven gestured to the stairs.
“Considering what we found up there before, it’s the perfect place. The rooms have already been primed with fear. Young children would react to it without knowing why, ” Cade told them.
They split off into pairs. Locke and Key took the lead. They had a special bond that the others didn’t have. Ven and Cade took the middle position waiting until the other two were at the top of the stairs before following them. Taris and Kayden came last.
“I know you love her,” Key said to him without opening his mouth.
“I do, does it bother you?”
“No. One of us gets to experience love. Am I jealous? Do I wish it was me? Yes. Having said that, I’m glad it’s you. We both lived through hell. Now I can live vicariously through you.”
Locke sent a laugh back at his brother. “Living vicariously was never your style, which is why you took lead with me. We will find you a mate.”
“If I have learned anything from the humans around us is that not everyone is blessed with a mate.” They stopped at the door at the farthest end of the hallway.
“Did you hear that?”
“Barely and my hearing is much better than yours,” Key teased his brother.
Locke said something in their native tongue that almost had his brother laughing. He did wipe tears from his eyes.
“On three,” Locke said, loud enough for the others to hear him.
“One.”
“Two,” Key echoed.
“Three,” they said together as they kicked the door in rolling into the room.
“Locke?” He crawled over to his brother, who was on the floor wrapped in a cocoon.
“Free the kids.”
“No, you’ll die.”
“If it’s me or them I’ve lived a long time.”
“Oh hell,” Ven walked into the room pegging the situation. “Get the children out of here. The Shadows are using them as a power source. A rapidly draining battery to get to Locke.”
Kayden and Taris started working on the children who were hooked up with wires and electrodes. Cade joined their team while Ven started working on Locke with Key.
“When did the Shadows start using wires?” Kayden was carefully unhooking an infant.
“They’re children, their abilities aren’t streamlined but they are strong. As humans get older, they deny the possibility of something other than what the world preaches at them.” Cade moved the second infant out of the way as he went for a toddler.
“How do they know? What kind of sick bastard does this to a child?” Taris asked with a voice thick in pain.
Locke heard him and felt his pain. Those who made them had not been kind to Taris. He carried scars that none of them could reach.
“I don’t know, but the three of us can make sure these children survive.” Cade reached for the next toddler while Taris reached for a slightly older child.
When the children were released, they took them downstairs, calling nine one one for help.
“You stay down here and out of sight. Make sure the children are taken care of. Kayden and I are going back upstairs to help with Locke.”
Taris nodded placing a hand on each child to keep them calm. A lullaby that Ven taught them when he came to the ship left his lips in soft notes.
“How do we get this thing off him?” Cade walked in the room before kneeling in front of Locke.
“Maybe Tristan will be able to help.” Ven held his hands up and then began to separate them. A tangible film took shape in the air before him. He started at Locke’s head and spread the sheet until it covered him from head to toe.
There were small inch long leaches attached to the cocoon. They were burrowing through it to get to his skin. The ones that had were already draining him.
“You have to stop them from killing me. If they do, then Ava’s shields get weaker. I have to stay alive until you rescue her.”
“You have to stay alive period. I’m not losing you, Locke.”
“What your brother said,” Cade told him as he tried to pull one of the leaches off. “Damn,” he pulled back his hand it was blistered.
“That little son of a… it burned me.”
“What’s happening?” Tristan walked into the room putting himself between Locke and Mira.
With one look he was down on his knees. “We need to get him back to our property. I have an emergency room in the bunker where we are keeping the Shadow traps. We don’t want this in the house.”
“How are we going to get past the paramedics and cops storming downstairs?”
“I got this Mira. Someone needs to carry Locke,” Ven told them as he took lead.
“I got my brother.” Key picked him up. They left the room single file making sure to make no noise. Mira was in Tristan’s arms. No matter how hard she tried, the Kur’iks insisted they could hear her. They walked down the steps and past the emergency responders. Taris joined at the end of the line. All the children had been placed
in the ambulances.
The ride back to the house happened in silence with Locke floating in and out of consciousness. Tristan had him placed on the bed and insisted everyone leave. He didn’t want the leeches to be spread amongst them.
“I’m not leaving,” Key crossed his arms leaning against the wall.
“You’re stuck with us,” Ven leaned against Key.
“The rest of you clear out, having these two around is two too many.”
Tristan waited until they were gone to study the leeches. “We know not to touch them we have Cade to thank for that bit of knowledge.”
“Were they designed to go after Locke? I rolled into the room with him, none of them touched me.”
“What if we freeze one?” Ven was kneeling beside Locke looking over the leeches. “This one seems to be behind all of its friends.”
“You might be onto something Ven. The leech burned Cade. Its body temperature must be extremely high. If we can lower the temperature, then theoretically it will release the suction and the tentacles that are burrowing inside of Locke.” Tristan moved to the cabinets pulling out several bottles then walked over to the other side of the room where he kept a makeshift lab.
“I’ve been working on different compounds that I hoped would help us in our fight against the Shadows. The problem is that I think they will harm or kill a human if used on them. If used on a Kur’ik they may cause damage but shouldn’t cause death.
“Shouldn’t?” Key stood his form growing bigger.
“You should fight with Tristan Key while your brother lies here being drained of his life force. That way we won’t have to worry about him dying from Tristan’s potion. The two of you will have killed him.”
“Do I look like a witch to you. I don’t make potions.”
“Tell that to someone who hasn’t been on the other end of your remedies,” Ven mumbled.
Tristan stared at him before mixing together his solution and placing it in a dropper. “Stand back, I don’t know if it will jump or not.”
He let out one drop when it didn’t do anything, he let out a rapid succession of drops. The leech gave off a high pitch howl before it tried to work faster.
“It’s working.” The leech fought back by raising its body temperature the surrounding skin blistering from the heat.
Tristan refilled his dropper and let it all out at once. The leech seized up going into a death frenzy. The blistered skin became dark gray with the serum spilling against it. When the leech stopped moving Tristan put on gloves and lifted it from Locke. The tentacles came out. He ran to the lab side of the room placing the specimen on a magnifier that came from the ship.
“This is a nasty piece of work, but you were right, key. It was targeted to Lock onto Locke’s enzymes. I know it’s from the Shadows but looking at the way it is formed leads me to believe that part of the Shadows must be human. They isolated his specific set of enzymes which is amazing since you and your brother are off by only one enzyme.”
“How did they get his genetic material?” Ven asked.
“I have no idea. Maybe he was out in public and spit.” All three of them grimaced. Spitting on their planet would have led to an immediate death sentence. They shook their head rejecting that idea.
“Humans use discarded glasses for genetic information. That may have been the case here,” Key told them. “I saw it on television.”
“Whatever the case we have to assume they have all of our genetic material,” Tristan told them as he dropped the leech into a new serum he made. They watched as it disintegrated leaving nothing behind except ashes.
“Now we know it works on a dead leech but what about the living?” Tristan eyed Locke and the leeches that seemed to be gaining ground.
“How much longer do we have Tristan?”
“Why don’t you tell me Ven.”
“Not long, do whatever it is you're going to do, or it won’t matter.”
Locke’s eyes popped open they were no longer green. A blackness was spreading through them. “Ava, I have to live to protect Ava.”
“You’re dying and Ava is gonna die with you unless Tristan’s serum works. Either way you may be dead. It’s a fact if we do nothing,” Key laid it out for him. If there was no Locke soon, there would be no Ava.
“Do it.”
Tristan grabbed three small cans without lids dividing the serum between them. “Put on masks and hazard suits. Don’t argue with me, we have minutes not hours.” Once the serum was divided, he placed tops on the cans that looked like aerosol sprayers and seal the cans using a machine. He put on a mask and a hazmat suit.
He gave the cans out. “Remember the lesson Mira gave us about applying nail polish? Apply evenly and do more than one coat. Now.”
They began spraying the serum over his body looking for any changes in the leeches. Locke began to gasp for breath.
“Keep spraying, this is our only chance.” The leeches began to disintegrate, but Locke stopped breathing.
Chapter Eighteen
Where am I? Ava was in a room, a cage, a dungeon, a cave? It was official she had no idea where she was. Her surroundings were black, looking down she was still dressed in her jeans. Her top was missing. She went to lift a hand, registering the pressure that kept her from moving as pain that throbbed through her wrist and elbow.
One look told her that her wrist had been broken and she was sure the same happened to her elbow. Turning her head, she looked at her other arm that was tied down.
“Aww, you're awake.” A Shadow entered the room. It reminded her of a humanoid shape that had been elongated by the sun. “Sorry about the arm but we haven’t mastered travel that way yet. There’s bound to be some kinks as we sort it out.”
“Why am I here? Where is here?”
“This is the safety zone it exists, but not really.”
“That’s comforting.” She frowned at him.
“A sense of humor, I like that in my women.”
“Somehow I doubt you getting one woman much less multiple.”
“My kind are an acquired taste. Do you think you could acquire the taste, Ava?”
“Sorry, I’m already spoken for.”
“I thought you may say that. In that case, I want what you have up here.” He tapped her head.
She watched him head for the door. The finger that touched her was real, which meant somewhere in the Shadows he had a solid form.
“Why?
He stopped and turned around. “I am hungry, and a steak won’t cut it.”
Her body arched off the table as a scream was torn from her lips. The feel of a suction cup on her head as invisible hands beat against the shield, she used to protect her mind.
“You can’t fight me, Ava. Even now I am killing your anchor, sucking him dry. When he is no longer your shield will fail and you will be mine until you are nothing more than a forgotten husk.”
She whipped her head back and forth trying to shake the voice, the hands, and the suction. There was no escaping what he had for her. The black room disappeared as she sank into her own thoughts. Was this the space between that she spent time with Locke in? It was bleak no rainbow-colored bridge or lake. This was a prison within a prison.
Where was she, the mental her? Where was Locke? He was always at the back of her mind. Ava looked around not being able to find her inner voice the one she relied on to protect her mind. She tried to figure out where she was. If she were in her mind, then this was her first perimeter of defense. These shields had been enough to protect her from the world for years. Thoughts come in but none went out.
The Shadows because there was more than one of them bombarding her were working hard to find a way through her first line of defense. Closing her eyes, she pictured Locke and the lessons he taught her. Even in the SUV, he was teaching her how to manipulate her world. Small hand movements that would keep the Shadows from noticing her as well as keep what she was doing tight. When the blast came, it would be more powerful.
She summoned the power between her hands, noticing that it was white without a green cast. Locke’s power was green; she missed seeing it mixed with hers. Lifting her hand, she thrust her energy toward the Shadows doing the most damage to her.
Yes! She ran looking for a place to hide. They were knocked from her mental wall and the power she thrust was busy working on resealing the damage.
The voice of the Shadow who came to her earlier was chanting low. A shiver went through her body as she tried to rub her arms from where goosebumps had risen. Looking behind her, she watched as two rabid looking dogs appeared drool coming from open mouths as sharp teeth were on display. The Shadow pointed at her then they leaped to come after her.
Meet a male fall in love; it’s the American dream along with a white picket fence and two point five children. That’s all she had to do, but nooo she met an alien and fell in love. Yes, she loved him no she wasn’t thinking about it there were two dogs chasing her.
She was going to die. There were two large dogs with sharp teeth chasing her. They were going to tear her apart like a pinata at a child’s party. The thought sent a shiver through her. Like a pinata, she needed to be high.
Never in her life had she climbed a tree, but this was her mind and it was going to do what she told it to or else. Pretty please mind make a tree I can climb but the dogs can’t. She’d never been good at taking orders even from herself, so she started at the begging stage. Desperate times and all.
A tree grew a few feet in front of her then leaned over to make it easier for her to climb. She put on a burst of speed and climbed the tree with the dogs trying to catch onto her heels.
Her hand flew to her chest as she tried to gain her breath. If she were in her own head, why couldn’t she run like a sleek gazelle? “You don’t listen to yourself half the time why start now?”
Well, her consciousness or self-consciousness didn’t hold back. How many times had she told herself to get a different job, ignore that guy? Don’t get involved with that talk or that fight? The best thing she ever did was make money to hide away in an ivory tower. All right not the best thing but it did allow her to survive until she met her anchor.
The Wolf & The Psychic: BBW Alien Paranormal Romance (Werewolves & Mates Book 2) Page 11
