Mending the Rift

by Shea Balik

  Blinking several times to clear out the sleep from his eyes, Logan was finally able to see what had caused the noise. Or should he say ‘who.’ Brandr leaned the top half of his body into the hatch, dropping down supplies of juices, sports drinks, and food.

  Logan’s stomach instantly cramped at the scent of burgers and fries, while his mouth salivated for a bite.

  “There are kids’ meals for the younger ones and variety of hamburgers and chicken sandwiches for the adults,” Brandr called down. “It’s not exactly healthy, but it’s better than what you’ve had for the past couple of weeks.”

  They’d been forced to live off of MRE’s, which were basically pouches filled with food that was ready to eat when opened. At most all they had to do was add water. Having forty people to feed, they’d had to eat sparingly for fear of running out of food and having to find somewhere where they could go find more.

  But Logan had been the only adult with minor scrapes as he’d been leading the children away from the Fae attack that day. Since arriving at the bunker he’d tried to find a nearby town, but he was afraid to leave the people who had taken him in for too long in case the Fae found them again.

  When he hadn’t been out looking for help, Logan had spent all of his time trying to help those who had been injured. “Tyree.” Logan whirled around and headed to the boy’s bed.

  But just as he reached it, an arm wrapped around his abdomen and pulled him back. “Not yet, fated one. Ruth said you only ate one of those power bars.”

  The deep sound of command in Brandr’s voice shouldn’t have Logan wanting to sink against the man’s body, should it? Logan was sure, as an adult, he was not supposed to need someone to take care of him. So, why did it feel so damn good?

  Two bags were placed before him. “I have a double cheeseburger and a chicken sandwich,” Brandr told him. “Which do you prefer?”

  If he was honest, both. That ridiculous bar did nothing to appease his hunger, but since he didn’t think Brandr bought enough for him to have more than one, he said, “The cheeseburger.”

  He let out a squeak of surprise when Brandr picked him up with just one arm, as if he weighed nothing. Sure, Logan wasn’t as big as Brandr, then again, he wasn’t sure if anyone was, but Logan still prided himself regarding his body.

  Before hell had descended on their home with the Fae’s arrival, Logan had been a gym rat. He spent two to three hours a day there with his friends bulking up. Before this moment, Logan wouldn’t have considered himself a lightweight.

  “I can walk, you know.” he grumbled as Brandr continued to carry him back to his bunk where Leith was already sitting eating his kid’s meal of chicken nuggets and apple slices.

  “I know,” Brandr told him as he sat down next to him. After looking into both bags he handed one to Logan. “But I also know you’re so busy taking care of everyone else, that you don’t take care of yourself.”

  When Logan didn’t open his bag and get the food out fast enough, Brandr did it for him. The moment he unwrapped that cheeseburger, Logan’s stomach growled restlessly. His mouth watered to the point that drool was starting to leak from the corners.

  “Let’s face it,” Brandr said as Logan finally picked up the large, double stacked cheeseburger. “Left to your own devices, you would have healed Tyree and skipped eating completely.”

  It was hard to deny, especially as his mouth was stuffed with food. But even if he wasn’t busy eating, Logan couldn’t refute Brandr’s observation. Earlier, if Ruth hadn’t demanded he eat that power bar, he would have just done what he could to heal Tyree and ended up passing out again.

  Even now, having smelled the delicious greasy food, Logan had been prepared to take care of Tyree first. He couldn’t help it. Seeing someone suffer and not trying to help wasn’t in his DNA. It never had been, even before he woke up on his twenty-first birthday with such an amazing gift.

  When he’d scarfed down everything in the bag, Logan nearly cried. The meal had definitely helped, but he could use another two or three sandwiches. When Brandr shoved his half-eaten chicken sandwich at Logan, he’d started to refuse.

  “Eat it,” Brandr ordered. “You need the energy more than I do at the moment. My friends will be here soon, but as much as I wish it could be otherwise, if there is any chance of saving Tyree’s leg, you need to heal him.”

  Logan looked over into those gleaming silver eyes that held so much emotion in them. Determination was the predominate one, but Logan could also see the regret there, as well as a bit of self-loathing. It was as if Brandr blamed himself for not being able to heal Tyree.

  Appreciating that Brandr wanted to help him, Logan did as he was ordered and ate the sandwich. Brandr was right. If he had any hope of making Tyree better, he was going to need all the energy he could get.

  CHAPTER 7

  Finding a phone had not been easy or quick. Brandr had run for ten miles before he even found a somewhat main road. Another ten got him to a tiny town that if he’d have blinked while running, he would have missed.

  It sort of reminded him of the town closest to his home in Colorado. There was a gas station, a general store, and a diner that had thankfully been open.

  Between the long night of treating patients and running just over twenty miles, Brandr had been quite tired. But it was the call home that had left him reeling.

  “What do you mean you think Omri enthralled Kyleigh?” he shouted at Arne, who had been the one to pick up Eirik’s phone. Apparently, Eirik was too busy trying to find Kyleigh to answer himself.

  Brandr knew that wasn’t true. Eirik was their leader and tended to feel the weight of responsibility much more than the rest of them. He most likely was ready to tear apart the world to find Kyleigh. The Fae realm too, if it was necessary.

  “You know we haven’t had direct communication with her in nearly two weeks. Rowan claimed Ky didn’t want to talk to us as she straightened out her feelings,” Arne reminded him, as if Brandr could have forgotten.

  The fact that Kyleigh had left them to stay with Rowan in the first place had been difficult enough. But then, slowly in the beginning, she’d stopped taking their calls, even from her Uncle Cullen. Rowan, who had become her therapist to deal with losing her parents, had claimed it was fairly normal for patients to need some separation from their old life while they found a new way to cope.

  It had seemed reasonable, even if it had left a few of them uncomfortable. Brandr had even called a few therapists he’d met over the years. Most of them confirmed that was a definite possible outcome. Since people were individuals with different ways of healing, there was no way to be sure. Their only recommendation was to demand at least monthly visits to be sure she really was fine.

  “How does that lead to Omri enthralling her?” Brandr demanded as he wrote down an order for food and handed it to the waitress.

  “Shit, I’m going to have to go. Tell me where you are and I’ll send reinforcements.” Yelling could be heard over the phone, as well as some crashing noises that he was fairly sure were things breaking.

  Telling Arne not only where he was, but what he’d need for transportation, Brandr got off the phone and hoped it wouldn’t take his friends too long to send help.

  As night was beginning to fall once more, it probably meant no one would be coming until the next morning, at the earliest.

  “Your order will be up in about thirty minutes, hon,” the waitress said as she leaned to one side to look outside, clearly expecting to see a bus or something equally big to hold enough people to eat that much food.

  “Is someone coming to pick you up?” she asked when she didn’t even see a car in the parking lot.

  “Shit,” he said as he blew out a breath. How had he not thought about how he was going to get these supplies back to the bunker? “I don’t suppose anyone has a truck that could take me to the middle of field about twenty miles away.”

  She narrowed her gaze on him for several minutes as if sizing him up. “What is in
the middle of this field?” she finally asked.

  He shook his head. “You don’t really want to know the answer to that. But there is a bunker with thirty-four people, most of who are injured.”

  That had her eyes nearly bugging out of her head. “Does this have anything to do with that bright light over by the Peterson farm?”

  “I don’t know anything about the Peterson’s, but as far as the light goes, yes. It does.” He wasn’t sure it was a good idea to admit that with all the bodies still all over the place, but it wasn’t like she couldn’t send someone to find out the truth.

  “Billy Ray came in earlier claiming there were monsters in that field,” she told him. “But Billy Ray tends to tell tall tales and we didn’t believe him.”

  Brandr prayed his next words didn’t bring him more trouble than he could handle. “Billy Ray wasn’t wrong. Once my friends come to help the injured, we’ll have it all cleaned up ma’am. I promise. But I really need to get this food to that field.”

  She took out her cell phone. “Let me call my husband.” She pointed to the general store just across the parking lot. “He’s working right now, but I’m sure he’d be happy to close up long enough to drive you out there.”

  When her husband, Tyler James, came around with his truck, Brandr was surprised to find several cases of single serve juices and sports drinks. “Howdy,” the man said as Brandr opened the back door to start stacking the bags of food. Then he hitched his thumb behind him. “After Betty Ann told me about your troubles, I thought y’all could use some drinks, too.”

  “Thank you.” Brandr pulled out his wallet, but the man waved it away.

  “It’s on me,” Tyler James said. “I feel bad about laughing at Billy Ray and not checking on what he saw. I might have been able to help you folks out a lot sooner if I had.”

  “As much as I appreciate the offer,” Brandr told him, “I can tell you, if you ever see that bright light in the future, stay as far away as possible.”

  He wasn’t sure Tyler James believed him or planned on listening. Then they arrived at the bunker and he feared the man might have a heart attack seeing the carnage. “I’ll be damned,” he breathed out as his hand shook when he went to open the door.

  “What the hell are these things?” Tyler James finally asked after spinning around at least twice to take it all in.

  “They are monsters that don’t belong in our world.” Brandr held up a hand to stop Tyler James from asking the next question. “I’m not going to tell you where they come from. Just trust me. These aren’t things you ever want to fight.”

  With help from an anxious Tyler James, Brandr got everything into the bunker before the man peeled out of there like a shot. With any luck, he wouldn’t be back until Brandr could burn the bodies, which he would start on once he checked on Logan.

  He hadn’t been at all surprised to find Logan walking toward Tyree with his back ramrod straight as if daring anyone to stop him. Not at all deterred, Brandr did exactly that.

  It wouldn’t last long, but the way Logan’s stomach was growling, the man would be hard pressed not to eat before healing Tyree, especially when Brandr reminded him that he would need all the strength he could get. Tyree was very sick. It would take a lot to make him better.

  “You ready?” Brandr asked him after they’d eaten. He hated that he was willing to use Logan this way, but there weren’t any other good options. It was Logan or amputate. Neither were good choices as far as Brandr was concerned.

  One would debilitate Logan. The other would make Logan hate Brandr. Not to mention completely change a kid’s life.

  Logan didn’t even hesitate to stand up. Brandr forced him to stop with a hand on his leg as he turned to Leith. “We’re going to check on Tyree, but I need you to stay here.”

  There was a stubborn set to Leith’s jaw that hadn’t been there before. At any other time, he might have rewarded Leith for it, but not now. He wasn’t about to let the little kid see his brother, especially when he had no idea what would happen.

  “I need you to stay and keep Logan’s bed ready. When he’s done with your brother, he’s going to need to sleep again.”

  Leith gave him a look that said he wasn’t buying it but he nodded just the same.

  Leading Logan to Tyree’s cot, Brandr pulled the loose bandage from Tyree’s leg. “Fuck,” he whispered as puss oozed from new places, while a greenish black tint extended up his thigh and into his hip. The infection had spread. If he had to guess, it was in his blood and he had maybe hours to live, at most.

  “This is bad,” he warned Logan. “You need to pace yourself, do you understand me?”

  Logan’s set jaw and the hard look in his eyes said he wasn’t about to listen. But Brandr also wasn’t going to let him die because of his stupid pride. Surging to his feet, he took Logan by the shoulders and forced him to meet his gaze.

  “I mean it, Logan.” His voice had come out like a whip, strong enough for those azure eyes to focus on him. “We don’t know that you will only pass out when you overexert yourself. It’s entirely possible if you take it too far, you’ll die.”

  Brandr waved a hand around him to all the others who were injured and sick. “How will you help anyone else if you’re dead?” he demanded.

  Slowly, he saw the fierce determination seep from Logan’s eyes to be replaced with some piece of rational thought. “I’m not saying don’t heal him,” Brandr said. “I’m just saying don’t kill yourself. This may take more than one session, so be smart and stop when you feel too weak, okay?”

  The pretty blue disappeared for a moment as Logan closed his eyes and nodded. But when he opened them again, the Azure had turned several shades darker. “I will,” was all he said before kneeling at Tyree’s side.

  All Brandr could do was hope Logan had listened. Well, that and yank him away if he felt his fated one was taking things too far. Brandr might be willing to concede that Logan’s magic was needed, but he’d be damned if he’d let Logan kill himself over it.

  The moment Logan put his hands on Tyree something changed in the air. It wasn’t as intense as what he’d felt when Logan had done the same to him the day before, but he could still feel it. Like energy crackled around them, flowing into Logan as he used it to manipulate Tyree’s body.

  Brandr kept his eyes glued to Logan as he worked his magic. Every twitch or tremble was noted for signs of weakness. Oh, he had no doubt what Logan was doing drained him, but Brandr was okay with that, so long as it didn’t go too far.

  He understood there was a price to be paid for wielding forces like Logan was doing. All of the druids that had come to live with Brandr and his friends felt the same. Each ritual left them exhausted and spent, especially when they had to fight the Fae with their magic.

  It helped that they practiced daily. Like a muscle, it could be strengthened with time, but Logan hadn’t had a chance to do that when he was asked to do the impossible. Bring a young boy back from the brink of death.

  Tiny beads of sweat popped out over Logan’s forehead, telling Brandr he was tiring quickly. Glancing at Tyree, he could see the worst of the infection was nearly healed. When Logan’s shirt was damp with too much exertion, Brandr knew it was time to end this.

  “Stop,” he barked out.

  It was as if his order had severed whatever tied Logan to Tyree and he slumped backward. Brandr caught him before his head hit the floor. Lifting him into his arms, he took the man that he had already decided to claim as his and placed him on the cot he’d been assigned.

  As much as he would love to curl around Logan’s hard body and keep him safe while he slept, Brandr had too much to do before his friends arrived.

  When he straightened, he found Leith standing there with his arms crossed over his chest, and his blanket securely tucked around them. It was so diametrically opposite. A four-year-old clutching his blanket for security, while standing up to a man like Brandr.

  “You can sit with your brother, just don’t touch
his legs or sit on his bed,” he called out as the kid rushed to Tyree’s side. Just as instructed, Leith sat on the floor and placed a hand on Tyree’s shoulder.

  Ruth was suddenly there with a cool cloth for Logan. “Thank you,” he told her. “I need to go clean up outside before too many locals come looking around. Before I go, have you checked on the others I treated recently?”

  Ruth nodded as she wiped some of the sweat from Logan’s brow. “Joffrey’s fever has lessened and Bonnie’s is back to almost normal. She’s even sitting up and talking for short periods of time.”

  “And the others?” Thankfully no one else had a fever, or if they did, it was low enough that it shouldn’t cause problems.

  “They’re fine.” She smiled as she looked at the bed several down from Logan’s. “Did he heal Tyree?”

  Brandr went back to Tyree’s cot and check his leg as well as his vital signs. “Not completely, but he’s on the mend. I suspect Logan will want to try again, but even if he doesn’t, I think Tyree will be just fine.”

  As he headed to the hatch, Brandr called out. “Let me know if you need anything.”

  Then he climbed up the ladder and went to work piling up as many logs as he could find to start a roaring fire. By the time the first large bus arrived as the sun came up, the bodies of the Fae were nothing more than ash.

  CHAPTER 8

  “Logan, it’s so good to see you again.”

  “Kegan?” Logan was sure he was dreaming. For right next to Kegan was Teagan. Yet, when he blinked, they were still coming toward him. To be sure he wasn’t having some weird hallucination, Logan rubbed his eyes, but it didn’t change a thing. “Teagan?” he finally said of his other friend. “What?”

  “Oops,” Brandr said from where he was next to Logan, with a hand at his waist ensuring that Logan didn’t faint - again.

  It had been a problem since he’d woken up after healing Tyree. Logan wanted to return to the young boy and continue healing him but when he’d stood up, he’d passed out. Thankfully, Brandr had been close by and managed to catch him before he knocked his head on something.