by Mikayla Lane
Grai looked over at Lauren and she nodded her head at him.
“I was just telling him that he is one of us. His mitochondrial markers are unusual, but he has a beast. I’m running his DNA for familial matches now,” Lauren told Grai.
Grai nodded at Lauren before turning back to Mikey.
“The thing you saw come out of the ship, what direction did it go in?” Grai asked, positive that it was the escape pod that Koda had tried to use after setting the detonator on the decimator charge.
Mikey thought hard about it and closed his eyes to try and see it again in his mind.
“East. Definitely north east. But it broke up again,” Mikey replied, seeing the pieces in his mind.
“What do you mean it broke up again?” Grai demanded.
Mikey opened his eyes and looked at the intimidating man.
“I could be remembering it wrong, but I swear I saw a big piece of it break off and hit the ground while the rest of it continued out of sight,” Mikey said, trying not to give him false hope.
Grai turned to look at David, his eyes silently asking him if it was possible that they missed it.
“Anything is possible,” David said with a shrug of his shoulders.
Grai turned to Lauren.
“Can he withstand Blade?”
Lauren held up her hands, turning angry.
“Hold on there! He’s barely recovering from what they did to him and you want him reaped?” Lauren accused, putting herself in front of her patient.
Grai folded his arms across his chest and stared down at the doctor.
“I didn’t say I wanted him reaped! I wanted to know if he could share the images of his memories with Blade,” Grai countered.
Lauren huffed in outrage.
“It’s the same damn thing! No matter how you say it, there are dangers to him because he’s not bonded with his beast!” Lauren argued, trying to convince herself she was only protecting her patient.
Mikey slid off the bed and moved from behind Lauren. He wasn’t going to let a woman fight his battles for him, especially not this one. For whatever reason, he felt an urgent need to protect her, and he moved to stand in front of her.
“I don’t know what reaping is, it doesn’t sound like too much fun either, but it’s the least I can do for you after you saved me,” Mikey offered, hoping to end the tense situation.
Grai nodded his head sharply in thanks as another man made his way into the room.
“He’s got you on speed dial? What the hell, Grai?” Lauren demanded as Blade came into the room and stood in front of Mikey.
“Lauren hush! I’m not going to reap him, just look at the pictures as he remembers. So chill,” Blade said as he grinned at Mikey. “Seriously, that’s all I’m going to do. It won’t hurt at all. Just relax, close your eyes, and try to remember everything from the beginning so I can ride the memory, OK?”
Mikey nodded even though he didn’t understand what any of them were talking about. He turned to Lauren when he felt her move out from behind him, and he smiled at her as she gently pushed him to sit back on the bed.
“Take a deep breath, close your eyes, and don’t fight it,” Lauren said, her concern evident in her voice as she took his hand in her own.
Mikey nodded, squeezing her hand gently in reassurance. His last image as he closed his eyes was of her beautiful eyes before he started remembering everything from the moment they left the car on the side of the road. He felt the prodding in his mind and tried to relax as he felt someone inside his head with him.
After he replayed the memories in his mind again, he felt a pop in his mind before he opened his eyes and looked around at the expectant faces.
Blade shook his head to clear it before turning to Grai and David.
“He’s right. The pod broke up, most likely due to the percussion of the blast. We found the shield, but the rest of it continued much farther and must have landed elsewhere. He could still be out there,” Blade said, unsure what the chances were of Koda surviving the kind of injuries he must have sustained in the blast for weeks alone in the forest.
Grai roared in rage before he broke the door off the hinges as he left the room quickly followed by David and Blade.
Mikey turned to make sure that Lauren was all right and saw the shock on her face as she stared at the door.
“Is he always like that?” Mikey asked teasingly, hoping to ease her concern.
Lauren shook her head to clear it and mustered a smile for the soldier brave enough to go through a reaping without even knowing what it entailed. She grabbed her comm and began scanning his brain to make sure Blade didn’t harm him.
“It’s his brother that is missing. If he’s still in that forest and badly injured, he’s in terrible danger and it will kill Grai to think that he’s wasted all this time looking for him in the labs when he was out there all along,” Lauren explained, hoping he would understand why Grai was so intense.
Mikey winced at the thought that the guy’s brother was out there alone and injured, waiting for someone to find him. After spending a few weeks locked up by his own government, he could well understand how horrible it must be for both of the brothers.
“I’m sorry. It has to be hard on him,” Mikey said, not sure what to say.
“If anyone can find him, it’s Grai. Now, what questions do you have?” Lauren asked, hoping to spend a little more time with him.
Mikey laughed and held his arms out wide.
“Everything. Where the hell are we? You said Texas but how the hell do you hide the fleet of UFOs we passed out there? What is a beast? What does it do? What is a hybrid? And is any of me human? What is the other part of me?” Mikey stopped only when he ran out of breath.
Lauren laughed and held out her hand to him. She waited until he took it before she led him out of the broken door and into the large hangar that housed their ships.
“Grai brought you into the medlab closest to the ship. Come on, I’ll show you around,” Lauren said with a grin at Mikey’s open mouthed stare.
Grai had given her no instructions regarding the young soldier, so she just assumed that they were going to let him stay like any other hybrid they’d found over the years.
Mikey nodded his head woodenly as he looked around at all of the aircraft they passed before she drew him into an elevator. They went up more than a few floors before the doors opened again. He stepped out with her and was surprised to be in the sunshine. He drew a deep breath and held out his one hand to the sky, unwilling to let go of her hand with the other.
“Been a while since you’ve seen daylight, huh?” Lauren asked with a smile.
Mikey closed his eyes and drew another deep breath before he turned to grin at her.
“They had me locked up since they pulled me from the forest. Honestly, I didn’t think I’d ever see daylight again,” Mikey admitted as he looked around at the mountain they were on.
They stood for a moment in silence as Mikey enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine, but it wasn’t long before the questions began running through his mind again.
“We’re standing on top of the hangar with the UFOs aren’t we?” he asked, knowing the answer.
Lauren nodded her head and pulled him towards the building on the other side of garden they emerged in.
Mikey looked up and whistled when he saw the name on the building.
“Freedom Enterprises? Seriously? Don’t they make . . . everything?” he asked, surprised that a company that big would be involved with aliens.
Or hybrids, or whatever hell I am, he thought.
“It may surprise you to know that the company is wholly owned and operated by our people. I know the military people probably tried to convince you that we’re terrible and out to destroy humanity, but that isn’t the case,” Lauren said, feeling out his thoughts on what she was saying.
“Oh, the horror!” Mikey teased before he grew serious. “I have no loyalty to them. After what they put me through, I’m not inclined
to believe anything—or anyone—easily.”
Lauren gently rubbed the back of his hand with her fingers, the small action making him feel calmer and more clear headed.
“We’re not trying to convince you of anything. I’m only trying to help you understand who you are before you decide where you want to go and what you want to do,” Lauren said.
They reached the doors to the large building and Mikey reached out and opened it for her.
“Thank you,” Lauren said as she smiled up at him shyly, before she ducked under his arm and entered the main door to the building.
Mikey followed her inside, and without thinking about it, he took her hand back in his as he looked around in wonder.
“Are all these people . . .” Mikey began before he lowered his voice. “like us?”
Mikey couldn’t help but smile when he heard her laughter.
“No, silly, a lot of these people are normal humans doing business with the company. Come on,” Lauren tugged on his hand and pulled him towards another elevator.
Once inside, Lauren placed her palm on the wall and a panel lit up above the regular floor buttons. Mikey watched in wonder as she pressed a button and the new panel disappeared while a voice came over the speakers.
“Training level permission granted, Dr. Lauren Campbell.”
Mikey looked at her curiously and was charmed by her mischievous grin.
“What’s the training level?” he asked, not really caring as long as she was beside him.
Lauren waited until the door opened then led him down a long hallway and into a dimly lit room. Mikey walked to the clear glass wall, expecting the worst and was surprised to look out into a massive urban mockup.
There were streets, stores, apartments, and human looking dummies scattered throughout the large area behind the glass.
“Look there,” Lauren said as she pointed to where a hybrid team was practicing retrieval missions.
Mikey saw one of the women kneel down to the ground and moments later he saw a line of fire rush from her fingers, travel around the corner of the street, and land directly onto the boots of an armed man hiding behind the building.
“Oh damn!” Mikey uttered as the man stomped his boots and swore loudly.
Lauren laughed and gave True a mental high five.
“She cheated. We’re not supposed to use our abilities against one another when training, but that’s True and her mate, Leif. She’s trying to help him get ready for mission status,” Lauren said with a grin as she watched Leif walk into the middle of the street towards his mate, voiding her flames as she giggled.
“Mission status . . . what the hell is all this? How did she do that?” Mikey asked as he turned from the couple now kissing in the middle of the street while their teams moaned and groaned at the delay.
“That’s her ability. Most of us hybrids have a particular ability that you easily discover when you’re young which becomes more advanced once you’ve bonded with your beast, the parasite in your brain that gives you enhanced senses and strength. It is also the conduit that allows us to speak to one another’s mind along an energy path known as the Shengari’,” Lauren explained before she switched to speaking to his mind.
“The beast is a sentient being that lives in harmony and in sync with us. It isn’t dangerous or bad in any way, no matter what those government idiots tried to tell you,” Lauren whispered through his mind.
Mikey had more questions than answers and felt a little overwhelmed.
“Is that why I could see the UFOs when no one else could?” he asked, hoping this beast was the reason he was so strange. He also hoped there was a cure.
Lauren nodded and smiled up at him.
“Yes, I believe that is your gift. The ability to see through attempts at cloaking or hiding. We won’t know more unless we do some basic tests,” she admitted.
Mikey snorted and shook his head.
“Great, someone hands out ‘gifts,’ and I get screwed with some lame ass ‘now you see me, now you don’t’ crap,” he muttered.
Lauren laughed and laid a comforting hand on his arm, unable to stop herself from finding reasons to touch him and feel the energy surge between them.
“If it makes you feel any better, most of our male hybrids have what we call passive abilities, while the females have the aggressive. It was nature’s way of evening the odds between the sexes,” she explained with a grin.
Mikey couldn’t help but get lost in her eyes as he took her hand in his own.
“What is your gift?” he asked softly as his heart raced, and his pulse ran amok.
“I . . . I can see sickness and injury in someone’s energy and can use my own to help them to heal,” she said as she stared into his eyes.
Mikey heard the door handle begin to turn and he jumped in front of Lauren, pulling her behind his back as he faced the man in the doorway.
“Whoa, sorry. Didn’t know anyone was in here,” Reven said as he tried to look behind the unfamiliar young man to what or who he was hiding behind his back.
“It’s OK, Reven. I was just showing Mikey some of our hybrids and how we train,” Lauren said as she came from behind Mikey’s back to grin at the Valendran commander.
Mikey didn’t know why he felt so irritated that the man was looking at Lauren, but he tried to hide it from them by holding out his hand to Reven.
“I’m PFC Mikey Davis, sir,” Mikey said as he stared up at the tall stranger. He couldn’t help but notice that Reven also had the strange swirls in his eyes.
Reven nodded his head and grinned at the kid as he shook his hand.
“I’m Reven Debreskii, one of the Valendran commanders. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at any time,” Reven said before he excused himself from the room, shutting the door behind him.
Mikey turned startled eyes to Lauren.
“What the hell is a Valendran?”
Lauren grinned and pointed at the closed door.
“That.”
“Tells me nothing,” Mikey said as he threw his hands up in exasperation.
Lauren giggled and took his hand in her own before she opened the door and led them outside.
“I’ll get you a comm so you can study our history when you’re up to it. For now, I’ll give you the crash course. The Valendrans, like Reven, had an outpost on Mars over a thousand years ago. The Relians, who are the enemies of all sentient beings, tried to kill them and chased them here to Earth where they found mates and had children,” Lauren explained.
Mikey felt like a light went off in his head.
“Hybrids! So I’m half Valendran and half . . .? Freak?” Mikey teased, knowing she didn’t like him calling himself a freak.
Lauren playfully slapped at his shoulder.
“Stop that, we’re not freaks. But yes, your father must have been a Valendran or a hybrid of a Valendran in order for you to have the beast in your brain. Hybrid is a mixture of Valendran and human,” Lauren explained as she led them to the supply room.
They had more variations of hybrids, but Lauren figured she’d try to get him used the Valendran ones before she confused him with the complexities of the others. Grai and his brothers were going to be really hard to explain.
“How many hybrids are there?” Mikey asked.
Lauren led him through the rows of shelves to where the tactical attire was kept. She figured since he was a soldier, he might feel better wearing something similar, and she had to admit she was a little curious what he would look like in the standard tactical team gear.
Lauren spread her arms out and grinned.
“I thought you’d like to wear something besides those scrubs.”
Mikey looked around and smiled broadly at her before he planted a loud, smacking kiss on her cheek.
“You’re an angel!” he said as he walked over to a stack of black tactical pants from a shelf labeled in his size and grabbed a pair.
“You need to write your sizes down before we leave, and the
supply clerk will have everything you need sent to your room,” Lauren said as she watched him walk around the area choosing an outfit.
When he went behind a rack of clothes and she could hear him changing, she cleared her throat and turned her head away even though she couldn’t see him.
“Anyway, to answer your question, there are thousands of us. We find more all the time. Like you. Most end up discovered and hunted either by the governments or the Relians. The rest of us try to band together—not just for safety reasons, but because we’re trying to help the humans,” Lauren said loudly, hoping to drown out the sound of him putting his clothes on. She blushed when she noted that he didn’t pick any underwear.
“Help the humans how?” he asked as he came around the corner of the shelf.
Lauren turned to him and sucked in a sharp breath when she saw how he looked. The black, multi pocket pants fit his narrow waist perfectly while the t-shirt molded to his chest and biceps like it was painted on.
Mikey couldn’t help but smile at the way Lauren was looking at him. This whole situation was strange enough as it was, but knowing the attraction between them was mutual made him feel like preening for her.
I will not make a fool of myself in front of her, he vowed to himself as he took a step towards her. Then he promptly tripped over an untied boot lace and face planted on the floor.
“Oh no!” Lauren uttered as she ran to his side and gently turned him over.
Mikey wanted to hide from her after embarrassing himself, but she was persistent and slapped his hands away from his bleeding forehead.
“Grab that shirt from the shelf behind you. You split open your head, so we have to get you to a medlab. Luckily, there’s one down the hall,” Lauren said as she gestured to the clothes on the shelf behind him while she held his wound closed with the other, using her gift to slow the bleeding.
Mikey leaned back to get the shirt and sucked in a breath as her body followed his so she could keep pressure on his head, her face inches from his own.
“I think I have the bleeding stopped,” Lauren whispered as she looked at his lips.
Lauren held her breath as the energy roared to life between them. She saw the surprise in his eyes as he felt the rush and waited expectantly as he lips moved slowly towards her own.