by Mikayla Lane
“What is that?” David asked as he also stepped closer to the wall.
They watched in rapt attention as Cristali replayed the last 20 seconds of the footage as requested.
“It looks like a blur of light. Are you sure that was the other part of the pod?” David asked.
Blade nodded his head and grinned.
“Yeah, the kid saw the damn thing clear as day. It’s the only reason I would have ever noticed the blur in the image; it’s where the other piece of the pod went in Mikey’s memory,” Blade confirmed.
“Where the hell did it go?” Grai whispered as he stared at the blur that was the rest of the pod he hoped contained Koda.
“We’re calculating,” Cristali muttered as her fingers flew across the command center. “There’s a 50-mile stretch depending on if he hit anything that would slow the pod or change its trajectory.”
Grai cursed loudly as he pounded his fists on the table.
“Just give me a place to start!” he growled.
Traze shook his head sadly.
“Grai, the start would be the area still crawling with those military assholes,” he admitted, wishing the area was clear by now.
“Then give me the back end; I’ll work backwards!” Grai growled in irritation.
Cristali shook her head sadly.
“Grai, the possibilities are too vast. The pod hitting one tree could have changed its path by tens of miles, and there are millions of trees out there,” Cristali explained.
Grai ran a hand through his hair in frustration.
“Can you study the forest before and after and see if you can find any signs that may lead us to the path the pod took?” he asked.
Cristali looked over at Traze, knowing the odds were slim that they would see something from the limited view they’d taken of the forest that night.
“I’ll look myself, Grai,” Traze said, unwilling to tell his brother that it would probably be a dead end.
Everyone knew that if the remaining piece of the pod was broken up by impacting the trees, the only thing that would be found would be debris, and the heavy forest would most likely conceal the pieces from view. Even Grai knew it.
“Where is Gibly?” Grai roared in concern for the cat and rage at the situation.
“I have heard no word from my leader,” Ranger said with a swish of his tail.
Grai had a thought and turned to face the others.
“What about Mikey? Do you think the kid might be able to see something we missed?” he asked, grasping for any hope.
Blade cocked his head to the side, thinking about it.
“He did catch the secondary breakup of the pod. We’ve been looking at this stuff for weeks and never noticed it. I think it’s worth a try,” Blade agreed.
He’d been really impressed with Mikey’s visual acuity. Normally when Blade rode a memory there were blurry, sketchy details that depended on what or who the person seeing it was focused on at the time of the memory. With Mikey, the memories had been incredibly vivid and highly detailed as if he saw more than anyone else.
“Damn it! I sent him to Base Beta with Lauren,” Grai said.
Blade grinned broadly.
“I’m sure we can get Lauren to have him look at the footage. In fact, I’ll head there and talk to her about it,” he said, thrilled that he’d be able to use this to get even with her for that hit to his groin.
He had no doubt that Lauren probably had other plans to entertain them while at beta, but he figured shaking up those plans would be more than fair after the cheap shot she’d taken.
Grai looked over at Traze and Cristali.
“Get the footage to them,” he said before he turned to Blade. “Make sure you impress on them how important it is to do this.”
Blade nodded.
“Absolutely,” he said before he headed out the door to the portal.
Grai turned back to Ranger.
“Are you sure there’s no way to track Gibly?” he asked.
Ranger snorted and laughed.
“Gibly go tracking. We can’t track a tracker. It’s the trackers job to do the tracking. And Gibly is the best,” Ranger said, shooting down Grai’s idea of sending someone after Gibly.
Grai turned concerned eyes to the cat.
“But what if something happened to him? Would you know?” he asked, wondering if the loss would be felt among the other cats like it was among the beast species.
Ranger stiffened and his fur poofed out for a moment.
“We would know if he was hurt or gone from this life,” Ranger said.
That wasn’t nearly enough to satisfy Grai’s worry for the cat, and he went back to pacing the conference room, deep in thought.
It took an hour for him to realize that the room had cleared, and sitting in a chair at the command center was his son, Chris.
“Son! When did you get here?” Grai asked as he made quick strides and pulled Chris into a hug.
“I just got here a few minutes ago,” Chris said as he hugged his dad tight.
“What are you doing here? Is everyone all right? Angel? Dree?” Grai asked, worried someone else may be in danger or hurt.
Chris shook his head.
“No, Dad, everyone is OK. It’s you I’m a little worried about,” Chris admitted.
Grai’s brow furrowed as he tried to think of why Chris would be concerned.
“Son, I’m fine. Everything is fine here,” he said, not understanding what Chris meant.
“Dad,” Chris began, shaking his head. “No, you’re not. When was the last time you saw Mom, Grace, and Tristan?”
Grai moved away from Chris and ducked his head for a moment before becoming defiant.
“I may not be with them as much as I would like, but what I’m doing is trying to protect them—and everyone else,” Grai said.
Chris wasn’t giving up so easily.
“If you don’t start sharing some of that responsibility again, you’re going to crash and burn. The last time that happened . . .” Chris warned.
“That was low!” Grai growled as he turned to his son in anger.
Chris stepped up to Grai fearlessly.
“It’s dead on, and you know it!” Chris growled back before he softened his tone and put a hand on his father’s shoulder. “Dad, I love you more than anything around, and I didn’t leave a lair of chattering women and a disappearing niece just for some peace. Although, yeah, it’s serving a dual purpose.”
Grai couldn’t help but smile at his son’s words. He knew from the calls, emails, and other messages from his sons that Angel and Dree’s pregnancies and Mikal and Chance’s adopted daughter were causing all sorts of havoc among the normally testosterone fueled group.
“Dad, if you don’t slow the burn, you won’t put it out until it’s too late. Tristan needs you now more than ever now that he’s beginning to learn his way in this realm. Grace . . . damn, Dad, she needs to feel that massive amount of love you have for her while you’re holding her. Not from miles away. And Tricia . . . she’s amazing for putting up with you. Stop taking that for granted. Spread the worry and the work around—now more than ever. The more you keep updated, the more eyes and ears,” Chris said, trying to reason with his father.
Grai fell into a chair at the table and put his elbows on the table, head in his hands.
“I can’t get that image of that female from the lab out of my mind. I close my eyes, and I see her eyes pleading with you . . . only when I see it, it’s Koda’s eyes and him pleading with me. It could have been anyone. Traze, you, or one of your brothers. And I failed. I can’t fail again,” Grai whispered hoarsely.
Chris sighed and sat beside him, laying a hand on his back.
“Yeah, Dad, it could have been any one of us. Every day it could be one of us. Or you. We all went into this knowing that. Koda knew that too, and he doesn’t blame you. He never would. He’d be pissed at you if he saw what you’ve been doing and how you’ve been acting. You gotta stop,” Chris beg
ged.
Grai rubbed a hand over his face and sat back in the chair.
“If I don’t get anywhere before the human holidays, I will spread the responsibilities more,” Grai agreed.
Chris shook his head, that wasn’t good enough.
“No, Dad, it can’t wait until Christmas. You got until Thanksgiving before I lead the charge to take it out of your hands,” Chris said as he stood.
Grai was going to argue, but he knew better, and it wasn’t the time for it. Instead, he stood and threw an arm around Chris’s shoulder.
“How about we go home and see if Tricia has dinner ready? You can visit with the kids, and we can have a drink later,” Grai offered.
Chris sighed dramatically.
“You have no idea how peaceful that sounds,” he said.
Grai chuckled and squeezed his shoulder in sympathy.
“The hormones have hit Angel and Dree, huh?” he asked, already knowing the answer.
Chris ran a hand down his face and make a strangling sound.
“Oh God . . . it’s hell. They cry like they’ve busted a pipe inside. Or they’re clinging, demanding, irritating, or generally bitchy. And food! Dad, they’re eating so much I worry for their health! And my fingers when they’ve spotted me eating something they want!” he complained.
Grai laughed heartily at Chris’s over dramatization of Angel and Dree. He’d heard similar tales from his other sons as well, all begging to be allowed to help further with the search for Koda. Of course, it was under the guise of getting away from the pregnant females for a while. He’d not risk his children doing his job.
Chapter Seven
Mikey stood at the window and stared at the flashes of light periodically coming through the aurora australis. He and Lauren had gone into adjourning bedrooms to sleep hours before, but he still couldn’t seem to stop his mind from thinking about everything he’d seen and learned about Base Beta.
The place was mind boggling. The last few weeks were nothing short of a true mind fuck. He had begun to wonder if he wasn’t schizophrenic and having hallucinations. If it hadn’t been for running into walls and other people while staring at everything around him, he’d be convinced there was something wrong with his head.
It was all real, though, and he was having a hard time trying to figure it out. He’d seen the relics in the repository and knew why the aliens were protecting the items from the humans. Mikey shook his head.
Now I’m thinking of them as humans. A month ago I was a human, he thought. Or thought I was.
Now, he was beginning to realize just how different he was. The longer he was with these people in this strange place, the more he could feel the energy throbbing through him. The irony was, the more he felt the energy, the stronger the voice grew in his head, and the more he noticed the changes in himself.
Mikey clenched his fists and could hear the fabric stretching to accommodate his larger muscles as his biceps flexed. Since they’d arrived at what Lauren called Base Beta, any clothes he’d gotten had grown uncomfortably tight around his thighs, chest, and biceps in just a day’s time.
It wasn’t the physical changes that were concerning him though, it was the mental and visual ones that made him worry if something was wrong.
After the incident with the disappearing man named Indrid, Mikey had begun seeing more than just the flashes of light in the colors of the sky. Mikey’d seen a terrible, misshapen face in one particular flash that had gotten unusually close to the ground. It was repelled from hitting the ground by a bluish dome shaped shield of sorts that seemed to activate only when certain flashes of light came through the aurora.
If it was only the strange lights, faces in the lights, and the shield, he may have overlooked it. But he’d begun to see . . .
Ghosts. It’s the only thing they could be, he thought as he looked at the empty street below and saw the same spirit staring up at him.
The woman had been there when he’d first come out onto the balcony. At first, he’d thought that she was real.
Until a large hare ran right through her feet.
It’d shaken him so badly he’d retreated from the balcony into his room. Now he stood behind the glass and had a staring contest with the ghostly female below his window.
Surely if there were ghosts roaming this place, someone else would have noticed them by now, he thought, wondering for the tenth time if he was hallucinating.
Only one damn way to find out.
Looking down at the female one more time, he turned from the window and quietly left his room. He slipped down the stairway and stood at the bottom, his hand paused on the door handle. Shaking his head to clear the paranoid thoughts running through it, he pulled the door open and walked through it before he could change his mind.
He walked down the pathway that led to the side where his balcony was and stopped short as he turned the corner. This time, instead of staring up at him, she was turned towards him as if she had expected him to come down.
Closer now, he could see that she had pretty light green eyes and light brown hair. She hadn’t moved from where she stood under his balcony, and Mikey wondered if she was trapped in that spot. Like a recording or something. At least he thought that’s what it might be, until she spoke.
“I wondered if you would come down,” she said, her voice clear and strong.
Mikey’s feet took him half the distance to the girl before he stopped again.
“What are you?” he whispered.
Her soft, tinkling laughter sent shivers down his spine, and he had to fight the desire to run.
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to frighten you. I won’t hurt you. I can’t . . . I don’t think,” she said, her brows drawn together in thought. “Even if I could, I wouldn’t though,” she rushed to assure him.
Mikey took a few steps closer as he completely drove out the voice in his head.
“Who are you?” he asked, taking another step closer to the apparition.
The girl sighed heavily and smiled.
“I’m Emily, but that doesn’t matter and isn’t why I’m here. I need help,” she said.
Mikey stepped close enough to reach his hand out and wave it through her body. His hand felt frozen when it had passed through her form, and he jerked back as he stared at her.
“That’s really rude and uncomfortable. Please don’t do that again,” Emily said as she shivered from the contact.
“You’re a ghost,” Mikey whispered as he stared at her.
Emily shook her head emphatically.
“No. I’m not. I’m as alive as you are. This is,” she said gesturing to her body. “just my mind or something. I’ve come here since I was a child when I need help. Sometimes the angel sees me and he helps me. That’s why I’m here now. I need help really bad this time.”
Mikey just stared, trying to understand what she was saying.
“You’re not a ghost? You’re alive? Where?” he asked.
“I live in the United States. Aren’t you an angel? Shouldn’t you know that?” she countered.
Mikey shook his head, trying to make sense of what was going on.
“No. I’m not an angel. I don’t know any angels. Who are the angels you usually talk to?” he asked, wondering if he could help her find who she was looking for.
He was assuming that the angels she thought she was seeing were the hybrids. If that was the case, he could probably find one of them to help her.
“Do you know Indrid?” she asked, unable to keep the hope from her voice.
Mikey nodded; he knew that name.
“Mikey, who are you talking to?”
Mikey jerked his head up and saw Lauren leaning over the balcony.
He looked at Emily, then back up at Lauren. He knew that she should be able to see the girl standing right in front of him.
“She can’t see me,” Emily said, looking up at Lauren.
“Why?” Mikey asked.
Emily shrugged her shoulders and looked back a
t Mikey.
“I don’t know. Only the angel can see me like this. And you. I need . . .” she began before she looked behind her shoulder.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, somehow knowing that something wasn’t right.
Emily turned back to him, her face paler than it was before.
“I need to go! If you see Indrid, tell him I need him!” Emily said before she disappeared without even a wisp remaining where she’d stood moments earlier.
Mikey walked around the area, trying to feel a cold spot or anything to note that she may still be there, but he found nothing.
“Mikey? Are you OK?”
Mikey swung around to see Lauren approaching him slowly. He turned back around where Emily had stood and shook his head to clear it of her before turning back to face Lauren.
“Yeah, yeah . . . I’m good. Just ah . . . a little wired with all the information and stuff. It’s all a little overwhelming,” he said, forcing himself not to turn back around to see if Emily had come back.
Lauren sighed in relief before looking at him quizzically.
“Who were you talking to? I heard you clearly,” Lauren said.
Mikey forced a laugh.
“I was talking to myself to be honest,” he said as he gestured to the ancient city around them. “It’s all . . . a little hard to process. I was kind of wondering what was next, ya know. Like what’s the next shoe to drop?”
Mikey tried to ease his guilt about not telling her about Emily by admitting other truths that he hoped would satisfy her curiosity and concern. He knew it worked when he saw her eyes soften before she walked over to him and gently squeezed his hand.
“I can’t imagine how hard this must be for you,” Lauren said. “I wish there was a way to make it easier for you, but I don’t know of it.”
Mikey believed her. Not because he wanted so much to trust her, but because he could feel the truth radiating from her through her touch, and somehow he knew that the energy was the best lie detector there was.
“It’s OK, I know there’s nothing you can do. I have to try and figure it out in my head and make it make sense,” he said, thinking of Emily.
How the hell am I supposed to make sense of that, he wondered as he looked around for her one more time.