by Mikayla Lane
“It’s disturbing, isn’t it?” Lauren suddenly asked.
“What, honey?” Mikey asked rolling over on his side so he could face her.
“Thinking about Emily and her gift. I can’t imagine what she’s been going through with only her mother to help her,” Lauren admitted as she cuddled up close to Mikey.
“I still can’t figure out how that can be called a ‘gift.’ That’s a death sentence to your damn sanity!”
Mikey wouldn’t give a gift like that to an enemy.
“I know, it’s hard to understand. We’ve got a lot of hybrids with some pretty interesting gifts, but nothing like that. Even Disc’s gift is nothing like that,” Lauren said, feeling sorry for the girl.
“It’s like she lives a nightmare every day and night with no end to it,” Mikey agreed.
“We’re not getting any sleep are we?” Lauren asked with a grin, already knowing the answer.
Mikey chuckled and pulled her closer as he kissed the top of her head.
“Probably not. We don’t need much sleep anyway,” he teased, then turned serious. “Thank you for believing me and not going crazy on me. You took all that really well.”
Lauren laughed and squeezed him around the middle.
“Well, try not to make a habit of chatting up soul executioners,” she said with a shiver. “Even what they call the poor thing is creepy as hell!”
“Tell me about it! Can you imagine being a child and expected to deal with that? I don’t think she’s insane though. She sounded perfectly normal every time I spoke to her,” Mikey said, hoping he was right.
“I just hope we find her soon. Grai said the children are putting on a Christmas play, and I’d really like to see Tristan and the other little ones. It’ll be so adorable!” she said with delight at the thought.
Mikey rolled her over and slid on top of her before kissing her gently.
“Do you like kids?” he asked, as he trailed kisses down the side of her neck.
Lauren sighed and wrapped her arms around him.
“I love children. Do you?”
Mikey grinned, knowing what she was asking.
“I love you and want a good dozen of them just like you,” he said running his hand down her naked body.
Lauren gasped as his fingers trailed down and began teasing her. Her body responded immediately, and she wound her legs around him to draw him closer.
“I love you too. That sounds good to me,” she whispered then leaned up to run her tongue along his shoulder.
“Mmmm, let’s start trying now then,” he whispered as he moved above her and situated himself against her liquid heat.
“Yes—” Lauren said then gasped as he drove himself inside of her.
*****
Indrid, Crator, and Discorian sat at a table in the dining area. None of them had bothered to try and get some sleep. The ship was currently paused above a highway in Mississippi while they waited for Mikey and Lauren to wake up so they could continue the hunt for Emily.
“The odds of finding her OK are pretty slim, aren’t they?” Disc asked.
His heart bled for the poor girl, and as much as he hoped they could get to her in time, Disc wasn’t sure her mind had survived intact.
“She is much stronger than you think. Do not discount her so easily,” Indrid replied. “Such a tremendous burden would never be given to the weak. I believe whatever is wrong with her now is not due to her abilities.”
Crator and Disc looked at one another curiously as they tried to figure out what Indrid meant. The man could give new meaning to the word ‘vague.’
“What else could it be?” Mikey asked as he and Lauren came into the room.
Indrid shook his head and sighed as he looked into his empty coffee cup.
“I don’t know. I just feel that this is something that is beyond her. That something more is at work here,” he said, wishing he could explain it to them.
Lauren gave Mikey an affectionate squeeze, and he leaned down and kissed her cheek before she headed to the coffee pot and poured them both a cup. Mikey took his from her, pulled her to his side, and smiled down at his beautiful mate.
He swore she took his breath away every time he looked at her. Where before he had questioned the mating bond, now he had no doubt it existed and no regrets that he’d made Lauren his. He couldn’t imagine spending another day without her.
He leaned down, gave her another kiss, and then looked up at the others.
“Since none of us can seem to sleep, how about we get started again?”
He’d barely got the words out before everyone stood and headed into the other part of the ship where he could follow the energy trail through the floor. He stood slowly and pulled Lauren into his arms.
“So did you mean it?” he asked.
“What?” Lauren asked him, wondering what he was talking about.
“That you love me?” he asked with a grin.
Lauren smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“I do love you. But don’t let it go to your head, you can be a jerk sometimes,” she teased.
Mikey chuckled and picked her up off the floor and swung her around.
“That’s OK, I still love you even though you can be pretty bitchy too,” he teased back.
“See,” Lauren giggled. “Jerk!”
Mikey let her body slide down his own until she stood on the floor again.
“You know, I’d like to try out for a mission team. Would you be OK with that?” he asked, trying to detect anything in her energy.
Lauren grinned up at him and pretended to pick something off his shirt.
“I was thinking that it would be a good idea for me to consider a mission med team,” she said then rushed to continue when his expression turned thunderous. “I wouldn’t be in the field, but in a standby ship. No more jungles for me! Once was enough.”
Mikey considered it for a moment and nodded his head.
“Only if you’re safe. I’d lose my mind worrying about you if you were in the field again. Nassau and Mexico were enough for me. Never again do I want to see you in danger like that,” he admitted as he moved a strand of her hair behind her ear.
Lauren covered his hand with her own.
“I would be perfectly safe. Besides, I wouldn’t want to worry you when you’ll have your own missions to concern yourself over,” she whispered, then kissed the back of his hand.
Mikey grinned and pulled her into a hug.
“You are an amazing woman, and I’m lucky to have you,” he said.
“You guys coming or are you going to play kissy face all night?” Crator called out, causing the couple to blush.
“We’re coming,” Mikey yelled back.
He stole one more kiss from Lauren before leading her down the corridor to the others. He helped her into one of the seats while Crator headed into the cockpit to get the ship moving.
Several hours later they stopped at a burned out farm in Missouri. Mikey looked carefully around the area as he helped Lauren walk over the debris laden concrete slab where the home had once stood.
“Is she setting the places on fire when they leave or is she being hunted and someone else is burning down her hiding spots?” Disc asked as he tried to gather enough of Emily’s residual energy to find her in the spirit realm.
Indrid kneeled to the scarred ground and closed his eyes as he pulled the surrounding energy to him. In his mind he could see an older Emily setting the place on fire and hear her mother’s voice in her head telling her to make sure to cover their tracks carefully.
“She does it to prevent any trace being found of their being here. Her mother taught her to cover their tracks like this,” Indrid said as he stood.
“It’s working,” Disc added in frustration. “It’s almost impossible to gather her energy. I have no idea how Mikey is seeing anything.”
“Don’t ask me,” Mikey said as he stared at the colors all around them. “But she was here a while judging by the
colors and their brightness.”
“Do you believe we are close?” Indrid asked, hoping they were. He had a bad feeling that they were running out of time.
Mikey shook his head and looked around again before he settled on the energy path he could see leading away from the small home.
“I don’t have a clue. But the colors are brighter here, which I’m assuming means we’re closer than we were before but still have a way to go,” Mikey said, throwing his hands up. “It’s not an exact science.”
“You’re doing fine,” Indrid said gruffly. “Let’s go.” Then he disappeared.
Mikey quirked a brow at Lauren, wondering if she knew why Indrid was being so short. When she shrugged her shoulders, he ported with her back to the ship where they found Indrid standing over the clear bottom waiting for Mikey to lead them again.
Mikey went ahead, sat on the floor, and stared at the faint energy path he could see. When Disc was finally back in the ship he looked back at the path.
“Bear 10 degrees north west,” he called out to Crator.
“10 degrees north west,” Crator verified as the ship turned in the proper direction.
Mikey was still a little stunned that he could do exactly what Indrid said he could do. It was seriously cool, but a little weird at the same time to be able to track someone down based on the energy she left behind. When they stayed on the same path for a while, Mikey looked up and winked at Lauren before he grabbed his comm and began projecting the vid that Grai gave him on the opposite wall. The position allowed him to keep watch of the colored energy lines beneath them while he tried to pinpoint something in the vid that would lead them to Koda.
He’d been watching both for hours when he saw something below.
“Whoa! Hold up!” he called out and the ship stopped.
“This is Indiana,” Crator called back, letting them know where they were.
“Damn, they really travel around,” Disc muttered as he looked at the darkened scene beneath them expecting to see another burned shell of a home.
“We need to get down. Now,” Mikey said as he stood.
“I will go first,” Indrid said, then disappeared from the ship.
Mikey, Disc and Lauren landed on the ground and headed towards the dark, but still standing structure. They’d almost reached the small porch when Indrid appeared from behind the house.
“There is no one here,” he said as he disappeared again.
“That’s really annoying,” Mikey said as he headed up the porch stairs and opened the unlocked door.
A stone skittered across the floor, startling Mikey and Lauren until they realized Disc had thrown a light stone and the room lit up.
“Man, what the hell happened here?” Disc asked as he looked around at the completely trashed room.
The combination kitchen, dining room, and living room appeared to have been ransacked. Broken furniture littered the room and graffiti marred the walls.
“Burn the witches?” Lauren read as she pointed at one of the walls.
“That’s sounds a little too specific to be anything but our girl,” Disc said, feeling a chill go up his spine that she might be hunted.
Without a word, Indrid walked up to the wall and placed his hand on it as he sent his energy out. He could feel the hatred and the anger of the man who wrote it on the wall. It was a powerful man who was looking for something he felt belonged to him.
Indrid agreed with Disc: someone with a lot of hatred was after Emily.
“It concerns her, but I don’t think this is directed at her. Maybe her mother,” he offered as he stepped back from the wall.
“The colors are a little brighter than the last time, so I know we’re going the right way,” Mikey said as he looked around the house.
“Heads up, you have vehicles flying down the road to your location!” Crator warned through their open comms.
Everyone looked to the window and saw the headlights of two vehicles coming right towards them.
“Whoever it is may be expecting Emily,” Disc warned as he pulled his gun and checked the clip.
“Then maybe we should see what they know,” Mikey said as he pulled his own gun and gently pushed Lauren towards the kitchen. “Stay here while we make sure it’s OK.”
Lauren nodded, not wanting to distract the men as she heard car doors slam outside.
“You fucking witch! You get the fuck out of there and don’t make me come get you!”
The angry, shouted words left no doubt in their minds that this had something to do with Emily. Mikey looked to Indrid to see what he thought, and he cursed when the man disappeared. Disc must have seen it because he ran to the door.
“The fool went outside,” he said as he ran.
Mikey knew Indrid wasn’t armed, and he flew out of the door behind Disc hoping to keep the man from getting hurt. He slid to a stop beside Disc and stared at the scene before them.
Indrid held a large, older man by the throat and had him lifted several inches off the ground while his other hand was held palm up, somehow keeping the three other men immobile where they stood.
“Tell me who you are and why you are looking for her! Now!” Indrid yelled in the man’s face as he shook him violently like a ragdoll.
“Indrid!” Disc yelled, trying to get his attention before he killed the guy.
Indrid turned his angry gaze toward them.
“Do not interfere!” he said before he turned back to the helpless human. “If you do not tell me, you will die!”
“She killed his son! And took his granddaughter!” one of the other humans cried out in fear.
“They’re lying, he’s fully human,” Lauren said, contradicting the scared man.
“No! No! I swear! His son raped the witch’s mother in town one day! Months later, the girl came back to town for a doctor ‘cause her momma was dying during the birth. When his boy went there a few days later to get his kid, the witch attacked him. I swear we watched the boy get torn apart by her!” the man screamed through his tears as he fought to move his arms and legs.
Indrid turned to look at Lauren, and she shook her head. If Emily was a hybrid, then her mother was also a hybrid—or gifted at the very least. Either way, she knew they didn’t breed with a human.
“You intend to keep hunting her?” Indrid asked the man he held.
“The bitch killed my boy! I want what’s mine!” he growled through gritted teeth.
“It appears the child is no kin to you. I suggest you give up your quest,” Indrid warned the man.
“Fuck you, freak! I’m going to kill that witch and take the kid anyway!” he growled out stupidly.
“I cannot allow you to do that,” Indrid calmly said.
“Oh hell,” Disc muttered as he sprinted to stop Indrid, but he was too late.
Indrid’s hand at the man’s neck began to glow and he closed his eyes as he began to chant something in his own language. The human began to shake like he was having a seizure before he went completely limp in Indrid’s hand.
Indrid looked at the man with disgust before he flung him to the ground. Lauren ran forward to see if the human was dead and was shocked to see he was not only alive, but appeared to be unharmed.
“What did you do?” Mikey demanded as he rounded on Indrid.
“I did not harm him, only made sure that his memories were corrected,” Indrid said as he began to walk towards the other three.
“Whoa! Wait, you need to explain,” Mikey said, moving to block Indrid from the other humans.
“Lauren said it was impossible that they were correct about the child,” Indrid explained. “I am merely making sure they have no memories of Emily or the child.”
“But if they’re wrong, who does the child belong to?” Mikey asked.
Indrid shook his head.
“It doesn’t matter as long as he stops following them,” he argued.
Mikey couldn’t really argue with that, and he ignored the frightened screams of the other three
men as Indrid grabbed each by the head, then threw them to the ground when he was done. Lauren ran to each of the humans to make sure they were only passed out and not harmed. When she was done, she nodded at Mikey and Disc.
“Can you see the child’s energy?” Indrid asked Mikey.
Mikey looked around the area again, this time looking for something that might stand out from Emily’s energy, and he shook his head.
“I don’t see anything, only Emily’s. Do we even know if there really is a child?” he asked.
Indrid didn’t say a word; he simply disappeared then reappeared back on the home’s porch and stepped inside. With a sigh, Mikey followed him back into the still illuminated house. He was moving through the debris in the living room when he heard Indrid call out.
“In here.”
He helped Lauren through the debris in the hallway with Disc taking up the rear until they reached an open door.
“Oh hell,” Mikey said as he looked around the room.
“It’s a girl,” Lauren added as she took in the pink walls of the room and the small portable crib in the corner that was covered in pink blankets and stuffed toys.
Unlike the other rooms, this one had been left unmarred by the violence shown elsewhere in the home and looked like an eerie shrine to the missing girl.
“How likely is it that the mother gave birth and not Emily?” Disc asked as he picked up a picture from the floor and held it up.
In the picture, the Emily that Mikey remembered stared back at him as she held a tiny infant in her arms.
“It doesn’t matter; we must find them soon. First we must destroy this place so there will be nothing left to trigger a memory of Emily or the child in the men outside when they awaken,” Indrid warned as he stared at the small, but obviously well-loved teddy bear in his hands.
It was something they all agreed on, and they headed outside to do just that. Mikey, Disc, and Indrid moved the unconscious men back into their trucks to protect them from the destruction they were going to wreak and met Lauren back inside the ship.
“Fire at will,” Disc said.
Seconds later, Crator fired a single shot from the ship, and the home exploded into small bits of debris that were flung far enough to cover the trucks still holding the men below, but they weren’t harmed by the targeted blast.