"Are our mates well Grayson?" Brandon asked him.
Grayson smiled at him, odd how they used the terms the Witches, Vampires, and Shifters used for their better halves. He supposed they were soul mates and shortening it to mates was easier. He was used to thinking of Harry as his better half though so he used that term instead.
"As well as they can be, being imprisoned for the better part of half a year Brandon; from what I can tell they are healthy enough to travel and can even put up a good fight if necessary. You must keep in mind that they are not normal Sentinels and they are quite powerful children of the even more powerful Hadox. I don't think any of you truly understand just how powerful this lovely lady is and I don't think you would want to know if you would have seen the destruction she can bring about, she's a handful. And though your sons definitely take after their Father Paris, they are undoubtedly your children," Grayson said with a smile.
Hadox smiled wickedly at him and winked, Paris had been Balthazar's human name, and Hadox and Balthazar had had a very passionate, steamy, and tumultuous relationship. Balthazar had been his original name when Grayson, Harry, and Jo first created him as a Sentinel.
"Hmmm, Paris was very attractive and manly, he reminded me of a certain Sentinel or two. He made me positively shiver with desire, I couldn't help myself, but in my defense, he was very loving and protective. He gave me my two beautiful boys, Lox and Ki, which no one knew of at the time. Lox and Ki are now bound to these two lovely strapping young men, Nathan and Sven. Brandon, I don't think Blue told you this yet, but Blue was born of the union with Phalios, another full-blooded Witch. You know the one Grayson, he is the one that tried taking my powers and left me for dead, a death which you saved me from by the way, I can never say thank you enough," Hadox said.
Grayson and Harry looked over at Nathan, although Grayson had felt the bond with Nathan, it was stronger with Brandon and Sven than with Nathan.
"So Nathan is not just the brother of your son's mate he is also a mate to one of your sons Hadox, you did not say. You little tease, testing us after so many millennia of knowing us. Naughty little half Fae aren't you? I wonder why the bond I feel is not as strong with him as with the other two though. Have you not blood bonded with your mate Nathan?" Harry asked him quietly. Nathan looked at Harry in surprise, a blush crawling up his neck to his cheeks.
"I never got a chance to before he was kidnapped. We'd met the night before when Brandon introduced his mate to me and his brothers and Sven were with him. We never got a chance to confirm it; Helen says that there is no doubt about it though," Nathan said looking down at his hands holding the mug in front of him.
That was why; the link was there but not the blood bond. It soon would be though, Grayson promised himself and Nathan that silently. Grayson nodded and finished off his tea and gave Harry a pointed look, glancing at Hadox as well and giving her the same look.
"Time for action men, no more time to waste, I need a few minutes though to explain to Jo and the others the change in plans, and to communicate with the Sentinels in forced servitude. Meet me in the middle of the camp in five minutes," Grayson said and stood up.
Harry and Hadox followed Grayson out and they went to find, Jo, Matt, and Sheila. Jo literally jumped for joy when she saw Hadox and introduced her to Sheila and Matt as Grayson concentrated and sent the message to the Sentinels to make sure they were not around anyone when he pulled them out in approximately ten minutes. How did Jo remember Hadox but not all her memories? It didn't really make sense, but it was something to add to the pile of questions he had mounting.
Once Jo and Hadox had greeted each other and Jo introduced Hadox, Grayson explained to Jo, Matt, and Sheila how they would be setting things up and who would be where. The six of them joined hands and set the seven protection barriers to portal into. They would be sending the Sentinels to a massive and remote, deep underground cave system that was unoccupied in Alaska that should be able to hold 3499 Sentinels for a while.
They finished in less than three minutes, walked to the center of the camp, and met up with Nathan, Brandon, Sven, and four more who Nathan introduced as Adel, Jaime, Harrison, and Marley. They were the best fighters Nathan had; they all joined hands and transported to the first location in a large filed in the middle of nowhere.
Grayson knelt on the ground and five hands touched his back and shoulders as he concentrated, lending him their energy to pull all those Sentinels to him in one go. It took him a minute to connect to each one of the 3052 Sentinels that needed rescuing, but he managed easier than he'd expected. Once the link was there, he told them to hold on for the ride and brought both hands down hard on the hard packed earth.
All of a sudden, they were surrounded by a mass of Sentinels in various conditions; some stood straight and ready for a fight, others held other Sentinels in support, some were curled in to balls, still others were prone on the cold ground.
"Alright Sentinels, time to move; no one move!" Grayson yelled as some began to mumble and try to move around.
They all froze when they heard Grayson's loud deep boom of a voice commanding them to remain still. He repeated the action the remaining five times, splitting them up at the right intervals so that some went to the last location at different times. The last bit of the group remained, and they looked around in a bit of a daze waiting for further instructions.
"Ok people, I will be sending the last of you to the final location. Lox, Blue, Ki, and Gemma Fritzlied please come here to my side. Nathan, Brandon, Sven keep your swords drawn, I will be sending you back to camp with Helen, Lox, Blue, and Ki," Grayson said to them. He turned to Jo, Matt, Sheila, and Harry.
"Jo I want you to go to the last location with Harry, Matt, Sheila, and Gemma. Keep everyone calm, I will be there in a minute to explain everything to them," Grayson said. Harry glared at Grayson; he didn't want to separate from Grayson.
"Gray..." Harry began but Grayson cut him off as he wrapped his arm around Harry's waist and leaned down kissing him deeply and smiling at him.
"I will be careful I promise; I need your help though Harry, I am not trying to be overprotective; I love you. Now let's hurry so we can get home yeah?" Grayson said quietly to Harry.
Harry blushed when he looked around and noticed that everyone left was staring at them and some were even blushing while others looked at them longingly. Grayson smiled at them and then kissed Harry again quickly then let him go.
"Ok everyone to our last stop, hold still until you get there," Grayson said loudly.
Grayson once again brought his hands down slamming them down on the ground and sending Hadox and her family to Nathan's camp, the remaining Sentinels, Jo, Sheila, Matt, Harry, and Gemma to the last location and himself to the sixth location. Once he felt that everyone was in their rightful place, he waited a minute and then transported himself to the last location.
He arrived once again amidst organized chaos; people were moving around and chattering, some were healing and others were finally coming around, and Jo and the others were helping to heal the hurt ones. He noticed that Gemma, David's wife, was looking around the large cave frantically, her fear evident on her face. When she caught sight of Grayson, she ran over to his side, limping slightly.
"Please, my husband David is not here, did you send him somewhere else? He was one of the one being forced into serving the fascist group. He was not one of them, please save him," Gemma grabbed Grayson's shirt in both of her fists and clung to him desperately pleading for David's life. Grayson smiled at her and grabbed both of her hands in his looking into her eyes as he spoke quietly.
"Your husband is safe, I promise Gemma; when we leave here, I will be taking you to him ok. Please be patient and if you have the energy to, please help us heal the ones that cannot do it on their own so that we may leave sooner," Grayson said almost in a whisper. Gemma's face smoothed out, and she relaxed visibly.
"David is safe; he is not stuck at one of the prisons?" Gemma asked; Grayson nodded.
<
br /> "David is safe I promise, now let's help some of these Sentinels yes?" Grayson said patting Gemma on the shoulder. She sighed in relief and nodded, turning to the nearest needy Sentinel.
Harry and Sheila were with the children and young adults, some of the young adults had already turned and others would soon change. The children were a mystery, but he had a feeling they were like Gemma was to David, being held simply to get the parent or Sentinel in charge of them to do the Void's bidding, forced servitude. Grayson walked over to Harry and Sheila and ran his hand down Harry's back making Harry turn and look at him sadly. Harry stood up, grabbed Grayson by the arm, and pulled him to the side.
"The children's guardians have already been given the final death; the other Sentinels have been taking care of them since then. Apparently, the Void has kept them around, taking their energy and feeding off of them. He's waiting for them to mature enough to change and then he planned on taking their souls into him and feeding off of them from inside of himself like an endless battery source. We can't leave them here Gray; the young ones need a regular life, all of their guardians are gone; the young adult ones too. The 21-year-old changed just three days ago and was only waiting for the Void to show up and take his energy; we can't leave them Gray. It's so cruel; can't we take them home? Your Mom and mine would help you know that; we can house some of them can't we?" Harry looked sadly at the children as he pleaded.
Grayson nodded looking at them just as sadly; poor kids, the Void had killed their parents and then kept them like pigs for slaughter.
"I agree I don't want to leave them behind; when it comes to that though, my Mom and Dad would have final say I think, plus they may actually be safer here. I don't want to leave them here though, we'll take them for now, but if Mom says no we have to respect that Harry," Grayson said. Harry looked at Grayson with anger in his eyes.
"Then I will talk to Mom and see if she is willing to take them if yours isn't, I won't leave them here," Harry said stubbornly. Grayson smiled at him and wrapped his arm around his waist.
"Silly Harry I never said I would leave them here, we would just have to find a different place to keep them safe. Maybe we can rent a separate house or something like that. I remember where we kept some of the gold we have stashed over time; we are not short on money if the need arises, ok?" Grayson said to Harry. Harry nodded and leaned into Grayson looking at the children once again.
Jo looked up and winked at them then followed Harry and Grayson's line of sight and her face hardened; she was not happy about the children's predicament either.
"Hey Jo, we need to set them up with provisions for the time being; sleeping bags, food, somewhere to cook, etc, etc. I'm not sure how to get so many all at once though, and ordering that many of them all at once would be a give away to anyone that is watching, someone like the Void, not to mention it would take too long," Grayson said.
"We'll figure it out somehow Gray, for now they are safe and this place is out of the way. Maybe we can start building some beds for them and bring them some materials so that they can start making the rest of their necessities; Kenneth and Frank will probably help out too. We can probably set some of the younger ones up in school and the ones that are old or young enough to go to school we can get housed in the dorms or rent them a house. I heard what you told Harry about the gold, so that shouldn't be so hard; and fixing their identification shouldn't be so hard either, but for now, let's get them some food. Can you transport some food in, we can find a way to pay for it later," Jo asked Grayson; Grayson nodded and then he looked at Jo and rolled his eyes at his own stupidity.
"Why can't I just transport some damn beds in and stuff also, we're pretty stupid Jo, and yes we will find a way to pay for everything with the gold we have," Grayson said.
"I'm going to go explore the cave a bit and find where to put the beds and such, Matt why don't you come with me; Harry, Sheila please watch over the kids, we'll be right back," Grayson said then they went off to explore the other sections of the enormous cave.
"Jesus we could fit a small town down here, it's huge. If we bring them tools, they could dig into the walls and make themselves small homes and shit. They would have no need to move, look at the size of this section alone," Matt said looking at a section of the cave that was roughly the size of a football field; Grayson nodded.
"Yeah, it is huge you're right, but I am afraid if they are together that they would be an easier target," Grayson said, voicing his concern. Matt nodded and continued to look around.
"I can understand that, but you are the First and between your protection, Harry's, and Hadox's, this place would be the best protected place out of all of them, plus you'd sense if there was a threat wouldn't you? You can transport us all here if need be so that we can fight. I think this would be the best place to keep them also I think it would be wise to start teaching them how to fight so that they stand a chance if they are attacked, until we come to their aid," Matt said as he rounded a corner in the cave wall and gasped out loud.
Grayson hurried to his side and stared open-mouthed at the natural bubbles in the cave wall that formed various sized room-like holes in the wall of yet another football field sized space in the massive cave. Matt walked into the closest room, ran his hand along the wall, and tapped it.
"What is this cave made of?" Matt asked. Grayson studied the hard stone and shrugged.
"Granite maybe, if it is then it would be hard to carve into in the other large room with regular tools, we'd have a better chance with our hands I think," Grayson said looking around the large living room sized bubble room roughly sixteen feet wide.
It was one of the smaller rooms, they might be able to fit five maybe six Sentinels in the smaller rooms if they used queen sized bunk beds like his cousins used to have when they were little. For now, they would have to double up in each bed until they explored the rest of the cave system.
"Maybe there are more of these down the other corridors? Odd how they formed don't you think?" Matt said walking into the room next to the one they'd just been in, Grayson didn't follow him this time until Matt called out to him.
"Gray come here," Matt yelled out to him.
Grayson followed Matt's voice until he came to a small opening and saw that Matt was on his hands and knees. Frowning Grayson followed him in on hands and knees as well, stopping next to him and looking at him questioningly.
"What are we doing on our hands and knees Matt?" Grayson asked looking around the dark room. He spotted a small fast flowing creek cutting through the cave floor.
"This could be used as a source of fresh water couldn't it?" Matt suggested. Grayson nodded and smiled widely at Matt.
"Yeah, great find Matt!" Grayson said excitedly and patted him on the shoulder enthusiastically and then crawled over to the creek and dipped his hand into the running water.
It was ice cold, but his Sentinel blood made him run hotter than normal so it didn't feel as cold as it would have to a human. He brought a handful of the water to his mouth and tasted, it was crisp and from what he could tell clean water. This was excellent they had running water inside one of the rooms. Even if this was the only room that had it, there was enough running water here to provide everyone with water without any worries of running out of it.
"This is great! They'll have enough running water for everyone now," Grayson said happily beaming at Matt; Matt smiled back at him and nodded.
"Yeah, let's finish and get back home, I miss Eric," Matt said suddenly; Grayson sighed and nodded.
"Yeah, I know the feeling, let's finish so you can get back to your better half yeah?" Grayson said and turned in a circle and followed Matt out crawling on all fours.
After an hour of walk-through they finished exploring the massive cave system and found another six humongous rooms which were bigger than the first two they'd found; all had similar bubble rooms. They also found a room that had a medium sized waterfall, (which Grayson suspected was probably the beginning of the small creek) an
d it ran through thirty-eight other bubble rooms. They counted 653 rooms not including the topmost rooms closest to the roof. The cave system was quite amazing and for now, it was perfect.
"So then you think we can transport some beds and basic necessities into this place for them?" Matt asked Grayson on their way back from the furthest point that they'd been investigating in the cave system; Grayson nodded.
"I don't see why not, it'll take a little concentration because they are inanimate objects, but it's not that difficult, and with a little help from you I should be able to do it before we return; you up for it?" Grayson asked him looking at some of the rooms they were passing and trying to access the general dimensions.
He'd already figured how many beds they would have to transport in and they would need some form of heating for them as well; it was going to be one hell of a transport.
"Yeah sure, what do you need me to do?" Matt asked him.
Grayson sat down and crossed his legs Indian style, holding out his hands palms up and waited for Matt to join him on the cold granite floor. Matt copied Grayson and sat Indian style, placing his hands palms down on top of Grayson's hands.
Grayson took a deep breath and concentrated on the entirety of what the Sentinels would need. He thought of the amount of beds they would need and then concentrated on the warehouse of a famous store that carried beds, bed frames, and everything needed for beds.
With a blinding flash of light that was very unlike how he had transported the Sentinels to the cave beds, frames, bedding, and pillows appeared in every bubble room that they would be using. All the items seemed to materialize out of thin air, the mattresses already in the bed frames, which Grayson had put together during the split second transport into the bubble rooms from the warehouses Grayson took them from.
However, Grayson was not done; in the middle of the great room that they sat in twenty large industrial refrigerators appeared along with twenty stovetop ranges, twenty ovens, twenty sinks with counters attached to prepare their food. There were crates upon crates of food, ranging from dry food to condiments, and perishables such as eggs, milk, vegetables, meat, so on and so forth. Everything they would need and want appeared in the middle of the large room.
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