by Mikayla Lane
Scaden hoped the man would reveal some kind of information about the female. Her scent was driving him crazy. Knowing she belonged to someone else would surely dampen his need to own her, to dominate her. Damn just to find her and see what she looked like. He felt like he was losing his mind with wondering and worrying about her.
“I will explain anything you want, after we find Cari. Please we have to find her. She’s so damn stubborn… her gift... it has to be running wild. We have to find her now. We can’t wait.” Randor said worriedly, grabbing Scaden’s arm as if to force him to do as he requested.
“She is alone, and so impulsive… just like her mother. If we don’t act soon, she will end up dead. By her own hand or the hand of the Relians. Either way, she’ll end up dead. Please, I beg you, questions later. We have to find her now.” Randor pleaded.
“We will find your mate. We have trajectory scans of the vehicles that they used to remove her from the housing unit. We will find her.” Scaden told him sadly, realizing that through the depth of his emotions, the female must be his mate.
“She’s not my mate. She is my clan though, by choice. I’ve raised and protected her since she was a very small child, after the Relians had killed her mother and father. Her father was Mikel Lakatis. I failed her. I don’t know how they found us.” Randor said on a tired whisper, his thoughts jumbled.
Amun and Scaden looked at each other in total shock. Not only was there a female Valendran out there but a child? A female child? And she was the child of one of the presumed dead, who is also the son of another Council member? How did this happen? Scaden chose his next words carefully.
“Randor, how old is Cari?” He asked gently.
“She’s twenty six years old. Her full name is Caretia Ann Lakatis. Mikel named her after his mother and his mate. She grew into such a beautiful woman. Always such a good child. But stubborn. So very stubborn. That’s why we have to find her soon, or they’ll kill her. She won’t allow them to touch her and try to breed her. She’ll make them kill her first.” Randor said on a broken sob.
Scaden tried very hard to control his rage. He would not allow anyone to touch her or breed with her! “Assemble the Tact Team and prepare to port back to the housing unit immediately.” He fairly growled into his comm unit.
“You have to know something before you go. Our children were born here with special gifts. Cari is what we’ve called a projectionist. She can project her emotions to everyone around her and make them feel what she is feeling. She can make everyone around her afraid, or happy or angry. If you begin to feel emotions normally foreign to you or the situation, then you’ve found her. Try to fight through the emotions. Don’t let it control you. She’s most likely projecting anger, so they’ll kill her or fear in order to keep them away from her.” Randor warned, the exhaustion of his injuries evident in his voice.
“There are more children out there on this planet?” Amun asked in shock.
“Yes, at least twenty or thirty at last count, if not more by now. We’ve lost dozens to the Relian attacks, including my own mate and child. It is a long story, and one we don’t have time for now.” Randor replied, before succumbing to a healing sleep.
“There are more females out there? How did they get mates?” Amun asked Scaden.
“I don’t know. Right now, there is one female we know is in danger, and we have to find her. We can tear this planet apart to find the others later.” Scaden replied walking out of the MedLab.
He walked down the corridor to the Tact Team room on the transport. He tried hard to get his head wrapped around the idea of, there being more Valendran children on this planet. And what did Randor mean about 'her gift', did the other children have the same gift? He couldn’t seem to understand his own need to find this girl. The thought of anyone touching her, drove him crazy and made him want to violently harm someone. However, a Relian touching her… he wanted to tear them apart with his bare hands.
Walking into the Tact Team Room he looked around at all of his men. Trusted men. However, he knew if even one of them touched her, he’d harm them. And he just couldn’t understand why, but he knew it to be a fact.
“I’ll brief you all on the newest developments at the housing unit.” Scaden said, not waiting for their confirmation of his order before using his port stone to arrive at Randor's cabin.
Chapter Five
Niklosi’s team met him at the front of the home, and the other Tact Team members began to port there as well. Once the team was all assembled, Scaden briefed his men.
“We’ve confirmed that the man is Randor Macner, son of Counselor Macner, and presumed dead on the Outpost. And we’ve confirmed that the female with him, is the child of Mikel Lakatis, son of Counselor Lakatis, and also presumed dead on the Outpost.” Scaden paused allowing his men to absorb the ramifications of what he had just said.
“They survived! On this planet? How did they find mates? How many are still alive?” Balduen asked his commander is shock.
“Randor has confirmed that there are at least 20 to 30 more children on this planet. And they are being hunted by the Relians. He has said that they have lost at least a dozen children to Relian attacks. In fact, Mikel and his mate lost their lives. Right now, we need to find their daughter. Randor said her name is Caretia, as she is named after her father’s clan mother. But she goes by Cari. Right now, our priority is finding her and bringing her back to her Clan protector, Randor. When Randor is well enough to tell us how to find the other children, we will eventually find them as well and bring them home.” Scaden replied to his astonished team.
“They have more children? More daughters? Females? How?” One of the men asked in amazement.
“We don’t know. And we won’t know until Randor is well enough to explain it to us. Right now, we have to find Cari. Randor said the children have 'gifts'. We aren’t sure what all these gifts are, but he said Cari is something he called a projectionist. She has the ability to project any emotion and make everyone around her feel it. Fear, anger, hatred… any emotion.”
“Randor said she is very stubborn and would most likely attempt to instigate the Relians to kill her, rather than be held captive by them. So when we find her, we are going to have to be very aware that what you may be feeling might be her projecting her emotions. You will have to fight through it. We all will.” Scaden informed them.
“Sir, we have found the vehicle used by Randor for travel. We’re ready to follow the trajectory scan, at your command.” Niklosi said.
“Then let’s move out now.” Scaden said following Niklosi to Randor's vehicle. He had to find the female… and soon. He had to touch her, and know she was alright. And he was damned if he knew why.
*****
Cari slowly climbed through the darkness in her mind. She hurt. Everywhere. But nothing so bad that she couldn’t handle it. Putting her toes back on the floor to take the pressure off her wrists and arms, she opened her eyes to see if Vincent was still in the barn.
The only person in the barn was Jess. She was curled up on the floor near Cari’s feet, and looked to be asleep. She could see the bruises on the girls’ arms and legs where they had hurt her. Her anger rising, she vowed to herself that if she ever got out of here, she would come back for Jess. She no more than finished the thought, and Jess whipped her head up and around to look at Cari.
“Stop! No anger. Please stop. You are already so badly injured. Please stop.” Jess begged as she awkwardly tried to crawl towards Cari.
“It can’t be that bad. I really don’t hurt all that much. But I’ll try to calm down, for you.” Cari said gently.
“It is that bad. And worse. You have broken ribs, a broken leg… and your face. I’m so sorry. You have to try to control yourself. He’ll kill you next time. And it does no good to release you if you can’t make it out of here to safety.” Jess said grabbing a rag and dipping it into a bucket of water, Cari hadn’t noticed before.
“But I don’t hurt bad enough to have re
ally broken anything.” Cari said taking stock of her injuries. She knew one of her eyes was swollen almost shut. And her lip was split; she could taste the blood in her mouth and used her tongue to run along the cut. Her ribs and leg did hurt, but she didn’t think it was bad enough for anything to be broken. Her wrists and arms hurt, probably from holding the weight of her body.
“It’s the bracelet on your ankle. Apparently, what was created for you is dampening the pain and speeding the healing process for you. Even now, you look a lot better than you did a few hours ago. I made another one for your other ankle as soon as I saw what he did to you.” Jess said, gently using the rag to clean off more of the blood from Cari’s face.
“Wow. Are you sure the anklets are what is helping to heal me?” Cari asked wonderingly, lifting up her foot to try to look at the anklets. It didn’t look that special to her although, it was beautiful. However, she did notice the awkward bend in her thigh, denoting Jess was right about the broken leg.
“I didn’t understand at first why it chose all the healing stones, but now I know. The red is carnelian, and the white is an unusual obsidian and the metal platinum, all known for their healing properties. Apparently even the Earth knows how stubborn you are.” Jess said with a small smile.
“Thank you Jess. You have an amazing gift.” Cari said with gratitude, wondering just how bad she’d be feeling right now if Jess hadn’t been here to help her.
“You have to try to project fear right now, until the bracelets help you fully heal. Anything else and Vikan might come back here. And we really don’t want that!” Jess stated.
“Vikan? Who is Vikan?”
“He’s the man who beat you. I thought you knew who he was. You seemed to have met before.” Jess said questioningly as she continued to help gently clear the blood off Cari’s face.
“You mean Vincent Baker?” Cari asked confused.
“Oh I see… he chose a more 'earth' name when he spoke to you. His real name is Vikan B’Tai. He was the commander of the original ship that crashed here while attacking the transport our fathers used to get here from the outpost. You do know all about that right?” Jess asked.
“My uncle Randor told me all about how they came to be here and the struggles they had with the Relians, who crashed as well. I knew after he took me that Vincent… I mean Vikan was a Relian. I didn’t realize he was their commander.” Cari admitted.
“I was very young when they killed my father. The times they allowed me near my mother before they killed her, she would tell me all the stories that my father had told her about how they had gotten here and where they were from. I really didn’t believe any of it until I got older, and they had kidnapped some of the other girls like us.” Jess told her sadly.
“I’m so sorry Jess. I promise you, if I get out of here, I will take you with me or come back for you.” Cari vowed emphatically.
“Watch your emotions. You’re heading into anger again. We don’t want them to come back here for a while. Vikan will stay away and let you heal if he’s not angered enough to come back. At least if they feel afraid they are going to be scanning the area looking for humans wandering close or Valendrans.”
“I overheard that they have no idea if your uncle was in communication with others, or if he told them of where you were hiding, so they are going to be watchful until we move camp again. They are planning on doing it soon in order to avoid any possible rescue mission for you. Hopefully, we can get you healed and out of here before then though. As soon as I recover my energy, I’m going to try and fashion something else for you to help you heal.” Jess informed her.
“Jess, don’t waste all of your energy on me. Save it for yourself right now. I’m healing fine and barely feeling any pain at all. You keep making things for me, and I’m going to look like a jewelry store!” Cari tried to laugh, not wanting the poor girl to waste any more energy helping her when she needed her energy for herself.
Cari had already noticed how exhausted she seemed, her movements slow and sluggish. Between the abuses, she must have suffered at the hands of those animals and her efforts to help her, Jess looked like she was ready to fall over.
“Just keep projecting fear and we’ll see what happens. I still need to steal something to cut those ropes for you too. We'll deal with that when you’re healed enough to actually escape.” Jess said tiredly, laying her head back down on the ground. Her eyes seemed to close as if they had a will of their own and exhaustion seemed to overtake the girl.
*****
“Sir, I really don’t think this is a good idea. What if there are too many of them. What if they have weapons we aren’t aware of?” A Tact Team member asked fearfully of Scaden.
Scaden ran his hand through his hair in frustration and tried not to strangle the man. This was the fourth member of the team that had asked him these stupid questions since they had reached the outer perimeter of the Relian camp a little while ago. It was taking every ounce of his self-control and training not to storm the camp and recover the female.
He could feel her fear rolling through him in waves. And he smelled her blood. They hurt her. And he wanted nothing more than to tear every one of them apart with his bare hands. He had to get to her… and soon.
“I explained to all of you before we even came here, that she would be projecting her emotions. She is obviously projecting fear; otherwise you wouldn’t be acting like an untrained child instead of a highly trained Valendran Warrior! Now do whatever you have to do to push that fear aside, because we are going in there, and we’re going to kill all of them and rescue the female and bring her back to her people! Do I make myself clear?” Scaden growled through his gritted teeth, trying to control the anger that was overwhelming the fear he was feeling.
“Yes sir!” The man replied, stepping back and trying to pull himself together.
“Sir, the men have the entire area surrounded. We’ve counted fifteen Relians, and believe two more are in the smaller dwelling to our right. Our scanners indicate that the female’s cell code is in the larger building to our left.” Niklosi informed Scaden as he hunkered next to him in the underbrush that surrounded the housing unit area being used by the Relians.
Scaden surveyed the area once more. The area looked like at one point it had been used as a farming facility. With the smaller structure being a housing unit and the larger one, a place to store supplies and implements needed to tend to the land. There was another building that resembled barracks, which seemed to hold most of the Relians. The wood of the structures was weathered and rotting in some places. Gaps in the wood seemed to reveal some form of light source being used in the three buildings in the area. There were doors to each building clearly visible in the moonlight.
When they had gotten to the area there had only been four Relians that were patrolling the perimeter. However, not long after their arrival, one of the Relians walked out of the smaller structure and into the barracks. Within minutes nine, more Relians took up patrolling the area. Scaden had realized that as soon as they had done that, he and his men had begun feeling the waves of fear. It had to be the female, Cari’s emotions. They had to get in there. Her fear was tearing at his insides, the smell of her blood causing a rage he was having a hard time controlling. He didn’t feel the same kind of fear that his men did. He was furious over the fact that they had caused her to feel fear, that they dared draw her blood.
“Balduen, are you and your team ready," he asked impatiently into the comm at Balduen, who was on the other side of the buildings.
“Sir, we are ready at your command.”
“We are a go at my command.” Scaden stated with as much calm as he could.
*****
Cari didn’t realize she had dozed off until she heard blasts and screams coming from outside. She had barely put her feet under her body, when the barn door was roughly jerked open, and she saw the huge, evil Relian that had taunted Jess with his abuse earlier was striding quickly into the room followed by Vincent aka Vikan.<
br />
Jess must have also been awakened by the noise outside, as she was trying to crawl silently away from the hulking beast headed right for her. No match for the much larger man, she was quickly scooped roughly into his arms.
“Come little mouse, I’m not letting you get away from me. We have far too much fun together don’t we?” He taunted, striding out the door as he chuckled at her feeble struggles against him.
Rage overcame Cari at Jess’s treatment. She hadn’t even healed from the animal’s last abuse of her, and he was going to abuse her again! By the One, she couldn’t begin to imagine how the poor girl had survived years of this.
“Put her down! Leave her alone! What the hell is wrong with you animals?" Cari screamed in rage as she fought with the ropes holding her with a renewed purpose. She had to break free and do something to help Jess.
Vikan walked up to her, anger darkening his face. “You brought them here didn’t you? How did you bring them here?” Vikan screamed at her, spittle flying from his mouth in his anger.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about you ass! Now let her go!” Cari screamed back at him. Her anger making her uncaring that the Relians anger was growing with her own.
He struck her in the face again, so hard her head snapped back; she could feel the blood from her lip and maybe her forehead, begin to trickle down her face. Between her anger and Jess’s gifts, she didn’t really feel the pain and ignored all internal alarm bells warning her she was going too far yet again.
“You fucking bastard! Do you really think beating me is going to get me to tell you something I don’t know? You’re so damn stupid I have no idea how you’re survived this long!” Cari yelled at him as she laughed in his face, mocking him.
That seemed to be what made him snap, as he began to rain blow upon blow on her helpless body. Cari barely felt the impact of some of the blows. However, when he hit her already broken leg, the pain shot all the way up to her spine, and she fought not to vomit. The blow to her broken ribs made spots form in her vision. Closing her eyes, she fought against the blackness trying to overtake her, her anger and stubbornness not wanting to give him the satisfaction of seeing her passed out again.