Paradisus (Awakened Book 6)

by Harley Austin

  “Aren’t you worried about Ty and Ethan?”

  “Not really. Tanner’s with them now. Three of us?” He grinned. “I’m not worried.”

  “You should worry more,” she assured.

  “You do enough of that for both of us. In fact, I think you and I should go out—somewhere.” Henry squeezed her hand. “—to take your mind off of things.”

  “Where?” Brenda was suddenly interested. A date with the hunky Henry was something she’d only done a couple of times before, a long, long time ago.

  “A dance club. In L.A. Or better yet, Seoul.”

  “You want to take me dancing? At a pop club?”

  “It’s been a while since you and I went out. I’m sure we could show each other some new moves.”

  She giggled musically, her feelings were already touching him softly. “You mean moves like this?” She teased him lightly causing the ancient Master to draw an alluring breath.

  “AHH—yea, probably like that.” Henry grinned a little sheepishly.

  “You’re such a player, Henry,” she teased.

  “Only around you.” He pulled her closer to himself.

  72

  T y and Ethan rushed into Dane’s bedroom chamber to find Tanner and Dane a little shook up, but otherwise unharmed. Scores of guards lay all over the royal chamber either dead or unconscious. The danger was apparently already over.

  “What the—good God.” Ethan looked around. The bodies of guards and darkly-clad assassin-looking men were strewn everywhere.

  “My own guards,” Dane began, still out of breath and still a little in shock, “attacked me. If Tanner hadn’t been with me—”

  “Dude, who the hell trained you?” Ty looked wide-eyed at Tanner.

  Tanner shot him a glace, his mind still searching the building for anymore disloyalists. “I lived with the Dark and Kira’s family for the better part of a year.”

  “Nice.” Ty both grinned at the same time. The Dark Clan was renowned for their skills in combat among the halfbloods—that is, if you could even find them. They called them the Dark Clan for a reason. They were the reality behind the legends of the Ninja and a wealth of other forms of martial arts that had come out of the ancient Orient. Ty had been somewhat trained, but not by any of the Dark masters. Tanner obviously had some serious skills that were a blended mix of Ra, Yin and now Kir.

  Ethan was suddenly having second thoughts about what he’d said earlier, about kicking Tanner’s seventeen-year-old ass. From the looks of the scattered bodies, that wasn’t going to happen—ever.

  Scores more armed guards soon began filling the chamber. None of the Reborn felt any danger from them as they quickly assessed the situation and began expediently removing the dead and unconscious. Within minutes, the efficiency of the guards and attendants had the chamber cleared and looking as if nothing had happened. The four of them were alone in the chamber once again.

  “This can’t happen again,” Ty informed. “Not like this.”

  “I agree.” Tanner’s adrenaline was finally beginning to settle.

  “Dane, if this is going to work, you need to be able to talk to us, summon us, even escape if there’s an emergency.”

  “Indeed.” The High Prince agreed, still quite a bit shaken.

  “Both of you will now be wearing one of these. A little gift from the gods.” Ty held out his palm as two wide gold bands with tiny crystalline inlays shimmered into existence within it. Both reached out and took one.

  “Your own continuum,” Tanner nodded slipping on the ring. “Exactly what we need.”

  Dane slipped the ring onto his finger and watched as the band shimmered and resized itself to his finger. He felt and heard their thoughts now.

  “From now on, this is how you communicate with us,” Ty told Dane over the continuum. “This will protect you,” he displayed the band as a shimmer glistened across its inlay. “On Earth, this ring has long been the symbol of the gods. As long as you wear this, nothing but a weapon forged by the gods will be able to harm you.”

  “And so it shall remain a symbol of the gods within the Ra as well. I will inform all within my domains that whoever bears such a ring, bears also my authority as well—as if I myself gave the order.”

  “We’ve given you the power of the gods to command, Dane,” Ty assured him.

  “Indeed you have. And I have just given you the power to command a galaxy. No one but my father has higher authority. You are now equal with my brothers. There is no turning back now.”

  “Obviously someone wants you out of the way, to take credit for your work.” Ethan folded his arms, his empathy searching the building for anyone or anything that might still be lurking in the palace.

  “Or maybe they don’t want the Imperium having Reflex, either,” Tanner offered.

  “A possibility, Tanner,” Dane agreed. “The Imperium has its enemies, to be sure. Whatever the reason, blood has been spilled within this palace. Whomever it was, they are now at war with the House of Ra.”

  73

  I f Tanner, Ty, and Ethan had been astounded with the magnitude of the armada that hovered at the edge of the cloud surrounding their own star, their minds buzzed with a kind of numbness at the sight and size of the vessels that waited for them on the far side the Orion nebula.

  Dane stood on the opulent command bridge of his immense personal vessel as the flagship drifted smoothly out of warp bringing the full scale of his mammoth armada into view.

  “This is unbelievable,” Ethan gasped under his breath. The floor of the command bridge had become transparent as if they were now walking over the stars and the assembled fleets of the core of the Dane armada.

  “I’m sorry,” Dane apologized. “I tried to be truthful when I told you that we would eventually succeed in breeching the cloud. The Imperium is nothing if not resourceful.”

  All of the Reborn slowly recovered from their awe as Dane’s executive vessel moved deeper into the grand imperial armada and headed for a formation of something in the distance. A group of six gargantuan ships resembling the shapes of arrowheads ringed together turning slowly as if in a precise dance, like slices of an immense circle. Within the center of each of the wedge-shaped vessels was buried a reactor globe. Dane’s executive vessel slowed to a halt, a lunar orbit out from the immense planet-sized vessels.

  “That’s how you got here,” Ty looked at the easily Jupiter-sized reactors of each of the vessels in the distance. Earth would be nothing but a small moon in comparison to the enormity of these slowly spinning vessels.

  “We always knew exactly where the portal the separatists, your ancient forefathers, had created was,” Dane began. “We just lacked the ability to open it. The distance the tunnel traversed, it was, unbelievable. Millions of light years, traveled in just moments of time.”

  “Look!” Ethan pointed.

  A bright sun-like glow had appeared in the middle at the tips of the ships within the formation. As the epic vessels began to pull away from each other, the globe-like glow in the center grew to become a kind of bright sun ring revealing an odd image of a different nebula and unknown stars within the center of it.

  Three executive vessels similar to Dane’s emerged like tiny sparks of light from the gaping opening. As soon as they had cleared the ringed opening, the massive portal vessels began to move closer to each other again, the ringed sunglow diminishing and then fading away altogether.

  “My brothers.” Dane nodded at the ships as they changed course and began approaching his flagship. “One of them, perhaps all of them, will not be happy to see me. We need to know which of them made the attempt on my life.”

  “What are you going to do with him?” Ty asked.

  “He or they just tried to kill me, Ty. And they would have been successful were it not for Tanner—and the rest of you. What would you do?”

  * * * * *

  Three handsome young men and a beautiful woman, all sharply and elegantly dressed, strode confidently as they were
escorted into Dane’s personal chambers.

  “Brothers,” he greeted warmly as the Orion nebula burned brightly and in luminous majestic color behind him. “Welcome to Jasis, our new frontier.”

  The beautiful young woman approached him with a soft kiss to his cheek.

  “No one mentioned you were coming, Arra?” Dane spoke warmly. “The frontier is no place for a princess as beautiful as you.”

  “I’ll survive, I’m sure, Dane,” she smiled.

  Dane approached each of his brothers, taking their arms in his as greeting. “Rase, Calid, Relnan, this is a surprise. I was told you were coming. Though, I’m not sure why?”

  “May we speak in private, brother?” Rase asked.

  “Of course.”

  The servants and escorts all left without having to be asked.

  “You’re alive—and well.” Calid began.

  “Should I not be?” Dane asked.

  “That depends.” Arra looked around the chambers as if to make sure they were actually alone. “We understand there was an attempt on your life last night.”

  “News travels quickly; even on the Frontier.”

  “Especially on the Frontier, Dane,” Relnan assured. “The rumor is you have secured the knowledge of Reflex.”

  “Indeed I have. Apparently someone doesn’t want me to complete my mission. Who would do such a thing; make an attempt on the life of a Prince of the House of Ra? Who would be so—unabashedly bold?” he questioned rhetorically, looking at all of them.

  “Perhaps only another prince?” Arra suggested, eyeing the other three princes.

  “Why?” Dane asked, a tone of pleading in his voice. He felt he now knew exactly who had attacked him and his would-be assassins, all four of them, now stood before him. “What could I have possibly done to deserve such?”

  “Perhaps, Dane, these would-be assassins do not want the Imperium to have such power?” Rase proposed.

  “I am sure they feel that you should have destroyed this world and its knowledge the moment you arrived,” Calid suggested.

  “Hmm, easier said than done,” Dane stated flatly. “The star’s entire primordial cloud is a deathtrap. Our fleets wouldn’t last three minutes within it, even at high warp.”

  “And yet, you have somehow achieved the impossible when others of us have failed. Commendable,” Relnan complimented.

  “Apparently, that makes me an enemy to some.”

  “To many of the princes, Dane, and for many reasons.” Rase responded.

  “Oh?”

  “You are the younger of us. To achieve what you have, will make the others beyond envious, indeed quite jealous.”

  “No doubt.”

  “Which is why, Dane, we have come escort you back to Ra,” Rase declared. “For your protection.”

  Dane smirked, not trusting his brothers for an instant. “I’m in no need of an escort, Rase. I will return when the time is appropriate.”

  “Father has given us explicit instructions, Dane. You will not have a choice in the matter.”

  “You know the problem with you, Rase? You’re an inelegant liar.”

  “I assure you, I have my orders.”

  “Of course you do. But not from our Father.”

  Rase glared at him. Somehow the youth was seeing past the half-truth. “I will not be the one having to explain why you ignored him.”

  “Perhaps,” Arra began, “our Dane is no longer respectful of the throne; he, no longer fears our father.”

  “I have the utmost respect, Arra.”

  “Actions speak louder than your words, Dane. Perhaps, my princes, our Dane has found something else among the Ra of this separatist homeworld?”

  “And what might that be, Arra?” Dane asked.

  “A Yin world; perhaps?”

  “Fairytales. Started by these remnant separatists no doubt as a feeble attempt to keep us away.”

  “Perhaps,” Arra continued. “Then again, perhaps there is some truth to these—‘fairytales’?”

  Dane gave her sarcastic look.

  “Well?” Rase questioned.

  “Well what, brother?”

  “Do the Yin exist or not, on this world?”

  “If they did, I assure you. I would do everything in my power to destroy them, as our father as decreed.”

  “Now who’s lying?” Rase countered.

  “Be my guest, brother.” Dane extended his hand in the direction of the armada. Take whatever part of this fleet you like and enter the Aden cloud. Personally. I would be honored to see how far you get. Then you yourself can tell if the Yin exist or not.”

  Rase pursed his lips, half glaring at the insolence of his much younger brother.

  74

  D ressed in a thin but well-insulated black jacket and gloves that protected him from the sub-zero cold, Dark moved quietly through the smoke-filled corridor of Jericho’s maximum security cell block. Frost and blast marks covered parts of the concrete walls as his team moved through the dimness and mist. He had a really bad feeling about where this was leading. Julia followed right behind him, empathically feeding him what she was sensing. The two stepped over the bodies of several halfblood guards, all of them either dead or well beyond their ability to save. He raised the heavy weapon he was holding just as Julia grabbed him, slamming both of them back against the wall. Not a moment later, a bright bolt of hot plasma shot past the two of them, followed by a number of other blasts that exploded the concrete and steel all around them. A searing hot bolt caught one of Dark’s security squad squarely in the chest knocking the man off his feet, but his Reflex armor deflected the heavy weapon blast, saving his life.

  Dark leveled his own sleek pistol. His ring connected his mind to the weapon’s targeting system that fed his senses a heads-up display of the targets that only his eyes could see. In the distance, a number of men dressed in a kind of thick combat armor he’d never seen before were taking deadly shots at their team.

  “She’s not in her cell, Dark.” Julia informed. “The North kid is gone too.”

  “Dammit.” He frowned.

  Dark targeted one of the armored men getting a clean shot that bolted from his empathic weapon striking one of the combatants dead center, stunning him to the ground.

  Julia’s empathy had already found all of the minds with her psionic tendrils that all but instantly wrapped around them.

  Dark watched as close to a dozen men now slumped to the floor, unconscious, all in a matter of seconds, their eyes wide open even though they were all now unconscious.

  “Really?” He scowled at his sister. “At least make it look difficult—”

  “You’d rather they were still shooting at us?” she lifted an eyebrow.

  “That does it,” he lowered the weapon shoving the thing into its holster. “I’m getting upgraded.”

  Both moved to where the men now lay. Super cold mist and smoke rose out of the open door of Amethyst’s cell, the psionic dampening collar smashed onto the floor. The cell next to hers that held the teen newblood, North, was also blown wide open.

  “It’s just as we thought, Carson.” Dark spoke into the continuum with his mind. “Prison break. Only,” he examined the armored uniforms of the men now sleeping on the floor, “I’ve seen these guys before—and you’re not going to like it.”

  * * * * *

  Carson paced his office slowly. Thinking. Sighing.

  “It cannot possibly be so bad, Gregory.” Francesca sensed his deep concern and frustration.

  “It is, Francesca.” Carson looked up at Dark, Julia, and Kari. “The people who broke Amethyst out of her cell are gods alright—old gods. They’re Imperial Ra. Just like the people who were aboard that stealth ship we intercepted in the cloud.”

  “How are they getting in here? I thought we were supposed to be monitoring the whole planet.” Julia folded her arms with a scowl.

  “We are monitoring the whole planet,” Kari asserted. “The Kir are keeping an eye out as well. Nothing is ge
tting on or off-world without our noticing.”

  “Then they must already be here,” Carson reasoned.

  “Helping the Seven now?” Dark asked.

  “I don’t think so.” Carson paced slowly. “They’ve obviously been here a while. My guess is they’re not interested in us or our political spats with the Seven.”

  “They’re definitely interested in Amy,” Dark declared.

  “That’s what bothers me. They seem to have a vested interest in the newbloods. Enough of an interest to risk letting the Dominion know they’re here. The questions is, what do they want them for?”

  “It’s because we’re empathic,” Julia added.

  “Not just empathic—psionic,” Kari agreed. “The crew of Zaer’s ship were not empathic. At all. They’re like the Seven.”

  Carson nodded. “Kari, in your knowledge of the gods, you now as well Julia, both of you have access, deeper access to the continuum’s history than any of us do, have the gods always been empathic?”

  “No,” both of them said in unison.

  Both Kari and Julia exchanged glances. “It was only after the Sentinels began mingling with the humans that empaths began appearing.” Julia’s mind was able to retrieve the information so quickly over the continuum it was as if it were her own memory.

  “How long ago was that?”

  “About eighty thousand years ago.”

  Kari nodded.

  “Just about the same time the war between the Sentinels and the Seven began. Interesting.”

  “It wasn’t the Sentinels who started this, Carson. The Kir were mating with Humans long before the war began. As taboo as such a thing was back then.”

  “And now the Kir are empathic, but not the Seven who eschewed us.”

  “What are you thinking, Carson,” Dark began. “That the real reason for the war—”

  “Had nothing to do with humans learning the Ra knowledge and more to do, perhaps everything to do, with exterminating a psionic people. Ra or Human.”