by Mikayla Lane
“Can you please tell me what’s going on and why you didn’t let Chris get me? Why did you bring me here if you wanted to protect me?” Quinn asked.
“We want you protected, but we also want to protect the other four women that were being held elsewhere. As I said, you are not the only mother carrying a very special child that Satalis is trying to steal,” Fiona said as she set a small egg timer for five minutes.
Ainsley moved to the cupboard, pulled down a tin of cookies, and set them down in the middle of the table before placing the cups and saucers in front of them.
“Remember when I told you what Satalis did to us? That’s what he wants to do to Christopher and the other babies. We had a plan,” Ainsley said. “We’re not all bad. Some of us can be saved . . . but the Dranovians would kill us anyway.”
“What?” Quinn said in shock. “No, no way would Chris kill a child!”
There was no way Quinn could ever see Chris harming someone as young as Ainsley. She would never believe him capable of such a horrific deed as killing an innocent child.
“He doesn’t have a choice. It’s what he was created to do,” Fiona added. “And in the majority of cases, it’s what needs to be done in order to save some of us. But there are a few exceptions—like Ainsley and I. We can still control the beast— even with what Satalis has done to us.”
“I don’t understand,” Quinn said in complete confusion. “What has he done to you?”
The timer dinged and Fiona got a faraway look in her eyes as she poured the tea into the cups.
“It was seventeen years ago when Satalis came here. The first thing he did when my màthair opened the door was wrap his hand around her throat and snap her neck. I was sitting right here at this table and couldn’t seem to move. She died, and I did nothing . . .” Fiona whispered the last before she picked up her cup and took a sip with trembling hands.
Quinn didn’t know what to say to such a horrible thing, and she absently picked up her cup and took a sip.
“He stayed here with me while he built that . . . abomination in the basement,” Fiona continued as she set her cup down. “He said it had been fate that he’d come here to buy the house so he could build that portal as an escape, and he found me as well. He started drugging me and beating me, trying to make me submit to him while he corrupted my beast. My friend.”
Ainsley reached across the table and squeezed Fiona’s hand in comfort before she turned to Quinn.
“Our beast, the being in our brains, like in Christopher, is our friend and our family at the same time. The things Satalis does to it turns it mean and cold. It makes the beasts killers without a conscience, and that’s why the Dranovians kill them, but even though our beasts,” Ainsley said as she gestured to herself and Fiona, “are damaged, they aren’t beyond hope.”
“We’ve made amazing progress in helping them to heal and undo the damage that was done,” Fiona said as she poured more tea. “But it requires a lot of energy to keep it under control. The only way to fix it and keep the Dranovians from killing us is to kill Satalis.”
“There’s nowhere safe for us,” Ainsley said. “The Dranovians want to kill our beasts, and Satalis wants to control the beast to kill others. Our only hope is the Dranovians. They’re the only ones strong enough to fight Satalis.”
Quinn ran a hand down her face and looked between both of the women, trying to figure out which claim was more insane. Aliens, a gestating child that could kill people, even the evil bad guy—she could all understand in this screwed up mess. But she couldn’t fathom homicidal beasts and Chris killing a kid.
“I don’t understand any of this. What does any of that have to do with you not letting Chris find me?” Quinn asked as she stood to pace the small kitchen from the open door to the stove.
“The Dranovians, your Chris, planned simultaneous raids on all of Satalis’ locations that could be holding pregnant women. There’s you and the other four. The other four have been here much longer than you, and Satalis has done terrible things to the babies’ beasts,” Fiona explained. “We had to make sure the other women got away from Satalis and the Dranovians. The only way to do that and keep everyone safe was to bring you here.”
“What did Satalis do to those babies?” Quinn whispered, putting her hands over her stomach protectively.
“He messed with their beasts the way he does ours. There’s still a chance for them to pull through what was done to them. Mine is almost completely healed, and the more I stay away from that bastard, the better it becomes,” Ainsley said as she held a cookie out to Quinn.
“Watch your mouth!” Fiona warned.
“He is a bastard and more!” Ainsley retorted.
“And you’re a young lady and should act like it, instead of like the animal he wants you to be,” Fiona argued.
Quinn could hear the disappointment in Fiona’s voice and wondered at the relationship between the two.
“I’m sorry,” Ainsley finally said.
Fiona pulled the girl in for a quick hug and brushed a few strands of hair from her face.
“You’re better than what he wants you to be. You’re the best of all of us,” Fiona whispered, tears shimmering in her eyes before she blinked them back.
Quinn was struggling to understand and set her elbows on the table and placed her head in her hands as she ran through what they’d said.
“OK, I’m really confused,” Quinn admitted. “I need you to answer some questions to fill in the blanks for me. First, what is a Dranovian, and why would they want to kill you?”
“From what I learned from Satalis,” Fiona began, “they are hybrids—like us, but different. Only the strongest and most powerful among the hybrids born are Dranovians. They are considered to be warrior priests that are not much different from a religious priest.
“Sometimes things can go wrong with the beast in the brain or its bonding with the host. When this happens, it is like a once loyal and loving dog turning rabid. It will attack and kill without remorse just for the sake of killing, and there is nothing the host can do to stop it.”
Ainsley shifted uncomfortably in her chair.
“It’s like being possessed,” Ainsley said softly as she toyed with her half-eaten cookie. “You’re trapped within yourself, and you scream and scream in your mind, but nothing works. It’s horrible.”
Fiona stood and put a comforting hand on Ainsley’s shoulder and refreshed her tea with the other.
Quinn had just started to wonder if her son’s beast was one of the bad ones and that was why she was there, when Fiona smiled at her.
“It happens very rarely, and your son’s beast is just fine. He was protecting the baby and you,” Fiona said with a smile at Quinn.
“Oh, thank god,” Quinn whispered, feeling like an elephant had been removed from her chest.
“The Dranovians are the only ones powerful enough to destroy a rabid beast. They use ancient ritual words and power to kill the beast in the brain without killing the host,” Ainsley said, sadness obvious in her voice.
“If it’s rabid, isn’t that a good thing?” Quinn asked, wondering why such a thing would make Ainsley sad.
“For some, yes,” Fiona agreed. “But for some of us, it would effectively kill us. Most of those who can’t control the rabid beast are glad to have it destroyed and will kill themselves over the things the beast did while in control of the host’s body. In the case of hosts who are as corrupted in the mind as the rabid beast, they are usually killed outright.”
Quinn immediately thought of the woman in the library who had killed herself after Quinn had uttered those strange words. The woman had apologized before shooting herself, and now it all made sense to her in a sick sort of way.
He’s a Dranovian, Quinn thought, a little in awe and scared to death for her son at the same time.
She looked up a little fearfully at the two women who already admitted to her that they had rabid beasts in their brains.
“It’s not like that
with us! Please don’t look at me like that!” Ainsley erupted and burst into tears.
Quinn looked horrified as Fiona rushed to Ainsley’s side and held the girl, quietly whispering words of comfort to her. Quinn realized it was her look of fear that caused the girl’s distress, and she felt terrible.
“Ainsley, I’m so sorry. I’m just scared of everything right now,” Quinn admitted. “I knew nothing about aliens and hybrids and now Dranovians and this Satalis guy. This is all so . . .”
Quinn threw her hands up in the air, tears threatening to spill from her own eyes as she thought of the absolute craziness going on around her. She was stunned when Ainsley jumped from her chair and ran to hug her.
“I’m so sorry you were dragged into this, but I’m really glad I met you,” Ainsley whispered.
Quinn let her tears fall as she clutched the only person who’d shown her any kindness since her nightmare began. She looked up and saw Fiona mouth, “Thank you.”
Quinn nodded and pulled herself together, wiping her tears as she pulled back from Ainsley.
“I’m starting to understand,” Quinn said as she smiled at Ainsley. “Let’s have some tea and cookies so you can help me understand all of it, OK? Fear comes from the unknown. If I understand what’s happening, I can’t fear it, now can I?”
Ainsley nodded her head and wiped her tears on her sleeve. Such a childish act brought home to Quinn just how young the girl really was, no matter how mature she usually acted.
Quinn tamped down her fear and resolved to only think of Ainsley as the preteen she was and not the potential danger she could be.
“So, let me make sure I got this right,” Quinn said as she grabbed a cookie and took a bite, pretending a casualness she didn’t feel. “Your beasts are . . . injured, and you’re healing them. But because they are injured, the Dranovians will kill them before you can try to finish fixing them?”
“Yes!” Ainsley agreed with a broad grin.
“OK, I got that,” Quinn said, feeling a little better about the rabid beast thing if she only thought of them as injured. “And the other pregnant women, their babies’ beasts were injured like yours because Satalis has held them for a while?”
“Yes,” Fiona confirmed.
“So while Satalis thinks they are all being rescued or killed by the Dranovians, you’ve hidden the women away to protect them from everyone?” Quinn asked, even though she was sure she had that right.
“Yes,” Fiona said again.
At least I’ve got all that right, Quinn thought to herself.
“Who is Satalis? Is he an alien too?” Quinn asked.
Fiona stood and refilled the kettle with water before putting it back on the stove to boil.
“I’m not real sure what the hell he is,” Fiona admitted as she took the empty tea pot from the table and began to rinse it and clean the leaves out of the mesh ball. “He’s alien—that much I know. He has such a hatred for human life . . . but he’s the most powerful being I have ever encountered, and no one has ever defeated him. Until the Dranovians found him.”
“If he hates us, why does he want our children?” Quinn was having a hard time wrapping her mind around where Satalis fit in all of this.
“He wants their power to help him rule,” Fiona said as she watched the kettle on the stove. “That’s what he wants all of us hybrids for. He thinks that because we are half human, we’re weaker and easier to manipulate.”
Fiona snorted and shook her head, still watching the kettle on the stove.
“He didn’t expect the human spirit and how tenacious we can be,” Fiona added.
Ainsley giggled, sounding like the little girl she should be acting like.
“We drive him crazy. We pretend to be compliant around him, but he knows we’re not fully controlled, and he hates it,” Ainsley admitted.
“Where is he now?” Quinn wanted to make sure he was nowhere near them.
“He’s hiding,” Fiona said with a snort. “The last encounter with the Dranovians scared him into hiding. He’s been travelling the portals to stay out of sight, but this will bring him out of hiding.”
“What will?” Quinn was suddenly afraid to know.
Fiona levelled a cold green gaze on Quinn that sent a shiver up her spine.
“More than half of the rabid ones were killed in the raids on the other locations, and my people are now in hiding. He has to come out now to find the rest of us, and when he does, he’ll find the Dranovians instead,” Fiona explained.
Sudden clarity hit Quinn, and she stood slowly as she stared between Ainsley and Fiona.
“You set Chris up to die?” she asked, suddenly trembling.
“We merely enabled the Dranovians to find the person they were born to kill in order to save us all. Whoever dies on that field of battle is one less person trying to kill one of mine,” Fiona said coldly.
Quinn stared at Ainsley with a look of betrayal on her face.
“You used me to get his father killed?” she whispered as she held her stomach protectively and backed to the door.
Chapter Eleven
Chris paced the small landing in front of the door to Satalis’ illusion while Trick and Lara worked to unravel where the portal went so they could find Quinn. It’d been two hours since they’d arrived at the estate, and there was still no indication of where Quinn had gone.
Chris heard Siggy call him through the shengari’, and he ran up the stairs to the makeshift command center they’d set up in the kitchen above the portal.
“What do you have?” he demanded.
“Koda has the sensors on the Devil’s Destroyer doing scans of the radius of the portal to try and detect an energy anomaly in the area. It could denote where another portal may be. Scaden is setting the Adaria up to do the same,” Siggy said the moment he saw Chris come into the room.
“You could have told me that through the shengari’!” Chris muttered as he headed back to the door that led to the portal below.
“Wait, Chris,” Mikal said as he appeared in the room.
Chris turned and saw Siggy look away as Mikal stood behind him with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Sit down, Chris. Siggy has some video you’re going to want to see,” Mikal said as he gestured to where Siggy was clicking away on his comm.
Chris narrowed his eyes at his brothers before he moved to stand behind Siggy. He was a little irritated when Mikal stood right behind him.
“I, uh, was able to hack into the interior security cameras, and although they’ve been heavily damaged and rendered useless, there was some footage that I was able to retrieve,” Siggy said as he hit a button on his comm and flicked an image on the wall.
Chris’s breath caught in his throat when he saw Quinn standing in a room protectively holding her stomach as she backed away from a woman walking towards her. He was grateful when Mikal put his hand on his shoulder just as Quinn threw her arms out and spoke the ritual words to destroy an anomalous beast.
Siggy kicked a chair out and Mikal pushed a stunned Chris to sit in it while he watched Quinn’s stomach light up before the video went blank.
“My son is a Dranovian,” Chris whispered as he stared blankly at the wall.
“A powerful one . . . like his dad,” Siggy said with a grin as he squeezed Chris’s shoulder.
“It’s pretty clear that wherever Quinn is,” Mikal said in all seriousness, “your son is taking damn good care of them.”
That seemed to bring Chris out of his own thoughts and he stood abruptly.
“I’m supposed to be taking damn good care of them!” Chris roared. “Not my unborn son! Where the hell are they?”
“Anger won’t find them, son. You need to get your head where it belongs,” Grai said, surprising them as he strode into the room followed by two new arrivals.
“Father,” Mikal said as he hugged Grai and stepped aside.
Mikal held his hand out to the sunglass wearer among the new arrivals.
“Blade,
it’s good to see you again,” Mikal said as he and Blade shook hands.
“Dad, I thought you went back home after the Scotland raid,” Chris said, waiting for the hybrids to freak out over their proximity to a Dranovian.
“Hey, Dad,” Siggy said as he stood and moved so everyone could sit at the table.
“This is Sam Denison,” Grai introduced. “He’s from Fiorn’s Folly and, like Jax, can speak to the animals. We have a small radius to look for the portal exit; they may be able to help.”
Sam grinned and held out his hand to the closest Dranovian. Mikal automatically reached out and shook it.
“We really appreciate the help. I’m Mikal.”
Mikal dropped the man’s hand quickly, not wanting to distress his beast further with the extended contact. He was surprised when the man gamely shook hands with Chris and Siggy, even though Mikal could feel his beast’s fear.
“I’m Chris; this is Siggy. We appreciate any help you can give us,” Chris said, also dropping Sam’s hand quickly.
“I’m really glad to help. Do you have a picture of Quinn and anyone else you think may be with her?” Sam asked. When he saw their confusion, he chuckled. “I can project a mental picture of them into the minds of the animals, and they can recognize them just like people can.”
“That’s really cool,” Siggy said as he turned back to his comm and restarted the video he’d just shown Chris.
“That brings back memories,” Grai said as he grinned at Chris and watched the video of the baby expelling a beast.
“That’s incredible,” Sam whispered in awe. “Can I see it again?”
Siggy played it a few more times and stopped. Sam blushed and turned to Grai and the others.
“I’m sorry, I have to see it again. I was so fascinated by what she was doing . . . I didn’t look at her features at all,” Sam admitted.
Grai and Mikal laughed while Siggy replayed it a few more times for Sam.