Determinant -Guardians of Vesturon [3] (29 page)

I knew I was trying to convince myself of a falsehood, but I needed something to hang my last shred of sanity on.

“Rykerian, we will make this work. We will get his family out. I know we can do this, but I need you brother. I need your help and knowledge. You must pull it together for January. Do you understand?”

“Yes, I need to be strong for January,” I repeated.

“That is correct. Stay with me now.”

The Tranquility descended upon me and I drew it into myself. It took every ounce of resilience I possessed to bring myself around, but I finally became more coherent with each passing minute.

“Rayn, what if...”

My brother interrupted me, saying emphatically, “Rykerian, you
cannot,
under any circumstances, allow yourself to think that. January is fine. This Herdekian will not harm her. He knows she is his bargaining chip, but we must get to work immediately on getting his family out. You understand?”

I nodded, “I understand.”

Rayn looked at an ashen faced Maddie and told her to get our father, Tesslar and any other available Guardian here immediately. She sprinted off to the house as Rayn pulled me to a seat on the terrace.

I sat on the edge of the sofa and dropped my head into my hands.

“I need your focus Rykerian. I cannot stress this enough.”

I leaped to my feet yelling, “Bloody hell Rayn, do you not think I am trying? I am still trying to process the fact that my...my...”

“Say it Rykerian. We all know how you feel about her. Just say it already,” he urged.

“All right then! My mate, damn it. I am still attempting to understand that my mate just vanished before my eyes. With the enemy in control. An enemy we know absolutely nothing about! What
was
he?”

“Clearly he is a being we know nothing about.”

“I
know
that damn it. Bloody hell Rayn, do you think I am in idiot?”

“Okay...okay. Just calm down my brother.”

“Stop it this instant! I swear to the Deity Rayn, if you tell me to calm down one more time I am going to kick your bloody ass!”

“Yes, right then,” he said, completely chastised and shocked at my foul language. “Let us think for a moment. We know the Herdekian needs his family released and he cannot do it himself.”

“Bloody hell, if
he
cannot do it, how in the universe do
we
expect to?”

Rayn grabbed me by my shirt, got right in my face and said savagely, “Because we have accomplished it once before. Or rather Maddie has. When she saved my life! We are going to pool our knowledge and come up with a plan.”

The situation on Xanthus had deteriorated to the boiling point. All remaining Guardians and ancillary personnel were currently being withdrawn in an effort to keep everyone safe. We needed to evacuate the place, but instead we would be landing in a hornet’s nest and attempting to extract a father and his daughter from an impenetrable prison.

Maddie ran back outside and explained, “Rowan and Tesslar should be here any minute.”

“Thank you love,” Rayn said as he pulled her to him. “Can you remember exactly what you did when you broke me out of the Xanthian prison?”

“The Herdekian is right Rayn. The only way out is to shut down the main power generating station. I used Command and the prison guard shut down the system so I could enter your cell. If you recall, I was dealing with Counselor Druaha before we imprisoned him. The security is as tight as a drum there.”

“Then that is exactly what we will do. We will have Father tell Therron and Xarrid where to meet us and they can assist us in infiltrating the station.”

“Rayn, after I got you safely to a Space Transporter, remember that Sharra and I went back and I destroyed most of the existing power generators on Xanthus. That generating station no longer is in operation. What are they using to power it now?”

“Therron and Xarrid will have to fill in the blanks for us on that. We will need to get our hands on the blueprints so we can see exactly where we need to go in the prison.”

I listened to their conversation, but my heart was shredding to pieces. It felt as if someone had reached into my chest and tore my heart out of my body, so deep was my pain. What frightened me even more was that it was quickly being replaced with a deep consuming savagery that would fuel my actions until I had January back here with me. I wanted to wake up from this ridiculously horrid nightmare, but that would not happen, as it was reality I was facing.

I lifted my head from my hands and saw my parents, along with my brother Tesslar headed to the terrace.

“Rykerian, my son, I am terribly sorry.” My mother pulled me into her arms and held me tightly. “We will stop at nothing to see her safely returned to you.”

“Thank you Mother.”

At her advancing age, my mother was still stunningly beautiful. Most children did not feel their parents were attractive, but it would be impossible not to say so about my mother. Her hair was still worn long and it was as blond as it had ever been. Her face bore no wrinkles and her blue eyes had the clarity of someone less than half her age. She was the rock of the family and her love for us was her first and foremost priority.

She stepped away from me and pulled Maddie and then Rayn into her embrace.

My father immediately jumped into his leadership role.

“I have already contacted Therron and Xarrid and they are at the ready for your command Rykerian. We must devise our tactics and strategy on how we will proceed.”

Rayn glanced at me and seeing I was still unable to process, he replied, “Yes then. Shall we head to the Command Center?”

We made our way to the “War Room” as we sometimes called it, and began discussing our next steps.

“Father, do you know anything of this species?” I wanted to know.

He indicated he did not. “I have our researchers investigating it at present, but we have never encountered a being like this Herdekian.”

My heart sank at his words. I had hoped, beyond hope, that he knew at least a tiny bit about these creatures.

“Maddie and Rayn, and you too Rykerian, I think it imperative you three stay here on Earth while this mission is being executed,” my father said.

“No,” I yelled out as I exploded to my feet. “I must go to see this mission accomplished.”

“You cannot Rykerian. You need to remain here. I cannot risk having all of my children on Xanthus. It is too dangerous. Think of the consequences if you are captured or worse than that.

“He is right Rykerian. It would be unprecedented for all of us to end up as prisoners on Xanthus. The Xanthians would eagerly put us to death, if nothing else, simply to make a statement to Father.” Rayn was, of course correct, and his logic was inarguable.

I nodded in agreement. I would abide by this even though I did not like it.

“I knew it! I just knew we should have destroyed them all. They have been nothing but a huge pain in everyone’s bohonkus ever since...well probably since the beginning of time!” Maddie was shouting now.

Rayn let loose a monstrous sigh and my father shook his head at her.

“Maddie, stop already,” I with a deep sigh. “You are well aware of the fact that it would be an impossibility to go in and destroy the whole planet of Xanthus. We are the peacekeepers of the universe, not the destroyers.” Everyone’s jaw dropped as they turned to stare at me, in shock over my response.

Then Rayn grinned, as did everyone else, except for Maddie, who just grunted at me.

“Rykerian is correct Maddie. Now you must stop this train of thought...it is unhealthy to continue to harbor such severe hatred toward them.”

“Rowan, forget about that. It ain’t ever gonna happen!” she retorted.

“Enough.” Rayn spoke softly, but with intent. He leaned into his mate and laced his fingers with hers before saying, “We know and understand how you feel love, but right now, we need to focus on the problem at hand. We need your expertise and knowledge of the prison area and the layout of the structure, as well as that of the power plant. Can you do this? For me? For Rykerian?”

They were engrossed in each other for several moments when she nodded and began explaining how the power plant was designed.

“Therron has said most of their power now is through auxiliary sources, mainly solar and chemical. The sources are scattered throughout various areas, which will make it a bit more difficult to execute,” Rowan explained.

“Or maybe not,” Maddie piped in.

“How so?” Tesslar asked.

“If we can coordinate several parties to teleport in simultaneously, we could have a sort of systematic destruction take place. It would very be helpful if Therron or Xarrid could figure out which area was specifically responsible for powering the security system at the prison. We could destroy others first, using that as a decoy. Then we could hit the prison security system. Hopefully, with everyone occupied and distracted by the first outage, the prison break would be less notable.”

We all piped in saying how that sounded like a great plan. I’m not sure who beamed brighter, Maddie or Rayn.

We all went to work devising the specifics of how this plan would be executed.

In the meantime, Xarrid’s holographic image came to us. He had been investigating the power sources and their locales and had identified which one did what. So that part of the equation had been solved.

Next, we handpicked several Guardians that would man the team for the operation. Kennar was chosen as their leader, for he had the most experience in this type of covert mission.

A thought struck me and I asked, “Do we know anything about the father and daughter? We need their names and descriptions, else we will not be able to identify them.”

“How will we contact Herdekian?” Maddie asked.

I quickly responded, “I do not believe we will need to contact him. I have a strong feeling he is monitoring our activities and will contact us.”

We formulated our plans but the only missing piece of the puzzle was the information we required to recognize the ones we were to rescue.

Hours later I lay on my bed, trying to get some rest. My mind was a hive of activity, thoughts zinging through my brain like lightening. My attempts to shut it down were unsuccessful, so I simply stopped trying.

Stretched out on my bed, my arms crossed beneath my head, I was suddenly impacted by a series of visions. January was sitting in a stark white room drumming her fingers on a bedside table. Her frustration was obvious by her erratic movements. She would sit, then stand, then pace, then repeat the process. She appeared to be physically fine and I felt my tension release through my breathing.

As the vision remained, I heard
his
voice clearly. “As you can see, your January is unharmed. She will remain that way unless you renege on our agreement. My father goes by the name Boland Herdekian and my sister is called Zulietta Herdekian. You will find them located on Level 4 of the prison.”

His voice faded away and then the vision disappeared.

Dashing to Rayn’s room, I pounded on the door. A disheveled looking Rayn opened the door and I fell into relaying the information I had just gained.

“January is well, even though she is a bit frazzled!”

I was relieved by my vision. It had given me a new sense of purpose, but it also reignited my anger I had tried to suppress.

“I learned the names of his father and sister as well as their location in the prison.”

Rayn mumbled something but I didn’t pay attention. My bed was calling to me, as sleep had been so evasive. With this news, my excitement turned to exhaustion so I spread across my bed and was instantly asleep.

*****

She was home! January threw herself into my arms and we spun around and around as I held her high in the air. Her radiant smile sent tingles up and down my spine. My eyes drank in her lips and they ignited such a need in me I had to taste them.

I let her slide down my body until her head was level with mine. Her lips curved into a knowing smile as her eyes smoldered with passion. I could wait not a second longer and my mouth slanted across her, tasting her honeyed lips. It wasn’t enough. My tongue traced the outline of her mouth and then sought entry. I felt her response as her tongue met mine and did its own special dance.

Her heart pounded against my chest and I could hear and feel her blood rushing through her veins. Her heated response increased my boldness as my invasion of her mouth intensified. With one arm around her slight body, holding her tightly to me, my other arm crept up to her neck where my hand encircled it. My thumb gently massaged her pulse until I heard her moan. I pulled my mouth away from her so I could mimic the motion of my thumb on her neck. I kissed her gently there at first but I heard her mumble, “More, please.”

I drew back to look at her loveliness when her face began to blur. The edges grew less sharp and began to fade. I tried to hold on to her but she disappeared. I screamed her name and when I did, I woke up, drenched in sweat, and tangled amidst damp sheets.

My breath heaved in my chest as my heart pounded. The dream had been so real; I could still taste the honey of her kiss.

Feet were pounding down the corridor and my door burst open.

“Are you all right? Is everything okay in here? I heard you screaming and I feared something happened.”

Rayn was there, and Maddie came in behind him.

“I am fine. It was only a dream,” I croaked.

“Are you sure you’re okay Rykerian?” Maddie asked in a disbelieving voice.

“Yes, I am fine. It was but a dream.”

Maddie placed her hand on my shoulder. “Dreams can be very disorienting Rykerian. Give it time to pass.”

I nodded as they left the room.

The next morning everyone was sitting around the breakfast table as I joined them. Rayn had already explained how I had garnered the information on the prisoners.