Grounding Gracus (First Wave Book 6) (13 page)

“Ah, you’re being a pussy! Someone’s got to tell her! What you’re going to leave it to Grai?” Clatz asked, obviously more irritated than normal at him.

Ignoring Clatz, Gracus decided to try something and turned to Rebecca, taking her hands in his own. “Do you see the symbols on the page now?” he asked as she stared up at him curiously.

She looked down at the open pages in her lap and nodded her head. “Of course. Why?”

Gracus ignored her question. “And you only noticed the symbols in the journal about two years ago?”

Rebecca looked at him strangely and nodded. “Yes. Why?”

Gracus knew that it couldn’t be a coincidence that she had begun seeing the symbols around the time that the Adaria had arrived and found Cari. But, he still wasn’t sure what it meant. Either way, he knew that Clatz was right and he needed to begin broaching the subject of her hybrid status with her.

He smiled at her and rubbed her hands. “The margins of the pages are blank. Until you touch them, then the symbols light up on the page and I can see them. When you remove your finger, they disappear again,” Gracus said.

He sighed and rushed to continue when Rebecca looked at him strangely and slowing pulled her hands from his. “I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true. I know a few other women that have gifts a lot like yours, but they are more familiar with their talents. Have you ever shown anyone else the symbols?” Gracus asked, hoping she would answer him and not try to run. He couldn’t let her out of his sight with the Relians loose somewhere in the forest.

“What do you mean you can’t see them?” Rebecca asked, wondering if he was still affected by the drugs or potentially insane.

“I swear to you, the margins of the pages are blank. I can’t see the symbols until you touch them. Have you shown them to anyone else?” he asked again, pretty sure that she hadn’t by the look on her face.

Rebecca looked down at the pages and could clearly see the six symbols, three on each page. They were pretty big and very obvious and she couldn’t believe that he didn’t see them. He was either jerking her chain or he was insane. She didn’t realize that she’d spoken aloud until Gracus responded.

“If they were that obvious, why hadn’t you noticed them until two years ago?” Gracus asked, feeling her disbelief and confusion in her energy.

Rebecca looked at him in stunned silence.
Why hadn’t she noticed them before
, she wondered. They were too obvious to miss. So how had she overlooked them for all these years? She shook her head, more confused than ever.

“How could I have missed them?” she wondered aloud, more to herself than to Gracus.

Gracus smiled softly at her and gently rubbed her hand. “You most likely weren’t meant to,” he said, trying to help her through this as gently as he could. 

“That’s crazy. Seriously, how could they get on the pages if there aren’t there? You’re just teasing me. You have a strange idea of campfire stories, usually they’re scary,” Rebecca said, chuckling nervously as she looked down at the pages in her lap.

“Really? What exactly is a campfire story?” Gracus asked curiously, wondering if that was his answer to explaining things to her. Without
really
explaining them.

Rebecca chuckled, sure that he was still teasing her. But when he just stared at her curiously, her laughter died.
Was he serious?
she wondered. Fine, she’d play along.

“It’s a story that you tell other campers in order to frighten them. Just for fun though. Most stories are so old and played out that they lost the fear factor a long time ago,” Rebecca said with a grin. She’d spent years hearing just about every story there was to tell and she’d been in the forest her whole life, there wasn’t much that could scare her anymore.

Gracus couldn’t believe his luck. He had one hell of a story to tell. “I bet I have one that you have never heard before. Let me tell it to you,” Gracus said, hoping to convince her to listen to his story.

Rebecca looked at him nervously. A part of her knew that there was something about his story that she didn’t want to hear. Something that would frighten her. But, that inner voice in her head was screaming at her to listen to him and she found herself nodding her head.

*****

Jalorn greeted the new clones, keeping clear of the two dark ones. He hated those bastards, who were barely controlled animals and was fine with someone else dealing with them.

“We have two separate groups out there. One is a single Valendran with a suspected hybrid female, most likely his mate. Five more dropped not far from the other two. One of them was Grai T’Alq,” Jalorn said, to the surprise of the newcomers.

Caden looked around the small group. “Where the hell are the rest of us?”

Jalorn forced a smile. “We’re it.”

Blint squealed in fear and Jalorn slapped him to the ground. “Shut up!”

Jalorn turned to the others while the dark ones swayed back and forth dangerously, waiting for the order to kill. “They don’t know we’re here and we outnumber them! Which gives us an advantage, for those of you too stupid to figure that out!” Jalorn said, looking at Blint who was still whimpering on the ground.

Caden, the oldest and earliest of the clones present, folded his arms across his chest and stared at Jalorn. “Where is the hybrid, where did Grai drop and what is your plan?”

Jalorn looked at the oldest, therefore the highest ranking person there and wondered why the hell Shinopai had sent him. Although, Caden didn’t seem interested in taking over command, Jalorn was still suspicious over his presence. It was unlike one of the older clones to bother with a simple planet mission.

When Caden quirked a brow at him, Jalorn snapped out of his thoughts and handed Caden his binoculars and pointed out where the hybrid and Valendran had made camp, before showing him where Grai and the others had dropped.

Caden turned to Jalorn, nodded his head and asked. “What was your original mission here?”

Jalorn looked at Caden suspiciously, knowing the older clone was up to something, but he didn’t know what. At least not yet anyway.

“Dagog sent us here to find a mythical cave that he found vague references to in Kalai’s journal files,” Jalorn admitted, knowing he had to tell the senior commander the truth. There would have been hell to pay if he didn’t.

Caden nodded his head. “That makes sense. He’s been trying to pull as much information as he can from the debris recovered from the mothership. Have you found the cave yet?”

Jalorn shook his head. “We’ve been all over this place and the only thing we’ve seen has been trees and rock.”

Caden nodded and looked around. “Yes, this place is much larger than I expected it to be. There must be a reason why Grai came here though and we need to find out what it is. We need to take the female alive and at least one Valendran to find out why. Dagog will want to know,” Caden said, phrasing it as a suggestion.

Jalorn wasn’t stupid, he knew that Caden wasn’t merely suggesting anything, but he would gladly accept the aid of the more experienced and older commander.

“I agree. One of them may actually know where this cave is. Make sure that those,” Jalorn said as he gestured to the two dark ones. “Things don’t kill the female. I’m sure between the rest of us we can keep one of the others alive.” 

Caden nodded his head. “Good call, Jalorn. It’s a good idea to break into two groups as well. There is no telling where Grai is at this point and one group will have a hell of a time searching this…,” Caden paused as he looked around. “Huge, damn place for him. I can take a team, half mine, half yours and a dark one and search for Grai, while you take the female and single Valendran. If you prefer…”

Jalorn almost jumped with glee. There was no way in hell that he wanted to face Grai T’Alq if he didn’t have to. Like most Relians, he had nightmares about that scary son of a bitch coming for him. A pack of dark ones and Valendrans combined couldn’t scare him as much as facing that one man.

No
, Jalorn thought,
Grai T’Alq wasn’t a man
. He was a fucking nightmarish legend come to life. One he was more than happy to never face, especially not with this pathetic group. And the best part was, if Caden screwed this up, he could claim he was outranked and had only followed orders when the senior commander showed up.

Jalorn smiled, trying to hide his pleasure at the turn of events. “I would greatly appreciate your more experienced assistance in this matter. Please choose your team among our men. We’ll overtake the female and Valendran once they’ve broken camp and resumed hiking in the morning.”

Caden just nodded his head and turned to look out into the vast forest, trying to imagine where Grai would have been going. And why. He turned back to the men and frowned at his choices, before he picked those he thought better suited to his purposes. Not that any of them were suited to anything more than doing the basics. They would do for what he had in mind though.

Chapter Eleven

Gracus was a little surprised when Rebecca nodded her head and he smiled down into his lap for a second, trying to think of where to begin.

He decided on the beginning. “A very long time ago, a ship crashed on the planet. In the ship were a group of survivors called Valendrans. They were followed by another group of evil bastards called Relians. The Valendrans, mistakenly believed dead by their people, tried to live among the humans in peace, helping them where they could.”

“One day, they were blessed with mates. Special women, with wondrous gifts that made their lives beautiful. Soon they had children, who were born of the two worlds. Valendra and Earth. The children, hybrids, were born with unique abilities. Each being able to do something different. Some can control water or fire, some are empaths and psychics. Others could create things out of the earth… but all with an ability inherited from their parents.”

Rebecca sat and stared at Gracus. Not just enraptured by his story, but by the cadence of his deep voice and the look on his face as he spoke so intently.

Gracus continued. “The Relians soon found them and their children. Being the animals that they are, they raped and killed the women and enslaved or killed the children. The remaining Valendrans and hybrids scattered throughout the world, believing they would be harder to find. A lot of them were killed, yet some of them found one another and thrived.”

Gracus saw that Rebecca was thoroughly engrossed in the story and continued. “The people back on Valendra had thought all of their people dead and it wasn’t until a ship arrived and found one of these special hybrids and learned of more, that they came back to the planet. When they realized they had people here and that the Relians were destroying governments and religions, they stayed to help the humans and to find their people. The outpost crew and the hybrids that are half Valendran.”

Rebecca was beginning to feel overwhelmed. Her body felt like it was electrified, all of her nerves tingling, especially her head. If she wasn’t in the middle of the forest she’d swear she was touching something electrical. Only it didn’t hurt. It just felt so… strange. Like a tsunami of energy lighting up her body from within.

The stupid story was really getting to her and Rebecca needed to change the direction of this story, hoping to ease the sensations coursing through her.

“Wait a minute, aren’t stories like this supposed to have a prince and princess,” she asked a little nervously, as she tried to keep her teeth from clenching.

Gracus had felt the energy in her beast ignite and was a little in awe of the burst of power that shot through her and her ability to think through it. He’d been through the same thing when he’d beast bonded and knew that it was a pretty intense feeling. Only he’d been aware of what was happening to him and Rebecca was clueless. He wasn’t sure how, but somehow, she’d initiated the bonding spontaneously.

He knew she was doing her best to keep her composure and he needed to help her through it by helping her stay distracted while the beast fully seated himself in her brain, creating the connections needed to complete the permanent bond between them.

He thought of her question, a little perplexed. “Why a prince and princess?”

Rebecca chuckled, trying to quell the strange feelings flooding her body and mind. “Yeah, you know, all fairy tales have a prince and princess.”

Gracus sighed.
She thought his story nothing but a fairy tale.
He knew she was trying to reason through what was happening and he allowed it, knowing that by morning she wouldn’t be able to deny the voice in her head or the truth any longer.

Gracus nodded. “Oh… ok. Well the princess’s parents were killed when she was very young, by the Relians who were pursuing them. She was raised in the best of homes, but her protector felt it best that she not be told of her heritage until she was old enough to truly understand it.”

Rebecca felt like she was hit with a rock, his words ringing through her like a bell. She looked into his hazel eyes and whispered, “What of the prince?”

Gracus gently rubbed the back of her hand, looked into her wide brown eyes and grinned. “He’d been on the ship in orbit for years and when he finally came down to the planet, he met the princess by chance and made a complete fool of himself. He’s been trying to make it up to her ever since then.”

Rebecca couldn’t take her eyes off of him. She knew that it was crazy to try and put the two of them into the roles of prince and princess, but she couldn’t seem to help it. And that little voice in the back of her mind had become louder and more insistent as it whispered, “Yes”.

Rebecca was determined to end this now and was shocked when a question spilled from her mouth. “What happens to them?”

Gracus smiled sadly. “They just start to get to know one another when the prince finds out that the Relians are in the kingdom. Potentially hunting the princess and looking for the same magical cave.”

He watched her eyes widen and continued. “The prince and his Valendran friends are keeping the princess surrounded to keep her protected.”

Gracus watched her closely for her reaction and wasn’t surprised when she looked around them, as if to see the Valendrans or Relians herself.

Rebecca was stunned for a moment as she tried to take in what he’d said and the voice in her mind that had become so loud.
Damn, if his crazy wasn’t contagious
, she thought as she fought to quiet the voice or push it aside so she could think clearly.

Good grief
, she thought,
why am I even thinking that this is anything other than a story to begin with?
It’s just a story!
One that was very clever and had certainly set her mind off into the land of stupid. But, still just a story. And he must think her a fool for falling for it.

Finally, Rebecca burst out in a nervous laughter, unable to believe that she’d allowed herself to get sucked into the story and let it affect her like this. Rebecca felt like a fool and knew it was time to make her exit before she outdid him on the scale of fools. Some competitions weren’t worth winning.

She looked up into Gracus’s beautiful hazel eyes. “That was an impressive and very imaginative story. I like how you weaved just enough fact to make it seem real. You’re a great storyteller. But, I think I’m going to head to bed now. We need to be up early. Good night."

Gracus wanted nothing more than to keep her with him through the night, but he could tell that she really needed the time alone to consider what he’d said and to complete the beast bonding process. More importantly, he knew that she had felt the “rightness” of his words and she needed time to accept it.

“Good night, Rebecca. Sleep well,” Gracus said tenderly as he watched her disappear into her tent.

Clatz sighed in his mind. “She’s perfect and way too good for you. But, you did pretty well. I expected you to terrify her,” Clatz said with a chuckle.

Gracus leaned back against a tree, near Rebecca’s tent. “Yeah, thanks asshole.”

Gracus ignored his beast and sifted Rebecca’s energy to make sure she wasn’t in distress. He easily felt her confusion and rapidly awakening beast. He had no clue what had caused her beast to begin awakening after all these years, but it seemed like it was trying to complete the bonding process in record time.

He couldn’t help but be grateful for it, knowing it would make it easier for Rebecca to believe and accept who and what she was. And hopefully him as well. Gracus sent out his senses, exploring the area around them to ensure that Rebecca was in no danger and feeling only the presence of Amun, Decano and the two cats with them, he relaxed a little and allowed his mind to wander.

“Pay attention fool, your mate’s beast has initiated a bond with us. I have allowed the connection and secured the bond,” Clatz said.

Gracus’s heart leaped in his chest. That connection would allow the two of them to speak to one another through the Shengari’ and he had to fight the urge to test it out, not wanting to frighten her by suddenly being in her head.

He knew there would be plenty of time in the morning to show her that it was there.
Hopefully, after she’d been introduced to his world by her beast
, he thought.

“You sound like a lazy prick who doesn’t want to put in the work to help his mate acclimate,” Clatz complained in his mind.

“Well, if you weren’t so critical you’d realize that she’s very intelligent and intuitive. She likes to figure things out, which is why she’s hunting for the cave to begin with and she already knows something is different about her. She will be much more accepting of it, if it is her conclusion and not something forced into her mind. Her life has been nothing but happiness and love, I want her awakening to be nothing less than the same. Or as close as I can make it under these circumstances,” Gracus said honestly.

Clatz sniffed. “You might make a good mate after all. Get some rest, I will keep watch.”

Gracus leaned his head back against the tree and closed his eyes. He had no intention of sleeping. He was going to stay alert in case the awakening became too much for Rebecca and she needed him. And although he had every faith in Grai and his friends, he would take no chances with his mate.

*****

Rebecca felt like screaming. The electricity running through her veins was like nothing she’d ever felt before and her body lay rigid in her sleeping bag, under the assault.
What the fuck is wrong with me
, she wondered, clenching her teeth as a particularly strong wave took over her body and mind. It felt like every hair on her body was standing straight up and her scalp tingled so badly it set off a buzzing sound in her head.

“Relax. Let the energy flow with you, through you, accept it,” the crazy voice said in her head.

Fuck!
Rebecca thought, trying to push the voice away and fight the current flowing through her. Her mind ran through potential reasons why she would be reacting so badly and discarded them all. She’d eaten no fish or berries that day, so food poisoning was out of the question and there wasn’t much else that could be causing the voice in her head to become so loud and bold and the electricity to increase through her body.

“The harder you fight it, the stronger it becomes. You must relax and accept the bonding. Listen to the world around you, hear the night world as you never have before and allow the energy to expand your gifts,” the voice said gently.

Rebecca gritted her teeth, her muscles beginning to ache from clenching them against the energy flowing through her.
Maybe the voice was right
, she thought,
maybe she needed to distract herself.
She closed her eyes and tried to listen to something other than the ocean wave sounds echoing in her head like a human conch shell.

Several minutes later she could hear something prowling through the woods a short distance away.
Wait
, she thought, there were
two things… and they weren’t prowling, they were pacing!
Rebecca was stunned. She knew there was no way that there could be two animals nearby that were pacing like humans.
It wasn’t possible, animals didn’t act like that.

“Valendran Sibiox cats. The other entities like me, say that the cats are here to protect you and the male. Expand your senses and let the energy flow through you. Can you sense the two Valendrans as well?” the voice in her head asked, the sound startling her.

What the fuck, what the fuck!
Rebecca screamed in her mind, her fingers clutching the sleeping bag. It was then that she realized that at some point while she was listening to the pacing animals, her body had stopped fighting the energy.

She took a quick stock of her body and noticed that her muscles were no longer clenched and they didn’t hurt anymore. In fact, she felt amazing. Really tired, but amazing. The energy no longer roared through her body, but had settled into a comfortable hum through her veins that felt like it had always been there.
A power to be called when needed.

She shook her head at such a fanciful notion and ignored the voice in her head when it said, “Yes.” Recent hallucinations aside, Rebecca was a really level headed woman, not normally taken by such crazy and fanciful ideas and she refused to start now. Whatever had happened to her, was over now and she needed to get her head straight.

Maybe it had been a seizure
, she thought. It made sense, even though she’d never had one before.
I just need some sleep. It’s been a long and strange day
, Rebecca thought as she settled more comfortably in her sleeping bag.

“I will gather the information that we need from the others while you rest, and complete our bond. Sleep well,” the voice said affectionately in her mind.

Rebecca drifted off to sleep imagining the sound of two strange, male voices in the distance.

*****

Decano and Amun settled down for the night with their backs against two trees, not far from Gracus and his mate. The two cats that Gibly had left behind were patrolling an outer perimeter.

Amun looked over at Decano. “Should we move closer?”

Decano shook his head. “No. They need their privacy. You heard her reaction to the story, she’s not believing this yet. Until she does, we don’t need to scare her. From her point of view, I’m sure she’s been scared enough.”