Manipulating Mikey (First Wave Book 8) (10 page)

Mikey didn’t realize he’d
broadcasted his thoughts through the Shengari’ until the others began nodding
their heads in agreement.

Traze put a hand on his shoulder.

“If we have to harm one of those
kids, I’ll help you find the parents and deliver justice,” Traze promised.

Grai and the others nodded, each
resigning themselves to doing what they had to do to get out alive. But their
actions would have consequences for those who put them in the position of
having to choose between their lives and the children put in their path.

Mikey looked at Grai, making a
quick decision.

“I can see them; give me a few
minutes, and I may be able to knock them out so we can get past,” he offered.

Grai shook his head.

“It’s too dangerous,” he said,
trying to think of another way around the patrolling children without hurting
one of them.

Lauren had heard through the team
chatter on the Shengari’ what the problem was, and she thought she had a
solution. She moved past the others up to Grai and caught his attention.

“I can program medibands to knock
them out for hours, you just have to get the bands on bare skin,” she said to
Grai, trying to ignore the race of her heart as she stood so close to Mikey.

Grai pondered it while Mikey looked
between Lauren and Grai, wondering what they’d been talking about privately. He
felt a rush of jealous anger that she was talking to anyone privately, and he
tried his best to tamp it down.

What the hell is wrong with me?
He
wondered.
I freak out like I don’t want her, but I don’t want anyone else
near her either. God, I’m being such a psycho no wonder she won’t look at me,
he thought with a shake of his head.

As much as he wanted to look away
from her, he couldn’t stop himself from staring. Her subtle floral scent was
teasing his nostrils, and he felt a pull towards her that was becoming more
intense the longer he was around her. Even now, the only thing stopping him
from reaching out to touch her was pride, shame, and the fear of being
rejected.

Instead, he studied her body
movements and watched her face, looking for any sign that she still liked him
at all. He had no idea why it was so important to him, but it was, and not
knowing was eating at him.

He was so intent on studying her
that it took a moment to register that Grai had spoken to him and another
second to process what he’d said as he watched Lauren walk back to the circle
of guards.

“I need to know you can do this. If
shots have to be fired we will bring hell down on us. Do you understand?” Grai
asked, not wanting to put their potential capture and death on the shoulders of
a guy who couldn’t pay attention.

Mikey pulled his thoughts away from
Lauren and looked Grai in the eyes.

“I can do this. It shouldn’t be too
hard to get the band things on the kids,” he said, focusing his attention on
getting them past the kids.

Grai studied him for a second
before giving him a sharp nod.

“Blade will get the locations of
the two adults from your mind and wait for your signal that the kids are out,”
Grai reiterated to make sure Mikey was still paying attention.

Mikey sighed and turned to look at
Blade.

He wasn’t too thrilled about the
guy fucking with his head again, but they didn’t have a choice—they had to take
out the adults while he snuck up on each of the kids.

Blade made the exchange quickly and
blinked at Mikey in surprise.

“Wow, that’s a pretty cool gift,”
Blade admitted with a grin before he reaped the image into Grai’s mind.

Mikey carefully picked his way past
the group to where he clearly saw one of the children through the foliage. He
watched the small boy with a rifle as big as himself turn his back to him, and
Mikey lunged through the undergrowth, catching one hand around the boy’s mouth
while he stuck the mediband to his forehead with the other.

Within seconds the child was passed
out. Mikey carefully laid the child—Mikey estimated him to be only nine or
ten—on the ground.

“One down,” he relayed to Grai
through the Shengari’.

He stood quickly and scanned the
area for the next closest child and headed in that direction.

Within three minutes, the children
were safely down on the ground while Blade and Grai took out the adults. Mikey
began carrying the children to a small, bare hut. When he arrived at the hut
with the last child, he saw Lauren inside with the others while her guards
surrounded the ramshackle building made of thick, dried stalks bound together
with twine and a roof of palm fronds.

He gently laid the last young boy
inside and stepped out with a sigh when Lauren turned her back to him. He saw
Grai, Blade, and Traze in the distance and headed towards them. Mikey could
tell before he even got close that something was wrong by the hardened
expressions on their faces.

“What is it?” he didn’t hesitate to
ask.

“We’re heading right towards a suspected
cartel fortress,” Traze informed him.

Mikey ran a hand down his face and
wiped off the sweat while he cursed in his mind.

“How many?” he asked Traze.

Traze shook his head and shrugged.

“We’re not sure; the area
surrounding the stronghold is thick with vegetation. The only reason we saw it
was because of the road leading to it and the small airfield not far from it,”
Traze admitted before turning back to his brother.

Mikey scanned the area to make sure
there weren’t any more people close by when a thought occurred to him, and he
turned back to Traze.

“Can’t you land your ships at the
airfield?” he asked.

“Yeah, we’re trying to figure out
how to get there without trekking through half of the cartel’s territory,”
Traze answered.

“I can see them before we get to
them,” Mikey offered.

Blade agreed with him, but that
wasn’t the problem.

“The problem will be our ability to
take them all out before they can get out a warning,” Blade explained.

Mikey understood what he meant. The
airfield would be heavily guarded, and the only way to make sure they weren’t
out in the open field—sitting ducks—would be to secure the perimeter.

Grai moved to stand beside Mikey
and showed him the aerial view of the stronghold and airstrip. Without
speaking, Grai moved his finger along the path they would have to take to get
to the airstrip.

Because of a mountain ridge, they
would have to move around the ridge, and that was going to cause them to cross
the road and the front of the home that could barely be seen through the thick
foliage. It was the only way to the airstrip. Even with the 20 or so people
they had, it was going to be damn hard—if not impossible—to cross a heavily
guarded stronghold without setting off a warning.

“We can avoid it and go this way,”
Grai said, pointing out another route. “But we’d have to trek the other 20
miles to the next pick up location.”

The groans around them told
everyone that they preferred to take on a cartel than spend another minute in
the jungle.

“I say we take them down. We’d be doing
the country and the local kids a favor,” Traze said, crossing his arms over his
chest. His hard stare said he was looking for a fight.

“They’ll have more kids fighting
though, and we don’t have enough medibands for them all,” Grai argued, weighing
their options.

“The kids are more noticeable
though,” Mikey interjected. “They’re smaller, and the color around them isn’t
black even though they’re holding weapons. I’m not real sure what that means,
but I’ve noticed that the people with the black outlines are bad.”

“Is it an aura?” Grai asked
curiously.

Mikey shrugged his shoulders, not
real sure what an aura was supposed to look like. Blade nodded his head though.

“Yeah, it looks just like an aura
when I saw what he did. He doesn’t see through things like an x-ray vision, he
sees the auras around the living things inside or behind material objects. When
he’s close enough, he can see through skin,” Blade said, pretty surprised by
Mikey’s ability.

“That’s pretty cool,” Traze said
with an impressed nod at Mikey.

The praise made Mikey feel almost
proud of what he’d recently thought of as a life-wrecking horror.

“Thanks, beast, none of it would be
pretty cool without you,”
Mikey whispered in his mind, not expecting a
response. It still hurt when he didn’t get one.

“What’s the range of your vision?”
Grai asked.

Mikey thought about it for a
moment.

“Probably 30 or 40 yards,” he said,
looking to Blade to see if he agreed.

“Yeah, that’s about right,” Blade
said.

Grai looked at the aerial view on
the comm again. There really was no decision to make. The longer they stayed
out there, the greater the risk of someone getting killed or captured. The
teams might have taken their chances if they didn’t have Lauren with them. She
was completely untrained in any kind of combat, and Grai wasn’t even sure if
she knew how to use the gun Simya had forced on her earlier. He turned to
Mikey.

“You can lead us through?” Grai
asked.

Mikey studied the map to make sure
he had the route memorized and nodded his head.

“Yeah, I can,” he said, pretty sure
that his beast would continue to help even though he still wasn’t speaking to
him.

“Blade, Traze, and I will stay up
with you. When you see something, show it to Blade; he’ll share it with me and
Traze. Are we clear?” Grai asked Mikey, hoping like hell the kid could do it.

Mikey stole a glance at Lauren,
noticed how tired she looked, and knew he had to do something right where she
was concerned.

Getting her out of here would be a
good start,
he thought.

He looked up at Grai with
conviction and nodded before he started off in the direction of the road.

Grai relayed the plan to the others
through the Shengari’ as Traze moved up to walk behind Mikey. Blade followed
and Grai took up the rear.

They walked for a good half hour
when Mikey stopped short and held a hand up for the others to stop as well. He
saw a dark spot up ahead, but he wasn’t sure if it was a denseness in the
foliage or an armed person. He knew he needed a closer look and turned to tell
Traze through the Shengari’.

“I follow. No arguments,” Traze
said, urging Mikey to go forward until he could make out what was up ahead.

Mikey moved as quietly as he could
to get a closer look with Traze on his heels until he stopped and ducked down.
He turned in time to see Traze had followed his lead and was hunched down as
well. Both could hear the voices and loud crashing through the trees ahead.

Mikey peered over the bush they’d
ducked behind and could see a cave entrance up ahead. They were hearing the
voices of the people inside. Traze cocked his head to the side to try and catch
the words and tapped Mikey on the shoulder to get his attention.

“They’re cartel. They use the cave
to store their drugs before they’re taken to the airfield and the planes.
They’re on alert for us,” Traze said, translating what he’d heard.

“Either the cave is messing with my
eyes, or they are so far inside that I can’t see them,” Mikey admitted, hoping
it was the latter.

“Let’s try going farther and see
what happens,” Traze suggested as he stood.

Mikey stood, feeling a little
stupid for having ducked. He kept forgetting that just because he could see
people through the foliage and obstacles didn’t mean they could see him too.

He led them a few yards farther,
and he could clearly see the cave entrance and hear the voices within. He
pictured the map from the comm in his mind and looked to their right before
turning to Traze.

“There’s nothing this way. It
should take us around the cave and to the road,” Mikey advised.

Traze nodded and relayed the information
to Grai and Blade who were still waiting behind them for the all clear.

“Go,” Grai said.

Mikey turned and led them away from
the cave to the road, hoping like hell that they could get the airfield secured
quickly. He was pretty sure that Grai had his people waiting on standby
somewhere nearby just waiting for the word to pick them up. From what he’d
seen, the man didn’t leave much to chance and had plans for plans. Mikey hoped
this was one of those times.

He turned and stole another glance
at Lauren and smiled broadly when he saw her looking at him. Even though she
quickly looked away from him, it wasn’t enough to wipe the smile from his face
and the hope from swelling inside of him.

Maybe there’s still a chance to fix
things
, he thought.

Chapter Ten

Mikey wiped the sweat from his
forehead as he scanned the area of the airfield closest to them. He and Traze
had taken out the first two guards they’d seen near the edge of the field and
were trying to figure out where the others were.

“There,” Mikey whispered in Traze’s
mind as he pointed to their left.

They’d come in near the
southeastern side of the airfield and were trying to figure out if they could
just clear the one corner or if they had to clear more before they called in
the evacuation teams for pick up.

In perfect conditions it would take
at least a minute and a half to get them all inside the ships—which was more
than enough time for a sniper to take one of them out or for someone to fire a
rocket-propelled grenade at them. Since the shields had to be down for
transport to occur, they would be taking a big risk on having another one of
their craft downed.

Right then, Grai had the ships
cloaked high above them, waiting to drop down the moment they got the all clear
signal. Mikey led Traze towards the next target, saw it was another young boy,
and pulled out the pre-programmed medibands that Lauren had given to Grai
earlier while Traze readied himself to distract the kid.

Seconds later, they were calling
for one of the others to take the passed out child to an empty bunker they’d
found not far from the airfield. If anything did go wrong and they ended up in
a firefight, the kids would at least be safe in the bunker. Thankfully, the
children they’d stashed in the hut earlier, miles away, would be waking up soon
and would be too far away to be in danger.

Mikey was scanning the area for the
next target when warning shouts erupted around them. Mikey and Traze ran low
through the trees and foliage around the airfield to where Grai was waiting
with most of the others.

They reached the others just as
they heard through the Shengari’ that the Mexican military had arrived with a
group of Americans.

“What the hell now?” Traze asked
his brother sarcastically.

Grai shook his head, his
frustration level getting higher by the second as the situation worsened for
them and their options diminished.

“It’s time to stop playing nice,”
Traze growled at Grai, anger flashing through his eyes as his fists clenched.
He was tired of running, tired of being hunted. It was time the prey turned the
tables on the hunters.

David snorted and patted his rifle.

“This is one case where no one is
innocent, but the kids are safe in the bunker. It’s our only way out,” he said,
sure that there were no more children inside the main buildings.

Crator and Simya shrugged.

“Two corrupt militaries and a
parasite causing an epidemic of drug addiction, street wars, and human
trafficking . . . seems like a good time to send our own message,” Simya said.

Grai looked out towards the
airfield and knew it wouldn’t be long before the American helicopters arrived.
The US military planned to jointly use the place with a cartel boss and corrupt
Mexican military personnel. He shook his head at the lengths the US government
would go to in order to capture or kill them when they would be better served
fighting the true epidemic of terrorists in the world.

Grai looked up at his teams.

“I want Lauren under guard in the
bunker with the kids. The rest of you will be divided around the perimeter
here,” Grai said as he held up the map on his comm and pointed out where he
wanted them. “Stay far away from the main building area. Engage only those who
come your way.”

“How is that going to help?” Traze
asked, angry that his brother wasn’t going to do anything.

Grai glared at his brother in
warning before he looked at the others.

“I’m calling in air support, we’re
going to level the place, wait for the choppers to show up to help, and then
take them out,” Grai explained.

“We’re to take out anyone left
trying to leave the area,” Traze said as it dawned on him what Grai was going
to do.

Grai nodded sharply, not happy with
what they were going to do, but he knew they were backed into a corner.

Grai quickly assigned everyone to
sectors around the perimeter until only Blade, David, Traze, and Mikey were
left.

“Traze, you and Mikey protect
Lauren in the bunker,” Grai ordered, expecting his brother to explode. He was
right.

Traze stepped up to get in Grai’s
face and was getting ready to scream when Grai caught him by the throat and
picked him off the ground.

“You’re going there because it’s
the only damn bunker here. Where the hell do you think everyone is going to run
to? Lauren and those kids need you there. You understand?” Grai growled at his
brother.

Traze nodded his head while Grai
lowered him back to his feet.

“We’re going to talk later,
brother,” Traze growled before he stormed off in the direction of the bunker.

Grai closed his eyes and sighed
heavily before he looked at Mikey.

“Get over there and help. If my
brother becomes a problem, contact me immediately,” Grai told Mikey.

Mikey looked at Grai carefully
before nodding his head and taking off at a run to catch up to Traze. He had no
idea what was going on between the brothers, and he didn’t really care as long
as neither started shooting at the wrong people.

He didn’t really know what Grai’s
idea of air support was, but if it was anything like he’d seen in the national
forest when he was hit by Koda’s pod, then he wanted to make sure Lauren was
going to be safe.

He walked past Traze, who was
pacing outside of the opening to the bunker, and he ducked inside and headed
down the short hallway to where Lauren was with the unconscious children.

“Grai’s bringing in air support.
Are you OK in here?” Mikey asked, looking at the children to avoid her eyes.
Not that he needed to worry about that—Lauren refused to turn and look at him.

“I heard through the Shengari’.
Yes, we’re fine. Thank you,” Lauren whispered.

She waited until she heard his
footsteps going back outside before letting out the breath she’d been holding.
It was getting harder and harder to avoid the pull towards him when he was
near, but she wasn’t one of those people who tried to push themselves where they
weren’t wanted.

Lauren knew that Mikey wasn’t
accepting them. He was fighting their world every step of the way, and just
because she’d never known of a hybrid who rejected who they were didn’t mean
that Mikey wouldn’t be the first. They couldn’t force him to stay, and she
didn’t want him to if he didn’t want to be with them willingly.

Lauren looked back down at her
scanner and returned to trying to correct the miscellaneous problems affecting
the children. There wasn’t anything serious wrong with them other than basic
nutritional deficiencies and some nasty parasites that were definitely not the
beast kind. It made her feel better to know that she could help them in some
way, and it kept her mind off of Mikey.

When Mikey was with Traze clearing
the area around the airfield, Blade had told her Mikey was really a good guy.
He was just having a hard time accepting the fact that his whole life had
basically been a lie. Blade said he saw honor and loyalty when he was in
Mikey’s mind and felt like he just needed time to adjust.

Lauren wasn’t a fool. She knew how
hard it must be for him. It wasn’t every day you found out you’re half alien
and have a sentient parasite in your brain. It was why she’d been hesitant to
throw their mate status at him so quickly, but she could see how he could
interpret it as a betrayal.

Damn, so much for not thinking
about him
, Lauren thought as she stood and stretched her arms above her
head.

Seconds later the area was rocked
with blasts that shook the interior of the bunker, and Lauren looked around
carefully to make sure the place wasn’t coming down around her and the kids.
She turned to check on the children and sucked in a breath before she held her
hands above her head, praying someone would come and check on them soon.

*****

Mikey and Traze took positions
around the entrance to the underground concrete bunker and waited for the
aerial assault to begin. They didn’t have to wait long. Mikey looked up through
the trees in time to see a small craft—like the ones in the forest that
day—come out of nowhere before firing what looked like lasers at the main
building. 

He sent a mental warning to Traze
right before the forest exploded with gunfire and chaos as chunks of debris and
stone rained down around them. Mikey looked through the smoke towards the main
building and saw almost half of it was completely levelled.

Mikey could see the armed, dark
shadows pouring out of the undamaged part of the building and firing as they
ran for cover. Their immediate area was still clear, and he looked up as the
alien aircraft came in flying in low.

The next laser hits took out the
remainder of the main building and one of the outlying ones as well. Mikey knew
it wasn’t over yet when he heard the helicopters and jets heading their way and
the almost constant gunfire echoing through the jungle.

He scanned their immediate area and
sent a warning to Traze as he lifted his rifle and began firing on the trio of
dark shadows heading their way through the smoky haze. When the trio fell, he
called to Traze to cease fire.

“No point wasting bullets when we had
no idea how many we may still have to deal with,” Mikey told him through the
Shengari’.

Seeing nothing else coming towards
them, Mikey looked to the sky again. Although he could clearly see the aircraft,
he assumed that they must be cloaked because the helicopters were firing
blindly around them, apparently unable to see the UFO flying right at them.

Moments later, the helicopters
exploded in twin fireballs, and he warned Traze again before they impacted the
ground. One crashed on the already demolished main building, and the other came
to rest in the middle of the airfield.

Both men relaxed into the violent
trembling of the earth beneath their feet so they wouldn’t lose their balance
while Mikey scanned the area around them to see if anyone was heading their
way.

“The jets are waving off,” Mikey
told Traze through the Shengari’.

Mikey figured they would. The heavy
losses already sustained by both militaries and the cartel would force the
remainder of their forces—including the jets—to fall back and regroup before
attacking them again.

He wasn’t the least bit surprised
that the gunfire outside had slowed to only a few short bursts every once in a
while, and the smoke was beginning to clear. Whatever was fired from the UFO
aircraft had most likely killed the majority of the military and cartel members
inside the main building.

Mikey heard Grai’s call through the
Shengari’ to head towards the airfield near the bunker and he nodded at Traze
that he’d heard it. Neither one of them wanted to shoot one of their own by
accident, so they waited behind the trees as each person called out that they
were coming through the Shengari’ so Traze and Mikey could expect them as they
came towards the bunker.

When all but Grai was assembled
near the bunker, Mikey looked around for Lauren. He had expected her to come
out of the bunker once the chaos was replaced by silence, but she hadn’t.

“Have you seen Lauren?” Mikey asked
Traze through the Shengari’.

Traze looked around curiously for a
moment before he shook his head, his eyes narrowing as he looked behind Mikey
to the bunker where Lauren was with the kids.

Mikey’s head grew cool, and the
hair on the back of his neck stood up as he slowly turned around to see one of
the teenagers they’d put in the bunker holding a machete to Lauren’s neck.

Mikey automatically pulled his
rifle to his shoulder and took aim at the boy’s head. He barely registered the
sound of the other aliens behind him doing the same as he looked into Lauren’s
fear-filled eyes.

Mikey barely contained the roar of
rage that threatened to come from his throat and instead he focused on the
threat to Lauren. The teen was spewing a rapid fire Spanish at them that Mikey
couldn’t understand.

“He says he’ll kill her if you
don’t back off and let him out of here.”

No one turned their attention from
Lauren and the teen as Grai and a mercenary walked right up to where Mikey was
standing in front of Lauren.

“Brandon, can you explain to him
that we don’t want to hurt him and him and the other kids can leave when they
want?” Grai asked the mercenary, to everyone’s surprise.

Brandon looked calmly at the teen
as he explained to him that they weren’t there to harm the children. That they
had liberated the area of the cartel and the corrupt military in the area and
just wanted to leave. The news was not taken well.

The teen’s arm around Lauren’s neck
tightened and Mikey could see the startled pain cross her face as she was
yanked backwards, the sharp blade of the machete drawing a thin line of blood.