Manipulating Mikey (First Wave Book 8) (16 page)

David called everyone to the roof
and the transport arrived minutes later to pick them up. As they all boarded
and sat down, Grai turned to Traze.

“Send the vids to my comm as soon
as you can. Lara’s too. I’ve already let her know what happened here. I think
she can tell us what the hell that writing is,” he said, hoping Lara could
translate it. He had a really bad feeling about whatever the message was.

“What about Chris and the others?
Are you going to tell them?” Traze asked.

Grai sighed heavily and leaned his
head back against his seat, trying to figure out if he should tell the kids or
not. If David was right, and they were followed to Paris after the incident at
Satalis’s house, then they could be in danger, and he had to warn them to be
more vigilant.

“Yes, I’ll notify Chris and the
others as well. They need to know to double their security. Especially with
Angel, Dree, and Charlie being so vulnerable,” Grai said, running his hands
over his head as he contacted his son.

After waking him up, Grai was able
to tell Chris everything he knew and assured Chris that he would let him know
what he found out while they investigated it.

He opened his eyes and looked
around at the somber group and wondered briefly when any of them had slept
last. It had been one of those weeks where nothing had seemed to go their way,
and they were due a break.

“Is it me, or has the whole damn
world gone crazy in the last few weeks?” Blade asked, shaking his head in anger
and frustration over what had been happening around the globe lately.

“Don’t dwell on it,” Grai advised,
knowing it was a slippery slope. “We cannot intervene in their affairs. We’re
already doing too much with the kill on confirmation orders that may be issued.”

“How much of the world do we watch
burn before we step in?” Traze demanded angrily.

Grai turned sharply on his brother.

“You and I, we are not in any way
human and have no say in this! So back the hell off! If and when the hybrids
decide to bring a cause before the Alliance, it will be considered by all!”
Grai growled at his brother, daring him to challenge him.

Traze narrowed his gaze at Grai
before backing down. Not because he was afraid of going head to head with Grai,
but because he could tell that his brother had a plan, and he would wait to see
how things played out before taking his own complaint to his brother
personally.

David watched the exchange between
the two brothers closely as he sent small bursts of calming energy to Traze in
order to help ease the nearly volatile situation. He’d been shadowing Traze
more often and had resorted to calming the man-child without his knowledge to
keep him from erupting on someone.

Traze was dangerously close to
losing control, and David knew that he was going to have to talk to Grai about
it. It wasn’t a conversation he wanted to have for many reasons, but the top
one was that he thought Grai was under more than enough stress right now and
didn’t need his angry little brother added to his problems.

Grai was already more than aware of
what was going on with his brother, and he’d already made up his mind what he
would do about it. The only thing he was waiting on was the end of the human
holidays which had always been Traze’s favorite time of the year.

*****

Mikey awoke with a start and sat up
quickly, looking around the room for what had awakened him. Not seeing
anything, he moved to lay back down with Lauren when he heard the slight
whimpering sound.

He had a feeling he knew what it
was and slipped from the bed, trying not to wake up Lauren. Mikey pulled on his
pants and grabbed a shirt before he opened the door and pulled it closed behind
him.

His bare feet barely made a sound
as he walked quickly down the hallway, buttoning his pants and pulling his
shirt on as he went. It didn’t take long before Mikey found himself outside, headed
towards his bedroom window and the small figure he could see standing beneath
it.

“Emily . . .” Mikey began before he
gasped in shock. “What happened to you? What’s wrong?”

Her image was no longer vibrant and
strong like it had been the previous times that he’d seen her. Her face looked
gaunt and pale, and it was obvious she’d lost weight. Although still unsure if
she was a figment of his imagination or not, Mikey was concerned with the
sudden and drastic change to her appearance.

“Indrid?” Emily whispered, her tear
stained face looking around as if she couldn’t see Mikey.

“Emily, it’s Mikey. What’s wrong?”
he asked with concern.

“Mikey? Is Indrid with you?” Emily
asked as her head swung around as if to see where he was.

Mikey stepped closer to her and
waved his hand in front of her unseeing eyes.

“Emily? What happened to you?”
Mikey whispered in fear for the girl.

“Mikey, I need you to find Indrid.
It’s important, please. If you don’t find him . . . we all might die. Please,
I’m begging you,” Emily whispered as tears streamed down her face.

Mikey reached out for her, to offer
comfort, and her image wavered and disappeared.

“Emily?” Mikey called out, his hand
still stretched out where her image had been.

“I believe that you should try to
find Indrid,”
Harry whispered in Mikey’s mind.

“So she’s real? It’s not in my
head?”
Mikey asked his beast as he rubbed a hand over his head in
frustration.

“She is very real and appears to be
in grave need of assistance,”
Harry assured him.

“Damn it! I knew it!” Mikey
muttered before he took off at a run toward the end of the city and began a
systematic search of each building to look for Indrid.

At this late hour, there were few
people awake, but he asked everyone he encountered if they’d seen the odd man
or if they knew how to reach him. Each of the answers had been the same: Indrid
showed up randomly, and the only person who could easily reach him would be his
son, Mikal, Grai’s adopted son.

Mikey finally ended up back at the
kitchen, and he fell into one of the chairs exhausted. Looking at the clock on
the wall, he saw that he’d been searching the city for hours and still hadn’t
found a way to help Emily.

He stood again and wandered around
the large kitchen trying to figure out how to make a pot of coffee, knowing he would
need it if he was going to wait for someone to wake up so he could get hold of
Mikal so Mikal could get Indrid.

Damn, this is so confusing and
crazy
, he thought.

After rummaging through what seemed
like every cabinet in the room, he finally got a pot of coffee started and sat
back down at the table.

He sighed in helpless frustration
as he ran a hand over his head then laid his head on the table, trying to think
of any other way to get ahold of someone that could help him. His last thoughts
were of Emily as he drifted off to sleep to the smell of freshly brewing
coffee.

Chapter
Sixteen

Lauren shivered and reached out
beside her for Mikey’s warmth and was met with an empty bed. She sat up and
pulled the covers around her shoulders as she looked around the dimly lit room
for her mate.

“Mikey?” she called out, hoping
he’d just gone to the bathroom and hadn’t left her after taking her virginity
and bonding with her.

When several minutes passed and
Mikey still didn’t appear, she slid out of bed and pulled on clean clothes. She
wrapped a sweater around her to ward off the chill in the air and quietly
opened the door and slipped into the hallway.

Lauren went to Mikey’s door and
swung it open to see if he’d gone to his own room. Not seeing him in the bed,
she stepped inside and looked around.

“Mikey?”

OK don’t panic, he probably went downstairs
to get something to eat
, she thought with a confused frown and shut
the door behind her as she headed downstairs to the kitchen.

Lauren breathed a sigh of relief
when she saw his head on the table, sound asleep. She looked up at the coffee
mug being held out to her by Disc while he held a finger to his lips with his
other hand, and she moved silently over to him.

“Thanks,” she whispered as she took
a sip of the hot coffee. How long has he been like this?”

Disc shook his head and poured
himself another cup of the unusually strong brew. Someone—he guessed Mikey—had
made it pretty potent this morning which was his favorite way of making the
brew as well.

“I’m not sure, but I’m guessing it
was while he was waiting for the coffee to finish,” he suggested with a grin.

Lauren’s brow furrowed in concern
as she wondered when he’d slept last and if he was having sleeping problems.
She pulled out her comm and began running scans on him while Disc looked at her
curiously.

“You think something is wrong with
him?” he asked.

“I just want to make sure there
isn’t a physical reason why he’s not sleeping well,” Lauren said a little
defensively.

Disc chuckled softly so he wouldn’t
wake his exhausted cousin.

“Can you blame him? It’s been a
heck of a few weeks for the guy, and laying a family on him so soon after he
found out he wasn’t human probably didn’t help,” he said with a shrug of his
shoulders. 

Disc could more than understand why
Mikey was having trouble sleeping. He didn’t think he’d sleep too well either
if he was tortured by his own government, rescued by aliens, found out he was
an alien with strange abilities, met his mate, and then had more family sprung
on him.

I wouldn’t sleep for a month
, Disc
thought.

Lauren checked the scans and shook
her head. All it told her was what she already knew—he was physically fine but
sleep deprived. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something
more to this than that.

With a heavy sigh, she turned to
Disc.

“You’re a spirit walker right? You
can visit his dreams?”

Disc almost choked on his sip on
coffee.

“Are you serious? You want me to
invade his dreams?” he asked incredulous she’d want to do that.

“Something is wrong,” Lauren said,
feeling like she had to explain herself. “This is the most peaceful place on
the planet, and he can’t sleep. His scans show he’s physically fine but sleep
deprived. Which means it has to be psychological. I can’t help him if I don’t
know what’s wrong.”

“He’s physically fine; leave it at
that. The rest will work itself out,” Disc assured her, not wanting to violate
his newly found cousin’s dreams.

“What if it’s more than that?”
Lauren argued.

Disc put down his coffee cup and
faced Lauren.

“I understand that you’re mates and
you care for him, but I would suggest you abandon the idea of invading his
privacy like that. Trust issues are the hardest to overcome in any relationship,
so I suggest you try asking him before considering something so drastic,” he
said, hoping she’d understand and give up.

Without another word, he walked
quietly out of the kitchen to avoid waking his sleeping cousin.

Lauren folded her arms over her
chest and watched him leave. He had a point; it was a bit privacy stealing and
drastic to have him spirit walked, but something was wrong with him. She could
feel it.

“Emily,” Mikey breathed on a sigh
in his sleep.

Lauren’s spine went ramrod straight,
and she tightened her arms around herself as she held to breathe to see if he
would say anything else in his sleep. Not that she really wanted to hear
anything else after listening to him utter another woman’s name after he’d just
took her virginity.

She watched Mikey reach his hand
out, as if to touch someone and she found herself walking closer to him as his
lips moved.

“I’ll find him . . . I promise,”
Mikey muttered as his hand reached out again.

His hand dropped to the table
sharply and Mikey jerked up in the chair and looked around as he fought the
memories of the dream he’d been having. He turned to see the horrified
expression on Lauren’s face.

What the hell? He thought, trying
to remember why he was in the kitchen.

“Emily!” he said, remembering how
terrible she looked and how he’d looked for Indrid.

“Yes, you’ve mentioned her several
times in your sleep. Who is she?” Lauren asked, unable to hide the deep hurt in
her voice.

Mikey spun around to face Lauren
and ran a frustrated hand over his face as he realized how it must sound to her.

“No, no Lauren. It’s not what you
think, I swear to you,” Mikey said as he walked over towards her and took her
hand in his. “It’s going to sound crazy, but I’m going to tell you. Follow me.”

Lauren looked down as he tugged on
her hand, her hurt warring with her need to listen to him. She finally gave up
and let him pull her outside.

Mikey smiled down at her, grateful
that she was going to give him a chance to explain.

“Not long after I first got here, I
saw a woman right down here,” he said as he pointed towards the spot under his
window where he’d see Emily. “She said her name was Emily and that she was
looking for Indrid.”

Lauren shook her head and looked at
Mikey curiously.

“We don’t have anyone named Emily
here,” she said, trying to figure out what Mikey was talking about.

Mikey ran his hands over his head
in frustration as he stomped around the area where Emily had stood each time.

“I know! She said she came here a
few times to ask the angel, Indrid, for help. She said she’s real, alive
somewhere, I don’t know where, but that she needs Indrid’s help,” he said,
feeling stupid that it made no sense to him either, but he knew it was important.

Lauren shook her head in confusion.
This wasn’t what she expected him to say at all. Not even close, and she was
trying to understand what he was saying.

“Indrid is an angel?” Was the first
question that came out of her mouth.

“No!” Mikey said, shaking his head.
“She—Emily—thinks that he’s an angel. She said she’s come here before to ask
the angel, Indrid, for help when she needed it. She was surprised that I could
see her. She said that no one else ever saw her but Indrid. Then me.”

Lauren was beginning to understand
now.

“She’s like a ghost or something?
Something your ability lets you see?”

Mikey grinned broadly and nodded
emphatically.

“Yes! But when I first saw her she
looked vibrant, her colors bright and strong. Then I heard her tonight while we
were sleeping. I came down to see what was wrong, and she was barely there;
she’d lost a lot of weight and was pale. She said they all might die, that I
have to find Indrid,” he said, his worry increasing the more he remembered what
she’d said and how she looked.

“Are you sure she was real?” Lauren
couldn’t help but ask.

Mikey looked at her with
exasperation as he threw his hands up in the air.

“I didn’t think any of this was
real! But it is! Why can’t she be real? It’s not like I’ve ever known anyone
named Emily, so it’s not like it’s anyone from my past. So how could I have
just pulled that name out of nowhere?” he demanded, hoping like hell Emily was
real or he’d forget this alien business and sign himself into the nearest psych
ward.

Lauren could feel how upset and
stressed Mikey was getting, and she knew that would get them nowhere in
figuring this out.

“Calm down, honey. I had to ask.
You probably asked yourself the same thing; you can’t blame me for doing the
same,” she said with a gentle smile. “Now, did she tell you her last name?
Where she lives? Who were the others she thought were going to die?”

Mikey shook his head, trying to
remember everything that Emily had ever said to him.

“No, I didn’t get her last name or
where she lives. And I have no idea who anyone else was that she was talking
about. I’ve only seen her a few times, and at first I did think I was
hallucinating her. It’s why I didn’t admit to you who I was talking to,” Mikey
said, feeling a little better now that Lauren didn’t seem hurt anymore and she
appeared to believe him.

“That was her? You were talking to
Emily?” Lauren asked in surprise.

“Yeah,” Mikey said with a shrug. “Grai
came up on me one time as well, and she disappeared quick.”

“OK, let’s go over what you do know
and we’ll try and get this figured out,” Lauren suggested, hoping that he’d
trust her enough to let her help him and maybe Emily if she was indeed real and
in need of medical assistance.

“She said she needed Indrid, but I
looked all over this place and he’s not here, and no one knows how to get hold
of him,” Mikey said as he paced around the spot under the window.

“Honestly,” Lauren said. “I don’t
know how to reach him either. Mikal would know though, and he’s easier to get,
but didn’t Indrid say that you’d need him at some point and all you had to do
was call him?”

She knew how that sounded as soon
as she said it by the look on Mikey’s face and she chuckled.

“It’s a little late to think any of
this is crazy. Don’t you think?” she asked.

Mikey chuckled and nodded his head.

“Yeah, I think we’re long past the
crazy train. So what do I do? Stand in a darkened bathroom and call his name
three times? Or click my heels together three times and call it? On a side
note, why are all bad things in threes?” he only half teased.

Lauren giggled, glad they could see
the humor in this.

“Maybe, you should just stand here
and say his name a few times and see what happens. I’d pick something other
than three though,” she said with a wink. “Just in case.”

Mikey looked around to make sure
that no one would see him embarrassing himself like this.

“Indrid. Indrid,” Mikey whispered
as he looked to the sky, half expecting to see the odd man flying towards him
like a superhero.

Lauren looked around the city to
see if Indrid had come in but didn’t see anything and turned back to Mikey.

“Maybe you need to do it louder,”
she suggested.

“Because waking everyone up is
going to help?” Mikey asked in frustration.

“No, silly,” Lauren said with a
grin. “Not that loud, but not whispering either.”

“Fine,” Mikey said before he
resumed looking at the sky. “Indrid. Indrid. Indrid. Indrid.”

Mikey clapped his heels together on
the last one, making Lauren giggle at him.

“Stop! You’re making me laugh; we
need to take this seriously,” Lauren said.

Mikey pulled a scary face, curled
his fingers to look like claws and raised them above his head.

“Indrid, Indrid, Indrid!” he said
in a mock frightening voice.  

Lauren burst into giggles and
squealed when Mikey reached out for her with his clawed hands. He playfully
chased her around for a few minutes while she giggled until he finally caught
her in his arms.

“Thank you,” he whispered as he
held her close and kissed the top of her head.

“For what?” Lauren asked as she
looked up at him, her face shining in her happiness.

“For believing me. For listening to
me even though it looked really bad from your point of view,” Mikey whispered
as he felt the energy bonds between them strengthen.

Lauren giggled again and gave him a
squeeze before she pulled him over to a bench and sat down.

“I’m supposed to always be the one
person you can count on to listen even when it looks bad,” she said with a
smile before she looked around at the still empty streets. “I’m not sure what
else we can try here. We should probably go inside and get the contact
information for Mikal since he wasn’t sure how else to get ahold of him.”