Niklosi's Nightmare (First Wave Book 10) (15 page)

“Look at this,” Nik said in wonder
as he ran his hand over the sea creatures on the wall.

Traze was completely captivated and
held both of his hands to the wall as he looked at it in wonder.

“How the hell is this possible?” he
breathed out in awe as he ran past Nik to look at a whale.

“I’m sure they can explain it
better than me, but this place is really damn old and at one time was under the
sea,” Nik said, still awestruck by the cave.

“Wow,” Grai breathed out when they stepped
into the large cavern.

“Holy hell,” Traze whispered.

Blade removed his sunglasses to get
a better look while Mojo joined BJ and his mother near the waterfall.

“The wall by the waterfall is their
history. I was here when our transport appeared on the wall with me and Traze,”
Nik whispered through their minds, causing Traze to look at the wall.

“Where do you see that?” Traze
asked aloud as he walked towards the waterfall.

Nik looked at Grai and Blade
strangely, wondering if there was something wrong with Traze.

“I see it,” Grai assured him.

Blade just nodded his head
silently, confirming that he too could see the diorama on the walls by the
waterfall.

“Our history cannot be seen by the
blind of heart,” Bess said with a sad shake of her head. “But there is hope for
him yet.”

She walked up to Grai, Nik, and
Blade as Traze looked over the waterfall, trying to see where the mural was.

“We thank you, Grai T’Alq, for
coming so promptly at our call,” Bess said, reaching out her hand to Grai.

Grai took her elegant hand gently
in his own and shook it.

“Under the circumstances, we’re
honored you called,” Grai replied with a nod of his head.

Nik did his best not to stare at BJ
but failed miserably. Not that it mattered since she was doing a great job of
keeping her eyes trained on the back of her mother’s head to avoid looking at
him.

He felt terrible when he saw the
dark circles running under her glazed and tired eyes. Nik wanted nothing more
than to go to her and at least apologize, but he knew it wasn’t the time, and
he tried to concentrate on Bess and Grai.

“Our council has decided to reveal
themselves to you, which you will come to realize is a great honor. My only
request is that you continue to keep the open minds you are currently
displaying, or like our young doubter, you will not be able to take part in the
discussions,” Bess warned sharply as her eyes swirled.

“What the hell is she talking
about?” Traze whispered loudly as he joined them in front of the waterfall.

“Rolantro, this is Grai T’Alq,
Blade Djornav, and Niklosi Jevasari. The doubter is Grai’s brother, Traze,”
Bess said as everyone looked behind them.

Everyone but Traze sucked in a
sharp breath as they turned around and saw small sparks of light gather in the
middle of the cavern before they flashed. In the place of the lights stood some
of the tallest, most beautiful people they had ever seen.

The largest man in the center stood
at least seven and a half feet tall and was almost twice the size of Grai in
his build. His eyes had no whites in them at all but were a starburst of every
shade of blue imaginable. What gave Grai a little pause was he was heavily
armed with swords, daggers, and a shield.

His hair was a shoulder length
flowing mane of blond streaked in various lighter shades, and his bronzed skin
seemed to glow from within. Grai could see the tops of white wings that
appeared to be carefully folded behind his back.

Grai bravely stood his ground while
the giant advanced to within two feet of them.

“I am Rolantro. We are honored to
meet the brethren of our brethren,” he stated as he held his hand out to Grai.

“Who the fuck is she talking to?”
Traze whispered as he looked around the room.

Grai automatically held his hand
out to Rolantro, shaking twice.

“We are honored to meet you as
well,” Grai said as he dropped the elder’s hand, shocked at the contact with
the strange energy.

“Grai?” Traze asked, looking at
Grai curiously as his brother shook hands with and spoke to thin air.

Rolantro looked at Traze, and his
blue eyes began to swirl in the same unnerving way Bess’s did.

“I believe the young one should be
silenced while we speak,” he stated and waved his hand.

Grai and the others turned to see
that Traze had been completely frozen in place, leaning forward towards Grai.

“Do not fear for him; he will be
fine when we leave,” Rolantro assured them. “Since he cannot see us or hear us,
he will be a distraction we do not have the time to coddle.”

Grai could see Traze breathing, saw
Bess’s challenging stare, and he nodded his head before turning back to the
elder.

“I understand,” he said, even
though he really didn’t.

Those behind Rolantro chuckled,
drawing everyone’s attention past the giant leader to the several dozen others who
stood behind him. All of them were over seven feet tall and had an otherworldly
beauty.

Grai was suddenly really
uncomfortable and questioned his decision to come. Rolantro’s grin did nothing
to quell his nerves.

“It is normal that you feel a
little unsettled. Most never see us unless it is in the worst of circumstances,”
Rolantro stated. “Obviously, the situation is most dire, and we appreciate the
inner strength you are displaying in our presence. We understand that our
energy must be unsettling for you,” Rolantro explained. “It is not our intention
to make you feel uncomfortable. However, we feel that in order to establish
trust between our peoples for the sake of our shared brethren, we must be
honest about who we are.”

Grai took a deep breath through his
nose, steeling himself for whatever Rolantro was getting ready to admit to. A
part of him didn’t want to know, but he knew he had to understand exactly what
they were dealing with.

“Although our history is there for
you to see, it doesn’t really explain who we are,” Rolantro began. “We have been
here since before the beginning of humanity. We reside in small communities
throughout the world. In our language we are called ‘the Qur bak’ Taq,’ which
means the ‘immortal soul keepers.’”

Grai still wasn’t sure what
Rolantro was telling him. None of it made sense to him except for the part
about them being immortal. That got his attention, and his mind ran through all
of the immortal beings he could think of in Earth history to try and figure out
who they were.

“In fact, you will not remember it,
but you have met Illiatrona,” Rolantro stated, then gestured behind him to a
tall, ethereally beautiful woman with dark hair.

Grai stared at the incredible woman
and just shook his head, knowing he’d never met the woman in his life.

I would have damn sure remembered
seeing her. There’s no way in hell I’d forget seeing someone that beautiful,
Grai
thought.

Grai watched in surprise as the
woman moved towards them with a fluid grace, her beauty captivating him, Nik,
and Blade as she stopped next to Rolantro.

“You would not have remembered me,
but I held you in the sand and spread my wings above you to absorb the impact.
Your son traced an ancient sigil on you that called to us to provide protection,”
Illiatrona said in a voice that held a lyrical quality to it.

“What?” Grai mouthed, trying to
understand what she was talking about. He knew he’d never met her before even
though he remembered the symbol Tristan had traced on his forehead before he’d
gone to Africa with Balduen.

“On this world and others, we are
known by many names, but our duties to the Forefather, the One God, is the
same. You would call Illiatrona a Pa’sarpa in your father’s language,” Rolantro
explained as the color drained from Grai’s face.

Grai sucked in a sharp breath and
took a step back, almost tripping over a still immobile Traze. Nik and Blade
helped him to steady himself.

“What does it mean?” Nik asked.

“On this world, we are also called
angel, Valkyrie, Anubis, Thanatos, Viduus, Yama . . . there are so many, but on
Valendra we’re called Natakina,” Rolantro said, seeing the dawning comprehension
come over Blade and Nik.

“Oh gods,” Nik whispered, staring
at them in fear.

“That is the one thing we are not,”
Rolantro said with a chuckle. “Although, we would be considered demi-gods.”

Grai struggled to control his
raging emotions and the fight or flight feeling coursing through him. Nik, on
the other hand felt like he was going to hyperventilate, and he turned accusing
eyes to BJ.

“You’re soul reapers?” he growled
in anger and betrayal.

“Calm yourself!” Rolantro’s voice
boomed through the cavern, making Nik turn to him immediately. “She is not one
of us, although she retains her immortality through her mother. Only the Qur
bak’ Taq, are charged with the protection of the souls who pass.”

“You reap them!” Nik accused.

“You fool! We take them to the
realm of their gods! We have nothing to do with the time or manner of death,”
Rolantro shot back. “In those cases, where evil intervenes in the Forefather’s
design, we protect those who are not meant to pass to the after. Like
Illiatrona did with Grai and his brother, Koda.”

Nik ran his hands over his head and
glared at BJ, furious that she wouldn’t tell him something of that magnitude.
This wasn’t like lying about your weight or original hair color-she was an
immortal being descended from demigods.

“Thank you for your intervention in
both situations,” Grai said to Illiatrona, bowing slightly.

“You are welcome. We hope that it
will be many more years before we are called to come for you,” Illiatrona said
with a smile.

Grai chuckled, then the whole
situation seemed to hit him at once, and he started laughing harder. Nik and
Blade stared at him like he’d finally lost his mind until he finally calmed
himself.

“I apologize . . .” Grai paused and
snickered again. “I just realized the absurdity of the situation. That we’re
standing before the demigods of death. I can see why Bess laughed at any help
we could give her people. Which brings me to the question of what can we do to
help you? You’re demigods!”

Nik shook his head and refused to
look at BJ again. The sense of betrayal he felt went deep, much deeper than he
thought it would. His mind refused to even consider what kind of cosmic joke it
was to mate him to the child of a demigod.

Nik felt like he was suffocating in
the cavern as his thoughts consumed him, and he stopped paying attention to the
others. Without a word to anyone, he left through the passage, uncaring what
anyone thought as he tried to process just what BJ was and why the hell she was
chosen to be his.

Chapter
Fourteen

Grai and Blade remained in the
cavern, too curious and awestruck by the demigods standing before them to even
consider following Nik. Both men could well understand Nik’s upset. It was hard
enough for Valendrans to adjust to their mates and unique abilities, and Nik
just found out his was an immortal demigod, and that was overwhelming for all
of them-including Grai.

Grai had just remembered Bess telling
them Mojo and BJ would be going with him, and he had no idea what he was going
to do with demigods amongst his people.

How the hell is everyone going to
react to twin demigods?
Grai wondered.  

“You are uncertain. That is
understandable,” Rolantro admitted with a small smile. “We would not have taken
these extraordinary means if the situation wasn’t as serious as it is.”

Grai struggled to control his
racing thoughts and nodded to the elder demigod.

A demigod! Dozens of demigods!
Grai
thought in absolute awe before he reined in his emotions and remembered his
duty to his people.

“What can we do to help?” Grai
asked.

Rolantro grinned broadly as the
other demigods chuckled and smirked.

“We plan on showing them exactly
what they can expect to see when it is their time to pass,” Bess explained.

“What?” Blade asked as he whipped
his head around to Bess and shuddered at the thought that popped into his head.
“You’re going to show them the death realm of their god?”

“Sort of,” Illiatrona admitted. “It
will be a little more complicated than that.”

“What do you need us to do?” Grai
asked nervously, unsure what demigods would need the mere beast species for.

“You will be part of the chaos,”
Rolantro stated.

Grai had no idea what they meant,
but he wasn’t about to tell a couple of dozen demigods that he was going to
pass on keeping BJ and the others protected.

“Chaos?” Blade asked.

Bess cackled with laughter before
turning her eerie gaze to Blade.

“Don’t worry, your unique skills
are going to come in real handy,” Bess replied, not making Blade or Grai feel
any better about their evasive answers.  

“How is chaos going to prevent them
from taking BJ into custody and wrecking the town looking for us?” Grai asked.

He was hoping the question would
prompt them to be more specific about what role the demigods expected his people
to play while they tried to get rid of the major and the military in town. He
had to admit he was uneasy in their presence, and their ambiguity wasn’t
helping.

“BJ will be turning herself over to
them in the morning,” Rolantro began, then quickly added, “Do not fear for her.
The story she will tell will be believable.”

Grai looked over at BJ and saw that
she was keeping her head down and her eyes on the floor. There was nothing
about her posture that gave away her thoughts on the situation, but it was obvious
that she was hurt by Nik’s rejection, and he decided to leave the woman alone
and turn his attention to the leader of the demigods.

“Are you sure that this is a good
time to rely so heavily on her? There is a lot of . . . turmoil and
misunderstanding right now,” Grai stated, trying to avoid saying he didn’t
think she was emotionally fit to play a starring role in the latest plot.

“Do not concern yourself with the
immortal one; she is stronger than you think, and her family will be beside
her,” Rolantro stated in a booming voice while roughly two dozen demigods
nodded their heads.

It left no doubt in Grai and
Blade’s minds that the demigods were going to make sure that BJ was protected.

That answered that question
, Grai thought.

“How many and which of my people
will you need?” he asked.

“We only need Blade and the spirit
walker, Discorian, on the ground with us,” Rolantro said, surprising Grai that
he knew about Disc.

Why the hell am I surprised?
Grai
thought.

Then it finally dawned on him what they
had in mind for the military unit.

“You’re going to mind fuck them,”
Grai whispered aloud.

The laughter that erupted among the
demigods told Grai and Blade that he was correct in his assessment. Blade
grinned broadly, liking the plan already without even knowing the details.

“I prefer to call it a mental
readjustment,” Bess added causing another round of laughter.

“We cannot harm them. We are not
allowed to step outside of our duties as soul keepers, but we can give warnings
and glimpses into their future,” Rolantro explained. “I must warn you now, Grai
T’Alq, there are no souls due for keeping among those gathered. You must not
upset the natural order by interfering with that. The consequences would be
immediate and not in your best interests. Do you understand?”

The warning in the leader’s voice
echoed loudly through Grai and his beast, and he nodded his head.

“I understand. I will not
intervene,” Grai agreed.

He didn’t know what the
consequences would be if he did, and he didn’t want to know. He wasn’t about to
defy the advice of the demigods and incur their wrath.

*****

Nik had just left the cave entrance
and was heading towards the house and the field out front when he heard the
heavy steps behind him on the covered path. He turned to see Dennis and Irwin
coming towards him. Hoping they were smart enough to leave him alone, he turned
back towards the house and kept walking.

“I would suggest you stop right
there, young man!” Dennis boomed out.

The intensity of the sound caused
Nik to skip a step in his stride before he continued towards the house.
Suddenly he was frozen mid-step, and the only thing he could move were his
eyes. He saw both men approach him on either side before they stood in front of
him with their arms crossed over their chests.

“I have to say, I expected you to
handle this better,” Dennis said, disappointment heavy in his voice.

“Let him go, Dennis, so we can go
in the kitchen and have some tea. Maybe it’ll knock some sense into the fool,”
Irwin said with a disgusted shake of his head before he stormed down the path
to the kitchen door.

Nik watched as Irwin left the door
open and pleaded with Dennis with his eyes to release him from the paralyzing
hold.

“I suggest you have a chat with us
over tea, or you may find yourself porting somewhere other than that ship you
keep trying to contact,” Dennis warned.

With a wave of his hand, Nik was
free and left standing in the middle of the path while Dennis headed towards
the kitchen. Nik trudged to the kitchen door, too afraid of what Dennis would
do if he didn’t listen.

He sat down across from Dennis
while Irwin set water on the stove to boil. For some reason it struck Nik as
funny and he laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Irwin asked as
he shook tea into small mesh ball.

“You. Why don’t you just magically
heat the water instead of boiling it?” Nik asked with a grin.

Irwin looked at him oddly for a
moment.

“I’m human. I have no abilities
like the hybrids or powers like the demigods, so I use the stove,” he admitted.

“You’re human? And you see the
demigods and know of the hybrids?” Nik asked incredulously as he looked at
Dennis, wondering what he was.

Dennis only smiled and transformed
himself in front of Nik’s eyes. Like the other demigods, he stood over seven
feet tall, and although his hair and beard color remained the same vivid red,
he was much larger than the normal form he appeared to take on.

“In some cultures, the change we
can invoke is called glamour, shapeshifting, or morphing, blah, blah. I prefer
to walk among the humans when I am not called for duty and find it easier to
blend in while in this form,” Dennis admitted.

Nik watched with wide eyes as
Dennis shifted back into the form he was used to seeing.

“How does a human know of you and
can see you? Why would you take humans into your confidence like that?” Nik
asked, still stunned.

Irwin just waved his hand
distractedly and chuckled.

“The whole town knows of them,”
Irwin replied. “We all grew up with the soul keepers and the hybrids. As
children, they were the magical fairies in the woods or invisible playmates.
Dennis here has been my best friend since the day I was born.”

“Isn’t it dangerous for humans to
know? Aren’t they more likely to out you to the world?” Nik asked Dennis.

“Oh, please,” Dennis said with a
laugh. “Who would they tell? Who would believe them? How many humans throughout
history were believed? And these days . . . humanity has lost more than their
beliefs. Besides, why do you think most people in areas that we inhabit never
leave?”

“There’s many more of you?” Nik
asked, trying to swallow the lump in his throat at the thought.

“You probably don’t know much about
Earth history, being from Valendra, but there’s a few places that are commonly
thought of as ‘mysterious’ where we can be found. Besides, there are a lot of
humans on this planet, and we may be good at what we do, but there are times it
takes all of us,” Dennis answered with a chuckle.

“Here, this is Bess’s best tea.
Don’t worry, I didn’t put anything in it. Neither did Bess. It’s just a blend of
local herbs and leaves,” Irwin said as he set cups in front of Nik and Dennis
before taking a seat beside Nik.

“How can you see them?” Nik asked
Irwin.

“We raise our children not to be
afraid of the things that go bump in the night, but we don’t discount their
existence either. We know they are real, so our children remain open minded
enough to see and understand the things around them that normal children
don’t,” Irwin explained.

“That’s the problem with most
humans. Parents pound into their children that nothing exists, and after a
while the children can no longer see the magic that lives all around them,”
Dennis added with a sad shake of his head.

“It is a little hard to take in,”
Nik admitted, thinking of BJ.

“Because you’re looking at it
wrong,” Irwin replied, taking a sip of tea.

Nik looked at him with a raised
brow, unable to believe that the man didn’t understand where he was coming
from.

Irwin raised his hands up in
surrender.

“I’m not saying it isn’t difficult
to wrap your mind around,” the mayor admitted. “I’d be a little freaked out
too.”

Dennis shot Irwin a chastising
glare before he turned back to Nik.

“BJ isn’t a demigod. She’s nothing
more than an immortal hybrid,” Dennis admitted with a shrug.

Nik nearly choked on his tea. When
he knew he wasn’t going to gag he glared at Dennis.

“Oh, is that all? Just an
immortal?” he asked sarcastically.

“Don’t give me that shit,” Dennis
chastised. “You were against finding your mate so early in your life to begin
with. You’re just using this as an excuse to justify your position. She is no
more than any other hybrid with gifts if you ignore her immortality.”

Nik snorted and shook his head. He
didn’t believe for a second that they were this dense.

“You know damn well that the whole
immortality thing is pretty damn big. And don’t forget the ‘descended from gods’
part either. Or that all of my new family would be soul gods. Yeah, that’s not
intimidating at all,” he shot back.

“Demi . . .” Irwin began before Nik
cut him off.

“Gods! Demi or not there is a ‘god’
in that damn title! So don’t pretend like it’s not the elephant in the room,”
Nik growled.

“Let’s break it down. What about
her being immortal bothers you so much?” Dennis calmly asked.

Nik truly wondered if they were
stupid. He couldn’t imagine why the hell the demigod speaking to him couldn’t
understand why it bothered him so much.

“I would think it would be a
relief,” Irwin said with a shrug. “You don’t have to worry about protecting her
because she can’t die on you. Her abilities make her an asset to your mission
here on the planet, and she’s beautiful to boot. Yeah, not seeing the problem.”

“She can get hurt! She ended up in
the hospital over that beating in St. Louis. Where the hell were you guys then?”
Nik demanded.

“Bullshit excuses,” Dennis scoffed.
“So she can be hurt just like you can, and so can her beast. Her beast took
that beating, and it took a few days for it to recover. By the time we knew
about it, she was already almost healed and just pretending to still be hurt so
no one would be suspicious over her recovery.”

Nik ran a hand over his head as his
mind spun with the information.

“An immortal with a beast . . .”
Nik whispered, trying to process it all.