Niklosi's Nightmare (First Wave Book 10) (18 page)

A teenage girl came by and set cups
on the table and began pouring coffee into them. Kyle eyed the sparkling clean
pot and the well-dressed girl and shook his head.

“How the hell did you guys go from
disgusting to perfect so quickly?” he couldn’t help but ask. The transformation
was stunning.

“We actually house all the props in
the basement of the mercantile. Our ancestors learned long ago it was easier to
scare people away than try to explain things to them, so the majority of what
we use is exactly what they used,” Bess explained.

“We gathered the dirty, old sheets
that covered furniture in attics and used them as the tablecloths and candlewax
over our teeth to make them appear missing,” BJ added with a shrug as she added
cream and sugar to her coffee.

Kyle looked around the pristine
diner and shook his head at the effort before a thought occurred to him.

“How did you know we were coming?
We never got through to you on the phone,” Kyle asked, once again suspicious.

“Caleb Perkins lives out by the
highway and told us you were coming,” BJ explained. “It’s hard to miss a
military convoy. He called here, and since I saw the military hold notice when
I ran the prisoners, I figured it’d be you looking for them. Everyone was
setting everything up while I was keeping you distracted in the station.”

Kyle shook his head at the
extensive ruse that had been played on them and couldn’t help but believe that
it was something that the town had indeed practiced before.

“What can I get you?” the teenaged
girl asked as she returned to the table for their orders.

“I want the special,” BJ said
immediately. “Eggs, over medium.”

“I’ll have the same,” Bess agreed.

The waitress, Bess, and BJ turned
to Greg and Kyle. Kyle looked over the clean restaurant and literally went with
his gut.

“I’ll have the same,” he said, then
nudged Greg.

“Me too,” Greg added with another
look at the clean kitchen.

The girl nodded her head, refilled
their coffee cups, and left the table. When she was out of earshot, Kyle turned
to Bess.

“What have you witnessed?” he
whispered.

“There’s no need to whisper. The
whole town knows what’s going on,” Bess told him with a small smile. “I really
can’t even answer your question though. None of us here really know what we’ve
seen and heard. That’s what we’re hoping you can help BJ figure out.”

“Have you had any visions?” Greg
said quietly, before looking around to make sure no one else heard him.

“No, thank goodness,” Bess
answered, looking suitably relieved. “That seems to be reserved for those of .
. . questionable morality.”

Greg appeared disheartened at the
news before he perked back up again.

“Has anyone in here had one?”

Bess looked around at Greg’s
question and nodded slightly towards the opposite corner of the diner where a
lone man sat slumped in a chair, eating by himself.

“Jacob Brown had one. I’m sure he’d
answer your questions,” Bess answered, seeing Greg’s eyes light up at the news.

“I’ll see if he’ll talk to you
after breakfast,” BJ offered and stood.

She walked over to the older man
and sat across from him.

“Jacob? Would you mind speaking
with the military men about your experience?” BJ asked softly.

She already knew what the answer
would be. As one of the oldest members of their community, Jacob Brown had just
about seen it all. The old man winked at BJ, having already agreed to be a
“vision” witness.

“I’d be happy to talk to them,”
Jacob replied with a small smile.

BJ reached across the table and
gently squeezed his hand, sending the dear man some energy before she returned
to her table.

“He said he’d be glad to speak with
you after breakfast,” BJ told them just as the waitress returned with heaping
plates of food.

BJ almost laughed at the control
the two men were exerting not to tackle their food, and she decided to cut them
a break as they waited for her and her mom to begin eating first.

“Dig in, guys,” BJ said as she
stabbed a forkful of eggs and began to eat.

Seconds later, the two men were
shoveling forkfuls of food into their mouths.

“This is so damn good,” Kyle
mumbled around a mouthful of pancakes.

“John back there is the best cook.
His great grandparents built this place, and he started working in it when he
was around five, so he comes by his talent naturally,” Bess said casually, not
betraying her own thoughts as she called Dennis to the diner. “What about you,
gentlemen? Do you both come from a long line of military men?”

“I’m fifth generation military,”
Greg admitted before shoveling in another mouthful of pancakes.

When Kyle looked like he wouldn’t
answer, Bess prodded him again.

“And you, major?”

“I think I’m the first,” Kyle said
without looking up from his plate.

The way he said it though left no
doubt in Bess and BJ’s minds that he felt the subject was closed. Bess was
grateful when Dennis came into the room.

Kyle and Greg turned to see the
large man come in amidst a chorus of “good mornings” and waves. Neither was
surprised when he came over to the table, dragging a chair with him as Bess and
BJ scooted over to make room.

Dennis no sooner sat down than the
waitress brought over a steaming mug of coffee.

“Thank you,” Dennis said to the
girl before turning to Greg and Kyle. “Good morning, gentlemen.”

“Good morning,” Greg said.

Kyle eyed the man warily and nodded
his head in greeting.  

“Irwin, me, and a few others plan
on staying in town tonight to make sure everyone stays safe. We don’t have your
kind of weaponry, but every bit helps,” Dennis assured them.

“We’ll be at the mercantile in case
you need anything,” Bess added.

“I’m sure we’ll be fine,” Kyle
said, still not believing that this place was a hotbed of paranormal activity.

The only thing he was sure of was
that his prisoners were gone, he’d been played once by these people, and he
wasn’t going to be played again. He was grateful all the major players in this
ruse would be where he could keep an eye on them.

“Have you had any visions or seen
anything?” Greg asked.

“I haven’t had any visions,” Dennis
said as he looked around the diner, “but Jacob over there has. I can see if
he’ll talk to you.”

“He already said he would after breakfast,”
BJ added, playing along.  

“That’s good,” Dennis said with a
grin. “Now, have I seen anything? More than you can imagine.”

“Can you give me an example?” Greg
prodded, eager to learn what he could of the paranormal activity in the area.

“I’ve heard the shrieks and growls
at night from something that isn’t a normal animal. Woke up the next morning,
and my goats were ripped to shreds. I’ve seen strange lights in the sky,”
Dennis replied. “Then there’s those flashes of light in the woods and what looks
like strange, glowing beings of some kind.”

“Where did you see all that?” Greg
asked, his eyes wide with interest.

“All over this place. You won’t
have to wander far tonight to get a good idea of what BJ’s been trying to
explain to you. There’s more than enough activity right here in town to show
you what we’ve been going through,” Dennis admitted as the waitress set a plate
of food in front of him.

At Kyle’s strange look Dennis
laughed.

“The perks of being OCD and living
in a small town is that everyone knows what you eat for breakfast every day,”
Dennis said with a laugh as he dug into his food.

“So what’s the plan for tonight?”
Kyle asked.

“Just do what you’ve done the last
few nights,” Dennis replied with a shrug. “But stay in the station. Don’t try
camping outside again.”

“What makes you so certain that
something is going to happen?” Kyle asked, still wondering if the whole thing
was another ruse.

If it is, I can’t figure out why
the hell they’d try to keep us here,
he thought.

“I have no idea if anything will
happen or not. But after seeing what happened the last time you stayed outside,
I’d think common sense would dictate you not try that again, but you do what
you want,” Dennis said, nonchalantly sipping his coffee.

There was nothing casual about his
thoughts as Dennis sent a warning to Bess and the others. A collective gasp was
heard through the town’s private path on the shengari’, and Bess shot Dennis a
questioning look.

Dennis nodded his head slightly and
frowned in thought over what he’d discovered about the major while everyone
else tried to absorb the shocking revelation.

Nik felt the tremor in BJ’s mind
but the not the reason.

“BJ, what just happened?” he asked,
cursing that there were no cameras in the diner.

“Nik, how close have you ever been
to the major?” she asked, her voice shaking a little.

“We’ve never been close to him. If
we had, he’d be dead,” Nik admitted, wondering what that had to do with
anything.

“This is all kinds of screwed up.
We need to regroup. Dennis and Mom need to figure this out,” BJ warned him.

“What’s going on?” Nik demanded,
becoming concerned at BJ’s tone of voice. “If he’s done something, I swear I’ll
rip him apart with my bare hands!”

“You need to rethink that, Nik. The
major is a hybrid,” BJ whispered in his mind.

Chapter
Seventeen

BJ tried not to stare at the major,
still reeling from what Dennis and her mother had discovered. She was tempted
to ask them if they were sure, but she knew the reason her mother had called
Dennis to begin with was to confirm what she’d already figured out.

Nik could have sworn he heard BJ
wrong and he shook his head.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?” Nik
asked.

“Nik, the major is a hybrid. Dennis
and Mom are certain,” BJ repeated, still pretty stunned herself.

“How the hell is this possible?”
Nik asked, beginning to pace the transport floor. “How could they not have
known right away?”

“One of his abilities has to be
shielding. It’s a lot like mine to be honest,” BJ admitted, wishing she’d paid
a lot more attention to the major when he’d first arrived.

“Holy shit! Does he know? How the
hell can he do what he does to our people?” Nik growled aloud, causing Grai to
stand immobile in front of him, his eyes demanding answers.

Nik held his hand up to Grai and
shook his head.

“I need more information. So will
you,” he growled before he turned away and paced the other direction.

“Does he know he’s one of us?” Nik
asked BJ.

“We don’t know,” BJ replied,
forcing herself not to stare at the major while that same question ran through
her mind.

“How could he not know?” Nik
growled in anger. “Sorry, I’m not angry at you.”

“No, I get it,” BJ admitted. “Trust
me, I do. He’s one of my people, yet he’s hunting us. It makes him pretty damn
dangerous in my book.”

“BJ, maybe we need to think about a
strategic strike tonight,” Nik suggested, wanting the threat to his mate gone.

“You left last night and don’t
understand that there’s reasons why we can’t do that,” BJ replied, unwilling to
try and explain everything to him now.

Nik punched the air in anger and
stomped further away from Grai.

“I know there’s no souls due for
keeping. I was just hoping that had changed between last night and this
morning,” Nik replied more calmly than he felt.

BJ was stunned that he’d attempted
to learn anything that occurred after he’d left and wondered how much he knew
about the conversation between Rolantro and Grai.

“No, I’m sure if it had changed we
would have been told,” BJ said, trying to stay on topic. “Dennis and Mom will
tell me their thoughts after we go back to the station. I’ll let you know what
I find out from them. We should probably wait until then before we figure out
how we’re going to proceed.”

“Have they been able to do a full
scan on him? Do they know his abilities?” Nik asked. He wanted to learn
everything he could about the man.

To break the enemy, you must know
the enemy,
he thought, remembering something his grandfather had taught
him.

“Nik, I don’t know much right now,
and they aren’t talking. Mostly because they’re trying to prevent him from
wondering why I’ve been ignoring the conversation and speaking to you instead,”
BJ chastised softly before turning her focus back to the major and the
conversation going on around her.

She toyed with the food on her
plate until she caught enough of the conversation to join in.

“The moon will be full tonight so
at least we’ll have a lot more light outside to see in a wide area around the
station. We still might want to consider setting up a warning system perimeter
as well,” BJ suggested.

She could tell by the slight rise
of the major’s eyebrows that he was impressed with the suggestion.

“What do you have in mind?” Kyle
asked, sitting back so the waitress could clear his empty plates.

“It wouldn’t take anything
elaborate. Some fishing line and tin cans worked just fine when we were kids,”
BJ said with a grin before clearing her throat. “What I mean is, unless you
have some seriously sophisticated equipment with you, we need something basic
that won’t be noticed easily and can be set up in a few hours.”

“If it’s supernatural, then nothing
will stop it,” Greg said.

Kyle turned to glare at him, and
Greg hastily brought his coffee to his lips.

“Whatever it is,” Kyle said,
turning back to BJ, “something is better than nothing. We’ll run it by the men
when we get back to the station. They know what we have with us, and maybe you
guys will have anything we don’t.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” BJ
agreed, knowing nothing would stop what was going to unfold.

The waitress returned with a coffee
pot, and when everyone declined another cup, she set three checks on the table.
Kyle picked up the one in front of him, and his eyes widened in shock.

“Are you serious? This is it? We
don’t need a discount,” Kyle argued, not wanting to underpay since the food and
service was so good.

“That’s the fair value around here.
We aren’t like the big cities where money decides your fate; we make our own,”
Dennis said with a laugh as he pulled out his wallet.

“Hell, I’ll pay for them all,” Greg
said with a grin and plopped a 20-dollar bill on the table.

“I’ll grab the tip,” Kyle added,
placing a five on top of the 20 and standing. “Let’s get the perimeter set up
and go over the plan.”

“You guys be careful,” the cook called
from the grill and waved as they left.

“Wonderful breakfast!” Greg waved
back with a grin.

“So, we’ll see you all back here
around five for dinner?” Bess asked Kyle once they were outside of the diner.

“Yes, ma’am,” Kyle agreed as he
patted his stomach.

“See you later, honey,” Bess said,
kissing BJ’s cheek before she and Dennis headed across the street to the
mercantile.

BJ followed Kyle and Greg when they
headed back to the station.

“Sir, I really think we need to let
the men go in shifts to eat. That potted meat and packaged crap . . .” Greg let
the sentence hang when Kyle glared at him again.

Kyle thought about it and nodded
his head.

“Set them up in shifts so they
don’t overrun the place. They can eat the garbage they bought in the city for
snacks until we start dinner shifts for everyone at the diner,” Kyle ordered.

BJ couldn’t help the smile that
came over her face when she realized her mother got her way, and she’d be
eating dinner with her tonight.

Greg ran ahead to assemble the men
and give them the good news about the diner and being able to eat real food
while Kyle studied the town more closely.

“When do you think the . . .
activity or whatever will start?” Kyle asked, hoping it would be early.

He didn’t want to waste another
sleepless night on the supernatural garbage they were trying to convince him
of. Although the photos, the video, and even the way in which they talked about
it was very convincing, he just wasn’t buying it.

When Greg came running back to
them, Kyle gestured back to the diner.

“Go talk to the old guy, Jacob, and
report back to me at the station,” Kyle ordered.

“Yes, sir!” Greg said with a huge
grin before he headed back to the diner.

“If your mom is having dinner at
the diner with you tonight, then how is Traze coming for dinner?” Nik whispered
through her mind.

“Oh, he’ll go to the mercantile for
dessert. Mom won’t let him out of it,” BJ replied with a smile.

“I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to know
that,” Nik teased.

BJ burst out laughing and quickly
tried to think of a way to explain it to the major.

“Sorry, I was just thinking about how
cramped we’re all going to be in the station tonight and was thinking about
claiming a spot early. No offense intended, but I’m not looking to wake up
being cuddled by anyone,” BJ said and grinned up at the major.

“You can sleep in one of the cells
for your own peace of mind. My men won’t bother you,” Kyle assured her.

“I think sleeping in the cell is a
good idea,” Nik whispered through her mind before he could stop himself.

BJ grinned broadly at the major.

“I was just joking. I think we’re
all going to be a little too high strung to sleep,” BJ told Kyle before turning
her thoughts to Nik.

“Trust me, none of us will be
sleeping,” she assured Nik, shocked at the intensity of the jealously she could
feel in his words.

Kyle stopped in the middle of the
road and turned to her with a serious expression.

“If this is another one of your
tricks, I will be filing charges against you for obstructing a federal
official. So this is your one and only chance to come clean,” Kyle warned her.
“Tell me the truth about what happened and where my prisoners are, or face the
possibility of arrest in the morning.”

BJ’s eyes flashed dangerously, and
through his connection with her, Nik could feel the anger that suddenly
engulfed her. He moved closer to the screen streaming the video from outside of
the station.

If the bastard touches her, I’ll
kill him
, Nik thought.

“Let me tell you something, major.
I made an oath just like you did, and I may not be able to explain the things
going on around here, but I’m damn sure not going to endanger my job, or my
town over some idiots who probably went AWOL!” BJ snapped at him as she moved
to stand toe to toe with him.

BJ pointed her finger and poked him
in the chest as she stared into his eyes without blinking.

“If you aren’t convinced of what’s
going on by morning, I’ll put myself under arrest,” she said between gritted
teeth before she stormed off to the station and slammed the door behind her so
hard the wall shook.

Kyle stood staring after her with
narrowed eyes when he heard feet pounding down the street behind him, and he
turned to see Greg running towards him.

“What did you find out?” Kyle
asked, putting the puzzling cop out of his mind for a moment.

“Sir,” Greg said, catching his
breath. “The old man was a mountain of information. He was a marine sergeant in
Korea, so he was one of our own and pretty damn reliable. I already checked out
his service record, and he’s legit.”

“What did he say?” Kyle urged, not
sure he’d believe anyone from Baker’s Creek, no matter who they were.

“He said he was a real bastard when
he came back. He raged at everyone and everything around him, and even his
family and friends weren’t immune to his abuse,” Greg read from his notes, even
though he’d memorized every word the man had told him.

“Sounds like PTSD. Go on,” Kyle
urged, crossing his arms over his chest.

“He said that he started hearing
the shrieks and growls outside his house. Said it went on for three days, and
on the third night he was awakened from a deep sleep by a noise; when he tried
to get up, he was paralyzed,” Greg said, his excitement level rising as he
continued the story.

“He looked up into the face of what
he believed was a demon. The creature waved its hand, and he was standing in
the middle of a desolate, burning landscape. He could hear the screams and
cries of others and feel the intense heat begin to burn his feet. The demon was
behind him and said, ‘this is your future if you continue as you are.’ Then he
was back in his bed and could move again,” Greg finished, his eyes gleaming
with interest.

“That’s it?” Kyle scoffed. “Then
what? He suddenly became a decent human? Give me a break. It sounds like the
guy had a really bad nightmare. If it made him a better person, then awesome,
but it wasn’t a vision or supernatural.”

“How do you explain this?” Greg
countered as he pulled out his cell phone and held it up to Kyle.

Kyle peered at the phone, unsure
what the hell he was supposed to be looking at. There was nothing but angry
looking, raised red tracks.

“What is this?” Kyle asked in
frustration.

“It’s the burn scars on the bottom
of his feet. When he woke up, they were there,” Greg replied, sure the major
would believe now.

“He probably got injured in the
war!” Kyle argued, annoyed that Greg had fallen for the supernatural garbage.

Greg messed with his phone for a
minute and pulled up something else before showing it to Kyle.

“He got a purple heart for being
shot in the chest. There was no note of any injury to his feet in his service
record,” Greg replied, having already checked it out. “There’s no way he could
have gotten through the military entrance physical with those feet, and you
know it.”

Greg flipped back to the picture of
the old man’s feet, and Kyle stared at the photo again, now seeing that it was
indeed a pair of old feet crisscrossed in burns. Kyle shook his head.

“That still could be anything.
Hell, he probably fell into his own campfire drunk one night! Come on, captain,
you can’t honestly tell me you believe this shit.”