Shadow Revealed (The Enlightened Species Book Two) (33 page)

Eros’s son Jacob grabbed a plastic cup from one of the shelves between the alcoves. Biting into his wrist, he let his blood pour into the cup. He sealed the wound and handed the cup to Miguel, who stared up at the male, stunned. Gary thanked Jacob, who bowed slightly with appreciation and returned to the silent group.

Irsu had fire in her eyes. “That bastard was on the plane with my daughter the whole time.”

“At least we know how they got on the island undetected. They were probably stashed on several of the planes that were cleared to land.” Ninlil’s soothing voice did nothing to mask her anger.

Patrick shook his head. Seeing himself so close to a threat had obviously shaken the male. “All of the planes were swept for bombs when they arrived. The only thing that failed was the pyrotechnics flight, but we expected it to. We went through every crate, every wire to verify the plane’s contents, and it all checked out.”

Gil gave his second commandant a nod of appreciation and understanding. “It’s possible they’re goin’ ta make ‘nother attempt on Jess an’ Umbrae. We need ta find these people ‘fore they git a chance. Thanks Jorie. Remin’ me ta tickle the shit outta ya later.” Jorie stuck her tongue out at Gil.

Sargon’s voice rumbled through the room. “Gather the guests and get them down here. Place guards consisting of all three species at each of these alcoves. The ghosts won’t be able to breach through with the Tellus warriors alerted to monitor air pressure and the Aquatie warriors pinging sonar echoes. Their shadowing abilities will be fully negated if we work together. Then we need to gather all the remaining warriors and go hunting. Jorie, you will stay in here with the guests. if you see any of these energies accidentally be invited because we think they are guests, it will be your job to tell the guards and be their eyes. Napoleon, would you prefer to stay with your family or help with the hunt?”

The pleading look Jorie gave her father was all it took. Napoleon kept eye contact with his daughter while he answered Sargon. “I will help with strategy, but I prefer to protect my family.”

Sargon nodded and turned to Hans “How about you?”

Hans, standing on the other side of Brae, looked questioningly over to her. “My mother and sisters are warriors in their own rights. I would like to be part of the hunt. Umbrae can shadow me with her; this is what we’ve been trained for.”

Enlil’s heart sank; Hans’s position was the correct one. The two had been training together for exactly this type of work for months. Hans could detect any change in air pressure should one of the ghosts try to get near her. Eros came to the rescue. “I can shadow Hans, and Umbrae can shadow Enlil. We have two more conductive chains with us. A couple of my boys can shadow Jess and Shane; perhaps they can be the eyes in the sky while the rest of us do the ground sweeps. Umbrae and I can communicate with my boys, and Enlil has a bond to Jess. It would give the entire operation an advantage.”

Gil added, “That’d work well. Shane an’ Patrick are the best in the world with explosives. Patrick can take a group with him an’ do a sweep of the campus grounds an’ buildings. Shane can focus on the surroundin’ area while lil Jess an’ Enlil are on the lookout fer the party crashers. Hopefully, we can capture one fer questionin’. Good chance they’ll abort once the guests start bein’ rounded up. We’ll need ta set up guards ‘round the chortal too.”

Enlil added his two cents. “I may sound harsh, but the guests will need to be individually searched before being allowed into the secured area. Even with all the protection and Jorie’s ability to see the energies, it won’t protect against a hostage situation if one of them gets in here with a weapon. Many of the females here have been brutalized before; we need to ensure their safety above all.” Brae looked wide-eyed at him. This was a survivors ball, and she of all people understood what the survivors being honored this night had endured already. Suddenly the ground began shaking. Eyes wide, everyone headed for the surface, leaving Miguel, Gary, Jorie, Moira, and Napoleon behind.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

The cattle poured onto the lawn with the first blast of colorful explosions in the sky. They ohh’d and ahh’d with each display. The synchronized music of Beethoven was choreographed to the launching of the fireworks. Coupled in happiness and a warm, fuzzy, false sense of security, Osiris studied each and every face, committing them to memory. The people missing from the observers were of more concern to him then the ones he could see. His number Five son had reported that several people mentioned something happening between Innanna, Eros, and the male commandant of the island campus. Well aware of the history between Innanna and Eros, he was pretty sure they would soon be completing the bloodmating that had begun between them so very long ago. Wonder if Innanna has taken the commandant as a lover? That would explain the entire group missing. Either that or the female was pissed about Eros’s procreation with heredities, resulting in his children. He’d sent Five in to keep an eye on them.

A telepathic grunt from Five was his first clue something was going wrong. Following the telepathic link, he watched his son appear near the banquet table, lying still on the ground, still breathing. The twin dots on his son’s neck told the story. He’d been hit by a taser. Son of a bitch.

“
The Siphons are shadowed … I repeat, the siphons are shadowed.
” Three’s telepathic messages filled Osiris with dread.

Your Justice will come at the hands of a shadowed thief of energy, under a new order, uniting age-old enemies before the final enlightening.
The Oracle’s prediction for him floated to Osiris’s memory. Had he just initiated his own demise? The chain lost its significance in the face of his greatest fear.

“Ten, you remain and retrieve the chain if you get an opportunity. The rest of you, abort now,”
Osiris sent out.

“Yes, sir,”
Ten answered.

“Roger that,”
came Three.

“Porting now,”
came Thirteen. The weave around the island would alert the SOSC of his son’s departure, not where they would end up.

“Shit,”
came Fifteen. Osiris followed the link; people were backing away from where a female Tellus was bent back by invisible arms. The female struggled against her attacker, who was turning her in slow, jerky circles steadily toward the edge of the lawns. Like in a slow-motion film, the Tellus was freed and yanked away from the unseen threat against her. The female crawled farther from the sounds of the invisible battle that could be heard.

Umbrae came into view, in a similar position to what the Tellus had been. He saw a thin line of blood where the blade of Fifteen’s ivory knife was at her throat. Somehow Eros’s daughter had freed the female and then ended up in her place.

Osiris knew he should port away while he still had the chance, but he found himself riveted by the scene. Better she be dead than possess his chain.
“Slit her throat,”
he ordered his son.

“I can get away, father,”
Fifteen argued against the order. Whether his son got away or not, he’d just sealed his fate. Fifteen was the youngest, but that didn’t exclude him from doing what he was told, immediately.

Osiris never said another word; within a few seconds Fifteen realized his mistake. “
Yes, Father. I’m sorry.”
Fear and shame accompanied his son’s final statement. A slash appeared, so deep and fast, Umbrae’s neck yawed open several inches from the weight of her collapsing body, her head still held captive by his sons invisible arms before the female’s form was fully released to pool at the ground.

The male siphon Enlil appeared trying to staunch the blood flow with his palm. No way would Umbrae survive the injury. She would bleed out before anyone would be able to set up a transfusion, and her ability to take blood through the mouth was void.

The sing of a sword broke the silence. Fifteen appeared, his eyes rapidly glazing. Eros also dropped his shadow, his sword still in the final arc of his swing. The body of Fifteen halved diagonally from shoulder to waist. The tortured look on Eros face when he swung around to see the dying gasps of his daughter warmed Osiris’s heart. This was more of a successful night than he’d hoped. He ported, catching the sound of the door to the office he’d been in breaking a millisecond behind him.

****

Brae’s panicked eyes never left Enlil’s. She was dying, bleeding out from between his fingers. Her lips moved in silent entreaty, gurgles emitted from beneath his hands at her throat. Her pain racketed through him, adding to the emotional chaos he found himself in. Not Brae, please Fates, not his Brae, too. How could the Fates be so cruel? He watched the rosy color leech from her cheeks.

“Enlil, damn it, step aside and let them try to help her.” Eros voice penetrated the haze in his mind.

“What?” he responded, never taking his eyes from Brae’s. Strong arms pulled him from her as Enlil feebly fought to stay at her side. Weakened from the pain within, he watched Greyton, Umbrae’s Aquatie mentor, take his place. Greyton’s sister Greycia sat at Brae’s opposite side. The two locked hands with each other over Brae’s twitching body. Their other hands overlapped directly over Brae’s wound. A sizzling sound began and the smell of burnt flesh filled the area. A fine steam rose from where their hands touched Brae’s neck. Enlil watched, captivated, still held by Eros, though he no longer struggled against the male. Since there was a good chance his legs would refuse to hold him, he was grateful for the support.

A healer with a shell-shocked face slid in beside Greycia and placed an IV into Brae’s unnaturally white arm. A line of red flowed into Brae’s arm through the tube.

Greyton and Greycia fell back, breaking contact. The two were breathing hard from their efforts. Greyton dragged himself around Brae as if the heaviness of his body daunted him. He pulled his likewise weakened sister into his arms and the two simply stared at Brae’s still form. Enlil took a new look at his mate; the ghastly wound was still wide open, though it no longer bled. The paired sibling had somehow cauterized the arteries and veins. His next fear was that her brain was not getting any blood supply. Knowing it was futile, Enlil tried to feel their bloodmate bond and received only blackness. His heart in his throat, he shook off Eros support and stumbled back to Brae’s side, taking her rapidly cooling hand. Eros dropped to the ground beside him; fatherly fingers brushed Brae’s short bangs from her forehead.

“I need four Hulven willing to donate blood stat. Everyone else get the hell out of my way.” Enlil met the determined face of Herme, the High-Ones panel healer. “That means both of you, too.”

Enlil and Eros crab-walked backward rapidly before standing, giving the male room to work. If anyone could save Brae, it was Herme. Jess and three of Brae’s brothers rushed past him, intent on giving blood. Herme’s protégé/aide quickly plunged a needle into each of their neck arteries. Enlil had never seen transfusion from the neck before. Another aid tore Brae’s dress open, leaving her laying in only her bra and panties. Enlil heard the gasps of the people watching when they saw the layers of scars and burns crisscrossing Brae’s body, made more pronounced by the paleness caused by blood loss. Sargon and many others began herding the crowd away in a belated effort to give Brae modesty. Enlil ignored them; the scars were a tribute to her. The way she survived them would be her greatest ally in this fight—her unrivaled desire to live.

The transfusion tubes were inserted into Brae’s arteries at both thighs. Jess and Jacob were tapped into first. Clamped tubes at the ready hung from Baden and Othos. Victor and Daniel stood behind their brothers. The aide quickly tapped their arteries, leaving them at the ready should they be needed. Enlil looked over to see the intense faces of Brock and Eros. Brock must be the only child out of seven that was anemic.

Another of Herme’s assistants/protégés sat across from him with a tray of implements across her lap. Herme extended a hand to the female, who put a tool into it without a word. He fished a blue, blood-filled cauterized artery from the lower section of Brae’s neck. Clamping it below the burned area, he extended his hand to the assistant again and received a pair of sharp-pointed scissors. Every second felt like an eternity. The healer clipped the sealed end off, handing the scissors back to the assistant, receiving another clamp. He pulled the pale, nearly clear end of the upper artery section down toward the clamped one and clipped off the other end. With steady hands Herme held the two clamps so the freshly snipped ends touched one another, and spit on the ends. His powerful healing saliva anchored the two pieces together, leaving nothing to detect where the segregation had been. He released the lower clamp first allowing the blood to travel just far enough to reach the upper clamp, checked his work critically before releasing the second clamp. The white, sickly upper section turned a health shade of blue.

Jess and Jacob were replaced by Baden and Daniel, their blood flowing into Brae. The healer repeated the process on the second artery before he shifted his attention to a series of tiny veins. Enlil’s relief was dizzying when Brae’s heart pumped blood into the first artery. Now the question was how much damage she’d sustained in the interim. No one spoke a word as the healer worked quickly and precisely to save her life. Gratitude flooded Enlil; Herme had not performed a surgery beyond training his protégés in eons.

Once the veins and arteries were done, Brae’s color began to improve. Victor and Othos replaced Baden and Daniel for more blood. Herme peered deeply into the gapping crevice on Brae’s neck once more before giving his protégé/assistant a nod. The female covered the used implements, rose and stepped behind Herme, holding the tray before her. Herme looked up; his sharp eyes glanced from Enlil to Eros beside him.

“This is all I can do here, I’m going to have her moved to the Hospes in Greenland to finish. I’m sure I can repair her throat. However, there is extensive damage to her vocal cords, and we won’t know if she has suffered any permanent brain damage until she regains consciousness.” The first words the healer had spoken since telling everyone to get out of the way were clinical. The next held a depth of compassion that brought tears to Enlil’s eyes. “I am amazed at her tenacity; I’ve never seen anything like it. If her strength of spirit remains this powerful, I will not be surprised to see her make a full recovery. She is an extraordinary beacon of light.”