True Traitor (First Wave Book 7) (15 page)

Thjodhild Erikson, aka ‘Delicate flower’, aka Nana, stormed into the center of the room, pulled out her gun and aimed it at her nervous mate. “You have two damn seconds to explain yourself,” she said, keeping the weapon trained on him.

Fiorn huffed out in anger, his chest heaving with his deep breathing. With clenched fists he roared, “They came! They brought that . . . that! Damn mutant thing! To MY home! I wanted to know why! Then the damn child started ripping apart . . .,” Fiorn began, but didn’t get far.

Nana put her hand on her hip and shook with a fury of her own, the other hand holding her weapon steady on her mate. “It’s true?! You attacked a child? A baby? You’ve turned into a damn monster! By the Gods, I’ll gut you like one too!” she said storming towards her mate before she pulled the trigger and shot him in the shoulder.

Fiorn roared in pain as he tried to duck behind a stone chair, his bulk making it look more comical than anything since most of his body was still exposed to his mate’s deadly aim. Hybrids scattered to get as far away from him as possible. Fiorn’s own team now missing among the crowd.

A single male hybrid rushed to Fiorn’s side to assist with the wound when the DF yelled, “If you lend that monster any assistance I will shoot you next!”

Everyone watched in silent awe as the hybrid scurried back to where they were hiding as the tiny little blonde stalked across the room towards the large man hiding behind the chair. Fiorn peeked out and tried to smile and explain, “My sweet flower, let me explain . . .,” he began before she took aim at him again.

Thjodhild stalked around the chair and faced her mate. “Explain that you tried to kill a child and a pregnant mother? Why would I care what excuse you used to convince yourself that such a thing would be acceptable? You heartless bastard!” she yelled before pulling the trigger again and watching him howl in pain as he clutched his thigh.

She leaned down and most of the men in the room cringed as she did so, expecting her to abuse the idiot some more. “You shame your clan and your people. Those from the past and the present. You’ve allowed your anger to lead you instead of your heart, you’ve tainted my son with your poison and you’ve endangered everyone for your own petty revenge,” she said in a dangerously calm voice.

Tristan, the only one brave enough to interrupt the enraged woman, broke free of the crowd and walked up to the couple. Looking off to the right, his left hand moving furiously in in the air, he walked directly up to the woman.

Thjodhild turned and seeing the child approach, she hid her weapon from his view and smiled kindly at the unfamiliar boy, before looking quizzically at the dozens of golden balls that followed behind him.

Now within feet of her, the little boy flashed in a golden light before the winged warrior replaced him. In turn, each golden ball lined up behind him, each turning into the warrior that they were. Thjodhild stood slowly, her eyes wide. She was wondering if she needed her weapon or not when the warrior child bowed deeply and spoke.

“Madame Warrior, I am Tristan T’Alq. My fellow light-bringers and I hope that we may forge an Alliance with you in much the same way that we have with Valendrans,” he said, distracting the woman from her bleeding mate.

Thjodhild stared open mouthed at the warrior/child and nodded her head slowly, not comprehending what she’d seen. “What are you?” she asked.

Tristan and the other light-bringers smiled. “We are here to help the humans through the conversion but we will not come into our real power until then. Once that occurs, we will become that which we are elsewhere,” Tristan said patiently.

Thjodhild just nodded her head mutely. She hadn’t understood a damn thing the man had said, but the power emanating from him and his friends couldn’t be ignored. Still, she wasn’t real sure what to do until her son spoke to her through the Shengari’.

“Mom, those guys make the good guys look evil. We need this alliance if we are to stay and help,” Leif Sr. said, hoping to sway his mother to do the right thing.

Thjodhild stepped forward. “I think I would like to speak more about this. Learn more. I invite you all into our home while we have a meeting of clans,” she said, unwilling to make a snap decision. Her people depended on her and she hadn’t earned their respect by taking unnecessary chances with their lives.

Tristan bowed his head in respect. “On behalf of my father’s people and the Valendrans, I thank you for the opportunity to be heard at your meeting. Sadly, I think until the truth is known, the hatred and ignorance will only continue to fester and create problems. If you will allow me, I can assist you with that,” Tristan said as he nodded towards Fiorn.

Thjodhild looked angrily at her still cowering mate and asked, “What did you have in mind?”

Tristan smiled and before Fiorn could protest or Thjodhild could blink, Tristan had pulled Fiorn from behind the chair and thrown him through the air to land at the warrior’s feet with a thump.

“This,” Tristan said as he grabbed Fiorn’s head with both of his hands. A golden light shone around them for a moment before it dimmed just as quickly. Fiorn sat there, staring at the warrior.

Tristan turned to Thjodhild and bowed his head. “Until the conversion, my people have a difficult time maintaining our form in this realm. I will release my brethren for now. At the time of this meeting, I will return with your permission,” he said.

Thjodhild nodded her head mutely and she took a quick step back when the man again became the boy. Each of the warrior children returned back into the golden balls before they shot through the roof of the cavern and disappeared. Tristan turned and walked back to his father, his right hand drawing symbols in the air around him.

Thjodhild watched the child in amazement.
It was like watching a chimera
, she thought in awe. She never noticed the man that had walked up behind the boy, but was still standing in front of her, until he spoke.

“I am Grai T’Alq. One of the leaders of the Earth Alliance and Tristan’s father,” he said, nodding his head in respect.

Ivint walked up beside of Grai. “I am Ivint Torenson of the planet Valendra and leader of the Valendran forces of the Earth Alliance,” he said nodding with respect.

Thjodhild looked around and took a deep breath, trying to sort it all out in her head. It was too much for right now, so she chose the immediate problem to deal with. “What did he do to my mate?” she asked.

Grai shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not really sure, but he wouldn’t harm anyone . . .,” Grai began before one of the hybrids in the crowd spoke up.

“The boy did it to him before. Fiorn snapped out of it after about 15 minutes,” the female volunteered helpfully.

Thjodhild grinned and stared at her mate. “Too bad he couldn’t make it last a little longer. I wonder if he could teach me how to do it . . .,” she mused before clearing her throat.

“It is a pleasure to meet you all,” Thjodhild said as she turned to address the unfamiliar faces in the room. “However, right now we are all in danger of being discovered by the humans. Now is the time to prove we can work together. Not when we’ve trained together, but when the shit hits the fan and all our lives depend on it. My leaders, come now!” she yelled throughout the cavern and watched as Blade, Tara and her other team leaders stepped forward and formed a line.

Thjodhild smiled at them all. “You will introduce yourself to the Alliance leaders and state your specialty. They,” she said, turning to eye Ivint and Grai, daring them to challenge her, “will assign people to you and you will immediately begin working together to contain the entire situation outside! You will report to the three of us in the central command area at thirty minute intervals until you are told otherwise.”

Ivint and Grai nodded as each leader in the line did as they were told and they divided up their personnel. The room was now almost completely empty except for Grai’s mate and daughter in the sheet covered alcove and Lauren who was tending them.

Ignoring Fiorn, who was still sitting on the floor, staring straight ahead, Thjodhild looked to Grai and the boy. “Are your mate and infant well?” she asked with concern.

Grai smiled and nodded his head. “Yes, your doctor was wonderful and saved them both,” he said with a smile at the woman whose inner strength was ten times her actual body size.

Thjodhild grinned broadly and clapped her hands. “Good! Introduce me! I love babies,” she said with excitement.

Grai, proud father that he was, was all too happy to show off his new daughter and his beautiful mate. Within minutes, Thjodhild was cooing and speaking gently to Grai’s baby daughter as Tricia looked on with a proud smile.

“What is her name?” Thjodhild asked quietly, trying not to disturb the happy newborn.

Tricia looked at Grai and he smiled and just nodded his head. “Tricia has chosen it to be, Grace,” he said, unable to think of a better name for a baby born under such conditions.

Thjodhild smiled and cuddled the little girl. “It is a beautiful name for a beautiful child. The first to be born within my domain and therefore a member of my clan and under my protection,” she said, ensuring that her personal assistants were making it known that the girl child was clan.

Grai nodded his head in respect.

“Thank you, for the honor,” he said.

Thjodhild nodded and smiled gently down at Tristan. With a gentle caress of his cheek she added, “The Chimera is also clan, although I doubt there is any who would dare to consider him anything less.” 

Grai nodded again for the honor also bestowed upon his son. It meant that no matter where his children were in the world, if they called for help, even Thjodhild’s people would come running to help them. You couldn’t ask for anything more than for someone to willingly give their life for your child and he was overwhelmed by the honor.

Thjodhild gently handed Grace back to Tricia and turned to Lauren. “I want her and those babies in a personal suite, well fed and cared for within an hour or I’ll want a personal report as to why my orders weren’t followed,” she said before turning to Ivint, Grai and Reven.

“Gentlemen, I believe we need to retire to our command center, the first reports from our teams should be coming in shortly and we may need to help them think on the fly. Follow me,” she said, walking to the East tunnel, expecting the men to follow her.

Tricia smiled up at Grai as he put Tristan on the bed with her and kissed her and Grace. “You better go, she’s tiny but, quick,” Tricia said with a chuckle, referring to the DF.

Grai turned and saw the woman was halfway across the room already and he nodded at Decano, who’d be staying near his family before he kissed Tricia again, then ran after Ivint, Reven, Leif Sr. and a little blonde hellion called a Delicate Flower.

*****

True woke up in a rock cell and was just sitting up in the small cot-like bed when the door burst open. She stood shakily and was getting ready to rush the door when she was shot again and slumped to the floor unconscious.

Chapter Thirteen

Countdown Clock to Human Discovery

12:00 Hours

This is a WSBC Channel 9 News special update. We are now receiving reports of flashing lights followed by explosions near Burnt Tree Ridge. A geologist investigating the safety of the Adventure Caverns told us that such phenomena is not unusual in an area where there could be pockets of methane or natural gas.

“The landslide is exposing the pockets of gas, but the friction caused by massive rocks being thrown together could cause sparks that ignite the gases,” said Dr. Grayson with the US Geological Survey.

Because of the obvious danger associated with this situation, the authorities have widened the evacuation perimeter around the Burnt Tree Ridge area, including 3 square miles south of I-70. Authorities are working to reach those residents now. This is a serious situation, folks, and they are urging extreme caution. Stay tuned for regular updates.

True came awake slowly and stayed perfectly still, keeping her eyes closed. This time, she was going to set someone on fire long before they could knock her ass out again. She’d had more than enough of it and as she counted how many times it’d happened in the last 24 hours, she became seriously pissed off.

True hadn’t heard or sensed anyone near her for long minutes before she cracked her eyes open and looked around. She sat up in amazement and swung her legs over the side of the bed to study her surroundings more closely.

She was on a large canopied bed, in the middle of what appeared to be a huge suite.
On a lake?
she thought curiously, as she looked out of the French doors on the other side of the room and saw crystal clear water.

True stood slowly, making sure she wasn’t still under the effects of the pulse stunner. The damn things could scramble your brains for a while and she’d been hit twice!
In one damn day
, she thought with irritation as she made her way over to the French doors, trying to figure out where the hell she was this time.

She was halfway there when the door flew open and a bruised and barely standing Leif, leaned heavily in the doorway and sighed when he saw her. “Oh thank the Gods!” he said as he stumbled into the room.

True rushed over to help him to the bed. “Where the hell are we?” she asked as she sat him down and winced at the bruising on his ribs and face.

Leif sighed and looked up. “Base Beta. If I had to guess, Nana sent us here to keep us out of the way while she tried to fix things,” he said, trying to focus his eyes on True.

True looked at him and sighed. She was getting really damn tired of being dragged around like a toy. “Where is Base Beta?” she asked, figuring it was another place within the mountain. She was right. Kind of.

Leif sighed and gently shook his head, wishing he felt a little more up to the flame throwing she-beast that True was getting ready to become when he answered her.

Leif looked up and said, “Can you please not set me on fire? I had nothing to do with this, if you remember correctly.”

True narrowed her eyes and looked around, realizing that Dorothy wasn’t in Kansas anymore. She immediately contacted Grai through the Shengari’. “Hey cuz . . . you ok?” she asked tentatively.

“Where are you?” Grai demanded immediately.

True looked up at Leif, who was swaying a little on the bed. “Where are we?” she asked again before adding, “I won’t touch you, I promise.”

Leif sighed. “Base Beta is in the Antarctic,” he said, expecting the worst.

True looked startled for a moment then she laughed. “Yeah, you’re not real funny right now. Seriously, I won’t torch you. Just tell me where we are,” she said.

Leif stood and True ran to help him stand without falling. He gave her a lopsided smile and headed towards the French doors. “Come look outside,” he said.

Grai demanded in her mind, “Where the hell are you, True?”

True sighed, a little tired of demanding men right now. “Hold on! I’m trying to find out but I think Leif has a concussion and he’s not making any sense,” she said to Grai.

Leif seemed to find his feet the more he walked and by the time they reached the French doors he was able to make it on his own. Although, he wasn’t about to tell True that. He really liked having her arm around him. Besides, he knew her promise not to torch him was going to be null and void in about two seconds.

He threw open the double doors and led True out onto the balcony of the main palace and gripped the railing to make sure she wouldn’t throw him off it. Leif kept his eyes trained on his mate as her eyes widened, her mouth dropped open and she stepped forward to the railing.

“What the fuck?! Seriously, what the fuck? No… no… no… where… Where the fuck are we?!” True said, her voice rising as she spoke, her eyes glued to the view in front of her.

Leif took a step away from her and said, “Base Beta. At the Antarctic.”

True snorted and threw her arms out to the scene below. “This is not some Santa Claus shit! Where the hell are we?” she demanded.

Leif sighed, wishing his nana had butted out. He could have prepared True for this much easier if they had stayed at the Folly. Beta took some getting used to, but this was his Nana’s favorite place, and he really loved it here as well.

Leif moved beside her and put a comforting arm around her shoulders. “The North Pole is Santa Claus, this is the Antarctic. This is where Admiral Richard E. Byrd first met Fiorn and his hatred of the humans began,” Leif said honestly.

True shook her head. “This can’t be real,” she said as she watched a herd of wooly mammoths move slowly through a large park-like area, several stories beneath her balcony.

Leif chuckled. “Yeah, most people would say that too. After Dad made his first expeditions to America, Fiorn headed here to see what he could find. He found this,” Leif said with a little bit of pride in his voice.

True could understand why he sounded so proud, she was astounded.

“How is this even possible?” she asked.

Leif grinned at her and squeezed her tighter to his side. “That is something we’ve never really figured out. This was all here when my grandfather found it. The buildings, the palace, even the animals were all here. But, there were no people. Like in the Folly, this place is on a major ley line, but the civilization that created it . . . vanished long ago,” Leif said.

True looked up and sucked in a breath. “How far down are we?” she asked as she looked up at the towering mountains surrounding them that turned into solid ice halfway up.

Leif chuckled at her surprise. “If you’re impressed already, wait until you see the rest of the place. But, we’re about a mile down. Surprisingly enough, the second sun was already here. It was how we got the idea to use the light stones for the Folly,” Leif said honestly.

True was stunned and not sure what question to ask first, she had hundreds. “How can you keep this place hidden?” she asked, looking up at the vast expanse of clear sky above them.

Leif snorted. “They know we’re here. The government knew after Byrd had an oil leak in his plane and ended up landing here. Fiorn tried to enter into talks with the human government, sadly the only thing they wanted was weapons and technology to rule and dominate others. Fiorn would have no part of it,” he admitted.

True was shocked. “Then why aren’t they attacking? Or stealing the technology? How the hell are those mammoths even alive?” she asked, jumping from subject to subject in her amazement.

“Well,” Leif said, sitting down in one of the chairs and pulling a still stunned True onto his lap. “They can’t. The energy here is so strong that their aircraft lose all power and fall from the sky. It’s like one of the Triangles, their instruments go all wonky and they crash. Ours can get through it without a problem.”

Leif sighed. “Instead, they stalk us, hoping we’ll crash so they can steal our tech. They established bases around us, and they still try to contact us. Fiorn ignores them. It’s probably the only thing we agree with him on,” Leif said honestly, thrilled that True was staying on his lap. And not torching him. He may end up thanking his Nana after all.

True scrunched her brow in thought. “Wait a minute . . . isn’t that the hollow earth theory or some crap that was debunked a long time ago? Something about his diaries being fake?” she asked incredulously.

Leif chuckled and grinned at her. “Yeah, that wasn’t even our handiwork that time. The government had their own covert groups ruin that story. This is as hollow as it gets, but the government knew that claiming something so outrageous would immediately cause people not to believe it. Of course, no one questions their governments as to why they’ve restricted access to so much of the continent either,” he said with a laugh.

True looked up and couldn’t help but say, “It doesn’t look hollow so much as it looks like the place is . . . defrosted.”

Leif laughed. “That’s a good way to describe it. The small sun that burns down here creates its own ecosystem. From what we can tell, this is a chasm, like the Grand Canyon and on a similar scale. We’re good to go though, when the conversion occurs, the melt of the mile thick ice, won’t have a severe impact on this part of the continent at all,” he said, glad that True appeared to like the place.

Especially since he knew that once they were mated, Nana would want them to spend a lot of time there. Not that he would mind, Leif enjoyed the peace here and the excavations that were going on were fascinating to him. He loved that his Nana kept him updated on every new discovery.

True shook her head at the wooly mammoths.

“You didn’t create some kind of Jurassic Area 51 did you?” she asked, noting birds, and what looked like deer as well. But, they were different. Larger and different in ways she couldn’t put her finger on.

Leif laughed. “Hell no! What’s here now has been here since we arrived. We expected them to be fearful of us and we did our best not to interact with them, but the animals approached us. They are very friendly and affectionate creatures here and they are allowed to roam freely, inside and outside, as they had been doing before we arrived. We keep no pets and Nana insists that no meat is eaten here at all. She doesn’t want the animals to smell it on us,” he said.

True laughed, thinking he had to be lying.

“The mammoths are allowed inside?” she asked incredulously.

Leif nodded. “There’s what we believe is a chapel here that looks like it was built specifically to accommodate them. As well as covered walkways, arches and other buildings. They roam as they did before we came. When they want affection, someone is more than willing to provide it, otherwise, we leave them be,” he said, proud of how well they learned to live in harmony with the animals. It was one of the reasons no one tried to harm one of the Sibiox. Besides, Nana would have had them cleaning up animal droppings for the next hundred years if they had.

True shook her head, it was all a bit much. “So, this was all here? This warm and tropical oasis, dropped in the middle of the coldest place on the planet, was just here when you found it? This . . . what is this?” she asked as she looked up and around at the building they were in.

Leif chuckled at her awe and knew how she felt. This place still got to him too. “We call this the castle. It really looks like one too, hence the name . . .” he said, then laughed as True punched him in the shoulder.

True looked out on the stone metropolis beneath them and asked, “How many people do you have here?” she asked, estimating the place could hold at least ten thousand just from what she could see from the balcony.

Leif smiled at his curious mate, more than willing to answer anything she asked as long as they could remain so friendly to one another.

“We only have a few hundred. 90 percent of this place remains empty and more than that remains under ice throughout the continent. When the conversion comes, this place is going to be the Garden of Eden. Too bad the elites claimed it and have no plans on sharing it with anyone else,” Leif said with a disgusted shake of his head.

True gasped and looked at him with excited gray eyes.

“You mean there’s more of it?” she asked incredulous.

Leif snorted. “This continent is covered in a mile of ice, but what’s underneath it are cities, just like this one. It’s the second sun that saved this place from the same fate. There are roads here, that the farther you go up, the icier it becomes until it is no longer travelable and turns into a wall of ice,” he explained.

“And you don’t know who built it?” she asked, unable to believe that something like this could exist and no one know anything about it.

Leif shook his head sadly. “We’ve never really had enough free personnel to dig into it much. Literally. Hopefully, if Nana and Grai can work things out, we can share the responsibilities and figure it out. I think we’d all like to know,” he admitted.

True looked into his blue eyes and could see and feel his own curiosity in the place. She looked up at the sky again, before looking back at the park-like area and what was an ancient city.

“Can we look around or are we prisoners?” she asked, dying to see what looked like ancient Rome come to life beneath her.

Leif sighed.

“I’m not really sure . . . but I think we have free reign to roam. I just don’t think we can get back to the Folly anytime soon. Nana probably thought she was protecting us,” he said with a shrug.