Drago (Second Wave Book 2) Read online

  “According to Mikal, since he had saved her life, only he had the right to determine where she lived and as far as they were concerned, I was outvoted before I even knew what we were voting on,” Grai said with a chuckle, before turning sad again and looking at Drago, hoping he would understand.

  “They named her Angel and she lived up to it. She brought them all together and became the glue that held them together no matter how dark their tasks or how heavy their hearts. She was the one person who never judged them or treated them any differently than anyone else on the planet.”

  “Angel loved us all unconditionally. She worried for us, cared for us and as she grew she became a part of our lives that we couldn’t and wouldn’t do without. We created our schedules around her to make sure she was never alone and always protected. Our little Angel,” Grai said as he choked up, accepting the comforting hand that Drago put on his shoulder.

  “Was she always such a hellion?” Drago asked, hoping to ease some of Grai’s pain and learn more about his amazing mate.

  Grai laughed as he wiped the tears from his face. “You have no idea! She ran us ragged! She still does, obviously,” Grai said as he nodded to the bed.

  “When Angel learned Mikal could walk the wind, she couldn’t understand why she couldn’t as well and coated herself in flour before she threw herself out of the second floor window,” Grai shook his head at the memory.

  “Angel said that she thought if she looked like a cloud, she could float like one too and be like Mikal. She broke both of her legs that time,” Grai said as he shook his head at her antics. She hadn’t changed much since then, he thought, mentally kicking himself for not watching the kids more closely.

  Drago snorted and leaned his head back against her bed. “She is certainly strong. And damn if she didn’t get her lying… cunning ways from you, you bastard,” Drago said with a half-smile as he turned to look at Grai.

  “She had me fooled. I had no idea who she was. I knew she wasn’t Devon, but that was as far as I got. Even they,” Drago said waving outside the door to mean the Dranovian’s.

  “They didn’t even tell me who she was until Satalis had her and we were trying to get her back. How did you keep them a secret?” Drago asked, his curiosity about the Dranovian’s getting to him.

  Grai sighed and leaned back. “I jumped through every hoop you could think of… and invented a few in the process. Luckily, with the technology and resources we have, it’s become much easier to make sure that they don’t bump into anyone. And because of who they are, they can sense another beast from greater distances than a normal beast. It gives them time to get away if they can.”

  Drago shook his head at the injustice of it. “That’s a shame, they seem to be good men. I’d fight beside them again. Without the secrets this time… and my mate lying in a bed trying to survive,” Drago mused aloud.

  Grai nodded. “They are damn good men. Every one of them, without exception would lay down their life for one of our people. They run that risk every time they have to hunt one of our own. One of ours, Drago. Our people, our problem. That’s what no one wants to understand,” Grai said emphatically, just thinking about it could cause his blood to boil.

  Drago turned to Grai with a puzzled look, not sure what Grai meant so he asked, “What do you mean by that?”

  “They are our people Drago. Valendran hybrids whose beasts have caused a horrible anomaly in their brains that made them to commit heinous crimes. Horrible things that would make even my father proud. If the Valendrans had not been forced to come here to survive my father, there would be no hybrids here. No need for a Dranovian at all.” Grai paused before continuing.

  “I knew something was wrong when I began finding more and more Dranovian’s. I knew there was a reason, a balance that needed to be maintained. Who would protect the humans from them if not us? If not those men outside?” Grai asked Drago as he turned his penetrating gaze to his.

  Drago remained silent, his mind working quickly to see it from Grai’s point of view. Which was pretty simple. Grai was right, the Dranovian’s wouldn’t be needed if there hadn’t been hybrids that were going rogue. Even on his own world, Tezaria, there were only one or two Dranovian’s for the whole planet. Today he had fought beside twenty three of them. Which led him to another, more frightening thought.

  “Fuck! How many anomalous hybrids are there?”

  Grai sighed. “Too many, my friend. Way too many.”

  *****

  Ivint and Reven had the decency to blush at Dree’s chastising words and Ivint cleared his throat to hide his embarrassment before speaking to the assembled group, unsure if there was a leader that he should be addressing.

  “Can someone please explain to me, what is going on and who is injured?”

  There really wasn’t time to answer. The grumbling that began to overtake the crowd in the hangar was becoming a wave of rising discontent. The Dranovian’s tensed, unsure what was going on until Dree explained it to them.

  “The teams Grai sent to help, told someone about the hybrids. The news is spreading that we’ve killed them with mostly head shots. Our people think we executed them,” Dree said, her hand tightening on her own weapon as Liam and Reign stood in front of her. To her irritation.

  Ivint paled visibly, not only from what Dree had said but from what he was hearing through the Shengari’. If what he was hearing was true, the fully armed men in front of them had executed eighteen hybrids and nine humans.

  Reven kept his eyes on the Dranovian’s while he spoke to Ivint through the Shengari’. “Sir, we need to diffuse the situation and get these people out of here.”

  Ivint continued to stare at Chris, blue eyes holding brown for long moments before Ivint broke the contact and turned to Traze and David.

  “As you can see, this situation is about to get beyond our control. Considering the atmosphere, I do not believe that we would be able to count on our security forces to assist in maintaining control. We can have a blood bath or we can get everyone out of here,” Ivint said, hoping that if he appealed to Traze’s kind heart and the Prime beast in David, that they could stop this before anyone got killed.

  David wanted nothing more than to help end this, but Lara and Tricia, who could help him, couldn’t leave Angel and his own abilities with the Prime energy were sketchy and inconsistent. He really couldn’t guarantee that sending out a calming energy wave wouldn’t set them all on fire. That wouldn’t be good, he thought sarcastically.

  David glanced at the man-child next to him and Traze turned to him, an expectant look in his eyes. David wanted nothing more than to ensure the boy that they weren’t going to be shot by friendly fire, but it wasn’t looking good.

  More and more of the crowd began drawing their own weapons as the grumbling increased and Traze realized that this wasn’t going well. With Grai blocking everyone from contacting him and no answers forthcoming from his recently discovered nephews, Traze knew he had to do something to help.

  He leaned in to the big Dranovian next to him and whispered, “Yo cuz, you get anything on those body cams of yours that could show these guys you didn’t do what they’re accusing you of?”

  When no one moved or even twitched, Traze realized this shit was bad. Really bad. “Fuck me,” he whispered quietly to himself. When he saw Reven slowly draw his own weapon, he knew that both he and Ivint had heard his question. And saw the lack of response from the Dranovian’s.

  It was when the Tezarian’s in the crowd began inundating the Tezarian Shengari’ path with chatter, accusing the House of Death and House of Illusion of being traitors to the beast nations and their home world that Dree lost it.

  She tried to push her way past Liam and Reign and when she could not move them, she projected an illusion of herself to their right and waited for them to rush to her false image before she stomped up to Ivint and Reven. She couldn’t help but smile when she heard a growling Liam and Reign come right up behind her.

  Staring straig
ht at Ivint, Dree let loose her temper. “You hypocrite bastard. You stand there, allowing these fools,” Dree motioned to the crowd behind Ivint. “To stand in judgement when you have no idea what you are even judging! You are assuming you have a clue what the fuck happened and what went down out there. I didn’t see your ass launching yourself in front of me to take the bullet some rogue hybrid bitch was trying to put in my head!”

  Dree turned away from Ivint and addressed the people in the front of the crowd. “Where were you when those rogue hybrids were trying to kill us as well as the human politician’s and other guests? Did you know that the guests to that party and all of us, were led to that place to be killed by those damn hybrids?”

  Dree walked back up to Ivint and raised her chin, staring him in the eyes without flinching. “You, who think to judge me, us…, would I be dead right now because you hesitated to pull that trigger and take out a soulless killer just because she’s a hybrid?” Ivint and Reven looked away and Dree slammed it home. “That’s what I thought.”

  “We all know what these men are, but there is a reason they are here. Your precious hybrids are turning into killers all over this world and it’s being helped along by the Dark Prime who is using his illusions to force a corrupted beast bonding in them,” Dree could hear the gasps of disbelief in the crowd and the shaking of their heads as they refused to believe the truth.

  She stared at Ivint. “I have no reason to lie. No reason to protect these men other than the fact that they are innocent of murder and guilty only of protecting your sorry asses and mine. If you don’t end this now, the only person who will be guilty of murder, is you.”

  Traze almost sighed in relief when he saw Ivint start to waver and he hoped to help tip him to their side. “I don’t think Grai would like it much if you killed his kids either.”

  Ivint and Reven remained eerily silent and Dree realized they were talking to each other through the Shengari’. When someone from the crowd yelled out, “Prove it!”

  Cole took one step forward. “December eighteenth, nineteen eighty nine. Katy Davis, adopted daughter of Carl and Sara Davis, used her telekinetic ability to impale her mother, father, infant sister and twelve year old brother with kitchen implements.”

  “She went on the run the next day in the family vehicle and was caught three states away and terminated after killing two store clerks and a five year old boy who had gone to the store for candy. Her body and brain were retrieved for study. Brain status confirmed anomalous.”

  Jason stepped forward next as Traze put his weapon down and pulled out his comm while Cade spoke. “March seventeenth, eighteen ninety seven. Rose and Violet Dawson. Using their ability with plants and herbs, they poisoned seven husbands and sixteen children between them. There were dozens more poisoning deaths in the local area but they could not be proven to be their work at the time, although it was a logical assumption. Status, terminated. Bodies retrieved for study and found to be anomalous.”

  Traze whistled low as he pulled up the stories on the web and showed it to Ivint and Reven as Chris remained where he was standing and spoke.

  “June fourth, two thousand and twelve. Jenny Murphy, adopted daughter of David and Macy Murphy, listened to the voices in her head and shot her parents to death in their home as they slept. Then drove to her grandparents’ house where she killed them and two young cousins who were staying there. She was captured the next day and terminated. Her body was retrieved and studied. Conclusion was anomalous.”

  Chris looked directly at Ivint as he asked, “Could you have done it to save other humans from her? Who among you, would have stopped them from continuing to kill?”

  Someone yelled in the crowd, “Bastard killers!”

  Chris finally snapped. “We’re the worst of us, so you can be the best of us! So take your hypocrisy and shove it! Without us, half of you would have been knifed in the back by your own anomalous hybrids years ago. You don’t think we don’t want families and live happy little lives like you do under the protection of my father?”

  “Someone has to be the bad guy in order for you to be protected. And for the humans to be protected from YOUR killer offspring! The killers your people are breeding! We didn’t choose this path, no one would! But we were raised to be strong enough to do what had to be done in order for our people, you, to live in relative peace and safety. So don’t stand there and judge my path until you choose to walk it with me.”

  Mikal snorted at the surprised faces. “How many of you would like us to tell you of your own hybrid relatives that turned into killers? How many innocents your people killed before they were terminated? Would you claim these killers as your own as readily as you have the hybrids around you?” When most looked away in shame because they wouldn’t want to know, Mikal shook his head. “Do not judge me for cleaning up your dirty laundry then.”

  Trick spoke next. “Dree is right, whatever these illusions are that Satalis is creating, he’s using them to draw in your hybrids and once he has them he’s brainwashing them somehow and twisting the beast bonding to make them anomalous. He’s creating an army of talented killers that he thinks you won’t harm. And he’s right, you won’t.”

  Dree stepped around Liam again. “But we will,” she said as she took one of Liam’s hands in her own. The big guy gently squeezed her hand and pulled her back behind him, ignoring her huff of aggravation.

  When a single voice shouted out, “Beast killers!” Ivint finally acted. Turning his backs to the Dranovian’s he faced the crowd of agitated people in the crowd.

  “I want all of you to disperse to your duty stations. If you are not required to be in this building for duty, then I want you off the premises until your required shift. NOW!” Ivint roared as most started to move from the room, grumbling among themselves.

  Niklosi, Balduen and Reven turned to face those who were straggling behind and moved towards them until they got the hint and began to leave as well. When the hangar finally cleared of everyone except for the curious workers that were doing more listening than working, Chris and his brothers lowered their weapons. The Tezarian’s were the last to follow.

  Ivint turned to Dread and Trick. “You truly believe that our hybrids are intentionally being turned into killers?”

  The three Brazar nodded their heads and Dread stared at Ivint before answering. “I can tell you that the women we met tonight, didn’t even blink as they pulled the trigger on us. They didn’t look like they had any thoughts at all other than what Satalis was ordering them to do.”

  Chris spoke up. “Dad knows more about it. We retrieve the bodies for study because he’s been trying to find a way to stop it or reverse it. Or at least find out why it’s happening. There are far too many for it to be naturally occurring.”

  Jason added. “We figured out years ago that there had to be an outside reason for the number of rogue’s we were encountering. We didn’t know about the Dark Prime though or that he could have been a part of what was happening to the hybrids. If he’s been on the planet long enough, then he could be the whole reason that we’re having so many of the anomalies.”

  Mikal grunted. “If we can figure out what he’s doing to them, we may be able to find a way to fix the hybrids.”

  Cole shook his head sadly. “Would you want to be fixed and find out that while you were crazy you slaughtered your whole family? We’ve encountered scenes that haunt us to this day, I can’t imagine that any of them would want to live every day with such memories of what they have done.”

  Ivint was startled at the thought. He’d never considered what the true host would want if they could speak through the brain anomalies causing them to kill. The poor women were trapped in their minds as a strange voice commanded them to kill those they loved.

  Would they want to live, even if they were relieved of the anomaly, knowing what they had done? Damn if he wasn’t starting to think that the men in front of him weren’t the terrifying creatures of legend, but merciful crusaders protecting th
e most vulnerable and weak of their people. Not only from themselves but from the memory of their actions.

  Their people had always assumed that those whose beasts were killed, died from the loneliness they forced upon themselves. They assumed it was because of the emptiness left by the loss of the beast. What if they had it all wrong? What if they committed ritual suicide because they couldn’t live with the guilt of what they had done while the anomaly controlled them?

  There was such shame among his people regarding those who had gone rogue. It was a silent and private thing that was known only to the family of the rogue and their spiritual leaders. And it was never spoken of. Ever.

  Ivint looked at Chris, who he realized now was the leader. “Do you still have the bodies and the reports? Who is working on the experiments?”

  Chris didn’t hesitate to answer. There was no point not to tell them now. “Dad has a special lab in Norway that he has staffed with some of the best docs around. They take care of us and study the brains of the anomalous victims.”

  Ivint felt a pang of guilt that these men were forced to remain away from their people to the point that Grai had to provide them with special human doctors. Shrugging it off for now, until he knew more of what was going on, Ivint nodded.

  “We need to get Amun on it as well. He’s become extremely well versed on the hybrid anatomy and brain structure and he may be able to provide insight and fresh eyes to the problem.”

  Chris agreed. “I think we can use all the help we can get. If it is something Satalis is doing and we can reverse it, we have to try.”

  Ivint was surprised at Chris’s words and the ready agreement of his brothers. Soulless killers didn’t usually look for a way to limit the number of their victims. Which is exactly what curing the rogue hybrids would do, he thought as his mind tried to pull together what was really going on.

  The former High Councilor of the planet Valendra surprised everyone when he threw his head back and laughed heartily. When he looked back at the startled Dranovian’s he simply said by way of explanation, “Damn if your father isn’t full of surprises.”