Grounding Gracus (First Wave Book 6) (25 page)

“I want nothing that resembles anything Valendran near that mountain, do you understand me?” Ivint raised his eyebrows, but nodded his head and stepped back from the angry woman.

Tricia turned back to Koda and continued. “I want the ships prepared to turn that entire range of mountains to dust if we have to. Grai would have threatened them with war, we’ll give them one if they don’t return our people,” she said as Koda nodded his head and pulled out his comm to issue orders to his ship. To prepare their armada of fighter craft for war.

Chapter Twenty-Two

It had been hours since Gracus and Rebecca returned to the house and Gibly still had not come back. Nor had Tara come back to talk to them either. Rebecca was beginning to get the feeling that the shit was hitting the fan around them and there was nothing they could do about it.

She looked up at the ajar back door again, hoping to see the beautiful cat come striding in and continued pacing when she saw the empty doorway. “Something is wrong,” she said, not knowing how she knew so certainly that she was right.

Gracus looked up from the chair where he’d had his head in his hands. “I know. Come here,” he said, reaching up and pulling her into his lap.

He kissed her tenderly on the lips. “What did you think of the images of the guards that were projected in front of the tunnel doors?” he asked, hoping to distract her from her growing concern over their situation.

Rebecca sighed and thought back to the tunnel. “I don’t know. It looked like a scifi movie or something. Like they were holograms of actual people. But, their eyes followed our movements and I would have sworn they were actual people watching us,” she admitted, feeling creepy just thinking about it again.

Gracus smiled and kissed the top of her head. “I thought the same thing. The man did not look happy that I thrust my hands through his abdomen to get to the wheel on the door,” he said with a grin.

Rebecca looked up at him. “You think we can get through the door?”

Gracus shook his head. “No, I couldn’t turn the wheel at all. With my strength, especially in here, where the energy line feeds my energy, I should have been able to turn it. I don’t think they are doors that are used often, if at all. Which means, we should have gone the way Gibly went. That is probably the way out,” he said, having thought about it since they returned to the house.

Just then the door flew open and Tara and Gibly both ran inside and quickly shut the door behind them. Gracus and Rebecca jumped to their feet and Rebecca leaned down to inspect Gibly for injuries.

“What happened?” Gracus asked, feeling the concern in Tara’s energy.

Tara sighed. “As I said earlier, the men would fuck this up and they have. Leif is a fool and I need to get you out of here right now,” she said as she peeked out of the curtains in the living room.

“Ok,” Gracus said, taking hold of Rebecca’s hand as Tara turned to them.

“I need you to follow me closely. Do not talk at all. If we are stopped by anyone, follow my lead. If anything happens, I showed Gibly how to get out. So follow him,” Tara said as she led them to the back door and slipped outside.

Gracus followed, pulling Rebecca behind him while Gibly took up the rear. Tara was leading them along the backside of the shops, where the proprietors lived, with more homes on the other side of the street.

Eventually it turned into scattered farms and parks and they were forced to walk in the open in places, making Rebecca paranoid. She felt a lot safer when they were hiding in the shadows. What she didn’t expect was the massive building that was built in another cavern with its own sliver of a moon shining and what looked like a large forest leading to it.

Rebecca bit her tongue to stop herself from saying anything about how truly damn weird this all was. And she couldn’t help but wonder if they had a place like this in Ireland and if this was what everyone thought was the fairy kingdom. She had to keep reminding herself that this wasn’t a dream as she followed Gracus and Tara through the forest.

At the end of the forest, as the building loomed in front of them, Tara stopped and held her finger to her mouth, motioning with her hands for them to wait. Gracus could tell she was speaking to someone through the Shengari’ and a few moments later, she nodded her head and moved into the open between the forest and the building.

They came to a door, guarded by a male and female hybrid and Gracus could tell they were speaking through the energy strands again as the male opened the door. Tara motioned them through the door and both guards nodded their heads to them as they passed. Gracus filed the strange information away for later and looked around the corridor they had entered.

His eyes quickly adjusted to the dim light and he looked around in amazement at what appeared to be an energy station, with small generators pulsing and humming with life around them. He didn’t have much time to understand how it worked before Tara led them to another door at the end of the corridor.

She peeked out for a moment before stepping through the door and holding it open for them. Gracus was more than a little surprised when there was another female hybrid on the other side of the door with a covered vehicle waiting for them.

Tara nodded to the woman and climbed inside the vehicle, holding the fabric flap open for them. Gibly jumped inside gingerly, while Gracus helped Rebecca inside before climbing in behind them. Tara closed the flap and the vehicle took off at a healthy speed.

They sat in the silence of the darkened vehicle while Gracus noted that the vehicle was climbing.
Wherever they were going, they were going up
, he thought, hoping that meant they were going back to the surface and outside.

Long minutes later, Gracus heard the distinct sound of the vehicle entering something, before they shot upwards at a rapid rate. As if the vehicle had entered a lift system or elevator. Gracus was beginning to wonder just how far beneath the surface they were when they slowed down to a stop.

Once again the vehicle took off at a good pace, alternating between flat surfaces, lift systems and climbing. A little over two hours later the vehicle came to a stop and Tara lifted the flap and looked out before jumping down and holding the flap for them.

Gracus was a little surprised that they were still in a building, although he couldn’t imagine that it was the same one that they had entered. Tara hit the back of the vehicle a few times and it made a U-turn and headed back the way they had come.

Tara grinned. “Sorry about the drive, but we had to get you out through the back and unused areas. It seems the men are escalating an already bad situation so we’re on alert and I didn’t want to take a chance you’d be discovered.”

Rebecca looked at Tara with sympathy. “Should you come with us? When they find us gone, you’ll get in trouble,” she said, worried that the woman would be punished for helping them escape.

Tara laughed. “Yeah, they’re going to be pissed. But, since I have vid of Gibly there, finding the exit, it’ll be easy for me to blame him for being so smart and stealthy,” she said as she kneeled down to the cat. Gibly surprised them by rubbing against her and purring.

Tara sighed and stood. “Ok, here’s the deal. You’re going to end up in the Fairy Caves near Glenwood. You know how to get home from there right?” she asked Rebecca.

Rebecca was stunned and just nodded her head. While Gracus turned to Tara. “I don’t understand the anger or why we are fighting, but I am very grateful that you helped us. It will not be forgotten,” he said honestly.

Tara looked at him fully for the first time. “It’s not that we hate you, we were taught to hate you. But, not all of us agree with it. Unfortunately, it won’t matter because if we are called to fight, we will. Just like your people will. I truly hope I haven’t released you, only for you to die because of the ignorance of our leaders. Now go!” Tara said as she opened the door to a completely dark tunnel.

Gracus didn’t need to be told twice and he grabbed Rebecca’s hand and led them through the door. Rebecca turned and said, “Thank you,” before the door disappeared and became a solid rock wall.

Gracus looked around the darkness and said, “Gibly, can you get us out of here?”

The cat snickered. “Of course, follow me,” he said as he took off at a moderate pace to make sure they could keep up with him.

It wasn’t long before they came to a place that had been roped off with a “Danger” sign. Slipping under the rope, they ended up in the area of the cave that was lit and easily followed it outside.

Rebecca dropped to the ground and gulped in deep breaths of fresh air, while Gracus immediately sent a call to Grai. When only silence remained, he called Scaden and got an immediate response and confirmation of transport pick up, not far from where they were.

He took Rebecca’s hand and kissed the back of it. “My people are coming to get us,” he said as he led her down the trail to the pickup location.

Rebecca was glad that Gracus had taken the initiative. She honestly wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do now that they were free again. She thought about her old life and she couldn’t imagine how she was supposed to go back to it after everything she’d seen and heard. Her life could never be the same again.

Gracus could feel her fear and concern in her energy and he squeezed her hand as he turned to smile at her. “It’s going to be ok,” he said before turning back to the trail.

Rebecca just nodded her head, wondering what the future was going to bring and what if any part she may have in Gracus’s future.
He hadn’t said anything about staying together
, she thought. Granted, he had said he loved her. But, they were also stuck in the middle of a war.

Rebecca sighed. “Will your people really go to war with them?” she asked, hoping it wasn’t true and wouldn’t get that far.

Gracus looked around the skies for the transport craft as he shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t know everything that happened while we were gone, but I’m going to find out,” he promised, turning to kiss her.

Rebecca barely heard his words as a strange ship hovered above them. It was too dark for her to make out much of the craft and the bright lights surrounding it, didn’t help much either. She was more than a little startled when Gracus put his arm around her and they lifted through the air, into the belly of the craft.

“Whoa!” Rebecca said with wide eyes as she saw the heavily armed men inside the craft.

Gracus sat her in one of the seats and buckled her in, while he turned to one of the men seated nearby. “Someone help Gibly get secured in a seat and give me status,” Gracus ordered immediately, his tone surprising Rebecca.

He sounded so… commanding, and much stronger than when he spoke to her that she was surprised at this new side of him that she was seeing. She watched as he buckled himself in the seat across from her and next to the man Gracus had spoken to.

“Sir, we’ve set up a mobile command center at the cabin you were staying in. We’re taking you there for debrief,” the man said with a respectful nod.

Gracus nodded his head, becoming seriously worried over the situation, but unwilling to let Rebecca see it. Instead, he turned back to the hybrid warrior. “Who’s commanding the mission?” he asked, assuming it would be Ivint.

When the man blushed a little and looked away, Gracus looked at him darkly and ordered again, “Who’s commanding the mission?”

“Tricia T’Alq,” the man said, shaking his head as if he was still in disbelief.

Gracus’s mouth dropped open. He couldn’t help it. “What the fuck is Ivint doing letting a pregnant mate anywhere near this situation? What the hell is everyone thinking? Is everyone else dead?” Gracus asked, his fear escalating.

The man’s eyes got huge. “No! The problem seems to be that they hate us. Valendrans. The consensus seems to be that if we let the hybrids in there, deal with our hybrids, we can avoid bloodshed and get everyone back safely,” he admitted, with a shake of his head. Leading Gracus and Rebecca to believe there was a lot more to it than he was telling them.

Rebecca heard the pilot call out, “Ready to drop in thirty! Get our new passenger prepared to drop!”

Rebecca looked up as Gracus stood and unhooked her seatbelt, pulling her to her feet. He kissed her briefly before pulling her closely to his side. “I need you to hold on tight. This won’t hurt a bit if you just relax and ride the wind down, ok?” Gracus said as Rebecca looked at him with wide eyes.

Rebecca had no idea what to expect.
What the hell did ‘ride the wind’ even mean
, she wondered as the floor beneath her feet opened up and she fell out of the craft with Gracus.

Gracus yelled out, “Don’t fight it!”

But, it was too late. Rebecca had immediately panicked and had let go of Gracus, flailing her arms and legs. Gracus tried his best to keep hold of her, but they both ended up in a flat spin towards the ground at ever increasing speeds until Gracus grabbed her and flipped her above him, just before he hit the ground.

Gracus hit the ground so hard the air didn’t rush from his lungs, it felt like it had been violently ejected and he gasped, trying to suck in needed air.

“Damn Gracus! What the hell?” Scaden asked as he ran over to the couple to see if they were alright.

Amun was already checking Rebecca, who was sliding off Gracus’s body and looking around like she was still a little stunned. Gracus was still catching his breath when he took Scaden’s hand and allowed his friend to help pull him to his feet.

Gracus turned to Rebecca to make sure she was alright and she blushed deeply at him. “I’m sorry… I panicked…,” she said, completely embarrassed that so many people had seen their disastrous landing. 

Gracus chuckled. “I did worse before, all by myself. Don’t worry about it,” he said as he put his arm around her and led her to the cabin.