Manipulating Mikey (First Wave Book 8) (20 page)

Gibly jumped and hissed in pain
when he heard the phone ring, and he hobbled over to hide under the desk while
he waited to see if someone would answer it. He grinned broadly when he heard a
machine say the hunter wasn’t home and to leave a message.

He came out from under the desk and
looked around for an easier place to view the room. Gibly sighed and limped up
the log that had been used to perch a stuffed wolf on, and he looked around the
room.

When he saw what he was looking for,
he moved slowly back down the log and across the room. He took a deep breath
and jumped to the seat of the chair and then the desk before he sat, lifted his
paw off the desktop, and tried to stop the black spots from dancing behind his
eyes.

Finally getting the pain under
control, Gibly looked around and took a few steps. Using his back foot, he
knocked the phone over. He limped towards it and looked down at the numbers,
unsure what to do from here. He struggled to think through the pain and finally
used his paw to press the three numbers he knew.

“What city and state?” came the
automated voice.

“Dillon, Texas,” Gibly said as
clearly as he could.

“What listing?” the voice asked.

“Freedom Enterprises,” Gibly said.

“Hold for your number,” the digital
voice said before another recording came on saying that for an additional fee
he could press a button and be automatically connected.

Not wanting to use his wounded
shoulder to press all those buttons, Gibly winced as he pressed the one key and
listened to the phone ringing.

“Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays
from Freedom Enterprises, this is Saia, how may I direct your call?” came the
voice.

“I need to speak to Grai,” Gibly
said as he laid down near the phone, his weak body unable to sit up any longer
as his blood began to pool on the desk.

“I’m sorry, sir, but Mr. T’Alq
isn’t available. I’d be happy to take a message for him,” Saia said, wondering
where she’d heard that voice before.

Gibly was having a hard time seeing
the phone, and he remembered the trail of blood he’d left in his wake as he’d
come from the forest. He knew he had only a little time to tell Grai where Koda
was before he lost consciousness. If he didn’t, they would all die.

“Gibly . . .,” he said weakly.

“Oh Gods! Gibly is that you?” Saia
shouted as she jumped from her seat in the reception area of Freedom
Enterprises.

She looked around at the curious
faces and sat back down, using the Shengari’ to call Grai and Ivint.

“Gibly? Talk to me, buddy. Are you
OK? Where are you, baby?” Saia asked more quietly into the phone.

“Found Koda. Tell Grai. They dying.
Come quick,” Gibly said, finding it difficult to get enough air in to speak
clearly as his vision began to fail.

Gibly barely managed a weak smile
when he heard Grai’s voice come over the phone.

“Gibly? Where are you? Someone
trace the damn call! Gibly? Can you hear me, friend?” Grai asked, concern
evident in his voice.

Gibly opened and closed his mouth
to speak, but no words would come out. He never heard Grai’s next words.

“I’m coming for you. Don’t you dare
stop fighting, you hear me? I’m coming, my friend,” Grai roared into the phone,
uncaring that human customers were in the lobby staring at him in open-mouthed
astonishment.

Grai didn’t even notice the trail
of people following him into the team gear room as he grabbed his gear and
headed to the transport on standby. He entered the craft and headed to the
pilots.

“Did they get a location of the
call?” he asked immediately.

“Yes, sir. We’ll be there in five
minutes,” the pilot answered as he initiated his pre-flight check.

“Make it three!” Grai growled as he
turned around and looked in surprise at the full cabin.

“He’s our friend too,” Ivint said
as he strapped himself in beside Reven and Balduen. Niklosi, Scaden, Gracus,
Traze and Blade were on the same side while Jax, Kintaq, and a half dozen vet
techs sat on the other side.

In the middle of the aisle stood an
angry and embarrassed Ranger. The one reindeer antler hung lopsided around his
neck, and one bell was somehow stuck to his fur near his shoulder. His glittering
eyes pierced Grai.

“I will be there for my leader, for
my friend.”

Grai nodded his head, grateful they
would be there for Gibly. He wanted the cat to know how much he was loved and
missed.

Chapter
Twenty

Indrid took in the scene around him
as Lauren rushed into the small trapper’s cabin and went to the shallow
breathing and ghostly pale toddler first while Mikey ran to Emily.

Lauren quickly stabilized the
comatose toddler and moved to the bed with the large man who looked so similar
to his brothers and began running scans on him.

“He’s bad, he’s bad! Gods, I need
help! Now!” Lauren shouted around her until Disc was beside her.

Disc gasped and reached out to swat
at the small bugs wriggling around the lower part of leg where it was jaggedly
severed below the knee.

“Stop! They’re actually helping
him!” Lauren said, smacking Disc’s hands away more roughly than she intended.
“I need you to get in that ship and get me every damn piece of medical
equipment you can find. Now!”

Discorian immediately sent a call
to Crator in the ship and the Shengari’ lit up with the news that immediate
assistance was required at the scene.

Indrid could feel the time running
out for the three. Their energy was diminishing rapidly with each passing
moment. He whispered words of ancient power, held out his hands, and called
upon the energy around him, pulling from deep within himself for what he needed
before violently expelling it so quickly he fell to his knees.

He looked up and knew that the
energy was helping the three who desperately needed it, but it wouldn’t last
for long. With what little energy Indrid had left, he called to the one person
he knew could save them all.

“Father to my son, listen carefully
as I have not the energy to repeat this. We have found your brother. He is
dying rapidly and has somehow tied his energy to a baby and young woman who are
dying with him. You must meet us at Beta, and you must bring your son, Tristan,
or the three of them are doomed to die together. Call to Mikey,” Indrid said
before he passed out on the floor, giving the last of his energy to save the
brother of the man who’d saved his son.

Before he passed out, Indrid
realized why Emily was so important to him. While Grai had nurtured and
protected his precious son over the years, Indrid had been nurturing and
protecting the woman who would go on to save Koda and become his mate.

*****

Grai received Indrid’s desperate
message in mid-flight to Gibly’s location and roared in fear for the cat and
his brother as he called to Mikey to find out where Koda was. He was hoping
like hell he could scramble another team to Koda’s location in time to save his
brother.

“I found it!” the pilot called out
to Grai. “Gibly’s in a large home in a residential area that butts up against
the forest. Grai, we’re only 30 miles from the military zone set up at Fiorn’s
Folly.”

Grai stood and checked his gear while
everyone began to release their harnesses.

“Get ready to drop!” Grai called
out as everyone prepared themselves.

“Drop in 5, 4, 3, 2 . . .” the
pilot called out.

Grai saw the open back door to the
home as he dropped and ran towards it the second his feet hit the ground.
Others ran to secure the perimeter while the rest converged on the house to
secure the scene and find Gibly.

Ranger was in the house before
anyone and suddenly let out a piercing yowl before they heard a crash and
scrambling. Grai ran towards the sound, thinking the cat was in danger, and
slid to a stop just inside the door as he saw all the stuffed animals.

A flash of movement to his right
brought his eyes to the body of Gibly laying on the desk. Grai called out to
Kintaq to come immediately as he ran to the cat. Grai raised his hand to the
deathly still animal as Ranger lay beside him, one arm over Gibly’s stomach.

“Gibly,” Grai whispered brokenly as
he looked at the blood pooled around the cat and the trail leading in the room.

Ranger growled in fury before he
leaped from the desk and became a black blur as he bolted from the house.

Kintaq ran in past all of the
people standing quietly in the room, waiting for any sign that their beloved
cat was still alive. He reached the desk just as Grai laid his hand on Gibly’s
fur, a single tear slipping down his cheek.

“Don’t you dare die on me, friend,”
Grai whispered, his voice shaking from emotion.

The sadness in the room was broken
and everyone cheered when the brave cat, weakly flicked his tail and opened his
eyes to look at Grai as Kintaq and the vet techs swarmed him.

“Koda,” Gibly whispered weakly.

Grai looked tearfully down at the
cat.

“We found him, we’re getting him
now. You worry about getting better now; your job is done, my friend,” Grai
whispered as he gently held Gibly’s paw.

“Go to them,” Gibly said, his voice
a little stronger now that Kintaq had sealed the nicked vein and the blood
boosters were kicking in.

“Grai, we’re no more than 25 miles
west of where Koda is. Gibly is going to be fine. He needs rest and care. We’re
taking him to Dillon now, so go to your brother,” Kintaq said, drawing Grai’s
attention from the wounded cat.

Grai looked up at Traze standing in
the doorway and nodded his head before both men moved to leave. They stopped
just outside the door as Reven stood and fumed at the suddenly blood covered
Ranger.

“Gods be damned, you crazy cat! How
the hell are we supposed to hide that?” Reven demanded as he glared down at
Ranger standing outside the door.

“What happened?” Grai asked,
bending down to check the cat.

“He’s fine! What he did isn’t!”
Reven said as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“Go to your brother, we’ll take
care of this,” Ivint said, as he came up behind them.

Grai and Traze ported into a waiting
craft as Ivint turned a heated gaze to the unapologetic cat who was leisurely
licking the blood off of himself.

“I saw that room, I can guess what
the bastard had planned for Gibly,” Balduen said, grinning down at the cat. “I
think the prick is lucky he was dead when Ranger did it.”

“What did he do?” Ivint asked,
wondering if he really wanted to know.

“He severed the guy’s head and
defecated in his mouth! How the hell are we supposed to make that look normal
now?” Reven argued, his frustration heightened by their close proximity to the
military units still scouring Fiorn’s Folly.

“I’m with Baldy, I don’t blame him
for doing it. I say we get everyone out, light stone his body, and set the
place on fire,” Niklosi said, thinking the cat’s brutality and desecration was
justified—this time.

Ivint sighed and shook his head. It
was not something that he or any of them had time for.

“Do it! And Ranger, you’re off
mission status until further notice,” Ivint ordered before he walked back into
the house to get everyone evacuated to Dillon.

Ranger watched the Valendran leader
walk away, then burst out laughing while rolling around in the grass on his
back.

“What the hell?” Reven demanded,
wondering if the cat was even sane.

Ranger’s eyes twinkled and a furry
smile was plastered on his face.

“Gibly is back! This diplomat job
sucks! Dealing with you people make me crazy because you are crazy!” Ranger
said as he stood and bounded around the lawn in happiness.

*****

Chris, Deacon, Grant, Luca and Gunner
were rechecking their gear on their way to their father. It was two weeks
before Christmas, and true to his word, Chris and his brothers were on their
way to take over some of the search for their uncle, Koda.

The guys knew their dad was only
trying to protect them from the uncomfortable tension that inevitably came when
they were near others with beasts, but they couldn’t care less if they were
feared when it came to family.

Their father needed help, and their
uncle needed to be rescued or recovered; that was the only thing that mattered
to them at this point. 

The men jerked in their seats when
Mikal suddenly appeared inside of the ship in front of them.

“Damn it, bro! You know we hate
that shit!” Luca complained.

“My father has found Koda, and Dad
has found Gibly. We must hurry!” Mikal said, ignoring the questions flying
behind him as he walked up the aisle to talk to Deacon.

“Head 112 miles east of Fiorn’s
Folly; there’s a tiny trapper’s cabin,” Mikal told Deacon.

“Are you kidding me? That’s 50
miles outside of the military zone they set up in the area. He’s been there all
this time?” Gun asked.

“I do not know,” Mikal said, a
little shaken from everything. “I felt Indrid’s energy soar and then scatter,
and I can no longer reach him. But what I got was that Koda is there with a
woman and child, and they are all dying. We have one of the fastest ships, and
we’re already close; we need to get them all to beta.”

Everyone braced themselves as
Deacon ignited the primary engines, and they were jerked back by the G-force
before the craft leveled out.

“We got two minutes! We have a ship
in hover . . . it’s Crator!” Deacon called back to them.

Everyone listened intently to the
news coming through the Shengari’ until they knew who was on the scene. Chris
reached out to Lauren.

“This is Chris, Grai’s son. I have
two medics, a ton of med gear, and the fastest ship in the air. Request to port
your party to our ship now!”

“No!” Lauren replied, working
quickly to stabilize Koda, the worst of the patients. “Get me help down here,
or he won’t make it through a port!”

Mikal disappeared as the brothers
gathered to drop.

“Drop in 3, 2 . . .” Deacon called
out.

The brothers dropped to the ground
in front of the small cabin, and Chris and the others held back while Grant and
Luca, the medics, ran inside to help. 

By the time Chris walked inside,
he’d already been hit by the smell of rotting flesh and forced himself not to
gag as he went further inside, past the people working on the two females.

“Oh Gods!” Chris whispered as he
stared at his once vibrant and strong uncle. “What happened to him?”

“Everything,” Grant whispered back
as he moved around Lauren to try and stabilize the oozing and jagged stump
where Koda’s lower leg had been.

“I don’t know how he’s stayed alive
this long, and I don’t care how bad he looks right now! I care that at this damn
moment he’s alive, and we’re going to keep him that way! Now get that infected
arm wrapped up!” Lauren growled, her hands and mind working quickly to assess
what needed to be done to save Koda’s life.

Luca moved into the space Lauren
left in front of Koda as she moved to Koda’s head and placed a neuroband on
him. Luca stopped his gag reflex as he concentrated on wrapping the arm that
was crisscrossed with delicate stitches in the few places where the infection
hadn’t burst through them. Maggots crawled around the rotting and diseased
flesh, feasting on the dead tissue.

Someone came into the room and
immediately began gagging when they looked at the bed and saw Koda with the
maggots swarming his body.

“Get the hell out!” Lauren screamed
in anger. She didn’t have time for anyone who couldn’t stomach this. “For those
of you who don’t know, those maggots are helping to keep him alive! So get the
hell over it because they’re coming with us until we can get him in stasis!”

Mikey was in awe of his beautiful
mate. Even with everything he’d seen overseas, his stomach had heaved more than
once while in the cabin. He didn’t think anyone could look at the man in the
bed and not be shocked and horrified at his condition. But his mate was
incredible. If he’d any doubts before about her becoming a mission doctor, he
had none now. She was magnificent.

“Grai’s almost here!” Disc called
out.

“I don’t care!” Lauren yelled,
finally stabilizing Koda as best as she could. “We have to go now. Chris! Port
us all now!”

Seconds later they were on the
floor of the ship above.

“Brace yourselves!” Deacon called
out.

Lauren gripped Koda to make sure he
wouldn’t be thrown around and looked at Mikey gratefully when he grabbed hold
of her just as the ship took off.

“We’re not done!” Deacon yelled out
as he kicked in the secondary engines. “Three minutes to Beta! Someone get them
notified that we’re coming in hot!”

“Covered!” Mikal called out, his
father’s limp body in his arms.

“Is he all right?” Chris asked.

Mikal nodded his head, not taking
his eyes off of Indrid.

“He used everything he had to keep
them alive long enough for us to take over. He’s in a hibernating state while
he recovers his energy. He’ll be fine when he’s been at beta a few days,” he
said.

“You’re a lucky guy to have two
great dads,” Chris said, laying a comforting hand on Mikal’s shoulder.

Mikal just nodded, overcome with
pride and gratitude over what Indrid had done for Koda.