Viper (Second Wave Book 1) (10 page)

“Ah, your beast is back. We may continue
now.” Ratoka said with a smile before returning to sit cross-legged on the
ground along with Dread and Viper.

Ratoka’s piercing violet eyes
studied the Tezarian brothers for a moment. Viper felt as if the man was
somehow seeing into his soul. By the time Ratoka looked to Dread, Viper no
longer felt so stressed and anxious. He breathed deeply of the mountain air and
centered his energy while he waited for Ratoka to speak. He didn’t have to wait
long.

“You are correct. The human is your
mate Kinara. I suspect that the man I saw in your mind that she was so close to
here was her brother Jacordan. I will know for a certain when I see her.”
Ratoka paused, knowing it would take a moment for the brothers to process what
he had said before they would ask their questions.

Viper’s emotions went from serene
to explosive in seconds, until Ratoka placed a hand on his knee. His emotions
cleared immediately and though his heart felt like it would burst, his emotions
were no longer consuming his mind.

“You must stay calm, my friend. I
do not think he is done shocking us with his words.” Zaxin warned his host,
trying to help him prepare for what he suspected would come next.

Ratoka continued, “Dread; you were
the first to notice the signs of the prophecy in Grai’s child, Tristan. This is
another sign.”

“How the hell is this another sign?
How did her lost soul and maybe Jacordan’s get here in the first place? Lost
souls are lost for a reason! I thought we could never get them back!” Dread
erupted in anger and frustration, throwing his hands up in the air.  

“Where are your compassion and
happiness for your brother? The God of Gods has given him a second chance at a
life with his mate.” Ratoka asked Dread, calming the man instantly.

“Viper… I’m… it’s not that I’m not
happy for him.” Dread argued, feeling like an ass. He turned apologetic eyes to
his brother.

“I understand.” Viper said,
remembering his brother’s fear for him the years following Kinara’s
disappearance and the eventual recovery of her body and that of her brother
Jacordan.

“What does this have to do with the
prophecy?” Dread asked.

“The lost souls are being called
here by the conductors, like Grai’s son, Tristan.” Ratoka answered.  

Dread felt like pulling his hair
out. He forgot how evasive the damn man could be, and he wanted straight
answers, not this ambiguous crap.

“Patience, Dread. You do not need
to fear for your brother this time. He will have a chance to win and keep his
mate. Just as she will have a chance to choose her path more wisely in this life.”

“Your Kinara would not have
remembered anything about her past, if you had not shared so much of your
energy with her. As your bond grew naturally, she would have slowly regained
much of her past in a fashion that would not have been so traumatizing.”

“Now that you have shared so much energy
with her, she will be assailed by flashes of memory and intense feelings of the
past that she will not understand. It will be an assault on her mind that she
will need our assistance to overcome.” Ratoka said, chastising Viper for not
listening and making things harder on his mate.

“I wanted to make sure she lived.”
Viper said hoarsely, devastated that he may have caused Lara more pain.

“Do not lose hope, my friend. This
is nothing that cannot be repaired, provided you listen this time.” Ratoka
said, laying a calming hand on the distraught young man.

Viper nodded his head, vowing to
himself that he would not screw this up. This time. “I will listen.” He
promised aloud.

“Good. Because very few are allowed
the gift you are receiving. There are people who go several lifetimes without finding
their mate. You, Viper will have not only found and met yours twice, but you
have a chance to keep her this time. Do you understand me? Fully?” Ratoka
asked, the look on his face and the edge to his voice were a little
intimidating. He knew it was imperative that Viper listen to him very
carefully.

“I understand.” Viper replied, his
voice softer and calmer the more his head cleared.

“How many lost souls are here?”
Dread asked suddenly, the implications of what Ratoka said finally sinking in.

“Ah, so you begin to see as well
now. Good. We will need clear thoughts for the trials to come.” Ratoka said
cryptically, irritating Dread further.

Viper looked curiously between the
two men, unsure what they were talking about. “What trials?”

Dread gave an expectant smirk to
Ratoka, hoping the frustrating man would finally speak in something other than
his cryptic riddles. Dread was too tired, worried and on edge, to put up with
more evasiveness. He wanted actual answers, so he could make damn sure his
brother and his mate found happiness this time.

“Like all the world Gods, ours have
given prophecies to our people to assist us on our journey through life. There
is one prophecy, in particular, that affects the Zendarian’s, Tezarian’s and
even the Valendrans. Three of the thirteen beast nations.”

“It is this prophecy that is coming
to pass. It is this planet that will be a spiritual battleground. That is why
we are here and why the conductors are calling the lost souls to this planet to
be reborn.”

“Viper and Kinara will be the first
of many who will discover each other again.” Ratoka said, and even though Dread
was partially prepared for the news, having figured some of it out already, it
still floored him.  

“What? More lost souls? What
spiritual battle? I don’t understand.” Viper admitted, having never heard of a
prophecy like the one Ratoka was speaking of.

“It was thought of as only a legend
on Tezaria, you may have never heard of it. It was thought to be tens of
thousands of years old. How can you possibly know that this prophecy is not
only real but coming to pass here? On this planet?” Dread asked, hoping Ratoka
could explain it.

Ratoka laughed, irritating Dread
and making his fist itch to hit the annoying man. “Calm yourself. Violence is
not necessary here. Ask yourself this Dread fle’ te’ Trugh, how else do you
explain Kinara laying in MedLab and the existence of Tristan T’Alq?”

That gave Dread immediate pause.
The man, though frustrating, was right. There was no other explanation for the
existence of either and there was no doubt they both were there.

“So that is why we were called
here.” Dread said simply, knowing it was true.

“Yes, your world Gods made sure
that you would be in the right place, at the right time, if you were open
enough to listen. Balduen was only the opportunity used by the Gods to bring
you and your brother’s here. Where you needed to be.” Ratoka said with a gentle
smile.

“Wait… according to the prophecy, the
union of the lost and their mate create the most powerful conductors, right? So
Tricia is…?” Dread asked incredulously.

“Grai’s mate, Tricia, is a
Zendarian soul. If she had not died and become lost, she would have met him on
Zendar when Grai came and saved our planet from his father before he settled
here.” Ratoka admitted, his smile wide at the thought of the lovely soul of
Grai’s mate. Ratoka had not known her on Zendar, but he would have liked her if
he had. She was a wonderful mate and mother and a brilliant woman.

“Does Grai even know? Does she
remember her past?” Dread asked, curious if Tricia would remember like Lara
would.

“Grai has always suspected there
was something very unique about his mate, but he still doesn’t know. Yes, she
does know. She just doesn’t know that she knows.” Ratoka said irritating Dread
all over again.

“What the hell is that supposed to
mean?” Dread asked, taking a deep breath to calm his frustration.

“It means that she has dismissed
her memories as something she read in a book, saw in a movie or made up in her
own head. She does not realize that they are memories.” Ratoka said calmly, not
the least affected by Dread’s frustration.

“Wait a damn second. I don’t give a
damn about Grai’s mate right now. What did you say about the lost and their
mate creating the most powerful conductors? You’re saying all of our children
will be like Tristan?” Viper asked, a part of him was terrified that a child of
his would be like that.

Ratoka squinted his eyes at Viper,
who felt like the man’s stare was stripping his soul. “Each conductor is
different. Not all are as powerful or unique as Tristan. Would you turn your
back on such a gift because you do not like the challenge and responsibility it
comes with?”

Viper was taken aback by the question
even though he had been wondering the same thing just moments ago. He thought
of the beautiful dark haired little boy that was the light of Grai and Tricia’s
life.

Any time that he had seen the child
since they had moved to Dillon, Texas, the boy had acted mostly like any other
child his age. Except he spoke through the Sibiox cat, Gibly and wielded so
much power, he could be damn frightening.

“I do not know. The power that
child wields is scary.” Viper admitted honestly. There was no reason to lie to
Ratoka anyway, the man already knew how he felt.

Ratoka just laughed heartily,
confusing both brothers. “You have a lot to think about with your Kinara coming
back to you. I do not think you need to worry about children quite so soon.
However, the Gods have their own plans, and they do not speak to me of them.
You need to trust that the Gods know what they are doing.”

“Why are the conductors needed?”
Viper asked, not understanding the point of creating children with so much
power on one planet.

Ratoka put both hands flat on the
ground and looked at the brothers. “Feel the earth and its energy.” Ratoka
said, closing his eyes. When he knew that the brothers were doing the same he
continued.

“Do you feel the skips and bursts
in the rhythm? The highs, lows and blank spots that encompass the surface of
its energy? Go deeper.” Ratoka said, using his own energy to magnify the effect
for the brothers to help them understand.  

Viper felt the same thing he had
felt every time he had tried to connect with the Earth’s energy, but this time
he understood what Ratoka meant. It was the conversion. If he hadn’t been so
distracted he would have recognized it earlier.

Opening his eyes, Viper turned to
look at a somber Dread and an ever-calm Ratoka and erupted in fury.

Chapter
Nine

Dr. Amun Nassur, looked over at his
techs and smiled broadly. The new vertebrae had been completed earlier than
expected and with the emotional Viper gone, he had finished the replacement
surgery with no complications.  

“Keep her in lower suspension. We
just need a day or two to ensure that the new vertebrae stabilize properly.
Then go and get some sleep.” Amun ordered his team. He would stay with her.
Alone.

Amun watched closely as they did as
he had instructed before each left the room. When he was alone with the woman,
he rechecked to ensure that everything was fine with her vital signs, and she
was properly sedated at a lower level than when she had first come in.

Sitting down at the computer, he
started going through the results of the tests that he had performed earlier.
The ones that he had hidden from the techs. Amun had seen these same strange
results before, in a few other people. A few other humans, he mentally
corrected himself.

He sent a private message to his
mate, Jess, through the Shengari’ that he would be later than he had expected
and set to work. Amun knew, whatever it was he discovered, would be yet another
thing that would surprise them all. If there was one thing, he had learned
since arriving on Earth, it was that this planet and its people were full of
surprises.

*****

Lara drifted quietly along the
edges of her mind, the strange dreams so real that she could smell the air and
feel the grass beneath her feet. She looked around and smiled at the antics of
the four young boys who were wrestling in the distance.

One boy broke away from the group
and ran toward her. His dark-brown  hair glistened with sweat, and his green
eyes twinkled with happiness as he plopped down in the grass beside her. Lara
couldn’t help but smile at the wide grin on his handsome young face.

“Come on Viper! You’re going to
have the rest of your life to put up with my sister! Come back here and learn
to protect her properly!” Lara looked up as one of the other boys spoke. She
could have sworn it was John. But a much younger version of him.

This version of Viper was a
younger, more adorable version of the one that she had met. Was this a jacked
up version of an afterlife or was she hallucinating? She wondered as she looked
down at herself and drew back in surprise.

She couldn’t be more than a child.
Her feet and hands were small, and she felt much older than she looked for some
strange reason. By her size, she knew she was no more than seven or eight.

“Are you all right Kinara? Do you
need anything?” The young Viper asked her with a smile as he gently held her
hand.

Lara just looked at him and mutely
shook her head, wondering what Kinara was and what the hell kind of dream she
was having here. This didn’t look like any place she could have ever dreamed up;
she thought as she looked around.

They were in a clearing, surrounded
by trees. However, it wasn’t any clearing Lara had ever been to before. The
grass was a deep, dark-green color she had never seen in her life. The tree
trunks were all a dark mahogany brown, with leaves that varied in shades of
green and violet. It was beautiful. But not real.

Lara tried to mentally shake
herself, to remember… something. There was something important she needed to do
she thought as she watched the young Viper run back to the other boys.  

Lara stood, as she did she seemed
to grow and become her normal height. This was a really strange dream; Lara thought
as she looked down at herself dressed in her camouflage. Which in this strange
wooded place, looked really out of place and nothing like the surroundings as
it was supposed to do.

Lara looked back to the young Viper,
and as she watched he also grew into the gorgeous man she met in the forest.
She smiled, then turned as one of the boys grew into John, and her smile
disappeared. What the hell was going on in her dreams, she wondered as she
stared at her best friend, dressed in his uniform.

She took a step towards John and
stopped herself. This was a dream. A really strange dream, she thought looking
around again. But a dream nonetheless. She didn’t have time for dreams. She had
something really important to do. If she could just remember what.

Looking up, Lara marveled at the
color of the sky. It was a pale blue color, but instead of white fluffy clouds,
there were light violet streaks that traveled the sky as if it were a road.
Even the air smelled differently. Strange but pleasant scents of earth and
flowers and what else, she didn’t know, but she liked it.

In a bizarre way, Lara felt almost
as if she had finally come home. But this wasn’t her home; she thought as she
looked around the clearing again and the now grown men who were all fully armed
and dressed in uniforms. They ran for the trees and quickly became lost among
them.

“Wait!” Lara called and took a step
to follow them, but her foot had become stuck. Looking down she watched in
horror as the dark-green grass wound up her ankle, holding her in place.

Panicking now, she reached down and
tried to pull the grass off when her other ankle became entwined as well. She
heard the rustling of the grass and looked up assuming the men had come back,
but the clearing was empty.  

Lara watched as the grass continued
to rustle around her, circling her. Her panic rose as she watched the grass
trampled by invisible feet. Oh God, she thought. They are back. What did Viper
call them, she wondered, frantically trying to get the grass off her feet.

“Kinara?” Lara looked up and saw
Viper coming towards her from the woods. The invisible creatures around her
were getting closer now; she could hear the growls and their raspy breath.

Lara looked sadly to Viper; she couldn’t
allow him to get hurt. Not for her. She had to save him; she thought as she
watched the grass get trampled closer and closer to her as the creatures
advanced to where she was trapped by the grass.

It was a dream, Lara thought,
looking around at the strange landscape, her heart racing with fear. Her cabin
flashed through her mind, and she closed her eyes, concentrating on the image
in her memories.  

Keeping her eyes closed, she
listened as the sounds of the grass, and the creatures faded away to a slow
humming sound. Lara listened to the low hum and tried to gauge where her mind
had taken her this time before trying to open her eyes again.  

It didn’t take long for her to
realize that she wasn’t alone. Opening her eyes slowly, Lara looked around the
strange room and knew she was in some kind of hospital room. In the corner by a
door was a lone man, with his back turned to her.

She couldn’t tell by the back of
his head if she knew him or not, but she knew that it wasn’t Viper. Lara closed
her eyes and tried to calm her mind as much as possible. When the images
started, she breathed deeply and allowed them to float behind her closed lids
as she studied them, trying to remember.

Viper passed through her mind, and
she concentrated on his image until multiple images of him in different stages
began to appear for her. She stopped the images at one where he was sitting in
her cabin while she was making something in the kitchen.

It was the flour, salt and water
paste that she had been making. For the invisible men who were coming for Viper,
she thought before the memories came rushing back to her. Lara clenched her
fists tightly and fought to control her breathing as she processed what she
remembered.

Keeping her eyes closed, Lara went
over what she had seen of the room she was in. The smooth, stone walls had
drawn her eye first because of how unusual it was. There were streaks of
shimmering silver and gold randomly shot through the stone. Although it seemed
odd to even think, Lara knew she was underground.

The equipment in the room was
obviously medical related. She had seen a monitor near the man, and it showed
her heart rate and blood pressure. The rest of what it showed, she had no idea,
but she assumed it was other body stats.

Lara had seen the lines on the
monitor jump when she’d opened her eyes to see where she was, so she knew she
didn’t have much time before the man in the room realized she was awake.

Gently, she moved her shoulder to
test how much she could use it and was stunned to see that there was no pain or
indication that she had ever been shot. However, the slight twisting of her
back when she’d moved her shoulder had sent bolts of incredible pain shooting up
her body.

Lara held herself completely still
while she tried to calm her mind again and breathe through the pain. There was
no way in hell, she wanted to alert the man that she was awake until she
figured out where she was and why she was here.

Every part of what happened at her
cabin played over and over again in her mind as she struggled to figure out who
it was that had come into the clearing before that… thing, for lack of a better
word, stabbed her in the back.

They had been dressed like Viper, but
that didn’t mean anything. Lara had seen dozens of mercenaries in Afghanistan,
who wore similar clothes. The brief glimpse she had of the man in the room, she
couldn’t make any determination as to who he was. Or what side of the team he
played on.

The most important thing that she
did know, was that Viper wasn’t here, and she had no idea if he was even still
alive. Lara pushed back the pain in her heart at the thought of losing him and
considered her options. Which was easy since she only had two.

The most likely scenario was that
they had both been taken by the bastards who were hunting him. It was a
playbook for a conspiracy nut. Men in black, shadow ops, black helicopters, underground
bases, all of it screamed those bastards who were taking over her country. The
ones who had killed John. The ones she had promised Viper she would protect him
from and get him back to his people.

Lara knew what she had to do and
the familiar cold, blankness settled over mind and body as her mind worked
through different scenarios to escape and find Viper. She replayed the room
layout in her mind as she wiggled slightly to determine how bad her back was,
and if she could even get off the bed.  

Lara barely held back the gasp that
almost exploded from her mouth. Oh hell, she thought, tensing her body to stop
it from trembling. Taking deep breaths, she again calmed herself and fought to
control the pain that shot through her back.

Images began flooding her mind, of
being trapped somewhere. Not Afghanistan, she had enough of those nightmares to
know this image wasn’t from there; she thought as she let it drift behind her
eyes. No, she didn’t remember this place at all. It was dark; the air burned as
she had struggled to breathe under the weight that had been crushing her.

Lara could feel her panic building
the longer she allowed the image to stay in her mind, and she mentally yanked
herself out of her head and back to the present. And pain. Damn, damn, damn,
she thought. This was not the time for her PTSD to start rearing its freaking
head. She didn’t have time to be crazy. She had a promise to keep.

Ok, she thought; her back was
pretty bad. However, it was doable if she could keep her attention focused
elsewhere. That shouldn’t be too hard to do since she was in enemy territory.
The worst had already happened; it could only go downhill from here she
thought.

Besides, Lara had known at some
point it would be her or them, and this gave her a chance to leave her mark on
them the way they had left theirs on her. She would find Viper, get him out if
she could and then make sure that this place would be the enemy's grave.

Lara peeked her eyes open again and
looked around the room. The man was pretty absorbed in whatever he was doing
and still had his back to her. She almost sighed in relief when she saw a tray
with some strange gadgets on it, next to her bed.

She quickly ran through the items
with her eyes, discarding those that couldn’t be used as weapons, and it left
her with only one. It was about six inches long, with an obvious handle to it
that led to a bluntly pointed end.

It could easily be used as a knife,
she thought, trying not to imagine what it was really used for and why it was
on the tray next to her.

Steeling herself, Lara made a dry
run attempt at sitting up and had to try it several times before she could pull
it off without having to fight the blackness that threatened to overtake her.

Lara stayed still for a moment,
allowing the adrenaline to build in her body, knowing it would help dull the
pain in her back, so she could do what had to be done. She allowed the cold,
blankness to settle over her mind again as her body began to vibrate with the
need to move.

Taking a deep breath, Lara lunged
upward and slid off of the bed. She couldn’t have been more grateful for the
shockingly cold, stone floor that kept her knees from buckling. She stood still
for a moment, gathering her senses and blocking the pain while keeping a close
eye on the man with his back still turned.

The longer she stayed upright, the
more she regained her footing and balance until she took her first tentative
steps towards the tray. By the time she had reached it, she was much more
confident in her mobility and the adrenaline was working to help control the
pain.