Manipulating Mikey (First Wave Book 8) (17 page)

Mikey didn’t want the peaceful, happy
moment to end, but Lauren was right; they needed to get Indrid, and Mikal was
their only hope at the moment. He stood and pulled her to her feet, her body
inches from his.

He leaned down and tunneled his
hands in her soft hair and held her while he plundered her mouth. Moments
later, he pulled away slowly and looked into her beautiful blue eyes.

“I’m really falling for you,” he
whispered.

Lauren felt her heart soar before
the sound of a throat clearing startled her so bad she screamed. Mikey spun
around, putting Lauren protectively behind his back while he faced whoever had
snuck up on them.

“Indrid!” Mikey said, thrilled to
see the man standing in front of him.

“Indeed. I must say, you have an
interesting way of calling upon me. I particularly enjoyed the playful growly
one,” Indrid said with a completely straight face that made Mikey and Lauren blush.

“Yeah, uh, sorry about that. I
wasn’t real sure how that was supposed to work . . .” Mikey said, feeling like
an idiot that Indrid had somehow heard all of that.

Indrid’s hands were clasped behind
his back, and his beautiful white eyes looked at Mikey as if they could see
into his soul. Mikey fought the urge to squirm under the man’s scrutiny.

“You have seen Emily.” Indrid
phrased it as a statement, not a question.

“How did you know that?” Mikey
asked, shocked that Indrid had known.

Indrid looked around the area and
stared at the spot where Emily had stood each of the times she’d been there.

“I can feel the remnants of her
energy. I have felt something wrong with her energy strands for weeks now and
expected her to come. I knew you would be the only one to see her and could
call me when she did,” he explained calmly.

“She’s real?” Mikey whispered.

Indrid nodded his head slowly.

“Yes, she is. She is a very special
. . . person. So tell me, where is she and what is wrong?”

Mikey looked at Lauren and grimaced
before he turned back to Indrid.

“I don’t know. Where she is, that
is. Or what’s wrong,” he admitted, feeling Indrid’s disapproval through the
man’s intense gaze.

“What can you tell me?” Indrid
asked, his words tinged with concern.

Mikey ran his hands over his head
in frustration, wishing he’d made more of an effort to talk to Emily and find
out what was wrong instead of doubting his sanity.

“I first saw her when I came here
after Dillon. She didn’t say much, only that she was looking for the angel,
Indrid, and if I saw you to let you know she needed you,” he said, seeing the
concern deepen in Indrid’s eyes.

“She is unaware of this place and
believed my intervention when she was a child as divine. She was too young at
the time to understand the truth, and I allowed her to believe whatever gave
her the most comfort,” Indrid explained. “Did you see her again?”

Mikey nodded as Lauren slipped her
hand in his and squeezed it in support.

“No, I saw her a few more times,
and each time she said she needed you desperately but she disappeared quickly.
Then I saw her again a little while ago. She looked terrible, begged me to find
you, and said that ‘they’ wouldn’t make it much longer without your help,”
Mikey said, feeling that he had to find her. That for some reason, he was
supposed to help her.

“Did she say where she was?”
Indrid’s tone told Mikey and Lauren that he was very concerned.

“No, I’m sorry. She never did say.
Don’t you know where she is if you helped her before?” Mikey asked.

Indrid shook his head as he looked
worriedly where Emily usually appeared.

“No, I’ve been there years ago and
she was gone. I have not seen her in a while and do not know where she
resides,” Indrid admitted sadly, his concern beating at his energy.

“Is she a hybrid?” Lauren asked.

Indrid turned to Lauren and nodded.

“Yes, she is what you call a
hybrid.”

Lauren was tired of the short
answers and too many questions. Putting her hands on her hips, she faced off
with the mysterious man.

“Look, we want to help her. But to
do that, you have to tell us who she is and what you know,” she demanded,
holding his gaze.

Indrid sighed and shook his head as
he looked at Mikey.

“You are well matched with your
mate. Indeed, I will need your help if we are to help her. First, I need you to
tell me exactly what she said last and how she looked,” he said.

Mikey went over it again with
Indrid, explaining what she said and what she looked like down to the smallest
detail he could remember while Lauren sat and listened intently.

When Mikey and Indrid were silent,
Lauren spoke up.

“If she’s a hybrid, her physical
body should not be in that kind of distress unless there is an outside source
causing it. Our bodies heal too quickly otherwise, and we aren’t affected by
human wasting diseases. Do you know her last name? We may be able to find her
through regular human records like a driver’s license,” she offered, hoping
that might help in some way.

Indrid nodded and sat down on the
benches.

“Her name is Emily Smith, but I
don’t think she will be easily found. Her gift lets her see the unseen. A lot
like Mikey, but differently. It would drive her to seclusion and would make her
more difficult to find,” he admitted.

Lauren pulled out her comm and logged
into their access port to the human computer systems.

“OK, Emily Smith is a pretty
popular name. You need to give me something to narrow it down,” she told the
two men.

“Green eyes, light brown hair, between
five foot five and six feet, maybe 150 – 160 pounds,” Mikey offered, then
shrugged when he saw Lauren’s surprised look. “I’m good with details.”

“I’m glad you are, I haven’t seen
her in a long time and wouldn’t know how she’s grown,” Indrid said, smiling
gratefully at Mikey.

“What about a state?” Lauren asked,
adding in the information Mikey gave her.

“Last I saw her, she was 12,”
Indrid explained. “That was 13 years ago in Louisiana, but she said her mom
moved them around a lot.”

Lauren snorted and shook her head
in pity for the girl.

“Yeah, that seems to be the life
most of our people are forced to live. Her mother probably knew she was being
hunted even if she didn’t know or understand why. But that doesn’t mean we
can’t find her. What’s her mom’s name?” she asked.

“Sally,” Indrid replied. “She had
blue eyes, a slight build, and was at least five foot seven. They lived in a
real small three room shack out in the bayou of Louisiana. No electricity, no
phone. I think only the locals knew they were even there.”

“No wonder she called for an
angel,” Mikey said with a sad shake of his head. “What kind of life is that for
a 12 year old girl?”

“A very good one, for her,” Indrid
said, staring at Mikey. “She sees things like you do, but she sees much more
and she has no peace from it unless she is isolated. Very isolated. She called
me to take her life so her mother wouldn’t be forced to keep living in seclusion
with her.”

“What?” Lauren asked, almost
dropping her comm.

“Of course, I did no such thing.
But I heard her pain and there was something about her that I knew I couldn’t
ignore,” Indrid explained, trying to make them understand.

“What did you do?” Mikey asked,
unsure if he wanted to know.

Indrid turned to glare at Mikey as
if he were dense.

“I spoke to her on several
occasions, and I tried to teach her ways to control her gift so that she could
function easier, blend in easier, so she wouldn’t have to stay so isolated. I
promised her I would be there for her if she needed me, and I left,” Indrid
said defensively. “I’ve spoken to her here a few times over the years, but I
haven’t heard from her in at least three years.”

“That’s not much to go on, but I’ll
see what we can come up with,” Lauren said, determined to find something on the
girl even though she knew it would be close to impossible with so little
information to go on.

Chapter
Seventeen

Lauren looked up at the clock,
surprised to see that it had been hours since they moved into the room where Mikey
had been watching the vids.

She stood and stretched while Mikey
and Indrid remained buried in the files they’d been researching trying to find
a trace of where Emily Smith might be.

“I’m going to get us some coffee,”
she said as she walked to the door. Hearing no response, she turned back around
at the door and saw that neither man had moved and slipped out.

By the time she’d come back in with
a pot of coffee and a large plate of fruit and cheese, they still hadn’t picked
their heads up, and the doctor in her was getting concerned.

“OK guys, heads up! Let’s get some
coffee, some food, and discuss what we found or haven’t found,” Lauren said
loudly as she plunked the tray down more loudly than necessary on the stone
table.

Two heads popped up immediately,
and she smiled at Mikey as he looked at her with an expression that told her he
was glad she was there with him. She felt the happiness roll through her energy
and couldn’t help but feel . . . whole.

Shaking off her thoughts, she
started filling the cups and handing them out.

“So?” she asked, encouraging the
men to talk.

Indrid took a cup of coffee and
cleared his throat.

“I do not believe she is still
using the name Emily Smith,” he said before taking a sip.

“What makes you think that?” Lauren
asked, curious what he’d found that made him think that.

“I think she went off the grid,”
Mikey added as he came behind Lauren and hugged her to him with one hand as he
reached around her to grab a cup of coffee with the other.

Lauren sighed, wishing they’d come
up with something different than she had because any of the scenarios they were
faced with would not enable them to find the girl in time.

“Should we even be in here? Should
we be outside in case she comes back?” Mikey asked, trying to think of anything
to help the girl.

Indrid shook his head slowly as
frustrated briefly emanated from his energy.

“I would feel her if she came back
here. There is no need to be outside, but this means that your technology
cannot help us find her,” he said as his white eyes looked directly at them.

Lauren covered Mikey’s hand around
her waist with her own as she shook her head.

“I’m not giving up. There has to be
something we can do to help her,” she said, adamant there had to be something
they hadn’t thought of yet.

“You guys have tons of people and
technology, isn’t there something else you can do?” Mikey asked Lauren, then
kissed her temple.

Lauren looked up at him sadly and
shook her head.

“No, if we had anything else, we
wouldn’t need you to try and help find Koda. There are some things we can’t
track, especially if—like in Emily’s case—they don’t want to be found. Her
mother has done a great job of covering their tracks,” she admitted, wishing
she could think of something else that would help.

“The only other option is an energy
trace, but I would need Mikey to help,” Indrid said, surprising Lauren and
Mikey.

“What is an energy trace?” Lauren
asked suspiciously, hoping it wouldn’t be anything dangerous for Mikey.

Indrid smiled patiently, feeling
Lauren’s concern in her energy.

“It is nothing that will endanger
him. I will need to help him magnify the energy he felt from her, as she is
now, which will enable him to sense her energy nearby,” he explained.

“But we have no idea where she is,”
Mikey argued, wondering how this was going to help.

Indrid smiled mysteriously, which
Mikey thought was a little creepy.

“We will start from the last place
she was and track her energy from there,” he explained.

Mikey just stood silently while he
tried to comprehend what Indrid was saying. It just didn’t make sense to him.

“How do you track energy?” he
finally asked.

Indrid chuckled and Mikey looked
uncomfortably at Lauren who shook her head, not understanding Indrid either.

They watched in silence as Indrid
raised one hand and closed his eyes while his other hand moved horizontal to
his waist, palm down. He spoke in a lyrical language that neither he nor Lauren
could understand as he raised the horizontal hand towards his chest.

Suddenly he slapped his chest with
his hand when it reached his chest, and his eyes flew open as Mikey saw a
myriad of unique colors shoot from Indrid’s body before slamming into his own.

Mikey gasped, clutched his chest,
and dropped to his knees from the force of the energy that had hit him like a
brick.

“What did you do?” Lauren yelled as
she went to her knees beside Mikey.

“I’m fine,” Mikey managed to say as
he regained his feet and glared at Indrid. “What the hell, man?”

Indrid chuckled, making Mikey want
to put his fist in his face.

“Calm yourself and breathe deeply.
When you do, you will see that you can feel the energy around you more
strongly,” Indrid advised wisely.

Mikey took a deep breath, seriously
doubting he’d notice anything dramatic and pretty pissed off that Indrid nailed
him like he did without warning. But to prove he was game, he shut his eyes and
took another deep breath. He opened his eyes, expecting to tell Indrid he was
wrong when he saw the normally muted aura around Lauren pulsing much more
vividly and strong.

When he looked to Indrid’s smiling
face he saw the rainbow of colors exploding around the man. His aura was the
most unique Mikey had seen, and now it was even brighter, the individual
strands glowing with a life of their own as it pulsed like a heartbeat around
Indrid.

“Now you understand,” Indrid said
with another knowing smile.

“Wait, what does he understand?”
Lauren asked, wondering why Mikey was suddenly struck silent.

“I can see it more clearly,” Mikey
said in wonder. “But how will that help us find her?”

“Close your eyes,” Indrid said with
a smile as Mikey closed his eyes. “Now remember Emily and the energy you saw
around her last. When you see it clearly in your mind, open your eyes.

Mikey did as Indrid asked, curious
what would happen this time. When he felt he could clearly see the energy that
had surrounded Emily, he opened his eyes and gasped.

His eyes had opened to the walls
being peeled away as he began to see through them all the way outside to the
exact spot where he’d seen Emily each time. The colors still surrounded the
empty spot, just as it had when Emily had stood there, only they were duller
than any of the other colors he’d seen.

“All energy leaves a trace if you
know how to see it,” Indrid explained.

“I have to admit, that is cool as
hell. But how is that going to help us find Emily?” Mikey asked, still not
understanding.

Indrid sighed heavily and shook his
head as if he were disappointed in Mikey.

“You can follow the trail of her
energy,” he said, as if that explained everything.

Mikey barked out a laugh until he
realized Indrid wasn’t kidding.

“Wait, you expect me to be able to
follow her trail from what? 13 years ago to now? It would take just as many
years to act like a visual bloodhound and find her! We don’t have that kind of
time,” Mikey argued, incredulous that Indrid would even consider it.

Indrid closed his eyes and took a
deep breath as if trying to remain patient.

“With one of the ships that
disappear it would only take a week, not much longer,” Indrid said.

Mikey and Lauren looked at one
another curiously for a moment before Lauren finally understood.

“One of the cloaked transport
ships. I might be able to get a pilot,” she suggested with a shrug at Mikey.
She didn’t see any reason not to give it a try.

Mikey didn’t think he had a
snowball’s chance in hell of finding her this way, but they were long past any
other options.

“Fine. But what about Grai? I’m
supposed to be looking at the footage for his brother,” Mikey said as he
pointed towards the wall where he’d been watching the vid’s earlier.

Indrid cocked his head to the side
as he looked at the paused footage on the wall, then back to Mikey.

“I believe you can do both since
all we will need is for you to verify that we are still travelling in the
correct direction. Once we get close enough, I should be able to find her.”

Indrid looked intently at Mikey, as
if challenging him to do it.

Mikey threw his hands up in the
air.

“Fine, I will give it a try if
Lauren can get the ship,” he said, giving in when Lauren looked at him
expectantly.

“The ship will be ready in one
hour. I’m going to find us a pilot,” Lauren said as she kissed Mikey’s cheek
and left the room.

Mikey narrowed his gaze on Indrid.

“Are you damn sure we can do this?
Because we can get a location from Emily when she comes back,” he argued, not
wanting to have Emily show up and they’d be gone.

“If she looked as badly as you
said, then she won’t have the energy to come back. It is our only chance to
find her in time,” Indrid said. His concern for the girl was obvious in his
voice.

“What is she to you?”

Mikey hadn’t intended to ask that
so bluntly, but now that he had, he wouldn’t take it back. There was more to
this than Indrid was telling him, and he wanted to know what he and Lauren
would be walking into.

“I have no answer for that,” Indrid
said.

“Then why are we doing this?” Mikey
demanded, frustrated that Indrid wasn’t being honest with them.

“You mistake my words; I honestly
don’t know why I feel an attachment to her. Since the first moment I saw her as
a frightened but determined child, I knew that she would be important to me. At
first, I was curious why I felt the way I did, but it didn’t take long for her
to burrow into my heart,” Indrid explained as he looked into Mikey’s eyes.

Mikey sighed and nodded his head.
That was a good enough reason for him. He was learning really quickly that some
things you just had to trust your instincts about, and this was one of those
things.

Besides, he wanted to find the girl
as well, but he knew why he did. He’d seen the desperation and fading hope in
her eyes. He’d been there himself until Grai and David came along, and he was
determined to pay it forward—starting with Emily.

“Maybe, if we get to her in time,
you can figure it out. Just make sure you warn me before you decide to blast me
in the chest again,” Mikey said before he went back to viewing Grai’s vids
until they left.

Indrid smiled to himself and turned
his back to Mikey, pretending to watch the scenes unfolding on the wall in
front of him as his own mind whirled with the possibilities of what was wrong
with Emily.

True to her word, Lauren came
bouncing into the room with a bright smile on her face, and Mikey knew she must
have been able to get a ship. Part of him was a little nervous about being able
to follow Emily’s trail while the other part of him was anxious to get started
and get to the distressed girl.

“OK, get your gear, gentlemen; we
got a ship!” Lauren said, excited about going on a mission.

With my mate!
She
thought.
OK, not exactly a mission, but it’s a start
.

“Do we have a pilot?” Mikey only
half teased.

“Of course!” Lauren laughed. “Let’s
go.”

“What about Grai? Won’t he wonder
where we are?” Mikey asked.

Mikey didn’t want to piss the
leader off. Not when he had every intention of asking Grai if he could train
for a mission team—after he talked to Lauren about it, of course.

“They just got back a few hours ago
and are exhausted. I sent him a message about what we’re doing and told him
you’d still be reviewing the vid. If he has questions or anything he’ll call
us,” she assured him.

“I have all I need and am ready to
depart,” Indrid said.

Mikey and Lauren stared into each
other’s eyes for a moment, enjoying the feel of the energy bonds tightening
between them before Mikey turned to Indrid.

“I need five minutes to grab some
gear.”

Without another word Mikey pulled
Lauren from the room and down the hallway.

“I may need more than five
minutes,” Lauren said as she struggled to keep up with his quickening pace.

Mikey suddenly stopped, pulled
Lauren into his arms, and kissed her soundly. He pulled away just as she melted
into him and the kiss.

“I need a lot more than five
minutes with you, which is why we’re hurrying. Because if we don’t leave in the
next five minutes, I’m going to spend the next five hours making love to you
before we leave,” Mikey admitted, then headed back down the hallway to their
rooms.