Nyteria Rising (The Thirteenth Series Book 3) (10 page)

Val was relieved to see that at last they had arrived in Sam’s office. She had hoped this would be the case. They had all come to this house seeking refuge after Lailah had destroyed the bookshop and challenged her at her parents’ house. On arrival, she had found a letter that Sam had left for her, explaining how he had tricked her into programming her fingerprint into the door of this special weapons room. To her delight, she and Jason had managed to replace all their equipment that had been destroyed in the bookshop fire, from her sword that Daniel - Delta’s little lackey had destroyed, to several new laptops, some slim-line phones and a new necklace.

It was a sleek looking room, everything in chrome; clean and precise. Sitting at the desk looking extremely pleased to see her, was Jason.

“Mate,” he jumped up, rushing over to grab her in a bear-like hug, lifting her off the floor and planting a kiss on her cheek. “Where were you? And what are you wearing?” He released her, lowering her to the ground, and only then spotted the body next to her. “What’s wrong with David?” He knelt next to the Guard.

“He was attacked by the Novelia,” Zac answered.

“Looks bad and who’s this guy?” Jason smiled at the Hunter.

“He’s David’s Hunter. This is Jason, he’s like our Mechanic on Earth,” the Hunter returned the smile, “We need to get David’s body somewhere more comfortable,” Val instructed. “Jason, where are my Mum and Dad?”

“Are you seriously asking me where your Mum is? She’s in the kitchen, of course. Does that woman do anything but cook? I swear my jeans aren’t going to fit if she keeps trying to feed me, and your Dad’s in the garage. Heads up. I didn’t tell them you were back; just in case your Mum got all stressed out and you didn’t survive.”

“Thanks for that, Mr Positive.”

“Shall I come with you?” Zac asked

“That would be nice. Jason, can you guys move the Guard on your own?”

“Sure, see you in a few minutes.”

Val walked down the landing with Zac at her side, she wanted to see everyone, but she needed some honest information before her emotions got the better of her. “Ok, tell me what’s been going on?”

“Well, after you left, I was the first person your parents informed. I tried to explain to Susan that we had no way of communicating with the Prison. May I add at this point, that she has a very loud voice, for someone so small. Luckily for me, it was literally minutes before David arrived to replace you. He told us about the lock-down on the Prison and that was all he was prepared to say, which is normal procedure. However, it didn’t go down well with your mother. She also has quite a temper.”

Val smiled. “She doesn’t mean it; it’s the mother lion thing she’s got going on.”

“I see. Then we sat down with the others to work out how best to carry on and I was just so pleased David had a Dellatrax.” His shoulders dropped. “Val, I picked up a signal within an hour of you leaving and didn’t think about the consequences. We went flying off after a Prisoner and when we arrived, there was nothing. David was as confused as I was. That happened three times, but now I see it was a trap. Lailah must have been testing us. She knows we have a Dellatrax and I can only guess she thinks it’s you that’s been teleporting with me. It’s my fault that David’s now in the Interspace.”

“How were you supposed to know what she was doing? Don’t forget she has Eva -a witch- and a powerful one at that. Then let’s not go there with my nemesis, Daniel, son of Excariot. Mix that with Delta’s natural evil streak and a very dead Flo and, I’m sorry, but you pretty much have an army.”

“It was my job! David knew little of the happenings at the bookshop or of Lailah and her threats. I should have informed him that things had gone wrong, that the Dellatrax was lost, and that we were hiding in the house of a Judge. It just seemed easier to tell him less, rather than more. I didn’t want him to know we had failed. Then when he was bitten, I had no other option than to use his Dellatrax to send a message to the Collector to tell you what was happening. I was blinded by the fact that he was so professional and he knew the rules.”

“Thanks for the indirect insults.” She nudged him. “And I’m glad you did send that message. You did what you thought was best and, let’s be honest, when have you come across the Novelia on your travels? I’m sorry about David, but we have to focus on the future and stopping
Lailah. If she thinks I have our Dellatrax that may work in our favour. We’ll deal with the Interspace later.”

“Well, I know your friends will be very pleased you have returned safely, and look at you, a Magrafe.” Val noticed how he seemed sad.

“So, do you have a problem with me in this delicious suit?” she asked.

He avoided eye contact. “Magrafe don’t need Hunters.”

Now she understood. “You listen to me Zac Efron, I need you more than you will ever know. There’s a good chance I’ll get extracted in the next few days just for coming here, so let’s do what a new friend of mine suggested and leave the rule book on the shelf for now.”

“What…?”

“No questions, ok. Let’s just get this situation under control.” He nodded in agreement as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

“I will leave Shane to tell you about the maps,” he said.

“What maps?” She asked as they went into the kitchen.

“Val!” Susan spotted her first. She ran round the marble topped central island, apron covered in flour, which was also sprinkled liberally into her black hair, making her white streak look less alone. Val reached out her arms grabbing her just as Mike came into the kitchen from the garage door. “Dad!” Val couldn’t control her emotions. Tears started to fall down her cheeks as they both pulled her in tight. Mike’s moustache tickled her forehead.

“Don’t you do that again!” Susan ordered through matching tears, wiping her eyes and spreading the flour.

She felt someone grab her hand and looked up to see a tearful Fran holding onto her, looking as beautiful as always with her thick auburn hair and deep green eyes. This must be so hard for her, knowing her twin sister, Yassmin, was still controlled by Lailah. Susan and Mike released her and she greeted Belinda with a very witchy welcome and then Shane with a heartfelt embrace. Shane’s huge arms wrapped around her and Val just loved how massive and imposing he was. Yet she knew he was the kindest, gentlest person she had ever had the good fortune to meet. This was what she wanted. The Prison wasn’t her home. These people were what counted; now she was going to keep them safe, even if the cost was her life.

“I’ve only been gone a day and look at us. Honestly!” she laughed.

“Take this.” Her mum handed her a tissue. Val wiped the tears from her face and just stood for a second, breathing in the familiarity.

“Well, I see you’ve decided to dress up as cat woman now. Given up on the good guys?” Shane pointed at her uniform.

“No. Get this: I’m a Magrafe - that’s like the SAS of the Prison.” Val flipped her helmet to her mum’s astonished gasp. “Helmet off. It’s so cool.”

“I’m impressed,” Shane agreed.

“Are you hungry?” Susan asked.

Val hadn’t even thought about food, her brain had switched off to anything normal, but as she said the words, her stomach jumped for joy, rumbling for everyone to hear. “I think starving just about covers that,” she said to Susan’s delight.

“Tell us what’s going on Hunny?” Mike pulled out a stool for her to sit on.

As she sat, Val spotted that the kitchen table was covered in what looked like astrological charts. “Well, there’s this blue guy called Nathan Akar who has just become the leader of a planet called Nyteria. He wants to take over the Prison because they have an endless supply of clean energy, which in some ways I can understand. Trouble is, he kidnapped the Warden - he’s the one I told you about who looks like Father Christmas, my boss. Then Wendy had a vision.”

Belinda’s eyes lit up at the mention of her daughter’s name.

“Don’t worry, she’s fine,” Val reassured her. “She saw that I would save the Warden, and that’s why they took me away and you got the other Guard.”

“Where is David?” asked Shane.

“He’s upstairs and not well. He was attacked by a very dangerous alien. Problem is, we can’t fix him here. I need to get him back to the Prison. Just out of interest, why’s he called David?”

“I named him after David Beckham, didn’t you see the resemblance?” Jason answered as he walked in wrapping his arm around Fran’s neck.

“Not really.” Val frowned.

“Same resemblance as our friend here to his namesake?” He patted Zac on the shoulder. “Anyway he liked it.” He grabbed a sandwich from the side and winked at Susan.

“Point taken. Now back to my story. In the beginning I didn’t want to help the Prison and was on my way home when Sam took me to a place called the Space.” Val shot Shane a glance.

“You’ve been to the Space?” Shane perked up, eager for news.

“Yes and Taran is fine. Why didn’t you tell us about them?”

“It was safer not to, Val. Sometimes you have to keep these things to yourself; that’s what the army taught me. If what you have to say isn’t relevant or necessary to keep you alive, then don’t say it. Anyway, it reminded me of Beth too much.”

“Mum?” Jason interrupted.

“You know my history with Sam spans a very long time son, and talking about your mum always hurts. It wasn’t safe to tell you about our work when you were little, children tend to repeat everything they hear. When Beth died I bought the tattoo parlour here to be closer to Val. I told Sam I would help this girl he said was so important, but no more moving as I had you to bring up alone. Yes, I have visited the Space with Sam and taken gifts for the children. Son, you’d love it there. They‘re a unique bunch of people who have so much to offer, yet they’re prisoners in their own planet. I promise, now you’re old enough, I’ll tell you all about my past, but right now we’ve more urgent matters to deal with.”

“Anything you can tell us that you think could help would be good Shane, because they’re in trouble and far from being out of the woods – no-one is. Even though we managed to save the Warden, Nathan is still planning an assault. So really I should be there now, but my Collector told me you guys were in trouble. So, does someone want to tell me about the maps?” she pointed at the table.

Mike moved over and turned one of the star charts towards Val. “Shane, you’re the man with the knowledge.”

Susan landed a sandwich in front of her with fresh bread that made the word ‘doorstop’ sound like ‘wafer thin’. Val grabbed it and tucked in.

Shane picked up one of the maps and placed it on the counter. “See this?”

She nodded, whilst masticating.

“My wife drew it in 1645.” Val’s chewing slowed. “She was there the day you were born; she travelled a lot with Sam in the beginning.”

“Right. Go on.”

“After Beth’s death, the charts were hidden by Sam to keep them safe here on Earth. They hold information that only a few can decipher. Some of them show where energy sources are positioned on Earth; we call them ley lines. Others hold planetary alignments. After you left, I received a message from Sam to fetch them and check to see if there were any alignments due. He had a hunch.”

“Uh huh.”

“He was right, there’s an alignment coming, and I suspect that Lailah’s becoming active all of sudden has something to do with it. Our concern is that Lailah’s trying to find this point here.” He placed his finger on the map.

“But that’s just a star, I don’t understand, and how does Lailah know about this?”

Belinda explained, “Val, a planetary alignment brought me and Wendy to you eleven years ago. Eva is a very powerful and intelligent witch. I wouldn’t be surprised if she hasn’t been informed of this alignment. I’m sorry to say that the skies look the same for all of us and so we can’t stop them finding out.”

“Belinda’s right,” Shane said. “Val it’s not a star, it’s a point here on Earth. As soon as I saw where it was, I knew I had to share it with everyone. Seems we’re in for a huge surge of magical power.”

“So Lailah wants it to do what exactly?”

“Sam will be able to answer that, but we have more problems. Before David and Zac left they picked up a glimmer of a signature. Tell her about it.”

“It was worse than that,” Zac said. “It seems that Lailah has been busy while we have been waiting. Earlier today when I picked up the last signal, the one for the Novelia, I got a glimpse of her plan. It seems that she has also got more prisoners waiting.” Zac tapped at his watch. “Look at this.” He pointed to the screen. There was a white spike from the top to the bottom. “That’s when the Novelia appeared. Lailah clearly wanted us to go and get them; she knows just how deadly they are and knows you wouldn’t let them go.” He pressed more buttons. “More worryingly, this appeared a second after. It seems that Eva’s been cloaking her activity.” He held out his watch once more for Val to see as the screen went solid white.

“Just explain that one more time to me,” Val asked, frowning. “One line on your screen was three of the most dangerous aliens in your galaxy and a full page of white is what?” Her gut was already telling her, but she needed to hear it from Zac.