True Traitor (First Wave Book 7) (5 page)

Leif inwardly flinched under the glare of her stormy, grey eyes, knowing his one good ball was in danger of being roasted, and he hadn’t even opened his mouth yet. If this is what his grandpa went through with his nana, then he truly had a reason to pity Legendary Ass 1.

Although
, he thought,
the pity will wear off between now and when the delicate flower arrives. At which point I’ll be cheering on said Flower, as she shoves a stick up Ass #1’s ass and jerks out the offending creature that crawled up there this time.

Leif jerked himself out of his musings when he heard Tara speak. “It’s a little more complicated than that right now,” she told True.

True raised her eyebrows, pretending not to notice that the hot guy again looked hot and freshly showered and clothed. With a force of will she didn’t even know she had, she kept her blue eyes trained on Tara’s green ones.

“Complicated how?” True asked as she pointed in the general direction of the door, ignoring Leif. “You let me walk out. I go find my people. We leave. War’s over.”

Tara sighed.

“We can’t do that. The entire place is on lockdown now. It’s not that we can’t let you outside, it’s that we aren’t in command. Part of those management problems I mentioned . . .” Tara said, looking to Leif for help.

True narrowed her eyes at them. Something was wrong here. She could feel it.

“So, what exactly do you expect me to do?” she asked, more out of curiosity than compliance.

True had no plans of doing anything they wanted until she saw Grai. The blond ass made a fool of her already by getting her to agree to the connection through the Shengari’; she wasn’t going to let him make her a fool again. 

Leif folded his arms across his chest, watching his mate as she spoke for longer than five seconds—without flinging fire or insults. It took him a moment to realize that both women were looking at him.

Hell
, he thought,
this isn’t a good thing
.
Not where either of these women is concerned.

As Leif looked between his best friend and his mate, it dawned on him just how screwed he was. True was just like Tara, who was just like his nana. Leif sighed, prayed for more patience than a Zendarian Priest and slid into a chair closest to the door.

When Tara stood, Leif jumped to his feet and blocked her.

“Where the hell are you going?” he asked her quietly, directing his eyes to where True was glaring at him with suspicion.

Tara quirked an eyebrow at him before turning to look at True, perching on the edge of the bed. Tara shrugged.

“I have problems of my own to deal with right now. You’re on your own. Besides, she’s your mate! You two have to learn some common ground and work with that, damn it!” she said as she stepped forward to leave and Leif still blocked her path.

Leif’s eyes widened and this time he spoke through the Shengari’.

“She set my junk on fire! Does that sound like a ‘mating-like’ frame of mind? Because that’s got to be the worst attempt at foreplay I’ve ever seen! And what the hell am I supposed to tell her?”

Tara huffed in frustration and turned so she could look between the angry redhead and her best friend.

“Look you two. No matter how much you want to deny it, you both know damn well,” she said looking at True before continuing, “that you’re mates. You’re it. No one else. Which means you find a way to get along and maybe fix this shit between our people in the process or relegate yourself to a life of bitter loneliness forever. And that’s looking on the bright side and saying we all don’t die in here. Tell her the truth, Leif.”

True was going to argue when Tara’s words hit home. The only way she was ever going to be blessed enough to have a child like her sister, Dare, was going to be with this—aw hell! Neither she nor Leif even noticed that Tara had left until they finally pulled themselves from their thoughts, and True looked at him warily.

True stood slowly and followed the edge of the bed until she was standing on the other side of it, facing Leif.

“What’s the truth? Why are you people even trying to fight mine? Why aren’t we working together?” she asked, hoping to learn something that she could take to Grai to end this when she found him.

Leif sighed and put his elbows on his knees and ran both hands through his hair. If he told her the truth, it wasn’t going to help him keep her, and it damn sure wasn’t going to make this better, but maybe if she understood then he could get her to his side enough to help the situation.

True was getting ready to roast him with some rapid fireballs when he began to speak.

“You know all about the history of the outpost and how we got here?” he asked. When she nodded her head, he sighed.

“Fiorn Erikson is my grandfather,” he said, and she sucked in a breath to throw questions at him, but he held up his hand to stop her.

“Just let me explain,” Leif said, more than a little surprised that she just nodded her head and crossed her arms over her ample chest. He groaned to himself at the display of her ripe breasts cresting over her shirt and had to shake his head to clear the sexual thoughts from his head.

Leif cleared his throat and made a point to look only at her eyes to keep his mind from wandering and getting his ass charred again.

“Fiorn, the Valendran legend,” Leif said with a snort. “Well, he decided that our people needed to stick together and not separate—that they were stronger and better if they stayed together and built a fortified place to protect themselves.”

Leif stood and started pacing on what he was referring to in his mind as “his side” of the room, using the bed to delineate the halfway marker.

“Obviously, they didn’t listen to him. The hybrids slipped off into the night until he was alone—and pissed off. As a few hundred years went by, he became more and more bitter and angry that the Valendrans had left the outpost survivors behind. Finally, he found his mate, Thjodhild, became known as Erik the Red, and settled in a Viking village and had a son, Leif, my father.”

Leif took a deep breath and continued, while the fiery woman was still quiet.

“After a brutal battle with the Relians where most of the village was killed in an effort to protect his mate and my father, Fiorn was banished and went to Greenland. Before they left, my grandmother’s father promised to change the sagas so that no one would ever figure out who Fiorn was so the Relians and even the other outpost survivors would never find them.”

Leif paused to see if True was even paying attention and was a little surprised to see that had settled back on the edge of the bed, listening intently.

Leif continued.

“From there, the history gets muddled, which is what they were going for . . . lie, change names, change history, fuck with everything you can in order to keep everyone hidden and from being found. We’ve mastered it,” Leif said with a snort and shake of his head.

“The legendary ass has made it a mission to lie, cheat, and steal to hide. Don’t get me wrong, he had good reason . . . But now?” Leif shook his head again.

He cleared his throat.

“Sorry . . . anyway. Using the light stones, which he’d told his people were called sun stones, he and my father eventually guided them here to America. He’d been able to collect a dozen hybrids along the way and used their abilities to find the ley lines that eventually led to the original cave entrance that you found,” Leif said.   

True, who had always been fascinated by the Valendrans’ dramatic impact on human history, was enthralled by the story and listening intently. When he paused, she motioned for him to continue.

“Go on!” she encouraged.

Leif smiled.

My little fire princess likes stories
, he thought.

“Fiorn became obsessed about keeping everyone hidden from the world. This new world and the native people gave us hundreds of years to build this place in secrecy. We became known as the Giants to them. We left them alone, and they left us alone.”

Leif sighed.

“Then people finally came here and started building towns and the risk of discovery was becoming too great, so Fiorn secretly funded the effort to get this place designated as a national forest to ensure that no one could build any closer to the mountain. He did the same to all of the other places that he’d been building through the years as well.”

True loved a good story, but his tale wasn’t helping her find Grai.

“What the hell does any of this have to do with you taking us hostage and threatening to kill your own?” she asked with irritation.

Leif growled slightly.

“I prevented you from being taken with the others! It’s a long story! I’m trying to explain why the legendary ass is such a . . . legendary ass! He hates his people! He considers them cowards with no honor! He doesn’t think the Valendrans deserve to have mates. He’s spent years refusing to help the Valendrans on the planet while collecting the hybrids like . . . toy soldiers!”

Leif stomped around the room.

“He thinks just as little of the humans—refusing to help them with the Relians—letting them be destroyed by their own people. Do you have any damn idea who we really are? What we’ve been doing here? What he’s protecting?” Leif asked, turning his body so quickly towards True that she was a little startled.

True didn’t expect him to sound so angry about his own grandfather, and now that the history lesson was over, she was really interested in what he had to say.

“No, who are you and what are you doing here?” she asked, hoping he’d actually tell her something useful.

Leif snorted and moved over to a closet, opened both doors and gestured inside. True had expected weapons—hell, even a body—but
all she could see was long rows of generic looking dark suits and shoes.

True couldn’t imagine what the suits had to do with anything bad except. . . 

“You’re politicians? Lawyers?” she asked.

Leif snorted.

“Ever hear of the shadow groups stealing crashed craft and scaring the humans into silence? The Men in Black?”

True looked at him and looked at the closet and laughed so hard tears streamed down her face. She looked at the blond giant with his now-singed hair and tried to picture him as some intimidating “man in black,” and she roared with renewed laughter.

Leif sighed.

“This is serious, firefly. We have exactly 24 hours after a UFO event to get the scene under control before we lose all hope of it and face potential exposure to the humans. Every hour that passes gives more humans a chance to take video and get it on the Internet. And it gives the real US military time to get here. We’re down to 20 hours left before we’re
all
exposed to the entire world. And our enemies.” 

Leif walked over to a screen and flipped it on, scrolling through live feeds until he left one on the screen. True stared at it, her laughter slowing to a complete stop as she moved closer to the screen.

True stared in wonder at a cavern the size of the docking bay in Dillon filled with what appeared to be repaired Balal ships and other ships she’d never seen before. He allowed her to flip through the live images, showing a vast, deep city beneath the mountain.

She stopped at an image of dozens of men in black suits getting into various unmarked black SUVs before tearing out of what looked like a rock barrier. Another image showed black helicopters taking off and flying in a large perimeter around the two opposing forces in the sky.

Leif interrupted her thoughts.

“The choppers are prepared to get the wreckage of any of our craft so the humans can’t get them first. We’ve been stealing the crashed Balal and Relian ships for years—building our own fleet. Fiorn thinks to take us all from this planet and leave the humans to fend for themselves with the Relians while building his own utopian society on another world.”

Chapter Five

Countdown Clock to Human Discovery

20:00 Hours

This is WFWZ radio news. Local law enforcement has confirmed there is a landslide near Burnt Tree Ridge. The forestry service is currently evacuating the surrounding campsites and nearby homes, and people are being urged to avoid the area. No injuries have been reported, but bursts of heavy rainfall continue, so use caution if you’re traveling in the area.

True stared at the screen in stunned amazement at the size of the place. She had to admit the endless corridors and tunnels were pretty intimidating, but if she could just find someone—anyone—she’d feel better.

Leif was still pacing a good distance behind her when she saw a golden ball flash across one of the screens she’d flipped past. True quickly flipped back and watched as the golden ball rolled down a hallway past a dozen closed doors. She used the camera systems to follow the ball until it slipped under a door.

A few seconds later, True saw a large golden flash from under the door, then watched the door open and Decano peek outside before he followed the golden ball down the tunnel it had come from. She sucked in a breath and quickly flipped the screen to something else so that Leif wouldn’t see that Decano had been able to escape.

She was just formulating her own escape plan when the door flew open and Tara leaned in, looking at Leif.

“You need to get out there. We got too many early campers and hikers out there, and we’re both needed,” Tara said, sounding a little stressed.

Leif’s eyes widened and he threw his hands in the air, gesturing to True.

“What the hell am I supposed to do with her? She’ll burn the place down the second we shut the door!”

Tara looked at True for a second before grinning.

“Bring her along. She might be able to help.”

Leif sputtered and looked at Tara like she’d been huffing bat guano in one of the caves.

“Have you lost your mind completely?” he asked whispered through gritted teeth.

True sighed and crossed her arms over her chest.

“I
can
hear you, Prince of Fuck-tardia,” she said.

Leif turned to her with a dark look.

“Ha ha, yeah you stopped being amusing when you set my dick on fire. Besides, I wasn’t talking to you,” Leif said. He knew his retort was childish, but he couldn’t stop himself.

Tara shook her head at him.

“Man, you really know how to charm them. I’d be all over some of that—” she began before Leif interrupted.

“You have to call someone else,” he said.

Tara stepped into the room and True got a good look at her slicked back hair, makeup-free face and the dark suit and shoes she was wearing. The dark sunglasses perched on her head completed the look, and True burst out laughing.

“You guys are taking this a little too far, don’t you think?” True asked with a grin.

Tara ignored her and turned to Leif.

“She’ll stay with you because she wants back in here to get her people. That won’t happen if she runs from you. She’ll help you out there because she doesn’t want the humans hurt any more than we do. Besides, it’ll prove to her that you aren’t lying and maybe she’ll eventually give you back your man card. Here, this should fit. I’ll meet you outside in five,” Tara said before handing him a dry cleaning bag and a few boxes.

Leif took the items then watched in shock as Tara left and shut the door behind her. He looked at the items in his hands in mute amazement before True stomped over to him, snatched them out of his hands, and dumped them on the bed.

She tore into everything and giggled as she looked at the suit, tie, shoes, and sunglasses. True put her hands on the hem of her shirt before she cocked her head at Leif and narrowed her eyes.

“I wouldn’t recommend you watching . . . I once played ‘burning man’ with a Relian for scuffing my boot during a fight . . .” True let her voice trail off as he turned his back and ran across the room to his closet, busying himself picking his own clothes.

Four minutes later they were facing each other in the room—he smiling broadly at her and she staring at him with narrowed eyes as he used gel to slick back his hair. True followed him as he opened the door and headed down a tunnel.

She tried to find something familiar that she’d seen while flipping through the vids, but everything looked the same. How these people knew their way around was a mystery to her. She felt like a rat in a maze.

After what seemed like endless look-alike tunnels, they finally opened up to a garage area like the one she’d seen earlier. This one had three black SUVs left, and Tara was standing beside one of them with the keys in her hand.

Tara took one look at True and laughed.

“Girl, you have to do something about that hair! You definitely stand out way too much!”

Leif stared at her with his mouth open and flipped his hands up as if in surrender.

“This was your damn idea!” he said with irritation.

Tara snorted and shook her head.

“Men! Here,” Tara said as she handed a few hair items to True.

True used the gel to slick back her hair, and then braided it tightly before dropping the long braid down the back of the suit. In the dark, the humans wouldn’t notice the color or the style.

Leif nodded nervously before opening the back door of the SUV for her. True hopped into the vehicle, making sure that she didn’t touch him and stared straight ahead. Leif sighed and shook his head as he shut the door for her and glared at a grinning Tara.

He walked around the vehicle and spoke to Tara through the Shengari’.

“She’s probably going to set the damn forest on fire, with us in it.”

Tara laughed.

“I seriously doubt it. She’s not stupid. Leif, stop trying to be the son of legends and just be you,” she said as she climbed in the driver’s seat and started the vehicle.

Leif snorted.

Yeah, be myself
, he thought.
Myself has slow roasted genitals!

He screamed in his head and stomped his feet before quickly composing himself. He straightened his suit jacket, threw his shoulders back and opened the back passenger door, prepared to get inside.

Leif saw the saw ball of fire in True’s hand, slammed the door shut, and opened the front passenger door to look back at True and make sure the fire was gone from her hands before he got in and shut the door.

True watched in fascination as Tara hit a button on the dashboard, and the rock wall shimmered for a moment before it disappeared. She was thrown back in the seat as Tara launched the vehicle out of the opening in the wall and began flying through the dark. True looked out the window and could barely see the path the vehicle was following. It wasn’t gravel or asphalt but more like a worn path in the natural vegetation.

It made more sense to her when she saw them approach a gated area. The signs alluded to the place being owned by the US government, but they didn’t actually say it. True planned on getting a better look at it later. She was curious about the horde of Valendrans living in the heart of the damn mountains while no one was aware of their black ops.

Hell,
she thought,
even Grai hadn’t known
.

These people were good, and she wanted to find out how good so she could find their weaknesses, but she’d do it later. Instead, she immediately tried to contact Grai through the Shengari’, but there was still silence in her mind.

She was left with the last person she wanted to talk to in that moment.

“Dare? Dare, I’m out right now. Is anyone else?” she asked, wondering if Decano had found a way out.

She got an immediate, overly emotional response from the new mother.

“Oh God! True? My baby sister . . .” Dare said before she broke down.

True sighed in relief when Balduen’s voice popped in her head. “True? Where are you? We’ll be right there to get you,” he promised.

True thought about what Tara had said and cursed to herself because the woman was right. She wasn’t leaving her people in there, and these two were her ticket back inside to get Grai and the others. First, she had to know if they had gotten out.

“Baldy, has anyone else gotten out of there? Grai? Decano?” she asked.

“No. True, did you see or hear anyone else? Where are you?” Balduen asked, his concern evident in his tone of voice.

True looked out the window at the dark trees flying by her. “I saw Decano. It looked like he escaped, but I don’t know where he was. Baldy, the place is massive inside. You could fit all of Dillon in there—endless tunnel systems, doors, buildings, and ships. They have a lot of ships,” she said, trying to tell him as much as she did know, hoping it would help whatever they were doing or planning.

Baldy cleared his throat.

“True, where are you? Tell me where you are,” he demanded.

True looked at Tara and Leif and knew she had to get back inside if her people were still in there. She had to try and get them out. She’d leave the rest of this war shit to the others and concentrate on getting Grai and her people out of there. True had no doubt that her people would have to destroy the mountain to get them out. If that happened, so many of their own could get hurt. Or killed.

But if she could get them out, maybe this could be ended peacefully. With that in mind, she answered Balduen.

“Baldy, I can’t tell you that. I’m going to use them to get back in and find Grai and the others. Look, it’s Fiorn. He thinks that you guys left them intentionally because you have no honor. He’s been collecting crashed craft and plans on taking his people to another world, to start over,” she said.

True rushed on before he could interrupt her.

“They’re the Men in Black, guys. And apparently we have 20 hours to contain this war shit, or we’re all outed to the world. So find someone to talk this idiot off the cliff so we can all just get along. His own people call him a legendary ass, and they’re not thrilled to be fighting and don’t like the thought of leaving. I don’t know if that helps you or not, but it’s all I’ve got right now. Get someone on the web to help yank the pics too,” True said.

There was silence for several long minutes and True knew that Baldy was passing on the information to someone.

“That’s great info, True. But, where are you?” Baldy asked again.

True sighed.

“I’m not going to tell you, I’m going back inside to help the others get out. Maybe if everyone gets out we can end this crap and try talking instead. In fact, can you please get someone talking?” she asked, just wanting this to be over so they could go home.

Baldy paused.

“Look, you be careful. We’re going to do everything we can from here too,” he finally said.

True looked at Tara in the rearview mirror and knew the woman was aware that she was conversing on the Shengari’ with her people. What surprised her was that Tara hadn’t bothered to try and stop her.

“Will do,” True said to Baldy before severing the connection with him.

She watched Tara drive in the mirror for a few minutes.

“So, what exactly are we going to do?” True asked.

Tara and Leif laughed.

“We’re going to help the humans remember things correctly,” Leif said.

True got a little nervous by the way that he said that and was going to ask for more details when Tara slammed on the brakes, threw the SUV into a skid and stopped an ATV flying away from the mountain.

Tara and Leif jumped out of the vehicle and approached two men on the ATV. Unsure what they had planned for the humans, True jumped out of the vehicle and rushed forward to defend them if necessary.

“Sirs, I need to see your phones, please,” Leif asked in a deep voice that had True doing a double take.

True noticed that Tara was touching the passenger, who was silently staring at the mind reaper in rapt attention while Leif was confronting the driver of the ATV.  

Just as the man started to argue over the phones, Tara threw the passengers phone at Leif while she touched the driver, who immediately became silent. True watched as Leif held a device to the phone, then put it back in the pocket of the still-silent ATV passenger.

Tara handed the other phone to Leif while she stood in front of both men.

“You guys saw the whole damn mountain start coming down and decided to get out of here while you could. The only thing you saw in the sky was some interesting cloud formations during the storm before the mountain came down. “Now everything is muddy and the trails are washed out, but you’ll make it back home alive and tell no one about this,” but you’ll make it back home alive and tell no one about this,” Tara said to the two men while they nodded their heads mutely.

True looked at Tara with narrowed eyes.

“What did you do to them?”

Tara turned back to her with a grin.

“I reaped in a mild suggestion that they listen to me . . . after I erased what they saw. I just replaced what I took with different memories. They get home safe, and that’s two less people that we have to worry about,” Tara said before she turned back to the two men.