"If you hadn't come," Shadow rubbed my shoulders gently as we walked out of his workshop. "I'll send somebody in to clean up," he added, closing the door behind him.
"You're the one who needs the shoulder rub," I pointed out. "You ought to get that taken care of and go to bed."
"I don't suppose you'd come with me?" His gray eyes held a bit of hope.
"Shadow, I'm trying to come to grips with all this. Can we give it some time?"
"If you promise not to consider removing the M'Fiyah," he muttered, pulling me into an embrace.
"I won't." I knew, first hand, just what that could do to somebody. Merrill's actions had cost me, and I didn't want anybody else to suffer as I had.
"Good. Please say you'll come back. It was easy to get the work done when you were with me."
"I'll see what I can do." I leaned away from him. He used that as an excuse to kiss me.
"What are your plans for tomorrow?" Shadow asked when he pulled away. I watched his mouth—a lazy grin formed there.
"I'm going to move a boulder," I said.
* * *
"Twenty-seven worlds are being attacked by Flakkar," Pheligar gave the information to Griffin, Kiarra, Adam and Merrill. "One world is already devastated; fifty nesting pairs are there and the population is unprepared to handle the onslaught. They do not have the necessary weapons. Thirty pairs were found on another world, where a similar situation is developing. We are at a loss to explain this. When we Look, it is as if the reasons slide away from us and we fail to grasp them. We cannot find the Flakkar themselves by Looking; their shielding prevents it. We had to Look for the killings and then go find the creatures physically. Before, we would have said the Flakkar numbers were small. This defies logic."
"Crap," Kiarra muttered. "What can we do? Somebody has to be putting those things out there, but we aren't getting any hits on the Ra'Ak folding space to those worlds." The Saa Thalarr weren't allowed to interfere unless the Ra'Ak were involved in some way.
"Who has weapons to fight these things?" Adam asked.
"There are only a few worlds that have proper weapons," Pheligar replied. "The Reth Alliance has Ranos technology which will kill the creatures, but they aren't willing to cooperate in defense of non-Alliance worlds. The Flakkar can scent most poisons so that is also not an option."
Griffin was listening to all of them discuss the situation. He wasn't about to interfere this time. Not at all.
* * *
I dreamed that night, and I hadn't had one of those dreams since I'd come back from the dead. I was seeing gates. Many gates. On so many worlds and in so many places on those worlds. Some had several gates. I don't know how I knew that, I just did. I knew I had the power to travel through all of them, and I could have described every one of those gates in detail if I had to. A voice whispered to me about Power. And desperation. And retribution. I jerked awake to find morning light streaming through my window.
I was having an omelette with orange juice later at the kitchen island. Mike and Jamie were off since it was Sunday. Dragon, Crane, Drake and Drew wandered in; they'd been sparring. Drake and Drew had obviously gotten a drubbing from Dragon and Crane, and both looked so pitiful I got up and cooked breakfast for all of them.
"These biscuits are wonderful," Crane was helping himself to another. They'd gotten scrambled eggs, ham, biscuits and gravy. There was plenty of jam and jelly to go with the biscuits, too; I'd made a large pan to feed everybody.
"Why didn't you send mindspeech that food was ready?" Radomir, whom I hadn't seen for days, wandered in, offering a beautiful smile. Mack and Justin came in a few minutes later, followed by Grace and Devin, all of them yawning. Mack slapped Crane on the back. Crane grinned and kept eating. I ended up making more biscuits, wondering while I worked just how things got coordinated with so many mates.
"We have schedules," Mack grinned after reading my mind—he was having another biscuit. Karzac had been up early and out somewhere; he folded in and sat down. I put a plate of food in front of him. He thanked me quietly and started eating.
"I haven't gotten breakfast on Sunday that I didn't have to fix in a long time," Grace heaved a happy sigh. She and Devin, being vegetarian, got scrambled eggs and biscuits with jam.
"So, you have a bulletin board somewhere that just announces who's with whom and when?" I asked, sitting beside Drew to have a biscuit with strawberry jelly and a glass of milk. A published schedule sounded embarrassing; I just didn't say that out loud. Drew rubbed my back gently—he was picking up my thoughts.
"Something like that," Mack laughed. He looked so much like his father.
"What are you doing today?" Drew whispered.
"I have some things to take care of today," I said.
"What about tonight?" he asked. "Come to dinner with Drake and me."
"Okay," I said. "Casual or dressy?"
"Casual," he said. I nodded. "Around eight?"
"I can do that," I said. I left them all at the island, eating and talking while I went back to my bedroom to find my sturdiest jeans, a pullover shirt and athletic shoes. I knew where the gate was on Merrill's property and I was going there as quickly as I could. Since I didn't want anyone to see me, I misted to the gate straight from my bedroom and focused on the first gate I'd seen in my dream the night before. I had no idea what I would find.
There was no mistaking the stench. This world was under attack by Flakkar, too. At least fifty nesting pairs—most with young, and all of them not far from the gate. If I couldn't take their heads, I misted inside them and caused them to explode. Nearly two hundred died that day, all in the space of two hours or so. I went straight home and napped when I finished.
* * *
"That looks nice," Drake complimented my outfit. I'd met up with the twins in the kitchen, dressed in a sleeveless white V-neck top with jeans and low-heeled sandals. Platinum jewelry went nicely with the outfit.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"You'll find out," Drew grinned. We folded away. It was a pizza place in New York, and with the time difference, it was three in the afternoon there.
"Oh my gosh," I said, after biting into a pizza with everything. It was so good. We finished off the whole, huge pizza. We then folded to Port Aransas; Adam had a beach house there.
"This is where Adam and Kiarra met when Saxom was killed," Drew said when I told him I'd been there long ago. I discovered I was there working for Winkler a scant two years after all that had happened. We took off our shoes, rolled up pants legs and went wading in the waters of the gulf in front of the massive beach house. Winkler might have been jealous of that beach house, it was so big. I was splashed with water and I chased after the twins. Drake gave me a piggyback ride while he waded along and we found sand dollars and scallop shells. We sat on the sand after a while, content to watch the water lapping the shore.