"Alright," she said and pointed to a spot on the form, "Sign here and you can take the truck over there."

She pointed to her right at a black Humvee. I'd never driven one of these yet. It might be fun.

I signed on the line and smiled, "Thanks."

She handed me a set of keys and I walked over to climb into the driver's seat.

I drove out of the garage and something was just tickling my awareness, but I paid it no notice. I exited the compound that had been erected at the former college in Hillsboro.

As I turned down the highway toward Wichita, I heard a voice from the seat behind me, "Mr. Rourke, you are a hard man to find alone."

Chapter twenty four.

I looked into the mirror to see a man staring at me from the back seat. Both hands were held up in my sight. I opened my inner sight and slammed on the brakes. Before the man could even move I was out the door, which flew across the road to slam into the side of a building. His door was ripped off the hinges, and my other hand was gripping him by the front of his black uniform.

What I'd seen when I truly looked was one of the Shak'Tar, or someone who had the Demon blood, at the least.

As the Humvee rolled onward, I stood holding the man off the ground in front of me.

I'll say this for him, he didn't panic. He held his hands out with the palms up, and I could see the nervousness in his aura.

"I see how you killed thirty Shak'Tar, now," he said.

This statement confirmed his status as Shak'Tar.

"Give me one reason it shouldn't be thirty-one," I growled with my rage beginning to claw its way forward.

His eyes widened as he felt the buildup inside me, "You're a Bloodborn?"

"And you're Shak'Tar," I said as I beat the rage down some.

"I have information you need," he said, "I came to seek asylum."

Not many things can blindside me because of the abilities I have to see into the Soul, but this was the last thing I had expected. I want to hate them all, but now I find that some of them are not the evil that they represent, and it was like a slap to the face.

"Asylum..." I muttered, "You want protection?"

"More like an Alliance, Mr. Rourke," he said. "I could talk so much easier without the hand to my throat."

I slowly set the man down on his own feet and let him loose. I needed to see what he had to say, at the least.

I watched his Soul closely, "So talk."

"I belong to an organization that I wish to part ways with," he said.

"Shak'Tar," I returned.

"It seems you know more than is suspected. I was going to approach that exceptionally good security consultant you have, but what I have is very time-sensitive."

"Then you should spit it out," I said.

"Recently," he said, "a full Company of Shak'Tar arrived and were sent after a target here in the United States. A full company is one hundred men. The only high priority/high risk target I am aware of is you. I came to warn you."

"Where are they?"

"That's the problem, they're not here. Do you know who else would be considered this high a priority target?"

I felt a hole form in my chest and my face went white as a sheet.

"You do know."

I said one word as I launched myself back toward the base, "Lyrica."

I grabbed my phone from my pocket and punched the first speed dial.

"Yeah, Boss?"

"Drop everything! Get to the plane, we have to go to Montana, now!"

"Yes, Sir!" he didn't ask why or anything. That's Ric.

I ran straight for the airstrip where the Soulguard jet always sat, prepared for take-off at a moment's notice. We kept pilots on duty at all times for just such occasions.

Rictor, Prada, Kharl, and Daphne Cavanaugh all reached the jet at the same time as I did. We all piled into the jet. And the engines began to whine.

"Now! Now!" I yelled to the pilots, "Go! Fuck clearance! Montana at the fastest this heap will fly!"

The pilot didn't hesitate, slamming forward on the throttle. The plane jumped forward before the door had even shut all the way. I may have been projecting my desperation toward them all, because I turned toward the others and their faces were as pale as mine.

Kharl grabbed my shoulders, worry rolling through his aura, "What is it?!"

There were tears in my eyes, "They're going to kill my Angel!"

I was barely in control of what I was feeling and it was projecting to the others as I paced the length of the plane for the longest two hours of my entire life. I've come face to face with what I fear the most. What if I never got to hear that musical laughter again? What if I never got to see her emerald green eyes, glowing with life, again? What if?

As we neared The Academy, I opened my Sight to scan the ground miles below us. The communications to the Academy had been cut off. We'd been trying to contact them since leaving Kansas to no avail.

Then I saw her Soul and my heart soared. She was alive! But I also saw the ugly Souls down below us and they were so close to where she was. The terror swept through me again as I thought we would be there just in time to see her die.

I ripped the seat I had placed my hands on in half as I looked groundward.

Ric placed his hand on my shoulder. He'd felt the hope and the terror I was feeling.

"Boss?"

I saw her approaching the ugly Souls below us. I could imagine what was happening. She was running like she always does, and they lay in wait for her.

I think something broke inside me in that moment. I looked at the pilot.

"Will this thing fly with the door open?"

"Yes, Sir, but you can't just open it like..."

CRASH!.

I kicked the damn thing off and grabbed Rictors shirt front, "Don't follow me!"

I dove out the door.

Wind buffeted me, and I spun around and around for a moment as I got myself oriented again. I spread my arms and legs to get myself into position. I looked down and focused on the Soul below that blazed like the sun. Then I turned myself and dove straight down toward her.

I hadn't asked how high we were but it couldn't have been more than three miles. But it seemed like it took forever as the world slowed and my focus was achieved.

I could see the whole thing play out from far above them. I could see the Shak'Tar close in from all around her. Farther out I could see a portal form and Demons began to pour through it.

At that moment, she felt the Demons and opened her sight. Her Soul rippled with the attacks from the Shak'Tar. Emotions flooded across her aura and her mind wasn't able to cope. She didn't have a Lash like I do. But, by God, she is a Soullord and there is a reason they sent a hundred of the bastards to kill her.

As she began to crumple I saw her Soul Blaze as she did something I have never seen before. She reached out with her mind and ripped the life out of the area around her.

The area within five hundred feet of her died. The grass, trees, insects, animals, and fifty-seven humans that had called themselves Shak'Tar.

Her stream blazed as the Source was sucked into her body. What she had done took a great deal of power and her stream wasn't keeping up. Her Soul dimmed and I screamed as I let my rage surface.

They were still closing on her crumpled form when I Pulled harder than I have ever Pulled. I unleashed everything I had at the circle of forms closing in on my little Angel.

The world exploded around her in a circle as disks of fire slammed into the ground, incinerating the Shak'Tar who were closer than the others. The back lash from my shots was slowing my fall and I fired the rifled fireballer I had created at the Academy. The fireball slammed amidst the group of Shak'Tar on her left and the recoil slowed me even more.

I flipped and slammed into the ground with a bone-jarring thud. Dirt and ash exploded up from the impact, and I released three more disks to slay the last of the Shak'Tar.

I knelt next to her crumpled form and pulled her to my chest. Power flooded up my stream as it flowed into her just as her stream was glowing with the Source pouring into her.

It was only moments until her Soul brightened and stabilized. The relief flooded through me when I saw that my Little Angel would live. Tears were streaming down my face as I realized that I would rather die than live a life without her in it. That must be what it means to be in love with someone.

Her eyes fluttered open and she saw me. Astonishment, relief, and love rolled through her aura and as she looked back into mine, I saw triumph.

Then her eyes closed. She was unconscious.

I felt them closing from the left and I put everything that I am into a Lash. My sorrow and joy, my love and hate, happiness and all of my rage, everything that makes me who I am. I put it all in and I Lashed out toward the horde of Demons that was closing in on us.

Then I bent down and kissed Lyrica's forehead and reached into her stream to turn on her personal shield. I gently lay her back down and turned toward the Demons with my eyes blazing.

They had stopped at the edge of the dead zone. The Demon in the front was enormous. His stream was gigantic and he stood staring at me.

There was some sort of link after the Lash I had released. I could see the emotions rolling through his aura, which I wouldn't have recognized if not for the fact that I could feel them as well.

I'd seen rage and hate before and fear. Now I knew what dread looked like.

It looked at me and spoke with a rumbling voice, "What are you?"

I answered with one word. A word he would not mistake for anything else.

"Rash'Tor'Ri."

With that word I saw/felt his dread turn to despair, and I saw it spread throughout the hundreds of Demons that faced me.

But I also saw something else. I saw a memory roll across the leader's aura. I saw what was unmistakably a female Kresh holding a small one in her arms. And I saw/felt the pain and loss he was feeling, knowing that his end and the end of his clan/family was here.

There are a few life-altering events a person receives throughout his or her life. The first time you know someone has given their life for yours, the first time you realize you would give your life for someone else, When you find that you love someone so much that you will jump out of a plane just on the off chance you can save them before you impact the ground, and when you find out that a Demon can love.

And I had two of those moments in the last half hour.

The flames that had sprang from my body flickered and went out. I pointed toward the portal.

"Take your people and go home."

He stared at me and I could see/feel the amazement in him. It slowly dawned on him that he wasn't going to lose his clan today and relief flowed through him. It was all up to him now.

I watched as the ones in the rear returned to the portal and disappeared. He stood directly in front of me while his whole clan made their way back through the portal.

As the last of them vanished he spoke again, "Why?"

I sent out the emotions he had felt, "You felt this as you thought of your mate. I don't want to kill that."

He looked behind me, "You're mate lives?"

I nodded.

"Good."

"If there are more like you over there," I said, "Keep them off my world."

He looked at me one last time as he stood before the portal. He nodded and stepped through.

"What the Hell did I just see?" a voice came from behind me. I turned to find all four of them standing at my back. Kharl, Daphne, Prada, and Rictor.

"Thought I told you not to follow me," I said.

"I didn't," he said and pointed at Prada, "I followed her."

I smiled and turned to Kharl who had asked the initial question, "What you just saw was hope, Dad. There may be a possibility that we don't have to kill every single Kresh to gain peace."

I returned to Lyrica and turned off her shield. Then I picked her up and we started walking down from the mountains toward the Academy.