We met the advance forces of the Guard halfway down the mountain. Kyra was in the lead and Paige was right beside her.

Chapter twenty five.

"I'm not leaving," Lyrica said, "I have three patients tomorrow and I can't go yet."

"They tried to kill you," I argued, "You're not safe enough here."

"I'll not be safe enough for you anywhere," she answered, "It won't take long to see these patients and they won't be able to be moved to Kansas unless I see them first, anyway."

I sat back and looked at her. She had gotten out of the infirmary bed the minute she woke up and refused to join the Exodus to Kansas. We were moving the trainees and most of the staff down there. The college in Hillsboro was much better suited for our offices and Paige had set in motion the buying of the college and the surrounding area.

The Military had taken the area where the Gate was and it was patrolled to keep people out of harm's way. Surprisingly there were still a great deal of people trying to get into the area, which made no sense whatsoever to me. Didn't they see what the hell happened there?

The locals didn't have the same problem. They'd seen it first hand, and were more than happy to get the hell out of there. But there were a lot of friggin' idiots in the world, and they all seemed to be trying to get to the Gate. I'd seen a lot of end of the world proclamations, and an influx of religious figures claiming to be able to exorcise the Demons and close the "Hell Gate" for us.

Perhaps we should have chosen a better name for them all those years ago. Of course, it was during the Crusades and they were discovered by a Knight, so they were thought to be Demons at the time.

But none of this was helping me try to convince a teenage Soullord to do what I want her to do and come back to Kansas with me where I could make sure the Shak'Tar couldn't get to her again.

"Colin, I know you want to protect me," she said, "And without you, I would be dead many times over, but I have obligations here, and I need a week to take care of it before I can come with you."

I knew she was right, but I have a hard time equating anyone else to the same importance as I place her. I didn't even know how important to me she was till I thought I was going to lose her and now I didn't quite know how to deal with the repercussions of that. I know I love her but do I have the right to take advantage of someone who has seen me as her hero since she was a child. I really needed someone to talk to about it.

"Ok," I said, "but I'll go with you and help. Who knows? I may learn something as well."

"I'll be perfectly all right without a..."

She realized that I wasn't going to give another inch on this. She can see exactly what I'm feeling, just like I can. And there was no point in arguing any farther on the subject.

"Alright," she said and hugged me, "And thank you for saving me again. I thought I was a goner until I looked up and saw you. I thought I was dreaming. Did you really jump out of a plane?"

"Um..."

She shook her head in wonder, "Ric said you did and I watched his memories as he thought about it, too."

"Just how did that go, by the way," I asked, "They all seem to be avoiding me."

"I looked at both Ric and Kharl's memories and it looked like Ric threw Prada out of the plane, and followed her out only seconds after you went out the door."

"He threw her out?" I asked. "She's terrified of heights."

"Oh, she was at the door, but was having trouble actually doing the deed, you know," she said. "He, more accurately, pushed her out the door. He was in a bit of a hurry and may have pushed a little harder than he would have normally."

"I wonder how hard he would push a person out of a plane, normally?" I muttered.

"No smart-ass remarks from you," she shook her finger at me, "Kharl and Daphne were right behind them. Did you know that none of them had a clue how they were going to survive that jump when they jumped?"

"What kind of solution did they come up with? Like I said they've been avoiding me. I told Ric not to follow me, but I kinda meant all of them."

"Shield parachutes, all four of them made shield parachutes of some sort. It seems the only one who didn't was you. Did you know that the recoil from your weapons would slow you?"

"It hadn't occurred to me until I opened fire," I answered, "I hadn't really planned any of it."

"Jesus, Colin," She said, "You can't just keep doing this kind of crap, and expect to just find the solution before you hit the wall."

I had figured I was a dead man, but the least I would do would be to kill the bastards before they got to her. I don't think it would further this conversation to actually tell her this so I just shrugged.

"That's just how I roll, baby."

She sighed in exasperation and made shooing motions with her hands toward the door.

"Shoo, fly," she fussed, "I gotta get ready for the day in Missoula. Places to go and people to heal."

I left the room knowing that I hadn't accomplished near what I had intended when I entered. But at least I had convinced her to move to Kansas, even if it was going to take a few more days than I wanted. One thing I wasn't going to do was go back and leave her here. No way in hell.

"Wait, wait," Lyrica interrupted and I stopped Pulling through the elderly woman's stream, "You're like a bull in a china shop."

She lay her hand over the woman's left kidney and I watched the flow of Power run up the woman's stream but it didn't stop or spread out. It flowed directly toward her hand, focusing the power near the area that was the problem.

The Woman had a kidney that was only working at ten percent of the strength it should have been, and the power Lyrica focused through it would repair it to a state that she probably hadn't seen in forty years.

I had been Pulling the source into her, and letting the body distribute it.

"I see," I said. "You can Pull more to the same spot than would ever distribute there before reaching a level where I would have to had to stop."

"It works like that for any localized injury," she said. "Sometimes you need to do it like you were. Like if you were curing some sort of disease that is throughout the whole body. But injuries or things like this work better if you Pull directly to the spot."

"That would work better on battlefield injuries, too," I said, "I wish I had known this back when I had Pulled for Mom. I really messed up there."

"You didn't know," she said. "Hell, no one even knew we could Pull from another person's stream, at the time."

"I know, but I still feel guilty that I didn't heal her right."

"You saved her life, Colin, never forget that. You can bet she won't ever forget it. None of the Guards on the field will forget what you did there."

She stopped Pulling, and the woman's Soul looked stronger. The spot where her Kidney was had been duller than the other parts of her Soul and it was now brighter than the rest.

"You wanna work on this guy?" she motioned toward a man who they said had an infection that had spread throughout his body, "He'll need a full Pull like you were doing."

"Ok," I said and walked toward the man. His Soul was dim and he was terrified of us.

"You don't have to fear us, Sir," I said, "This will help you."

I Pulled through his stream and his Soul began to brighten. I watched as his fear level began to drop. When I was done I turned to walk away. He grabbed my arm.

"Is this truly the end of days? Are the legions of Hell coming back?"

I really didn't know how to answer him but I tried, "They aren't really Demons from Hell. They're aliens and they're trying to invade our world to destroy us. This is all I know. We'll stand and fight them when they return. And if they come again, we'll do as humans have done throughout history. We'll protect our own. I don't know what the end of days entails, but, if we fail, that very well may be what we're facing here."

"So you two aren't angels?"

I laughed, "I'm no angel. She may be, though."

I heard her musical laughter, and whispered to the man, "Definitely an angel.

He smiled and let go of my arm with a knowing look.

Chapter 26.

I heard their voices as I neared Paige's office.

"...dinner?"

I recognized the voice of Kevin Graves.

"It doesn't bother you that you are scared of me?" Paige asked.

"I'm scared of everything," he answered. "I'm used to it. The question is can you handle the fact that I'm scared of you?"

"That's a good question," she said. "Considering the source of that question, I'd love to have dinner with you."

"Seven this evening?" he asked.

"That will be great."

"I'll see you then."

I met Kevin as he exited her office with something besides fear rolling through his aura. There was a flow of triumph and excitement along with anticipation. His eyes grew wide as he saw me, and a shot of fear rolled through him that I saw him push down much like I push the rage down in myself.

"Good morning, Sir," he said to me.

"Hey, Kid," I returned, using the name we had given him when he got to Tennessee, "How's it going?"

"Very good," he said with the return of the emotion he had been feeling before I interrupted him.

"Be careful out there, Kid," I said, "Keep that personal shield up. We don't want to lose you."

He nodded, "Yes Sir."

"And Kevin," I said softly, "She loves Orchids."

His face turned red and I chuckled. Then I turned away from him and entered Paige's office.

"I heard that," Paige said as I closed the door behind me, "and it's not really fair if you tell him. The joy is in the learning."

"True," I said with a smile, "But it doesn't hurt to start a tiny bit ahead of the game. The question is what kind of orchids he'll come up with."

She laughed and sat down behind the huge desk that made her look even smaller than she usually did.

"Is everything prepared to head to Kansas?" I asked.

"Yes," she said, "I've spent the last eleven years here, and I'm going to miss it, though."

"The move makes sense," I said, "now that secrecy is not an issue any more."

"That just tickles the shit out of you, doesn't it?" she asked. "You always complained about it from the first day I met you."

"I guess it made sense on some levels," I said, "but I still think we would have been much better prepared without the secrecy."

"There were issues on both sides of the argument, but, thanks to you, the issues were bypassed quite handily."

"Me?"

"Really, Colin," she said with a small shake of her head, "you're very birth was the thing that set all this in motion. They spent a lot of time trying to kill you, both as a child and an adult. Their failure caused them to send one of those damnable Mages, which you killed quite thoroughly. This sparked the fire that caused them to decide to come in force."

"I think they would have come through anyway," I said. "Perhaps it would have been a bit later than they did. Weapons are progressing to a point where humans can fight them now. I could see a where the weapons at the government's command could really cause a lot of damage."

"I agree," she said, "but they came through early or they would have done a hell of a lot better than they did. I just feel that they were unprepared to face what you put out there in Kansas. I think they'll send more next time and I think there will be a plan in place. These Shak'Tar are dangerous, but they aren't going to succeed any better than the last group of Kresh sent to assassinate you."

"Oh?"

"Your security specialist is getting better and better at stopping attacks," she said, "Just where did you find him? He seems to know where they're going to hit as fast as they do."

"He is quite good at his job," I said, "probably because he's been an assassin for the last twenty years."

"You hired an assassin to be our security?" She was looking at me with a startled expression.

"Who better to stop assassins than an assassin?" I said with a shrug.

"That still doesn't really answer where you actually found him," she said. "It was Rictor who introduced him, wasn't it?"

"Of course," I answered.

"That figures," she said, "I'm not even going to ask why your crazy second in command knew where to find this guy. He is a great success, but some of the people assigned to my detail worry me just a bit. They're a scary lot."