As I landed directly in front of Gorvelis and his men, unleashing a roar of my own, I launched my Lash with every ounce of my being.

I could see the effects of that lash roll through all of the Shak'Tar. It blasted through their Souls like a savage wind. I could almost see pieces of their Souls blasted away.

That wave rolled across them all, and reached the huge Kresh and the five others that followed him.

I swear there was a force to that Lash. I saw pieces of their Souls seem to shatter from the power. It was one of the most exhilarating moments I had ever had, and one of the most terrifying. No one should be able to do things like that to another being's Soul.

Everything simply seemed to stop as the effects of my Lash rolled through.

The huge Kresh grabbed his head with his hands and screamed. I could feel him as well as see the utter terror he felt, and the rage and hate he felt for me. He began to shake all over, and fell to his knees. With great roars of rage, he smashed his head into the ground, over and over. Then he stopped and looked directly into my eyes as he brought his clawed hand toward his face.

I could see the unbridled hatred in his Soul as he ripped his own throat out.

"What the hell?" I muttered.

Like a wave a movement began across the Shak'Tar. All of them dropped to their knees. The wave didn't stop there, the other Kresh that had followed the Farrara'Ti knelt, as well.

I turned around to find Gorvelis, and the others kneeling behind me. Gorvelis' shoulders shook, and I thought he was weeping but his head came up and the tears were from the laughter he was barely holding inside. As he saw the utter confusion on my face, he couldn't hold it back any longer, and his laughter rolled through the silence.

"You have no idea what you just did," he asked after a moment, "do you?"

I shook my head, slowly. I was still stunned because I could feel them all now. I could feel the Shak'Tar. I could feel the Kresh behind them, and I could feel seventy three Romanians from inside the prison. I could not only see them, I could feel them.

"You have given us all your Mark," Gorvelis said as a stood back up.

He seemed to be examining something. Something from inside himself, and he was smiling. "It is a Mark that will be a joy to carry. The first Human Mark. No one has ever had the power to Mark other humans, much less a Kresh."

"I take it the fight is over?"

He laughed, "Very much over."

I clicked my coms, "Come on down guys, it seems there won't be a big fight, after all."

"Why do you sound so disappointed, Boss?"

"You'll just have to see it when you get down here."

I looked at Gorvelis, "Can you explain this to me, please?"

"The Kresh are telepathic," he said. "The way they establish authority is through their Mark. The Farrara'Ti are the only ones who can mark a Ma'Nar. The Ma'Nar marks his underlings with the Mark of its ruler, and the Mark passes down to the lowliest of the Kresh."

"The Farrara'Ti are the rulers of Kresh, and there are a limited number of them. Each Marks as many Ma'Nar as they can until their Mark weakens. The Farrara'Ti over there was Sol'Kor'Vanas. He ruled five Rash'Tar, Life Clans and the Shak'Tar, or Night Clan."

I nodded slowly as the words he was saying began to sink in.

"Are you shittin' me?" I asked, "I just took his clans?"

"We are all yours to command," he nodded toward the Kresh'Ma'Nar near the gate, "including them. The second they return through the gate, your Mark will spread down through the ranks, and they will all be your Clan."

"Holy shit," I muttered.

"What the Hell do I do with five hundred telepathic assassins?"

"Five hundred?" he asked, "You are now the master of all the Shak'Tar. The second we enter the gate your Mark will spread from us as well. We are all yours, and we are ready to do your bidding."

I stood there as all of this was registering. The link has to go both ways, my honor demanded it. I can't just let my own responsibility to them be denied. If what he said was the truth, and according to my Sight, it was, then I'm responsible for their well-being as much as I have the right to receive their loyalty.

In a split second I had become the Liege Lord of God only knows how many Demons, and an unknown amount of telepathic humans. Why does everything have to be so complicated?

Rictor came around the corner of the prison followed closely by Lyrica and the Mages filed into the clearing. Rictor looked at the kneeling Shak'Tar, and then his eyes landed on the kneeling Demonmages.

He looked back at me with one eyebrow raised. I shrugged.

"Can't take you anywhere," muttered Kharl as he took in the strange sight.

Lyrica shook her head, "Well I just brought home a dog."

"You're sayin' this Mark is a template for others to mold themselves into?" asked Ric.

"Exactly," Gorvelis answered. "Not a forced match, it's what each one of us knows the Master wants. The Mark is everything the Master wants us to be."

"And you used yourself as this template?" he asked me.

"I didn't know that's what it was when I did it."

"Can you imagine thousands more of him?" Prada asked. "That's just crazy."

"Friggin' insane," Ric answered.

"Hey, I'm standing right here," I complained.

"At least it's not forced on them to be another him," Kharl said.

"Thank God," Daphne Cavanaugh said.

"Right here," I said, "I'm right here."

Lyrica's musical laughter brought the smile to my face as I heard it.

"In all seriousness, Boss," Ric said, "Have you got any idea what you want to do here?"

I had spent the last day talking with both the Shak'Tar and the Kresh'Ma'Nar. When they go back through the Gate the countdown would begin. My Mark would spread through the Rash'Tar that currently controlled the Gates to Earth. But within days, those clans would be attacked by the others as abominations. I could only think of one solution to that issue. I would have to send them to Kel'Sin'Deres. He was the closest thing to a human I had seen from the Kresh.

My new Clans would be much closer to human as my "template" spread throughout the clan, and I had no idea where that would really go in the end. Perhaps the fact that his bloodline is mine, and his closer resemblance to what I would call human would be enough for him to protect the five clans.

I couldn't keep them here. When the Gate closed it would sever their Streams and they would die. I didn't have the forces to go through and hold the Gate facility from the attack of a whole world's population.

"The Kresh will go to Kel'Sin'Deres," I said. "I'm really not sure what to do with the Shak'Tar."

"Let me take them back through the Gate," Gorvelis said. "We will spread your Mark throughout the fifteen worlds, and remove the Shak'Tar from the control of the Kresh. We will begin the revolution."

There was an iron conviction to him. This is what he'd waited all those years. A chance to fight the tyrannical masters he'd been forced to serve all of his life.

"So be it," I nodded and he stood proudly.

It was five hours later when we watched the last of the Shak'Tar approach the Gate.

Gorvelis stopped in front of me, "We'll make you proud, Sir."

"Don't get killed," I said. "A dead freedom fighter finds no victory. And don't try to come back through this Gate. It won't be a very good place to step into."

He nodded, "I will send word through other portals when opportunity allows."

"Good luck," I said and shook his hand.

He stepped through the Gate. Dun'Fil'Resaf approached.

"We will do as you have commanded," his voice was part growl and part speech, "This alliance you suggest is not something done by Kresh but Kel'Sin'Deres is not a normal Kresh. He is different, and we will do this. The only other choice is death of our Rash'Tar."

"Show him all that happened here," I said, "and give him a message from the Rash'Tor'Ri. Tell him I said 'Protect my Rash'Tar as if they were your own...Grandfather'."

I said the last word bitterly. He was the cause of so much of the pain in my life, but he was also one of the sources of my bloodline. And he was different from the others. Maybe he would be different enough that they would survive.

With a nod the Kresh turned, and walked through the Gate followed by the other four.

As the last one disappeared I heard Reyna, "Never, in all my days, would I have thought I would see such as this."

"The lad as a way of stirrin' things up in a new way," Flynn returned.

"Now," I said, "we close this Gate for good."

"How do ya propose we do that?" Rictor asked.

"Oh, now we're going back to plan A."

It took another hour to get everyone out to the ridgeline in front of the Facility. My new Romanian subjects, included. I wish they hadn't been affected but they were and I am responsible for them now. It's something I'll have to figure out after we leave here.

"You ready?" I asked Lyrica.

"You've tested this?"

As my memories flashed back, she laughed. Apparently, it was quite humorous to see me blow myself off the top of a mountain in Tennessee.

She began forming a massive shield somewhat like a cupped hand. I did the same thing with one that looked like the opposite hand. They were huge shields but they weren't solid. We pushed them into the mountainside on each side of the complex.

We each had ten Mages crowded in close. They placed hands on us to be support if we needed it. The shields were now in place.

"Set?" I asked.

"Yep," she answered.

"Pull," I ordered.

Three hundred Mages Pulled from the Source. They felt that Pull back in Kansas, Paige had told me after we had returned home.

Half of the Mages had steered their Pull to the spot where I would take it, and the other half to where Lyrica would use it.

Together we poured the power down the huge tendrils with which we had fed our shields. The shield flared with power, and it surged down into the earth to fill the area inside the shield. It was solid rock.

I had found that this would have a very explosive result some years back.

Nothing happened for a moment after we stopped and Reyna said, "That was a little anti-climactic. I thought it..."

It felt like the whole Earth lurched as the two sides of the mountain slammed together and about a million tons of mountain fell on the Gateway.

"Madre de Dios," Reyna said.

"Sian ger han Deros," muttered one of the three remaining Shak'Tar. I don't know what it meant but it sounded a lot like what Reyna had said. Mother of God.

Chapter 34.

"I told you to be careful with that particular skill," Paige said.

"I know," I said. "I had no idea what I was doing, and seventy-three people are messed up afterwards. You can't berate me any more than I already do myself. It's something I'll never do again. And these people will be taken care of for life. I doubt I could feel worse than I already do."

She still wasn't happy but she didn't say more about it.

"I have some other news for you," she said, "Your pet Senator tried to escape, and he left three Guards in the Psych ward."

I sat forward quickly and I felt the rage begin to build.

"I'll take care of him," I said. "He was warned."

"No need," she said. "He ran into Kevin and I as he was leaving. Those mental attacks are awful. I was unconscious almost immediately. When I came to, Kevin was holding me, and the Senator was dead. I asked Kevin what happened. He said 'The fool tried to use fear on me.' The Senator went nuts after we asked him what it meant to be marked, after the report you sent in to me. I wanted to know the effects this was going to have on those people. We're all responsible for them, not just you. The Soulguard will help them, as well."

And I thought I couldn't feel worse.

"I'll take a look at the Guards in the Psych ward," I said. "Maybe there's something I can do to help them. I have three of the Shak'Tar with me, and they know more about these types of attacks than anyone. Maybe I can fix, at least, this part of my mess."

"Your skills removed the Shak'Tar, and actually turned hundreds of thousands of Kresh into allies, Colin. There is an up side to this thing. That is a great accomplishment. It's just that with most great accomplishments, there is a great price. This one is paid by seventy three innocent Romanians."