Bloodlord (Soulguard Book 3) (20 page)

Chapter 38

I walked around the corner to find Prada in the arms of Sergeant Hicks.

"Be careful," she said, "Don't want anything to happen to that pretty face."

"Don't worry bout me, girl," he said, "I'm too damn mean to die."

He had a Source weapon and the helmet laying on a pack behind them.

She kissed him and was gone in an instant. He turned to find me standing there.

"Damn woman's fast," he said, "tough as nails, too. She'd make a good Marine."

"She's one of the best," I said, "Ya could do a lot worse."

"I'm in total agreement with ya on that, Sir."

"You guys headin out to hunt?"

"Yep," he said, "got me one of these new guns of yours. Itchin ta try it out on some Kresh. Corn has a tagalong Mage to keep his bullets charged and half my platoon has the new guns."

"Sounds dangerous," I said, "Marines with Source weapons."

"Ooo-rah!"

I laughed, "Seriously, you guys be careful out there. You need support, call us."

"Damn right," he said, "You can drop the right hand of God on em. Or just drop your girlfriend on em. I'm a damn Marine and that woman scares me. She's healin folks and all of a sudden, she's a nuclear bomb. Then she's right back to healin folks."

"Thank God she's on our side," I said.

"No doubt," he said, "Don't piss her off, I kinda like ya."

"I try my best not to," I said.

"Be sure you don't," he said, "We need you two. This was going south pretty bad before you got up here."

"These had a healthy fear of me after my little trip over to their world. If it wasn't for that, we'd probably have been rolled right over at the Gate."

"What'd ya do over there?"

"Me and one of
them
killed two of the Farrara'Ti that were next to come here."

"One of them?"

"Yeah," I said, "It was hard for me to accept, at first. Some of em are different. We have a whole other kind of war goin on over there. My people are building their forces to take Hub, the city that has all the Gates to the other worlds. It takes time. If we can hold out long enough, the war here will end from that side."

He nodded, "More goin on than they let a Sergeant know about."

"There's a lot goin on," I said, "and we need it to happen as quickly as possible. This clan was a small clan with a strong fear already in place. There're clans over there that make these look like children kickin ant hills."

"We need to mop these up as quickly as we can, then," he said, "and get ready for another wave."

"That's right, but don't get in too big of a hurry and get careless," I said, "We need everyone we can get to be ready for the next one."

"Have we got any ideas where the next one may be?"

"None," I said, "I don't think they'll try Kansas again. They won't be able to come here again if our dam worked. Which is something I have to look into soon. And they can't use the Gate in Romania. It leaves four other positions, if my intel is right."

"How sure are you that there are only seven Gates?"

"Pretty sure," I said, "Kil'Sin'Deres was the Kresh in charge of our world for a long time and he confirmed it. He didn't use the big Gates so he didn't know their exact locations, though."

"He was the one who was killin humans all those years and now he's an ally?"

There was a little coldness in his words.

"I understand how you feel, Hicks," I said, "He was the one behind my parents' death. If I can get past that, I think most folks should be able to get past his history."

"He's the reason we can face this with a gun in hand," I said, "He let us get far enough advanced to be a foe that would unite his people. It didn't work so he came to me and pledged his people to me. Now he's using my name to unite his people another way."

"And if he turns on you?"

"He can't, now," I said, "The one thing that's been a weakness in the Kresh is also one of their greatest strengths. They're telepathic. They communicate during battle that way."

"What's that got to do with him turnin on you?"

"The more powerful of the telepaths use that mental strength to place their Mark on those they control. I inherited this power when I was born with their DNA in my blood. I Marked Kil'Sin'Deres and he won't turn on me."

"Sounds complicated and dangerous," he said, "but that begs the question, why didn't you use it on the Kresh here?"

"When I use the Mark, it works on both Kresh and Human because I am a bridge between both. There are seventy four Romanians who live in Oklahoma on a farm I bought for em. I Marked em when I didn't know what I was doin'. I'm fighting to free Humanity, I won't enslave it to save it."

"What if it's the only way to survive this?"

"When we were under that pile of Kresh out there," I said, "I could have Lashed with the Mark. If I did, I would have Marked eighty nine of my brothers and sisters."

"They would live," he said.

I could tell he was playing Devil's Advocate. I could see his approval of my choice in his Soul.

"Live free or die," I said, "It's not just a quote. I took those Romanians' freedom from them and I will pay for that the rest of my life. I won't take another Human's freedom."

"You're a good man, Rourke," he said, "Many a man would use that to take power."

"The Kresh won't accept any other way than the Mark," I said, "And Kil'Sin'Deres is spreading my Mark across his world. I'm not as good as you may think. I'm enslaving a race that was originally created to be slaves. They broke free and I am placing them right back where they began."

"Perhaps it's a new destination instead of back to the beginning," he said, "What does this Mark do?"

"It places an imprint of everything that makes me who I am into their mind. They make decisions based on that imprint. They'll follow any order I give em. I think that's what it means to be a slave. And I'm enslaving a world."

"I guess the harsh reality of it is this," Hicks said, "If you weren't, could we survive a war with their whole race? And, if so, could you leave that other world of Humans being enslaved and murdered to their fates? It would be a hard decision, but I feel like you've already chosen. You can't desert another whole world of Humans."

"Fourteen worlds," I said, "But if it had been a single world, I'd still choose the path I'm walkin. I can't choose any other. I swore to protect Humanity from the dark and I can't limit that to just a small piece of Humanity."

"I'm glad I'm just a lowly Sergeant," Hicks said.

"Sometimes, I wish I could be, too."

"Time to hit the road, Rourke," he said, "Be careful and try to keep Andrea straight."

"That's a full time job, all by itself."

He laughed and picked up his pack.

As he walked away I said, "Good luck."

"Don't need luck," he said, "I got a platoon of Marines."

I love Marines.

Chapter 39

"It looks alright but if you want it to stay for good, you need some spillways up there and some bracing in the middle," Jack said, "See the bulging inward of the interior shield?"

We were looking at the shield dam Lyrica and I had built to flood the gate. It was holding back about twenty feet of water at the moment.

"Yeah," I said, "I see it."

"If you brace laterally, you'll give it enough strength to hold the weight. You need the spillways so the water will drain off in the right place. If not, it's gonna flood the whole width of the dam and weaken the ground."

"Then the whole thing falls," I said.

"Exactly."

I was keeping the shields lit up so he could examine them. I stopped and my Soulstream stopped flowing power into me.

The manipulation of shields had become second nature to me and I used my mind to pull two channels down lower over the river bed. Now the water would spill out there when it reached about thirty five feet. Then I began crafting a shield from my stream. It Ran between the two sides of our dam to support the weight as Jack had said.

When it was done, I lit it up again.

"That should do it, Sir," Jack said, "not necessarily an engineered dam but it'll hold."

I formed a tendril at either end of me construct and pushed the far end into the Source. The power flowed toward me and at the last second I pushed the other into the Source and cut my tie.

It Thrummed with power and became solid.

"That has to be the best thing in the world," Jack said, "to be able to see that all the time."

"It's given me a hell of an advantage," I said, "If I had half the education you have, I'd be dangerous."

"From what I hear, it would just interfere with a lot of the things you do," he said, "The education would tell you some of the things you've done are impossible. Then you wouldn't have tried it. It would be handy at times like these, but I think you do just fine without it."

"I suppose," I said.

"Plus we wouldn't have gotten to see the video they play at the academy of a youngster getting blown across the Dome."

"They still play that?"

"For every new class, and anytime someone comes through that hasn't seen it."

I sighed.

The Soul Grenades had been discovered in that incident and proven quite useful at times. I was much more careful after that. Who am I kidding? I blew myself up pretty regular for about five years.

"These days, I blow other stuff up," I said, "instead of blowin myself up."

"Yeah," he said, "They show those videos too."

"I almost wish they wouldn't," I said, "But everyone needs to know what may be happenin at any moment."

"True," he said.

"Have ya given any thought to my offer?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said, "I find the whole thing fascinating and I'll gladly consult with your guys in Tennessee."

"Good, we could use your talents. I need bigger versions of the weapons. Somethin we can use on a larger scale."

"I have some ideas, Sir," he said.

"Good," I said, "I need someone who can build these things without my advantage. Things would have gone quite different if Lyrica had been somewhere else last week. I need people who can carry on without me if something like that happens again."

"I see," he said, "I'll do my best."

"I know you will, Jack," I said, "I saw that in your Soul the first day I met you."

***

An Awards ceremony was held at the Academy in Scotland. We had been cleaning up the wreckage in the Delta for a month and getting accurate counts on the men and women we lost.

It was a hard thing to see when we looked at the numbers. I couldn't help but put faces with the numbers and it made for a difficult day.

"I wished to award this Medal of Valor, personally," I said to the crowd in front of me, "Because this medal belongs to a man who saved my life as he gave his. Lennox Flynn was my friend. He will be sorely missed. I would like to present this medal to Glynnis Flynn, Len's daughter."

I handed the small box to the petite red haired woman who came forward.

"He was a good man," I said softly to her, "and I'm sorry I couldn't stop what happened."

"Ye ha' no idea how proud e was ta be chosen ta be in ye personal guard, Sir," she said in a familiar Scottish accent. I could hear him in every word she said.

"It was my honor," I said with a lump in my throat.

She nodded and returned to her seat.

I also sat down. I don't know how Paige had stood up there and done the whole ceremony. That was the only award I actually gave out, personally and I had almost caved.

The ceremony continued and our dead were honored. Those that had been victorious were recognized and the world turned on. We still hunted for Kresh in Africa, they were quiet and hiding in the jungles of central Africa.

New patches were given to all that were present at the battles. The Battle of the Delta, Assault on Cairo, African Run, Kenya Gateway, Istanbul, Vienna, Prague, London, Berlin, and a single patch given out for Paris, France. One Mage in the right place at the right time.

There had been skirmishes up and down the Nile River as people had been evacuating. All of these were honored, as well.

It was still something relatively new to the Soulguard to do all of the recognition.

I didn't want any awards but they made me take the Distinguished Service Medal anyway. I hate to be recognized for just doing my job, but so many feel the same way and still accept theirs, so who am I to refuse?

All in all, it was a difficult day.

The evening was much better. Lyrica and I had dinner in London. I had never been to London except as a fly through. It was different, but it still felt familiar as we sat and ate dinner. People really aren't so different from one place to the next.