Page 14 of Shadow Boxed (Shadow Warriors #2)

Chapter twelve

As O’Neill loped down the stone corridor ahead of him, Wolf settled into an easy, ground-covering walk.

Samuel would not be pleased that he’d sent the jie'van down to Muriel alone, without stepping in to run interference. But the upcoming conversation was not meant for his ears...or Samuel’s, for that matter.

It was only relevant to those who’d given Daniel and Gracie life, even though one had not participated in his anvaats’ lives.

But he could find no fault in O’Neill for his absence. If he hadn’t known the twins existed, how could he be present?

And it was clear O’Neill had not known of his fatherhood.

Although his initial rage had subsided, Muriel’s revelation outside the clinic still shocked him.

Counting back from the twins’ birth, he could estimate the date of their conception.

Yet no matter how he scoured his memories, he found no evidence in past events that linked the two together.

Indeed, Muriel had been fixated on Wolf back then—not just through their senior year, but through all of high school.

He’d been aware of her crush, even considered taking her up on her flirtatious advances.

Shadow knew he, along with every other heterosexual male on campus, had been attracted to her.

She was beautiful, smart, kind—who wouldn’t want her on their arm?

But he wasn’t in love with her. Nor was she his spirit mate.

Instead, she was the sister of his best friend, his blood brother.

A few minutes of physical pleasure were not worth breaking a lifetime of friendship.

Yet sometimes, in the dark of night, when sleep fled, questions hit his mind like stones in a clear pond where the ripples spread to shore. What would life be like if he’d chosen Muriel? If they’d mated? Would Daniel and Gracie have been his? Would he have a family?

If he’d taken that path back then, he wouldn’t be stuck in emptiness now, tied to a woman who didn’t want him, facing a future with no mate, no children, no family.

The jie'van was out of sight when Wolf’s mind returned to the now.

Although...outcast didn’t fit him anymore.

Through recent events, his old adversary had proven his worth.

.. had proven his wisdom. Shadow Mountain—indeed, the Hee'woo'nee— were lucky to have O’Neill on their side. This truth shocked Wolf as deeply as Daniel’s parentage.

Although perhaps it shouldn’t have. It was strange how closely their thoughts mirrored each other’s.

Benioko had once told him to look past O’Neill’s needling...that if he looked deeper, he’d find more similarities than differences between them. He was starting to find the Old One had spoken the truth.

Samuel would hate the new world awaiting him when he awoke—his body broken, the Taounaha gone, O’Neill accepted, Daniel and Gracie’s parentage revealed, having missed the Taounaha’s unbinding ceremony.

He would enter a different world than the one he’d left.

It would take days before Benioko’s body transitioned from flesh to ash.

Even longer before the ash cooled enough to transfer to the sacred clay vessels for return to the brenahecee.

Even if Samuel returned to the waking world before the transition completed, he would be too weak to accompany Wolf for the reseeding ceremony.

Wolf would have to return to the brenahecee alone, without his Caetanee by his side, and spread the Old One’s earthly remains across the four corners of the Kalikoia homelands.

The reseeding would spiritually and physically nourish the lands the Hee'woo'nee depended on for survival.

Such it had been since the very beginning of the Hee'woo'nee.

Once the heat of the fire receded, and the air was breathable again, he’d return to the chamber and sit beside his old friend, bearing witness to his transformation from husk to spirit.

He’d done this with Jude. He would do it with Benioko.

Doubtlessly he’d do it for many others before he drew his last breath, and the following Betanee sat beside Wolf’s transforming husk.

Betanee .

First in command to the Shadow Warrior’s earthside mouthpiece. But they had no Taounaha now, so who did he serve? His javaanee ? The one chosen by the Shadow Warrior yet refusing his duty? If Aiden continued to refuse, would the elder god choose another?

This was unknown territory.

If Aiden continued to refuse his Taounaha role, perhaps O’Neill’s strategy would work.

If they convinced him to confront his nightmares, in the guise of banishing them, perhaps Aiden would forge a connection with the elder gods and pass on any relevant information.

Aiden didn’t have to believe, he just had to repeat.

This approach, while a trickster scheme, could prevent the foretold onslaught of death. Although death was not the correct description. Transformation was more accurate. Aiden’s teammates were not dead. Yet not alive, either.

Instead, they’d been transformed into something other.

Time to speak with his stubborn javaanee. His cell phone was tucked away in the pocket of his cargo pants. As he reached for it, tension squeezed his shoulders. The beginnings of a headache seized his skull. Aiden did not make such conversations easy.

Aiden picked up on the first ring.

“Where are you?” Wolf kept his tone neutral.

“The isolation chamber.” Tension sharpened Aiden’s voice.

Wolf’s heart rate surged. “What is wrong”

He’d been out of the loop as he’d prepared the sacred chamber and led the unbinding ceremony. Still, his orders had been clear. Call if the status quo shifted. Nobody had called. But perhaps the problem had gone unnoticed until now.

“Nothing’s wrong.” The snap in Aiden’s voice said otherwise. “Just checking on them. Making sure they didn’t escape their enclosure.”

Wolf understood that vigilance. He too had found himself in front of the isolation chamber many times over the past three days. “Wait there. I am on my way.”

“Why?”

The snap was sharper in Aiden’s voice. Sharp enough it gave Wolf pause. He chose his words carefully. “There are matters to discuss.”

“If those matters concern your Shadow Warrior, or the fucking mouthpiece, then I’m gone.”

And there it was, Aiden’s absolute immobility on the subject. Wolf shuffled around his brother’s stubbornness.

“There are other concerns to speak of.” Which wasn’t a lie. There were multiple worries to discuss.

“Fine.” The snap left Aiden’s voice. He sounded tired now. “I’ll wait.”

The line went dead. Wolf picked up his pace. He hopped a ride with the first vehicle he encountered in the old section and directed its driver to the clinic. Each minute of the drive across base weighed on him. Aiden would not wait long; this, Wolf knew well.

He exhaled in relief when he rounded the corner at the isolation viewing chamber and saw his javaanee standing there, staring through the glass at his dead teammates. The SEALs were still lined up on the other side of the window, staring back, even though their eye sockets were empty.

It was odd how the five…things…just stood there, inches from the glass…

like they were waiting for something. Based off the cameras monitoring the chamber, they hadn’t moved since they’d shambled their way up to the glass three days ago.

Nor had they returned to their gurneys, sat on the floor, or wandered the room.

They just stood there and waited.

What in shadow’s name were they waiting for?

Aiden’s back tensed as Wolf joined him at the window.

“The white substance is thicker now than it was when they first...awoke.” Wolf’s gaze dropped from the empty eye sockets to the autopsy incisions.

The five...things...looked far more alien than human with the thick spider webbing filling in all their missing pieces.

“Are they aware of us?” Wolf asked when Aiden didn’t respond.

“I don’t know,” Aiden said without looking away from the window.

Wolf frowned. They’d seemed aware of them, even reactive, three days ago. The creatures hadn’t stumbled off their gurneys and approached the window until he and Aiden had arrived at the glass. And then the swarm of nano wasps. Those metallic insects had tried to infect them. He was certain of that.

Yet, it had been days now, and the creatures had shown no new reactions, other than periodic movements of their heads.

“Have you tried communicating with them again?” Wolf asked.

“Yeah…through the speaker...through Morse code.” Aiden shrugged.

“No response. They just stand there and stare at me…even though they don’t have any fucking eyes.

” His voice fell silent for a moment before adding.

“Squirrel’s still off-sync with the others.

Not by much, but it’s noticeable when they turn their heads. ”

Wolf’s gaze settled on the creature with the rattlesnake tattoo. “It was the first to approach the window too, was it not?”

“Yeah. The others came a couple seconds later.” Aiden’s eyes narrowed. “And now, the few times they move their heads, the other four do it in unison. But Squirrel, he’s just a tad off...just a tad early.”

Wolf frowned, his gaze sweeping across the five creatures on the other side of the glass. “What do you think that means?”

The grunt Aiden emitted sounded frustrated or tired. “Hell, I don’t know. Might not mean anything. It’s just something I’ve noticed.”

“They still show no signs of violence. Nor do they appear to vibrate,” Wolf remarked.

Aiden turned to look at him, his eyebrows lifting. “Vibrate?”

“The nanobots in the lab still vibrate. We know these...husks...are also full of nanobots.” He nodded toward the window and the creatures beyond. “Their vessel is of flesh, rather than metal, but it is still a vessel. Yet they do not vibrate.”

“Maybe they don’t have enough bots,” Aiden offered.

“Or maybe they can’t vibrate when surrounded by flesh.

Hell, it’s impossible to tell what’s going on inside them.

Maybe they are vibrating, we just can’t hear it.

” He paused to study the creatures beyond the glass, before continuing, his voice absent.

“Do we even know why they’re vibrating?” Aiden asked.

“Faith believes the vibrations create electricity, but it also appears to allow them to change form. As they vibrate, they grow arms.”

“Fuck.” Aiden twitched. “What if they’re trying to find a way out of their tank?”

“If this is so, they have not found success.”

Aiden grunted thoughtfully. “What about our missing nanobot bomb. Any luck on locating that?”

“No. Nor have we located Kuznetsov’s woman.

” The back of Wolf’s neck cramped. The woohanna’s escape, coupled with Daniel’s murder, was the biggest regret of his life.

He’d clearly misjudged their captive , which had left Muriel’s youngling vulnerable.

He’d have to live with that failing until he shed his husk and joined Jude at the campfire of their ancestors.

When his javaanee had not responded for several seconds, Wolf turned to stare at him.

For the first time, he took a good look at Aiden’s profile.

His eyebrows lifted. O’Neill had not been wrong.

Even in profile, his javaanee looked ill—his skin stretched tight and gray, while a dark crescent moon pulled at the skin beneath his right eye.

“Has your sickness returned?” Wolf asked bluntly. “You look unwell.”

Aiden scowled. “Fuck bro, you sound like Demi.”

Which didn’t ease Wolf’s ease his mind. “Are you ill?”

“No, Mother .” Aiden snapped with a roll of his eyes.

Uncertain he could trust Aiden, since his javaanee hated showing weakness, Wolf’s hand flashed out, cinching around Aiden’s wrist. It had been three days since his javaanee had walked out of the clinic.

Perhaps he should be shoved back in. But the wrist beneath his fingers felt warm, but not hot.

He measured Aiden’s pulse with two of his fingers. Strong. Steady.

Aiden spun toward him, his glare venomous. But there was no flush to his tight, gray-tinged face. Not like before, during his previous sickness.

“What the fuck, bro?” Aiden yanked his wrist loose and took a long step back. “I don’t need you checking my pulse. I told you, I’m fine. People need to mind their fucking business.”

“People?” Wolf shook his head, reproach echoing in his words. “It is wise to listen when many tell you the same thing.”

Aiden’s took a deep breath and held it, before continuing in a tight voice. “I’m just tired. Nothing I can’t handle.”

Wolf considered his javaanee’s words. Perhaps it was time to launch O’Neill’s trickster strategy. “Sleep still escapes you?”

“Nothing I can’t handle,” Aiden bit out again, his face folding into stubbornness.

“Yet, you do not appear to be handling it.” Wolf loaded his tone with dryness and doubt. He knew exactly what was interfering with his javaanee ’s sleep. Aiden was simply too stubborn to acknowledge it.

The scowl that twisted Aiden’s face was a sure sign Wolf’s tone had done its job.

“They’re just fucking nightmares. I’m not seeing your elder gods,” he snarled. But the response sounded defensive.

Wolf shrugged. “I do not claim to understand what you experience when you close your eyes. However, you cannot continue as you are. Ignoring your dreams is not working. It is time for you to seek aid. There are shamans on base who can interpret your dreams—or if you prefer, we also have western doctors—but you must speak with someone. Perhaps, once you face these nightmares, you will banish them. But you must do something. Sleep is essential for performance. Without it, you endanger yourself and those around you.”

Aiden’s lips twisted. He turned, staring through the glass once more. “Let me guess. You won’t let me join in the fight against the dead, yet not dead, unless I connect with your Shadow Warrior.” He didn’t sound angry though. More like exhausted. Or lost.

“No.” Wolf’s softened his voice. “I’m not saying you must accept the Taounaha mantle . I’m saying you must conquer these nightmares. Only by facing them will you defeat them and find sleep.”

Aiden frowned, before nodding reluctantly.

Although surprised by Aiden’s easy capitulation, Wolf relaxed. O’Neill’s trickster strategy had passed its first obstacle.