Beneath and Beyond

Chapter 32

Luke fought along with the others against the parasite demons but it seemed to him that the parasites were running away more than  fighting. He mentioned it to the others through the mind link they shared as a group.

"I was thinking the same thing," Leo thought.

"But why are they running? They usually fight," Kyle commented.

"It's like they're trying to draw us away from something," Cooger mused.

"Help!" they heard Carl's voice shout in their heads. which mean't that he was in bear form and something was wrong.

"Shit! the house!" Cooger and Luke thought at the same time. Luke was already turning to run back to the house. He ran as fast as he could and the others were close behind him.

When they got back to the house because they came from the woods the first thing they saw was the smashed back glass. They all shifted and ran into the house. The place was ransacked: picture frames were smashed on the floor, there were claw marks all along the walls wooden paneling,  figurines and glasses were mashed. the furniture was ripped and thrown all over the living room. The television had a head sized hole in the middle of it and there were a few dead parasite bodies on the floor.

They found Carl naked in the corner under one of the sofa chair passed out. He had a huge gash wound on his head and dozens of deep cuts all over his flesh. If it hadn't been for their ability to heal he would have been dead by now.

Luke's heart was pounding and his blood was roaring in his ears as he went in search of Kiedi. He followed her scent to the kitchen where his heart lurched when he found her unconscious laying protectively over his also unconscious mother.

He called out to his dad as he gently lifted her off the ground and Len rushed in and did the same.

"Kie, baby, wake up for me honey. Wake up beautiful," Luke whispered against her ear. Kiedi shifted in his arms and slowly opened her eyes. The first words out of her mouth where Jasmine.

Luke didn't understand at first until a second later Cooger stormed into the kitchen, "WHERE'S JASMINE?"

"Kie what happened?" They were still in the kitchen and Kiedi kept looking around her frantically as if she was still in shock.

She looked so drained which meant she had been using her powers but she was the only one awake so he had to ask her the multitude of questions.

"Where's Jasmine?" Cooger threw at her again before she had a chance to open her mouth. A part of Luke wanted to growl at him for yelling at his mate but Cooger was his best friend which meant he recognized that he was stressed about not finding his mate safe in the house like he had. Plus Luke was equally curious about the fate of his sister.

"Parasite demons," Esther groaned as she slowly came to.

"They were so many, we couldn't fight them all," Kiedi started to cry and Luke hugged her close. "They came from everywhere and I couldn't help Carl fight and keep us protected all at once. I tried I really tried! I'm so sorry Cooger," Kie cried as she buried her face in Luke's chest.

"My baby! They have my baby! They have Jasmine!" Esther cried slapping at Lenard's chest. "Just before I passed out, I heard them! They wanted you Kiedi!" Esther pointed an accusing hand at Kiedi and Kiedi started shaking in his arms.

"Oh God no!" she wailed, "this is all my fault." 

Luke lifted her and brought her to the living room. Kyle had turned over the sofa and Carl was sprawled out in it still unconscious but now covered with a blanket and his wounds were slowly healing. Luke sat in an armchair with Kiedi held closely in his arms. H knew he should let her go lay down and rest but he didn't have the heart to let her go and he and the guys needed to talk.

"I found this on one of the corpses," Kyle said carrying over a yellowing piece of paper.

"We have the girl, If you want to see her again alive give us  ten thousand perpa or the Dangel by the thirteenth in the underworld," Kyle handed it over to Cooger who seemed to crumple as the note entered his palm.

He fell to the floor on his knees as tears streamed down his face, " It's the note from my vision," His voice was a mere whisper, "the Dangel part was on the back."

Early the following morning Kiedi slipped out from under Luke's protective arm. He growled softly but she kissed his forehead to reassure him that she was fine before she climbed out of the bed. Washing her face she went downstairs. It was still dark outside so she didn't expect to find anyone awake so she was startled when she found Carl sitting in the dark in the kitchen with a cup of coffee.

It was amazing how fast they healed because in just a few hours Carl's cuts were mere black and blue bruises on his body. Carl himself, however, looked emotionally ripped apart.

"Can I sit with you?" Kie asked quietly. Her voice felt strange as it pierced the silence that enveloped the house. Carl simply nodded at the chair across from him. She poured a cup of coffee and joined him.

"You okay?"

"Yeah I'm uses to the pain and the bruises heal quickly," he nodded.

She reached out and tentatively touched his arm, "I'm not talking about the bruises... not the physical ones anyway."

"First Audreen and now Jasmine," Carl sniffled. She could tell he was holding back tears because he kept sniffling but tried to make it seem manly. She had learn't from Luke that Carl's fiance's name was Audreen. "I couldn't protect either of them," sniffle, " and because of another of my failures Cooger might end up feeling the empty void that surrounds a life without your mate."

"We still have a chance of saving Jasmine," Kie said positively.

"Ha!" Carl made a dry laugh, "Luke sure as fuck won't give you up and where the hell are going to find ten thousand perpa?"

"Ten thousand dollars isn't that much and since it's my fault I'm sure I can take it out of my dad's account since he won't need it anyways."

"Ten thousand perpa is ten million dollars Kie," She literally felt her hope wither up and burn, "we don't have that kind of cash laying around and it would take weeks to get that much money out of our savings."

"Oh," was all Kie could say. She slouched in the kitchen chair and just stared at her coffee.

Meanwhile...

They threw Jasmine into a cage and she had to fall hard on her hands causing her to sprain her wrist rather than hit her head and pass out. They slammed and bolted the cage door behind her. She tried to stay away from the sides of the small cage as much as possible because she was surrounded by parasites who kept trying to claw at her while the other just licked their lips and stared.

"The lil bitch didn't even fight.," she heard one of them say as who she assumed to be their leader stepped into the room.

The leader stopped and smelt the air then hissed and grabbed the man who spoke by his shirt collar.

"What the fuck is this?! I asked for the Dangel not some petty fucking demon bitch!" He threw the man away like a bag of trash into the wall. he slumped to the floor immobile.

"Someone explain to me why I don't have what I asked for!"

"She had her shield up master so we couldn't get her," a meek looking parasite said. He spoke clearly but his eyes never met those of his commander.

"So what? you thought you could pass this off on me?!"

"No sire, she was at the house too so we took her and left an impossible ransom note, they have to give us the Dangel as payment."

The leader thought about if for a  minute then a sinister grin spread across his face as he stooped down to look at her.

Jasmine could have pointed out how dumb their plan was because there was no way Luke was going to let them have Kiedi but she stayed quiet because if they didn't believe it would work she was dead; this way she had a little more time until Cooger and the rest of her family could find her.