[repost]

A/n: Not edited. Short I know but I'm not feeling too great.

Chapter 46.5 – Gabriel POV

Sitting at my desk I was researching the names from the book Philip Pascal had given us. Judy hadn’t approached us about bringing him back and Chelsea and I hadn’t decided what to do with him just yet. I looked up for a moment, glancing in Remy’s direction, noting that her eyebrows were pushed together, too easy, she thought puzzled.



“What’d you find?”



Startled she looked up, “I – I think I figured out what the Elders are searching for…” she said unsure.



“Well?”



“They want to be immortal,” she said looking up at me, but they don’t age? She said looking at whatever she found.



“Because they aren’t immune to death,” like Chelsea Max added.



When something felt ‘too easy’ in most cases I had learned that it really was just that, too easy, something placed just for misleading. If the Elders wanted immortality, that wasn’t all they wanted, there had to be more, or an end game, which is what I wanted to know. Sweetheart, I called Chelsea wanting her here for this conversation; can you come to my office please?



Logan had ran trace on all the floppy disks bringing them back on a jump drive when it was all clear, his men following Robert Delaney, while he still went to work seeking information on why the human government confirmed the existence of were-shifters. Not only had he brought that to us, he brought what Ethan had been keeping, one last thing before leaving my father’s pack and home, joining Jay and Wolf with his mate Marjorie.

~ + ~ + ~ Flashback ~ + ~ + ~

Gabriel, I’m going to get your brother I already have his mate, Logan informed me. Through Logan, Chelsea and I sat in my office watching as he approached Ethan. “Do you have her?” Ethan asked worried, his face, younger but still resembling my own was much too old for his age.



“I have her, but I want to know why you called me… why not Jay?”



Ethan glanced around him, “Here?” he pulled a jump drive from his pocket, Logan only looked at it not reaching for it.



“It’s a copy of the Elders computer from my house, it’s all encrypted though and I know that besides Gabriel, you’re the only other person that was good with computers. Gabriel trusted you, and I need to make sure that you keep my mate and I safe… she’s human…” I can’t lose her; I won’t let George make her some pawn or try to kill her, Ethan thought.



“All the files were encrypted, I don’t know what’s on there, but I knew how to copy the hard drive… in trade for this,” he closed his palm over the jump drive, “I want enough money to take care of my mate – untraceable, I – she isn’t safe around George, I – I thought that I had time, would be able to get money from my own account but I don’t know how he figured out about her,” Ethan shook his head furiously.



“You don’t have to give me a lot,” George is – “I have to escape, when I was shot, Jorie, she was sick complaining of chest pains for that whole time. I tried to put off training with George, I think maybe that’s what gave it away,” Ethan rambled to Logan. Gabriel? What do you want me to do?



Ask Wolf to have them stay there, and bring the drive, I told him.

~ + ~ + ~ End Flashback ~ + ~ + ~

“It’s not that they’re searching just for that but – I think they’re looking for the right blend to make them that way? Chelsea has that but… she was given that…” Remy continued speaking, her eyes devouring the information she was finding. Comparing her knowledge of Chelsea being able to come back from death and what the Elders were seeking.



“I found a video,” Remy jumped to her feet, “Kai, bring up the video that I sent you,” she sat in the chair across from me, just as Chelsea entered the room.



“What did you find?” Chelsea questioned, coming to sit on my lap, “It’s a video from the drive Ethan gave Logan,” Remy said her eyes focused on the larger screen on the wall. She also believes that they are searching for a way to become immortal... I tell her over the link.



“Kai, play the video,” I said as I pulled Chelsea to me, her arms coming around my neck, playing with the fine hairs there, her attention on the screen as well.



With a greenish tint, the video begins showing a room, maybe 700 square feet filled with ten children that are probably no older than ten or eleven years old, girls, boys but not one adult. Some are crying, turning each way looking around, a few are pounding against the wall and while we can see their mouths moving, we can’t hear anything.



“What…?” Remy murmurs leaning forward watching while Chelsea seems to stiffen on my lap, her hands balling into fists.



The video shows a smoke, a layer of mist clouding near the ceiling; the children all tilt their heads up, a few searching for where the smoke is being released only to focus on the camera. Fear in their eyes, and we don’t know what happens but they all start to whip their heads in different directions, searching for something. Pointing in different ways, their mouths wide, a few start backing away, looking in one direction, a blind spot the camera has, and suddenly from the back we see one of the children shift into a hairy being, claws elongated, his body hunches slightly forward. My eyes are glued to the screen, I hear a gasp when the hairy being begins ripping the children to pieces, and I feel Chelsea on me her whole frame seems to be vibrating.



“Oh my god,” Remy murmurs, I can’t even blink, I watch as child after child is slain and finally when there are no more, the wolf shifts, revealing a child no older than the ones that were just massacred. Blood coating his skin, even with the green tint I know the child in that video, my chest races, and my stomach flips as he turns around, searches the room, his behavior is off. Behind my neck Chelsea’s fist comes forward, until it’s against my chest now. Taking her hand in mine, I intertwine our hands; the tension only just leaves her body, and the shivering stops.



On the screen, as though he’s seeing his hands for the first time the boy, he glances down at his blood-covered limbs, looking about the room, staggering in different directions trying to avoid the dead in the room. “Please… no… no…” Chelsea begins murmuring under her breath slightly rocking on my lap, her eyes wide and focused on the screen. When the little boy finally turns and faces the camera, giving us all a frontal shot – his face, I sigh in relief, as does Chelsea, “It’s not Kieran…” she murmurs. The scars he has on his body, especially his arms and back are identical to the ones that I saw on Kieran, but it’s not him.



“How old – when was this video made Kai?” I choke out, noting that the child wasn’t Kieran, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t in this exact situation once.



The screen is stuck on that last still of him, the innocence on his face, betray what we just saw happening. My question brings Chelsea back to me, she inhales sharply, “How – what – I don’t understand?” she stammers along, “that – he – Kai play that again,” she commands leaving my lap and going to stand right in front of the video. “Play it slowly.”



“The boy is one of the ten,” Chelsea taps the screen where we see that he is one of the ten, before he runs to the blind spot, before the mist is in the air, and clears.



“This video was created and modified on Friday, October 3rd 2014,” Kai announces, “oh,” Remy gasps her head shaking from side to side and her eyes are glassy as she stares blindly. “Are there any markers that can give us a time reference Kai?” I ask despite seeing that all light in this room is synthetic.



“Excuse me,” Remy stands places her laptop on the empty chair fleeing from the room, “I am unable to find any markers Gabriel,” Kai states.



“Can we get stills of their faces?” Chelsea asks me distracted. “What is the mist? I mean it’s not harmful it’s not burning them, or putting them to sleep…” she turns to face me her cheeks red, her eyes eerily void.



“Gabriel…” she whispers her voice shaking and that emptiness is replaced by something I didn’t get to see very often on Chelsea, fear. Going to her immediately, I pull her against me, feeling her rapidly beating heart against my chest, “What if we – what if I can’t stop them?” she utters against my neck.



“We have no idea what we’re dealing with here… I mean this mist? This little boy he was one of the kids crying Gabriel, he was pounding on the wall like the others, and then bam… he was – that – this thing and he killed the other nine children… the video was only eight minutes long, and – and three of that was the mist that was released, and the other-” her voice escalated getting higher and higher as she panic. “That – it wasn’t a Wolf either, I mean it was like what I am when I half shift, it wasn’t a wolf-”



Pulling her away from me, I went grab her face, “Chelsea relax you aren’t going to fight them tomorrow…” I said but it was like those were the wrong words, they didn’t have the effect that I wanted, she wasn’t calmed her eyes flashed black.



“Exactly! This was made on October 3rd of just last year; this is something that’s outside of what I can do. They can’t make shifters but they made that one – how is this even possible?” she demanded, shouting, her eyes hollowed and I realized she wasn’t speaking to me.



Before I could remove my hands from her face, we were no longer in my office, instead everything had faded away and we were in a bright white room, and standing before us was a woman, and by her side, a man, I pulled my hands from Chelsea, dropping them to my sides. I turned to face them; my eyes wide, where the hell are we?



The Hereafter, Max thought as the woman spoke in a deeper, calm voice, “You are in the Hereafter, Gabriel my child-”



“Who cares where he is!” Chelsea shouted, even the man was taken a back, “Did you – do you have an idea what I just witnessed? The Elders – nine children slaughtered – by. A. Child!” Chelsea stressed, leaning forward.



“They released something a gas or mist or whatever, and he just-” Chelsea stopped speaking, cutting herself off. I reached for her hand, ignoring the two people in the white space, “Relax… I know – I know you don’t want to hear that,” I said quickly when she was turning red, her mouth opening, “It took me nearly four years to come up with the plan I had for my father, for stepping away from the bullshit that surrounded him, its been two months since we go to the island, since you’ve really started coming into your own, it won’t happen right away but we will get there… we will get the Elders,” I said strongly knowing we would be able to succeed.



“Gabriel…” she shook her head, her face a blur, “I’m policing ungrateful, selfish people on an island, when the Elders are having children massacre children.” She turned to the man, Jason, his eyes wide, “Where did you find these people? I mean really dad?” her face pleading.



“They are so – one tried to kill his own brother!” Chelsea spat, while I stood next to her observing the woman, “I’m dealing with children who thought that they could just ignore that they had mates, just – because they thought they wouldn’t get mates and didn’t want to wait for them… those are the people I have,” Chelsea’s eyes welled, her emotions overwhelming.



“What even is that – that child – the animal he turned into?” she said swallowing for a moment, “We have no way – idea – even of what the Elders were doing or engaging in Chelsea, they’ve developed ways to block their activities from us, as I’ve told you before. What you just witnessed, we just saw for the first time ourselves… we are unaware-” The woman continued speaking but all I could think was the marks I saw on the child. They were the same ones I had seen on Kieran, Liam and Mack, Liam escaped much earlier and from another facility than them but I had seen nonetheless. Was this – did they do this often? The mist and the boy… was he this animal all the time? Did the mist – was it what brought him to change?



My mind was racing with all the possibilities when it came to the video, especially the boys reaction when he went back to being fully human, the blood on his hands the look on his face, he wasn’t aware… he was in a trance? I tried to place his face into different scenarios – place that innocence on the men I’ve killed, men that have had their first kill, none fitting.



Shaking my head, I tuned in only to see three eyes gazing at me, “Sorry, I – they can’t change shifters anymore, but I need to finish working on that encrypted file-” I just closed my mouth.



“Please share your thoughts,”



I lifted a brow in question, “because everyone here can’t read my mind?”



“Well I can’t,” Jason said.



“They can’t change shifters… the mist or cloud we saw, that is – the way they create what they want?” my thoughts are still jumbled.



“If – they knew that eventually they wouldn’t be able to change humans into shifters… right?” I looked at the woman. Her eyes gave nothing away, “Ok so if I’m them… I can’t change humans and there’s a chance that the shifters that already exist are going to side with the new people sent to be in charge… they’ve built enemies… ones that if Chelsea is revealed will feel safe and change ‘sides’ so to speak,” I start pacing.



“So I try to find a way to change humans...” I open my mouth, closing it again, “I don’t – I kidnap children – shifter children – because I want to see what the gene is… I make them shift early and study that change and try to recreate it. I don’t take adult shifters because they’re already changed. I need to study the change-” I see everyone in front of me, but at the same time, everything fades away, as my mind tries to put a plan of action together but I’m missing too much.



“It was fast, almost instantly from the moment the mist came down to when the child changed… seconds… he – those others were down within a minute-” again I’m hitting a block.



Chelsea reaches for my hand, and my thoughts calm, sighing I exhale heavily, “Sorry,” I apologize to the three of them, but my eyes are focused on Chelsea.



“Child,” the woman starts, “You and your mate, you will figure this out, when you do, you should know that you have help in us,” Chelsea looks at her dubiously but nods.



Jason eyes me, “You’ve grown well,” he says, stunning me, “I saw you when you were a small child once, didn’t know Chelsea would be your mate,” at that I smile down at her, “You saved her,” I told him once I force myself to look away from Chelsea.



When all my thoughts calmed, “I late on this but how am I here?” I glanced between Chelsea and the Mother. The Mother threw her head back in laughter, “Chelsea can bring people here… she is able to come because of your completed bond,” Jason said stiffly, I nodded, antsy. I needed to get back and finish decrypting the files I had…

__________________________

You all that are getting teasers... "Too teasing..." LOL - - love that - - but as soon as this posts I'll be on there with a little snippet of the next chapter.

So... how many think Gabriel is onto something?

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