A New Beginning In A Mana Apocalypse

"Yes, but we have it under guard. Why?" he replied quickly.

"I am about to make a s.p.a.ce tunnel and bring some new people through." I replied.

"Is that wise?" he asked me.

"Maybe, maybe not. They have some supplies they are willing to share which will help us a bit." I replied.

"Alright, I have let the guards know. You can come through when you are ready." Derek told me.

"Daryl." Tracy called me.

"Yes?" I asked.

"What are you going to do with them?" Tracy asked looking at the kids.

"Momma and Kelly can watch after them, I know Momma needs something to distract her." I replied.

Tracy seemed to relax and nodded.

"What did you think I was going to do with them?" I asked her.

"It wasn"t you I was worried about." Tracy replied.

I blinked at that then had to acknowledge that there were a lot of unknown people in our group right now. No idea how any of them would treat these two. Putting them with Momma and Kelly really was the best idea, but for more reasons than I had initially thought.

I nodded to acknowledge her concern. "Thanks." I told her I hadn"t even thought of that and was just trusting Derek and Michael to control their people. I couldn"t expect that, not yet, I didn"t even trust the pair of them myself.

Hearing our conversation the siblings seemed to relax a bit. I smirked at them. "Don"t relax just yet. Momma and Kelly aren"t pushovers, they will watch out for you, but they won"t put up with any mischief or sa.s.s." I warned them.

"We will be good." Danielle told me her voice quivering a bit.

I chuckled, "Then you have nothing to fear." I told her trying to be gentle but it didn"t seem to work, I was going to have to figure out how to control this aura.

"Let"s go." I called out then created a s.p.a.ce tunnel back to the hotel lobby. Once it was created the siblings wanted to rush in but I stopped them and looked to Dena. I didn"t want her to be the vanguard, but she was the one who could handle trouble the best and make it back in one piece.

Dena nodded then went through first. Once she was through, she sent me a mental signal that there wasn"t any trouble. Then I let the siblings go through. They ran into the s.p.a.ce tunnel like there was a pack of rabid dogs on their tails. It made me wonder if there was another reason why the crane wanted to p.a.w.n them off on us. Since we were crossing the country I didn"t think it would matter. Jessarn and his group followed the siblings until there was only Calidia, Mary, and I left. I gestured for the girls to go through first then once I was alone I turned to look behind me and up high into the sky. "We will take care of them." I told the very small white dot in the sky.

She might have thought she could avoid my notice if she returned while flying so high that it was hard to see her, but as a beast emperor myself I could sense her despite the distance.

I smirked then turned to enter the s.p.a.ce tunnel myself before I felt the rapid approach of the birds above. Sensing their approach I turned to wait for their arrival politely. As they were the first beast group I had run into that wasn"t aggressive against me I had no reason to be impolite.

A moment later and the five birds had appeared. However the ones that landed were the two brown hawks, two black eagles, and the crane. Only after seeing the black eagles was I sure that the brown ones were hawks, or at least I knew they weren"t eagles. The eagles were just huge and dwarfed their brown counterparts. I wondered what species they had been originally and what had caused their change in coloration, but as Dena"s was even more severe I didn"t think much of it. The two falcons were still in the sky, whether as protection against me, or as scouts for other trouble that might be approaching.

The white haired beauty smiled at me impishly. "I did not expect you to sense our return." she admitted.

"As you took the effort to find humans to take them in, I didn"t think you would let them out of your sight to easily." I replied.

The crane sighed then eyed the s.p.a.ce gate reluctantly.

"It isn"t close to here and there was a war between the pigeon, sparrow, and crow flocks in the sky." I warned her.

The crane stared a me surprise evident on her face.

"You seem to care for them, making you different than most of the beasts I have encountered so far, maybe even a potential ally." I told her.

"Not a mate?" she asked raising her eyebrow.

I shrugged. "I will not deny my interest, but I have enough females to know it is a bad idea to pursue another one." I replied honestly. Even if I couldn"t make her mine, having her as an ally would be very beneficial.

The crane seemed to consider that for a few moments, "Do you have a empress?" she asked me.

I hesitated wondering how to answer that. "I have a first wife, who leads the others, it is complicated." I replied after some thought.

She nodded. "I am called Trill." she told me.

"Daryl." I replied.

She nodded then made a signal with her hands. The four birds with her shrank their sizes then flew into the s.p.a.ce tunnel. The falcons appeared a moment later also smaller than they were before. After they had entered the s.p.a.ce tunnel Trill walked in, I followed after my eyes following every movement of her backside as I cursed myself for my interest in her.

Once I was through the s.p.a.ce tunnel I let it collapse behind me. Not even a moment later a pretty black haired woman threw herself into my arms and began to cry hysterically.

"What is it Heather?" I asked trying to sound rea.s.suring though I am sure I failed miserably.

All the soldiers in the lobby were eyeing me and the new beasts warily while Megan and Karen stood by the elevators eyeing Trill warily. I received and angry glare from Megan but I figured I would handle that later.

"They are moving farther away!" A soldier near the doors shouted happily.

"Of course they are. Who would be foolish enough to challenge two emperors?" Trill asked the soldier like he was an idiot.

"My presence didn"t use to be this strong." I told the pretty crane.

She frowned at me suspiciously doubting my words.

"I will explain later." I told her then looked at the black haired crying mess in my arms.

"Her parents didn"t make it." Megan informed me as she approached me while still glaring at me. Karen remained by the elevators.

"It is her?" Trill asked eyeing Megan warily. Why a beast empress would be wary of Megan I had no idea but I nodded anyways.

I used my newly improved senses to scan the surroundings, I could feel all of my other women on the top floor, Derek was on his way down, Arnold and Michael were on the third floor, no idea why Arnold was mixing with Michael"s group but that was his choice.

Outside I could sense the various beasts, plants, and twisted, all of which had decided to avoid the hotel like the plague. In the distance I could feel some stronger beasts, plants, and twisted, but nothing that matched my own aura or Trill"s aura. We should be safe for now. At least until I had a chance to establish the haven.

"Let"s head up and I can tell you about what happened." I told Megan.

"What about them?" Megan asked gesturing to Jessarn and his family. Oddly enough Tracy was standing with Mary separate from her family.

"We should be able to put them on the same floor with Michael." I replied.

Megan frowned but nodded. "They won"t like it, but it is just temporary." she told me.

I nodded then shifted Heather until I was carrying her princess style. She hadn"t stopped crying yet but I could feel that she was comforted by my presence.

"Daryl." Derek called out as he got off the elevator. I wondered how long we would continue to have electricity. It hadn"t even been a day, but I had no idea how long the electrical system would last. My knowledge about the power grid and how it worked stopped at the "pay you bill and the electricity stays on" level. Though I knew the power was going to stop eventually. Hopefully by then we would be in the haven.

"Derek. Let"s head up and I can fill you in on what happened and who our new friends are." I told the older man.

Daniel and Danielle quickly dashed out of the crowd and hugged Trill tears in their eyes.

"Sounds like a plan, we also have an idea about how to secure enough supplied for everyone, though we might want to move quickly before anyone else thinks about it."

Derek told me.

I nodded then led the way to the elevators. Megan, Karen, Trill and her birds rode up with me. Megan gave me a glare the whole time but I just leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. I wanted to do more but felt it would be odd as I held the still hysterical Heather.

Once on the top floor Nala and Grace joined us at the elevator. Nala eyed Trill warily but when her eyes landed on me I swore she was about to go into heat.

"Down kitty." I told her with a smirk.

Nala glanced at Trill then moved closer to me a frantic and desperate look on her face. I grinned at her insecurity then shifted Heather to one arm and wrapped the other around Nala and pulled her close. "It"s fine Nala, you will always be my number one pretty kitty." I whispered in her ear seriously. I initially meant to tease her but feeling how tense her body was I became serious. Like Megan, Nala"s loyalty had never wavered and I would never betray that. I kissed her forehead rea.s.suringly only to feel a rush of energy rushing out of me into her. She stilled a look of shock on her face before she smiled at me in ecstasy. I didn"t have to check her to know that somehow my words and actions had pushed her over the edge letting her advance to a gold heart beast empress.

"Seems you are full of surprises." Trill commented watching us curiously.

"More than even I know." I grumbled. What in the h.e.l.l am I?