Hidden Gates

by D T Dyllin

  “Guess you’re out of ammo?” I quibbled, unable to keep my mouth shut apparently, even in a life and death situation.

  “How did you know?” Emo Boy snarled as he reached down to grab me by my jacket. “How did you know what I had planned?”

  The alien inside Emo Boy seemed to shine more brightly from inside him, and I found myself reaching up to touch his face with some kind of eerie fascination. “Can you see it when you look in the mirror?” I mumbled, now feeling pretty sure I had a concussion. “Or do you even know he’s in there? Who has control? Or do you share?”

  Both Emo Boy and the alien residing inside of him looked at me with shock. “You see? That’s not possible.”

  I smiled, feeling more than a little woozy, blinking as something warm and sticky ran into my eye. “Obviously it’s not . . . impossible.” Sirens suddenly rang out in the distance, signaling that help was on the way. Emo Boy dropped me abruptly, causing me to hit my head on the concrete. “Ow. That’s not very nice,” I mumbled as my eyes, feeling suddenly too heavy, slid shut. “And you didn’t even answer my questions.”

  All went dark.

  “You were supposed to keep her safe,” Jeremy’s voice vibrated with anger, “not let her put herself in the goddamned hospital.”

  “I left her in her bedroom. I thought it was beyond even her to find trouble that quickly,” Khol responded flatly. “And do not think for a second it doesn’t cause me just as much pain to see her like this.” Strong emotion flared in his voice as it went low and gruff.

  “She’s gonna be fine, guys. No need to fight,” Jenna said, obviously trying to play the mediator.

  “Yeah, but she could have died. We don’t even know how close she came,” Jeremy grated. “He was shooting at her.”

  “But she’s not dead. She’s fine. That’s the important part,” Jenna interjected. “And I don’t want the two of you fighting and scolding her when she wakes up either.” I heard a grunt from Khol and silence from Jeremy as a response.

  I inwardly sighed as I worked on opening my eyes. “Does my dad know about his car yet?” I muttered. At least my mouth was working. It seemed nothing ever put it out of commission.

  “Your parents are on the way,” Jenna answered just as I finally managed to peel my eyelids open. She was sitting in a chair next to my hospital bed, and both Khol and Jeremy were standing towards the foot. It looked like the two of them had been pacing. Both of their faces held a mixture of worry and anger, but Khol was the first to say anything.

  “I told you to stay,” he growled.

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “I’m not yours to order around, contrary to what you might think.” I tried to cross my arms over my chest, but the IV got in the way. I turned my anger on Jeremy next. “And don’t you say a word either. I do what I want when I want.”

  “I wasn’t aware you wanted to get yourself killed,” Jeremy snapped crossing his arms over his chest, his brown eyes flashing with anger.

  I tried to sit up, but stars danced before my eyes, accompanied by a sudden wave of nausea. “That wasn’t what I was going for,” I mumbled as I slouched back down into my pillow, the nausea rolling to a stop.

  Khol stalked around the side of the bed and came to stand beside me, blocking out my view of Jenna. “Let me help you.”

  “How?” I asked as I eyed his still angry expression warily.

  “I can heal you, if you let me.”

  “Then why the hell haven’t you healed her already?” Jeremy demanded.

  Khol tensed, anger at Jeremy making his jaw tick, but he locked gazes with me. “I have to kiss you . . . touch you . . .”

  Understanding dawned. “Oh,” I whispered.

  “Absolutely not,” Jeremy said as understanding dawned on him as well. “I’m not going to stand by and watch you maul her in the name of healing. It’s the most—”

  “Then don’t watch,” Jenna snapped. “He needs to do what he needs to do to heal her, Jeremy. Would you rather she stay how she is? Would—”

  “Fine,” Jeremy groused. “I’ll be outside waiting for her parents. Tell me when he’s done healing her.” I watched Jeremy stalk out of the room so I didn’t have to meet Khol’s eyes. My heart had sped up the second I realized what was needed to heal me. A part of me was looking forward to it, while the rest of me felt like a traitor to Bryn for feeling that way.

  Jenna cleared her throat. “I’ll be outside, too.” She turned at the door and winked at me. “Try not to do anything I wouldn’t do.”

  I stared after her, my heart quadrupling in time now that Khol and I were alone. “So . . .” I said, my face flushing as I met Khol’s heated gaze. “Umm . . .”

  He leaned down and kissed me, the normal shot of heat from him hitting me and then intensifying. His body felt on fire, and I arched up to meet him. His large hands cupped my face and ran through my hair, sending a tingling sensation along with heat through my system; somehow I knew it meant he was healing me, and it felt really, really good. Better than good, I thought. I heard a small moan escape from me as his hands slid down my torso, skimming over my hardened nipples on the way. My brain screamed for me to tell him to stop, that Bryn was the only one who had ever done anything besides kiss me, and it should stay that way, but my mouth was too busy kissing Khol to protest out loud. His healing magic wrapped around me, making me whole again, all the while his hands slowly exploring my body.

  My breathing was coming in small little pants, and I gasped as Khol slipped his hand up underneath my gown to touch me between my legs. “No . . .” I moaned, the cliché of every woman everywhere who knew she shouldn’t be doing what she was doing, and protested even though she didn’t really mean it. Or did I? Did I really want Khol touching me the way that he was, helping me betray Bryn in the worst possible way? The answer of course was no, and yet I couldn’t seem to help myself.

  “Let me make you my Anam Cara. Let me lay claim to you,” Khol rumbled his voice rough with promises of pleasure.

  Alarm bells went off in my head. Like we had talked about before, he didn’t just mean sex—no, he wanted to claim me for his Dragon mate—his Anam Cara. He would take me away from Bryn forever if he could, and I couldn’t let that happen. I would surely die without Bryn. “No. Stop.” I shoved at Khol’s hand and scooted away from him, my face heating with sudden embarrassment. I couldn’t believe I’d let him touch me that way. Bryn should be the only one. Tears began to leak out of the corners of my eyes. “That’s not what I want . . .” At least not with him. Bryn—only Bryn.

  “With me,” Khol stated flatly, picking up on my emotions, “It’s not what you want with me, at least not yet.”

  “Never,” I whispered, pulling the sheet up to cover me as if it were some kind of shield.

  Khol’s lips turned up into a small smile, his eyes blazing brighter. “Never say never, my little Seer.” And as usual, he just disappeared.

  Jenna and Jeremy picked that moment to come flying back into the room. Thank God they hadn’t come back a few seconds earlier, I thought, as my face heated again. I felt so ashamed for letting things go so far with Khol. Why did I have such a hard time resisting him when I didn’t really want him, at least not like I did Bryn? The guilt caused my shame to creep up to new levels the more I thought about it. Khol and Jeremy kept taking me to new lows emotionally. Had it only been such a short time ago that I’d been a virgin and had barely been kissed? I’d given myself to Bryn because I loved him, not just because my body craved his. I’d always wanted any relationship I had to go beyond the physical, I’d always wanted more. More . . . That word mocked me now, thanks to Khol. He’d said I’d come to crave it, and now I had.

  “Oh my God!” Jenna exclaimed. “We just saw the news in the waiting room and—”

  “I see you’re all healed,” Jeremy said with heavy sarcasm. �
�That was pretty fast. And where is he? Did he leave with what he wanted?”

  I met his eyes with shock. Why was he being so mean? And there it was in his face; he now thought exactly what everyone at school did—that I was a slut. Fresh tears rolled down my cheeks. “He’s gone. And no, he didn’t get what he wanted.” My voice cracked as I tried to keep from breaking down into sobs. I liked Jeremy. And I liked that he respected me, or had respected me. I averted my eyes from his, no longer wanting to see the look of incrimination that was directed at me.

  “Hey,” snapped Jenna. “Don’t you talk to her that way. She’s been through enough today, don’t you think?”

  Jeremy sighed. “Yeah, I’m sorry, P.J. I didn’t mean it; it’s just that—I don’t know—I guess I’m just jealous is all. And who the hell is Khol anyways?” His voice rose with fresh anger. “We all know he isn’t human. How do we know we can trust him?”

  I lifted my eyes to meet his. “We can,” I said simply.

  “He wants you for himself. He uses every opportunity to try and push his advantage. He—”

  “You mean like you do?”

  Jeremy opened and closed his mouth before he responded, bringing his hand up to push through his hair. “Okay, you might have a point.” At least he had the decency to look embarrassed, something that Khol most certainly never did.

  “Back to what we saw on the news,” Jenna prodded impatiently.

  Jeremy stood up straighter, his face going very serious. “There was a shooting at another school today. Add that in with what happened to you, which made the news, by the way, and all of a sudden Senator Bill Wexington has a lot firmer platform to lean on for gun control.”

  I thought about what Jeremy said for a second as well as what I knew so far about the aliens. They wanted control of our world, they wanted to rule us, and what better way to start than to render us powerless, defenseless. They could situate themselves in positions of power, as in Senator Bill Wexington’s case, and then push for bigger government control. Once they eliminated our way to fight back, they could make us do anything they wanted. It had all the beginnings of a conspiracy theory, except for one part: it was real. “Shit,” I swore as I thought about what happened today and the impact such things could have. The more things like this happen, the more people will be afraid, and what better way to scare people then to attack their kids. “Shit,” I swore again. “And I’m guessing this is just the beginning.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” Jeremy said.

  “Yeah,” Jenna added morosely. “I think we’re in a bit over our heads.”

  I raised my eyebrows at her. “You think?” I almost wanted to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. Here we were a bunch of high school kids, and we were going to try and save our world—literally.

  “We need to find a way to get them out of people’s bodies. We can’t exactly go around killing them. Plus, I would feel kind of guilty killing the people they were in,” I mumbled, thinking out loud.

  “What are they though? I mean really?” Jenna asked.

  “I don’t know. All I know is that they aren’t from our world. Not much to go on.” I frowned, thinking about how little we did know about everything, even though it was a ton more than anyone else knew.

  “How are we supposed to fight them if we don’t even know what they are?” Jeremy asked, looking at me. It was then I realized Jenna and Jeremy were both looking to me for answers that I didn’t have. They were looking to me to tell them what to do. How had I ended up in that position? I wasn’t any kind of leader. I was a chocoholic, boy crazy, high school girl who worried a little too much about how she looked.

  I slumped back into the hospital bed, feeling very defeated. “I don’t know.”

  Jeremy’s face softened, something resembling pity a little too closely shining at me from his deep brown eyes. He walked over and sat on the edge of the bed, taking my hand in his. “Let me be there for you. I’ll help any way I can.” A jolt of energy emanating from his fingertips shot up through my arm and raced through my body. I suddenly felt very revved up, as if I’d just downed a couple Red Bulls. I met Jeremy’s eyes with question. He chuckled. “Better than an energy drink, huh? I’m very good at what I do.” His eyes darkened as the double entendre left his mouth.

  “What are we going to tell your parents?” Jenna asked. “We need to hurry up and sync our stories before they get here.”

  I tugged my hand back from Jeremy, who frowned at the move. “Crap. How did I almost forget about that? How the hell am I supposed to explain any of it?”

  “A vision,” Jeremy stated calmly as he tried to recapture my hand in his. “Tell them you had a vision about something bad that was going to happen, but it was so jumbled you didn’t know what to think, so you just headed over that way to figure it out and voila.”

  “Yeah, that sounds like it just might work,” I said, trying to keep my hand out of Jeremy’s clutches without being too obvious, although the wry look he was giving me told me he knew exactly what I was doing.

  “Is that what we’re going with? Because you’re parents are almost here.” Jenna fidgeted nervously while looking down at something she had in the palm of her hand.

  “How do you know they’re almost here?” I asked as I tried to see what she had in her hand.

  She lifted her head up, and a small bug of some sort rose into the air. “I had some of the local insects keeping a lookout for me.”

  She smiled when I grimaced. “Fabulous. Now I have to worry about flies on the wall spying on me—literally? You Speakers are a lot more dangerous than anyone gives you credit for.”

  “Most people don’t appreciate the advantages that having one of us on their team can bring them.” Jenna smiled with pride.

  Jeremy looked at her and ran his hand through his tousled hair. “Yeah, I never really thought about what it really means to be a Speaker.”

  “Most don’t.” Jenna lifted her chin and met Jeremy’s gaze head on. “We’re a lot more than just some weirdos that talk to animals. We’re just as important as—”

  “P.J.!” My mom exclaimed as she burst into the room with my dad on her heels. Jeremy backed away from the bed as my mom flew to my side. “Are you okay, peanut? They said you were shot at and—” My mom’s face crumpled up as she began to cry. “I was so worried.”

  I sat up straighter in bed and let my mom take me into her arms. “I’m fine, Mom. I shouldn’t even be here anymore.” Thanks to Khol, I added silently. How was I going to explain my miraculous recovery to the doctors so I could go home?

  She sat back and ran her eyes over every inch of me in that classic mom stare, as if she would know just by looking at me if I was okay. “How are you feeling?”

  I pushed her hands away with annoyance. “Fine. Like I said. Maybe you guys can talk to the doctor so I can get out of here.”

  “What happened?” my dad asked sternly. I wanted to roll my eyes. What was it with men getting angry when you get injured? It was like they all get insulted that you let something happen to yourself they couldn’t protect you from.

  “Can’t we talk about this later? I really just wanna go home.” I looked at my mom and implored her with my eyes.

  “Well, I guess I’m gonna get going,” Jenna said. I’d almost forgotten she was still there.

  Jeremy cleared his throat to remind me of his presence as well. “Yeah, me, too. Call me if you need anything, P.J.” He met my eyes with meaning. “I’ll get a ride home with Jenna.”

  “Bye.” I waved my hand meekly. Great, now I don’t have the friend buffer. “How about us going home?” I added hopefully, looking at my mom again.

  “Of course, peanut, I’ll just go find the doctor.” My mom buzzed out of the room, already excited to get me home. She probably was more interested in what was going on betwe
en Jeremy and me, if her eyes lighting up with what he said was any indication. Luckily for me, she’d most likely gloss right over what had happened with my dad’s car and Emo Boy, and grill me about Jeremy. The lesser of two evils, I supposed.

  “Why weren’t you in school, and who told you that you could take my car?” I didn’t look up from my sheet and fidgeted nervously with it and my IV. “Answer me, young lady.” The tone in my dad’s voice told me the big throbbing vein in his forehead was making an appearance, and even though I hated to admit it, when that thing made an appearance, it was time to run for cover; things never went well for me.

  “I had a vision,” I mumbled.

  “What?” he said.

  “I said I had a vision,” I stated a little bit louder, although not much.

  A crash made me look up sharply to see that my dad had knocked over a small table that had held ice water and some cups. “You had a vision that had something to do with a kid and a shotgun, and you drove towards the danger?”

  “It was all jumbled up—the vision,” I squeaked.

  “That’s not an excuse. You should have told us about it before you went running off to put yourself in danger,” my dad snarled vehemently.

  “And then what? What would you guys have done? If you believed me at all?” Anger shot through my veins, giving me courage to face off with my dad.

  “You dragged Jenna and Jeremy into this with you, didn’t you? And where were they while you were getting shot at?”

  “We saved innocent lives!” I yelled.

  “I don’t care about those lives—just yours,” my dad yelled back at me.

  “I’m sure their families don’t feel the same way!” I gulped in air, trying to remain relatively calm, although it wasn’t working. “I made a difference!”