Hidden Worlds

by Kristie Cook

  Panic started to set in.

  “Trust me, Kyr,” Ty said.

  She glanced at him and met his intent gaze. Something passed between them in that instant. She didn’t know what it was, but something deep within her responded to something just as deep within him. He needed her assurance in him.

  I do trust you, Ty.

  Even though he didn’t acknowledge her thought, she knew he’d heard it.

  Seconds later, they reached a tall, chain link gate with barbed wire running along the top of it. She realized the fence ran far on either side of the gate, both sides disappearing into the woods. Ty pressed a button on the car’s console and the gate started rattling open. He drove through when it was opened wide enough, then waited for the gate to close completely before driving on.

  Just as the headlights brushed across the side of the house, light suddenly flooded the area. Kyra gasped and instinctively reached out to grab Ty’s arm. It was like trying to grip banded steel.

  “Security lights,” Sem said from the backseat.

  “Oh.” Flushing, she released Ty’s arm. She was going to blame her skittish behavior on her lack of sleep and severe emotional trauma.

  They parked in the house’s equivalent of a driveway. It was little more than twin strips of dirt with some grass growing between them. The lack of care given to the landscaping gave her little hope about their accommodations.

  “Stay with Sem,” Ty said.

  Before she could argue, he climbed out and closed the door, pressing the locking mechanism on the key fob after doing so. Her anxiety rose as she watched him begin the perimeter search like he had done at her parents’ house.

  “How’re you holding up?” Sem asked.

  Telling herself to calm down, she unbuckled her seatbelt and turned to face him. He shifted from behind her seat to behind Ty’s so he could see her better.

  “I’m scared,” she admitted.

  “I’m sure you are.” He gave her a small smile. “Look, Kyra … I didn’t have time to talk to you before the last transition attempt. Everything happened so fast.”

  “That’s okay,” she assured him. “It’s been a crazy night.”

  “Yeah.” He leaned forward, making his face more easily visible. “I wanted to chat with you without your muscle hanging around.”

  She returned his smile this time, though his quickly faded.

  “Things are going to be different once we leave Earth,” he said, his voice carrying a hint of despondency. “Hell, they’re already different. But they’ll be really different. Like the whole title thing. I could get in serious trouble if I don’t call you Ma’jah. Ty’s been cutting me some slack, but back home …”

  “If it helps any, I don’t particularly care for the whole title thing, either,” she said.

  “I can tell. But you’ll have to get used to it. We’ll have to get used to lots of things.” He shook his head. “Anyway, I don’t want you to think that it was easy for me to lie to you these past two years. When I was assigned to work with Avana on your lessons here, I had to vow to maintain the plan set up by your Kyndred.”

  “My par—Kyndred set all of this up?”

  “Not only your Kyndred. The Kyndred as a whole are the teachers in our society. They design lesson plans specific to each individual.”

  “Did you know what lesson I was supposed to learn here?”

  “No,” he said, “though I began to suspect it as I got to know you here on Earth.”

  “Am I so very different from the person I was on Alametria?” The sentence sounded crazy as she said it.

  “Yes. But that’s the point of all this. Your lessons are meant to make you a better person … a better Alametrian. And they have, Kyra. I want you to know how proud I am of you. You’re a wonderful, amazing woman. You’ve come to mean a great deal to me.”

  Alarm bells sounded in her head. The soft tone of voice, the earnest expression, the intense gaze. She wanted to tell him not to continue, but the words stuck in her throat.

  He took a deep breath and continued, “In fact—”

  Her car door opened after a click of the locks. She barely contained an “Eep!” when Ty bent down to assist her out.

  “We’re clear,” he said, taking her hand.

  His sharp gaze moved to Sem before he helped her to her feet. Was she imagining the hostility she saw in Ty’s expression? She couldn’t think of anything that would have happened in the past few minutes to irritate him, unless he didn’t like the house’s dÉcor.

  Sem’s curse reached her ears before Ty closed her car door. The door slammed shut, making a startling noise in the humid night air. Ty gave her arm an insistent tug to get her walking towards the front door of the house.

  She was torn between worrying about why Ty was upset and what Sem had been about to say before they were interrupted. Although she strongly suspected it, she prayed he hadn’t been about to say he had feelings for her beyond friendship. The very idea made her want to squirm with discomfort.

  She noticed the tension ease from Ty’s shoulders and guessed he must have been stressed about not being by her side. Maybe it was ingrained in him to stay as close to her as possible. Being apart must cause him some anxiety.

  She knew it did her.

  As they neared the house, she paid more attention to her environment and less to the two guys she was traveling with. The house was actually rather charming, she acknowledged as they stepped onto the wide front porch. It appeared well-maintained and spacious. She got a glimpse of two Cape Cod windows and a porch swing before Ty opened the front door and led her inside.

  Considering how far out in the middle of nowhere they seemed to be, she’d expected shabby, outdated furniture and lots of wood-grain. They stepped into an open concept living area with an eat-in kitchen and dining room to their right, and a large, high-ceilinged family room to the left. She was surprised to see a gleaming, state-of-the-art kitchen, two glass dining tables surrounded by plush, colorful chairs, high-end leather family room furniture, and a huge flat-panel TV.

  “Wow,” she said. “This is really nice.”

  “Hopefully we won’t be here long,” Ty said as Sem entered the house and closed the door behind him. Ty pressed some buttons on a keypad near the door. After a series of beeps, he seemed satisfied.

  “Will we be here long enough to have something to drink?” she asked, heading for the kitchen. “I’m dying here.”

  Somehow, Ty reached the refrigerator first. She raised her eyebrows and looked back at the security panel, then at him, wondering how he’d done that. He reached into the fridge and pulled out a Diet Coke. After examining the can—for what, she couldn’t be sure—he opened it and handed it to her.

  “Are you sure it isn’t poisoned?” she asked dryly.

  He took a sip of it, paused, and said, “It is poison, but not the kind you mean.”

  She dismissed that and moved over to a cabinet to get a glass. “So, what brings us all the way out here? Is this another transition point?” she asked as she poured the soda into the glass. That’s where her logic had taken her on the long drive out to the house.

  “It should be, yes,” Ty said. He pulled a bottle of water out of the fridge, opened it, and took a sip.

  “What does that mean?” she asked.

  “He means we still can’t communicate with the ship,” Sem called out from the nearby pantry. He emerged with two bags of chips and carried them over to the kitchen’s center island. “So we’re not going anywhere right now.”

  “How do you know whether or not you can reach the ship?” she wondered. “Didn’t you destroy your locator thingys?”

  “Those aren’t what communicate with the ship,” Sem said, opening a bag of barbecue potato chips and tilting it in her direction. When she took a handful, he continued, “The locators allow the ship to transition anyone in contact with them. But the locators only work if they’re near a viable power source.”

  Kyra felt Ty’s eyes on he
r as she brought a chip to her lips. She sensed he was about to say something. Holding out her hand of chips, she waited until he ate one and nodded before she ate the one she held. It was odd that she’d gotten to understand him so quickly. But then, she supposed they’d technically known each other for two decades. That had to count for something, whether or not she remembered him at the moment.

  “What type of power do the locators need in order to work?” she asked.

  “It’s called tajalene, a derivative of an Alametrian mineral called tajeria,” Sem said. “Our planet is known for it. It’s the most sustainable energy source we’ve ever encountered.”

  Ty took some of the chips from the bag for himself, dumping a few more in Kyra’s now-empty hands as he said, “The locators only work when they’re very close to a tajalene supply. There are only three such supplies on Earth, and one of those has been compromised.”

  She paused in mid-chew. The one near her school. It had been compromised because the Shelvaks had discovered it.

  “Why are there so few?” she asked.

  “We’ve had to parse out our supplies of tajalene across the universe,” Sem explained, pulling a bottle of water out of the fridge. “There aren’t ever more than three supplies on a planet. The Kyndred plan lessons on each planet accordingly, not allowing too many Alametrians to train in any one place at a time.”

  Finishing her chips, she walked over to the sink to wash the grease from her fingers. “So, if the locators aren’t the devices that communicate with the ship, what does?”

  “This,” Ty said, holding up a shiny, flat device that looked no bigger than a credit card.

  She dried her hands and took a closer look at the item he held. To her, it looked like a plain piece of silver or similar metal, almost like a business card holder. She didn’t even see a speaker or microphone.

  “When it’s working, it lights up,” Sem told her as he opened the second bag of chips.

  “Ah. Any idea why it isn’t working?”

  He shrugged. “Seems like the Shelvaks might have done something to disrupt the signal.”

  Kyra sipped her Diet Coke in an attempt to soothe her suddenly dry throat. What did that mean? Had something happened to the ship? Were her parents and Avana in danger?

  “There could be many reasons for the silence in communications,” Ty said. “We shouldn’t make assumptions, and we need to be ready for communications to open up again at any time. I retrieved these from among the supplies left for us here in the house.”

  He handed Sem and Kyra each a locator. Kyra looked at the rather unremarkable object in the palm of her hand, half-expecting it to light up and zip her off to another dimension.

  Or a spaceship. One of those things.

  “Keep this on your person at all times,” Ty said. “They will want to transition us the moment it becomes an option.”

  His certainty that they would be transitioned soon eased some of Kyra’s fear about her loved ones. Tucking the locator in her front jeans pocket, she drained her Diet Coke and looked around for a recycle bin. She found it inside the huge pantry. Handling the normal task helped keep her from wigging out over the idea that she was carrying something that could vaporize her into light or molecules or whatever at any time.

  That thought made her rub the bridge of her nose to ease a burgeoning headache. Despite the caffeine, her batteries were running low.

  “So, what do we do now?” she asked. “Do we have to stay right here in the kitchen to be near the power source?”

  “No,” Ty said. “This is the location of one of the larger supplies of tajalene on Earth. It would have been placed centrally within the house. We should be able to transition from anywhere in here.”

  “Okay,” she said. “Then can we sleep?”

  “Yes. In fact, you should sleep and restore your energy.”

  She didn’t need to be told twice. Murmuring good night to them, she left the kitchen in search of somewhere to lay her head.

  She just hoped that when she woke up, it wasn’t on a ship bound for Alametria.

  Chapter 14

  Tossing his empty water bottle into the recycle bin, Ty followed Kyr out of the kitchen.

  “Where are you going?” Sem called after him.

  Ty heard the accusatory tone to the question and almost didn’t respond. Not only was it presumptuous since Ty was the Dem-Shyr and his actions weren’t to be questioned, but it was obviously prompted by Sem’s feelings for Kyr.

  I am protecting Ma’jah Kyr, he thought back.

  It was to-the-point, and it was all Sem would get from him.

  Seeing Kyr about to enter the hallway leading to the sleeping accommodations, he said, “I will enter any room before you, Kyr.”

  She slowed her pace without a word of argument. “I need to use the bathroom before bed,” she said.

  “The largest bedroom has its own bathroom,” he said. “You will sleep there.”

  “Sure, whatever works.”

  Even though he’d already searched the house, he looked inside each door they passed as they headed to the room at the end of the hall. When they reached it, he turned the bedroom lights on and walked directly to the bathroom on the left side of the room. Seeing nothing to concern him, he moved back out to the bedroom and waved Kyr in.

  She gave him a look as she walked past him into the bathroom. He wasn’t sure what she was thinking, as it wasn’t powerful enough to get through the strange barrier in her mind. Judging by her expression, though, he figured she thought he was being overprotective. She’d always told him that.

  He still remembered the time she had said to him in her haughty voice, “You must have better things to do than to monitor the excrement tanks. My Mynder should not be performing such menial tasks.”

  “Your Mynder must perform such menial tasks if he is to properly protect you,” he had countered in a reasonable tone.

  She had sniffed and lifted her chin. She loathed his reasonable tone. That was why he used it so often when he spoke to her.

  In point of fact, baiting her had become his favorite part of the day.

  They were both on the cusp of what Alametrians considered pre-adulthood. He’d been her Mynder for almost a year, and they’d rarely been apart in all that time. The Guardians had wanted them to have a chance to get better acquainted before Kyr was sent off to begin her lessons. She was scheduled to leave soon.

  He, on the other hand, had spent most of his early years of development off-planet, learning the life lessons of the Dem-Shyr. Only when he’d been deemed worthy had he been allowed back to Alametria to be gifted with his full abilities by the Guardians. Once Kyr left to begin her lessons, he traveled with her as much as possible in order to make sure nothing happened to her.

  “I fail to see why the Guardians believe I need protection,” she had said, her star-blue eyes sparking with indignation. “I can protect myself.”

  “You believe you can protect yourself,” he clarified, “and that is why the Guardians know you need my protection.”

  Her expression had made him want to laugh, but he’d kept his face neutral. That only angered her more, just as he’d intended. The spark that lit her eyes when she was furious with him made him want to pull her close and kiss her.

  He had no idea why.

  Ty’s memories faded as he now heard Kyr humming in the bathroom beyond the closed door. She’d always had a lovely singing voice. He’d only rarely gotten to hear it.

  He made sure the bedroom door was secure and then edged closer to the bathroom door. As he’d suspected she would, she transitioned from humming to singing. There was water running in the sink, but he heard her clearly. She sang a song about loving someone for a thousand years. It was slow and soulful. Everything about it spoke to him.

  Because he was honed in on her, he caught her thought about a shower. She desperately wanted one, feeling that her scrubbing in the sink was insufficient, but she didn’t want to end up naked on the Alametrian shi
p if they decided to transition her in the middle of washing her hair.

  The random thought might have made him smile if it hadn’t resulted in a clear mental image of Kyr standing under a stream of steamy water with soap suds running down her naked body. Before he could stop himself, he allowed the image to progress to him joining her in the shower. He would stand behind her in the hot water and touch her silky skin. She would lean back into him and moan as he reached around to cup his hands over her—

  Damn it.

  He sucked in a sharp breath as he struggled to control his wayward thoughts. His forearms burned fiercely. The thin lines etched into his skin glowed with incriminating light.

  Kyr chose that moment to exit the bathroom. There was no hiding the glow, especially since seeing her with her beautiful hair unbound made it intensify. He decided to pretend nothing was wrong.

  “What the hell is wrong with your arms?” she asked.

  So much for that plan.

  “Nothing,” he replied.

  She dipped her head and gave him a look that told him she knew he was lying. Fortunately, she didn’t pursue it.

  “Why are you still here?” she asked. “Haven’t you already inspected the bedroom?”

  “I sleep where you sleep.”

  Her mouth fell open.

  “Kyr, we have more important things to discuss than sleeping arrangements,” he said. When her expression morphed into one of agreement, he continued, “There is something I wanted to discuss with you, but it wasn’t appropriate to do so in front of Sem. It pertains to your lesson prior to this one.”

  Her head tilted in curiosity. He suddenly found himself unsure of whether he should pursue this with her. It crossed all kinds of boundaries, and it would certainly get them both into trouble if anyone found out.

  “I’d like to know what happened,” she said, stepping closer to him.

  If he hadn’t been watching her closely, he might have missed how her pupils dilated and her breathing grew more irregular. But he was trained to observe. He knew she was thinking about whatever memory had surfaced related to them kissing. He hadn’t responded to her question on the plane because Sem was there. Now, he decided to be honest with her.