Elis's lopsided grin eased the tension of the moment and made her heart ache for his kiss and, with it, the desire to forget her life could be anything but normal.
Elis pursed those sweet lips. After a few seconds, he mumbled, ["If Vodin left the Eye to the Scandinavians, who was Horus?"]
Damn, those eyes were gorgeous, but they stared at her as if expecting something other than what she really wanted. ["What?"]
["Torres said Rafael returned…Rafael Horus? Sounds right for an Inari name."] His eyes dropped to her chest. Not that she disagreed, but she suspected what she would rather be doing wasn't what he had in mind. His eyes focused on the pendant, the shard she wore on a chain around her neck. Of course.
["Were they present on that mission?"]
Ah! She got it. He wanted her to ask the entities of the shard she wore. Usually, the Starfire entities popped up a vision of something appropriate when they thought she needed it, but not this time. Strange that they hadn't.
Purple eyes behind black locks stared at her expectantly.
["All right."] Why not? She wanted to know too.
She slid back to the head of the bed so her back rested against the wall, folded her legs into a comfortable position, and closed her eyes. A second later, she found the resonance from the pitch of the crystal's energy in her DNA. It warmed through her, enabling her to connect to the entities of her shard.
Voices whispered incoherently, through feeling rather than true words, and synchronized into agreement.
THERE IS NOTHING. The meaning shot through her. They knew nothing. They could only know if they were present to witness events. Another Crystal Keeper could have been there, but that one hadn't borne her shard, if that was the case.
Raea let the resonance fade and opened her eyes to Elis sitting next to her. ["They don't know."]
["Or they don't want you to know."]
There was that. It wouldn't be the first time the entities withheld information from her when she wanted to know something but they didn't think she was ready.
Elis's hand slipped under hers, their palms together, and he locked his fingers with hers.
"Elis! Raea! Time to eat!"
Perfect timing…almost. Amid all this distraction, she hadn't forgotten her hunger.
Elis slid off the bed, his hand still locked with hers, but Raea used it to stop him, a question on her mind seeking an answer before anything more could interfere. "What were you going to say earlier, before we were interrupted?"
Normally she'd think that bashful reddening and avoiding her eyes cute, but right now it did nothing but aggravate her.
"It's…not important," he said.
Like hell it wasn't! "Yes, it is, or you wouldn't have said anything…Bonding. Hello?" Need she remind him? Only because of Nare's interference had she learned of that little detail of Inari relationships.
He grimaced. "I'm sorry about that, but this isn't the same… Evelyn's waiting." He pulled on her hand.
She resisted his urge for her to stand. "Elis." He could make things so difficult when he wanted.
He said nothing.
Fine. Whatever. She'd pry it from him later. For now, she slid off the bed with him, her hand still in his, and grabbed his shirt to pull him close before he walked off. "You will tell me later."
"When the time is right." After a quick kiss, he led her out.
When the time was right? That confirmed it—what he said was important to their relationship. What could he be holding back?
She'd find out soon enough, and hoped she wouldn't regret it.
Risaal
{"No wings."}
Rikku Ronur Kalas hissed contempt at the confirmation by his underling, Kin Silur. No wings. Then they couldn't be Inari.
He was so sure he had the right ones after talking to people and learning about those closest to the angel sightings, which could only have been of Inari.
He'd have to report back to Kan Rikku Nakor Surik with nothing. With the temper of the young commander, Kalas would probably lose his head.
Returning with nothing was not an option. They'd stay until they found the "angels".
If these two weren't Inari, who else could be causing such a stir in the community?
He would find them and the Inari would pay for the trouble they had caused his crew.
{"Their bio signatures indicate they aren't human."} Nakor Rik, the third member of their team hiding in the van, showed him the scanner's readings. The frozen images of the two crossing between houses showed their internal anatomy.
Impossible. They looked human on the outside.
Rik was right—Kalas hated one of the Nakor clan being right, but the scanner didn't lie. Although they scanned the two from across the street, the imaging of the bodies of the couple showed respiratory and circulatory systems matching what he had seen of the Inari. Those two weren't human.
But what had happened to their wings? Or were these two something else? Hybrids perhaps?
There was something different about them.
The human faces of his underlings indicated surprise, but the break of brown "skin" into spines along Silur's neck revealed the dark green of his natural Risaal form for a second. The youngest would need practice holding his camouflage, which was one reason Kalas often left him out of sight from humans while he and Rik went out among them for information.
{"They look Inari internally."} Rik tapped a finger on the screen, which changed and showed an image of the moment they scanned them but manipulated to see all angles. {"Externally, they could be human."}
Perhaps all was not lost.
{"Close enough."} Kalas gazed at the images, memorizing the features of the couple. {"We'll go in after they've gone to sleep and take them."}
{"What if they don't know?"}
Kalas clamped his teeth a moment, fighting the urge to let his emotions break the human camouflage he wore. Silur would ask that. He was young, and Kalas would excuse his impertinence…this time.
Kan Rikku Nakor Surik would not forgive him for disturbing the humans and possibly alerting the enemy to their presence.
But the humans were a violent race also and could be blamed for trouble. That made the answer simple: {"Kill them."} They still had the human to torture about the Eye.
Lights Out
Oh, bliss! Oh, joy! Oh, rapture!
Whatever. She had to lay off the thesaurus—one of the joys of memorizing everything like a living recorder, and she could live without that.
Freedom was definitely the right word.
Three days since they last flew felt like an eternity. This was what Raea was meant to be, not a valedictorian writing a stupid speech.
She didn't want to speak in front of her whole class, much less the whole school plus family and friends of everyone. Joy—so not.
And what had Elis done? Nothing. He'd convinced the Principal, Mrs. McKeen, he couldn’t say anything more that Raea could say better. Wimp. He just didn't want to speak in front of everyone, although the whole school would probably pass out from hearing him actually speak. That would make it so worthwhile.
Ah, well. Too late now. If she had the chance, she'd gladly let someone else take her place. Such was her life. A speech was better than facing the Shirukan any day…maybe.
Forget it. Why did she even worry about it? Now was the time to fly and forget about graduation.
She'd probably trip on the steps to the stage where the podium was. She'd be laughed out of McClarron. Or she'd forget something or slip up. Something would go wrong.
Fly. Don't think.
Warm air currents from below lifted her to the starry night sky, but she flapped higher. This was flying!
Elis looped up and spiraled to level off facing her. Show off. Okay, so that was flying. He would always be better; but he'd grown up on the homeworld flying all the time, while she'd spent most of her life without wings having no idea of what she missed. Now she couldn't get enough.
He passed close over
her, the shift in the air currents forcing her to make adjustments in the angles of her wings.
Fine. If that's how he wanted it, then she would give him something to think about. He could follow her.
Raea folded her wings and dove, the patchwork of farmland below growing larger while the wind of her dive pulled tears from her eyes.
["Raea."] Elis's voice came through clear on her tri-comm with a hint of concern. Unlike a phone, the small communications device linked to her auditory nerve, which meant a clarity overriding all interference. She hardly noticed the device attached along her cheek in a line from before her ear to nearly the corner of her mouth. His voice sounded like he was right beside her, and she could almost imagine he was.
Except she shot towards the ground like a missile with the air rushing past her ears. It thrilled her like the dropping ride at big amusement parks.
["Pull up. Pull up. Pull up…"] He mumbled the words, but he might have been whispering them in her ear.
No way. She could do this, and she would prove it. After her trip to Inar'Ahben three weeks ago and the race against the Shirukan, she had more confidence in her flying skills.
["Raea!"]
All right, all right. Just a little more.
That farm below grew fast. All right. Time to break her fall.
At the opening of her wings and the sudden twinge of pain through her back, she gasped. Catching the air like a parachute strained her back muscles and only slowed her fall.
Great. Raea flapped hard to regain her altitude, the farmyard growing but more slowly beneath her. Each stroke of her wings sent a sharp pain through her back muscles.
Ow! Ow! Ow! Maybe Elis was right. He was always right. Damn him.
Idiot! She should've listened to him and pulled up sooner, before she accelerated to such a speed.
Slowly, she climbed again, Elis next to her.
["Are you all right?"]
["No."] She sucked in a breath through her teeth at the twinge of pain with each flap. ["You should have warned me."]
["Would you have listened?"]
No, but that didn't mean he couldn't have tried harder. Against the star-sprinkled sky, she could see nothing of his black wings or his body, dressed all in black and dark colors as he was, and only a somewhat lighter area of his face. She imagined an expression somewhere between hurt and worry. Damn. Elis was way too good at guilt-tripping, and he didn't have to say anything or even be visible. ["Okay, probably not."]
He stayed with her, climbing from the scattered farms shrinking on the grid of fields and pastures below. She recognized the L pattern of the shelterbelt around one with the placement of two big pines near the ranch-style house, which stood across the yard from a corral and barn.
The Lake house. The family had been murdered while their son was at college. Pallin had murdered them to clear a place to keep her until he returned. Pallin had fooled everyone into believing he was a simple exchange student. If they only knew what he had really been and what he had done. The Shirukan had come for her twice—Pallin being only the first—and they would come again.
It all returned in vivid detail with the realization of where they were.
"Oh, God."
Raea stared, too stunned to say anything more, her mind bombarded by everything from two months ago; yet she had been unconscious the whole time Pallin had hung her by her arms from the floor joists in the basement of that house, waiting…
.
Black wings lifted from the shadow at the top of the stairs. Elis stepped into the light, exchanged words with Pallin, and they fought.
When it ended, Elis untied her and lowered her to the ground, tears trickling down his cheeks. ["You're safe now."] He kissed her cheek and held her close. ["I'm sorry."]
With her cradled in his arms, he carried her out. He paused frequently, his breathing heavy and his side bleeding. Outside, he lifted into the night and flew her to Evelyn's back yard. Rather than taking her to her own home, he carried her inside and up the stairs, where he laid her in his bed and covered her. Seconds later, he crashed on the other side of the bed, blood crusting over a rip in his coat.
.
The first time she realized Elis cared for her to the extent he would risk his life. That memory from the Starfire she considered one of the dearest. He was her life now.
Amid the memories, she discovered she couldn't move her wings and something squeezed her waist. For a second, she panicked, but the present rushed back and calmed her.
Elis.
Oh, God. He could have been squeezing out a sponge; the tears poured out of control in that instant of realization, her emotions overflowing with them.
["Don't think about it,"] he murmured. ["He's gone. I won't let anyone hurt you."]
He knew what bothered her. His memory was as precise as hers, except he had fought for her and had been injured by Pallin, all for her.
["I know."] Raea glanced down at the shrinking farm, reassuring herself that the past could no longer hurt her. Elis lifted her higher, his arms secure and strong, a wall blocking the outside world and the pain it could wreak on her.
At a gliding speed, she twisted to face him in flight and tucked her wings close to her back. With her arms and legs around him and his arms around her, she buried her face in his shirt to dry the tears. The faint musky scent of his body filled her with peace and the good memories of being with him, burying the bad memories haunting her nightmares. His arms tightened around her, but his wings flapped harder. She should separate to spare him the work, but she needed him close, and in the sky, they were truly alone and where they belonged. He never complained or loosened his hold—Elis never would—but worked harder.
["You'll never be alone."] His whisper came through softly on the tri-comm. ["When they come back, I'll be here."]
When, not if. The Shirukan would be back; they had both accepted that, although neither of them liked it.
Raea reached around him under the jacket and pressed close so his heart beat in her ears. The wind blew strands of hair loose from her braid to tickle the exposed side of her face. Her angel, Elis, was there for her, as he had been for nearly two years before she learned the truth. She felt selfish for wanting him all to herself, but he had come to Earth for her, not to save the world.
["It's time to practice,"] he said quietly. ["We're far from everything."]
She twisted and saw the yard lights of farms below on the grid of dark earth and grassy pastures. She could no longer tell which one was the Lake farm.
In his arms, she turned again, her wings to his chest. He held her middle while she focused on forming the portal. The resonance warmed through her, illuminating the Starburst marks on her palms and backs of her hands and the crystal shard hanging at her chest. Raea focused on the pyramids and the desert and let the Starfire entities guide her to feel the weight of the energy of their dimension connecting to the matter of another place. It pulled at her and surrounded her with an almost tangible thickness pressing under her skin and burning through her body. The entire universe opened to her at once but focused on the destination she sought.
The wind picked up around the black ball forming in the sky, and lightning flashed around it.
Dear God! She was doing it. Stay focused!
The energy collected in the expanding orb while she maintained the resonance, until the black ball exploded in a burst of lightning that left a black disk. The wind whipped around it.
Elis dropped slightly, leaving her heart in her throat, and parted from her. She struggled against the wind, her eyes on the disk. ["I actually did it."]
["I knew you could."]
["You're too trusting."] At least of her skills. Then again, she did have guidance from the entities teaching her how to focus their energy for different tasks.
She'd have to scan the internet to see if news of a black hole over the pyramids showed up. Then she would know for sure she had done it right, and it would likely happen, at least among scientists. S
ince returning from Inar'Ahben, she had applied herself fully to understanding the interdimensional portals formed by the entities. No more getting taken away from Earth and getting stuck.
Although he flapped away from the portal pulling them towards it, Elis looked like he floated on a breeze. Amid the shifting currents of air, Raea flapped hard to keep her place, let alone focus on the resonance to maintain it.
["Now, let it fade,"] he said.
Let it fade. Right. Easier done than said, which had surprised her the first time she had opened a portal. Raea shifted her focus to flying, releasing the resonance to nothing.
Slowly, the disk shrank, the gravity lessening while she watched, until the black disk collapsed in upon itself and disappeared, leaving the wind to settle.
A familiar song played from her pocket—her cell phone ringer. Who would be calling now?
One idea jumped ahead of the others; pulling out the cell confirmed it.
["Josh?"] Elis passed overhead, but his voice sounded right next to her because of the tri-comm.
["How'd you guess?"] It wasn't like her friend wasn't obsessed with watching them while they were flying or fascinated by her emerging abilities with the Starfire energy. And it wasn't like he didn't watch them every single night. Nope; nothing of the sort.
Raea flipped it open and cut off the song. "Hey, Josh."
"Was that you?" He sounded far too excited.
"Yes. I opened a portal."
"Wicked cool, Raea! I could see the lightning from here and could kind of see you."
Great. Just what she wanted to hear—that she was exposed. Then again, Josh watched with binoculars and had a heads up from her where they would be, and at least it came from him and not a stranger.
Still, he had other things to do and she didn't like every move being watched. "Shouldn't you be studying?"
"Yeah, but…you know…It's always more fun watching you guys."
Crystal Tomb (Starfire Angels: Dark Angel Chronicles Book 3) Page 3