Crystal Tomb (Starfire Angels: Dark Angel Chronicles Book 3)

by Melanie Nilles

  "We're only a line item under the Homeland Defense budget."

  "Homeland Defense? You think we're terrorists?" Great. Now Earth didn't want them.

  "No. But that crystal is a threat in the wrong hands. We allowed Padina to live freely in this country as long as she presented no harm." Anita shrugged. "I understand not just anyone can touch it, but you could do a lot of damage if you wanted."

  True. Raea had done a lot of damage, but only to those who attacked her for it. "I have no intention of hurting anyone." Not even Pallin—the entities of the Starfire had done that.

  "Raea's always the one getting hurt," Nare said.

  The harsh lines of Anita's face softened. "I know. I'm sorry I couldn't help you in either case, although you can rest assured that all video evidence by the Xplorer Channel crew was confiscated."

  "In either case?" Raea couldn't believe this. "What else do you know about me?"

  "I know about the Shirukan who came and took you away. I also know now that you disappeared a few nights ago because of other aliens on this world seeking the Starfire. Debbie said they call themselves Risaal."

  Damn. Those sharp eyes pierced her confidence. Raea wilted under that stare. No denying it; she might as well tell Anita what she could. Maybe the woman would actually, like, help. "That's right. Creepy, chameleon things that can look like any person or blend into any setting."

  "Interesting. I need to know more about them and where they are."

  "Why?" Suspicions swept through her. "What will you do?" What about the Starfire in the monolith? Anita didn't know and Raea didn't want her to know. It wasn’t for humans.

  "I'm authorized to use any force necessary to take them into custody."

  Into custody?

  "They won't bother you again."

  Small assurance that was. "What about the next time or the time after that? Without Elis…" Emotions burned inside her again, cooling only with the tears filling her eyes. Damn. And she had done well for a while with the distraction of the Starfire. A sympathetic touch from Nare calmed her.

  After a long silence, Anita said, "I'm sorry about your friend. Debbie said you lost him."

  "They were more than friends," Nare said.

  An awkward silence followed in which Raea hoped Anita took a hint and left. She didn't need this.

  "I can help you, if you'll let me. I don't want to see anyone gain that little crystal you wear. None of us do."

  "If it's so important to keep the Starfire protected, why did you let anyone near us in the first place? Where were your special agents or forces or whatever when the Risaal found us?" Raea wiped her eyes and choked down the accusations.

  Shadows played on Anita's face with the shifting of her jaw. "As I said, we're a line item. There are only a handful of us. We can't be everywhere."

  "Tell that to Elis. You should have been there for him!" This was sounding worse by the moment. Everything out of the woman's mouth inspired a new rage inside Raea. Anita could have helped, but she hadn't.

  "I'm sorry."

  Whatever. Anita wasn't sorry. She was just concerned about the crystal. She didn't care about anyone who died.

  "If you could tell me where to find the Risaal, we'll make sure they leave you alone."

  Alone. She was already alone without Elis. Anita and her agency had failed.

  ["What about the monolith?"]

  Raea winced. Yeah, that. Nare would remind her. She didn't want anyone taking it away from her chance to free it or risk it falling into Shirukan or Risaal hands, or even the wrong person on Earth. Freedom in the sky would be the last freedom she would think about if that happened. She had a duty to the Starfire as a Keeper.

  What would Anita do if she knew about it?

  Why did she have to make these decisions now?

  Anita watched her with an intensity that made her want to curl up and hide. She had to do something to make the woman leave. "I don't know." And that was true about both the issues. "It was dark and I was crying. I just flew and ended up finding familiar landmarks to guide me home."

  "Then it was close."

  "I suppose." Damn, the woman was quick.

  ["You can find it again?"] Nare spoke in a low voice.

  ["Yes. I think. It's east of here somewhere."]

  Nare rolled her eyes and let out a heavy breath. ["Can you retrace your flight?"]

  ["Maybe. I don't know. I wasn't even looking where I was. Elis was dead. I was lucky to find my way home."] Tears blurred her vision. Dammit, Nare. She of all people could have shown a little more sympathy.

  ["I'm sorry. Maybe…Maybe we can detect the crystal somehow."]

  Raea wiped her eyes. ["It's shielded, but it sensed my shard when I touched the stone. It connected with me. But it's underground. I don't know…"] If there was any way, maybe they could find it. ["We might need her help. If she knows the locations of the old missile silos in the state..."]

  Nare's lips twisted. ["A last resort. First we find this other shard you mentioned. If it allows me as its Keeper, maybe we can combine their powers to find the other crystal."] Raea could only hope Nare was right.

  Anita watched them, a finely plucked eyebrow lifting in curiosity. Raea hated that. Hated. Hated. Hated. Hated. The woman irritated her, although at the back of her mind she knew the hatred came from the loss of the man she loved more deeply than anyone.

  Her chest ached again. She covered her heart with her hand.

  "Can you tell me more about where these Risaal are?"

  "No." Damn, her chest ached. Now she knew what a broken heart was.

  After a long pause, Anita said, "All right. Call me if you think of anything else. Debbie has my number."

  Raea nodded, agreeing only so the woman would leave.

  After Anita closed the main door behind her, Raea sat down on the steps. So much at once. Why did she have to endure this? Why did Elis have to die? Why did there have to be other aliens after the Starfire? She wanted to run away and hide and cry like she needed to about Elis.

  [I am sorry, but now the stakes are higher. You must hurry in your quest.]

  "Yeah, I know," she mumbled, a bit surprised by Atia's input. Atia didn't have to remind her, though. She'd finish the job eventually.

  She was no fighter. Sure, she'd had to fight the Shirukan, but that was different. At least she could fly openly on Inar'Ahben and hadn't been trying to rescue a Starfire shard. On Earth, she had to completely hide what she was and still fight to save her life and protect the Starfire.

  Her life totally sucked.

  Nare's lip curled up in a hint of a snarl. "That was annoying, but she could be useful."

  "How?"

  "I don't know. Information?" Nare shrugged and rubbed Raea's shoulder. "Don't worry about it. You're not alone, Raea. I will help you…for Elis's sake. He might have been a pain growing up, but he was my cousin and a good person. He deserved to live."

  A seed of gratitude sprouted to overcome the grief. Raea embraced Nare, her eyes burning with fresh tears form an emotion other than grief. "Thank you."

  If all went well, that evening she and Nare would visit Egypt.

  If all went better, they might even find the Risaal and end the whole problem that night. Tomorrow she could mourn Elis.

  Unexpected Ally

  Crystal fire. His chest stung where the injury healed, but he was tired of sitting still. If he didn't get moving, the Risaal would kill him or recapture Raea. He had to stop them. He had to regain his strength. Lying on his back would get him nowhere.

  He had to get moving.

  Elis gasped, his wings tight to his back as he sat up in the open pod where he had lain for too long. The faint glow from the pod illuminated a room of humming machinery and another pod on the opposite side, in use if the glow through the glass meant anything.

  The Risaal had fed him but they hadn't offered any new clothes. He shivered in the chill of the room.

  If he was a real angel, none of this would have been a
concern, but he wasn't. He was mortal with physical needs and weaknesses. In some ways, he wished he could believe in real angels, like Josh and Evelyn and other humans sought in times of need; but he had only himself.

  And Raea had only him to protect her from this new enemy. That meant getting up and getting out. When it came to protecting Raea, he would do all he could to keep her alive and safe.

  He wouldn't fail her.

  Damn, it hurt. The wound had scabbed and now was only the size of a quarter in diameter. In a couple days it would be closed. But the blast had burned the flesh down to his bones, the only thing that had saved him from instant death. Those bones had been damaged and now hurt with every movement. They would take longer to heal than the soft tissues.

  He slid his legs off and found the floor to stand.

  After lying on his back for several days, standing made the room spin. Crystal fire.

  He collapsed to his hands and knees, his chest aching.

  Raea… He wouldn't fail her again. He wouldn't fail her like he had failed his family. He would regain his strength and do what had to be done.

  Elis would claim the fifth shard and use it to protect her.

  Together, he and Raea would find the Eye. She could open a portal to Egypt and take him with her, but he could only hope the entities of that shard would accept him. Together, they could stop the Risaal and maybe the Shirat Empire. Then, they could live in peace.

  He had to move. He had to recover.

  After the spinning sensation settled, Elis pushed himself off the floor and stood, the ache in his chest like someone tearing him apart. He stood on trembling legs, cold sweat chilling him into shivers. He was up. That's all that mattered.

  He couldn't let the Risaal know how fast he healed. He'd have to stay close to the pod until he was strong enough to face them again and lie down before they saw him. Another day, maybe two.

  A few small steps felt like a big achievement. So far so good.

  The click of the door made him whirl.

  Too fast. The room continued spinning after he stopped and he fell to his hands and knees.

  "No. No. No." Feet padded quickly to him and hands secured his shoulders. "You should be resting."

  He knew that voice, the one called Dar Lorel, a neutral voice neither feminine nor masculine. Yet she preferred the form of a woman; at least he assumed it was a she. In their natural state, they all looked alike. In his mind, Dar Lorel was a female.

  If nothing else, she seemed to care more than the other Risaal. At the moment, she tried to help him up.

  Unfortunately, the spinning room made him nauseous to the point of lying on his side on the cold, hard floor. Dar Lorel squatted next to him, waiting.

  "You should not be up yet. We're not ready. Kan Rikku Nakor Surik must not know of this."

  Odd—she almost sounded concerned. "Why do you care?" The words mumbled from his lips while he tried to focus on making the room settle again.

  "You will be bound and likely tortured. He is Nakor, the cruel masters of our world…or were." Her voice dropped into something bordering on regretful. "The clans will never know peace, I fear."

  He opened his eyes to her face hovering near him and blinked to clear his vision. Her human face gave nothing away, but her words hinted of something more.

  Hope filled him with strength to push up from the floor, but it was her strength that lifted him to the mat of the pod.

  As he lay back, she adjusted his wings. He settled into the mat again and breathed easier. Would she help him as more than a medic?

  He had nothing to lose asking. A minute ago, he had assumed all Risaal hated him and wanted him tortured or dead. Now it seemed one might not.

  "You're not like the others," he said.

  In the light from the pod, her lips twitched, but her eyes fixed on a scanner in her hands. "You're not like the Inari from our time."

  What did that mean? How was he different? "Your time?"

  "Twelve thousand Earth years."

  Yes. They had told him; they had followed the Miru and the refugees to Earth. "Right." One other question bothered him, and she might be willing to answer it. "How many…Risaal?"

  "Twenty-six, including myself…As Kalas explained, our ship was nearly falling apart by the time we came out of slipstream and our engines were damaged beyond repair. We set the autopilot to track the trajectory of the Miru ship and went into stasis for the months of travel to reach this world. Without full power, the ship crashed and never woke us. It took a team of human miners discovering our ship to wake us. By then, the power cells had depleted to support only thirty-five out of over two thousand. We lost three more while settling on this world in this time and searching for the refugees, those who escaped and were suspected to have the D'Nuvar. You and your mate took out six more."

  That explained everything, except one. "You're willing to tell me this?"

  She twisted around to stare at the door for a few seconds. No one entered, but someone could have been waiting outside, or even inside in their camouflage.

  When she turned back, the skin of her neck broke apart into spikes and reformed, and she leaned close. "You have to understand," she said in a low voice. "I am the only one who survived. You're right—I'm not like the others. I was part of a reform movement. This never should have happened. We thought you were better protected from invasion. The others...They intended to rid the Nakor of their power, but it had to go off our world, to disappear. Your consular visit provided the perfect opportunity. We didn't think your world would fall so easily. I'm sorry for the trouble we caused."

  An Inari consular visited their homeworld? Rebels sent the Starfire with them? Something didn't fit together.

  "You are—were—controlled by a dominant clan?"

  "Yes."

  "And they used the Starfire—D'Nuvar—to claim power over the others."

  "Yes."

  "And some rebels sent the crystal with an Inari ambassador."

  "Yes, as a gift. We thought it would be safe from the Nakor on your world…We were wrong." Her hand touched his, the fake skin cool against his.

  "So…you'll help me?"

  Dar Lorel inhaled deeply and returned her attention to the scanner. "I'll do what I can, but Nakor Surik must not suspect. His second, Rikku Ronur Kalas, is no better. I suspect he seeks power for himself, but he believes I am on his side."

  Wow. She played all sides against the middle. "A bit dangerous."

  The spikes along her neck broke apart again, shifting along a segment from low on her neck upwards. "My life is irrelevant. Keeping the D'Nuvar from returning to our world is all that matters."

  Okay. This could work to his advantage. "Then you're on my side?"

  "You could say that."

  Good enough for him. Elis let out a heavy sigh, which melted all tension from his body to be replaced by the comfort of relief. She was an ally, not the enemy. Perhaps all was not lost. "After I decipher the monolith, will you help me escape to reach the Starfire first?"

  She hesitated and glanced back to the door again. "I only wish the others not to claim any parts of it…Help me destroy this base and the others and you will never be troubled again."

  His stomach twisted at the prospects of taking so many lives, especially when not all sought to kill Inari. No matter the trouble they caused, they deserved a chance to build a better future. Nor could he destroy the monolith, a doorway to the past of his species.

  "There must be another choice."

  "No. Half are Nakor. The others gather behind Kalas, eager to take over and become the masters."

  Nothing was ever simple. Two groups sought dominance, neither better than the other, if what Dar Lorel said was true. She was little better in her willingness to sacrifice so many of her own kind. The Risaal were a violent species. Perhaps everyone was better off if they were gone.

  But it wasn't his place to judge them. He was one. Surely there must have been some good in the species, or his peopl
e would not have made the effort to establish diplomatic relations.

  Besides, Inari were no better with their periodic uprisings for power causing wars throughout their history. The rise of Shirat Marin and her elite Shirukan soldiers was only the most recent. They were in no place to claim righteousness.

  "If you wish peace for you and your mate, both must be destroyed."

  She was probably right, but Keepers didn't kill. All Inari valued life, except those who followed Empress Marin.

  "Are there no others who share your ideals?"

  Her eyes dropped and she shook her head. "None among the survivors."

  Interesting. If he read between the lines, there had been other revolutionaries on their ship who wanted only peace for their world, but she was the only one with those beliefs among the crew who had survived stasis. "I'm sorry."

  "It is too late for regrets."

  Her head jerked up and turned again to the door. Silence surrounded them among the hum of machinery powering the two pods.

  "No more," she whispered.

  After a couple seconds, the door handle clicked.

  Another Risaal entered in their natural form. Dar Lorel bowed her head. "Rikku Ronur Kalas."

  "How is he?" The slits along his face widened and narrowed. He stopped next to Dar Lorel, who returned her attention to the device in her hand, but her eyes flicked to Elis for a brief instant.

  Elis took the point—pretend nothing happened. She was on his side, and if he wanted to survive, he had to pretend he knew nothing of it.

  Dar Lorel pointed to something on the device. "His bones are still weak here. Those will take longer to heal. The tissues are mending quickly. At this rate, in two days the wound will be completely sealed, but the bones will yet be weak."

  "Can he move?" Ronur Kalas's eyes dropped to him. Elis tightened his fingers into fists, struggling to restrain the desire to fight. He wasn't ready.

  "He is weak and needs nourishment. That will aid his recovery."

  The slits on the Risaal's face widened and narrowed while spikes extended down his neck to his chest and shifted before settling back to the dark green. "Do it. He must be ready today or we seek the female. No more waiting."