by Lexi Ostrow
A tap to her shoulder and she turned her head and frowned. “Ciara it would be wise if you would go to the bathroom and come through the doorway I'll open. No, this isn't optional and if you refuse, I can just as easily freeze time. I don't like interfering that way and you have time before your flight.”
The man in the trench coat didn't wait for her to answer. Just turned and walked into the women's restroom. “Hmm wonder how many times he's used that little trick to spy on people.” Rounding the corner she was grateful the restroom was empty even during the evening hours at such a busy airport. Seeing the shimmering doorway she stepped into it, shocked that there was nothing on the inside, just shimmering colors and the man who seemed to be some sort of god.
“What's going on? How did you know I could do that now?”
He laughed and smiled at her. “Ciara Miller there is nothing I do not know. Should I choose to, I can see it all where Word Speakers are concerned.” He waved his hand and more doorways opened showing more people.
“I don't know whether to be increasingly disturbed by you or in awe that there are so many of us.” She reached out to touch, to stick her hand through one, and he smacked it down.
“Absolutely not.”
She scowled at him, but he ignored it.
“There are a few hundred of you, yes. But I would hardly call that a lot with the ratio of people in the world. We normally don't like you all to meet. No real reason other than for all we know it could cause a rush of characters to enter the world and we have no idea what that would cause. I bet you don't realize the records I alter when a character is released. I do need the soldiers, but I don't need to test fate and wind up having a ghost in the system. Which would lead to me worrying when one of them would be caught and put in jail because they were technically never born.”
She was quiet as she listened and squared her shoulders. “I don't know why I'm here, but I want to know something. If you won't answer I can promise I'll try my hardest to get through these doorways no matter what you think could happen.”
He looked displeased, but nodded. “Fair enough. Ask two questions and then we must discuss why I wanted to see you.”
“What is the deal behind all of this? How do I know this world, where I live is real?”
His laughter was genuine again and she was intrigued to see the smile touched his eyes as he laughed. “I have no proof to give you. Except that when this was all explained to me it was simply asserted as a given that we were real and the creations in books were merely that, creations. Could we be pawns as well? Well, my dear, I don't see why not, but I personally do not believe so and I am quite powerful as I'm sure you could guess.”
The idea of being most definitely real set aside some of the fear she'd had. She'd wanted to ask him that since she was thirteen. Better late than never. “Good. What's the point in me,” she gestured at the doorways, “in all of us?”
He sighed and rather than talking projected images onto the swirling walls. “This is a future.” The images changed and she flinched at what appeared to be utter destruction. “This is another. According to the god that told me these rules, a Mayan God before you ask, either of these futures is possible and is only possible because of people with your powers. How he knew? What the reason is behind your power? I don't know. All I know is he came to us when we still used pictures to tell stories and it was hundreds of years before words and Word Speakers arrived. He assigned my brother and I to watch over you, to make sure that those summoned from books, those given the gift of life, would remain in balance until these futures begin, because sooner or later one will.”
She knew she was staring blankly at him. He was confusing her, but she thought she was following. “Ok so I get the rest. I can summon good or evil when I turn twenty-seven, but I only get to choose which once. Do people really chose evil?”
“Ciara, that is three questions. But yes. There are plenty of control hungry people out there who enjoy destruction and evil. It is not my place to judge them, but I do. I want the first future I showed you. Thus I work with the Word Speakers who chose to walk the path I have chosen. My brother takes the rest. Now can we move to my point?”
She nodded and he smiled. It was weird, she liked seeing him smile. “There is a Word Speaker near you in California. He's twenty-six and is straddling the line. He has called forth both the good and bad from books. As you can imagine bad is relative and sometimes he just picks a drug dealer to help him get a fix.”
“And?”
His smile was wider this time. “And I want you to help him decide to pick the other path. It is done sometimes and I do not think it to be an issue from time to time for you to meet. You share a bloodline after all to some extent. Do you agree?”
“Why now? Is he almost twenty-seven?”
“Yes in mere months. He had been with his last Guardian for two years. An ex con with a penchant for pain, but overall reformed. But now he has one strictly from my side of the fence so to speak and he frightens her. He is weak compared to you and his decision will not sway the future much, but each person counts. So you go help him, he can show you some things. Maybe explain any other questions and it will take your mind off Stryder. Who by the way is alive, but fighting for his life, so don't give up on him.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. Her heart was lighter with the knowledge Stryder was alive, but she still feared for his.“When will he be back? How much longer, can I pull him away?”
“No. He is bound to the rules of his world. As all Guardians are, but your case is screwy because of so many years with a Guardian that fought to stay and you subconsciously fought to keep. Now we don't have any more time for questions. Do you agree or not?”
“Yes.” He took her by the elbow and pointed at a doorway. “Go on through, his name is Dale and he's expecting you.” With that, the man was gone. Just like he always was.
“Ok, Ciara, let's go make a friend.”
Chapter 25
Stepping through the doorway she waved as the guy sitting at his desk chair smiled. It was weird, he seemed so unconcerned at her arrival. His hair was blonde and awfully combed over. His build was lithe, but not muscular and he had wire rimmed glasses perched on his nose. He didn't bother to stand, but thrust his hand out at her.
“You must be Ciara. Dale.”
She nodded and tentatively shook his hand. As soon as she did he grinned and spun himself around in the chair to face his computer again.
“I've been waiting for you. Dude told me you were coming, apparently before he told you.” He pulled something up on the screen and nodded at it. “Take a look.”
Curious she bent over him and gasped even as she read the words out loud, “Everything you need to know about being a Word Speaker.” Her jaw hung open a bit and she turned the rolling chair around so he faced her. “What is this?”
He sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face. “Man you can read, but really? It is what it says it is. It's a page of information I've put together over the years on us. I was told this was to be a trade off. I give you information and you were supposed to rub off on me.” He shrugged like he didn't all together care very much what happened.
“Yes, but for some reason, well, I didn't expect you to be able to write information down like that and put it where it could easily be exposed. Couldn't someone, you know, find it?”
He actually snorted this time and she was beginning to wonder how the man in the trench coat could think she could help him. The guy was clearly a self absorbed jerk. “It's not like I saved this anywhere. Don't be daft. I typed it up when the proposition was made to me. Plain and simple.” He kicked his legs up on his desk after spinning the chair back around.
“Not that I really mind offending you at this point in time, but what the fuck are you getting out of all of this except clearly getting to act like a superior jerk?” Her voice had some bite to it and she felt bad, but it had been a long fucking day. A plane ride, a massive miscommunication with Derri
ck and now him. Not wanted or needed.
“Well supposedly we're supposed to hang out and help each other. Which means at some point my Guardian, Nessa, may come back. I fucked up with her. I told her if the people in her book caught her it wouldn't be that bad. I'd meant I'd come get her somehow. Not that I didn't care. So that, and you're supposed to be strong and I'd love to see what you can do.” He flicked his wrist and the water cup next to his desk spilled over. “My current Guardian is a mermaid shifter, I didn't get too many cool powers so I'd love to see yours.”
She nodded slowly, trying to take everything in. She had a good feeling this Nessa girl may have left him for being a jerk too. But she wouldn't voice that just yet. “Your attitude wouldn't perhaps be because you're not a strong Word Speaker would it?”
He scowled and she saw it in the computer screen. “I don't really like to talk about that.”
Bingo. She sat down on the bed corner near the computer. “So what you're saying is yes?”
His head shake made her laugh and when he turned to glare at her, she thought he resembled an angry puppy more than a terror striking male. Her laughter got the better of her and it was a few minutes before she could stop. “Sorry, it's just, well I think you're on the wrong side of the fence in whatever it is we are a part of because no one takes you seriously.”
He was quiet and she had thought he was ignoring her and opened her mouth to speak again, but he finally did. “They make me feel powerful, the ones that aren't so pure and innocent. Alive.”
She couldn't say she understood where he was coming from. But she understood how nice it felt to be noticed. “But what if they're only noticing you because they want you to free them? What if they don't really care about you?”
“Well they do ok. My first Guardian was one of the “bad guys” as you're so obviously thinking of them. Kyla, and she wasn't evil. She'd just been brought into the world to do evil. So don't judge me or them.”
The water cup rose and slammed into the wall and she mentally wondered if she could summon something other than fire. Fire against water seemed pretty stupid to her. Hands raised she focused on sparks and smirked as she saw a few lone sparks leap off her left hand. “Not a bad start, Ci.” Her pride was cut when he laughed.
“Shit, you don't even know what you can do? Damn.” He grabbed the plastic up from the floor and set it on the desk again. “I'm sorry. Rough week. Nessa and I just met. It was um, intense, but I'm sure you understand. Then I misspoke and she took off. I don't know how to get her back short of getting into trouble and something tells me that's a stupid idea.”
She chuckled and walked back to the desk, wondering if his attitude had just been a defensive barrier. Using the mouse she scrolled quickly down the page. “You can't just go there?”
“No, but I heard you could and damn would it be nice to be able to see her, her world. Any of them really.” Her heart tightened for him a little. He might have all this information, but he wasn't enjoying his gift.
Eyes still scanning the computer she was confused because he'd listed at least a hundred bullet points on the page. A low whistle came from her. She didn't even think she knew a hundred things. “How did you get so much information? I have next to none.”
His tone was flippant and she wanted to shoot some power at him just because she could. “Be the unwanted, people talk because they don't care what you know because you aren't a threat.”
“I'm not going to lie. You rubbed me the wrong way.” She extended her hand. “So let's try again without the dramatics, K? I'm Ciara.”
He actually blushed and she smiled, shaking his hand. “Dale. And sorry. I've been told more than once by the brother that I'm worthless and he would trade me away.” He shrugged looking quite uncomfortable. “But it's all I really have making me kind of special, that I chose dark.”
She had stopped listening. Who were they talking about? Who had a brother? “Um, I'm sorry. A brother?”
His mouth hung open just a little and he frowned. “Damn, with all your power, why don't you know very much? He didn't say you didn't not know this much.”
“Double negative,” she muttered.
“Excuse me?”
“Nothing, you just used a double negative. Sorry. Writer in training.”
Dale nodded. “Not me. Purely a reader on my end. The guy who sent you here? The mysterious one who is in charge? His brother apparently knows he can't hook you, so he's stayed away. But, wait do you know about the war that's supposedly coming?”
“I was recently made aware, yes.” Her eyes narrowed to slits and she was beginning to want nothing to do with this game if she could avoid it and keep Stryder. “Let me sum it up. I have had two Guardians. I am using powers I didn't even know I had and yes I'm aware the man who comes to me is in opposition with someone. Aside from that? Hmm let's see. I'm twenty-five, recently out of a wonderful relationship that was going nowhere fast, dream of being a writer, oh and the intensity with Nessa? I basically let my Guardian, Stryder, fuck me standing upright the minute we met, so no judgment on my part.” His eyebrows knitted together and she couldn't wait to hear what he thought. “Oh and yea, I pretty much can do anything a witch, can since my powers take lingering energy or something like that.”
“Well to counter act that I'm twenty-six, birthday’s in a few months. I've had eleven Guardians. I can't go world hopping or whatever your power is. I can fight my own battles and do get powers akin to my Guardian. I have no clue why you told me your sex life, but if we're doing the quick bonding then yea, pretty much the same with Nessa and every other I've had. But two Guardians? Shit what was that like?”
“Nice. Complete. But wait, you've had the same connection to Nessa with everyone of them?” Bile rose in her throat at the idea that she wasn't really supposed to be with Stryder after she had finally decided she wanted him no matter the consequences.
“Yup, uncontrollable, mind blowing lust every single time.” He grinned wickedly at her. “Why not the same with you?”
“Well no actually. But I did experience attraction to my first Guardian. But he was like a brother.” She scrunched her nose up thinking about all the times she'd wanted more from Alcott and was quite happy he'd never let her because their relationship had been perfect the way it was. “But my current one, I'd call it way more than lust. So does he.”
“Hey put that freaky fireball out will ya?” She looked down and hadn't even realized she had done it. “I wasn't trying to insult you. I'm guessing you're in love with this guy. Cool, I didn't know we could form relationships long enough for that to happen. Can't say I'd mind being with a Guardian long enough to do that.”
“In all honesty it was only about two weeks. He's missing now.” Her voice wavered and she cursed at herself. “I was just told that he's ok, but it's hard without him. I can't read and I can't write and before you ask why, it's because I don't know about you, but I've noticed I unconsciously open a doorway when I do that.”
“Hmm I hate to ask stupid questions. But you seem to have a ton of shit in your arsenal. Why don't you just let loose and take them down?”
“I did the other day at work of all places. But I don't know how I'd fare if a group of them came at me.”
“A group!” His voice raised and she could hear the panic lacing it. “Shit I've never seen more than one of anything.”
“My turn to not be rude. Why are you in need of a Guardian if only one thing can even attack you. I mean you have some power there, why need someone else?”
“Beats me. Honestly I guess because most of us only have a tiny bit of power and these doorways can open at any time when you're reading. Not sure if not doing those things helps. Maybe you're just clamping down so hard on thinking about anything involving that world that when you did do something creative you undid it?”
His theory made a ton of sense. Maybe the moments she'd thought about Stryder she had been somehow holding the enemy back, knowing she could because of doing it to him, twic
e. “Dale, can you toss them back in when you don't want them? Your Guardians?”
He shook his head. “Nope. I mean I can lock them out if they've stepped back through, but I can't toss them back. I'm guessing you can. Damn. Ok new idea, why don't you read a little. If I know a reader the book is somewhere in that suitcase you tugged through. If anything comes through we can deal with it together. I'm not much, but I'd bet Nessa would come if we needed her, they can always sense it, but I bet you know that.”
The idea didn't sit well with her. “Dale, I don't think so.”
“Come on. I'm supposed to teach you. Maybe it's how to do this. I'm so bored because I just haven't started a new book. Come on, Ci, humor me?”
A sigh escaped her and she knew then that she was going to do it. “Fine, but only because I really do want more information on my Guardian.” Tugging the book from her suitcase she plopped down on the bed and stretched out without asking and immersed herself in Stryder's world.
Chapter 26
Forty five pages later she heard Dale clear his throat. She looked up and saw him pointing toward the living room. “Might want to go see what you've done.”
Raising a brow she sat up and put the book down to look. She stared at the shimmering doorway. She could see the other side just fine and it made her a little sick. She was looking at the demon bar from the book. Well what was left of it. It was still in shambles and the bodies were everywhere. “I thought they cleaned it up?”
“I don't know what you're talking about, but be careful, there are men in uniforms walking around and since I won't pretend to know the books I don't want to be seen.”
She nodded and took a step to the side of the portal. Sure enough a few moments later an Initiative solider walked past the doorway. “NO!” Her shriek was loud, too loud. The man that had walked by bounded backwards. “Why did they hear me? Ugh another rule change?”