Unaltered #2_A Diamond in my Heart

by Lorena Angell

  After removing the drug, I checked for any other ailment or injury and found nothing. “There,” I whispered as my throat was still choked with emotion, “good as new.” I reached forward with my other hand and stroked his cheek.

  He opened his eyes and leaned forward taking me in his arms and pulling me close to his body, his mouth descending to mine, but before our lips touched the shard in my heart shifted. I cried out in pain and shrank back from him. He released his hold.

  “Calli, what’s wrong?” he asked. His concern touched my soul.

  Charles, Curtis and Brand came over and sat down. Brand asked, “Are you alright, Calli?”

  I rubbed my chest between my breasts as the pain subsided. “Yes, I’m fine. Our shards got a little too close, that’s all.”

  Chris reached forward and placed his hand over mine which was pressed against my chest. “Calli, why does it hurt down here when your amulet is near your throat?”

  I was shocked that I’d actually slipped up like that and that he caught onto it. I looked into the faces of the four men in front of me who were all thinking the same question and tried to come up with an excuse or explanation. I thought that I could try to explain why my heart hurts and if it wasn’t well received Brand could repeat the time and undo it—but Brand would still remember. I decided to follow my gut and go ahead and tell why my heart hurts.

  “Justin is rounding up the amulet wearers in the hopes of reuniting the shards and extracting the powers from the reassembled stone and so far he has four of the six pieces. He told me a Hunter was about to be captured and delivered to his little fortress but he still needs to find one last piece. He thinks the witch Maetha has it, probably because she’s the one who orchestrated the delivery and then assembled the amulets for the clans. But he’s wrong. She doesn’t have it; I have it.”

  Charles said, “I don’t understand.”

  I continued, “Without all six pieces, Justin won’t be able to complete the reassemble. The amulet I wear is from the Healers Clan, but the sixth shard is in me.”

  Brand stuttered, “Like, what… like in your pocket?”

  “I have a diamond piece in my heart.” I paused while the four men tried to comprehend what I’d said. Their collective expressions told me that wouldn’t be anytime soon. “When the Death Clan tried to extract the powers of the diamond and it exploded, a shard entered my heart and stopped it. Maetha healed my heart around the shard and restarted it. She told me the shard would remain there for safe keeping. Well, now Justin is trying to extract the power like the Death Clan only his attempt will only result in his death.” I looked at Chris who was staring at the ground and I resisted the urge to read his mind.

  Curtis spoke up, “I don’t see Justin’s death when he holds all the amulets, none of us do.”

  “What do you see happening when all the amulets break open and the shards slam together?” I asked Curtis.

  “I don’t see that happening. I see Justin holding the five amulets at the same time and then everything goes dark, like a strange blackness.”

  Charles and Chris agreed to the same.

  “At that point in your vision where Justin is holding the amulets you all would have relinquished the shard to him. Therefore, your vision concerning it ends. I have a shard in my heart and am able to see beyond the relinquishing. Justin will die in his attempt.” I didn’t tell them that right after Justin dies I also see a strange blackness.

  Brand blurted out, “Wait a minute! So, that’s what the Healers meant when they said ‘use your combined power’.”

  Chris asked in a barely audible whisper, “You’ve had powers all this time?”

  “Yes,” I answered.

  Curtis asked, “How are you able to live with a… a foreign object inside your heart, let alone a deadly diamond?”

  Everyone’s head turned toward me in unison. I realized there was no way out around it, I’d have to tell them more. “My DNA was unaffected by the cosmic energy rays while in the womb, therefore, I’m what is called an ‘Unaltered’. The diamond contains all the cosmic powers and anyone with an alteration cannot physically hold the stone; not even a tiny piece. However, because I’m unaltered I can touch the stone. That’s how I was able to carry the whole diamond before. Maetha instructed me to keep it absolutely secret that I carried a shard in my heart.

  Chris was visibly let-down. I could tell he was still trying to compute what I’d just revealed and how it related to him. I knew that prior to him being captured and imprisoned he still felt that Maetha had manipulated him in making him feel I was his ‘one and only’. When I walked into his cell, his hope was buoyed. Now, I just dashed his hopes of marrying a Healer like his original vision showed. I’d just revealed I am an ordinary unaltered human with no magical powers of my own… back to square one. I thought about telling him about my other vision concerning him, but decided against it.

  Brand asked, “How exactly did a piece end up inside of you? Do you have a scar?”

  “I have a small scar, and no, you can’t see it, Brand.”

  Charles asked what I was hoping no one would, “Who is Maetha and how did she come into possession of the diamond?”

  “It is not my place to say, Charles. I hope you understand.”

  Chris pointed to my amulet and asked, “Why are you able to have two shards so close together?”

  I knew he was having a difficult time wrapping his mind around the idea of my heart containing a pointy object and even more curious about why our two amulets couldn’t be in too close of proximity. “My amulet is kind of stuck to my skin. The two are drawn together like magnets. When you hugged me after I returned with the food, your amulet touched my body and made my shard shift, that’s why I dropped the basket, and again just now when you hugged me.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s alright, Chris. The same thing happened a couple years ago when Charles came to my mother’s clinic.”

  “Ah, yes, I remember that, Calli. I distinctly felt my amulet move when I stood by you. I figured it was because you had held it recently, I certainly wouldn’t have thought it was because you had a shard of your own.”

  Brand cleared his throat. “So, what do we do now? I mean, you all will give your amulets over to kill Justin but when will that be?”

  Curtis answered. “Young man, not one of us here wishes for his death. He will die by his own hand and not by ours; greed has a way of doing that. I do imagine that we’ll need to surrender ourselves in order for this to play out.”

  I looked into the future trying to see whether or not we should surrender and saw that Justin’s unaltered thugs would find us in this very building in the morning. “They’ll capture us in the morning.”

  “How do you know?” Curtis asked.

  I’d forgotten that Curtis, the leader of the Seers, couldn’t see into an Unaltered’s future. “The guards are unaltered like me. Only an Unaltered with a diamond can see another Unaltered’s future or use any of the other powers on them. I envision that when the sun rises the guards will find us here and usher us back to the building we fled from, and the amulet relinquishment will take place there. We are safe here tonight and can rest with ease.”

  We separated and Chris and I sat down in the far corner. Brand followed like a lost puppy not knowing where he belonged, and he still had questions for me. Chris sat in front of me with Brand sitting to the side of both of us.

  Brand launched right into his questions. “Calli, why was I able to use my power on the guards? From what you just said I shouldn’t be able to repeat around an Unaltered… however, you’re one and I used my power on you.” He paused and rubbed his temples. “I don’t understand this, Calli. All this time you had superpowers and you didn’t use them, well, except for healing, and then running when we fled the Healers. I feel like an idiot for thinking I was one up on you when all along it was the other way around.”

  I knew Maetha had not told Brand about his ties to the government T19 progra
m and I felt strongly that I shouldn’t either. I hadn’t had a chance to explain to Chris the intricate nature of my relationship with Brand and I knew it must be confusing. I tried to answer in such a way that it would give Chris information also.

  “Brand, listen, I don’t understand your powers or why you’re able to repeat around me and neither does Maetha. That’s why she asked me to teach you about the different clans and abilities; through understanding comes knowledge. The most important thing you can learn from me is the advantage of observing a situation instead of trying to control it. Take our upcoming capture for example; try observing rather than manipulating the outcome. Your true power will come in the form of choosing wisely; when to intervene and when not to intervene. Sometimes people need to die for the will of nature to be satisfied and sometimes a person must be saved for the same reason. The trick to figuring out which outcome is natural is found through observance.”

  “You make it sound like I might have to let people die even if I can save them.”

  “I’m sure you’ll find yourself in that very situation many times in your life, but if you learn to look at the situation, look for the cause and effect, the good or bad choices leading to the moment, you’ll be able to come to a conclusion of whether or not you should help. The day a diamond shard entered my heart was the day a group of Healers who called themselves the Death Clan was wiped out. They had taken nature’s will out of the equation when they decided who lived and who died; and when that happens, nature finds a way to eliminate the impediment. An Unaltered had to be used in order for the Death Clan to destroy themselves. It didn’t have to be me, but I was chosen to attempt the mission. If I’d failed, someone else would have been used and the diamond shard would now be embedded in their heart instead of mine.”

  Chris’s repressed anger surfaced. “Yeah, and in order for the mission to succeed lies were told and false impressions were made. Sometimes nature’s not kind. Sometimes she’s a manipulative bitch!”

  “How far off base was your vision, Chris? Really?” I asked more than a little irritated. He looked at me admittedly confused. I continued, “It was because of your vision that I was chosen; the very same vision that just came to full realization. You misinterpreted it from the beginning, Chris. I was never a Healer, only a girl with a powerful piece of rock in my body. Maetha chose me because of our future together. Of all the powers floating around out there in the universe love is the strongest power, Chris; without it heroes would cease to exist, there wouldn’t be anyone to risk our lives for and no one to protect. Your need to protect me and my need to protect you is what brought the Death Clan down. Without that variable, without that passion, or the immense power… well, there wouldn’t be much to fight for.”

  The previously angered heat in Chris’s gaze had changed to pure heat. His bottomless blue eyes had a way of looking deep into my soul and tugging on my pinky toes; I didn’t divert my eyes from his and actually cherished the moment where I could unabashedly stare at him.

  Brand, once again, interrupted our moment. “Well, I can tell when I’m a third wheel; I’ll just go over with the other guys.” He stood and left us alone.

  “I’ve missed you, Calli. I’ve spent too much of my time being bitter and hurt.” He placed his palm on my cheek and rubbed his thumb across my bottom lip. It felt so good that I couldn’t help but press my cheek into his hand.

  “I’m sorry I snapped at you just now. You only came up with the conclusion I was a Healer because you had no other knowledge of other possible reasons for me to be able to heal.”

  “I want nothing more than to hold you close to me, Calli, but I cannot because of this amulet, because of Maetha once again.”

  “Chris, what happened to Mrs. Winter? Why isn’t she the amulet wearer?”

  “Beth called for her assistance in the investigation of Charles’ and Curtis’ disappearance. We discussed the possibility that it may be a trick to get the Runners' amulet wearer out of the compound so she relinquished it to me for the duration of her trip. I was taken the next day. I have to say, when Brand took each and every guard down flawlessly it reminded me of the female who took me hostage.”

  “Were you drugged? I mean, how did she get you out of the compound?”

  “She had me at gunpoint and informed me that if we didn’t reach the checkpoint by a certain time, you would be killed.” Chris reached out and took my hands in his. “I figured that Justin was behind the kidnappings because who else would know to use my fear of you dying to force me to do something? Anyway, I also had decided that I would not give over the amulet if you were in fact dead. It would do Justin no good to kill you and I really felt he knew that.”

  “Chris, there’s something I need to tell you concerning the diamond shards; all Justin needs to do is kill the amulet wearers and the shards will be his. However, Justin doesn’t know this. Wherever he’s getting his information from it's not complete and I don’t quite know why. I have my own suspicions about this whole deal and who’s really behind it… using Justin as a puppet. For now, we need to rest. I can tell you honestly that there’s nothing I would want more than to be held in your arms tonight, but…” I couldn’t finish.

  He smiled at me and leaned forward and kissed my lips carefully, taking care not to get our amulets too close. Then he lay down on his side and patted the floor in front of him. I lied down on my back near him but not too close. He placed his hand on my arm and said, “These necklaces might as well be chastity belts. I can’t wait to get mine off. Wait a minute, Brand isn’t wearing one, I could give mine to him for the night.”

  “Not a good idea, Chris. We don’t need to make him anymore powerful than he already is.”

  “What is his power exactly?” Chris was intrigued.

  “He can rewind small stretches of time.”

  “He’s a time traveler?”

  “Something like that. It’s confusing to think about but terribly powerful. He used his power on you earlier, I could tell.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t worry about it, Chris, he only used it to manipulate an answer out of you. Didn’t you think it was suspicious he figured things out a bit too quickly?”

  “I just figured he’s a smart guy.”

  “He is, and that’s part of the problem. You cannot give him the amulet, Chris.”

  “Alright.”

  We eventually drifted off to sleep on the hard floor. I awoke several times in the night and each time I found that Chris hadn’t removed his hand from my arm. It was as if he was afraid that if he broke contact with me I might not be here in the morning, that maybe this was all a dream. I felt the same way and found comfort in his need for contact.

  Chapter 13 - Relinquishment

  The guards broke our door down flooding our room with sunlight and yelled orders for us to freeze and raise our hands. Justin walked in and laughed. “You’re pathetic, all of you! Get up.”

  The guards encouraged us to move with the tips of their guns. One in particular kicked Brand in the gut. I shouted, “Justin, he gets hurt and I won’t give you my amulet!” Justin glared at his guard and turned on his heel and left the building.

  We were ushered back to where we fled from the evening before. It seemed that we were going backward, not progressing forward; and yet I knew better. I’d had a thought a little earlier that perhaps Maetha was behind Justin’s lack of knowledge concerning the amulets all with the intention of helping the shards rejoin within me. I’d find out soon enough.

  We were placed in a room with large windows and an exterior door. The five of us were positioned in a semi-circle. I was in the middle with Charles and Curtis to my left and Chris and Brand to my right. The guards had guns to our heads and no one said a word. Justin paced the floor looking at his watch; he was clearly waiting for someone.

  A young female probably close to my age entered the building dragging a man behind her. The male was an obvious Hunter with a diamond shard around his neck. I felt into his
mind and found his name was Dominic. I tried to feel inside the female’s mind and found the exact same mess as Brand’s mind. She was a Repeater. I looked at Chris and he brought his thoughts to the front of his mind confirming that this girl was the one who abducted him as well.

  The female walked up to Justin and said, “I think I deserve a little extra for this one. He was hard to catch.”

  “You’re late. You’ll get what I told you before.”

  “No, I want a bonus.”

  “I already gave you a bonus on the last one. Take your money and go.” He pointed to a briefcase by the door.

  She stepped close to him and placed both her hands on his chest and slid them down the front of his jacket. One entered his side jacket pocket and pulled out an envelope and waved it at him. “This will do just fine.” She turned and left the building with both the briefcase and her bonus.

  Justin ordered Dominic to stand next to Curtis and positioned another guard behind Dominic. Justin addressed the group. “Here’s how this is gonna work, if you want to live, you’ll each remove your amulet and reassign its ownership to me. Then you’ll extend your arm toward me with the amulet.”

  I had to at least act as if I cared so I said, “You will die, Justin.”

  “Shut up, Calli. I will be able to heal myself with the powers of the stone.”

  “They won’t work on you, Justin.” I knew this was all I should say and didn’t respond further.

  Everyone removed their amulets, mine was a bit hard to pull it from my skin, and began reassigning ownership. Then we extended our arms toward Justin. The dangling amulets began to shake and stir slightly and Justin shouted, “Closer! Tighten the semi-circle! Bring them closer together!”