Secrets of the Sleeper: True Nature Series: Book One

by Karen Lynn Bennett

  Someone, please help me! I sent my plea out into the universe. No one knew where I was. Would Ruthie or Isaac look for me?

  Above me, Dante groaned. He rolled over and looked down at me.

  “Tru? What are you doing down there?”

  “Are you serious?”

  His eyebrows turned down at the corners. “Oh, man! I’m sorry about this. I must have lost it there for a while.”

  Relief poured back into my chest and I breathed a little easier. “Ha ha. Can you help me out of here?”

  “Actually, you are right where you need to be for now. I just didn’t mean to hurt you. So sorry! But don’t worry, I’ll get someone to come pick us up ASAP.”

  He started humming as he tapped away on his phone.

  What? I couldn’t keep up with his personalities. I started shivering. It wasn’t that cold down here, I thought. I must be going into shock. I was going to die in a cellar, in a pit of no mercy, in the middle of nowhere, and my friends and family would never know what happened to me. I allowed the tears to fall.

  Dante moved his phone around in the air, whispering something about service.

  “Hey, are you okay down there?”

  I opened my eyes. He was looking down at me, but all I could see was his silhouette.

  “There should be a sleeping bag somewhere around there. Oh, I’m sure you can figure it out.”

  I still didn’t say anything. It hurt to talk. I thought of Ruthie and how kick-butt she was. Really. She didn’t seem like the type, but she took martial arts classes with her brothers and could really tear someone up if needed. I smiled just thinking of her.

  I breathed in and out, trying to manage my panic. I was not dead yet. Slowly but surely, my shivers died down. I was positive my ankle was broken. For once, I was grateful for the ability to see in the dark. I could even make out the walls around me. Shelves lined them, stuffed with boxes. I was beginning to suspect this was one of those underground survival hideaways. Perhaps there was a weapon or something in those boxes that I could use to get out of here. I needed to scoot over there. Plus, I hated that he could see me so clearly while he remained a black outline above. I took a look at the chair I was shackled to and received my first bit of good luck. It had broken, and with a little yank and wiggle, I slipped the knotted rope from the chair’s thick spindle. I bit my lips as I tried to drag myself toward the shelves. I only made it to the edge of the light before coming to a gasping stop. At least he couldn’t see my face anymore. No, I’d make it to those stupid shelves and find something to help me.

  Crazy must have been reading my mind.

  “You know? You remind me of a cockroach scurrying to a dark corner.” He chuckled. “Just to save you the effort, I removed the ladders and guns and pretty much anything you might be hoping to find.” He disappeared for a second and was back with a flashlight. I lifted a hand to block the beam of light shining into my face.

  “There you are, sweetheart!” He turned off the light. “Just checking on you. I’ll come down later, when I bring your dinner. I can’t have you fading away on me. Besides, we could get to know each other better, no?”

  He started to disappear again, and despite my awful fear of him, I was more afraid of him making that phone call. Right now, my best friend’s name was Stall.

  “Wait!” I called.

  He paused and squatted back down.

  “Aw, you missed me already?” He turned off the flashlight and set it on the floor next to him.

  “Tell me more about what I am.”

  He had called it my “true nature” before. I’d always thought that referred to the type of person you were, not what kind of being you were. Did an animal act solely based on its biological makeup or on something else I couldn’t name, maybe its soul? Personality? Was it a mix of them all? Was a being’s true nature a combination of all these things? It didn’t seem fair to lump a person’s true nature in one category. To me, the true nature of a being was as unique as a fingerprint.

  “Sure, Tru. I wonder which one it is? Your father or mother?”

  “What about them?”

  “Was it your father or mother that spawned you? You know, which one of them was Akharu or Usemi?”

  “Easy. Neither.” What was he talking about?

  Dante tilted his head back and cawed loudly. “You really don’t know, do you? Did I forget to mention how we become Idimmu?” He was back to his singsong voice.

  “Yeah. That seems kind of important to know.”

  “Well, sweetheart, I hate to break it to you this way, but one of your parents has to be Akharu—aka vampire or blood-sucking spawns of Cain—or Usemi—aka lycanthrope or Abel’s cursed descendants. My father was Usemi, or so The Collector told me. He can do a blood test and find out. The bastard left my mother when I was just a baby. Usemi are natural wanderers, like gypsies.”

  My mind swirled at his words. How was this possible? How could my parents hide this from me? No, there was no proof. Seeing in the dark didn’t prove anything. But Dante was definitely a demon in my book.

  “I know it’s a bit of a shock and all, and I’m sure your parents are nice folks, but one of them caused this. It’s not your fault. They broke the law, not you. It is unfortunate that we have to pay the price, though. We are twice cursed creatures.

  “Remember me saying that some call us half-breeds or demons? Sethians are afraid of what we can do. They convinced everyone that we need to be locked up—or worse—to protect good folks everywhere. Sure, some of us are dangerous, but every race has its psychopaths.”

  “Who thinks we need to be locked up?”

  “The pure races, of course—Sethians, Akharu, Usemi. Well, probably not our parents, but the rest of them. It’s always about power, and baby, we have power. Now if we could just stay sane long enough to overthrow them, yeah, that would change the world, wouldn’t it?”

  My thoughts exactly. Anyone who controlled the Idimmu would have a lot of power. No wonder they wanted a healer.

  “What exactly can you do again?” I asked.

  “I told you! I see auras. Different kinds of creatures have different auras, and you have the most colors I’ve ever seen. Odd that yours are so different from our last healer. But that must be because she was also Usemi. Yeah, that must be it.”

  “But you can do more, can’t you? You made Bobby and me go to sleep with just a touch, didn’t you?” It seemed so strange, but I had recently seen werewolves in my backyard and a mind-erasing army guy.

  “Yes. They call me The Sandman. Isn’t that clever? It’s way more humane than other forms of fighting, don’t you think?” He yawned loudly. He was getting tired of this conversation.

  “How do you know someone is, uh, Idimmu? I mean, how does their aura look?” I asked instead.

  “Well, their aura changes when they use their gift. Usually, people have one strong color tinged with other colors depending on their mood. When Idimmu use their gifts, they become multicolored, usually two or three dominant colors, and their pattern is different than a human’s.”

  “What color am I?”

  “You? As far as I remember, you are every color.”

  “What do you mean? I thought Idimmu had just a few colors.”

  “I know!” He seemed excited. “That’s what I mean. Your aura is beautiful! It’s like a shimmery spectrum that goes on and on. The most powerful Idimmu I saw before you had four colors.”

  Well, that sounded pretty weird. I was a freaking rainbow. Bring on the leprechauns.

  “And,” he continued, “when you helped Bobby at lunch the other day, your aura was so bright, I had to shield my eyes! I knew you were doing something to him. I think you fixed his head, you know, his depression.”

  That wasn’t possible. Suddenly, I didn’t want to know any more. Perhaps whatever Dante had was contagious. I was beginning to believe the mad ravings of a lunatic. But was I really any different than before? I mean, just last year I was a walking coma. If I was this
“Idimmu” that Dante was going on about, then my stint with insanity could have been the beginning of more. Would I end up like him?

  “Dante, I think I need a doctor.”

  “What? You haven’t fixed yourself yet? Oh, well. No worries. When I call this in, they’ll send one to help you.”

  Panic enveloped me again. I didn’t want to be collected. That sounded very, very bad.

  “Dante, please! My dad needs me.” I couldn’t leave him like Mom left us. It would be worse, because I would simply disappear. I’d become some picture on a milk carton.

  “You think someone didn’t need me?” He was angry now. He stood up suddenly and slammed the door shut. Tears dripped down my face, onto the gritty floor. Strangely, only one person’s face flitted through my mind. It wasn’t family. It wasn’t my best friend. It was Zander, even if he was the son of The Collector. Looked like I might be the daughter of a werewolf or vampire. That didn’t make me bad, did it? I wondered if I would ever see him again.

  Revelation

  Thanks to my night vision, I could easily locate the sleeping bag. It smelled like it had been down there for 50 years, but it was warmer than the stone floor. I climbed in as best as I could, the pain exhausting me by the time I finished. Without meaning to, I closed my eyes and let reality slip away.

  Ruthie screamed near the school parking lot.

  “Tru Lee Parker! You better get your butt over here right now!”

  Phoebe snickered next to her. “Is that seriously her middle name?”

  Impatiently, Ruthie snapped back, “Why would I make up a name like that? Where is she?” She glanced at her cell phone. “She didn’t text me and she isn’t answering her phone. I’m supposed to meet Val at Yogurt Heaven in thirty minutes!”

  “So that’s why you’re so grumpy.”

  Ruthie just glared at her, hands on her hips.

  Phoebe defended herself. “Hey, it’s not my fault! Isaac has been looking for her for the past hour. He’s been all over the school and even went by her house. Says he can’t smell—I mean, he hasn’t seen her anywhere.”

  “Great!” Ruthie said.

  It took me longer to figure out that this was a dream because it felt so real and I had just been there a few hours ago. I’d never dreamed about something so recent. I had begun to suspect during my conversations with Dante that my strange dreams were of actual events, not figments of my overactive imagination. That meant Ruthie was finished watching Val’s practice and someone was finally noticing that I was missing—at least I hoped.

  “Do you think she would have left school with someone else?” Phoebe asked.

  Ruthie paused, one side of her mouth turned down. “She wouldn’t!” she mumbled. I could tell she was wondering if I had gone with Zander. She turned to Phoebe. “Well…”

  Don’t say it, I thought.

  Phoebe raised her eyebrows, waiting.

  Finally, Ruthie shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. She would have texted me if she did.”

  “Is something going on that you want to share with me?” asked Phoebe.

  “Uh, no, really,” insisted Ruthie. “I’m actually starting to get a little worried now.”

  “Maybe we should call her dad.”

  “Oh my gosh. I don’t think I have his cell number. Tru said he was working late tonight. I should call my mom.” Ruthie punched into her phone.

  The scene shifted.

  Zander was talking with his brother in front of a hotel. He suddenly threw up his hands and took off down the road. When he was far enough away from his brother, he slipped into the trees alongside the road and took off running, fast. From my strange vantage point, I could see that he was moving faster than the cars parallel to him on the other side of the trees. He slowed down whenever he had to come out in the open, but speeded up within the protection of the trees. Then, he was sneaking into my house. Then he was slipping back out, his face tightened in frustration.

  Next, I saw him at my recreation center, then back at the school.

  Hope lit up my insides. He seemed to care. Maybe Dante had it all wrong.

  Zander paced aimlessly in front of the empty school. The sun was disappearing behind the thickly forested hillside. Suddenly he grabbed a large rock from the side of the parking lot and hurled it into the trees. But the trees were a hundred yards away, and the rock embedded itself into the trunk of a large pine tree, which shook from the impact, needles and pine cones dropping.

  His phone started ringing. He checked the caller and then answered.

  “I can’t find her.”

  “Yes, I checked everywhere.”

  “What did you find out?”

  “Ancient prophecy?”

  Zander started pacing again, and ran his hand through his hair, leaving it sticking up.

  “How do I feel? What do you mean? I’m freaking out!”

  “Normal? Are you kidding me? I don’t know why, I just feel like she’s in danger. I can’t explain it.”

  “If you think this will help me find her—”

  “Okay. Since the first day of school, no, since I got here. Actually, I think I’ve been feeling it forever, but more after about a year ago.”

  “Yeah. About the same time as the accident.”

  “Yeah, strange coincidence. But where are you going with this?”

  “Sword of what? Shield of Arammusatu? Is that what I think it is? Are you freaking kidding me? Not the same?”

  “Forget it. Just tell me how this helps Tru!”

  Zander sank down to the curb.

  “Does this mean she isn’t a siren?”

  “Yeah, that would explain how I’ve been feeling. I mean, it actually hurts to stay away from her. And she didn’t look too good either.”

  “I don’t know, I’ve been trying so hard to ignore it…”

  “How do I do it?”

  “Conrad, I’m not going to sit yoga style. And ‘no’ to the spa music, too.” He blew out an exasperated breath. “Fine! Hold on a second. I’m going to put the phone down for a minute. But no music.”

  He walked around the side of a building and sat cross-legged, placing his hands on his knees. He rolled his shoulders and took a few deep breaths. Seconds rolled by.

  Suddenly he cried out in pain, grabbing his ankle. Then he grabbed his arm, holding it carefully.

  “What the—”

  A loud, yet indistinguishable voice yelled out of the phone. Zander gingerly reached out with his good arm and hit the speaker button.

  “—Zander! What’s happening! Should I call someone?”

  “No, Conrad. But I don’t know what’s going on. I tried to meditate just like you said and feel that ‘pull’ to Tru like I described to you, and just when I felt like I connected, I started hurting all over. It feels like my ankle is broken, and maybe my arm, too. But everything looks normal.”

  “That’s good,” replied Conrad. “I mean that’s not good, but I think you connected to her. The bad news is that if you are, then you are probably feeling what she feels, which means she’s injured. The good news is that you aren’t messed up and you should be able to power through the pain and move normally. Just imagine that ‘pull’ as a thick thread and follow it. It should lead you right to her.”

  Zander’s face had hardened during Conrad’s explanation. When he looked up to the road, his eyes blazed deep blue, like ultraviolet light.

  “Thanks, Conrad.” Zander looked like he wanted to kill something. “I’ll get back to you later.”

  “Good luck, Z.”

  Zander stashed his phone and took off running.

  Steps across the creaking floorboards woke me. Wow. That dream! Was it real? Or did I just want it to be?

  I wondered how late it was, how long I’d been down here in this pit. Then I heard someone calling out. I listened more carefully.

  “Tru!”

  That wasn’t Dante.

  “Tru!”

  The rug was lifted from the trapdoor and light
filtered in around the edges.

  “Zander?” My voice was croaky. I tried again. “Zander!”

  The trapdoor opened and Zander’s figure filled the entrance.

  “Tru!”

  “Zander!” I almost screamed.

  “Shhhh!” Zander warned, speaking quickly. “I’m getting you out of here. Dante is outside talking on his phone. He’s walking up the road to get better reception. But we have to hurry.

  “Wait! He’s coming back. I’ll take care of him first. Then I’ll get you out.”

  “Don’t let him touch you—” I said as he shut the door.

  He hadn’t let me finish warning him about Dante.

  “Dang it!” I slammed the ground with my good fist. “Ow!”

  Confessions

  My heart squeezed as I strained to hear something, anything. All I got was a muffled conversation. Had Zander heard me? He couldn’t let Dante touch him! If he did, we were toast. I tried to shift directly under the opening, hoping for a better position to yell up at them, but realized it wasn’t going to work. Out of breath, my injuries throbbing, I lay waiting.

  Suddenly, the rug lifted, and light streaked across me, blinding me for a moment.

  “Oh, Tru-u!”

  I let out a disappointed whimper when I recognized the voice.

  “You’ll never believe it!” Dante giggled. “It’s a two-fer! I think I’ll take a cruise after this one!” His giggles became deeper, creepier.

  What had he done with Zander?

  “Honey, you might want to move out of the way.”

  I had just enough time to scoot over before a large shape landed next to me with a crack. I grimaced, certain that a bone had just broken.

  Zander lay in a heap, both arms tied behind his back, and his feet tied together. I wasn’t sure what was broken, but his shoulder looked really wrong.

  “There you go. Please, no need to thank me.” His face leaned into the hole, glee spreading his smile wide. “Someone to talk to. You’re one lucky girl!