Ranger Knox (Shifter Nation: Werebears Of Acadia Book 1)

by Meg Ripley

  River nodded and they started climbing again, silent now as they both concentrated on counting the steps beneath their feet and trying to orient themselves in the space. They climbed for several more minutes before the light from Jordan's phone shone onto the top of the staircase and what looked like a trap door set into the ceiling.

  He handed River the phone so that she could hold the light steady on the door while he tried to open it. The metal handle on the bottom didn't look rusted or aged like the one outside and he wrapped his hand firmly around it. He gave a hard tug and the door fell open, forcing him to step back so that it didn't hit him. River caught him by flattening his hands on his back, indulging herself for just a moment by letting her fingers trail over the muscles that she could feel beneath his shirt.

  Jordan pulled the door the rest of the way down and a bright light poured into the staircase. River immediately noticed that it didn't look like sunlight. She followed him up through the door and the moment she stepped up onto the smooth white floor, she heard the trapdoor slam closed as if triggered by their weight.

  River gasped at the loud sound and stumbled back, hitting something hard behind her. She turned and saw a wall of what looked like thick, clear glass. Taking a step back, she turned to look at Jordan. He was a few feet away, his hand pressed against an identical wall in front of him. She glanced around, looking for an opening, but they were standing in a fully enclosed glass cube.

  ****

  River's eyes adjusted to the stark white light of the space and she noticed snowflakes drifting through the air around them as if they stood in a snow globe. The flakes sparkled in the light and River realized that they weren't white, but silver, and disappeared as they reached the floor.

  She extended her hand to catch the flakes in her palm. As they touched her skin, they seemed to melt, creating a pool of liquid that dripped like mercury off of the sides and splashed, then disappeared, on the gleaming white floor.

  "What are these?" she asked, her voice dropping to a whisper as she extended her hand to show Jordan the silvery liquid.

  The flakes streaked across his face and sparkled in his dark hair. He shook his head, unable to come up with any words. She stroked her thumb across his cheekbone. The silver liquid spread across his skin and faded as if dissipating back into the air. She could see her hand trembling as the fear set in and she turned back to the glass wall.

  Flattening her palms against it, she leaned close to the wall and stared beyond it at the room around her. The light seemed to reflect off of the gleaming walls and she noticed what appeared to be empty picture frames crafted of iridescent glass positioned at regular intervals along the walls. Long, narrow silver bars separated the frames. There was no furniture in the room and she didn't see any doors or windows.

  "What is this place?" she whispered.

  Her voice came out of her powdery and strained as if the words themselves were afraid to enter the strange space. She saw Jordan's mouth open like he was starting to say something, but the sound of shouts from somewhere outside of the room stopped him. River stepped closer to Jordan and felt his hand slip down her arm to hold hers comfortingly.

  Suddenly a section of the wall across from them slid open and a gorgeous, but frantic-looking young man burst into the room. He didn't acknowledge them, but turned and touched his hand to the wall. The open section slammed closed and he turned his hand sharply. River heard a loud hiss and click like a tremendous lock sliding into place but didn't see any change in the appearance of the wall.

  "Hey," Jordan said, pounding on the wall of the cube with his palm, "Hey, can you get us out of here?"

  The young man's eyes snapped to them and a startled look crossed his face. River noticed a glint of light reflect from him and saw two iridescent gems embedded in the skin at the outer corner of one eye. She wanted to touch the gems; to run her fingers across them and press her hands to the hard chest that rose and fell raggedly beneath his shirt.

  Still ignoring them, the man wrapped his fingers around one of the silver bars between the picture frames and pulled it out of the wall.

  There was another shout from outside of the room and River heard loud thuds like someone ramming the wall near where it had slid open to let the man inside. He rushed toward the glass cube and thrust the silver bar forward. It slid effortlessly through the glass and the end bloomed like a metal flower with several curved petals that overlapped just enough to create a cup that caught the silver flakes as they fell.

  He waited a few seconds until the cup filled halfway with the metallic liquid, and then withdrew the bar, leaving the glass intact and solid as it left. Jordan pounded on the glass again, moving his hands to different places as if looking for an area that would open. The young man turned and crossed to one of the empty picture frames on the wall. Reaching into the cup at the end of the bar, he scooped some of the liquid into his hand and spread it across the wall within the iridescent glass confines.

  River gasped as the silver liquid became like paint, creating a moving image as he swept it across the white wall. It looked like a section of a city with tall, cylindrical buildings positioned close together along narrow roads congested with tiny, fast-moving vehicles. The young man scrutinized it closely, moving his head back and forth quickly as he examined every detail of the image.

  When he seemed to have learned what he wanted, he swept his hand back over the wall in the opposite direction, reducing the image back to the silver liquid, which he poured from his palm back into the metal cup. Jordan continued to pound on the glass and call out to him, but he seemed completely focused as he crossed back to the glass cube and pushed the bar back through the glass, tilting it so that the liquid streamed out onto the floor.

  Jordan grabbed onto the bar and the young man's eyes snapped to him. He tilted his head, his eyes flitting from Jordan to River as if this was the first time he had noticed they were there. They lowered to River's hands and she placed one on the bar next to Jordan's, holding it tightly. He met her eyes and she saw the gems in his face glow red, fade to a light purple, and then return to red.

  Without saying a word or taking his eyes from her, the man pulled the bar back with one hard movement, yanking them toward the glass before River had a chance to let go. She prepared herself for the impact with the wall, but never felt it. Instead, she felt the floor disappear from beneath her feet and in the next moment was struggling to get them back under her beside the young man on the other side of the glass wall.

  Just as she got her balance, the young man dropped the silver bar and looked between her and Jordan.

  "Run."

  ****

  River didn't have the chance to think. The floor seemed to unfurl under her feet as she ran behind the young man to the opposite side of the room and through another section of the wall he opened by touching his hand to it like he had closed the first section. She could feel Jordan close behind her as they made their way through the wall and down a narrow hallway that was as bright and stark looking as the room they had just left.

  She wanted to know where they were going but was too afraid to ask. There was a feeling of panic and urgency in the way the young man had told them to run and the pounding on the wall from where the young man had entered still drummed in her ears. They continued along the hallway and then through another wall into a darkened room.

  "No. No, no, no, no, no," the young man said, running around the edge of the wall, tracing his fingers along the expanse as if looking for something.

  "What is it?" Jordan asked.

  The gems embedded in the young man's face pulsated brighter red as he turned to them.

  "Light," he said, "There's no light. We can't get out."

  "Then why'd we come in here?" River demanded.

  "I didn't realize they had started turning off the activators."

  He sounded frustrated and angry, and River felt a sudden wave of concern for him. She looked at Jordan. In the dim light of the room, his face looked sha
dowy and older than it had before they leapt from the side of the wall.

  "What are the activators?" she asked.

  "The walls need light to operate. The activators create the light."

  Jordan glanced at River and she shrugged at him, nodding subtly. He reached in his pocket and withdrew his phone. River felt a moment of worry that it wouldn't work, but he drew his finger across the screen and the yellow light of the flashlight feature glowed from the end.

  The young man stepped back, staring at the phone as if it both terrified and intrigued him.

  "Will it work?" Jordan asked.

  He didn't say anything, but the young man gestured at a section of the wall. Jordan stepped forward and held the phone up so that the light illuminated the section of the wall, thrusting it in front of him like a weapon. If she hadn't been so confused and afraid, River would probably have found the visual funny.

  There was a moment of tense stillness before the young man reached forward and touched his hand to the wall. The wall groaned and inched open slowly. He tucked his fingers in the gap and wrenched it open further so that there was enough space that they could run through. River let out a breath she hadn't even realized she had been holding and surged forward, chasing the boys out of the room and down another hallway.

  The intense, almost cutting light of the corridor was fading, disappearing behind them as they ran. River pushed harder, picking up her speed as if trying to outrun the darkness. Just as the final section of the corridor went dark, the young man threw himself forward and touched the wall, opening a section that led out of the building.

  The wall slid closed behind her just as River made it out into the shadowy purple light of sunset. There was a strange buzz in the air like everything around her was electrified. It shivered through her, making her feel off balance. The young man didn't seem to notice it, but Jordan shook his head, obviously having the same uncomfortable reaction to the sound.

  "Come on," the man insisted, gesturing at them as he continued to run.

  There was no grass or trees as they ran. The ground beneath them felt like rubber, and all around them she could see gleaming metal buildings like the ones she saw in the image the silver liquid created across the wall. They seemed to be running behind the buildings, as if the cylindrical towers created the boundaries for a busy city.

  The light around them grew dimmer as they ran, and with it, the buzzing feeling of the air softened. Out of the corner of her eye River could see the vibrancy of the buildings fading and the number of tiny, round vehicles zipping along the roads lessened. They were running through near darkness by the time the young man took a sharp turn and stepped through the wall of a tall, dull-looking building.

  River and Jordan followed him, running through the wall and finally came to a stop in what looked like an abandoned warehouse. The dull, cement-encased room was a pronounced contrast to the bright light of the first building, but River found the soft shadows comforting and protective. Her legs felt suddenly weak and she sank to the floor, resting her back against one of the walls.

  "You're safe now," the young man said, "They won't look here."

  "Who's 'they'?" River asked.

  "Who are you?" Jordan demanded, his voice nearly overlapping hers.

  "My name is Geming."

  River saw Jordan's eyes narrow.

  "Revolution," he said in a startled whisper.

  "Your name is 'Revolution'?" River asked.

  Geming looked at her, his jaw set. She noticed that the gems beside his eye were no longer red.

  "It's what they call me," he said matter-of-factly and something in his voice told her that she shouldn't pry any further.

  "I'm River," she offered, hoping to ease the unpleasant tension that seemed to hold the three of them together while also keeping them at a distance.

  "How did you get here?" Geming asked.

  "We don’t even know where we are. How far from the Great Wall are we?"

  A strange expression crossed Geming's face and his body noticeably stiffened.

  "Farther than you could imagine."

  ****

  Geming turned and started to walk away, but River scrambled to her feet and called after him.

  "You can't just leave us in here. What was that cube you got us out of and the silver snowflakes?"

  Geming turned back to look at her and she saw the gems flash green.

  "They weren't snowflakes," he said with a sharp edge of bitterness in the words, "they were information."

  "What do you mean?" Jordan asked.

  "They were information," he repeated. "They contain all of the history, the thoughts, memories, family trees, innovations, facts…everything about this planet is within them."

  This planet. River repeated the phrase in her mind, trying to process what it meant. Not only were they no longer on Earth, but this sexy, intense man standing in front of her was certainly not human.

  "What is that cube?" Jordan asked.

  Geming sighed and gestured for them to follow him, seemingly resigned to their continued presence. They moved deeper into the warehouse, passing through large sections of the walls that stood open like they had been abandoned partway through closing. He led them onto a set of metal stairs and River hesitated before stepping onto them.

  Jordan stepped close behind her and touched a warm hand to her lower back, offering encouragement and comfort as she moved up the stairs, the sound of their feet on the metal reverberating loudly through the warehouse. It made her relax, emboldening her enough to peer over the railing and count the remaining steps to the landing. She repeated the numbers as she climbed, putting each behind her until she finally stood on the landing at the top.

  Geming led them along a catwalk overlooking the empty floor of the warehouse below and into another room. This space had a soft yellow glow from illuminated strands that hung around the top of the walls. An odd assortment of furniture and other items filled the floor, creating the impression of an apartment thrown together from discarded odds and ends.

  He dropped down onto a low circular cushion and they followed suit, settling onto a thickly padded curved bench in front of him. He waited until they were still before he spoke again.

  "Everything that can be known by anyone born on this planet is within those bits of information you called snowflakes. Thousands of years ago, our kind traveled to your planet to create an alliance. These representatives agreed to help build a massive wall to aid in the protection of the country in exchange for the protection of our collective wisdom."

  "The Great Wall?" Jordan asked.

  Geming nodded not moving his eyes away from River.

  "It offers no benefit to the people of Earth, but it is everything to us. Only a very few authorized members of our society are allowed access to the information and can share it with others."

  "With the picture frames on the walls?" River asked.

  "Yes. These teachers can attract to them the information that they desire and display it on the screens. That is how they control who learns what information and when. It's meant to protect everyone."

  He didn't sound convinced that this was the actual result of the process and River leaned toward him. His body replied in kind and she could feel a strange, engaging heat building between them.

  "Are you a teacher?"

  "No. That is why they're after me."

  "Because you got near the cube?"

  River knew she sounded confused, but she was having difficulty following what Geming was saying.

  "The problem isn't the cube, it's the Wall. Everything we know as a collective is within the Wall. The elders stored it there after the completion of the Wall. You stepped through the portal between the two planets, something very few of either of our kinds have ever done."

  "Why?" River asked.

  Geming sighed and looked away, his eyes holding dark emotion that kept him from making eye contact with them.

  "That cube was not designed to teach, but to
weaponize. Any of my kind who steps into it takes on all of the information contained within the Wall. Every thought, emotion, innovation, memory, and moment of history goes into that person, empowering him to destroy other people, other planets—even the entire galaxy if he so chose. The teachers keep this information tightly controlled from most and use it as a weapon in others."

  "Knowledge is power," Jordan whispered and River suddenly remembered the engraving on the door in the Wall.

  "Yes. The guards in China protect the knowledge within the Wall and the portal to our planet not because there is a threat to Earth, but out of tradition that has passed through the generations since the Wall was built. It is this history and tradition that keeps them in their place."

  "Isn't that a good thing, though?" River asked.

  "Tradition isn't always best," he stood up sharply and crossed over to a window in the curved wall, "Now that you're here, going back will be extremely difficult. You should rest tonight and we'll make plans tomorrow."

  "Plans for what?" Jordan asked.

  "You should go up to the roof before you go to sleep," Geming said, ignoring Jordan's question, "Tonight is the meteor shower. I promise it is like nothing you have ever seen before."

  River felt Jordan take her hand and pull her to her feet. He led her across the room to the window. Geming pushed the glass out of the way and Jordan helped her climb out onto a fire escape. It felt out of place and strange to stand on something so mundane as a fire escape surrounded by the sleek buildings and impossibly fast vehicles, but at the same time it was oddly comforting having a moment so familiar.

  "What are we doing?" she asked as Jordan continued to guide her onto a metal ladder that led up the side of the building.

  "We're going to watch the meteors."

  "Really?"

  "We're here," he said as if that was all of the explanation she needed.

  They reached the roof and Jordan lowered himself to the flat, rubberized surface and she settled beside him. It felt soft and resilient beneath her, a definite contrast to the hot asphalt she was accustomed to on the roof of her apartment building at home.