The Keepers Book Two of the Holding Kate Series

by Cole, LaDonna

  We gathered our supplies, suited up in our jump attire and stood on the front porch waiting for Eunavae. When she zipped up to First Cabin in the golf cart, she stepped out with a large basket covered with napkins. She glanced at the cabin then jerked a double take at us all standing on the front porch. She stilled, raised her brows and turned her head suspiciously from side to side, eyes darting. We burst out laughing.

  “What are you all doing out here?” she asked as she climbed the steps toward us in a slow and measured pace.

  “Waiting for you,” Tara answered with a brow cocked. Then the screeching started and she pointed up before adding, “And that.”

  The sphere descended, and we were vacuumed into the spinning vortex that dissipated into miniscule fizzes of light and winked out all around us.

  Kate hung in front of me her hair fanning out around her in a spray. Each member of the team dangled at odd angles, floating around. The supplies drifted in suspended gravity.

  “What the hell?” Dirk grumbled and threw his arms out to his sides. The sudden movement propelled him down to the soft spongy ground beneath us. His boots barely tapped the soil, and he ricocheted back toward us. I slowly reached out and grabbed his arm as he floated by me.

  “Zero gravity?” Donnie whispered.

  “Not zero, but close,” I murmured. “Okay, everyone, slowly grab a crate.”

  A comedy of errors ensued as Eunavae overshot her crate and slammed into Trip, sending him tumbling over Kate. She grabbed his shoe as he passed her, and his significant mass dragged her along.

  “Whaaahhh!” She made a noise that started in the back of her throat and grew in volume as she whisked away, tumbling head over heels. Trip had a good hold on her as they somersaulted into the distance.

  We burst out laughing, the surprise on her face, priceless. Exhilarated by the buoyant feeling of freefall, or maybe the thin air on this jump compelled us. Whatever the reason we laughed until our sides hurt.

  Kate called my name indignantly and that sent us into another fit of chuckles. Their momentum slowed, so I knew they wouldn’t get too far away from us.

  Dirk and I sank to the ground and then assisted the others to a landing. Trip and Kate were a dot on the horizon, but they appeared to be descending too.

  “This is different,” Dirk laughed. “Secure the crates. Use the tent spikes to secure everything to the ground. No sudden movements.”

  I slowly knelt down to the turf beneath our feet. A thick conglomeration of tiny purple strings were loosely interwoven. Spongy density caused it to spring back into place creating a bouncy surface.

  I surveyed the landscape. No trees, only uniform mounds jutted out of the turf in evenly spaced intervals. I made my way to the nearest one. Hollow inside, it claimed enough space for two people to crouch into.

  “We might not need the tents, Dirk.”

  “Yeah, so I see.” He stood beside Eunavae as they peered into a mound to my left.

  Tara executed a perfect flip and aimed for the opening near me. She sailed right into it as though she had hours of practice with free fall.

  “Show off!” I grinned at her.

  A hissing sound caught my attention. In the distance to my right, a sheet of rain pelted toward us.

  “Look!” Mel screamed. “It’s melting the turf!”

  “Acid rain!” Dirk bellowed. “Take cover!”

  I grabbed the nearest crate and yanked it. Slamming against my mid-section, the momentum carried me into the mound with Tara. Dirk and Eunavae narrowly escaped into their shelter. Donnie and Mel were positioned out of my line of site, but they were farther from the rain and had a few more seconds to get to safety.

  “Corey! Trip and Kate are out there!”

  “They’ll get to a mound, Tara. Trip won’t let anything happen to them.”

  The rain fell in strips, not drops, as though forcefully pushed down through the thin gravity. When it hit the spongy turf, the colors shifted in undulating patterns, then melted into a thin slick. Acid rain pelted the ground outside our mound and droplets ricocheted off the turf, flying in at us. Burning welts formed where it hit our skin.

  “Corey! It burns.” Tara gawked at the singes on her jacket. “We need to block the opening.”

  We maneuvered the crate to a lengthwise position and cracked open the lid. Tara fished around and drew out a canvas cloth we intended to use to cover the supplies. She took one end and I took another. Poking the edges into cracks and crevices in the mound interior wall, we secluded ourselves away from the toxic rain.

  Once we were protected from the acid splash another problem presented itself. Fumes rose from the melted turf, seeped around the edges of the tarp, and filled our mound. It scoured our windpipes and sinuses. Tara’s nose dripped blood.

  “Tara, you’re bleeding!”

  “Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing.” She wiped the blood away with her sleeve.

  Our eyes, teary and stinging, burned until we could only close them and wait. Tara ripped strips off the bottom of her shirt and tied them around our mouths and noses.

  We huddled together and waited for the rain to pass.

  QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): TRIP CARSON

  “Trip! Get me down from here!” Kate pleaded.

  The tumbling had slowed and Trip directed their descent. His weight carried them to the ground. When their feet touched down, Trip released Kate’s hand and she began floating back up.

  “Triiiip!” She held her hands out to her sides for balance.

  Trip grabbed her around the waist and forced her down to the ground. She hovered an inch above the surface.

  “Why can’t I touch down?”

  “You are too light, Katie girl,” Trip laughed.

  “Aht!” Kate huffed. “How am I supposed to get around on this jump?”

  Trip chuckled. “I guess I will have to drag you around like a balloon.”

  She scowled at him, but that is exactly what he had to do. Every little move sent her floating off into the atmosphere. She hovered six inches off the ground.

  “Well, at least I am as tall as you,” she laughed and waved her palm above their heads.

  “I don’t think it counts unless you can actually walk,” he teased.

  Kate stared into the distance. “We’d better start back. It could take us a while to get to base camp at this pace.”

  “Climb on my back. The extra weight will help me move faster.”

  Kate floated up to Trip’s back and encircled him with her arms and legs.

  “It’s no wonder you float. You’re all arms and legs,” he teased. “There is just no substance to you.”

  “Nice!” Kate snapped and pinched his earlobe.

  “Ouch,” Trip said, dripping sarcasm. “That hurt.”

  “Sorry,” Kate murmured, her tone suggested otherwise. “But you did deserve it.”

  Trip stopped his hike, took Kate’s arms and floated her around in front of him. She wobbled unsteadily.

  “What?” she asked.

  “I’ve finally got you alone, all to myself. I don’t think I’m in any hurry to take you back.”

  “Trip, they will worry about us.”

  “Nah. They know you’re with me.”

  “That’s what will worry them.” Kate blushed and dropped her chin.

  “Hmph!” Trip turned around and latched her onto his back. What am I gonna do with you, Katie, girl? He resumed the trek. Thoughts swirled in his head, Kate had it right. Tara and Corey were probably worried sick about them. But he rarely had a chance to be alone with Kate and didn’t want to squander this opportunity. He needed to convince Kate of her single status.

  Kate, not married in his eyes, remained single. He did not recognize the farce of a wedding they described. Until they had a legal document, Kate stayed a free agent, and he intended to do what he could to help her see that. Before they did make it legal, he planned to make sure she knew exactly what she wanted. Something niggled at him about loyalt
y to his friend, but he shut it down. He considered his quest to win Kate a favor to Corey. He didn’t want his friend to be stuck in a marriage to a woman who clearly loved another man. He’d seen it several times over the last few weeks. Anytime they were alone, he felt passion waft off of her like an irresistible spell, beckoning him. He hadn’t acted on it, out of respect for her mourning, but it grew thicker with every moment they were together. It wouldn’t be denied much longer. Her need called to him. He couldn’t ignore it.

  What about Tara?

  He gnawed on the inside of his cheek, an echo of another gnawing on his conscience.

  After Trip walked a hundred feet or so, they came upon a group of mounds, rising out of the planet like chill bumps. He halted and released Kate to explore.

  “Stay,” he ordered her. She stilled and hovered in place, arms out to steady herself.

  He bent down and peered inside the mound, a small space for his large frame. Kate could take cover in one of these if it were needed.

  “So, shelter, check?” Kate asked.

  “Heh, yeah. You read my mind.”

  “I know how you work. How many items have you scoped that could be turned into a weapon?”

  “Eight, not counting you.”

  “Eight?” Kate’s mouth popped open. She scanned the barren landscape, confusion sketched across her face.

  He watched her as she calculated his words and pursed her lips. He grinned as she scanned the ground wondering what he could possibly use as a weapon. Then her mouth opened as the meaning of his words hit her. “Me?”

  He chortled and took her face in his hands. “You are the most dangerous thing in my life, Katie girl.”

  He stared into her beautiful face and wanted, no needed to kiss her. Her eyes grew round and clouded over in passion as she stared at him. She wanted it. He smoldered with the certainty of it when her concentration landed on his lips and she drew a shaky breath.

  “Trip,” she whispered.

  He held her face inches from his. Their breath mingled and his heart expanded.

  Ssssssss.

  The hissing sound barely registered as he gazed into Kate’s radiance. She turned her head first.

  “Trip, what’s going on there?” She pointed.

  He wrenched his attention from her to study the approaching phenomenon. A wall of rain raced toward them.

  “Time to check into our hotel, Katie girl.”

  He slowly turned toward the nearest mound and aimed for the opening, pushing Kate ahead of him. She just reached the shelter when the rain hit his back.

  “God!” he bellowed.

  “What?”

  He ducked into the mound and tackled Kate to the ground, covering her with his body. The rain sizzled into his back and ate away his jacket and undershirt and began searing into his flesh.

  “Augh!” he roared and jerked sending them floating to the mound ceiling.

  “Trip! Trip! What is wrong?” Kate’s muffled cry came from beneath him.

  “Stay down, Kate. Augh!” He pushed against the cave wall with his feet to make sure they stayed covered. He tried to stifle his exclamations, but the acid burned into his flesh as it splashed from the sulfuric ground into the cave.

  “Trip, what is hurting you? Trip! What is wrong?” Kate wriggled beneath him causing them to bounce off the floor again.

  “The rain is…augh…burning. Be still.”

  “Trip. Get out of it.”

  Kate desperately tugged, trying to move Trip deeper into the shelter, but she just managed to jostle them back to the top of the arch.

  “I’m in, it’s just the backsplash…ooh, mother…” He let out a stream of profanity but didn’t fight her. The splashes were fewer than they were before.

  “Let me out! Let me help you.”

  “No, not until it lets up. I don’t want it to splash you.”

  “Trip. What can I do?” Desperate, she hugged him as close to her as she could, and positioned herself so she could look into his face.

  He did his best to hide the pain from her, but could tell she wasn’t buying his façade.

  “Just distract me. Tell me a story or something. Sing to me.”

  “Trip,” she wheezed, running trembling fingers over his face and down his neck. “I don’t…” Words escaped her and brows lifted in worry and helplessness. She just held his gaze with the power of her feelings.

  Time stretched between them as the toxic rain pelted the ground. Kate continued to stroke his face, neck, and chest, comforting him the best way she could.

  She touched his lips and stared at them. “My protector,” she whispered with tender longing.

  Trip, thoroughly distracted, barely noticed the pain. The waning rain drizzled on, but the backsplash ceased to bombard him. He hovered, lost in Kate’s nearness.

  “We have no right to assume that any physical laws exist, or if they have existed up to now, that will continue to exist in a similar manner in the future.” ~ Max Planck, Nobel Prize 1919

  QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): TARA JOHNSON

  The rain petered to drips and occasional splats on the tarp. Tara raised her eyebrows, questioning Corey. He took off his nose guard and sniffed, then nodded. Tara touched her nose guard, and her hand came back covered in blood. She ripped off the nose cover and grimaced at it. Corey wadded his up and held it to her nose. She tilted her head back and arched a brow.

  “Thanks. I’ve never had a nose bleed,” she said, muffled by the compress.

  “You never got a nose bleed in the arena or in your two hundred years in Jewel City?”

  “Heh, nope. I got plenty of other bloody parts in the arena, but not a nose bleed.” She took the rag from him and leaned against the mound wall.

  “Jewel City.” The melancholy tone reflected the ache in her chest. “I really miss that place. It’s home, really. Nothing seems real outside of that jump.”

  “Yeah, I know what you mean.” Corey stretched his legs out and scooped hers into his lap. The space small, Tara’s long legs took up more than her portion. “I’d feel that way too if I had left a family behind.”

  Tara stared ahead not really seeing the tarp in front of her. Memories carried her thoughts to a faraway land. After a few moments she said. “Do you remember my husband Bran’s brother, Boerne?”

  Corey wrinkled his forehead. “The brother-in-law that couldn’t stay out of trouble? I vaguely remember him. Didn’t Ash write a song about him?”

  Tara chuckled. “No, but Jacen did, Donnie and Mel’s youngest son. That was Boerne, drunk as a skunk most days. He used to get nosebleeds all the time. You could just look at him crooked, and he would spew blood everywhere.”

  She stilled, silent for a long moment. “I don’t know why, but I have been thinking of Bran a lot lately.” She turned a melancholy face to Corey.

  He took her hand and kissed the back of it. “He was a good man and one of the best friends I’ve ever had.”

  “You know, after he died and you were so good to me, I thought you and I might eventually hook up in Jewel City. Then Eunavae’s accident drew your attention and I thought maybe you had a thing for her.”

  Corey concentrated on their hands.

  “None of us ever had a chance with you, did we?”

  Corey took his time answering. “It’s always been Kate. Even Taylia couldn’t—” he stopped, drew a deep breath then blew it out.

  “Yeah, I know.” Tara squeezed his hand. She sucked in her lower lip and pressed her teeth down, watching his face carefully. “Do you think she is as faithful to you?” She pinned Corey with a pointed stare.

  “Yeah, sure.”

  Tara stared at him. Corey spoke truth as he saw it. He sincerely believed that Kate devoted herself to him. Or maybe his devotion to her did not rely on her commitment to him. That sounded like Corey. Not once in 200 years did he ever consider that Kate had moved on without him. Or if he had, it did not change his heart toward her. He persisted, secure in her love for him.
Tara hoped with all of her heart that he was right. If not, she had a really good idea who Kate’s sweet downfall would be.

  QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): KATE WILSON

  Kate stared at the man who hovered over her and who took no thought for himself. He acted only for her safety. It killed her to see him suffering bravely through his pain, trying to hide how much agony he endured. She ran her fingers through his hair and down the sides of his face. He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply.

  “Kate.” A mere breath escaped him as his brow folded along the ridge of his nose. She gently traced the crease of his brow down and touched his lips with her thumbs as her fingers stroked his cheekbones.

  He opened his eyes. They hazed over with burning passion. Kate melted under his scorching gaze and she clenched her muscles trying to hold herself together. Her insides ached and desire fluttered through her.

  He latched his focus onto her lips and moistened his while yearning kindled inside her. This is wrong…ohhh. Kate’s heart wavered and her thoughts froze. Her body made demands, and her mind stuttered to silence.

  Trip, entranced in the moment, leaned his face in and stopped an inch from her lips.

  Then his gaze shifted over her shoulder and confused panic rumpled his face. Kate turned over to see the floor of the mound disintegrate as long black tentacles shot up, wrapped around her and sucked her into the chasm below.

  QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): COREY CHASTAIN