“We are wasting time,” Eunavae growled. “Come on Donnie, let’s go get Corey.”
“I’m coming with you two,” Dirk stated.
“I’m going up there for Kate.” Trip pointed to the corridor leading up.
“I’m going to kill me a dragon.” Tara pointed up.
“If the sphere comes, we will be separated,” Donnie cautioned.
“If the sphere comes, it comes.” Dirk zipped his jacket. “Let’s go.”
Tara and Trip moved into the corridor and began climbing to the plateau. Trip listened until Dirk, Donnie and Eunavae’s footsteps could no longer be discerned before he broached the subject with Tara.
“Tara, I wish…” He didn’t know what to say. He loved Kate. He loved Tara, too. But Tara didn’t need him the way Kate did.
Tara stopped and put her hand on his lips. “Trip, don’t.” Her lip trembled.
A moment passed between them, almost as if they were back on the platform in the Darchori forest, together and in love. Her eyes pooled with deep longing as she gazed into his. Trip loved this woman. He loved everything about her. Strength, beauty, character, integrity, Tara embodied all of those and more. He loved her but didn’t deserve her.
He broke the eye contact and stepped away from her. They turned as one and continued up the corridor. Trip never deserved her. He had nothing to offer her. He couldn’t even give her his undivided love. Kate had crawled under his skin and he couldn’t shake free from her.
They crept out of the exit and hid themselves behind a large outcropping of rock.
“We were right over there, behind those bushes by those boulders.” Tara pointed toward the edge of the ledge. “The Mother stands in between those two rock groupings and looks over the edge toward the Traptor.” Her acerbic tone when she spat the word spoke volumes.
“We need to get closer, so we can see.”
“The dragon will be back there. I am going to go wait for him.”
“Tara! You don’t even have a weapon! What are you going to do to a full-grown dragon without a weapon?”
“Improvise.”
Trip growled at her, but knew she wouldn’t be deterred. It’s not like she hasn’t taken out a full-grown dragon with a homemade spear before. He grabbed her arm.
“Tara. Be careful.”
“Never!” Her eyes flashed dangerously, and she slipped down the hill.
Glorious! That woman is glorious. No other word could describe her.
QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): TARA JOHNSON
Tara couldn’t believe how ridiculously naïve the Keepers acted. Hadn’t they all seen how fickle Kate behaved? Yeah, sure she had a huge heart and sincerely cared for everyone, but that’s where the problem lay. She couldn’t make up her stupid mind!
Tara’s despondence evaporated in the scorch of her anger. Adrenalin coursed through her body. She needed to get her emotions in check. She had to find a weapon that could kill a dragon, then she would unleash her vitriol on that stinkin’ serpent.
She heard the caravan before she saw it and jumped off the trail to hide behind the rocks. The green spotted dragon lumbered back and forth beneath the woman swaying in his saddle.
The Mother!
I knew it! Kate in full paint-by-number body art straddled the dragon. Just as Tara had seen in the Scriptorium, her Mohawk ponytail swished against her back as the dragon climbed the hill. Twelve Rhinodudes followed, a wall of armored flesh closed behind them.
Tara arched a brow. The guards each carried a long spear. She smirked.
This is gonna be easier than I thought.
QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): TRIP CARSON
Trip turned toward the ledge and scanned the area, only the one outcropping on this side. He didn’t want to interfere with the Scriptorium experience, so he decided to cross over to the other group of rocks to hide.
Scanning the area quickly, he ran across the opening, slid into place behind the rocks and peered back around to see if anyone had seen him.
“Trip!”
He whirled around. “Kate?”
She huffed in surprise.
“Kate!” He grabbed her in a fierce hug and bent his head to kiss her lips.
She leaned away. “Trip! No.”
He stopped suddenly. “What? Why?”
She held up her ring finger. “Married!” Her brows pressed together and she pushed against him. He could see teardrops still in her lashes.
“Married. Kate, what are you talking about? That didn’t stop you before when we made crazy passionate love in the wild flowers!”
Her angry face blanched and an expression of intense sadness claimed her features.
“That wasn’t me, Trip.” She took his hands and her eyes filled with compassion and pity.
Trip reeled from rejection and confusion.
“They captured me, imprisoned me here in the caves when you and Corey and I first explored them. Another woman took my clothes and my place.” Her voice deepened with remorse.
“No. Kate, that is not possible. Are you messing with me?” Anger spiked in his chest.
“I know, Trip, it seems unreal, but it wasn’t me.” Her tears spilled over, trickling down her agonized face.
“Yes, it was. Kate I have been with you before, not to that extent, but I know what you feel like and what you kiss like. I know your taste, your smell.” He touched her cheek and pinned her with his eyes, forcing her to speak the truth. “It was you.”
“No,” she whispered with a tremble. “I don’t know who she is. She looks like me but Trip, it wasn’t me. I promise you.”
Rocked to the core, Trip dropped his hand. This can’t be true. He scanned her jumpsuit and held onto her wrist. She winced and jerked her arm away. Her wrists were torn and bruised. She had been captured.
It started to sink in, unbelievable but true. Kate was not the girl he had been with. He remembered the things she did to him. The bizarre sexual appetite and her manipulations just weren’t like Kate. The girl who blushed over an innocent kiss under the willow tree. The girl who chose Corey for his integrity and honor. The girl before him, Katie girl, could never do the things he did with, with who?
He didn’t have long to wonder. As he sat there staring into the innocent gaze of Katie girl, a very different Kate strolled up the hill.
Her naked body painted head to toe, the Kate that he had made love to, the Kate that gave him the electrical buzz when she kissed him, the Kate that was The Mother promenaded past their hiding place. She stopped just before she topped the hill and spat orders at the Kiarnusk, then she turned and approached the edge of the cliff and began the show.
Trip turned to look at the Kate at his side. She had her fist pressed into her mouth, staring in horror at the bleeding, dying Corey, strapped in the Traptor. He shrugged off some type of rodent who had started feasting on his flesh. Kate winced as she watched the torture of her true love.
Her expression broke the hold on him. Deep grief tugged at the corners of her mouth, tears coursed down her cheeks. Ablaze with hopeless, anguished, eternal and pure love, Kate yearned for the man across the ravine.
He felt it snap. She was not his Kate and she could never be. Completely and totally devoted to the dying man hanging on the cliff wall across the gorge, she belonged with him.
Trip staggered back and the distance between them became a tangible wall, an unscalable wall. A permanent barrier rising up separated them conclusively.
He leaned against the boulder and slid down to land in the dust.
QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): DIRK JOHNSON
Dirk took Eunavae’s hand, and Donnie followed closely behind as they quickly crossed in front of the cages, keeping low. They spilled into the entrance to the cliff face that they had seen the Kiarnusk use to access the higher portions of the Traptor.
“Oh, no, no! We have to hurry!” Eunavae moaned. “I saw Kate, painted up on the top of the cliff when we crossed.”
“It’ll happen
soon!” Donnie confirmed, heartbroken that Kate had actually fooled him. She betrayed them all.
Stairs had been cut into the stone and they zigzagged back and forth. They took them two and three at a time until they spotted light breaking through a corridor.
Dirk skidded to a stop and jerked backwards to enter the lighted passage. He stepped over peculiar rodents scurrying toward the cliff face.
“Rats!” Eunavae whispered harshly. “I hate rats!”
Dirk poked his head out of the opening and looked to the left, almost eye level to Corey and three feet away. Eunavae and Donnie crowded around behind him and strained to see Corey.
QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): COREY CHASTAIN
Blood poured into my eyes, a stinging mixture of sweat and blood blinded me as I peered down into the faces of my family, my oldest friends, my jump mates. Angry shouts, betrayed glances, and defensive insults stabbed me worse than the metal spikes pinning me to the rock face. Large rusty metal pylons jutted up through my arm pits to anchor me to the cliff wall. My arms and legs were splayed and manacled into iron bands that cut into my flesh, pressing my stained body against the stone. I stilled, locked in a vice with jagged teeth stabbing into my face and clamping into my skull. In spite of all the torture, the worst pain was the grief swelling in my chest. With a broken heart, I drew a slow stuttering breath.
I sang.
Carefully, gently, our song poured out of me. My last gift of love to those I left behind.
My friends turned and left me, escaping back into the caves. Good. They didn’t need to see this.
The blood thickened, congealing as dehydration set in. Clicking sounds pressed in from all sides. When teeth burrowed into my fingers I jerked and flung a small rodent into the crowd at my feet. Long-bodied carnivores surged over me and nibbled at my torn flesh. I lurched reflexively when one bit down on my side. The spike at my temple drove into my skull and stole my vision as I blinked into blackness.
I woke in agonizing pain. The crowd vanished. One person stood on the ledge above me. Her beautiful body covered in heinous tattoos quivered before me. Bile rose in my throat at the thought of the hands that had perpetrated the vile images on the body of my beloved.
My Kate.
She strained toward me. The heavy iron cuff around her neck jerked her backward and her manacled hands flew up to her throat. She gagged, eyes bulging.
A massive creature topped the rise behind her, the chain linked to her bonds clutched in his colossal scaly hands. His long tongue flashed out and flicked across her face, down around her neck, savoring the taste of her. He jerked the chain up into the air, and she hung there by her neck kicking and flailing, while his tongue explored. Taunting me, challenging me to give up, the beast warned of vile acts in store for her.
Enraged, I struggled with my bonds, wanting to break free, but knowing I had to die so she could live. Kate! What have I done? I chose to take her place in this death contraption as a bargain so that her life would be spared. What life had I cursed her with? Chained like an animal, painted up, Kate suffered captivity for the brutal enjoyment of these barbaric monsters.
The massive beast dropped her chain and she crashed to the ground at his feet. Gasping for breath, her chest rose and fell and my heart lurched.
My beloved, my bride, my one true love, my Kate of a Thousand Years, I wanted to hold her, enfold her in my protection, whisk her away from here to our home in the pink clouds where we could love and make love as husband and wife for an eternity.
But no. It was possible this was not my loving wife. The actions on the cliff above me were exactly as Tara and Mel described.
The scene played out in front of me. If she had betrayed me, just as Tara and Mel said, she would rejoice in my death. It didn’t matter to me either way. Whether Dagan had turned her or not, I had no malice or blame for her. I knew the dragon did this. My greatest hope endured that my sacrifice would reach her soul. If I gave myself for her, maybe it would startle her out of the stronghold of the dragon. Maybe by dying, I could really save her.
Kate’s gaze stretched across the chasm as though she too were thinking of our love, she reached out her hand to me and mouthed the words my soul knew so well.
“I have loved you for a thousand years.”
Whether she meant it now or not, my Kate did. Locked inside, deep inside, Kate loved me. “Kate! I will love you for thousands more!” With Kate’s name on my lips and my heart full of love, I sighed my last.
QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): DIRK JOHNSON
Corey looked across the gulf and Dirk followed his gaze. Kate on her knees, still covered in tattoos, mouthed something to him across the divide.
“I will love you for thousands more!” he shouted.
“Corey! No!” Dirk yelled. Corey strained against his restraints. Ramming the spikes into his brain, he convulsed and died.
“Nooo!” Eunavae screamed and fought to get to him. Donnie held her back from the edge of the precarious drop, his face contorted in grief and he murmured something over and over as he held tightly to the frantic Eunavae.
Dirk trembled in anger and focused across the divide to see The Mother’s chest rise and fall as she began to laugh. She threw her head back and cackled in wicked glee as she gazed down on the dead body of her husband.
Kate betrayed them all. Responsible for Corey’s hideous death, she took pleasure at the sight of his mangled body. He couldn’t grasp it, he stared at her maniacal throes, and anger blazed inside of him. Something to the Mother’s right caught his eye. Trip, wrestling with someone out of sight from The Mother, dove behind a boulder.
Dirk didn’t have time to identify who he had tackled because the sphere fell and engulfed the four of them on his side of the canyon. They jumped leaving the others to deal with the betrayer.
His last thought in the dragon world; Kate will pay for this!
QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): TRIP CARSON
Kate jumped up in a panic and filled her lungs to scream. Trip grabbed her from behind and clamped his hand over her mouth, tackling her behind the rock. She slapped at his arms and kicked and flailed. He held her tight until she gave out and crumpled in a heap, trembling. Curled into a fetal position, mouth contorted into a silent scream, her face reddened as veins fractured across her cheeks. Trip wrapped himself around her feeling the desperation and loss, ready to silence her again to protect her from being discovered.
A sphere landed on the other side of the gorge. It disappeared with Corey’s body.
Fearful that Kate would draw attention, Trip wracked his brain. Trying to be silent, Kate struggled. Just breathing had become a labor through the tears and pain. Trip needed a diversion. Luckily the Mother cackled like a machine gun and no one could hear Kate’s sobs. That wouldn’t last long, though.
“He’s dead! He’s gone! We have defeated the mighty Corey Chastain.” The woman snarled, insane.
Kate stiffened at the sound and pushed away from Trip. A fierce light grew on her countenance. She wrenched herself up and snatched the whip at her waist.
QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): TRIP CARSON
“You!” Kate’s guttural roar broke out of her tiny body as she stepped out from behind the rocks. Trip did not think her capable of such fury. “You are The Mother, aren’t you?”
The Mother stopped her crowing and turned to face Kate. “Ah, so Katie Lynn how did you get out of your chains?” She dropped her fake bonds into the dirt.
“You killed my husband! I will have revenge.” She snapped her whip. It slithered out in front of her as she adjusted her stance.
“You can’t touch me, Katie Lynn. I have a world of dragons on my side and two dozen body guards who will stand between us.”
“Do you?” Kate bent her knees slightly and leaned forward, sizing up her enemy.
“Dagan!” The Mother roared.
Silence.
“Hmmm, I guess Dagan is a little busy now.” Kate stepped forward and snappe
d her whip again. It snaked behind her and around to quiver at the ready for her strike. “And I seem to remember a bargain between Dagan and the other dragons. Corey dies, we go free.”
Fear flitted across the Mother’s face before she schooled it back into arrogance. Trip stepped out from behind the rock scanning the area. He didn’t know if the Rhinodudes would honor the agreement. But they were nowhere in sight.
Tension coiled around Kate, Trip knew she’d tear into this uncanny doppelganger at any second.
The Mother turned a pleading face to him.
“Trip, my love,” she purred and held out her arms toward him. Astonished when desire rose in his gut, Trip couldn’t believe the passion that spiked in him toward the vile woman in front of him. But her painted body quivered in fear, so familiar to him. Possessive feelings for her rose in him. She had been his lover. They were bonded, even if she hadn’t been the right Kate.
I owe her, don’t I?
“Who are you?” Kate bellowed.
“I am Kate Wilson, just like you.”
“That is not possible.” Kate’s arm relaxed a bit.
“Yes, it is. I know everything about your past because it is my past. The only thing that differentiates me from you is the 10 years I spent here in this world after Corey ripped you away from me.”
“What are you talking about? You’re insane.”
“We are the Mother, Kate. We agreed to serve this world as the Mother. Don’t you remember?”
“I remember being tricked.”
“Yes,” she laughed. “Clever little dragon.”
“After we went into Trip’s mind and led him through all of those locked doors to free him, Corey would not let you go. He anchored you to himself. You broke away from me, rolled down the steps and jumped back with the team. You left me trapped in the chair, enslaved to source this world.”
The Keepers Book Two of the Holding Kate Series Page 23