Surfacing the Rim (Piercing The Fold)

by Kimball, Venessa

  Xander agrees, “Understood.”

  * * *

  We finish our lunch and head back down into the basement. I walk behind the three of them, anxious about revealing Xander’s abilities and learning if he is linked to me.

  Ezra scratches his neck and points to an open area of the basement. “Nate and Xander, stand in the middle there. Jesca, have a seat.”

  I find an old, rickety stool and sit.

  Ezra directs Nate and Xander. “Alright, you two are going to try and combine your abilities.”

  Ezra looks at Xander first. “You need to concentrate on Latrosis, your ability to heal others. Understood?”

  Xander nods. “Wait, what do I need to heal?”

  Without warning, Ezra pulls a blade from his pant leg and says, “This.” Then, he slashes Nate across the chest from shoulder to shoulder.

  Nate’s eyes widen, and he stumbles backward, grabbing at his chest. Blood slowly soaks his gray shirt.

  Xander’s eyes widen as well. He yells, “Ezra! What the hell are you doing?” He lunges for Nate before he stumbles any farther, holding him up by his shoulders.

  I jump from my seat to run to Nate.

  Ezra rushes to me, pushing me back. He growls, “No, Jes!”

  I try to fight him off to get to Nate. “Are you insane? I have to help him!”

  I’m able to scramble away from Ezra for only a second, and then he is on me again, yanking me away from Nate.

  I yell, “Ezra, let me go!”

  Ezra tightens his grip on me, spins me around to watch Xander and Nate, and holds my arms in place like he is a human straitjacket.

  My voice cracks with panic. “Why are you doing this, Ezra?”

  He hisses, “Call it a hunch.” Then, he yells, “Watch!”

  I watch Xander and Nate through blurry eyes. I hear Nate’s heart racing, and my urge to break free from Ezra’s arms is almost unbearable.

  Xander’s arms are still on Nate’s shoulders. Nate has grabbed Xander’s shoulders for support. Both of them lean their foreheads together, and almost immediately, I hear Nate’s heart begin to slow. Xander is breathing deeply and laboriously. I can tell he is using all of his energy.

  Ezra whispers into my ear, “He is healing him, Jes.”

  I nod, but I don’t reply. I can’t believe that Xander is healing him this quickly. Nate’s heart has slowed to match Xander’s, and Nate’s eyes flutter open. Xander pulls back, but he keeps his eyes closed.

  I see Nate squeeze Xander’s shoulder, and they both pull their foreheads apart, releasing their hold on each other. Xander wobbles a little, and then he backs up to lean against a post for support. Nate is standing still, eyes wide open, staring at Xander. They both look at each other for a few moments.

  I try to read them to find out what thoughts are being exchanged between them, but I can’t. They have blocked me.

  I whisper to Ezra, “Can you read them?”

  Ezra shakes his head, telling me he can’t either. Ezra releases me, but I don’t move away from him. I’m in shock at what I just witnessed. Xander has healed Nate instantly.

  Xander and Nate both look at Ezra with shock on their faces. They are realizing what Ezra and I already know.

  I whisper, “They are linked.”

  Ezra tosses Nate an old rag, and Nate pulls off his blood-soaked shirt. I watch as he wipes away the blood on his skin. There’s no mark on his chest whatsoever.

  I walk over to stand between both of them. Nate and Xander are linked, and Nate and I are linked. The only two left to check is Xander and me.

  I feel Ezra walk up behind me, and I tense because I know it’s my turn.

  Nate comes to stand defensively at my side, partially blocking Ezra from coming any closer. He growls at Ezra, “No.”

  I reach my hand to grab Nate’s arm. “Nate, it’s okay.”

  Xander comes to stand in front of me.

  I feel a forceful punch in the middle of my back, and a sharp pain radiates up my spine. I gasp for air. The wind has been knocked out of me. The force of the punch pushes me off balance, and I land in Xander’s arms. I tell my body to grab a hold of him, but it doesn’t listen. The only part of me that is working is my mind, and it’s telling me that I am paralyzed.

  Nate yells, “Jesca! Damn it, Ezra. What did you do?”

  I keep my eyes on Xander’s, but I hear Ezra and Nate struggling with each other.

  I know that Ezra is pulling Nate away and holding him at bay while Xander tries to heal me.

  Ezra hisses, “Xander, she is shutting down. Take her and save her.”

  I feel empty all of a sudden. I guess that’s what happens when nerve endings have been severed. My breath becomes fast and sporadic. I’m starting to hyperventilate.

  Xander pulls my body into his lap, and he cups my face so his eyes are on mine. He leans his head against mine.

  The room starts to spin from my panicky breathing. I close my eyes to stop the spinning.

  I hear Nate’s voice. It sounds like he’s in a tunnel. “He’s not healing her, Ezra!”

  I hear Ezra yell back at Nate, “Wait!”

  Xander shakes my head a little with his hand that is cupped around my face. I blink my eyes open lazily. The room is still spinning out of control. I close them again. When they reopen, I am looking at Xander from outside of my body.

  I am lying there motionless and limp. Xander is cradling me in his arm, grasping my face with his hand. His face is inches from mine. His eyes are full of panic.

  I look at Nate and Ezra. Nate is trying to peel away from Ezra’s grips.

  Xander looks up at Ezra as a tear falls from his eye onto his shirt. His voice is breathless and cracking. “Ezra, I…I can’t…she is not responding to me.”

  Ezra yells at Xander. “She will respond, like she did last night! Concentrate!”

  Nate interrupts with a growl. “Let me go! Let me heal her!”

  Ezra holds Nate back even stronger. He yells, “Heal her now, Xander!”

  Still looking from outside of my body, Xander’s eyes move from Ezra to me while I lay there lifeless.

  Xander pulls my body into him and cradles me like a child. My head lolls onto his shoulder. He moves my head to rest in the crook of his neck.

  He closes his eyes tightly, and his voice cracks as he whispers into my ear, “I won’t let you leave me, Jes.”

  I watch his chest rise and fall with power and strength. The emptiness within me flees, and I feel a small pull within me, drawing me to him. I hear a heartbeat, and it is strong, deep, and steady. I hear nothing else, but its powerful thud and the swish of coursing energy. It’s him—Xander.

  As I sit there watching Xander cradle me, I begin to feel a small pulse of energy within me. It builds quickly, and then it explodes with such force that I instinctively shut my eyes from the overwhelming surge within me. It takes my breath away.

  I feel pure energy and life course through me. I open my eyes and gasp for air. I breathe in and smell him all around me. I’m in Xander’s arms.

  He is rocking me and breathing raggedly into my hair. “I’ve got you, Jes. I’ve got you,” he keeps repeating.

  I wrap my arms around him, bury my face into his neck, and weep.

  Chapter 24

  Ezra

  The thing about a blow from one’s life force is that it’s like a web. Once it is set forth, it spreads like electricity through a live wire until it has run its course. I just hit my only daughter with all of the life force I could muster, causing her spine to split, piercing her lungs, kidney, and heart.

  Yes, it was insane, but I never claimed to be fully sane. If I nicked her across the arm or leg, Xander wouldn’t have been as desperate to heal her. He had to know her life depended on it. I needed him to be desperate for her to live in order to reveal his purpose to us.

  We need to know if Xander is linked to Jesca or if his only connection is his love for her. And, if he isn’t linked to her, we need to know if his l
ove for her is strong enough to save her.

  Chapter 25

  Jesca

  Xander is still cradling me when I feel Nate’s touch on my head. I pull back to look up at him.

  Nate looks from Xander to me. “Are you alright?”

  I nod my head. “Yes.”

  Nate looks at Xander. Xander is still cradling me to his chest, and I see a pang of hurt run through Nate from seeing Xander and me like this. I sense he is going to run, so I reach for his hand and intertwine my fingers with his.

  Ezra walks toward us with his head down. Nate and Xander immediately become guarded.

  Xander warns him, “Stay back, Ezra!”

  Nate pulls away from me to keep Ezra at bay. Nate grits his teeth. “How could you risk your own daughter like that?”

  Ezra runs his hand over his forehead. I sense his mind working through something. He moves his hand away and looks at Nate.

  Ezra says, “There was no risk. You and Jesca are linked, and you and Xander are linked. If I thought for one second that she might die, I would not have done what I did.”

  Nate is so furious with Ezra that his fists tense up. He starts to pace like he is looking for something other than Ezra to hit. He stops in front of Ezra. “Then, why did you do it?”

  Ezra gets nose to nose with Nate. “Because of your link. I trust you with her life, Nate! Xander and Jesca are not linked, but I still need to trust Xander with her life as well!”

  Ezra’s reddening eyes stay on Nate’s. His voice becomes thick and breaks a little. “We had to know if Xander could heal her if something were to happen to you and me!”

  Nate turns and strides back over to Xander and me. He squats down in front of us and says to Xander, “Let’s get her upstairs.” Nate puts his arms under me to lift me from Xander. Xander doesn’t hesitate as he releases me to Nate.

  I stop them both. “Wait, I need to stand. I can do this.”

  Xander and Nate both eye me like I’m a fragile egg ready to break at any moment. Ezra moves in as well to help.

  “Ezra, don’t! Just leave me alone right now!”

  I see him pull back, shifting his eyes to look away from me. I instantly feel bad for scolding him.

  I soften my voice, “I need some time to wrap my head around what just happened.”

  Ezra covers his mouth with his hand and nods, closing his eyes in acceptance of my request.

  I head up the stairs with Nate and Xander following close behind, leaving Ezra alone in the basement.

  * * *

  I head up to my room. I need to be alone for a while. Thinking of the extreme experiment that Ezra just performed has me a bit shocked. I need to think about his motives and what we talked about this morning.

  When I stride up the cabin stairs and close my door, Nate and Xander take the hint that I need space. I sigh deeply and head over to the window. The sky is dark. It looks almost like dusk. I look at the clock on the nightstand. It’s only 3:30 p.m.

  The corner of the windowsill catches my eyes. Snowflakes begin to stack methodically in one corner. The direction of the wind has blown them there, and now the snowflakes are sticking to the window, linking, intertwining, and making slow progress toward the other side of the window by building on their connection.

  I become mesmerized and stand to watch this magnificent natural event. I wonder if this will be the last time I see an event like this. The amber, arc lightning crawling across the sky startles me. I back away from the window and flop down on the bed.

  I mumble, “Ezra, what were you wanting to prove?”

  I hear the tapping rhythm of sleet hitting the window. My eyes catch the linking snowflakes sliding down the windowsill, still connected.

  I whisper, “Hold on.”

  And, those snowflakes never break their connection until they are forced from the windowsill from the melting sleet.

  I think of what transpired down in the basement minutes ago. Nate and I are linked for sure. Now, it is determined that Xander and Nate are linked. All that is left is Xander and me.

  I remember last night and how Xander said he thought I was dying. This morning, I told Ezra what happened before he said he wanted to observe us to test the link. Then, I talked with Ezra about my mother and him and asked if they were linked. He said they weren’t, but they had something much stronger—their love and trust for each other.

  Xander and I don’t share a link either, but from what happened just now, we have a bond just as powerful, if not more powerful than the link between Nate and me. Our feelings for each other are obviously strong enough to surpass the strength of a manufactured link between two guardians.

  I remember Ezra’s words when Nate asked him why he almost killed me to see if Xander could heal me. Ezra said that he needed to make sure that Xander could heal me if something were to happen to Nate or him.

  I feel my heart pounding in my throat. I close my eyes and think back over my recent nightmares, especially the last one.

  Nate was fighting and got injured. Ezra was there to kill the being before it could kill Nate. Then, I remember I ran from Nate in my dream to follow the sound of a crying baby. That was when Sam attacked me, and Xander saved me, pulling me from the dream.

  Damn it. What if I’m missing something that happened to Nate, Ezra, or both of them in the dream? Even more, what if Ezra is having premonitions of his own that he is not disclosing to us?

  Chapter 26

  Xander

  Nate is sitting on the sofa, eyeing the top of the stairs, and Xander is adding logs to the fire. Xander comes to sit across from Nate. They both sit there in awkward silence for a few minutes.

  Nate shifts in his seat, and then he clears his throat. “So, we’re linked.”

  Xander sits back in his seat and scratches his eyebrow. “Looks that way, cousin.”

  Nate adds matter-of-factly, “And, you and Jesca are not.”

  Xander tilts his head and glares at Nate. “No, we aren’t.”

  Nate shuts his eyes, realizing the way he said that. “I didn’t mean it that way.” He sighs. “Look, I know you care about Jesca.” Nate looks at the fire. “In that room last night, when you saved her...I could sense your feelings for Jesca coursing through me. It didn’t occur to me why I could feel them until today—when we found out about our link.”

  Silence falls on the room again.

  Nate stands and walks to the fireplace, leaning his hand on the mantel. “We both care about Jesca. Hell, we both might be falling in love with her.”

  Xander gets up and comes to stand next to Nate on the other side of the mantel. “And now, this link connects the three of us.”

  Nate looks to Xander. “Yes, it does.”

  All of a sudden, Xander feels a vibration begin in the pit of his stomach. Nate begins to feel the same sensation.

  Xander asks, “What is that feeling?”

  Nate hurries to the computer on the kitchen table. “Someone is coming.”

  Xander follows after him just as Ezra bursts through the basement door, rushing to stand behind Nate at the computer. Nate pulls up the activity readings from the drones.

  Ezra points at one about a mile out. “There.”

  A black Chevy Tahoe with blacked-out windows enters the drone-marked area.

  Ezra looks at Nate. “Can you sense who it is?”

  Nate answers, “No, I can’t. Can you?”

  Ezra hisses. “No, damn it! Where’s Jesca?”

  Xander replies, “She’s upstairs in her room.”

  Chapter 27

  Jesca

  I’m about to head down to the living room to see what all the commotion is about when I feel a vibration begin in my stomach. The humming tickles my ears. I know this feeling, and it never turns out good. I don’t feel dizzy this time though.

  I rush through the door and take the stairs like they’re nothing. I’m standing next to Ezra, Xander, and Nate within seconds. I try to concentrate on who the intruders could be. The mental b
lock this person or these people have put up is so thick that I can’t even detect the number of intruders. I ask quickly, “What is going on?”

  Ezra questions, “You can’t read them either?”

  I shake my head. “No.”

  Ezra curses. “Shit! Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. Grab each other’s hands.”

  We do what Ezra tells us.

  He continues explaining, “We need to try to break through the block. Nate and Xander, we need to send all of your energy to Jesca. Jesca, imagine puncturing the mental block with our combined life force.”

  I nod and close my eyes quickly. As soon as my eyes shut, I feel the warm energy begin to build quickly within me. At first, it’s too intense.

  I call nervously to Ezra, “It’s too much.”

  Ezra cuts me off. “No, it isn’t. You can handle it. Take control of the energy, harness it, and pull it into your center.”

  I slow my rapid breathing. With every breath, I feel the energy pull inward into one safe place within the center of my body. Then, I project the energy from within me out to the intruders in the approaching Tahoe.

  Slowly, I get a glimpse of their minds. I try to feel their intentions, and immediately, I sense that they know I have broken the block.

  I hear a whisper, “We are here to help.”

  I tell Ezra, Nate, and Xander. “They say they are here to help.”

  Somehow, I am able to project myself into the car because I am looking at the back of their heads while they are driving toward us. There are two males, but I can’t see their faces.

  All of a sudden, one turns to face me.

  I let go of Xander’s and Nate’s hands and open my eyes. They already know from reading me, but I say their names aloud.