Prism (Awakened Chronicles Book 3)

by Harley Austin

  “You’re not lower life, Chase,” Lear assured. “You’re still a child of the Yin. Just like I am.”

  “But we also have Ra blood, Brooke.” Romero added. “The Ra have been on this world too, evidently.”

  “The Ra invaded our world as well, Cierra. Just before they destroyed it.”

  “What?!” Parker looked astonished.

  She nodded. “I told you that Ra destroyed the Yin. When they discovered who we were, they destroyed our world. Not many of our people escaped. But our world is now no more.”

  “Oh, Brooke,” O’Brien began, moving up to her. “I’m so sorry.”

  “No. Don’t be sad for us. Be happy that the Yin yet survive and that we are rekindling what was once lost.”

  “So this is our heritage.” Tyler looked around. “The legacy of our people.”

  “It is, Chase. This place, it is home for people like us. We can live here in peace for the rest of eternity if we like.”

  “No, we can’t,” Wynn disagreed. “We have a small army following us, remember? They probably already have drones circling this place now.”

  “Yea, good point,” Parker agreed. “What if they start shooting at us? These crystals aren’t impervious. They destroyed the dam, they can destroy the anchor.”

  “I don’t think these Architects would have left these places totally defenseless,” Romero looked around.

  “They didn’t, Cierra. All of them used to be inhabited, by a guardian.”

  “What kind of guardian?” Brayden’s eyes showed some alarm.

  “Who knows? I’ve only heard the stories. I’ve used the anchors many times. I’ve never seen one.”

  “Well, all of this talk is making me really hungry, none of us has eaten all day,” Tyler reminded. “You said there was food in here, Brooke?”

  “Anything you like,” she smiled, lifting off the ledge of the terrace and rising upward toward the top of the tower.

  “How are you doing that? You’re not awakened!” Wynn’s eyes widened.

  “It’s an anchor, silly. It does whatever you ask.”

  58

  T he upper most floor of the tower held a miraculous sight. Three crystalline bridges curved upward from another upper central terrace to a dark orb that shimmered at the confluence. A beautiful nebula and a sun in the distance could be seen as they walked around the outer perimeter.

  “I can feel the warmth of that sun, even in here.” Parker looked astonished.

  Lear’s face, however, showed sadness. “I guess we won’t be going anywhere.”

  “You mean we’re still stuck here?” Wynn asked.

  She nodded. “At one time the anchor led to another homeworld. Now that world doesn’t exist anymore. Only it’s star.” Lear turned from the black orb, an open portal that now led only into cold, hard space. Wynn went to her and cuddled her into his arms. She wrapped her arms around him.

  Although Lear was despondent about seeing the empty void, the others were deeply in intrigued. The gods of their group approached the fifty-foot high shimmering empty blackness. Parker took off one of his shoes and cautiously pushed the toe of the shoe beyond the shimmer, then pulled it back as Brayden watched. The cross-trainer didn’t really look any different. Parker tapped the tip of the shoe with his finger.

  “Whoa, that’s cold.” He handed the shoe to Brayden.

  “Wow. It’s freezing on the other side of this thing. Let’s not go in there.” He handed Parker his shoe back. When it had warmed again, Parker slipped it back on.

  “Well, you’re right, Brooke. That portal is taking us nowhere. I wonder where it used to go?”

  “The nebulae behind that sun; it’s called Travada, on the far outer rim of my home galaxy, the place your people call Andromeda.”

  “Andromeda?” Tyler looked at the others. “That’s like over two million light-years away.”

  “Is that really far?” O’Brien asked. “I sort of skipped astronomy class.”

  “Traveling at the speed of light would take you over two million years to get there.”

  “Well, Parker’s shoe was just there,” Brayden offered.

  “I guess the speed of light is a little horse and buggy for other races. I wonder how they do it?” Tyler marveled.

  “The Yin did things other races could not,” Lear assured. “Even the Ra called them ‘gods’.”

  “Wow,” O’Brien looked impressed, “And I thought we were sort of the top of the food chain.”

  “We are at the top,” Parker smiled. “We’re children of the Yin. Right?”

  Lear nodded. A smile slowly replacing her sadness.

  * * * * *

  Their table had shimmered into existence from nothing. The knowledge of the Yin appeared miraculous, whatever each of them desired simply shimmered into existence onto the table in front of them until it could hold no more. Even unawakened, both Wynn and Tyler could summon whatever to have it appear for them.

  “I’m going to need to go on a diet after this meal,” Wynn grinned.

  “I wonder why it doesn’t create meats?” Tyler asked.

  “The Yin weren’t carnivorous,” Lear munched.

  “You mean all of this is vegan?” Brayden asked, a little amazed that the very different foods he’d been eating that Lear had summoned were just that.

  “I’m sure it is,” Parker agreed sitting next to him. “It kind of feels like a race of people this advanced wouldn’t have any need to kill and eat something. I could go vegan after this meal.”

  “Yea. Not.” Brayden wasn’t going there. Yin or not, steak was definitely still on his menu.

  Empty alcoves littered the outer terraces miles high above where the waters cascaded down into the abyss. Moving effortlessly through the semi-transparent crystalline walls of the tower, they stood on the outside once again. Looking to one side of the tower, a vast great lake they’d just crossed, and to the other side of the tower, a river bay and then huge forests for as far as they could see.

  “Lovely,” Parker pointed as a drone zipped past not far below them.

  “Well, they know where we are, don’t they?” Brayden mused.

  “We need to scout around this place to make sure there aren’t any openings for them to sneak into.” Both walked through he wall and back out of sight of the drone cameras.

  Inside one of the alcove rooms that was easily a hundred feet across, a new twenty-foot circular soft white pillow-like mattress had obviously been summoned by the girls. Both Romero and Lear had made themselves comfortable on it lying right next to each other. Gone were their tattered insulated clothes each of them had been wearing since finding themselves in the ice hotel. Now the women wore fine thong bikini-like clothes of a semi-sheer red material that covered their feminine parts. Thanks to the tower, each looked and smelled clean and fresh, as if both had recently showered.

  “Well now,” Brayden’s eyes widened.

  “Lear, Romero—” Parker looked surprised as well. “What are you two wearing?”

  “Pajamas. What else?” Romero smiled, moving herself alluringly while stretching out on their new soft bedding.

  “Nice jammies,” Brayden smirked.

  They both watched as Wynn’s clothes shimmered out of existence, a faint light engulfed him and then left him with the male version of the ladies clothes. When the light faded from his skin even his hair looked cleaned and combed.

  “Instant shower, gents.” Wynn walked past them and knelt on the mattress in front of the girls.

  “Where’s Bryn?” Brayden asked. He’d love to see her in one of the stunning little thong numbers.

  “She wanted to go exploring,” Lear offered. “Don’t worry, she’ll be alright. The tower will protect her.”

  The guys shrugged and with merely a thought found themselves surrounded by a warm light that faded their clothes away, cleaned their skin and left them with the same comfortable light sleep wear as Tyler, Wynn, and the girls.

  Parker and Brayden knelt t
o either side of the women. Parker’s hand smoothed over the bare skin of Lear’s fine ass. “Ladies, it looks like the guys have you surrounded.”

  “Hmmm,” Lear stretched and then lifted her ass high as Parker’s had smoothed over it and then down the backs of her legs, teasing her feminine lips that filled the sheer silky material of her bikini bottoms.

  “What are you going to do with us, now that you have us surrounded?” Romero teased, lifting her ass just as high as Lear’s.

  “One of you needs to be fucked into a goddess,” Brayden smirked. “Parker, you want to flip a coin?”

  “I say we just makeout and let Nature choose,” Lear offered.

  “Two guys making out with the same girl?” Wynn moved up to kneeling in front of Lear who suddenly took an interest in the sheer white bikini bottoms Wynn wore. She began kissing the inside of his spread thighs making her way slowly further between them.

  “I don’t think that’s going to be a problem for us, Dade.”

  “I’m definitely not having a problem with it now,” he felt her fine lips sliding along the front of his sheer briefs.

  With Lear’s ass still in the air, Parker’s finger delicately teased her lips covered by her bikini bottoms causing her to whine softly against Wynn’s growing shaft.

  Tyler had moved closer to Romero, but instead of her kneeling and kissing the front of his briefs, he brought her up so that the both of them could kiss lip to lip.

  Wynn watched her, how she kissed Tyler. She’d kissed him the same way. He wished he were on her lips at the moment, but he was also glad she like Tyler’s as well. The truth was, he didn’t really mind watching Tyler make love to Cierra. He liked watching her being made love to.

  “You’re getting awakened tonight, Chase.” Wynn smoothed his hand over Tyler’s back.

  “Dade’s right,” Romero kissed him.

  “Ride him hard and put him away wet, Cierra,” Wynn ordered.

  Tyler looked a little worried. “Ah, what does that mean, exactly?”

  Romero grabbed Tyler’s ass and pulled him against her front.

  Brayden chuckled moving himself behind Romero and snuggling himself up against her fine Brazilian ass. “I think it means you’re about to get fucked, Chase. Hard.”

  “Don’t I get a say in this—?” His voice sounded worried but he was wearing a smile kissing her lips.

  * * * * *

  O’Brien descended the depths of the anchor at frightening speed. She’d been exploring, curious about the tower. It wasn’t just a tower, but it had something more. An intelligence was at work within it. Parker and Braden should have been able to feel it, but for some reason they’d not recognized the subtle mind at work. The intelligence seemed wise. And old. Very old. But it wasn’t alone. There were other intellects at work here as well. She needed to know more.

  Brynn descended the quickly through the depths of the tower, feeling the presence of the tower’s empathy growing with each passing mile.

  She needed to see what was actually at the bottom. Moving down through the interior of the tower, she was all but sure she’d now passed into the upper mantle of their world. Surrounded on all sides by hot molten magma, she should be getting cooked from the heat their world effortlessly generated this far deep, but the crystalline walls of the structure, although pink with the heat of their world, seemed to ignore the intensity. All was cool as she descended through layer upon layer of rooms and labyrinth-like structures of intricate crystalline strata and fine reticulate architecture she took for something like mammoth circuitry or a network of symmetry not unlike things she thought she’d seen in microscopic images of neural brain cells. Light whisked from sections all around her flashing in split seconds from one set of crystalline pathways and into another. The sight was breath taking to watch. Like she was inside of the intellect of the intelligence that surrounded her, watching the mind of someone work at a micro level.

  ‘Who are you?’ She felt.

  But the tower was silent. Ever present, but silent. Still she could feel its intentions. Its purpose to serve and protect. She also felt its sadness for the death of the world it was no longer anchored to.

  O’Brien finally lit onto what was the very bottom of the tower. She moved through crystalline archways that supported the intricate strata above her, and past tall towers like the trees she’d seen in the prism wilderness back in the caverns. She turned a corner around one of the pillars and froze.

  “Hello, Bryn.”

  He was standing not ten feet in front of her.

  “Scott.” Her eyes drew wide. “W-What are you doing here?”

  “Spying. What else?” the teen shrugged. He was dressed in his typical black leather pants, a black t-shirt and a snug-fitting leather jacket that wrapped his more slender than muscular, but still very cut build like a designer driving glove. His tossed golden-blonde hair, pale skin, and lit amber eyes were indicative of his awakened new blood.

  “You shouldn’t be here.”

  “Oh and you should?” he pushed away from the pillar he’d been standing against. The guy was pure chill as he walked with cool, confident steps up to her. At six-three he was taller and although a little intimidating, his genes always called out to hers. “You’re looking fine.” He lifted the edge if his finger to slightly caress the suddenly hardening pert nipple of her breast. “A little overdressed in the prison outfit, but fine.”

  “You shouldn’t be here. If the others find you—”

  “Relax. They’re five hundred miles away.” He then tucked his finger under her chin and smiled. She looked away, trying to downplay how his body was calling out to hers.

  “Oooh, you’ve grown a little cold since the last time we were together.” He stepped away from her, his back to her. He looked at her over his shoulder. O’Brien bit her lip. Scott in leather was unbelievable. Damn the guy was smooth.

  “That—wasn’t supposed to happen.”

  “You enjoyed it. We both did.”

  She mustered her courage. “You need to leave.”

  “Why? You don’t own the place. Anchors own themselves.”

  “I—I, just don’t want a fight. Things are already complicated.”

  “Oh, yea, Parker. He’s supposed to be Mr. Metallica. Big deal. Not. Worried.” His own amber eyes flared.

  “You leave him alone.”

  “Or what?” he walked up to her, the front of his body just barely touching hers. It had the intended affect on her.

  “I just don’t want him hurt, that’s all.”

  “Rigel doesn’t know what’s in here. He’s all intrigued by the possibilities of a new Yin homeworld,” he mocked the British accent.

  “What are you going to tell him?”

  “What do you want me to tell him?” Scott smiled softly. Handsomely.

  “Nothing.”

  “What’s in it for me?”

  She placed her hand on his chest. She couldn’t help it, it was just autonomic somehow.

  “You can’t keep playing both sides, Scott. Rigel’s going to find out.”

  “Yea. Not worried about him either.”

  “You should be, he’ll kill you if he finds out you’ve double-crossed him.”

  “The Seven are a has-been, Bryn. This place,” he looked around, “these anchors are where it’s at. The Seven have only now just started to figure it out. We’re fucking Yin, Bryn, and they’re not.”

  “The Ra destroyed the Yin, Scott.”

  “Yea, well, not all of us.”

  “You’re just like Amy. You’re not being cautious.”

  “Oh, I’m cautious, trust me.” He slid his lips across her neck and then up to her ear. He could feel her grip on his arms as her body trembled slightly with the feeling.

  “Please, Scott, God. You know I can’t—”

  She felt her lips folding into his. But then he withdrew.

  “You’re really serious about protecting them.”

  “They’re my friends. I want to.”<
br />
  “Rigel wants them dead.”

  “No! Please, I’ll do anything.”

  “You already burned that bridge, remember? He still has your family. Bastard.”

  “I need to rescue them.”

  “So that’s why you’re down here, looking for toys?”

  She nodded.

  “You need to be careful. These things are dangerous.” He lifted the long slender gold crystal from the side of her pants where’d she’d had it tucked. It shimmered in his hand.

  “Show me how to use it.”

  “Oh hell no. Amy would break my legs.” He slid it back into her pants, but from the front this time until it looked as if the deep-gold crystal had mingled with her auburn-red pubic hair. “You’re on your own with this.”

  She gave him a half scowl and adjusted the wand back to her side. “What about Brooke?”

  “I saw her during the briefing. The natural tattoo’s a little weird. What is she?”

  “Tellarian.”

  “Yea?” Scott had only heard about them. He’d never talked with one before. “You two looked a little cozy in the images I saw. She really have a twelve-inch tongue?”

  “That’s none—oooh,” she frosted, pushing him away. “I need to rescue them, before he kills them!”

  “Tell you what,” he backed away from her. “Maybe we can work together on this.” His eyes softly lit as the tower’s warm light engulfed her, fading away her tattered clothes and refreshing her skin, her long auburn-red hair thick and wavy again as it fell around her shoulders and back. The gold-metallic crystal still floated beside her. “Better?” He admired her unclothed form.

  “Much, but,” her own eyes glowed softly as her skin shimmered for a moment. A fine new catsuit now covered her skin from neck to toe looking very similar to the designer leather he wore.

  “You know I hate it when you wear that.” He admired.

  “I know. You’d rather me not wear anything.” She moved up to him as he took her into his arms. “How do we rescue my family?”

  “You let me worry about that. I’d forgotten how nice you smell.”