Chapter 16
“Oh good, you did come.” Vela hugs me when we step off the elevator. “I thought we might have scared you off.”
“I don’t scare easy.” I smile at her.
“We’re just waiting for a few others to get here and then the meeting will start. I thought maybe we could sit together if that’s okay.”
“I’d love that.” I look over at Orion and he smiles.
“Wonderful!” Vela claps her hands and goes to greet another person as they exit the elevator.
I look around the penthouse and there must be about a dozen people scattered around the penthouse. Some of them stare in our direction and I move closer to Orion. He wraps his arm around my shoulder and kisses the top of my head. The ones who were staring look away, their unspoken questions answered. A scruffy middle aged man makes his way over to us and shakes Orion’s hand.
“It’s good to see you, Orion. I hear you’re responsible for this little meeting, eh?” he says.
“Hello, Bootes. Yes I am.” Orion’s tone is neutral as he replies.
“Mind telling me why? Not that I don’t enjoy catching up but I was making a rather large investment in New Zealand when I got the summons.”
“I’ll explain everything once everyone gets here.”
“Fine, fine, but at least introduce me to your lady friend.” Bootes holds out his hand and I shake it. “You must be something because Orion has never brought a girl home before.”
“I’m Ailey, it’s nice to meet you.” I smile politely and Bootes clicks his tongue.
“Mighty pretty name. I’m Bootes as I’m sure you figured out. Tell me, how did you two meet?”
“Maybe if you wait, you will find out,” Orion responds before I can speak.
“You sure know how to keep the suspense going. Fine, I’ll wait.”
Bootes walks away and I whisper to Orion, “A friend?”
“Not really.”
Before I can reply, his phone rings. He pulls it out and checks the screen.
“It’s Canis. I’ll be right back.”
He disappears into a room off of the kitchen. Why he didn’t answer it right here? Maybe he didn’t want the others overhearing his conversation. I wish he hadn’t left me with all these strangers though.
I start to move towards Puppis, who’s laughing with another Star in the corner, when a short woman intercepts me. Despite her tiny physique, she has an air about her that stands out. Her long black hair hangs to her waist and her eyes are a crystal shade of blue. Her eyes shift constantly around the room, taking everything in.
“Did you hear the music?” she asks.
“The music?” I ask, perplexed. I don’t hear any music.
“Music,” she says, advancing towards me.
“I’m sorry but I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I step back, putting space between us.
“Did you hear the music?” she repeats.
“I’m sorry but I don’t hear any music.” Her persistence is starting to unnerve me. Her eyes stop their scanning and settle on my face. Her eyes switch to black and silver briefly before returning to ice blue. She quickly turns around.
“You heard the music,” she says over her shoulder.
I watch as she slowly walks to a couch and sits down. She pulls a blanket from the back of the couch and wraps it around herself. None of the other Stars move to talk to her.
The noise of the elevator distracts me from the music lady. I look over and see Taurus, Virgo, and Leo being greeted by Vela. I make eye contact with Leo and before I can even blink he’s right in front of me. Startled by his Traveling, I stumble back into a table and knock over a lamp. Leo deftly catches the lamp before it hits the floor.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he says, returning the lamp to its place.
“It’s okay, I just haven’t gotten used to how you guys move sometimes.” I take a deep breath and calm my heart rate. “I didn’t expect to see you here. Are you an Elite too?”
“I wish,” he laughs. “Taurus and Virgo are. I just tagged along.”
“I get the sense you like to be in on the action.”
“You’d be right.”
We stand next to each other and quietly observe the crowd. My eyes go back to the woman wrapped in the blanket on the couch. Our odd interaction is still on my mind.
“Hey Leo, who is that girl on the couch?” I point her out to him.
“That’s Lyra. She’s an odd one.”
“Why is that?”
“Her powers have to do with prophecy.”
“So she can tell the future?”
“In a way. The only time she can do it is when she plays music.”
“Music,” I whisper. What did she mean earlier?
“Yeah. It’s the only way she communicates as well. She can share her visions through music if she wants. She sticks to herself most the time. Occasionally she will ask about the music but that’s pretty much it.”
“Is there a reason why?”
“Probably has to do with her being mute before she got her powers.”
“Why would her powers only allow her to speak a few words?”
“There’s no reason they would. I think she can say more, she just chooses not to.”
I watch Lyra sitting alone on the couch. You’d think someone who used to be mute would jump at the chance to talk. Despite sitting alone in a room full of people, she doesn’t strike me as someone who is lonely. She seems thoughtful, sitting there wrapped in a blanket. I notice that she’s drumming on her knee with her fingers.
“Why are you interested in Lyra?” Leo asks, drawing me back to the conversation.
“Just curious. She asked me if I’d heard the music.”
“That could have just been her way of saying hi. It’s not everyday Orion gets a girlfriend.”
I turn and look at him in surprise. How did he know? Leo smiles sadly.
“You smell like him. I’d never mistake that unique mixture of dirt and leaves.”
I turn away and look in the direction Orion went.
“Yeah, I’m with Orion.”
“He’s very lucky to have someone as special as you.”
“Thank you.”
Leo straightens the cuff links on his sleeves, I notice they are little lion heads, and starts to walk away. After a few steps he stops. Without turning around, he addresses me.
“My offer still stands. If you ever need me, just call.”
Without waiting for a reply, he goes and stands with Virgo and Taurus. My hair momentarily blows around and I turn to see Vela standing next to me.
“It’s time.”
She leads me by the arm over to a loveseat a little apart from the group where we sit down. Puppis comes over and sits with us, sandwiching me between the two of them. He smiles at me before giving his attention to Orion who has just come out of the room. He walks over and the other Elites settle in for the meeting. Some sit on the couches while others stand. A little girl, no more than ten years old, perches on the back of one of the couches. I’m debating asking Vela who she is when she whispers in my ear.
“That’s Crux. Don’t let her age fool you, she’s not to be messed with,” she cautions.
Crux, the Southern Cross. So she’s an Elite then. I look at the others and notice they are a variety of ages. Most look between twenty and forty with Crux as the exception. Since they don’t age, they all must have died at the ages they are now. It’s hard to imagine that at one time all these people died and came back. I look around at Orion, Vela, Leo, even Crux. They shouldn’t be alive but by a stroke of chance they are. It could have been someone else’s soul that got stuck but it was theirs. I wonder if any of them wishes their soul hadn’t been the one to get stuck. Wanting to think about something else, I lean over to Vela.
“This is how they meet?” I ask her. I had imagined a dark room with chairs around a table but this is far from it. It seems more like a party tha
n a meeting of powerful Star beings.
“It’s not very grand but this is how it’s been for the last thousand years. Gatherings used to be more formal but things change with time.”
I nod my understanding and turn to face Orion who just started addressing the Elites.
“As you can see, Canis Major is not here,” he begins. “He is currently searching for Draco. We had hoped he would find him in time to be here but he hasn’t located him yet.”
“Why is Draco needed?” A man interrupts. He’s dressed in cowboy boots and jeans with a plaid shirt.
“Centaurus,” Vela whispers to me.
Orion stares coolly at the group before speaking.
“If you all give me a moment I will explain everything.” He waits but no one says anything more so he continues.
“About a week ago Alexander showed up. He approached me while I ate lunch with Ailey,” he nods towards me, “who I had just recently met and acted aggressively; although no more than what is normally expected from a Black Hole. With our history though I decided to be cautious and watch over her just in case. Later that night he somehow slipped past me and made it into the house and attacked her. When I realized this, I Traveled into the house where I proceeded to deal with him without the use of my powers.”
“I’m getting bored, Orion,” Crux flips her hair in annoyance as she speaks. “Boohoo Alexander beat up your girlfriend. What’s the point of this? We can’t punish him more than he’s already been.”
Shocked at her blowing off the situation I look at Orion but his face is calm.
“Since you seem so impatient I will speak plainly. Alexander has one if not all of his powers back.”
The Elites erupt into a flurry of voices.
“That’s impossible!”
“How do you know this?”
“What does this mean?”
“Do they all have their powers back?”
“This is bad for us.”
“We’ll just have to kill them then.”
Orion raises his voice to be heard over them.
“That’s not all. He has a new power. One that I’ve never seen before.”
The Elites quiet down and watch as Orion removes his shirt. A wave of silence hits the room when they see the veins which now span from his arm to his chest.
“After making me use my powers, Alexander did this. It started on my forearm and it spreads every day. I’m still able to use my powers and it doesn’t hurt except for a slight ache every once in a while. I don’t think I need to tell you how serious the situation is. Whatever this is, it could be detrimental to us all.”
The Elites sit in stunned silence. Even Crux looks concerned as she chews on her fingernail and looks at Orion. Carina breaks the silence.
“I can’t sense anything from them either.”
“So then it’s not harming him?” A girl with light brown hair and light brown eyes asks.
“Don’t be stupid Auriga, of course it’s harming him,” Crux spits at her.
“Wait, she may be right. If Carina doesn’t sense it then it doesn’t have a negative effect on his body,” Bootes comments.
“Well, it’s certainly doing something,” Centaurus adds.
“But what?” Bootes inquires.
They go silent again as they think.
“We should report that Orion is not the only case of this,” Virgo pipes up. Taurus adds, “A Singular came to us with the same thing only to disappear. We haven’t been able to find him.”
“Other Singulars have apparently been going missing as well. I think it’s safe to assume that they had the veins too,” Orion adds.
“Have bodies been found?” another Elite asks softly. This is the first time I’ve heard her speak. She reminds me of someone but I can’t put my finger on it.
“None that match their descriptions,” Taurus responds.
“Draco would really come in handy right about now,” Centaurus grumbles.
“Canis Major is doing his best but as you all know Draco’s been off the grid for some time,” Orion says.
“Eridanus, could you use the rivers to locate him?” Bootes asks a man wearing a green “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” t-shirt. I notice he isn’t wearing any shoes.
“We want to find Draco, not Hydra. Draco was more inclined to take to the air than to the water,” Eridanus replies.
“Aquila?” the same girl who asked about the bodies asks. The Elites turn to look at a woman in a gold dress. She has a graceful air about her and I notice a string of feathers around her neck.
“I haven’t sensed him on the air currents but I will if he does choose to fly,” she says.
“Guess we’ll just have to wait until he shows up then,” Crux says.
“We can’t just wait around. We have to stop Alexander,” Carina declares.
“How do you propose we do that?” Cruz sneers.
“She’s right,” Bootes says, “even if we knew where he was, we can’t use our powers. Not unless we want to end up like Orion.”
“We don’t know how it works. Maybe he can only infect one person at a time,” Aquila suggests.
“Are you willing to take that chance?” Crux asks.
“Why is he doing this? What does he hope to achieve?” Centaurus asks.
“I don’t know. He didn’t give any reason before disappearing,” Orion informs them. He turns towards Lyra who’s still drumming on her knee. “Lyra, do you have anything that could help us?”
Lyra’s hand freezes over her knee. She slowly shakes her head no before continuing the drumming. The other Elites don’t look surprised. I wonder how much control she has over her powers. It seems like she can’t control what she sees, otherwise she’d be able to at least give us Alex’s possible location in the future. Maybe her visions aren’t clear.
“I think I know,” Auriga says.
“How so?” Orion looks at her.
“After we decided not to take action against Alexander when he took his revenge, he came to me. He wanted to know if it was possible to preserve a human body for an indefinite amount of time,” she explains.
“Why?” Eridanus asks.
“I assumed for his wife and child. Since I’ve traveled all over the world I’ve observed many ways of preserving the dead but I’m not an expert. I told him this and gave him a few ideas but he said none of them were what he was looking for. He seemed quite determined though.”
“What did he mean an indefinite amount of time?” Virgo asks.
The rest of Elite shrug but Orion looks troubled. Thinking that Alex was talking about keeping the bodies from decomposing, a thought comes to mind.
“Could he want to bring them back?” I whisper to Vela.
Apparently I wasn’t very quiet because Crux directed her next words towards me.
“That’s impossible, human.” She spits the word human like it left a bad taste in her mouth.
Not willing to be bullied by her I retort, “From the sounds of it, Alex getting his powers back was impossible before a week ago as well.”
She glares at me and I hold her gaze. She might look like a little girl but she is anything but.
“The girl has a point, Crux,” Centaurus says. Crux huffs and flips her hair before breaking eye contact. I wipe the nervous sweat off my hands. Outwardly I remain composed but I can’t believe I just challenged Crux like that. She could probably make ribbons out of me without blinking an eye but that doesn’t give her the right to treat people like garbage. Even her fellow Elites she treats maliciously.
“You really showed her,” Vela whispers to me. I turn towards her and she is smiling widely at me. Something bumps my arm and I turn to see Puppis giving me a thumbs up. Orion is smiling proudly at me as well. Their support warms my heart and I feel at ease knowing they have my back.
“Let’s assume that he actually found a way to bring them back. What would he need?” Bootes asks.
“Their bodies,” Auriga answ
ers.
“And their souls,” Aquila adds.
“How would he get their souls back?” Eridanus asks.
“First he would have to find them, and who is the best soul tracker of all of us?” Centaurus asks. He looks at Orion.
“I am,” Orion answers. The group all stare at him.
“The black veins must have a connection with that then,” Carina pieces together. “Maybe they allow him to use your power?”
“That would explain how he got his powers back,” Bootes exclaims. “He must be using them to access Stars’ powers.”
“That must be it,” Centaurus rubs his temples. “Let’s just hope Draco knows how to get rid of them. Alexander cannot be allowed to resurrect his family. It goes against the laws of nature and who knows what kind of effects it would have.”
A little hypocritical from someone who technically was brought back to life, if you ask me.
“Also what’s the point of punishment if Black Holes can get their powers back?” Crux says. “Word gets out and all the Black Holes will be after us and I for one am not sharing my power with anybody.”
“Agreed.” The Elite all nod together.
“I think the best thing to do is wait until we find Draco, then we can fix Orion before going after Alexander,” Taurus proposes.
Everyone agrees to wait until Draco can be found. Eridanus and Aquila decide to join Canis in the hunt while the rest stay in the city. After the meeting I’m waiting for Orion to finish talking with Centaurus when one of the Elite comes up to me. It’s the soft spoken girl that seemed strangely familiar. I realize that I wasn’t able to figure out her name during the meeting.
“I wanted to introduce myself properly,” she starts. “I’m Canis Minor. Most people call me Mindy.”
It hits me then that who she reminds me of, is Canis. The hair is the same color and they have similar facial features. Her eyes are a lighter brown than Canis’s though.
“Oh it’s a pleasure to meet you,” I say, shaking her hand, “You and Canis must be related.”
“He’s my brother,” she says with a smile.
“They had mentioned you but I didn’t know you were actually related. You look a lot alike.”
“It stops at looks I’m afraid,” she laughs. It’s quiet, like you’d expect to hear in a library. “Canis is much more the outgoing party type. I tend to stay close to home.”
“I know what you mean. The first time I met him we were actually at a party.” Seems like forever ago now.
“That’s my brother for you. Hope he was well behaved. He has a tendency to be bad mannered.”
“Actually he was. I enjoyed the time we spent getting to know one another. He and Orion are so close; it’s odd Canis not being next to him.”
“They’ve been together since the beginning. Even after most of us split up, they stuck together, never going far for very long. I think they hold each other together in a way.” She looks towards Orion thoughtfully. I think back on all the times I watched Orion and Canis together.
“I think I know exactly what you mean.”
Orion turns to look at us and he smiles. He says goodbye to Centaurus and walks over to us, giving Mindy a hug when he reaches us.
“How’ve you been, Mindy? Jimmy still treating you right?” he asks.
“Always,” she says with that quiet laugh again. “He just finished renovating the library for me. He said it would be easier moving our stuff into an actual library than to try and keep expanding ours.”
“Jimmy?” I ask questioningly.
“My husband,” she says. “We’ve been together five years now.”
“Congratulations,” I say. “Is he, um, one of you?” I stumble awkwardly trying to be polite.
“No, he’s human.”
Orion had said relationships between Stars and humans weren’t uncommon but I didn’t expect to meet someone in one so soon.
“Maybe you two will visit one day? I know Jimmy would love to talk to someone who’s in the same shoes he is.” She smiles at us.
“I think that’s a great idea,” Orion says. He grabs my hand and squeezes it. I nod.
“I’d like that.” They’ve been together for five years. It would be nice to see how they acted and maybe even ask their advice on some things. There are a lot of questions I still have on how a relationship like this works.
“I should probably be getting my human home,” Orion says. Thank goodness because I’m exhausted. “Do you want to meet up with us tomorrow? See if we can get you more books to fill up the new space you have?” Mindy smiles and nods her head excitedly.
“I’ll let Jimmy know it’s your fault when I bring home more books.”
The three of us say goodbye to the Siblings and head down in the elevator. As we exit the elevator, we’re intercepted.
Lyra stands in front of us with her arms wrapped tightly around her body. Her fingers drum on her arms this time and she stares intently at Orion.
“The music,” she says to him.
“Do I need to hear the music?” he asks.
“The music,” she repeats.
“Go ahead, we’ll listen,” he says but Lyra shakes her head.
“Music,” she insists, stopping her drumming to point at Orion.
It seems like she only wants him to hear the music. I look questioningly at Mindy and let go of Orion’s hand.
“I’ll wait for you in the car,” I say.
“You shouldn’t-” Orion starts to argue.
“I can wait with her,” Mindy offers.
“Thank you,” he says to her. Orion hands me the keys and we leave the two of them in the lobby. On our way to the car I ask Mindy what she thinks that was all about.
“I’m not sure. Lyra’s powers are hard on her. It could be she just didn’t want to use a lot of it to show all three of us what she knows. Or maybe it’s something only Orion can know. Dealing with knowledge of the future is tricky business.”
“During the meeting it didn’t seem like you were surprised she didn’t give any information.”
“We weren’t. She rarely shares her music. I think the last time she did was before the war. She tried to warn us but many just wrote her off. Add that to some of the more greedy Stars trying to use her to their own advantage and it’s no wonder she prefers to be alone.”
“That’s sad. She shouldn’t be alone.”
“I agree.”
We reach the car and I turn towards Mindy.
“Thanks for walking me but I think I’ll be-”
“Look out!”
Mindy shoves me to the ground as a dark figure leaps over the car. The figure misses me but lands on top of Mindy. They fall to the ground. The figure is covered head to toe in black clothing, a mask covering their face. The masked figure grabs Mindy’s head and slams it into the pavement. There’s a loud, sickening crunch.
“Mindy!” I get up to help her but I’m grabbed from behind.
“Let go of me!” I try to scream but whoever it is covers my mouth.
I kick and struggle but the arms holding me are too strong. They start to drag me away and I’m helpless as I watch the other one keep slamming Mindy’s head against the asphalt. Blood coats the ground around her head and the only movement is from the figure as he lifts her head to bring it back down again.
I’m turned around suddenly and thrown into a van. The one who grabbed me jumps in after me and covers my mouth again. The other one leaves Mindy and gets into the van before slamming the door. The van starts to move but I don’t stop fighting. I kick out at the other one’s face and connect with their nose. I feel it crack and I know I’ve broken their nose. I reach up and try to claw at the one holding me but Broken Nose recovers and pins my arms to my sides. The other one uses his free hand and injects something into my neck. I keep thrashing but soon I start to lose control over my limbs. My vision gets fuzzy and I lose consciousness.
Among the Stars Page 17