Vincent, whose love had been there waiting for her since she’d disappeared as a toddler. Vincent, who had done so much, gone way above and beyond, just to help Jane get to the point where she could not only understand but accept the other dimension, accept that the characters she wrote in books were just as real as she was. Vincent, who made such sweet love to her that even now it brought tears to her eyes. How was he not the first one through the portal to bring her back this time? How could he have just left, disappeared, without so much as a word to his family?
Whatever the reasons, Jane knew she’d find them out soon. Her gut was usually right on the money, and every cell of it was screaming for her to go to Darvon. She turned the water off and grabbed a large bath towel, wrapping it around her body and tucking it in over her left breast. Then another towel to wrap her hair turban-like and she stepped from the bathroom.
And was gone.
Steve knocked on the bedroom door and entered just in time to see a portal wink out of existence and two towels fall from thin air to the floor in a heap. Frowning, he moved quickly to the bathroom door. He stopped and picked up the smaller towel, then looked in to find the bathroom steamed up, but no sign of Jane.
“Jane?” he shouted, looking first in her closet, then under her bed. He checked the windows; all locked. A portal…the discarded towels. “Shit!”
Steve ran back out of the room. “Dad!” he cried as steam curled out from the bathroom door. “Dad, it’s Jane!”
Nobody noticed the answering machine light blinking, nor the caller ID that told who it was. And nobody saw, as the bathroom air cleared and cooled, the letters that appeared ghost-like in the large mirror over the sink.
She is safe
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
He wandered by the school for at least the fiftieth time. Stopping just as he passed the end of the old brick building he looked up at the rusty water tower. Half the D was missing, there was no N and the R looked like the number 8. The A and the O were still intact, but if you didn’t know what the tiny town’s name had been, you’d never figure it out from that.
What was he doing here?
He remembered climbing up there after Jane, how he’d startled her and driven her away. How angry she’d been with him and then how he’d found her only to have her faint. But what came next, that had been the sweetest memory he’d ever known. He stopped and leaned against the fence along the front of the school property, closing his eyes. How he had touched her, how she had touched him. How at last they had made love; it had been so long in coming; for so many years he had waited with more patience than he thought a man could have.
In that moment he had felt complete. He knew it was good and right, that they belonged to each other, that she returned his love. He had sought, he had found, and his heart had soared. Yet, now? He scuffed his foot on the ground and headed back down the hill toward the center of town. Now he was so confused. For three months after Lori James had come to him in a dream and told him Jane wasn’t meant for him, that she belonged to Vasan…he’d been crazy with jealousy. Knowing she was somewhere with the very man Lori said was who she truly belonged with, without even the chance to fight for the one he loved, seemed so utterly unfair to him.
Nothing consoled him; nothing could take his mind from her words, from Jane, from knowing she was with Vasan. Who knew what that bastard was doing to her? Who knew what he’d encounter if they ever found her? Would she look upon him with the same love in her eyes that she’d had that night in Darvon? Or would she look upon him with contempt now that she’d been with the bastard for so long?
Jane had spent so little time with Vincent or any of the Tanners, or her father; how would that compare to six solid months with Vasan? Or even more; for all Vincent knew Jane would be missing for many years, he had no idea when or if she’d ever be found now.
He stopped halfway down the street and slammed his fist against a tree. The pain felt good. At least it was real, and nowadays he had to admit he was finding it hard to tell what was and wasn’t.
“You know, there are better ways to relieve stress.”
He whirled on the sidewalk to face the voice. “Xyza,” he said quietly, turning away and continuing toward Jane’s old house.
“Vincent, wait. Please.”
He slowed, but kept moving. He heard her run up behind him, then she passed him by a few paces and stopped, pivoting to block him. He stopped when he reached her, but didn’t meet her eyes. “What do you want?”
“I want to help.”
His brow furrowed. “Do you think you can?”
“I’m not sure.” Her face fell and she bit her lip. “I stopped at Jane’s place, and the atmosphere was so bleak, so frightening.”
“I don’t understand. Jane’s place? You know her?”
Xyza stepped back a foot and began to change right before his eyes. No longer was she the old woman who’d posed as his mother when he was pretending to be Jane’s childhood friend Trevor. Her salt-and-pepper hair became less coarse and such a light blonde it was nearly platinum. The wrinkles and lines on her face and hands smoothed until her skin looked soft as silk. Her eyes changed to a piercing, sparkling periwinkle blue, but now she looked like a young woman very near his age.
She simply smiled at him, as though the transformation were as normal an occurrence as getting out of bed in the morning. “I realize you still don’t know me,” she said. “But I’ve known Jane for a number of years now. I’m the one who edits her books before she sends them to her publisher.”
“Lori, her friend, the one who came to me! So you…you knew all along who and what Jane was? Even when you were helping us set the little town up? Helping her with the books?”
“I did,” Xyza nodded. “If Jane saw me now, she’d also know exactly who I am. Although she doesn’t know anything about my more psychic activities, shall we say.” Off his incredulous look, she continued. “Why do you think it was so easy to contact me, Vincent? Why do you think I so readily believed you were who you said, so readily agreed to help you with your charade?”
“I…I guess I never stopped and thought about the why.”
Xyza…who was not Xyza…smiled. “You have nothing to fear from me. I want to do nothing more than help. You see,” she said, smoothing a lock of hair from her face, “from the first moment I read Jane’s words, those that had to do with the Tanner family, I felt there was more to it than mere imagination. That’s when I began to see you, your brothers and your father. But who I felt most clearly of all was none of you; it was Vasan and secondarily, Ibrahim. Now, Ibrahim never appeared in her books, so it wasn’t clear until recently who exactly he was. But the connection between Jane and Vasan was so clear to me that it was almost something tangible that I could touch.”
Vincent’s face soured at the mention of his family’s nemesis. “Why the hell would they have a connection?”
She shook her head. “That isn’t clear to me yet. But whatever that connection is, it’s been around for a long, long time.” Xyza got a faraway look in her eyes. “It’s as though they’re two halves of the same whole.”
Vincent’s face darkened. “That’s not something I want to hear.”
“I’m sorry, I—it just hit me. Something’s happening to her now, I’m getting images, flashes.”
“Is she all right?”
“I think so. Best I can tell, she is. But there’s this…foreboding feeling, as though something terrible is about to happen.”
“To Jane?” he asked. “Xyza, what are you telling me to do?”
“I’m not telling you to do anything, Vincent,” she replied, shaking her head. “I’m just telling you everything I know to…well, to help you, I guess. Although admittedly I’m probably just confusing you more than anything.”
“You can say that again,” he snorted, standing and moving toward the old parsonage.
“Listen, I didn’t tell you everything. While I was at Jane’s apartment, a portal opened. I saw Ibrahim,
Vincent. I asked him what had happened. He said they found Jane and brought her back—”
“What?” he cried, grabbing her by the shoulders. “She’s back?”
“No, no, she told Steve she thought she knew where you were, she thought you’d be here in Darvon, and she and Steve were going to come after you.”
“They’re coming here?”
“No. She was showering and when Steve went in to tell her your father’s plan for coming here to find you, he saw a portal and found the towels she’d been using on the floor; but there was no sign of Jane.”
His shoulders slumped. They’d found her. They’d found his Jane, and just as quickly had lost her again. “Where is she?”
“We don’t know. Ibrahim thinks Vasan took her again. He said she was reluctant to leave him when they found her.”
Vincent walked up to the nearest house just five feet from the sidewalk and sank dejectedly to the steps. “Reluctant to leave him? If that’s the case then she probably did go with him,” he said quietly as Xyza approached. “Because she wanted to.”
“I don’t think so. I don’t think she went wherever she went of her own volition.”
“Why?”
“Because there were words written on the mirror of the bathroom, where she’d showered. It was still damp, and the words She is safe were written there. If Jane had gone on her own and left a message, it would have said I am safe not She is safe.”
Vincent nodded, now deep in thought.
“And I had called but no one answered the phone. My message was still on the answering machine. Ibrahim said they heard the phone ring while Steve and Jane were talking, just before she got into the shower.”
“Why did you try to call her?”
“Because I knew,” she answered quietly, seating herself on the rough concrete steps next to him. “I knew something was going to happen. I felt it when she came back, and five minutes before I pulled into her apartment building parking lot I felt her leave.”
Vincent turned and looked at her. “Do you know where she went?”
“No, I don’t. But…it felt different somehow.” She started to say something else, then snapped her mouth closed.
“What?”
“Never mind.”
“No! Not never mind! Tell me!”
Xyza sighed. “The moment I felt her leave this dimension didn’t feel like any of the other times I’ve felt her leave. Before it always felt like…the best I can describe it, is it felt like a rubber band snapping in my stomach.”
Vincent gave her a funny look.
“This time, though, it felt like something had encapsulated me. Like something had snapped shut all around me. It felt like something bigger was going on there; something larger was at work.”
“I don’t get it. What do you mean by that?”
Xyza blew a puff of air to get her bangs out of her eyes. She pursed her lips for a moment, then spoke. “Whenever either Lori or I go from this dimension into another…” Off his look she quickly added, “Yes, I travel too. Anyway, whenever either of us goes it feels like a shift of some sort, but very localized; as in, I only feel the change in my abdomen.”
He nodded. “Go on.”
“But this time it wasn’t like someone was just going through a portal, just a normal passage. It felt more complete, like…oh, hell, I don’t know. Like divine intervention.”
“Are you trying to tell me you think God orchestrated her disappearance this time?”
“No,” she laughed nervously. “I don’t subscribe to the God theory. I’m more of the belief that there’s a Universe, and that the Universe orchestrates and helps but that we humans have to do our fair share to get what we’re meant to get.”
“All right, so in your words, you think the Universe was behind her leaving after her shower.”
“Shit. I don’t know, Vincent. I only know what I feel. So much of this is nothing more than my interpretation of the vibes; it’s simply not an exact science.”
“How long ago did Jane disappear from the bathroom?”
“Well, I rode stand-by on the first flight out of L.A. and hit Cedar Rapids five hours later. It took me another hour-and-a-half to get to Darvon. I’d say she went about 8 hours ago, give or take.”
“Dammit. Eight hours and nothing. First six months, and now eight hours.”
“Six months? She was gone from your dimension’s perspective for six months?”
“Well, yeah, give or take a few days. Why, how many months was she gone from yours?”
“Not months, Vincent, days. Jane was only gone for six days on this side.”
“Six days?” he choked out. “So one of your days equals an entire month for me now?”
Xyza shrugged. “I guess so.”
They sat in silence until Xyza’s hand came to rest on his leg. “What are we going to do?”
“That’s what I’d like to know,” a voice said from the sidewalk. They both jumped to their feet.
“Steve?” Vincent said.
“She was right, you are here!” Steve came forward and enveloped his younger brother in a bear hug. “Damn you for running off on me, bro.” He clapped Vincent on the back and released him, grabbing him by the back of the head and shaking it a little for emphasis.
Vincent just shrugged and turned to the woman standing next to him. “I don’t believe you’ve had the pleasure of meeting my older brother, Steve. Steve, this is Lori James.”
Steve held his hand out and Lori took it. “It’s a pleasure to meet you at last,” Lori breathed, her eyes locked on his.
“Likewise,” Steve replied, grasping her hand firmly. “And who exactly would you be?”
“Xyza,” Vincent replied. “Only…younger. Prettier.”
His brother raised his eyebrows, looking her up and down. His face went pale.
“What is it, Steve?”
“Come here. Now.” Steve grabbed Vincent’s arm unceremoniously and dragged him quite a ways down the street, Vincent spluttering and protesting all the way. When at last they were nearly to the house Vincent had turned into Trevor’s home for the charade, Steve whirled on his brother but left his hand in place. He looked up to see that Xyza was still standing where they’d left her.
“What in the hell is wrong with you?” Vincent demanded, jerking his arm out of his brother’s grip.
Steve leaned in close, whispering his response so fiercely that spittle flew now and then from his lips. “Before she disappeared from her bathroom, Jane told me who she really is.” He said this with a nod toward the woman they’d just left. “She helps Vasan in his palace! She helps him with demons!”
Vincent burst out laughing. “Demons? Really, Steve? That’s what you’re going with?” He shook his head and tsked. “Lori is Jane’s friend. Her name may really be Xyza or it may not, but she’s done all she’s done to help Jane. Why do you think she stopped by Jane’s apartment while you were there?”
All the blood drained from Steve’s face for real this time. “What are you talking about? I’ve never seen that woman before in my life.”
It was Vincent’s turn to stare at Steve. “But she told me about pulling into the apartment complex driveway just after Jane disappeared. She said she’d left an answering machine message and that there was a message on the mirror written in steam.”
“Written in steam?” Vincent glanced surreptitiously up beyond Vincent’s arm to find Lori still standing on the sidewalk looking directly at them. He lowered his voice even further. “Vincent, Jane was toweling off when she disappeared. The bath was already drained. I opened the door, at that moment letting the steam out, and the door stayed open. Even if she had arrived the moment Jane went through a portal, she would never have gotten into the bathroom in time to see anything written in steam on the mirror.”
“So the only way she could’ve known is if she’d been there herself, is that what you’re saying.”
Steve swallowed hard. “What did the message say, according to he
r?”
“That she is safe,” came the voice of Xyza from right next to them, startling both men.
“What are you really doing here?” Steve asked menacingly, advancing on her. “When did you get here?”
Xyza narrowed her eyes. “None of that is your concern, Tanner.”
Vincent visibly balked at the sudden change in tone.
Steve shot her a look, then turned his attention back to Vincent. “And what are you doing here? You’ve had Dad in complete fits, never mind me and Johnny. What the hell kind of stunt was this?”
For a moment, Vincent was bewildered, but then he looked…really looked…into his brother’s eyes and realized the ploy. Time to do some more acting…
“It wasn’t a stunt, Steve!” he exclaimed, pacing across the dead grass on the house’s front lawn, mindful that though there was truth in this, it was largely for Xyza’s benefit. His insides ran cold at the thoughts assaulting his mind where Xyza/Lori and Jane were concerned. “I thought maybe if I came back here, I could…that she’d…that I would…goddammit, Steve, I don’t know!”
He caught up to Vincent and physically blocked his path. “Take it easy, take it easy. I’m sorry. It’s just I always know what’s going on with you and this time I didn’t. And don’t.” He looked back to where Xyza still stood on the sidewalk leading to the steps. “Now, are one of you going to tell me what’s going on or am I going to have to bring in the big guns?”
“What? You brought Dad here?”
“You didn’t think he’d let me come alone, did you?”
“Oh, Christ,” Vincent rubbed his eyes with the fingers of one hand. “Come on, Steve, give me a break, will you? Xyza and I were just about to figure out what happened to Jane.”
“I filled him in on what happened at Jane’s apartment.”
“How kind of you.”
“Now you look here, Steve Tanner,” she spat, stalking across the lawn to stand toe-to-toe with him. Jabbing a finger into his chest, she continued, “I’ve had just about enough of your sarcasm. What the hell is your problem, anyway?”
Dimensions Page 19
