“You sure?”
“Yes sir.”
“Thanks.”
Father sighs deeply and walks back around the desk to us, his brow furrowed.
“That's not good news.”
“No,” Kateri replies.
“Why? What does it mean?” I ask.
“It means they may have figured out a way to breach the Umbra without us being aware of it.”
“It was only one small demon,” I interject without knowing why.
What the hell do I know from Umbra breaches?
He looks at me and nods. “It’s possible that it may have been hiding and waiting for a few days,” Kateri says. “You remember that breach you sent Isak out on last week and he couldn't find anything?”
“That's true. Hmm. Well, we'll keep an eye on it. I think I'll assign a few additional assets to watch the house, just in case.”
“Sounds like a good plan,” Kateri says.
“Well, I'm glad to see you back. So, we didn't scare you off with everything?”
“Well, let's not go that far. It's not like I'm not freaked out,” I say, with a grin.
“Understandable. So, I think it's time to fill you in on the big picture and then formulate a plan,” he says as he gestures toward the two chairs by the desk.
Kateri and I each take a seat, and Father sits on the edge of the desk.
“A plan for what?”
“A plan to save the world, of course,” he says.
“Of course.” I look over at Kateri.
“So, we covered a few things last night,” Father says.
“Yeah, like how this is my destiny, and stuff.”
“Yes, that.”
“But I still don't understand why you need me. If you defend our world in the Umbra, then what's the problem? I'm no fighter,” I say, glancing at Kateri.
Father nods. “Please, come with me,” he says as he stands up and gestures toward the door.
Kateri and I follow after him, down the stairs into the map-room.
“This is what we're up against,” he says, nodding toward the floating globe. “The flashes of red and blue that you see are battles between our forces and those of the Abyss.”
I look up and my eyes dart from one flash to the other. In a little less than two minutes I spot at least fifty of the colored flares, but I'm sure there were more.
“There's a lot,” I say, stating the obvious.
He nods and frowns. “And they're increasing every day. We coordinate our response from here.”
“That's what they're doing?” I ask, looking at the dozen or so people on headsets, some typing furiously on keyboards.
“Yes, but we're slowly becoming overwhelmed, and our resources are being stretched to the limit.”
“I still don't understand.”
“We need to find out what they're planning. We need someone to go into the Abyss.”
“But you said Shayds can't enter the Abyss.”
“That's right, not on their own anyway,” Father answers before looking over at Kateri.
For a few moments, no one says anything, and then the light finally goes on in my head.
“But you think I can,” I say slowly, staring at both of them.
Father nods and Kateri looks uncomfortable.
“We think that because you're a hybrid, that you'd be able to do it,” Father says.
“But why? Can humans travel to the Abyss?”
“They can with help, although most have done so unwillingly.”
“What does that mean?” I ask, looking at Kateri.
She looks at Father and then shakes her head. “He means that demons from the Abyss who've broken through the Umbra have taken human and Shayd captives. We think that's what they were trying to do when your father was killed.”
“They were trying to capture my mother?”
“They were trying to capture both of you,” Father says.
“Why are they taking them?”
“We think they're experimenting on them, trying to figure out a way to be able to bypass the Umbra,” he replies with a sigh.
“They're trying to create their own hybrid?” I ask, horrified.
Father nods slowly. “But I think only a true Shayd-Human hybrid will give them what they want.”
“You mean me.”
“Yes.”
“But you want me to go there, right into their hands.”
“It's the only way to find out what they're planning.”
Seriously? Is this really happening?
“You want me to go alone, into the Abyss?”
“You won't be going alone,” Kateri says.
“You?”
She nods and grins at me, and suddenly I feel a little more confident, although I know I'm still in way over my head.
“That's not what we talked about,” Father says, looking pointedly at her.
“I'm going,” Kateri says firmly, leaving no doubt that she will be.
Father grumbles something under his breath and then looks back and forth between the two of us.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us, and we can talk about it again.”
“We can talk about it as much as you want, but I'm going,” she says.
Father shakes his head. I can tell Kateri normally defers to his judgment, but her defiance in this case is noticeable.
“Fine,” he says with some annoyance in his voice.
“There is something else we need to deal with, though,” Kateri says.
“What's that?”
“She's having a problem with the thoughts, they're overwhelming her. She had an episode when we got here.”
Father nods and looks at me, a warm and gentle smile on his face. “We can take care of that, or at least get you on the road to dealing with it. Let's go back up to my office.”
We follow him back up the stairs and I take hold of Kateri's hand.
“Listen, I don't want you getting in trouble over me,” I whisper.
She shakes her head and grins.
“Don't worry about it. I'm not about to let you go to the Abyss without me.”
I nod and smile, squeezing her fingers gently and she responds in kind. As soon as we walk back into the room though, I realize we have another problem.
“How are we going to do all this after my mother gets back on Monday night, not to mention I have to go back to school tomorrow.”
Chapter Ten
“One thing at a time,” Father says. “Let's see what we can do about helping you deal with those thoughts.”
He takes a seat in one of the two chairs on our side of the desk and gestures with his hand toward the other.
“Please sit, Eve.”
I slip into the chair as Kateri moves behind me, standing quietly. I turn my head and look up at her, and she smiles warmly.
“Don't worry,” she says, almost as if she's reading my thoughts, which maybe she is, “this worked for me when I first arrived.”
I nod and turn back to Father.
“Now, close your eyes.”
I do as he asks, and one second later I feel Kateri's hand on my shoulder. My heart skips a few beats, and then I feel a sense of calm flow across me.
“Listen to the sound of my voice. Block out everything else. Focus on me,” he says, with a quiet and calming tone.
“Focus.”
“Focus.”
After a few seconds, I hear nothing but Father's voice, repeating the word ‘Focus’ over and over again. Gradually, I begin to feel something tickling the back of my mind, something trying to get in. I wince from the effort to keep it out, but then I hear Father's voice.
“Eve, let them in..,” he says calmly.
“I ... I'm afraid,” I reply, and then I feel Kateri's fingers squeeze my shoulder lightly.
“Let them in, Eve. It’s okay.”
Almost reluctantly, I lower my defenses and the thoughts of hundreds of Shayds crash onto me like a tidal wave. For a second, I feel like I'm
going to pass out from the cacophony of voices in my head.
“Eve,” I hear Father say, “stay calm, let them flow around you, as if you're standing ankle deep in a swift moving creek.”
As I breathe in and out slowly through my nose, bit-by-bit the ‘volume’ of thoughts begins to decrease as each one falls away, one after the other.
“Better?” I hear him ask.
“Yes.”
“Now, I'm going to have Kateri think of something, something specific that you can pick out among the mass, okay?”
I nod, before automatically raising my arm and placing my hand on top of hers. I feel her fingers squeeze mine gently.
“Kateri.”
“Yes, Father.”
“Search for her thought, Eve. Clear the fog and find her.”
I really have no idea what he's talking about.
How the hell do you find one person's thoughts out of a mish-mash of hundreds if not thousands of others?
And then I feel it. It's almost like standing in a grassy field and spotting one tiny yellow flower amongst the emerald carpet. It's hard to describe, unless you've experienced it, but using Father's ‘creek technique’, I wade through the din of random thoughts flowing past me and then, it's there.
You really do have a cute ass.
Who else would think that? I know it's her, and I immediately start laughing. I feel her squeeze my hand and then she leans down and whispers in my ear.
“You really do,” she says quietly, as goose-bumps run up and down my arms.
I open my eyes and Father is shaking his head, a warm smile on his face.
“I will never understand teenagers,” he says.
I look back at Kateri and we both start laughing again, until Father clears his throat.
“Uh-hum. So, did that help?”
“Oh yeah. It’s better at least,” I reply.
“It'll take time, but you'll get it. It took me a lot longer to even get this far,” Kateri says, which makes me feel even better.
“Next time you're feeling overwhelmed, just let it flow around you, and remember, everything takes time, even for people like you and Kateri.”
“Thank you,” I say.
“You're welcome, Eve. Now, as to your other concern,” he says as he stands and walks around to the other side of his desk and sits. “You have to go to school, of course. I know this seems ridiculous to say, considering everything we've shown you, but we don't want to disrupt your normal life any more than we have too.”
I chuckle.
“Disrupt my normal life? Nothing in my life will ever be normal again.”
Father nods. “I know, and for that, I'm sorry.”
“It's okay. It's not your fault.”
“I would recommend that you speak to your mother as soon as you have an opportunity.”
“I will, you can count on that.”
He leans forward, a kind expression on his face. “Be easy on her. If she kept this hidden from you, it's with good reason.”
“I know.” I look over at Kateri. “We've talked about that already.”
“Father, I was hoping to do some simple streaming training with Eve today,” Kateri says.
He nods. “I think that's an excellent idea. Do you think you're up for it?”
“Hell, yeah,” I say, my excitement on display, front and center.
“Can she fade already?”
“A little,” Kateri replies, looking over at me.
“Fade?”
“He means how we kinda melt into the shadows,” Kateri says. “She did a little when we had the run-in with the demon.”
I think back to the alley when I looked down at my hands and everything seemed a little fuzzy and muted.
“Did she? That's remarkable. I wonder if she can turn it off and on.”
Kateri nods. “Obviously she can, otherwise every time she walked into a shadow, she'd disappear.”
It's kind of annoying sitting there as they talk about me like I'm some sort of lab animal, but I also realize that Kateri is trying her best to not make it feel that way.
“Sorry, we're talking about you like you're not here,” Father says, looking at me like he read my mind, and then I realize he probably did.
“It's okay, I understand.”
“It's because you're ... so different, and as you're learning about this new world in front of you, we're learning about you,” he says with kindness in his voice.
“I didn't think about that.”
“Anyway, I think it would be a good idea for Kateri to take some time to teach you to manage some of these new abilities, and perhaps some combat training would be useful as well.”
Kateri looks at me. “She has the cajones, what she needs is some basic techniques.”
Cajones? Really?
“Well then, get to it,” Father says.
“Yes, Father,” Kateri says, bowing her head.
“Thank you. I'll try and do my best,” I say.
Part of me really wants to impress him, like any kid wants to make their parents proud. I know he's not my dad, but I think when you grow up without one, you're always searching for a replacement, or a stand-in. He's kind, wise, funny, and gentle ... everything you want in a dad. I figure Kateri feels the same way, even though I would never dare ask her about it.
“I know you will, Eve. I have faith in you.”
“Come on,” Kateri says, taking my hand and leading me out of the room.
We descend the stairs, moving quickly through the map room and back into the dining hall.
“Where are we going?” I ask, as we move past the lines of tables.
“Training room,” she says as we enter the library.
She moves directly toward a couple doors I hadn't seen before, set into the wall to the left of the outside entrance. The first, is a pair of elevator doors, but Kateri heads to the black metal one with a small recessed keypad to the right. She punches in a short four-digit code and then presses her hand on the surface of the door. A few seconds later, I can hear the sound of electronic locks disengaging.
“Why all the security?' I ask.
“We have a lot of sensitive equipment stored downstairs.”
The door swings outward automatically and we slip inside a small, dark room. A moment later, the door begins closing on its own, and as soon as the locks re-engage, two overhead lights blink to life. We're in a short hallway with a freight elevator directly ahead. Kateri presses her palm against another electronic pad on the wall and the metal gate opens, splitting apart in the middle. A second later, the interior doors do the same, the top half rising into the ceiling and the bottom half lowering into the floor. I follow her inside, and she presses her hand onto a second pad just inside the door. After the gates close, she simply says the word ‘training’, and the car begins moving.
“Ooh. Very Star Treky,” I say, with a grin.
She looks at me, shakes her head, and smiles. “You are such a dork.”
“Yep, and proud of it, besides, that's what you like about me.”
“That's part of it anyway,” she says, with a sly grin, and I feel that lovely tickle deep down in my belly.
It only takes a few seconds before the car stops and the gates and doors open automatically. As soon as we step outside, lights begin coming to life, one at a time, in a long line stretching as far as I can see. The room before us is massive. It looks even bigger than the Factory above. I've never been good at determining distances, and I never watch sports on television, but I would guess the place is as big as a football field, maybe even larger. I can barely see the wall at the far end. The space is completely empty, and then I notice the floor isn't hard, but spongy like a gym mat.
“What's this?” I ask.
“It a safe place to practice,” Kateri replies. “Command; configuration one.”
I look at her, my brow furrowing.
“What's that about?”
“Wait,” she says as a column rises slowly from the fl
oor and two spot lights emerge from the wall to our right. “Come on.”
We walk around the new obstacle. It's about two feet square and a little taller than me. I run my hand across its surface, which is cushioned exactly like the floor. Looking over at Kateri, I grin.
“Is this my padded room?” I ask.
“Do you need one?”
“Sometimes I think, maybe I do.”
“You're not crazy, Eve. No more than the rest of us, anyway.”
“That's not very reassuring.”
“It's the best I can do,” she says, as she takes my hand and pulls me next to her. “We're going to practice fading.”
With that, she steps into the shadow cast by the lights and the mini-wall. Like all the other times, she melts into the background and disappears. A second later she reappears a few feet away, a smile on her face.
“For us, this is easy. It's pretty much automatic, but when someone becomes a Shayd, they must learn how to do this. It's also the first step in streaming. To humans, we're invisible all the time, but you're a whole different bag of chips, aren't you?”
“I guess so,” I say quietly.
“Hey, don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with being different, that's what makes you interesting.” She reaches out and takes my hand, holding it gently, her thumb brushing slowly over my skin.
A second later she seems to realize what she's doing, and she quickly releases her hold on me.
“Sorry,” she says, quietly.
“It's cool.”
This time it's me who takes her hand, squeezing her fingers gently. We simply stand there for a few moments before my natural shyness regains control.
“So, uh ... show me what I need to do.” I release her hand and feel the loss immediately.
“Oh yeah ... um ... so the biggest difference with you and us, is that normally you're not faded. That means that you have to figure out a way to make yourself blend into the shadows.”
“Well, how do I do that?” I ask, perplexed.
Kateri shrugs her shoulders. “I have no idea, you're the hybrid.”
I tilt my head to the side. “You're a big help.”
“Sorry,” she says with a grin. “Come on, you did it in the alley.”
“Yeah, maybe I did, but I have no idea how.”
Kateri frowns and shakes her head. “Just try it,” she says, taking my arms and moving me into the shadow thrown by the column.
All Things in the Shadows Page 9
