Hidden Gates

by D T Dyllin

  “It is unpreventable now. I can’t let you risk yourself like you’re planning. I’ll simply bind them like I did you.” Khol was glaring at Jeremy, his body mirroring Jeremy’s fight stance.

  “He can bind me anytime he wants,” Jenna purred quietly at my side.

  “Shut up, Jenna,” I snapped. “Stay away from him.”

  “Oh. Oh, I see. You think he belongs to you, too. Not fair.”

  “No, I don’t think that, it’s just . . .” It’s just what? Why was the thought of Jenna going after Khol pissing me off?

  “I do belong to her, little Speaker, as she belongs to me,” Khol rumbled, his eyes still on Jeremy.

  “Like hell she does,” Jeremy said. “I don’t even know what you are. Your energy is like nothing I’ve ever seen. P.J. , Jenna, get behind me.”

  Khol laughed. “I would never hurt her, but if I did seek to, you would never stop me . . . boy.”

  Jeremy glanced over at me. “I said to get behind me.” His jaw was set determinedly.

  “Paige,” Khol rumbled, his voice going low and smooth, “Come to me. If you want to stop your vision from becoming reality, I’m the one you should seek for help, not a boy like him. I won’t stand by and watch you be injured.” The way he said boy made it sound like an insult, although calling a guy Jeremy’s age a boy, no matter what, is kind of an insult, at least to him, I’m sure. “P.J.,” Khol said again, and this time his voice seemed to be in my head.

  “Yes?” I whispered. His power rolled out of him and wrapped itself around me, causing me to shudder. Before, when Jeremy had kissed me, his power had tried to coax mine to come out and play, and I was able to push it aside with concentration. But Khol’s power demanded where Jeremy’s had coaxed, and I was unable to deny its call. I knew Khol’s power called to the Dragon half of me. He was calling a different side of me than Jeremy had been in touch with. Again I thought about what Khol had said to me about coming to crave . . . more . . . because right now, in this moment, I wanted nothing more than to go to Khol and lose myself in his sweet embrace. I was connected to him, and I could almost hear his thoughts as he longed for me to do just that. “It’s natural for you to want me to claim you. If you were a full blooded Rua Arach, you’d already bear my Anam Cara mark.” His voice was like a gentle caress inside my mind, and I knew that Jenna and Jeremy didn’t hear what he was saying to me.

  My vision had narrowed down to take in nothing but Khol and his beautiful face, and I felt myself moving towards him. What would it be like to let him have what he wanted? What would it be like to give myself over to the temptation he was offering me? To sink into his welcoming embrace, to taste the fire he offered with his touch, to be swept away in the burn he had awakened in me?

  “Tell me who you yearn to be with. Tell me who you want to lay claim to you,” Khol continued to speak to me alone in my mind, and I could hear an undercurrent of something else, a chant of some sort.

  Even as I moved towards Khol, suddenly my vision filled with an image of Bryn so realistic, I thought for a second he was standing right in front of me. “Bryn.” His name on my lips was uttered with reverence, a small prayer to the only man I would ever truly love. His sea storm eyes churned for me, threatening to pull me down in their undercurrent. His patented lopsided smile, complete with dimples, weakened my knees, and I knew in that moment that even though Khol and Jeremy both stirred longing in my body, no one would ever possess me the way that Bryn had. He owned my heart, body, and soul. I was his until my dying breath.

  “No. That’s not possible,” I heard Khol growl. The undercurrent of the chant died abruptly along with the image of Bryn. I cried out in dismay at losing it, even if I knew it wasn’t real. I dropped to my knees and hugged myself. “You will be mine,” Khol growled.

  I looked up sharply, sensing something about to snap in Khol, something that I couldn’t let happen. I met his determined eyes with mine. “I trust you Khol. I trust you to help me with all of this, and I trust you to wait like you said. I trust you.”

  His iridescent green eyes flared brighter as he looked at me. “I will not break your trust, but I cannot be in your presence any longer for the moment. Call for me when you need me for your plan. I will always be there for you when you need me.” He met my eyes with a longing so intense I shivered, and just like all the times before, he simply disappeared.

  I began to sob as I realized that ridding myself of Khol wouldn’t be an easy task. He wanted me, thought of me as his already, and he wasn’t even human. What if he eventually lost his patience and hurt Bryn? What if he tried to kill him? I had no idea if a Guardian would be any match for a Dragon, and I really didn’t want to find out. I would protect Bryn at any cost, but that was something to worry about at another time. I needed to focus on figuring out a plan to stop my latest vision.

  I wiped at my tears with the back of my arm and turned to face Jeremy and Jenna. The two of them started to rush towards me, but I lifted up my hands to stave them off. “No, I’m fine. And even if I weren’t, we don’t have time to worry about it now. We need to figure out what to do about my vision. We have to save all those people.”

  Jeremy’s face was lined with tension, and his eyes seethed with anger, directed towards Khol, I assumed. “Fine. But we are going to have a conversation about what just happened. I need to know how to protect you from—whatever he is.”

  I wasn’t going to argue with Jeremy that it wasn’t his place to protect me, or that I didn’t think he really could anyways, so I decided to placate him for the time being. “Okay. But not now.”

  “And me,” Jenna chimed in, studying my face with that look she got when I felt like she was seeing too much. “I need to know everything.” She caught my eyes and narrowed hers at me. Yep, she picked up on a lot more than I’d probably wanted her to, damn Speakers.

  “Yeah, okay.” I growled. “But not now; now is the time to plan out what we’re going to do to stop my vision.”

  Both Jeremy and Jenna nodded agreement in unison. It almost made me want to laugh—almost.

  14

  We had been able to narrow down where the school from my vision was by the cheerleader uniform that had been on one of the victims. Then, by browsing school websites, I had recognized the entranceway from my vision as well. As luck would have it, the school was only a thirty-minute drive from where we were, which would have given us plenty of time—if it hadn’t taken us all night to figure out where we were going.

  We were currently all packed into Jenna’s bright yellow VW Bug, speeding towards our destination. And by all, I meant me, Jenna, Jeremy, and yes, even Khol. Why Khol had felt the need to go with us in the car was beyond me, but I had a sneaking suspicion it had something to do with Jeremy, and that he wanted to simply spend more time with me. Ever since that lifelike vision of Bryn, Khol had been almost clingy. Dragons, clingy . . . Who would have thought?

  “So when we get there, you point out this guy to us, and Khol and I will take him out. You and Jenna aren’t to go anywhere near this mess, in case something goes wrong,” Jeremy stated firmly.

  “Yeah, sure, whatever,” I grumbled, none too happy with the situation. I wanted to help, too, damn it! But after the umpteenth time of me arguing my case, and both Jeremy and Khol threatening to tie me up and to not let me go at all, I finally gave in. I should have been happy that they could at least agree about something—but I wasn’t. My plan to get off the sidelines wasn’t exactly panning out for me.

  “Sure, no problem,” Jenna added, obviously not feeling as put out by everything as I was. I shot her a glare. Maybe if we had both argued my point with Jeremy and Khol, we would have won. “Stop glaring at me, P.J. I’m not going to take your side just for the hell of it. They’re kind of right about this one, as much as I hate to admit it.”

  I replied by turning away to glower out the window. May
be she was right, but I didn’t have to let her know that.

  “There is no point for you to be there after you indentify this boy from your vision. I would only be worried about you if you were there with us. That could cause me to make a mistake,” Khol spoke softly, bringing his warm palm up to touch my cheek from the backseat. I hated the fact that my body wanted to lean into the warmth he offered, hated that my body wanted more—so much more—from him.

  “Hey. Get your hands off of her,” Jeremy growled. “She isn’t yours.”

  “Oh, but she is mine, and I will touch her whenever and however I wish.” Khol shifted as he pushed his massive frame into the space between the front two seats and pulled me to him, crushing his lips to mine. I barely had time to process what was going on before Khol’s tongue invaded my mouth in an aggressive kiss. Sparks of warmth seemed to erupt across my skin as all coherent thoughts fled my mind. Then the car swerved, and Khol pulled away from our embrace.

  “Stop! Just stop!” Jenna yelled. “No kissing and no fighting in my car! We’re on a mission here, people, and it doesn’t include a sword fight over who gets to mouth rape P.J. first!”

  I slumped back into my seat, my face heating. “That wasn’t my fault, and no one gets to mouth rape me because I already belong to Bryn.” I peered around the edge of the seat to see Khol and Jeremy glaring at each other. What was I going to do with the two of them? They just couldn’t seem to get it through their thick heads that I belonged to Bryn already. If anyone got to mouth rape me, it was going to be Bryn. Of course, we would have to be using a very loose definition of rape if that were the case. In fact, it would only apply if rape suddenly meant willing participant when it came to Bryn.

  “We’re here,” Jenna said as she threw the car into park. My head snapped up to see a high school that looked pretty much like any other high school, except this one apparently had murderous aliens enrolled.

  I gulped, the reality of the situation finally hitting me. We were going to do this; we were actually going to do this. I kept staring at the school as I stepped out of the car and began walking up the front walk as if caught in a tractor beam. I heard Jeremy and Khol talking to me, and yet I couldn’t look away, especially when I saw the girl from my vision—the cheerleader—alive and well, and talking animatedly to a group of girls. “This is it. This is really the place,” I whispered. I felt a large warm hand wrap around mine, and I looked up to meet Khol’s electric green eyes. “Won’t your eyes, and well, how you look, stand out too much?” A thought that—as bizarre as it sounded—I hadn’t even considered until that moment.

  “No,” Khol said with a tiny smile. “I can look human when I want to.” And just like that, his eyes went matte to look like regular, everyday, green eyes. Nothing else changed really, but with his eyes looking normal, the rest of him looked normal, too. Well, if you could overlook how drop dead gorgeous he was . . . So okay, maybe normal wasn’t the best word to use to describe Khol, but he did at least look human.

  “Why didn’t you ever do that before? I mean, at least when you first met me, so I didn’t freak out as much?”

  “I wanted you to see me as I truly am. I want no secrets between us.”

  “Oh,” I said and looked away. He is good. And yep, if Bryn weren’t in the picture, I’d probably already have given him what he wanted: me. I cleared my throat and scanned everyone around us as we moved closer to the front doors. I glanced back to see Jenna waiting in the car with a frown on her face as she watched us. I hated to admit it, but I kind of, sort of wished I were back there with her.

  “Ready?” I heard Jeremy ask as I reached for the front door of the school. I turned to take in his solemn face and then looked up at Khol, who had an almost identical expression plastered across his own. I nodded once in affirmation before stepping into the main entrance of the school.

  All noise seemed to stop for me. It was as if the ocean were rushing inside my ears, and a weird sense of déjà vu settled over me. I scanned all the faces around me, intent on finding the one I was looking for, but I didn’t see him yet. What I really wanted to do was yell at everyone to run, to warn everyone that a crazy alien masquerading as one of their peers was about to use them for target practice. And yet I knew it would be useless. Hell, maybe the alien would shoot me first, if that’s what I did, because he would know I knew the truth, and he would try to take me out. “I don’t see him,” I whispered, hoping Khol and Jeremy heard me. Khol simply squeezed my hand, and Jeremy stayed silent. I knew they were both scanning the crowd for danger, not liking that I had to identify the alien from my vision for them. If this guy didn’t show up soon, the both of them would probably carry me back to the car because they didn’t like putting me in danger any longer.

  And of course, that’s when I saw him. His dark Emo hair was hanging in his face, and as he walked in the front door, he flipped his hair out of his eyes and looked right at me. I felt myself go ashen as I tried to alert Khol and Jeremy, my voice seemingly stuck in my throat. The Emo kid’s eyes narrowed as he studied me, wariness showing as he took in the sight of Khol and Jeremy flanking me, even if they hadn’t spotted him yet. My arm rose on its own volition and pointed straight at Emo Alien Boy. “That’s him,” I squeaked, tugging on Khol’s arm. “That’s him,” I squeaked again.

  Khol moved first, shoving me behind him, just as Jeremy reached for his power to do—well, I’m not exactly sure what because Emo Boy wasn’t going to hang around to let me find out. He pivoted on his heels and made a mad dash for the front door. “Go!” Khol commanded, “I’ll protect her.” Jeremy barely glanced at Khol before he took off running after Emo Boy. I started to move forward in an attempt to engage in the chase, but Khol had other ideas. He swung around, scooped me up in his arms and suddenly we were back in my bedroom. He deposited me on my bed before giving me a stern face and narrowing his eyes at me, which, by the way, were glowing again. “Stay,” he growled before disappearing.

  I stared in shock at the empty spot where Khol had just been, anger slowly bubbling up to the surface of my consciousness. I couldn’t believe he’d just done that to me. And why the hell hadn’t he just popped the lot of us over to the school instead of making us drive if he could transport other people?

  “You get your ass back here right now, Khol!” I hissed into my empty room, knowing he would somehow hear me, or at least know what I was feeling. I got no response. A few moments went by, and then a few more, and still nothing. That was it; I wasn’t going to just stay like Khol had demanded. I wasn’t a damn puppy.

  I made my way downstairs to the kitchen, and even though I was supposed to be at school, my parents were both at work so I knew I’d be in the clear. I scooped up the keys to my father’s car, knowing that it would be here because he carpooled into the office and it wasn’t his turn to drive. Normally, my father wouldn’t let me come anywhere near his car. I’d even learned to drive in my mother’s car, but what he wouldn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. At least I hoped he wouldn’t know when all was said and done.

  I only paused for a second before starting up my father’s brand new Audi something. Honestly, I don’t speak car, so I had no idea what model it was, just that it was an Audi. And new, and shiny, and very pretty, I thought as I inhaled the fragrant aroma of new car smell. I really hoped I didn’t wrap it around a telephone pole or run it into a ditch. I certainly wasn’t receiving any good driver awards anytime soon. I was lucky I’d passed my driver’s test at all—it only took me three tries.

  I tentatively eased my way out of the garage, which I didn’t hit, so that was a step in the right direction. I stopped at the end of the driveway and adjusted the mirrors one more time before peeling out onto the street. My lips turned up in an involuntarily smile as I sped off to my destination. Thirty minutes? More like fifteen at the speed I was driving.

  I was about five minutes away from the school when something,
or rather someone, caught my attention: Emo Boy. I stomped down on the brake, screeching to a halt, causing him to swivel around to look at me. Why hadn’t Jeremy or Khol caught him? Where the hell were they? I sat frozen in the driver’s seat of my father’s car just staring at Emo Boy, when I saw him reach back into his trench coat. I swore as I watched the shotgun emerge from hiding and point in my direction. Uncertainty sprang to life in me. I didn’t know if I should simply duck and cover, or run him down. After all, he was pointing a gun at me. The alien smiling from inside Emo Boy was enough to let me know that he was about to pull the trigger, so I ducked just as the front windshield of my father’s car exploded all over me. Shit, he’d definitely notice that.

  Without looking, I hit the gas pedal and hurtled down the street for a short distance before slamming into something hard and immovable. My forehead bounced off the steering wheel—hard. More shots rang out, shattering the remaining glass in my father’s car. But the fact that I didn’t resemble Swiss cheese yet pointed at Emo Boy’s lack of aim and hopefully my chances of survival. I scrambled to get my seatbelt off and open the door while staying slumped down in the seat. As soon as I made it out of the car, I attempted to make a mad dash to cover, but something slammed into the back of my head. Stars danced in front of my eyes as I hit the ground. I barely managed to catch myself before my face met the pavement. I tried to crawl on all fours, but I was suddenly pushed roughly over, and I stared up at a very angry looking Emo Boy.