Crystal Tomb (Starfire Angels: Dark Angel Chronicles Book 3)

by Melanie Nilles

  Claws formed of the spines around his fingertips, ready for slicing into the couple in the van. The desire to exact his revenge for the crimes of the Inari's ancestors ached within him.

  Not yet. They needed the couple alive to explain what had happened to the D'Nuvar and the Inari.

  Kalas was patient and could wait until they had what they wanted. He was Rikku, the second in command. The time would come after the Inari translated the writing and, with the discovery of the crystal, answers about its fate. The Inari had obviously done something to it.

  They had also learned some new tricks. The strange phenomena in the sky had proven that.

  These two were no ordinary Inari. They had evolved.

  But they would suffer for the crimes of their ancestors.

  Finding a Lost Past

  The monolith with its concentric rings of Inari text stared at her, the central dome of red glistening under the lights of its display. The image zoomed in on the central ring of text. Certain characters clarified in the view, a statement shimmering with blue-green.

  After some time, the image blurred into a haze of color and light without focus but swirling and twisting as if alive. Thoughts coalesced from the thick of writhing colors, translated by an unconscious mind from the vision.

  ALL OF US. INTERCONNECTED.

  OTHER UNIVERSE, UNAWARE. UNAWARE…

  AS IT SHOULD BE.

  WHY?

  Through the colors in light, scenes wavered, slipping past and slowing to reveal strange worlds. A winged creature hovered in the air, a dozen tapering tails hanging from it, seemingly unaware of the writhing colors passing through and around it. A light flashed but the tails tangled around a dot of another creature and pulled it to the body.

  SO FLEETING. SURREAL.

  WHAT IS IT?

  MORE COME.

  Flashes of light continued, sometimes taking shapes lasting more than a microsecond, strange shapes, some humanoid, which dissolved into the haze of colors.

  BLENDING. ALWAYS. THEY CONSUME, GROW, FADE. SHARE.

  Other scenes zipped by as flashes of light added to the colors.

  ONE CANNOT EXIST WITHOUT THE OTHER. INSEPARABLE. ETERNAL.

  WHAT IS IT? The question repeated into a chorus.

  EXPLORE. DISCOVER. LEARN.

  YES…

  WE GO.

  Lightning flashed and sizzled around a rip through the light.

  PAIN!

  A chorus of anguish rose up and the colors bled through the gash until it sealed. Beyond the haze but seemingly within it, a crystal floated.

  THEY SURVIVE. The thought echoed through the mass of consciousness with a sense of satisfaction and relief.

  THAT UNIVERSE IS LOCKED. WE CANNOT EXIST FREE.

  EXPLORE. OBSERVE. EXPERIENCE.

  SO BE IT…

  The scene shifted beyond the haze to a world of magnificent cities and willowy beings of a roughly humanoid shape which seemed to float over the ground with the light of their sun shimmering behind them.

  ALWAYS SHIFTING. ENERGY COMES AND GOES. WE GIVE. WE RECEIVE.

  WHY?

  ETERNAL CO-EXISTENCE.

  EXISTENCE DIFFERENT BUT DEPENDENT.

  YES…

  EXPLORE. LEARN…

  A mass of light and pain sent thoughts shrieking in the moment the universe seemed to collapse, until one of the willowy beings glided near.

  .

  Voices screamed a pounding rhythm through Raea's head. Oh, God. Make it stop. Her stomach twisted and a knot tightened in her throat. She curled up on her side, aware in that motion of a hard floor beneath her. She was going to hurl if things worsened.

  Reality crashed through the intense emotions of the Starfire entities. Their voices faded to the background with the clear rush of memories of those last moments before the blackness.

  Those last moments—the prick and the chase…

  "Elis!" She opened her eyes to darkness and twisted to search around her. Damn her head. Even a slight shift revved up the throbbing a few notches to force her to lie still. The cold, hard floor caused pressure sores in her shoulder and hip on the side she laid upon, and the musty smell of still air enveloped her while she waited for the pain in her head to fade.

  She lay in a dark room in which the only light came from a slit at the bottom of a door, or that's what she assumed it was. "Elis?"

  Crystal fire. Where was he? He better be all right.

  Where was she?

  This had to be a dream. Then again, it was no stranger than the last two months of her life, and she definitely had not been dreaming. "Elis?"

  Still nothing.

  Raea tried again to sit up, this time pushing herself more slowly and noticing the tight cuffs on her wrists limiting her movement.

  In the faint light, she saw only the outline of solid metal securing her wrists unlike any handcuffs she'd ever seen.

  She wiggled her wrists and braced the bar on her knee to pull back. Something squeezed her wrists and she dropped her knee.

  "Owowowowow!" Damn, it pinched! The cuffs tightened on her.

  Okay, so not wiggling out of those. She'd never heard of cuffs that could tighten when one tried to get out of them, like some high-tech version of a Chinese finger puzzle. Whoever held her had some fancy gadgetry. Worse, they had Elis somewhere else.

  She had to find him. If they hurt him…

  No, she refused to think of that. One way or another, she would see him again.

  "Hello?" Was anyone near? From the acoustics, the room was small and probably solid cement, like the cold floor. "Hello! Is someone listening?"

  Nothing. Not even movement outside the door.

  Mindful of the cuffs, which had loosened with the ceasing of her struggles, she pushed herself from the floor and stood. If the door was there, that meant there had to be a corridor or room on the other side; she doubted the door went out into the open.

  A little disoriented by the darkness but able to measure her closeness by the line of light, she inched towards the door with her arms out before her. Cold metal greeted her hands, which fumbled along until she discovered a door knob, which refused to turn. She was locked in, but she still had her senses and pressed her ear against the door to listen.

  Silence.

  Was anybody listening? Did they just lock her wrists and throw her in?

  Was she going to die there, forgotten and alone?

  No. They'd kept her alive for something. Maybe it was the Shirukan. Maybe they'd come back for the Starfire already.

  A moment of panic lifted her hands to her chest.

  Whew! Still there. The smooth facets of the crystal contrasted the soft curl of black down feather from Elis she still wore with it.

  They must have been on Earth still, because no one had opened a portal except her and she was certain it hadn't gone anywhere except Egypt, and the door had a knob, unlike Inari doors, which slid open.

  Too bad she couldn't open a portal in confinement. Unfortunately, the gravity produced would destabilize the structure around her. If Elis was there, she couldn't allow that nor leave him behind. She would find him first.

  He'd better be alive.

  Wait. Her tri-comm and her cell. Her hands reached up, but as she suspected from the cold on her cheek, it was gone. She fumbled to reach her jacket pockets but they were empty. Damn. Her captors had thought of everything.

  She was alone, but that didn't mean she had to take it quietly.

  "Hey! Heeeeyyy!" She pounded her fists on metal—definitely a door, which encouraged her further. Metal hurt, though, so she banged the cuffs on the door with the secondary hope that it might break them. "I'm awake in here. Hello! Someone answer me…Is someone there? Heeeeyyy!"

  After a series of hard pounding, the cuffs tightened, forcing her to stop.

  Crystal fire! She sucked air in through her teeth until the cuffs loosened, easing the pain they inflicted. She was starting to sound like Elis. That should make Josh happy—he always s
colded her, Linds, and Jess for cursing. If she cursed like an Inari, it wasn't as bad to him.

  Whatever. She would just be glad to see Josh again.

  The cuffs finally loosened after she stood still for a while.

  Footsteps approached from outside the door. The shadow of two feet moved in the slit of light. About time. Now she might learn who held her and where Elis was.

  Raea stepped back a moment before the door opened out. In the blinding light, she squinted and lifted her hands up before her to shade her eyes.

  "Out." The order snapped in a rough voice.

  As her eyes adjusted, she lowered her hands and blinked. The light wasn't too bright, especially with the gray, cement walls; but it could have been the sun after she'd awakened in the dark room.

  "Where are we going?"

  "Out." A man in a brown uniform and cap motioned with some sort of handgun.

  No wings, then not Shirukan, unless they were still on Earth where the Shirukan would hide their wings, which could explain the different jumpsuits. This one didn't seem like one of the elite soldiers, though. One way or another, she'd find out.

  Raea stepped out and a second man in a similar brown uniform closed the door. "Where are we going?"

  "Walk." The first man motioned with his gun past the second man, who stepped back to the wall, the gun in his hand aimed at her.

  Raea never wanted to see another gun in her life—lately they were always pointed at her.

  Her nerves bristled with anxiety. Calm. Stay calm. If only she could. At least when she'd faced the Shirukan, it hadn't been at point blank range. She took a deep breath to calm the pounding of her heart. She would not fear the Shirukan. She could escape, if given the right chance.

  Like they would give her another chance.

  She might not escape but she could hope Elis did. Even that was unlikely; he'd sworn to never leave her. Pessimistic much, Raea? She'd have to change that someday, after she escaped with Elis.

  At an intersection, the man behind her shoved her to the corridor on her right, which ended at a large, heavy door with a thick alphanumeric designation of "B-1" painted in white in blocky, western letters and numbers. They had to be on Earth yet.

  "Inside," he said.

  He must have been blind; the door was closed. "How?"

  The wall near her moved. Man, her eyes were really going buggy from being in that dark room.

  No. It wasn't her eyes. The wall really did move, but it wasn’t the wall. A humanoid shape moved to a box on the wall, but that shape could have been the wall; it matched perfectly. Okay, this was too weird, even for her life.

  The door clicked and slid aside, grinding on its tracks.

  Raea watched the shape seem to merge back into the wall before her eyes. "What the hell?"

  A nasty jab in her back sent her stumbling forward into a tall cylindrical room.

  Her breath stopped at site of the object standing in the center. This totally had to be a dream. The large stone disk stood taller than her with familiar glyphs in concentric circles around a central red stone about a foot in diameter. She'd seen it before but couldn't believe it stood in front of her now.

  The Atlantis monolith!

  She turned around to the soldier with the gun, questions piling in her brain and stumbling over her tongue.

  At the click and lumbering creak of a door behind her, she whirled.

  A trio of people stepped in with two shadowy creatures bearing weapons.

  "Welcome, young Inari." The man who spoke with the accent stopped before her. He wore a business suit, his dark hair cropped short to form a shadow upon his scalp in more of a military style cut than any business fashion. He also stood with a confidence reminding her of Pallin. She hated this man already.

  He strode towards the round stone propped upright in the center of the chamber, his hand going out to the metal lining the edge. "Magnificent. Isn't it? When I saw it, I knew this was the key."

  Yes, it was magnificent, but it wasn't the most important consideration on her mind. "Key to what? Who are you? Where's Elis?"

  He stepped around the monolith and his lips twitched into a smile. "I suppose it's only fair, Raea."

  Her heart froze and her mouth went dry. He knew her name and he knew what she was.

  "I am Kan Rikku Nakor Surik, commander of the Nakor 3rd Fleet of Ch'tor."

  What?

  "I see confusion…I've learned to read human expressions. Ah, but you're not human. You only pretend to be."

  Learned to read human expressions? That phrase alone sent a cold shiver down her spine.

  "Your kind is similar to humans, a great advantage for hiding on this world. As you can see, we're much the same that way—masters of camouflage." He motioned to the shadowy figure behind him. It stepped into the light, a hideous flat face with four vertical slits where a nose should have been and a head on which lines of spikes tapered to a bulb near the back.

  In seconds, more spikes emerged from the dark green skin and flattened together, changing color as they transformed, until a woman in a body suit stood where the shadowy shape had been. Angular features gave her a severe appearance.

  "Unfortunately, we were never able to mimic Inari wings, or we might have infiltrated your world to steal back what your so-called emissaries of peace took from us." He stepped close, his eyes dropping to the crystal as he reached out, but his hand stopped short of touching it. Too bad. She would have liked to have seen him knocked out by the Starfire.

  His hand dropped, his human lips pressing together momentarily in an expression of contempt, while the "skin" on his neck broke and shifted for a second—definitely not human nor Shirukan. He straightened and took a breath and the skin reformed from the spikes.

  What kind of aliens were they? "What are Nakor?"

  He stood erect, his head held high. "The ruling clan of the Risaal homeworld, or we were." He hissed something under his breath and turned away. "We were before you thieves stole the D'Nuvar."

  Thieves? He was mistaken. "I didn't steal anything. I don't even know what the D'Nuvar is."

  Yikes! Talk about saying the wrong thing. He whirled on her so fast her heart jumped into her throat. His eyes blazed with contempt.

  "You bear a shard like gaudy jewelry but feign ignorance?"

  Jewelry? The only shard she wore as jewelry was…The Starfire! She looked down to the pendant. No, he was wrong. "The Inari have had the Starfire for six thousand years. There's no way…"

  "Try twelve thousand." A dark menace glimmered in his eyes as they slid over her, his lip curled in a snarl. This commander was not a man to be trifled with.

  Twelve thousand? Okay, now she was officially lost. What the hell was he talking about?

  She bit her tongue on the question and waited, curious that he returned his attention to the monolith.

  A monolith bearing Inari writing, which was about twelve thousand years old.

  He watched her, those eyes burning through her in growing anticipation. Damn! He studied her reaction, a sly smile spreading upon his human face. God, she hated him watching her like that.

  "But it's in the past. You're here…now. You will translate this for me."

  "Me? I can't translate that." Elis had just started teaching her two weeks ago, after she returned from Inar'Ahben. In light of the last few weeks of cramming by teachers to squeeze in what they could before the year was up, she had lost time. Sure, the perfect memory helped with the tests and work, but she still had to read and take the time to do her schoolwork. Inari was far more complicated than she had expected and demanded a lot of her time. She might have been able to speak it, but reading and writing were completely new challenges, on top of learning to create portals.

  A sibilant hiss escaped him, the skin on his neck breaking all the way up to his face, revealing the flat features beneath. The others stepped back like they expected him to explode or something.

  In a blur, a clamp tightened around her throat. Raea gasped a
nd struggled to pry off the hand at her throat, but the cuffs hindered her efforts and her nails had no effect.

  "You will translate the writing, Inari, or I will squeeze the life out of you."

  Spots danced in her vision and she gasped for air. "I…can't…read it…all…I need…need Elis." She couldn't swallow. She couldn't breathe—he crushed her windpipe. Oh, God. He was going to kill her!

  The hand loosened before she passed out, but the moment he released her, her knees buckled and she collapsed to the cold floor, gasping. Air. Even stale air never felt so good filling her lungs. She gulped it as if starved, her throat aching and her chest hurting.

  "Bring the male."

  A door clicked and scraped open and feet tromped out.

  "Perhaps seeing her mate suffer will encourage cooperation."

  What? No! They had Elis and would kill him if she didn't cooperate; but she couldn't. Why wouldn't they listen?

  "I can't—" Raea coughed. "I can't read Inari as well as him. I was born here, on Earth. I just started learning to read Inari two weeks ago." All her other training had taken priority, until her visit to the homeworld.

  The irritation in her throat set off a coughing fit lasting an eternity. It ended with her breathing hard and her eyes blurred from tears she wiped away. These creatures were strong, and their commander was quick to lose his temper.

  The commander squatted before her, once more wearing his human appearance. "Thieves and liars."

  "I'm not lying!" Raea coughed and pushed herself off the floor. Why wouldn't he listen? It was like his mind was already made up. It was made up; he'd already condemned her. She had to try to get through to him. "It's true. Elis came to teach me about being Inari. I was raised on Earth to believe I was human. I'm still learning. I can read some of the script but not all of it. Elis was raised on the homeworld. He knows the language better."