Becoming (Daughters of Saraqael Book One)

by Raine Thomas

  But then, they hadn’t believed he would learn to love.

  Amber...

  She became an anchor. His sword and shield. As he felt his human self falling beneath the Estilorian assault, he used what abilities he had to conjure her image. Her delightful face. Her familiar, comforting scent. The feel of her lips against his. Her laugh. Her sweet vulnerability. Her unmatched courage.

  Wave after wave of battling images washed over and through him, threatening to drown him. It felt like all of the Estilorians stood behind the waves. But this was about what he wanted, not what they believed. He had Amber to keep him afloat. He refused to yield.

  Eventually, the sense of attack eased. The brutal haze surrounding his mind began to clear. He struggled to the point of mental exhaustion against the wealth of images and information that inundated him as he neared the end of his transition. Too much at once, he sensed, would pull him too far from where he wanted to be.

  With Amber.

  So, as he began to feel more stable, he focused on categorizing the information flooding in. Human here, Estilorian there. And as he felt himself merge completely with his Estilorian self, he realized he had been victorious.

  His eyes opened. Unmoving, he stared up at the cream-colored ceiling above him for a moment as he forced the noise in his head to quiet down. He imagined it would take time to merge his two consciousnesses to the point where he didn’t feel like his head was stuffed with more information than could ever be processed.

  He realized as his thoughts settled that he was in a bed. More than that…it was his bed. It was an odd feeling, remembering something like that, yet not quite remembering it. Almost like experiencing déjà vu.

  Propping himself up on his elbows, he glanced around. The large, comfortable bed had been built in the center of the spacious room. It was made of beautiful, polished dark wood, the frame an intricate design that resembled a Roman tub with a carved headboard. Several steps led down each side to an inlaid stone floor. A couple of woven mats in neutral colors decorated the floors. A single wardrobe in the same dark wood stood in a corner of the room. He didn’t note a single decoration on the cream-colored walls, nor any knickknacks. Not even a TV or radio.

  Man, his life must have been boring.

  More intriguing, though, were the floating balls of energy lighting the room. No need for lamps when you could generate your own light, he figured. He then noted the nondescript, beige-colored sheet covering him from the waist down. It didn’t appear that he was wearing anything underneath it. Although he tried to remember, he wasn’t sure if he had left the plane in this manner or if he had been placed here. It was mildly disconcerting.

  He quickly determined from his scan that the girls were elsewhere. He frowned. He wanted to see Amber.

  Finally, he sat up the rest of the way and fully faced the group of Estilorians standing a few feet from the foot of his bed watching him. He counted over twenty males, their appearances ranging in age, size and coloring. Most of them had burnt orange eyes. Three of them were markedly different from the rest.

  The largest of these three males had silver eyes. Not gray, but an almost liquid, iridescent silver. He had tanned skin and long, midnight black hair tied back in a single braid. Had he been human, Gabriel might have guessed he heralded from the Middle East. He appeared to be between twenty and twenty-five human years old and was thickly muscled, the black tank top and khaki camo pants he wore displaying a highly tuned physique and an array of silver tattoos. His expressionless eyes stayed focused on Gabriel’s every movement.

  Another male about the same age in appearance had short, curly, red hair and unusually dark green eyes, and stood to the far right of the group. He kept his arms crossed over his chest, but he looked more curious than forbidding. Gabriel’s human self found his outfit of a knee-length white toga and leather sandals absolutely hilarious.

  The third of the unique males, this one with short, wavy, white-blond hair, wore a gray tank top and navy blue pants with some kind of leather loafers or moccasins. He looked several years younger than his counterparts and stood in the center of the group, slightly in front of the others. He watched Gabriel with vivid and thoughtful dark purple eyes.

  Gathering the sheet around his waist and holding it in place with his right hand, Gabriel suddenly pushed himself to the side of the bed and descended the stairs. He had expected to feel weak or sore or unable to move comfortably, like a patient awakening from a long coma. On the contrary, he felt stronger and healthier than he had when he left the human plane.

  Holy crap. I’m on another plane of existence.

  The errant, distinctly human thought struck him as he touched the stone floor with his bare feet and he realized that he stood taller than most of the other males, almost all of whom wore boots. Either he was taller in this form, or they were all shorter than six-two. But such an observation was hardly the main issue right now.

  He paused in front of the dark-haired, silver-eyed male. They were nearly on eye level. “You lied,” Gabriel said, quite pleased to hear his human southern accent in the words. “Ini-herit.”

  The group started. Most of them exchanged glances with each other. Ini-herit, however, held Gabriel’s gaze without flinching.

  “I said what I needed to in order to get you here,” he responded.

  “Where’s Amber?”

  “You remember her?” the purple-eyed Estilorian asked. He sounded intrigued.

  Gabriel gave him a considering look and tentatively probed his overtaxed memories. He came back with the name Knorbis. He remembered he was the Wymzesti elder who predicted the girls’ births so many centuries ago. He answered, “Of course I remember Amber.” He glanced around at all of the males in the room. “I remember everything from the other plane.”

  Another round of murmurs swept through the room. Knorbis and Ini-herit exchanged a long look.

  Growing frustrated, Gabriel said, “Look, you obviously got into my room pretty damn quick after materializing over here, Ini-herit, since you’re fully dressed and everything. So bring me to Amber. Are the sisters in another bedroom?”

  “They are not together,” Ini-herit replied.

  “What do you mean? They’re in separate bedrooms?” Gabriel tried to remember more details about this dwelling that his Estilorian self called home. It was like trying to swim through molasses.

  “No. It was deemed unwise to keep them together. If one was found, all would be found. So they are each at three secret locations with their own contingent of Waresti, and of course, their assigned Gloresti and Orculesti. They are perfectly safe.”

  Blinking, Gabriel glanced around the room. A thought tingled at his awareness. “Aren’t those classes of Estilorian mostly male?”

  Knorbis answered, seemingly unsurprised by Gabriel’s confusion and obviously compromised memories. “The Orculesti actually contain many females. We sent a female Orculesti with each contingent.”

  “Okay. And how many Waresti are with each of the girls?”

  Ini-herit waved his hands to either side, indicating the group in the room.

  “So…let me get this straight,” Gabriel said levelly, focusing on maintaining his patience. “You presently have a contingent of approximately twenty males—oh, and one female—standing guard over these three teenage, half-human females who have little to no understanding of Estilorian culture. And,” he looked down at himself, “the girls are awakening naked, in a strange place, without anyone they know nearby.”

  There was a very long pause.

  “What in the hell are you people thinking?” he asked in a near shout when he realized he had been correct. He thought of Amber and her distrust of strangers, then magnified her anxiety by introducing the element of having no clothing and being in a new, unfamiliar place, not to mention an unfamiliar body.

  He could have choked someone.

  “I told you so,” the red-haired, green-eyed Orculesti said.

  Gabriel again scanned his memorie
s for this particular Estilorian’s identity and came back with the name Ailfrid. He remembered Ini-herit mentioning that the Orculesti as a class had the ability to send and receive thoughts to and from Estilorians on the human plane. They served as advisors. He suspected that they had a better understanding about human thought processes than most other Estilorian classes. Rather ironically, though, it appeared most of the other classes didn’t give the Orculesti much credence. He saw now that everyone in the room was giving Ailfrid irritated glances.

  Exhaling loudly, Gabriel reached up to rub his left hand down his face as he tried to think of what to do. When his hand reached his mouth, he felt the warm metal on his ring finger. He realized with a great deal of astonishment that he was still wearing the promise ring he had exchanged with Amber. Clamping down on the triumph and elation that surged through him, he forced his expression to remain carefully blank and lowered his hand back to his side.

  Then, bringing the situation back into focus, he glared at Knorbis and Ini-herit. “I’m going to find some clothing. You need to get me to Amber immediately.”

  They didn’t argue as he marched over to the wardrobe and yanked the door open. He pulled out the first full set of clothing he could find and headed into the adjoining bathroom, closing the door behind him. With barely a glance at the walk-in shower and enormous bathtub, he set the clothes on the marble vanity counter, dropped his sheet to the ground and walked to the toilet to relieve himself. Apparently, Estilorians still performed the same general bodily functions as humans.

  As he washed his hands, he gazed at his reflection in the mirror running behind the long vanity. He had kept his human eye color, he realized, and wondered at the significance of that. His eyes had been dark blue on this plane, he remembered now. His dark brown hair was a bit longer here, but seemed to be the same texture and general waviness. The rest of his facial features weren’t that dramatically different. Zayna the Scultresti had evidently known what she was doing. There was a bit more sharpness to the planes of his face now, seeming to add a year or two to his physical age. And, he observed as he dried his hands on a white towel, he was definitely taller and more muscular than he had been as a human.

  “Freaking weird,” he breathed, and reached for the first item of clothing on the pile so he could get dressed. He wanted to see Amber.

  Knorbis looked over at Ini-herit the moment the bathroom door closed. His expression was inscrutable. “I admit to being surprised that this actually worked. His eye color has changed, of course, as has his accent. And he no longer bears his Gloresti markings. That is all unexpected. Did you see the ring?”

  Ini-herit was still staring at the closed bathroom door. “I did. It crossed the planes. I noticed that he and Ambryl each wore one as humans.”

  “She also wears a ring?” Knorbis gave this a moment’s consideration. “And she repelled you when you attempted to enter Gabriel’s human mind?”

  Ini-herit gave a brief nod.

  “I wonder…does this signify what I suspect it does?”

  “We will not know until they reunite. But it is, as you said, unexpected.”

  Shaking his head, Knorbis said, “If this is what it appears, this has tremendous significance to our people. There will be much to consider.”

  “Indeed.” Ini-herit finally looked away from the bathroom door and caught Knorbis’ gaze. “I will be interested to gain your impressions after you see the two of them together. I believe you will find yourself reconsidering everything you ever thought you knew about human emotions.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Along the far reaches of the Estilorian plane, Grolkinei sat at the head of his long, wooden dining table. As it was now night, the windows reflected the many flickering candles throughout the vast, richly-decorated room. He occasionally enjoyed the more archaic method of illumination to the balls of red light his class could create. The dining table was covered in nearly every conceivable kind of food and drink, but none of it interested him.

  No, what interested him was the news now being conveyed to him by Layla, the only other presence in the room.

  “The transitions were all successful, my lord,” she said.

  He smiled darkly. “So, you successfully intercepted the thoughts of their Orculesti?” When she nodded and bit into a cracker covered in cheese, he ran his fingers along her shoulder in approval. “I knew you could do it. Predicting that they would ultimately inform the elders of the news made it easy enough to focus your energies on the interception. Even their best masking talents cannot prevent overhead thoughts if the target of them is known. And they are clearly outside the protections of their main base. Foolish idiots.”

  Layla sipped her wine and gave him an amused glance over her glass. “I appreciate your confidence in my talents, my lord.”

  “Did they give any indication where the sisters are being kept?”

  “No.” Now her red eyes glittered angrily, her mood changing in a blink. She put her glass down hard enough to slosh its red contents over the edge. “They were frustratingly vague and brief in their messages. From what I could determine, it does not even seem as though they are all being kept at the same location.”

  He considered this for a moment. Then, with a negligent wave, he sat back in his chair with his elbows pressed on the chair’s arms and steepled his fingertips together. “Not to worry, my sweet. You can continue to monitor their thoughts for me. I have every confidence that we will find them. After all, the world is only so big.”

  It took all Amber had not to scream like a girl when she opened her eyes to find nearly twenty sets of eyes staring unblinking back at her, but she managed it. Her heart was thundering so hard that she saw the sheet covering her chest vibrating.

  Gabriel? she thought. She realized immediately that the thought hadn’t been received. It seemed to echo back to her in her head. Unwilling to give up, she ventured aloud, “Gabriel?”

  There was murmuring.

  “See? She remembers,” said one of the males standing at the foot of her bed.

  He had an unusual accent. To Amber’s untrained ear, it sounded like a variation of maybe a South African dialect. He had sunny blond hair, dark blue eyes and the build of a dedicated NFL quarterback. His clothing was old-fashioned, a flowing, white shirt with laces rather than buttons, worn loose around the neck with rolled up sleeves, paired with conforming black pants and knee-high, black leather boots. He moved around to the right side of the bed, pushing aside several of the even more muscular males who surrounded her.

  Instinctively keeping her left hand beneath the sheet and out of sight, Amber reached up with her right hand to hold the sheet closer to her neck and moved to sit up, only to find her head pinned. Alarmed, she reached for the back of her head, accidentally releasing the sheet in her haste to find out why she was bound. The sheet slipped precariously to her waist and she reached to grab it back, a hot flush burning her cheeks. She silently cursed Ini-herit for not warning her about this. The vicious pounding of her heart continued unchecked.

  Seeing no way around it, she lifted her left hand to the back of her head while her right held the sheet. She realized her hair was the reason she was pinned. It was unbound and much, much longer than she had ever worn it. With a shift of her body and a tug, she was able to loosen the hair pinned beneath her enough that she could slowly shift into a sitting position. Her wary gaze settled on the blond male, who had stopped near the head of the bed.

  “Hello. I am Simon,” he said. “I am the Gloresti who was assigned to watch over your Estilorian form. I helped you make the transition between the planes.”

  Okay, that made a little sense. Amber nodded to indicate she understood. A quick sweep of her gaze around the room told her that all of the other Estilorians were also males. They all had weird, burnt orange eyes. Her heart sank.

  “Where’s Gabriel?”

  “Archigos Gabriel transitioned quite a distance from here,” Simon explained. He had a friendly face and
warm voice. That didn’t make her feel any more cordial toward him.

  Archigos? she thought as she said, “I want to see him.”

  Exchanging looks with several of the males standing around her, he said, “Do not worry. You will. And your sisters, as well.”

  Amber frowned. She certainly didn’t know her sisters well, but they were more known to her than this group of strangers. “They’re not here, either?”

  “No. The Elphresti figured you would be safer apart. Only those of us in this chamber know your exact location.”

  Somehow, that didn’t ease her anxiety in the least. And she suddenly realized with a tremendous amount of embarrassment that she really needed to pee. After glancing around and seeing that they were in some kind of underground cavern, she couldn’t even imagine what kind of bathroom facilities they might have. Did Estilorians even urinate? What if they didn’t? How would she possibly explain that to these guys? Her mortification seemed to know no bounds.

  “The elders thought it best to assign you and your sisters each a young Gloresti,” Simon continued, “so we can relate to you better. I have only been on this plane for ninety-seven years. But I did pretty well bringing you over, did I not?”

  She could hardly argue that. She was sitting there, wasn’t she? She gave a reluctant nod for lack of knowing what else to do.

  “And I will be an excellent guardian for you. I pledge my life on that.”

  Her eyebrows lifted over the declaration. She wasn’t about to ask anyone—especially someone she didn’t know—to lay their life on the line for her. But before she could say anything about that, Simon started leaning toward her. Panic flared.

  “Our Orculesti explained that humans hug and sometimes kiss as signs of friendship and affection for each other,” he said, reaching for her. “I would like to welcome you.”