An Angel's Touch

by Susan D. Kalior

  In the dream, I heard a high-pitched sound like a welder’s instrument. Golden sparks seeped into the corners of the Black Box. The gold sparks turned silver and seeped in around the edges. The Black Box grew less and less opaque until it vanished.

  In the next scene of the dream, I was floating in space upright and before me was the Divine Light Goddess that Jen used to be. She looked the same way as I’d seen her in my visions. Her milky white hair floated about her head and her gown sparkled silver and white, rippling in that slow motion lack of gravity way. I could hear nothing. It was like I was still in the Black Box, only free.

  Next in the dream, the Goddess outstretched a closed hand to me, palm up. She opened her hand. In it was the silver box. It floated up from her palm, and I reached out and took it before it floated away.

  She smiled faintly, and with liquid eyes she poured a message into me that had no words, but there was recognition of who we once were, what we’d once done, and what was left to do. It was as if she were saying—let us do that which we must do. Then she faded away.

  In the next scene of the dream, I shot back to earth like a bullet, but it was easy. I didn’t even have to concentrate. I went to Chile, to Jen, who was sleeping in a pale pink, sparkly fifth realm cave. The fifth realm energy irritated my skin instantly, but that was okay, because Jen was there. I was tired, so I curled up next to her and draped my arm over her chest. I went to sleep. I never sleep on my side, but in the dream it seemed natural.

  I awoke, aware that I’d been dreaming. I had fallen out of stasis. I needed to get back in—it was less hard that way. I couldn’t bear to open my eyes and see only blackness.

  My shoulder was being shaken. And a voice said, “Where have you been? You’ve been gone all day.”

  Huh?

  I opened my eyes. I saw yellow hair. I sat up abruptly. I looked to my side. Jen was sleeping there in the sky blue Grecian gown in which I’d dressed her. I looked about the pink damp walls embedded with even pinker crystals. This was the cave in my dream. Or had that been a dream?

  The voice said, “Did you get it, did you get Jen’s motivation?”

  I looked down at my closed hand and uncurled my fingers. The silver box was there. And then it occurred to me what had happened. Just as I had gone into Jen’s pasts to rescue her, her past self came into the future to rescue me. Life was big. Bigger than even I had imagined.

  André squatted next to me, babbling, ba . . . bbl . . . ing. “Wow, you just appeared out of nowhere. How did you find us? We put Jenséa in the fifth realm just for a while, away from the other Tazmarks until the Black Box is closer to breaking.”

  Ah, the war had not yet started. I did not miss it.

  André babbled on, “Charlotte and the High Lama Khandro are focused on the Black Box right now with their second sight. It is getting thin, but we still have time. We didn’t take Jenséa to the seventh realm though as you said not to, and she started to awaken, so that Tupuro guy put another sleep spell on her so she wouldn’t get in the way. And he said, you’d know how to awaken her, and—”

  I shut him out and angled myself to Jen. I opened the box.

  I heard André say, “Yes, get it into her!”

  I lifted the box over Jen, then poured out the contents. The Angel, Orange, blasted out—but she was blue. She flew crazily all around the cave growing bigger to her foot long size, crying, “I’m free! I’m free! I hate being small for too long!” She was quite literally bouncing off the walls. She hollered, “I am going to save you, and everyone, and the earth, and the solar system, and the galaxy, and the universe!” She had absorbed Jen’s motivation.

  I said to Orange while pointing to Jen, “Go into her!”

  Orange zoomed across the pink cave and shot into Jen like diving into water. Jen’s body glowed blue, brighter and brighter. Then Orange shot out, orange-colored again. She hovered about Jen and shimmied her shoulders. “Well, that’s better—too much energy for me.”

  Then she shouted to the air, “Pink, Yellow, come and get me!”

  Pink and Yellow appeared and embraced Orange while hovering in the air.

  “Well,” I said, looking at Jen sleeping, “she should be repaired now.”

  The Angels looked at me.

  “It’s a good thing,” said Pink.

  “It’s a great thing,” said Yellow.

  “It’s a grand thing,” said Orange. She flung her arms outward, “Grand.”

  “Wake her up,” said Pink.

  “Do it now,” said Yellow.

  “Hurry,” said Orange.

  I really didn’t want an audience when I woke her. “Thanks for what you’ve done,” I said, “but, take off.”

  “Fine,” Pink huffed.

  “Well!” said Yellow.

  “Be that way,” said Orange. And they disappeared.

  I looked at André, grinning. I jerked my head toward the cave entrance, meaning you go to.

  “Oh,” he said, “yes, I understand.” He exited the fifth realm cave. At last, I was alone with Jen.

  With my knees by her hips, I placed my palms on the floor on either side of her head, looking her square in the face. “Wake up, Jen,” I said with my power bound voice. “Wake up now.”

  Her eyes opened slowly. She gasped lightly, all feminine and sweet. Water glossed her azure orbs. “You survived!” Her lips quivered. “I feared they would kill you.”

  I leaned into her, scooping one hand beneath her shoulders, and the other to the back of her head, gently bringing us cheek to cheek. Her arms slipped around me tightly. I felt her; I really felt her. I inhaled deeply, her blood scent strong from a heart pumping with excitement.

  “How,” she said lightly, almost in a whisper, “how did you escape the Dragons?”

  I lifted my head to view her. “Aruka and the other Tazmarks put them in a Black Box, like the one Diego put me in those six days when we were in France.”

  Her face lit. “The Tazmarks helped us?”

  “Yes, the Tazmarks freed us and the Shens healed us, and now everyone is working together to fight the Dragons. But they will break free from the Black Box soon. The Golden Dragons can produce a substance that eats away at the black energy, slowly like acid.”

  Her face drooped. “Oh, so we still have a fight on our hands?”

  “Yes.” I sat back on my knees and pulled her up to sit with me. “And you must learn how to hail a Divine Light Ice Storm, Jen.”

  “I’ll try,” she said with reservation, hugging her knees, tented in the skirt of her blue dress. Her feet in fuzzy sky blue socks and matching jogging shoes were perfectly aligned, still the prim and proper, good little girl. And then such fear dashed her face. “And the babies? Oh johnny, please tell me the babies are all right?”

  I honestly didn’t know if the babies were all right. “André,” I hollered.

  He bounded into the cave like the happy family dog, rousing a cluster of giant blue dragonflies on the ceiling. They swarmed above his head shedding light blue dust all over his shaggy red hair and serape.

  “Hey, you are back with us, Jenséa” he said, looking up at the dragonflies as he walked our way.

  They flew away as he came upon us, probably because of me.

  “Where are the babies?” I asked.

  He rubbed his head. Light blue dust puffed up like a cloud around his face. He sneezed. “The babies are fine.”

  Jen’s hand flew to her heart. “Oh thank God, Goddess, or thank heaven, or . . .” she blushed—“earth.” Her knees came down and she sat cross-legged. Two wet circles soaked her gown where her nipples were. Thinking of the babies apparently triggered a nursing response.

  André noticed Jen’s wet spots on her gown getting wetter.

  She crossed her wrists, palms pressed over her breasts modestly. “I really need to nurse.”

  I gave her a look that said, I’ll oblige.

  She blushed more, and said with her eyes, not you!

  Embarrassed, she asked A
ndre, “Where are the babies?”

  André replied, “We hid them in the seventh realm.”

  Jen gasped, “But they are part Tazmark, won’t the seventh realm hurt them?”

  “Not yet,” I assured her, “They are newborn, the Tazmark in them is not yet developed, and won’t be until puberty, though minor beginnings may be seen. As time passes and their traits develop, it will be a risk then.”

  André blurted, “Your friend, Randa, is watching them.”

  Jen’s eyes grew big. “Randa!”

  André said, “Charlotte went and got your friend and told her everything and now she is in the seventh realm, babysitting.”

  I found the scenario most amusing.

  Jen said, “Isn’t she freaking out?”

  “She was, but Charlotte soul merged with her to help her acclimate.”

  She looked at me. “She knows the truth about us? She knows and she wants to help?”

  “Apparently so,” I said.

  André declared, “She is some kind of friend—really.”

  Jen smiled, feeling affection for Randa.

  André said, “Her Wiccan friend, Marla Darcy, is in the seventh realm with her. Marla knows spells to help keep Randa and the babies calm if need be.”

  Jen said, “Randa knows a Wiccan?”

  I knew Randa was acquainted with a Wiccan, but I didn’t want to tell her that I found out when I was being bad.

  André said, “Aruka manifested some bottles, formula, diapers, and such for them.”

  Jen said, “Aruka did that? It’s like a real family.” Her eyes watered, and I knew it was because she never had a real family. Me neither. Oddly, now we both did. I didn’t like it.

  Jen said with a start, “What of Diego?”

  I cocked my head. “Bug on a windshield.”

  Jen and André said simultaneously, “Huh?”

  Then Jen said, “Really, you got . . . Diego?”

  “I did,” I said, thinking of him, or remnants of him orbiting with the comet. I laughed a little.

  Jen said, “What?”

  I said, “Oh, never mind.” I rose and reached my hand down to her. “We should go to the others.”

  She took my hand. Rising she said, “I guess it won’t be over until we make it over.” She looked at me with doubt-filled eyes.

  I took her chin in my hand, and stared into her doubt-filled eyes confidently. “We will make it all over, and we will be fine, and we will raise our babies together.”

  She nodded lightly and then smiled all big and wonderful. “If you are that sure, then I am ready.” Glancing about the cave, she said, “Wait, I just realized that we are in the fifth realm.”

  “Yeah,” I sighed, “let’s get out of here.”

  “Could you do something about—” she pointed to her breasts.

  I raised a brow.

  She said, “You know what I mean.”

  I manifested a woolen, navy, cropped, buttoned up jacket over her sky blue gown.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  Apparently, she was over me ‘stealing’ for her. I slid my arm around her waist. “Ready?”

  She nodded.

  André said, “What about me?”

  I said, “You still can’t fly?”

  I grumbled, “Come here.”

  I put my other arm around his waist, cringing.

  André said, “You mean you aren’t going to carry me by my feet?”

  I narrowed an eye, as if contemplating.

  He saw the look and said, “Never mind.”

  With a Shen in each arm, we left the fifth realm cave, and with a few wing flaps to get us over the empty space between realms, we appeared in the third realm cave, dark, with black walls and bats on the ceiling. I released André and Jen, but they each took an arm anyway.

  I glared at André.

  He said, “Those Tazmarks make me nervous.”

  “And I don’t?”

  He shook his head.

  I scowled, preferring his head to have nodded. I started us walking. The cave opening was edged in sunlight. We emerged. It seemed about midday.

  Charlotte and the High Lama Khandro were only a few yards away, their backs to us. They were facing the Black Box, where it would be if it were in the third realm. The High Lama Khandro’s maroon sleeve and the skirt of Charlotte’s frock rippled lightly in gentle breezes. Their backs silhouetted the blue pounding surf and sunny sky where seagulls dotted land and air. They both seemed in hard concentration.

  Jen released my arm, walking fast toward Charlotte’s back.

  I glared at André, and he released my arm too, with an oh sorry, look. He walked fast to catch up to Jen. And I walked fast to catch up to him.

  Jen touched Charlotte’s back. She turned around. So did the High Lama Khandro.

  Charlotte embraced her. “You are well! You are back with us!”

  I stood there watching Charlotte’s face over Jen’s shoulder, eyes closed in such a pure expression of joy. She opened her eyes and said to me. “She is back with us?”

  I nodded.

  Charlotte sighed with relief, and released Jen.

  Jen turned to me. “What is she talking about?”

  I said, “Diego robbed you of a few things, but you are now restored.”

  “What did he take?” Jen asked. Hair strands blew across her eyes so blue, so innocent, and so innocent still, even with all that had happened to her.

  I shook my head with an admiring breath. I didn’t want to upset her further, especially not now. “I will fill you in after we win this battle.”

  She nodded. “After,” she sighed, “after.”

  The High Lama Khandro slid his magical amber ring up and down his finger a bit. “It is well that you have returned before the beasts broke out. However, the Black Box is wearing thin—very thin.”

  Jen looked at me quizzically.

  I said, “When the Dragons break free, our aim is to lure them into the third realm so that we can ambush them.”

  “Why would they come here?”

  “If you and I are here, that is where they will come. They want me in a Black Box. And you, well, currently their senses are shut down by being in the Black Box, but when it dissolves, they will know you have been repaired. Wanting to disable you again, they will enter the third realm to get you.”

  “Oh,” her head bobbed, “so we are the bait.”

  “Yes, we are.”

  “Lovely,” she said derisively, but with a hint of warmth. Then she touched my arm, sweetly concerned.

  I glanced down at her and smiled, in case there was no place for smiles in the future.

  Then, looking at Charlotte, André, and the High Lama Khandro, I said, “As you might suspect, the Dragons will not come into the third realm if they sense an ambush, so your attack must be sudden.”

  Andre rubbed his blue sleeve beneath the serape. “Attack? Do you mean using Divine Light?”

  “Not at first. We will have an upper hand if subzero ice storms are immediately hailed. But if you aren’t quick on the draw, they will simply melt the storms as they form. If you are quick, they will be temporarily stunned, and their movements will be significantly slowed.”

  André said, “I don’t know how to hail an ice storm, but I can shoot Divine Light from my forehead now with much better precision than even yesterday.”

  Charlotte volunteered, “I can hail a subzero ice storm.”

  The High Lama Khandro nodded. “Me also.”

  “All right," I said, addressing each one as I spoke. “Charlotte, High Lama Khandro, you two create subzero ice storms. André, stab them one at a time with your Divine Light; aim for the forehead. Jen you must hail a Divine Light Ice Storm. I really wish you could practice but if they broke free during the practice, they would sense it and never come.”

  “I will try to do it just after they come,” she affirmed.

  I said, “I need to oversee and coordinate the Tazmarks right now, but I will retur
n in a moment.”

  “Yes,” Charlotte confirmed, “do that.”

  Jen touched my arm. “Hurry back.”

  I smiled at her, then disappeared, manifesting on top of the rock cliff that harbored the cave.

  Aruka. I concentrated. I felt her in the third realm. I looked at the beach not far below me.

  Aruka stood on sand by the sea, long black hair stunning against the horizon of bright blue water and sky. She looked up at me with a glint in her eye, and saluted. She let me read her. She was ready to summon Jackaeels to rise from a steamy tunnel in the continental shelf to storm the beach. She had them posted in every body of water or pocket of steam in a substantial portion of Southern Chile. Pretty impressive, really. And, she’d erected a most powerful illusion that this third realm space held only Jen and me.

  I returned Aruka’s salute and nodded.

  Then I mind connected to Dian.

  Dian was in Pericludies, her knee-high suede boots moving like a ghost alongside her human army of nigh on a thousand that stealthily crept through the forest toward the beach in their olive green camouflage uniforms.

  They toted M203 40mm Grenade Launchers attached to M16A2 5.56 mm assault rifles. They also toted AT4 Vipers. I moved into the General’s mind. He believed, due to Dian’s magical mind implants that he and his army were preparing to attack monster aliens, although confirmation was still needed. Well, mind implants or not, it was the truth. With the earth quaking from my earlier work, along with the entrance of Dragon armies disturbing the atmosphere, it would not be so unbelievable.

  I saw in Dian’s mind how she manifested Dragons in surveillance cameras for viewing. And I saw how she messed with the ‘political heads’—heads. I said to her telepathically, Cast the illusion of invisibility over your army so the Dragons don’t suspect.

  Yes, Juan, yes. She answered.

  I mind linked to Tupuro who was doing a number like Dian, only with the air force. He already had the invisibility illusion in place.

  I mind linked to Cecelia. She was immersed in pinkish-red energy that cocooned her, conjuring love spells. Her purple sparkly dress now looked violet, so shockingly fluorescent, it was hard not to stare. Maybe her love spell was working on me.

  I shifted focus quickly, and mind linked to the twin, Zahna. She had been working with the Alacalufes, presenting Tazmarks as fire gods who would reward them for fighting the Dragons. The reward would be an invisibility shield undetectable to political and religious organizations. The Alacalufes wanted desperately to be left alone to carry on their traditions, and they would consider this a great reward. I could see them armed with machine guns loaded with red laser light imbued bullets—quite a crafty undertaking for Zahna. Feeling me connect to her, her bright red arm rose in a salute to me, and she telepathically said, Hey ho Juan, all is well.