“We can’t all alter physics. Some of us can’t do it at all, some to a small degree. Each individual’s capabilities are hindered or enhanced by the abilities they are born with.”
He placed a steaming cup of coffee on the table next to me. I loved the smell of coffee in the morning.
“I don’t get it. If you can alter physics, why can’t you just alter their physics so they can do it?” I asked while I watched him over the rim of my porcelain cup.
“It’s a part of our brain that controls it. The brain can be very tricky. Several generations ago, several Keepers dabbled in trying to amp up people’s abilities.”
“And?”
“It didn’t go so hot. I’ve met a couple of the people who volunteered for the experiment. They aren’t quite all there anymore.”
My mouth formed a silent O, and he just nodded in agreement.
“You still haven’t explained how I’m going to help you.”
I put my plate of pancakes down on the side table and tucked my legs up underneath me. He sat forward on the couch, already dressed in his standard black slacks and crisp white shirt, his sleeves always rolled up, baring his corded forearms, and the button at his neck was always undone. It was as if he tried to don the outfit he felt he should wear, or perhaps the one society expected to see, but found it too constrictive for what he really was.
“You are uncommonly strong. What happened the other night, when the portal went wrong, it wasn’t the first time. It has happened to me as well. Something, or someone, is blocking our absorption of the radiation.”
“And you can’t fix it?”
He leaned forward, resting his arms on his legs. “No. Meanwhile, we need to open the portal at least once a day. This is what prevents other portals from opening. The shorter the time frame between openings, the stronger the Keeper needs to be to open one anywhere else.”
“Why can’t you just stop transporting people?”
“If we won’t transfer people in and out, it will get very ugly, very quickly. It might even start a war. One I can’t take the chance of losing. Like I said before, a lot of things hinge on keeping things running smoothly. It’s also a matter of image. The weaker I seem; the more people will join against me. I don’t know how many Keepers they have now, but I can’t risk losing anymore to them. I need to not show any vulnerability.”
“So, now you want my help?”
“You’re not just helping me.”
“Yes, helping to clean up a mess that your people and your men started. These wormholes were nothing before your people. Now you guys screw it up, and I’m supposed to run right in and be thrilled to help you?”
“I think you are forgetting that the people who started this whole mess are your people too?”
Shit. He had a point. “Okay, maybe you’re right. But the way I see it, I’ve got no motivation to help right now. I help you clean up this mess and I’m stuck. I don’t help and I’m still stuck.”
He pushed his sleeves up a little farther on his arms. His biceps straining beneath a refinement that didn’t quite fit what I sensed was truly there.
“I’ll make it worth your while. Whatever you want?”
“Let’s see, hmmmm, maybe getting my life back would be a good start. Perhaps, even make me want to be cooperative?”
“You know that’s the one thing I can’t do.” He leaned his head down and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. “Anything else, money, cars, whatever.”
I looked away from him, and took the few steps to the window. I stared at the Vegas horizon, as I liked to do. The Luxor’s black pyramid was one of my favorite sights, the lights glowing along its edges. “I want to know when you plan to let me leave, and…” I hesitated finishing. I hated revealing anything that showed softness, but this mattered to me. Deep down, no matter how jaded I had become, or what I said, I would do whatever I could to help avert the disaster that might be coming. I might as well get something I wanted. “I want to know who my parents are.”
As soon as the words left my mouth, I did something that I hadn’t done since a small child. I blushed.
“Deal. But I can’t guarantee anything.”
There was an odd tone in his voice. I took a deep breath and looked over at him. “Stop looking at me like that!”
“Like what?” he asked.
“Like I’m some lost puppy you need to help. Just because I’m curious doesn’t mean I’m soft.” I walked toward my room.
“It’s okay to want to know your parents. We aren’t meant to be alone.” His voice indicated he was right behind me, following me as I walked.
“You have no idea why I want to know.” I got to the threshold of my bedroom door and turned to block him. “Don’t start thinking I’m some little girl that is all soft in the center and needs some man to save her.”
He was leaning on the wall outside my room. He looked at me, and then slowly smiled. “I think deep down, underneath all that blustering, you’re as soft as a kitten.” His hand reached out and toyed with a lock of my long hair, then let it drop.
I couldn’t think of a single witty come back, so I cursed him and slammed the door in his face. I could hear the bastard laughing through the door.
“We start tomorrow,” I heard him call out before his footsteps retreated.
Chapter Twelve
“Where’s Cormac?”
I turned to see Dodd stroll in the living room. “How would I know?”
“What are you eating?”
“What’s it look like? What do you want?” As much as I would like to complain about everything, there were a couple of perks to staying here that I couldn’t deny. The menu was insane. They’d make me whatever I wanted to eat, no matter what time I called it in. The turkey club sandwich I was eating right now was among my favorites. How could you go wrong with something that had bacon and mayo?
Before I knew what he was doing, Dodd’s fingers swooped in and stole a quarter of my club sandwich.
“Hey! Go get your own food!” If Dodd hadn’t been one of the men on the night of my almost murder, I would have offered him some.
“There’s no way you were going to finish that, it’s huge,” he said in between bites. Then he had the audacity to reach in and grab some fries.
“You’re missing the point. We,” I pointed to him and then back to me, “are not friends.” I shook my head emphasizing my point. “You do not get any of my french fries because of that.”
“What are we watching?” He plopped down on the couch across from me and kicked off his shoes. “What is this crap?” he asked, as he looked at the TV.
“I like ‘this crap’. You don’t need to watch it. You can leave.”
“Gimme the remote.”
“No.”
“So, I heard you’re going to start training?”
“Why do you keep talking to me?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“Because of what you took part in? I would think you would realize what that means?”
“Yeah, but that was before. You’re one of us, now.”
“I’m not one of you.” I’d always wanted to belong. What a joke of fate for these to be the people who would accept me.
“I know we started off rough, but you are one of us. Fight it all you want, you’ll see.” He fluffed up his couch pillow, threw it behind his head, and continued watching TV.
I watched him settled in, made an unattractive grunt, and forfeited the living room to him. I’d barely made it back to my room when I heard Cormac come in.
“You ready to get started?”
“Coming,” I hollered into the hallway. It wasn’t my first choice of words for him, but I swallowed those back in an effort to keep the peace for now.
Cormac was standing in the foyer looking as sexy as ever, as he turned to watch me. It was beyond annoying. My knees went a little weak, as his pale blue eyes stalked my movements across the marble floor.
“Be there in five minutes
boss man!” yelled Dodd from the living room.
“Why is he coming?”
“He wanted to help,” Cormac stated mimicking my inflection.
“Fine. I guess being around one murderer or two isn’t that much of a difference.”
“I’m not a murderer.”
“Did you order my murder?”
“I told you, it was complicated.”
I could hear the aggravation in his voice and I rejoiced in pressing his buttons. “You say tomayto, I say tomahto. Same thing, isn’t it?”
“No. It isn’t.”
“Yes, it is.”
“No, it…I’m not doing this with you.”
“You already are.”
“No, I’m not, I’m going to rise above this and I refuse to argue with you.”
“As much as I’d like to debate how you really aren’t rising above anything, I’d rather know if you found anything out?” Ever since I found out about my mother, bloody in the church, the urgency I felt to find the truth had kicked up another notch.
“I’ve started the process. I have my lab running your blood sample against our databases. As soon as they find out anything, they are to tell me right away.”
I nodded, looked at the floor in disappointment, and I felt him lay his hand on my shoulder and start to run it down my upper arm in a comforting gesture that had the exact opposite effect on me, as I quickly stepped back out of reach. He didn’t touch me again but he did step forward, not crowding me, but giving me a strange sort of comfort none the less.
“What’s going on?” Dodd asked, as he joined us in the foyer.
“Nothing. Just waiting for you,” Cormac answered.
“Why does it feel weird in here?”
“Come on, we have a lot of work to do. I want her to be ready to operate a portal with me by Festiva.”
“What’s Festiva?”
Dodd answered “Once every year, we open up the portal and allow more people than normal through to join in an anniversary celebration.”
“Anniversary of the portal?”
“Yes. We are busier than normal the days before, bringing everyone over. If we don’t have this squared away by then, it could be very ugly,” Dodd continued as we left the penthouse.
“Is it a good idea to bring more over under the circumstances? I’m not a tactical mastermind of any sort, but wouldn’t you want less here?”
“And give them the impression that we are concerned? Absolutely not.” Dodd said.
I turned to Cormac to see if he had a better explanation.
Reading the question on my face, he responded, “Yes, that about sums it up.”
I just shook my head in disbelief as we headed down toward the lair beneath Lacard. It was truly startling that this entire operation was happening underneath a casino.
“Why a casino? Why not in the desert where there is nobody?” I asked them as we rode the elevator down.
“We need the people,” Cormac explained. “We need to hide the high energy levels that the portals throw off.”
“Portals? You said more than one right?”
“Yes. There are more than one, but nothing nearby.”
“So, the other portals, are they in casinos as well?” I mentally started to calculate all of the areas known for large casinos.
“No. There are other options. This was just the most convenient for this area.”
“You don’t want to tell me the other locations? Really Cormac, haven’t you ever heard in for a penny, in for a pound?”
“Maybe you should think on that yourself? Or as they say in poker, you are already pot committed.”
“What?”
“When you play poker, and you have a significant amount of your money in the pot, it gets very hard to walk away. You, whether you want to acknowledge it or not, are pot committed.”
“Maybe so, but I’m also skilled at getting out of a bad situation and simply disappearing, as my records have already proven.”
I looked at him now as he leaned against the elevator wall, and it was hard not to admire his presence. It was beyond the grace of his movements. He owned the space. People instinctively looked to him to lead, and not because he was the boss. He had an air about him that made others follow. I’d noticed it in the casino, the deference he commanded. All eyes were always on him the moment he stepped into a room.
I started to follow Dodd out of the elevator but Cormac’s arm around my waist stopped me.
“Maybe you can disappear from some people, but they aren’t me.” He removed his arm and walked out the elevator. “Sometimes we use amusement parks as well,” he said as if that little moment hadn’t even happened.
I watched his graceful movements as we entered the hallways that were now empty again, and I wondered where all the people went when the portal wasn’t up and running.
We passed the door that I knew led to the portal and he opened up a room a few doors down. There was a step down when we entered and it was bare except for a line of work boots along one side. The walls, ceiling, and floor were a dull grey lead like the portal room. Other than that, it was completely bare.
“So what do we do?”
“This is where we train. What size shoe do you wear?” Cormac asked.
“Seven.”
Dodd’s phone started buzzing. “I gotta go handle that thing we were talking about.”
Cormac nodded and Dodd headed out.
“Here, put these on. Make sure you lace them up tightly.”
“Why do I have to switch shoes?” I asked as I slipped out of my own sneakers.
“These are special. When you start messing around with gravitational pulls, these will hold you to the ground if you can’t handle it.”
“Oh. Aren’t you putting on a pair?”
“I don’t need them.” He reached down, took my sneakers and put them into a cabinet built into the wall.
“Are they comfortable?”
I looked down and cringed at the ugly brown utilitarian boots. “Yes.”
“Stand in a comfortable position.”
“I am.”
He flipped a switch on the wall and a slight humming sound started.
“What is that?”
“Try to move your feet.”
I went to lift a foot, and realized I was glued to the floor.
“Cormac, I don’t like this.”
The cloying feeling of claustrophobia was starting to suffocate me. I bent down, and started to take the boots off and he knelt next to me.
“You’re not stuck. You can undo the laces at any point. But, once we start practicing, you might want them on so you don’t end up on the ceiling.”
I stopped what I was doing, and realized he was right. It wasn’t like I couldn’t take them off at any point. I nodded and stood up again.
Once I had calmed down, he walked to another built in cabinet and tossed four plastic children’s balls into the room, the type that I always saw, but never got, in bins at the grocery stores growing up.
“Okay, I know you can convert single small items at a time. I need you to try to do these balls all at once, without touching them.”
“But I can’t reach them?”
“I know. You have to do it without touching.”
“I don’t know how.”
“It’s the same way you did the stone. You don’t need to touch them. Just let the energy flow through your hands. You can convert anything in your immediate area.”
I held out my hands and tried to focus on letting some unseen energy flow through my fingers. Nothing happened.
“Remember when you attacked Tracker in the bar?”
“Of course I do.”
“You did something extra, didn’t you?”
I just smiled.
“Try pulling from the same place. It’s all related.”
I held out my hands again, and pulled from that place. I could feel the familiar tingle, but the balls didn’t budge.
“I don’t get
it. I can feel it. Why doesn’t it do what it’s supposed to.”
“I’m not sure. Usually we just do some fine tuning with control. I’ve never had to start from scratch. It’s just something that happens. With you, I think you’ve trained your body to hold back for so long, that you have a hard time releasing beyond your immediate touch. Just keep trying, you’ll get it.”
Two hours later, Cormac was sitting on the floor, holding up the wall and playing with his cell phone. I was squatted down on the floor, very uncomfortably I might add, with my boots frozen to the floor.
I gave up and completely lay down on the floor, knees still bent to accommodate the funny boots, and banged my head against the lead floor, staring at the ceiling.
“This isn’t working. I think it’s time to throw in the towel.”
“You’re holding back. Keep trying.”
“I’m. Not. Holding. Back.”
“You don’t think you are holding back, but you’ve been burying this ability for years. So, you’re holding back. You just don’t know it.”
“You don’t know, either.”
“That’s true, but we still have to do it.”
“UUUrrgghhh. I’m done.” I sat up and started undoing the funny boots. I’d walk back to the penthouse barefoot if I had to.
I looked up when Cormac stood. “We’ll take a break for today and try again tomorrow night.”
“No can do. I’ve got a shift tomorrow night.”
He flipped the switch off, and my still tied boots were suddenly free. “I’ll get Arnold to cover your shift. This is more important.”
“I understand that money might not be a concern to you, but it is to me. I’m working tomorrow.”
“I’ll pay you whatever you make a shift.” He stood in front of me.
“No. I’d rather work. This sucks. I’m not good at it and neither of us have any idea if we can even make it work.” I went to step around him, since he wouldn’t move.
“I’ll pay you twice what you make on a busy night,” he countered, as he moved in step with me, continuing to block my way as effectively as a large brick wall.
I thought about it for a minute. That was a hard offer to turn down. Even though school was a cakewalk with the strings Cormac had pulled, I still had to pay for it, and then there was still the rent on the trailer. When I finally got away from these people, I’d need a home.
The Keepers (The Alchemy Series) Page 9
