by Sienna Skyy
8
NEW YORK
ONCE AGAIN, BRUCE DIALED GLORIA’S cell phone. Once again, it clicked over to voice mail. Once again, he wanted to throw the phone against the wall.
He hadn’t spoken to Gloria since he walked her to work that morning. They hadn’t had their usual lunchtime phone conversation. And now, at almost midnight, there was still no sign of her.
He dragged his fingers through his hair.
He wracked his brain, trying to think of a business function he might have forgotten about. But that wasn’t it—they would have discussed something like that on the way to work. Some social function with Candace or one of the people at the office? No, she would have made a big deal about his remembering to eat dinner if she knew she wasn’t going to be around. Whatever took Gloria away was not on the radar screen this morning. And that worried the hell out of him.
Bruce felt that he always knew where Gloria was. He imagined he could reach out with his mind and see her whenever he wanted, catching a virtual glimpse of her at her desk or in a power meeting. In the time they’d been together, Bruce felt a growing keenness to his perceptions as they related to Gloria. He even knew when she had a bad day before he saw her.
And now he felt nothing. It was as though someone had stolen his sense of taste or smell. Something was wrong. Decidedly wrong.
He’d made numerous calls. The people at the office knew nothing useful. One of her colleagues thought she’d seen her in the hall that afternoon. Another recalled a conversation, but then couldn’t remember if they’d had it today or yesterday. The receptionist said she went out to lunch, but didn’t know who she went with and had no memory of anything else that happened that afternoon. Candace’s phone bounced to voice mail as quickly as Gloria’s had, and none of her other friends knew anything more than Bruce did.
The clock clicked over to twelve o’clock and Bruce’s anxiety ratcheted up. It was a new day. Why did that seem so daunting?
He had to call Jamie. He realized she wouldn’t know where Gloria was, but she’d been his go-to person since preschool. If nothing else, she’d give him a little perspective. And if not perspective, he could at least freak out with her and know she would understand.
He hit the speed dial.
“Hello?”
The sound of Jamie’s voice was a salve to his nerves. Instantly, he started to wonder if he’d been overreacting.
“Hey, what are you doing?” he said a little sheepishly.
“Not much. You know, sleeping, that sort of thing.”
Bruce cringed. “Right, sorry. Listen, I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“What’s wrong?”
The tone of Jamie’s voice caught Bruce by surprise. “Why’d you ask me that?”
Jamie’s voice got a little sharper. “Bruce, tell me what’s wrong.”
His anxiety was returning. “Nothing. I mean, it’s just that Gloria hasn’t come home yet and that feels weird to me.”
“Oh God.” Jamie’s voice came in a flutter as though the call was breaking up.
“I’m overreacting, right?” Bruce said nervously. “Can you imagine how possessive I’m going to be once we’re married?”
The little bit of levity didn’t muster even a chuckle from Jamie. In fact, she didn’t say anything. Maybe she was formulating kind ways to explain how Gloria was a big girl and how he needed to give her the latitude to be caught up in a business meeting and lose track of time without worrying about checking in with him.
He waited for Jamie to tell him these things.
But she never said any of that.
What she said was, “It’s happening.”
“What’s happening?”
“I’ll be right there.”
“What? Why will you be right here? What’s happening?”
The line went dead. He dialed her again.
Jamie’s voice came labored, as if she were hurrying. “I’ll be right over. You really don’t want to do this on the phone.”
“Do what? What are we doing? Do you know where Gloria is?”
But when she replied, her voice crackled through the receiver. “I’m go . . . down . . . phone’s gonna drop. . . .”
The call dropped.
Bruce squeezed the phone as if doing so would coerce it to cough up some answers. Why did Jamie react the way she did? Why couldn’t they “do this” on the phone? How could she know something about Gloria that he didn’t know?
The pent-up energy in his body felt combustible. He wanted to move, to take action. But what kind of action? He didn’t have a clue. Jamie was maybe twenty minutes away. How could he possibly wait twenty minutes to hear what she had to say? How was he going to feel after he heard what she had to say?
He lowered himself to the floor and knocked out some push-ups until his arms turned to spaghetti. He wasn’t really the exercise type, but he needed to do something. He flipped over and did sit-ups, then over again to squeeze out more push-ups. His muscles ached, but he wasn’t any less anxious.
He went to the window. Why wouldn’t she just tell me over the phone?
Jamie finally arrived, coppery pixie hair mussed and blue eyes wide.
“I have a lot to tell you and you’re going to be tempted to interrupt often,” she said sharply. “Avoid that temptation.”
Jamie never spoke like this. What was going on? “You do realize I’m borderline psychotic at the moment, right?”
Jamie’s expression softened and she reached out for him. She held him close for a few seconds—and then she pushed him onto the couch. “Sit and listen,” she said as he looked at her, mouth agape.
She marched into the kitchen and filled the kettle with water. “You know how you always joked that the reason we’ve been best friends all our lives is because we hit it off so well in the nursery?”
“What’s this got to do with—?”
“Bruce! You know I’m not going to jerk you around, so humor me!”
There was a simple explanation for Jamie’s brusque tone: alien abduction. Though he was feeling more nervous by the second, Bruce placated his best friend. “Yes, that’s always been the joke.”
She set the kettle on the stove and joined him on the couch. “Well, you were almost right about that. Here’s the thing: it’s no accident that I was born one day after you. I was born because of you. From the moment you were conceived, you were marked as someone unusually passionate. I mean crazy passionate. Off the charts passionate. Don’t ask me how that works at conception; I’ve been wondering that for years.”
“Jamie . . .”
She put a hand up. “This means you’re likely to accomplish great things—could be, I don’t know, incredible works of art or leading a revolution. Writing works—plays, for instance—that change the way people think. That’s major stuff. But as it turns out, not the most major stuff. The thing about people like you—and trust me, I’m no expert on any of this, as much as I’ve tried to be—is that we knew you’d seek a life partner who was equally passionate.”
“We?”
Jamie tipped her head downward. “You’re interrupting. I asked you not to interrupt, didn’t I?” She sighed. “Yes, we. I was put here to watch you. To guard you.”
Bruce’s ears rang, striving to process the nonsense that poured from Jamie. “Wait a minute. Hold on. Who’s ‘we?’ And if I’m so special, why would you have to guard me? Where the hell is all of this coming from?”
Jamie waited a beat, but didn’t scold him again for interrupting. “‘We’ is me and . . . oh God. I’ve been visited by—hang on, one thing at a time.” She tugged at a curl that spiked down over her ear. “The reason I am guarding you is because your potential increases exponentially if you fall in love with someone like you. Amazingly, you managed to date a bunch of lightweights for a long time. Then Gloria showed up.”
Bruce snorted. He’d never heard her talk so crazy before, and if it were anyone other than Jamie, he’d be whistling for the paddy wagon by now. But he
took it all in, thinking he’d sort out the truth from the insanity later—if only she’d get to the part where she told him where Gloria was.
Jamie continued. “Both of you, you’re unusually committed and passionate people. And you found each other and fell in love. That’s an amazingly rare thing. It shoots the potential the two of you have up into the stratosphere. But it’s also a dangerous thing. It draws attention from a kind of darkness that would love to pervert your power. And when it does—no, if it does; we have to make sure it doesn’t—it would destroy you. And not only you.”
Jamie didn’t have to worry about his interrupting any longer. Bruce was officially speechless.
She took a breath. “With that kind of power in the wrong hands, it could destroy the world. When you met Gloria, I knew there was a serious risk. I’ve been waiting for this phone call ever since.”
The teakettle began to whistle. Jamie rose to attend to it.
Bruce stared into an empty space. Dark powers watching them? Where did that put Gloria now? His stomach rolled. Too much, just too much. He shook his head. He was barely aware when Jamie set a teacup before him.
Jamie punched a number into her cell phone and listened, then shook her head, ending the call. “No Candace. I got a voice mail from her, but the only word I could make out was ‘Maine.’ I thought she was telling me she was going on vacation. Now I wonder. . . .”
Bruce sharpened his gaze on her. “I don’t believe any of this.”
Jamie kept her eyes on the teacup for a moment before lifting them to Bruce. She spoke softly. “Yes you do, Bruce. Yes you do.”
Bruce felt tears approaching. He shook his head slowly. “Yes I do. How could I possibly believe this?”
“You believe it because it’s the truth. You can recognize it as the truth because you’ve reached a new level of understanding.”
A new level of understanding. Unusually committed and passionate. He didn’t ask for this. He just wanted to have a great life with the woman he loved. He didn’t want dark forces watching him. He didn’t want Gloria to be at risk.
What he wanted was a shot of tequila. He reached for the bottle on the sideboard.
Jamie stopped him before he could take a drink. “You’re going to need to be sober for this.”
Jamie’s stomach was pitching flips and somersaults. She removed a bundle of herbs from the teapot and filled the cups with the hot, stained liquid. “This might help.”
Bruce sipped.
She began.
“Somewhere Gloria is being imprisoned by a Macul known as Enervata.”
“A Macul?” Bruce’s voice sounded dubious.
Jamie hadn’t expected him to get it all at once. Of course he wouldn’t. “A Macul is a high-ranking Pravus, which is an order of dark beings. Each Macul and his Pravus army is looking to destroy a particular human virtue. For Enervata, it’s love. There’s only a handful of his kind in the world, but they’ve been around for more than a thousand years and each is looking for an opportunity to enslave humanity. Enervata has been waiting for an uncommon kind of love affair since the Dark Ages. One like . . .” she shrugged.
“Like me and Gloria?”
Jamie nodded. She breathed in the flowered fragrance of the tea, keeping her gaze fixed on the brew so as not to look upon the wildness and disbelief in Bruce’s eyes. “There have been a handful of occurrences over the centuries where passionate people found uncommon love. If Enervata had been able to divide the lovers and seduce the woman, turning her toward darkness, he would have achieved great power. The other Maculs do similar things, though they’re trying to destroy different virtues. In each case, Enervata or one of the others has tried to harness that power to enslave mankind.”
“Sounds like they’re not real good at it,” Bruce snorted. “Last time I checked we were pretty much okay.”
“Well, that’s partly because they’re always sabotaging one another. Each Macul wants to be in power, so they’re essentially competing and have always found a way to wreck one another’s chances.”
Jamie chanced a glance at Bruce. He looked overwhelmed.
“You’re sure Enervata’s the one who’s got Gloria?” he said.
“He has to be, because he’s the one who wants to destroy love. He’s looking for the rare love, the bond-recherché as they call it, and the other Maculs will try to somehow spoil Enervata’s seduction attempts. If they do, he loses his chance at power.”
“So that’s a good thing. Humanity’s safe.”
“Except for the fact that the woman usually winds up dead. And the man for that matter. Or worse.”
Bruce’s eyes dropped and he shook his head.
Jamie squeezed his hand. “Enervata has taken Gloria because he believes he can seduce her and turn her to his side. And if Enervata can reverse a love as strong as yours between two people as passionate as you are, he gets it all.”
“And if he can’t turn her?”
“I can’t say for sure, Bruce. But likely, he’ll kill her.”
The color drained from Bruce’s skin. He seemed to be wrestling with disbelief, anger, and sick, sick worry. He spoke, and his voice came out ragged. “How do you know all of this?”
Jamie looked down at her teacup. “It started when I was in high school.”
Errant bits of peppermint leaf floated in her cup, and the scent of it strove to calm her nerves.
She looked up at Bruce. “First day of high school, actually, as if that wasn’t weird enough. It was after school, I was in my room, and my computer started talking to me. It was that stupid paperclip thing. You know that thing in Word? That Help tool that winks at you?”
He nodded. “Always drove me crazy.”
Jamie gave a rueful laugh. “Yeah, me too, especially when I was trying to get work done for class. But this time,” Jamie paused. Her gaze drifted to the window. “This time everything was different.”
The homework on her first day was overwhelming. This was going to be much tougher than middle school. Jamie got out her books and sat down at the computer, revving up Word.
But there was no way she could concentrate on the essay she needed to write with that paperclip winking and blinking at her. She turned it off. It came back.
She turned if off again. It came back again.
She rebooted her machine.
The images on the screen swooned and went black, and then the CPU buzzed and clucked and flashed the log-in page.
Jamie’s fingers were poised, ready to type in her username and password (Jamie / Tink). But there it stood, that animated paperclip, winking and blinking. And it grew bigger on the screen.
And then the cartoonish icon danced, swirled, and leaped out of the monitor.
Jamie gasped and tumbled backward, legs splayed, as the paperclip arched and ran across her keyboard, leaped over her desk, and joined her on the floor.
“Hello, Jamie!”
She backed away from it. But more from confusion than fear. The voice was so sweet, so soothing. Jamie’s body curled and she sat up, looking at the odd thing. I’m hallucinating. Man, the first day of school was more stressful than I thought.
The clip bent itself over and stretched, growing bigger yet again. It exuded a golden light, bathing the room in warmth as it expanded and changed, wavering. Jamie watched dumbstruck as the clip went through its metamorphosis. Eventually it became a beautiful lady, elderly and smiling.
Then the woman was sitting in a golden chair, and flecks of gold shimmered within her emerald eyes. Her hair was white and wound into a knot just above her neck. Jamie felt a remarkable sense of peace coursing through her as the woman spoke with a voice kind and motherly, soothing and beautiful like her eyes.
She told Jamie she was “an Auxilium,” come to explain about Jamie’s purpose in life.
The Auxilium woman told her many things. She said that she was glad that Jamie and Bruce had naturally developed a loving friendship. She told her that Jamie had been placed by Bruce’s side
as his guardian.
And then, though the lady’s voice remained warm and soothing, her words took on an ominous warning, striking fear into Jamie’s heart.
The Auxilium held Jamie’s hand and told her that she was going to have to be very brave. And then she described to Jamie the world of the Macul. And Enervata.
Rage bubbled up inside Bruce. “You never told me any of this! My God, you’ve been carrying this around since high school?”
Jamie’s cheeks colored. “The Auxilium warned me not to say a word to you. Or anyone else for that matter, until it began. It’s the only secret I’ve ever kept from you. If I told you, it might have prevented you from seeking true love in your life. That would have been wrong for you and terrible for the world.”
Jamie turned her face away and Bruce saw a watery shimmer at the corner of her eye.
His stomach threatened to empty involuntarily. If he’d taken a swig of tequila it probably would have. He reached out a shaky hand and grasped the cup of tea.
Jamie turned back to him and laid her hand on his forearm. “The thing is, Bruce, you and Gloria are destined to achieve great things together. If you can make it through this.”
She withdrew her hand and sipped her tea. Bruce sipped his, trying to find some way to put everything into context.
Bruce slowly filled his lungs. “So you’ve kept this big secret this whole time, huh? I don’t even know what to make of this.”
Jamie shrugged. “It’s been good for me in a way. The Auxilium woman told me to do whatever I could to encourage you to never settle for less—that was easy, because by then we’d practically been best friends since we were born. And she told me about Enervata, and how we can stop him.”
Bruce’s eyes lifted to hers. “So what do we do?”
Jamie slid off the couch and kneeled on the carpet, clearing a space on the coffee table. She flipped a magazine over.
“Okay. We need to head out into other parts of the country. We can take my van.”
She reached into a bag of pretzels and laid four of them out, one by one, at various points on the magazine.
“Along the way, you have to seek out something called the Four Pillars of Humanity. When you find all four, if you can face him before Gloria is completely turned, you might be able to defeat Enervata.”
