We get to class just as the last bell rings.
Jewel’s head is bent over an open book on her desk and she doesn’t look up as I brush past her. The location of my desk, behind hers and a few seats over, gives me a great vantage point where I can admire her without giving away my intense interest. Am I the only one who notices how her hair appears black until light hits it? Even the artificial light in the room brings out rainbows. I wonder how it would look to her if she could see it with her enhanced ability. I let down my guard, locate her scent and breathe deeply. She smells wonderful, but the odor of the other bodies in the room just about knocks me out— big mistake. I turn to listen to the teacher, but I’m fully aware of Jewel the entire time.
Once again, Pastor John calls Storm, Max, and me into his office, excusing us from the remainder of our classes for the day. I’m still wondering why Max is being included in our investigations.
The three of us squeeze into the cab of Storm’s truck. He doesn’t have an extended cab like Sequoia’s, but it’s wide enough if you don’t mind crowding. I thank God for my scent guard when I get a whiff of Max’s odor. I’m in the middle and for some reason, perhaps hygiene related, Storm’s scent isn’t offensive to me, but Max is another story.
“Mind opening the windows, guys?” Thankfully, they both comply and the fresh air is lifesaving.
Storm glances across me at Max. His face is tense. “So, Max, what did Pastor John tell you about the artifacts?”
Max straightens up from his customary slouch. “Artifacts? You mean there’s more than one?”
I may have to reevaluate his intelligence level. He might be brighter than he looks. He certainly caught that little slip of Storm’s.
“What did he say, Max?” I attempt to deflect where this is going. “What do you think the artifact is?”
He gives me a disgusted look and says, “You know. It’s an old pyramid someone buried a long time ago, right? For some reason the things that attacked Storm want it and we have to keep them from getting it.”
“Yeah, that’s right,” Storm looks relieved. As I suspected, Pastor John gave him enough of the story to garner his help and keep him from interfering with us without revealing what it does and what role we may have to play. I have a feeling that Max is in on this only because his dad is the Sheriff. It’s strange that Sheriff Green, who knows all about the artifacts, has kept his son in the dark all this time.
We arrive at Hunter Smith’s house and drive the truck around back. The hole isn’t too far into the woods and with some maneuvering; Storm is able to back the truck close enough to it. He sets wooden chocks behind all four wheels while Max and I set up the winch and attach one end of the cable to it. We put on the climbing gear the sheriff provided for us, including miner’s caps and webbed belts with extra flashlights, batteries, and water. Storm straps a leather sheath to his leg and examines the blade of his hunting knife before he slides it in. Max drops the unattached end of the cable into the hole and it uncoils until it reaches bottom.
“Looks to be about seventy feet, more or less,” he says, and winches the cable back up.
Storm steps to the edge. “I’ll go in first and float you down.”
“Who’s going to man the winch?” Max asks, clearly unwilling to stay behind.
“We won’t need it as long as I’m around and no one else is nearby. We’ll be fine. Let’s go see where the hole ends up, and whether it leads to another tunnel.” He disappears down the shaft.
Max is annoyed. “Then what the heck do we need a winch for?”
“Who’s next?” Storm’s voice echoes as if from a great distance.
“Thanks, but I’ll use the cable,” Max puts on the safety harness. “Ready. Lower me away, Pax.”
Max steps to the edge and I start the winch. It’s slow, but he finally reaches bottom. I leave the cable at the bottom and follow as soon as the coast is clear and Storm is ready for me. The drop is quick and smooth. I lower my scent guard on the way down and smell scorched earth and something metallic that I can’t identify. I’m surprised at the easy landing and quickly put the guard back up knowing I won’t be able to smell anything besides Max.
The bottom of the borehole slopes downward and leads into a tunnel. We turn on our headlamps and find Mr. Smith’s flashlight several feet in. From the top it must have looked like it disappeared into a bottomless pit. The tunnel is tall enough to stand in, but not wide enough for more than one person to walk at a time. Storm takes the lead, Max falls in behind him, and I take up the rear. I feel better knowing that we have close tabs on Max.
I sense he’s getting increasingly agitated; he probably needs something to keep his mind off the dark tunnel. “How long have you and Marla been dating?”
“What do you care?” he snaps.
“Sorry,” I try to keep my voice steady so he doesn’t hear how annoyed I am. “It looks like we’ll be working together, and I thought we could get to know each other a little better.”
“Why? Do you have your eye on her?”
I have to bite my tongue to keep from snapping at the moron. “Forget it. I think I prefer the silence anyway.”
We plod on and I lose track of time and distance. Storm stops suddenly.
“Hold up,” he whispers. “I hear something.”
I hold my breath and strain my ears and after a moment, I hear the echo of distant voices. “Lights off,” he orders.
“No way,” Max says aloud, and I jab him in the ribs.
“Shut up and turn your lamp off,” I whisper, “Unless you want the aliens to catch you down here.”
The darkness is complete. I have to give Max some credit. He keeps his whimpers quiet.
TWENTY-SIX
Storm moves forward with shuffling steps. Max holds on to his belt, while I grab Max’s. It’s unlikely that we’ll be separated in these close quarters, but it’s reassuring to have some human contact. We round a curve and see light ahead. Storm crouches and motions for us to do the same. He unsheathes his knife and holds it lightly in his right hand. I don’t blame him. If I had a weapon, I’d hold it ready, too.
We inch toward the opening where the light is coming from, but a boulder partially blocks our view. The little we can see seems to be the edge of a cave. The voices speak again and the way they echo means the chamber must be a good-sized cavern.
“How much farther?” a woman asks.
Max tugs on my arm at the sound of the female voice. In the glow his face looks pasty. I motion for him to stay silent.
A deep, guttural voice answers in strangely-accented English, “Soon, woman. We blast and continue. You are welcome to leave and return to the surface if this is too much for you.”
“Alone?” she sounds frightened.
“Of course,” the male answers. “We will continue until we find it or cannot proceed further.”
At that, he says something in a language I don’t recognize and a loud buzzing causes us to cover our ears. I smell burning rock and feel a blast of heat. I hope the woman has some protective covering on. The heat is intense for a few seconds even in our sheltered location.
Storm signals to me to retreat, and I gladly head back into the tunnel. We turn our headlamps back on and move at a brisk pace. No one says a word, and soon we’re at the base of the pit.
He tells Max, “There’s no time for the winch. Hold on to the cable as I lift you. It will give you some stability until you’re topside.” Max nods and does what he’s been instructed to do. He gives us a thumbs-up as soon as he clears the hole. I ascend next, and it’s like being in a floorless elevator.
As soon as Storm’s head clears the hole, Max blurts out, “I know that woman!”
“Tell us on the way home,” Storm says as he turns on the winch to raise the cable. I pile the climbing gear and our headlamps into the truck bed and Max clears the chocks and throws them in. We work quickly. There’s no telling if the woman followed us out or stayed with the diggers. We aren’t willing to cha
nce being discovered.
We all breathe a sigh of relief when we clear Hunter Smith’s property and turn on the main road. That’s when it dawns on me that we never got a look at who was digging the tunnel. Were they Allarans or Dracans?
“Spill it, Max,” Storm says.
“That woman is Marla’s mother,” he says.
“Oh, man,” I reach across Max and roll down the window. No sense in suffocating. “We’d better report it to Pastor John and our folks right away.”
“I don’t understand,” Max stares out the window and seems to have lost his bravado. “What does Mrs. Snow have to do with all this?”
TWENTY-SEVEN
We get back to school in time for last period and go straight to the Headmaster’s office. When Pastor John calls for us to enter, I’m surprised to see Jewel and Sky already there, sitting close together on the couch. Sky’s eyes are red, as if she’s been crying. I rush over to her and pull her close.
“What is it, Sky?”
“It’s you, you big oaf,” she shouts. “You and Storm, getting yourselves into trouble without us. How could you?”
Her gift must be getting stronger if she sensed our adventure in the tunnel. I don’t recall being afraid, and no one was hurt, so what, exactly, did she sense? I send calm to her until I feel her relax and ask her. “What did you feel, Sky?”
As she tells me, I notice that Jewel’s eyes are red, too, and my heart twists into a knotty lump.
“I didn’t realize that you’re a constant presence in my mind until today, Pax; and not just you. One moment you were there, and the next you weren’t. You stopped. I searched and searched for you and felt nothing but a void. Then I searched for Storm.
“Do you remember the day you were attacked, Storm? You were so far away, and yet I felt it. I felt your rage and the pain when the aliens seared your leg. Since then, I feel you as much as Pax, and today, you were gone, too.”
She breaks down in sobs and I hug her tightly. Jewel hands her a tissue and glares at me. I wish I knew why. Why did my sister stop feeling my presence? Was it something in the tunnel?
Pastor John says in a soothing voice, “I told the girls where you’d gone, and when Sky said she’d lost you, I reminded her that you were in an alien-made hole and there might be something in it that’s blocking her senses. I’m afraid it didn’t help much.”
Max stands apart near the window and listens intently. He knew about Storm’s gift, but this may be the first time he’s hearing about Sky’s.
“Who are you people?” he asks in a shaky voice.
Pastor John goes to stand in front of Max and grabs both his shoulders. “If I tell you, Max, you have to keep it in strictest confidence. Do you understand? You won’t be able to tell anyone, not even Marla.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Max replies. “I just found out her mother is working with the aliens that dug the holes.”
“What!?” Jewel exclaims. Pastor John sits back down and Sky gives Jewel an ‘I told you so’ kind of look.
Storm tells them about the tunnel and how we heard voices. “One of them was hers. Max recognized her right away. Pastor, what do you think she was doing with them?”
“Jewel,” Pastor John says instead, “tell Max what you see when the glasses are off.”
She takes her glasses off and I melt at the brilliant turquoise of her eyes. Max gapes, his mouth hanging open.
“I see auras, Max. They’re energy fields that show up as bright light in animals and as colors around humans. Yours is brown with streaks of muddy red.”
“What does that mean?” he asks. “What do the colors mean?”
“I’m not sure,” Jewel continues. “All I know is that every human has a distinct aura. Years ago my mom and I encountered an alien in the park. Mom only saw its disguise as an older woman, but I see through disguises. It had scaly skin, a longish snout and lots of very sharp teeth. The thing had a glow, like animals do, but no aura. When I looked at Marla without my glasses, she had an aura, but it was very faint. I also saw through her disguise.”
“Meaning?” Max is growing impatient, and I see his face begin to twist in anger.
“Meaning she’s only partly human.”
Max’s fist hits the wall with a resounding boom and Storm jumps to his feet and immobilizes him without touching him. Max’s face turns bright red and his eyes bulge with rage. The headmaster opens a mini-refrigerator next to his desk and pulls out a bottle of water.
“Calm down, Max. Have some water. This isn’t helping anything.”
I feel waves of peace coming off Sky, and Max soon relaxes.
“Sorry,” he finally says. “I can’t believe my girlfriend isn’t human. What is she then? An alien? I’m dating an alien?” He takes a deep breath and says, “You can let me go, Storm. I’m over it.”
He shakes out his arms, looks at each one of us and says, “If she’s an alien, then what are you?”
No one answers him.
“The question is,” I start, “what blocked Sky’s access to us, and does it block our abilities? I dropped my scent guard on the way down the shaft and noticed an unfamiliar metallic scent. At the bottom, I put it up again and had no reason to use it in the tunnel. Storm, did you use your telekinesis?”
“Not until we were out of the tunnel,” Storm shakes his head. “It makes sense that they’d have a way to block us. Maybe that’s why everything I threw at them bounced off the day they attacked me.”
“This complicates matters.” Pastor John paces in front of the windows. He frowns and massages his temples. I don’t doubt that we give him a major headache.
Max speaks up as if he’s just now processed what I’d said. “Wait, what’s a scent guard?”
Storm laughs, “It’s to keep him from smelling you. You are pretty ripe.”
Max stomps and throws his arms out to the side in an aggressive gesture, but doesn’t move any closer. No one wants a repeat performance of his lack of control.
“What happened today, Sky, when you lost us?” My sister is calm again, but Jewel seems a little on edge. She answers for Sky.
“It happened in Advanced Biology, after lunch. Mr. Abrams was talking about doing a section on Cryptozoology when Sky stood up and a wave of shock and fear came off her, causing pandemonium in the room. Some kids fell to the floor and covered their heads while others rushed for the door. Mr. Abrams hid behind his desk. I didn’t know what to do so I grabbed Sky’s hand and pulled her to the headmaster’s office. Her fear and grief affected everyone in the school. We saw kids weeping in the hallway as they scrambled to leave the building. She’s more effective than a fire alarm.”
“I feel terrible about it,” Sky looks at Pastor John and I’m sure he sees, or feels, how contrite she is. “I honestly could not control it. I panicked.”
“It’s over now,” he says. “Everyone calmed down as soon as you sensed the boys again, probably when they exited the tunnel. Now that you know about the blocking, you’ll have no reason to panic the next time.”
“Next time?” Max exclaims. “I’m not going back in there. What are we supposed to do there anyway? Fight those things? With what?”
The same questions have been running through my mind. Exactly what are we doing? Will we find the artifact by following them, and if that’s the case, won’t they find it first? How can we fight them or, bigger question, how can we fix the artifact if our gifts are blocked? Aren’t the Watchers supposed to lead us to it, and are they prepared to keep it safe from the Dracans? Now my head is aching.
“I think we’ve all had enough for one day.” The headmaster stands from his desk and opens the office door. “You kids go home and we’ll figure things out when we’ve all had something to eat and a good rest.”
How are we supposed to rest if we can’t get any answers?
TWENTY-EIGHT
STORM
I really want to take my bike out for a fast ride in the woods, but it’ll have to wait until Saturday. I
’m grateful for the truck, but riding clears my head and makes me feel alive. I want to kill the aliens and be done with it, but it’s apparently not that easy. What do they want with us, anyway?
This line of thinking gets me nowhere, so I switch gears and think about Sky. She senses everyone’s feelings and projects her emotions to them. I can see how projecting would be a defense mechanism. How horrible it would be if all she could do was feel the emotions of everyone around her. That would be enough to drive anyone insane. She said she senses me. Is it different from the waves of input she gets from everyone else? I know she and Pax have a special connection. Is she saying she shares that kind of connection with me?
If what I feel for her is coming from her, then is it real? Are the feelings mine or hers? Or both? I hope it is coming from her because I don’t need any romantic complications in my life right now. I have to focus on my goal, which is to kill my enemies and find and fix the artifacts. I can’t allow Sky to distract me.
The cabin is quiet when I arrive. I check all the rooms, but Sequoia and Wolf must be out. I walk outside and see both their vehicles parked behind the shed. Maybe they’re in the woods, or they went for a walk. I try to shove the uneasy feeling aside. They’re fine, I tell myself.
I heat up some leftovers. Sequoia is a fine cook and the food tastes even better this time around. After supper, I clean up and leave a note on the counter to let them know that I’ve gone to train with the others.
Dylan answers the door and ushers me inside. “Is Wolf at home?’ he asks. “I’ve been calling him, but he isn’t answering his phone.”
“He might not have it on him,” I answer. Usually I’m the one who forgets about the phone. It irritates me no end to see kids with their eyes glued to the electronics in their hands, ignoring the world around them. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen Jewel, Pax, or Sky with phones, either. The problem is, I can’t remember ever seeing Wolf without his phone clipped to his belt. He does always have it, as far as I know. An uncomfortable premonition sneaks up on me. Something is wrong.
Terra's Call (TetraSphere Book 1) Page 10
