The Keepers Book Two of the Holding Kate Series

by Cole, LaDonna

  He laughed. “That’s right, Mrs. Chastain, you’d better study up!” He held the coffee mug out to the side as he grabbed her around the waist. He drew her playfully to him, and kissed her.

  “I’m working on it. I’m working on it!” Kate escaped his hug, waved her hand over her shoulder, as she balanced her own mug of caramel café.

  Corey sank back down in his armchair, sipped his coffee, and opened another journal. After a few minutes he said. “Hey, Kate.”

  “Mmhhmm.” They looked up at each other and smiled. Kate’s face flushed.

  Corey chuckled. Usually that meant they were thinking about something that happened in the Scriptorium. Kate blushed and brushed her palms together, her tell when anxious. Donnie cast a meaningful glance to Mel. Her cheek folded into a dimple.

  “Did you know my great, great grandfather’s last name was Wilson?” Corey asked, still probing the journal.

  “No. Huh. Maybe we’re related.” She smiled through the computer holomonitor.

  “Maybe we aren’t,” Corey murmured.

  Mel grinned at Donnie. They had just discussed how much they enjoyed having another married couple to hang out with. Less restrained around lovers, they could display affection without the awkwardness they felt around singles. Kate and Corey rarely noticed anyway, intently focused on each other.

  When they were home, Mel and Donnie spent every possible moment in each other’s arms. The jumps kept priorities straight: When you lived in wary vigilance of encroaching enemies and danger around every sphere, you tended to appreciate the blessings more.

  Donnie got a kick out of watching Corey and Kate as newlyweds, navigating their way through those difficult first few months of oneness. He had watched his own children in this stage and it always lifted his spirits.

  Family meant everything to Donnie. Being raised in various foster homes, he never had a sense of kinship as a child. Determined to give his children every security and love he never received, he considered the two century jump to be heaven, surrounded by generations of his children. He missed them all with every breath, but he and Mel were still very young, physically anyway, and had a chance to do it all over again.

  He bent over the chair and kissed his wife on the cheek. She reached up for him, her attention still in the books, then turned and smiled. He kissed her sweet lips, sat down beside her, and wrapped his arm around her, balancing the compad on his knee.

  “Particles, waves, popping qwiffs! Argh! I can’t take in anymore!” Kate moaned after another few hours deep in the research.

  Corey closed the journal, walked over to Kate and scooped her into his arms. “Good night, Dudgeons! I am taking my wife for a dip in the hot tub, then to bed.” He raised his eyebrows suggestively.

  Kate sighed and wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his jaw. “G’night!” she called as he whisked her from the room.

  “Good night!” Mel giggled. “Young love, so sweet.”

  “Well we can’t let the whippersnappers outdo the old folk!” Donnie announced in his best Pops impression. He stood, cracked his knuckles, shook his hands out, and swooped Mel into his arms.

  She laughed, put her hand to her forehead melodramatically and drawled, “My hero!”

  Donnie carried her to the boathouse and set to work outdoing the young folk.

  QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): COREY CHASTAIN

  Our next jump occurred two weeks later. We didn’t take any of the Chartreuse team with us. I couldn’t help but feel exposed and vulnerable. We didn’t seem to be getting anywhere in our investigations and the gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach grew.

  The sphere touched down in a soft pad of white sand. A black wall of smooth rock rose in front of us and sliced the white sand into a crescent shape. Tara made a sound in the back of her throat and we all turned around. Wind patterned dunes gently sloped into smooth wet sand, stroked with gentle sighs of pristine waves. Turquoise brilliance faded into strips of deep navy, capped by a lavender horizon and sapphire sky. I licked my lips and tasted salt on the wind and felt the ocean breeze whip Kate’s hair against my cheek. We soaked in the vibrant beauty of the crescent beach.

  Dirk cleared his throat and barked orders. We took note of the tide line and set up camp against the black rock wall in a hollow the wind had carved out of the cliff. A smoking volcano rose out of the cliff in the distance.

  After we had completed our usual first day activities, Dirk divided us into our normal reconnaissance parties to explore beyond the cliff. Kate, Trip, and I headed north to explore any caverns and Dirk, Tara and the Dudgeons marched south.

  The wind and sand had hewn a covered walkway about seven feet from the ground into the striated onyx cliff over thousands of years. We trundled along the covered sand path, and Kate ran her fingers over the wind scored surface.

  “Look at this!” Kate exclaimed.

  Trip and I converged on her. Elaborate carvings decorated an area of approximately 20 feet, from the sandy floor all the way overhead and out to the cliff face. Pictures depicted humanoids living in peaceful harmony with dragons. One drawing showed a dragon straining at a large square building block while the humanoids directed him. Several other drawings depicted humans and dragons in reclined positions or the humanoids riding the dragons. One interesting drawing showed a humanoid surrounded by a spray of rays hovering over a group of humans and dragons.

  Kate traced the light rays with her finger, inspecting the primitive art pensively.

  “What is this place?” Trip shifted into guardian mode, drew his sword and bent his knees in readiness, scanning the beachhead in all directions.

  “I think, I think I remember this place.” Kate frowned in concentration and brushed her hair behind her ear.

  “What do you mean, Kate?”

  “It just seems familiar to me, the beach, the cliff, the volcano.” She pressed her palms together.

  Trip and I exchanged worried glances. Great! Another jump focused on unhinging Kate.

  “Let’s move on,” I suggested, drawing my own sword. I took Kate’s hand and Trip followed closely behind us.

  Another half mile and the point of the crescent fell into the sea, but just before it did, a tunnel, a perfect circle sliced into the cliff wall. We climbed up the ledge, about eight feet off of the ground, and stood at the bottom of the enormous circle gazing into the landscape beyond.

  Dragons circled in the sky and lounged on the rocks and sands around a large inlet. Hundreds of naked human children cavorted and played with them, swimming, flying, and lounging. We pressed ourselves down behind the rim of the circle to watch.

  “Where are the adults?” Kate questioned.

  No one older than 12 populated the beach beyond, but dragons and children numbered in the thousands.

  “Look there.” Trip pointed further up on the land. A lazy spiral of smoke wafted from a pit and two enormous creatures tended the flames.

  “What are they?” I asked.

  They reminded me of upright rhinoceroses, massive limbs and body armor bulked them up. Instead of a horn at the nose, they had two pincer-like horns that encircled their faces. Their heads were enormous, far out of proportion to their bodies.

  “Rhinodudes?” Trip said with a smirk.

  Kate slapped his arm and laughed.

  They ladled out a liquid substance for the children who ran off to drink it while playing with their dragons. A steady stream of children came and left them throughout the time we watched.

  As late afternoon approached, all of the dragons flew off to the west as though pursuing the sun and the children lined up single file behind the Rhinodudes and marched over the rise.

  We crawled down from the circle ledge, and I held Kate’s hand as she scaled the short drop to the sand beside me.

  “We should get back to camp and inform the team of what we saw.” Trip turned and tromped off in the lead.

  I held Kate back for a moment. “Hey, gorgeous.” I took her face into m
y hands. “I haven’t had enough of you today.” I kissed her, and she melted into me.

  She held my gaze for a long time after the kiss. “How is it possible to love someone as much as I love you?” she purred. “Can we just find some time to be alone tonight? I need you.”

  She cocked her brow at me, and my heart spiked. Heck yeah! I would find a way to make love to my wife tonight. I scanned the long beach with nooks and crannies cutting into the ridge. I grinned and nodded, we’d make it happen. I spun her around, kissed her again, and then we trekked along in Trip’s footsteps.

  We only covered about a hundred yards when we found Trip leaning into the mouth of a cave.

  “How did we miss this?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. We must have been focused on getting to the circle.” I turned around and scanned behind us. We stood near the spot where we first noticed the circle tunnel.

  “We should explore it a little. We don’t have to go far, just enough to see how deep it goes.” Trip flicked on his flashlight and started in.

  Kate and I fished out our lights. “Stay behind us Kate,” I told her. “Your whip won’t do you much good in here.”

  She nodded and moved behind me. I followed Trip’s light into the cavern entrance and we walked for a few hundred paces, ascending a trail that led up into the cliff face. At one point we ducked low to keep from banging our heads and I called back to Kate to watch her head.

  “How far do you think this goes, Trip?” My echo trilled into the distance.

  “I don’t know, can’t be too much farther. We are climbing.”

  “Unless,” I hedged.

  “Unless what?”

  “Unless there is a mountain at the top of the cliff.”

  “Hmm, good point.” He stopped. “So what do you think? Should we go back or keep going?”

  “I am a little concerned about the tide line. Did you notice the location before we entered?”

  “No, I didn’t. Did you, Kate?”

  “Kate?”

  We both turned around and shined our lights in the path. A muffled sound and a sigh reached us, and we careened back down the corridor to find Kate sprawled on her back side.

  “Kate!” We both reached out a hand to help her up.

  She looked up at us sheepishly and took our offered hands. We helped her to her feet and she let go of our hands to dust herself off. “Hit my head on that.” She pointed to the low place in the corridor.

  “How did you get so far from us? I thought you were right behind me,” I asked.

  “I got a rock in my shoe and stopped back there to get it out. Where is my flashlight?” She turned in a circle. I found it on the ground under the overhang, switched off. I handed it to her.

  “Is your head okay?” I bent her head down to look at it, and then kissed her forehead.

  “Yeah, I’m fine.” She shifted her eyes to Trip and laughed awkwardly.

  “We might as well get back, just in case.” Trip started down the corridor, and Kate hurried along behind him.

  We broke out of the cave entrance into the shadowed bay and headed toward camp. Kate kept pace with Trip and didn’t seem to show any harmful side effects from hitting her head. Worried since she just had a head injury on our last jump, I watched her closely.

  We got back to camp and found the rest of the team setting out dinner. Kate sat down in the sand and drank two bottles of water and watched everyone. I took a plate to her and another bottle of water and sat and ate with her in silence. We listened to the surf wash in and sigh against the sandy shore.

  Kate watched me, giving me sidelong glances and awkward smiles. I thought she must being trying to hide the fact that her head hurt worse than she let on. Then it hit me. She sought a way for us to sneak off together.

  Dirk called us over to the campfire for debriefing. Kate found a place next to Trip and sat down beside him.

  She scanned the circle and stopped when she saw Tara walk up.

  “Tara,” she said, then stiffened her lip while staring at her feet. I sat on the other side of Kate, and Dirk debriefed us on what they found on the south side of the bay.

  “There are signs of a civilization around the bend. We saw ships in the distance and evidence of prior campers.”

  “We saw people and dragons,” Kate spoke up proudly.

  Mel, Donnie, Tara and Dirk turned shocked faces to her.

  “Explain.”

  “You tell ‘em Trip.” She beamed at him.

  Trip glanced at her, then made a double take and locked eyes with her. Something flared up in his gaze, and he smiled back at her.

  “Well, we saw kids and dragons,” he said. “They were hanging out together, just playing and swimming. They were being guarded by two really large creatures.”

  “Creatures?”

  “Yeah big things. Broad build, big heads, and these antler things.” He pantomimed their pincer horns.

  Tara and Mel gasped.

  We all turned toward them.

  “They sound like those creatures in our Scriptorium,” Mel said.

  Tara nodded.

  Everyone turned their heads to me then to Kate, probably expecting a meltdown like the one at the pool debriefing.

  Kate looked up. “What?” she said, stunned by the sudden attention.

  Everyone looked away from her except for me. She met my gaze with confusion. Really worried about her head now, I thought she would be more affected that we were possibly in the jump that culminated in her betrayal, but she just seemed confused. It could be a good sign that she’d started to let go of her fear over that situation. God knows she’d had plenty to worry about since then.

  “No worries.” I took her hand. She bounced her sight from our hands to Trip and back to me.

  Trip told Dirk about the cave we found. We made plans to explore it the following day after we were able to note the tide line.

  “So first watch?”

  “I’ll stand,” Trip volunteered.

  “Me too,” Kate spoke up. Trip turned to her in surprise. So did I. She hadn’t volunteered to be alone with Trip since our understanding. I guess she changed her mind about getting some time alone with me tonight.

  Tara made eye contact with me, and I looked down at the sand, feeling very confused. I leaned over to Kate. “Hey, I thought we had a date,” I whispered and squeezed her hand.

  “Oh. Well I thought I’d better stay awake since I hit my head.” She kissed my cheek. “I’m sorry, Corey. Rain check?”

  Relief flooded through me. I smiled at her. “Of course.”

  Night fell rapidly behind the ridge, and we rolled into our bags. Donnie and Mel took the tent, and the rest of us just slept out under the stars. I imagined holding my wife under this jewel-spangled sky when her shift ended and smoothed out her bag next to mine in anticipation of her warmth and presence.

  The next thing I knew Dirk shook me awake. “Dude your watch is up.”

  He and Tara sauntered over to their bags and crashed. I looked down at Kate’s sleeping bag. She should have come hours ago, before Tara and Dirk’s watch. I scanned the beach and the site and saw Trip wrapped up in his sleeping bag. I stood and stretched, buckled my sword to my hip and scoured the ground for Kate. I peeked into the tent, but only Donnie and Mel slept there. I considered rousing everyone when I heard whispers and headed in that direction.

  I stepped up to Trip’s head and gazed down on my wife wrapped in his arms. Pain and rejection laced through me.

  “What’s going on here?” I whispered.

  They snapped their heads up to me and Kate smiled. Smiled!

  Trip sat up suddenly. “Hey, Corey. We were just discussing if Kate should go back to her own sleeping bag.”

  “Why isn’t Kate in her own sleeping bag now?” I asked. I hated the sound of my voice, vulnerable and cracking.

  “She was afraid she would fall asleep and asked me to stay awake with her. She got cold and crawled in. That’s all dude.”

 
; “Kate?” We had an understanding between us. How could she break it so blatantly? I couldn’t begin to express the deep sorrow that grew in me.

  “Chill out, Corey. It’s no big deal. Does it matter if I sleep in my bag or not?” Kate snapped at me.

  I shook my head and stepped back a few steps. Was I overreacting? Kate had proven her devotion to me over the past few weeks. Was I being selfish? I should be more concerned about her head injury than my own feelings of rejection. I hung my head in shame.

  “You’re right, Kate. I’m sorry. It just surprised me, that’s all.”

  She crawled out of Trip’s bag and walked over to me. “No, I’m sorry, Corey.” She touched my cheek. “Obviously I have done something to upset you.”

  I wrinkled my brow and looked at her.

  “Take me to my bag, Corey, and tuck me in?” She smiled and cocked her eyebrow.

  “I’m on duty now.” I took her by the hand and walked her over to our sleeping bags and zipped her into her bag.

  “Do you think it is safe to sleep now?” I knelt down beside her and kissed her forehead.

  “Yeah, now that you are watching over me.” She sighed and closed her eyes, then snapped them open. “I have loved you for a thousand years, Corey.”

  My heart completely settled. “I will love you for thousands more, my love, my wife.”

  Her eyes widened, and I chuckled. “What?”

  “I just love it when you call me that.” She tugged my face to her and kissed me in a way that made me wish I didn’t have guard duty. I sat beside her, playing with her hair while she slept.

  Just before dawn the sphere fell.

  Everyone sat up groggily and looked around in the bright lights of QHR.

  “Well, that’s a first,” Dirk frowned.

  Mel and Donnie unzipped their tent and peered out with confused faces.

  “What was that about anyway?” Trip asked.

  “Yeah, nothing happened. Why are we back?” I asked.

  No one had an answer. We gathered up our equipment and stalked down the empty terminal to the detox showers, the muted halls eerily quiet.

  “Where is everyone?” Kate asked.