by Brinda Berry
We came to a huge clearing. I could see headstones. “This has got to be the creepiest thing I have ever seen,” I said.
“Yeah,” Austin said. “I’d stay away from this place in broad daylight.”
I looked up at him with only the moonlight and some stars, but all I could see were the whites of his eyes. I knew he felt as freaked as I did.
“If a Slip is dead and contaminated, or there is a risk of bringing something through the portal, we cannot take the body back. This is our Potter’s Field,” Regulus explained.
Arizona added, “We knew that you didn’t know of its existence. It’s apparent that these dead have been forgotten. The dead of your Earth. We borrow space. The IIA permits us to respect your traditions of burial. We buried the woman and child in a casket that has been here for a hundred years or more. I thought it was a nice touch.”
I could see the dirt had been freshly dug up over one grave twenty feet from us. I looked at Arizona like he was crazy.
“There is no ‘nice touch,’ Arizona. This woman and her baby died. It has occurred to me that I could have stopped it from happening. I could have stopped whatever Dr. Bleeker did.” My voice sounded so small and miserable.
“No, Mia.” Austin sounded firm. “We didn’t know that Dr. Bleeker would kill anyone. It’s not your fault or my fault or anyone’s fault.”
“He’s right. And it will be morning soon. You have to look to tomorrow and what has to be done in the future,” Regulus said softly.
On those words, all four of us took one last look at the gravesite and turned to walk back to the vehicle. The sun would be rising soon.
* * *
I haven’t pulled many all-nighters. It was something I was looking forward to as a college student. I imagined hanging out with my best buds while laughing and drinking Slurpees from the only twenty-four hour quick stop in town. In this vision, Em would stay in Whispering Woods and go to the “U.” Austin would treat me like his little sister, like he had before, and I of course would maybe have a couple of new college friends. Cool friends who liked the same music, video games, and grape Slurpees.
I now sat in the passenger seat of my car looking across at Regulus, who had taken up permanent status as driver. Arizona sat in the middle of the back seat with his elbows propped on our seats talking about gene doping and Dr. Bleeker’s possible whereabouts. Austin sat in his Jeep, glaring at Regulus.
I rolled down my window and turned to Austin. “Listen, I know you need to get home. Everything’s going to look better in the morning. And I have to be home. If my dad makes it in before I do, I’ll be grounded ’til I’m thirty.”
Austin nodded. His sleepy eyes told me that he was too tired to argue. He pulled out onto the dirt road, and I watched his taillights shrink into the distance. I leaned my head back against the seat and felt the car start moving. I closed my eyes.
“I have the updated portal coordinates,” Arizona said quietly to Regulus. “We can get back to the Vault and report.”
The car was silent, and I was almost asleep when I heard Regulus say, “We’re leaving out the part about Mia’s knowledge of Bleeker. He was a teacher she knew. That’s it. No more.”
Arizona hesitated only for a moment. “Of course,” he stated evenly.
* * *
“Hey my girl,” my dad said as he ruffled my head.
I sat up with a start. A disorienting haze of memories swirled around in my head before I realized that I had been asleep on the couch. I couldn’t remember getting into the house. I looked down to see that I was still dressed in the same clothes as yesterday.
“Hi Dad, missed you.” I reached over to wrap my arms tightly around him. “How was your trip?”
“Too long. I have to stop taking these consulting contracts where they want me on-site so much.”
“It’s OK, Dad. I mean, I hope you weren’t worried about me.”
“No, I know you’re not a kid anymore, sweetie.” He ruffled my hair for a second time. “Pancakes?”
“Mmmm,” I said, nodding my head with enthusiasm. “Please.”
“Go wash your face and wake up then.” He went to the kitchen.
I stared at my feet. I rose and went to look at the window.
I have the updated portal coordinates.
The words echoed in my brain. I knew they were gone. I went upstairs to my room and brushed my hair back into the ponytail I usually wore. My computer screen was blinking with an IM from Austin, so I sat down to write Austin and Em a message to let them know that my dad was home and I’d talk to them both later.
To the right of my keyboard lay a small business card with a penny atop it. I had forgotten about the card from GameCon. I looked at the stack of cards that I had snagged from Dr. Bleeker’s house. I set the card that was identical to the one I already possessed on top of the stack.
The card was plain, without a logo or anything to distinguish it from another. The name and address on the card meant nothing to me. No phone number or title for the person on the card. At the bottom, a web address didn’t give me any more information than the rest of it. www.aidosonearth.com.
I typed in the address and waited. A company image and description loaded on the screen. “Genetically changing the world” was in bold font at the top. A picture of a young, attractive woman holding out a glass lab tube to her male counterpart took up most of the screen. A login section at the left caught my attention. Was it a website for employees or customers and not the public? There was not much to read or do if you couldn’t log in.
I was about to give up for the moment and join my dad for breakfast when I saw something in the bottom section of the screen. A tiny animated logo inconspicuously teased my brain. It was a scientist, an Einstein likeness, holding a beaker while his head wove back on forth on his shoulders. He was a caricature with an enlarged bobbing head.
Memories flashed through my head…sitting in Dr. Bleeker’s office with my science project logbook, thinking he was so quirky and nice, and looking at his collection of bobble heads.
It couldn’t be a coincidence. I knew that Pete had left me the penny as a clue, but what did the card mean? Was it a warning? Or an invitation? I wondered what mysteries I might unravel in the future. At least I was confident that Pete was alive. The more complicating factor was the appearance of the woman I knew was my mother, a woman I didn’t want to see.
A woman prepared to kill her own kid. Not that it mattered that she was my mother. I had no love for the woman who had wronged my dad and brother. They had loved her. I only needed to know how she fit into this puzzle. I wouldn’t let her hurt them again.
“Mia, pancakes are ready,” my dad yelled up the stairs.
I mentally filed away my discoveries for another time and bounded down the stairs. I ate my breakfast, absently forking up syrupy bites of pancake while nodding as my dad talked. After refusing a second helping, I showered and went outside with the excuse of gathering my memory cards for logging evidence for my science project.
I rode through the woods, wondering what Regulus and Arizona were doing. My head bounced as I drove too quickly on the golf cart over the bumps. I turned the steering wheel, circling around the previous location of the portal.
What if they didn’t come back?
That was the real issue. I had to see Regulus again. I couldn’t get his blue eyes, his voice, his kiss…out of my head.
With the golf cart almost out of fuel, I parked and made my way over to the waiting booth through ripples of dried golden weeds. The bench looked different in the daylight, not mystical or inspiring the telling of secrets as it had in the moonlight. I sat, leaning my head back and hearing Regulus’s voice in my head. He had told me to remember the sensations that I felt at the portal. He had said that I could detect it. That I was born to do this.
I rose from the bench and walked slowly in the same circles that I had driven earlier. This time instead of filling my head with thoughts and worries, I tried to leave my
mind a blank to be filled with sensations. I heard the songbirds and the wind. A light breeze tickled the hairs on my arms. The sun’s warmth heated each skin cell on my face.
And then I felt the pull.
It was like a tiny cord that had been tied around my waist and yanked ever so slightly in one direction. I let myself walk toward the south, not in a hurry but as if I were letting the magnetic forces of the Earth take me wherever they pleased.
My ears pricked when I heard the hum. Barely audible at first, but the farther I walked, the louder it grew. It wasn’t harsh or irritating. I had heard it before but dismissed it as background noise, noise that everyone hears.
But I now knew the difference. There was nothing here to make that noise. Nothing but the portal.
When I finally stopped walking, I looked down to see that I was standing near a flattened patch of grass identical to the earlier one, the only one I had seen. I felt coolness waft over the uncovered areas of my body like going into a cave from the heat of a one-hundred-degree day. The hum was comforting instead of disturbing as it had been the day that I had felt it with Austin and Biscuit.
I had found the portal entry. I was a human GPS after all.
I reclined at the edge of the circle of grass and threw my arm over my eyes, blocking out the noonday sun. My mind drifted into that state between dreams and reality. A featherlight touch caressed the side of my cheek. A light pressure on my lips. It happened so fast that I thought I might I have dreamed it.
I moved my arm and peeked through my lashes. “You came back.”
“Of course I did.”
He was so close I could see nothing more than indigo-colored eyes. I stared into them trying to read his intent. I knew I was a big ball of emotion, tumbling at high speed down a hill and I was afraid of crashing.
Looking into his eyes, I thought I knew him. His feelings. But that was all wrong, because I didn’t know anything about him.
Then he leaned back, away from me a bit and I was sorry that the spell was broken.
“I wasn’t sure. Were you sent back because you have more to do? More than find Dr. Bleeker and the Slips?” I was having trouble meeting his eyes and heard my voice sounding shaky. I’d rather not be a whiner, the type who begged for verbal reassurance. I took a deep breath.
“Your world is my post, and there is always more to be done.” The words were businesslike, but his tone was not. It was silky and promising.
I sat up, attempting to clear my mind of the want for his kiss. He shifted to sit on the grass beside me. My eyes stayed on his bent knee instead of his eyes which seemed to bore into my soul.
“I really don’t know where Pete is located. The IIA wants me to find him, though they are now satisfied with you stepping into his place.” He paused and I met his eyes. I noticed a different tone in his voice. The confidence was gone. “This is a separate issue from what has happened between us.”
“What has happened.” I repeated the words, never more unsure of myself than at this moment.
“This is a dangerous feeling for me to have.” He took my chin and forced me to look into his face. He smiled crookedly, a rare treat for me. My stomach somersaulted.
When I didn’t say anything, he continued, “It’s against the rules, everything that I have been taught and believe. I could stop myself and stop these feelings that I have for you, but it would mean leaving this place.”
“Do the IIA say you can’t, well, umm…date?” I didn't know how else to phrase it since I wasn't sure about what to call it.
“They expect you to become our third. You’re the gatekeeper for these portals in Whispering Woods.”
“Gatekeeper? I thought you called it an enforcer. Enforcer sounds cooler.” I hoped that teasing him would bring back his smile.
“Arizona and I are enforcers. The loyalty between enforcers and gatekeepers should be strong. We are a team. Allegiance is foremost to the IIA and to each other, but only as it strengthens the team. Relationships are not allowed between IIA operatives.” He paused and offered his hand to me. With his thumb rubbing along the back of my hand, he added, “No one can know that my only desire at this moment is to press my lips on yours and hold your body against mine.” He said the last part in a near whisper. His words would have been carried away on the wind if I hadn’t leaned in, mesmerized by him.
“You guys have a law against dating? That’s ridiculous.”
“The IIA has good reason to prevent it. It will be our secret.” He pulled me into his arms and murmured the last words against my hair.
“What about Arizona? He will know.” I drew back to look at his face.
“Of course. We are safe with Arizona. I can trust him with anything. I’m constantly protecting him from his rule-breaking ways.”
“What now?” I said, sighing in relief.
“How about a date with a Whispering Woods U student? Will your dad let you go out with an older guy?”
“He’s going to have to get used to me dating, first. I usually hang out with Em and Austin.”
“I can do that. Hang.” He grinned.
I was alarmed at the quickening of my heart. I was going to have to get used to that smile. I was in jeopardy of a stroke if I didn’t. “Let’s hang at my house then. Come on.” I brushed the grass from my clothes and held out my hand to his. “Ever played Quest of Zion?”
“The game where you chase bad guys from another universe who plan to destroy your world?” He paused while I soaked in the irony of statement. “This should be easy. Do I have to take my eyes off of you to play?”
“Not required,” I said with a grin, looking straight ahead and feeling hopeful.
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Whisper of Memory
(Whispering Woods #2)
Want to continue the journey with Mia? Keep reading to preview Whisper of Memory.
Weapons training and winter formals...a deadly combination.
All Mia ever wanted was to fit in at Whispering Woods High. But being a portal-finder who dates a guy from another dimension sort of makes it hard. Mia's brother disappeared over a year ago, and agents from the IIA began policing people's movements through dimensions. She'd trusted Dr. Bleeker from the local university when he'd told her the IIA were the bad guys. But even a girl with an extraordinary ability to sense things can make mistakes.
Now two people are dead, and as a portal gatekeeper for the IIA, Mia needs to find Dr. Bleeker before he hurts anyone else. And her boyfriend Regulus, an Agent for the IIA, carries secrets of his own. Between learning about weaponry, finding the perfect dress for the winter formal, and catching bad guys, who has time to fit in?
* * *
Portal
The dead leaves formed an ocher carpet on the ground that spoke in crunchy whispers as I backed up two steps. Watching the leaves begin to whirl like a waterspout in the ocean, I waited. I identified the spot before I heard the buzzing or saw the air lifting the leaves. Even before I saw the sienna-orange veil drape over the ground, the tingly sensation moving through me from head to toe told me it was a portal.
I smiled in anticipation of seeing Regulus today. I wanted to spend every afternoon and weekends together, but he had college classes, and I had high school. Next year would be different. We’d attend Whispering Woods U together.
Daydreaming about my boyfriend could be a dangerous mistake.
The glint of the metallic blade almost blinded me before I ducked to avoid losing my head. Most dimensional travelers carried something quite a bit smaller. More portable. The Amazon-sized woman standing in front of me carried the samurai sword like it was a Gucci purse. But I respected the blade and the woman. I never underestimate the danger of any situation. Last
week, a traveler, otherwise known as a Slip, had beaned me using a weapon similar to a slingshot. It hadn’t mattered that he’d looked like a seven-year-old boy. The Slip had aimed the weapon with deadly accuracy and left me with a bruise the size of a baseball.
Now I said, “You should back up and return to your home, lair, crib…whatever you call it. You are unauthorized to travel to this area.” I thought my voice sounded firm, yet pleasant, like an airline stewardess telling an unruly passenger to return to her seat.
The woman’s eyes widened, and she tilted her head. She stopped circling me and planted her feet in a fighter’s stance. She looked to my left and right and smiled, as though realizing I was alone.
A whistling sound was followed by her surprised expression before she fell to the ground on her knees and crumpled in an unconscious heap.
My boyfriend had disabled her temporarily.
“Mia, what do you think you are doing?” Exasperation flowed from his words. Regulus walked around the body on the ground toward me. Arizona strolled two steps behind him with a carefree smile directed my way and lowered the weapon he held. The small silver box looked more like a cell phone than a tool capable of delivering deadly watts of electrical current.
“Just stalling her.” I folded my arms across my chest. “Plus, she caught me standing here. What did you expect me to do? Run and hide until you guys arrived?”
“Yes,” they both answered.
Regulus picked up the blade that the woman had dropped when the electrical shock hit her nervous system. Turning it back and forth in his hand, his gaze met mine. Looking down, he poised the blade above his arm and purposely raked the sharp edge across the top of his skin. The light hair on his arm gathered in a line at the end of the blade’s path. Regulus blew it to the ground. His dark blue eyes returned to mine.
