“Why would she go alone?” Trip threw his backpack over his shoulder and cinched it around his waist, then bent down to pick up Kate’s pack.
“I don’t know. I can hear her but not like before.” Corey closed his eyes in concentration.
“What do you mean, not like before?”
“We were connected before.” He tapped his head. “At times we could talk back and forth. I think it was the dragonet.”
Trip’s face blistered and his brows crashed together. “Great! Just great!”
Tara whirled Corey around. “You didn’t think that was something we needed to know?”
“I didn’t.” Corey shrugged his shoulders. “I just thought it was a fluke because I pet the dragonet first.”
“So you have been reading our minds too?” Ash seemed very confused by everything.
“No!” Corey jerked back agitated. “Well, once.” He ducked his head and cast sheepish eyes to Tara and Trip.
They noticed and squared off shoulder to shoulder, arms across their chests glaring down at him.
“Tripoli.” Corey murmured.
“You saw that?”
“Saw what?” Ash’s gazed ping-ponged back and forth.
“Yeah, we all did.”
“All.”
“Kate, Me, the dragonet…”
“Crap! Corey!”
“I know, I know…now that I think about it, it was something you needed to know. I just didn’t think Kate would do anything this…this…”
“Bold.” Trip finished for him.
“Yeah, it seems out of character.”
“You are idiots!” Tara stormed. “Couldn’t you tell that dragonet was manipulating her? I don’t even like her and I could tell.”
Trip jerked his head around to her. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
Now Tara looked embarrassed. “Because it was pushing her to choose Corey and intent on trying to split the two of you up.” She gestured to Trip.
Corey and Trip stared at Tara incredulously.
“I was okay with that.” She looked down, concentrating on the toe of her boot.
“Of all the self-serving, narcissistic, manipulative games ever played that has got to be at the top, Tara!” Trip spat on the cave floor. “I thought you were better than that.”
“Now, hold on, Trip, that was harsh.” Corey placed a comforting hand on Tara’s arm. Her face crumpled in despair at Trip’s words.
“YOU! Shut it!” Trip stalked across the cave and began picking out the strongest spears. “Arm yourselves. We are going to save her.” He tested the point of the spear he had chosen, and then snapped his eyes at Corey.
“You too. Don’t expect me to fight your battles for you. If you are too weak to fight for the girl you say you love, then so be it. I will rescue her alone.”
“No, Trip. Not alone.” Tara grabbed a spear and fell in beside him. “We are partners in battle. I am with you.” She brandished a flashlight that had come from her backpack.
He glared at her, mashed his lips together then gave a brisk nod and stalked into the darkness with Tara at his heels.
“Come on.” Ash handed a spear to Corey and they followed behind.
They paced the corridor until it came to a split and they had to choose a direction. Tara ran her flashlight along the floor and they saw footprints leading to the left. Trip nodded and they turned into the left corridor and continued deeper into the caverns.
“How could she see?” Ash wondered.
Corey shook his head. He was listening for the thoughts of his Kate. He got faint feelings mostly. He knew when she felt fear, acceptance, then a strange vibrating sensation reminded him of their cave kiss. Then suddenly, he could hear her no more. It was as if she were…no. He couldn’t bear to think like that. My Kate is alive! He determined and it became a mantra for him as they descended into the darkness.
“Turn the light off, Tara.” Trip whispered. He stopped at an archway.
When the flashlight went off another light became visible. Bright white beams dawned through the arch, illuminating dust particles.
They crept along the walls until they entered the enormous chamber, brightly lit with eye scorching radiance. Covering their eyes from the brightness, they paused inside the cavern.
As their eyes adjusted they saw a walkway leading to a ridge where the white light spilled over a ledge. Cresting it, they gazed into a bowl of tapering ledges. Circular rings of stone tiered down to a raised dais where the radiant light blanched the steps and cavern ceiling.
No dragons. No dragonets. Just an empty room with the light source.
“Where is she?” Trip turned to Corey.
“I can’t feel her anymore.” Corey’s face was consumed in grief.
“Is she dead?” Tara asked.
“NO!” Corey and Trip chorused in unison.
“What is this place?” Ash descended the steps to the foot of the dais and peered into the light source. He pulled his backpack off and wrangled out his object. It was a visor of sorts with a strap. He had tried it when he first received his pack, but it showed only darkness. He studied the visor and then the light.
Tara approached him. “Ash, what is that?”
“I don’t know. I call it a visor.”
Trip and Corey joined them with forlorn expressions.
“You might as well try it.” There is nothing else here to do. Trip cast his spear aside and sat on the edge of the step and placed his head into his hands.
Once again he had lost. The dragons had won, taken the only girl he had ever loved. They could be anywhere by now. They had taken Kate and he would never hold her again. There was so much he wanted to say to her. Most of all, thank you. Thank you for opening your heart to me so readily. Thank you for giving me a reason to live in the arena. Thank you for quelling the rage inside of me. Thank you for showing me I was worthy of love, for unlocking my heart to the possibility of a life without murderous rage.
Corey, Tara, and Ash all looked at him with varied expressions. Tara’s was one of pain and pity. Ash seemed surprised and embarrassed. Corey’s expression was the most surprising, he seemed completely understanding. Wait. Did you just hear my thoughts?
They all nodded, and then cast their eyes aside at the unintended intrusion. Tara and Corey walked around the dais. Ash climbed two of the steps and put on his visor.
How did we hear his thoughts? Ash wondered. This jump is so weird. First these two totally opposite guys fall for the same girl who is completely inferior in every way to Tara’s glorious body and beauty and then we all end up trying to save that girl just because Trip…wait! This is about Trip! This is not Kate’s jump. This is Trip’s jump.
Trip jerked his head up and stared at Ash. Corey and Tara stopped and listened.
“This is about Trip!” Tara confirmed. “His whole world for the past three years has been about getting home to rescue Kate.”
Corey whirled around, looked at Trip and shouted! “TRIP! BEHIND YOU!”
Trip swiveled around in time to see two large dragons bear down on him. They wrapped thick talons around his arms and flew him up to a ledge directly across from the dais. They clamped him in chains and then turned to charge his team mates.
Ash climbed the top step of the dais with his visor on, peering into the light source. Corey whipped his short sword out of his pack as Tara charged and executed a hand spring to end up on the back of one of the dragons.
Trip strained against the chains that locked him into place and watched helplessly as his team mates waged a battle they were ill equipped for.
Ash’s thoughts were still being projected, and he was unaware of the battle raging beneath the dais. Trip yelled at him. “Ash! Help Corey!” Tara was taking care of herself. Then Trip realized that the visor covered Ash’s ears as well as his eyes. He tried to scream with his thoughts, but only Ash’s thoughts were being projected.
“What is that?”
Corey circled with his sword drawn. �
�I don’t want to hurt you, dragon.” He reasoned.
“You come to harm The Mother! We cannot allow that!” The dragon thought spoke to all of them.
“We don’t want to harm anyone. We are just looking for our friend.” Corey continued circling.
The dragon shifted his glance to Tara who was pummeling the dragon beneath her.
“You attacked us first. She is defending herself.” Corey held a palm up.
“There is something at the source of the light! I can see it. It’s a woman!” Ash’s thoughts projected.
It wasn’t a woman. It was me, Kate, The Mother of All. I could hear every thought and sense every intention of everyone in this world. I watched the four landwalkers sneak into my throne room, felt their despair at losing someone dear, and watched my children as they defended me.
“It’s Kate! I can see her! She looks…wow…she looks awesome!”
Corey stopped and turned toward the light source. I saw the joy break across his face. He ran toward my dais and the dragon child impeded him.
“No! You cannot go near The Mother!” she shouted mentally.
The dragon hurled Corey back against the cave wall. His head cracked against the stone and he slid down to land on the floor. “My Kate! Are you hurt?” He screamed into my head.
It shattered my apathy toward the landwalkers. “My Corey?” I reached out to him. I suddenly became aware of the shackles at my neck and wrists.
“Kate, oh God! You are alive. I thought I had lost you!”
“No Corey, I have loved you for a thousand...”
“Kate, Kate, I will love you for thousands more.”
Ash’s mental voice still projected. I had shielded mine and Corey’s moment from the others.
“She is chained to this generator or something. It is seeping the life from her. It’s like she is the battery.”
No, not battery, I am the source. I am the source of all.
“Get her out of there!” Trip shouted in anguish.
“I can’t. Augh!” Ash was electrocuted and blasted off of the dais.
Tara wrestled her dragon to the floor and choked him with her spear. His mate turned on her and charged.
Trip screamed. “Tara!”
She rolled away just as the second dragon slammed her spiked tail down in the exact spot that Tara had just vacated. It lodged into the throat of her mate. The female dragon whirled around to see the damage she had done and let out an ear splitting wail. Tara took no mercy. She used the distraction to slam her spear up through the mouth of the wailing dragon and drove it deep into her brain. She slumped over her mate and joined him in death.
I was stunned. My children were bleeding onto the floor. My family was safe and alive, scraped, unconscious and bruised, but alive. My anguish and relief comingled to form a hurricane of emotion. I screamed mentally and audibly, the chair magnifying both sound and psychic tangent. The landwalkers in the room covered their ears in agony, except the one whose arms were chained. His mind was open and vulnerable as he sought me out. He passed out from the intensity of my devastating scream and mental penetration.
I was trapped! I was free! I was weak! I was omnipotent! I was being drained. I was the source! I was…I was…who was I? I couldn’t remember. I scanned the wide world for answers, but no one there knew me. I scanned the minds of my children, but they only had reverence for me, they did not know me. I scanned the room with the four landwalkers. The dark skinned boy did not know me at all. The female dragon slayer thought she knew me, but she was wrong.
I perused the unconscious thoughts of the warrior suspended above me. He knew me, and I fastened on to his thoughts of me. I directed my energy and released the chains at his neck, wrists, and feet, and lifted his limp body off of the ledge to place him on the ground at the foot of the dais. I gazed into his mind and tasted everything he knew. I was Kate Wilson, a frightened child. I was a small, beautiful girl who he needed to protect. I was intermingled with memories of a sister who he couldn’t protect. I was his key. He was in prison, and I was his key. He was the weakling, and I was his hope. The knowledge rocked me to my core.
I gently went into each memory and purged it. Releasing him from the bonds that held him to deceitful emotions, I unlocked the shackles that bound him to hate. I touched the memory of his step father, his sister, his mother, all the memories that had trails leading him to anger and bitterness. I planted a seedling of hope.
I was omnipotent, Mother of all and I had blessed him with a benevolent gift. I expanded again to fill the world with my magnificence. I was…I was…Who was I? I felt tendrils of thought reach out to me and gather me back to the cave.
I scanned the blond boy who had blood trickling down his neck. His body was damaged, but his thoughts were iron in strength. He latched onto me and held me. He knew me. I was life, I was light, I was flight, I was song, I was joy, I was passion, I was ecstasy, I was truth, I was purity, I was one with him and the One who sustained us and created me.
The One who knew me.
I suddenly knew who I was. I was not The Mother. I was Katie Lynn Wilson, daughter, sister, friend, lover, and cherished. I felt a wrenching sensation as though I were being ripped in half, the girl who was Corey’s Kate and the goddess who was the Mother. The shackles around my neck and wrists shattered and I lurched out of the throne and rolled down the steps.
Corey crawled to me and scooped me into his arms and held me tightly. “You’re back.” He breathed into my ear.
I nodded shakily, tears running down my face. He kissed my forehead and I clung to him, digging my fingers into his shirt and pressing my face into his chest. A cry of relief bubbled from me and he enveloped me in his warmth and love as his embrace secured me.
As one we turned our heads to the others, and Corey lifted me off of the cave floor and kept his arms fastened around me.
Tara knelt over Trip calling his name softly. We staggered over to them, and I knelt down opposite of Tara and placed my hand on hers. She froze and a look of revulsion crossed her face. I squeezed her hand and she looked into my eyes. Then she turned her palm up and held my hand and gaze.
“Can you save him?” She whispered, tears streaking her face.
“I did what I could. He has to choose now.” I cast my gaze down on the beautiful face of Trip Carson. “He has to choose to release himself from the final chain.”
“What is that?” Ash asked.
“Self-hate,” Corey answered and knelt down behind me. His hand brushed the skin on my neck and we both felt strength from the contact. “Talk to him, Kate. Tell him how you feel.”
I looked at Corey in surprise. I wished I could still talk to him with my mind because I knew my feelings for Trip would rip a hole in Corey.
Staring into his blue eyes, I knew that he already knew what I would say and what it would do for Trip. I nodded.
I squeezed Tara’s hand. This was going to hurt her too. I looked into her face with a question.
“Do it. Bring him back, Kate.” She pressed her lips together and her eyes blazed with intensity and determination.
I unzipped Trip’s jacket and saw a huge scar at his heart. My mouth fell open in shock. That should have been a fatal wound. How was he still alive and when did this happen? Tara moved to his head and gently placed it in her lap.
“Do it,” she whispered.
I crawled onto Trip and placed my head on his heart and spoke directly to it. “Trip, my protector, I need you. You are strength and confidence. You captured my heart the moment I bumped into you.” My voice was ragged. “Your goodness and kindness watched over me. My safety was your priority. You…you saved me. I was lost in the source. I didn’t know who I was until I entered your thoughts. You knew me and saved me. It was you. It was your love for me that confirmed me. I love you, Trip Carson.” My voice broke. It was true. It was killing Tara and Corey, and it ripped my heart out to say it in front of them. It was what Trip needed to hear. If he could hear that I loved him, he would
begin to love himself.
“I love you. I love you. I love you.” I sobbed into his chest. I felt Corey touch my hair, and I glanced up to see tears caught in his thick eye lashes.
“I love you, too, Trip.” Tara whispered, “I have loved you since the moment you saved me from that barbarian in the prison cell.”
“We love you. Come home to us.”
A scrreeeeechhhing sound shattered the tender moment and a sphere fell out of the cavern heights and engulfed us.
The bright, unnatural lights of the jump terminal hurt my eyes. I covered them with my left hand. Mel sat beside me on the vinyl lounge waiting for our release.
“Whose jump was it?” She asked and took my right hand.
“Trip’s.” My head was pounding, and my voice sounded scratchy.
“Did it go well?”
I sighed forcefully and gave her an irritated look. “How am I supposed to judge that, Mel? We all came back alive. Is that what matters?”
“I think you know that isn’t everything.” Mel squinted but it didn’t prevent the little telltale nervous tick that made her face jerk. I realized this Jump Commander position was a stressful one, so I gave her a break.
“Honestly, Mel, I won’t know until I get a chance to talk to him.”
When we first arrived back from the jump in the Quantum Home Room, known as the QHR, Trip opened his eyes and wrapped his arms around me in a bear hug. We were all ecstatic that he was conscious again. Then the medics rushed in and whisked each of us away to a private processing room where we were given medical clearance and put through a grueling Q and A. They put me through some type of automatic shower where I was ridded of any harmful organisms, and gave me a clean jump suit. Then they escorted me to this holding room, and I hadn’t seen any of my team members yet. Mel popped in and kept me company while I waited on the rest of the team to be ‘processed’. It made me feel like canned meat. Processed my left cheek!
I told her what I could, but the important questions were still unanswered for me. Was Corey’s head wound serious? Was Trip okay? Did he have a break through? Were Tara and Ash unscathed? Did “The Mother” do any damage in their heads? I didn’t think I could live through an affirmative answer to that question. Worried. Sick.
The Torn, Book One of the Holding Kate Series Page 9
