by M. Street
Leaving my baby brother stung, pulsing with increasing potency. Charlie had been my first cause since my infant mom had died. It was all I knew. Riding shotgun in Lisa’s classic Firebird, practicing songs with The Tail Coats would be no more. My best friend since kindergarten would forever wonder what happened to me. The thought of her trauma scraped my bones. All communication to Lisa or anyone infant was forever severed. The bridge between my old and new world was destroyed. Oak Creek was forbidden, forever lost to the Arbitri.
Standing on the Chain Bridge in Budapest, Hungary, we were more than just thousands of miles away from Wisconsin. We were worlds away from home, drifting further off course with each fast breath. Life-shattering lightning struck twice, leaving me charred and impossibly fossilized. I felt both Moms in the ethereal energy that surrounded all things and the space in between. Like the very sound of their voices, both presences held me. The crushing loss of losing a mom I had just found caused me to flash brilliantly. I understood why Mom did what she did, giving her life in exchange for mine, but it didn’t help. It made the hell worse.
I looked far into Dev’s violet, saffron-laced eyes, downing in his mint-scented comfort. I was in love with a stranger who had been my cat! His devoted heart was totally exposed to me with our naked auras weaving together. My metallic pearlescent aura blossomed in the full understanding of his silver light. Protecting me for centuries, not telling me who he was, and holding back his love for me was done to keep me safe. His instinct to shelter me ran as unrestrained as the black-and-white magical sabertooth beneath his mocha skin, but flowed as delicate as the coral-laced love that held us together.
Our connection was elementally undeniable. I caught my metallic-gem reflection in his eyes. We paired, two hearts forever beating rhythmically, setting the track for a song I would sing for as long as I would live. Dev wiped a glittering tear curling around the corner of my mouth. There was no doubt. I had absorbed an enormous amount of energy and connection when Mom channeled pure light, sacrificing herself into the next dimension to save me from my tyrannical brother, Eli. Her overcharge blasted a path for our getaway. Whether I liked it or not, she had bestowed her reign to me.
My senses were thunderous, raking my dull sadness. Besides a quantum leap in sensitivity, the light bore new qualities. It radiated depth both inward as well as outward. I saw the world in more than three dimensions. Although life now was incredibly more beautiful than I had ever imagined, I tumbled into torment.
“Piper.” My name in his velvet voice eased my barely held together pounding heart. Dev stayed hidden for centuries as my cat, protecting me every minute. Decade after decade, the only mature company he kept was Esther. The fresh loss of something so long and intimate left him empty. I could intrinsically sense the depth of his sorrow. We wept.
“I would do the same,” he said, quieting my rising feelings brought on by the petrifying loss. This life was different. Truth and knowledge were joined with heartfelt feelings, dispelling verdicts. My argument would have to wait. A loud and foreboding energy registered on the whisker-thin tendrils of light that extended all around me. I spun, facing the pelting rain shower from the rising orangeade sun before Dev had felt anything unnatural. There was no time to get used to my new, battleship-sized powers. Excited streaks of light flashed around us, creating a dazzling display.
Without my dragonfly mask composed of an emerald, pearls, and ivory, I was exposed on every count. The combined resonance of the gems polarized my mature, facetted aura into that of an undetectable infant. Eli had destroyed my mask, melting the necklace right before my eyes on my front lawn before trying to strangle me to death. My maniacal brother knew it was the only thing keeping me invisible to his deadly feelers. However, with all the energy I inherited when mom died, the beautiful pendant wouldn’t have been able to rail my riled magnitude. I was in command of something colossal that I couldn’t wrap my head around. Uncontrollably, I channeled an enormous level of light, registering and repelling the bad intentions fixed on us. Pinches of fear dangerously distracted my itchy and quick triggers.
My eyes and ears assisted in assessing the imposing threat. My intuition vibrated low but sharp. A monster-sized bronze explosion flashed across the Chain Bridge like a misfired firework.
“Arbitri knight!” Dev said before flashing into the saber-beast with an eruption of silver. His aura charged bright, glittering with royalty and self-sacrificing fierceness. A sharp pain cut through my brain as I realized we were being hunted by the most powerful being on the planet, my brother.
A huge white mustang wrapped in a fiery metallic bronze aura barreled across the stone bridge toward us at a tremendous speed with deadly force. His intentions soured the air, puckering my thoughts. This new mature was not friendly. Ignoring discretion, the ominous creature screamed faster than sound past an elderly infant couple. The fleeting air-wake violently knocked them to the ground. The sight stood out like an unbelievable and unsettling omission of that other evolved beings existed.
The grossly muscular horse’s nostrils screeched with jets of angry steam engulfed in an overripe red aura. The charging menace tore light from the trees, heavy in solstice bloom, darkening the climbing sun.
Before I could verbalize, my silver cat shot forward. My instincts to protect Dev caused my light to lock and load. The aggressive bronze threat accelerated to the speed of a freshly discharged cannonball. Dev countered, slinking forward and hunching low.
Suddenly, from my sideline, a black wolf—set ablaze in a copper fire and armed with fight—sprang from the cover of the pelting morning sun. The angle of attack strategically rode the early rays of the sun, rendering Raven, the royal copper Canite princess, near invisible. The woman beast and her father, King Jeremiah, were longtime allies with Mom. I now shared with them the toxic side effects of Eli’s disdain.
In a blink, Raven reared with retracted lips and exposed jagged daggers for teeth, and jumped out of the rivers of light, slamming against the marauding white stallion. Like a meteorite, the hit shocked the air with a giant boom, throwing me back. Raven clamped onto the horse’s thick neck with her iron jaw. The impact sent the battling pair tumbling through the air. The creatures parted, hitting the surface of the Danube and sending spray far into the air. The magnificent white horse dug into the water like it was turf, coming to a balanced stop.
Although Raven’s aura sparkled with royalty, the white horse packed more raw light. Before the wolf could recover from the crash, the hind legs of the horse bucked with tremendous force, smashing Raven square in her chest. The blunt impact sounded like the hardwood crack of a home run. The black wolf yelped, impacting the stony banks of the river with debilitating force. Raven rolled to a stop, formulating human, vulnerable and motionless.
Raven forced herself over. “Leap …” she barely whispered, flickering copper flashes like a shorting bulb. Her hurt vibrated the air with high-frequency tremors, drawing all my attention and releasing all my safeties. Having lost my family and everything infant, Raven drew a more urgent scare. The white horse fixed on the Canite princess, hemorrhaging heavy purple revenge, showcasing the red rings of light broiling from his deep, dark eyes. He kicked the surface of the water, launching into a lethal stampede aimed at my downed sister.
Dev lurched forward, ripping the air with hissing silver spells aimed at the marauding mustang.
My tactical senses meticulously reasoned the threat. I plotted the speeds, distances, and possible outcomes in parallel. Dev would not reach Raven in time. His spells would only fractionally stutter the great white horse, loaded with charge and fanned by hate. The creature’s bronze aura amplified irrationally, rabidly fixed on Raven. She would not survive the impending hit. I could not lose her with my heart freshly sliced in half. I slammed into protective instinct.
I flew forward. Flying by the full-stride saber-toothed cat, I summoned a brilliant charge that funneled around me in a sideways tornado. A tiny thought caused a bolt of light the size o
f a pipeline to discharge from my hand, slamming the white stallion head-on. The bronze mature with red backlit eyes didn’t see it coming. Like a drop of water falling on the sun, the muscular horse engulfed in a fantastic bronze aura flashed into sparkling vapor.
I had just taken a life.
3
The Art
I
panted shallowly, trembling with the knowledge that I could not undo, erase, nor forget extinguishing a light. Regret replaced pain, racing through me like acid injected into my bloodstream. Adjusting to my new altitude of perception and power was going to take time. I had to lock away the ache of missing Charlie, Lisa, and even Rob for now. This everyday Wisconsin girl was thrust into a role of unwanted royalty. If I didn’t pick up what had been placed in my light when Mom burst into the next reality, I wouldn’t be around to get back to the people I loved.
The black-and-white-striped sabertooth vaulted through a silver rotating ring, transforming into a fast-breaking Dev. I loved his glittering, royal silver aura. He slid perfectly past Raven, gingerly scooping her up, and came to a gradual stop on top of the Danube. I barely disturbed the surface of the water as I came to an instant halt next to them.
“Raven,” I cried my Canite ally’s name. “Are you with us?” I put my hand against her sleeping, youthful face, cradling her in light. Tiny buttery sparks flashed where I cupped her wet, muddy cheek. Energy moved through me to her, jump-starting her flickering aura. Like tossing fresh red meat to a famished, napping bloodhound, the Canite princess broke awake. Flipping away, she formulated into the black wolf in a copper flash. She flailed about with a smashing, snapping snout. Her copper aura raced wildly as if she were in the throes of combat. Wakened by her discharging wits, she formulated human. Staggering due to biting injuries, she fumbled to her knees.
My attention interlaced with Raven’s distressed orange backlit stare, uniting our crackling hearts. Like Dev, we shared a private channel. Her sorrow for Esther flowed heavy, despite the stabbing pain. Everyone in the mature world had felt what Mom did. Talk would have to wait.
A mammoth gray wolf sprang from a sliver of space between two ornate buildings, leaving a fizzling, zigzagging copper streak through a small park. Haruz’s friendly fire was as welcoming as the morning sun shower. The frenzied Canite brushed up against Raven, feverishly pacing his head in all directions. His tail locked unnervingly still.
The gray wolf rose on muscular hindquarters. With a cutting growl, a copper ring of fire sparked at the tips of his blunt claws, slamming down, formulating the creature into an elderly yet daunting man. His long gray hair tangled in angles past his shoulders, cascading like a turbulent waterfall. Sporting his sordid history, calloused wrinkles, jagged white stubble, and scar tissue decorated the ancient warrior’s face. His chest and nostrils expanded and contracted quickly, distracting from his rapid motion, orange-lit pinball eyes. Haruz held Raven with his crooked fingers despite her weak protest.
“Princess, please do not leave my guard,” Haruz implored a dazed Raven. His aura radiated a radish color carrying firm protection. “Jeremiah will have my hide when he learns of this!” His voice was low-seated and shredded.
I felt his fear having broken the Canite king’s order of guarding the princess. Haruz’s pupils locked on me. His aura spiked in flow but faded in color. He nodded his head to me, rippling his light in respect. “My lady.” Spying Dev, Haruz held his disturbed demeanor down, although his upper lip quivered.
Haruz’s official addressing struck me numb, reminding me of Mom and my fate. What was lost lay waiting for vulnerable thoughts. The change in the Guardian throne was felt by everyone, going viral in an instant. The quick shift in status left me dumbfounded. I wasn’t a lady, a princess, or preordained to lead. I was Lisa’s unpopular, nerdy friend, not someone that drew gazes. I had been accepted to college but hadn’t even graduated high school. I knew very little about my new history. My world had no solid ground and I was skidding into a sea of quicksand. Not only was I born into a warring world, but I was thrust into a pivotal position.
It didn’t take long for my hurt to ease in anger. In my mind, the most high—my brother, Eli—took Mom’s life just as real as he had taken Dad’s. His thirst for control and the fear of his own end knew no bounds. There was no denying what I felt in his light. Eli wanted me dead and I knew he would never stop until I was extinguished to dust and pearlescent vapor. Only I could give birth to an heir that could dethrone him.
“We must go,” Dev said. Our supernatural spectacle was drawing attention from the rousing city. Several infants cautiously approached as their curiosity grew larger than their frazzled fear. My heart exerted familial protection over all infants. Raven coughed, nodding in agreement.
“Where?” I asked, not knowing in which direction to move.
Like hitting black ice rounding a fast turn, an unexpected force exploded nearby, causing my fear to putrefy the air. A pair of heavy platinum auras bounced on the already dire situation, displacing any time to think. The deadliest of matures, Arbitri Guardians, were not wasting any time in hunting us down. If they even remotely detected us, Eli would appear as quick as lightning, ending our short life on the run. The fear of losing Dev, Raven, or Haruz took precedence over my own life and my unwelcome inherited role of Guardian princess. Despite inheriting the matriarchal throne, I was not as powerful as Eli. For the first time, brother and sister shared keys to the kingdom. The scramble to unlock the future reign had begun. Unfortunately, I had no idea what to do but follow the gut in my cracking heart.
“Piper, we must leap.” Dev held my hand, amplifying his inflaming concern.
“I’m not leaving anyone behind,” I contested. I knew I couldn’t travel through the fourth dimension piggybacking three people, and the Arbitri would rip apart anyone left behind that was associated with me.
“Please, Piper.” Raven paused, releasing more of her weight to Haruz. Her orange backlit eyes pulsated, speaking the throbbing discomfort she bravely covered. “You must go. All of life implores …” she trailed off, exhausting her shallow breath before passing out.
Although she could heal quickly, I felt the sharp twangs of her cracked ribs and ruptured spleen. Strangely, I had developed a medical sense. She was in need of urgent care and rest. I had to get her to safety, but I couldn’t leave Dev and Haruz. Neither of them could elude a pair of Guardians.
“We are staying together,” I said, strapping into a saddle of determination. I didn’t like telling people what to do, but my soul began to speak her truth boldly. With the exception of Dev, I sensed my will carried command. The feeling was new, strange, and uncomfortable.
Although in human form, Haruz growled unenthusiastically, accepting my stand. “We can try to take cover in the National Gallery.” He pointed his nose to a multicolored glow filling the air with an innate attraction. “It’s our only hope. You are too obvious.”
We were pinned and I was screeching light everywhere like a jacked car alarm. My intuition pulsed in curiosity to the bright-faceted auras erupting into the marigold city’s soul hovering above Budapest.
“I don’t like it,” Dev said reluctantly. His beautiful violet eyes narrowed and his pupils elongated to slits.
“We have to go now.” Haruz said sternly. The Arbitri were closing in quickly, moving at hyper speeds. One force closed in from the south, the other from the north. My unmasked pearl spiked, overpowering the collective royal Vampacoti silver and Canite copper. My fright vibrated the air like clanging pipes.
“Let’s go!” I put my nervousness to work, taking Raven from Haruz, wrapping her in bandages of light. The closeness of her unconscious light induced a naked tenderness. Briskly, I broke into a fast stride toward the amazing glow, carrying her behind me. Dev flanked my side and Haruz followed a second behind us, snorting and sniffing.
We dashed through the streets with superhuman speed, drawing double takes from the infants. My umbilical to Raven taxed my fast break, like a heav
y backpack. The urgency of our grave predicament overruled Eli’s decree of mature obscurity. The deeper Raven drifted into unconsciousness, the more my energy seeped into her. My light carried healing properties, opening her insides to me. Not only did I feel her leaking, hot spleen as though it were in my hand, I was privy to the feelings of her dreams.
Raven’s soul was thick as blood. Her mind ruled her universe, but her heart was big underneath layers of protection. Her love of being Canite royalty came from a humble honor. She was a working woman. Her bond to her father, Miguel, Haruz, and the entire race was so wide and robust it evoked comfort.
I blushed, skipping into the air to dodge an oblivious car, feeling Raven’s love for me. She would do anything for me as I would for her. My attention shifted outward, closing in on the source of the brilliant lights in the middle of the city.
“I can smell them!” Haruz snarled in response to the encroaching Arbitri. Oddly, he moved his old bones and belly with the speed of an Olympian sprinter. His knees snapped, his hips creaked, and his ankles cracked, but he showed no signs of distress.
The closeness of the platinum Arbitri’s light thinned the air. It took all of my concentration to keep from boiling back into worry. We rounded the corner into a beautiful courtyard, facing the ornamental museum. The complexity, color, and character of the ethereal light streaming from the windows momentarily lulled my heightened senses, troubled reason, and heavy soul. The gorgeous auras sang from the windows, weaving alluring flavors of potent feelings, causing me to gush.
“Piper, come on.” Dev sensed my deceleration caused by the astounding illumination.
“Is it the art?” my child-happy intuition begged out loud.
“Yes, but right now we need to focus on the impossible.” My heart jumped, matching Dev’s nervous pace. “If they summon Eli, it will be over fast.” His warning was cold and objective, funneling my focus.
