Metaphase: Beauty in the Chaos (Mitosis Series Book 2)

by M. Street

  “Unwise choice,” Safe snapped, arrowing his eyebrows.

  “You kept me out of the battle,” Dev countered with heated silver.

  “No choice. I had to prevent them from summoning Eli,” Safe responded cuttingly.

  Raven roasted her copper. “You could have drawn the Arbitri here with your exposed light. Eli knows you’d be with Piper.”

  “I did what I thought was best,” Dev said slowly and in a low pitch. I could feel his overriding desire to be with me.

  “Best for who?” Raven shot out quickly.

  “What do you think?” Dev asked indignantly. Dev and I naturally took steps closer together in solidarity. His reddened metallic silver softened to rose, completely negating Raven’s finger-pointing inquiry.

  “We cannot stay here,” Safe said looking at the knocked out Equuian lying flat on her back, her eyes pried and mouth open. “We are running out of places to hide. Until we get her mask completed, the bamboo forests are our safest place. Maui has—”

  “I disagree,” Raven interrupted. “The Arbitri will comb the remaining concentration of bamboo around the globe once they figure out what happened here.” Bronze vapor light rose from the soaked earth where the Equuians had died. “We must take her to a Canite den.”

  “I’m not comfortable involving more parties until we know who is double-sided,” Safe said with conviction.

  “The Canites are loyal to the princess.” Raven’s chest rose and fell at a quick pace.

  “It’s too risky. We need to keep Piper isolated,” Dev said, adding irk to the growing ire.

  The collective red flashed like a five-alarm firefight. Cluelessness chipped at my confidence, but my heart knew squabbling was stepping us backward. It was time to put my hands on my own wheel. My intuition punched my throttle.

  “Let’s go to the Canite den,” I said softly, but with bulging light. My royal aura rinsed the contesting feelings like an unexpected deluge. Dev and Safe looked at me with unease.

  “My lady, please put your mask on,” Safe said anxiously. I muted my aura into aqua blue, slipping on the emeralds and pearls.

  “Piper, please, you don’t know …” Dev put his hand on my shoulder, amplifying his disagreement.

  “You heard her,” Raven said victoriously. “We must go now.”

  She turned to an injured Dev. “Cast her,” she nodded at the hypnotized Equuian woman on the ground, “into signaling back an all clear to give us more time.” For once, no one disagreed.

  Dev backed up, building charge in his glittering silver. He snapped his fingers, casting a mind-controlling spell I didn’t recognize. There were multiple frequencies in the single incantation. I immediately locked onto the metallic pulse as they flew from his fingertip and into the woman’s green, backlit red eyes. The silver belladonna flowers orbiting his wrist changed direction, morphing into conductor batons whirling back and forth.

  “Check in with nothing to report,” Dev spoke sternly. The woman slowly rose to her feet, constantly keeping her gazed fixed on Dev’s ebony and violet eyes. She reached into her satchel, pulling out a crystal. Activating it, she brought the faceted, illuminated gem to her mouth.

  “The Sagano forest is clear. No traces found,” she said sluggishly and without expression, like she was tranquilized. She tapped the crystal with her finger, powering it off. Safe immediately plucked the communicator out of her non-contesting grip and flash-fried it.

  “Where is the den?” Safe asked.

  “The Black Forest,” Raven replied. My mind promptly conducted over Germany, easily sensing the great concentration of trees in the southwest corner along the Rhine River. The congregation of early summer auras caused a sugar rush. I was drawn there.

  “Absolutely not!” Dev rejoined loudly.

  “He has a point. The northern hemisphere is near solstice. The Arbitri will be widespread in the area,” Safe said.

  “We’ve been hidden there for centuries. Our den is completely invisible, especially with the heavy solstice light. The Avians aren’t the only race capable of science or craftiness,” she said smugly.

  “I don’t like it.” Dev folded his arms.

  “We cannot stay here,” I said touching Dev, conveying my heart.

  “The den is south of the Triberg Waterfalls,” Raven said quietly. “Piper can leap us. You follow with Dev,” she ordered Safe like he was her subordinate.

  “No, not again!” Dev stated forcefully while Safe shook his head and halo.

  Differing lines started to be drawn by all parties, kicking sand everywhere. “We are going to the Black Forest,” I put down, before any crossing could begin. Eyes jumped from person to person, filling the eerie silence. As much as Dev and Safe wanted to fight, they knew I could rake the field.

  “I don’t like splitting up, but I don’t see any other way,” Safe said reluctantly, addressing me. He turned to Dev. “Wipe the Equuian’s memory clean. I will leap with Raven first.”

  The mountain-sized Guardian came back to me. “I will call you privately when we have secured the location. Follow with Dev immediately.”

  “Don’t take long. Piper cannot leap while holding a spell. I suspect the same disruption in rejoining time would occur if I was carrying an enchantment,” Dev said, remembering the cosmic law. Raven’s ears pointed backward at that tidbit of information. “After Piper hears your call, I’ll erase the Equuian’s memory. She’ll be out for a couple minutes once I release the incantation.”

  Safe moved first, lifting into the air below the shallow blue bamboo auras. “I will call you very soon,” he said to me in a strong tribal accent. He wrapped Raven in a harness of light, pulling her off the ground and close to himself. I took off the emeralds and pearls to clear my channel for his summons.

  In a blink, Safe slit a leap point and vanished with Raven, leaving a chain of disintegrating sparkles. Dev and I were alone, minus the weirdly sedated Equuian. We wasted no time embracing with open light and bare arms. I felt fully alive holding him. My hands created heat, moving up and down his velvet-covered muscles. “I don’t ever want to separate again,” I moaned, sinking into his eyes.

  “I don’t either, but you didn’t give me a choice.” He blushed pink throughout his silver and cheeks.

  With my hair winding higher and tighter, I stepped off the ground and recklessly kissed his surprised mouth, wrapping his lower lip in mine.

  “Be careful.” He smiled, fighting with all his might against his rising desires and my heated advance.

  “Is it impossible to steal a kiss?” I asked, frustrated. Waves of brightness rippled through my aura, speckling the air with miniature flakes.

  “Shhh. Too risky.” He brushed my face with his fingers.

  “Where can we go?” I pleaded for private solitude and a time and place where life was unrestricted. Dev chuckled, somehow controlling the irrepressible wanting rushing through him.

  Like a train whistle, Safe’s beckon came in loud and robust. Dev felt the call through me, breaking any discussion. I easily placed Safe’s location. He was at a low elevation within a dense assembly of trees in Germany.

  “Time to go,” Dev said apprehensively. Once again, our destination wasn’t in his comfort zone. The spell around his wrist accelerated until it resembled racing fire.

  “Forget,” he chanted vigorously at the senseless, unblinking woman. The ring of silver around his wrist disbanded, discharging into the Equuian. The wipe clarified her bronze aura. Her eyes rolled white as she fell backward, solidly hitting the ground with a cringeworthy thud.

  “That had to hurt,” I said. Like memorizing a new strum on my bass, I committed the new spell to memory.

  Dev looked at me urgently, nodding his head. I wrapped him in streamers of light, rising into the air, adhering to the plan. With my left index finger, I opened a leap point. We propelled upward into the pink cascades of time. I had no idea what was coming next.

  19

  Black Beauty

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  he cool air shrilled around us, slicing back into time. The beautiful blooming beauty of the Black Forest auras made it impossible to see, even with the spewing sun replacing the reflecting moon. My nerves sharpened like a pilot making her first landing in thunderous fog with many petrified souls on board. I honed in to Safe, pulsating his private platinum beacon. Keeping my talents sturdy yet elastic, we screamed down and forward toward the obscured earth, piercing through the heavy woven sheets of colors leisurely rising.

  I knew we were landing into a bad scene by the unpleasant emotional storms surrounding Safe. Familiar metallic signatures registered like hot static. The Avian gold of Sabina, Ozwald, and Luja, as well as an Equuian bronze, caught my attention among the sea of contesting Canite copper. Using the concentrations of irritation as guideposts, I accurately stopped us just shy of the tips of clover with my eyes closed. Dev tensed with provoked defensiveness, jumping out of my hold.

  Locked in endless adolescence, I was still experiencing physical and non-physical growth spurts. My vision crisped into a micron-focus, sampling newfound colors in the swirling sky. The richness of life exploded in the diversity of the forest. I took a tiny step to the ground, wigging my fingers to clear the leap mists. The unlimited uniqueness within the unity of the trees got me instantly high.

  We arrived in a modest clearing underneath mesmerizing clouds of lush hues of exaggerated colors. The reds bled, the yellows rose, and the blues dropped from the sky. The buildup of inflamed metallic auras and glares encompassing us did not distract my appreciation of nature. The combined solstice auras roared as if Niagara Falls had fallen into the sky, dimming the sun into an orange freckled spotlight. The rush of raw radiance cut my super-senses short to close range.

  “My lady.” Jeremiah snapped me out of my entranced intermission, taking in the grand forest. He paused, glimmering respect, kicking off a chain reaction of royal salutations of epic proportions. I felt like I was on an unwanted stage. Behind him, Raven, Miguel, and Haruz cooled their copper from whatever they had been arguing about. Haruz remained quiet, but was full of changing colors, like he was mulling on something bitter. On my right, Sabina and Luja rippled their golden auras, briefly lowering their heads. Ozwald flashed his gold, keeping his head high.

  My heart was overjoyed seeing that my Avian kin had escaped unharmed from the devastating attack on their incredible nest. Beyond Dev on my left, Safe stood momentous, shining his platinum. He batted his eight-ball eyes with parental pride. Close by, I noticed the Equuian woman I first saw in the landing bay of the Avian fortress. She solemnly shimmered prideful respect, nodding her head. The feelings of devotion coupled with recollections of the Equuian ability to disturb time and space caused my skin to scuttle. In a strange way, I felt their bronze ability in my blood. Surrounding our metallic soup, just inside the line of trees, dozens of beastly wolves tousled their heads making whimpering yips. I whirled around, capturing every new view.

  “Thank you,” I said respectfully, uncomfortably coming to a rest. “It is not necessary.” Dev put his arm around me, quieting my rising sheen. His gesture ignited pink, shifting the present company into discordant vibrations. I didn’t care, living out loud under the brilliance of the Black Forest. Not even my invigorated glittering aura could pierce the reverence of the trees.

  “Let’s get inside,” Jeremiah ordered. I did a quick scan but didn’t see any structures in the area.

  “I hold to my position,” Sabina interjected with golden flare, without moving her tiny frame. “We are too close to the Arbitri here. We have other nests far above the tree line.”

  “She is to remain with her Canite family.” Raven asserted in a low tone, stepping forward. Shadowing her light, her faithful guard Haruz followed. “She is protected with us.” The numerous wolves rattled the air with grinding growls. Miguel raised his hand, instantly silencing the show of support for the Canite princess, showing his rank. The pack acted as one voice. I could feel the complex and beautiful connection inside me. Like the earth, the many beats of the collective formed a single song.

  “Although the solstice enhances the obscurity of the base, the proximity to Arbitri citadels is undeniable,” Luja addressed Raven directly.

  The futuristic scientist stepped closer to me, putting her hand on the outer membrane of my aura. Her hands glowed blue-hot, like they were in reentry. “She continues to develop,” Luja said with experimental frenzy. Although her face and gestures appeared exuberant, an unknown fear chased beside her wonder, causing a commotion beneath her spotted skin.

  “Reason doesn’t work here,” Ozwald said with attitude, wearing his red justly. Luja disengaged, quietly stepping behind the prince and his mother queen. “Yes, the child has grown and aged, but she is still nowhere near Eli’s fortitude. Obviously, neither we nor your pack,” he paused, raising the corner his mouth into a smirk, “would last long against Eli and the Arbitri.”

  Ozwald’s comment drew snarls from the forest.

  “As usual, the Canites boast their great might but lack action,” Ozwald tossed out the dirty slam. Jeremiah flared his copper in response and Raven seconded, adding a growling sneer.

  “I agree with Sabina; no place is safe until we complete the princess’s mask,” Safe articulated coolly, directing the bickering attention off each other and onto me. “Her idle state is parting the solstice fire.”

  All eyes studied the distortion I caused, conducting collective concern. The clear rivers of light bent around me, forming a swirling cosmic comet twisting upward into the colorful sky. I looked like a spark, somehow burning in a crystal clear river.

  “As she matures, the risk of Eli feeling her rises exponentially,” Safe said like an apocalyptic preacher. “Best we keep focused on why we are here.”

  “We must move.” Jeremiah turned toward a row of pines. He flashed his aged copper vigorously, rippling his gray away. He was younger than the day I met him at Malts and Shakes.

  “Zeta,” the Canite king said quietly. A sleek, blonde wolf trimmed with thick white fur blurred from behind the opaque auras. Her copper burned exceptionally tough and combat-ready. Her heart was pure and dutiful. Besides being an iron commander, the intelligence of a mother shined exquisitely. She lowered her head to both Jeremiah and me. “Divide the pack. Take half the troops and surround the den within short sound.”

  The muscular wolf nodded her large head.

  “The rest, send out in patrols. Lock this forest down.” Jeremiah said, weighting the order with dire importance.

  Zeta snarled, vibrating her hanging lips into saw-like teeth. She sped off with incredible silence. Twenty-three armed Canites followed, fanning out into an arrow. The large beasts quickly divided, distorting in the streams of energy rising from the lush, orchid-colored soil glistening with life.

  Like a clap of hands, a muscled Jeremiah raised his light, drawing everyone’s attention. “This way.” He walked due north, right through the middle of the group. Raven looked back, flanking his right. She wanted to talk privately.

  The rest of us trailed, shifting through the watery creeks of clear light fueled by the earth. I reached for Dev’s wrist. Time raced on the run, giving my already strong feelings a gigantic shove. Without hesitation, he boxed his troublesome worries and made room for my sentiments. I loved that he could lose himself in me, as I did in him, regardless of the circumstance.

  We filtered through thick trees and rising currents, each taking different paths, following the Canite royalty. Luja and the Equuian were the only ones who spoke. They discussed the methods to manipulate the alloys for my mask in a language of science I didn’t understand. They discussed equations to refocus light into matter. There was so much to learn.

  Abruptly, we came upon a barely detectable structure. It was faded like a lucid dream. From what my eyes could pierce, the conical structure looked like an elf house. Trunks of different woods were molded into soft curves, forming a golden ratio. Not only did the Canite den appear more l
ike a work of art, but the woodgrain pattern accelerated the copious forest energy. The effect generated a natural dead zone.

  Jeremiah, Miguel, Raven, and finally Haruz disappeared one by one. They walked through a flow of ground light so concentrated it formed a massless door. Dev and I passed into the den together, walking through the upward waterfall of light. Energy prickled against the inside of my skin from the bottoms of my toes to the tips of my ears.

  The instant I entered the sculpture, the light dancing up in the spines of timber deadened my already muffled senses. Although our auras remained bright, our colorful metallic sheens transmitted no feeling in the high tides of energy. In the presence of everything, we were nothing. It didn’t matter that we were squatting close to the Arbitri. They could not sense us, even unmasked. We entered into a large room with an circular opening high above. The clear rivers of light joined in the wooden funnel, causing them to flow even faster. The effect created a giant drain in the sky.

  Unlike the Avian nest, the dazzling space was more greenhouse than techie fortress. Only one station of computing cubes flickered wildly in the far corner of the room. Rather than lab benches, rows of seedlings, herbs, and flowers grew, reaching toward the luminescent walls. The plants specked the ground with phenomenal color. The herbs’ auras sparkled with sunshine like they were royalty. I warmed, loving the greenhouse effect.

  My eyes grew wide, drawn to a large round table in the center of the room. The table, worthy of King Arthur, stood out among the glowing light. A thick amber sphere of light surrounded a large circular crafted wooden table and chairs. My nostrils flared classifying the clean eucalyptus wood. Like conifers, the aura of the eucalyptus carried special properties. It absorbed all light except that from three beeswax candles burning densely.

  Jeremiah opened a small satchel. “I’m collecting all crystals.”

  Moans and drab utterances unenthusiastically erupted, passively objecting to the imposed martial declaration. Like cell phones, the super-communication devices of the mature world were an addictive appendage.