by M. Street
“Everything is going to be ok,” I told Charlie like I had so many times before. He kept his hands securely clamped to me.
“Why are you old? And who or what are …”
Ozwald formulated into his blond and blue-eyed self, stunting Charlie’s words. Charlie’s mouth and eyes were pegged wide with disbelief.
“My lady,” Ozwald addressed me smoothly.
“My lady?” Charlie looked at me funny, studying my mature face.
“I’ll explain later. Just hang tight,” I said.
“I knew you would come back here sooner than later,” Ozwald said smarmily. Calm, cool, and collected, he stayed younger than me. He sported squinting, skeptical eyes and an aggravating, inappropriate smile. “Especially when I spotted you on the scene,” the Avian prince directed cuttingly to Raven. Her lip twitched in response.
“No matter. We need to exit!” Raven yelled at me and Ozwald, letting the prince’s cavalier attitude roll off her tan skin.
“You know you should not have come here,” Raven said firmly to me. Her demeanor was coarse and impatient, huffing, and she kept her eyes on Charlie. He was the grand white elephant in the room. All present knew I introduced another wrinkle, knowing we could not leave him in Oak Creek.
“I know,” I said sheepishly. Charlie clutched me harder. He picked up on the severity of the situation from me and the realness of the strange strangers.
“Your mask is complete!” Ozwald said, flabbergasted. “How did you get the ivory? And where is the cat?” he asked, puzzled and pleased by Dev’s absence.
“Irrelevant.” Raven stepped closer. Like approaching a fire, her agitation grew more intense and clear behind her mask and emotionless face. “Can you leap with the child?” she asked me tersely, purposefully keeping our eyes tethered. Charlie took a step behind me.
“No! It’s weird,” I said earnestly. “I tried to leap us away but he was so hard to hold.”
“Well of course!” Ozwald said like I was stupid. “He is an immature infant. His white light takes tremendous power to contain.”
“How am I supposed to know that?” I retorted. Between Dev’s multiplying upset, Raven’s fury, Charlie’s fright, and Ozwald’s superiority, I descended into anger.
“Excuse me,” Ozwald replied cautiously. “It’s just that,” he put his hands in the air, “you’ve complicated your chances of survival.”
“Our chances,” Raven rebuked Ozwald. “You cannot leave the infant child here. Eli will use him like bait. We must hide him.”
My pulse raced as I realized how much I had messed up. “I’ll take him with me,” I said, owning my mistake.
“Not a good idea,” Ozwald said, clipping my suggestion. “Leaping with him will take all your charge, leaving you vulnerable.”
Charlie dug his fingers into my arm. He was old enough to know a predicament when he came across one. “I’m not leaving you,” I told him, attempting to slowing down his rapid glances. Ozwald raised his eyebrows, knowing his caution went unheeded.
“We’ll figure it out later,” Raven said commandingly. “We must leave this place. It won’t be long before the watcher is deemed missing.” She looked at the platinum woman dangling unconscious in the tree. Her crystal lay on the ground, flashing every few seconds.
“I know I can leap him if I can focus hard enough,” I said, determined. “I just need time to wrap around his aura.”
“I can take him,” Ozwald said, humbly helpful. “The Avians have more than one hidden base. It’s safer for you and him.” Charlie’s eyes widened in response to the suggestion.
“He has a point,” Raven admitted unwillingly.
“My brother is staying with me. I have to get back to Dev.” My love’s upset grew louder by the second.
“We’ll sync up after we are out of danger and decide what is best for the child and for you,” Raven said, grasping my wrist tightly, sending her sisterhood and fear into the fathoms of my soul. It was uncharacteristic for the warrior woman to be so shaken.
“Absolutely.” I leaned into her chest. “Thank you doesn’t even come close,” I said to Ozwald and Raven. “If you hadn’t been here …” I stopped, clutching Charlie. They both nodded nobly.
I looked in Charlie’s eyes. “I’m sorry, but we have to leave Oak Creek for a while,” I said softly, hoping to not frighten him.
“Why? What is going on? Where are we going?” he asked in rapid-fire succession, just like I would have.
“Stay with your sister. Heed her,” Raven interrupted, blocking any answers, finally addressing Charlie. My little brother froze at her solid voice.
“Leap now.” She backed up, giving us space. The tremble in her tone expressed an uncontestable urgency, putting an end to more dialogue.
I tried backing away from Charlie for focus, but he clung like static.
“Whoa!” He yelled as I lifted us off the ground, separating so I could channel deeply. “What? How? Piper, are you doing this?” Charlie went berserk, flailing his limbs.
Ignoring his cries, I held my arms out, conducting torrents of light from the summer woods, taking in as much energy from the solstice sun as my mask would allow. I clenched my teeth and hyperextended my fingers, encasing layers of energy around his soapy, slippery white and pastel aura. Raven and Ozwald watched like hopeful statues as a bubble of light slowly congealed around my kicking little brother.
Grinding into a high torque, I mustered the finesse required to contain Charlie completely. “Go!” I yelled to Raven and Ozwald. My necklace glowed, metering my climb any further. “When I unmask, Eli will feel me.”
Raven and Ozwald broke from their stares, snapping into action. The Canite princess formulated, throwing shovel-sized divots of earth as she blazed north, shooting into the woods and out of sight. The Avian prince formulated into the great white kite. He launched into the angle of the haloed sun, flying away just shy of the speed of sound.
“Hold on!” I shouted, breathing heavily. Charlie was losing it, fighting the shock. Like taking a big gasp before a deep dive, I unclasped my necklace. I quickly drew in a copious amount of charge, glowing dense. Instantly, I felt Eli and Dev jolt. Before Eli could react, I zoomed toward Charlie, cutting a leap point. Hanging onto my baby brother for dear life, I leapt us upward, back to the redwoods where an angry Dev continuously hailed for my return.
Slicing into the fourth dimension with Charlie was tougher than I expected. He was greasy, heavy, and wiggly, giving me few tracks of attention left to focus on the reentry. The California ground came too quickly. I placed Charlie down softly, but I thumped down hard, going knee-deep into the packed earth.
The sun shower dissolved the leap mists away with micro bursts. I intrinsically knew something was radically different the instant we spliced back into time. It wasn’t Charlie, puking and passing out. It wasn’t Dev, radiating blackened, smoldering crimson. It was me!
Unbelievably, I was in massive overload. I ascended out of the rubble, freaking out over the juxtaposition. Instead of gasping in light from the tremendous drain of leaping Charlie, I surged with energy. The dual-trunked queen and her redwood family rippled wildly, spontaneously causing them to seed and cone. Birds of every kind took to the sky, flying all around us. Flowers and fronds peeled open, bursting with twinkling colors.
All my precise gyroscopic senses swirled, dispatching me into a debilitating dizziness. Cathedral-sized bells clanged through my head, distorting my vision. Tingling traversed through my body until I was weightless. My pearl spilled everywhere, newly woven with violet and green hues. The old redwood grove labored, keeping my supercharged valences undercover. Dev blinked, opening his eyes bigger with each flutter, purging his aura to the most glittering, silvery pink I had ever seen him shine. My love’s mouth dropped open, aiming his sharp stare below my belly button.
My field of vision faded, whiting out like a blizzard. Before I succumbed to the uncontrollable unconsciousness taking over, Dev spoke. Although I did not hear hi
m over the intensifying ringing, I read his full lips, forever changing me.
30
Laces of Emerald and Violet
“P
iper? Are you awake?” Charlie’s voice made me think I was in a vision, big-banging my return to consciousness. The first thoughts screeching through my brain weren’t about our next move, smoothing things over with Dev, or even the colossal mess I created by adding Charlie to the deadly run. Those all-consuming considerations were temporarily held back by the shockwave bouncing and building in my head from the words I read falling from Dev’s lips before the world went fuzzy and white.
“Charlie,” I said softly, snapping my eyes open. I sat up fast as a switch, taking in my surroundings. The sun was setting into the sea and the stars began to sing against the encroaching purple night. The cool air running down from the tips of the mountains filtered through the redwoods infusing it with pine.
Charlie and I sat underneath the trunks of the forked redwood queen, her arms and aura shadowing us from view. My little brother was curled up next to me, scared and confused. Charlie had never left Wisconsin. The instant trip to the foreign California coast was overwhelming, not to mention the supernatural circumstances. Despite all the reasons why he should not be here, in my heart I was glad he was. At a minimum, he was out of harm’s way in Oak Creek. Rob would have another missing child to report. The upset he had had to endure losing his wife and both children was cruel. I had to get us back to him. My necklace mask of ivory, emeralds, and pearls was latched securely around my neck, hiding my gushing aura.
My love, adorned in black-and-white-striped fur and silver fangs, was keenly fixated, sitting at full attention a few feet in front of us. His whiskers and ears moved in constant rotation. The huge cat watched us with an intelligent, animalistic might that ran wild. Beaming the truth of his words, his entire silver soul was laced with a fevered, eternal pink. I knew he would always protect me for as long as his royal light shined, but now he did so with a passionate commitment. The sweet devotion rendered me humble to receive such favor. Dev’s violet, saffron-laced eyes would forever be the comfort I called home, calming my stormy seas.
“Hey,” I said mustering a meager smile, attempting to relax Charlie. He was my first concern, but now that had singularly multiplied. Feeling his childlike fears elicited a painful, after-the-fact remorse. “I’m sorry for …”
“You’re a Guardian princess?” Charlie asked, struggling to take in what was real. Being on the opposite end of not knowing was weird. I saw myself in his puzzled face, bringing back memories of Mom telling me who I really was. If ever there was a time I wished I could have just one more day, hour, or even minute with both Moms, it was now.
“Yes, but first I’m your big sister,” I said, trying to reassure him everything was going to be ok when I couldn’t. His mood cornered upward with my waking. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t will myself back to eighteen for his comfort. The answer to why my body was fixed in an older state became crystal clear.
“Does that make me a Guardian prince?” Charlie asked, cautiously intrigued. I couldn’t help but chuckle at his superhero logic. Being a preteen made the unbelievable still believable. “Can you make me older?” His every little-kid wish cracked me up.
The saber-toothed cat stood up. Swirling lightning raced from the tip of his nose to the top of his tail, formulating him mostly human. His hybrid state made him look like a mythical creature. I knew he wasn’t purposely trying to frighten Charlie. Dev was keeping his senses surgically sharp for our protection. Although masked, Dev’s bursting emotions bled through his leather and silver collar.
Charlie snuggled up to my ear, cupping his hand around his mouth for extra privacy. “Who is this Dev guy? Is he a vampire?” he whispered. His brotherly protectiveness lifted my spirits once again. Dev smiled, hearing him clearly.
“He is one of the good guys,” I said openly. “You can trust him. Actually, he is part of our family now.” Charlie jumped, surprised at my instant inclusion of Dev.
“Is he your boyfriend?” Charlie asked suspiciously, studying Dev like a protective big little brother. The complex explanation of what Dev was to me left me without words.
“I filled him in on the important things he could understand. He knows we are on the run and that he won’t be returning to Oak Creek anytime soon,” Dev said, sitting close to me, shifting gears. “He knows that I am Jazz.”
Rusty spikes filled my heart as I felt and smelled Charlie’s fear over not returning home, but more poignantly, how much he was missing Dad. My insides curdled thinking about Rob. On top of my aching soul, a hurt rippled through Dev that cracked my heart in pieces because I knew I was responsible.
“I’m not happy with your trip to Oak Creek. It could have ended much worse.”
“I am really sorry.” I drew out the apology, opening my heart to him, emphasizing true regret. “I thought it would be ok with my completed mask. I only planned on checking in on Charlie. I missed him so much. I thought I’d be back before you woke up. I took it too far, I guess.” I pushed Charlie’s bangs out of his eyes. All my reasons for going to Oak Creek looked selfishly wrong with hindsight. I sat humbled, meaningfully corrected.
“Well, I know you won’t be doing anything like that again. It’s not just about Charlie, me, or you now,” Dev said with a new, higher resonance of fear and love, churning like crystalline static. He undid the clasp on my necklace, setting my aura free under the cover of the redwood family. “We are fortunate your mask cloaks them as well. I’m not sure how long that will last.”
I went numb absorbing the meaning of Dev’s words. I had resisted dealing with the impact, causing it to persist. Contained within the inner membrane of my aura, two distinctive glows emanated from my lower abs on opposite sides. The emerald green and amethyst purple matched the colors of my vision.
“Am I pregnant?” I asked Dev to confirm my suspicions.
“Yes, with twins,” Dev replied proudly.
I inhaled, feeling the pressure of the plural, unplanned affirmations. My emotional state teetered off a narrowing edge into a free fall, not knowing what to think or feel. Possibly having kids was for another, much later time in my life. We had only made love once. Getting pregnant didn’t seem possible, but there was no doubt I was. I looked down at the new auras protruding from my belly, eliciting pins and needles of uncertainty. I should be happy, celebrating the new lives, but I wasn’t.
Dev felt my downward waffling, intensifying my sorrow and chained guilt. This was the worst possible time for so many reasons. Physically, my body settled into the perfect childbearing age, but mentally I was eighteen. No way was I ready for motherhood. Then there was Eli and the Arbitri hunting us down. No place was safe to carry and bring children into this warring mature world. Having one child scared me. Having two petrified me. My aura flashed frantically, fraying in the flood of emotions.
“I love you,” Dev said, putting his hand on my stunned face, attempting to ground the pressure building inside. “This is wonderful.” He formulated fully human. He ran a kiss down the side of my face, wiping away my tears and fears. I felt like we were the only people in the world, but my restless insides reminded me otherwise. Dev’s love was a charm tailored to unburdening my worries no matter what the cause; however, this time was different. My life had cornered, going off the rails. I spun airborne, not knowing if I was flying or falling.
“Thank you. I love you too.” I placed my hand on his chest. “I have to take Charlie someplace safe before I can even think about this,” I said, willingly drowning myself in deep denial. We had been in the same spot for over twenty-four hours, leaving heavy scents. I knew we had to move.
“Dad is gonna go ballistic,” Charlie said, more stunned by my pregnancy than the supernatural. I huffed, dismissing the least of my worries.
“He’ll be fine,” I reassured Charlie, laughing at his childish fears.
I stood up and took my necklace from Dev, securing
it like a key that had been lost and found.
“Who are the Arbitri? Why do they want to capture us?” Charlie asked, scrunching his face. I was grateful Dev had left out the mortal details.
“They are misguided people,” I answered, trying to put a positive spin on something negative. “They are ruled by a self-serving dictator who doesn’t like us for fearful reasons that happen to be fictitious. We did nothing to him.” Charlie looked at me, not believing the simple absurdity. “It’s like hurting someone for the color of their eyes or skin, or what they believe in or who they love. It doesn’t make sense.” Charlie wilted his face, associating the countless discriminatory disorders alive and kicking in the infant world today. Anger tempted me into victimhood, especially with the ever-increasing stakes of carrying new lives.
“Why can’t we stop them?” Charlie asked the impossible, beaming protection for his big sister.
“They are way stronger than we are,” Dev said, lowering his large frame to meet Charlie eye to eye. He knew his way around children.
Charlie crinkled his eyebrows, tilting his head a few times. “That sucks.” His light colored, realizing the predicament.
“Don’t worry,” Dev said, taking my hand and displaying a soft, strong unity. “We can outsmart them. We’ll stay a step ahead so they’ll never catch us.” It was our only option.
“Ozwald and Raven were in Oak Creek waiting for me.” I caught Dev up. “We owe them our lives. They stopped an onslaught and bought me the extra time I needed to leap Charlie. I had no idea leaping an infant child would be so hard.”
“Yes, that is a challenge,” he said, springing up on his feet, towering over us. I was certain Dev knew the tactical suicide for all parties if leaping Charlie caused me to pass out. We would eventually have to separate for his protection. Charlie was not going to be happy about it, but there was no choice.
Twinkly lights in a nearby stream caught my always scanning eye.
“See that stream down there,” I said to Charlie enthusiastically, pointing to a melodic brook with shallow ponds. “I bet there are tadpoles and minnows.” He looked at me with wide eyes and a whitening aura.
