by Toby Tate
“That is the most insane, outrageous statement I have ever heard. What kind of proof could you possibly have of this?”
Matthias was standing now, his eyes like two balls of fire. But Gabe sensed that it was mostly for show.
“Come outside with us, captain. I’d like to show you something.”
Matthias said nothing—just stood and stared. After a few seconds, he stepped out from behind the desk and opened the door to the outer office.
“This better be good,” he said.
The three of them filed out of the station and into the deepening twilight, and then stopped in the parking lot by Matthias’s car.
“This is your car?” Mac asked, indicating the police cruiser. They were smaller than the ones used by US Police, but he knew they weighed at least a ton.
Matthias crossed his arms and sighed. “You know it’s mine. So what?”
Mac smiled, reached down under the bumper with one hand and heaved the front of the car so far off the ground, it stood at a forty-five degree angle, setting off the car alarm in the process.
Suddenly, storm clouds began to billow up from nowhere, slowly at first, then more and more quickly, like a vast crowd of people gathering for a riot. Out of the swirling blackness, a bolt of lightning struck a tree close by, so closely that the thunderclap was instantaneous. Soon, another bolt came, and another, then ten more, and twenty more, striking the ground all around them again and again, the air reeking of ozone as the howling winds nearly blew them all off their feet.
Gabe, with a hand in front of her eyes to ward off the stinging pebbles, saw several police officers file out the front door of the station and stop in their tracks, gazing wide-eyed at the freak show in the parking lot.
Mac merely stood grinning up at the sky as he held the police cruiser up with one hand.
Gabe turned to Matthias, whose mouth was hanging open.
“So, can we talk now?” she said.
* * *
Hunter wasn’t sure what just happened outside, but it sounded as if someone had opened the gates of Hell and let the demons run free. He figured Mac must have given them a little demonstration of his amazing power, although calling up storm clouds was something new for him. Mac had said only his sister, Lilith, had been able to do that. Maybe he’d been practicing. Whatever it was, it must have worked, because soon they were all filing into the holding area. Hunter peered through the bars of his cell and saw that Matthias was throwing glances at Mac out of the corner of his eye. They all stopped in front of his cell and Gabe smiled at him.
“Hi Hunter. I got Lisa’s call and came right over. Captain Matthias has not only agreed to let you go, he has also agreed to help us.”
But Matthias wasn’t listening. He was staring at Mac.
“I don’t understand how you can do those things,” he said. “Who…what are you?”
Mac studied Matthias for a moment, and then shrugged. “To tell you the truth, I don’t really know how I can do those things. I just can. It has something to do with the extra chromosome that I…we…carry. Some say it’s evolution, if you subscribe to that theory, but I believe that we belong to a race that existed before the earth became what it is now. There was some kind of great disturbance, maybe a war that destroyed the planet, possibly the entire solar system. Somehow, we survived in this newly created world.”
From somewhere in the holding area, the tick of a clock filled the ensuing silence.
“Right now, we need to get Hunter out of here and back to his pregnant wife,” Gabe said, and then glanced at Matthias. “I know that you probably framed Hunter for the murder, and I understand why. I don’t intend on saying anything about this to anyone because I believe that down inside, you’re a decent man. But we need your cooperation on this if we’re going to find out what Hendricks is up to. Can we count on you?”
Hunter thought that Matthias’s eyes looked dark, sullen and apprehensive; probably thinking about what Hendricks would do to him. He slowly nodded his agreement, and then turned and stuck the key into the cell door.
Twenty-seven
Jade looked up at her door from her place on the bed, wondering why anyone would bother knocking since they usually just barged right in.
“Come in,” she said.
The door swung open and David Lawrence stood there with a bottle of wine and two glasses, the customary dark shades hiding his eyes.
“I thought I’d try to make a peace offering,” he said. “Do you like wine?”
Jade loved wine, but did she really want to let him know that? What was he up to, anyway?
Just play along.
“Sure. I guess so.”
Lawrence smiled and walked slowly over to the bed, set the bottle and glasses down on the bedside table. He reached into a pocket and produced a small corkscrew, then popped the cork on the wine bottle. He poured a little into each glass. It was a deep red and it smelled wonderful, Jade thought.
Lawrence picked up a glass, held it up as if in toast. With the other hand he turned the bottle with the label facing Jade. “Nineteen-seventy-five was the first year that an American artist, who happened to be Andy Warhol, designed the label on a bottle of Chateau Mouton−signed by the artist himself.”
“And you managed to get a bottle?”
Lawrence laughed. “Believe it or not, I got it on eBay. A bit overpriced, but I had to have it. I love Andy Warhol and I love French wine. It was too much to resist.”
“In that case, I guess I have to try it.” She reached over and picked up the glass. “Here’s to freedom.”
Lawrence smirked and held out his own glass. “To friendship,” he said.
They both took a sip and Jade thought that it was literally the best she had ever tasted.
“Good isn’t it?” Lawrence said. “The French have some of the best grapes and wineries in the world. Their pinots are amazing.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever had wine like this. Most of the stuff I get comes from the local grocery store.”
“Don’t knock grocery store wine. Expensive doesn’t always necessarily mean good.”
“That’s funny coming from a man who is filthy rich.”
Lawrence shrugged, stuck a hand in his pocket. “I wasn’t always rich. I had to fight and claw my way up, like most people. Riches come and go. It could all be gone tomorrow.”
Jade found herself wondering if Lawrence was really the monster she had first believed. He wasn’t boastful, proud, arrogant or any of the things she had expected. But then again, she had known the man only for a short time, and after all, he had kidnapped her.
Still, she wanted to know more about him.
Jade took another casual sip of wine and was beginning to feel its warmth coursing through her body. She had already had dinner—roast leg of lamb, which she had never eaten in her life—but that was several hours ago.
“So tell me, how does a man like you claw his way up to the top?”
“I started investing. Mainly in the stock market, but also in art and in real estate. I buy houses, apartment buildings, old businesses—then I fix them up and re-sell them. It’s nothing complicated. But if you do it a lot, you get better and better at it, and eventually you start to make a lot of money.”
“What do you spend your fortune on? Besides this place, I mean.”
“Well, I give a lot of it to charity. I’ve started several organizations that feed the hungry, build houses for the homeless, that sort of thing.”
“Oh, a philanthropist.”
“People call me that, but really, I’m just helping people who need a hand, nothing more.”
“You’re very modest.”
Lawrence said nothing.
“There is one thing I’d like to ask.”
“Sure, anything.”
“Why are you always hiding behind those glasses?”
Lawrence frowned. “I’m not hiding anything. My eyes are sensitive to light.”
“Really?” Jade, still sittin
g on the bed, took another sip of wine. The alcohol was making her feel a little bolder. “You can’t even let me have one little peek?”
“Why?”
“To tell you the truth, I don’t trust people who wear sunglasses inside. It makes me suspicious.”
“I told you, I have nothing to hide.”
Jade suddenly stood up and snatched the sunglasses off his face. Lawrence dropped his wine glass and it shattered on the floor at their feet.
But Jade didn’t notice. She was busy staring at his mercury-silver eyes.
Twenty-eight
“I am so damn glad to be out of that jail cell,” Hunter said as he left the Heraklion police station with Gabe and Mac. “Thanks for springing me, guys. I owe you one.”
“It wasn’t me,” Mac said. “It was all her.”
“I think your little superhuman show had just a little to do with it,” Gabe retorted. “Matthias was ready to keep Hunter in there and have him stand trial for murder.”
“I owe you both. Lisa will be overjoyed. As a matter of fact, I should call her.”
Gabe glanced at him. “I think it would be more fun to just show up and surprise her.”
“Oh, no. I don’t want her going into early labor because of me. I’m calling her.”
After speaking to his wife, he clicked off his cell phone and turned to Mac.
“I thought only your sister could do all that storm-bringing stuff. Have you been practicing in your spare time?”
“A few times when I was out at sea with the Ford, I went aft to the fan tail and concentrated all my efforts on conjuring up storm clouds. After a lot of trials and failures, I figured out how to do it. Before long, I was calling up lightning and wind storms. I did it mainly at night, when no one was around. I got pretty good at it. I don’t know if I could create a hurricane, but I think I could get pretty close.”
“I wish I could conjure up storms. Lightning bolts could actually come in handy sometimes. So, what do we do now? After I see my wife, I mean.”
“The first thing we’ll do is go check out the obelisks. Then we’ll take it from there.”
“I think the first thing I’m going to do is lay down on a real bed,” Hunter said. “Try not to wake me up too early tomorrow.”
* * *
Jade wanted to scream after seeing Lawrence’s eyes, to crash through the door of her room and get as far away from this horror as she could, shoes or no shoes.
“Oh my God. What are you?”
Lawrence took the sunglasses dangling from Jade’s hand and slid them back on.
“Now you know the truth,” he said.
Jade looked down at the wine glass in her hand, surprised that she hadn’t dropped it. She took another sip and glanced at Lawrence. “The truth?”
“The truth about who and what I am.”
“Are you an alien?”
“My race was here on Earth long before humans ever set foot on it.”
Jade decided that she had better sit back down on the bed.
“Your race? So you mean you’re seriously not human?”
“Yes and no. I have human parents, but their genes carried a certain extra chromosome, one that gives us superhuman powers, that lay dormant until I figured out how to awaken it. The chromosome was discovered when I had a DNA test done to determine whether the child of a woman I had been in a relationship with was mine. The doctors wanted to study me, but I decided to do my own research. The research led me to believe my ancestors were part of a race known as the Lilitu—part human, part demon.”
Lawrence began to pace, crunching broken glass under his feet against the hardwood floor.
“I started testing my powers, seeing what kinds of things I was capable of doing. I discovered I had amazing strength—superhuman strength. But it never materialized until I actually became aware of it. Somehow, my brain was keeping it back, keeping it in check. The Lilitu were also known as storm or wind demons. I discovered that I could control weather, call up storms just by thinking about them.”
Jade didn’t know whether to believe this man or not. Was he crazy or could he really do the things he was describing?
If he could, she wanted to see it.
He glanced at her, and as if he had read her mind, said, “Would you like a demonstration?”
She said nothing.
In mere seconds, she heard the wind blowing outside her window. She turned to look and saw flashes of lightning in the distance.
Jade jumped off the bed and ran to the window, pressed her face up against the glass.
The stars had disappeared. It seemed as if the sky itself had suddenly turned into a black hole, ready to suck the entire island into the next universe. It swirled around and around in an enormous circle, lightning flickering from within, illuminating the maelstrom like some ethereal nightmare, growing larger with each passing second.
“How are you doing this?” she asked.
Even from behind, she could feel his eyes burning into her. “If you want, we can share this power together. Stay with me of your own free will, and I’ll make you a queen.”
Jade heard, but didn’t answer. She only continued to stare at the boiling black storm ten thousand feet above the island.
Twenty-nine
Lisa threw herself into Hunter’s arms the moment he walked through the door of Gabe’s hotel. “I thought I might not ever see you again, at least not on this side of a prison cell,” she said, her tears staining Hunter’s shirt.
“Hey, I said I was going to take care of you two, and I meant it.”
Lisa glanced up at him. “How did you manage to get released? Did they find more evidence?”
“Let’s just say that Gabe and Mac pulled a few strings. How’s the baby?”
Lisa reached down and gently rubbed her swollen belly. “He’s alive and kicking. He’s definitely moving around a lot in there, getting antsy. I think he might be ready to astound the world pretty soon.”
“Think you’ll have any more of those dreams tonight?”
“I hope not. I don’t know if I can take another nightmare like the last one.”
“Well, just remember it’s not real. A dream can’t hurt you.”
“What if it comes true?”
Hunter held Lisa at arm’s length and gazed into her wet, emerald green eyes. “It’s not going to come true. We’re not going to let it. We’re going to pray and do everything in our power to make sure it doesn’t. Right?”
Lisa nodded, and once again laid her head against his chest. Hunter wrapped his arms around her and thought about what he had just said.
You hear that, God? Don’t let those dreams come true.
* * *
Gabe stood with Mac outside her hotel room, not really ready to call it a night just yet.
“Want to come in for a drink?” she asked.
Mac grinned. “Best offer I’ve had all night.”
The room was furnished with brightly colored Mediterranean style chairs, coffee table, couch, and end tables. A TV sat on a table against one wall. Beyond that was a kitchen with a large fridge, a sink, a dinette with two chairs, and a window offering a view of the city lights. A doorway led to an adjoining bedroom.
Gabe knew that their jobs would probably preclude any kind of lasting relationship, but she had never met a man like Mac—kind-hearted, gentle, even tempered, loving, great looking—and mysterious. Not qualities you often find in one man. She figured it was time to dispense with caution and indulge herself.
She reached into the refrigerator and grabbed two ice-cold Coronas. “I hope you like beer. It’s the only alcoholic beverage I allow myself to drink.”
Mac took the bottle. “Love it.”
She opened the bottles and they sat at the dinette staring into each other’s eyes. Mac took a swig.
“So, what happens now?” he said.
“I don’t know. What do you want to happen?”
Mac grinned and took another drink.
“It
was pretty amazing what you did back there at the police station. Aren’t you afraid some dobber will let your secret out?”
“Excuse me?”
Even after so many years in the US, Gabe still hadn’t gotten out of the habit of using Aussie slang.
“Aren’t you afraid someone will tell on you?”
“Not likely. Most people would think they were crazy. And even if they do, so what? You can’t arrest someone for being weird.”
Gabe smiled. “Supernaturally weird.” She took a drink and continued eyeing Mac. God, he was handsome. And so damned strong.
I bet his muscles have muscles.
She was used to being pursued by would-be lovers, not the other way around. But the longer she stared at Mac, the more she could feel the warmth in her belly getting hotter, and it was slowly working its way down.
She sat the bottle on the table and gazed into his deep blue eyes.
“Mac, I’ve never done anything like this before…”
“Like what?”
“Well, it’s just that I don’t know how much time we have.”
“What do you mean?”
For the first time in her life, Gabe was at a loss for words, and she hated the feeling.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is…will you stay here with me tonight?”
Mac sat his beer down, stared at Gabe for a few seconds, and then leaned across the table and kissed her gently on the lips.
“I thought you’d never ask,” he said.
Thirty
Jade couldn’t believe what had just happened. Lawrence was like some kind of sorcerer. She didn’t know such things even existed.
And it scared the hell out of her.
But she wasn’t about to let that stop her from going through with her plans. She wanted no part of David Lawrence, even if he offered her the world on a platter. But she did manage to get her shoes back after promising that she would consider his generous offer, and complained about the hardwood floors and their effect on her poor feet. It was amazing what a little male ego-stroking could accomplish.
