The Ruby (The Hidden Gems Book 1)

by R. M. Getsee

  “Miss Morgan?” Someone was lifting my eyelids up and shining a small flashlight into my eyes, making me flinch back from the brightness. “Can you tell me what your name is?”

  “Alexia Morgan.” My tongue felt thick in my mouth and my words came out weak and jumbled. I tried blinking a few more times to clear my head, and as things came back into focus, I saw a man in a white doctor’s coat standing over me.

  He turned to the nurse behind him and gave a few orders; quickly she jotted some notes down on the clipboard in her hands and turned to leave.

  “Miss Morgan, I’ll be back soon with results from your tests, please try and rest until I return.” Then he too left me.

  Confused and scared I started to look around when I heard a familiar screech.

  “Alex!” I heard the high pitched shriek seconds before Emi came into view and threw her arms around me. I still couldn’t get used to how overwhelmingly expressive the girl was in her affection.

  “Are you ok?” Emi was staring at me anxiously. “Please be ok.”

  “I’m fine” I winced at how croaky my voice was. Grabbing the plastic cup from the locker beside the bed I was resting on I took a long greedy draught from it to quench my parched throat.

  I looked around as I drank deeply from the cup and finally, as I took in the stark blue and white of the sterile walls and the loud bustle of the busy staff outside the room, I realized that I was in a hospital room.

  Clearing my throat I tried to speak once again with a little more success. “I’m alright. What happened?”

  Emi settled back onto the side of the bed. She looked pale and scared. “A couple of Elementals attacked us.”

  I choked on my water. “What?” I spluttered and gasped. “Why would they attack us?”

  “I think they were after you.” Emi was pale and she stared at the ground in solemn resignation.

  “But why would they want me?” Internally, I was freaking out, but tried to school my expression to calm Emi down; Elementals coming out of hiding to grab one insignificant high-schooler was no small matter. “I’m nobody, what could I possibly do for them?”

  “I don’t know,” Emi paled even further and shot to her feet. “They must not have hit me as hard as you. I came to just as they were lifting you into a truck. I tried to stop them but I was too weak to do anything.”

  I felt another wave of nausea coming on. “If they had me in a truck and you were still far too out of it to do anything, then how are we here?”

  “Roman.” My friend sat down hard on the bed, as if the reality of what had happened and what we had been through had just hit her. “Roman and Jared were coming to the mall to surprise us and hang out for a couple of hours. They arrived just in time.”

  I sat in silence as the other girl continued with her recollection of events.

  “They saw you being dragged, unconscious, into the back of a truck by two strange guys and Roman went nuts. He set one of them on fire and he and Jared whaled on them and beat them to a pulp. You were still unconscious so we brought you here.”

  Emi finished the story and looked at her hands mournfully.

  She turned to me and suddenly burst into tears.

  “It’s all my fault.” she sobbed.

  Shocked, I wrapped the girl in a hug.

  “How is it your fault? You didn’t make a bunch of crazy’s try to attack us.” I said, trying to sooth her.

  “No” Emi cried. “But I forced you to come shopping with me for a stupid dress, and then you get attacked and I’m too useless to do anything to help you.”

  My heart swelled as I realised how much my friend cared for me. “Don’t blame yourself. You were attacked too, you couldn’t have done anything. And that dress was well worth getting a bump on the head for.”

  Emi gave a choked laugh and I hugged her until her sobs turned into mewling whimpers.

  “You were out so long I thought you weren’t going to wake up this time.”

  “How long was I unconscious for?” My stomach tightened anxiously, afraid to hear that I had missed another week, a month, or maybe even a year of my life.

  “It’s been almost eight hours.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. Then I remembered what I had witnessed while I had been out of it.

  “I had another vision while I was unconscious.”

  “What?” She looked at me with concern and excitement in her eyes. “Tell me everything!”

  Emi was distracted from her guilt as I filled her in on what I had seen and heard in the clearing. When I was finished telling the story, the two of us sat quietly as we contemplated what it all meant, and why it involved me. Emi finally broke the silence.

  “We have to figure out what all of this means.” She said slowly.

  “At least we know what to call the Jet now. Evil creepy murderous thing was kind of a mouthful to say.” We both started laughing, and within minutes we were bent double, clutching at our sides. Jared and Roman walked into the room just as we were starting to calm down.

  “Stress relief?” Roman asked. The corners of his lips quirked upward into a smile.

  “You bet.” Trying to reassure him that I was ok I grinned at him. Roman obviously needed verbal conformation though; as he looked at me his eyes were dark with worry.

  “Are you ok?” His gaze was so intense that I had to swallow a couple of times before I could speak.

  “I’m all good.” I wiped my eyes, trying to get rid of the last vestiges of the tears that had been streaming down my face from my laughter.

  “Are you sure?”

  I met his gaze. “I’m fine. It seems I owe you another thank you for saving me. This hospital must be getting tired of you dragging me through the doors.”

  He shot me a quick smile. “They might be, but I’ll never get tired of saving you. I kind of like being your hero.”

  I snorted. “So now you appointed yourself my hero?”

  “Well you seem to need one; you’re starting to make a habit of getting yourself into trouble. And I must say I do look good swooping in and saving the damsel in distress.”

  “Oh really, so I’m a damsel now?” I asked raising my eyebrow, “You might need to check yourself before your head weighs you down and you can’t swoop next time I need saving.”

  Was I trying to flirt with him? And was he flirting back? I gave myself a mental shake as I looked at him; I wasn’t even doing a good job at it. I was totally blaming the head injury. “Seriously though, thank you, I don’t want to know what would have happened to me if you hadn’t shown up when you did.”

  Emi gave a hard shiver. “I don’t even want to think about that.”

  “Hey,” Jared gave a disgruntled look. “Where’s my praise? I saved you too.”

  “We know. Thank you for saving us, you’re my hero.” Emi gave him a soft kiss on the cheek. His cheeks turned a light rose over his pale skin and he looked extremely pleased with himself. We all fell over, laughing hard.

  The doctor re-entered the room at that moment and we all fell silent.

  “So doc, what’s the prognosis?” I was trying to keep my tone light but I was pretty worried about what those weirdo’s had done to me while I was unconscious.

  I shivered slightly; just the thought of what they could have done was enough to send a chill through me.

  The doctor turned to Alex. “Miss Morgan, you are extremely lucky, if you had been a human you might not have come out of this scrape in such good form.”

  I winced as I realised that I didn’t just get a bump on the head.

  The doctor continued. “You have suffered a severe concussion, a fractured skull and several bruised ribs from the fall. Luckily your accelerated healing kicked in and most of your injuries are already almost fully repaired. I would like to keep you here for a few more hours to make sure that your skull heals correctly, but you should be cleared to go home tonight.”

  “Thank you, I appreciate all that you’ve done.” The doctor nodded at me, t
old me to get some rest while I was here and left once again.

  I was truly grateful that I was here. I got a sinking feeling every time I thought about what the Elementals had wanted with me, or what they might have done to me if they had succeeded in their attempt to kidnap me. I was thanking god, or whatever had created vampires that I had been blessed with the ability to heal quickly.

  Now that everything had sunk in I was feeling oddly tired. The others left and I sunk back into the pillows. My eyes were getting heavy and I finally surrendered letting them droop shut.

  Thoughts swirled in my head as I succumbed to sleep, the scrolls that we were unable to translate, the thick leather bound book in the store that seemed to call to me still, all the things that I had seen in my visions of the past and future, and for some reason I thought of Torah and Athena when they had entered Mr. Carlisle’s office the other day.

  The last thing that I thought of was one of the Ancients, the one who seemed in charge of the others, Osiris. His face stood out clear in my mind and I noticed little details about him that I hadn’t before.

  His eyes stood out the most, they were a startling emerald green colour that and they had a dark ring around the iris, kind of like how my eyes had been after I’d had one of the first visions. It seemed as though he was looking at me, trying to speak.

  I heard one final thing before I fell into a deep sleep, it was as if it was whispered on the wind but I knew that it had come from the Ancient.

  “The Ruby has awoken.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  I slept deeply, without any strange dreams the rest of the day. After I woke, I had been discharged and the Jared and Ronan had insisted on driving me home. I quickly grabbed a shower and a change of clothes and walked over to Jared’s room.

  I knocked and a shirtless Roman opened the door and looked at me in confusion, I gulped as I took in his wet hair, his jeans were slung low on his hips and there were still droplets of water beading on his shoulders.

  “You’re supposed to be getting some rest,” he complained.

  “I need a favor.” I said as soon as I was able to think coherently, averting my gaze. “Can you give me a ride back to the mall?”

  He gave me a look as though he was questioning my sanity.

  “You just spent the day in hospital after getting your head smashed in by a bunch of psychopaths, and here you are asking to go back to where said psychopaths attacked you?”

  “Please? It’s important.” I said.

  “What is more important than your safety?”

  I gave him a pleading look. “I need a book.”

  “A book? You want to risk yourself for a book? Alex, one of the elementals got away; he could be anywhere, waiting for another shot at you.” Now he really thought I was crazy.

  “It’s a very important book.” I said, suppressing a shudder at the thought of one of the creeps who attacked us roaming around, ready to strike again. “I’m pretty sure it will help us figure out what everything means.”

  I looked around to make sure no one in the house was around to hear. “I had another vision after I was attacked.”

  Roman gave me a frustrated look. “Why didn’t you tell, me as soon as you had it? We made a deal Lexa. Complete honesty of everything element related.”

  “Jared was with us, I didn’t want to tell you around him.”

  He sighed in annoyance. “Okay. I suppose that’s a valid reason, and you are telling me now.”

  “So can you give me a ride?” I asked hopefully.

  “No. it’s too dangerous. You’re not leaving this house while Elementals are after you.”

  “I have to go to school on Monday anyway.”

  “Fine but were still not going to the mall.” He was set in his decision. “Now tell me what your vision was about.”

  “I will, when we get home.” I was set in my decision too. And I was far more stubborn. “I have to get my car anyway; you don’t want it to get towed do you?”

  Roman’s jaw twitched in annoyance. “Why are you so stubborn?” he asked grudgingly.

  “It’s a gift I was born with.” I replied, adding a little snark to my tone. “By the way, why are you half naked?”

  His cheeks reddened slightly, as if just realizing that he forgot his shirt. “I had to take a shower, and I’m staying here tonight.” He crossed his arms over his chest, subtly trying to cover himself but it just made the muscles in his arms bunch even more. I really had to fight drooling.

  Don’t go there Alex. I warned myself.

  “I’ll meet you in the car.” I said turning my back to him with only the slightest reluctance. “You should really grab a shirt before we leave.

  *********

  I smiled in triumph as we drove. We entered the underground parking lot and found a spot close to my jeep. I was glad that my baby had no dings or scratches from the attack as I had been standing pretty close to it when they had snuck up on us.

  “Okay. Now we’re here, what did you see?” Roman was entirely annoyed by now as I had not told him on the ride over.

  I had a valid reason not to; I knew him well enough to guess that he would have turned the car around and took me back to the shackled safety of my house, rather than risking another opening for the Elementals to get to me.

  “When I get what I need, I will tell you everything, now let’s shop already.” I herded him along the tarmac ground until we reached the elevator.

  “You are so stubborn.” He sulked.

  “You’re one to talk.” I said with a little extra snark.

  He just harrumphed and turned as the lift dinged and the metal doors slid open. He stood in brooding silence as the corny, cheery elevator music played and I had to stifle a giggle, he was kind of adorable.

  When we finally got to the right level I grabbed him and dragged him, grumbling, to the bookstore.

  Looking through the window I saw the book presented on the stand. It looked exactly the same as before, but the nearer I got, the more exited I became.

  This was it; I knew that once I looked through this book I would finally have the answers that I had been searching for.

  Someone called out to me and Roman shifted protectively shielding me from what he perceived as a potential threat.

  Shane came into view around Romans broad shoulders and grinned at me.

  “Hey Alex, glad you came back, I told Marty that he might have a client and he’s so excited that he’ll finally have a buyer for that old thing.”

  “Thanks Shane” I said, giving him a polite smile.

  He smiled at me, and then his gaze travelled to Roman, standing in front of me protectively, looking like an extremely large and imposing body guard.

  “I’m Shane.” He held out his hand and Roman looked at it as if it were alien.

  I rolled my eyes. “Shane this is my friend Roman, Roman, this is Shane, I met him last time I was here and he was nice enough to tell the owner of the store that I wanted the book as it was closed when I found it.”

  I elbowed him in the side and he let out a frustrated breath. “Hi Shane it’s nice to meet you. Alex we really do have to be home soon so we should get this book and get going.”

  “Fine.” I looked at Shane. “Thanks again for your help, I really appreciate it.”

  When I smiled at him again he blushed deeply. “It’s cool. When you go in tell Marty that you’re the one I was talking about, and he’ll give you a good price for it too.”

  “Are you not coming with us?” I asked.

  “No, I have to make the rounds. I hope I get to see you around again soon.”

  As he left I elbowed Roman again. He was ready for it this time and twisted away.

  “What?” He asked.

  “Why were you so rude?”

  “I wasn’t rude; I just don’t make a habit of getting too chummy with humans.”

  “Chummy?” I had to stop myself from laughing.

  “Yes. We’re not allowed to get close to humans
Alex. You know the rules we live by.” I flinched slightly at his cold tone.

  “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You looked awfully close with him. I just don’t want you to get into trouble because a human shows you a little attention.” I had to take a deep breath to calm myself. I knew that he meant well but Roman was way off base.

  “You’re insane. I was just being friendly to him. He did me a favor that’s all.” It didn’t look like he really believed what I was saying. “Seriously? I can’t believe this, you are actually insane.”

  Roman just looked at me. “I just don’t want you to get hurt. You’re dealing with enough craziness already.”

  “Roman, I only met him once and I like… someone else.” I caught myself before almost ended the sentence with you.

  “Really? Who?” I immediately regretted opening my mouth as he looked a strange mixture of hopeful and, unless my imagination deceived me, jealous.

  “You’re not going to let this go are you?” I asked, sighing.

  “Not any time soon.” He was grinning so wide it looked like it was going to hurt his face.

  “Come on you tool, let’s just get this book and get home before I get kidnapped by a cult again.”

  He glared at me. “That is so not funny”

  I rolled my eyes and entered the store. The man behind the counter, presumably Marty, was a human of about his late forties. He looked like a stereotype of a middle aged hippy, with long grey hair tied back in a low ponytail and a brightly colored tie-dyed shirt.

  He grinned at us as we entered the store.

  “Welcome, welcome,” he said. He spoke in a voice you would associate with a surfer and he leaned casually against the counter.

  “Hi,” I said. “We’re looking for Marty.”

  He smiled cheerily at them. “I’m Marty, what can I do for you?”

  “Shane sent us, I’m Alex.” As I said it, he stood up straighter, completely shedding the hippie surfer image and taking on a more serious persona.

  “So you’re the girl Shane was telling me about, the one who was looking at the book of prophecy?”