The Ruby (The Hidden Gems Book 1)

by R. M. Getsee

  Roman had a strange look on his face as he asked, “Book of prophecy?”

  “I’ll explain later.” I muttered. Raising my voice I spoke to Marty. “Yep, that’s me.”

  Marty nodded at me and walked around the counter to the glass case that the book was held in.

  “It’s strange; just a few hours ago someone came in to ask about this book.”

  My breath caught in my throat. “How is it strange?”

  “Because, I have had this book on display for three years and not one person has ever shown an interest in it. Not one.”

  “Then why display it?” Roman asked.

  Marty smiled wistfully. “I may not look like it, but books are my life. I find books, especially old ones, like this, and sell them to collectors all around the country. I can appreciate the value of ancient books and I just couldn’t bring myself to take it off the shelf and leave it to collect dust in the storeroom.”

  “So why didn’t you sell it to the other person when they wanted it?” Roman was almost interrogating the poor guy. I was impressed that Marty stayed so relaxed while Roman pushed him for information.

  “As I said, books are my life, and this one is special. I had to make sure it was going to the right person.”

  “And was the guy the wrong person?” I asked him.

  “Yes. He didn’t seem to value it for what it was, and quite frankly he looked like he was about to get up to no good.”

  I snorted. “Up to no good?”

  Marty laughed softly. “I suppose it is kind of an old fashioned turn of phrase but it fits.”

  Joining in with the laughter I said, “Okay so how did he look like he was up to no good?”

  “Well for starters he looked as if he’d just been in a fight, he had a huge cut on the right side of his face and he smelled like smoke.”

  Roman tensed at my side as Marty described the mysterious buyer.

  “We had better be getting home,” He said, giving me a pointed look.

  Sighing I rolled my eyes at him. “I suppose your right.” Turning to Marty I smiled at him. “So could I be the right person. You have no idea how much this book would mean to me.”

  Marty’s eyes twinkled. “That depends, what drew you to it?”

  “Well.” I thought hard. “I guess it just called to me. I can’t really explain it but I know that it’s important.”

  He smiled at me. “Then it’s yours.”

  I nearly shrieked in excitement when he handed it to me and I felt the heavy weight in my hands.

  “Thank you so much. How much do you want for it?”

  He shook his head. It belongs to you now. I believe in fate, and seeing you with it I know that you were meant to have it.”

  I hugged him in happiness. “Thank you.” I said again.

  He nodded to me once again and I allowed Roman to tow me out the door as Marty resumed his relaxed stance behind the counter. I was about to tell Roman off for being rude to the kind man but decided against it, he was already acting weird.

  “Satisfied with your shopping now?” he said, disgruntled.

  “Gee what is your problem I’m ready to leave now. I know you don’t get that the book was important but it is.”

  “Oh I get that it’s important.” Roman was fuming now. “Because the guy that wanted to buy the book, he was the Elemental that got away after attacking you.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “What do you mean he was the one that got away?” I looked at Roman skeptically.

  “I mean that the guy Marty was talking about is one of the psychopaths that tried to kidnap you for their cult.” He said.

  “How could you possibly know that?” I asked him.

  He was looking really worried and I found it hard not to believe him. “Because I’m the one who made the cut on his face.”

  Raising my eyebrows I looked at him. “And how did you do that?”

  He looked a little sheepish. “I punched him, and I didn’t realize that I still had my keys in my hand.”

  I processed his words, anxiety and excitement twisting in my stomach.

  The Elementals were after the book, and the same one who had jumped both Emi and I had stuck around after their attack to try and procure it.

  It had to be more than just a coincidence. It all must have been connected to the fifth element, to me and my powers.

  “How did you even know that they were Elementals anyway?” I asked.

  Roman looked at me as if he knew that I was trying to prolong the conversation.

  “Mr. Carlisle said that Elementals each bore a symbol of an element branded on them. There was a fire symbol tattoo on his collarbone; I saw it in the fight. Now please can we just go?” He held a pleading tone in his voice.

  “Fine, we can go,” I sighed. “But we have to talk about this when we’re home. I want every detail of what happened during the fight. And I mean every detail.”

  He nodded in acceptance, eager to get out of here.

  He must be really shaken, I thought. I cringed internally; I had been focusing on me and Emi, but I had never thought about how it must have felt for him having to see us get attacked and fighting them off.

  We rushed to the cars, I jumping into my jeep, sighing in happiness as I sunk into the soft leather seat and watch Roman sliding into his shiny black impala. I paused to admire it.

  I had always loved American muscle cars and it would have definitely been my first choice, had it been an option at the time, although I don’t think I could ever part ways with my beautiful jeep, I had to admit he had really good taste.

  I drove as quickly as possible, most likely breaking a few speed limits and earning myself more than one ticket, with Roman right behind me, and we had reached the old stone house within fifteen minutes, I say house but really it was a small mansion.

  We parked and rushed into the large Victorian styled house as fast as we could. As we climbed up the stairs to my room, my mom came into view at the bottom of the staircase.

  “Alex,” she called. “Could you come down here please?”

  “I’m kind of busy mom,” I called back. “Can it wait?”

  My mother folded her arms and looked at me. “Alexia, come down here. Now.”

  I sighed, I turned to Roman and handed him the book. “Would you mind putting this in my room for me? I really don’t want to think of an explanation for it.”

  He nodded in understanding.

  I didn’t want to explain the craziness in my life to my parents quite yet, at least not until I had a reasonable explanation with some definitive proof.

  They were very skeptical people and it would take more than my word that it existed.

  “Good luck.” He muttered, winking at me as he climbed the rest of the stairs.

  I took a deep breath and turned back to my waiting mother. Nyssa was standing in the same position, with her feet planted firmly and her arms crossed against her chest, waiting for me.

  Grumbling, I descended the stairs, knowing that whatever my mom wanted I was not going to enjoy it.

  “Alexia,” My mom started. “Are you trying to kill me?”

  “What?” I certainly was not expecting this turn of conversation.

  “You were almost kidnapped less than twelve hours ago, and within moments of you getting home you run right back to where they tried to take you, without any consideration for your safety.”

  Now it that was more like it, I thought, I wasn’t really talking with my mom unless I was getting a lecture. “It was important mom, I needed my car.” As soon as I said it I knew I had made a mistake.

  “You risked your life for a car?” I never knew that my mom’s voice could reach that pitch.

  Cringing back from the ear splitting sounds coming from Nyssa’s mouth I tried to form an excuse that would appease my mother without having to tell her the truth.

  “Mom calm down, I had Roman with me for protection.”

  “Do you have any idea what you just put me t
hrough?” I immediately felt guilty again, my mom had obviously been freaking out and once again I had only been thinking of how a few people had been feeling rather than everyone else.

  Reaching out I took my mom’s arm and squeezed.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t think about how you must have felt and that was selfish of me. I won’t do it again.”

  My mom deflated slightly at my sincerity. We embraced each other quickly and I could almost feel the tension and stress that had wound my mother tight loosening and freeing her from its binds.

  “Thank you,” Nyssa whispered.

  When we split apart and I was free to contemplate how weird it was to have such a caring moment with my mother.

  I clambered up the staircase to get to my room, taking the steps two at a time, stumbling in my eagerness to get to the book and reminding me that the old, clumsy Alex was still there.

  Roman was sitting on my bed looking at one of the records that Mr. Carlisle had had given me with a frown on his face.

  “What’s up?” I asked nervously, it was giving me way too many confusing thoughts to see him sitting there.

  He turned to look at me. “I think I figured out who attacked you.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  I took the sheet from Roman and looked at it; it was an arrest report for an Elemental dated fifteen years previous. I sat down on the bed and started to read;

  Marcus Kent, born April fifth nineteen sixty-four, arrested on suspicion of becoming a member of the Elemental coven on November eleventh two thousand and two, convicted of his crime February seventeenth two thousand and three.

  Sentenced to life imprisonment on Iron Cove.

  I paused in my reading and looked over in horror at Roman over the report. “Iron Cove?”

  The notorious prison for the worst of the worst, said to hold the most dangerous vampires in existence, it was built into the cliff of a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

  There was one entrance, and a maze of tunnels that ran down thousands of meters below sea level into the dungeons that held its prisoners.

  There was no escaping from it; once you arrived there was no way off the island.

  “How is a guy who is serving a life sentence in the most secure prison in the world, have anything to do with someone trying to kidnap me?”

  He just looked at me. “Keep reading.”

  Kent served his sentence peacefully until May two thousand thirteen where he escaped in a jailbreak presumably planned and executed by his son Caleb. Nothing has been heard from either Kent since that day.

  Cursing softly, I finished the report.

  “Okay, so creepy guy escapes from an impenetrable prison four years ago, I still fail to see how that has anything to do with me.”

  Roman handed me the two small photographs that were held onto the corner of the sheet by a paperclip.

  The first showed a vampire who looked around forty, but could easily be nearly sixty, presumably Marcus.

  The second one showed a younger guy of around our age who looked very similar to him, probably Caleb. I looked Roman, puzzled why this was so important to him.

  “Caleb Kent, he’s the Elemental that led the attack on you; he’s the one who was after the book.” Roman was obviously worried.

  I gasped softly. “Are you sure?”

  “Positive,” he said, his brows knitting together in tension. “This has to be connected somehow.”

  “Okay I agree,” I said. “This is way more than just some creepy coincidence.”

  Taking a closer look at the photo I tried to memorize the faces of the two Elementals, hoping that it would be useful for future reference if needed.

  “Mr. Carlisle gave you these files because they were connected to the fifth element.” Roman said thoughtfully.

  “Then this means that either the Elementals know that we’ve been looking into the fifth element or they know that I may be able to control it.” The excitement that had been subdued by the talk with my mom stirred once again within me.

  “We have to find out everything we can about the fifth element as soon as we can.” Roman began. “It’s important, now more than ever as it could be the key to figuring out what the Elementals want with it and you.”

  I rolled my eyes at him. “That’s what we’ve been trying to do for the past month. What do you think me and Emi have been trying to do up here every day while we research every language in existence in hopes of translating these scrolls.”

  “You know what I meant.” He said defensively. “But we need to be extra careful from now on, if the Elementals don’t know what we have been doing then it’s important not to let them find out now. It would only give them more of a reason to attack us.

  I nodded my head in agreement. Finally I turned to the book that was lying on my bed. As I ran my fingers along the then letters that were embossed on the worn leather cover, I was surprised to find that it was warm to the touch. I opened the book and looked at the first page.

  It was yellowed and weathered with age. There was a symbol of a pentacle drawn on the first page with an image drawn at each point.

  I remembered in one of my many web searches I came across these images as a representation of earth air fire water and spirit in the human communities.

  I presumed that spirit was a representation of the fifth element and I tensed in anticipation.

  “Well, what does it say?” Roman poked his head around mine to read over my shoulder and I stilled at his close proximity.

  Flapping my free hand at him to shoo him away I scowled as I felt my heart beat a little faster. “I haven’t even read anything yet.”

  “Then read.” He said impatiently.

  Still scowling I turned the page to start reading. As I touched the picture to turn the paper I could have sworn that I felt an electric shock from it. I passed it off as static electricity as I continued through the book.

  All of the ancient pages were made of some kind of extremely old parchment and they made a soft whisper as I turned them.

  Disappointed, I realized that it was mostly in the same mysterious language as the scrolls that they had gone through.

  Sighing, I turned to Roman. “It’s useless, it’s all written in the same language as the scrolls and papers Mr. Carlisle gave me. I can’t understand it.”

  I sat down hard on my bed, deflated. “I really thought that this would be it, the key to finally getting answers.”

  Tears stung the backs of my eyes as an overwhelming sense of hopelessness overcame me.

  Roman wrapped one of his arms around me and held me, trying to give me some comfort as I fought back the urge to sob.

  “At least it wasn’t a total waste,” he said. “You did find a nice dress for homecoming.”

  I laughed softly, tears still threatening to fall as I unconsciously leaned into him. “What are we going to do now? I thought that the book was special, but it gave us nothing.”

  “No it did give us something.” Roman looked at me thoughtfully. “The Elementals wanted it and that means it is important. Plus, it is in the same language as the scrolls, so it has to be connected. We will find out what’s going on Alex, I promise.” The tears broke through and fell softly down my face.

  “We have to, and soon.” I hated when I got emotional like this, it made me feel weak and pathetic, especially now that I had to be strong. “Something is coming, I can feel it, and we have to be ready because I don’t think we have much time left.”

  *********

  There was a dull thwack on the back of my head as once again someone pelted me with a piece of paper. Turning in my seat I saw Torah and Athena looking at me with mock innocence.

  I glared at them and turned back to the teacher who was talking about one of the many vamp wars that had happened in the last millennia.

  Again a ball of paper bounced off the back of my head. Squaring my shoulders, I refused to turn around to look at them. It had been a slow few weeks for rumor
s and they were finally starting to realize that no one was listening to them anymore, so they were now settling for petty grievances like throwing paper and blowing spit balls at me. It was gross, unhygienic and really starting to get on my nerves.

  “So the Council decided to sentence any vampire who supported the Elementals to life imprisonment on Iron Cove.” Mr. Elis finished his lecture with a flourish.

  Iron Cove? Damn, I cursed to myself, we had been trying to find out more information on the prison and now thanks to my charming sister and Athena I had completely missed out on a lesson about it.

  My next cuss was much louder as there a sharp sting in the back of my neck.

  A silver pen clattered to the ground and I reached up to the patch of skin that stung beneath my hairline, wincing as I touched it.

  I rubbed the spot tenderly, and when I withdrew my fingers, they came away red as I found a small trace of blood trickling lightly out of a shallow wound. I heard sniggering as I looked up to see Mr. Elis glaring at me.

  He was one of the oldest vampires in the school, which was probably why he had been chosen as the history teacher, and he was very particular about students swearing in his class.

  I cringed apologetically and ducked down to pick up the pen.

  “Oh Alex, could you be a dear and hand my pen to me?” Athena’s voice was filled with mocking sweetness as she reached across her desk with her hand outstretched.

  “Sure.” I said through gritted teeth, wishing merciless pain on her.

  As she took the pen her eyes glittered meanly and she shoved her hand forward so that it cut her palm.

  “Ow,” she shrieked, everyone whipped around to look at her. “Mr. Elis, Alex just stabbed me.”

  “Miss Morgan?” He looked at me, his eyebrows rising.

  “No I didn’t!” I glared at Athena venomously, this girl was actually crazy.

  “Yes she did.” She held up her hand victoriously, showing the small wound that blood trickled from her palm. “See I’m bleeding and everything.”