* * *
Kaia didn’t really care what she looked like. Blue jeans and a plain white tank top served her purposes just fine. She stuck her driver’s license in one back pocket, a hundred dollars’ worth of twenties in the other back pocket and grabbed her car keys. Almost as an afterthought her cellphone joined her driver’s license in the back pocket and that was that, she was ready to go.
Where she was going, she wasn’t quite sure, though sticking to the safer parts of town while alone was high on her list of priorities. So when she found herself on Market Street near the Fox Tail bar, she was mildly surprised. Normally this wouldn’t be a typical hangout for her, not that she really had a typical hangout, all things considered. But it would do, because they had alcohol and maybe she did just want to sit in a dive.
Eyeing the tiny brick-red rectangular building, she pulled into the driveway. There were only eight parking spaces in the back containing one motorcycle and two cars, one of which was probably the bartender’s. She cut the engine, shoved her keys in her left front pocket and went around to the front of the building to enter.
The air was acrid with cigarette smoke. Two booths on the left wall, two on the right. Small bar straight ahead, the rest of what was left of the square footage covered by tiny round tables. Some had two old wooden chairs pulled up to them, some had only one. At a booth to her right sat a man in a black leather vest and what looked like matching pants. Even in the dismal light the guy wore sunglasses and she resisted rolling her eyes. Probably trying to hide the fact that he was stoned or something.
At a table not far to her right sat a woman in her sixties who was already in a drunken stupor, staring sightlessly ahead, and at a table in the front left corner was a guy who looked like he hadn’t showered in a month and probably would reek just as bad as he looked if she got close enough. Kaia moved forward and ordered a vodka-and-seven with a twist of lime. She asked the bartender to start a tab, moved to the last booth to her left and slid all the way over to the wall.
It was only at that moment, when it reflected off the glass as she raised it to her lips for her first drink, that she realized her rose quartz was glowing. It was soft, but steady. Plopping the glass down atop the table, she leaned her head against the back of the booth that was easily a foot taller than her seated height. Closing her eyes, she resisted the urge to pound her fists on the table in frustration. This along with everything else was just the cherry on top of her life right now, and the fact that she didn’t have a clue as to what made the necklace glow to begin with pissed her off more than anything.
Finally she opened her eyes, reached out and grabbed her drink, slugging half of it down in one go. Her eyelids fluttered as the sting of vodka travelled down her esophagus, swirled around her stomach and then seemed to shoot throughout her entire body like it was radiating from her solar plexus. Idly she wondered how many of these it would take to get her drunk since tequila hadn’t been successful those many years ago. Kaia decided from here on out she’d be doing shots of whatever strongest stuff the bartender had back there.
Finishing the drink quickly, she made to slide out of the booth seat but was stopped when she came eye-to-eye with a pair of black-clad legs. She stopped so quickly her arm screeched on the smooth tabletop. Her eyes moved upward even as the quartz’s light increased until it was shining off his black leather vest. Up and up to find that it was the man she’d first noticed upon entering the bar. His sunglasses were off and his eyes were like nothing she’d ever seen.
Her mouth opened just a little when he smiled at her, then ran a hand through shoulder-long black, wavy hair. But it was his eyes that held her transfixed. They seemed to be glowing the same pink her rose quartz was giving off, but then he moved just slightly and the reflection was gone, leaving the palest mahogany behind. It was a color she had never seen before in someone’s eyes, and she was transfixed as he slid into the seat across from her, the smile never leaving his face.
“Hello,” he said and it seemed to almost be a beat off from the movement of his lips.
“Um,” she said, feeling like every ounce of vodka had already hit her brain full-force, “hi.”
* * *
Bijan studied her face for a few seconds. Well, she hadn’t run away immediately upon seeing him, so that was good. She also seemed to be mesmerized by his eyes, and he counted that as a win, too. At least it was keeping her there. While he had indeed studied Earth extensively in his time under Kana’s tutelage, the one thing they hadn’t gotten around to was human interaction. To insert himself into her life as someone she could grow to trust would be a very different experience for him.
Shinzarns simply trusted based on who and what you were. If you were Zar, you automatically trusted your fellow Zar. If you were Shin, you trusted your fellow Shin. The Zar and the Shin also had a mutual trust, because the Shin depended on the Zar and the Zar knew it. There were no ‘bad’ Shinzarns, plain and simple.
But on Earth things were different. Humans were not always nice to each other, whether they were from the same region of the globe or not. As he continued to contemplate the best thing to say to her, to get things started off on the right foot, his eyes inadvertently moved down to the Nake. It was glorious, casting its powerful light along her tanned skin and the white shirt she wore. Her hand moved up to clasp the talisman quickly, but its light simply shined through her fingers.
“It’s very beautiful,” he said softly, and heard the words of Shinzar repeated in English. It spoke in his own voice, mere milliseconds behind him speaking his native language, making it possible for her to understand him. And in turn, her voice was filtered through the translation spell he’d cast upon himself so that he could understand her English.
“Thanks,” she said, opening her hand and looking down at the crystal. “I don’t even know why it does that.”
“Really?” Bijan asked, and wondered what exactly she meant by ‘that.’ Every time he’d been near her the Nake glowed, although sometimes it would pulsate and sometimes it was more a steady light. His hand darted out, even as his mind told him this was probably not the thing to do, he couldn’t keep from wanting to touch the crystal. It was sacred to his planet and something only Kana had ever actually held in his hand.
He felt little stings of energy shoot into his fingers and through his body like a hundred small bolts of lightning, making his breath hitch a bit at the sheer power coursing through him from the small gem. The backs of his fingers rested against Kaia’s chest as the Nake burned brighter yet, illuminating them in a sphere of pink-white light that captivated his senses.
It was simply all the goodness of Shinzar surrounding them, and he closed his eyes as it washed over and through him. Wave after wave of images passed through his mind, of the way his beloved home used to look so many, many years before he had ever come to be. Pictures seen only in the stories handed down generation to generation, conjured up by Kana’s magic and by Aloa’s before him, to remind Shinzarns of what could be if only the Vloveks were vanquished.
His eyes snapped open as the entire reason for him being there came back to him full force. Quickly he let go of the Nake, the moment broken, and looked away.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“What,” she whispered, “was that?”
He looked back up at her. “What was what?”
“Those images,” she said, staring at him like she somehow knew he didn’t belong. He squirmed a bit under her scrutiny. “It was like watching a movie about a place I’ve never seen, yet somehow...I know it.”
Pinpricks of heat worked their way up from his toes until they made his arms and hands tingle. “You saw them?” he asked incredulously.
She nodded, looking down at the Nake and then as its glow receded some, capturing his eyes again. “Who are you?”
He swallowed hard. This wasn’t going at all as he had planned and yet...this may turn out all right, after all. “My name is Bijan,” he replied, holding his right hand out t
oward her as he’d seen humans do.
“Bijan,” she whispered, tongue rolling the name around before letting it slide from her lips.
“And you?” he asked as she took his hand.
“Kaia,” she whispered.
He looked down at their joined hands and for the first time thought, just perhaps, there was hope for Shinzar after all.
Chapter Eight
Everything was so hazy, so muddled. She tried opening her eyes but they felt like they were sewn shut. Groaning, she rolled over and bumped into something...no, someone. Shrieking, her eyelids forced themselves open. She scrambled out of bed only to find a man scrambling off the other side.
“You!” she exclaimed, taking in the pants, vest and hair.
“I’m sorry, I...”
She stalked to the end of the bed and opened her mouth to lay into him. What was he doing in her bedroom, for God’s sake? For that matter, how had she even gotten home, and why the hell was her necklace glowing so bright it was nearly blinding her? She could see his Adam’s apple bob along his throat as he moved from the foot-wide space between the wall and the edge of her mattress until he stood at the foot of the bed.
“You were in no condition to drive,” he stated, squinting at the light coming through the blinds. Deftly he whipped a dark pair of sunglasses from the inside of his vest and slid them over his eyes. “I didn’t want you hurt.”
“You didn’t want me--” Kaia squinted at him, head pounding like she had a five-alarm hangover. “Jesus Christ, how much did I drink?”
“Only the one,” he replied softly.
“Who are you?”
He inched closer. “What do you remember, Kaia?”
“Remember?” she repeated, hand holding her forehead. “About last night?”
Bijan came even nearer. “About any of it.”
She stiffened as his hand closed over her forearm and there they all were again, the images. Everything came flooding back to her from last night. Gasping, she sagged against him, but by the time his arms encircled her, she was already somewhere else in her mind.
The woman’s bronze-tan skin glistened a reddish hue as twin suns rose atop the tallest mount of Shinzar. A tiny infant held in her arms smiled and gurgled up at her. Mother.
Kaia jerked once against Bijan’s body. His forehead came down to rest against hers.
Carnage, blood everywhere, screaming. Crying out her name, begging for her to be taken to safety. And then strong arms lifting her from her bed, cradling her close. She could feel his chest heaving beneath her and in the split second that he stopped to turn and look behind him, she leaned back so she could look into his eyes. Father.
Bijan’s fingers clasped the brightly-lit Nake, eyes squeezing shut simultaneously.
He murmured something to her, then she felt herself being handed to someone else. He kissed the top of her head; she could hear terrible screeching in the distance. His arms held her tightly, when she breathed in it was him she smelled everywhere, and she knew his comfort and clung to him. He said something, words she couldn’t comprehend, and she lifted her head to look at him.
Kaia cried out in surprise, falling hard to the floor. Hand still tightly around the Nake, the necklace tore away in Bijan’s hand as she fell. His eyes seemed to glow the same color as the gem for a fraction of a second, then return to normal.
* * *
The images crashed down all around him. He staggered for a few seconds, unable to make himself even think as he fell to his knees. His hand began to burn and he hissed, dropping the Nake to the floor. It was impossibly bright, even cutting through the sunglasses he wore, and he felt his control slipping, wanting nothing more than to lash out with magic that came as naturally to him as breathing.
A low moan caught his attention, snapping him back to reality. “Kaia,” he whispered roughly, leaning forward to lay his hands on her. She moaned again and he gently lifted her from the floor and placed her on her bed. Bijan backed away, thinking how much she knew now, but also how she wouldn’t understand any of it. She’d been so young; simply flashing back to a few scenes from Shinzar wasn’t nearly enough for her to grasp the truth of her existence.
He looked down at the Nake lying on the floor and lifted it by the severed woven twine which was beginning to unravel. Quickly he stuffed it into an inside vest pocket, breathing a sigh of relief as the pain in his eyes dwindled to a dull ache. Seating himself on the edge of the bed, he sighed, running a hand down Kaia’s arm. He entwined his fingers with hers as his mind warred over his options.
She remembered now, but had no context for it. If he simply took the Nake back to Shinzar, she would only think the man she’d met last night had come back to her home and stolen her necklace. That he’d disappeared. And while she might always wonder about both the necklace and Bijan, she would never see either of them again.
But most of all, she would forever be safe from the sycophants, and that, really, was all Bijan could think of after what had happened last night.
They were laughing and joking, although the humor she displayed was foreign to him. He laughed when she laughed, finding it strange since his people had no reason to laugh anymore. But it felt good, a sort of high he’d never experienced, not even while performing complex spells by Kana’s side.
She seemed to find some of what he said amusing, though he didn’t really understand why. But her laugh brightened his spirits; her energy seemed to feed him somehow. “My house is about halfway down this street,” she’d said, stopping at the corner of a four-way intersection.
She had hesitated, and he wracked his brain trying to recall what he’d learned about humans. He could come up with nothing. “Perhaps I should walk you to your door since it’s so late,” he’d finally come out with, thinking it sounded positively awful.
But she’d smiled brightly, wound her arm through his and led him along the sidewalk. “Yes,” she’d said. “Never know what lurks in the dark for a single girl, after all.”
Unfortunately, that statement had been far too prophetic. No less than ten feet from her home the first wave had attacked, and Bijan had had no time to make himself invisible to her. He expended so much energy kicking them back, throwing magical daggers of death, flinging them away with nothing more than flicks of his wrists that it had exhausted him.
She had stood there dumbfounded in the midst of mayhem for the five minutes it took him to dispose of them all. Her neighbors’ lights had started coming on, people peeking out of their windows and doors. Bijan had grabbed her and dragged her in through her front door, desperately trying to avoid unnecessary attention.
They stood in her front hall, door closed and locked tightly with barely a thought from Bijan. First she trembled. “You’re safe,” he’d said, not knowing for sure how to comfort a human female. “It’s all right.”
Kaia shook even harder. His hands cupped her elbows. He’d never seen anyone look so frightened, not even Kana on the day he’d put Kaia through the portal. “Kaia, listen to me, I’ll explain everything.”
Tears rolled down her cheeks. “What the hell are you?” she asked. “A-are you some kind of...like...vampire or something?”
Vampire? He searched through all the memories he had and couldn’t find anything that matched with that word. “I don’t know what that is,” he said.
“With all...all the...” Kaia’s hand waved in the air aimlessly. “You know, all that jumping around, sort of like you were flying or something and...well, I guess maybe not vampire.” She chewed on her lip. “Maybe you’re a demon?”
His eyebrows shot up along with his heart rate. “I’m definitely not a demon. I will explain everything, but to hear it you need to trust me.”
At that moment her wooden front door slammed open. She screamed as three sycophants rushed Bijan, with two more going for the Nake. In such close quarters it was little trouble to kill them, black ash remnants blowing away on a wind that shouldn’t be there inside a house.
When h
e’d finished with the last one and magically fixed her door so it closed and locked again, he turned to find her unconscious at his feet. He checked her vital signs; he could actually hear her heart beating steadily and feel her breaths as though each was a blast of wind and it made him shiver in response.
He wasn’t certain what was happening, but he knew it wasn’t going to end with these sycophants. The Mulmak/Kana combination would send more, and more, and more. Obviously he’d found a way to open portals in shorter time-frames than thirty-nine hours and that meant the Vloveks were rewriting the rules.
Bijan no longer knew what to expect, and knew he could no longer be sure Kaia would remain safe for any specified period of time. There was only one way to keep the Nake away from Shinzar now. Feeling a strange pain in his chest that suspiciously mirrored the one he’d felt after realizing Kana had been possessed by Mulmak, Bijan lifted his mentor’s daughter into his arms, knowing with each step upward that he took, he might never be seeing his beloved Shinzar again.
Now as he sat here with her hand held tightly in his, Bijan’s eyes burned. He could see Shinzar again, and he could remove the threat to Kaia once and for all, simply by taking the Nake home. And praying that against all odds he could prevent it from falling into Vlovek hands long enough to destroy at least one of the other four talismans.
He simply wasn’t willing to risk Kaia’s life, nor did he particularly want to stay in the Earth dimension indefinitely. He would have to return to Shinzar to regenerate his body anyway, and there was no way for him to protect her during the hours he’d be forced to spend on his world for the process.
Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Bijan let go of her hand, rose to his feet and began to hum. Minutes passed and when the portal was nearly large enough for him to tumble through head-first, he stole one more glance at her golden blonde hair splayed out around her; at the rise and fall of her chest; at the mouth which had spoken and smiled and taught him how to laugh in only two short hours.
Talisman Page 5
