by Allie Burton
“Fine.” If he wanted to risk his life helping what choice did I have? And I kind of wanted him along. Even after his rejection, his presence made me less alone. Slamming the lid down on my neediness, I firmed my muscles. I needed to stop thinking about Xander and start thinking about how to save myself.
The first poem ticked in my head. I wanted to yell and scream. “Stupid pyramids.” I glanced at Xander before staring out at the Pacific. “We don’t know where to begin to look.”
“If we were in Egypt, I’d say the pyramids of Giza.” His eyes widened and he smiled showing perfect white teeth. “But since we’re in San Francisco…the Transamerica Pyramid.”
His shot in the dark exploded in my brain. “That must be—”
Pop. Pop. A sound echoed off the cliffs.
A chunk of rock shattered apart from the sheer wall near him. A jagged piece flew past.
Pop. Pop.
“Duck.” Terror scraped across my skin and my heart ponged with the next shot. I crouched and covered my head. “Someone’s shooting at us.”
Chapter Fifteen
Olivia
I recognized the sound of gunshots. Heard them in the streets of the Tenderloin night after night and knew when to take cover. But hearing shots and being the target was different. My lungs caved in and my stomach twisted. I moved closer to the cliff wall, keeping my head down. “Who’s shooting at us? The Society?”
Pop.
Xander jerked his head left and then right, scanning the entire scene. “They don’t know we’re out here. Fitch?”
“No way.” My automatic reaction. Fitch shunned guns. If caught, the prison sentence was longer. “More scary homeless people?”
A dumb joke. Neither of us laughed.
“We can’t get stuck here. We need to get to the public path without getting hit.” Xander edged away from the wall. “We’ll just have to run for it.”
I peeked out to assess the logistics on my own. The exposed beach, the open pathway, and the sheer cliff face. “There’s no cover. We’d be easy targets.”
“If we stay here, we’re sitting targets.”
Good point.
Three men stood on the edge of the cliff to the left of the mansion, not on the Society property. They were hidden from the mansion’s view behind a large tree. One man held binoculars, no doubt looking for us. Another man held a handgun. A third man grabbed onto a scraggly bush and lowered himself onto a barely-there path leading down to the water’s edge.
“They’re coming for us.” Panic edged my voice. We had to make a decision fast.
“How can you tell?” He looked in the same direction.
“What do you mean? There are three men. One just lowered himself. The other has a gun. Another binoculars.”
“What type of gun?” Did he need to know every minute detail?
“I don’t know. A handgun of some sort.”
“And you can see all that?” His voice pitched higher.
“Y-yes.” It was kind of weird that I could make out the details at this distance. “What does it matter?” The second guy, the one with the gun, dropped onto the path. “They’re heading toward us.”
“All of them?”
My tummy vaulted into my throat. The acid made me gag. “Yes.”
“The public path is to our right, past the third house.” He paused, his gaze scanning the distance. “If we wait to run until they’re lower down, they won’t have a good angle to shoot.”
“They’d also be closer.” Meaning their shot would be more accurate.
“We can run fast.”
Speak for yourself. Not that we had much choice. We couldn’t stay in one place. “Okay.”
Holding my breath, I watched the three men continuing down. They slipped in a couple of spots and I rooted for one of them to break a leg. That would really slow them down. The waves continued to surge in and out, creeping up the shore, getting closer and closer to the rocks. If only it was high tide. Then, the men would have to cut across the rocks and it would take longer.
“Do you recognize any of them from the Society?”
Xander ran a hand through his dark hair, making it stand up in more places. “No, but it’s hard to see from here.”
Not for me. I could see a line of dirty sweat smear down the one guy’s cheek. Another man had a scar on his nose.
“I’ll signal when they hit the sand. That’s when we take off.” Xander made the decision and I went along with him.
I closed my eyes and waited, trying to calm my nerves, glad the timing wasn’t my decision. I imagined I wasn’t hovering by a cliff waiting for bad guys with guns. Instead, I imagined the heat of the sun caressing my skin. Imagined the sun burning, brighter and hotter. Imagined I was at the beach, the tide surging. Heat built inside me as if the vision was real.
“Go.” He shouted over the suddenly noisy waves.
I shook off my fantasy and opened my eyes. Xander cruised past. The men reached the end of the path and jumped to the sand. Their faces were in shade. One of the men was taller than the others. Seagulls squawked overhead adding to the clamor of the waves.
The corner of my gaze caught the magnitude of the newest waves. High tide had come early. I hurried to catch up. “Look at the waves.”
“It looks like a tsunami.” His awed-out tone echoed off the cliffs. “If those guys don’t move, they’re going to get hit. That piece of sand is below high tide.”
“That will give us more time to get away.” I scrambled the steep climb that pretended to be another path, digging my fingers into the ground for balance. My manicure was history.
He halted. “The sun controls the tides.”
No time for a science lesson now. “Yay, tides.” My body overheated from the climb. I willed the surge to get higher and stronger.
A humongous wave barreled toward the shore. The men’s expressions changed. They stopped running toward us and turned to the rocks behind them. The tall guy grabbed onto a piece jutting out. One of the other guys clambered into a crevice. The third guy jumped and grabbed onto the top of one of the lower rocks.
The ginormous wave rolled forward like a freight train. It crested just before the small sand spit and then crashed like a building falling down. The water hit the rocks and the three men clinging.
“Do you think they’re all right?” I wanted to get away, not watch the men drown.
“I don’t know.” His somber tone sounded unsure.
Like watching a disaster movie, we stood still. The wave rushed back out again. I focused my attention on the place where the men had been hanging to the rocks. A spot of black. “I see them.”
“Alive?”
One of the men moved. He pulled himself higher onto the rocks.
“Yes.” The word whistled through my teeth.
Xander’s intense gaze focused on me. “The sun controls the tides. You control the sun.”
The air emptied out of my chest. Hollowed. I tried to focus. “Are you saying, I caused the tidal surge?”
The prospect whammed into me like the tsunami had hit the rocks. I’d caused a huge wave and unknowingly, I’d almost killed three men. The power, my power, was staggering.
“It’s possible.” His simple statement hit me harder.
The possibilities were endless. Which meant my life could end sooner.
“If I did cause the wave, I’m using more and more of my power. I’m going to burnout faster.” My insides quivered like moldy jelly. “I need to learn how to control this power.”
“We will.” He sounded so confident. “First, we have to find the oils.”
His confidence boosted my moral. We’d find the oils, bargain with the Society, and save me from the burnout. Then, I’d have to figure out what to do with the rest of my strange life.
* * *
A couple of bus rides later, we arrived at the base of the Transamerica Pyramid and marched into the lobby. Xander’s suggestion about the only pyramid in San Francisco made sense.<
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An Italian deli, a few shops selling aspirin and other necessities, and a florist lined the perimeter leading to the elevators. I scanned the businesses listed on the wall next to the security guard hoping to find an Egyptian sounding name. “See anything?”
“Nope.” Xander leaned over my shoulder reading the listing. His scent tickled my nose and I wanted to turn into his arms. He stepped closer to the elevator. “Let’s go to the top.”
“Can I help you, kids?” The security guard behind the podium tried to look down his sharp nose even though Xander was taller.
The best way to deal with quasi-cops was to ignore them and act like you knew what you’re doing. “No.” I shook my head and proceeded forward.
“Unless you’re visiting someone in the building, I can’t let you up.” The guard’s yellowed teeth showed through his fake smile.
Of course, the act-like-you-know-where-you’re-going philosophy would’ve worked better if we hadn’t studied the business listing. “My dad works here.”
“What company?”
“Uh, I…don’t remember but he works on the top floor.” That would give us access to all the floors.
“Your father’s name? I’ll call up and let them know you’re coming.” The security guard called my bluff picking up the phone.
“She’s kidding.” Xander tugged the collar of his T-shirt. “We’re going to the observation deck.”
“Observation deck is closed.” The guard hung up the phone and leaned forward, eyeing us suspiciously. He pointed to an area on the ground floor. “The building has a virtual observation deck now.”
“Virtual?”
“Visitors can look through cameras placed on the twenty-seventh floor. They can’t go there.”
Cameras weren’t going to help us find what we needed. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” The guard took a cell phone from his belt.
As we stepped away I heard a click. I turned back toward the guard. He shoved his cell phone behind the desk. Weird. That sound couldn’t have been a camera phone because there’s no way I could’ve heard it from this distance. Maybe with people chasing me I was paranoid. Paranoid about the sun and the gigantic wave and my new super-sensitive senses.
We headed toward the door with me dragging my feet. “Do you think the Society put one of the essential oils on the observation deck before it was closed to visitors?”
“That would make the most sense. Unless they had access to another floor.” Xander held the door open and gave me a don’t-give-up smile.
I flashed a weak return smile trying to show enthusiasm, but I didn’t feel any. I was afraid and worried and sick to my stomach. “We don’t have access to either.”
Finding the first two oils had been accidental. We’d stumbled upon them. Now, that we understood that we needed to find seven oils, we were thwarted. “Do you think the Society is trying to retrieve the oils like us?”
He led the way onto the crowded sidewalk. “It’s the host’s duty to collect them.”
“And I’m the host.” My voice was flat, emotionless.
“The Society doesn’t know that we know to find the oils.”
“As far as we know.” We stared at each other and burst into laughter at our exchange. I must be slightly hysterical to go from down and emotionless to laughing. That wouldn’t surprise me with this crazy-mixed-up situation.
Sunlight shone like a spotlight as we headed to a small redwood-filled park adjacent to the building. I plopped down on a set of steps. “Now, what? Nothing in the lobby looked Egyptian. Did it?”
He’d recognize anything Egyptian better than I.
“The treasures of the pharaoh’s were buried under ground. I wonder if the Transamerica Pyramid has a basement.” He sat beside me, and even though we weren’t touching I felt the comforting heat from his body. “The first oil we found in the bust of the queen and the second in the Nilometer by the ocean. Each of the oils sort of related to their location.”
“We don’t even know what oils we need to find.” My voice held a defeated, whiny sound.
“I know the seven essential oils and their purposes.”
Just another example of why Xander should’ve received the soul. “You probably know Egyptian history, too.”
He pointed at a brass plaque on the side of the steps for two dogs, Bummer and Lazarus. “For example, the name Lazarus is in the Bible. For ancient Egyptians the name equates to Osiris, the god of Afterlife.”
My ears perked up. “The name is Egyptian?”
“It could be.”
The plaque told the story about two stray dogs who lived on the streets of San Francisco in the Nineteenth Century. Bummer saved Lazarus from a dog fight and the two were never apart after that.
I slid next to the plaque and stuck my fingers at its edges. Using all my strength, I tried to lift the brass monument. “It won’t move.”
“You think?” He kneeled on the step below me and placed his hands on the other side. “Together.”
We both pulled.
Nothing.
If the plaque didn’t hide an essential oil, then our search would stop here. With security so tight, it would be difficult to get into the basement of the building.
He let go of the plaque. “Move over while I think.”
“Think about what?”
“Lotus, which recalls the sweetness of a woman, was hidden in the queen’s bust. Juniper, to calm and cleanse, was hidden near the ocean, sometimes submerged—”
“And cleansed.” My voice trilled higher.
“Exactly.” He drummed his fingers on the plaque.
“Do any of the other oils relate to dogs?”
“No.”
“Do any of the other oils relate to dead dogs?” The death god Anubis was a dog. And I knew that because…?
“Well, palm is for revitalizing energy. I suppose, if you were dead you’d want to be revitalized.”
“Ya, think?”
“If we believe palm is the oil behind this plaque, how do we get it?”
“We can’t just use a jackhammer.” I glanced around at the people coming and going. “At least not in the day time.”
“Egyptians liked puzzles. If Society placed the oils around the city to keep them safe and secure—”
“How safe could they be scattered around the city? What if a stranger found one by accident? Like we did. Why didn’t they lock them in a bank vault?” The Society’s reasons seemed unsecure.
“The Society is steeped in ancient tradition and rituals. They didn’t have banks back in their founding day. And they needed to keep their Society a secret.” Scratching his chin, he studied the plaque. “They shifted their hiding places when threatened, but wanted to keep the oils hidden until they were in need of them.”
“Like now, because Tut’s soul has been received.” By me. I didn’t say that out loud. I didn’t want to rub my power in his face.
“Palm?” Xander’s fingers ran over the letters on the plaque.
I shrugged and then, nodded. Why not? I’d try anything.
“P-A-L-M.” He pressed his finger on each of the letters spread throughout the story on the plaque.
A click echoed loudly.
I lurched.
“It opened,” his surprised whisper echoed, too. A delighted spark showed in his eyes.
“Awesome Anubis.” I shook my head when I threw around Egyptian words like I actually knew what I was talking about.
I glanced around. So far no one noticed us hovering over this spot. The people were busy hustling back and forth.
He unlatched the clasp and the brass swung open like a door. Behind the plaque a vessel, similar to the others, nestled inside. With shaking hands, he reached in and took hold of the jar.
The ancient vessel shimmered gold in the sunlight. It looked the same as the other two.
Lifting the stopper, he took a sniff and nodded. “Palm.”
We’d done it. It wasn’t by accident that
we’d found this vessel. It was by our determination and intelligence. Wanting to celebrate our success, I wrapped my arms around him. I’d been wanting to touch him again, but wasn’t sure how he felt about hugging. About us hugging. Warmth surged through me. His heat mingled with mine and I wanted to melt into him.
His hard body twitched and collapsed. I pulled away and grabbed the vessel out of his lifeless hands. He slid onto the steps and bumped his head on the hard edge with a crack.
I jumped back.
My touch had done that to him. My tummy tilted with my dashed romantic dreams. We’d touched when I’d fallen and broken the Nilometer. He’d been fine. No shock. No dehydration. Certainly, no passing out.
Now, his entire body slumped on the steps. His face was pale. His eyes closed. And he’d cracked his head. He can’t be dead. He can’t. He can’t. He can’t.
“Xander, what happened?” I reached out to him but jerked my hand back.
He twitched again. He was alive.
“Xander?” I peered at his handsome face and imagined never seeing his smile or the light in his eyes again. This wasn’t just about attraction. I cared for him. Liked him as a person.
My heart trembled. I’d never experienced this strong of a connection with anyone before. Sure, I cared what happened to Tina and Doug but this emotion was different. Stronger. Eternal.
Breath still flowed in and out of Xander’s mouth. His heart still beat. All good signs.
People walking by on the steps started to stare. Before, we were just two kids hanging out. Now, Xander was passed out and I held a strange vessel. Panic screeched through my brain. I slammed the plaque shut. No reason for anyone to become suspicious. I grabbed the bag and shoved the latest vessel inside.
“Everything all right?” a woman in a blue business suit asked.
A man had stopped behind her and a couple stopped hugging to stare. I didn’t want anyone calling 9-1-1.
“Too much sun.” Too much me.
I waved my hand over his face. “Xander,” I whispered in his ear. “Get up.”
The woman squinted at us, suspicion in her eyes. “I can let security know.”
“No.” I practically shouted. “No. Really. He’ll be fine.”
