Crystal Tomb (Starfire Angels: Dark Angel Chronicles Book 3) (33 page)

It
was
a Starfire, a second crystal.
How?

So Close

"Where are you going so
soon?"

Raea cringed, her back to Anita under
the glow of the street light. Damn, that woman was annoying and
sneaky. She hadn't even seen Anita waiting for her in the shadows.
"None of your business." Next to her, Nare scowled but said
nothing, her tri-comm dark on her cheek. They had agreed to keep
the shard a secret. Apparently, Nare took that as keeping her mouth
shut, which was probably for the best.

"Everything you do is my business. It
has been since I was assigned to you. Who do you think pushed
through approval of Elis's application?"

Raea caught her breath.
"You?"

Crap. She wanted to wipe that smirk
off Anita's face.

"Why?"

Anita crossed her arms and shrugged.
"I knew what he was and why he was here."

"Debbie told you."

"No." She said that too
coolly.

That meant only one other reason. "You
spied on him?"

A corner of her lips crooked
up.

"Can't we get any privacy?" Enough of
the woman! She had more important business to finish than deal with
this bitch.

Raea marched away to the darkness of
the field, Nare quietly keeping pace beside her, and pressed her
tri-comm to her cheek. Who cared if they trampled the wheatgrass?
She had to get away from Anita quickly. That meant getting airborne
as soon as possible.

"Your life has always been our
business, Raea."

Not anymore.

Steps hurrying behind them on the
pavement grated on her nerves.

["Let's go, before she catches up,"]
Raea whispered over her tri-comm.

["Agreed."]

They ran through the field over the
hill, where the shadow from the lights of town fell. While running,
Raea found the resonance, that perfect pitch of the crystal within
her cells allowing her access to the power, and focused on growing
wings on her back again.

Nare beat her to the sky, pale blue
wings spreading wide and flapping hard. Raea swerved out of the way
of the wind created and spread her wings. None too soon, the
disturbance of Nare rising into the starry sky settled. She flapped
to join the blue-white wings against the darkness.

In the light of a streetlamp below,
Anita stood watching. Raea's blood curdled and her fingers
tightened into fists.

["Forget her."] Nare's voice reached
her clearly over the tri-comm. ["Focus on the Starfire. Do the
entities of your shard remember?"]

Her shard—she should have thought of
that. She might not have been paying attention to where she flew
the night she escaped the Risaal, but the entities would have
mapped the location.

A touch of the resonance opened the
contact with her Starfire. She saw the landscape below her flight
home as she saw it then. ["Yes."]

A pause, then, ["Good. Lead the
way."]

Rather than confuse herself, she
retraced her flight towards Bismarck and angled east, following the
trail of white and red car lights marking I-94 in the
night.

Nare said little, probably
because she still adjusted to the connection with the Starfire
entities. It seemed too easy, but maybe—
maybe
—the entities understood their
situation and would cooperate no matter the cost. They might have
connected to Nare's memories and known, even through the protective
covering. It had protected the shard from mechanical detection, but
apparently not from a Keeper, like the crystal in the heart of the
Atlantis memorial.

Thinking about Nare and her new status
took Raea's mind off the fresh memories of that awful night, only a
few nights ago. It seemed ages ago yet could have happened only the
night before.

All the guilt and grief broke through
her barriers and flooded through her, blurring her eyes with
moisture. She sniffed and wiped cold tears from her
eyes.

Elis…I love you
so
much. It hurts. God, it
hurts. Why did this have to happen? Why you? Why now? I'll never
forget what you did for me…Never. I want to remember. You gave so
much and never asked for anything…I was selfish but no more…I know
better now.
Raea closed her eyes and flew,
remembering the recent night he flew over her and held her in the
air, his strong arms blocking out the horror of Pallin's memory.
The rush of excitement from his touch—Elis's touch, so soft and
endearing, gentle and satisfying. She could almost feel it reaching
into her soul.

I wish I'd known sooner. I
wish I'd never listened to anyone. I was so stupid not to see you
before. Now…Now you're gone. I can never take it all back. I'm so
sorry. I wish none of this had happened.

But it won't be in vain.
We have the fifth shard, and we will free the others.

She let out a shuddering sigh to
regain her composure and glanced over her left shoulder and wing at
Nare. The shard that should have been Elis's belonged to his
cousin.

It should have been his.
It
would
have been,
if they'd gone that night. Maybe none of this would have happened.
Maybe he'd be alive if he'd had the shard already.

She was so alone.

Focus on the
landscape.
Not Elis; not yet. The time
would come to grieve as her heart desired, but not until after they
freed the other crystal.

[You are never alone
unless you choose to be.]

Atia could spare the
lectures.

[I would not be if I could
change the past.]

Anger burned a rebuttal, but truth
washed it away in humility. The Lady understood after experiencing
it all.

[I never deserved him. He
was too good.]
That's why Elis was taken
from her. It should have been her death. He deserved far better
than Raea could give him.

[You are more than you
know, or they would not have accepted you.]

She wished she could believe Atia, but
this time the Lady was wrong.

[Believe in yourself as he
did, Raea.]

Yes. She would make Elis's
sacrifice count for something. Maybe Atia was right. In that, a new
appreciation for the Lady welled up within her.
[Thank you.]

She wiped her eyes and the remainder
of her tears dried up in the cool night air brushing her cheeks,
but the knot of emotions stuck in her chest. Despite the pep talk,
the pain of losing him ached through her.

It always would, but she had to finish
this. One more task and she could focus on his memory.

It was so hard not to think about him,
though.

["Raea. Are you all
right?"]

Nare had noticed. Raea had hoped to
avoid talking about it. So much for that.

["I'll be fine. We're almost
there."]

["You're sure?"]

["Yes."] She sniffed in spite of
herself. ["No. We're going back to where he was
killed."]

["I know…You can do this. You're
strong. I've seen it. We'll do this together."] She appreciated
Nare's pep talk, but why couldn't she show the same respect for
Elis when he was alive? Why did it take his death to soften her? It
wasn't fair! Death was never fair.

["How much farther?"]

Raea wiped her eyes and adjusted her
wings to glide on a steady air current while she compared the land
below to the memories the Starfire showed her. ["Not far."] The
lone building and fenced area was ahead, a cluster of trees
darkening an area in the middle of a large pasture. She would have
to focus if she hoped to live through this.

* * *

Kalas fingered the weapon in his hand,
ready to kill the Inari if he dared make those hands glow. For the
moment, the topless Inari stood still while Lorel tended to his
chest wound. Kalas couldn't afford to lose Lorel. The xenobiologist
gave him an advantage in the upcoming battle for clan dominance on
Earth and their return to the homeworld.

The Inari seemed unusually
cooperative,
too
cooperative. If he intended Kalas to let down his guard, he
deluded himself.

"This is nearly healed." Lorel sounded
pleased. "How is it possible?"

"The Starfire makes us stronger."
Strangely colored eyes peering up through disheveled black hair at
Kalas made his spikes shift down his back in spite of himself.
Defiance flared in those eyes, a challenge igniting Kalas's anger
and a need for retribution.

He fingered the trigger of his weapon
but controlled himself.

"It enhances our healing abilities."
The Inari spoke with his eyes on Lorel, all hint of defiance
gone.

"This is remarkable. I would
appreciate learning more of your symbiosis with the energy of the
crystal." Lorel held up the scanner, her eyes on the
display.

"Another time." Black wings
disappeared behind the Inari's back.

A moment of hesitation passed between
them, their eyes locked and Lorel's expression puzzling. Her eyes
shifted toward Kalas for a second and a few spikes broke apart her
camouflage on her neck. She was anxious about something.

That something struck discord in his
mind. The situation felt wrong. The Inari was too comfortable with
Lorel.

The Inari shifted his head sideways
and back and Lorel lowered her scanner.

A click on the link Kalas wore in his
ear stole his attention for a moment.

{"Dar Lorel, your attention is needed
with the human."}

The medic glanced back at him. {"His
condition?"}

{"Unconscious. Heart rate low. He
won't awaken. I think he's dying."}

She stared at Kalas as if asking what
to do. They didn't need the human with the Inari there, but he was
their backup. They couldn't risk losing him yet.

{"Go."} Kalas didn't need her again
for a while. She'd already confirmed the Inari in good
health.

Why did she look at the Inari like
that?

Elis frowned.

"You can heal?" Lorel
asked.

"Yes."

"Humans?"

The Inari straightened, standing fully
taller than any of them, his frown hardening. "Yes."

What was this about? Why did she
reveal this to him?

The spikes on her neck broke apart and
she turned to Kalas. "He can help us."

She put too much trust in the
Inari.

Kalas fingered the trigger of his
weapon. The Inari's wings, which had loosened at his back,
disappeared again and his cheek twitched, a hint of fear in those
eyes. Satisfaction filled Kalas, until Lorel caught his eye and her
nostril slits widened. She was the one he intended to kill, but not
yet.

He trusted no one fully, not even her,
but he needed her cooperation to succeed. He needed every
individual to support him if he would succeed in defeating Nakor
Surik and his clan.

{"It's not worth the risk."} Of losing
the Inari and risking failure of his plan. But his interest was
piqued. How could the Inari heal the human?

{"He's told me of some of
these abilities they have because of their symbiosis with
the
D'Nuvar
. The
human is our link to finding another shard of it, if what we
suspect is true.
Kan Rikku
Nakor Surik will be displeased if the human
dies."}

True, but he'd be more displeased if
the Inari used this as a distraction to escape.

The link clicked again. {"The human
quit breathing. Dar Lorel, you're needed immediately."}

She gave him a look of disdain and
raced out as soon as the door opened.

"I can help."

Kalas lifted his weapon, his temper
spiked with the desire for a reason to kill the Inari. "You
lie."

"No." Elis spoke calmly, his black
wings lifting slightly and settling again to relax off his back.
"It's my duty, a gift of the Starfire."

Gift? More like theft. Still, if the
Inari helped the human, maybe he would reveal the location of the
Eye. Kalas had considered the idea once before. The humans thought
the Inari were special and worshipped them.

But taking the Inari out risked him
escaping.

Kalas twisted and glanced up at the
observation glass. No sign of Nakor Surik. He'd probably returned
to his private room to meditate and consider their plans. Kalas was
on his own. A favorable outcome could secure his leadership among
the rebel clans. Failure would risk everything.

It wasn't worth it.

He strode towards the door when his
link clicked.

{"
Rikku
Ronur Kalas."} Lorel's voice.
{"I can't revive him."}

Kalas hesitated and turned back to the
Inari. {"You must."}