Crystal Tomb (Starfire Angels: Dark Angel Chronicles Book 3) (7 page)

The young Risaal in human form jerked
away and hurried back to the driver seat, obediently buckling in
without another word. A few seconds later, the rumble of the engine
changed and the movement of the van made Kalas push to keep his
position over the Inari couple against forces that wanted to leave
him behind.

Kalas moved the scanner up and down
each body, but the crystal readings didn't change. That must have
been an error. According to what he saw, the Inari had absorbed the
crystal's energy. Maybe that would explain the phenomena they'd
witnessed while watching the pair flying. He'd have to discuss this
with their commander, yet neither of them was an expert. That was
Dar Lorel's position as the xenobiologist. She'd have her chance to
study these two.

Kalas sat back at the rear of the van,
confused by the data but intrigued by the possibilities. The couple
was secure and the dose of alcohol would keep them out for a while.
He could relax, but he wouldn't. They had a two hour drive to their
destination, an old missile silo in a remote area of eastern North
Dakota. Until then, he would defend their prisoners with his life.
They were far more valuable than he had first suspected.

Claws formed of the spines around his
fingertips, ready for slicing into the couple in the van. The
desire to exact his revenge for the crimes of the Inari's ancestors
ached within him.

Not yet. They needed the
couple alive to explain what had happened to the
D'Nuvar
and the
Inari.

Kalas was patient and could
wait until they had what they wanted. He was
Rikku
, the second in command. The time
would come
after
the Inari translated the writing and, with the discovery of
the crystal, answers about its fate. The Inari had obviously done
something to it.

They had also learned some new tricks.
The strange phenomena in the sky had proven that.

These two were no ordinary Inari. They
had evolved.

But they would suffer for the crimes
of their ancestors.

Finding a L
ost Past

The monolith with its
concentric rings of Inari text stared at her, the central dome of
red glistening under the lights of its display. The image zoomed in
on the central ring of text. Certain characters clarified in the
view, a statement shimmering with blue-green.

After some time, the image
blurred into a haze of color and light without focus but swirling
and twisting as if alive. Thoughts coalesced from the thick of
writhing colors, translated by an unconscious mind from the
vision.

ALL OF US.
INTERCONNECTED.

OTHER UNIVERSE, UNAWARE.
UNAWARE…

AS IT SHOULD
BE.

WHY?

Through the colors in
light, scenes wavered, slipping past and slowing to reveal strange
worlds. A winged creature hovered in the air, a dozen tapering
tails hanging from it, seemingly unaware of the writhing colors
passing through and around it. A light flashed but the tails
tangled around a dot of another creature and pulled it to the
body.

SO FLEETING.
SURREAL.

WHAT IS IT?

MORE COME.

Flashes of light
continued, sometimes taking shapes lasting more than a microsecond,
strange shapes, some humanoid, which dissolved into the haze of
colors.

BLENDING. ALWAYS. THEY
CONSUME, GROW, FADE. SHARE.

Other scenes zipped by as
flashes of light added to the colors.

ONE CANNOT EXIST WITHOUT
THE OTHER. INSEPARABLE. ETERNAL.

WHAT IS IT? The question
repeated into a chorus.

EXPLORE. DISCOVER.
LEARN.

YES…

WE GO.

Lightning flashed and
sizzled around a rip through the light.

PAIN!

A chorus of anguish rose
up and the colors bled through the gash until it sealed. Beyond the
haze but seemingly within it, a crystal floated.

THEY SURVIVE. The thought
echoed through the mass of consciousness with a sense of
satisfaction and relief.

THAT UNIVERSE IS LOCKED.
WE CANNOT EXIST FREE.

EXPLORE. OBSERVE.
EXPERIENCE.

SO BE IT…

The scene shifted beyond
the haze to a world of magnificent cities and willowy beings of a
roughly humanoid shape which seemed to float over the ground with
the light of their sun shimmering behind them.

ALWAYS SHIFTING. ENERGY
COMES AND GOES. WE GIVE. WE RECEIVE.

WHY?

ETERNAL
CO-EXISTENCE.

EXISTENCE DIFFERENT BUT
DEPENDENT.

YES…

EXPLORE. LEARN…

A mass of light and pain
sent thoughts shrieking in the moment the universe seemed to
collapse, until one of the willowy beings glided near.

.

Voices screamed a pounding
rhythm through Raea's head.
Oh, God. Make
it stop.
Her stomach twisted and a knot
tightened in her throat. She curled up on her side, aware in that
motion of a hard floor beneath her. She was going to hurl if things
worsened.

Reality crashed through the intense
emotions of the Starfire entities. Their voices faded to the
background with the clear rush of memories of those last moments
before the blackness.

Those last moments—the prick and the
chase…

"Elis!" She opened her eyes to
darkness and twisted to search around her. Damn her head. Even a
slight shift revved up the throbbing a few notches to force her to
lie still. The cold, hard floor caused pressure sores in her
shoulder and hip on the side she laid upon, and the musty smell of
still air enveloped her while she waited for the pain in her head
to fade.

She lay in a dark room in which the
only light came from a slit at the bottom of a door, or that's what
she assumed it was. "Elis?"

Crystal fire. Where was he? He better
be all right.

Where was
she
?

This had to be a dream. Then again, it
was no stranger than the last two months of her life, and she
definitely had not been dreaming. "Elis?"

Still nothing.

Raea tried again to sit up, this time
pushing herself more slowly and noticing the tight cuffs on her
wrists limiting her movement.

In the faint light, she saw only the
outline of solid metal securing her wrists unlike any handcuffs
she'd ever seen.

She wiggled her wrists and braced the
bar on her knee to pull back. Something squeezed her wrists and she
dropped her knee.

"Owowowowow!" Damn, it pinched! The
cuffs tightened on her.

Okay, so not wiggling out of those.
She'd never heard of cuffs that could tighten when one tried to get
out of them, like some high-tech version of a Chinese finger
puzzle. Whoever held her had some fancy gadgetry. Worse, they had
Elis somewhere else.

She had to find him. If they hurt
him…

No, she refused to think of that. One
way or another, she would see him again.

"Hello?" Was anyone near? From the
acoustics, the room was small and probably solid cement, like the
cold floor. "Hello! Is someone listening?"

Nothing. Not even movement outside the
door.

Mindful of the cuffs, which had
loosened with the ceasing of her struggles, she pushed herself from
the floor and stood. If the door was there, that meant there had to
be a corridor or room on the other side; she doubted the door went
out into the open.

A little disoriented by the darkness
but able to measure her closeness by the line of light, she inched
towards the door with her arms out before her. Cold metal greeted
her hands, which fumbled along until she discovered a door knob,
which refused to turn. She was locked in, but she still had her
senses and pressed her ear against the door to listen.

Silence.

Was anybody listening? Did they just
lock her wrists and throw her in?

Was she going to die there, forgotten
and alone?

No. They'd kept her alive for
something. Maybe it was the Shirukan. Maybe they'd come back for
the Starfire already.

A moment of panic lifted her hands to
her chest.

Whew! Still there. The smooth facets
of the crystal contrasted the soft curl of black down feather from
Elis she still wore with it.

They must have been on Earth still,
because no one had opened a portal except her and she was certain
it hadn't gone anywhere except Egypt, and the door had a knob,
unlike Inari doors, which slid open.

Too bad she couldn't open a portal in
confinement. Unfortunately, the gravity produced would destabilize
the structure around her. If Elis was there, she couldn't allow
that nor leave him behind. She would find him first.

He'd better be alive.

Wait. Her tri-comm and her cell. Her
hands reached up, but as she suspected from the cold on her cheek,
it was gone. She fumbled to reach her jacket pockets but they were
empty. Damn. Her captors had thought of everything.

She was alone, but that didn't mean
she had to take it quietly.

"Hey! Heeeeyyy!" She pounded her fists
on metal—definitely a door, which encouraged her further. Metal
hurt, though, so she banged the cuffs on the door with the
secondary hope that it might break them. "I'm awake in here. Hello!
Someone answer me…Is someone there? Heeeeyyy!"

After a series of hard pounding, the
cuffs tightened, forcing her to stop.

Crystal fire! She sucked air in
through her teeth until the cuffs loosened, easing the pain they
inflicted. She was starting to sound like Elis. That should make
Josh happy—he always scolded her, Linds, and Jess for cursing. If
she cursed like an Inari, it wasn't as bad to him.

Whatever. She would just be glad to
see Josh again.

The cuffs finally loosened after she
stood still for a while.

Footsteps approached from outside the
door. The shadow of two feet moved in the slit of light. About
time. Now she might learn who held her and where Elis
was.

Raea stepped back a moment before the
door opened out. In the blinding light, she squinted and lifted her
hands up before her to shade her eyes.

"Out." The order snapped in a rough
voice.

As her eyes adjusted, she lowered her
hands and blinked. The light wasn't too bright, especially with the
gray, cement walls; but it could have been the sun after she'd
awakened in the dark room.

"Where are we going?"

"Out." A man in a brown uniform and
cap motioned with some sort of handgun.

No wings, then not Shirukan, unless
they were still on Earth where the Shirukan would hide their wings,
which could explain the different jumpsuits. This one didn't seem
like one of the elite soldiers, though. One way or another, she'd
find out.

Raea stepped out and a second man in a
similar brown uniform closed the door. "Where are we
going?"

"Walk." The first man motioned with
his gun past the second man, who stepped back to the wall, the gun
in his hand aimed at her.

Raea never wanted to see another gun
in her life—lately they were always pointed at her.

Her nerves bristled with
anxiety.
Calm. Stay calm.
If only she could. At least when she'd faced the
Shirukan, it hadn't been at point blank range. She took a deep
breath to calm the pounding of her heart. She would not fear the
Shirukan. She could escape, if given the right chance.

Like they would give her another
chance.

She might not escape but
she could hope Elis did. Even that was unlikely; he'd sworn to
never leave her.
Pessimistic much,
Raea?
She'd have to change that someday,
after she escaped with Elis.

At an intersection, the man behind her
shoved her to the corridor on her right, which ended at a large,
heavy door with a thick alphanumeric designation of "B-1" painted
in white in blocky, western letters and numbers. They had to be on
Earth yet.

"Inside," he said.

He must have been blind; the door was
closed. "How?"

The wall near her moved. Man, her eyes
were really going buggy from being in that dark room.

No. It wasn't her eyes. The
wall really
did
move, but it wasn’t the wall. A humanoid shape moved to a box
on the wall, but that shape could have been the wall; it matched
perfectly. Okay, this was too weird, even for her life.

The door clicked and slid aside,
grinding on its tracks.

Raea watched the shape seem to merge
back into the wall before her eyes. "What the hell?"

A nasty jab in her back sent her
stumbling forward into a tall cylindrical room.