Rise of Alpha (The Prodian Journey #1) (23 page)

“Don’t worry. Car is there and he’s got Mark and Darryl watching her.”

Somehow, the idea should’ve comforted me, but instead I felt sick to my stomach.
 

“Jealousy is not healthy, my boy.” Matro glanced my way. “Go shower if it’ll make you feel better. I’m going to wait here. There’s something I want to show you afterward.”

I took my time in the shower. I ached all over, and the warm water helped. Afterwards, I felt a bit better. Being suspended may not have been an ideal way to close out my high school record, but finally having the balls to stand up to Kevin made it worth the trouble. If it had happened pre-Shannon, I’d have had many things to occupy my time, like reading, taking pictures, or playing video games all day. Now, I couldn’t think of anything better to do but ogle Shannon.

Once I’d toweled dry and changed into shorts and a cotton T-shirt, I combed my hair with my fingers and hurried out. Matro was sitting on my bed, looking all comfortable and holding another one of my favorite books.

“This looks interesting.”
 

“It has its moments.” I’d read the book so many times. The spine was showing wear.

Matro got up and slipped the book in the waistband of his pants.
 

“Where are we going?” I asked, taking the pill bottle from my nightstand.

“I’m going to show you what happened while you were sleeping.”

“Hold up. Let me pop a pain pill, and I’ll meet you outside.” I turned to the door.

“Your parents left, so there’s no need for me to hide.”
 

Matro followed me down the stairs to the kitchen. The house was quiet except for the humming of the refrigerator. The coffee maker buzzed and shut off.
 

“Coffee?” I asked.

Matro shook his head. “Thanks anyway,” he said, walking to the back door. He ran his fingers along the vertical blinds, making them sway like tree branches on a windy day. I opened the fridge and grabbed the orange juice, popped the pill in my mouth, and drank straight from the carton.
 

“Your mother wouldn’t like that,” he commented.
 

“Yeah, and you’re not my mother.” I recapped the lid and shoved the carton back inside the fridge.
 

Matro chuckled. “Fair enough. No breakfast for the champion?” he asked.

“I’m ready.” I started for the front door. When I didn’t hear Matro’s footsteps behind me, I looked over my shoulder and found him still standing in the middle of the kitchen with his eyes closed.

I walked back, feeling like I was interrupting something important. Then I noticed the swirling air at his feet, like a mini-tornado. His eyes opened then, and they were glazed over. The color was like a kaleidoscope, dark but mesmerizing.
 

“What the hell?” I stumbled backward.

“Hop in. I can take you with me.” Even Matro’s voice had changed from its normal booming bass to something more like a wisp of air.
 

Reluctantly, I stepped forward, feeling the cool air brush my legs. He held onto my shoulders and pulled me closer, and the column of air rose, faster, swirling until I could no longer see anything beyond it. We were surrounded by walls of twisting air, fierce and deafening.
 

My heart pounded against my chest, but surprisingly, my ribs didn’t hurt. In the darkness, I felt us lifting, like we were taking off. As unmanly as it seemed, I grabbed Matro’s waist and held on to him like a pansy. This was freaking me out.
 

After a long minute of nothing but shades of black, white, and gray flashing around us, the dizzy swirling stopped and the sounds faded away. Then I was struck by the feeling of flying and tightened my grip around Matro’s waist even more.

He laughed, a pure and gleeful sound that made me realize how stupid I must look to him. Still, I couldn’t let go for fear of falling. He tried to pry my fingers away, but I gripped tighter.

“Boy, it’s okay. You can let go now. I promise you won’t fall.”
 

I shook my head. “What the hell are you doing? Are you planning on killing me?”
 

“Tempting, but no.” Matro gave me a brief smile and pried me off him.
 

I wanted to scream, but a little yelp was all that came out.
 

“Stop resisting,” he said.

“I’m going to fall.” I started pumping my legs to try to keep aloft.

“Stop and stay still. Trust me.” Matro shook me by the shoulders, urging me to listen.

Despite his assurances, I kept trying to push myself up, but after several minutes, my legs began to tire. That was when I noticed that Matro wasn’t moving at all, just watching me and grinning. Filled with trepidation, I stopped flailing my legs. Nothing happened. I didn’t drop. I was just there, suspended in space.

“How is this possible?” I asked, still feeling anxious.

“You’re inside a Cannus.”

“A what?”
 

“It’s a vacuum we use for transport.
 
In here, humans can see what we see, but no one else can see us while we’re inside.”

It felt like we were traveling at high speed, but looking out, everything seemed to be moving at a normal pace. We covered a good distance before he pointed at something. A figure was moving underneath a dark cloak, running. It had a ferocious expression and a face that was closer to animal than human.
 

“That’s an Ergan. That’s what they look like to us.” Matro pointed to another one. It was galloping like a horse.
 

“You said they can’t see us?” I asked again, concerned.

“No, but they can track our scent. They know we’re in the vicinity.”
 

“Scent? What are we supposed to smell like?”

“I have no idea, but they seem to know when we’re around.”

“They’re the ones who stink,” I said, recalling my last encounter with them. The sound of their gnashing teeth made me want to cover my ears. How could Matro stand it?

He answered my unspoken question. “It’s not easy, but years of practice tuning them out helps.”

We were approaching my school, I realized. “What are we doing here?”
 

“You see that mark on the wall by the front door?” He pointed to a symbol painted on the edifice, but I couldn’t quite make out what it was. It looked like three circles linked together, with a three-pronged spear running through them. Despite the graffiti’s large size, nobody seemed to notice it.
 

“That’s the symbol of the Pratrim, our oldest adversary. No one but Aarmarks can see it.” Matro’s face darkened.

“Then how come I can?”

“Because you’re in the Cannus with me. Like I told you. In here, you will see what I see.”

I nodded.
 
“I thought they’d been here all along, watching Shannon.”
 

“The Ergans are the soldiers. They’re just smalltime combatants, the front-liners employed to do reconnaissance. It’s typical for the symbol to appear only when one of the Pratrim leaders is present. This could mean that they’re coming together and gathering strength.” Matro glanced around, his brows furrowed.
 

“What does that mean?” I felt an unfamiliar dread spreading through me.

“Can you sense any danger right now?” Matro asked instead of answering my question.

“What do you mean?”

“Close your eyes and feel. Do you sense anything around you? Don’t pay attention to the Ergans. They’re always around, so you’re most likely immune to their presence by now.”
 

I did what I was told, closing my eyes and allowing my hearing to capture the slightest sound.
 

“I hear faint murmuring in another language, and someone’s laughing. That’s all.” I opened my eyes and glanced around.

Matro nodded. “We’ll head back to your place now.” Just as he spoke, the school bell rang.
 

“What were those voices? Do they mean anything?” I asked, watching through our invisible vacuum while students burst out the front door like liberated soldiers returning from a war.

“Nothing yet,” he said and motioned with his hand.
 

“What do you mean, ‘nothing yet’?” I insisted. All this gibberish was beginning to irritate me.
 

“That’s need-to-know. I can’t tell you any more right now.”
 

I was too busy pondering his cryptic explanation to notice that we had landed back in my kitchen.

“Has Shannon asked you about anything lately?” he asked, the funnel of air slowly dissipating around us.

“Aside from the Ergans, no. Can’t we tell her anything?”
 

“She’s a precious child, and if we can preserve her that way, the better for all of us.”
 

“I want to remind you that hiding things will blow up in your face someday.”

The funnel disappeared at that moment, and my pain came rushing back.
 

Matro pointed at the door. “She’s here,” he said and disappeared.

I walked to the door in slow, easy steps, giving myself time to compose myself. The short ride with Matro had freaked me out, but the knowledge that a greater threat was in our midst was more disconcerting.
 

When I opened the door, there was Shannon, all smiles.

“Hey, how are you feeling today?” she asked, stepping inside.
 

Before I closed the door, I took a quick glance outside, and Mark and Darryl waved from the car before speeding away. There was nothing else but the same faint voices I’d heard earlier. A whole lot of goose bumps hit me, and I slammed the door, which made Shannon jump.

“I’m sorry. I’m a little edgy today.”
 

“You don’t look too well. Do you want me to go?”
 

“No, I want you to stay here.” I took her hand, and we climbed the stairs together in slow, grandpa steps.
 

“Okay.” She laughed and squeezed my hand. “I have your homework with me. We can do it together.”

“Sure.”
 

I led her to the desk before I sat down on the edge of the bed, as close to her as possible. She emptied her backpack of its contents and spread them across my messy desktop. Her hair was pulled back in braids, and I had this damn urge to undo them.
 

She looked up and caught me staring at her. Her blue eyes sparkled when she smiled. “Are you okay? You looked dazed.”

“Yeah.” I looked away, feeling foolish for being caught staring at her.
 

“Do you want to work on Sweeney’s first?” She handed me a piece of paper with some scribbled notes on it.
 

“Might as well.” I tried to retrieve my backpack from the floor, but Shannon beat me to it. She handed the bag to me and I took out the book and sat down on the floor.
 

For the next two hours, we discussed the next scene of
The Glass Menagerie
. As we’d agreed before, it was Shannon’s turn to write the analysis. I watched her while she got busy writing our combined work.

She often smiled as she wrote, her hand moving in beautiful arching motions. A few times, her mouth turned into a pout while she thought. She was fascinating. I could watch her all day long.

“Are you just going to keep staring at me?” Shannon asked, a hint of a smile twitching at the corner of her lips.

“I-err, yeah . . . I-I can’t um . . . take my eyes off you,” I stammered.

“You’re such a funny guy, Curly.” She slid off her chair and sat next to me on the floor.
 

I made a sweeping gesture with my hand. “Always at your service, ma’am. My one and only goal is to put a smile on your face.”
Jesus! What did I just say?
She must think I was the lamest guy ever to walk the earth.

“You’re sweet, too.”
 
She took my hand. “Curly, don’t you ever wonder why we got thrown together this way?”

Tough question. What should I tell her? “All I know is we have to stick together because of Elizabeth’s prediction.”

Shannon didn’t answer right away. “Are you okay having me around all the time? I mean, your friends must hate having me around, too.”

“Hell, no. We like to hang out with pretty girls, and you, my dear Shannon, are the fairest of them all.”
Geek alert. Geek alert.
 

From Shannon’s smile, she didn’t seem to think it was geeky at all.
 

Once again, we fell into silence. Shannon finished her homework, but mine took longer. It was difficult to concentrate when all I wanted to do was stare at her. After several attempts to focus, I managed to wrap it up. While I walked Shannon home, I had to lie several times when she asked if I was in pain.
 

Mom insisted that I at least have some soup. After I ate, I felt a bit better. I’d made up my mind that I wouldn’t jeopardize Shannon’s safety by taking the pain pill. It would dull my senses and make me sleep longer.