Guardian of the Fountain (9 page)

Chapter
12

“I
feel like a complete idiot,” Chrissie said as a few unwanted tears trickled
down her cheeks. She angrily wiped them away as she turned her back to him and
faced the wall. “You have all been lying to me.” She walked away from him to
the overturned table and began picking up her unfinished lunch from the ground.

Brant
followed closely behind her. He put the table right-side up and put all its
spilled contents back on top.
 
“I’ll
try to explain, if you will let me.” He laid his hands on her shoulders, and
she immediately shrugged them off.

“Don’t
touch me! I don’t know who you are!” She wrapped her arms around her stomach.
“What am I doing here?” Tears slipped down her cheeks, and her breathing
started to pick up pace. “I’m stuck. If I leave, I die, but everyone is keeping
secrets from me.” The edges of her vision blurred. “I’m sorry…”

* * *

“Chrissie?”
Brant caught her as she crumpled in his arms. “Darling?” Brant picked her up
and ran with her across the street to the clinic. He kicked open the door. “Dr.
Wilson!” he yelled.

Dr.
Wilson came out of his office and saw Brant carrying Chrissie. “Put her on the
bed in there.” He pointed to an empty room and followed Brant in.

Brant
laid Chrissie on the bed as Dr. Wilson began checking her from head to toe. He
opened her eyelids and shone his penlight into them. “Tell me what happened.”

Brant
began pacing the tiny room and raked his hands through his hair as he tried to think
about the details of the incident. “We were eating lunch at the café. Then the
drug cartel came around the corner and shot at us, but she wasn’t hit. I was,
twice. She flew into nurse mode and was trying to check me, and saw me heal
right before her eyes. It happened so quickly that I forgot that she didn’t
remember about me. Then she got all worked up about how we had lied to her.”

“She
must have had quite a shock. I think she fainted.” Dr. Wilson broke open a vial
of smelling salts and held it under her nose. “Chrissie.” He softly patted her
cheeks.

Chrissie’s
eyes blinked open. “My head hurts. What happened?”

“You
fainted on your lunch date with Brant.”

“Oh…Do
you know about him?” Chrissie didn’t look over to Brant, but kept her eyes on
Dr. Wilson.

“Yes,
some.” Dr. Wilson rubbed his forehead. “I think we’ve been set back a little
bit. I was right. Your body can’t handle too much stress.” He turned to speak
to Brant, “I think you need to get her home and into the water as soon as
possible.”

Brant
walked out into the empty lobby and called Arturo on a cell phone. “I messed
up. She knows. I need you to come get her from the clinic. I don’t think she’ll
come home with me.” He hung up before Arturo could respond.

 
Within a few minutes, Arturo pulled up in
the trusty blue Datsun. Chrissie climbed into the passenger side and slammed the
door. She sat quietly, staring off in the opposite direction from Brant.

 
“She’s really mad,” Arturo glumly
commented.

“I
should’ve known she would be. She hates secrets. I’m going back for my car. I’ll
meet you at the mansion.” Brant turned and stalked back toward the clinic
parking lot to his truck.

* * *

Arturo
drove quietly to the mansion.

“He’s
the Guardian, isn’t he?” Chrissie thought out loud.

“Sí,”
Arturo softly replied.

“The
Guardian, the man in the hall, and the person who sent for me are all Brant?”

“Sí.”
Arturo kept his eyes on the road.

“Why
does he care so much about me?”

“That
is something he will have to tell you. I won’t even mess with the blindfold
anymore.” Arturo drove much faster than he had on the way down. Chrissie could
see the tension lines on his face, but he was silent for the rest of the ride.

From
the base of the mountain, the dirt road wound up fifteen minutes into the
jungle until it reached a waterfall. Arturo inched the car close to the side of
the mountain and slid the car behind the waterfall and through a dark cave for
about two hundred feet and back out the other side into the light. The road
continued on for another thirty minutes, and then the mansion came into view
out on a cliff.

As
they pulled into the garage, Chrissie noticed the truck that had been there before
was gone. She jumped out of the Datsun before Arturo had time to open her door
and went into the mansion, running up the stairs and into her room. She slammed
the door shut and flopped down on her bed. She heard a truck door close, then muffled
voices from downstairs. She buried her head into the pillow and screamed in
frustration.

A
soft knock sounded at the door. “Mija? Are you okay?” María’s voice sounded
concerned.

“I’m
fine,” Chrissie lied, but so had everyone else, she rationalized.

María
opened the door and sat next to Chrissie on the bed. “Mija, you should come
down and talk to Brant. He is trying to get the courage to talk to you.” María
smoothed down Chrissie’s hair. “Men—the biggest bebés I know.” She
sighed. “He is completely broken.”

“Everyone
has been keeping secrets from me. I’m tired of being left in the dark.” Tears
streamed down Chrissie’s cheeks, “I came here on blind faith. I trusted all of
you! I need answers now. Something to hold on to.” She grabbed her pillow and
squeezed it tight into her chest.

“Follow
me.” María peeled Chrissie off the bed and pulled her down the hall and down
the stairs. The library doors were open. Arturo sat quietly in a chair. Brant
sat in a large leather office chair with his head down on the desk.

María
and Chrissie entered the room, and he stood up behind his desk. “Chrissie,” he
whispered. His eyes lit up at the sight of her.

“Brant
has something he wants to say to you, mija,” María began. “It might come as a
shock.”

“It
would be hard to beat what I just saw.” Chrissie sat down in front of the desk
in an armchair. She felt like she was getting ready for a job interview. Brant
walked around the desk and knelt down at her feet, not touching her. His
sorrowful eyes looked up at her, begging her for mercy.

“Chrissie,
it’s going to be hard to explain … but here it goes. I’m the Guardian.”

“I
figured that out.” Chrissie folded her arms across her chest unhappily. “Why
were you pretending not to know me?
Did
you know me?”

“Yes,
I know you very well, and I did it because you didn’t remember me. I figured I
had to start all over again.” Brant’s eyes searched hers. “The doctor said he
didn’t want to stress you out with anything that might disturb you. We saw what
happened when you
did
get some startling
news.”

“You
could’ve just said we were friends, and I would’ve believed you.” Chrissie
looked down into her lap.

 
“But we were more than just chums,” Brant
breathed in a soft whisper.

“We
liked … liked each other?” Her eyes shot up to his.

“Really
liked,” Brant affirmed.

“For
how long?” Chrissie purposely kept the emotion off her face. On one hand, she
was relieved that he did this all because he cared for her, and let’s face it—she
wanted him to care for her. But she was angry that he’d withheld large,
important pieces of information. She couldn’t show him how much havoc this was creating
inside her brain. That would give him too much power. Her last relationship was
ruined because of her boyfriend’s lying. Brant didn’t really lie, but he hadn’t
told her the truth, either. She’d known deep down inside that he was more than
just a gardener—he was something special.

“Six
months.”

“Wow!
I had a relationship longer than a two-month streak. Well, the relationship
with Trey doesn’t count because obviously, he wasn’t committed. It’s a shame I don’t
remember any of it.” She shook her head in utter disbelief, suddenly happy she’d
had romance at one time. Then the brick of reality hit her stomach as she
realized it was her past, and she didn’t remember a single iota of the previous
six months.

“It
was magical.” Brant sat down on the edge of his sturdy desk. “You got sick,
went back to the States, and forgot about me.”

“So …
do you know what happened to me?” Chrissie searched his face for any hints of
the past.

“Arturo
thinks you took the orange vial.” Brant nodded over to where Arturo sat

“What
orange vial?” Chrissie turned slowly in her chair to face Arturo.

María,
Arturo, and Brant all pulled out a leather cord from around their necks that
was hidden under their clothes. Two vials hung from the end. One was clear
water, and the other was an orange powder.

“The
orange powder kills you as soon as it touches your lips. If by chance you were
compromised, and you were being forced to tell the secret, you had the choice to
‘opt out,’ so to speak,” Brant explained.

“To
die before you told the secret?” Chrissie wondered in amazement.

“Right.
Arturo thinks you took the orange vial in order to keep the secret safe.” Brant
returned his necklace to its hiding place under his shirt.

“I
had a necklace with the two vials on it. I took the orange one, and didn’t die?
What secret is so important that you would die for it?”

      
“Exactly. What
is in the clear vial
is
worth dying
for. Many people have died for it.” Brant’s expression softened around his
eyes.
    

“Water?”
Chrissie said incredulously.

      
“Not just
any water. I have to show you for you to understand.” Brant pulled Chrissie up
and escorted her to a bookcase. All the books in these shelves were about
different species of flowers and plants. He tipped out a book called
Rosaceae
and then moved over to a book
in the next bookcase with a book titled
Ponce
De León
in gold leafing on the spine and tipped it out on its side too. The
two bookcases slid and shifted revealing a dark staircase spiraling down.

      
Cool air
rushed through the dark cavern that held so many secrets, inviting Chrissie to
come and unlock them. An adventure awaited her, but did she trust someone who
had lied so many times to lead her down into a dark cave? Her curiosity
outweighed her fear, and she decided to take the chance to find the answers.
 

Brant
took one of the three electric lanterns off a hook, turned it on, and waited
for it to buzz to life.
 
“Come on.
Let’s go.” Chrissie followed Brant while María and Arturo stayed behind, their
faces revealing nothing.

* * *

They
descended the metal spiral staircase. She held on to the railing. Their steps
echoed in the darkness surrounding them. The lantern only lit a few feet around
them, and Chrissie was having a hard time judging how expansive this cave was.
She smelled damp earth as they went deeper and deeper into the cave. The cool
air was refreshing in comparison to the warm, tropical humidity of Venezuela.
Finally, they stepped off the last step onto hard-packed earth deep underground.

Brant
looked down at her for a moment before asking, “May I hold your hand? It’s dark
down here, and I don’t want you tripping.”

“I
guess.” She shrugged. She didn’t want him to think she had forgiven him for the
secrecy.

He
guided her through the tunnel that loomed in front of them. Chrissie tensed.
She didn’t remember ever holding his hand—what an intimate thing it was. The
sensation felt foreign to her.

Trey
never did that. He said he wasn’t much for public affection. Chrissie didn’t ask
Trey for any affection because he had pressed the sex issue way too much,
making her uncomfortable more often than she could count. Now here she was,
almost liking the awareness of his large, rough hand around hers. It made her feel
dainty and wanted.

The
darkness tunneled for a distance before Chrissie felt a slight ramp beneath her
feet. She mindlessly followed Brant, trying to ignore the senses their entwined
fingers were stirring up, until he abruptly stopped and she slammed into his
back.

 
“Sorry.” Chrissie’s voice echoed down the
hall. “I wasn’t paying attention.” Truth be told, she was secretly off in La La
Land. Now here she was, feeling slightly wicked, holding a man’s hand that she
couldn’t ever remember having a relationship with.

Brant
chuckled. “I should’ve warned you. Just a sec while I open the door.” The
short, wide door looked very old and had large ironworks holding it together.
It creaked open, and light brilliantly blazed through the doorway. On the other
side, a warm, moist summer scent crept through the open door into the dark.

Trepidation
filled her stomach.
Should I be scared of
what’s on the other side?
Whatever was past the door felt like a huge step
out of reality.