Out of Reach (22 page)

Chapter 30

"Come on, you're gonna miss the best part,"
Z says, shaking my shoulder a little more vigorously than necessary
to wake a person.

"Alright!" I exclaim, exasperated. "I'm
awake."

I peel my head off of the seatbelt housing
I'd been resting against in our newly acquired SUV and slump
forward in my seat to stare out the window. I'm no good when I'm
tired, and in the last forty-eight hours I've only managed to log
about eight hours of sleep so I'm less than thrilled with Zafir's
interruption. Moodily I glare out the window at ... sand?

No, it’s
salt
, I remind myself.
Miles and miles of salt
. We have
reached the Bonneville Salt Flats. Imagine my surprise when what I
thought was a simple layover in Salt Lake turned out to be what
Basal coined a short road trip.

As I take in the landscape I groan, vaguely
recalling the one summer in elementary school when my parents
dragged me out here for my first and only visit. This place was
ugly then and it's ugly now.

I drag my gaze back to the car’s interior
and continue to fume in my seat. "Explain to me again why you guys
have a hideout in the middle of all this." Not picking up on the
distaste in my tone Z answers honestly.

"It's great, not another soul for
miles."

"Exactly," I mutter, disengaging from the
conversation. I return to staring out the window. Truthfully, I
shouldn't be this grumpy; the detour won't take long, according to
Kade. Because I’m trying to shake the funk I'm in thanks to
exhaustion, I'm not paying any attention when Basal addresses
me.

"Huh, I didn't catch that," I reply focusing
on my companions.

"He said that having a headquarters on
American soil is more convenient than anywhere else," Kade
repeats.

"Yeah, I imagine getting the Internet in the
desert is problematic," I jest. Basal rolls his eyes.

"You have no idea. It's not just the
technology; contracting construction for a building of any sort,
let alone a compound like ours, is more difficult."

"But why here?" I ask.

"It's simple really: space. No one will ever
develop this land, which affords us a certain amount of
privacy."

"But you guys can do that mind control
thing."

"Just because you can do a thing doesn't
always mean that you should," Bass tells me.

I frown but hold my tongue like a child
weathering a parental lecture.

"Our facility is spelled to deter detection,
but out here we hardly need it, the only foot traffic being a few
sightseers and fans visiting the nearby speedway," Kade tacks on.
Turning around in his seat to look at me, Kade lowers his voice.
"Using power of any kind has consequences. It's best to abstain
from it."

Staring back at him I ponder this but fail
to see his point of view. Maybe if these guys had used a little
more magic to get the job done, my lab wouldn't be in pieces.

"We're here," Zafir interrupts, pointing to
the huge cement building just coming into view ahead of us.

Holy cow! Compound is right. It looks more
like a military fortress—well, what I assume a military fortress
looks like. The structure is at least three stories of sand colored
concrete, ghastly and imposing all rolled into one. Z is
practically jumping in his seat like a little school-girl next to
me.

"And the basement has a state of the art
range."

"Range?" I question.

"Gun range. Z's a bit of a weapons nut,"
Kade leans around his seat to whisper. Biting my tongue I try not
to laugh.

"That's perfect. The roided up adolescent
has an itching trigger finger," I whisper back. Kade smiles, his
honey-colored eyes snapping with mirth.

Rolling into Wanderer headquarters through a
stone arch near the base on the north side, Basal parks the SUV in
the large open courtyard. With my legs stiff from travel, I
immediately reach for the door handle, needing to stretch. My
forward motion is stopped abruptly when a large hand comes to rest
heavily on my shoulder.

Turning I come face to face with Zafir,
whose normally stormy grey eyes have become hard and menacing.
Suddenly afraid, I hold my breath, frozen.

"Stick close to me. My brothers won’t be any
more welcoming than Bass was."

Releasing my shoulder, Z smiles at me, his
face returning to that arrogant frat guy expression I've come to
associate with him. "Don’t look so constipated. Kade will
straighten it out."

Finally able to breathe, I smack him in the
shoulder. "You scared the shit out of me is more like it," I say
shoving the car door open and stepping out into the semi-blinding
light.

The compound’s walls cuts down on the glare
considerably, thank goodness. Pulling my sunglasses tighter to my
face I orient myself near Zafir, as instructed, and wait.

We don't have to wait long.

A tall dark shadow, similar in appearance to
every one of my traveling companions, is making his way toward us
as we enter the nearest passageway. A few strides closer and I
notice he’s flanked by another.

"What's the meaning of
this?" he shouts angrily, his aggressive posturing making the
confrontation all the more intimidating.
Man, these guys are big
, I think to
myself again.

"I gave you explicit orders not to bring
her, Kade!" Cowering under his ferocious scrutiny, I shrink down
next to Zafir.

"Wait," Kade interjects, but the other man
ignores him, turning to face off with Basal instead.

"And you, you were clear on my instructions
when you left, so what," he yells pointing at me, "is this?"

I see Kade flick the briefest of glances my
direction, a curtain of controlled rage sharpening his usually
comforting face when he sees me all but hiding behind Zafir. My
blood runs cold—I've seen that face before. If this guy isn't
careful he's going to eat pavement.

"That's Adil, and the guy behind him is
Hal," Zafir whispers down at me, making the necessary
introductions.

Stepping forward Kade draws all attention to
himself when he barks, "Z, the bag."

Handing Kade the black duffle, Zafir steps
back, once again by my side. Forcefully unzipping the thing, Kade
pulls out the Sylph sphere, letting everything else fall to the
floor.

"She has a name. Gwen imprisoned this Sylph
in his sphere." He hisses through clenched teeth while forcing the
orb into Adil's chest.

"It's true, we all witnessed it," Basal
adds, stepping up to flank Kade. The Wanderer that Z introduced as
Hal speaks up for the first time since the confrontation
started.

"How fortuitous, this is indeed good news.”
Side-stepping Adil he approaches and says, “Gwen, I'm pleased to
make your acquaintance." He moves forward to kiss my hand like the
gentlemen do in those old movies I don't admit to watching. And
then he locks forearms with Kade.

"You were right, my brother," he
acknowledges, slapping Kade on the back for good measure. As one,
the men turn to face Adil, silently waiting for something. I seem
to be in the clear but I'm gripped with the overwhelming feeling
that my fate lies completely in this man’s hands.

Not typically a coward I force my legs to
move the two steps separating Kade and myself, taking his free hand
in my own as a show of solidarity. After a moment’s contemplation,
Adil looks up from the sphere, his demeanor a tad less frosty than
before.

"It appears I've been mistaken. Good work,"
he tells Kade, still all business. "Thank you for making the trip
to help us, Gwen, we all are greatly in your debt." With a half-bow
of respect to me, he dismisses the lot of us, claiming Bass, Zafir,
and Hal to help finalize the preparations for departure.

Alone in the corridor with Kade I finally
let out a sigh, relieved the intense moment has passed. I release
his hand and step back to lean against the wall.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine," I reply, managing to smile
weakly. Concern etches his strong features.

"Tell me what you’re thinking," Kade
requests. Eyes on the floor I admit to feeling overwhelmed and out
of my league.

"I don’t understand what am I? Or what I am
doing here?" I say searching his amber eyes for answers, admiring
their soft iridescent glow in the darkened hallway.

"Come on, let's go sight-seeing." I grasp
his outstretched hand and let him lead me deeper into the
compound.

This place is amazing. Rough around the
edges and bare bones practical, yes, but somehow the Wanderers have
snuck in a few luxurious hideaways, starting with their barracks.
Well, at least I assumed the sleeping quarters would be
barrack-like until Kade opened a door to the first of many suites.
These bedrooms rival a five star hotel, richly decorated with all
the amenities you could want. I run a hand over the heavy brocade
comforter on a bed, impressed.

The floor directly below their sleeping
quarters houses a pool and a gym that would make the Olympic
training facility seem small. Kade explains there is also an
outdoor pool and spa area on the roof.

"You could live at this place and never get
bored!" I exclaim after drooling over the facility’s enormous
library, which is chock full of rare first editions and histories
of civilizations I never even knew existed.

"Most of us do," Kade admits. "This place
isn't just our headquarters; when we aren't on assignment, it's our
home, Gwen."

Their
home
. I roll the statement over in my
head. I guess I didn't think the Wanderers had a home; somehow I'd
begun to believe that they ceaselessly roamed the earth. When I
admit as much to Kade, he just smiles thoughtfully.

"For a time it was like that, when the
angels first scattered the Sylph and we didn't have the
conveniences of modern transportation." His eyes glaze over like
he's miles away, stuck in some waking memory. Finally he
continues.

"We traveled by horseback as a clan,
sometimes for weeks at a time, tracing rumors, whisperings of the
Sylph. The ones we found we carted back to Essam before repeating
the pattern. Wandering, yes. Constantly wandering we were."
Blinking he looks up, a wicked grin lighting his face. "Come on, I
want to show you the command room."

He quickly drags me up two flights of
stairs, and then spreads his arms wide, still beaming, when we
reach the command room.

"Wow." It’s all I can say.

They have more electronics than I've ever
seen, barring the fact this place looks exactly the way television
portrays the eye-in-the-sky security rooms at casinos. Only I
assume the Wanderers aren't monitoring for cheaters. I stick my
hands in my pockets, too afraid to touch anything, and waltz around
the room. Kade excuses himself to go check on something quickly and
I continue to peruse the blinking lights and flashing screens.
During my second spin around the room, I'm drawn to a personal
laptop that’s been left open on the counter. The screensaver has
kicked on displaying a hypnotizing fire. The flames grow big and
bright for a time before diminishing back to nothing more than
glowing embers; the pattern repeats itself, a never-ending loop of
beautiful destruction. Pulling my hands-which have begun to
sweat-out of my pockets, I wipe them off on my pants. My heart rate
skyrockets as I internally begin to freak out—externally I continue
to stand motionless in front of the blaze.

Ben!
my mind shrieks. The reality that other things are going on
in the world besides my supernatural escapade flattens me like a
steamroller. Snatching up the laptop I start clicking buttons
hoping nothing is password protected. As the machine comes to life,
I mouth a silent prayer of thanks and log onto the Internet as
quickly as I can.

I pull up all the information from the last
twenty-four hours on the Cleveland fire. I speed-read the short
news blurbs that have been released. While the fire still blazes
and the threat to populated areas has increased-several
neighborhoods have been evacuated already-there are no casualties
to date.

Closing the open browser I log off and
return the laptop to its original position. I clench my fists to
prevent even the possibility of my hands shaking and take a step
back. I repeat over and over in my head the words "He's fine, Ben
is fine."

Kade returns to find me staring at nothing a
minute later. Noting the sour countenance I've developed in his
brief absence he nods toward the door. "Come on, there's one more
thing I want you to see."

Pulling me by the hand down a wide hallway,
we round a slight bend into a cavernous room, which is open to the
heavens. Mesmerized by the wall itself I lean closer to see it more
clearly.

"How did you get it to look so much like an
actual cave?" I ask awestruck.

"We thought it this way." He shrugs.

“Wait, what? You thought it this way?” I
swing my arm around, indicating the entire wall. Rolling his eyes
Kade approaches me.

“Yes, Gwen,
thought
. We exercise the
power of thought.”

“The power of thought?”

“It’s the way all things are created.”

Staring dumbfounded at him all I can utter
is, “What?”

“Take humans for example. The things they
dream up, well, they use their hands to bring them into existence.
Sometimes they have to build tools along the way to accomplish the
task, but everything from the tallest skyscraper to the most
beautiful painting started as an idea, a thought in someone’s
head.” He pauses, eyeing me warily, so I nod along letting him know
I understand.

“When you sent that soda can flying into
your lab partners, you used telekinesis, which is a type of power
of thought. For us it’s different, much simpler, really. It doesn’t
require so much focused intention; we merely have to think it and
it is.”