Paranormal Realities Box Set (13 page)

But it wasn’t the room but its
inhabitants that riveted my attention. Juliette sat on one settee. She no
longer wore the cheerleader's uniform she’d disappeared in. Instead, she was
dressed in a pearl encrusted emerald green ball gown right out of the late
1800s. But the luxury of the garb and the furnishings was in stark contrast to
the misery in her expression.

 
Franky moved into view, sat down beside Juliette and took her
hand. He’d also changed and wore an elegant, if old-fashioned, tuxedo. Always a
pale redhead, my friend now appeared almost translucent with his freckles
showing as dark brown splotches against white skin.

A man I didn’t recognize strolled over to
stand behind the sofa. The slender man, elegantly handsome with sandy brown
hair and a thin moustache, also wore a tuxedo. His skin was unnaturally
porcelain. The man had dark circles under his eyes and black tinged lips.

He reached out a pale hand with graceful
long fingers—tipped with sharp pointed claw-like nails—and stroked
Juliette’s hair.

A loud gasp escaped me. The man started
as if he'd heard me. His head jerked up to stare in my direction and I
automatically stepped back.

“Who was that?” the man said with a
clipped, very posh, British accent. “Who is there?” He walked toward me and I
took a step back. Would he be able to step through the mirror? I’d seen more
bizarre happenings in the past three days.

Finally, I realized he was gazing into a
mirror on his side.

“It’s me,” I said, stepping forward.

“Do not have discourse with him,” Rom
ordered behind me.

“Shut up, Rom,” Zen snapped. “Do you want
to get them back or not, Kizzy?”

“Kizzy?” The man in the mirror smiled
knowingly “Juliette and Franky have mentioned you.” He pushed a hand through
his well-groomed hair. “And I believe our soothsayer has foretold a prophecy
concerning you."

"A prophecy?" I asked.
"What kind of prophecy?"

"The soothsayer said 'A key will
come, as surely as the ticking of the clock. But a key that is stolen shall
never open the lock.'”

"That makes no sense," I
mumbled.

The man moved closer and grinned
revealing two sharp incisors.

Vampire! This time I held back my gasp.

“You know my name.” I tried to keep my
voice calm. “May I know yours?”

The man bowed. “I am known as His Royal Highness,
The Prince Leopold. You may address me as your Highness.”

“All right, your Highness,” I said. “How
did Juliette and Franky come to be with you?”

The prince laughed. “You would know
better than I how they crossed from your world to mine. But once in my realm,
my subjects naturally brought them to the royal court for an audience with
their prince. When I saw how special these visitors were, I knew they must stay
here with me.” He glided back to the sofa and leaned over the back to place one
arm around Juliette and the other around Franky. “And I was right to keep them
here. We are all having a splendid time, are we not?”

Franky nodded miserably and Juliette
choked out a wavery “yes”.

“We have tasted such delicacies of food
and drink,” the prince said.

Nuzzling Franky’s nape, the prince
sniffed. Franky’s eyes widened and he began to tremble visibly. “Perhaps it is
time for another sip,” the prince said. He leaned his head against Juliette’s
before turning to run his tongue in a licentious lick along her creamy neck.
Two small holes marred her otherwise perfect skin. My stepsister cried out and
jerked but Prince Leopold held her down with his grasp on her shoulder. The
prince opened his mouth and the incisors gleamed with reflected light from the
fireplace’s flames.

Frantically, I searched for something to
say or do to stop him. My eyes lit on a game table set nearby.

“That is a magnificent chess set. Is it
ivory?” I asked attempting to keep desperation from my tone. The last thing
needed was for this predator to smell fear. But I was plenty afraid.

“Carved bone." The prince paused,
glanced up and then chuckled. "Human bone.” He eyed me through the mirror
as if judging my reaction.

I swallowed hard. “Are you a player, your
Highness?” I strove for a nonchalant tone.

“Of many games, my dear.” The prince rose
to a standing position.

“Perhaps we'll play sometime,” I said.

“That would please me greatly.” He
sauntered toward the mirror until he was close enough for me to see the
heartbeat, or lack thereof, at the base of his neck. “You, Kizzy, are most
cordially invited to visit the royal court. In fact, I must insist on it.” The
last bit, although said with the same charming tone he’d used during the entire
conversation, had an ominous feel.

“Stop this.” Rom marched forward until he
was next to me. “This is not real. What we see is nothing more than a
magician’s trick.”

Just then a fog appeared in the mirror of
the psychomanteum, blotting out Prince Leopold, Juliette and Franky. The fog
swirled and then parted to reveal a landscape under a blue sky, devoid of
clouds. The intense sunshine blazed down over the scene: a metropolitan city at
the edge of a green sea. Initially, it seemed a happy contrast to the sinister
palace room of a few moments ago until I saw the giant mountain of water moving
in a great wave relentlessly toward the shore. The people in the streets tried
to run. But when the wall of water struck, it decimated the buildings and swept
up the panicked people, washing them away. Tsunami.

Rom stared at the image as if mesmerized.

Zen glanced from the scene of devastation
to Rom’s horror-struck expression.

“This is your vision,” Zen said looking
at Rom.

Rom backed away from the mirror, his eyes
darting from Zen to me. When his back bumped against the door, he reached
behind him and fumbled with the knob. Finally, the door opened and Rom tripped
over his own feet to get out. I heard the sounds of his boots rumbling down the
stairs, the front door opening and then slamming before I could move to follow
him.

“Ask him why he was able to operate the
psychomanteum,” Zen called to me as I ran down.

At first I didn’t see Rom outside, then I
spotted him with his back to me as he leaned against a tree on the other side
of the driveway. Going to him, I placed a hand on his shoulder. He tensed at my
touch. I tried to pull him around but he resisted. If he wouldn’t turn to face
me then I would be the one to move.

“What is it?” I stepped in front of him.
I had just a brief glimpse of the tears before Rom turned away and presented me
with his back again.

“Rom,” I said. “Are you crying?”

“No,” he answered wiping at his face.
“Warriors do not cry as babes.”

“Please,” I rubbed the flat of my hand
caressingly on his shoulder. “Let me help.”

“You can do nothing to aid me.”

My chuckle held a tinge of bitterness.
“I'm supposed to allow you to help me but you won’t let me help you?”

He didn't answer.

“What was that city in the mirror?” I
asked. “Come on. Tell me.”

He spoke in a barely audible voice. “New
Rome.”

Rom’s home in Augustinia. But if such a
metropolis had been destroyed by natural disaster, why hadn't I heard about it
on the news?

“Why did the psychomanteum work for you
Rom?”

“Because like you I am a Clavis. But I am
not of this world. I come from another dimension."

"But you don't come from Dorcha, do
you?" I asked in confusion.

"No." He shook his head
sadly," I come from a world in which a country called the United Provinces
of Augustinia exists and the United States of America does not.”

* * * * *

“I knew it,” Zen declared, pacing back
and forth in front of the fireplace in his parlor. “I knew there was a reason I
didn’t find any record of you.”

“What's a Clavis?” Petra said from her
seat on a wing back chair with faded paisley fabric.

Yeah, what am I? My mind raced with
confusion. I wanted to know the answer but dreaded knowing at the same time.

“A Clavis is one with ability to open a
portal to another dimension. A human key," Rom answered.

“That makes no sense,” Chase said. “How
can a person be a key?”

“Our scientia believe it is the DNA and
thus our blood which carries the formula.” Rom's eyes never left me as if he
feared my reaction.

I remembered that each time I’d opened
the vortex in the tunnel I’d been bleeding. I’d been bleeding another time too.
On the bridge. And there was that gap in my memory of falling from the
Talmadge.

“So can you open a portal at any time?”
Zen asked.

“No," Rom replied. "Only during
times of permeability."

“I don’t understand,” I piped in. “What
makes it permeable?”

“Permeability follows astrological
progression. The world of the Dorcha and the world of Augustinia each seem to
intersect with your world on the equinox and solstice."

“So Dorcha and Augustinia are in two
separate dimensions?" I summarized. "And when the stars align a
certain way the door can open between our dimension and each of them?” I
struggled to take it all in.

“In simplistic terms, yes," Rom
said. "For seven days leading to an astronomical event, a portal becomes
ever more permeable before achieving a zenith on the day of the event. For
seven days following, permeability wanes until the door seals and becomes
impassable, awaiting the next event.“

“So basically a fourteen day window…or
doorway,” Zen said.

Rom nodded.

I recalled my father’s last visitation
with Adam and I—and the incident on the bridge—had occurred the
weekend of the solstice. I had wanted to go to a festival with Petra and had to
go visit Dad instead.

“That first night.” I hesitated. “How did
you reclose the vortex with that paint?”

“Salt was added.” Rom said. "Salt
closes the vortex before the effect of the blood wears away.” He shook his
head. “But ask me not for further detail. As a warrior, I have but little
technical information.” Rom turned his gaze to mine. His dark navy blue eyes
and my average blue ones. Navy blue eyes I had gazed into long before I knew
his name.

Rom's tone became robotic. “Once ordered,
my duty is but to obey.”

At his words, memories rushed into my
mind of a time when he'd said something similar. The sensation of falling and
hitting water—water that wasn't water—flooded me. I remembered
waking to Rom kneeling over me. There were memories of Rom's father. Of his
mother. Of their words about Adam. “The boy’s death is already here,” he’d
said.

“You son of a bitch.” I rammed Rom with
my body, swinging my fist and connecting with his jaw. He staggered back at the
blow. “You and your family killed Adam.” Continuing to flail, punch and kick
him, Rom stood and allowed my fury to punish him without attempting to move away.

When I had exhausted myself, his arms
came around me, holding me up when I would have slumped to the wood floor.

“No, Kizzy. I am at fault for much but
not for Adam.”

“But I heard what you said.” Jerking out
of his hold I stood on my own, arms wrapping around myself.

Petra came to my side and put an arm
around my shoulder.

“I don’t know what this is about. But if
you hurt Kizzy, you won’t get out of here in one piece mister.” Petra hugged me
to her.

“What I said was deceptive, but not
intentionally so,” Rom said. “My mother is a medico. She said your brother had
instant death from a bullet fired in your world. When he passed into ours with
you, he had already gone.

”I didn’t know whether to believe him.
Somehow, even as I grieved I couldn’t believe Adam was actually dead. Since
they hadn’t found the body, I’d held on to that small possibility that he might
have survived the fall and was alive somewhere.

Why are you here? Wait a minute,” I said.
“When we first met you asked about the Dorcha. You knew they would come
through?”

“My mission was to stop the Dorcha from
entering your world.” Rom's lips twisted into a grimace. “But the oracle had
uncertainty as to the date of entry. Time between the dimensions is inexact.”

“Today is September 27th so the equinox
was four days ago on the 23rd, Zen observed.

“At 5:05 a.m. to be precise,” Senji said,
examining the face of his cell phone. Obviously, he'd done a quick Internet
search.

“Basically we have a little less than
three days until the portal between your world and the Dorcha world becomes
impermeable,” Zen said. “At 5:05 am on September 30th.”

“After that we would have to wait until
the solstice in December, right?” Senji piped in.

“No.” Rom shook his head. “Another Dorcha
portal may open at the solstice. Yet without aid of my world's oracle, I lack
ability to divine its location.” Rom reached out a hand to me and I backed
away. He smiled sadly and turned to Zen. “The tunnel vortex depends not only
upon the solstice or equinox but also upon Saturn. Saturn will not return to a
satisfactory position for the next 29.46 earth years.”