Secrets of the Sleeper: True Nature Series: Book One (15 page)

Revelation

Thanks to my night
vision, I could easily locate the sleeping bag. It smelled like it had been down there for 50 years, but it was warmer than the stone floor. I climbed in as best as I could, the pain exhausting me by the time I finished. Without meaning to, I closed my eyes and let reality slip away.

Ruthie screamed near the school parking lot.

“Tru Lee Parker! You better get your butt over here right now!”

Phoebe snickered next to her. “Is that seriously her middle name?”

Impatiently, Ruthie snapped back, “Why would I make up a name like that? Where is she?” She glanced at her cell phone. “She didn’t text me and she isn’t answering her phone. I’m supposed to meet Val at Yogurt Heaven in thirty minutes!”

“So that’s why you’re so grumpy.”

Ruthie just glared at her, hands on her hips.

Phoebe defended herself. “Hey, it’s not my fault! Isaac has been looking for her for the past hour. He’s been all over the school and even went by her house. Says he can’t smell—I mean, he hasn’t seen her anywhere.”

“Great!” Ruthie said.

It took me longer to figure out that this was a dream because it felt so real and I had just been there a few hours ago. I’d never dreamed about something so recent. I had begun to suspect during my conversations with Dante that my strange dreams were of actual events, not figments of my overactive imagination. That meant Ruthie was finished watching Val’s practice and someone was finally noticing that I was missing—at least I hoped.

“Do you think she would have left school with someone else?” Phoebe asked.

Ruthie paused, one side of her mouth turned down. “She wouldn’t!” she mumbled. I could tell she was wondering if I had gone with Zander. She turned to Phoebe. “Well…”

Don’t say it,
I thought.

Phoebe raised her eyebrows, waiting.

Finally, Ruthie shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. She would have texted me if she did.”

“Is something going on that you want to share with me?” asked Phoebe.

“Uh, no, really,” insisted Ruthie. “I’m actually starting to get a little worried now.”

“Maybe we should call her dad.”

“Oh my gosh. I don’t think I have his cell number. Tru said he was working late tonight. I should call my mom.” Ruthie punched into her phone.

The scene shifted.

Zander was talking with his brother in front of a hotel. He suddenly threw up his hands and took off down the road. When he was far enough away from his brother, he slipped into the trees alongside the road and took off running, fast. From my strange vantage point, I could see that he was moving faster than the cars parallel to him on the other side of the trees. He slowed down whenever he had to come out in the open, but speeded up within the protection of the trees. Then, he was sneaking into my house. Then he was slipping back out, his face tightened in frustration.

Next, I saw him at my recreation center, then back at the school.

Hope lit up my insides. He seemed to care. Maybe Dante had it all wrong.

Zander paced aimlessly in front of the empty school. The sun was disappearing behind the thickly forested hillside. Suddenly he grabbed a large rock from the side of the parking lot and hurled it into the trees. But the trees were a hundred yards away, and the rock embedded itself into the trunk of a large pine tree, which shook from the impact, needles and pine cones dropping.

His phone started ringing. He checked the caller and then answered.

“I can’t find her.”

“Yes, I checked everywhere.”

“What did you find out?”

“Ancient prophecy?”

Zander started pacing again, and ran his hand through his hair, leaving it sticking up.

“How do I feel? What do you mean? I’m freaking out!”

“Normal? Are you kidding me? I don’t know why, I just feel like she’s in danger. I can’t explain it.”

“If you think this will help me find her—”

“Okay. Since the first day of school, no, since I got here. Actually, I think I’ve been feeling it forever, but more after about a year ago.”

“Yeah. About the same time as the accident.”

“Yeah, strange coincidence. But where are you going with this?”

“Sword of what? Shield of Arammusatu? Is that what I think it is? Are you freaking kidding me? Not the same?”

“Forget it. Just tell me how this helps Tru!”

Zander sank down to the curb.

“Does this mean she isn’t a siren?”

“Yeah, that would explain how I’ve been feeling. I mean, it actually hurts to stay away from her. And she didn’t look too good either.”

“I don’t know, I’ve been trying so hard to ignore it…”

“How do I do it?”

“Conrad, I’m not going to sit yoga style. And ‘no’ to the spa music, too.” He blew out an exasperated breath. “Fine! Hold on a second. I’m going to put the phone down for a minute. But no music.”

He walked around the side of a building and sat cross-legged, placing his hands on his knees. He rolled his shoulders and took a few deep breaths. Seconds rolled by.

Suddenly he cried out in pain, grabbing his ankle. Then he grabbed his arm, holding it carefully.

“What the—”

A loud, yet indistinguishable voice yelled out of the phone. Zander gingerly reached out with his good arm and hit the speaker button.

“—Zander! What’s happening! Should I call someone?”

“No, Conrad. But I don’t know what’s going on. I tried to meditate just like you said and feel that ‘pull’ to Tru like I described to you, and just when I felt like I connected, I started hurting all over. It feels like my ankle is broken, and maybe my arm, too. But everything looks normal.”

“That’s good,” replied Conrad. “I mean that’s not good, but I think you connected to her. The bad news is that if you are, then you are probably feeling what she feels, which means she’s injured. The good news is that you aren’t messed up and you should be able to power through the pain and move normally. Just imagine that ‘pull’ as a thick thread and follow it. It should lead you right to her.”

Zander’s face had hardened during Conrad’s explanation. When he looked up to the road, his eyes blazed deep blue, like ultraviolet light.

“Thanks, Conrad.” Zander looked like he wanted to kill something. “I’ll get back to you later.”

“Good luck, Z.”

Zander stashed his phone and took off running.

Steps across the creaking floorboards woke me. Wow. That dream! Was it real? Or did I just want it to be?

I wondered how late it was, how long I’d been down here in this pit. Then I heard someone calling out. I listened more carefully.

“Tru!”

That wasn’t Dante.

“Tru!”

The rug was lifted from the trapdoor and light filtered in around the edges.

“Zander?” My voice was croaky. I tried again. “Zander!”

The trapdoor opened and Zander’s figure filled the entrance.

“Tru!”

“Zander!” I almost screamed.

“Shhhh!” Zander warned, speaking quickly. “I’m getting you out of here. Dante is outside talking on his phone. He’s walking up the road to get better reception. But we have to hurry.

“Wait! He’s coming back. I’ll take care of him first. Then I’ll get you out.”

“Don’t let him touch you—” I said as he shut the door.

He hadn’t let me finish warning him about Dante.

“Dang it!” I slammed the ground with my good fist. “Ow!”

Confessions

My heart squeezed as
I strained to hear something, anything. All I got was a muffled conversation. Had Zander heard me? He couldn’t let Dante touch him! If he did, we were toast. I tried to shift directly under the opening, hoping for a better position to yell up at them, but realized it wasn’t going to work. Out of breath, my injuries throbbing, I lay waiting.

Suddenly, the rug lifted, and light streaked across me, blinding me for a moment.

“Oh, Tru-u!”

I let out a disappointed whimper when I recognized the voice.

“You’ll never believe it!” Dante giggled. “It’s a two-fer! I think I’ll take a cruise after this one!” His giggles became deeper, creepier.

What had he done with Zander?

“Honey, you might want to move out of the way.”

I had just enough time to scoot over before a large shape landed next to me with a crack. I grimaced, certain that a bone had just broken.

Zander lay in a heap, both arms tied behind his back, and his feet tied together. I wasn’t sure what was broken, but his shoulder looked really wrong.

“There you go. Please, no need to thank me.” His face leaned into the hole, glee spreading his smile wide. “Someone to talk to. You’re one lucky girl!

“Of course, I’m one lucky guy, as well! Perhaps I should take a closer look at all your friends, dearie. His aura is almost as beautiful as yours! Whatever you are, you two are amazingly similar. The Collector is going to be so happy! Of course there may be a little family drama for a bit, but I’m sure he’ll be pleased just the same. I don’t know how I never noticed him before!”

I stared at Zander. He was like me? I choked back a sob and scooted closer, ignoring my own pain. He looked broken. Anger swept through me like brush fire.

“Idiot!” I yelled. “You might have killed him. I think he broke something.” Gritting my teeth against the pain from my ankle, I felt for his pulse. I sighed in relief when I picked up a strong beat.

“Oh, good! I was hoping he broke something.” Dante’s voice went up a couple of octaves. “I wouldn’t want him trying to escape before your ride comes. Now sit tight. I need to run out to the road and make a call. Don’t worry, I’ll be back in just a few minutes.” The trapdoor closed.

“Zander!” I had to wake him up. If we didn’t want to be collected, we needed to get out of here before Dante came back. Yeah, it was a long shot, but Zander was bound to have an idea to get us out of here. And if that dream told me anything, it was that Zander had some secret abilities that would help.

“Zander!” I wrapped his face in my hands, shaking him gently. I wasn’t sure what was broken, but I suspected he might have dislocated his shoulder.

He didn’t budge. Whatever Dante did to him really knocked him out. I looked around the room again for anything to help me. A pack of water bottles sat on one of the shelves. I crawled across the floor, dragging my broken ankle, spewing as many Ruthie cusswords as I could remember. I pulled the bottles down and slowly made my way back. Pausing next to Zander, I carefully poked at my ankle only to find that it had been replaced by a grapefruit. I wondered if I should take off my shoe. No, I’d deal with it later.

Taking the lid off one of the bottles, I hung it over Zander’s face. It seemed cruel to wake him up to what was sure to be excruciating pain. But, then again, if I didn’t, we were definitely becoming museum pieces.

Biting my lip, I tipped the bottle, letting the water splash over his face.

He woke up sputtering, trying to move away from the water. But when he moved, he yelped. As sorry as I was that he was hurt and stuck down here with me, a thrill went through me, making me chuckle.

“Agh!” he moaned, trying to sit up, but it must have hurt too much because he let out a sharp gasp and lay back down. “That wasn’t funny! What the hell happened?”

I realized suddenly that he couldn’t see me. The room was completely dark.

“Zander! It’s me. I’m here with you.” I rested one hand on his chest gently, not sure where he hurt.

“Tru?” He was turned on his side because his hands were tied behind his back. “Oh hell, he got me, didn’t he? Man! How?”

“Don’t feel too badly. When he touches people, they pass out.”

“I didn’t see that one coming. You tried to warn me, didn’t you?” He attempted to get up again, but fell back breathing hard.

“Don’t move,” I said. “I think you broke something when he dropped you down here.”

“He dropped me through that hole? Is that how you hurt your ankle?”

My jaw dropped in shock. “How did you know I broke my ankle?” Even though I knew how from my dream, I hadn’t quite connected it with reality. The fact that he was here should have proven to me the truth of what I had witnessed, but I couldn’t quite make that leap yet.

He shook his head. “I don’t know. Seriously, so many weird things have been happening to me today. I could just, I don’t know, sense it, I suppose.”

“I know.”

“You know?”

“I mean, I’ve been learning so much suddenly, too. And then I dreamed that you were talking with your friend Conrad, and—”

“You dreamed that?”

“Yeah…weird, I know. It’s almost too much to believe, but just before you opened the trapdoor, I woke up. In the dream you were at my house and at the school, searching for me, and then you could feel my pain… I know that sounds crazy…I’m afraid I might still be dreaming…”

Zander shook his head. “No. You’re right! I know I have a lot of explaining to do. And I have a lot of questions for you. But first things first.”

I knew he couldn’t see me, but his face was turned toward me and it almost seemed like he was looking right at me. Tears were slipping down my cheeks and I was glad he couldn’t see them.

“Tru,” he continued, “I want you to know that you’re important to me. I haven’t been messing with you. In fact, I think that whatever has been going on between us—whatever this is—I think it’s been going on for a long time. I think you’re the reason I came here in the first place. I just didn’t know it until now.”

I didn’t know how much I wanted to hear something like that until he said it. The floodgates opened and I dropped my head into my hands with a sob.

“Shh…don’t cry.”

“I don’t know why I’m crying! I care about you, too, but I was just so confused. Dante said you were playing me. I hated you. And now this!”

He tried to pull his arms apart and bit back a cry. “Yeah,” he panted. “My shoulder may be broken.” He lay still for a moment. “Don’t worry. We’ll figure this out. But, first, I want to know what he’s done to you. Did he touch you—”

“No! No, thank God!”

Dante hadn’t gone there, thank goodness. The thought had crossed my mind that he would, especially when he’d thrown out that “let’s get to know each other” comment.

Zander let out a long sigh. “I was so worried. I looked everywhere for you.”

“
I
don’t even know where I am, so how did you find this place?”

“Again,” said Zander, “all I can say is that I just knew, or I guess I just felt where you were and followed my way here. I know that sounds really weird, but I can’t explain it any other way.”

Wow. Maybe that was one of his special powers or something. “Okay…Dante was right, you’re gifted, too. You must have abilities like him, like me…although I don’t do anything special, just see in the dark…” I was rambling. I let that sentence die in the darkness between us.

There was a long pause.

Finally he spoke, and I let out the breath I was unconsciously holding. “I don’t think that’s my gift, although it’s pretty cool—”

“So you have them!”

“Yeah, but…that’s not what I do, at least until now.”

“But you found me! You could tell what was wrong with me! That’s not normal, right? Maybe you
find
people!”

“Tru, it’s only ever happened with
you
.”

That shut me up. What did that mean? Only me?

He squinted. “Wait a minute. Did you say you could see in the dark? Because, that could be pretty useful right now.” He tried to pull his wrists apart, but grunted in pain. “Damnit!” He breathed hard, through the pain. “My shoulder is really killing me. I can’t do anything with it like this!” He tried to sit up again. “Agh!”

“Here, let me help you.” I scooted closer, letting our hips touch, and helped him to sit up and lean against me, almost in my lap. We both paused to sigh loudly as that blissful hum enveloped us, blocking out the pain of our injuries for a moment.

“So not the way I imagined the next time in your arms,” Zander said with a chuckle.

What the fried chicken? Did he just say what I thought he said?

When I remained silent, he tried to twist around to see me, which jostled his shoulder, causing him to suck in a ragged breath. “I don’t suppose you could untie my wrists?” he asked.

Tears were leaking out of my eyes again. I wasn’t sure if it was the gratitude that I wasn’t down here alone, the “in each other’s arms” comment, or that I could see how much he was hurting. Strangely, my shoulder was beginning to throb and I worried that I wouldn’t be able to hold him up much longer.

“I’m so sorry you followed me here,” I croaked, tears clogging my throat. Gently, I held his shoulder, afraid to cause more pain if I moved him to get to the rope around his wrists. I let my head lean into his, wishing that he was all better, that his shoulder was fixed, that we were both better and leaving this place. I just knew that he would have been able to get us out of here if he wasn’t so injured. I sent a quick prayer up toward heaven to fix Zander.

“Tru—” Before he could say more, warmth spread from my fingertips. I gasped. Golden strings of light were wrapping around him, concentrating on his injured shoulder.

Zander’s body clenched, and he unconsciously grabbed my leg just above my swollen ankle. I cried out as all the muscles in my body tightened and my teeth clenched.

When we both started breathing again, we were sprawled out on the floor and I immediately noticed Zander’s hands were no longer tied. The rope lay off to the side, the bindings torn. He sat up easily this time and, with a quick rip, broke the rope wound around his ankles.

“What just happened?” I demanded. “How did you do that?”

Zander laughed, joy in his voice. “Awesome! Now I get it!” He reached out to me, feeling for my arm. As soon as he touched me, he smiled and looked into my eyes.
Looked into my eyes.
I realized he could see me.

“How? How can you see me?”

“I don’t know, but when you touched me, like skin to skin, I started noticing the shelves across the room. I thought I was just becoming accustomed to the dark. But when you let go, the lights went out again. Tru, you are amazing!”

I smiled, not understanding where this was going, but grateful he seemed happy with me.

“What are you talking about?”

He rested a hand on my cheek. “Remember your hands at school? How they magically healed? Remember your arm in your backyard? How it healed?”

“What are you saying?”

“You! Tru! It’s you! You healed me. You healed yourself!”

Was it possible?

“Okay,” I said. “That would be a cool power.” I thought about what Dante said I did for Bobby. Could it be true?

Zander laughed loudly, and then sobered, glancing toward the trapdoor. “And now, I’m going to kill that crazy bastard!” He stood up, pulling me with him. My ankle felt completely normal.

“He’s not up there. He said he was going to the road to make a call. But that was awhile ago. He could be back any second.”

“Perfect!” Zander’s grin was predatory. “Now you’re going to find out what
I
can do.”

He pulled me into his arms, hugging me tightly. I squeezed back, burying my face in his neck, enjoying the spicy scent of him. He pulled back and tilted my chin up.

“We have a lot to talk about, but I want you safe and as far away from this psycho as possible. Okay?”

“Okay,” I agreed, drinking in his blue eyes and messy hair.

Then he let go of my arm. “Stand back there by that shelf.”

“You can see it?” I asked.

“I remember where the door is.”

“But, it’s pitch black in here.”

“Just stand back. I don’t want you to get hurt if I knock something down.”

I backed up to the shelf, unsure what Zander planned on doing.

With a grin, he leaped up toward the trapdoor. I gasped as he broke through and grabbed onto the edge of the floor. He pulled himself up and wrenched open the rest of the door. A second later, a long ladder was lowered down to me.

With a giddy exclamation of “Sweet!” I climbed out of the cellar.

Zander snatched me up as soon as I reached the floor. He ran his hands down my arms, then my sides and legs, confirming that I was indeed healed. By the time he looked me in the eyes again, my face was beet red. He laughed, cupping the sides of my face.