Two Halves Series (79 page)

He stood taller than Sugar, but the resemblance was striking. From skin tone to bone structure, the similarities were undeniable. I hoped he was related to her because I couldn’t bear to find out he was a suitor coming in defense of his girlfriend.

“Stand down, shifter.” The energy around Vulcan intensified. I felt it, like invisible radiation.

Shifter?

“Let him go,” the male yelled at Vulcan as his gaze flew to me. A few more seconds and I imagined his mouth would foam at the corners.

Why did he want to protect me? I wasn’t the one in danger. He was, and so was Sugar if I didn’t leave.

“You don’t stand a chance,” Vulcan shouted.

The music continued, but I couldn’t hear it, noting the swaying bodies beyond. Something inside told me I should be stronger. That I am stronger, or at least I was in my past life. I should be able to control this situation, but how? Vulcan knew how. I skidded to his side so that my arm brushed his and wanted to know what he knew. I wanted him to tell me who they were, and I heard in my mind.
Shifters. They always mess up my plans. Not this time. You serve the keepers; you will go down with them when the time is right.

“Try us,” the pair said in unison.

Before they hurled toward us, I felt Vulcan generate more energy than I thought could be linked through my body. He gathered it in his palm and stretched it out. A single blow of electricity zoomed at Sugar and the man. It split into two and hit them in the center of their chests. They flew back into the wall. A glass mirror at my side shattered, and its triangular splinter embedded into my cheek. I pulled it out of the gash and looked over at Vulcan on my left. An identical cut bled on his cheek, and he wiped it with his cuff. The music quietened for a moment, and the club fell to a hush.

Sugar lay motionless on the ground.

No!
My internal cry tightened my throat. I didn’t want Vulcan to know how much Sugar meant to me, even if I didn’t understand why the pull toward the woman was so strong. I listened to her breathing.
She’s alive!

Everyone focused on the dented surface in the wall, and the couple who suddenly sprouted to their feet. Then the crowd resumed their uncoordinated dance as if no one had noticed our quarrel.

“Let’s go.” Vulcan pulled at my arm.

Sugar stood still. Her thighs flexed, and she tried to run toward me, but a blue light shimmered from under her and her partner’s feet, keeping them frozen.

Vulcan opened a vortex on the other side of the club. No one noticed. It seemed we were still invisible to the drugged crowd. I turned back for the last time toward my caramel goddess. Sugar’s shoulders moved up and down as she breathed anger and fury and crouched on the floor. Her friend helped her up to her feet, holding her by the elbow to steady her stance. She kept her gaze focused on me, and her eyes moistened when I stepped away.

“Mira. My name is Mira,” she cried out through the noise and music. A glistening ribbon streamed down her cheek.

Mira.

I felt deprived of a breath I wanted to inhale. My neck throbbed. The nerves in my body responded in pain to what I realized. All the muscles felt like they’d been crushed by a steam roller, including my heart. Memories of my past began flooding my head, and I strained to keep my breath calm. I grabbed my head when the pressure increased and the room spun.

The sound of music, honking cars, and an airplane overhead blended, and the vortex abducted me from the club.

I followed Vulcan like a puppy, sorting everything I knew to be true and all the lies I’d been told. He stole my life after all. My spikes vibrated internally, and I strained to keep them intact.

Vulcan stood at my side as we flew through the time hole. Do I tear him apart now, or wait for a better opportunity? If I kill him, will the keepers take my life away again? I didn’t want to take that chance. How could I have agreed to this?

“One dies, so does the other,” I remembered him saying. Would his death mean the end of my life as well? Was there no way to cheat death and punishment for me? Perhaps there wasn’t. I was willing to die to ensure his death.

What would Mira think? Could I leave her without telling her what’d happened? She’d figure it out eventually, but I couldn’t go without saying goodbye. Without one last touch. Without a final kiss.

The swirls around me settled, and I found myself in the hallway of our apartment. A vase of fresh blue forget-me-nots decorated the marble table at the side wall.

Vulcan dropped loose change into a bowl, and I wondered why he needed the money if he could influence anyone to get him anything he’d wanted. Perhaps it was his way of blending in.

“You’re lost in thought, Eric,” he noted.

I decided to play along, for now. “Yes. I’m thinking about the shifters. Who were they? The woman knew me.”

“You liked her.” He examined me as if checking whether any memories stirred.

“Yes. Why did you hurt them?” I made my way to the living room and poured a glass of champagne. Fearing my eyes would betray me, I kept my face away from Vulcan’s.

“They stood in our way to complete the mission. You belong to me now and I to you. There’s not much time before it will be all over.” I heard him remove his shoes and follow me in.

“What will be over?” I asked. “I’d appreciate it, brother, if you let me in on our plans.”

“The keepers will be dead.” Vulcan poured himself a glass as well.

“When do we leave?” I took a sip and briefly turned toward Vulcan as he looked down at the Rolex on his wrist.

“Four hours. Go to sleep.” He crossed his hands at his chest. Vulcan’s eyelids seemed heavy, and his breathing difficult.

Could the warlock be tired?

For a moment, our eyes locked.

Don’t panic.

I stepped toward him and embraced the warlock. He slowly raised his arms to return a pat on my back.

“In four hours, it will all be over, my brother.” I took him by his shoulders. “Thank you for all you have taught me.”

That part I meant because I would use all the knowledge I had to ensure his demise. Even if it meant I’d die too.

“Sleep.” Vulcan pulled out of the embrace. “Regenerate your energy.”

I bowed and retreated to my room. As soon as the click of the door handle sounded, I exhaled.

What am I going to do?

The only solution that came to my mind was suicide. Die, and in the process kill Vulcan. But would it really destroy him? He’d tricked me before; perhaps this was a way for the warlock to protect himself and ensure I didn’t slay him. He received the same cut I did from the shard of glass at the nightclub. Having our lives bound to one another made the option of murdering Vulcan not as appetizing.

Exhausted, I plopped on the water bed. The waves pounded my sides the same way they would a tug boat in a swell. I closed my eyes until the motion settled to a bop, and I imagined resting on the bottom of the ocean.

Brainstorming, I contemplated binding Vulcan myself, now, in this apartment. But having seen and felt his power, I knew I wasn’t strong enough. I needed the caster twins’ help. In four hours, we’d be on our way to kill the keepers, and I didn’t know how to prevent it. The urgency to protect them grew, but I didn’t know how. Yes, I was mad at them, but now I understood they must had been under Vulcan’s influence. Joining Vulcan was meant to be a decision that would help figure out the power he held over the keepers and finally bring him down, but now it complicated our goal.

Mira’s faced joined the darkness.

My beautiful caramel goddess.

She found me. How?

My body shot up to a squat, disturbing the water below me again. I jumped off the waves and shifted to face north. On the next long inhale, I closed my eyes, concentrating on Earth and its four cardinal points. My shoulders and head fell forward, all tensed muscles softened.

Heat touched the tip of my toes, then crawled up my feet. It slithered upward to my knees and thighs, creeping along my skin, spreading through my body. As the first wave touched my torso, the warmth intensified near the bottom again, flowing upward, but quicker. Within seconds, I felt as if I’d been dipped in the sun.

My spikes vibrated and extended as electric shocks circled my neck and fingers. The energy bulged into purple spheres I contained in the palm of my hands. Its voltage sizzled. I focused on the sun, the Earth’s spinning, the phases of the moon, the seasons, until the connection I sought solidified.

I hope this works.

The room shook as if there was an earthquake. Glass in the windows vibrated, reaching the threshold of their strength. The lamp light on the night table flickered. My concentration to lock the effects of my powers over the perimeter of my room intensified.

I pointed my right hand to the floor, and dragged my arm upward. Sweat rolled down my face. The sun’s weight pressed against my palm as I struggled to move earth around its orbit—backwards. It was my only hope to fix what’s been wronged.

As my grasp on the universe reinforced, the Earth flowed along its axis like a single pearl on a loose necklace. It gave no restraint against the power in my arm. When my hand pointed to the ceiling, the sun shined its brightest through the window. I lowered my arm the other way, forcing it back to sleep. I turned my shoulder in its socket again, letting my arm act like a clock’s. The circular outline continued faster and faster, leaving a blue trail of electricity in the air until I stopped just before the sun rose.

All tremors ceased.

With caution, I turned the doorknob of my room to look into the living area of the apartment. No one was there. Some furniture covered with plastic wrap. No flowers on the side table. The vacant suite waited for its new owner.

I went back to my room and snapped my fingers to open a vortex. My trip to the Amazon took seconds. A blend of fresh blossoms masked the polluted air of Manhattan. Ayer and Crystal greeted me on the porch, like they’d been expecting me to come.

“Where’s your mom?” I asked.

“She’s still asleep. The warden almost killed her. You seem different.” The twins leaned their heads to the side in unison.

“I am different. I need your help. Can you leave for a while?” I scanned the grounds around the cabin, listening to the whispers coming from inside.

“Of course. Where are we going?” The twins must had recognized the urgency in my tone as they stepped off the porch toward me.

“To the future. Well, sort of.” I turned around, opening another vortex. “We’re going to Manhattan.”

The twins came with me to my vacant apartment. I explained what had happened.

“Is he here?” Ayer asked.

“No, it’s vacant. We’re still in the past. My past but your present. The warden is looking for a host, and he’ll find it. He’ll call himself Vulcan. I will debate whether to join him. That cannot be stopped. You will tell me that’s the best decision I can make.”

“If we cannot change the past, how can we change the future?” Crystal scanned the busy street below.

“You already are changing the future by agreeing to come with me. All I need you to do is to speak with the keepers. You will be the only ones who know about this. Do you understand?”

“They’ve known you for longer, Uncle Eric. They trust you,” Ayer said.

“You’re their casters. Their decisions led to your creation. A choice I make a few days from now, in your time, will falter their belief in me. The warden will use their moment of doubt and influence their punishment on me. I will make a choice not to kill him, but join him. You cannot stop that.”

They seemed to be processing what I’d said. For a moment, their bodies shimmered, fading into a ghost realm and back to reality. The twins had always respected me as their mentor and trusted my decisions. Their attention to each lesson taught was key, and I hoped they’d remembered the most important one—to listen to their instinct.

I pulled my sleeve upward. “Plus, they wouldn’t listen to me in this state.”

The twins stared at my mark which didn’t glow nor transfer power.

“I no longer have a connection to the keepers. My opinion won’t matter. They’ll think I’ve deceived them. I know I can’t change the past and who I am now.” I crunched my forehead, squinting. “Well, perhaps I can, but it wouldn’t be right to. No one should have this much power, including me. You need to speak with the keepers. Let them know about the warden and that he’s planning to kill them. He’s already influenced their decision. Remind them that the warden wasn’t bound to the hereafter, and we don’t know his full strength. You are the only ones who can help me and help the keepers.”

“We’ll do what we can.” Ayer scratched his head. “When we speak to you in our time, I presume you will know nothing about this.”

“That’s right. And make sure it stays that way. You’re my only lifeline.”

I whirled the twins back to the Amazon. With only an hour left before I returned to the future, I still needed to see one more person.

* * *

The outside of the hill appeared quiet. The one entrance available posed a problem—I couldn’t risk running into myself, or anyone else. I opened a vortex to enter through the walk-in pantry. The smell of earth and herbs surrounded me. Pressing my ear against the door, I listened, holding my breath. Muffled voices resonated from the living room. With care, I opened the door, knowing very well the slightest sound I made would be heard by anyone in the hill.

Light entered through a slit in the opening, and I stared at the back of Mira’s silhouette in the living room. Her hands rested on her hips as she listened to Xela’s concerns about my punishment by the keepers. I remembered this day, recalling Mira’s two braids, one on each side of her head. It was the first time she’d worn her hair that way, and I wasn’t too pleased. I liked her hair free, the way her spirit was. Xander and I had gone to destroy the cave Xela had been kept in.

Glad they were engaged in a conversation, I sneaked into Xander’s bedroom like a ghost. I spread poison ivy extract I’d collected in the woods onto his sheets.