Unaltered #2_A Diamond in my Heart (4 page)

“The mysterious woman, where did she
come from? Have you seen her since?”

“I don’t know much about her and yes,
I’ve seen her a few times in my lifetime.”

“So, there were twenty-one pieces all
together, right? Freedom has one, you have one, I have a piece of
one, but where are the others?”

“The other stones are in Unaltereds
around the globe. Each has a duty or responsibility and we are all
interconnected mentally because all our diamonds came from the same
stone.”

“I’m connected to other
Unaltereds?”

“Not yet, you only have a fragment in
you.”

“Are you saying I will eventually have
all the shards inside me?”

“Yes. I mentioned this after the Death
Clan’s destruction. I told you that once the splintering takes
place, no one can halt or change the future of the diamond. Now,
think about the possession aspect I mentioned. The diamond
recognized you as its owner and reacted viciously to the attempted
hijacking of its powers. When it exploded, it killed you, thus
releasing your possession of the stone pieces, except for the one
in your heart. Once you were revived, the shard was once again in
your possession; the other pieces were in limbo. At that moment,
any Unaltered person could have picked them up and taken
possession; luckily, I was the only Unaltered around. I picked them
up one at a time and encased each piece in an amulet that can be
worn by people of powers. So long as the shard is never broken out
of the casing it doesn’t pose any threat to people of powers. But
if two or more shards are brought together in too close of
proximity, they will try to hook together like magnets. If you push
magnets together from a distance, they will jump toward the other
when they get close enough. If that happened with two amulets, the
shards will break their casing.

“The shard in your heart is protected
by your body. You can be around people of powers and they can touch
you and not die, but if you get too close to too many of the
shards, some fireworks will go off.” She winked with the last
comment.

“So, what happens when a Diamond
Bearer dies?”

“The next Unaltered to touch the stone
will own it. Technically, you died and the scattered shards
belonged to no one. If I hadn’t brought you alive, the diamond
shard in your heart would have been up for grabs too.”

“Someone died and their stone was
given to me, am I correct?”

Maetha was genuinely shocked by my
question. “A very good friend of mine removed his diamond for the
purposes of annihilating the Death Clan.”

“What’s his name?”

“His name was Gustave.”

“He died?”

“Calli, Diamond Bearers live until
they’re decapitated or their heart is separated from their
body.”

“He willingly removed his
heart?”

“Yes.”

“Wow! The diamond I carried came from
the inside of a man named Gustave? The piece inside of me right
now—”

“Gustave was a relative of yours,
Calli, and he approved of my selecting you to carry his
diamond.”

What a humbling revelation! “Are the
Diamond Bearers immortal, Maetha?”

“No, we could be killed if we stopped
paying attention to our surroundings and future constantly. When
you had the whole stone on your chest didn’t you feel the power of
awareness flowing through you?”

“Yes, I spoke telepathically with
Chris and had a vision of my own future. It was at that point I
realized I wasn’t going to die through all of it.”

“I placed the diamond in the pouch for
protection from Freedom. I’d envisioned the capture of the stone
and realized I needed to protect it from Freedom’s awareness. He
set the situation in motion two hundred years ago when he taught
the Death Clan how to feel inside the body and how to manipulate
healthy tissue. Prior to that incident, he’d sided with a different
group of Healers teaching them how to pull the life essence from
people.”

“The Vampires?”

“They were referred to as such but
looked as normal as you or I. A diamond was harvested from a
Diamond Bearer and one of your relatives was used in the same way
as you for the Death Clan. Some day you’ll meet him.”

I was excited to meet him along with
all the other Diamond Bearers. “So, Freedom has been running amok
for a while now?”

“Yes.”

“Why don’t you just read his mind or
look for his future and put a stop to him?”

“It doesn’t work that way with a
Diamond Bearer. Calli, you learned how to maneuver through
mind-block walls and shocked more than a few people. The Readers
were amazed the most by that. What you did was enter the mind in an
angled fashion different than regular mind readers use; of course
yours is different because your power source comes from the
diamond.”

“Can’t you break through his walls
like I did with the Readers?”

“You didn’t break through walls you
found the holes and gaps and entered through them. Imagine a game
of checkers. All the disks are placed on black squares and can only
move on black squares. You know the rules for checkers like when
you can jump or when you can’t; one of those rules is you always
move at an angle on the black squares, never on the red. Imagine
that you haven’t moved any of your checkers but your opponent is
trying to be kinged. He must get to the last row but is blocked and
cannot get through. If you got down at eye level to the game board,
your checkers would appear to be in a straight line, not a zig-zag
pattern. This is how a mind block is seen by Mind Readers; a
straight wall. But Diamond Bearers have the bird’s eye view and can
play on both the black and red squares. We are able to reach the
back row because everyone else only has blocks set up on the black
squares. We move diagonally on the red squares and enter through
the blocks. However, Diamond Bearers can set up blocks on their red
squares too, but not to keep the Mind Readers out, because they
can’t read our minds anyway, but to keep other Diamond Bearers
out.

“This is the reason I exercise extreme
caution when selecting a bearer. I need to be certain you’ll be a
good agent of nature before ever giving you the diamond. I know
once you have all the pieces of your stone and have learned how to
block completely I won’t be able to enter your mind. I, along with
the other Diamond Bearers, will be able to sense where you are at
all times but won’t be able to read your mind if you don’t want it
to be read. Freedom has found a way to prevent all communication
from the other Diamond Bearers. He has figured out how to be
‘invisible’ in a sense. We cannot track his location all of the
time. We cannot see his future either. The day he appeared to you,
he resurfaced momentarily. I bi-located to his location, outside
your mother’s clinic, and watched him communicate with you and then
turn and walk away.”

I was amazed to hear her say this.
“You were there? I didn’t see you.”

“I wasn’t there to be seen. I had a
fix on Freedom and I needed to follow him. My eyes held onto his
physical form but I could no longer track him using the diamond’s
powers; he’d gone ‘invisible’ again. Being able to see him but not
feel him confused me greatly. I knew I must alert the
others.”

“What do you think he’s using or doing
to hide from you?”

“I don’t worry so much about the
logistics of his ability to block us as much as I worry about his
reason. The ‘why’ is much more disconcerting. Freedom disagrees
with my choices and feels life on this planet should play out
chaotically with disasters and illnesses keeping the population
under control. However, that would also mean people of powers would
rise up and rule the rest, as in my early days, and the Unaltered
blood line would have ended during the Black Plague in
1348.

“The Diamond Bearers chose not to
eradicate the plague because it would have been in direct violation
with nature. The world’s population suffered a huge hit but without
it the planet would be overrun with humans right now. However,
Freedom, his wife and two children were infected and were going to
die. I stepped in and healed Freedom and his oldest, a son, to keep
the bloodline going. Freedom was to be the next Diamond Bearer and
his son would continue the line. There was nothing to indicate to
me that Freedom would stray from the path of nature, but once he
became a Diamond Bearer and learned what I had done, his true
nature surfaced.

“His son lived a full life
and had several children, the first of which was Unaltered thus
passing down the gene to continue the line. In Freedom’s mind, the
good thing I did was not right and as his son aged the more it
angered him. The fire was fueled with the deaths of his
grandchildren and his great-grandchildren. Freedom feels I took
away his choice, I forced him into this immortal state against his
will; in essence, he’s right. This is something you’ll need to wrap
your mind around, Calli. Your present family will die before you.
Your future family will die before you, and some
because
of you. But the
first born from every generation will be protected and guarded,
placed on the ready, should any be needed in the way you were
needed.”

“So, is every Diamond Bearer a
descendant of yours?”

“Almost.”

“Am I?”

“Yes.”

“So you’re like my great, great,
great, great…how many greats?”

“Three-hundred
generations.”

“You’re the greatest grandmother ever!
How is it you’ve kept your existence a secret? I mean, you and all
of the other Diamond Bearers. Why didn’t Mrs. Winter know about
you, or Chris, or the Death Clan for that matter? We have ancient
Greek mythology stories, Bible stories, even King Tut stories, but
no Diamond Bearer stories.”

“You are comparing the lives of
twenty-one individuals to entire empires and civilizations; of
course you’ll have stories about them still surviving in this day
and age. A small handful of people, regardless of their powers and
abilities, slip through the cracks of time; besides, those grand
iconic stories you mentioned are just fun bedtime stories told and
retold to the point of becoming myths. The real stories behind the
myths are much more interesting, trust me. How have we kept our
existence hidden? We stay out of sight for our own
preservation.”

“Once I have all the shards inside me
I’ll be able to communicate with the other Diamond Bearers,
right?”

“Yes, and they with you.”

“When will that happen?”

“When I know with a certainty you
won’t become another Freedom. Do you have any other questions at
this time, Calli?”

“You’re leaving? Will I be able to
communicate with you? I thought you were bringing Beth and that I’d
be learning how to spot auras? What do I do in the
meantime?”

“Yes, I’m leaving. I have other
pressing business to attend to. In the meantime you need to
practice meditation. Learn how to control your mind; learn how to
bring yourself to a place of neutrality. As far as communication, I
will come to you when the time is right. Until then, try to find
your place in nature. Keep current with the world’s news and you
may be able to spot our interventions.”

“Do I have to go back to school? I
mean, honestly, what’s the point?”

“As your greatest grandmother, I’m
telling you to finish school.”

“Going to pull that card, are you?
Alright. What about my parents? Should they know what’s going on
with me?”

“Not yet; all in due time.”

“Maetha, what do you know about the
Shadow Demons?”

“They are the consequences of using a
diamond to wipe out a group of Healers.”

“So, they are the dead
Healers?”

“Yes, their desire for power holds
them to this world. That’s also why they only go after people of
powers.”

“Can’t we get rid of them?”

“Oh, there have been attempts to do so
throughout the years, but so far nothing has been successful. All
we’ve come up with is how to push them back with light. I am of the
mind that they live in an alternate dimension with our darkness
being their windows. They are not present in all dark corners of
the world, only those where they can smell the powers in
existence.”

“Yeah, I’ve figured that out already.
You said they are the consequences of using a diamond to wipe out a
clan of Healers. Is there another way to wipe out clans without
using a diamond?”

“Our group of twenty-one Immortals can
kill any group of Healers. But when we do, it only sparks the
development of many immortality-seeking Healers. They see us and
what we can do and figure we must be all powerful immortal Healers
and they strive to become the same. Basically, we end up making
more work for ourselves when we reveal our powers. In this current
world we live in, it’s downright dangerous for us to step out of
the shadows. Governments would love to capture us and find out what
keeps us alive. We have enough trouble with the governments as it
is; we certainly don’t need them trying to find Immortals, to
boot.”