Something was happening. Visions of darkness, fast and creeping, blacked out my vision and crawled under my skin.

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. Where was my gem? Hands flew all over my body. Searching. Grabbing.

And then it was gone, flying away through space.

No! The scream ripped from my throat, but made no sound. Where was I? What was I?

Then I saw him, the man I’d failed all those years ago. My brother.

“Ed!” He cried out and reached toward me, fingers splayed.

“Noah!” I kicked my arms and legs to get closer to him, but I couldn’t move. It was like trying to swim through jelly.

“Noah!” I cried again, but already his image was fading.

“I’m sorry,” I choked. One final image haunted me before the darkness closed in: a pair of red, hungry eyes.

I woke, sore and cramping, with a still body next to me. A moment of sheer panic left me fumbling and reaching for the gem I always carried.

As soon as my fingers closed around it, my shoulders began to relax. A little, at least. We’d made it from pure fight or flight to a insistently nagging anxiety, but it was a start.

I looked around the room and tried to get my bearings. Okay. I was awake now. I was in Koxerra’s medical wing. And beside me, snoring adorably, was the man the gem had chosen as my mate.

My limbs creaked and ached while I tried to extricate myself. Why did I do this again? It had seemed like such a good idea at the time, but now that my rational brain was back, I needed to get out of this cramped bad as soon as possible.

I swung a leg over the railing and nearly tumbled out on my ass, but managed to catch myself. Somehow Beck didn’t budge, still sleeping peacefully. His chest rose and fell easily, his mouth slightly open.

The rogue vampires were still out there, and we hadn’t been able to find any more information on their whereabouts. They could attack again. They could kill more people, destroy more lives, hurt more innocent people.

People like Beck.

I clenched my jaw as my hands balled into fists. I couldn’t let that happen again. We had to find them and take them out, not only for the safety of our community, but for Beck and our child as well. 

It broke my heart to see him so afraid and so guilt ridden. He’d been through so much, and gotten so little in return. The fact that he was pregnant made my protective drive even stronger. I itched to do something. Anything. Sitting still in this stupid hospital room wasn’t going to get us any closer to defeating the Nightwatch Coven. 

I gripped the stone tighter as I paced back and forth across the small room. At least I wasn’t sending things flying everywhere this time. 

In all of our exercises, Milo always told me I was too aggressive, too forward with my energy. Whatever that meant. I envied people like Ivan and Wes that always seemed so cool headed. They could call up their powers when needed, but didn’t send things flying across the room every time they got upset. 

I couldn’t help that I felt things more strongly than others. I did my best to hide it, of course, but ever since becoming a Guardian that had become a little harder. Especially since many of our team exercises required working together not just on a physical level, but a mental one as well. That damn Crystal Ring workshop, for one. How was I supposed to be on the same wavelength as the rest of my team members when I had all these thoughts and fears and dreams?

I squeezed my eyes shut and took another breath. Let it out. When I opened my eyes, there was a pale, flickering red light coming from outside the door. Furrowing my brow, I drew closer and squinted. There were no red lights in here. What was going on?

I glanced back at Beck, still sleeping. The topaz pulsed against me, spilling warmth into my palm and up my arm.

Something was out there.

Pushing aside the curtain and the door, I stepped out into the hallway and looked both ways. Nothing. 

Had I just been seeing things?

The dream came back to me in bits and pieces as I looked down the long corridor. Darkness. Light. Blood.

A sconce on the wall flickered and went out, plunging us into the dead of night. No nurses walked these halls. No doctors making their rounds. I was all alone.

Just like in my dream.

Fear started to creep up, clawing at my stomach first, my chest, my throat. I was about to turn back to Beck’s room when I saw the light again, brighter this time. Moving.

I know they always say “don’t go toward the light”, but it wasn’t like I had much of a choice. My feet started moving despite myself, my mind consumed with curiosity. What was over there, and how was it calling to me so strongly?

A shred of clarity remained long enough to throw up a single red flag. I shouldn’t follow that. If I’d learned anything from my time at Koxerra, it was that strange, unexplained phenomenon were usually cause for concern. And definitely shouldn’t be investigated alone. 

I reached out with my powers, feeling the edges of the walls around me. In the darkness I could only get a rough image of the room, but it didn’t look like anything out of the ordinary. That is, until I turned the corner and faced the source of the light full on.

Hovering just a few feet off the ground in the lobby of The Crystal Spire was a glowing red orb. It was about the size of a bowling ball and bright enough to bathe the entire room in warm light. 

“Wes?” I called out. “This one of your tricks?”

No voices came.

In fact, no sounds came. Was I still dreaming? 

The glowing ball of light drew me into its orbit, closer and closer. I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Still a little alarm rang in the back of my head, but I was too entranced by the pulsing light to notice. Everything around me had slowed to a stop, leaving only me and the light in motion. 

I had to be dreaming. This wasn’t real. I caught a glance of the old grandfather clock in the lobby and my heart just about stopped along with everything else. 

It wasn’t moving. The pendulum didn’t even hang straight down. It stood frozen, suspended at an angle, the time forever emblazoned on the ancient face: 2:13 a.m.

What the hell was going on?

I stepped toward the orb again and it floated away, drifting toward the elevator. Each step I followed sent my heart racing and hands shaking, but it was like some other force had taken hold of me, driving me toward this globe. 

Come to think of it, it was not unlike the feeling of Gemstone Guardians past and present rushing through me at the pinnacle of transformation. But this was different. Darker. Ominous.

The elevator slid downward, and the orb with it. What could I do?

I followed, out the doors of Koxerra and off to the city limits before taking the first step beyond.

Little did I know, the moment I left Diamond Falls, the real show would begin. And little did I know, the topaz gem tumbled from my grip, laying forgotten on the elevator floor.