One
The road before him looked endless, stretching into the distance and the unknowable future. He loved it, and always had. Thwump, thwump, thwump…ah, nothing like the sound of his tires striking the ancient asphalt.
The long road. Poets had written about journeys on lonely highways for centuries as metaphors for the journey of life. Yes, Will thought, it could be, but, for him, the road was never quiet or lonely. It was an old friend he knew well, happy to be traveling it once again. To him, this was home.
And this time, it may lead him to where he needed to be…he’d learned recently that destiny was true and it might have a plan for him. At moments, it pissed him off that there seemed to be a guiding force that had already designed his path, and at other moments, he’d found serenity in surrendering to inevitability. In his purest moments of honesty, Will could admit that somewhere in his mind he’d always known that his life wasn’t entirely his own.
He breathed easier with the wind in his face and hair. It was as natural as the grass and sky to him. Will caressed the long curved handlebars as he glanced to his right to watch the setting sun.
Time to find food and shelter soon. Riding through the darkness wasn’t as safe as it had been when he’d started his riding career twenty years ago. Changing transportation modes left little room for throwbacks like him. Lift-cars filled the skies in busier places, but out here on these isolated roads that stretched between North and South America, only an occasional flying car whipped past him on air currents just slightly above his head. Most people preferred to keep the lift-cars low and that posed a danger to old ground-based vehicles like his Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
Moving his eyes back to the darkening pavement, Will smiled. Even if he slid and went down against the ground, the Mother would protect him. She’d keep a layer of compressed air between his fragile human body and the hard surface between him. They’d come to an understanding, he and the living planet. He took care of her and she reciprocated. There were times it all still felt surreal. Now, moving close to her, was not one of those times.
Increasing lights ahead indicated a village where he could stop to rest and get something to eat. Maybe treat himself to a fine whisky if such a thing were available. Food and spirits could be a crapshoot south of the border. Unless he was in one of the larger cities, the fare was specific to the region, which suited him well. It was part of the charm of traveling. Almost anything was welcome after a day of dust and wind.
Breezing into the village, his speed slow, he appreciated the decades old classic architecture, stucco in bright colors lined the two lane road that fed past it. His bike’s roar had dropped to a soft purr as he noted a bright yellow building in the center of the village sporting flashing red lettering in the windows; a cantina advertising local food and drink. Perfect.
Sliding the bike into a slot just right for its size, Will leaned against it to appreciate bright green double doors that bore a hand-carved wooden sign that said, in Portuguese, Welcome. The narrow slot that fit his bike well told him that he wasn’t the only visitor here who rode in on a motorcycle, although the others were likely jet-bikes. Still, there was a commonality shared in the experience of the open road.
After securing his travel pack, Will pitched his fone into his pocket and pulled one of the green doors open. Whoever had designed this cantina had created the tropical vibe common for many clubs in South America, every corner filled with lush tropical plants and dwarf trees bred for darkened indoor spaces. Festive multi-colored lights made the small spaces glow with warmth, appreciated after the cool night air. He was the only one in the cantina at the moment.
“Welcome, sir. Did you wish to dine?”
Accented, the soft female voice drew Will to his left to watch a flamboyantly dressed woman approach. She twisted a brightly colored towel in her hands, every finger circled with silver and bejeweled rings. Smile welcoming and genuine, her beautiful eyes twinkled. Will couldn’t help but respond to her overt sensuality, his own smile matching hers.
“Dinner, yes, please.” He paused. “I’m very hungry.”
The statement hung there as she nodded her head to show she understood him perfectly. A twist in her hips as she moved closer to curl a hand around his thick forearm told him that she was possibly interested in helping him with his hunger.
“Sir, I never let a man leave…” Now she paused for effect. “...unsatisfied.”
Her fingers caressing his bare skin, she drew him to a table in the back of the room. “You are new here? Passing through or plan to stick around for a while?”
“Passing through.”
“Ah. You have somewhere you need to be.”
“I do. Where that is, I don’t know, but we’ll see how it turns out.”
Her dark eyes regarded him quietly for a few moments before she nodded. “Yes, I can see that. You have a wandering spirit. An earthly spirit, I think.”
Her comment startled him. How could she know? Did she know? Only supernatuals would and she didn’t read as supernatural.
Suddenly she laughed. “Don’t try to figure me out. Many have tried and all have failed.”
“Well you are a lovely enigma.”
“What a charmer. Here, let me bring you our traveler’s special. It is guaranteed to fill up a big man like you.”
“Thank you, uh…”
“Cochita. Most call me Chita.”
“I’m not most. I like Cochita. It’s barely big enough for the vibrant personality I see here.”
“Be careful, stranger. I might fall in love with you and weave my spell so tight you could never leave.”
“Fate worse than death?”
“Ah, sir, you would die a little each day. Happily. I will return with your meal.”
Will dropped into a carved seat at the table she’d led him to, pleased with his prospects for the evening. What an intriguing woman. A nice meal, perhaps this senorita’s company, would make the end of his third day on the road a real pleasure. He had a long way to go and he’d learned that you take your joys where you could find them.
While he’d been assured that his lifespan was longer than normal humans, Will wasn’t sure he believed it, and even if he did, life still came and went in a flash. After the past few months, he’d come to understand how beautiful that gift could be. Years of self-torture for an accident he’d thought was his fault had finally given way to accepting a new truth…that what he was was vastly more complicated and beyond his experience than anything he could have imagined. Lost in thought, he was surprised when Cochita placed a bottle of tequila on his table. “I believe you need a night devoid of stress. May I join you?”
“Please.”
Lifting a curved whisky glass, she carefully poured tequila into one and then a second glass until each was nearly full. With an artistic flair, she whipped her full skirt aside and sat in the chair across from Will.
“You’re a dancer,” he commented, because he knew instinctively by her movements and grace that she was.
“Yes, I am. So, Mr. Traveler, I wait anxiously for your story. This is the most fascinating part of my job.”
Will lowered his eyes to his glass as he picked it up and killed a long swallow.
“Everybody’s got a story,” he finally responded.
“They do. Tell me yours.”
“Nothing much to tell.” Like hell there wasn’t!
“You wouldn’t believe half of what I’ve experienced in the past six months.”
“And you would be surprised.” Her gaze was measured as she matched his deep sip of tequila.
Silent again, staring at the glass of clear liquid, he shifted his gaze back to Cochita’s. “I’m a human supernatural with bizarre abilities that helped avert a global disaster last year. Now, I’m blowing in the wind because, somehow, I know I’m not where I’m supposed to be and I’m not sure how to find out where that is. How’s that for a story?”
Cochita didn’t lose his gaze as she lifted her glass and one, two, three sips later, slid closer. “Riveting.” She pulled both of Will’s hands into hers and closed her eyes.
Without moving, both sat speechless for several long seconds before she lifted her eyelids. “You will find your place.”
She stood abruptly and walked a few steps from the table before she looked back. “But not tonight. Tonight, you eat the best of what we offer and then you and I…we fuck like rabbits the rest of the night.”
His breath hitched, Will watched the lovely temptress disappear behind a swinging door and dropped back against his seat, the glass in his hand, as he recovered his breathing.
“Damn,” he whispered, now taking only small sips of the tequila before he reached for the bottle to refill the glass. The night had just gotten much more promising. It seemed that lately the people who came and went in his life were far more than they appeared. His mind went to the gorgeous vampire he’d rescued just days ago and returned to her friends in Vegas. Even now he almost wanted to turn around and go back to find her and learn more about her story. Then tonight, this woman, human as far as he could tell, who seemed to understand things she probably couldn’t about him, and made it clear that she wanted, and would, be with him in his bed after he ate.
“Bring it on,” he said out loud as he started on the second glass of alcohol, on his way to being thoroughly drunk so he could tamp down his tiresome inhibitions and just enjoy this beautiful woman’s company tonight.
Dinner over, and the entire bottle of tequila now empty, Will’s eyes locked on Cochita, who stood to grab a second bottle and plopped it in the center of his table. She moved around behind him, her hands rubbing his shoulders moved down his back and curved forward to outline the tight muscles that formed the masculine V shape of a well-muscled back.
“You are strong.” Her voice purred into his ear, her lips close enough to brush it as she spoke.
As Will pushed up from his seat, he turned to lift her chin and capture huge dark eyes lined in black. “When do you finish your shift here?”
“When I wish.” Moving away, she snatched his hand and pulled. “Which is now.”
In rapid Spanish, she called out to an unseen person behind the door that led to the kitchen, then tugged Will to a stairwell behind a huge potted plant. The stairwell ended into another that took them back outside to cobbled steps which led around behind the cantina. A two-story building painted in teal and brown bordered by elaborate tile work faced the stone trail.
“This is beautiful.” Will let his hand slide along an old-fashioned iron fence.
She stopped to survey his face. “I like beautiful things.”
Her smile electric, she bounded up stairs lined with the same iron rails and pushed open the second door. “It is time to play. Mr. Traveler, this is my sandbox.”
Once she disappeared inside, Will followed even faster, closing the door to the hot, dark room illuminated with a single flickering flame as she lit other candles. He lifted the bottle she’d placed on a table near the door and popped the cap.
Finishing with the final candle, Cochita faced him, lifted a fat rolled paper, lit it, and took a long puff before she held it out to him. “This is peyote, but not like you’ve ever known it. There are magical spirits in the world, Will. All is not as it seems.”
Oh, he knew about magic and spirits and the unseen world. He hesitated only a moment before he took a healthy swig from the bottle, reached for the roll and drew hard on it.
Smiling, Cochita led him to a mattress in the corner covered by bedding that looked like an artist’s palette had spilled over it again and again. “We’d better get down here and naked before it hits, my friend.”
It was already hitting. Will watched brightly colored wall hangings that covered all four walls of the room begin to dance and swirl.
“Kicky,” he said, then dropped his eyes to watch Cochita slide her dress off, and on her knees, crawl to him across the mattress layered with heavily-patterned bedding. Naked, she reached for his jacket, popped the release snaps, pitched it away, then his shirt and pants were gone too. Now, naked too, Will stood on his knees and pulled her slick warm body against his. “You think what we just smoked was magic? Watch this.”
While he knew he shouldn’t show off his earth magic, Will’s compromised judgment controlled him and he brought his own magic up from the ground, wrapping them both in cool air. Giggling in delight, Cochita groaned and fell backward, pulling him with her. Fueling their sexual frenzy, she opened her legs to cradle his body as Will buried himself in her, and for the next twenty minutes, neither had any interest in anything other than the pounding of skin on skin and eventual release that left them both gasping, collapsed against the bed.
They didn’t move again until the sun blazed into the smaller windows at the back of the room.
Awareness arrived slowly for both of them. Her hair tousled, Cochita shook her head. “Aye, yi, yi.”
She stopped to stare at Will. “I know we…”
“Yeah,” he added as he sat up. “It’s all a bit…fuzzy.”
“Too much peyote…and spirits, eh?”
Falling back to hug a pillow, Will yawned. “Yes, too much.”
Suddenly, she pushed off the mattress. “But I’m sure we had an amazing time.” Her eyes moved over Will’s naked back and ass. “Yes, I am sure.” Although she wished she could remember.
“It will come back. Nothing important is ever really lost. Get up, traveler. You told me you need to get back on the road early. You have somewhere you need to be.”
Squinting, he looked up at her. “Not yet.”
“Aye, you do. Something is waiting for you. Or someone. You do not know until you find.”
Nodding, because he didn’t know what to say to her, Will rolled upright and stood, his head pounding. Pulling on his clothes quickly, he let Cochita lead him from the room to face a warm morning and the rising sun. A light mist covered bountiful blooms all around the landing, sparkling with moisture in the nascent light.
“Magic does live here,” he whispered, and followed his lovely companion down the stairs to the front of the club.
She kissed him softly and ran a hand around his jacket to straighten the collar. “Do not doubt, your destiny is waiting for you to come to it. You will find it. And her.”
Back on the road, the miles pushing his night behind him, Will thought about Cochita’s last two words and the woman from a year ago with a cloud of dark hair surrounding a face he knew he would never forget.
It all felt too improbable, and too big a concept after a night of chemistry-accented sex.
Revving the engine, Will slipped the bike onto the pavement and continued to the main road again, the miles pushing his night behind him quickly. Yet his mind went back to the idea of destiny and fate. Was there something waiting for him, designed by the universe? His connection to the living planet had proven there was. Whatever that destiny might be was unknown, or unrevealed as yet. How do you search for the unknown?
Although it seemed cryptic, he thought he knew the answer.
“It’s in the search that you find the hope,” Chione had told him before he left Colorado last year. Even she had seen something in him that let her know that something waited.
“Perhaps it’s true,” he whispered into the wind.
Memory led him back to the first moment he saw her. Olivia, smiling as he walked toward her through the hot desert air, naked, fascinated. He’d felt she was something special, something wild, someone outrageous, someone he wanted, even at first glance. Events had never allowed them to pursue those feelings. Was it too late?
Olivia was unfinished business, hope suspended, possibilities unexplored, pleasure untouched. No, it wasn’t a surprise that it was her face that came to his mind as he confronted the accusation that he was on a quest.
All right, universe, he thought, let’s see how this plays out.
Five days later in Brazil
Road weary, wearing the dust of the long journey, Will brought his bike to a stop in front of an uninspiring building nestled into about an acre of cleared space. Varieties of small trees had surrounded him for the past ten minutes of his ride. He scanned what looked like a large warehouse clad in metal siding, spacey but utilitarian. This was where Ife had Vtex’d him to come to join her and her Amazon basin restoration team. Not the usual dwelling of vampires, but he’d been surprised before.
Leaning against the seatback, he closed his eyes and drew in fresh air tinged with moisture. Even his breathing had changed…in, out, fuller, deeper. Resting comfortably, he lifted his eyelids to scan the horizon, where the sun hovered. Scarlet and golden light spread across the dying blue and tangled with clouds set aglow by the brilliant colors. The departing sun’s rays highlighted a newly planted forest where sturdy trunks stood tall against the sky.
Swinging his leg over the seat, he stood for the first time in six hours. After lifting one knee, then the other, flexing his muscles, Will placed both feet on the earth, the connection here, so close to her heart, Mother Earth’s magic reached through the ground to touch him. Here was life and love and hope, the very basis of earth-based magic. Uninhibited joy infused Will as his gaze moved right and left in sweeping glances to take in the wide panorama of a once stunning rain forest now burgeoning with life again. Could there be anything more beautiful than seeing life endure?
He’d always appreciated the beauty of the world, but now, with his tentacled connection to the planet beneath his feet and the sky above her, moments like this left him awestruck.
“Mesmerizing, isn’t it?”
Hearing that voice again for the first time in almost a year, Will turned to the woman who spoke.
The last time they’d been together had been under circumstances that he still had trouble believing.
Will and a rag-tag group of supernaturals and humans had faced a devastating battle, the end of life on a massive scale, prevented it, came back victorious, bruised, bloodied, but not beaten, and then parted to return to lives interrupted with little idea how to do it.
He searched the young woman who stood beside him now, confident, smiling. She looked good.
“Scottie. Damn. You look happy, girl.”
Never one to initiate physical contact, Will found himself reaching for her and pulled her into a loose hug. Scottie returned the embrace by pulling him closer, tears in her eyes.
“I am. More than I ever thought possible. This land has become a part of me and I think I’ve become a part of it.”
“Won’t be returning to New York?”
“The concrete jungle? No. Now that we’ve activated our powers, I doubt any of us can go back to our old lives. Have you?”
A shake of his head answered Scottie’s question. Will lifted his eyes to the scarlets now streaking across the wide sky. “No. I’ve been unsettled since Yellowstone. That’s why when Ife called, I didn’t hesitate. I felt a strong pull to be with you guys again. I can’t describe it, but…”
“You felt incomplete?”
Will looked back into Scottie’s eyes. “I guess. Maybe this is where I belong.”
Scottie lifted a hand to push back a heavy swath of hair that had fallen over Will’s face. “Earth man, you absolutely do. Chione reminded us before we split up that, even when we went back to our lives, we will always be connected. Hey, you gotta be tired and hungry. Come on in and we’ll get some food in you. Ife has a superb chef.”
“God, yes.”
They watched in silence as the departing sun left a navy sky fading quickly to black. Will was accustomed to pitch dark skies and the Milky Way-patterned skyscape in the southwestern deserts of Arizona, but it was different this far south.
Reaching for him, Scottie wrapped both arms around Will’s right arm to draw him into the large building.
“Come, the others can’t wait to see you. Especially Caed. He’s outnumbered by chicks and sometimes it makes him nervous.”
As they passed sliding doors, Will looked around, and smiled. He wasn’t shocked to see that the unassuming warehouse hid a huge high-ceiling semi-circular room filled with large plush furniture in natural shades, the walls clad in local grasses weaved into leaf-like patterns. The décor and open spaces had been designed to feel as if the outdoor continued inside. Coming off each side of the semi-circle were heavy doors that he knew would lead to each member’s private rooms.
One of the doors opened just as they entered, and the ethereally lovely Ife walked out, scrolling through a small tablet in her hand. She looked hurried until she glanced up to her right and saw Scottie leading Will toward her.
“Willoughby, you’re here!” Always quiet and reserved, Ife’s exuberance showed him how grateful she was that he had actually come to help her and her team re-populate this irreplaceable rain forest.
She glided forward, her movement silent and elegant as only a first blood vampire could do.
Scottie released Will as Ife, less uninhibited than Scottie, gently took his hands with an easy smile, her pale eyes sparkling. “This means so much to Brazil. Will, your magics are the final piece we need to resurrect what has been lost and to recreate this forest. Please, we are just to begin first meal. You must be famished.”
“Yup. Especially since you vampires eat so well. I hope you have enough.”
“My darling traveler, I suspect we do.” Ife laughed and moved her eyes to Scottie.
“Would you mind taking Will to his chambers, then bring him to the dining room when he is settled in?”
“Sure, Boss.”
“Scottie, how many times…”
“Yeah, yeah, don’t call you boss, I get it. But you are. Kinda.”
“We are all equal. I am merely the one who guides this effort.”
Scottie grinned. “’Cause you’re the boss.”
Ife sighed and looked back up to Will. “She’s untrainable. I’ll see you soon.”
Once settled in a bedroom at least four times larger than his cabin in the desert, more like a suite with a big sitting room and vidscreen, Will followed a chatty Scottie through a corridor that held native plants, past a big gaming room, and into the dining room. Voices floating through the doorway let him know they weren’t the first to arrive.
Ife was already seated at a round table in the center of the room, large enough to have pleased King Arthur. Trays filled with towering food faced the diners. She looked up as he entered.
“Will, come, have a seat next to me.”
Scottie pushed him toward her. “Teacher’s pet.”
At a buffet table near the back of the dining area, Crezia and Caedmon turned when Ife called out.
Caedmon, shaking his head, surged forward.
“Oh, thank the gods! Another male!”
“Is that a complaint?” Crezia chided as she reached Will first and hugged him. “Welcome to the sweat box, Will.”
“Thank you. I’m happy to help.”
A loud yawn drew everyone’s attention to the entrance where a swiftly moving young woman breezed past everyone and headed straight for the coffee.
“Caffeine please. Oh, please.”
Another pleasant surprise. Smiling, Will moved toward her. “Dani.”
Dani, a steaming cup in her hand, turned to the voice behind her, sleepy eyes squinting. “Will?”
Accepting an embrace from the big man, Dani held the cup out to her side. “Will. What are you doing here?”
Pleased to see another earth warrior that he’d trained with in Africa and fought beside in Yellowstone, Will shrugged. “I think the same thing you are.”
“To party like there’s no tomorrow?”
Laughing, he stepped back so she could take a sip of the coffee she’d sought in desperation. “Okay, maybe not the same thing. I’m here to help with the restoration.”
“Oh. Cool. I’m here to visit Scottie and get a little R & R before I begin working with Cari’s crew. It’s, um…” Dani shook her head, glanced at Scottie, then looked back up into Will’s amused eyes. “It’s pretty frantic around here. Kind of wild. Have you ever met Dez and her gang?”
A quick shake of his head answered Dani while she took a longer sip of the coffee.
“Oh, it’s a gas. You’ll love it. Hot men and women, endless drinking, music, games, just a freaking amazing good time. But it’ll wear you out. I’m more exhausted than I was after the big battle last year.”
Scottie pushed in to pull Will back to his table.
“Get something to eat, my friend. Dani’s just a lightweight when it comes to all-night partying. I’m training her, though.”
“Ugh. I hope I survive.” Dani grinned. “Although if I don’t, I’ll die with a smile on my face. And then, Will, there’s the mystery.”
Seated now, Will looked up as he filled a plate with bacon and eggs. “What mystery?”
Crossing to the table, Dani snatched a slice of bacon from his plate. “Ife hasn’t revealed it yet. Ask her. See if she’ll tell you.”
Dani lifted her voice. “I love a good mystery, but I’m dying to know more about it.” She leaned across the table, staring at Ife. “Tell us?”
“Now that Will’s arrived, I can. After first meal, everyone, we’ll gather in the lounge. Yes, something quite interesting is going on. Now, eat, enjoy, and then we’ll meet and I’ll tell you what it is.”
“At last.” Dani dropped into the seat next to Will and began to fill her own plate. “You look good. We need to catch up.”
He shrugged. “Not much to tell. My life is pretty much back to ordinary.”
“That’s about to change,” Scottie announced.
Over an hour later, a group of 14 blood-bonds that worked with the vampires, Dani, Scottie, and Will had taken seats in the high-ceilinged lounge he’d first seen when he came into the building.
Dani looked down at Will, sprawled on a teddy-bear brown sofa, a hand on his gut. “Oh, boy. I remember my brother and half a dozen steaks not long after we came to Colorado. It wasn’t pretty. That’s a complication of living with vampires, they can eat ten times what we can, and never suffer or gain weight. Yet we still overdo.”
Will groaned. “Worth every pang, though. I’ve had days when I get ready to hit my bed and realize I haven’t eaten.”
Watching the huge man with deep roots to the earth, Dani wondered how well he was adjusting to the new life thrust upon them all this past year. She had the support of her brother and the close bonds she’d built with Cairine and her friends in Colorado. Her innate ability to intuit people’s truths let her know that he was unsettled. Coming here to this family that Ife had built might be exactly what he needed.
Reaching for Will, Dani slid her fingers along his shoulder and down to rest on his wrist. “This should be interesting. I think you’re going to enjoy your time here.”
Nodding, Will watched Dani. He’d only had a minimal relationship with her before now. Once they’d finished their mission at Yellowstone, he’d left without delay. His eyes moved over her face, lovely, with perhaps one of the most engaging smiles he’d ever seen. Her wild hair, longer than it had been when he’d seen her last, created a curly halo around smooth chocolate skin and eyes he’d learned could see past the surface and into the depths below. He sensed in her a genuine concern for him, a need to connect with him as a friend and compatriot.
Without forethought, he lifted a hand and caressed the back of hers as it lay on his other wrist. “I hope so. I needed…something.”
“I feel that when I touch you. If you need to talk, anything, while you’re here, just come to me.”
“I will.”
Their eyes locked until Ife and others surged into the room. Voice levels rose while the new arrivals found seats until Ife spoke.
“So, our little mystery.” She settled into a high padded chair, one leg drawn beneath her. “Two weeks ago, Crezia, Scottie, and I were in an area we call Section 12, a garden filled with native flowers we’ve replanted. Most of the varieties were nearly extinct. Luckily, we’ve been successful in reintroducing them and they are flourishing. Caedmon was helping me carry a new sprayer that we planned to use to supply natural nutrients.”
Caedmon laughed. “I’m the Back.”
“And a beautiful one.” Crezia rubbed his back, fingers spread, to punctuate her point.
“We couldn’t do without you,” Ife continued. “So this is what happened that day.”
Two weeks ago
“Ife, is this where you want this?” Caedmon asked, anxious to drop the heavy container. He might be vampire and strong, but not only was it heavy, but it was bulky and awkward. Grateful when Ife called out with an affirmative answer, he lowered it, as carefully as he could, and lifted up to rub his shoulders.
“Anything else I can help with?”
Crezia, already on her knees checking the roots of their newest seedlings, looked up. “Not right now, my love.”
“’Kay. I’ll be nearby if you do.”
Scottie drew Crezia’s attention back to the ground, and, his eyes on the three busy women, Caedmon turned to search the gardens and wandered away when he noticed large rock formations some distance away. Curious, he glanced back as all three women, on the ground, examined the health of the new plants. They wouldn’t miss him, so he headed toward the boulders.
“This row looks stressed.” Ife lifted a seedling from its roots and showed it to Scottie and Crezia.
“They do. We’ll use the nutrients we just brought here, then Scottie and I will give them a power boost.” Taking the seedling from Ife, Crezia examined it, and reached for a tool to poke a hole in the ground to replant it.
Ife began to rise when Crezia looked up abruptly into Ife’s eyes.
Calmly, Crezia shifted her gaze to Scottie and then back to Ife. “Caedmon fell into the earth.”
The comment was so bizarre, Scottie and Ife didn’t respond right away. A second later, Ife dropped back down to face Crezia. “What do you mean? Is he hurt?”
Crezia shook her head. “He’s fine, but we’d better go check on him. He can’t get out.”
“Of course,” Scottie agreed. Reaching for hand-held LED torches, she passed one to Ife and had to run to catch up with Crezia, who had already taken off.
Ife worked to keep up with Crezia, and although she was moving fast, she didn’t break into air displacement. “Zia, where is he?”
“I’m not sure. Our connection is strong, we can communicate psychically through distances, but sometimes I can’t get details. I know he wasn’t injured or in danger, there isn’t any panic or pain.”
The three women followed a crooked path through several of their planting projects toward an increasing amount of huge boulders and a solid rock cliff.
Half an hour later, weaving through several large upright stones, Crezia came to a stop on the far side of where they’d entered. Pausing, after searching through numerous walls of rock, she pushed through a narrow slit between two of the largest formations.
Scottie shrugged and followed, Ife right behind.
“Down there.” Crezia pointed to a fresh break in the ground, a dark hole, widened from where it had been disturbed.
“He’s in there?” Ife asked, and Crezia nodded.
“How deep is it?”
“I don’t know. Too deep to jump out or he would have instead of letting me know he was in trouble.”
Scottie moved closer and looked into the hole, so dark she could see nothing beyond. “How do we get him out?”
“We’ll figure it out.”
“Can you speak with him?”
“Not exactly. Our communication is more sense than words. It’s tough to explain.”
Suddenly, she grinned. “He’s exploring. He can’t see much, but he thinks it’s enormous.”
By now, Scottie leaned over the opening, squinting.
“The locals make rope ladders. Long ones. They might do the job.”
“Of course!” Ife exclaimed. “Scottie…”
“On it.”
Scottie was gone immediately as Crezia leaned over the broken earth at the edge of the hole. “I’m going in.”
Ife sighed and nodded. “I’m not surprised, but Zia, are you sure it’s safe?”
“It’s safe. Caed has traveled some distance into the opening. With my help, we can create light balls and see what he has found. “Just…get those rope ladders, Ife.”
“We will. You have your fone?”
“I do. See you soon.” Crezia stopped to smile to her friend. “It’s exciting, isn’t it?”
“We’ll see once we know why the earth gave way here, and what’s underneath us.”
“I think the Mother Earth is in a generous mood. I don’t know exactly what Caed is seeing down there, but he’s feeling something kind of intense.”
“Send me a Vtex when you create light and see the space. Gods, I am curious, but be careful, Zia.”
With a last nod, the LED torch secured against her, she took a deep breath and dropped blind into the opening, aware that the bottom would come up fast and that she’d hit hard.
Watching from above, worried in spite of Crezia’s assurance, Ife heard the distant thump as her friend landed brutally.
“Are you okay?” she called down.
Silence at first was followed by her fone chiming. Ife grabbed it and punched to accept the call. “Zia!”
Zia’s voice, even labored, seemed fine. “I’m okay. Um, I’m going to try to find Caed. I’ll keep this line open.”
Minutes passed as Ife sat above, her eyes wandering over and over to the opening. She toyed with the idea of joining them, the purpose being that three first bloods should be able to use their magics to escape the underground cave or whatever the hell this was. The ethereal connection Crezia and Caedmon shared was unique; the other first blood warriors were more effective with physical contact. Without a conduit like Chione or Cairine, it was difficult to share and maximize their power.
Using her skills, she listened for Scottie or any of the locals who helped them during daylight hours, mostly trusted blood-bonds, but she didn’t hear or see any movement through the scruffy brush that surrounded the rocky outcropping that backed up to their planting projects.
The decision made suddenly, she palmed her fone to Vtex Crezia.
Zia, I’m coming down. Make way.
A final momentary hesitation became solid determination and Ife jumped, for the first time in her life, into a dark chasm, unaware what waited, and felt her body fall almost in slow motion, her arms out to her side as if they could slow the descent…and felt unrestrained exhilaration. That split moment when she jumped pitched her heartrate into maximum overdrive and for those seconds, she felt weightless and free, a wild sense of joy that she breathed and lived. Fear became her companion in this reckless and awesome act.
Always graceful, Ife had a fraction of a second to acknowledge that, with the effects of gravity, she would crumble upon landing, but it didn’t happen. The ever-elegant vampire landed hard enough to jar her teeth, but on her feet, stunned for the first few seconds.
“Holy shit. Ife, you all right?”
Caedmon’s voice penetrated her state of shock and euphoria as pain surged from her ankles up into her legs, her knees buckling at last. She felt Caedmon’s strong arms support her as she nearly went down.
“Ow,” Ife whispered as Crezia started to laugh from somewhere in the darkness to her left.
“Understatement of the century, darling. Try to relax. If you didn’t break anything, the pain will subside quickly.”
“Whoa. That was incredible. Not sure I want to do it again, but wow. It was a longer drop than I expected.”
“Yeah. I tried the vertical jump to get out and I couldn’t pull it off. With the three of us, maybe we can rise through the air.”
“Scottie has it covered if we can’t. Caed, let’s make some light and see what we’ve found.”
“You feel okay to stand on your own?”
“My legs are shaky, they ache, but I think I can.”
Ife’s feet were still pinging with nerve pain, but it had lessened significantly already. Vampire healing rocked. She moved forward to take Crezia’s hand and reach for Caedmon’s.
Now touching, the three first bloods created well beyond balls of light; they summoned excited molecules and created a bright glow that illuminated the entire space they stood in, its secrets no longer covered by the lightless cave it had been before Caedmon’s mishap.
Speechless, eyes locked above them, the three vampires, still holding hands, unmoving, couldn’t believe what they saw. The curved ceiling of a vast cave spanned the wide space overhead, every inch of the surface, above them, down the walls until they struck the floor, covered with large sparkling crystalline formations in colors that ran from pale pink to pale green. The glowing light they’d created twinkled off faceted surfaces in what had to be one of the most beautiful places on the planet.
“Ah…” Ife expelled.
“Holy…” Caedmon, blinking, couldn’t believe something like this had been underfoot all this time.
“Wow,” Crezia murmured. “We’ve found Mother Nature’s jewelry box. Ife, you have any idea this was here?”
“No. No one did. This is one of the most miraculous things I’ve ever seen, and you guys know what that means with all the miracles we earth warriors have experienced. Usually with openings this size, the crystal formations are radically different. I can’t imagine how this formed.”
“They aren’t diamonds, right?” Crezia inquired.
“They aren’t.” Ife tugged free of her companions and moved into the center of the cave, spinning to take it all in.
“It’s magnificent.”
“Yup. We let the world know it’s here, they’ll decimate it.”
“That we all know. We’ll need to return for samples so we can identify the composition of the crystals. To see how old it is. Aw, our geologists in Colorado will love this!”
Ife’s fone chimed. “It’s Scottie, ready to get us out of here.”
Back in the lounge
As she finished her tale, Ife watched her audience.
“So, pretty cool, yeah?”
Will thought about a cave deep inside the earth that no one else had ever touched. He couldn’t wait to climb down and touch the earth deeper than he ever had. “Did you find out what the crystals are made of?”
Shaking her head, Ife’s eyes sparkling, they moved from face to face. “That’s the mystery, kids. We’ve sent samples to Cari’s team, to Fia’s labs in Paris, and to a vampire team in the U.S. that handles the history of geology for the planet. They cannot be identified as anything we’ve ever seen before. These crystals are unknown to the world of science.”
Dani sat up and leaned forward. “No shit? Holy hell. They didn’t mention it to me before I left.”
Ife lifted to fold both legs beneath her, and dropped back into her seat. This, she loved, surrounded by family and friends, by fascinated and fascinating minds, by earth-borne, and starborn magic. They were doing good things here in the Amazon basin for both the planet and all life that depended on her.
“So, whoever would like to come, we’ve placed secured sturdy rope ladders at the opening.”
Will stood, his gastrointestinal trouble forgotten.
“I’m in. Can we go tonight?”
Ife nodded. “Of course. Will, you sure you don’t need some rest first? You look quite exhausted.”
“Sure, yeah, but I can hold it together for a few more hours. I need to see her.”
Like Dani, Ife felt an overwhelming need to touch Will, but she refrained. “You really are the earth’s sentry, aren’t you?”
“We all are, but it does seem like I’m locked in. Shit, I can’t even fly without magical intervention.”
“I remember that. Will, it seems the earth has chosen you. Your magic is linked to her even beyond the other earth warriors.”
“Naw. I’m not anyone special. Some days, I barely hold it together.”
Now Ife reached for him, her fingers moving along his arm and down to his hand, just as Dani had. “You’re special, and the fact that it isn’t easy makes you even more remarkable. Will, I think this part of your journey will bring you full circle. My empathic skill is somewhat limited, but I’m reading your agitation, you’re very private, yet I’m also reading your aura and the future attached to you. I believe that, here, in Brazil, is where you find what you seek.”
Surprising himself again, Will pulled her hand to his lips to kiss the palm gently, his eyes on hers.
“Ife, I hope you are right. I guess we’ll see as the days go by.”
“That’s how the future reveals itself. But you’ll have a lot of fun too, Will. We spend weekends at a complex just thirty minutes south of here run by Dez. Have you met her? You’ll love her and her facility. We work hard, but we play hard too. Oh, and Will, Brigitte will be visiting next week. I’m sure you remember my sister.”
Brigitte. Will remembered her; hell, she was unforgettable. The exciting, no-holds-barred sex was hard to forget. Extraordinarily beautiful in the way of the first bloods, she’d kept him sane and focused through all the shit and craziness last year. Yeah, he’d love to see her again.
“Sounds good,” was all he said, then lowered Ife’s hand. “I’ll be ready whenever you guys are.”
“Be out front in ten minutes.”
Two hours later beneath the surface of the earth
Moving in a circle around the perimeter of the high-ceilinged sparkling cave, along with the vampires, Dani and Scottie, and at least twelve of the blood-bonds, Will lay his hands against the rough surface of the wall for the fifth time. He placed his cheek against it too and closed his eyes.
Ife, Crezia, and Caedmon had been watching him and now that he’d moved around the entire edge of the vast space, Ife stepped closer. “Amazing, isn’t it?”
Not moving away, Will nodded. “Truly.”
He didn’t elaborate and didn’t see Ife shrug to Crezia and Caedmon. They’d hoped he would be more helpful, but he just lay there, his face scraped, a tiny bit of blood on his forehead. Suddenly he lifted away and faced the three.
“They’re not hers.”
After a moment of concern, Ife spoke. “I’m sorry, what do you mean?”
“The crystals. They’re not hers. Mother Earth’s. They didn’t come from this world.”
Ife looked back to her companions and then to Will.
“You mean, they really are extraterrestrial?”
“Yes. And they’ve been here for millions of years.”
“So not from the beginning.”
“No.”
“The mystery deepens. Look, we’ve been down here for a while. Let’s get back, let you rest, then we’ll debrief further. I think you more than anyone may be able to help solve the origin of these jeweled walls.”
Muffling a yawn, Will agreed. Right now, he was a walking dead man. Tomorrow night would come soon enough.