Broken Wings: Genesis (7 page)

“Arianna, sound the alarm!”

Ithane didn’t take her eyes from
the pattern, working to tighten the weave. She couldn’t see the look of horror
on the girl’s face. But she sensed the cherub’s fear, holding her frozen in
place, unable to move.

“Arianna, snap out of it! Sound
the alarm!”

The girl was still unable to move,
caught in horrified fascination at the sight of the gate. I watched Ithane
shift one of her hands, pulling out of the weaving pattern for a single
instant. A bolt of lightning flew from her palm, headed directly at Arianna.

“By all that is Holy, cherub,
moved your winged backside and do as I say, or we are all lost!” Ithane’s words
gritted out her threat between clenched teeth as she struggled to work her way
back into the weaving of the energy.

That’s the way I would’ve handled
it. I watched Arianna reel under the force of the energy blast, tumbling away
from the gate with a squeal. The cherub shook it off, momentarily dazed. I
could see her trying to clear her head, her eyes darting from the gate, to
Ithane, and back to the gate again. Realization finally hit the annoying little
twit and she gathered herself together, flying to the gong set a pace away from
the gate. Arianna picked up the hammer hanging on a tie to the side and started
pounding on the gong, frantically, repeatedly.

I closed my eyes to the scene,
mouthing the words simultaneously as Ithane spoke them out loud.

“No—it’s going to be too late—”

I heard the sound of footsteps and
the whispering sound of what had to be wings. The sounds got louder as they
came closer. But I knew what was still to come. I couldn’t stop from watching,
from reliving the horror of the nightmare over again.

Ithane struggled to tighten the
weave of the energy pattern across the gate. The surface of the gate bulged
outward, pushing back against the weave, stretching it in places. Ithane’s
expression was one of intense concentration. It was also one of a struggle
against a battle she knew to be lost.

I saw a single angelic figure
reach the scene. He was dressed similar to Ithane, his dark fitted clothing
that of a warrior. Before, when I played the part of Ithane, I knew him. Upon
waking, he was always a mysterious figure, only a part of the elusive
nightmare. Now, looking on from the sidelines, I knew who he was. The winged
creature was the same stranger who had arrived wounded at my door.

Ithane knew him and welcomed his
arrival, although she didn’t acknowledge him. There was no time. The man
stepped up to her side, took his stance and tapped into the gateway nodes. A
different color, blue-white lightning, flickered at the nodes and shot out to
him. Just as Ithane had embraced the violet light to her heart, the man did the
same with the blue. His fingers and hands worked as hers did, weaving the blue
light with her violet energy, strengthening the weave.

I started to shake my head,
feeling the horror of what I knew to be coming. The end of the nightmare was
moving toward its conclusion. The surface of the gate pulled back, and Ithane
worked with both colors of light, trying to reinforce the weaves.

The surface of the gate bulged out
forcefully, not pushing through, but just enough to break the pattern, to
unravel the weave slightly at the center. The expression of both guardians
changed to shock and then fear. The blue color of light within the node started
to flicker and fade.

I could feel the tear rolling down
my face, the same one mirrored on the face of Ithane, catching the light of the
nodes. I could hear the echo of her voice in my head.

“We are lost.”

The surface of the gate pulled
back again, and I knew it was for the final time. The end was coming. I could
feel Ithane’s resolve grow to determined anger.

The guardian straightened from her
position of defeat and retook her full warrior’s stance. She drew a deep breath
and pulled the energy from the nodes, no longer waiting for it to come to her.
The violet lightning surged outward in full force, bathing Ithane in its light.
It flared brighter, drawn to her, changing her form to that of a being of
intricately patterned light, woven directly into the web of life she drew her
life force from.

I saw the man’s light flare to its
own intensity, bright blue-white. The look of surprise on his face said it
all––he was no longer in control of it––she was. The violet light flared
outward again, growing brighter, until Ithane was nothing but a being of almost
pure white light.

A solid wall of energy formed
where Ithane’s hands had been. With a burst of brightness, it spread outward,
away from the gate. The light enveloped the Crystal City,
blocking the new arrivals from reaching them. It surrounded the gate, at the
same time setting it outside of the barrier with the two guardians.

I could see the angelic hosts of
the Crystal City arrive. I watched them in all their
multiple forms, pounding at the barrier, trying to reach the gate. But Ithane
held the weave. They could not reach her.

The surface of the gate surged
outward again, this time shattering it. I knew the nightmare was at its end.
The formless plane exploded outward, sending pieces flying. But it didn’t stop,
not like it always did before. The scene continued to play itself out. For the
first time, I watched beyond the explosion, although part of me wanted it to
end here. I didn’t want to know any more. But the choice wasn’t mine to make.

A huge, dark amorphous shape
emerged from the gateway. Its blackness heaved directly at those pounding
against the wall of energy. It bounced off. It could no more get through the
barrier to reach the denizens of the Crystal
City than they could get
to it. It tried again, with the same result. Another spot was attempted with no
success, and its howl of frustration started a roll of thunder that hung in the
air, rumbling in the background.

With blind fury, the darkness
turned on Ithane, throwing itself at her. The contact created an explosion that
shook the barrier, and the gate, yet they remained standing. So did Ithane. The
dark form backed off, regrouping, stopping for a moment to think for the first
time.

I noticed the man off to the side,
trying to gather his energy from the nodes where Ithane had brought them back
to life. The female guardian’s attention was also turned his way. More violet
light erupted from the nodes, to flood the man’s energy matrix with hers,
combining the two. A portal opened between them, created of the two colors. It
looked to be a gate of its own, separate from the guardian’s gate, but created
of the combined essence of the gate and the energy.

I could tell the man was in shock.
Ithane had full control over the energy. He could do nothing more than to stand
there and feed what he could into the pattern. I was betting he didn’t even
have that much control any more.

Without warning, Ithane moved the
light of the created gate to envelop the darkness of the hovering monstrosity
that had broken through the guardian’s gate. The black entity realized her
intent, too late. It threw itself against the light that wrapped around it, but
couldn’t break free. Repeated struggles went nowhere. It was trapped, with no
recourse for escape.

The light surrounding Ithane began
to flare, growing brighter. My head began to throb with pain. The intensity of
the light was too much to look at. But I still couldn’t look away. With a final
burst of brightness, Ithane forced the form of darkness into the created
portal. The man seemed to come back to himself at the last moment and he sealed
the portal with a matrix of his own energy, drawn from deep within his essence.

I finally had to close my eyes
against the light. The pain in my head was throbbing to horrific proportions.
But I had to see it all. I couldn’t stop now. When I opened my eyes again, the
light was subsiding, leaving residual spots of brightness across my vision,
like the flash of a camera that flared and died out, leaving me to readjust my
focus.

Ithane was gone. So was the
portal. It was as though neither had even existed. The protective barrier
keeping the others out dissipated, and the residents of the Crystal City
stumbled toward the gate. Everyone was in a state of shock. I could see their
dazed looks, the confusion in their faces as they tried to absorb what had just
happened.

Arianna was the first to come to
her senses. The cherub launched herself to the space where Ithane had stood and
threw herself on the ground, pounding at it, sobbing for the loss of her
friend.

I looked away from her and met the
gaze of the man. He was staring directly at me, as though he saw me standing
there. The intense look on his face frightened me, but I couldn’t make myself
look away. Instead, I gave into that intensity, allowing myself to be swallowed
by the hunger in his gaze. I could feel my body start to fade away, as though
melting into his, becoming one.

A trumpet sounded, hollow and far
away. Just as the darkness started to overtake me, I could’ve sworn I saw a
rider on a white horse burst through the gate that still stood as a backdrop to
the scene of tragedy. But I couldn’t be certain. Lights flared in the gateway,
like a thousand meteors illuminating the surface, blinding me to the sight. The
sound of the trumpet faded as I slid into the darkness, welcoming it.

My head felt heavy and my body
sluggish. But when I opened my eyes and found myself back in my
apartment––well, let’s just say I don’t recall ever having moved so fast in my
life. I jerked my hand back from the man’s neck, lost my balance and fell off
the edge of the bed. My hands and feet found the floor and I scrambled
backwards away from the bed, not taking my eyes from him.

Chaz dropped the rags and was at
my side by the time my back hit the wall. “Yesh, what happened? Did you get
zapped or something?”

I shook my head. “How long was I
out?”

“Out?” He sounded confused. “You
just touched him, and then fell off the bed.”

“All that in the blink of an eye?”

Literally, from the sound of it.

“All what?”

I shook my head again, not
trusting myself to talk about it yet. Pulling my feet up under me, I used the
wall for balance to get up off the floor. Chaz reached to help, but I didn’t
want him to touch me. I’m pretty certain the incident was isolated to the man
on the bed. At least I had never heard of some dream jumping from one person to
the next like a metaphysical virus. I didn’t want to take any chances until I
knew what was happening.

“Are you going to clue me into what’s
going on?”

I ignored Chaz in favor of keeping
my focus on the bed. The guy hadn’t moved through the whole thing. He had tried
to cry out a warning to me. Chaz said it all happened in a single instant. Was
he still conscious?

His breathing was ragged. I could
hear him laboring through the pain as I leaned in close. With a tentative
finger, I reached out and touched his shoulder, making brief contact before
pulling back. The incident didn’t repeat, so I put my hand to rest on his arm.
It seemed okay––no flashes of winged creatures wearing my face, no gate, and no
sunset fading to blue twilight.

My eyes were drawn to the mark on
his neck. The whole thing had been set into motion when I touched that spot. I
wasn’t about to repeat the same mistake, but I did want a better look. The
markings look so familiar––

“Don’t touch it again.”

The voice whispered close to my
ear, making me jerk back in surprise. The man’s eyes were open, the deep,
golden chocolate brown color radiating his pain.

I bent back close and hissed. “Who
are
you?”

“You should not have done that.”

“No shit. Now tell me something I
haven’t figured out yet. Who are you? How did you do that with my dream?”

“Dream, Yesh? What dream?”

Poor Chaz. I didn’t have answers
for him right now, not ones I wanted to give. Heck, I didn’t even have answers
for
me
right now.

“Ke––My name is Ke.”

I could tell that it took a lot
out of him to talk. He closed his eyes again. That nice part of me, the part
that helps people and on occasion even works to heal them, knew I should drop
it and see what I could do about fixing the guy up. But the pissed off and
irritated part of me was looking for some answers and I was feeling pretty
determined about getting them.

“Okay––
Ke
––Onto the next
question. How did you open my dream up for me? Was it some kind of trick? Who
are
you?”

I was getting more agitated by the
word. He was giving no response.

Chaz peered over my shoulder. “I
think he’s out.”

Damn. I wanted to scream. I
settled for kicking the bed. Ke didn’t move. It wasn’t enough to get out the
full extent of my frustrations, so I turned around and walked over to kick the
wall. That didn’t help, either, but it felt good to do something. I stood
staring down at the black scuffmark left on the wall by my boot, trying to sort
everything out in my head.

“So are we talking about
the
dream?”

My shoulders slumped. “Yes.”

“Wow, Yesh. How? I mean, this is
big
.
What happened?”

I gave him my most pointed look.
“Now that would be what I am trying to find out, wouldn’t it?”

“I’m sorry.” Chaz took a step
back. “I didn’t mean–”

“No. I know you didn’t, kid.” I
rested my eyes against the palms of my hands, rubbing the frustration and
tiredness away. I looked down at my watch and blew out a slow breath. The nice
part of me had to step in whether I liked it or not. “Look, I’m going to try
and do what I can for the guy. But I have a coven meeting to get to after a
bit. Keep an eye on me and make sure I don’t go into overtime, will you?”