Paranormal Realities Box Set (15 page)

Rom’s eyes darkened to a jewel-like
hardness at the question.

“Our society is dictated by adherence to
authority and duty,” Rom said. "The Emperor is as a father to all, ruling
over even the Senate of which my father is part. As the Emperor rules over all,
so my father is the authority over his household. He controls not only his
slaves, but also his wife and children. He demands complete obedience."

"So you've never disobeyed your
father? Complete obedience to anybody would be impossible for me," I tried
to joke.

"Performance of duty has always been
of preeminence to me even when I questioned the correctness."

"I'm certain if there was a choice
between what's right and your duty, you'd do what's right." My gaze locked
with his.

He glanced away. "Why do I deserve
such faith?" he whispered.

"I don't know. I just believe in
you." A laugh burst from me. "Sorry. That sounded stupid."

"Not stupid. Naive," he said.
"In my world any disobedience to the head of the family may be disciplined
as he sees fit even unto death. So you see I am not free to do right.”

“You mean your father could legally kill
you if he chose?”

“Accord. And he would do so with ease if
I dishonored him by disobedience to duty.” Rom’s jaw tightened and his eyes
drifted to the ceiling as if considering this possible fate.

“What about your mother? You said she's a
doctor, a medico. Surely, she wouldn't allow your father to hurt you.”

Rom shrugged. “Mother has devotion for
her children but reverence for her husband is preeminent.” Rom’s eyes clouded
as if the thought of his mother’s failure to protect him would hurt more than
his father killing him.

“Well,” I said shaking him a little.
“Don’t feel bad. Fathers kill their children in this world too. Mine tried to
kill me and Adam the day I first saw you.”

“But this killing is not sanctioned by
your laws,” Rom observed.

“No.”

“Why did he do this thing? Had you
dishonored him?”

“I don’t know why he did it,” I said. “I
wonder if I ever will.”

Rom pulled me closer into his arms and I
rested my cheek against his chest. The scent of sandalwood and male acted as a
narcotic. And the steady beating of his heart calmed me.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to sleep like this?
I thought. But staying awake was a priority.

“You said your scientists had discovered
other dimensions. Does that mean you’ve traveled to other worlds before now?” I
asked.

“No. It is strictly forbidden by edict,”
Rom said. “When the sciencia discovered these matters fifty years ago, the
government began testing of children at the time of their first vaccinations.
My mother as medico shielded our results. If others discovered my brother and I
are Clavis we would face execution.”

“It must have been very dangerous for all
of you when I arrived with Adam.”

“Accord. Although we successfully
returned you to your world, the oracle soon prophesied the world of the Dorcha
would be opened by you with consequences most dire. My father decided I must
try to prevent this.”

Pulling from his hold, I leaned over him,
propped on my elbow. For a moment I considered asking him more about Adam, but
I couldn't bring myself to.

“So you came here and found me?”

“I journeyed to this world and found
you,” he said. “And I found you most distracting.”

“And delightful,” I joked.

“Truth.” Rom's gaze was intent. He pulled
me down to rest on his chest. “I find you have become more to me than my duty
should allow.”

“What does that even mean?” Oops, I said
that out loud.

“The meaning is this.” Tilting my face to
his with a light touch on my jaw, Rom leaned up and captured my top lip between
his in a kiss. His lips moved gently, sipping on mine. After some seconds, he
pulled back.

“And this.” His mouth returned.

This time his tongue licked at the seam
of my lips enticing me to open to him. When I did, his tongue slid into my
mouth and tangled with mine, warm and delicious. This must be the French
kissing Petra talked so much about. When she recommended it, her description
hadn't been that enticing. I’d have to apologize to Petra at the earliest
opportunity.

My hand crept up his arm tracing the lean
but strong muscles before moving on to Rom’s shoulder, feeling its strength through
his t-shirt. My caress moved to his head where I sifted through his silky hair.
I pressed his head toward me, not wanting him to move away again. He didn’t.
Instead, he deepened the kiss and I felt his hand wander tantalizingly from my
hip up my side, over my rib cage toward my breast. My heart pounded in
anticipation.

A knock sounded on the door and I jerked
back, panting.

“Kizzy, are you asleep?” Mom would open
the door any second.

I waved to the closet. Rom scrambled from
under me and off the bed as I answered. “Just a minute.” When he was hidden and
I had hurried under the covers to hide my street clothes, I called for her to
come in.

Mom opened the door and walked in. She
glanced at the computer, which Rom had bumped on the way to his hiding place,
and the screen displayed the image of Prince Leopold.

“Still up surfing the net?” Mom eyebrows
arched.

I laughed. “You caught me. I thought I
could jump into bed and you’d never know.”

Mom sat on the side of bed and her eyes
grew serious. “Your father’s court hearing is tomorrow. I wish you didn’t have
to testify but—”

“I know. It’s all right,” I said. “I’ll
be there.”
Maybe
,
I thought.

“I’ll pick you up from school about a
half hour before.”

“I’d rather you didn’t.”

My comment met with a mutinous expression
from Mom and I could tell she would insist on going even though seeing my
father would ravage her emotions all over again. Mom had been trying since
Adam, but she still hadn't returned to her normal self.

"It would be easier to face the
hearing if you weren’t there.” I pulled out the only excuse that would work.

“How will you get there?”

“Rom will drive me.” As I said the words,
the fact I could rely on him comforted me. The strength of my attachment to Rom
after less than three days' acquaintance amazed me. How had that happened when
I’d promised myself I wouldn’t count on, let alone care about, anyone else ever
again?

“Okay.” Mom rose from the bed and turning
out the bedside table light. She seemed relieved. “Goodnight, Kizzy.”

“Night.”

Mom walked out the door casting one last
glance over her shoulder at me before closing it behind her.

After waiting a few seconds for her to
move away from the door, I threw back the covers and leaped from the bed.

“Let’s go hunt monsters.”

* * * * *

In the back of Zen's cargo van about a
half hour later, the group of us finalized our plan for the monsters.

“Can we trust him?” Zen said from the
driver’s seat as he pointed to Billy standing outside the van on the sidewalk.
“I haven’t had a chance to check him out.”

I shrugged, watching Billy fidgeting and
pacing from my vantage point in the passenger seat. Hopefully, he wouldn’t just
bolt.

“You can trust Billy as much as anyone
can be trusted, I suppose.”

“Thanks a lot." Petra pouted as she
leaned up from the cargo area. “Like I’m to be lumped in with that creep?”

“Sorry,” I said. “You know I didn’t mean
anybody in the van.”

Under the dim illumination of the van's
dome light, I saw Rom, also in the back, grimace. But he said nothing.

“Billy says he and Quinn tracked the
monsters to a shipping container near the port,” I stated. “Quinn is supposedly
watching the container now. So if we want to find these things, I guess we have
to trust him.”

“I’m not so sure we should find these
things,” Chase murmured from next to Petra.

“Don’t be a dick.” Senji punched Chase in
the arm.

“You’re a dick.”

“You’re a dick to the tenth power.”

“Shush it,” I yelled. “We don’t have time
for juvenile antics right now. If you don’t want to come after the monsters
with us then just leave. But do it now.”

“I didn’t say I want to leave.” Chase
hung his head but not before a visible red seeped into his cheeks

“His point is premiere.” Rom nodded
toward Chase. “What shall be done with the Dorcha when found?”

“What were you going to do with them when
you first asked me about them?” In my impatience, his question irritated me.

“Probably sacrifice my life force to
battling them.”

That shut me up.

“I’ve done some research on monsters,”
Zen inserted.

Even though I wondered why, I didn’t ask.
Zen wasn’t the kind of person to open up about his personal history.

Zen continued. “And based upon the
description and the way they killed their four victims—”

“Four victims?” I interrupted. “I thought
they'd only killed two.”

“From the police radio monitor, two more
were found earlier this evening,” Zen said. “Probably killed last night
though.”

We all fell silent for a few moments. I
don’t know what the others felt but I know my emotions spanned from sorrow for the
victims to fear for my friends and myself.

“Anyway, from the way they are killing, I
think I know what kind of creatures they are,” Zen added.

“Rom said they were dorks,” Senji
commented.

“Yes, but Dorcha is their
dimension," I said to Senji and then turned to Zen. "What kinds of
beings are they? They aren’t human.”

“The big one’s strength overwhelmed us,”
Rom noted. “But he was slow.”

“Ogre,” Zen stated. “ A nocturnal large
humanoid. Hairy, strong body and a voracious appetite for eating human flesh.”

“So not the green cartoony variety.”
Petra's joke failed to produce a laugh from anyone.

“How about the other one?” I swallowed
down the bile that had risen in my throat. “He didn’t seem any stronger than
the average human man but he definitely had sharp claws.”

“And teeth.” Rom pointed to his bandaged
forearm.

“Ghoul,” Zen said.

“What’s that?” Chase asked.

“Some mythology theorizes a ghoul can be
created from a human.”

“Who would create something like that?”
Senji asked.

“A vampire,” Zen replied. “Ghouls can
come out in the day but they prefer darkness. Like vampires, ghouls drink human
blood and they also eat human flesh.”

“Great,” I said. “Another flesh eater.”

Zen's mouth twisted as if he had a bad
taste in his mouth. “They have normal strength but they are agile and fast
where the ogre is strong but slow and clumsy.”

"Can they be killed with
bullets?" I asked.

"Silver ones," Zen said.
"But average bullets will slow them down."

Outside the van, Billy reached into his
pocket and took out his cell phone. He flipped it open and spoke into it. Then
he listened intently for a few moments and snapped it shut before stomping over
to my window. He knocked rapidly on the glass and I lowered it.

“Quinn called,” Billy informed us. “He
said the monsters are out of the container. They’re on the hunt.”

“Okay,” I said. “We know what they are.
Apparently, we know where they are. Now how do we get them?”

Zen exited and circled to the back where
he opened the van’s double doors. He pulled up a panel in the floorboard to
reveal a cache.

“I brought weapons.”

The Dorcha, according to Quinn, had made
their way to the Yamacraw neighborhood, an area of low-income town homes not
too far from the port.

Thunder rumbled in the distance as Zen
parked his van near the area square. At 1:00 a.m., with its trees and center
sculpture, the square reflected perfect tranquility.

We piled out of the van and Zen pushed a
.45 caliber semi-automatic pistol into my hands.

“Do you know how to use this?” he asked.

“I’ve been to the firing range a few
times with my father.”

“Just flip this and point it at what you
want to hit and fire.” He showed me the safety.

“I think I should go with Kizzy,” Petra
exclaimed.

Bless her. Even though clearly petrified,
she was still concerned about me.

“No,” I said. “We already said you’re
going to help Zen. You, Senji and Chase.”

“Kizzy shall have me.” Rom took another
semi-automatic from the van’s cache. “My experience with firearms is
extensive.”