Portal Combat (7 page)

For the first time in three months, Erica's face was before him. There was no laptop or tablet screen distorting the image, nor were there thousands of miles between them. It was her, and despite everything that had happened, all Ted wanted to do in the world was kiss her.

"Hey."

Erica took his hand and smiled. "Hey. You sure know how to make an entrance."

Ted's eyes adjusted to the light in the room as he got his bearings. The dark, gray walls clued him in that they were inside a vacant cell in the Sheriff's Department building. Scratched into the walls were poorly thought out sentences and crude drawings. Erica's minty shampoo was almost overcome by the scent of mildew. She knelt on the ground beside the uncomfortable prison bed.

Ted laughed, which sent a sharp pain through his ribs. He figured he must have landed right on them when he collapsed. "I flew here from Florida in half an hour."

Erica pursed her lips and nodded. "I'd be more impressed if you hadn't passed out right after."

Ted lifted his hand to Erica's face. Her skin was smooth and warm. He watched her close her eyes and take a deep breath. She moved her face toward his.

"I missed you, Ted Finley."

Ted felt the warmth from her touch radiate down his arm and spread through his chest.

"The feeling is mutual."

Erica leaned down and placed her lips on his. Ted kissed back and let the magic of her taste bring him back to all the time they'd spent together. Holding each other, training and saving the world. It was all in that kiss. Erica leaned against him and Ted put his arms around her. He couldn't resist the impulse to smile as he kissed her. His heart was filled with pure joy. From the relaxed look on Erica's face, Ted imagined she felt the same way.

Erica laughed and wiped one of her eyes. "I know the light souls didn't choose you because you were a good kisser. But they really could have."

Erica lay down on the prison bed beside him and intertwined their legs. They shared another short kiss before she touched her nose to his.

"I heard you fought a hurricane."

Ted tried not to think about the portal and Sophie Kent.

He scrunched his nose. "I heard you rode a dinosaur."

Erica laughed. "We have a lot to catch up on. With business–" she locked her fingers in his, "–and pleasure."

The sound of a throat clearing outside the cell startled both of them. Erica sat up and scooted away from Ted as if her parents had caught them making out in the basement. Ted looked up at the Japanese man he hadn't recognized earlier. The man wore tight-fitting athletic clothes. He might be as old as 40, though he appeared to be in the shape of a 20-year-old. The veins popping out of his muscles made Ted jealous.

"Ted. My name is Yoshi, and it's an honor to meet the living soul."

Ted looked over at Erica before accepting the man's hand. Even the media didn't know him by that term. From his experience, the only ones who knew what "living soul" meant were his closest friends or his greatest enemies.

"Good to meet you, Yoshi." Ted took the man's hand and felt the squeeze of immense wrist strength. "Nice, firm grip."

Yoshi nodded. "Grip is very helpful in battle. That's one of the many things the elders taught us in the Academy."

Ted nodded.

Elders? Academy? Who is this guy? 

While Ted was the one with the ability to read thoughts, Erica seemed to pull all the questions from his mind.

"Yoshi is one of the grand masters from the Academy, a school in Japan that trains warriors to fight against the dark souls."

Ted recalled Erica mentioning the facility as a place where they train potential living souls. Ted could see why the light souls might consider Yoshi a strong candidate.

He got off the bed. Yoshi was taller and his eye contact was as firm as his handshake had been.

Ted tried to step out of the samurai's gaze. "That's cool. I'll have to go there sometime. What brings you here?"

Yoshi's mouth nearly formed a smile. "The elders sent me here to help you and the protector."

Erica put her hand on Yoshi's shoulder. "Just in the nick of time, too. He saved us from the gatekeeper."

A pang of nervousness went through Ted's chest when Erica touched Yoshi's shoulder. He shook it off and looked at Erica. "Gatekeeper?"

Erica took her hand off Yoshi and locked arms with Ted. "There's a lot to explain. Yoshi, if you'll excuse us."

Yoshi bowed and moved away.

Ted and Erica walked down the hallway of cells together, the mildew stench now overpowering any other scent.

Ted pulled his arm around Erica's more tightly. "You know that guy. From before. Don't you?"

Erica kept her eyes straight ahead. "In another life, we were good friends. I was in the body of a student at the Academy."

Ted narrowed his eyes. "So girls and boys both train there?"

"No."

Before Ted could let that answer sink in, the two of them had moved back into the main lobby.

Now that Ted wasn't about to pass out, he could see the disaster the Sheriff Department lobby had become. One officer had a mop and a water bucket and tried his best to soak up the green pool of blood. Another swept up bits of drywall from the multiple structural collisions.

Natalie was the first to see Ted. For some reason, he flashed back to the dance they shared at prom.

"Hey." Natalie wrapped her arms around him. "I'll try not to hug you so hard that you pass out again."

Ted hugged her back. It felt so good to hear Natalie's voice again, too.

"I'm going to get made fun of a lot for this, aren't I?"

Dhiraj ran over and patted Ted on the back.

"Well, if it isn't our little southern belle." He mimed the action of waving a fan in front of his face and did his best southern accent. "I do declare, I was so overwhelmed by seeing my best friend Dhiraj that I up and lost consciousness."

Ted made sure to return the back slap with twice as much force. "Good to see you, too, Dhiraj. Where's Jen?"

Ted knew his friend well enough that it wouldn't be hard to get the subject changed from his fainting spell.

"Field hockey camp. Can you believe they start two weeks before school? Although, it does give me the chance to give more foot rubs."

Ted felt his strength start to return as he surrounded himself with friends. Sheriff Norris gave a nod from the other side of the room as he took care of the business of cleaning up the department. Ted noticed Yoshi sitting far across from them and out of earshot. He was watching the four of them interact.

"I want to know more about this gatekeeper and about this Yoshi guy." Ted smiled at the samurai before turning back to the gang with a neutral look. "Can we trust him?"

Erica looked surprised. "With our lives, Ted. He's been fighting for the cause a lot longer than you have."

Ted looked back over at Yoshi and wondered if he'd had the same lack of choice in the matter. Ted furrowed his brow and tried to read the man's thoughts. For the first time since he'd learned about the power, he couldn't detect a single emotion, memory or short-term thought. The lack of information was unsettling.

"I'm sure you're right." Ted put his arms around Dhiraj and Erica, trying to hide his line of conversation from the samurai. "I've just got a bad feeling about him. Let's hope I'm wrong."

Chapter 12

Jennifer laid out her field hockey uniform on her bedspread. Unlike previous years, her top had a red C stitched on the front for captain. Natalie had quit the team to focus all her attention on basketball and recruiting. While Jennifer's skills paled in comparison to Natalie's, she was a senior, and Coach Fowler knew she'd do anything to win.

She looked down at the outfit and thought about how little the captainship meant. How little the team meant. A dark soul that could cross between worlds had attacked the Sheriff's Department and put both her father and Dhiraj at risk. She sighed.

And what was I doing? Running sprints?

Jennifer knew she couldn't have done anything to stop the gatekeeper or the giant lizard creatures, but she felt like she should have been there nonetheless. Field hockey was fun and she'd been playing it her whole life, but she had a new team now.

But what position should I be playing?

Jennifer felt empty. For the past decade, whenever she felt that way, she looked through her pictures. Lately, she'd shunned her collection of Polaroids and yearbooks for the Deputy Daly binder.

Jennifer flipped through the familiar pages detailing Daly's disappearance after he'd nearly killed Erica a second time. She recalled how her blood used to boil upon seeing his pearly whites in the article photos. The last few pages in the binder were the ones that made her smile. After she and Dhiraj had hunted Daly down, he'd been sent to prison on a host of charges. She regretted that he couldn't be tried for murder, since to most people's knowledge, Erica LaPlante was alive and well. But he'd still be locked up for over 20 years.

Jennifer had cut out and read the article from the local paper more than a dozen times. The black and white picture of Daly in his prison jumpsuit made her squeal with glee the first time she saw it. While it still made her feel warm to see his suffering, the joyful sensation diminished with each read. He'd been her obsession. Catching him had become her entire life. She'd been surprised to find that the realization of her revenge had failed to fully satisfy her for more than a couple of weeks.

Jennifer closed the binder, changed into her uniform, and drove her car a few blocks out of her way to pick up a teammate. Jeannie Moss was a hotshot freshman who would probably play varsity. She looked closer to 20 than her 14 years, and her skills spoke as loudly as her entitlement. Coach Fowler had told Jennifer to look after her. She reluctantly agreed.

Jeannie slammed her duffle bag on top of Jennifer's in the back and hopped into the front seat.

"Hey, Captain Norris. You still slow as hell?"

Throughout training camp, Jeannie had destroyed Jennifer in their three-mile runs. Jeannie had the delightful habit of gloating in the face of each captain she'd beaten.

Jennifer made a face at her passenger. "I don't know. Are you still terrible company?"

Jeannie crossed her arms and stared straight ahead. "You're just mad 'cuz your boyfriend cares more about money than you."

Jennifer glanced over at the hateful girl beside her. She could tell why Jeannie was one of the most popular girls in the freshman class. She was smoking hot with perfect proportions, and most of the guys she spent her time with didn't seem to care much about the bile that frequently spilled out of her mouth.

Jennifer smiled. "You've got me there, Jeannie. I'm sure your relationships are much more substantial."

Sometimes the subtle insults are the ones that cut the deepest, and Jeannie's lack of response showed it. There were a few minutes of silence before either of them piped back up again.

"You're pretty." Jeannie's eye twitched at the complement. "It's not like you couldn't do better than Mr. Moneybags."

Jennifer took in a deep breath. "Dhiraj is hot in his own way."

Jeannie smirked. "The kind of way that doesn't register on film?"

Jennifer ignored her. "I've dated some hot guys in my time." She glanced over at Jeannie. "Guys even you'd be jealous of. But it's totally different when a person likes you for something deeper. Dhiraj would like me even if I was as butt-ugly as you."

Jeannie's stink eye made Jennifer chuckle.

"You suck."

"I learn from the best." Jennifer pulled the car into the Treasure High backlot. "You ready?"

"More than you'll ever be."

For all her terribleness, Jeannie was right about the last point. About halfway through the exhibition, Treasure High was up by two goals. Jeannie had scored one and assisted on the other. Jennifer couldn't believe how fast the girl could move. The only person she'd seen run that quickly on the field was Natalie. Maybe Jeannie would be the former captain's heir apparent.

Jennifer was playing on the opposite side as Jeannie when the freshman got another breakaway. Her ponytail oscillated back and forth as she ran, with Jennifer doing her best to catch up to the action. Jennifer could feel her heart pounding. Jeannie had just one defender to beat and was about to juke her out. The defender took a frustrated swipe, slamming her stick directly into Jeannie's knee. The hotshot freshman fell face-first into the ground, a scream of pain filling the field. As the girl lifted her head, the onlookers could see a mouthful of blood from where her teeth had clamped down on her lip.

Jennifer continued running despite dimly hearing the whistle blow. Even though she saw Jeannie writhing in pain before her, her mind had gone elsewhere.

Natalie was on the ground in the middle of the caves. Jennifer could see her and Dhiraj beside the former team captain as blood poured out from her stab wound. She remembered Mr. Faraday with his arm around her neck, threatening to kill her and bring her back as a dark soul. Then Jennifer pictured herself pointing a gun at Daly just after she'd fired a round into his ear, the blood pooling on the off-white carpet.

When she reached the spot of the foul, there was nothing left inside her but rage. Jennifer leapt off the ground and tackled the offending opponent to the ground. Amid the cries of pain from Jeannie to her left, the team captain took a swing and connected with the defender's cheek. She slammed a second fist into the girl's nose, causing a steady drip of blood to seep out. Jennifer felt nothing as she let a third and final blow rip, connecting with the girl's eye socket. She wasn't sure if the referee or a coach pulled her away, and she didn't know the source of the primal yell she let out, either. All she knew was that nobody was going to hurt her or her team ever again.

Chapter 13

A few days after Ted's return, Natalie dribbled a basketball between her legs on the edge of her bed. A year earlier, she would've been nursing the pain of a long day of field hockey camp. After a recommendation from Coach Fowler, she opted to quit her secondary sport to focus on training and recruitment. The latter had taken up way more time than she'd expected.