Unaltered #2_A Diamond in my Heart (25 page)

I stood up from the couch and Chris
did as well. Maetha addressed Chris, “You need to stay here with
Hans. Calli and I have some business to attend to.”

He looked gut shot as he turned to
face me. I was about to tell him I would be back when he grabbed my
head and pulled my face to his. He kissed me possessively for five
long seconds and then pulled me into his arms and hugged me
tightly.

I didn’t need to read his mind to know
he was expressing his love for me so I spoke reassuringly of my
deep feelings for him. He released me from his hug and his scent
lingered with me. I always loved his aroma. I looked into his eyes
and smiled, then turned to Maetha who held the diamond in her hand
and we left the room.

Chapter 14 - The Diamond
Bearers

We walked down the hall to the door
we’d entered through. I somehow knew what was about to happen; it
was time I joined the Diamond Bearers officially.

“Calli, I’m sure you noticed the
female bounty hunter that Justin hired was a Repeater.”

“Yes, I picked up on that. Wait a
minute; you weren’t there… were you?”

“I was in the room the whole time. I
read Justin’s mind and found he wasn’t even aware of her immense
power.” Maetha opened the door for me and I walked out into the
night. “Imagine if Justin had known what she could do… imagine the
implications, the possibilities, and the devastation. We will need
to find her as I can see that any hope of rescuing Brand is
dependent upon her involvement.”

We walked across the parking lot and
into the trees. The cool night air rustled the leaves and sent a
shiver down my back. Maetha must have noticed my shiver and said,
“There is nothing to be afraid of, Calli, it only hurts a second
and then you’ll feel the intense power of the stone emanate through
you. You already know how to use the healing power and it will be
second nature for you to immediately heal yourself; besides, I’ll
be right beside you if for some reason you are not able to heal
yourself quickly enough.”

My heart started to race with
anticipation. I wasn’t afraid before but this explanation had amped
up my nervousness. We emerged from the line of trees at a clearing
by the lake. A woman stood by the water’s edge wearing a long,
light colored gown and she turned in our direction as we entered
the clearing. Several other individuals entered the clearing as if
they were literally coming out of the woodwork. A couple more
materialized out of thin air each wearing a gown of some kind, even
the men.

Maetha pulled the diamond out and
handed it to me. Then she brought the circle closer and proceeded
to converse with the group through telepathy. She began by telling
them about me and my lineage and the fact that I’d learned much
about the Repeaters. She showed Freedom’s pocket watch to everyone
and then opened it and instantly the group of eighteen disappeared,
vanishing into the night. Maetha looked at me and told me that the
watch negated their bi-locating abilities causing them to
disappear. She closed the watch and one by one they reappeared and
gasps and audible shock filled the clearing as these near-immortals
had never experienced the loss of their powers before. The
telepathic melee of confusion filled my mind. Maetha opened the
watch again but this time I didn’t feel my powers blocked. I looked
at her but couldn’t feel her powers anymore. It was as if she was
visibly invisible.

One of the male Diamond
Bearers whose name, Amenemhet, filled my mind said,
“I no longer feel you, Maetha.”

She responded with, “I
noticed two hinges on the watch; two compartments each holding a
black stone of some kind, one sizably larger than the other. It
seems the smaller stone blocks only my own power, the larger stone
blocks everyone nearby including myself. We must learn what these
stones are and how Freedom came to have them in his possession.”
She closed the watch and resumed speaking telepathically.
“Freedom has gone rogue. He used a power-hungry
young man to round up the splintered shards with the misinformation
that they would give the young man all the known powers. Freedom
waited till the pieces merged and his protégé died before taking
the stone but was thwarted by Calli’s Repeater friend, Brand
Safferson. We were able to escape with the diamond and the watch
but Brand was unable to be saved. The military arrived as we fled
and I have no doubt that they will imprison Brand on Freedom’s
orders.”

Another woman whose name was Neema
looked at me and the diamond I held and said out loud, “The stone
is vexed. It belongs to both Calli and Freedom. It is drawn to its
remaining piece but its loyalty is in Freedom’s control.” Neema
addressed Maetha, “She doesn’t stand a chance.”

Maetha looked at me curiously and then
replied to Neema, “True, the stone is split but I believe once it’s
reunited with its last shard its loyalty will reassign.”

“And if you’re wrong? I cannot foresee
her future; I only see a strange blackness.”

“The blackness is related to the
power-canceling stones within the watch. As this exact situation
has never presented itself before, we shall all learn at once what
the consequences will be. However, there is a more pressing issue
at hand; Freedom now knows of my Grecian Blue. I was left with
little choice, and in a situation which caught me off guard, I used
Psychomancy after the pocket watch was closed. Freedom detected the
blue power immediately and began asking questions. He hadn’t
noticed my invisibility had been blocked making me appear from
hiding; perhaps he thought I bi-located at that moment. The
Repeater and I tried many different approaches to try to bring
about different results in the effort to save everyone in the room,
but it simply wasn’t possible. The only way for us to escape was by
him holding Freedom for a few crucial seconds.”

I was beside myself. Maetha and Brand
repeated too? I guess the more I thought about it the more I
realized I already knew it.

Neema said, “We all know what this
means then, Freedom will not stop until he has the Grecian Blue
therefore he must have his heart removed. I propose a vote on the
matter.”

I was simply amazed that
the Diamond Bearers worked as a unit, not a seniority. Why didn’t
Maetha have the last word on a decision? She was the first Diamond
Bearer; she’s certainly earned the right to be the leader. Maetha’s
voice came into my mind.
“Calli, the Red
Lady instructed me to never take full leadership of the decisions
concerning the diamond. Every decision is voted on and every
Diamond Bearer has the opportunity to voice their opinion. What is
your opinion concerning Freedom?”

“Cut his heart out.”

“Then the vote is
unanimous. Freedom will lose his stone.”

The woman who was standing by the lake
when we first arrived stepped forward. Her name was Mary. “Maetha,
my protector tells me Calli is now the prime suspect in the murders
of the missing amulet wearers. The word is she hijacked the
Healers’ amulet and fled. Now the Hunters, Readers, and Seers are
mourning the deaths of their leaders and all eyes are on Calli and
the Runner. They are being hunted as we speak.”

Maetha reached her hand forward,
“Calli, hand me the diamond.” I placed it in her hand. She raised
it high over her head and took me by the elbow and led me out into
the center of the formed circle of gown-wearing, ethereal-looking
people. With her hand extended above her body she let go of my
elbow and placed her other hand on my back between my shoulder
blades. In one swift movement, she brought her hand down and rammed
the diamond into my chest between my breasts.

The pain was excruciating! It felt
like my entire chest was exploding and the air was compressed out
of my lungs. My legs gave out. Maetha gently laid me on the ground
and I became aware that I no longer had a heartbeat. I wanted to
inhale but I couldn’t. The pain intensified and I recalled the
first time I felt this burning sensation; on the stone altar in the
clearing with the Death Clan. I focused my mind on my heart willing
it to heal, all the while my lungs burned with the need for oxygen
and my brain spun wildly with the same need.

“You can do it, Calli,” Maetha’s quiet
voice urged me onward. I looked up in her eyes and saw fear. Why
would she be afraid?

Some of the Diamond Bearers spoke with
concern. “She’s not strong enough.”

“Give her time.”

“She doesn’t have much time
left.”

“It’s not working, Maetha.”

“Even if they merge, the diamond will
behave erratically.”

“You must remove it or she’ll
die.”

“Help her!” Chris shouted from a
distance.

My mind was fuzzy and my hearing was
waterlogged but I heard his desperate plea and wondered if I was
hallucinating. I stared up at the dark night sky realizing that
rays of bright light were shooting upward from my body. The
concerned voices around me faded away and I ceased to care about
anything. Was this what it was like to die? Was I already
dead?

Feeling began to return to my brain as
I felt the mending of tissue, the re-growth of bone and life flood
back into me. The pain had subsided and my body buzzed with a
strange energy. I reached my hand up and accidentally knocked the
diamond off my chest. I found that my clothing was ripped open from
my chest and opened my eyes to find Maetha’s hands covered in my
blood.

“It didn’t work I take it?” I
said.

Maetha shook her head. I thought for a
moment I saw a fleeting expression of sadness. I heard approaching
footsteps and turned my head to find Chris arriving with a jacket
in his hands.

“Here you go,” he said as he handed it
to Maetha.

“Thank you, Chris. Take her back to
the room.” Maetha helped me into the jacket and zipped it closed.
She helped me stand and said to Chris, “She’s very
weak.”

Turns out I was
very
weak. Chris nearly
had to carry me back to the building. I noticed right away he was
wearing one of my Demon devices. Hans must have told him about my
research project and he risked his own life putting one on and
venturing out into the dark.

“I heard your voice, Chris, but I
thought I was imagining it.”

“I was so afraid you were going to
die, Calli.”

“I know how you feel. I watched you
die many times earlier today before we escaped with
Maetha.”

“What?”

“This has been a really long day,
Chris. Let’s get inside first, and then I’ll tell you all about
it.”

After several hours and many bottles
of Mrs. Winter’s ‘magical’ juice, I was feeling a little better.
Chris had cared for me diligently and laid next to me holding me in
his arms while I told him about the many different repeating
efforts I experienced with Brand… and all the many times I watched
him die.

Chris told me what he’d seen at
Justin’s hideout and it amazed me that the final result of all the
repeating was a sequence of events that lasted maybe thirty
seconds. He saw Justin die as the stone entered his heart, Freedom
walked in and Chris sensed his lost power. Chris watched Brand
launch himself at Freedom after he plucked the diamond from
Justin’s wound, and me ramming myself into Maetha’s guard, and of
course, Maetha freezing everyone.

Chris explained that when I rushed
Maetha’s guard, he quickly turned to his guard and fought with him
causing the guard to fire his gun and hit Dominic. The other guards
fired one shot each before Maetha froze everyone.

He didn’t understand the significance
of the pocket watch, so I told him. “The watch contains some kind
of a stone that removes our powers when it’s exposed. No one has
ever seen anything like this before.”

“My uncle is a rock-hound. He’d know
what it is, well, if it’s a stone found in nature. He doesn’t know
anything about the world of the clans but he knows a hell of a lot
about geology.”

Maetha spoke, making me jump as I
didn’t know she was nearby, “Calli, you and Chris will take the
pocket watch to him and find out more about it. I have placed
Freedom’s diamond in this pouch,” she held up a similar looking
pouch as the first time I carried the stone, “to protect it from
his ability to detect it. You will once again be this diamond’s
bearer, but I’m afraid you will need to avoid using your powers as
this stone is clearly loyal to Freedom.”

“What do you mean, ‘loyal’?” I
asked.

“It didn’t merge with your piece,
Calli, and I do not know why. A splintered diamond always merges
together and I believed it would in this case as well, although I
didn’t know whether or not it would become loyal to you. I was
prepared to remove the entire stone the moment I ascertained where
its loyalty belonged, only, the stone didn’t merge. I couldn’t heal
your heart until I removed his stone and… I tried to remove your
shard but it is already ‘living’ within your heart.”

My confused expression must have told
her everything I was thinking. She continued, “I thought that if
the stone wasn’t going to merge, I could at least remove your
piece, you could relinquish it to Freedom and the stone would then
be whole again. At that point, Freedom would have full ownership
and would have no reason to kill you. Now it seems in order for
Freedom to get the remaining piece, he’ll have to cut it out of
you.”