Dark Waltz (A Praestani Novel), page 34
“No, not jealous. Just tired of the foolish games.”
“So what is your price?”
“I give her to you and she disappears. You are never to reveal how or where. You get what you want and I get what I want.”
“You are a fool. He will know.”
“I’ve thought of that. He will be busy with other things.”
Abaddon looked at the Praestani. This could accomplish what he wanted, but he didn’t trust him. Petty jealousies could end quickly and then remorse would quickly fill its shoes.
“I shall think on this and let you know.”
The Praestani found himself back in his own world before he had a chance to respond.
Chapter One
Lare-Stell Base
The nanochip had been successfully removed from Tommy’s brain, but he was still recovering. Shandro, Liasare and Jurek watched him through the two-way mirror in his room. He slept for several more days and January now thought it was time to bring him out of sedation. Jurek stood with her as she squeezed his hand.
“Are you trying to break it?”
“Huh?” she asked, turning her head.
“My hand. Are you trying to break it? Because it sure feels like it.”
“Oh, sorry.” She let it go.
He immediately picked it back up and laced his fingers through hers, and then kissed them one by one.
“I didn’t mean for you to let it go. Just to ease up a bit. You’ve gotten really strong, Liasare, and you don’t know your strength.” He grinned at her.
“Do you think we can fight again so I can see if I’ve advanced any more?”
She’d hardly finished speaking the last word when a commotion from the med unit grabbed their attention. Tommy was awake, in the corner staring at January and Naroo, wild-eyed and frightened. The color had drained from his face and it looked like he was trying to focus on his surroundings.
“It’s okay Tommy, you’re safe. It’s me, January, your sister. You’re safe with us. Everything’s fine and you’re going to be fine.”
Tommy’s eyes frantically darted around the room as he crouched in the corner, trembling.
Liasare looked at Jurek and started sobbing. “Oh God, this isn’t what I expected.”
Shandro said, “Maybe I should go in there. Maybe he’ll recognize me.”
Jurek eyed the scene unfolding before them before speaking. “Not yet Shandro. He’s in shock right now. He’s coming out of a coma that he’s been in for almost a year.”
Liasare was still crying and Jurek tried to soothe her. “Shh, Liasare. Let’s give him a moment to settle in and recognize January. Do you want to go to him? You were closest to him. He may recognize you over anyone.”
She nodded and then slipped inside the room.
“Tommy, it’s me, Sarah. Your little sister.” She slowly walked toward him. He looked at her for a minute and narrowed his eyes. He cocked his head to the side and just kept staring at her.
“I know I look different from the last time you saw me and I’ll explain all that later, but just talk to me. Tell me you remember me and all the stupid stuff we used to do. Please Tommy come back to me.” By the time she was finished speaking she was directly in front of him and she crouched down so she could be face to face with him. “Please come back to me. I’ve missed you more than I’ve missed breathing and, well, godammit, I’m gonna kill you for what you did. How could you go off and do something like that and not tell me? Fuck it all Tommy. You just left me not knowing anything and then...” she felt his arms creep up around her and they were hugging each other and crying and she didn’t know where she stopped and he began.
She couldn’t begin to tell anyone how long they held each other, but eventually they separated and sat facing each other.
In a broken trembling whisper he said, “I didn’t tell you because I knew you’d come chasing after me, hellbent on stopping me. My mind was made up and, well, that was that.” His hands were clasped together and he was rubbing his thumb over and over.
“Do you remember anything?”
“Only being taken by those smelly bastards. They locked me onto a table and I felt the sting of a needle in my neck and then nothing.”
Liasare put her hands on his and just held them. “I have so much to tell you. I mean tons. I think I’ll have to go a bit at a time though. Are you thirsty? Hungry?” She looked around the room for January only to find that they were alone.
“Did you recognize January?”
He shook his head. “No. When I came to, the bright lights hurt my eyes. I recognized your voice before I knew who you were.”
She threw her arms around him again, “I’ve been so worried about you. I can’t even tell you. I swear to God, if you ever pull a stunt like this again, I’m gonna kill you Tommy. You hear me?”
“Yes ma’am,” he said and gave a half-assed attempt at laughter. Though it was pathetic and a shadow of what it used to be, it was the greatest sound she’d heard in ages. She joined him and then the started telling “Remember whens” and laughed for a couple of hours, until January came in.
Their reunion, although sweet, was not anywhere near his and Liasare’s. They all decided that since there was so much to talk about that they would meet for dinner in the dining room that evening.
“By the way, where the hell are we?” he wanted to know.
Liasare burst out laughing. “Oh damn, I forgot. We’re on Lare-Stell base. It’s Jurek’s space station for his business LS Enterprises.”
“Who’s Jurek?”
January looked at Liasare and said, “I’ll leave this up to you and I’ll see you both tonight.”
Liasare looked at Tommy and said, “It might be best if you meet him. And Shandro’s here too.” She sent out a telepathic message to Jurek and moments later, he popped in the room.
“Whoa! No teleporter?”
“Not necessary for my kind,” Jurek said. I’m a Praestani, an energy shifter. I can shift from energy to mass and am comfortable in both forms.
Liasare explained to Tommy about how she met Jurek and how she now had the Praestani power as well. She showed Tommy her arms so he could see her markings and the absence of all the horrific scars she bore for so long.
He reached out and took one in his hand, rubbing it up and down, turning it this way and that. “The other one is the same?”
She nodded, showing him. He repeated his actions with the second arm, feeling how smooth her skin felt. “The rest of your body?”
“Is the same as this.”
He swallowed and worked his throat and opened his mouth to speak several times. Finally, when he was able to speak, he said in a hoarse voice, “I regretted every single minute of my life, ever since we took that damn ride, for what it did to you. I prayed every day I could trade places with you. I begged God every night to take those scars away. I pleaded with Him to send you a miracle and somehow, those prayers were answered. I don’t know how it happened but I’m glad it did.” His face glistened with his tears when he was finished speaking.
Liasare pulled Jurek to her and told Tommy, “This man is the reason my scars are gone. He took them away. His hands, Tommy, removed every single one of them. So Jurek was the answer to your prayers.”
Jurek wrapped his arms around Liasare and said, “Liasare was the answer to mine as well.”
“So I take it you are a couple?”
“Yeah, we’re a couple all right,” she said, kissing him.
“Why did he call you Liasare?”
“Oh! I don’t go by the name of Sarah any more.” She explained the reasoning behind it and Tommy seemed satisfied with that.
There was a knock on the door and Shandro stuck his head inside. “Mind if I join you?”
Liasare and Jurek left to give the two best friends some time to catch up before dinner.
********
That night at dinner, they talked about everything Tommy had missed since the chip had been implanted in his brain. He was shocked at the number of people that had been abducted from all over the universe. There were over seventy thousand reported missing, so the armies were probably much larger than that. Jurek and his men tried to keep up with the numbers from all over the universe, but those were sketchy at best.
“We think the Xanthians are connected to Abaddon, and he’s directing the creation of the armies. We’re not sure of any details and it’s an assumption, of course, but he definitely wants Liasare for her power,” Jurek explained.
“Whoa, wait a minute. Slow down here. Who is Abaddon and what power does Liasare have?”
Everyone looked at each other uncomfortably, but all eyes ended up on Liasare.
Taking a deep breath, she took the plunge. “Tommy, have you ever heard of Apollyon, The Destroyer?”
“You mean like Satan?”
“Yeah, well that’s Abaddon. He’s always been after the Praestani power because he wants to overthrow God as the strongest force that exists. Apparently I am the Key to the Light. In other words, I am a gateway of sorts to the Praestani power, as I understand it. The bad news is that I can also be the Key to the Dark. Abaddon can use me to give him the power he craves, so he’s after me in a bad way.” She glanced at Jurek and he nodded and smiled. She sighed, glad that she got it right, but not glad she was in this ridiculous position.
Tommy stared at her, his mouth hanging open like a codfish. “But how?” he finally eked out.
She snorted and said, “Well, I was captured by Abaddon’s sidekick and he pretty much had me as a dead girl. Luckily, Jurek found me and brought me here. But he literally got to me barely in time to save me. I was dying Tommy. Even the power of the Praestani alone couldn’t save me. So Jurek had to transfer some of his power to me in order to give me life.”
Jurek interrupted her here, “Tommy, your sister was preordained to be a part of this. She is part of the Prophecy of Thul. It predicts the end of the world unless someone can step in and prevent things from happening. I believe that someone is Liasare. I knew it the first moment I met her. I felt her energy source surge with mine. It’s difficult to explain, but it’s the best I can do.”
Tommy stared at the two of them, not quite understanding this power thing. Jurek, reading his unease, said to Liasare, “Hold out your hand.” She did as he asked, and he did the same. The light erupted between them and did that beautiful dance and then began to grow. It soon covered both of their hands and traveled up their arms, extending upward and outward. “Call it back, love.” Suddenly, the light receded and disappeared.
“Well wasn’t that the shit?” Tommy asked.
Shandro was speechless.
“She can do a lot more than that, like zap your ass if you’re not careful,” Rykerian added.
“No way.” Then Tommy eyed her. “I want another demo, sister.”
Liasare started squirming. “No you don’t,” Jurek said, coming to her rescue. “It’s most unpleasant and Liasare doesn’t have complete and total control yet.”
January piped in saying, “Trust me Tommy, you do not want a demonstration of Praestani power. It’s very unpleasant.”
“Just how powerful are you?” Tommy asked.
“Very.” Jurek eyed an empty platter on the table and he sent out a beam of light from his eye, destroying it, turning it to dust.
“Holy shit! Did you see that?” Everyone else at the table, other than Shandro, either rolled their eyes or grunted. “Hey, give me a break here. This is all new to me.”
“It’s new to me as well. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Shandro chimed in.
“They’re right,” Jurek decided, defending them. “Tommy, to aptly answer your question, the Praestani are the most powerful beings in the universe.”
“No shit! And my baby sister has hooked up with one and is sharing his power.”
The violence in the room suddenly burst forth. Jurek was on his feet and next to Tommy. “Let’s get one thing straight here and now. You’re her brother and she adores you. But we are mated, not hooking up. She is my queen, my lady and my love. She will be honored and revered by you and all who enter here. Is that clear?”
“Well yeah. I would never do anything other than that. It was just a bad choice of words. Sorry!”
Jurek bowed and went back to his seat. Tommy looked at Liasare and she shrugged.
“Well then, now that’s over, are there any other questions you’re not afraid to ask?” Liasare blurted out. She put her hand on Jurek’s arm, rubbing a circle on his wrist. He knew exactly what she was doing and he felt the corners of his lips curve into a smile. Before she knew what was happening, he’d pulled her onto his lap, and when she saw his expression, she burst out laughing.
Everyone looked at the two of them, expecting an explanation, but there was none forthcoming.
It was Rykerian who spoke next. “So what should our next plans be?”
“I think my men and I need to go back to Earth to Club Down. There is something there that is associated with Abaddon. We all felt it when we went there last time, so we need to reinvestigate it.”
Liasare started pouting.
Tommy, noticing her expression, asked, “What’s wrong with you?”
“I’m not allowed back because I busted up a sex show and beat the crap out of three guys the last time we went there.”
That brought the table down in fits of laughter. Rykerian was slapping his knee and Marik and was holding his sides. Liasare wasn’t laughing.
“I didn’t know it was an act. I thought the woman was being raped, okay?”
January was the only one that didn’t laugh. “Go get ‘em girl. I would’ve done the same thing, not knowing it was an act. Ew, it really makes me sick to think of watching something like that, thinking it’s a rape. Who likes that kind of thing?”
“Sickos, that’s who. You should’ve seen this place. It was dirty...I mean dirty in both senses.”
After the laughing subsided, Rykerian wanted to know, “So when are you headed back?”
Jurek thought about it and said, “Probably in a couple of days. I think Tommy needs to go back to Vesturon with you and fully recover. Tommy, you can stay here if you’d like, the choice is yours. You can’t go back to Earth though. You’re marked so that won’t work.”
“Tommy, I know you have a ton of catching up to do, but I’d love for you to come back to Vesturon,” Shandro said.
“Right. I’ll think about it. I could always help with research here, if need be,” he added.
Everyone started drifting back to their quarters and Liasare hugged Tommy goodnight. “It’s so great to have you back with us again.”
“I’m worried about you Sis. This is quite a task you’ve been charged with and I’m not sensing the love coming from Mr. Mean, if you’re feeling me.”
Shandro stood in the background, staring at the three of them. His belly twisted with fear when he thought of the task that Liasare had been unfairly handed. He was glad he would be heading back to Vesturon because he doubted he could stand by and watch her intentionally put herself in the path of The Destroyer.
“Tommy, I’ve been to hell and back and I don’t intend to revisit it. I’m scared shitless to be honest, but I can’t sit around shaking in my boots over it either. This creep wants to end it all and if it’s up to me to stop it then I can’t argue with that. We’re all put here for a reason. Unfortunately for me, mine happens to be a bit overwhelming. The thing about it is this: if I don’t do anything we all die. So the way I look at it is what do I have to lose?”
“That doesn’t make it any easier for me to swallow. I love you Sarah. I’m sorry, but I’ll always think of you as my little Sarah.”
She put her fist to her heart and extended it to him, and then Jurek flashed them to their quarters.
Extreme weariness seemed to overtake her as soon as they turned from energy to mass. Jurek sat her on the edge of the bed and brought her a warm cloth in which to wipe her face. Then he tugged her into the bathroom so she could brush her teeth and use the restroom. When she was finished, he undressed her and put her to bed. Climbing in next to her, he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her against him. With her head nestled on his shoulder, she whispered her thanks, and promptly fell asleep.
Chapter Two
Liasare headed back to the headquarters after a night at the clubs on Earth. She was alone and it was dark. When she neared the building, she felt that familiar, yet unwelcome iciness invading her veins, racing through her like a serpent and coiling in her intestines. Frozen needles pricked her skin everywhere and her head exploded with pain, crashing into her like a wrecking ball. She fell to her knees, clenching her skull, the pain so fierce she couldn’t even scream...
********
And now...
Please enjoy an excerpt from Misty Provencher’s latest book,
Hale Maree, available now on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iTunes and Smashwords
HALE MAREE ~ MISTY PROVENCHER
CHAPTER ONE
“WE GOT ENOUGH FOR TWO, don’t we?”
This is how my father comes in the door that night, yelling and drunk, but laughing. I don’t mind him so much when he’s like this. I call it beer-drunk. Beer-drunk is when he drops the dishes, but doesn’t mind that they’re broken, spills things, and grins like his face is made of modeling clay. If I have to pick, I’ll take this version over the whiskey-drunk one, when he can get angry at the color of the carpet.
“Yeah, Dad,” I call back from the kitchen, “there’s enough for me and you.”
Then I hear the second set of footsteps following my father into the kitchen, and realize what he meant. He meant company. A man, who would probably be considered handsome, when his eyes weren’t so blood shot, comes in behind my father. I never know who my dad might bring home, but it’s easier when it’s women. None of the men he’s brought home have ever succeeded in laying a hand on me, but lots of them have tried, and I’ve learned to spend the night in my room with a chair wedged up under my door knob. At least, when I get a good look at this guy, he doesn’t look like he’d be a creeper. It’s not like I ever know for sure, but this guy’s smile is friendly, as my dad horseshoes him around the neck with a crooked arm.
