Crystal Tomb (Starfire Angels: Dark Angel Chronicles Book 3) (11 page)

A couple seconds later, Elis's jaw
clenched and he trembled. He hunched and gasped while the man stood
still.

Except for the palm-sized device in
his hand.

"Elis?" She caught him before he fell
forward, his fingers opening and clenching. Oh, God. What now? What
was wrong? "Elis."

No, no, no. This was wrong. This was
torture. Why did the Risaal do this?

Him.
Kan Rikku
Nakor Surik. He did this
because he wanted her crystal shard. No way. The Risaal didn't
deserve the Starfire. And they had given it up.

Raea jumped for the device, a remote
of some sort.

Oh, all kinds of hell. Pain tingled
through her from her wrists. Her knees buckled and she caught
herself with her hands a second before collapsing next to
Elis.

After what seemed an eternity later,
it ended. She gasped for air, her limbs numb. "Why?" she
croaked.

"You will translate the monolith,
Inari, or one of you dies."

"No." Elis lifted his head.

"You have no choice."

Elis gasped and fell again, twitching
in mini-spasms next to her.

Elis… Strength returned for her to
push herself from the floor. "Stop it. Please stop."

"Tell me where the rest of the crystal
is."

"I don't…I don't know." It had split
apart, but she wouldn't tell him.

"What did the Inari do to
the
D'Nuvar?
"

"I don't
know!
" Not all of
it.

Oh, God. The torrent of electricity
coursed through her, numbing her limbs so she collapsed next to
Elis. Seconds later, it ended, leaving her gasping for the breath
she'd held through the pain.

"If you don't know, translate the
monolith."

"All right." Elis breathed heavily and
rolled onto his back, his hands sliding to her arm. Every cell in
her body yearned to end this, to be with him in peace. "All
right."

He was giving up already?

What did the Risaal expect the
monolith to say? It told the story about the Inari settling on
Earth twelve thousand years ago, not the Risaal. She couldn't ask
Nakor Surik for details about their connection to it; he'd probably
torture them for daring to question him. At least when she
questioned Debbie's judgment, her aunt only sent her to her
room.

Not this alien…thing. She'd never
criticize Debbie's punishment again, if she survived.

The Risaal stepped back and let them
up. Elis helped her, despite his wincing with each movement after
the torture.

"No more resting. Read."

Elis stood and leaned on the monolith
for support while breathing hard like her. The cuffs were more than
restraints; they were torture devices. The electrocution had
weakened them both.

Raea struggled to bring her feet under
her, still numb from the stupid cuffs.

At a motion from Nakor Surik, an ugly
alien at each side grabbed her arms and lifted her to her feet to
face their leader.

Talk about superiority complex. He
leaned close so she could make out the triple points in his pupils.
"Tell me, Inari, what happened to the crystal. What did you
do?"

"Nothing." Fear jumbled her thoughts.
"I…um…"

[Don't tell him
anything.]

"What?" Who said that?

"I ask the questions. What happened to
the crystal, Inari?"

The crystal. The Starfire? Right.
That. "It…"

"It shattered five thousand years
ago."

Elis?

He stood upright on his own feet, a
dark look in his eyes fixed on the Risaal. "It refused to be
misused. It chooses its Keepers now."

The skin along Nakor Surik's neck and
cheeks broke apart and changed to the same dark green as the
others.

Elis's face pinched and his hands
tightened into fists with the fingerless gloves still hiding his
Starburst marks. He fell to the floor in obvious pain.

No. Not again. Raea tried to pull away
from her guards to reach for him, but their strength held her
firmly in place.

"Tell me again—what did you
do to the
D'Nuvar
?"

Elis lay still, his breathing labored.
"I spoke the truth."

"Liar!"

He seized in pain again, and Raea's
heart whimpered in sympathy. This shouldn't be happening. She
should be practicing her speech with Elis beside her. Where was the
justice in this? "Stop it! We didn't do anything. He told you the
truth."

Elis spasmed on the ground.
Sooner or later he might quit, but not because the pain stopped.
Oh, God.
She couldn't lose him. "Stop it!"
Desperation rushed through her and, using the guards as leverage,
she kicked out at the Risaal leader.

He tumbled back and the pain
controlling device for the cuffs clattered across the
floor.

The guards holding her rotated her
arms over her head until the extreme pulling of muscles and tendons
while stabbing her with hundreds of needles from their hands made
her eyes water. For a moment, she feared they would rip her arms
out to make them stretch behind her. She twisted to relieve the
pain and fell back into their grip.

Nakor Surik returned to his feet in
his natural Risaal form and one of the guards returned the device
to him.

Numbing currents of electricity
coursed from her wrists through her body.

Through the haze of
numbness induced, Raea caught a voice somewhere:
[You're not alone. You will endure.]

WE ARE HERE.
She recognized that feeling, but the
interpretation of the Starfire entities was different than the
voice. What was going on?

{"You'll kill them."} The Starfire
must have translated that. She didn't understand the Risaal, or
hadn't before the vision.

{"They are Inari. They don't deserve
to live."} Nakor Surik's eyes lit up like a madman's.

{"We'll lose our chance to
translate the monolith and find the
D'Nuvar
."}

After what seemed an eternity of
numbing pain, it stopped. Raea breathed hard while leaning against
the support of the two Risaal. Nakor Surik had a nasty temper, but
no wonder with the chip on his shoulder against Inari. Maybe she
should tell them what she saw in the vision, that their own kind
had given the crystal to her ancestors.

How could he not know,
though? Nothing made sense. How was the monolith connected to
the
D'Nuvar
?

She didn't care. The only thing that
mattered now was recovering from the torture. Her arms would heal
quickly.

What about Elis? He'd taken so much
more of the torment than her. Her heart gave a hiccup; she had to
know he was all right and struggled to shift her head, which felt
like it weighed a ton.

His sides rose and fell with deep
breaths. Big relief. After all they'd endured together, it couldn't
end like this.

{"They need rest,"} the second Risaal
said. An understatement. Stupid Risaal. Raea hated them all, but
she was too weak to fight.

{"If we lose them, we lose our chance
of recovering the crystal. Without it, we can't hope to return
home."}

A low growl from Nakor Surik preceded
his heavy steps fading from the chamber. The two guards released
her and her knees gave out. She caught her balanced in the
collapse, so she landed sitting up, blinking at the trio leaving
the chamber.

Something touched her arm and she
jerked from it.

"Easy. I'm trying to help."

As if. For all she knew, they lied as
a way to inject her or cut her or do something else horrible to
her. Still, what could she do? She could hardly move.

Raea sat still while the Risaal slid
her jacket down her arms and wiped and wrapped her closest
arm.

So, maybe this one intended to help.
That left one thought: "What about Elis?"

"He's all right."

Good, if she could believe that. She
breathed easier and turned for the Risaal to bandage her other arm.
How did one tell male from female Risaal?

The Risaal finished wrapping her arms
and departed, leaving her and Elis in the chamber with the round
stone. The smooth, red center stone taunted her with its seemingly
innocuous presence but it was something more. What did the Starfire
want with it?

Forget the Starfire. Elis was more
important.

She dropped to his side and
nudged his shoulder.
Come
on
… No response, but he breathed. He lived,
and that's what mattered.

"Elis." Duh. Why did she whisper if
she wanted him to wake up? Forget that. She raised her voice and
said, "Elis!" Her voice echoed in the chamber.

He shifted his legs and his arms.
Relieved to see him move, Raea brushed the black hair from his
face, that sweet, gentle face she adored. Man, she loved him so
much the prospect of losing him had cut a hole in her
heart.

"Elis, wake up."

Those lovely eyes opened and met hers
with a hint of a calm smile. "I'm here." A second later, the smile
dropped into a look of concern with his eyes on her arms. "What
happened? What did they do to you?"

He pushed himself up from the floor
with a wince before pausing.

"I'll be fine. What about you?" She
pulled her jacket up to hide the bandages and to chase out the
cold.

His eyes pinched shut for a moment.
"Headache."

"Yeah. If it was the same for you, I
don't doubt it. You took a lot more than me."

A mischievous light glinted in his
eyes. ["I absorbed what I could and dispersed it. I faked the
rest."]

Why hadn't she thought of that? ["Good
thinking."] It would have saved her some pain.

["What did they do to you?"] Elis
reached for her arms.

["Apparently these Risaal can alter
their spikes to poke them like needles, besides using them for
camouflage."] He didn't have to look so concerned about her; it
didn't hurt that much. She was more concerned about him. ["I'll be
fine, but we won't if we don’t translate the script."]

His cheek twitched with the tightening
of his jaw, his eyes on the monolith towering over them. In the
silence, emotions passed over his face, subtle in their changes
until they settled on one which sent a chill through her, the same
cold determination before he took off after Pallin that fateful
night two months ago. No way would she let him stand up to the
Risaal again, not after what they'd just endured.

"Elis…" What was he thinking? That
look was trouble.

His expression softened on her. That
was the Elis she knew. Still, she worried about what he might be
hiding.

"Promise you won't upset them again."
It had taken two years to discover him, but she already knew she
wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, hopefully a long
one. She wouldn't let him risk that life.

He lifted his gloved hands, his bare
fingertips on her jaw calming her a moment before warm lips touched
hers in a brief kiss. "I'm sorry."

Better, but not what she wanted, just
like in his room last night when he said he would never hurt her
but there was something they needed to talk about.
"Elis..."

Those eyes could express so much pain.
He knew what she felt—their lives were at stake. "I can't," he
murmured.

"Just don't do anything to upset
them." The gentle touch on her cheek sealed his promise. That was
all she wanted.

["But we can't cooperate fully. Once
they have the translation, they probably will kill us. We need to
escape, Raea."]

Bathroom Break For It

["How?"] If only they could escape!
This was one nightmare Raea wished she could wake from. Where would
they go? The Risaal obviously knew where she lived.

Unless she opened a portal
to Inar'Ahben. They'd face death again there, though, at the hands
of the Shirukan. Damn it! They weren't safe anywhere. She hated her
life. Why couldn't she be human with normal
human
concerns about her future? This
wasn't fair.

Tears blurred her eyes and she wiped
them away with her jacket sleeve. She just wanted to be home with
Elis and practicing that stupid speech for graduation. She'd prefer
giving a speech in front of the whole town to having the Risaal
threatening them.

["I don't know."] Elis's
eyes traveled to the ceiling high above and the line across the
circle like a seam in the metal. ["But
that
gives me some ideas, along with
this complex. I think this may be one of the old missile silos. We
might still be in North Dakota."]

Hope sprang up inside her. North
Dakota. Home! Debbie was probably worried sick, but if they could
escape, it wouldn't take long to be home again. He knew exactly how
to make her feel better. ["I hope so."]