Crystal Tomb (Starfire Angels: Dark Angel Chronicles Book 3) (13 page)

Raea followed him through the dim
corridors. Before a corner, another thought struck her and she
pulled him back to the wall. "Be careful. They can blend in and we
wouldn't see them. They're chameleons."

He said nothing but gave a nod before
peeking around the corner. In her perfect memory, she had mapped
this area while passing through from the dark room where she had
awakened. They should be close to the monolith chamber, which
should mean the control room was nearby.

In the silence, the padding of soft
feet jerked her attention to the right.

The alteration of shadows warned her a
second before the weapon lifted into what seemed to be only
air.

A touch of resonance warmed through
her and released with barely a thought. A squeal erupted from a
blackened area of the figure, which broke from the wall and
fell.

One more down. No time to worry about
it. They hurried to the left, making her wonder if they hadn't been
there before—the place was small.

"You know where we're going?" she
whispered.

"Do you want to know?"

Good question; bad answer. "I just
hope you can get us out of here."

"Me too."

* * *

While marching through the cement
corridor, Kalas let the spines along his neck flatten and stand up
with his emotions. He'd watch the Inari for the night while Surik
rested. Certainly. But he refused to torture them when they were
more useful alive and conscious.

That
mik'trai
, Nakor Surik, knew nothing
about the Inari and didn't care that they could die, taking their
secrets with them. But Kalas could do nothing but hold his tongue
while Surik—
Kan Rikku
Nakor Surik, a title undeserved—explained
his
half-witted idea about killing one
of the Inari, because none of them were worth keeping alive, yet
they needed one of them.

This after the trouble Kalas had gone
through to find and capture them wore his patience thin. The young
commander understood nothing, but Kalas hadn't told him about the
anomaly that formed while the two were flying, nor had the others
who supported Kalas.

He'd sent one of his supporters to
oversee the Inari couple's request for use of the restroom but none
of the guards had reported to him since. They should be back to
translating the monolith.

He marched through the corridors to
reach the control room overlooking the tall chamber. If they made a
discovery, he would be the first to know and would use it to his
advantage.

The moment he stepped around the next
corner, he stopped.

Lying in the floor was a cement-gray
body with a green hole in the middle and a weapon at its side. Who
was it and who had shot them?

Kalas pulled his weapon and approached
the body, wary of a waiting attacker. The hall was clear for the
moment, but he wouldn't take any chances. If Surik suspected anyone
of treason, he might have ordered a purge. The Nakor held any
outside their clan in suspicion, even while trusting them with
service.

But Surik wouldn't leave a body in the
middle of the corridor.

Who could have seen the guard, still
in camouflage, to shoot so accurately but one of their
own?

There must have been another traitor.
He could use this to his advantage.

A voice spoke over the mechanical bud
in his ear. {"The Inari have escaped! They are armed."}

By Ch'tor's blaze! {"Who gave them
weapons?"} He'd kill the fool himself, if they weren't dead
already. Kalas passed his finger over the trigger of his weapon and
hurried around the next corridor.

{"No one,
Rikku
. Something came out
of their hands."}

{"How?"} Was that the purpose of the
marks on their hands?

{"I don't know. They took out the
guards in a second but let me go."}

{"Let you go?"}

The young warrior hesitated.
{"They…threatened me to die or run."}

Obviously he had chosen to spare his
life rather than try to recapture the two. Surik could deal with
him later.

{"Where are they headed?"}

{"I don't know."}

No, probably not; not if he ran
away.

{"Find them and bring them
back
alive!
"} The
Inari were no use to them dead.

Surik would be raising
spikes when he heard. Luckily, Kalas didn't have to tell him to his
face. The Nakor
Kan Rikku
would likely kill the messenger.

Rather, Kalas intended to recapture
the Inari and prove his value to those still unsure about joining
him. One of the lesser of the Nakor clan could pass on the news to
Surik.

{"Yes,
Rikku
Ronur Kalas."}

A Cold Dark Night

Something flashed past Raea's right
shoulder. That was too close!

"Elis."

Next to her, he whirled and fired
back. "Keep going."

Raea ducked through the open door into
a dark vertical tunnel. Inside, she grabbed the rungs along the
wall and climbed up a few steps. When Elis didn't follow, she
halted and glanced down. "Come on!"

He backed into the tunnel with her and
closed the hatch, shutting them in pitch black. Following the
squeak of him turning the metal wheel a few times, the light of his
Starburst marks brightly lit the dark vertical tunnel and metal
sizzled in the glare. She closed her eyes until it
stopped.

A bump on her ankle startled her into
nearly falling.

"Climb," he said.

Right. Their only way out now was up.
Man, she hoped they weren't trapped. There had better be an exit at
the end or they were so screwed a nail would be jealous.

A touch of resonance gave her some
light from her hands to see her way up the metal rungs along the
wall of the tunnel.

The clang of metal echoed through the
tunnel from their steps, while Elis's hands brushed her lower legs
occasionally. One slip and she'd fall a long ways, taking him with
her; she couldn't spread her wings in that narrow space.

Look up
, she told herself to keep from thinking of the danger below.
A lot of muted clanging rang from below, but no Risaal followed.
"What'd you do?" Her whisper echoed back in stereo
surround.

"Welded the wheel so they can't open
the door."

That explained the bright glow of his
marks moments ago. "Good thinking."

In the faint glow of her hands, she
made out the shadows of a wheel above. A door! They would be out in
the open soon. Then they could fly away from all this.

They'd have to inform someone of the
Risaal, and the stolen artifact would be enough to put the
doppelgangers in prison, so they couldn't bother her and Elis
again. She should have done that with Pallin when she had the
chance; but in hindsight, the Shirukan probably would have sent
others sooner. As it was, she had been lucky the rebels of
Naviketan rescued her when the Shirukan had come again.

Who could she trust with any power to
stop the Risaal? Everyone would think she'd been watching too much
TV.

She reached the door and, with one arm
wrapped around the top rung, stretched her other arm to the wheel
to turn it. Warm from the resonance, she hurried to open the hatch
to what she hoped would be fresh air and freedom.

After a couple rounds, the wheel
stopped. She pressed her hand to the door, ready to shove it
open.

"Wait." Elis's hushed voice froze her
motion. Now what? "Listen. Do you hear anything?"

Raea listened for a second, but heard
only her heart pounding in her ears. "No."

"Be careful and open it
slowly."

Raea pushed up. The door was heavier
than she expected, but it moved. She peeked out of a sliver of
opening to a fading orange at the western horizon and trees with
what appeared to be a chain-link fence nearby.

"It looks safe." Here went
everything.

She pushed the hatch open and climbed
out with Elis close behind and halted in peeking over the
door.

"What is it?" he whispered.

"A building." A single-level structure
stood not fifty feet away, big enough for several offices. A dark
van parked in front of it.

"Do you see anyone?"

In the silence, she swallowed and
searched the shadows—nothing. "Looks clear," she whispered and
stepped out.

Behind her, he climbed out and shut
the hatch.

Fresh air filled her lungs and
inspired a sense of freedom sorely missed. A warm touch around her
waist sent a shiver through her. It seemed a lifetime but had only
been a day, at least that she could tell.

"Time to fly." Elis's low voice sent a
tingle of anticipation through her as he backed away.

The resonance warmed through her at a
thought. For a fleeting moment, she recalled her first lesson and
how hard it had been to find the resonance. Practice had given her
a memory of the pitch of the crystal within her body and how to
make it resonate to unleash its power.

She directed the warmth to her back
and focused on growing out the wings. Raea clenched her teeth on
the pain as bones and muscles grew rapidly with feathers. After all
the transformations, the pain never lessened.

After making it look easy, Elis stood
before her, a dark figure with black wings framed by the setting
sun. The sight of him with his wings, a true Inari, made her heart
flutter with pride. He was all hers. The girls at school would be
so jealous if they knew her boyfriend was the Dark Angel everyone
talked about. They had started gossiping about it recently, because
they were jealous of the second angel spotted in the sky with him.
Even her friend Jess had sighed at the idea of an angel as a
boyfriend and said he was so hot not even Pallin could compare. If
they only knew.

But Elis didn't let it go to his head.
He'd found the discussions amusing, nothing more. Always so modest,
at least on the outside. She loved that about him.

"Ready?"

The sound of grass swishing in a quick
pattern shattered the peace. Both of them whirled to face the
building. A shadowy figure lifted its arms.

"Run!"

No telling her twice. They didn't
exactly have room to spread their wings, and they'd be easy targets
with their wings open right there.

Raea raced through the trees, where
the chain-link fence posed a new obstacle.

"Climb!" Elis called

She started up, but the small diamond
links were a tad small for her toes. Damn. At that rate, the Risaal
would catch them in no time.

Wait. Where was Elis?

She paused and swore her heart
stopped.

Elis released the Starfire energy from
his hands at nearly the same time the Risaal's weapon flared in the
dark.

"Elis!"

He hit the fence next to her and
tumbled forward. The Risaal flew back and lay still in the
grass.

Oh, God, no! Please
no.
Raea jumped down and landed on the
ground next to him, tears blurring her vision to cool the burning
of her heart.

"Elis." Careful of his wings, she
rolled him to his back. At the site of white bones surrounded by
burned flesh, she gasped.

"Oh, God. Elis. Elis." No no no no no
no. This couldn't be happening. She couldn't lose him, not now. Her
chest ached, the prospects of losing him ripping a hole through her
emotions, leaving her empty and alone.

"Elis." She sniffed and kissed his
cheek, but he lay still and unresponsive. Sobs clogged her throat,
but she had one more option. Maybe he was only unconscious. He had
to be.

She moved his hands to his chest above
the wound and set her hands on his. In a thought, she found the
resonance. Instead of burning, it tickled through her arms and
flowed out in a continuous stream of healing for what seemed an
eternity. Healing him had to work. It just had to.

Raea.

She blinked and refocused. He had to
live.

Listen…

A jolt of power shocked her through
her hands and she released the resonance to a cooling of her body
and looked down. She'd healed before but had never experienced
anything like that. Hopefully it worked.

"Elis, wake up. You…you can't…" The
dreaded word hung on her tongue like poison. "Wake up, Elis." She
sniffed and felt on his neck for a pulse, at least where she
thought it should be.

Nothing. Her heart gave a heavy thud.
Raea shifted her fingers. It had to be there. Oh, God. Where was
his pulse?

Still nothing.

"No." She sniffed and swiped her hair
from her face. "You can't die!"

No response. Elis laid
still.