The Keepers Book Two of the Holding Kate Series (13 page)

“You never got a nose bleed in the arena or in your two hundred years in Jewel City?”

“Heh, nope. I got plenty of other bloody parts in the arena, but not a nose bleed.” She took the rag from him and leaned against the mound wall.

“Jewel City.” The melancholy tone reflected the ache in her chest. “I really miss that place. It’s home, really. Nothing seems real outside of that jump.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.” Corey stretched his legs out and scooped hers into his lap. The space small, Tara’s long legs took up more than her portion. “I’d feel that way too if I had left a family behind.”

Tara stared ahead not really seeing the tarp in front of her. Memories carried her thoughts to a faraway land. After a few moments she said. “Do you remember my husband Bran’s brother, Boerne?”

Corey wrinkled his forehead. “The brother-in-law that couldn’t stay out of trouble? I vaguely remember him. Didn’t Ash write a song about him?”

Tara chuckled. “No, but Jacen did, Donnie and Mel’s youngest son. That was Boerne, drunk as a skunk most days. He used to get nosebleeds all the time. You could just look at him crooked, and he would spew blood everywhere.”

She stilled, silent for a long moment. “I don’t know why, but I have been thinking of Bran a lot lately.” She turned a melancholy face to Corey.

He took her hand and kissed the back of it. “He was a good man and one of the best friends I’ve ever had.”

“You know, after he died and you were so good to me, I thought you and I might eventually hook up in Jewel City. Then Eunavae’s accident drew your attention and I thought maybe you had a thing for her.”

Corey concentrated on their hands.

“None of us ever had a chance with you, did we?”

Corey took his time answering. “It’s always been Kate. Even Taylia couldn’t—” he stopped, drew a deep breath then blew it out.

“Yeah, I know.” Tara squeezed his hand. She sucked in her lower lip and pressed her teeth down, watching his face carefully. “Do you think she is as faithful to you?” She pinned Corey with a pointed stare.

“Yeah, sure.”

Tara stared at him. Corey spoke truth as he saw it. He sincerely believed that Kate devoted herself to him. Or maybe his devotion to her did not rely on her commitment to him. That sounded like Corey. Not once in 200 years did he ever consider that Kate had moved on without him. Or if he had, it did not change his heart toward her. He persisted, secure in her love for him. Tara hoped with all of her heart that he was right. If not, she had a really good idea who Kate’s sweet downfall would be.

QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): KATE WILSON

Kate stared at the man who hovered over her and who took no thought for himself. He acted only for her safety. It killed her to see him suffering bravely through his pain, trying to hide how much agony he endured. She ran her fingers through his hair and down the sides of his face. He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply.

“Kate.” A mere breath escaped him as his brow folded along the ridge of his nose. She gently traced the crease of his brow down and touched his lips with her thumbs as her fingers stroked his cheekbones.

He opened his eyes. They hazed over with burning passion. Kate melted under his scorching gaze and she clenched her muscles trying to hold herself together. Her insides ached and desire fluttered through her.

He latched his focus onto her lips and moistened his while yearning kindled inside her.
This is wrong
…
ohhh.
Kate’s heart wavered and her thoughts froze. Her body made demands, and her mind stuttered to silence.

Trip, entranced in the moment, leaned his face in and stopped an inch from her lips.

Then his gaze shifted over her shoulder and confused panic rumpled his face. Kate turned over to see the floor of the mound disintegrate as long black tentacles shot up, wrapped around her and sucked her into the chasm below.

QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): COREY CHASTAIN

I watched Tara shift uncomfortably. “You okay?”

She sighed and turned a frank expression to me. “This jump has been a waste of time so far. What good is this for anyone?” She spat the words and ground her teeth together.

“I don’t know. Maybe Eunavae and Dirk are deep into a pivotal conversation?”

“Yeah, or maybe they discovered the key to the universe buried over in their mound.” Tara’s acerbic tone softened.

“Or maybe they fell madly in love, will get married, and their offspring will cure jump splints.”

Tara busted out laughing.

“We heard that!” Eunavae sounded muted, but discernible.

We laughed again.

“I don’t hear any rain drops. Has it cleared?” I called to Dirk as I carefully peeled the edge of the tarp down to peek out.

“Just about gone.” Dirk groaned as though he shifted uncomfortably.

I slid the crate back, and Tara and I stuck our faces in the opening to get a good look.

“It’s not falling like rain anymore. It’s just kinda floating around out there.” Eunavae’s face appeared over Dirk’s shoulder.

The rain, not hovering in raindrops, floated around in stringy lines or flat plates. I moved the crate out of the opening and detached the canvas, careful to let the rain float away from the outside.

“I think we can come out if we are careful not to touch the, er, puddles.”
Can you even have rain puddles without gravity?

“Give it a few more minutes. The stuff seems to be floating back up,” Dirk called and held his palm out to wave us back into the mound.

True enough, the moisture rose out of the spongy turf as though a slow rewind took back the deposit of rain.

After another half hour or so, the water disappeared, the turf glistened and pulsed a rainbow of color, and we emerged from our mounds.

Donnie and Mel were last to leave their mound. The color in Mel’s cheeks and the condition of Donnie’s hair indicated they had spent their time productively. It made me homesick for Kate.

I searched in the direction we had last seen them, but found no sign of them. Agitation forced my decision.

“I’m gonna go find Kate and Trip,” I announced and set a floating course in that direction.

“I’ll come too.” Tara launched herself to catch up with me.

“Wait up. We’ll all go,” Dirk called. “Let me just secure these crates, and we’ll join you.”

I didn’t want to delay. “Catch up to us. We already have momentum,” I called behind.

Tara reached for my hand and we floated, pushing ourselves along by the edges of the mounds. We traveled quickly once we perfected the balancing.

“Do you hear that?” Tara asked after we had floated a couple hundred yards.

I trained my ears on the sound and let my eyes follow. To our left, patches of dirt were being flung out of one of the mounds creating a pillar as the dirt floated into the sky. A grunting sound accompanied the spurts of dirt.

“Trip! Is that you?” Tara called.

We adjusted our trajectory toward the insubstantial column of soil.

“Trip!”

Trip stuck his head out of the mound, and my gut wrenched. Only one thing could put that amount of panic on Trip’s face.

Kate was in trouble.

“What is it? Where is she?” We bumped against the edge of the mound and latched onto it to keep from blowing past it.

“Gone! Snatched right out of my arms!”

I crawled into the mound to see what he talked about. Covered in black dirt and blood, he dug frantically.

“Trip, whose blood are you covered in?” I sounded old, even to me.

“What?” Trip ceased digging long enough to glance at me. I pointed to his back. “Oh, that. The rain is acidic, did you know?”

“Trip, are those acid burns?” Tara asked.

“Yeah, don’t worry about it. Kate, we’ve got to get Kate away from that thing.”

“What? What took Kate?”

“I didn’t see clearly. Tentacles, that’s all I saw.”

“Dig!” I commanded, and we positioned ourselves against the mound and frantically dug away the ground.

“This isn’t getting us anywhere!” Tara growled after we had dug three feet down and saw nothing. “I’ll go get a shovel.” She darted out of the mound and kicked against the side to launch toward base camp.

“Are you sure it came from under the ground and not outside?”

“Yeah, no doubt.”

“How did it manage to get her away from you?” My anger spilled over as I attacked the ground with a vengeance.

Trip didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to fight with him, so we just kept digging furiously.

After we shunted dirt for another three feet, the soil changed color and consistency. Moist foul smelling fumes rose out of the ground and a flat black surface appeared.

Trip and I glanced at each other then back to the strange layer.

“Is it a door?”

“It doesn’t feel completely solid.” Trip pushed the toe of his shoe against it, and it gave under the pressure.

I knelt down and smoothed the dirt away and explored. “It feels like Shamu.”

“What?”

“You know, the killer whale at Sea World?” I explained. “It’s cool to the touch. Weird.”

Trip scowled at the offensive surface.

“I can feel it pulsing. Like, like—”

“It’s alive.” Trip finished.

Tara and Dirk bumped against the mound with two shovels.

“Give it here,” Trip demanded. He slammed the shovel into the smooth surface.

I yelled at him to stop, but too late.

THE WHOLE WORLD
pitched and trembled beneath our feet. Soil rained down from the mound arch onto our heads.

“Time to get out!” Dirk reached into the hole and yanked us both up and out of the mound.

We soared into the air and hovered about the strange planet as it shuddered and rolled. The mounds erupted with steam spouts all around us.

“Get away from them!” Dirk commanded and we all attempted to position ourselves high above and between the steam jets. Mel’s leg got caught in a spout of hot steam. She screamed and writhed. Donnie jerked her away from the stream, and they shot up into the sky.

We climbed as high as we could, but the higher we got the denser the fog of steam that gathered around us. I stayed at the bottom edge of the steam cloud searching for any clue as to Kate’s whereabouts.

I noticed intermittent breaks in the steam spouts. The stream paused and dark, solid objects flew from the mouth of the mounds with sputtering expulsion, then the jet resumed. The mound below me sputtered. I positioned myself to the side. The object vaulted out of the mound toward me, and I snatched it before it whizzed past.

I examined the black object covered in a tarry slick. I switched hands, and the sticky black substance stretched from my hand to the object.

“Corey!” Eunavae exclaimed.

I nodded at her. Yes, she had recognized it too. A human bone, a femur, stuck to my hand. I tried to drop it, but with no gravity to help dislodge the macabre thing, it clung to me like the web of a giant spider. I flung my hand, and the sticky black substance elongated and snapped as the bone released in the momentum.