Unveiled: A Paranormal Urban Fantasy Novel (The Dark Skies Trilogy Book One) (16 page)

S
omeone is calling
my name as I begin to wake up. “Astrid. Astrid. Are you okay?”

The sweet, soothing voice sounds familiar. My eyes slowly flutter open, but my eyelids feel heavy and dull. At first, when I see the face with the perfect green-blue eyes hovering above me, I’m certain that I’m still dreaming. It’s some beautiful, wonderful dream, but still a dream.

“Chad?” I whisper. The face above me is my sweet, sweet Chad Olson.

“It’s alright,” he says, and I realize that I’m not dreaming. He’s here with me. “You’re safe now.”

“What are you doing here?” I ask, struggling to sit up on the hard cement bench where I’m laying. But as soon as I’m upright, my head starts to throb, probably from whatever drug Agent Holmes gave me.

“Oh hey! Nice of you to join the land of the living, Sleeping Beauty.” A third figure says, stepping out from the shadows. It’s the smiling face of my best girl Ruby moving to my side. “We’ve been so worried. You were out cold for so long that we started to think you might not wake up.”

“Ruby? What are you guys doing here? Both of you?” Struggling to clear my eyes, I see that we’re in a small, dimly lit sterile white cell. “Where are we?”

“In a freaky underground facility,” Chad replies. “We think we’re under the federal building on the edge of town.”

So I haven’t been moved then. “How long have I been here?” I’m woozy as they help me to my feet.

Ruby gets me some water from a small sink in the corner of the cell. The area on my shoulder where the mean lady agent stuck me with a needle aches. It hurts worse than my still unhealed cut.

Chad and Ruby exchange looks, before he says, “Well, we got here the day before yesterday. You were already here. Totally unconscious.”

“I was waiting for Phoebe to pick me up after school on Friday, when one of those big black SUVs, just like the ones we saw the night the meteor hit, pulled up. Two big guys in suits forced me into their car.”

“And I never even made it to school Friday morning,” Chad explains. “The goons in suits grabbed me as I was going into StarCoffee to buy breakfast.”

“But the weird thing is,” Ruby says, “they’ve totally left us alone since we got here. So we don’t have any idea what they want.”

When I finally look around, I notice the craziest thing about our cell. There isn’t a fourth wall. It’s totally open.

“Correct me if I’m wrong,” I begin, gesturing to the gaping hole that should be a wall. “But this doesn’t exactly seem like a very secure cell if one whole wall is gone.”

Ruby gestures to the darkness beyond the cell as a draft of fresh air wafts in. “Take a look for yourself.”

Chad walks me to spot where the floor just ends. Such a gentleman. He holds my arm to keep me steady so I can gaze out into this mysterious darkness.

I immediately understand why there's no need for a fourth wall.

This little cell might as well be built into the side of a mountain. It's four, maybe five, stories off the ground.

“It's like someone took a giant spoonful out of the wall to make this cell,” Ruby says, moving to my other side.

With an additional two or three stories above us, the massive blades of a slowly turning fan spin on the ceiling.

“I feel like we’re trapped in the first act of one of those horror movies that may eventually involve hideous power tools,” I say, gazing up at the slowly turning fan blades.

“Oh jeez.” Ruby grimaces. “I really hope not.”

“There's one door, no vents, and no visible cameras, but somehow, I'm pretty sure we’re being watched,” Chad says quietly. “Maybe from above us.”

“Yeah, we’ve heard noises coming from up there,” Ruby explains, her eyes darting up at what appears to be another opening in the wall on the floor above us.

“Do you have any idea what’s going on?” Chad asks me. “I mean, why the thugs in the suits brought us all here?”

Oh, boy. How do you tell someone you’re an alien and intergalactic bounty hunters are trying to kill you? “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

They both laugh. Ruby counters, “I think we might.”

“Only if it has something to do with gigantic reptilian monsters and flying saucers,” Chad adds with no trace of shock in his voice.

“I take it you saw them?”

Ruby nods. “It’s the craziest thing ever. And it has something to do with you? Right? Something to do with the ways you’re… special?”

Special? That’s not exactly how I’d phrase it, but okay. My heart is heavy knowing that Ruby and Chad are mixed up in this whole awful thing because of me. If anything happens to my friends, I’ll never be able to forgive myself.

“I’m really sorry, guys,” I say, unable to look them in the eyes. “I’m afraid it does have something to do with me.”

“It’s alright, Astrid. Ruby takes my hand. “You can tell us.”

So, I pretty much let it rip. I tell them the whole thing. The Grail. The sword. My dying uncle transforming into a MoonEyed Blue. Not to mention Jax.

They both listen in silence, eyes wide like little kids during story hour. When I’m done, Ruby wraps her arms around me, tears glisten in her eyes. “I’m so sorry, honey. I’m so sorry.”

“Wait. Just hang on,” Chad asks, agitated and pacing in front of us. “You’re telling me that this Jax guy swore to your dying uncle that he’d get you safely to this oracle, then stole the gold along with your special sunbeam sword —“

“Stardust. Not sunbeam.” I correct him. “It’s supposedly forged from the dust of seven stars. But whatever.”

“Okay, sorry.” He goes on, “He took your stardust sword then just bailed on you while the house burned down and the cops showed up.”

“Yep. Pretty much sums it up.”

“What a jerk.” Chad clenches his jaw. “If I ever see that guy…”

Ruby interrupts, taking the conversation in a different direction. “You know, my crazy Aunt Libby claims that aliens abducted her in the middle of the night and inserted an implant in her brain.” She laughs quietly, but I can see the gears turning in her brain. “We always thought she was just nutso. But maybe she was telling the truth, after all.”

Before anyone can say more, heavy footsteps approach from what sounds like the end of a long hallway. The footsteps stop outside our cell door; then we hear a loud electronic beep.

The cell door hisses open as two burly guys in black suits, with their holstered guns plainly visible, fill the doorframe.

"Come with us," barks the bigger of the two agents.

Together, we move forward as a trio, but the smaller suit points at Chad. “No, not you.”

"Resist and we will shoot," says the other, hand on his firearm.

Resist? How are we supposed to resist two armed men?

But scanning their faces, I realize they're afraid of me. Like quaking-in-their-boots afraid. They must think I have some crazy alien superpower like a laser vision death ray or mind control.

If only.

“No,” Chad objects. “We stay together.”

The guard points his gun at Chad’s head. “Only the girls.”

“It’s okay,” I say, smiling at Chad, hoping to reassure him. “We’ll be fine.”

I can tell he doesn’t want us to go without him. His “good guy” instinct to protect us has kicked in.

With no other choice, Ruby and I follow the two suits out of the cell. The sound of our footsteps echoing off the empty walls reverberates as we walk for what feels like an eternity down one eerily quiet, maze-like hallway that turns into another almost identical corridor. There's not another soul around.

"So how's it going?" I ask the guard next to me.

No response.

"I like your suits," I continue, noticing they're wearing nearly identical single-breasted wool suits. "Are you required to wear black or can you throw in a charcoal gray or a nice navy blue now and then?"

Still nothing.

"Casual Fridays, maybe?" Ruby adds.

Eventually, we turn down a hallway that dead-ends at a bright green door. It's the first color I've seen in this secret government facility or whatever it is. There's a small window in the door covered with thick metal mesh.

A futuristic keypad/camera duo on the wall next to the door scans one of the agent's handprint, then the iris of his left eye, followed by a ka-chunk that releases the lock.

The door swings open, and we emerge back where I began in the big open room with the sporty little flying saucer.

The sea of black suits parts revealing a familiar figure. It's the towering reptilian Grail bounty hunter. With a serious looking weapon slung over her shoulder, she appears larger than her clones. This is the prime, up close and personal.

"There's our girl!" Sunglasses, who stands beside the Grail, moves in my direction.

So the suits and the Grail were working together this whole time. I think back to my uncle talking to Sunglasses up in the canyon the night the meteor landed. He must have trusted Sunglasses.

Which must mean that these government suits somehow double-crossed him.

“And Astrid’s little friend, too.” Sunglasses takes me firmly by the arm and pulls me in the opposite direction. “Come with me. I'd like to introduce you to a very important figure who's eager to meet you."

He escorts us through the suits toward what appears to be a platform or stage. I can’t see who or what’s on it until we pass the cluster of agents.

My heart nearly freezes when I see the hulking, scaled alien encased in metallic body armor that’s draped in a floor-length deep red cloak. He stands, at least, 8 feet tall, and the breadth of his chest is enormous.

This can only be the Crimson Lord Ciakar Rigel, the leader of the Draconian Swarm.

The monster who haunts my dreams.

The one who wants me and my sisters dead.

“My lord, I have brought you one of the vile Seven Sisters of Destruction,” Sunglasses calls proudly up to the alien.

Unlike in my nightmares, here I finally see the entirety of his strange alien face. His scaled forehead rises to a peaked skull. His reptilian skin is a dark greenish-yellow with round scale-like protrusions running from his cheeks up over his bald head. His nose hooks up, and his chin is bearded with whiskers that look like wire.

“Well done, human!” the Crimson Lord bellows as his strange alien eyes examine me. “That is… if this child is truly one of the seven threats.”

I force myself not to look away and push down my fear. Finally, I realize there’s something strange, not right. Something nearly translucent about him.

Ruby, who stands behind me, notices this at the same moment. “Is he a hologram or something?”

“He’s not really here,” I reply in a hushed voice. We’re seeing some sort of real time astral projection of the Draconian leader. A futuristic high tech version of Skype.

"I'm certain this is the girl you’re seeking," Sunglasses replies. "I ran a sample of her blood. Her DNA is 100% Asteropian."

"That does not prove she is one of the seven deadly threats," he replies, examining me like someone trying to pick the perfect piece of steak. “And, I need more than your word that the girl is Pleiadian.”

Sunglasses turns toward a pair of agents standing next to what looks like a mirror made of metallic rock. He gives the waiting agents a small bob of the head, and they wheel the rock toward us.

As they push it toward us, Sunglasses explains. “We like to call this the looking glass. It was a gift from our more advanced friends. Made from a blend of rare metals found in distant asteroids, it allows us to see behind the veil, so to speak.”

As it gets closer, I’m able to see a reflection in the mirrored rock. I see Sunglasses and Ruby and a cluster of agents behind me. But I’m not there.

Or, perhaps, I am.

It just doesn’t look like me. My face has a shimmering crystal texture almost like I’m covered in some sparkling, textured make-up. My skin glows a warm pink. My eyes are the same. But everything else looks foreign.

I realize that this is me, uncloaked. My uncle said he and I were not alike. This must be my true alien form.

Ruby looks on. I feel exposed. Vulnerable. Unveiled.

My best friend steps forward, gazing at my reflections with wide, unblinking eyes. “Astrid,” she says, looking from me to the mirror and back again. “You’re so beautiful.”

I have the strangest feeling of not recognizing myself on the outside, but feeling the same on the inside.

“Congratulations, Alice,” Sunglasses whispers, just loud enough for me to hear. “What’s it feel like to officially tumble down the rabbit hole?”

“If I’m Alice then you must be the Mad Hatter,” I whisper back. “What’s it feel like to be totally bonkers?”

Sunglasses laughs then turns and loudly address the hologram of the Crimson Lord. "How many female Asteropian teenagers can be on one planet? She's the right age, has a MoonEyed Blue guardian -- or should I say had."

Sunglasses saunters back to me then rips the shirt from my injured shoulder. I wince as pain shoots through me. "And she has the seven-sided scar on her arm."

Across space and time, the Crimson Lord scowls. Perhaps I’m not what he expects in an intergalactic warrior princess. "Then where is the sword?"

“Yes, the sword…” A shadow crosses Sunglasses’ face. "It was not with her.”

“You bring me a girl with no sword?!” the Crimson Lord bellows. “If you hope to be Earth’s high chancellor when the Swarm prevails over your little planet, then you had better complete the simple tasks you are given.”

“My lord,” Sunglasses moves forward. “We have reason to believe that it’s nearby. We will find the sword."

"Enough!" the Crimson Lord thunders from halfway across the galaxy. “Do not waste my time again until you have the girl AND the sword. One is worthless without the other. Find it. Or else.”

Then like a light going out, the huge image of the Crimson Lord fades away.

For an uncomfortably long moment, Sunglasses stands perfectly still. It almost looks like he’s not breathing.

Then suddenly, he explodes in a red-faced rage.

His head tips back and he howls an angry cry. His hands balled into fists, he swivels around and focuses in on me.

This is exactly what I was afraid of.