Crystal Tomb (Starfire Angels: Dark Angel Chronicles Book 3) (37 page)

One rushed ahead, the rest
hesitant.

The glare of the Starfire energy from
Elis and Nare faded, leaving spots in her vision. "I can't keep it
open long."

Still they hesitated, but a glance
back startled her. No. The soldiers... Elis wouldn't
have—

"They won't stay that way for long,"
Nare said. Her eyes lifted to the six aliens remaining. "What are
you waiting for?"

Silence filled the chamber.

Half her attention remained on keeping
the portal open, the other half contemplating how to convince them
to hurry through.

"They're afraid." Elis's arms extended
around her waist, his bare chest pressed against her
wings.

"Of what?" The answer hit the second
the words left her lips. "Oh." How could she prove it?

Seconds ticked away, seconds they
couldn't afford.

Dar Lorel's reappearance couldn't have
come at a better time. She scanned the black figures lying still.
"It…is safe," she said hesitantly.

"Stunned temporarily," Nare
said.

The Risaal had returned, but an uneasy
feeling transformed Raea's relief into caution. Something was
wrong.

Dar Lorel motioned to the others. {"Go
now."} One by one, they stepped through, until only Dar Lorel
remained. "I am sorry for the trouble we caused." Despite her
words, the tone of her voice had dropped.

Raea grabbed Dar Lorel's arm, stopping
her before she stepped through. "You're upset."

"You're very observant. Too long have
I lived on this world, adapting to human ways." Sadness lingered
over the Risaal, her eyes down. "We…will rebuild."

"Oh." Raea was afraid of that,
especially since neither Elis nor Nare had ever heard of their
world. "I'm sorry."

Dar Lorel said nothing but stepped
through the portal.

Raea stared after her, the blackness
swirling in the chamber.

She sighed and let the resonance fade,
sealing the portal. None of the Risaal would return, although a
part of her had held out for them. They could have taught her so
much.

"You did well, Crystal Keeper Raea." A
warm kiss on her cheek granted small consolation to the pity she
felt for the Risaal.

His warm breath on her neck sent a
shiver down her spine, returning her attention to what mattered
most. They were free again to live. She had learned her lesson.
Atia was right—no more taking any second for granted. Each was
precious. She would make the most of them. If the Shirukan came
again, or some other alien race, or even the agency Anita worked
for—and that would likely happen soon given the situation there—she
wanted no regrets.

The three of them stood in the chamber
with several dead aliens and more than a dozen sleeping soldiers
around them, and a destroyed antiquity. Anita was going to have a
field day over this. Now she'd never leave them alone.

The sooner they left, the more time
they would have before Anita was all over them. "Let's go home."
Maybe she could pretend this was all a bad dream and the Shirukan
were nightmares.

"Yeah."

A gentle kiss on her neck stole away
some of the sorrow clouding her emotions.

"Let's get out of here." Nare lifted
her wings slightly and marched out.

"No argument here." After finding
Elis's hand and twining her fingers through his, she led him
through the bodies and out into the corridor.

Her leg aching reminded her of his
injury. "You can't avoid getting hurt. Can you?"

He stopped and looked down at the
blood on his jeans. "It's not bad."

There was that. They'd been through
much worse.

In a surprise move, he pulled her
close. She gasped but breathed easy with a smile a moment later.
She'd missed this, being in his arms. It seemed like forever since
she had seen him die, but it had never happened. His skin, cold to
her touch from the room, burned through her emotions. His gentle
kiss on her lips touched her soul, and the warmth of his soul
disintegrated the cloud of loneliness that had settled upon
her.

The kiss was only a quick greeting,
though. That was neither the time nor place to find total
comfort.

Raea lifted her fingers to those deep
purple eyes and swept aside the wild black strands of hair over
them. "Can you fly?"

Black wings lifted behind him and
stretched. "I've been hurt worse and flown with extra
weight."

His touch reached through her from his
caress of her cheek. She remembered the vision when he'd carried
her unconscious body home after fighting with the Shirukan to
rescue her. That vision had shown her his love for the first time.
She had taken it for granted all this time, but that would change
now. Atia had taught her to appreciate what she had while she had
it.

"Let's go. I don't trust Nare with
Torres."

Yeah. He didn't know yet. "That's a
funny thing about the Eye."

"What?"

He was going to hate it. Maybe it
could wait. "Nothing. Let's get the poor guy and take him home."
What was one more portal that night?

Perceptions and Misconceptions

"Tell me I'm dreaming."

Poor Elis. He sounded mortified. Raea
rubbed his back in sympathy. Nare stood in the foyer with her arms
crossed and a smug look on her face, which Raea would have gladly
wiped off if not for the respect due a Crystal Keeper.

After leaving Torres at a hospital in
Bismarck, they had flown home and left a message for Torres' family
to let him know his task was done. Together, she and Elis had
fallen asleep in the early hours of the morning in his bed, while
Nare had crashed in the other bedroom. They slept in as long as
they could and, after he showered and changed, had come down to
breakfast to run into Nare, who had just finished and couldn't
resist rubbing his nose in her new status.

"Nope." Nare held up the one-inch
shard between thumb and forefinger. "No dream. Nightmare maybe…for
you."

Elis turned to climb the stairs, his
gray tee-shirt hiding the scar on his chest. "I'm going back to bed
for good dreams."

"Yeah. Whatever. Good
riddance."

For the sake of all they fought for!
Raea couldn't take it anymore. This was their graduation. "Lighten
up, Nare. Will ya?" Sheesh! What got into her? When she thought
Elis was dead, she had said only good things about Elis. Since he
had turned up alive, her tune had changed. She could at least be
happy he was alive.

"He's been through a lot. A
lot more than you." They both had; Raea was exhausted and couldn't
imagine what he must feel like after coming so close to death. "And
he's a wonderful person. He was out helping people since he came
here to protect me. He never asked for fame or attention. All Elis
has ever wanted was to serve others.
He
is a true Keeper and deserves that
shard more than you. He's a true angel among men, which is more
than I can say for you." Damn, that felt good to say!

Nare's lips pressed together, her blue
eyes on the shard in her hand. She stood silent for once. About
damn time.

"Raea." The soft voice came from close
above.

Elis stood halfway up the stairs. She
hadn't even noticed that he'd stopped to listen to her vent, but
she warmed under the glow of that smile descending
closer.

"Thank you." He stopped on the step
where she stood and bent down for a kiss. It drained away her
frustrations, replacing them with a brightness and warmth for which
she had thirsted even before she saw him die.

"Um…Okay. I guess that's my cue to go.
I'll see you later…at your commencement."

Raea pulled away at the flashes of the
school gym in her head. Graduation commencement. Her speech. Dear
God. She hadn't practiced her speech.

Raea groaned and fell against that
firm chest beneath the shirt. Not even his supportive embrace could
erase the anxiety gnawing at her insides. She could face death but
not an audience of several hundred staring at her and waiting on
every word.

When a knock came on the door, she
closed her eyes. Couldn't they just skip all the commotion and have
one day of peace?

"Elis, dear, could you get that?" The
voice cracked with age came from Evelyn in the kitchen, where she
baked several dishes for the party after the ceremony.

"That's all right. I was just—" Nare
cut off the moment she opened the door.

Anita and Debbie stood on the stoop
outside in casual clothes.

Oh, no. As if the Risaal weren't bad
enough, she had the government to deal with yet. She'd almost been
able to forget last night.

"Raea. Elis!" Dressed down for once in
jeans and a sweatshirt, Debbie stepped inside with Anita close at
her heels and threw her arms around Raea in a tight squeeze. Before
Raea could object, her aunt released her and embraced Elis. Tears
glistened in her eyes as she stepped back. "After everything that
happened, you don't know how happy I was to get the call last
night. I was so afraid, Raea. Then to find out you were alive,
Elis…I couldn't believe it." She sniffed and wiped her eyes. "It
was the answer to my prayers."

Debbie…
Her aunt was way too emotional, but Raea understood. She'd
hardly had time to let it all sink in, talking as she had with Elis
over the tri-comm link the whole flight home. He'd told her what
happened to him and she told him about Atia and Lantis. They hadn't
yet touched on their feelings about the whole ordeal.

"We're all right," Elis assured
her.

Raea swore her aunt was going to full
out bawl, but Debbie's lip only quivered with the restraint of
tears.

"You should have informed me where you
went." Anita's scolding tone broke the spell of
emotions.

"Oh, yeah. How is Major Shuler?"
Sarcasm dripped heavily from Raea's voice.

The stern look that had sharpened the
lines of Anita's face disappeared. "Fine, but more than a little
upset."

"The Starfire isn't for you, or
anyone." Raea put a hand over the pendant at her chest and her
other arm around Elis, whose hand at her waist slid around her
further to pull her close to the security of his body.

"Who are you?" Suspicion darkened his
voice.

Anita extended a hand, a forced smile
on her face. "Anita Cross. It's a pleasure to finally meet the Dark
Angel haunting this town."

Elis took her hand, a look of
confusion on his face.

["I told you about her,"] Raea
whispered. ["She's the one who contacted the Army
unit."]

"I'm with a small division in the
Homeland Security office monitoring your activities. It's because
of us that you're allowed to stay." The flick of her eyes sparked a
fire of defiance in Raea. That threat was back.

"You knew?"

"We knew about Raea and that it was a
matter of time before others came for her, but if she won't listen,
we will have to take stronger measures." Still holding his bare
hand, she turned it over to expose the Starburst mark on the back.
He'd forgotten the gloves, unlike Nare, who had opened the door.
Anita didn't know about her latest status as a Crystal Keeper, and
Raea preferred to keep it that way.

"I've been watching for some time. In
fact, I was behind your application being approved."

Could Elis turn whiter, she would have
thought him dead. A couple seconds later, his face flushed from his
cheeks to his ears. That look she'd seen once before, when standing
up to Nina Russet. He pulled his hand away. "What do you want from
us?"

"The same as you." Anita glanced aside
at Nare, who stood with her arms crossed. "To keep your precious
Starfire out of the wrong hands…or to be sure you don't decide to
misuse it yourself." At the last part, her eyes fixed on
Raea.

"It will never be used against Earth."
That was her home, or one of them.

Anita huffed quietly. "In any case,
you've been targeted by those who want it. It's time you start
following a few rules if you hope to stay off the
radar."

No more rules. Raea just wanted to be
herself and be with Elis. Man, he smelled good in a clean shirt
after a hot shower. She pressed her forehead to his chest and
sighed. ["Maybe we should move back to Inar'Ahben."]

["Too dangerous."]

Mmm…That rubbing made her more
agreeable. She couldn't wait until later, when all the commotion
died down. Still… ["At least there I know who the enemy
is."]

["You're still safer here."] His warm
breath in her hair tickled down her neck. He was no fun. Since when
did he prefer to stay on Earth?

["Wherever you are, I am."] She buried
her face in his chest and wrapped her arms tight around him, afraid
to let go and absorbing the closeness of him into herself as if
they could merge into one. She could forget all her troubles for a
few seconds.