Dangerous Designs (21 page)

The options weren't great.

"Back in five, I hope." He walked over to the port and hit the button.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

S
torey rocked back and forth, her stylus in hand, sketchpad resting on her crossed legs. A chill had set in, forcing her to drag her sweater out of her backpack to stay warm. She'd tried to exit this mist on foot, in her mind, and through her pictures. So far nothing had worked. She turned to yet another clean page. At this rate she would run out of paper. Just the thought of it sent her flipping the book and writing on the back of the previous page. "Now what? Stylus, do you have any idea of how to get us home again?"

No.

She retried the same question as she had for the last ten minutes. "Can we communicate with anyone?"

A humming again. Well that had to be progress. "Who?" she asked, the words bursting free before the stylus had a chance to answer.

Eric.

She brightened. Yay, something had shifted. And for the good. Straightening her back she asked, "What do I need to do?"

Nothing.

What? "Is he coming here?"

"Storey? Are you there?"

Eric.
She jumped to her feet. "Eric! I'm over here. Follow the sound of my voice." She kept talking, loudly. Inside relief spilled over to fill her right down to her toes. She was saved.

"I'm coming. Keep talking." His voice sounded like it was right next to her, that she could reach out and touch him. A hand reached through the mist and brushed her arm. She shrieked. Then a face. Eric.

She launched herself into his arms. "Oh, thank God. Am I glad to see you. I couldn't go anywhere. I don't know what happened." She was babbling and couldn't seem to stop herself.

"Shhh. It's okay. I'm here now. You're safe. The codexes are gimpy from the rips in the veil. Let's see if we can get you out of here." He tried to back out of the mist. He could move through, yet the minute she tried, it wouldn't let her pass.

"Weird. The mist thinks it's taking you somewhere. It won't release you."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"No it doesn't. Still, it goes along with everything being wonky right now."

"Can we cancel it?"

He reached for her armband and frowned. "You've just got a simple Codex. That's no good."

"Wait." She reached into her back pack and pulled out his codex. "I have yours, too."

His face lit up. "Great. Then I can take off my father's." He exchanged the codexes. "Mine is a controller. I should be able to clear the codes frozen on your unit." Drawing his brows together, he punched a series of buttons before tapping in a series of numbers.

Storey couldn't help but grin at the familiar musical notes. Such a teenager thing to do. Just hearing something normal again made her feel giddy with relief. "I like your ring tones."

"Ring tones?" He glanced up briefly, confusion clouding his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"Like the cell phones in my world. Yours plays music when you use it."

With a shake of his head he went back to studying the unit on her arm. "Sorta. Each is a code though."

"Whatever." She didn't care if it played movies, as long as it got her out of here.

"There. Now when I code into the coordinates for the lab, the mist should disappear."

A few tense minutes after the sounds stopped, the blackness lightened.

"It's working," she cried out.

She threw herself into his arms again. Reaching up, she planted an enthusiastic kiss on his lips. As she pulled back, she realized what she'd done. "Sorry."

"Sorry for what?" he said, his voice husky and soft, his arms wrapped tightly around her. "There's not a man alive that would object to being kissed by a beautiful woman."

A delicate shudder worked down her spine, pooling in her belly.

"Are you all right?" He pulled back slightly to peer deep into her eyes, forcing her to close hers or let him see how much he'd affected her.

She burrowed deeper, mumbling, "Yes. Yes, I'm fine. Just cold."

He tugged her back into his arms, letting the heat of his body warm her up. "This should help. The mist is always cold."

Snuggled in tight, Storey couldn't help wishing that they could stay like this a little longer. "Good. I'm so glad you found me. I was running out of options," she admitted against his chest.

He nudged her chin up so he could look her in the eyes. "It wouldn't have happened if you'd stayed home. What possessed you to come back? You knew it would be bad."

"Yes." Then she remembered. Explaining how she'd learned to communicate with the stylus and how it had given the knowledge necessary to protect her world from the Louers, she added, "I think it might be the answer here, too."

He gave her a quick squeeze. "Paxton doesn't like that you can do more with yours than he can with his."

She grinned. "They can talk to each other. They were Louers once."

"What?" He moved her back slightly and gave her a little shake. "What did you say?"

It took a moment to repeat what she'd learned from her stylus. "According to Paxton, they were volunteers, except I'm not sure how much was really voluntary when compared to the promise of a better life than slavery. There are several souls bonded to my stylus, so it's no longer one person but a compilation of many souls together. After so long they've fused together as one unit."

"But Louers? They're our hated enemies."

She took a few steps back and lifted her stylus and whipped out her pocket notebook. "Says who?" she scoffed. "Stylus, were you an enemy of Eric's people?"

Her hand jerked. She held it up to him to see.

"No?" He looked at her doubtfully, and she realized he thought she'd written that answer herself.

"Were you perceived as their enemy, Stylus?"

Yes.

"Were you enslaved to them?"

"Yes," she read to him, holding up the stylus triumphantly. "See. They were Louers."

He stared at her. "How did they get from being slaves to this nightmare they've become today?"

"Stylus can you answer that question?"

Her hand immediately went to work.
The Torans believed Louers were trying to rise up against them. They banished us. In the process, we fought back and tried to take some of our old owners as slaves.

Figures. History repeated itself, regardless of which side of the veil humanity inhabited.

"That's regrettable if it's true, yet how does it help us now?"

"I don't know, except all information is power." She turned around. "The mist is gone. Can we leave now?"

"Yes." He focused on his codex and tapped in new codes. Once again musical notes accompanied the flash of numbers and colors.

Please let it take us where we want to go this time.

Black snaked up her legs.

She stepped closer. "I hate this part."

"It should work this time."

"Should?" Was that squeak her voice? She barely held back a shudder.

"Like I said, we've been having trouble with the codex travel."

"You said that?" She didn't remember that. Everything else had disappeared from her mind in the excitement of seeing him. Storey closed her eyes at the brief vertigo that always accompanied the transition. Within seconds, the mist thinned before pooling at the bottom of their feet.

Paxton's lab.

"Oh, thank heavens for that." Her breath rushed out in a whoosh, only to be sucked back in shock. The room was full of people.

Staring at her.

"Uh, hello."

Smiling tentatively, she studied them. Tired, dirty and very happy, they appeared relaxed. What a weird combination, especially given the war going on. They smiled back. At least they were friendly. Her gaze wandered around the familiar room and froze at the sight of Eric's rotund father glaring at her. No, that was too light a word. Animosity oozed from him.

Storey glowered back.
Asshole.

As much as she hated it, she couldn't stop her back from stiffening or the sense of vulnerability creeping in.

Would he order her to be hauled off to the dungeons? Or had the kill order been rescinded? She'd forgotten to ask Eric.

"Easy," whispered Eric. "This isn't the time"

"As long as he wants me dead, it is."

"There is some doubt about the sentence, in light of your actions." Paxton rushed to assure her.

Storey studied his features, realizing how much the current situation had aged him. She grimaced. "Nice thought, but excuse me if I don't believe you."

"Don't blame you. Not sure I do either," Eric muttered beside her.

He placed a hand in the small of her back and nudged her forward. "Give me the codex. It's not going to do you any good." Taking it from her, he walked over to Paxton and handed it over. "This is the broken unit."

"The energy tears will be the root of the problem." Paxton examined it, turning it over several times. "But I might be able to fix the unit."

"It's not worth it." Eric pulled his father's codex out of the backpack. He handed it over to Paxton as well, then turned to address his father. "Not sure this unit is in working order, either. Might need to be overhauled as well."

Storey watched anger blitz across Eric's father's face. The Councilman was not happy. She couldn't help warning Eric. "Uh oh. He's not happy with you," she whispered.

Eric glanced down at her in surprise, then studied the anger and frustration on his father's face.

"Is this her?" a tiny voice piped up, interrupting the conversation.

Storey turned toward the sound to see a waif peering around a tall thin woman. Storey grinned. They did have children here. And females. She'd started to wonder where the hell they were or if this was a male only society. "Hi, who are you?"

"Sammy?" A smile peeked out, followed by a tinkle of a laugh.

"Well, hello, Sammy. My name is Storey."

"Hi." She ducked behind the woman's leg again.

Storey wanted to bend down and talk with her, but a robust male stepped in, blocking her view. With his arms akimbo and jaw squared, she realized that not all of these people were open to her presence. Storey smiled. "Beautiful child."

"Hmmm." His eyes narrowed, studying her.

She lifted an eyebrow in question, keeping a relaxed smile on her face. Eric put an arm around her shoulders. "Everyone, this is Storey. She is from the other side of the veil."

Storey shot him an amazed glance. "You told them?"

"Yeah, that whole secretive thing wasn't doing it for me. Besides, I figured honesty might be the better approach, considering we're trying to lift the death sentence on your head."

"Yeah. How's that working out?"

"Half and half."

She shook her head. "Nice. Now that Paxton knows how to stop the Louers, maybe I could go home."

"What?" Everyone turned to look at Paxton.

He shook his head. "No. No, I don't know how to stop them."

"According to the stylus, you do."

"Well, the stylus is wrong," he snapped. "How did you stop them in your world?"

"I erased them." She grinned at the dumbfounded looks staring at her. Eric smirked at her side. "And when I went back last time, I added another dimension between the Louers and my world. Don't know how well that's working out though. It's a touchy thing making changes on a large scale. Some unexpected things happen."

"Dare I ask?"

She shot Eric a look and shook her head "No, let's just say I might have to fix a few things when I go back." What were her parents thinking about now? Wiccan, Catholic or maybe by now, they've converted to some no-name cult. Or had everything reverted to normal and her father was gone from her life again? She groaned softly. Just because she'd instructed her stylus to reverse all unintentional changes didn't mean it had. Or that the attempt had worked. Only time would tell.

"Erased?" Paxton's voice squeaked between them. "How is that possible?"

"With the stylus." At the puzzled look, she added, "The Louers ripped through the veil and tried to enter through my living room wall while Eric and I were there."

Several of the women in the crowd gasped and held their children close. She couldn't blame them.

The big man's thick busy brows beetled together. "Is that the first time they've made it to your world?"

She nodded. "I think so, but I don't know. I imagine they came through in that spot because it's almost the same place as the portal I accidentally created in the beginning."

Understanding lit up Eric's face. "Right. You jumped through the floor. And they came in at nearly the same place where you'd have disappeared." He patted her on her shoulder. "That's the first time I got that. Wow. That makes so much sense. So, when you erased that Louer, did you also erase the crossing?"

"No, I don't think so." She thought about it again. "Or I recreated it when I crossed over again."

"Hmmm."

Paxton lifted his hands and shook them in her face. "That won't work here. It's not possible."

Storey studied his anxious features. "I don't know about that. To make it work, I'd have to either remove every tear except one and shepherd them back throughout that hole and erase it afterwards."

Eric shook his head. "Hang on here. Let's go back to that creating a new dimension. How did you do that? And what's to stop them from crossing from that dimension into yours?"

"As I don't know what they're capable of, I can't say that they can't. Keep in mind they haven't before. And consider that that they may not want to for a couple of reasons. To start with, this dimension is a copy of our world, the world they left behind. It's nice and they might be happy there. And second, they may think that this new world
is
my world. After all, who'd be there to tell them the difference? Third, they won't know there are other dimensions to go looking for. Why would they? Their current world isn't very pleasant, is it?"

"No." Paxton shook his head. "It's a dark, damp place with only a few hours of light each day."

"Nice." She grimaced. "No wonder they mutated into something so different from the slaves you once had. You could try to understand them before slaughtering them."