Darkness Unknown (17 page)

He slowed to turn into the driveway. As he pulled in, Jake had the last say.

“Let it go, Jarvis. No one can foresee the future. You've got something pretty special going. Don't throw it away on the chance that something might go wrong.”

 

Jarvis had arrived at the house looking more grim than usual, which worried her. With the help of Chase and Jake, he'd soon shaken off the gloom-
and-doom attitude. Her brother was so buzzed about his birthday, it would have taken a lot more than Jarvis to dampen his enthusiasm. He kept giving her a hopeful look, asking without words if it was time for presents.

She smiled. When it came to unwrapping presents, he still had a lot of little kid in him. Hopefully he'd manage to hold onto that excitement for years to come.

“Okay, birthday boy, do you want pie or presents first?”

There was no hesitation. “Presents!”

“Lead the way into the living room. You can start in there.”

Chase started to charge out of the kitchen, but then he stopped and waited for his two guests to go first. Jarvis shot her a bemused look before following Jake down the hallway, and the four of them settled around the room. She perched on the arm of the couch next to Jarvis and watched her brother try to hide his disappointment at the small pile on the coffee table. She supposed that at eighteen, two envelopes and a small box didn't look like much.

Jake snagged one of the envelopes and tossed it at Chase. “Happy Birthday, brat!”

“Thanks, Jake.”

Chase pulled out a pocketknife to slit open the envelope. He quickly scanned the card and then opened the smaller envelope inside. Two tickets
fell into his hand. He stared at them in shocked silence, then his face lit up as he turned toward her and held them up.

“All
right
! Rams tickets!” Then he studied them again. “Jake! Who did you have to kill to get these?”

“Chase! I taught you better manners than that.”

“They're in the first row on the fifty-yard line, Sis.”

She could understand her brother's reaction. She turned a suspicious eye in Jake's direction. “Okay, like he said. Who did you have to kill?”

He gave them both a pirate's grin. “That'll be my secret. I wouldn't want you to have to testify against me if the case ever comes to trial.”

Chase carefully put the precious tickets in his wallet before reaching for the next card. She and Jarvis had debated over what order they should have Chase open their two gifts. He was bound to think a gift certificate to an auto parts store was a pretty boring, practical gift until he found out it was so that he could work on his own truck. But if they gave him the keys first, he'd hardly notice Jarvis's gift. They'd settled on letting Chase make his own random decision. It didn't take long for him to fish the gift card out of the envelope.

The enthusiasm he'd shown for Jake's tickets was missing when he politely said, “Thanks, Jarvis. The truck could use some new shocks.”

Jarvis gave him a solemn nod. “You're welcome.”

Then Chase reached for the small package and the card from her. Despite the simple wrapping and stick-on bow, Chase took a great deal of time peeling away the paper. When he held the small box up to his ear and shook it, he frowned at the rattle it made.

Jake's patience broke. “Come on, Chase, open it! At the rate you're going, we'll still be sitting here when you turn nineteen. Besides, I want pie.”

Chase lifted off the lid, then tipped the contents into his hand. His eyes locked on to the pair of keys, his expression someplace between hope and confusion. He slowly raised his gaze to meet Gwen's. When she nodded, his eyes went wide in shock.

“Where? What?”

The two men laughed and Jarvis clapped him on the shoulder. “I thought that gift card might help you with your sister's present. Why don't you head for Mr. James's farm with Jake to see what that key fits?”

“Man oh man!” Chase stood immediately, jingling the keys.

Jarvis tossed the keys to the Chevelle to his friend.

“Thanks, Sis! You, too, Jarvis!”

As Chase charged out to the car, Jake looked back and rolled his eyes.

Jarvis waited until the car was out of sight be
fore pulling her into his arms—right where she wanted to be.

“You certainly made your brother's day.” He nuzzled her neck. “Think we could send him and Jake on a long drive?”

“I wish. But as soon as they get back here with his truck, you know all three of you are going to spend the rest of the evening with your heads under the hood, making plans to get all greasy together.”

“True enough. But you know I'd rather spend the time with you.”

Then he kissed her, curling her toes and making her want to drag him over to the kitchen table. She used her hands and her tongue to tell him exactly what she wanted, until they heard the crunch of gravel as his car and Chase's truck made the turn into the driveway.

They broke apart when Chase came bounding across the yard to sweep her up in his arms and swing her around. He was hollering loud enough to raise the dead, and the dogs joined in the celebration by barking and jumping up and down.

Chase set her back down. “It's perfect, Gwen! I couldn't have done better myself. Hey, Jarvis, thanks for helping her. Can we go look at the engine now?”

Just as she predicted, the three males immediately disappeared under the hood to admire the
arcane mysteries of the combustion engine. It was good for Chase to have two such men to hang with and learn from. Despite the secrets that surrounded them, they were good influences on Chase.

His volatile temper had dropped to a more manageable level, and just knowing that he wasn't the only one with his amazing ability to heal had gone a long way toward helping him to feel like less of a freak.

Tomorrow, the two men were taking Chase to visit the place where they normally trained. Her brother had jumped at the chance. Between that and his birthday, it was a big weekend for him.

She took one last look at Jarvis's backside before heading into the house, heartily approving of the way he looked in well-worn denim. She liked him a whole lot better naked, but there wasn't any chance of that happening with Jake and Chase around. Maybe they could fit in an evening walk in the woods before he and Jake had to head home.

Meanwhile, there was pile of dirty dishes waiting for her. As she waited for the sink to fill with water, she puzzled over Jarvis's odd mood when he'd arrived. Something had been bothering him, but there hadn't been any chance to ask him about it. He seemed to be better, but more than once she'd caught him looking at her with a strange, almost sad look in his eyes. The last time had sent a
shiver through her while at the same time making her want to hold him close.

It probably had to do with his job, so all she could do was make sure he could relax and enjoy himself while he was with her. Satisfied with her plan, she set out dessert dishes and clean forks. If she wasn't mistaken, the guys had just slammed the hood down on Chase's truck. Time to cut the pie.

 

What was going on? When they'd invited him to go visit their gym, neither Jarvis nor Jake had made mention of blindfolds. How long had they been riding around? It seemed like forever.

“Jarvis, is this some kind of joke? Are you driving in circles to make me think we're really going somewhere, but we're really only a mile from the farm?”

He cocked his head to the side, trying to detect some familiar sound over the blare of the radio. Jarvis had picked him up right after breakfast, telling Gwen that they'd be back after dinner. A short distance down the road, he'd pulled over on the shoulder of the road and ordered Chase into the backseat and handed him a black scarf. After telling him to tie it over his eyes, Jarvis had peeled out and proceeded to drive without a single word of explanation.

“No joke, Chase. I apologize about the blind
fold, but it's necessary.” The car made a slow left turn. “We're almost there.”

“Almost where? I thought we were going to some gym where you and Jake train.” Though he normally trusted Jarvis, right now he felt as if he were being kidnapped.

“We are. You're safe with us, Chase, but I can't let you know exactly where we're headed. For now, it's against the rules.”

“
Whose
rules? You make it sound like we're headed for some top secret government installation.” But what kind of government agency armed its agents with swords?

“You're not far off the mark, except we're in the private sector. I promise to explain everything in a few minutes. Right now it would only confuse you more.”

Damn straight he was confused. Could things get any more bizarre? The car slowed abruptly, slinging him forward against the seat belt, and he grabbed the armrest. Wait till he told Gwen about all this weirdness.

The car lurched to the side as the road surface changed to gravel, which explained the sudden reduction in speed.

He tried to count off seconds to judge how far they were traveling along the mysterious road. They hadn't passed another car in a long time, so the main highway was pretty far back. Whoever ran
this mysterious facility sure didn't want close neighbors. Why? What did they have to hide?

The car slowed to a stop. “You can take the blindfold off now, Chase. And I'm sorry that I had to do that to you.”

Chase yanked the scarf off his face and blinked against the bright morning sun. They'd stopped just shy of a high chain-link fence with a double coil of barbed wire running along the top. A uniformed guard stepped out of the small building next to a closed gate. Evidently he recognized Jarvis's car since he left his automatic rifle slung casually over his shoulder.

Jarvis twisted around to face him. “The security is necessary, but don't let it weird you out. Jake's expecting us, so you'll be with friends the whole time you're here. But I can take you back home now if you're not ready for this.”

Chase gave it less than a second's thought. There was something pulling at him, and whatever it was felt important, making him want to find out what the big mystery was. They were the only two men he'd ever met that had the same physical abilities he did. Maybe there were more like them behind that fence.

“I'm ready. Let's go.”

“One more thing, Chase. I must have your promise that you tell no one what you're going to learn here today. Not your friends, not your teach
ers, and especially not your sister. You'll understand the need for all the secrecy before you leave here today, but you need to promise before we can go through that gate.”

The only other time he'd seen Jarvis look that grim was the day they'd tracked the mysterious footprints through the woods. Both he and Jake had looked like those highly trained military guys as soon as they'd picked up their weapons. He wanted some of that action for himself.

Jarvis was asking him for his word man-to-man, and he liked the feel of that. “You have my word, Jarvis. Everything I see here today will be kept secret.”

“Good.”

Jarvis rolled down his window and waved at the guard, who immediately pushed the button to open the gate. They drove through and headed for an unmarked building across the parking lot. Jake must have been watching for them, because he stepped out the door and waited for them to park.

“Hey, kid, welcome to our little corner of the world!”

He held the door open for them and then followed them into the mysterious building. Jarvis keyed a series of numbers into a security pad by an elevator door. After they stepped inside, the three of them rode down in silence. A flock of butterflies fluttered in Chase's stomach, making him feel
queasy, but he tried to look as calm as his companions.

He had the strangest feeling that this would be life-altering. For good or for bad, he wouldn't be the same kid when he took this elevator back up to the top.

J
arvis kept his eyes straight ahead, allowing Chase some privacy. The boy was doing a damn fine job of hiding his nerves, even though Jarvis could hear the pounding of his heart racing and the shallow rasp of his breathing.

The cave could wait. Before he exposed Chase to the beautiful bitch that would rule the rest of his life, he wanted to explain things and introduce him to some of the other Paladins. The kid had enough to absorb without showing him the door to another world first.

“My office is down this hall.”

Chase kept pace with him, his eyes open wide as he took in the strange surroundings. “How far underground are we?”

Good question. Jarvis had wondered if he'd realized how long the elevator ride had taken.

“About four floors. There's another one below this.”

Chase reached out to drag his fingertips along the limestone wall. “Cool.”

Inside the office, Jarvis sat behind his desk and motioned Chase toward one of the two chairs that faced it. The boy perched on the edge, too wound-up to relax.

“Jake, why don't you snag us something to drink and a few sandwiches? I don't know about Chase here, but breakfast was hours ago and lunch is still a ways away.”

“Sure thing.” He patted Chase on the shoulder. “I'll be back in a couple.”

Jarvis propped his feet up on his desk, trying to project a relaxed image, as if he wasn't about to turn Chase's idea of reality inside out. “Okay, I guess this is where we get down to the nitty-gritty. A lot of what I'm going to say will sound crazy, especially at first, but I promise I'm not yanking your chain. I'll answer any questions you might have, but let me give you the basics first. Does that sound reasonable?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Chase leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “I feel like I should take notes in case there's a test.”

Jarvis chuckled. “I promise no pop quizzes. So, here it is in a nutshell. You probably know that Missouri is chock-full of caves, and this installation is parked right on top of one of the biggest. It's not
on any maps, and we work hard to keep it that way. What makes it special is that there's an energy barrier that runs through it that separates our world from another one.”

Chase's jaw dropped and then his eyes narrowed, clearly not buying what he heard. It was a typical reaction by those who hadn't been raised around their Paladin fathers.

“I know it sounds crazy, but I'm not asking you to accept everything on faith. I'll go over the basics, we'll eat something, and then we'll take a tour. Once you see the barrier and talk to some of the rest of the guys around here, you'll find this all easier to accept.”

Jake arrived with a tray piled high with food. As he set it down on Jarvis's desk, he grinned at Chase.

“Judging by the look on your face, he told you about the barrier and the world on the other side of it. Do you feel like you wandered onto the set of
The X-Files
?”

“Kind of.”

Jake tossed him a can of pop. “And the Paladins' world only gets weirder.” He took the other chair and grabbed a sandwich.

Chase opened a bag of chips. “What's a Paladin?”

“They're some of the toughest sons of bitches on this planet. Paladins are natural-born warriors, and damn near impossible to kill.” Jarvis bit into his
apple, giving Chase a chance to absorb that much. After swallowing, he added, “And just like me and Jake, that's what you are.”

His pronouncement startled Chase into choking. Jake slapped him on the back and handed him the pop he'd set down.

“You following me so far?”

Chase took another drink and nodded. His voice sounded rough when he spoke. “Let's see. There's a cave below us that backs up on another world, and we're natural-born warriors and the toughest sons of bitches around.”

Jake beamed with approval. “Nice summary, kid.”

Jarvis dropped his boots back to the ground as he unwrapped his sandwich. “The barrier isn't always stable, and waiting right on the other side is a bunch of crazed killers we call the Others, although they call themselves the Kalith. Every time there's an earthquake, the barrier gets weaker and weaker until it fails completely. Then the crazies come charging over. Our job is to shove 'em back across to their world, or kill the ones who insist on staying on our side.”

Chase drained his pop and set it aside. “And how long has this been going on?”

The kid was holding up better than Jarvis had expected.

“Good question. Wish I had an answer for you. The Regents, who are like a board of directors
over our organization, have records going back for several centuries. Chances are, there were Others leaking over into our world for a helluva long time before that.”

“And where did the Paladins come from?”

“As far as we can tell, Kalith have occasionally managed to come across and jump into the human gene pool. We're the result. I forgot to mention that the Others are a humanoid species, capable of mating with
Homo sapiens
and producing viable young. They've left a mark on the Paladin genetic makeup, passing along a few of their traits, although some of our abilities seem to be unique to us.”

“Why do they want to come here?”

“We've learned more about that in the past few months. Seems their sun is dying, so their world is getting darker. The ones who can't tolerate that go nuts and try to fight their way into our world for the light.”

Jarvis thought of Barak q'Young, the first Other to become a part of the Paladin organization. He still thought Devlin Bane was nuts for letting the bastard live, but the rumor was that he was no longer the only one of his kind attached to the Seattle Paladins.

Chase brought him back to the moment. “So besides healing fast, what other superpowers do we have? I hope it doesn't involve tights and a cape.”

“Nope, no spandex or big red
P
on your chest.” He admired the boy's ability to roll with the punches. “But all of your senses are better than the average human's. When you fill out to fit that frame of yours, you'll be stronger, too. And when I said Paladins were hard to kill, what I really meant is that even if someone does manage to kill one of us, we don't usually stay that way.”

Right up to that point, Chase had been liking what he was hearing. “Bullshit! What happens then? Do we turn into zombies?”

Jake said, “He's telling the truth, Chase. Remember the night your sister found Jarvis out in your woods? He'd been tracking down an escaped Other by himself. Normally we hunt in pairs, but the fighting had been brutal. I couldn't back him up because I was dead. I had two broken legs and a fatal stab wound.”

He pulled up his shirt to show Chase the faint trace of a scar that ran from the center of his stomach around to his left side. “It's not the first time I've died, and it won't be the last. We don't exactly keep score, but Jarvis rates as a legend around here.”

Damn, Jarvis wished Jake wouldn't say things like that. Even if the younger Paladins felt that way about him, that didn't mean he liked being reminded of it. When a Paladin had been around long enough to become a legend, he was probably run
ning out of the ability to come back from the abyss intact. Jarvis's chances for surviving death anymore were running from slim to none—but now wasn't the time to share that with Chase. He had enough to assimilate without knowing the nightmare his life would become one of these days.

“And my father, he was a Paladin, too?”

“Yes, he was. Harvey Fletcher lived and fought in this area. From what I've been able to find out, he must have died shortly after your mother got pregnant. My guess is that no one in the organization knew about her, so she was never notified of his death. I'm truly sorry about that.” He reached in his drawer and pulled out copies of the pictures he'd given to Gwen.

He held them out to Chase. “You look a lot like him.”

The boy's hands were unsteady as he studied his father's face for the first time. “Does my sister know about this?”

Jarvis nodded and tried to choose his words carefully. “She wasn't sure whether or not to show you.”

Chase's knuckles went white as he held the papers in a death grip. “She should have given them to me as soon as she had them. Why didn't one of
you
two show them to me, especially when it became clear she wasn't going to?”

“Because until yesterday, she was your legal
guardian. Now that you're eighteen, you can make more of your own decisions.” And because Jarvis didn't want to lose her one minute before he had to, but that was his problem and not Chase's.

“Later you can look at the file that Jake assembled for you. Right now, I'd like to introduce you to some people before heading down to the barrier.” He wadded up the wrappers from the sandwiches and tossed them in the trash, while Chase and Jake did the same.

“Why don't we start in the gym and go from there?”

 

Chase followed his two friends, trying his best to act like he fit in. But holy crap, it was hard to know what to think about everything Jarvis had told him. At first he'd been convinced the man was jerking his chain, but something in Jarvis's expression said he was down-to-the-bone serious about aliens and other worlds and dying but not dying. And Jake had confirmed every word Jarvis had said.

They were currently walking down a hallway carved out of limestone in an underground chamber located beneath an unmarked building. Memories of the armed guards and the coils of bright, shiny barbed wire were all too clear. If they were pulling a fast one on him, they'd sure gone through a lot of trouble for a joke.

They hadn't crossed paths with anyone else
since they'd entered the building. They were supposedly on their way to meet with some other Paladins, but if there were any around, they were sure making themselves scarce. What the heck
was
a Paladin, anyway? The word had something to do with knights. Was that why Jarvis and Jake carried swords?

The silence was getting on his nerves, so he decided to ask, “Do you use swords because the word ‘Paladin' means some kind of knight?”

It was Jake who answered. “I've always suspected that we're called Paladins because the original ones were knights of some kind. But the reason we use swords more than guns is because bullets can damage the barrier. We can control blades better than bullets that miss their targets. Besides, we often fight in close formation. We'd end up shooting each other as often as the enemy.”

How could they be so matter-of-fact about killing and fighting? And if they were right about him being one of them, is that how he would sound in a few years? The shiver that went through him had nothing to do with the chill of the underground cave.

Then the muffled sound of voices and the clang of metal on metal echoed down the hallway. Finally, he was going to see some action.

“Here we are.” Jarvis pushed open the double swinging doors. “Come on in.”

Chase had been picturing the gym at the high school, with a basketball court surrounded by wooden bleachers. This place looked more like the health club that opened in the next town over. There were all kinds of muscle-building machines lining the walls, gym mats here and there on the floor, and a long rack of swords hanging at the far end. And were those really axes those two guys were swinging? Hot damn, they were!

The clanging noise came from men who'd paired up for sword practice. Having a little experience now, he could only imagine how long these guys had been practicing to get that good.

Jarvis stuck his fingers in his mouth and let out a shrill whistle that brought everything to an abrupt halt. Everybody immediately lowered their weapons or stepped off the equipment, turning their attention toward the three of them. Chase fought the urge to slide behind Jarvis and Jake to hide.

Jarvis's big hand clamped down on his shoulder, either in a show of his support or to keep him from bolting out the door. The touch gave Chase enough courage to stand up to the open curiosity coming at him in waves.

“Gentlemen,” Jarvis announced, pitching his voice to carry to the far corners, “I'd like to introduce you all to my friend Chase Mosely. For those of you old enough to remember, his father was Harvey Fletcher.”

That pronouncement brought several men to full attention. A couple of them immediately handed off their swords to their companions and started toward Chase with big smiles on their faces.

The first one to reach him held out his hand and said, “Welcome to the clan, Chase. Your old man and I were good friends. It's damn nice to meet you. My name is Court.”

His companion followed suit. “I'm Terry. Harvey was a helluva Paladin, one of the best. He taught me how to fight when I first got here. You're sure the spitting image of him.”

“Thank you, sir.” A lump formed in his throat to hear these men's obvious affection for his late father. He'd only just found out about Harvey, but their comments helped make the man in the faded pictures more real.

Terry glanced at Jarvis and then back to Chase. “So are you here to stay, or only visiting?”

“Visiting.” At least he assumed so. Jarvis hadn't said anything about keeping him here.

“Chase turned eighteen yesterday. Jake and I have been working with him at the farm he shares with his sister, but we thought it was time to give him a peek at our world.”

“Great.” Terry yelled back over his shoulder. “Someone get this guy a sword. Let's see what bad habits he's picked up from these two. Knowing
Jake's lack of technique, we probably have our work cut out for us.”

Jake snorted. “Go to hell, Terry. I'll let Chase see how old men fight, then I'll take over.”

While the good-natured insults continued, Chase turned to Jarvis for guidance. “Should I?”