Keeper's Knowledge (Balancer's Soul cycle) (11 page)

She
finally
spoke in her soft and velvety voice as she tu
rned and placed her hand over his
left breast. “You’re right, Connor. I’m sorry for saying something so petty.”

He
gently touc
hed the back of her hand with his
palm. “It’s not petty. I know why you feel this way.” She became confused
at such
wording
. “Jus
t as you have become my home,” He
raised
his
right hand to the cottage. “
I have given you
your
first one. Am I right?”

Connor
released her hand as she looked back at th
e cottage and mulled over what had
just
been
sai
d. She finally turned back to him
. “You know, you’re absolutely right. I’ve also never felt attached to anything in particular. I basically went through all the motions over the
long
years. It became so stale and boring until we met.” She had a smile of understanding. She looked into the
early morning
sky and
realized
it was
beginning to get close to seven
. “They might be waiting on us.”

He
agreed and picked up the garbage as
they
left
their
first home.

They
came out of the woods soon after and
Connor
saw that Mark and Kara were
standing
over in Jillian’s driveway.
The large
green truck looked
a shade
darker since the sun wasn’t completely up yet.
T
wo more
figures
were
clearly
standing
by his
sister and Mark
. Connor
didn’t hear them talking and from their body language the four of them looked
highly
tense.

He
leaned down and whispered in Sarah’s ear. “Something’s up with them. I’m going to put this in the trash bins over at my Mom’s. Go check it out and I’ll be there very shortly.”

She looked at the
situation
and her expression became serious. “I’m on it.”

They separated and he
quickly threw the garbage bag into the tin trash cans that sat off to the outside wall of the garage.
The other garbage bag
in his
other hand
was
filled with recyclable items. Connor
ha
s
always hated wasting things and
he
became in the habit of reusing a lot of
items
.
What couldn’t be used
for a new purpose
went into the recycle
and wouldn’t make the landfill
situation
any worse because he’s lazy
.

He
started
the
journey back across the street.

Walking up the
Branderson driveway Connor
he
ard them talking normally, but
could feel the
sharp
steel laced underneath. They all hushed as Kara said
surely
“Brother will settle this once and for all.”

As he
walked up to the tense group from between the two vehicles Sarah separated from the pack
,
shaking her head. “What’s the problem?”
He
asked
evenly
, wanting to feel prepared for what
i
s to come
.

Sarah
stood beside Connor
with her cloak covering her entire body
and spoke to
him
, but casually looked at the group. “My parents are worried if
they
come with us, we
’
ll
just
be asking for trouble.” She sighed
after glancing at the Changers
.

Jack spoke up in a
relaxed
tone, but was anything but casual. “I’m afraid that if they come with us, their kind will see us as weak and they will eliminate the competition.
I don’t want to fight for my life if I can avoid it.
”

Jack st
ood next to Jillian and
both
had
their backs to their house. Behind them were their backpacks filled; especially Jillian’s.
To
the side of Jack’s pack rested
Haunt. Haunt is a solid club of iron that weighs at least forty pounds.
They were both wearing the same outfit. They each had
brown hiking boots and
Connor
could tell by the treads that they were as new as
what strapped to his large feet
. They both
wore
thick brown pants and heavy
, dark
red shirts. They also had open brown p
arkas which is how he
knew that their shirts were red. Jack’s
Icelandic
silver hair was tied in a simple string and
his azure eyes were filled with a smoldering fire that was about to ignite everything around him
. Jillian’s almost black hair
had also been
pulled into a similar style and her golden eyes were quietly watching all of this calmly.

Mark no longer lean
ed up
against the grill of his jeep as he said “That’s what I’ve been trying to explain to you
,
young one
s
.”
Connor
could tell by Mark’s cold to
ne that he was pulling his age
card. Also by his tone he wasn’t happy about being treated like a child
who didn’t know his own race’s rules
. “Connor has found a loophole in our law that can benefit us!”

Kara rested a calming hand on her mate
’
s shoulder. When he looked at her he was as shocked by her blazing s
ilver eyes as her brother
was
. Her voice
remained
calm and soothing despite her
fiery gaze
. “Honey, you’re not helping our case. Let Brother explain it to him like he did with us.
He has a way with words.
”

The two Changers a
lso wore similar attire. Both Connor’s
sister and best friend had on their snow white cloaks behind their shoulders
that they bought yesterday
. They wore
their
new
hiking boots.
T
hey each were wearing their leather pants that they always bring with them when they train
or transform
. Finally Mark wore his usual silver shirt while
Kara
stuck with
the usual
bright pink.
Th
e
i
r
backpacks
laid by
the green
truck’s wheel
and looked identical
, but
Connor
didn’t see
his
sister’s
quiver of
arrows with her
like one would expect from a pro archer
.

Connor’s
gaze turned back to Jack when he asked in a hesitant voice “What loophole
could there be
?”

W
ords had to be chosen carefully if this were to work properly.

Connor
looked down at Sarah as s
he shifted the cloaks in the inside
of her
fore
arm. He
took a deep breath
to say
“Jack,
Changer’s don’t usually associate with Balancers. What
if they didn’t follow Balancer
s?”

His eyes
began
smoldering anger
again
and a hint of danger
lingered beneath the words
“What do you think the fo
u
r of us are, Connor?”

Jillian touched his forearm and said softly “Let the boy finish before you jump the gun, My Love.” His anger immediately dissipated when he looked down into her calm gol
den eyes. She looked back
and nodded
for
Connor
to continue
.

Getting back to the
theory, “The two of
you
are true Balancers.” Jack’s blue
-green
eyes returned to
his son-in-law’s
. “What if we meet a Keeper who knows exactly what we are? Sarah and I have abilities that no one here can explain with one hundred percent accuracy
. We are
all
making
up
theories to try and understand why we are so unique.
The explanations are just hypothesis and not true facts.
There must be someone with definitive proof that can explain things clearly.
What if we find out
from them
that Sarah and I are no longer Balancer’s
,
but something more?” Both Jack’s and Jillian’s jaws dropped in total astonishment. “In some
deep place inside
you two know that we are no longer your average
,
run of the mill Balancer’s any
more
.

“Back to the loophole, for all we kn
ow, we are neutral territory.” He
gently rested a hand on
his
mate’s shoulder. “The two of you can say that you’re following us and since we already had Changers in our party you just decided on having some company on such a long journey.
The law couldn’t fault you for that.
”

As
J
a
ck pondered and processed what had been
said, Sarah walked up to Jillian
and changed topics
. “Mother, I have some gifts
for the two of you.”

“Really?” Jillian said in a drawn out way. She held out both of her hands in waiting. Sarah opened the front of her cloak and handed her mother the smaller
cloak
and the larger one
went to
Jac
k; he smiled in gratitude, but Connor
could still tell that was
n’t finished
still deciding. “It’s beautiful, Sarah.” Jillian then threw her cloak over her back and tied it to her throat.

“Mother?” Jillian stopped admiring her cloak to look back at her daughter. “You may have this back
as well
.”

Sarah pulled the metal dagger
and sheathe
from her pocket and placed it into Jillian’s hands. “But… What do I need this for? Don’t you need it?”

Sarah peeked at Connor
and sent
hi
m a quick wink. “No I do not
,
Mother. Connor made me something better.”

“Like what?”
J
illian asked with a sly smile
.

Sarah instantly withdrew
Fangs in a flash. She held both blades the way
Connor
taught her
,
with the blades pointing away from the thumb.
Jack might have taught her about properly balanced blades, but neglected teaching her how to fight with knives.
Sarah took an instant mock battle position. She had her back right leg planted and bent while she shifted her left foot fo
rward
. Sarah had her left elbow bent out to the side while her right elbow tucked
itself
against her ribs. Her right Fang was close to her right cheek while the other blade was stuck out somewhat further. It was a slight variation to a boxer’s stance.
And just as swiftly
,
she slid Fangs back into their homes. “Connor designed these daggers specifically for me. He also designed armor for protection.”

Jack finally spoke. “Armor?”
Sarah
grinned
. For some reason she wanted to show off her
new
gifts.
First she lifted her right pant leg
,
to reveal her
glistening greaves
. Next she slid her left sleeve
back
to show
off
her armguards and finally she lifted her shirt high enough to reveal
the
chainmail.
Jack now had on his cloak as he stepped forward to get a closer look at her mail. “I’ve never seen such exquisite craftsmanship… Who made this?”