Starfire Angels (Starfire Angels: Dark Angel Chronicles Book 1) (9 page)

["You would prefer to give someone else a
chance?"]

["Yes."]

["You're next in line and completed your
training. It's your turn to be judged."]

Padina's eyes glossed with tears. ["I don't
want to. I know I'm not worthy."]

["Unless you've hidden something from us, I
see no reason to consider you unworthy. Is there something you
haven't told me?"]

["No, Keeper Saffir."]

["Then touch the Starfire for judgment."]
The gentle but firm command bordered on a tone of demand, but
Saffir made no move to reprimand her charge.

Padina reached out to the crystal and
hesitated. After a few seconds, she closed her eyes and touched
it.
[You do well to fear us,]
voices in unison said, or
implied with feelings that translated to words.
[But we intend
no harm. We wish to understand, and in exchange will share
ourselves, so understanding may happen.]

Padina lifted the crystal in her hand.
Behind her, all others knelt.

["Congratulations, Crystal Keeper Shartrael
Padina. I had no doubts."]

Raea opened her eyes as the marks on hers
and Elis's hands faded. Why did the visions always come of her
mother and one of the two men in her life? What did they want her
to understand?

The second vision needed no interpretation.
Her mother never wanted to be a Crystal Keeper, but the Starfire
wanted her.

Elis squeezed her hand and let go.

"What happened?" Raea asked.

"They showed you what you needed to
know."

"Did you see it?"

His smile answered her question.

"Did you see the other times?"

"No."

"Why this time?" She looked at her
hands.

"Through the Starburst marks, the energy can
flow, either out as pure energy, or between Keepers."

Okay, put that way it made sense. They acted as
conduits for the Starfire's energy. Something else occurred to her.
"So, how did you speak to them yesterday if your gloves cover your
marks?"

Elis held out his palm and traced the
tapering, jagged lines of aquamarine to the last knuckles before
his fingertips on the index and middle fingers of each hand. "The
gloves don't cover all of it."

"But you weren't touching my hands."

He shrugged. "The energy can still pass
through. I couldn't hear them but they must have recognized me. To
be honest, I wasn't sure it would work."

They recognized him? That must have been why
whenever he touched her, she had visions. Why? Why
him?
What
were these beings trying to tell her?

"Continue working with the resonance. Find
it and let it go. Learn to turn it on and off." The instant he said
it, his marks glowed. They faded to normal a couple seconds later.
He made it look easy. "It'll become second nature soon enough. The
Starfire wants you to succeed. It needs your protection, Raea. It's
all but helpless without us."

"Could've fooled me."

His smile infected her. "If not for the
connection to you, the Starfire would be a decorative crystal." He
sat up on the bed close to her, but not too close, a thoughtful
expression on his face.

["Our ancestors thought it was just a
lifeless rock when it first appeared over six thousand years ago.
They discovered it had enormous power potential, and that the
energy was unlike anything else. A scientist named Heffin made the
connection to another dimension. From their work, the idea for
Heffin's Gate was borne. It was a noble idea, generating what
humans would call 'wormholes'—holes through the Starfire's home
dimension that allow instant travel between two points in our own
universe.]

["Unfortunately, that much power tends to
attract greed. Wars were fought to control it. After a thousand
years, Heffin's Gate was to be turned on an opposing city, to send
it into the other universe. The Starfire shattered. It broke into
the four shards we have today. But, in the process, it sent out a
wave of energy that touched all those within Heffin's Gate and
blended its energy with their genes. That's how the Keepers came to
be. The Starfire refused to be a tool of destruction. It made the
Keepers as a way to facilitate communication with our kind, to
further its purpose of studying our universe. That's why it grants
us its gifts, as it told your mother."]

Raea stared at him. So much, all at once.
All in one day. She could hardly absorb it all.

["Its power has been sought by many since
its discovery. It still is. Twenty-five or six years ago, Shirat
Marin was elected governor of Naviketan. She gained a following
among the
meistal
, the descendants of Keepers without the
Starburst marks. She gave them special privileges in return for
their fealty to her. They became known as the Shirukan, the honored
of Shirat. With them, she went after Keepers, and swore to gather
every shard of the Starfire to gain full power over Heffin's Gate,
which would give her complete power over our world, and others.
With it, she could even destroy Earth."]

Raea lifted the crystal. Damn. One seemingly
insignificant gem could cause an awful lot of trouble. No Earth. No
Pallin. ["How many shards does she have?"]

["Two, with my father's."]

The sorrow in his voice pulled at her
sympathy. ["I'm sorry."]

He nodded, but his throat flashed with a
swallow. ["I wish I had been there to help fight off the Shirukan
when they went after my family."]

["Wouldn't you be dead too?"]

He sniffed and a moment later brightened
with a faint smile. ["That's what Saffir said when she told me to
come here."]

["She's important, isn't she?"]

["The most honored of Crystal Keepers. The
shard she bears is the largest. The others turn to her for
guidance, because she's the oldest and wisest, and at least one
shard has always stayed within our line."]

["That explains the vision with my mother."]
Raea dropped the crystal and looked away from him. The pain on his
face reminded her too much of what she felt inside. She didn't need
to see it on someone else, least of all on Elis. And she was afraid
of crying in sympathy. The Shirukan must have been the black-clad
figures she had seen in her dreams. They killed her real father and
tried to capture her mother.

"You should get back to practicing." Elis
stood up and exited the room, the familiar hunch of his somber mood
weighing on his shoulders.

Had she said something wrong? Was it the
memory of his family? Guilt twisted her stomach. She should have
said nothing more. Now, she upset him, just when he was opening
up.

She shouldn't have cared, but she did.

Despite feeling bad for him, she stayed
behind to practice. He would return...she hoped.

The resonance came quicker each time she
found it. Recognizing that pitch inside her made all the
difference.

After an hour, she noticed the clock on the
stand by his bed and stood up. Her back ached from sitting without
support. She'd pay for it the next day. Oh, well. That's what
Saturdays were for, besides birthdays.

So, why hadn't Elis returned yet? Where had
he gone? She couldn't believe she sat in his room. Weirder still—it
no longer creeped her out. After all that day had brought, she
actually felt sorry for him, and guilty about her behavior.

She left his room. "Elis?"

"Down here." His voice came from the sitting
room.

Raea thumped down the stairs in a hurry and
caught herself at the bottom. Whoa. Before she thought to slow
down, he met her at the doorway, standing tall once more.
"I...ah...should get home."
In case Pallin calls.

He nodded and stepped past her to the door.
"We'll practice tomorrow."

Did she have to? What about Linds's
birthday?

"The sooner you control the resonance, the
sooner you can fly."

"Awesome! Really?"
Calm down.
Too
late. His smile returned—he knew exactly how to tempt her. "I mean,
that'd be cool." What would it be like to fly? She couldn't wait to
find out.

Raea slipped on her shoes without tying them
and hurried out. At the bottom of the steps, she stopped and
turned. "Um...Thanks, for everything; and I'm sorry about the
rest."

At the open door, he waited, but said
nothing. Raea ran through the ice-coated snow to her door and
waved.

He peeked out the door. "Sleep well."

Yeah. For once, she just might, now that she
understood what her dreams were about.

Nina Russet

"I still can't believe this hot guy is so
into you." Linds sank into her chair, a dreamy glint in her
eye.

Raea treasured that look. She couldn't
believe all this was happening either.

"You're
so
lucky." Jess brushed her
hair behind her ear and played with the silver earring dangling
there.

"Yeah. Lucky that Josh isn't here to lecture
me. Where is he?" Raea looked around the pizzeria. After lunch,
they'd head over to The Game Spot for the afternoon. Some indoor
mini-golf, maybe some air hockey—Jess owned that game—and a few
video games. But that had been Josh's suggestion. Where was he to
follow through?

The answer shot to the forefront. She'd been
so busy with Pallin and now the Starfire that she had forgotten his
big news. "No. He wouldn't."

"Yup. Stood up for some hot shot from his
favorite TV show." Linds sat back from the table and folded her
arms.

"Not Josh." Raea couldn't believe it, and
yet she could.

"He did."

"But you can't blame him," Jess said. "I
mean, who wouldn't pass up the chance for fame? And it's not like
he isn't known for his Dark Angel obsession."

"True. But you'd think he'd put his friends
first." Linds looked out at something and scowled. "I can't believe
it."

"What?" Raea twisted in her seat. Josh and a
middle-aged woman with wavy bleached-blonde hair—by the dark roots
barely showing—and her leather jacket unzipped entered the
restaurant. Was that the person he had expected to meet?

"Hey, guys. Sorry I'm late." Josh stopped at
their table with the woman, who pushed her red sunglasses up to the
top of her head like a headband to hold back the shoulder-length
hair. "This is Nina Russet. She's here to check out the Dark Angel
stories before the real crew comes." He introduced each of
them.

The woman smiled pleasantly and offered to
shake each of their hands. When she took Raea's, she stopped and
stared at the marks.

Not good. That curious gaze gave Raea
chills. Pull her hand away or let it go—Raea battled the urge to
avoid questions with the desire to be polite. Nina let go before
she could choose.

"I'd like to talk to you later."

"Uh...Sure, I suppose." What did she want?
Raea glanced at Josh. What had he told this woman?

He shrugged. Did that mean he didn't
understand her unspoken question or that he wouldn't talk about it
in front his guest?

"Actually," Nina said. "I'd like to talk to
all of you, if you have some time." Before anyone could object, she
pulled up a chair and started asking questions. They answered them,
to be nice, but Raea had only to meet the eyes of Jess or Linds to
know they shared her feelings—the woman was pushy and out for her
story. With questions about their different religious views and how
they felt, and whether this Dark Angel might have a hidden agenda
that no one was willing to discuss, even Josh looked a bit off.

In the end, Raea was glad to see her leave.
She didn't want to discuss her marks. A couple days ago, she could
easily have feigned innocence. Now...Now she might slip up and give
away the truth.

The truth... Was Elis Dark Angel? If so,
why?

She'd ask him later.

In the meantime, she'd enjoy being with her
friends. Nothing had changed there. She was still Raea Dahlrich,
human at heart.

Yet she wasn't. With her friends, she could
forget yesterday ever happened. Or, rather, she could almost
forget.

Her world had changed. Why did this woman
have to come at that time? Why did the Starfire choose then to
force this on her?

At least for an afternoon, her life was
normal. Normal for a human. What would her friends think to learn
otherwise? That was something she didn't intend for them to find
out. If the Shirukan could come to Earth, she certainly didn't want
to stand in any spotlight as if waving her arms and yelling,
"
I'm here! Come and get me!"
Yeah, that would help.

She arrived home in time for a visit from
Josh and Nina.
Go away.
Oh, how she wanted to say it. But
she couldn't. Instead, she let them in the house and introduced
them to her family, who sat in front of the TV on the sofa and
chairs. Nina took the other free chair before Debbie had a chance
to offer it.

Damn, the bitch was rude. Did she just
expect everyone would welcome her?

Raea hated her already, and from the
expression Josh gave her, he was having second thoughts also.

"Raea. Those marks on your hands. I've seen
drawings resembling your hands, usually to depict healing hands,
but I never imagined anyone would take it literally. I'm told you
always had those marks. Is that true?"

Raea glanced at Debbie. What could she say?
Debbie gave a slight shrug. She couldn't say anything without
giving away some hint of her secret.

"Yeah. Everyone calls her a freak." Dave
smirked as if he couldn't wait to say that.

That little brat. She'd make him pay for
that with a lifetime of cold showers.

For a second, Raea touched the resonance
inside her.
Not now. Calm down.
She took a deep breath and
let it out. She could only hope everyone's attention had been on
Dave.

"David Anthony Logan."

All right, Debbie. Let him have it.
Raea waited for the rest.