A terrible wind kicked up, shoving me from every angle. I had to fight to remain upright, and clutched desperately at Devyn’s hand. Round and round we began to spin, stars winking and flashing at me.
The wind became so violent, the Targon was ripped from my grip. “No!” I screamed. “Devyn!” He wore the necklace. I needed him to reach Earth. Didn’t I? Without him…Blindly I groped the air with both hands, searching for him. For any type of anchor.
Instead of finding him, I felt everything still. The screams ceased abruptly. The lights faded. My feet hit a solid foundation. I swayed. My pulse continued to hammer, but I regained my equilibrium. I opened my eyes. And gasped.
I stood in an open forest of tall, green trees. Cool air enveloped me, not dry but humid. Crickets chirped a lazy tune, and moonlight dripped hazy rays on the grass. I sucked in a breath, inhaling familiar scents of pine and dirt. Of Earth.
Golden tendrils of hair were glued to my temples, and I pushed them back with shaky fingers. I’d made it. I’d truly returned. I scanned the area for the Targon.
He wasn’t here.
I couldn’t concern myself with him right now. I had to find a phone. Had to call Michael. I sprinted through the trees, my determination giving me swift wings. Gnarled limbs whipped at my face, and stones and twigs attempted to trip my feet. I ran for over an hour, toward the buildings I saw towering on the horizon. Breath burned my throat and lungs, but I never slowed.
When I reached the first building, I realized they were homes. Only one glowed with internal lights. I ran to the front door and slammed my fists against the thick oak entrance. When no one answered, I banged harder.
“Stop that racket,” someone shouted from above. “I’m trying to sleep.”
My gaze followed the sound, and I found myself staring up at a silver-headed man with a wrinkled, irritated face. “I need to use your phone.”
“You need to learn how to shut up. I’m tired.”
Scowling, I grabbed a rock from the colorful, blooming garden and broke the window. I didn’t have time to pick the lock or mess with the ID box. Their security system erupted in a series of high-pitched beeps. I reached through the shattered glass, cringed when a sharp piece sliced my skin, adding another wound, and ripped the lock system from the side wall. The door opened of its own accord.
I shoved my way inside.
The silver-headed man was racing down the steps, and now he had a civilian pyre-gun in hand. “I’m armed,” he shouted, “and Iwill shoot to kill.”
I moved swiftly, met him halfway, and tripped him down the stairs. He squeezed off a shot, but the stream of fire whizzed past my shoulder. As he fell, I wrenched the gun from his hands. By the time he reached the bottom, I had the barrel pointed at his heart.
“Where’s your phone?” I demanded, my aim steady and sure.
“Don’t hurt me,” he cried.
“Just tell me where your phone is, and you’ll be fine.”
Tears streamed down his cheeks as he pointed a shaky finger to a nearby table. I hated that I had terrified the human, but I didn’t have time for niceties.
“You move and you die. Understand?”
A sob racked him, but he nodded.
Keeping the pyre-gun directed on him, I walked backward to the table. With one hand, I punched Michael’s number into the unit. The silver-headed man never moved a muscle.
“This is Black,” my boss soon answered.
How wonderful it was to hear his voice. “Michael, Lucius has been shot.”
“Eden?” Shock and happiness and relief mingled in his tone. “My God, Eden, tell me it’s you. You’ve been gone three days without a word. We lost your signal, and I thought—”
“I’m fine, but I don’t have a lot of time.” Three days had passed, yet only one had passed on Targon. “Have you spoken to Lucius? Has he checked in?”
“Last he checked in, he told me you had been abducted as planned and he was going in to buy you. After that, we never heard from him again. We’ve been searching for him but haven’t caught a trace. We had your location locked, and even checked there. Nothing. What’s going on?”
“Jonathan Parker shot him.”
“Is he de—”
“No!” I shouted. I still wasn’t ready to consider the possibility. “I think EenLi has him now and means to sell him as a slave. There are five women, too, meant to be put up for sale. Has EenLi been spotted at all?”
“No, but Jonathan Parker was found dead.”
“I know. I killed him. Michael,” I said, my voice shaky. “I need you.”
“Where the hell are you, sweetie? I’ll be there as fast as I can.”
“Where am I?” I demanded of the man at the foot of the stairs. My urgency made me sound fierce, lethal.
His already pale face went white at my renewed attention, and he gaggled out a few unintelligible sounds.
“Tell me where I am,” I said gently. “Please. I’m not going to hurt you.”
My gentleness lifted him out of his terror-filled shock. “New Mon-montana,” he stuttered.
“New Montana,” I told Michael. “Can you get my signal now?”
“Let’s see.” A moment passed, the sound of his breathing and the clicking of computer keys the only sound. “Got you now,” he said with satisfaction. “We’ll get you home, baby, we’ll get you home.”
“No. I need you to take me back to New Dallas. Back to the house they kept me in. EenLi is still here, I know it, and that means Lucius is here, too. They might still be inside. We’ve got to save him, Michael. The others, too.”
“We will,” he said, hearing my panic. “We will. I promise you.”
The sound of police sirens penetrated the background. Their blue and red lights soon followed. “Just get here as fast as you can,” I said and left the house the same way I’d come.
Chapter 26
You enlisted the aid of a Targon?” Michael growled.
His familiar voice boomed from the headphones covering my ears and was like a soothing spell from a voodoo priest. I gazed out the experimental hovercraft’s window, drinking in the dark, almost velvet sky and diamond-glistening stars. The vehicle’s engine was small and quiet, emitting only a slight hum as the twenty-three-million-dollar machine soared through the air.
I’d already explained to him how the solar flare worked, and about the necklace. I told him about EenLi’s man having an electro-gun. He had listened in stony silence. I wasn’t sure how I felt that the first thing he’d reacted to was my involvement with the Targon.