“That’s pretty amazing. I didn’t have that with Marcus before we completed the breh-hedden. I think this is unique to you and Samuel. Does he have the same sense of you?”
“I have no idea.”
“Well it’s just a different thread in the same tapestry.” Vela nodded and almost at the same time she weaved on her feet as a soft vibration ran through her. She blinked.
The vibration felt familiar, like a bell sounding in the distance, a warning maybe.
“Havily, do you hear that?”
“Nothing unusual. What’s going on?”
“I feel, no I believe I’m being summoned. I think it’s the darkening.” She heard a telepathic voice, a plea for help.
Samuel, shit, where the f**k are you? I need your help.
She grew very still, statue-like. She knew that voice because she’d spoken to the warrior many times over the years and he’d been to her home when Jeff was alive. His on-again, off-again girlfriend, Rachel, had often cried on her shoulder about this man.
She turned to meet Havily’s gaze.
“I’m hearing Duncan; he’s calling for help. Actually, he’s asking for Samuel.
How is that even possible?” Havily held her hands palms up and shook her head. “I don’t know, but I think you may have a more powerful form of the gift than me.”
“I don’t know what to do. I feel like the darkening is calling to me, but what do I do? With the previous vision, I’d awakened from a dream.”
“Okay, calm down. Take a deep breath. Focus on Duncan’s voice and just let it come.” Vela nodded and let her thoughts turn fully toward Duncan. The moment she did, she slipped inside the darkening, the same sort of place she’d been with Samuel earlier. Only in this case, she was in Havily’s office and a black border separated the spaces. As she strained to hear Duncan’s voice again, she started moving, then just like that started down a dark tunnel that felt oddly familiar, as though the pattern of the tunnel had already been imprinted on her brain. She moved in a kind of levitation, faster and faster. The tunnels would branch and she always knew which one to take.
Images flashed by her, of people and places, but she didn’t stop to look. She took tunnel after tunnel, an urgency possessing her. She felt a dimensional shift and she knew that she’d just passed from Second Earth to Third.
On and on she moved.
She reached her destination and the same black border framed the space, indicating the darkening boundary.
She’d landed inside a large, gray- stone prison cell.
Bound by ropes, a barely recognizable Duncan, wearing only his kilt, hung suspended from a central hook.
He’d been brutalized, probably tortured.
His eyes were swollen shut, blood ran down his face, his chest, his sides.
“Duncan,” she called out. Would he even be able to hear her?
“Vela, is that you? I dreamed about you just now. Are you really there?”
“I’m here. But Duncan, I don’t know what to do for you? I can’t pull you out.
I’m in the darkening and this is all new to me. What should I do?”
“Get Samuel. I need him. He…that is, this won’t make sense to you.”
“Try me.”
“Tell him that I’ve seen others with the kind of power he has, the kind that he released when I got him out of that hellhole in Honduras Two, that dark mist of his. He’ll know what I mean. And shit, tell him that I think they’re going to execute me in the next couple of days.”
“I’ll tell him right away and we’ll figure this out.”
“One more thing. You have to tell Rachel. Shit, tell her that I love her and that I’m sorry. I’ve been a real dick, pushing her too hard.” In the distance, far away, she heard the sound of an explosion. Her instincts fired up and she knew she had to get out of there, had to leave before someone found her.
“I’ll tell her. I will. But I’ll bring Samuel back to you. I promise.”
“Good.” His body slumped in the ropes. He’d passed out.
Vela turned around. Her heart slammed in her chest now. Another distant explosion sounded. She put on her speed, heading back the way she’d come, never once questioning which strange dark tunnel to take.
She heard another explosion, closer.
She moved faster and slipped through the initial entry point in Havily’s office, where the ascender waited for her, eyes wide.
Instinctively, she planted both hands on the entry point and focused on sealing up the opening. Energy released from her in warm waves.
“The wall is glowing,” Havily cried.
Vela felt the seal happen and she stepped back just as another explosion sounded just beyond the darkening boundary.
Then nothing, as though the darkening disappeared.
She leaned her head against the cool glass, breathing hard. She sensed she was safe, at least for now.
“What happened, Vela?” There was only one answer. “I just found Duncan. He’s on Third Earth.”
Chapter Three
After an hour of working with Jean- Pierre, Samuel almost smiled as he extended his hand, yet again, down to the Frenchman.
Jean-Pierre lay on his back, grimacing. “And these are not energy streams you are hitting me with?” Samuel shook his head. “Not at all.
Trust me.”
“Mon dieu, your energy is immense.” Samuel smiled. “I warned you.” Jean-Pierre made a disgusted sound at the back of his throat. He scowled at Samuel’s hand, refused to take it, but this time he struggled to gain his feet instead of hopping back up like he’d been doing. “I confess I am very tired of your power slamming me into these work-out mats.
And how you are folding so quickly is beyond what I can comprehend.” The alarms no longer sounded. Jean- Pierre had long since spoken with security and gotten permission for Samuel to fold as often as needed, because utilizing his dark power, while battling, always included a series of folds.
Jean-Pierre wiped sweat from his brow. Some of his long warrior hair had escaped his cadroen, and clung to his face and neck. He had unusual eyes, dark gray and green or maybe they were blue. He’d been a favorite with the ladies until the breh-hedden brought Fiona, the blood slave, into his life. Now he was all hers.
The breh-hedden.
Jesus.
Jean-Pierre held Samuel’s gaze.
“And we truly have not tapped the streaming power?” Samuel shook his head. “No, not even a little.”
“Merde,” Jean-Pierre muttered.