Authors: Corinne Davies
Rock didn’t want to admit that he was impressed at her instinctive reaction to what she perceived as a threat. A part of him wanted to get to know their Atan and looked forward to having a conversation with her. But, as their leader, he couldn’t risk his attention being divided or distracted at a vital moment.
Jag contacted Blade and gave him directions to where they were. The woman’s weight was almost insignificant and he wasn’t concerned about carrying her back to the portal, but with the injury they needed to get her to safety as quickly as possible. He was concerned about the head wound. She’d hit her head really hard and he wanted someone to look at it.
“I can’t tell where it went, can you?” Rock had lost the tenuous feeling of the Kimil moments before Destiny had leapt from her hiding space.
“I thought for certain I saw it, but I must’ve been mistaken,” Jag replied.
He and Jag moved in perfect tandem as they made their way back toward the road. The woman was far too still and Rock felt his anxiety rising. The rain continued to fall on them, but it had lightened considerably as the storm passed over them and continued on. A pair of headlights shone in the distance as they approached the road.
“Is she still bleeding?” Rock asked.
Jag moved the shirt slightly. “I can’t tell. It’s too dark.” Rock heard the anxiety in his friend’s voice. It echoed what he was already feeling. He glanced around them and Jag followed his lead.
“Do you feel like we’re being watched?”
Rock nodded his head in agreement. “It could be an animal we’re sensing.” But he would be happier when they were back in their world.
“I hope so.” Jag looked back at the woman as Rock scanned the area around them. “All this lightning confuses the small amount of energy I can pick up on in this world.”
The vehicle slid to a halt, its large engine rumbles almost drowning out those in the sky. Blade’s brother, Thunder, hopped out of the driver’s seat and ran around the front of the vehicle and opened the back door as they got close. “I got here as fast as I could. Blade said it was an emergency.”
“It is,” Rock replied as Jag jumped into the backseat. He carefully lifted the woman up to him before climbing in himself.
Thunder pulled the SUV around and headed back in the direction he’d come from. The engine roared as they sped up. “Who is she?” Thunder looked in the rearview mirror at her.
“
In’tialóox
,
our third.”
Thunder’s eyes grew large and his skin paled slightly. “How badly is she injured?”
“Get us home, Thunder.” Rock didn’t want to speculate or think about how bad her head might be. If they could get to her to their healer then they might have a chance to save her. He wasn’t going to trust her to the doctors of her world.
Thunder focused on the road and the engine roared as he stepped harder on the gas.
Jag was brushing the abundance of curls away from her face and gently wiped some mud from her jaw. Rock was able to get a good look at her. Her skin looked flawless and she had a full lower lip that he wanted to press his lips against. She wasn’t as sickly thin as many of the women he’d seen on the TV and in the magazines they’d looked at when they first arrived in this world.
Her breasts were full and lusciously curved. A man could lose himself between them if he wasn’t careful. Her wet clothes stuck to her skin, highlighting the gentle curve of her belly and the dip to her waist. Jag held her in his lap, but her legs lay over his legs and his hand rested on the muscle of her thigh. He knew she was in shape, and given how far she’d walked she wasn’t weak spirited. The dull ache between his legs gave testimony to her sense of self-preservation.
He forced himself to look away from her beauty. He didn’t have time for a wife right now. A decade from now would’ve been better timing. They would see to her injuries and secure her safely in their home. That would give him and Jag the opportunity to drive the invaders back and allow them to properly protect the portal. Her appearance was no doubt the first of many women who might find their way to this area. He needed to think of a way to draw them to one place. Had he and Jag not been on this side of the portal they might never had known she was passing and she might’ve lost her life in the desert.
He looked to the road behind them, wondering again about the eerie feeling they’d felt before Thunder arrived. He’d noticed a few things that might prove that their enemies had already made their way to this world, but he needed more proof before destroying the portal for good.
Chapter Three
Destiny stretched as she slowly crawled up from the depths of sleep and rolled over to curl around one of her pillows. She felt incredible considering the frigg’n bizarre dream she’d had. Running through the desert being chased by two Leatherfaces and then hiding from panthers under centuries-old boulders. There had to be some meaning to all of that, but she was too comfortable to think about it overly much.
The last thing she remembered in the dream was smashing her head against one of the rocks as she slipped. Instinctually she lifted her hand and rubbed that side of her head with her fingers. Her hair felt crusty to the touch and matted together.
Did I fall asleep with gum in my mouth? Oh, shit! I’m late for work!
She sat up quickly and blinked as she took in her surroundings. “Where the hell am I?” she muttered to herself, not entirely certain she wasn’t dreaming again. She was dressed in her dirty clothes, except her sandals had been removed, but she could see the dusty lines from the sandal straps on the top of her feet. She was lying on a bed of the softest material she’d ever felt. Sliding her fingers into her hair again she pulled at a clump that was stuck together. It wasn’t gum because it had dried into a lump. She pulled a chunk down the length of her hair and into her palm. As she poked at it with her nail, it flaked apart. It was a dark brick color and looked suspiciously like dried blood. Pushing her fingers past the matted mess, she gently poked at her skull expecting to feel some sort of scab, but there wasn’t any evidence of an injury.
More confused than ever, she looked around this dream room. The furnishing was simple but looked luxurious. The bed she lay in the middle of was monstrous and looked to be up on a raised area. Three large wardrobes sat against different walls on the other side of the room. She crawled down to the end of the bed and saw a large bench or chest at the end. There was a lounge, and a couple overstuffed chairs sitting in what looked to be a reading area by windows that stretched from the ceiling to the floor in an outward arc.
She loved this dream room and didn’t look forward to waking up, no doubt leaning against the rock. She crawled off the bed and onto the chest and slipped to the floor. The bed wasn’t on a dais after all. It was a big bed that sat high off the floor. She was tempted to peek underneath the material that lined the bottom and rested against the floor, but the last thing she wanted now was to get sucked into a childhood nightmare about creatures under the bed.
She moved over to the windows and looked out at a wonderland. Flowerbeds overflowed with a riot of colors and the grass was a vibrant green that looked like emeralds reflecting the sun. She pressed against a glass panel and it disappeared, startling her, but the fresh, fragrant breeze distracted her as it flowed into the room. The air was chilly but not icy cold. After walking in the desert for hours, she appreciated the cool, crisp feel of the air.
“Oh, you’re up!”
Destiny jumped and turned around. A tall woman stood at in the doorway with a tray in her hands. She had streaks of gray through her black hair and wore a simple tunic top with matching leggings. She smiled at Destiny, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes as she entered, placing the tray on the chest at the end of the bed. “How are you feeling?” She strode over and clasped Destiny’s head and pulled at her hair, checking her scalp. “Looks like it’s healed.”
“Of course it healed. You don’t really get hurt in a dream,” Destiny blurted out. This time the woman’s sympathetic grin did reach her eyes and Destiny got an uneasy feeling.
“Poor thing, they didn’t tell you, did they?”
“Who didn’t tell me what?”
“The two men who brought you here, you know who they are.” The woman turned and pulled open one of the dresser drawers and removed what looked to be a couple of large towels.
Destiny’s illusion that this was all a dream unraveled quickly, leaving her with a dozen questions. “If you mean the two massive dudes that attacked me on the side of the road, they didn’t take the time to introduce themselves. It was too dark to see what they looked like and I ran as fast and as far as I could from them.” Destiny took a few steps toward the arch the woman had come in from. There had to be a door to the outside and she could find her way home as soon as she found a road. “If they’re afraid I’ll file a report, they have nothing to fear. I can’t describe what they looked like.”
The shocked look on the woman’s face when she turned around stopped Destiny from moving further. “Are you telling me that they didn’t introduce themselves first?” The woman looked incredulous and angry. “They approached you when you were all alone in the darkness?”
“Yes,” Destiny replied and casually stepped toward the door again. “I can’t tell the police what they did because I don’t know who they are. I’m no threat to them. I just want to go home.”
The woman tossed the fabric in her hands onto the bed and approached Destiny. Reaching out, she clasped their hands together. “I’m sorry, child, but that’s not an option for you.”
“What?” Real fear was starting to claw at Destiny’s throat. This was feeling less and less like a dream, and that frightened her. “No, I have a job interview and I have to leave so I don’t miss it. Tell me where my car is and I’ll go and get it and be on my way.”
“Listen to me, child.”
“My name is Destiny.”
“That is more appropriate than you can imagine.” The older woman kept her hands around Destiny’s fingers. “My name is IxChel and I am very pleased to meet you.”
“It’s nice to meet you, too, IxChel, but I have to be going.” Destiny needed to get her bearings. She felt off balance here and couldn’t process everything that was happening. Instead of feeling threatened by IxChel she felt a familiarity with her, as if she’d seen her or known her before. It did a lot to calm her nerves.
“Let me run you a bath first. I’ll have your clothes washed and you can cleanse the blood out of your hair before your travels.” IxChel waved toward the tray. “I brought some food in. Eat while I run your bath and I promise we will get you were you need to be.”
Destiny wasn’t so sure, but a bath sounded incredible at the moment and her head was itching something terrible. “Why is there dried blood in my hair?”
“From your injury.” IxChel held up her hand when Destiny opened her mouth to argue. “I know you think this is a dream, but it isn’t. I told them not to bathe you because I thought you might find it much more traumatic if you woke up in clean clothes with no memory of what had happened to you.”
One part of the older woman’s speech stuck in Destiny’s brain. “They wanted to bathe me?”
“Of course, neither one liked the idea of leaving you in dirty clothes after what had happened, but I imagine you wouldn’t have been happy to know they’d had their hands on your naked body while you were incapacitated.” IxChel brought over the tray and placed it on the end of the lounger. “Here, sit, get comfortable, and eat.”
The food smelled exquisite and Destiny’s stomach growled loudly. Self-conscious, she pressed her hand against her tummy as if she could muffle the noise. “They didn’t feed you either?” IxChel’s tone was icy and she looked angrier.
“I didn’t have anything to eat before I fell asleep and then they were there…and now I’m here.” That sounded lame even to her. She was trying to wrap her thoughts around everything she’d been told. It had to be a mistake and she was in a hotel somewhere near the highway. “This place isn’t called Bates Motel or Overlook Hotel, is it?”
IxChel gave her an odd look and shook her head. “Eat as much as you can. I’ll get you more after your bath if you’re still hungry. There is water in the pitcher behind you.” She headed to the door but gave Destiny another odd look over her shoulder before leaving.