SHIAM Conspiracy- Book 1 (20 page)

They remained sitting on the floor allowing
time for further recovery. Zak felt disoriented by the intensity of
his concern for Megan. He concentrated on bringing his full
attention back to the situation at hand. He had been a trained ASID
Agent. He should be able to control these unwanted feelings, but
the thought of ASID only served to remind him of who Megan was and
of the events of nineteen years ago.

“There is something inside that office!”

Megan’s voice disrupted his internal
struggle. He forced himself back to the here and now, but remained
silent.

“Inside the light - the energy - something is
there.” She was breathing more normally now, but looked anxious as
she tried to explain. Her voice grew more excited as she spoke, her
body language more agitated. “Something completely evil and very
powerful. I think it is trapped there. Whoever is responsible for
this... In addition to the concealment and the containment
sorceries, there is also some sort of ward against evil cast upon
the office. I think there are other sorceries, too. They are like
layers of an onion, one upon another. There was definitely more
than one sorcerer at work. I think they were trying to close
the...portal.”

“Portal?” Zak asked.

Megan nodded her confirmation. “I am now
certain that the energy source is some sort of a portal.”

“Portal to where?”

“Good question,” Megan said. “To some other
world...or dimension, I think.”

“So, it’s a wormhole of some kind?”

“More like a paranormal gateway. It is
definitely not natural. Whoever created it was trying to close it
again. And when they could not do that, they used layers of sorcery
in order to both contain and conceal it. But that sorcery is
definitely weakening.”

“Contain and conceal what exactly?”

“I do not know!” An involuntary shudder
rippled through Megan as she spoke. “But I do not think I want to
find out. We have to do something before it loses containment.
Whatever it is in there, it is evil!”

Zak was unable to sense anything definite
from within the office, but he had experienced an overpowering
sensation of malevolence emanating from the small office as he
tried to free Megan from the door. If Megan was correct in her
evaluation and this strange anomaly was a portal, it raised a whole
lot of new questions for Zak to ponder. Particularly if, as it
seemed, the warehouse had something to do with the Grimrok theft.
“So, we have some evil –
something
- trapped inside a portal
to who knows where. What in a demon’s curse does that have to do
with the Grimrok theft?”

“I have no idea.” Megan appeared to be more
calm and thoughtful now. “This is part of the vision. It must be.
The part about,
while evil ripens
.”

“In that case, I’m really not too excited
about how that vision thing is coming together.”

“We need to find out more,” She got up from
the floor, taking a side-step as she tried to find her balance. She
quickly steadied herself and turned toward the small prefab
structure once again. “I need to understand what this thing is and
how to get rid of it. I need to get into that office.”

“I don’t think so,” Zak said firmly. “Not
after you nearly became part of the door simply by touching
it!”

“Zak, this is not about stolen technology
anymore.” Megan became agitated again. “Six people have been
murdered. There is a partly opened gateway and we have no idea
where it leads to. And there is some sort of evil attempting to
break through to our world. Like it or not, we have been chosen. If
we do not do this, our world could be destroyed. Zak, this is some
serious shit, we need to do something!”

“We will!” His temper flared. The fear he
felt for Megan’s safety suddenly challenging his ability to remain
calm and rational. He was not accustomed to dealing with such
strong emotions concerning someone. He wasn’t even certain where
they had come from. He certainly hadn’t known Megan long enough to
feel this deeply about her. What the frag had he gotten himself
into, anyway? He took a deep breath to calm himself. “First we need
to figure some things out and come up with a workable plan.”

“Zak, you are not listening. I have no idea
how long these spells will hold!”

“Okay, what do you suggest?” he snapped at
her. He was tired and on edge. He took another deep breath, but it
didn’t help much.

“We need to know more about this gateway and
about the thing trapped in it. I have to get a better look at what
is going on in there.”

“And how do you propose to do that?”

“If you cast a protection spell it will add
to my own. It should give me enough protection to take a closer
look inside.”

“No.”

“Do not worry,” Megan said in an irritated
voice. “If you do it remotely, there will be no danger to you!”

“I mean no, I can’t. I can’t do magic.”

In the darkness he couldn’t see her
expression, but he heard disappointment in her voice. “But you are
Elf.”

“I told you before...half Elf,” he
corrected.

“It does not matter. Sorcery is in your
blood!” Megan said. “Besides, even Humans are capable of learning
sorcery. Dr. Raghnall is Human and he is a Master Wizard.”

“Well, it’s not in my blood!” How could he
ever expect her to understand that he’d shunned magic his entire
life and that he’d done so, not out of some moral objection to it,
but because of his father.

“Ooookaaay, then...” Megan’s voice made it
clear that she found what he’d said puzzling. She stood quietly
thinking for a moment, obviously trying to come up with an
alternative to her plan. After a few moments she seemed to have
found one. “Okay, I have to go back to the car. I have an amulet in
the trunk that may do the trick.”

“May do the trick?” Zak asked, but she was
already on her way.

“Just do not touch any part of that office
until I get back!” She called to him.

“Yeah, like I was going to.” he mumbled to
himself.

Now that he was alone in the darkness he felt
suddenly exhausted, as though the electrostatic air around him was
sucking the energy from him. His mood seemed also to be affected as
he slipped into discontentment. He wasn’t sure if his annoyance was
from Megan’s expectations concerning his ability to perform magic
or from his own irrational disappointment for not living up to
those expectations.

The buzzing of energy continued from the
small prefab office. He could feel it licking at his skin,
reminding him of the hatred he’d felt coming from beyond the door
as he tried to free Megan from it. What the frag had he gotten
himself into, he asked himself again.

He suddenly felt the need for light and
searched for the flashlight he’d dropped. He retrieved it not far
from where he’d dropped it and then went through the motions of
searching the area around the office. He found it impossible to
focus, his mind a jumble of thoughts as he attempted to make sense
of the events of the past several days.

Was this portal somehow responsible for the
incessant weather? His instinct told him it was. But what could it
possibly have to do with the Grimrok break-in? Was EAST Group
plotting with the Orks? If so, what was their objective? And why
were the Elves executed? The thought occurred to him that they
could possibly have stumbled across something totally unrelated to
the theft. But somehow that didn’t ring true.

Then there was all that prophetic mumbo-jumbo
proclaiming him and Megan as saviors of the planet. He could set
that aside as just so much mystical superstition, but how could he
account for the unexplainable attraction he felt towards Megan? If
these things were all pieces to the same puzzle, he just couldn’t
see how any of them fit together.

After what seemed like forever Megan’s petite
form suddenly reappeared from the gloom between the tall pale
shelves and his attention focused upon her approach. It was only
when he realized that his headache was growing worse that he
realized he’d been using his Elf vision while watching for her
return.

“Okay, stand back,” she said as she reached
him. “I do not know if the amulet will protect us both from
whatever we are dealing with here.”

Zak shined the light on her as she slipped
something over her head. In the light, the finely linked gold chain
sparkled against the white flesh of her neck. The chain supported a
gold pendant that fell between Megan’s breasts. The pendant was
shaped into a seven-point star with a small blood red gemstone set
into its center.

“Are you sure that thing will protect you?”
Zak asked doubtfully.

“This
thing
is a Dragon’s Eye,” Megan
informed him, holding up the pendant so he could get a closer look.
“It is a very rare and a very powerful amulet. Protection is only
one of its powers.”

Upon closer examination Zak noticed that
there was a small black dot located in the center of the red stone.
As he studied it he couldn’t help feeling that the thing was
somehow looking back at him. He forced his gaze away. He had never
completely trusted magical items and he wasn’t about to start
now.

Megan allowed the amulet to fall back into
place around her neck and slowly reached for the door once again.
Her hesitation gave Zak the distinct impression that she wasn’t
entirely convinced that the amulet could protect her from what was
contained within the darkness of the small office.

Gradually she allowed her hand to come in
contact with the door and she closed her eyes in concentration.

For a moment, it appeared that everything was
fine, the amulet was working. Then suddenly Megan’s head snapped
back with whiplash force. She gasped for breath. Her body began to
jerk and twitch. She attempted to back away from the door, but was
held once again by some invisible force. Her movements quickly
became more violent, bucking in strong convulsive motions, but her
hand refused to break contact with the door. With her free hand she
attempted to pry her fingers open, but then both her hands seemed
to become entrapped.

Fear for her safety burned through Zak in an
instant, flooding him with adrenaline. He immediately reached out
to grab hold of her, but then froze. In spite of his heart-pounding
desire to rescue her, some instinct whispered caution to his
conscious mind; he was suddenly certain that this time grabbing her
would only entrap him within the battle that Megan was now
fighting.

Without taking time to think further, he
lowered his shoulder and lunged at her. Wrapping his arms around
her waist, he jammed his right shoulder into her ribs, his feet
constantly working to drive himself forward. Using his own weight
as leverage, he twisted away from the door, pulling Megan with him.
He tackled her in perfect form. Megan’s hand broke free of the
door, her body twisting with Zak as they both spun to the
dirt-covered concrete floor for yet a second time.

She lay there with her eyes closed, gasping
for breath.

“Are you ok?” Zak asked, but she didn’t
answer. He frantically rolled her onto her back and began checking
her for injuries. This time her hand looked much worse than before,
her palm now an angry red and more swollen than it had been. There
were strips of skin missing on her palm and fingers. He went on to
check her for any other damage. She winced when he touched her ribs
where he had made contact with his shoulder. He lifted her shirt to
confirm that there was some bruising, but nothing too serious. He
allowed himself to become angry. “What kind of a foolish stunt was
that? I thought you said that thing around your neck would protect
you. You aren’t going anywhere near that office again!”

Megan made no sign that she could hear him.
Her eyes remained closed and she continued to breathe heavily.
Zak’s anger dissolved back into concern, as he tore strips from his
shirt to use as bandages and carefully wrapped her swollen bloodied
hands with them. He wished he had some antiseptic to put on her
wounds, but he had nothing with him. He watched her face as he
worked, feeling the ache in his head grow worse as he prolonged the
use of his Elf vision. She had grown very pale and still. That
worried him. He checked her pulse and her breathing. Both were
elevated, but not enough for alarm. He worried anyway. When she
suddenly opened her eyes, the look of fear and horror in them tied
another knot in the pit of his stomach.

“We have to seal it!” she cried out suddenly.
She became hysterical, thrashing in his arms, crying. “We cannot
let it get out. We have to close the portal!”

“Sshhh, it’s okay. You’re safe now.” Zak
fought to hold her still, attempting unsuccessfully to calm her.
Her words caused a chill to run up his spine.

“The shadow!” She became more agitated as she
spoke, fighting harder to free herself from his grasp as she sobbed
and cried out. “The office... Tahmore’s Island... We have to stop
it!”

“
I
t was totally dark. I could not see what
was there, but I could feel it. It was pure evil!”

Megan’s hysterics had ended as suddenly as
they had begun, but they had been replaced by a deep melancholy.
She remained totally silent as Zak led her from the warehouse, said
nothing when he coaxed her into the passenger seat of her car. He
drove them back to his loft without a word exchanged between them,
and she remained silent while he cleaned and tended to the wounds
on her hands and the bruises on her ribs. She’d been sitting on the
overstuffed leather couch in Zak’s loft for a good long time and
these were the first words she had uttered.

Ke’aira was beside her, the dog’s large head
lying upon Megan’s lap, her eyes alert and nervous as she watched
the Elf. A tremor rippled through Megan as she absently stroked
Ke’aira’s forehead and scratched at her ears. When she spoke again,
her voice was drained of emotion. “Fear. I have never been so
terrified.”