Unaltered #2_A Diamond in my Heart (22 page)

I hurried back to the
group.

The moment I’d closed the door behind
me, Chris embraced me tightly. A sharp pain ripped through my chest
and I pushed him away dropping the basket of groceries and
clutching my chest.

“What is it, Calli?”

“The diamonds cannot get too close
together or else they’ll break out of the glass.” I remembered he
didn’t know I had a piece within my heart. “Take the food to the
others and ration it out, please.”

He left and I slid down the wall and
sat on the floor willing my heart to heal. My mind replayed
Maetha’s words that someday all the shards will reunite within me.
It’s the way it is and it cannot be prevented, but if this is the
kind of pain I can expect, then no thanks!

Brand came over to me and knelt down.
“Calli, you and I need to talk.” I didn’t like his attitude.
Something had happened while I was gone, something that disturbed
him greatly.

“Alright. What do you want to
know?”

He pointed at my amulet.
“All these necklaces everyone wears used to be one whole diamond
that
you
carried
on your person a couple years ago; how come you never told me about
that? I thought you trusted me?”

“Brand, look, there’s plenty I didn’t
tell you and there’s plenty I’m not going to tell you. It doesn’t
mean I don’t trust you. Now you know as much as everyone else
concerning me and the diamond but they don’t know anything about
you. Should we tell them what your abilities are?”

“No!”

“Why not?”

“I don’t want them knowing all that I
can do.”

“Bingo. Neither do I.”

“Well, we’re going to have to tell
them something because they already questioned me about my mind.
They wondered why they can’t read it or see my future.”

“Yeah, I know. The diamond shard gives
each wearer a little of all the powers and intensifies their
existing power.”

“That’s why you were able to run away
from the Healers; you were wearing their amulet.”

“Well, yes, but not
entirely.”

“Well, what would happen if I wore
one?”

I thought about that long and hard and
came to the conclusion that if he wore an amulet he might be able
to use his powers to manipulate outcomes on a much grander scale,
but until his heart was in the right direction it would most likely
be misused.

“I don’t know, Brand. For now we need
to help the others. I can heal their weaknesses and injuries but I
need you to keep a lookout for Justin’s search party.” I didn’t
really; I already knew we’d be safe here all night long. I just
wanted him to drop the subject for now.

I walked over to Curtis and Charles
and sat next to them as they drank their sports drinks. “I can help
heal you if you like. You are both very weak and I don’t suppose
you have energy to spare in healing each other.”

“We do not want to drain your energy,
Calli.” Charles spoke.

“I’ll only give what I can
spare.”

“Alright then.”

I felt into Charles’ body and
rejuvenated his blood with oxygen. The drug that Justin used was
one that slowed the body’s natural system, so I cleansed Charles’
body of the drug. Right away his energy increased. I did the same
to Curtis and removed the drug from his body.

“Thank you.” They both said in
unison.

I smiled and looked across the room at
Chris and Brand talking and I read their lips.

Brand said, “Oh, I can’t say I haven’t
tried to win her over, but dude, her heart belongs to someone
else.”

Curtis asked me, “Why is his future so
muddled?”

Charles added, “Yes, why? I’ve never
seen a mind like his before.”

“If you look too long into his mind
you’ll get a headache,” I said, issuing a well advised
warning.

I stood and walked over to Chris and
Brand. I knelt in front of Chris and took one of his hands in mine
to feel inside his body for the invasive drug. I looked into his
eyes and he into mine and Brand’s mouth gaped open in
realization.

“He’s your guy, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, and you better give us a moment
before he kicks your ass, Brand.”

Brand smacked Chris on the
shoulder. “Dude, her heart belongs to
you
.”

“Go, Brand.” I ordered him to leave.
He stood and left us alone. “Chris, I need to remove the last of
the drug from your system. Just relax.”

Chris laid his head back against the
wall and closed his eyes relaxing his whole body allowing me access
to his entire being. Frankly, I was caught off guard that he’d open
himself so completely but I quickly grasped his absolute trust. The
intimate moment brought tears to my eyes; tears of happiness and
joy, tears of love. It had been so long since the last time I’d
seen Chris that I paused for a moment to appreciate the
circumstances before I extracted the drug from his body.

After removing the drug, I checked for
any other ailment or injury and found nothing. “There,” I whispered
as my throat was still choked with emotion, “good as new.” I
reached forward with my other hand and stroked his
cheek.

He opened his eyes and leaned forward
taking me in his arms and pulling me close to his body, his mouth
descending to mine, but before our lips touched the shard in my
heart shifted. I cried out in pain and shrank back from him. He
released his hold.

“Calli, what’s wrong?” he asked. His
concern touched my soul.

Charles, Curtis and Brand came over
and sat down. Brand asked, “Are you alright, Calli?”

I rubbed my chest between my breasts
as the pain subsided. “Yes, I’m fine. Our shards got a little too
close, that’s all.”

Chris reached forward and placed his
hand over mine which was pressed against my chest. “Calli, why does
it hurt down here when your amulet is near your throat?”

I was shocked that I’d actually
slipped up like that and that he caught onto it. I looked into the
faces of the four men in front of me who were all thinking the same
question and tried to come up with an excuse or explanation. I
thought that I could try to explain why my heart hurts and if it
wasn’t well received Brand could repeat the time and undo it—but
Brand would still remember. I decided to follow my gut and go ahead
and tell why my heart hurts.

“Justin is rounding up the amulet
wearers in the hopes of reuniting the shards and extracting the
powers from the reassembled stone and so far he has four of the six
pieces. He told me a Hunter was about to be captured and delivered
to his little fortress but he still needs to find one last piece.
He thinks the witch Maetha has it, probably because she’s the one
who orchestrated the delivery and then assembled the amulets for
the clans. But he’s wrong. She doesn’t have it; I have
it.”

Charles said, “I don’t
understand.”

I continued, “Without all six pieces,
Justin won’t be able to complete the reassemble. The amulet I wear
is from the Healers Clan, but the sixth shard is in me.”

Brand stuttered, “Like, what… like in
your pocket?”

“I have a diamond piece in my heart.”
I paused while the four men tried to comprehend what I’d said.
Their collective expressions told me that wouldn’t be anytime soon.
“When the Death Clan tried to extract the powers of the diamond and
it exploded, a shard entered my heart and stopped it. Maetha healed
my heart around the shard and restarted it. She told me the shard
would remain there for safe keeping. Well, now Justin is trying to
extract the power like the Death Clan only his attempt will only
result in his death.” I looked at Chris who was staring at the
ground and I resisted the urge to read his mind.

Curtis spoke up, “I don’t see Justin’s
death when he holds all the amulets, none of us do.”

“What do you see happening when all
the amulets break open and the shards slam together?” I asked
Curtis.

“I don’t see that happening. I see
Justin holding the five amulets at the same time and then
everything goes dark, like a strange blackness.”

Charles and Chris agreed to the
same.

“At that point in your vision where
Justin is holding the amulets you all would have relinquished the
shard to him. Therefore, your vision concerning it ends. I have a
shard in my heart and am able to see beyond the relinquishing.
Justin will die in his attempt.” I didn’t tell them that right
after Justin dies I also see a strange blackness.

Brand blurted out, “Wait a minute! So,
that’s what the Healers meant when they said ‘use your combined
power’.”

Chris asked in a barely audible
whisper, “You’ve had powers all this time?”

“Yes,” I answered.

Curtis asked, “How are you able to
live with a… a foreign object inside your heart, let alone a deadly
diamond?”

Everyone’s head turned toward me in
unison. I realized there was no way out around it, I’d have to tell
them more. “My DNA was unaffected by the cosmic energy rays while
in the womb, therefore, I’m what is called an ‘Unaltered’. The
diamond contains all the cosmic powers and anyone with an
alteration cannot physically hold the stone; not even a tiny piece.
However, because I’m unaltered I can touch the stone. That’s how I
was able to carry the whole diamond before. Maetha instructed me to
keep it absolutely secret that I carried a shard in my
heart.

Chris was visibly let-down. I could
tell he was still trying to compute what I’d just revealed and how
it related to him. I knew that prior to him being captured and
imprisoned he still felt that Maetha had manipulated him in making
him feel I was his ‘one and only’. When I walked into his cell, his
hope was buoyed. Now, I just dashed his hopes of marrying a Healer
like his original vision showed. I’d just revealed I am an ordinary
unaltered human with no magical powers of my own… back to square
one. I thought about telling him about my other vision concerning
him, but decided against it.

Brand asked, “How exactly did a piece
end up inside of you? Do you have a scar?”

“I have a small scar,
and
no
, you can’t
see it, Brand.”

Charles asked what I was hoping no one
would, “Who is Maetha and how did she come into possession of the
diamond?”

“It is not my place to say, Charles. I
hope you understand.”

Chris pointed to my amulet and asked,
“Why are you able to have two shards so close together?”

I knew he was having a difficult time
wrapping his mind around the idea of my heart containing a pointy
object and even more curious about why our two amulets couldn’t be
in too close of proximity. “My amulet is kind of stuck to my skin.
The two are drawn together like magnets. When you hugged me after I
returned with the food, your amulet touched my body and made my
shard shift, that’s why I dropped the basket, and again just now
when you hugged me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright, Chris. The same thing
happened a couple years ago when Charles came to my mother’s
clinic.”

“Ah, yes, I remember that, Calli. I
distinctly felt my amulet move when I stood by you. I figured it
was because you had held it recently, I certainly wouldn’t have
thought it was because you had a shard of your own.”

Brand cleared his throat. “So, what do
we do now? I mean, you all will give your amulets over to kill
Justin but when will that be?”

Curtis answered. “Young man, not one
of us here wishes for his death. He will die by his own hand and
not by ours; greed has a way of doing that. I do imagine that we’ll
need to surrender ourselves in order for this to play
out.”

I looked into the future trying to see
whether or not we should surrender and saw that Justin’s unaltered
thugs would find us in this very building in the morning. “They’ll
capture us in the morning.”

“How do you know?” Curtis
asked.

I’d forgotten that Curtis, the leader
of the Seers, couldn’t see into an Unaltered’s future. “The guards
are unaltered like me. Only an Unaltered with a diamond can see
another Unaltered’s future or use any of the other powers on them.
I envision that when the sun rises the guards will find us here and
usher us back to the building we fled from, and the amulet
relinquishment will take place there. We are safe here tonight and
can rest with ease.”

We separated and Chris and I sat down
in the far corner. Brand followed like a lost puppy not knowing
where he belonged, and he still had questions for me. Chris sat in
front of me with Brand sitting to the side of both of
us.

Brand launched right into his
questions. “Calli, why was I able to use my power on the guards?
From what you just said I shouldn’t be able to repeat around an
Unaltered… however, you’re one and I used my power on you.” He
paused and rubbed his temples. “I don’t understand this, Calli. All
this time you had superpowers and you didn’t use them, well, except
for healing, and then running when we fled the Healers. I feel like
an idiot for thinking I was one up on you when all along it was the
other way around.”