Out of Reach Page 14

  “Gwen, don’t you ever sleep?” he asks, rolling his eyes at me. “If I wasn’t so fond of you, I’d kick you out more often, lass. There’s more to life than work, ya know.”

  “I know, Bill, and I appreciate your sentiment, but I couldn’t sleep and for some reason work relaxes me.”

  “Go on then, and try to be out before sun up, alright?” Winking at me, he returns his attention to the magazine in his lap.

  “Will do.”

  I make a beeline for the elevators since the stairs are dark and creepy at night. As the doors of the lift slide shut behind me, I roll my notebook around in my hands and try to settle into work mode. My last shift was an utter failure and I do a quick recap in my mind. As the elevator dings and I step out onto level 3 and head for my lab, I’m already constructing a game plan, devised from what had gone wrong and what had gone right the last time. I’m so lost in my own head that I don’t even notice the lights are already on inside.

  Stepping through the door and onto the lab’s landing, I look around and drop my notebook.

  I have just stepped into a war zone. The destruction and sheer chaos are astounding.

  I continue to stand there, mouth agape, convinced I must be dreaming. Broken glassware and instruments are strewn about. Cabinets lining the walls are dented with doors askew, some barely hanging on by their hinges. One of the giant refrigerators has been knocked over, and its contents are now seeping out across the floor. The mayhem is reminiscent of a World War II movie, only instead of dead, mangled bodies, test tubes and beakers litter the floor.

  And at the heart of the room, behind what’s left of the central worktable, two men are wrestling in the debris.

  Gripped by fury and without regard to my own safety, I charge down the steps screaming at them, “What the hell are you doing?!”

  Both men look up at me, startled. “Look, I don’t care which one of you walks away with the UFC title tonight, just get the fuck out of my lab!”

  Heedless of the danger in confronting these men, I march ever closer to them, righteous anger overriding self-preservation. “Kade!?” I shout, shocked when I realize who the smaller of the combatants is. Without warning, the larger man bounces back, away from me, shrieking like an animal in pain. The ear splitting sound stops me dead in my tracks. Shaking my head and blinking twice to clear my vision, I stare at him again.

  Impossible, but I could have sworn his outline became fuzzy for a second, almost like a mirage. The smaller man capitalizes on my brief lapse of attention. Moving with inhuman speed, Kade pushes a table out of the way and grabs me, pinning my back against his chest. I’m totally immobilized. I struggle in vain against him while we both continue to stare at the larger man who has taken another step back. Shaking me until I stop moving, Kade leans his head closer to my ear, his hot breath making my skin crawl.

  “Do not be afraid.”

  Leaning back against his chest, I try hard to take his advice, but this whole situation is completely fucked up. What the hell is going on? Despite my complete and utter confusion, I choose to trust his steady voice. I step with him, willingly now, as he begins to walk us across the room, essentially trapping the larger man in the corner. Anger and fear war across his face, which again begins to blur around the edges the closer we get.

  When we are within about eight strides, the larger man lets loose another wail and dissipates into a beautiful purple gas.

  “I’m going to let you go now. I have to get something, but I will be right back. Do not move,” Kade tells me, emphasizing the last three words. Stone still I watch the vapor hovering before me; it still somewhat maintains the outline of a man.

  In the blink of an eye, Kade is back standing beside me. I feel him forcefully place a round object in my hand.

  “Hold that out in front of you and step forward.”

  I hesitate and glance up at him.

  “I’ll be with you the whole time.”

  Stepping out on faith, I close my eyes and take the last few paces forward.

  A hand on my shoulder stops me three steps later, before I crash into the wall. The gas is gone. Looking down I see the sphere I’m holding glows purple and black, the colors swirling across the surface like a living flame.

  After a minute, the light dims, the movement of the colors becomes sluggish and then stops completely. The purple and black marbled mineral sphere I now hold seems completely ordinary.

  I know a set of amber eyes watch me still.

  I turn and look up into those eyes.

  It feels like I’m seeing him for the first time and I’m scared. Maybe this guy isn’t really Kade or he’s an evil twin or something. No. My brain steps as I begin to get worked up, calming my irrational fears. There can be no mistaking those luminous eyes and the deeply penetrating timbre of that voice, a sound that promises to be your best friend or your worst nightmare.

  Yes I’d know that voice anywhere, but do I really know this man?

  “Kade?”

  Chapter 26

  Whatever else I was going to say falls by the wayside as my thoughts are derailed by a ruckus on the landing. Two additional strangers have come bursting into my lab as I forcefully push the sphere-thing back into Kade’s chest, desperate to be away from it all of the sudden.

  “What in the hell is she doing here?” the shorter of the two men asks. Angry on principle alone, I storm toward these new intruders.

  “I could say the same about you! This is my lab, asshole!” I quickly dub the new guys Thing One and Thing Two in an effort to keep the craziness straight in my head. While Thing One stares at me speechless, Thing Two, an enormous guy standing in the back, steps forward and addresses Kade.

  “I see you’ve figured out that the sphere isn’t in Taylor’s office.”

  “Yeah, I got the memo,” Kade replies, wiping some dried blood off his face with the corner of his shirt. Having regained a measure of composure, Thing One flashes me an I’m-not-finished-with-you look as he passes by. Not one to be excluded, I follow the Things over to workstation 2 where Kade is busy washing the remnants of the fight off his face and arms.

  Drying his hands on a paper towel he asks, “What’s our status?”

  “We turned over Taylor’s office—it’s clean,” Thing Two reports. “When we discovered the sphere was missing, we hightailed it down here.” Kade runs a hand through his dark hair, something he does frequently when stressed. The old familiar habit in the midst of all this chaos makes me smile.

  “The sphere is here,” Kade says, setting the orb down on the counter. “But we’re out of time. Z, you think you can tag a few offices quickly while Basal and I trash Lab 4A?” Thing Two, otherwise identified as Z, nods.

  “Whoa, Kade, where’d you find it?” Thing One asks.

  “Actually it found me, brother.”

  More than a little confused and tired of being ignored, I butt in. “There will be no more trashing of anything tonight, boys.”

  My bravado vanishes as the trio of gorgeous turns. Under the full weight of their dark and luminous gazes, my tongue ties in knots and I stand, but barely, more than a little weak in the knees.

  “What is she doing here anyway?” Thing One demands to know.

  “I don’t know, but she—” Kade points at me “—trapped the Sylph tonight, not me.”

  Jaw dropping, Thing One looks from me to Kade and back again. Stalking over to me he demands, “Is this true? Did you force the Sylph inside?” His unbelieving stare burns through me like hot coals.

  “I don’t know!” I shout at him. “Kade stuck that thing in my hands and told me to walk toward the guy who’d gone poof into purple smoke. So I did it, and when I opened my eyes, the smoke guy was gone.”

  Glaring back at Thing One I cross my arms over my chest, daring him to challenge my story. A deep rumble of laughter breaks through the rapidly developing tension and I snap my head toward it. Z is holding his sides and quickly becoming short of breath.

  “You confr
onted one of the ancients with your eyes closed?! You’re either the bravest or the stupidest woman I’ve ever met!” Looking from one man to the next I suddenly know what the animals at the zoo must feel like. Each one of them is staring at me, awe and wonder etched upon their faces. Unable to understand everyone’s sudden change in demeanor, I arch a brow and look to Kade.

  “What?” I ask. Striding over he grabs my hand.

  “There isn’t time to explain now, but I need you to trust me. Gwen, you truly are extraordinary,” he says, pulling me along behind him towards the exit.

  After motioning for everyone to be quiet, Kade drags me along the dark hallway to Lab 4A, at which point I’m left on the landing while he and Thing One, who he introduces as Basal, begin destroying the place. Still not understanding the necessity of all this carnage, I work up the nerve to speak out of desperation. Watching them ruin another lab makes me want to cry.

  “Why do you look funny?” I ask Kade, having noticed now that I’ve calmed down that something is off about his appearance. He pauses, looking at me with furrowed brows. Suddenly worried I’ve offended him I tack on, “I mean you look great, just different.”

  “This is what I’ve always looked like,” he tells me, while pushing a freezer onto its side. “Tonight’s just the first time you’ve seen through my glamour.”

  “Glamour?”

  Smiling up at me as he tosses beakers over his shoulder and continues, “Yes, glamour. It’s like a veil we wear so we don’t stick out.”

  “Huh? Either I’m stupid or you’re being needlessly cryptic,” I say flippantly.

  Kade stops mid-task. “Gwen, look at me, really look at me. Do I seem human to you?”

  Closing my mouth I stand there and really look at him. Kade and Basal move around the lab with unnatural speed and grace. Both are larger and more muscular than the average man, with facial features that would make a model green with envy. Seriously, either could have stepped out of a D&G advertisement. Upon closer inspection I note their eyes aren’t just luminous, they actually glow like they’re lit from within, Kade’s warm amber eyes have a smoldering brilliance like molten bronze. What are these guys? I wonder.

  “Glamour,” I whisper the word out loud. Of course, like Clark Kent! I suddenly think, making the exciting comparison. Everyone knows the handsome Christopher Reed is the man behind the sport coat and glasses as well as his alter ego Superman, but it isn’t until the world is in danger and he steps out of the phone booth dressed in blue that you stop and say Woo hoo! and then melt in your seat.

  Kade was like Superman and I was seeing him without his glasses for the first time. It was more than a little overwhelming. You’re not from Krypton are you? I want to holler at the guys, who most certainly aren’t human, but I refrain. If I’ve learned anything from reading science fiction it’s that your first guess is usually wrong. I’ll get my answers even if I have to wait all night. For now I’ll play content and trust Kade knows what he’s doing.

  “You’re taking all this better than expected,” Z says, gripping the handrail to my left. I flinch, startled by his silent approach.

  “It’s a little hard to have an epic meltdown when I still don’t know what this is,” I shoot back at him, waving an arm around for dramatic effect. Rubbing my eyes, I reconsider my reaction. “I’m sorry, that was rude.”

  “It’s alright, I’ll take an angry woman over an epic meltdown any day.” He smirks. “My name’s Zafir, by the way.”

  “I’m Gwen, but everybody seems to know that, or me I mean.”

  Zafir chuckles and agrees with me by nodding.

  “So, Zafir, can you guys turn your glamour back on now please?”

  Wrinkling his brow he looks at me, confused. “Huh? What do you mean?”

  “Well. All the colors are starting to give me a headache.”

  “Colors?” he asks like a moron. Come on, this guy knows who he is, right? Clamping down on my temper I try to explain what I’m seeing as best as I can. The closest example I can think of is the description of an aura. Each of the men is surrounded by a very thin, very bright beam of color; except the color seems to change on a whim. When the guys stand still you can barely see it, but when they move quickly it’s like they’re encased in a brilliant current of ever-changing color. Z loses a bark of laughter that resonates around the room.

  “Gwen, I’m afraid my glamour is very much still in place.”

  “How can that be?” I exclaim, exasperated again. “You look like Rainbow Brite.”

  “You’ve finally become in touch with your abilities, so now you can see through our glamour. There’s no going back, I’m afraid,” he tells me, his gravelly voice laced with sympathy. Having no foundation of knowledge to build on, I find Z’s comment hard to digest. What does he mean my abilities? Isn’t he the supernatural something-or-other here?

  “Did you really just compare me to Rainbow fucking Brite?” he asks, feigning indignation. A hysterical laugh escapes my lips.

  “Z!” Kade calls from below. “You finished?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Alright, let’s get out of here before we have any more surprises.”

  “Wait a second. Where are we going now?” I cut in.

  “My place,” Kade replies.

  “Just so we’re straight, I’m coming too,” I tell them all.

  “Oh there’s no question,” Kade agrees, his amber eyes boring into mine. “I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

  Chapter 27

  After that great line about not letting me out of sight, no one pays any attention to me on the ride home, not even Kade. Stuck with my own thoughts, I begin to draw my own conclusions based off of the little I’ve seen and heard so far. Somehow Mr. Taylor, the CEO of Preston-Ward, is involved because they mentioned searching his office. The sphere appears to be the only thing they were after and everyone believed it was in Taylor’s office.

  So the sphere is important. I don’t know what creepy smoke guy is, or how he plays into the equation, but if I understood Basal right it sounds like he’s trapped in the sphere now. So why did they trash the place? Unless it was a cleverly constructed ruse to hide what they were really doing, I think. Wracking my brain I try to make some sense of it all, but I can’t; there are too many holes to fill.

  Oh yeah, and to top it all off these guys aren’t human and apparently I’m extraordinary too, whatever that means. Thank God Ben’s at work tonight because there’s no way I’m going home now, not without answers.

  Huddled around Kade’s barely furnished kitchen I again play the roll of wall flower while the men heatedly discuss who to call, who not to call, travel arrangements, and the like. Pushing past Zafir, who’s staying out of the way by leaning on the bar, I snag the only stool at the counter, pull it toward the window, and sit down.

  Geez, Kade. Would it kill you to buy some chairs? I think. In fact, the whole apartment is sparsely furnished, like he just moved in when I know for a fact he’s been living at this address for basically three years. I’ve only set foot in this place a couple of times, though, and never for more than a few minutes. Huh. With all the time Melanie, Kade, and I spend together I wonder why that is.

  Tired, annoyed, and ready to address my own agenda, I grab a beer from the fridge and prepare to steer the conversation my direction when it simply ends.

  “Okay, agreed. I’ll inform Adil of the mission’s success and that’s all,” Basal tells Kade. Casting a respectful glance my direction, he continues. “You’ve more than earned the honor of sharing the rest of the story.” He finishes and makes a courteous bow to me before exiting the kitchen and disappearing down the hallway. Perplexed over his odd behavior I pin Kade with my stare.

  “It’s past time to explain why I’m so extraordinary, I think.”

  Nodding to Z, Kade answers. “Fair enough.” Grabbing a couple of beers, he and Zafir follow me into the living room. Z retrieves the sphere from a black duffle he’s been carrying since we left Pr
eston-Ward. Setting it down on the coffee table he grabs the bottle Kade offers before parking himself against the wall next to the couch. Sitting across from Kade I begin to rehearse the list of questions that have been rolling around in my head since I found him in the lab tonight, starting with what the hell are you. But again Kade beats me to the punch.

  “Is Ben home? Will he be home tomorrow?”

  “No, he’s just started back tonight, but what has he got to do with anything?”

  “Nothing,” he mutters, again running a hand through his hair. He leans toward me finally, resting his elbows on his knees. “There’s too much to tell and not enough time in which to tell it, I’m afraid. I’m going to relate everything to the situation at hand and answer any questions you have as we go.”

  “Fair enough,” I reply.

  “You see, I’ve been following you for along time, Gwen, convinced you were the one. Well tonight you’ve proved it and now you have to come with us.”

  “Come with you where?” I question tentatively.

  “To Dubai.”

  “The conference?!” I exclaim, totally perturbed. “I don’t have time for that! I’m still knee-deep in that project I told you about, and now, on top of it all, I’m going to have to rebuild my lab!” Kade’s eyes never leave mine as he patiently waits for me to finish my rant.

  “You’re never going back to that place again,” he tells me, his deep timbre ringing with confident finality. I know he means Preston-Ward.

  “Excuse me!” I bark defensively rising to the edge of my seat. “I didn’t realize Captain Kade was running my life!”

  “Ahh! You infuriating Nephilim! Just listen to me!” he yells, slapping his thigh in frustration.

  “Seriously! You really think now is the best time for one of your Gwen’s-a-giant jokes?!” I say, angry sarcasm coating my words.

  “A little help, please,” Kade asks Zafir, to which Z slowly shakes his head from side to side and raises his hands in a leave-me-out-of-it gesture. Rubbing his forehead, Kade tries again.