Chapter Twenty-One
Surt was able to watch the events unfold through Martin’s eyes. His second in command had done well, infiltrating the couple. But he had to be careful not to tip them off, especially Reya. She was more in tune with the negative plane. For now, the best he could do was connect himself to Martin mentally, which allowed him to remotely communicate and get feedback immediately.
This was working far better than he could have imagined. Martin’s clean soul was able to absorb a great deal of darkness and still remain positive. It was Surt’s best idea yet, and one he planned to leverage extensively once he had control of the city.
They were looking for a pyramid. He didn’t know why yet, but it had to have something to do with the crystal. The day had been spent scouring the area around East Fordham Road in the Bronx. It was a lot of territory to cover, and they hadn’t found anything.
He tried to convince them to spend the night at Martin’s house, but they refused. They did agree to let him pick them up the following morning to cover the last few locations. Martin hadn’t seen the map so he didn’t know where they were.
Surt would have to be patient. Patience was torture, but for this? For the power it promised? He would be very patient.
In the meantime, there were houses of worship to burn and fear to fuel. Tonight would be the worst that this city had ever seen.
* * *
Reya made Martin drop them off six blocks from Chu’s place. Thane knew she had been on edge all day. Something was bothering her. Thane closed the bedroom door and watched her kick off her shoes. Then she stretched out on the bed and turned on the TV. It was after 11 p.m., and it had been long and unproductive day.
He called the hospital to check on his mother while Reya watched the local newscast. His mother was doing about the same, and he took that as a good sign. He still didn’t understand why she would want to leave now. He couldn’t help but think that Surt was involved somehow.
He ended the call and set down his cell phone. He walked over to her lying on the bed. She was as tense as he’d ever seen her. “It must be really bad if you can’t tell me.”
Her expression was apprehensive. “You aren’t going to like it.”
There were a lot of things he didn’t like at the moment. He sat on the edge of the bed and removed his shoes and socks. “Try me.”
“I think Martin is being controlled by Surt,” she said.
Her blunt statement should have shaken him to his core. But for some reason, it didn’t. Thane stood up and pulled his shirt off. “I know.”
Her eyebrows rose in obvious surprise. “You knew?”
“His color was off. I’m not worried. Martin won’t listen to him.”
Martin wouldn’t succumb to Surt. He was a good man through and through. Maybe Surt was using him, but he wasn’t controlling him. He was sure of it. But it did explain why Martin was off. There was a battle going on for his soul, and Martin would win. He had to. Thane rolled his shoulders and rubbed his tight neck. He wished he could get to the gym and work out. Mind-blowing sex with Reya was going to have to do. Not that he was complaining.
Reya hesitated. “Martin killed the drunk behind the bar.”
That explained the dead guy he saw at the hospital. Thane unzipped his jeans and pulled them off. He tossed them over the chair. “Did the dead guy ID Martin?”
“Vehemently. And the dead don’t lie,” she said. “We can’t trust Martin. He already knows too much. I don’t want Surt any closer to us than he is.”
Thane scanned her body stretched out on the bed. He couldn’t wait to get her undressed. “We could always give Martin a false lead. It might get Surt off our tail for a while.”
She smiled wickedly. “I knew there was a reason I kept you around.”
Thane stood in front of her, unable to hide the fact that he really wanted her. Surt be damned. He climbed onto the bed and settled on top of Reya. It was a perfect fit. “Don’t worry, Surt can’t push Martin out. He’s too good of a man. He’ll win.”
Then he kissed her throat.
Reya said, “I hope so. Tomorrow, we need to go the rest of the places alone.”
He lifted her shirt and exposed her breasts. They were beautiful. “Okay.”
“You aren’t listening,” she said with a sigh. He felt her run her hands down his back. A groan rose from deep inside him as she arched her body against him.
“I heard every word,” he said, lying through his teeth. He had only one thing on his mind right now.
* * *
Reya was a ball of light, zooming through the galaxies and dimensions at speeds so fast she couldn’t comprehend how it worked, and yet slow enough to see every detail. The colors of the fifth dimension, the sounds of the seventh dimension, the unconditional love of the ninth.
This is my world, she thought. All of this is mine.
It was so breathtaking and satisfying, she didn’t want to come back to Earth. And yet, Earth needed her. She allowed herself to be drawn back to the sleepy, little solar system, and the blue marble of a planet in its heart.
When she landed, it was a night in the desert. Reya was a young Native American woman of unusually tall stature. Her eyes were green, an anomaly among her people, who would later be known as the Anasazi. In fact, she looked nothing like her two younger sisters between whom she kept the peace. She made intricately beaded moccasins, so important to the survival of her people.
She was to be married to the young chief of another tribe soon. He was a good man, and for that, she thanked the Creator. She stood just under the cover of the cliff that sheltered her people from the elements and heat of an unrelenting daytime sun. Tonight, however, something was very different.
Lightning tracked across the night sky, illuminating heavy clouds moving with unnatural speed and formations. The distant rock ridge glowed in yellows and reds. Her family stood next to her, equally silent and in awe of the power.
They were coming.
She walked out to meet them under rolling clouds and howling winds. She wasn’t afraid. She knew the stories of these Sky People and the gifts they brought.
Across the stinging sands, she walked alone. Her family did not follow. She had been chosen. That’s why she was different.
In the low land beneath her home, they met her. Tall, thin creatures with green eyes. They greeted her with love and light. Sand and brush whipped up around them, but the ground under their feet was calm.
She could hear them talking to her in her head, even though no one spoke. They told her of a time when she would need to use the information they were about to give her. It would be far in the future of this little world, but she needed to remember it.
Then the creature in front stepped up to her. He held a single clear crystal in his hand. Slowly, he pointed the crystal toward her and touched it against her forehead.
The influx of details flooded through her brain, barely comprehensible and nearly painful in its brief exchange. She saw her many lives on this Earth—as a high priestess in Egypt, a clansman leading his men to war, a holy man in India, a hermit medicine woman in the Midwest, a resident of Atlantis, a young girl passing for a boy on a pirate ship, a nurse in the Crimean War, a woman with bound feet in China, a dancer in Mesopotamia, a young male doctor in Chicago, a psychic and healer in ancient Thebes, and many more that flew by quickly.
In every life, the crystal was there—hidden in a piece of jewelry, embedded in a work of art, or as a source of power and light. It sang with energy, held infinite power and might. It was a universal tool, a living entity, and a cosmic tuner. Through its many iterations and uses, she finally understood.
Then the stream of light ended, and Reya drew a long breath into her lungs. “I remember all.”
* * *
Thane waited until she came back to him. Color returned to her face, and movement to her body. He exhaled a breath of relief. She’d been gone a long time. He would have called 911 except he doubted they would have believed that she’d been vibrating with white light for the last hour.
Her eyes fluttered open, still lost in whatever dream world she’d just returned from. Slowly, she focused on the here and now, her expression saddening as she did.
Was it that bad here? He almost took it personally, except he understood.
“Are you back?” he asked.
She turned her gaze on him and smiled. It was a different smile than he’d seen before. There was ancient wisdom and peace in it. She was still in there, of course. But now it was as if she wasn’t alone.
“Where did you go?”
She blinked a few times as if trying to recall. “Everywhere in every time. I saw the past, present, and future. Everything.”
By his calculations, she’d been out for an hour. That was quite a feat. He didn’t ask her how she’d done it. These days, he just took everything on faith or insanity. “How do you feel?”
Reya pulled off the covers and got out of bed to stand up. “Fine. I know what Surt wants the grid for. We have to leave for the White Plains location now.”
The clock read 1:35 a.m. and White Plains was a long drive. Thane didn’t want to get stranded there without a car. Chu was not going to be happy when they woke him to borrow his. “Right now?”
“Yes. Call Martin and give him the location.”
Thane frowned at her. “We don’t even know if it’s the right place.”
“It is. I saw it.”
He started to get dressed. “If we tell Martin, Surt’s going to know where it is, too.”
“I’m counting on it. I have to end this,” she said and pulled on her black pants.
He didn’t like the way she said it. “You mean we.”
“No, me and Surt. Not you, not anyone else.”
“Surt is mine,” Thane said firmly. He hadn’t come all this way to stand in line.
Reya slipped her pants on. “Do you want Surt or do you want Surt gone?”
Both, but he was afraid if he said that she’d disappear or something and leave him out of the picture completely. She was different now, a woman on a mission. He needed to make sure he was part of that mission. “Gone.”
“Good, because I’m the only one who can destroy him. I’m the only one who can send him back to the soul world.”
She was serious. Suddenly, things had changed, and there was only one reason. He sat on the bed to pull his shoes on. “What did you see?”
“My purpose,” she said. “The crystal and I are bound. It is part of me. I know how to use it.”
“I thought it belonged to my father.”
“He was a caretaker of it. A protector,” she said, sounding distant and distracted.
Thane processed that for a moment. “So he didn’t die because of me? He died protecting the crystal from Surt?”
She looked at him then, eyes soft. “He was a very brave man.”
“I know that.” Thane stood up, almost afraid to feel any relief from his guilt. Something was bound to come along and make it worse again. “So is it a power source?”
“It is.” She pulled on her coat. “But it’s more than that.”
“A weapon,” he guessed and looked out the window. There was no moon tonight and no clouds. A perfect time to go wandering around in someone’s neighborhood looking for a pyramid.
“It could be,” she said. She slipped the staff in her pant leg pouch. “But that’s not what he wants it for.”
Thane turned around and found her holding the crystal. It was alive with tangible energy, light flowing out from it like rivers. In its glow there was concern etched on her face, but also determination.
She stood ready for battle. There was a different energy around her, something otherworldly. She’d become stronger and more powerful. Thane couldn’t describe it, but he could see it. It felt like the hum of a high-voltage power line running through their room, increasing every second.
“What could be worse than a weapon?” he asked.
“An interdimensional beacon.”
He had a feeling this was the something worse part. “And who would Surt be signaling to?”
Her eyes glowed silver and shone with the same inner light as the crystal she carried. “He’s summoning darkness.”
* * *
Chu invited himself along, offering his unique expertise on the grid, Atlantis, and all other weird stuff. Thane suspected he simply didn’t want anyone else driving his 1985 Cadillac Seville. The parkway was still relatively quiet heading up to White Plains, but Chu was going the speed limit, and that was that. The trip felt like forever, especially considering that Surt was getting prepared to call in every evil entity ever created.
Thane sat in the backseat by himself and thought briefly about getting some more sleep to boost his energy before the showdown. However, Chu and Reya were talking supernatural stuff in the front seat, and he figured he’d better stay sharp since he needed all the help he could get.
“So you think the crystal and pyramid work as a communications device?” Chu said. “How?”
“He could harness the power of the entire grid and use the communications ability of the crystal to broadcast a message,” she said. “It would travel through time, space, and dimensions.”
Thane shook his head. Maybe he didn’t want to know. “But wouldn’t everyone hear it?”
She turned around in her seat to look at him. “He could change the vibration to target negative forces. He might even have enough power to bring them all over.”
“A portal for the dark ones?” Chu asked. “Shit. I knew this would happen.”
Thane frowned. “You knew?”
Chu answered, “The signs of global enlightenment are here. There is a rising of the collective consciousness around the globe. Dictators falling, more good people leading, and darkness receding. I think the Earth is heading toward a dimensional shift soon.”
Thane found that hard to believe, since the world looked about the same to him. “Those are no more than the typical highs and lows. Read any history book.”
Chu shook his head. “Not this time. This time, there is no going back to complacency. People understand now that if they don’t push and if they don’t change the world, it will never happen. They are starting to see and think for themselves. People want the truth.”
“People have always wanted the truth,” Thane said.
Reya replied, “No. People want what’s easy. The truth isn’t easy, because it’s not always what you want to hear.”
Fine, whatever. Maybe Chu was right, but there were a damn lot of changing that needed to be done before this world enlightened anytime soon. “So Surt wants to stop the shift, we guessed that.”
Reya looked at him. “This is more than that. Given enough darkness, he could change the direction the planet shifts into. He could shift it into darkness, into his domain.”
Son of a bitch. “So he’s making a last stand for Earth. Brings in all his friends. Turns the energy of the planet dark. Takes control. Kicks out all the good guys.”
“Close enough,” Reya admitted. “And if he doesn’t move now, he won’t be able to stop the process. It’s already begun.”
Thane felt a familiar anger take hold. The damn Universe and its bureaucracy. They’d be willing to sit back and watch all this unfold when the people had worked so hard to change things. Watch people die for change. Watch people be taken over by Surt’s power, like Martin had. “And no one would do anything about it.”
Chu frowned at him through the rearview mirror. “Hey, I’m here, ain’t I?”
Thane locked his gaze with Reya. “We are not the ones I’m talking about.”
She thinned her lips. “I don’t know why they aren’t doing more.”
“It’s not their job,” Chu said as he pulled the car onto the side of the road next to a heavily wooded area. “It’s not like they make us come back here. We could go anywhere.”
“I like it here,” Thane said.
“Since when?” Reya asked.
“Since I found out that Surt wants it for himself,” he said. “Where are we?”
“Edge of a state park,” Reya told him. “It’s the only place that makes sense. Seven hundred acres of wooded bliss.”
“Built on the tip of a five-hundred-million-year-old crystal,” Chu said.
Both he and Reya stilled. “What?”
Chu shrugged. “Haven’t you ever heard of Manhattan Schist? It’s the bedrock this city sits on.”
Reya closed her eyes in understanding. “Shit.”
Precisely, Thane thought. Now he understood how one small crystal could control the grid. It just tapped into the massive crystal already in the ground.
Thane got out of the car and surveyed the woods for trouble. Since he’d told Martin where they were going, it was bound to show up sooner or later.
Chu pulled his Yankees jacket around him and zipped it up. “You people are damn crazy if you think there’s a pyramid in the middle of those woods.”
Reya glanced at Thane. She didn’t need to tell him the situation. If there were no pyramid, no way to tap into the grid, they’d be facing Surt with practically nothing except Reya’s one crystal. Worse, if there was a pyramid and they failed, then Surt would have everything he needed to enslave humanity.