The Hidden Prophecy Trilogy

5. Fever Dreams of Clarity-2

As the hours wore on, she became curious again about Zaid’s knowledge. Even though the story he was spinning was wild and totally unreal, he certainly did have a lot of details. Not once did he sound anything less than totally confident. In fact, he acted as if she should have expected this to happen. She wanted answers. Either way, she wasn’t about to relinquish her pride; she still despised his entire being.

expectedQuietly, she said, “Tell me more about the tattoos.”

“Pretty sure it’s my turn,” he muttered back.

Swallowing her retort, she said, “Fine.”

“Earlier, you said I followed you. Where exactly did you see me?”

“Yesterday, on the bus coming home from work. And when you followed me in the parking lot.” She remembered the image of the dark-clothed figure and the way the light had shied away.

Zaid looked over at her. “I didn’t get on any buses. And are you talking about when you ran into me?”

Kinza’s brow furrowed, “No…” Her eyes went wide. “Wait. That was you? Then who was the other person? Another venari?”

ThatvenariZaid looked as confused as she felt. “Describe them.”

“Um, well, I couldn’t see them at all, but they were wearing all black, like some sort of expensive ninja costume. And…”

“And what?”

“Well, it was like they were standing under a cloud, like even in broad daylight they would be in shadow. I don’t know. It was weird and creepy. Friend of yours?” she asked sarcastically.

“I saw them as well, and I have no idea who they were, but they had a stable Aura, so they’re Anunnaki for sure.”

“An aura? Like meditation, third eye kind of stuff?”

“Yes and no. It’s how Anunnaki tell each other apart. All of us have one. It’s your… like your energy, your soul; an extension of you.”

“Do I have an Aura then? Or do ‘ubir’ not have one?” She half expected him to give a detailed description of it, like it was a rainbow that glittered or something.

“That’s the odd thing. You don’t have one.”

“What? No.” She fake gasped, hand covering her mouth.

Zaid pursed his lips. “When Anunnaki complete the blood rite, their Aura shatters. That’s how we, venari, can tell them apart from the rest of us. Besides the usual bloodthirsty tendencies.”

venari“What’s a blood rite?”

“It’s my turn. Has anything else odd happened recently? Or ever? Like healing at an accelerated rate, visions, telepathy?”

“Telepathy?!” She almost laughed. This was getting so ridiculous.

“Yes.”

“I’ve been having nightmares over the past week, but that’s not like, supernatural though.” She didn’t dare tell him he looked like the warriors from her dream—no way, not a chance. “No telepathy,” she added. Other than when she and Mitra occasionally locked eyes after a particularly bossy comment from Karin.

“Nightmares can have psychic properties, so I’m not ruling that out. Healing? Did you ever get sick as a child?”

“Yeah, I was sick all the time. The flu, chickenpox, even lice once.”

“You said you’ve been having nightmares for a week? Well, what about now? Have you been healing since then?” he asked and nodded pointedly at her hands in her lap.

She turned them over and almost gasped aloud. The cuts from the rock were no more than faint pink lines crisscrossing her palms. It was as if it had been weeks instead of hours. She stared at them in disbelief. “Is… is that an Anunnaki thing then?” She almost didn’t want him to answer.

“We all heal much faster than humans. See?” He turned his face toward her and pointed at his cheek. The gash she had given him was a faint line as well.

Kinza started to feel a little woozy. First, he knew about her tattoo, and now she had visible proof that both of them were healing much faster than anything she had ever seen. Not to mention that sometimes he moved so fast it was hard to track. He had said he could move at the speed of sound, right? Her heart started pounding a little too loud for comfort. She took several deep breaths, in her nose and out her mouth, trying to calm her frantic heart.

Trying to distract herself, Kinza asked, “So tell me again where we are going right now?”

“About another two hours north of here, there’s a hotel where an Ummanu lives. He’s a friend. He’s got a portal we can use that will take us to a town close to Mount Kilimanjaro, and from there, we walk.”

“What’s an Ummanu?”

“They are…” He scratched at the scruff on his jawline. “They are humans who have agreed to keep the knowledge of the Anunnaki, but they live outside Rhapta. Kind of like assistants. No, that’s not right. Haris would kill me for that comparison. Ah, well. Basically, they are all over the world, and they guard the portals for us, so we don’t have to move too deeply in human society. They also help clean up any little messes we left behind. Like the commotion we left in your neighborhood last night. They’ll pay off the local police to pretend it never happened.”

“Mmm.” This was not helping her frantic heartbeat.

Zaid looked at her out of the corner of his eye. She had forgotten he had mentioned something about “hearing” heartbeats. Great. “Are you well?” he asked.

It was an absurd question coming from the man who kidn*pped her the night before and was taking her to a trial for a crime she didn’t commit. She was fairly certain he did not give a modicum of thought to her wellbeing. “I need to pee.”

He sighed. “Fine, we can make a quick stop. We need gas anyway.”

* * *

Ten minutes later, they were pulling into a small gas station on the side of the highway. There were only two pumps, and the building looked like it had seen better days. Regardless, there were a few cars parked outside and one or two people milling around the door. The entire lot was backed by the thick forest that lined the highway.

Kinza knew that this far north, the woods would go on for miles, and the majority of houses were just cabins for people in the city to escape to on weekends and holidays. Gas stations like this were only around small towns for the locals to congregate, so there must have been a town not too far up the road. It would explain the number of people that were here.

She hopped out of the truck, it was getting close to sunset and the evening air felt good on her skin. She kept thinking about the healed cuts on her palms and realized that her headache was gone as well. In fact, she felt better than she had over the last week. She wouldn’t say that the night prior had been any sort of beauty rest, but she hadn’t had a nightmare, and that was a good sign. On the flip side, instead of feeling tired and lethargic, she almost felt too good. Her skin was warm, heart still pounding, and a restless energy thrummed in her arms and legs.

tooShe wanted to call Grams and let her know she was okay and listen to her familiar voice. Kinza knew that Zaid wouldn’t let her near a phone, though. As she motioned to go inside, he gave her a look that said I’m watching you and patted his calf. His obsidian blade must have been tucked into his boot. Kinza just curled her lip, wrinkled her nose at him, and walked inside.

I’m watching you The bell above the door chimed as she walked in. A pimply-nosed cashier looked up from behind the counter to the left and returned to his magazine when he saw her, blatantly bored with his job. She spotted the sign for the women’s bathroom at the far back corner of the store and made a beeline for it. When she got inside, she locked the door and released a breath. It was the first time in twenty-four hours that she was truly alone. After using the toilet that might have been considered clean once in its life, she washed her hands in the sink and looked up into the cracked mirror.

As she had thought before, the dark circles were a bit better than yesterday, and her skin was a bit brighter. She was in severe need of a shower though, dust and grime from the past day’s events coated her, even with a change of clothes. A few tiny curls had sprung up near her hairline, having been released from the sweat there. The faint remnants of tear tracks could still be seen on her face as well. She splashed some water on her face, dried her hands off, and left the bathroom.

She took her time meandering through the aisles of snacks, savoring her temporary freedom. She found a disposable cell phone, and as she turned it over in her hands, the bell chimed over the door as someone walked in. Immediately dropping the phone back onto the shelf, she peeked her head around the corner, expecting Zaid, but at that moment, she started to get that tingling sensation on the back of her neck. It wasn’t Zaid.

The dark-clothed figure was walking right toward her.

Kinza’s blood ran cold, and she dropped down, hoping they hadn’t seen her. She quickly moved back to the end of the aisle to round the corner and looked again down the opposite aisle. The figure was nowhere in sight. Standing up, she craned her neck, looking around, trying to spot them, but couldn’t see or hear anything other than the cashier ringing a few people up by the counter.

She moved quickly, walking to the front door, but the tingling on her neck became more insistent. As she was about to turn down the main aisle, the tingling became almost painful. Every primal instinct in her body suddenly screamed down! Kinza shoved her head toward her knees, and a long, deeply curved, obsidian blade whizzed over her head and embedded itself in the wall by the counter.

down! Chaos erupted.

The cashier started shouting as Kinza spun and lashed out with her arm in fear. It collided with the shoulder of the dark figure, and she stumbled backward to crash into a rack of trail mix and cheese puffs. The painful tingling had moved down and settled in her stomach, making the skin there burn.

The figure wrenched the sword from the wall, two people who had been at the counter ran out screaming, but the figure had no eyes for them. Kinza kept backing down the aisle, not knowing where to go. She looked left and right and realized the granola bars wouldn’t help her.

They stalked toward Kinza, footsteps soft even on the sticky floors. They looked almost taller than they had the day before. Could this have been a different person? The hood was up but not as high as it had been the night before. She realized she could see their eyes. A green so faded it looked like all the life had been leeched out. A sickly color. They were narrowed in disgust, and the figure raised the curved blade behind them, holding one arm forward.

Kinza’s back slammed into the glass fridge doors at the back of the gas station. She grasped for the handle and hauled the door open just as the blade came down, shattering the glass around her. She screamed and kicked out, miraculously catching her attacker in the gut. They bent over, and a distinctly male voice grunted in pain. She used the moment to turn and run the few feet to the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her. She heard nothing at first but threw the deadbolt into the lock and looked around.

A loud booming came from the door, rattling it on its hinges and startling her. There they were. Kinza thought that it would immediately c***k, but she realized the door was a bit thicker and heavier than normal. The bathrooms must have been the designated storm shelter for the building. Most public buildings in Michigan had to have them. He was trying to break it down. She guessed she had thirty seconds at best.

There were no other doors leading to the bathroom, and the only window was a small slit high above the mirror. She immediately climbed on top of the sink and unlocked it. It was tight and rusted, and one of her fingernails split down the middle as she pried it open.

A loud c***k sounded through the door. It wouldn’t hold long. She had to hurry.

She shoved the window open and stuck her arm out. She realized there was no way she could fit through it. The tingling on her neck and burning on her abdomen had become nearly unbearable.

“Somebody help me!” she screamed frantically, waving her arm. The window faced the back of the building to the woods. There would be no one there to help her. The door behind was truly cracking now. The booming was so loud it sounded like a thunderclap. “Someone heeeelp!”

When no one immediately came for her, Kinza jumped down. She only had a few seconds until the man would be through the door, and then she would be cornered. Without thinking, she punched the mirror, shards dropping into the sink. She didn’t feel the pain as her knuckles started gushing blood. She just grabbed the largest shard she could and clutched it in her hand.

It was too late. The bathroom door flew inwards and slammed into the opposite wall. Kinza whipped around. The man moved like lightning, arcing his sword arm over his head in her direction. The world slowed, and Kinza felt herself screaming but couldn’t hear it. Instead of the terrible pain of being slashed, the burning in her stomach reached a peak. Suddenly, a bright, white light exploded out of her. A single wave of energy like a seismic clap followed closely behind. The man was thrown back through the open doorway to crash through the opposite wall. Kinza had a momentary feeling of déjà vu.

The walls and ceiling of the bathroom were destroyed, water bursting out of pipes, plaster falling from above. Kinza had dropped the glass shard, crouched down to avoid the falling debris, and looked around her. There was a hole in the back wall just big enough for her to fit through. She didn’t wait, dashing to the hole, wiggling through it, and running straight into the waiting forest.