Clara’s eyes glistened as she turned for the door. “I am really very impressed with you, young lady. Very much impressed.”
When Clara disappeared into the hall, Kelly felt for Nathan’s hand and clutched it to her chest. She took a deep breath and smiled. “I really like her.”
“Yeah. Me, too.” As her hands enveloped his, her fingers trembled. “Are you cold?” he asked.
Her faraway eyes each shed a tear. “I’m not cold. I’m just scared.”
Nathan leaned closer and softened his voice. “Scared of what?”
“Lots of things.” She slowly tightened her grip on his hand. “What if all of creation collapses? What if I never get my eye-sight back? What if we can’t find your parents? What if —”
He quieted her with a long, soothing, “Shhhh …” When her hands settled and her eyes turned toward him, he continued in a hushed tone. “Those are just ‘what ifs.’ Everything’s going to be all right.”
She blinked at him. A new tremble took shape in her lips. “But if your parents die, it’ll be my fault.”
“Your fault? Why?”
Again, she blinked, but this time the tremor spread from her lips to her cheeks and echoed in her hands until her entire body shook. Her voice broke into a plaintive call. “Because … because you could have rescued them, but you saved me instead.”
“Of course I saved you.” He set a tender hand on her cheek. As if stilled by his touch, her tremors eased and faded away. “Saving your life was more important than getting them back.”
As her eyebrows arched high, her voice pitched up as well. “But why? You’ve been trying to rescue your parents ever since I met you.”
Nathan drew his head back. “You mean … you don’t know?”
“No. That’s why I’m asking.”
He pulled his hands away and set them on the bedrail. “I can’t tell you.”
“Why not?”
He lowered his head. “You said not to use that word.”
“What word?” Even as she asked her question, she drew in a halting breath. Her wounded eyes glistened. “You … you mean …”
He nodded.
New tremors raced across her hands as she reached out for his. “Go ahead … and say it.”
As their four hands intertwined in a soft embrace, he whispered, “I saved you, Kelly Clark, because I love you.”
Again her tremors faded. “But why would you love someone like me? I’m just a —”
“A girl who’s searching.” Bending closer, he raised their hands and breathed on her knuckles. “Love is the true breath of God. And I’ll do everything I can to show his love to you so you’ll find what you’re searching for.”
Tears streaming, she looked at her anointed hand. “But I don’t know … what I’m searching for.”
“I think I do, at least a couple of things. We’ll search for them together.” As a vibrant song rang through the halls, Nathan smiled. “Sounds like you have a visitor.”
The door swung open, revealing a tall man with bulging eyes carrying a pizza box high on his palm. Singing something lively in an odd mix of Italian and English, he strode to the bed and laid the box on Kelly’s stomach. “Extra liver and anchovies,” Tony bellowed, “just the way you like it.”
Kelly stared at the box, then at her father, obviously trying to hide a grimace. “But I —”
With a dramatic flip of his hand, Tony opened the box. A wave of savory aromas washed into their faces. A large pizza with extra cheese and pepperoni decorated the bottom of the box.
Tony slapped his forehead. “I can’t believe they forgot the liver and anchovies!”
Kelly smiled. “Daddy,” she said, new tears tracing to her chin, “you’re my hero!”
His own eyes tearing up, Tony shifted from foot to foot. His voice tracked up a notch. “A hero? Because I brought you pizza?”
Kelly shook her head. “Because you love me. If you hadn’t taught me to be tough, I never would have survived.”
“Yeah … well, I knew all along that you needed to learn …”
His voice faltered. As his face reddened, he cleared his throat. “What I mean to say is …”
Nathan turned his head but watched out of the corner of his eye.
Tony looked at the floor briefly, then gazed at her, his tears now streaming. “What I mean to say is … I’m glad you’re my daughter.”
Releasing Nathan’s hands, Kelly spread out her arms. Tony shuffled to the side of the bed and pulled her into a tight embrace. As they wept together, Nathan backed away from the bed, easing toward the door without a sound.
Kelly opened her eyes and peered at him over her father’s shoulder, blinking through a shower of tears. The joy in her expression said it all. This embrace was one of the treasures she had been searching for.
Nathan smiled, formed an “I love you” sign with his fingers, and left the room.
1
A STALKER
Nathan strode down the hospital hallway his brain focused on a single thought — finding his parents. Once mutilated and dead in matching coffins, now they were alive. He had touched his father’s chain-bound arms through the dimensional mirror and felt his loving strength. He had heard his mother’s voice and once again bathed in the majesty of her matchless violin.
Yet, the beautiful duet they had played at the funeral had once again become a solo. He had failed. The dimensional portal collapsed, and there was no word from Earth Blue as to whether or not his parents might still be in the bedroom where they had sought rescue from their captivity.
He sat down on a coffee-stained sofa in the waiting area and clenched his fist. His parents were real. They were alive. And now he had to move heaven and earth, maybe even three earths, to find them.
Staring into the hall, he mentally reentered Kelly’s room and saw her lying on the bed, beaten and bruised from their ordeal, her shoulder lacerated and her eyes half blind. The words he spoke to her just moments ago came back to him. We’ll search for them together. But how could she help? With all the dangers ahead, how could a blinded, wounded girl help him find his parents?
A sharp, matronly voice shook him from his meditative trance. “Ah! There you are!”
Nathan shot to his feet. Clara marched toward him, her heels clacking on the tile floor as she pushed back her wind-blown gray hair. Walking stride for stride next to the tall lady, Dr. Gordon stared at a cell phone, his face as grim as ever.
As they entered the waiting area, Nathan nodded toward the hallway. “Tony’s with Kelly. Thought I’d let them have some daddy-daughter time.”
While Dr. Gordon punched his cell phone keys, apparently typing out a text message, Clara lowered her voice. “Dr. Gordon received a cryptic email from Simon Blue. Solomon and Francesca aren’t there in your Earth Blue bedroom, but apparently something very unusual is going on, and we’re trying to get details.”
“So that’s our next destination,” Nathan said.
“Yes. We have already alerted my counterpart on Earth Blue.
She and Daryl will be ready to pick you up at the observatory and take you to Kelly Blue’s house.”
“Good. Even if Mom and Dad aren’t there, it’s the logical place to start looking for them.”
“Are you going to break the news to Kelly?”
“I guess I’ll have to. She’s in no shape to come with me, but convincing her of that won’t be easy.”
Dr. Gordon closed his phone and slid it into his pocket. Turning toward Nathan, he spoke in his usual formal manner. “There are no further details available. We should proceed to the observatory at once. With Mictar’s associates gone, there should be no trouble gaining access. I have dismissed the guards, with the exception of one whom I trust, so we should not run into any unexpected company.”
“Okay,” Nathan said. “Let me talk to Kelly. I’ll be right back.”
As he walked down the hall, he wondered about Dr. Gordon’s words. It was true that Mictar’s goons were gone, giving him fre
e access to the dimensional transport mirror on the observatory ceiling, but what about Mictar himself? He had disappeared into the mirror with Jack riding on top of him, but where could he have gone? And what could have become of Jack? Even if he escaped, he would be lost, especially after his recent brush with death in the Earth Yellow airline disaster and his subsequent discovery of his own burial site. Since Jack’s dimension lagged Earth Red’s by about thirty years, he would feel like a time-traveling visitor from the past.
A man in scrubs caught up with and passed Nathan, pushing a lab tray stuffed with glass bottles and tubes. With lanky pale arms protruding from his short green sleeves, he kept his head low as he hurried. He slowed down in front of Kelly’s door, but when it opened, he resumed his pace and turned into a side corridor, his head still low.
Nathan could barely breathe. Could that have been Mictar? Would he be bold enough to come into the hospital? And why would he be so persistent in trying to get to Kelly? What value was she to him?
As Nathan neared the room, Tony came out. Bending his tall frame, he released the latch gently and walked away on tiptoes. When he spied Nathan, he jerked up and smiled, his booming voice contradicting his earlier attempts to be quiet. “Hey! What brings you back so soon?”
Nathan kept his eyes on the side hallway. No sign of the technician. “Some news for Kelly. I have to head back to the scene of the crime.”
Tony shook his finger. “Better not. She was so tired, she fell asleep in mid-bite. And if she’s too tired for pizza, she’s too tired for company.”
“You let her eat it? She’s only supposed to have —”
“Hey,” Tony said, pointing at himself, “I didn’t know about her diet until after I brought the pizza. But if you want to tell her what she should and shouldn’t eat, be my guest.”
“I know what you mean.” Nathan glanced between the door and the other hallway. “Okay if I sneak in and leave her a note?”
He grinned, his eyes bugging out even more than usual. “Just don’t get any ideas, Romeo.”
Nathan returned the smile, though he chafed at the comment. Tony was joking, of course, but sometimes he blurted out the dumbest things. He wouldn’t dream of touching her inappropriately not in a million years. His father had drilled that into his head a long time ago — never intimately touch a woman who is not your wife.
“I’ll behave myself.” He reached for the knob and nodded toward the other hallway. “Mind checking something out for me? I saw someone suspicious, a guy in scrubs, head that way. It looked like he was going into Kelly’s room, but when you came out, he took off.”
“You got it.” Tony crept toward the other hall, pointing. “That way?”
“Yeah. Just a few seconds ago.”
“I’m on it.” When he reached the corridor, he looked back, his muscular arms flexing. “Time to take out the trash.”
Nathan opened the door a crack, eased in, and closed it behind him. Walking slowly as his eyes adjusted, he quietly drew the partitioning curtain to the side and focused on Kelly’s head resting on a pillow, her shoulder-length brown hair splashed across the white linen. He stopped at her bedside, unable to draw his stare away from her lovely face.
Black scorch marks on her brow and cheeks and a thick bandage on her shoulder bore witness to her recent battle with Mictar. Her closed lids concealed wounded eyes, maybe the worst of all her injuries, the result of Mictar’s efforts to burn through to her brain and steal her life. So far, no corrective lenses seemed to help at all. If anything, they made her vision worse. Still, even in such a battle-torn condition, she was beautiful to behold, a true warrior wrapped in the sleeping shell of a petite, yet athletic, young lady.
He searched her side table for a pen and paper. A portable radio next to a flower vase played soft music, a piano concerto — elegant, but unfamiliar. He spotted a pen and pad and pushed the radio out of the way but it knocked against the vase, making a clinking noise. He cringed and swiveled toward Kelly.
Her chest heaved. Her hands clenched the side rails. She scanned the room with glassy eyes, panting as she cried out. “Who’s there?”
Nathan grasped her wrist. “It’s just me,” he said softly.
Her eyes locked on his, wide and terrified. “Mictar is here!”
Making a shushing sound, he lowered the bed rail and pried her fingers loose. “You were just dreaming.”
“No!” She wagged her head hard. “I saw him! In the hospital!”
“Do you know where?”
She turned her head slowly toward the door. As a shaft of light split the darkness, her voice lowered to a whisper. “He’s here.”
A shadowy form stretched an arm into the room, then a body, movement so painstakingly deliberate, the intruder obviously didn’t want anyone to hear him.
Nathan grabbed the vase and dumped the flowers into a basin. Wielding it like a club, he crept toward the door, glancing between Kelly and the emerging figure. She yanked out her IV tube, swung her bare legs to the side, and dropped to the floor, blood dripping behind her.
The shadow, now fully in the room, halted. Nathan clenched his teeth. Kelly scooted to his side, tying her hospital gown closed in the back.
As the door swung shut, darkening the room, a low voice emanated from the black figure. “If it is a fight you seek, son of Solomon, I am more than capable of delivering it. In my current form, a glass vase will be a pitifully inadequate weapon. I suggest you give me what I want, and I will leave you in peace.”
Nathan tightened his grip on the vase. Should he ask what he wanted? Even replying to a simple remark seemed like giving in. Mictar was baiting him, and he didn’t want to bite. “Just get out, Mictar. It’s two against one. It only took a violin upside your head to beat you before, and you couldn’t even take on Jack by yourself at the funeral.”
Mictar’s voice rose in a mock lament. “Alas! Poor Jack. He was a formidable foe … may he rest in peace.” His tone lowered to a growl. “You can’t take me by surprise this time, you fool. Your base use of that instrument proves that you have no respect for its true power. And now you have neither a violin nor a Quattro mirror to provide a coward’s escape.”
Nathan peered at Mictar’s glowing eyes. The scarlet beacons seemed powerful and filled with malice. Yet, if he had as much power as he boasted, why hadn’t he attacked? Nathan set his feet and lifted the vase higher. Maybe it would be okay to find out what this demon wanted. “Why are you here?”
“To finish my meal. I have enough energy left to fight for what I want, but I would prefer not to expend it. If you will turn the girl over to me freely I will consume what I merely tasted at the funeral and be on my way. In exchange, I will leave you with two precious gifts. I will tell you how to find your parents, and I will relieve you of that handicapped little harlot.”
Nathan flinched. Kelly gasped and backed away a step.
“Ah, yes,” Mictar continued, his dark shape slowly expanding. “That word is profane in your ears, yet I wager that it rings true in your mind. Kelly Clark is not the paragon of virtue your father would want for your bride. She clings to you like a leech, because she is soiled by —”
“Just shut up!” Nathan shouted. “I don’t want to hear it!”
The humanlike shadow swelled to twice its original size. “Oh, yes, you do. You want to know every lurid detail. She is your dark shadow, and you will never find your parents while you entertain a harlot at your side.”
“No!” Nathan slung the vase at Mictar. When it came within inches of his dark head, it stopped in midair. Nathan tried to reach for Kelly but his arm locked in place. His head wouldn’t even swivel. Everything in the room had frozen … except for Mictar.
The shadow continued to grow. His dark hands drew closer and closer. “I saved the last bit of my energy,” Mictar said, “to perform one of my brother’s favorite tricks, motor suspension of everything within my sight. Now I will take yours and the harlot’s eyes, and I will need no more to fill Luci
fer’s engine.”
A knock sounded at the door. “Nathan? Is everything okay?”
Tony’s voice! Nathan tried to answer, but his jaw wouldn’t move. His tongue cleaved to the roof of his mouth. A dark hand wrapped around his neck and clamped down, throttling his windpipe.
Another knock sounded, louder this time. “Nathan, the nurse says it’s time for vitals.”
Another hand draped his face. Sparks of electricity shot out, stinging his eyes.
“I’m coming in!” Light flashed around Mictar’s hand, but Nathan still couldn’t budge. Pain jolted his senses. His legs shook wildly as if he had been lifted off the floor and rattled like a baby’s toy.
Suddenly, the darkness flew away. Mictar’s body, a black human form with no face or clothes, zoomed past the nurse and crashed against the back wall. “Stay right there,” Tony shouted, “or I’ll introduce your face to the other wall.”
Like a streaking shadow, Mictar pounced on Tony, wrenched his arm behind him until it snapped, and slung him against the wall. Tony staggered for a moment, then slumped to the floor, dazed.
Mictar grabbed the nurse from behind. As she kicked and screamed, he laid a fingerless hand over her eyes and pressed down. Sparks flew, and Mictar’s body lightened to a dark gray, details tracing across his gaunt pale face and bony hands. His white hair materialized, slick and tied back in a ponytail. The lines of a silk shirt and denim trousers etched across the edges of his frame, completing the full-body portrait of the evil stalker.
Nathan tried to help, but his feet seemed stuck in clay. He slid one ahead, but the other stayed planted. Kelly hobbled toward the melee and helped her father to his feet. While she cradled his broken arm, Mictar’s body continued to clarify. The nurse sagged in his clutches, but he held on, light still pouring into his body from hers.
His legs finally loosening, Nathan stumbled ahead and thrust his arms forward. He rammed into Mictar, but, as if repelled by a force field, he bounced back and slammed against the floor. New jolts sizzled across his skin, painful, but short-lived. He looked up at the stalker’s pulsing form, now complete and radiant.