Sable Book 1 of Chaos Time (Chaos Time Series) Read online

“This is one of the vanished realms. The earthquakes you all assumed were just earthquakes were in fact the evolution of a new Earth. When I snatched you, Sable, the Earth was beginning its rebirth. Soon, places will vanish. People, tons of them, will disappear and everything is going to be chaos.”

  “Not following.” She wrapped her arms tighter around the tree, for support, or just from of nerves, she didn’t have a clue.

  “Things change, they must to survive,” his arms opened, “this planet is no different. Humans without our special adaptations are unable to see what’s happening. To them it’s madness and will remain so until the day they die, to them it will seem like places and people have disappeared.” He shrugged. “In reality nothing’s going to disappear, it’s evolving. Becoming sentient. The land will call to like.” He pointed to his chest. “People like you and me.”

  Oookay. Not at all what she’d expected to hear, but she’d promised to listen with an open mind, even though this was testing her resolve a lotta bit. “And this happened how exactly?”

  He seemed to be searching for the right words. “Do you know anything about cancer cells?”

  “As in the human disease?” At his nod, she cocked her head. “Not really catching the connection here, Hunter. What does cancer have to do with places disappearing?”

  “Not disappearing. Altering. A healthy cell becomes damaged when the genetic information is destroyed or corrupted, when the body can no longer fix the cell it morphs and becomes cancerous. That’s what happened to our world. Did you ever hear about the Starfish Prime project in the ‘60’s?”

  She laughed. “Way before my time.”

  “Okay, the project was a government space race type deal. The Soviets were leading the charge for space dominance. Then in ‘61 they set off a couple of nukes at high altitude. The nukes were strong, but nothing compared to the one America blasted off as a show of power and a very clear message of: we’ve got bigger, better, and badder. It was Starfish Prime and the fall out was beyond anything anyone had expected.”

  This sounded like really bad science fiction and she wanted to laugh at him. She really did. But she was good. She held it all in and nodded and listened and tried, really really hard to accept the fact that the world she’d thought she’d known was nothing close to reality.

  “Radioactive particles descended to Earth and accumulated in terrestrial organisms, fungi and lichen. The genetic code of those sub life forms mutated, when animals came along and ingested it, they also began to change. Eventually those animals were eaten by humans who procreated and passed those genes along to their offspring and,” he rolled his wrist, “fast forward a couple of decades and like cancer, it’s spread and what you see now is the result of genetic mutation.”

  “And all my weird powers? Part of the mutation too?”

  “Ahh,” he wagged his hand, “kind of. No one is inherently magical. DNA is a really complex thing, strands and strands of code. Each strand is responsible for one aspect of who we are. Those of us with the mutation,” he finger quoted, “had a recessive gene already in place that flipped like a switch.”

  Sable hadn’t gone to a traditional school, hadn’t even gotten much learning in all actuality...but she wasn’t stupid. “So what you’re saying is the potential was always there, but—”

  He nodded. “Something had to kick start the process. It’s different for each person and I couldn’t honestly tell you what does it, only that that’s how it’s done. Starfish Prime flipped the switch not only on humans, but the land as well. That’s not to say however that there weren’t already altered humans before that, there were, but not nearly so many. Prime was a cataclysmic event that spurred on a cataclysmic change.”

  Maybe she wasn’t hiding her confusion so well after all, because he forked his fingers through his hair and said, “you’re lost.”

  She nodded and pinched the bridge of her nose. “You’re right, that was mind numbing.”

  He laughed. The sound rich and deep, like velvet coated in honey. Against her will she felt her lips twitch, she wanted to hate him, but it was so much easier to like him. That was something about Hunter that felt so familiar. Too familiar. Like she’d known him all her life, only she’d forgotten, until he showed back up but instead of things being awkward they were right for the first time in her life.

  “How do you know so much anyway?” she asked, pressing her back further into the tree. He confused her, all of this confused her. She didn’t like it, but what she’d seen back there… ignoring this wasn’t the answer.

  “Time hopper, remember.” His brow quirked. “I’ve got the benefit of being able to travel to the start of all creation and see the very first blade of grass form and shoot from the earth.”

  “How do you do that anyway? Time jump? Is that part of your magic?”

  “Magic is nothing more than science unexplained.” His lips twitched, he was clearly enjoying himself.

  “Whatever. You know what I mean.”

  “My powers,” he stressed with a twinkle, “are matter manipulation. Einstein’s relativity theory set the speed of light as the universal speed limit, showing that distance and time aren’t absolute, but instead is affected by one’s motion. Basically, imagine space time as a large two dimensional surface that I fold into a third dimension creating a bridge.”

  If brains could get charley horse’s hers was in the mother of all cramps. She was tired of saying huh, what, explain that. She felt like he should be wearing one of those shirts that read: I’m with stupid, and an arrow pointing right at her. She plastered a smile on her face and nodded dutifully, pretending she had a clue what he was saying.

  He clucked his tongue. “Your eyes are going glazed on me. You don’t have a clue what I’m talking about, do you?”

  She scratched the back of her head. “Sure I do, you’re a time hopper. ‘Nuff said.”

  Memo to her, if he ever mentioned that something would be mind numbing again she’d run far, far away.

  “So now do you believe, Sable?” he asked.

  “I’m confused. But I can’t deny what I’ve seen. Part of me believes, how couldn’t I? But...it’s so much to digest.”

  “I know.”

  She sighed. “So, I guess maybe you should tell me the rest, but please do me a favor.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t get all scientifical again.”

  He crossed his heart. “Boy scout’s honor.” Hunter sat on grass that was thick as a plush woolen rug. “We fought together, you and I, what seems like a million lifetimes ago.”

  It was still shocking to hear. She was Sable Ray, a seventeen-year-old misfit, tucked away in a mental institution, told that up was up and down was down and like a trained monkey she believed. Then here comes Hunter dishing out chaos and telling her things that were frightening and bizarre and she wouldn’t believe him at all—except she’d shifted into a freaking bird of all things, and could kill people with her voice and parts of the country were vanishing—and how couldn’t she believe?

  This was an existential nightmare and how the hell did she suddenly know big words like that or what they meant?

  There was something foreign inside her—a duality becoming more and more invasive. One part of her felt like a typical teenager, with typical dreams and the other saw stars and galaxies, birth and death and rebirth. And that part was growing more aware with every passing second. Ancient intelligence that saw and knew impossible things, it was hard to doubt the validity of his claims when a part of her already knew. Though every fiber of her teenage being was desperate to deny it.

  “You and me and Syn and Slayde. All three of you were amazing fighters. You especially.”

  “It’s so weird hearing you say this stuff.”

  A corner of his mouth pulled up. “Sable, I wish I had the time to tell you everything in every single little detail, but we don’t have that kind of time.”

  “But I thought you were the master Jedi time hopper,” she said and
frowned when she realized that she’d actually teased him. It was too easy to do that with him. She wasn’t like this. She hadn’t spoken so much in years and now suddenly here she was with a perfect stranger feeling like she wanted to laugh or cry or do both at the same time.

  She clenched her molars until they ached.

  He chuckled and shook his head. “That’s funny.”

  “I try,” she said sarcastically.

  “No. I can hop time, but so can he.”

  She opened her mouth to ask just who he was, but he held up his hand, effectively shushing her.

  “I know what you’re gonna ask. He is Dragden.”

  Her spine stiffened as she suddenly remembered her dream.

  Obviously observant, his eyes narrowed. “You know that name already, don’t you?”

  Sick with a sudden overwhelming need to vomit, she nodded. But just as quickly as the fear had assailed it began to dissipate. Like the tree knew her emotions and gave her comfort when she needed it most. “I’ve dreamed of him. He’s a terrible, vicious monster. He’s real?”

  He plucked a stem of grass and played with the blade. “I’m not surprised to hear that. Though you’ve died in my lifetime, a phoenix is a being of complex tales and riddles. Your looks change from one incarnation to another, but intrinsically you’re always the same. Timeless. Ancient. Very powerful. You can’t die. Not really. Always reborn in one fashion or another, and from what you told me before, you share her visions in each lifetime. You’re basically eternal.”

  “So how many phoenixes’ are there?” she couldn’t help but ask.

  “You’re it,” he said with a tight curve of his lip.

  “This is so weird.” She frowned, was she immortal? The though sent a chill down her spine. This was almost too much. First time travel. Then the Earth devouring itself. And now eternal life. She hadn’t signed up for this shit. “So how old am I?” she couldn’t help but ask.

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. How old are you?” His blue eyes gleamed.

  “You know what I mean.”

  “Are you immortal like me? No. Not in the same way.”

  “Wait. You’re immortal?”

  A hazy purple veil cocooned the forest as the moon crested the starlit sky. But even in the dark, she saw everything. The shades were different, slightly darker and richer in hue. But she had no problem seeing any of it. Which was amazing to her, she’d always stubbed her toe on the corner of her metal frame in Fairfield when her light bulbs would die. Her night vision had been garbage. But not anymore.

  He didn’t seem happy when he said, “yeah.”

  She had a past, so did he. Wasn’t her place to pry. So she switched subjects. “So Dragden?”

  “Right.” He shook himself, as if snapping out of a trance. “Last time we fought him, we failed.” He shoved his fingers through his hair, obviously still agitated by it.

  “So what makes you think we can get it right this time?”

  His jaw set with grim determination and his look brooked no argument when he said, “because we don’t have a choice. You saw what he did, the end result of his unchecked madness. Everyone’s gone. I can’t have that.”

  Not that she didn’t care. Because obviously she was involved in that everyone category but... “Why me? What could I do for you?”

  Shadow crossed his face and he glanced down at his feet. “Your memories.”

  But there was more, he’d looked down, but not quick enough, because she’d read the truth in his eyes. He’d shoved up a wall, threw closed a gate and padlocked it for safe measure. There was a secret just out of reach, something he was being careful to keep hidden from her.

  “What aren’t you telling me?”

  He bit his lip. “I play a very dangerous game, Sable. Time hopping is no joke. With one wrong word, one wrong move I can literally change everything. Undo it all. I can’t run that risk. I can only tell you so much and hope, pray,” his look searched hers pleadingly, “that you will trust me. That you will help us.”

  “Help us what?”

  “Overthrow Dragden.”

  “How?” Her impatience flared. She’d never liked feeling clueless and this conversation wasn’t helping matters. She knew he wanted to move things along, but really who could blame her reluctance? Life was supposed to follow a certain set of rules. You’re born, you live, and then you die. End of story. This...this wasn’t part of the plan.

  “There’re hot spots in time. Places where power runs deeper than any ocean trench. Places where if tapped can increase your power to exponential levels. God like, even. Those places must be destroyed.”

  “If you know all that, shouldn’t it be a simple matter for you to get in, take care of it and walk out? I mean you’ve got mad ninja skills. Use ‘em.”

  “You’ve been locked up in a ward for how long?” He chuckled. “How is your modern slang so good?”

  Shrugging with a bitter twist to her lips, she said, “The institute doped us up with pills until we became zombies then parked our asses in front of the TV. There wasn’t much else to do there other than watch too much crappy reality TV. But,” she waved her hand because she didn’t want to talk about Fairfield anymore, that was in her past and that’s where it would remain, “why aren’t you using that time jumping thing to just take them out?”

  His sigh was bitter with regret. “I wish I could. But these places are guarded by Lord’s.”

  She lifted a brow, waiting for further explaination.

  “Zealot’s, Dragden worshippers and fanatics. Corrupt creations that have powers beyond one man’s abilities. We’d all need to fight as one to bring them down and then once we do, we’d have to locate the power source, which from what I’ve learned are not easy to destroy.”

  She sat with her back against the tree, needing the contact and rubbed her brow. “So why didn’t we win the first time? It doesn’t sound all that complicated.”

  He tipped his head up, studying the canopy of sky. “I didn’t know about the sources then. We tried to fight Dragden head on, obviously a mistake.”

  “How did you find out about the sources?”

  He looked at her, his mouth set in a straight line. “You. You told me, right before you died.”

  Again she had the nagging feeling that he was keeping stuff from her. What was he hiding? She squeezed her eyes shut, pointless to ask him she knew, he wouldn’t tell her.

  “Don’t you think he’ll know what we’re doing? He’ll come for us. If he’s as powerful as you say it’s probably gonna go down the same way.”

  Taking a deep breath, he scrubbed a hand down his face. Utter exhaustion draped him like a cloak. “That’s why I need to do this as quickly as possible. There’re seven sources of power, you told me that as long as we were able to destroy half of them he’d be unable to succeed. My hope is we destroy at least two of them before he’s tipped off.”

  “That sounds a lot like poking a sleeping dragon.”

  His nostrils flared, and when he squeezed his hands into fists, she could have sworn she heard the knuckles crack. “I don’t have a choice!” he snapped, anger vibrated off him like a tuning rod.

  Hunter, who up until this point had appeared like an easy going guy, was now snarling. His face stretched into a terrifying visage of madness and cruel intentions. And was that fangs she’d just seen? His was sucking in air like a bellow and maybe it was her fear distorting reality, but he seemed to be expanding, growing, right before her eyes.

  Sable leaned as far into her tree as possible. He looked at her and must have noticed her large as saucer eyes, because he glanced off to the right and wouldn’t look at her again until his ragged breathing was under control.

  When he did, he appeared as nothing other than a sexy, tall and nicely muscled guy, but she now knew it to be a mirage. There was a beast that lived inside him too.

  “I’m sorry you saw that.” He was nervous, shifty. His eyes moving randomly around, out at the trees, then back at her, ag
ain and again. “I swear to you, Sable. I won’t fail this time. But I can’t do this without you.”

  She licked her lips and for the first time she felt a true kinship with him. He grappled with demons too, who was she to cast a stone? “What about the others?”

  Relief washed him and he smiled. “Does that mean you’ll come with me?”

  “If my dreams are realities of time’s approaching, then it’s a future I don’t want. Do I completely believe? No,” she shook her head, “honestly this is almost too much for me. But if what you say is true. Then we have to stop him. But what about the others? Don’t we need them too?”

  His eyes closed for a brief pause and when he opened them they shone with hope. Faint, but sure. “We’ll find them. Get rest now. I’ll return for you in the morning.” He stood.

  “You’re leaving?” She got up, dusting off her damp pants.

  “I don’t do trees.” He looked up at the fire oak. “My body prefers a thick mattress. But I’ll come back.”

  She looked over her shoulder. Much as she loved her tree, she really had no desire to crawl up on a branch to catch some sleep. “Shouldn’t I come with you?”

  “I forget sometimes that this is all new to you. Turn into your bird, call the fire to you and the rest will take care of itself.”

  She rocked back on her heels. Suddenly anxious and nerve riddled. “How? Are you gonna stab me again?” She shook her head as she tried to backpedal, but of course she couldn’t because of the giant tree in the way.

  “The shift is instinct guided now, Sable. That was the catalyst to release your spirit. All you have to do is will it.”

  She stared at her tree long after he’d left. He’d said that instinct would guide her. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and tried to find her calm center. At first, it was nothing but chaos. A thought on top of a thought, chasing one after the other like a dog chasing its tail.

  A wave of calm reached out to her. There was warmth and peace. It surrounded her, filled her. Like a ripple in a placid pool she saw a golden dot of light open up in her mind’s eye, until she was bathed in it.

  Heat crawled over her. Slow at first, then moved in a quick burn down her veins, through her blood, until it escaped her pores and she erupted in flame. She stared at her arms. The fire was amber on top, sparking and spitting, but along her arms it was the deep blue of intense heat. She laughed. Flames shot out her mouth. Her hair crackled and snapped around her face like medusa’s snakes.