Sherrie felt like she was on a Tilt-o-Whirl. The world flashed by, too many things she’d thought she knew were turning topsy-turvy, and she was forced to stay on the ride until some cosmic operator turned it off. Exhaling a deep breath, she closed her eyes, attempting to relax and center herself.
Breathe in. Breathe out. Slow the heart rate. Just like in her yoga class. Her instructor Kamala would be proud. Sherrie squeezed her companions’ hands and felt their power flow into her. This time her consciousness lifted and separated from her physical body with a natural ease, as if she’d been astral traveling her entire life. Why her? Why not Grant who seemed to have had more experience with this kind of thing? It didn’t make sense unless there really was a particular connection between her and this man.
She found and followed the thread that led her to him. The trail was clear as if spray painted with arrows leading her to him. In fact, she almost felt him beckoning her. Did he want to be found?
He stood on a ridge of rock near the cave where he dwelled, surveying the land below. Sherrie could see with a cosmic three-hundred-and-sixty-degree gaze where she and the shifters were in relation to him in the physical world. It wasn’t very far away.
This time, her image of their enemy was clearer. He wasn’t merely a dark and dangerous swirling blackness, but a human man wearing, if she wasn’t mistaken, a sweater vest! His hairline was receding and his face was as round-cheeked as a child’s. He turned his florid countenance toward her and, sensing her presence, focused on her in his mind.
“Did you send that avalanche down on us? Did you intend to kill us?” she demanded.
“I was only testing you. Finding out if you had untapped talent like I discovered in myself. You’re getting stronger. How did you steal the shifters’ energy?” So, he didn’t know about the sex that had exploded in a burst of power, shattering the wall of stone.
She sidestepped his question and responded to his statement.
“You sound like you know something about me, like you’ve been expecting me.”
“I have. We’re related, you and I. Two of a kind. Don’t belong in either world.” Sherrie considered his words, turning them over in her mind instead of instantly dismissing them.
She’d always felt like an outsider, but figured most people did. It could be hard to find anyone you really connected with. However, he seemed to have something more specific in mind.
“When you say related, do you mean that in the literal sense?”
“You’ve always wondered who your father was? Well, I have answers for you. Come and see me in person if you want to know the truth. Leave your bodyguards behind.”
She felt him turning away from her, shutting her out of his mind, and strove to hold onto his attention.
The more information she could gather before facing him, the better. “Who are you? What’s your name?” He laughed, an eerie sound that echoed inside her head. “What’s in a name?” he quoted. “I call myself Janus right now.”
“And I call myself Sherrie.” She projected the mental equivalent of her million dollar, Miss America smile, which always earned her great tips. “Pleased to meet you, Janus.”
“No, you’re not. You think you’re coming to destroy me. But once you’ve heard what I have to say, you’ll change your mind.”
“Very cryptic. Why don’t you tell me what the big secret is, and if it’s everything you promise, I’ll point my companions in another direction and find my way to you.” Again the eerie laughter sounded. “I’d like it better if you reverse that. Lose the shifters as proof of your good faith, and then come to me.”
Why did he want to see her in the flesh? He must have some agenda that required her presence. That idea was scary.
“Sorry, Janus. I don’t know you well enough to go on a blind date, and honestly, the fact you’ve put a little girl in a coma doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.”
“Not a girl, a shapeshifter. Don’t let them fool you with their false faces.”
“I have no illusions about what they are,” Sherrie assured him, “but what makes you think they’re evil and deserve to be harmed?”
“That’s all part of my story, which I’d be happy to tell you in person.” Before she could cajole or bait him with more questions, he cut her off, snipping their connection like cutting a power line—a snap of energy, and the line went dead.
She rushed back along the slender thread to her physical body, entering it with a burst of speed that was like hurtling into a wall. Her eyes snapped open. She blinked and stared at the two faces suspended above hers—one almond-eyed and golden, the other raw-boned and tan.