“He needs you,” Daniel continued before my plans of violence could go any further. “Your blood will lead him to the next secret keeper, who will lead him to the last, and then he will find this object he is searching for.”
My head kind of felt like it was going to explode. The headache, on top of this information, was a little too much. “I don’t understand,” I finally admitted, not at all happy about my continued confusion.
“It’s a long, complicated story.” His voice was softer now, and so soothing I almost closed my eyes. “All you need to know now is that Laous wants you, he has taken your mom as a way to force your compliance, and he is going to try and lure you out again.”
“Why didn’t he just wait at the condo for me? He must have known I’d be back soon.”
Daniel and Michaels exchanged a look. “He probably sensed Daniel in the area,” Michaels finally said. “I couldn’t believe it when Dan showed up telling me about a secret keeper down here in New Orleans that he needed to find. Who would have thought it’d be the same chick I like to rile up at the gym?”
I was surprised to hear that he hadn’t been watching me the entire time for the Daelighters, that his interest might have actually been genuine. Not that I cared. Michaels was not my type. Even if he hadn’t been an alien.
“You’ve been looking for me?” I asked Daniel, and he nodded.
“As soon as we got a hit on the location of the next secret keeper, we set out to get to them before Laous.”
They’d almost done that too. Just missed saving my mom by hours.
“If you promise not to try and escape again,” Daniel said, “I will answer all of your questions. It appears I’m staying in New Orleans for longer than planned, and you need to realize we’re working toward the same goal here. I don’t want to have to keep an eye on you at all times of the day and night.”
Uh, yeah, I was totally not promising anything. If I felt at any point like my life was in danger being here, I would be gone so fast their supernatural heads would spin. So far I hadn’t been hurt – by anyone other than myself – or raped or threatened. I felt somewhat comfortable being in their presence. But I would never trust them.
They weren’t human. One of their kind kidnapped my mom. I needed to remain on guard.
At my silence, his grin extended a little further. “Close enough,” he finally said, flashing me a full smile, all of those perfect teeth blinding me. And he had a damn dimple. Like he needed one more weapon to use against us. Despite my disgust toward him and his people in general, there was a moment where I had the clichéd butterflies-in-my-tummy thing going on.
Michaels took a seat on the edge of the bed, while Daniel and I remained standing. I continued to maintain at least a six-foot distance from them both. If I needed to fight or run, the space was important. At least the pounding in my head had finally eased a touch.
Daniel crossed his arms, which only emphasized the mammoth size of him. No doubt an intimidation tactic. “What exactly do you know about us? I don’t want to waste my time repeating information you already possess.”
Mimicking him, I crossed my arms, tilting my head to the side in a sardonic glare. “Would hate to waste your time, your royal highness, it’s been a real worry of mine since we met.” I continued on in the same drawling tone: “Let’s see, what do I know. Number one: you’re arrogant bastards who think humans are scum under your shoes.” No reaction. No denial. “Number two, you’re called Daelighters, you’re not from Earth, but you somehow managed to infiltrate our world and control most aspects of it anyway.” I was digging deep, going back to my mother’s lectures. “You’re from an alternate universe … and your planet is called Overworld. There’s been some sort of treaty with Earth since the late 1800s. Something keeping both planets alive? But in the end you’ll probably take over Earth completely and kill us all.”
Daniel nodded. “Except for the last part, you’re on track. What else do you know about the treaty?”
Good to know they had no immediate plans for the annihilation of the human race. Maybe that was just one of Mom’s crazy rants.
I shrugged, shaking my head. “Nothing else about the details of the treaty. My mom has spent my entire life warning me to go nowhere near your kind. All I know is that if you get your hands on me, very bad things will happen. She didn’t spend much time telling me anything else.”
His eyes darkened and deepened until they were reflective pools of emotion. Heavy emotions if I was judging correctly – anger, distaste, passion, fire. I tore my gaze away before it got too hard to handle. His eyes and voice did that same thing to my insides as jazz music and Jackson Square. Made me feel too much. And I needed the numbness right now.
Michaels sprawled out further across the bed, drawing my attention. “Your mother is greatly misinformed,” he told me in his drawling accent. “The treaty was put in place as a mutual advantage to both worlds. Energy from Earth powers our network and keeps the four races of Daelighters from falling into war again, because now we all have enough power to be sustained. In return, Earth received a very special stone, one which stopped the weather phenomena of your world from ripping it to pieces. A starslight stone.”
His voice dropped low, filled with reverence as he mentioned the stone.
Daniel added: “This stone is extremely powerful and important to our people. It’s the basis for holding the treaty together. When the overlords and the leaders of your free world first signed the treaty, it was agreed that humans and Daelighters would integrate. A hundred humans were brought in on the secret. Their offspring went on to be secret keepers for the starslight stone. There are always four, one for each house. Born in the same year.”
“What’s a house?” I interrupted.
Daniel didn’t skip a beat. “In my … part of Overworld, there are four sectors. House of Imperial is mine, then there is House of Darken, House of Leights, and House of Royale. We are all ruled separately by overlords – like a king and queen – and have unique abilities and traditions. You are the secret keeper born in House of Imperial.”
I held a hand up, my mouth no doubt a wide O as I stared at him. “I … I was born in Overworld?”
There was no way. Seriously. That would mean my mom went there, gave birth to me, and then came home only to poison me against these Daelighters for my entire life.
Michaels nodded, his expression somewhat serious. “Yes, you had to be born there to be a secret keeper. That’s how your blood can lead to the next keeper. You have energy from House of Imperial inside of you.”
My breathing was doing something weird, harshly drawing in and out, but my lungs were still starving for air. The men across from me let me have this moment to break down, and eventually the rest of the questions overwhelmed me, and I had to ask.
“So, there are four secret keepers … I’m number two … what happened to the first one?”
