Chapter 10

My ears had barely registered the sound of the rifle shot when the second man's head exploded in red. Just as I heard the second crack, the third man's head also turned red. The third rifle report hadn't even died out when Sammie and Cindi each grabbed a sword and killed the man nearest them.

Out of the corner of her eye, Cindi saw Amy fighting for her life, dueling with one of the men. I saw Cindi pull her arm back, raise the sword over her shoulder, and fling it forward, hurling it through the air like a dagger. She turned away after she saw the sword impale the man against a tree. Amy dispatched the man attempting to kill Katie, who was standing there frozen, staring at her dying twin and crying uncontrollably.

For a moment it looked like we had won. Then, the dark flash occurred again and another dozen men in black appeared. They surrounded us, keeping us cornered. I didn't know who these men were, but they seemed fast and hard to kill. I wondered bleakly if even the Tarqa had met their match.

The leader stepped forward to talk to us.

"Give us the sword, the young man and the girl and your deaths will be painless," he declared.

"What sword?" I asked. I looked around surreptitiously. I hadn't seen Eric in awhile and Sammi seemed to have disappeared recently. I hoped they were all right.

He didn't have much patience. He turned and gave his men their orders.

"Kill the injured! Leave no wounded behind. Take the rest of them with us and we will find the sword ourselves," he ordered. Two of the men started towards Becky when there was a flash of gray light and their way was blocked.

Dad stood between Becky and the men in black. He was flanked on either side by Eric and Sammi.

"You dare to touch my Becky? Leave now or die!" Dad said flatly.

I had never seen my Dad look so angry, so deadly. His eyes were flat and devoid of all expression. Even Bandor hadn't brought this out in him.

"Out of the way, old man. Our orders do not cover you at all. Stay out of the way if you want to live," the leader answered. "Kill the girl!"

"Move, and you die," said Dad softly. The men ignored him, moving towards Becky.

"You can't fix stupid!" he muttered. A ball of gray energy appeared in his hand, sliding upwards, revealing a sword as it moved. Within seconds there was a gray, shimmering sword in his hands. He faced the two men.

"Kill him!" the leader ordered.

The two men swung their swords at Dad. He didn't swing back; he just moved his sword so it intersected theirs. The two swords touched his at about the same time.

There was a brilliant flash of gray light as they touched. Gray lightning lashed out from the sword towards the men. Their swords disintegrated and the men exploded into black dust, which drifted slowly to the ground.

Realizing that sword combat was probably not the best idea, they pulled machine pistols from their belts and leveled them at us. The energy ball on the top of Dad's sword moved downward, making the sword disappear completely as it was reabsorbed into his body. Dad joined hands with Sammi and Eric, the three of them standing there like a human chain in front of Becky.

"Last chance, old man. Get out of the way!" the leader snarled. Dad chuckled ominously.

"I don't take orders from killers!" he answered.

Dad began to glow a bright gray color. Sammi and Eric's rainbow colors leaked outwards, to be sucked into Dad's gray. That's when the men opened fire.

A gray 'donut' of energy surrounded Dad, Sammi and Eric, then expanded outwards rapidly in all directions. It split and went around each of us. When it hit the men in black, they disintegrated into black dust. I cheered mentally, then looked on in horror as I saw what happened next.

The gray energy wave expanded out in all directions, destroying everything in its path. Trees burst into flame and became blackened poles. Cars in the park exploded, turning into blackened hulks. People walking along the paths burst into flame and disintegrated into blackened dust. The wave expanded until all as far as the eye could see was black and destroyed. A patch of the air, where I assumed the men had come through, glowed brightly.

In a little more than the blink of an eye, everything as far as I could see was blackened and dead. It looked like the aftermath of a nuclear explosion. I stared at the scene in horror. How could my Dad do that? Why? I felt a gentle touch on my arm, and saw Julie standing next to me.

"Wait for it," she said gently, a look of peace on her face. "Remember the Phoenix." She slipped her arm around my waist and hugged me close, and kissed me gently. I could feel her love in the kiss. I felt Lisa hugging me on the other side, watching with an interested look on her face. She looked at Julie with excitement.

"I've heard about this, but I've never seen it before! Have you?"

Julie smiled slightly.

"Three times. It's still a sight to behold," Julie said calmly. Lisa looked at Julie strangely, then her jaw dropped in shock as the light went on in her mind.

"Yes, ma'am, it is," Lisa replied quietly, her voice filled with respect, joy, and excitement.

I felt them calming my mind. Then I saw it.

The edge of the gray wave reappeared in the distance. It was retreating, heading back towards us. My heart leaped into my throat as I watched the wave retreat.

Everything was green! The trees were alive! People walked along the paths! The cars were not blackened hulks! I saw the black, disintegrated dust of the destroyed objects retreating towards us, ahead of the wave.

I looked over at Dad. He was holding a clear sphere, about the size of a softball in his hand. As the wave got closer, I saw the black dust from the destroyed objects flowing into the sphere, disappearing inside. The sphere turned progressively darker as the dust accumulated inside.

Finally, the gray wave reached Dad and disappeared inside him again. The last of the black dust entered the sphere, turning it jet black. I saw multicolored lightning flashing inside the sphere. The men in black were all gone, and the bright hole in the air was gone.

I noticed Sarah and Jessica running up from the woods towards me. I remembered they had gone for a walk together. Sarah stopped next to me, looking at Becky with distress in her eyes. I saw on her face that she was aware of what had happened. She looked at me with tears in her eyes, then fell into my arms, sobbing.

"I'm so sorry, Daddy! I should have been here! I could have teleported guns in! I could have helped! I could have..."

I kissed her to shut her up. She clung to me, like a drowning woman, kissing me back. I could feel the despair in her kiss. I held my arm out and Jessica practically leaped into my arms also, and I hugged them both fiercely. Jessica looked at me, her eyes pleading. I kissed her also.

"You didn't know, Sarah. You can't be here all the time. You could also be dead if you had been here. It's ok, it wasn't your fault. I'm just glad you two are safe. I worried about you when I didn't see you. I was afraid they had killed you."

"You worried about me?" Jessica asked, amazement in her voice.

"Of course. I love you too, Jessica," I told her quietly. She buried her head in my chest as she blushed.

I took a few minutes to convince Sarah that she had not done anything wrong. It didn't take long; she wanted to believe me. She just felt so bad about what had happened, and guilt was the way she expressed it. Jessica helped a little, but mostly she just stared at me with a stunned look on her face. How could she not know that I loved her too?

I looked around and saw Megan working furiously on Becky, trying to heal her wounds, trying to keep her alive. I was not a healer, but even I could tell she was losing the battle; Becky was dying. Katie was sitting on the ground, with Becky's head in her lap, crying and stroking her dying sister's hair, whispering to her. I recognized the dead look in Katie's eyes of one of us that knew their twin was dying.

Megan was crying and cursing under her breath. I knelt down next to her.

"How bad is it?" I asked. It was a testimony to the level of desperation that Megan was feeling, that she gave me a withering glare.

"I can't do anything! The wounds are not responding to my healing! I don't know what this is! I can't help her! She's dying and there is nothing I can do about it!" She stood up and moved over to look at the young man that came through with the little girl, to see if she could help him.

The little girl was holding the young man's hand, crying softly.

"Daddy! Daddy! I love you!" she cried. The young man squeezed her hand.

I saw Megan try to heal him, but again she had no effect. I knelt beside them and watched.

"What's your name?" I asked the young man.

"Arrian," he whispered quietly, obviously in pain. I looked at him closely, and realized that he was older than I had originally thought. I figured he was about seventeen.

"What's your name?" I asked the little girl, trying to take her mind off what was happening. A closer look at her told me she was probably five or six years old, about Lisa and Lori's age.

"S... S... Sarah," she sobbed.

I saw our Sarah whip her head around. She ran over and picked the little girl up in her arms, holding her tightly.

"Would you like to go see our kitty cat?" Sarah asked, trying to distract the girl.

"I want Daddy to come with us!" she said.

"Daddy will be there in a minute. Come on, it's time to feed the kitty. He likes little girls. Come help me." After a minute, the little girl nodded her head.

"Take Lisa, Lori, and Jessica with you," I whispered to Sarah. She nodded, and a second later the five of them disappeared.

I watched Megan as she slid closer to hysteria. Megan is one of the calmest people I know, but her niece was dying, a guest was injured, and there was nothing she could do. As she was checking over the young man yet again, I saw her freeze as she looked at him.

I looked closer at him as she stared. His eyes were red, with a black cross in the middle.

"You're not from around here, are you?" Megan asked quietly. The young man smiled slightly, then winced in pain.

"No. From another plane. That's why your healing isn't working. Doesn't work against damage from our plane," he gasped, trying to ignore the pain.

Dad tapped Megan on the shoulder.

"Here, use this. I think it will help," he said, holding out the black sphere.

Megan took the sphere, looking at it in confusion. I was just as confused. Dad shrugged his shoulders. I saw Megan's eyes turn golden and I heard young Megan speak from Megan's mouth.

"I've seen this before. I know how it works, but I don't have the power to operate it. If you will work it, I can tell you how," the teenage voice said. I saw Megan's eyes turn flat and devoid of all expression, their color a mottled purple and gold.

"Wait!" the young man said urgently. We all looked at him.

"How is your Becky doing?" he asked Megan.

"She's dying. There's nothing I can do for her," Megan answered, tears in her eyes.

"Use the orb on her," the young man said. "I cannot let her die because of me. Save her first!"

"But... you are a guest here. I must help you first!" Megan protested.

"No. Your Becky will die. I will not. I can heal myself. I will not die," he said weakly.

"I will help him," a young girl standing next to him said.

"Who are you?" asked the young man. We were wondering the same thing.

"It is me, Larelle, Master," the pretty girl said.

At first glance she reminded me somewhat of Cindi, although she was a very pretty brunette. Something about her, however, seemed like Cindi...

We looked at her in confusion. The young man's eyes opened wide; it seemed he was surprised by her appearance also. She hadn't been there a minute ago. I saw Cindi's eyes open wide in shock.

"Greetings, Cine-llia... Lady Cindi," Larelle corrected herself, bowing slightly to her. Cindi's hand flew up to her mouth in surprise.

"Oh my God!" she whispered as she bowed back.

"I can take care of my Master. He is right; he will not die. Please. You must use the orb on Kya-llia... Lady Becky. She must not die. Hurry!" Larelle implored.

As Megan raced over to administer to Becky, Larelle turned to Dad and bowed gracefully.

She knelt beside Arrian and laid her hand on his chest. I thought his breathing seemed a little easier.

I saw Cindi looking at Arrian intently after he gave up the sphere for Becky, and my heart gave a little flutter. I had never seen that particular look on Cindi's face before, but I had seen it on some of the other girls' faces and I knew what it meant. My little Cindi was in love!

My heart gave a little flutter, but not because I was jealous. I loved Cindi completely, but it wasn't like Amy, and we both knew it. Neither Cindi nor I had ever had any illusions about wanting to be married to each other. We loved each other completely, enjoyed sex together immensely in expressing that love, and we both knew that would not stop, even when she was married. She was my Protector and Guardian, my Tarqa Defender, and as such, we would always have a special brand of closeness, physically, mentally, and yes, sexually. She might even live with us, to be close to me. But we both knew she would be married someday. She was precious to me, and I to her, but she never pretended she would be exclusive to me. There was a husband in her future somewhere, and although we would likely always have an occasional romp, she would belong to him sexually.

No, it was very simple; my heart gave a little flutter because I knew she was growing up. She would always be my little girl, but someday soon, she wouldn't really be so little anymore.

I followed Megan over to be near Becky. If this sphere idea didn't work, I wanted to be there when... It had to work! Becky was too precious to lose, and Katie would be devastated. She wouldn't survive the loss of her twin, I knew.

I knelt down and kissed Becky on the cheek, then helped Katie stroke her hair as Megan prepared to work on her. I kissed Katie too and stroked her cheek lightly. She smiled weakly at me, her eyes reflecting her grief.

"Daddy..." We both looked quickly at Becky as her eyes opened and she whispered my name.

"Hold on, sweetheart. You'll be ok in a minute," I said, not sure I believed it myself. Becky gave me a watery smile.

"Bull. If you're going to lie to someone, do it to someone that's not a mind reader and can't tell the future. Tell Grampa I'm sorry and thank him for me. He used the Phoenix, didn't he? I wish I had seen it. There's only one other that has ever seen it before. " Her voice broke as she started coughing.

"I'm sorry," she gasped. "I tried using my colors, but they didn't work. I had to save the girl. I'm sorry, Katie." Katie kissed her.

"Hush," she whispered. "Hang in there. You'll be good as new soon."

"No I won't. I've seen the future. This is where and when I die. I'm sorry," Becky repeated, tears in her eyes.

"Really? Did your glimpse of the future show you a young man and a little girl dropping in from a hole in the sky?" Katie asked, smiling softly at her twin. Katie and Becky told each other everything, except for Becky being a Tarqa. Katie already knew the future glimpse hadn't contained that image.

I felt my heart leap with hope when Becky's eyes opened wide. She looked at us, startled.

"No... it didn't... ," she stammered.

"Then your fortune telling doesn't mean shit. Now shut the fuck up and let Megan do her thing. Grampa is on his way over here and you can talk to him yourself," Katie said with mock anger, smiling at her twin. Becky smiled and closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep. At least I hoped it was sleep.

Megan held the black globe close to Becky. I heard her whisper a few words, and the globe began to glow. A fine stream of black dust sprayed from the globe covering Becky in a thin layer. The globe started to change colors rapidly, cycling through multiple colors. It stopped cycling when it changed to orange. 'Little Orange Person, ' I thought to myself. An orange ray, like a laser beam, shot out from the globe and slowly traveled down Becky's body. When it reached her toes, the whole area around Becky exploded in a bright light.

We looked away as the bright orange light surrounded Becky, too intense for us to look at. When we could look again, the globe slowly entered into Becky's body, disappearing completely. The faint orange glow over her whole body was all that remained of it. After a moment, the globe slowly exited her body again. It was even a darker black that it had been when it entered her. The lightning flashes from the interior were gone.

The globe floated slowly over to Dad. As it neared him, it exploded in a brilliant white flash of light. When we could see again, the globe was clear, as when we first saw it. Moving at what seemed to be the speed of light, it disappeared into Dad's body.

When I looked back at Becky, she was sleeping peacefully. The pain seemed to be gone. The wounds had closed and were not bleeding anymore, although they had not completely disappeared. Katie was holding her sister's head lightly in her lap, a look of amazement, awe, and gratitude on her face. I figured, by the way she looked at him, that Dad was going to have his hands full the next time Becky visited him after she recovered. I figured a cute little twin would go along, to express her gratitude. I wasn't sure how Katie would express her gratitude to Megan, but the look on her face gave me some interesting possibilities to contemplate!

I decided it was time to get out of here. I called Sarah and Jessica in my mind to return to teleport us back to the house. I knew they could do it from there, but Arrian was an unknown variable. Sarah did best if she knew or had seen the person to be teleported before, and I just wasn't sure how well she had seen the young man. I didn't want any mistakes. I told them to leave little Sarah with Lisa and Lori. As I looked at him, I realized we could probably return home by conventional means, as Arrian seemed to be almost completely recovered. I didn't want to jar Becky, however, or wake her up. She needed her sleep.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" Sammi asked quietly, as we waited, so no one could hear. Why? Can you say 'mind reader' Sammi? Sure, you can. By all means, let's have a 'private' conversation, talking quietly, so no one can hear! Sheesh!

Sammi and I held hands as we walked up a little hill. Eric grinned at us as we walked past, and pointed to his watch. I blushed as I realized he was telling us not to take too long, thinking we were going to be 'affectionate'. Sammi laughed at both of us.

It wasn't long before I figured out, from the muzzle flashes and the direction the men had fallen, that we were heading towards where the rifle shots had come from.

"Do you think he's still here?" I asked Sammi.

She looked at me in surprise, then grinned self-consciously.

"I should know better than to try and fool you. Yeah, I think he's still here. I saw the sunlight glint off his scope after the last shot. He's too good to make a mistake like that. He wanted me to see it," she explained.

We reached the area where the shots had to have come from, but there was no one there.

'It's ok; he's a friend. I want you to meet him. I trust him with my life, ' I heard Sammi say in her mind, trying to lure the boy out.

"I can tell that," the boy said from behind us, as he put his arms around Sammi's waist and kissed her softly on the neck. Where the hell did he come from?

I heard Sammi's gasp as she leaned back into his arms. Then she turned around, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him thoroughly. After a few moments she stepped back, her eyes a little glazed but otherwise in control.