Undisclosed (16 page)

She circled the exhibit, her hands clasped behind her. In an instant, he realized in that moment that he no longer felt threatened. His mind wanted to disagree and yet everything about her made him want to lower his guard.

“Ah, I just …” His voice trailed off. He still wasn’t sure how to react around her. A lump formed in his throat. He had never really felt nervous around girls but something about Jayde made him stuck for words. It felt as if someone had sucked all the air out of the room when she was around. His racing thoughts came to a grinding halt.

She glanced at his wrist. “Not wearing the device I gave you?”

Travis grabbed his wrist instinctively.

“Didn’t think it would be of any use,” he stammered, feeling like a complete idiot for having left it at home.

She smirked. “Might have come in handy this afternoon, don’t you think?” She drew closer to him. Travis quickly tried to reroute the conversation back into productive territory.

“You by yourself?”

She nodded, amused at Travis. “The others followed the men.”

Travis forced himself to turn away. He didn’t want to appear rude but more than anything he didn’t want to prolong his stare. It was just that he found himself getting tunnel vision when she was around him. She drew up beside him and he caught a whiff of her fragrance—it was intoxicating; his chest rose and fell faster than usual.

Travis turned to her. “So, are you stalking me now?”

She frowned and gestured towards the door. “I can leave if you want?”

“No!” he blurted. “I … I didn’t mean it that way.” Travis wished he had a time machine, as it would be well used. He had a way of putting his foot in his mouth. “Stay … please.” Truthfully he enjoyed the company; more specifically, he liked her company.

“So how did you get out?”

Travis cleared his throat. “Well, you know—I just threatened to drive their car.”

She laughed. Her laughter made him feel a little less uneasy.

“Seriously, though, I think you owe me some answers.”

“We tried, you wouldn’t listen.”

“Well, I’m listening now,” he said. “With them showing up at my school, it’s not like I can go back to my normal life.”

She glanced away, scanning the walls, and then pointed to the image of his father. “So your father was involved in genetic research—that kind of explains a lot.”

Travis noted the way she bypassed what he was saying, and yet replied. “I would have thought you would have known that?”

“Jack doesn’t tell us everything, unless he feels it’s essential. He still doesn’t understand, he kind of feels as though we should be off doing what other teens do, instead of hunting,” she said. “Though I honestly think he’s worried that Mason will react too soon—which is probably true.”

“Is he your father?”

“What, Jack?” She chuckled. “No, though he likes to act as if he is. No, we don’t tend to stay in one place for longer than required—Jack is just one of our contacts.”

“So where are they? Your parents?”

She shuffled sideways, focusing on the gallery in front of her. “They’re dead.”

Travis caught an edge to her voice, yet the expression on her face was steadfast.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s fine.” She shrugged. “They died doing what they were born to do.”

“Born to do?”

“Hunt—protect,” she said. “Some choose to become Guardians, others—it’s just what they were meant to do.”

“What about Mason and the others?”

“Some of their parents are still alive, spread out in countries around the world—others are dead, too.”

Jayde quickly changed the subject. She pointed to the other man in the picture.

“Do you know him?”

“Yeah, Dr. Evans. I don’t know him personally but he works with my father, he lives in the town. I was thinking of heading over there later.”

“I’ll come with you.”

After today’s events he wasn’t going to argue. And anyway, it would give him more time to ask all the questions that were still bottled up inside of him.

For a long minute, they both remained quiet. Travis reflected on her words, feigning interest in the gallery while out of the corner of his eye he watched her. He could only imagine what it must have been like to have lost both parents. But to have grown up continually on the move, as well as hunting because you were born into it? Now, that was just odd.

Travis had so many questions he wanted to ask and yet before he would get into them, he had to get one thing off his chest. It was a matter of concern, a matter of trust, a need to define some clear lines.

“That day … outside The Black Hole—you said you weren’t that much different than me. Yet the last time I checked, I wasn’t the one with power.”

She stared at him, almost hesitant to answer, as if she was unsure if she was allowed to.

“When I was little, I would ask my mother why—why we were different from other kids, why we had to hide what we could do. She would always reply—
there wasn’t that much difference
. I never quite understood what she meant, as the differences seemed obvious.”

Jayde took a seat on a metal bench that faced the exhibits. Travis sat beside her.

“When was I old enough to understand, she told me a story of our history and that …” She paused. “… Well, it’s just a story, I’m not even sure it’s entirely accurate …”

She looked down, smoothing out her pants.

Travis touched her leg and she looked up at him with eyes that were unguarded. “Go on. Please,” he said.

Fine lines formed on her forehead as she gazed ahead and continued.

“It’s said that our kind came from the sky, that we’d been the first, the first to guard the entrance ways, the portals between worlds to an immense paradise … a development that was meant to unite planetary races—a step forward in ending the conflict.”

“Conflict?”

“Worlds were at war.”

“Over what?”

“Power—control.” She sighed. “Not much has changed, has it? After much shedding of blood and lives lost, an agreement was reached in an attempt to end the war. For the sake of preservation and the continuation of life, a new race would be created on an uninhabited planet. It would be a settlement where all races could learn to co-inhabit, learn from each other and eventually be used to survive in the event of a cataclysmic event. A genetic offspring was made in our likeness, created in a place where a group from each race could journey back and forth, harvest and collect resources and oversee planetary development.”

“The Watchers …” Travis pondered. “So Earth … was a laboratory?”

“Something like that—though it wasn’t originally called Earth—it was Edin.”

“You mean Eden?” Travis pronounced each letter. “As in the bible?”

“Yes and no. Edin is the Sumerian term that predates what has found its way into religious text as the more commonly known name—Eden.”

“So a place—somewhere here on Earth?” Travis asked.

“Not a place—the place—Earth was Edin.”

“Whoa! This is heavy.”

“Sorry, this must be confusing,” she said. “We can continue this another time if you wish?”

No one had shown up yet, and Travis could still hear volunteers busily preparing—there was still time.

“No, keep going.” Travis sat perched on the edge of his seat, hanging on every word that came from her lips. It all seemed so surreal and yet when she told it, so possible.

“Well …” she continued. “To assure future wars between the races wouldn’t continue on Edin, a decision was made that the new race would be stripped of all recollection of planetary differences—that included memory of who they were and powers common to each race—and no intervention would be allowed to aid in their development once created. A decision to modify the DNA and genetically deactivate a portion was fiercely argued, so much that it’s said a rift formed between even the most loyal.”

“Deactivate?” Travis reflected on what he had read earlier on the board about 95 percent of DNA being meaningless, junk.

“For a time, Edin flourished; that is, until the uprising. A battle ensued like no other. Those who had broken the law of interfering in the development of mankind were banished back to earth. Ironically, what had begun as a paradise would now serve as a prison. The portals were destroyed and the memory of it all soon found its way into the myths and religions of mankind.”

“Interfered, what do you mean?”

“Genetic tampering. The new race—humanity—was being tampered with by a group of Watchers, those who opposed the original idea of stripping. They attempted to revolt and reactivate the DNA—combine different races—and create a hybrid race, an army endowed with the powers of each planetary race.”

“Shamsiel?” Travis blurted out. “I read he was a watcher—a fallen angel? And yet before that a
guardian
of Edin?” Travis murmured.

Her lines smoothed as she smiled. “I see someone’s been doing their homework.”

“But you’re not angels?”

“No—that’s one of the names the first inhabitants called us. I guess it stuck as people still do.” She said.

Travis brought to mind what Ryan had said.
What would extraterrestrials have looked like to people thousands of years ago? Angels? Demons? Gods?

Jayde nodded. “You’re right. According to the ancient writings, it’s believed that Shamsiel was one of us until he betrayed his own in the great war.”

“So I understand why they’re here, but why the Guardians? If the portals were destroyed, why hunt them? The threat was contained,” Travis said.

“Contained, yes, for a time. No longer a threat—no.” She leaned back. “Shamsiel knew of the portals and their locations. To destroy the portals meant a team would have to remain, no longer able to return until each and every Watcher was killed. Our kind throughout history have hunted them ever since. Them, and their botched genetic experiments.”

Travis turned away and looked back at the photo of his father.

“As I said, it’s just a story that our parents would tell us. You have your myths, we have ours.”

“I don’t think so.” Travis jumped up. “We need to go.”

Jayde looked perplexed. “Go where?”

“Pay Dr. Evans a visit.”

Chapter Fifteen

After leaving the museum it was close to four-fifteen when they pulled up outside Dr. Evans’ home, near the corner of Aspen and Sumac lane. They pulled into the long driveway and Travis strolled up to the door. The home had pillars that rose up either side of the door, like a Roman temple. It was impressive and yet eerily unusual compared to the homes that surrounded it.

Travis really wasn’t too sure what to say. His father and Dr. Evans had worked together for years and while he saw him occasionally when his father dropped by his home, they never really spoke.
Would he even know anything at all?
He had to know something.

Jayde waited by the bikes. Travis pressed the button, half expecting a butler to answer the door, but no one came. He slammed the doorknocker a few times and glanced back at Jayde, raising his eyebrows and shrugging. Other than a passing car, it was quiet. Travis returned to the bikes.

“Chances of catching him around are slim. If he was anything like my dad, he would be at the Lab,” Travis griped.

“Well, we could always go in and take a look around.”

“What, break in? Have you completely lost your marbles?”

“Do you really think he’s going to spill the beans if he knows anything? For all we know—he could be a watcher.”

Travis shuffled his feet, bit the side of his lip and looked around. It wasn’t like it was easy to blend in around this neighborhood. It was adjacent to the road that led up to the Guaje Pines Cemetery, and in this neck of the woods most people knew him. He and his brother had already tainted their reputation when they first moved in by racing up and down roads in and around the area.

He turned back to Jayde.

“Are you going to pick the lock? Or break a window?”

She laughed. “Are you serious? And you think I’ve lost my marbles.”

She turned off the bike and Travis followed behind her back up the path to the front door. They gave another quick glance around and she placed her hand on the lock.

Clunk.

She glanced over and smirked.

Travis shook his head. “I should have guessed.”

She was about to open the door when a voice behind them bellowed.

“Are you looking for Dr. Evans?”

Travis’s stomach sank, as if he had gone over a steep hill too fast. Jayde released her grip on the door handle and they both slowly turned around. Across the road, and elderly gentleman had stepped outside of his door.

“He’s not home.” He walked down to the end of his driveway and pulled out a pile of mail.

“Do you know when he’ll be back?” Travis asked.

The man didn’t answer. He was peering over his spectacles shuffling through the mail. He then shoved it back into the box and slammed the hatch down.

“Damn junk, that’s all they ever send. I keep telling them to take it back.”

Jayde was twirling her finger in circles beside her head and let out a slight whistle.

The man turned towards his house.