Among the Stars Page 14

  Chapter 13

  Orion is up and walking around when I wake up in the morning.

  “Oh good, you’re up.” He orders room service and breakfast arrives just as I’m finishing getting ready. As soon as we’re done eating we’re out the door and heading for the car. He seems to be in a hurry.

  Traffic is crazy but Orion handles city driving like a pro. He zips in and out of lanes, taking short cuts, until finally arriving at our destination. It’s not an extremely tall building but it’s taller than most. The architecture is modern and screams wealthy business. Fancy expensive cars fill the parking lot and I’m careful not to hit one when I get out of the car. Orion strolls right through the front doors and to the elevators. We ride it all the way to the top floor. When we step out I notice the top floor is one giant room with floor to ceiling windows that open out to a terrace on one side. It looks more like a penthouse than an office space. There’s a girl, probably around sixteen years old, sitting at a desk in the corner. She hastily walks over when she sees us. She’s short and petite with sandy blonde hair. She’s wearing a flowery sundress that, even when she comes to a stop in front of us, billows around her legs.

  “Orion, it’s been so long,” she says and gives him a hug. He hugs her back and she lets him go. About to introduce myself, I’m surprised when she also embraces me. “I’m Vela,” she says cheerfully when she releases me.

  “Hi, I’m Ailey,” I smile at her. She has a light air about her that I like.

  “That’s such a pretty name,” she gushes.

  “Thanks, so is yours.” I definitely like Vela, she seems so happy.

  “Vela is the youngest of the Ship Siblings,” Orion tells me.

  “Yep,” Vela confirms happily. “I’m also known as sails, which explains this.” She points to her dress that is still moving like it’s caught in a gentle breeze.

  “Your powers deal with wind then?” I find it easy to talk with her.

  “Yep, if it involves air I’m your gal.” She proudly stands tall, beaming at me.

  “Vela also can boost other Stars’ powers,” Orion adds. He smiles warmly. He seems happier than these last few days. I wonder if it’s Vela’s personality or something else.

  “It’s really not that big of a deal,” Vela blushes.

  “Don’t sell yourself short kid.” Orion ruffles her hair playfully. How they interact reminds me of John and Stacy. It makes me smile.

  “I’ll call Puppis and Carina,” Vela’s eyes change and a breeze blows past me and out an open window. “They should be here any min-” She’s interrupted by a shout.

  “Orion!” A man with the same sandy blond hair as Vela tackles Orion and they fall to the floor. I look at Vela to see if we should help but she just stands there giggling and watching the two roll around on the floor. Pretty soon Orion is laughing while he sits on the other man who’s lying on his stomach flailing his arms while Orion crushes him.

  “You win! You win!” The other man shouts between laughs.

  “You never learn, Puppis.” Orion stands and helps him up. Not only does Puppis have the same color hair as Vela but their features are similar. I can definitely see the family resemblance. He’s in shorts and a billowy shirt. He reminds me of a surfer.

  “I’ll get you one of these days,” Puppis promises. He touches his nose gingerly. “At least my nose is intact this time.”

  “Hey that was a total accident and you know it.”

  Orion lightly shoves his shoulder and Puppis shoves back. I watch in wonder. Orion seems so carefree. Is this what he is normally like when he isn’t saving me and fighting Alex?

  “Well would you look at what the cat dragged in.” A woman’s voice comes from behind me and I turn to see who it is. She’s older than the other two, early thirties maybe. She’s tall and looks just like Vela and Puppis. This must be Carina. She smiles and gives Orion a hug.

  “What are you doing here?” Her eyes look worried as she addresses him.

  “We need to call the Elite together,” he replies gravely.

  “What’s happened?” she asks.

  “Alexander is back and he can Travel. Also he did this.” Orion takes off his jacket, showing them his arm. The veins have reached his shoulder.

  Vela gasps quietly and covers her mouth in horror.

  “What is this?” Puppis comes closer to inspect the black veins.

  “I have no clue but he needed me to use my powers before he could do whatever it is he did.” Orion lets him inspect his arm.

  “Let me see.” Carina runs her fingers over the black veins. “Do they hurt?”

  “Sometimes but it’s more of an ache than a real pain.”

  “Well you’ve always had a high tolerance for pain.” Carina’s forehead wrinkles in concentration and her eyes change. A light like the one that came from Orion when he healed shines from her hand and she scans it over the black veins. When she’s done the light stops and her eyes change back. “I can’t sense anything from it. It’s like it’s not even there.”

  Vela must have seen the curiosity on my face because she leans over and whispers to me, “Carina is a really good healer. The most powerful of all of us actually. When someone is sick or hurt she can sense whatever it is. Every injury and sickness gives off certain vibes. Whatever those things are, they can’t be detected by her powers.”

  “Could she still heal him without knowing what they are?” I whisper back.

  “I don’t think so. If she isn’t sensing them then it isn’t reading as an injury. Her powers won’t work on it unless they detect a problem or something that’s not supposed to be there.”

  “They sure look like a problem to me,” I say more to myself than anyone else.

  “I agree.” Vela’s smile is gone, replaced with worry, the same worry that’s on my face. I go back to listening to Carina and Orion.

  “Canis has gone to find Draco. As soon as he locates him, they’ll join us,” Orion informs her.

  “That’s good. Since Draco is the expert on Black Holes hopefully he will have some answers.” Carina paces between the elevator and Orion. “Any idea on how long it will take to find Draco?”

  “Since Hydra left him he’s been off the grid but the Zodiacs said last they heard he was holed up in the Carpathian Mountains. Canis should be able to pick up his scent and locate him within a couple days.”

  “Let’s hope he finds him by the time the rest of the Elite get here. It will take about a day to reach everyone. Some of them are really far away and off the radar but Vela’s wind will find them. Should we tell them tomorrow evening for the meeting?”

  “I think so. The faster we can figure out what’s going on, the better.”

  “We’ll start contacting them immediately. Vela?” Carina turns to us.

  “I’m on it.” Vela goes and sits down on the couch. She closes her eyes, takes a few deep breaths and raises her arms to the side. Her pose and concentration reminds of the times I’ve seen people mediating on TV. Her eyes open and they’ve changed to the black and silver that indicates when they use their powers. Her hair whips around her face and strong winds blow through the room. Suddenly they shoot out from her, escaping through the open windows. The force makes me stagger but I regain my balance. None of the others even swayed at the force. Vela lowers her hands and her eyes turn back to normal.

  “Sorry Ailey. I had to put a lot of power behind those.” She comes back and stands by my side.

  “No worries.” I smile while straightening my hair. Carina walks over to me and extends her hand.

  “Sorry I didn’t introduce myself before we got down to business. I’m Carina, also known as keel, the oldest of the Ship Siblings. Vela told you about my healing powers. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” I shake her hand.

  “Ailey. I totally understand. It’s nice to meet you.” Puppis comes over and introduces himself next.

  “I’m Puppis, the stern, middle child, and I have power over the cu
rrents and any water. Sorry. Should have said hi before I attacked this one.” Puppis nods towards Orion.

  “That’s alright,” I say with a laugh. These three are completely different than the Zodiacs. The Zodiacs were touchy and demanding. I felt like a new toy they had just gotten and wanted to play with. The Siblings are nice and they treat me like a person. They are kind and considerate like Canis and Orion. Orion acted completely different with the Zodiacs than with these three. The Zodiacs may be fellow Constellations but these three are friends.

  “May I ask a question?” I address the Siblings.

  “Go ahead,” Carina says.

  “Are all of you Elite as well?” They certainly seemed powerful enough to be.

  “Actually, I’m the only one who’s an Elite,” Carina says, “but all three of us are in charge of keeping track of the rest of the Elite and coordinating meetings if need be.”

  “Oh I see.” I wonder what kinds of powers the other Elite have. I’d only seen bits of Orion’s, Canis’s, and Carina’s powers, but from the sounds of it their powers go way beyond what I know of. Especially seeing what Vela did and her not even being an Elite. I feel a little uneasy about meeting the rest of them. Hopefully they are as nice as these guys.

  “Are you going to be at the meeting?” Puppis asks me.

  “Uh,” I look at Orion and he nods, “Guess I am. That’s okay I hope.”

  “That is more than okay.” Carina smiles at me and I smile back. She has a strong big sister personality and it’s nice. If I had a big sister I would want one like her.

  “So we’ll see you guys tomorrow night,” Orion says, coming to stand by my side.

  “See you then,” Carina says and they all bid us farewell as we get into the elevator. We make it back to the car and Orion drives us out of the parking lot.

  “I like them. They are really nice,” I say. Orion chuckles.

  “I’m glad. They are good people. We get along really well,” he says.

  “I saw that. You were really happy.”

  “I guess I was.”

  “Are you normally like that?”

  “Like what?”

  “You know, happy?”

  “I didn’t know I’ve been unhappy,” he laughs.

  “Well not unhappy per say but burdened, like you have a lot on your mind.”

  “I guess you’ve only really known me since things went bad. I can be an upbeat person; it’s just been a rough week.”

  “I know. I’m sorry. You’re problems seemed to have started when you met me.” I still blamed myself for getting him hurt. Alex used me to get to him. If I hadn’t come into the picture Orion would probably be off camping in some woods somewhere.

  “My problems started a long time ago and they have nothing to do with you.” Orion reaches over and squeezes my hand. He keeps it there a minute before taking it back to drive.

  “You don’t blame me for getting hurt?”

  “Alexander got me because I underestimated him. I should have known he wouldn’t have challenged me unless he thought he could get the upper hand. I would have beaten him if I wasn’t so careless. It was my own fault.”

  “Okay.”

  “So stop feeling guilty.”

  “I’m not,” I lie to him.

  “Yes you are. I can sense your emotions remember?”

  “That’s kind of cheating you know? You always know what I’m feeling.”

  “I prefer to think of it as protecting myself. I mean who knows? You could go into a blind rage and try to kill me. I’d like to have some warning, you know?” He smiles.

  “Pretty sure if that happened I wouldn’t do much damage.” I try not to smile as I roll my eyes at him.

  “I don’t know. You’re pretty fast and if you surprised me I think you could get a few hits in at least.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I laugh.

  “You know Canis thinks you are one of those women who finds rich guys and murders them for their money,” he says seriously.

  “No he doesn’t. That’s ridiculous, even for Canis.”

  “No really, he thinks you are. That’s why he didn’t want you to go with him. He was afraid you’d murder him in his sleep,” he says with a straight face.

  “That’s not the reason!”

  “I know, I wouldn’t think he’d sacrifice me like that but I guess it’s every man for himself.” He shrugs.

  “You’re joking right?”

  “Does this look like my joking face?” He turns to me and his face is dead serious.

  “No? But I don’t think I’ve ever seen you’re joking face.”

  “It looks pretty much the same as my serious face.”

  “Then how do I know which is which?”

  “Guess you’d have to read my emotions.”

  “Haha.” I glare at him.

  “Uh oh,” he looks at me worriedly, “I’m sensing that blind rage coming on.”

  I laugh and shake my head. He’s trying to make me feel better and honestly it’s working. I wonder why he seems so much happier all of a sudden.

  “You seem different today,” I say before I can stop myself.

  “How so?” He looks at me thoughtfully.

  “You seem more carefree, happier.”

  He stares straight ahead for a while and I start to worry I ruined it but he eventually speaks.

  “I think I just realized that it was time to appreciate the things in life instead of watching them slip past.” He speaks softly and continues to stare at the road. Before I can ask what he means he turns and smiles at me. “How about we take a day off?”

  “A day off?” I ask, confused.

  “Yeah. I want to show you around the city. You haven’t gotten to do anything fun since you came with us and I think you deserve to have a day of fun.”

  “Really?” His suggestion catches me off guard. I assumed we’d just wait around in the hotel until the rest of the Elite were gathered. He nods at me.

  “What do you say?”

  “I’d love to,” I say excitedly.

  “Then we’ll start with lunch.”