I hurt. I always thought when you die you go to a better place, one where you feel great. I don’t believe in heaven or hell, but instead in more of a higher plane of existence or perhaps a different dimension—one that doesn’t include pain. Then again, maybe I was wrong and this is hell. That would explain the throbbing in my chest.
I figure I’m still alive. My chest burns where the diamond had been placed and I feel extremely weak, too weak to open my eyes. Someone has placed me on a cot or makeshift bed with my arms beside me, no longer tied behind my back. I hear voices far away but can’t tell what they are saying. I drift back to unconsciousness.
* * *
I open my eyes and see the inside of a tent above me. My chest still hurts but in a different way than before. This time it hurts with every heartbeat. I turn my head to the right, hoping to find Chris, but no.
“She’s awake,” a female voice sounds from my left. Slowly I turn my head to the other side. Several Healers come toward me, including Andrew Stuart.
“How do you feel?” he asks.
“My chest hurts. Did the diamond burn me?”
Mr. Stuart exchanges uncomfortable glances with other Healers. No one wants to answer my question. I try to sit up, but their hands hold me down.
Clara comes in and pushes her way to the front. “Calli, you made it! You had us so worried! I had no idea that when you said some people would die, you meant you.” Her face reflects genuine caring.
“Where’s Chris? Is he okay?”
“He’s fine. He’s helping repair the tents and floodlights.”
“I need to talk to him and explain everything.”
“Calli, please don’t move around right now, or you might hurt yourself further. A piece of the diamond is still in you, and no one’s sure what to do.”
“What do you mean a piece is still in me?”
“The diamond exploded and killed all of the Death Clan. However, one shard entered your heart. If it’s removed, you’ll bleed to death before they can heal you.”
“The Death Clan is dead?”
“Yes.”
I look into her eyes and slip past her walls with the thought, What happened when the diamond exploded? Of course, I highly doubt I’ll be able to gain entry into her mind now. With the whole diamond gone, my powers should be gone too.
Amazingly, her memory opens up to me. The small piece in my heart must be strong enough to give me this power.
Through her eyes, I watch the Death Clan’s bodies alter in strange ways. Their skin seems to fall off and regenerate at an alarming rate. Some of them fall to the ground and writhe in agony, while others literally crust over into a statue-like form. A bloodcurdling scream reverberates throughout the air, and it takes me a moment to recognize my own scream. The bright supernova explosion disintegrates the remaining Death members into dust. Chris runs to me. Clara looks at the remains of the Death Clan, if dust piles qualify as remains, and then at Chris, who is lifting my limp, bloody body off the table. He has his arms under my knees and behind my shoulders and has pulled me close to his chest. Distraught, he slides down the side of the stone edifice until he sits on the ground. He catches Clara’s eye and yells for her to get the Healers. She scans the area. All around is pandemonium. People run crazily in mass hysteria because the explosion has blown out the floodlights and shredded many of the tents. The one individual I’d hoped she’d locate stands across the way . . . Maetha. Clara makes eye contact with her briefly and turns her head to find the Healers. All along, Chris’s despondent cries intermingle with the chaos, pleading, “Come back, Calli! Don’t die—come back to me, please!” The Healers run over and take my broken body from him. Clara pulls him into a warm embrace, trying to comfort him. He sobs against her shoulder saying angry, unintelligible words.
I pull out of Clara’s mind and look her in the eye. “Would you tell Chris I need to talk to him?”
“Yes.”
Andrew places his hand on my shoulder and says, “Calli, we were able to mend the walls of your heart around the diamond piece to stop the bleeding, but other than that, I don’t think we can help you.”
I hold his hand on my shoulder with my mind and forcefully extract his thoughts. I need to see what else happened and see Chris again. Mr. Stuart was the first one to reach Chris in the clearing. Chris didn’t want to let go of me but eventually did. My lifeless body was moved to this tent, where they worked quickly to stop my blood loss. My heart was not beating, yet the blood flowed like that of an animal being bled out. After mending the holes, taking care to avoid touching the diamond piece, my heart started beating again. Mr. Stuart told someone to “go get him,” and soon Chris entered the tent, still covered in my blood. He told Chris I was alive, but only barely. Chris walked over to my side and placed his shaking hand carefully on my head. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered as he bent forward and kissed my forehead. He turned and walked out of the tent.
When I pull out of Mr. Stuart’s mind, I find three different people trying to pull his hand off of my shoulder. No one else touches me, but they have hold of Andrew’s body in different places, pulling and yanking to break the connection. I release the hold with my mind and apologize.
“What kind of power physically holds me to you like a magnet?” his startled voice cracks.
“Thought-Extraction, I think,” I say.
“I would like a word with the girl, alone,” says an authoritative female voice. I recognize the voice as Maetha’s, speaking from behind the crowd and causing the group to part. After the tent empties, Maetha walks in a circle around me, chanting some sort of spell. When she’s done, she stands by me and says, “Calli, I’m so pleased you are all right. I’ve isolated our conversation so no one will be able to eavesdrop on us.” She sits down by me. “You are the Sanguine Diamond Bearer. You successfully carried, protected, and delivered the stone, bringing about the fall of the Death Clan, as was intended by nature. Now, you bear a piece of the diamond within you.”
“But, why am I alive? In my previous vision at the motel, I died,” I say, with limited strength.
“Future sight is a tricky thing and can be difficult to perceive and accept. You did die, but we brought you back.”
“Before the diamond exploded, I saw another vision—a time in the distant future. I realized I would survive.”
“Again, let me say, future sight is a tricky thing. Let’s focus on the here and now. The Death Clan is eliminated and the delivery was a success on all levels.”
“I just wanted to make sure Chris didn’t die, and I kept altering the future until I found the formula for saving his life.”
“And you did.”
“What’s going to happen to me now?”
“You will keep the shard in your heart . . . let’s just say for safe-keeping. You will mend over time.”
“What about my powers?”
“You will possess your powers permanently because of the shard embedded in your heart. I would recommend you focus on one of the abilities in particular.”
“Healer. I want to be a Healer.” The first person I’ll use my healing ability on will be Jonas.
“Excellent choice.”
“I witnessed the Death people dying through Clara’s memory, but I don’t understand what happened.”
“They were originally Healers, so when they tried to extract the powers contained within the diamond, the power of healing began to infuse their bodies. You see, normally Healers cannot heal themselves, but the Sanguine Diamond gives the ability to heal oneself.”
I interrupt her. “Wait, I couldn’t heal my own injuries earlier.”
“Because the diamond was in the pouch, making it difficult for you to access the power. With enough time, you would have been able to heal yourself. You already figured out how to extract thoughts while the diamond was still in the pouch. As I was saying, the Death Clan began to access the other powers, which gave them the ability to heal themselves, and at the same time compounded their ability to kill. Kill the girl, absorb the powers. But you’re an Unaltered, and they couldn’t kill you. So they tried harder. Their killing power was increased ten-fold, and the diamond reflected it back on them. They were then destroying their own bodies, but also healing themselves. The rapid decay and regeneration created a kind of super cancer in which the accelerated cell growth mutated all their organs, tissues, and bones. They didn’t know that would happen. They didn’t understand the reason this occurred was because they chose to pair the absorption of their powers with the attempt to kill you. That’s the true beauty of it all. They didn’t know you’re an Unaltered human, nor did they fathom the significance.
“Calli,” she continues, “I chose you to carry the Sanguine Diamond long ago because not only were you an Unaltered, you displayed the necessary traits of behavior needed for a successful delivery.”
“Long ago? I’m only sixteen!”
She ignores my outburst. “You are selfishly unselfish. Because of this trait, you developed the need to make sure Chris lived, and that helped you discover the proper formula for success.”
“What does ‘Unaltered’ mean?”
“You are an Unaltered human. No cosmic energy waves have changed or altered you in any way. You are a physically pure human girl. This makes you very rare.”
“What?”
“Calli, you belong to a bloodline of purity. I’ve followed this bloodline through many centuries, both male and female, watching the effects of being an Unaltered human. I have learned an Unaltered is more powerful than any other individual on the planet and is superior to all others. I know you’re already aware of the differences between you and others your age, but there’s more to being an Unaltered. Mind-Readers cannot enter your mind, and your future cannot be seen. Death Clan members could not kill you, Healers cannot heal you, and Hunters cannot smell you. You, and others like you, hold the greatest potential to be powerful. This is the reason I selected you, as with others in your bloodline in the past. In fact, a few hundred years ago, one of your ancestors aided me in the destruction of the Vampire Clan.”
“So, the Death Clan didn’t actually kill me?”
“No. The splintering of the diamond and the force of the shard entering your heart is what caused it to stop beating.”
I place my hand over the sore wound on my chest. I take a slow, deep breath, “How were the Healers able to fix my injuries? You said they can’t heal an Unaltered.”
“I healed you. I let them think I helped them.”
“How did you cast spells on me at the gem cutter’s office if I’m so immune?”
“I didn’t need to protect you. You’re an Unaltered. I cast protection spells on the diamond.”
“What about at the track meet? Didn’t you enchant me to run fast?”
“The method I used to help you run faster wasn’t magic. Don’t waste your energy trying to figure this out. You will learn what I’m talking about soon enough.”
I nod, feeling let down that she isn’t going to answer all my questions. However, I have a pressing question in mind. “Why didn’t you take the diamond to the Death Clan from the get-go?”
“They would have thought I was attempting to wipe them out like I did with the last clan who sought ultimate power. Besides, their deaths needed to be brought about through the selfless sacrifice of an Unaltered—you. I had to alert the Grand Master to the presence of the stone on one of the Runners in the trio. He put two and two together and came up with you. Because you stood your ground and didn’t hand over the diamond, they ended up killing themselves with the diamond’s power.”
“The Grand Master didn’t know I had the diamond?”
“No, dear. I spoke to Markus’s mind and told him you knew where it was after he realized the first stone was a fake, but he became determined to eliminate the entire clan, so I alerted the Grand Master.”
“Why did he trust you? You’re a witch.”
“I’ve earned the reputation as a witch among the clans, which is useful when dealing with shady characters. Over the course of several decades, I’ve infiltrated the Death Clan’s inner circle, giving them reasons to trust me—some of which I’m not proud of. Everything was done with this exact moment in mind. There’s more to this, Calli, but this isn’t the time or place to tell you.”
Instead of pressing for more information, I decide to ask some other questions. “Why are my powers so much greater than anyone else’s?”
“Thousands of years ago when the Sanguine Diamond was created, it absorbed the most common powers of the day. The powers were stronger then and there were more varieties. Some powers have died out entirely since the creation of the diamond, while others have weakened. In today’s day and age, the cosmic energy waves collide with so much pollution and space debris before reaching the embryo that the intensity is diminished.”
“Mr. Bates said the diamond was found after an explosion of some kind. Was that true?”
“It was a half truth. I will explain the origins of the diamond at a later time.”
“Oh, okay. Is it my mother’s or father’s side that’s Unaltered?”
“Your mother’s, from her father, and he inherited from his mother. It’s a bloodline trait. You will pass the same purity on to your child someday. Something about the structure of your DNA is immune to the cosmic energy waves.”
“So are there other Unaltereds?”
“Yes, a few, but they are unaware of their potential.”
“How can you tell who is and who isn’t?”
“Your family is easy because I have followed them throughout history. Others stand out due to their unique auras. Harold Bates is an Unaltered also. I’m sure you already figured that out.”
“Right, because he could hold the stone. Beth spotted my aura on the first day. She even referred to it as a sign of a human. Chris was drawn to my aura right off the bat. Can I learn to visualize auras?”
“Yes, I’ll train you how at a later date. Chris didn’t comprehend what he saw, only that you were very special. Beth, on the other hand, is extraordinary. Not many individuals can detect an Unaltered’s aura. I’m guessing she has seen other Unaltered humans in her lifetime.”
“Chris views me as his ‘one and only.’ He had a vision.”
“I gave him that vision so he would play his role in helping fulfill the diamond’s destiny.”
“You did? So, he and I aren’t—”
She cuts me off. “Visions of the future are not manufactured, Calli. They are windows into what can be. Certain aspects of the future can be altered, but not by much. In your case, you were only able to do what you did because you carried the diamond. Regular Seers do not possess the ability to alter so many possible outcomes in so short a time.”
“Is the future between Chris and me any different now because I altered the delivery?”
“Calli, your mind and ability to comprehend isn’t ready to hear the answer yet. I will say this: the future I foresaw before you received the diamond is now.”
“You knew I’d end up with a shard in my heart? Couldn’t you have prevented that?”
“Yes, I knew how this would end, and no, I would not have prevented it. Everything has to play out as nature intends.”
“Unless I alter it.”
Her tone of voice deepens in a serious manner. “The destiny of the diamond cannot be altered. The process will complete itself all on its own. This is why I took great care in selecting you, making sure everything was in line before you were given the diamond. Your mother was a candidate at one time, but all the pieces were not in place to use her effectively. Now, Calli, I will give you a stern warning about looking for your own future through others’ minds: don’t. Can you imagine what you would have thought if you’d known from the outset you’d have to sacrifice yourself in the end? By not knowing the end at the beginning, you were able to come to the proper conclusion of self-sacrifice, which was the only ending for this journey. Do not search for your own future, and remember, no one can alter the destiny of the diamond once the splintering has taken place. Not even me.”
“You’re right. I’m not ready for this yet. You said you’ll train me later. When?”
“I will come to you in the near future and teach you more about your powers, the history of the diamond, and how to visualize auras. I don’t know exactly when. I’ve asked Ms. Winter to send you back home.”
“That’s fine. I don’t belong at the compound.”
“Calli, I want you to understand something. I explained to the clans what happened today and why the Death Clan was destroyed. However, the details I told you and what I told them are two different things. I would recommend you keep most of what I’ve told you to yourself, especially the part about having a shard in your heart and being an Unaltered. Only a small handful of people know about the shard. ”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Oh, and Calli, I’m going to block your Thought-Extraction ability. As you’ve probably noticed, that ability no longer exists in the world. Back when it did, it was seen as an evil force and viewed as devilry. All humans who possessed the power were hunted down and killed. Eventually, the power vanished altogether. Some of your other abilities may lessen significantly or disappear, but don’t be alarmed if that happens.”
I shake my head, trying to get the overload of information to settle into order. “Maetha, how long have you been alive?”
“Many thousands of years. I was once like you, an Un-altered.”
My thoughts spin in confusion. “You were an Unaltered and then became a witch?”
“I’m not a witch. I let people think I am. It’s easier that way.”
“Then where did you get your powers?”
“That’s a story I will tell when I come to visit.”
“Wait. Doesn’t it go against nature for you to live so long?”
Maetha stares at me with a pleasant smile on her face. She isn’t going to answer my question. “Do you have any other questions before I go?”
“Not a question, but a request. I want to try to heal Jonas. He has cancer.”
“Calli, I want you to understand something about healing. Your ability to heal life-threatening conditions comes with two responsibilities. The first is the decision whether you should or shouldn’t heal someone. Contrary to what you’ve been told, the balance of nature won’t be thrown off by saving one person or a whole family of persons within the normal age range, and it’s all right to do so, but use discretion wisely. By the way, saving Chris’s life by the river was not against nature. Chris doesn’t have a full understanding of the balance of nature. He only taught you what he’d been taught. You did nothing wrong by saving his life, in fact, you were acting in the best interests of nature’s will.”
I smile and say, “Well, that’s a relief. You should let Chris know so he’ll stop beating himself up over it.”
“He’ll learn for himself soon enough. The second responsibility when choosing to heal someone with a fatal disease or injury is that you need to ask the permission of the individual you wish to heal. After all, shouldn’t it be Jonas’s decision whether or not he’s healed?”
I hadn’t even thought about Jonas’s wishes. I simply wanted to heal him.
“Calli, the power to heal cases like Jonas’s comes at a high cost. The physical toll on your own body is enormous—not fatal, but debilitating. You are not in any condition at this time to attempt to heal him. However, if Jonas wants to be cured, I will do it.”
“Well, let’s ask Jonas then.”
Maetha steps outside and sends someone to find Jonas. I’m filled with overwhelming excitement to finally be able to help him. It doesn’t matter that I won’t be the one healing him. I only want to know he’ll be fine. While she’s outside, I think about what she said about being an Unaltered. So many things make sense in my head now.
After a few minutes, Jonas enters the tent with Maetha. He rushes over to me and grabs my hand. “Calli, wow!” he says. “I had no idea you were carrying the diamond. No one did. This is so cool! I’m happy you lived.” He can barely contain his happiness.
Maetha sits down on a chair nearby and says, “Jonas, we have something to discuss with you.” She motions toward an empty chair by her, and he sits. “Calli would like to tell you something.”
Jonas’s puzzled gaze shifts over to me. I say, “Jonas, the reason I couldn’t tell you the future of your father’s fate while we were at Cave Falls was because I couldn’t detect your future.”
He stares at me for a second. “What?” he asks with a slight laugh, his smile still in place.
I continue. “Once I detected you didn’t have a future, I felt inside your body and found you . . . you have cancer, Jonas . . . and it will end your life . . . probably soon.”
His smile begins to wane. “What are you talking about? I feel fine.”
“For now you do, but soon you won’t. I’m asking your permission to heal you.”
“My permission? Calli, I don’t . . . I’m confused. I’m not sick.”
“I tried to heal the tumor in your throat a few nights ago in the motel room.”
A flash of recognition comes over his face. “Is that why you were on the floor screaming in pain? You were trying to heal me? Why would you do that to yourself?” His excitement disappears completely and is replaced with seriousness. He seems more worried about my well-being than his own.
“Because,” I say, “you should have your whole life ahead of you, and I want to make it possible for you to live.”
“What does my future hold now?” His question is almost inaudible.
“You don’t have one, but you can if you want to. Maetha can heal you, Jonas.”
Jonas glances over at Maetha, who gives him an encouraging smile. Then he looks back at me. “Calli,” he says, “you haven’t been with the clan very long. There are things the clan teaches us to guide our beliefs and actions, and one of the most important is the will of nature. If nature wants something to happen, we can’t interfere. We have to let nature take its course. It’s something that, once you understand, you respect entirely and wholeheartedly. I don’t want you to think I’m disrespecting you because you’re willing to go against nature in this case, but if my time is up, then so be it. I can’t change that, and I can’t let anyone else change it. I’m as grateful as I can be that you tried to heal me, but obviously it wasn’t meant to be, and I have to accept that. Calli, if it’s my fate to die of cancer, then I’ll die of cancer, and I’ll do so willingly. I’m sorry. I can’t accept your offer.”
“But Jonas—” I try to protest, but he cuts me off.
“I’m honored I was able to go on this assignment with you and be a part of such a fantastic mission. It was amazing to be with you and watch you discover all your abilities. That was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Thank you for thinking of me, Calli, but I don’t want to be healed.”
Astonished, I look at Maetha only to see a similar expression on her face. I get the impression she has been in this same kind of situation many times over, and each time the person she has offered to help has accepted her healing. I listen as Jonas asks her if he’ll be able to go home to his mother to live out the rest of his days. Maetha nods and escorts him out of the tent.
For the life of me, I cannot understand why someone would decline help in a situation like his, but that’s exactly what’s happened. He didn’t freak out or melt into a puddle of tears. He simply handled the biggest bombshell of his life with complete maturity and acceptance. I’ll never forget the look on Maetha’s face when he asked her if he could go home. I’m guessing she has never run across someone like Jonas Flemming in her whole long life.