The Golden Disc: The Mark of Chaos Series, #3

By Susan D. Kalior

The battle begins with a whimper, but here comes the bang.

Johnny has taken to the stars on a mission to stabilize the troubled cosmos. On earth, Jensea is trying to stabilize her homelife with newborns, along with Tupuro as her bodyguard. The Shens and Tazmarks are now one big happy family, well, sort of. Events heat up when a new threat arises. The most powerful creature in existence conspires to end the universe, and create another, even though he is only two feet tall.

Johnny discovers a golden disc, a whirling portal of time, space, and all its secrets. A disturbing revelation has come to light. The universe needs the creature who is trying to end it. Tazmarks love to play life and death games, but this game is rigged, and time is running out.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Susan D. Kalior
• Release date: Apr 22, 2018
• ISBN: 9781393249276

Susan D. Kalior

        Susan was born in Seattle, WA.. Her first profession was a psychotherapist treating those suffering from depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, substance abuse, sexual abuse, family violence, and severe mental illness. She employed therapies such as communication skill building, relaxation training, systematic desensitization, bioenergetics, and psychodrama. She has facilitated stress management, parenting, and self-discovery workshops that have aided in the psycho-spiritual healing of many. She has lectured on metaphysical and psychological topics, and been involved in various social activist pursuits.          Her education includes an M.A. in Ed. in Counseling/Human Relations and Behavior (NAU), a B.S. in Sociology (ASU), and ten months of psycholog-ical and metaphysical training in a Tibetan community.          Susan writes entertaining books steeped in psychology, sociology, and metaphysics in genres such as visionary fiction, dark fantasy, horror, and romance. All her books are designed to facilitate personal growth and transformation.         In her words: I love to sing, meditate, and play in nature. I love fairy tales, going outside the box, and reading between the lines. I strive to see what is often missed, and to not miss what can't be seen. There is such a life out there, and in there—beyond all perception! So I close my eyes, feel my inner rhythm, and jump off the cliff of convention. And when I land, though I might be quaking in my boots, I gather my courage and go exploring.         Through travel, study, and work, I've gained a rich awareness of cultural differences among people and their psychosocial struggles. I have discovered that oppression often results from the unexamined adoption of outside perceptions. The healing always has been in the individual's stamina to expel outside perceptions of self and constructively exert one's unique core being into the world. I am driven to facilitate expanded awareness that people may separate who they are from who they are told to be. Embracing personal power by loving our unique selves in our strengths and weaknesses . . . forever—is a key to joyous living. My motto is: Trust your story. Live the Mystery..

Book preview

Prologue

It was a serendipitous beginning for johnny and me. I was in a religious cage that stifled my personal growth. Then johnny came along with his Tazmarkian magic and trouble making ways to free me into a spirituality that transcended dogma. Although he was the epitome of sin, he taught me how to, as a Shen (a human angel) foster healing, love, and harmony. My kindred Shens joined me in that goal, even though the Tazmarks (human Dragons) in answering the call for chaos would often undo it.

However, our recent adventures in saving the earth had driven Shens and Tazmarks to collaborate. That resulted in the resurrection of my goddess self from centuries past, and johnny—his pure Dragon self the same. Though much stronger now, at present, we Tazmarks, Shens, my best friend Randa and her Wiccan lover Marla, all work together to repel a bigger threat—the collapse of our universe.

But where is my johnny now? He, who is the most powerful Tazmark on earth, and the mightiest Dragon in the galaxy.

Chapter One

Jenséa

In the glow of a nightlight , I lay in my king-size bed with a sleeping infant curled under each arm. Three months old, my babies were. Three months now since I’d seen johnny. The dark morning engulfed me in a feeling of empty waiting. My mind whirled with thoughts of my Tazmark.

Oh, how I missed my man, well, part-man and part-Dragon, and the father of my precious little darlings. My not so precious Tazmark was out there in the stars gathering Dragon armies to right the wrongs that had thrown our universe into peril. Hard to believe that spreading destruction was the answer.

Destruction is needed to create. It took me a long time to understand this, but without demise, there is no rebirth. An extreme of one or the other destabilizes everything. We all need darkness to counterbalance light, and johnny was out to ensure we had it, a big change from his old lust to purely destroy, despite consequences.

With no report for a month of my beloved’s whereabouts, actions, or even if his heart still beat, his absence made the air seem thicker somehow. The metal dragonhead talisman around my neck acted as a tracker between us, its red eyes glowing when activated. But now the cool metal felt lifeless against my bare skin, nestled like a tomb between my breasts. Perhaps this was so because johnny was too busy in battle, or . . . perhaps because he wasn’t . . . I gulped, anymore.

My breath filled my lungs with a soft hush of hope, stinging and sticking a little before I exhaled my fear of the worst. johnny would have called it play, this mission of his, out there, up there. Being super human fueled in him a cocky attitude and a never-ending lust to experience something new.

Yeshe, my infant daughter, stirred, sputtering munchkin moans. Milk surged in my breasts, responding to her discomfort. I carefully maneuvered my arm away from my sleeping son, Dorjee, or DJ as we had come to call him, then sat up. I scooted back against the headboard, inadvertently digging my silky nightgown straps into my shoulders.

I pulled down the straps, freeing the white silk to slide gently off my breasts. I scooped Yeshe up in her little pink sleeper into my cradling arms, and drew her near a milk-engorged nipple. Her little mouth latched on robustly.

What else of her was robust, I wondered. Just how much of her daddy’s genetics had she? Will she breathe fire at me when angered? Will she bully the neighbor kids? Will she be found out and ostracized? I shuddered, not wanting to imagine such things.

I gazed upon her shadowed sweet face as morning light rays broke through the dark from the bedside window.

Perhaps she will be more of a healer and messenger of love, like me, a human angel—a Shen. Or maybe she will be equally Tazmark and Shen, torn apart within, or possibly have multiple personality disorder. I winced at the thought. However, given johnny, a purebred Tazmark, had learned to love, could not my half breed infants, even if they did inherit their father’s devilish traits?

But johnny was not a devil to me, not anymore. I finally understood him, what he was, and why he was. He answered the conscious and unconscious call for suffering and chaos. Martyr’s, masochists, and sinners were his best clientele. However, those who love and respect themselves are off limits to his sinister play.

Ouch. My nipple kind of hurt. Yeshe had a monster suck, and I hoped this did not mean she would be a sucking monster, you know the vampire kind, a common behavior for Tazmarks. I never liked nor endorsed johnny’s way, but there was, albeit hard to swallow, merit in life’s dark side. No darkness, no light. Night and day, good and bad, pain and pleasure; there is never one without the other, so in a way, johnny is good; he just looks bad. He was super human, super bright, and supernatural.

The definition of supernatural in one of our most popular dictionaries is: of, pertaining to, or attributed to ghosts, goblins, or other unearthly beings; eerie; occult. That is johnny, in a way all of those aforementioned are he. Ghost, because he can make himself invisible to the human eye. Unearthly, because his origin is not of earth. Eerie, because people generally fear him. And occult, because he can read minds, manifest objects, and teleport. Oh yeah, he kills people too. Kills them in his own unearthly way with clever disavow that there is no wrong in it, no wrong in granting people’s wishes to dance with the devil, or to suffer and die for various reasons.

Yeshe stopped suckling. I drew her against me, patted her little back, drawing out a tiny burp. She was so small. Her little heart beat against mine. I had a daughter. I just couldn’t believe it. My own parents were murdered when I was a little girl, and I very much wanted to stay alive for my children, at least until they were grown.

DJ began to stir. Yeshe had fallen asleep. I slowly slipped off the bed and placed her in the white bassinet in the corner of the room, leaving the top part of my white nightgown down. I slipped back on the bed lying on my side, facing DJ. Propped up on one elbow, I peered at his shining, smiling face in the shadows. I touched my finger to his tiny nose with affection, then traced the line of his little mouth that opened to engulf the fleshy tip.

I withdrew my finger, rolled off the bed, leaned in, then scooped my precious boy into the cradle of my arms, his mint green sleeper soft on my skin. I settled into the nearby white wicker rocking chair, comfortable on the blue cushion sporting a print of yellow ducks.

Cradling him, I brought his mouth to my unsuckled breast. He latched on. As he took in the nourishment from my body, my eyes teared with joy. Then eyeing the pinkish ridge on the back of his little brown hand, stretching from wrist to middle finger, fear trickled in for my dear son’s future.

Oh my sweet babies, I am so sorry you are from both Tazmark and Shen. I pray it does not harm you. My stomach gurgled with anxiety. Calm down, calm down. Well, I hadn’t planned the pregnancy. That was johnny’s doing, a ploy to endear me to remain with him. He would never do such a thing now.

I inhaled deeply, remembering the good of our relationship. Though Shen and Tazmark had never before adjoined, we are, I suppose, perfect for each other. What’s that they say? ‘Opposites attract.’ And they do. They can also destroy each other. We try hard not to do that.

I didn’t want to love him, didn’t choose to love him, but love him I did, and love him I do—purely and completely. And now . . . with babies in the picture, it is always different with babies in the picture, I wouldn’t leave him if I could—and oh how I have tried. Oh, where was he? Why have we not received word from him in over four weeks?

I began to feel uneasy as if I were being watched. Since I became aware of the supernatural world all around us, I had learned to expect the unexpected.

I scanned the waning dark and the bright area the nightlight shed, detecting nothing unusual. I reached over to the little round end table and turned on the small lamp that emitted soft light. The room looked empty of infiltrators. But that didn’t mean it was. Tazmarks can be present, though unseen. Pericludies is the term.

I scowled. The presence I sensed was familiar.

I grabbed a powder blue baby blanket draped over the rocking chair arm, and covered my exposed breasts with DJ yet suckling. Tupuro, is that you?

He became visible, squatted before me with a wily smile. Blood edged the corner of his mouth, likely from his nightly hunt. I said, Please stand back.

He didn’t budge. Though he appeared different from johnny, with long, wavy, light brown hair under a black skullcap, and a stockier, more muscular build, shown off by a maroon leather vest and pants, his power and charisma felt similar.

He stared at my blanketed breasts. I like to watch your children milk you.

Being a modest person, I blushed. Tupuro, your presence without my permission bothers me.

I was . . . instructed, he said tersely, to watch over you.

That doesn’t mean you can invade my privacy at every turn, and johnny wouldn’t approve; you know this!

Well, Juan isn’t here, is he, and it is not in my nature to abide the wishes of anyone, least of all a Shen. Perhaps the universe calls for chaos in plenty, but since earth has had its tune-up, calls for mass chaos have drastically subsided. We Tazmarks require nourishment, not the occasional human now and then, but something with a little more— his eyes seemed to whirl slightly as if daydreaming, meat to it.

I glared at him. Please don’t talk that way around my babies.

Oh, you mean your half-Tazmark babies?

I tried to shake off his disrespectful demeanor. He was trying to upset me. Tazmarks enjoyed causing upset, which is why I didn’t ask him or any other Tazmark if they had heard from johnny. They’d just toy with me, and not give a true answer. I let out a sigh. You need to leave now.

But he didn’t leave.

Charlotte will feel my distress and be here in an instant to make you go.

Charlotte was my dad’s French grandmother, and a master Shen, able to read my mind and feel my need for her without overt notification.

I do not fear her. Tupuro scoffed. You all underestimate me, including your beloved.

He pushed his face closer to mine, his amber eyes deepening in color. His voice was low and eerie. I ascended a power level in the Chilean Battle. I am now a nine. Do you know what a nine requires to function properly? Not token acts of destruction that are like eating hors d’oevres, and barely enough to sustain me. Those of us on these higher levels are all pent up and the, his eyes narrowed, "king knows better than to let this happen."

What do you expect him to do! I retorted. If the calls aren’t there, they are not there.

He stood up and crossed his arms defiantly. Oh, we could agitate the humans en mass and push them into calling for chaos. We could goad them into, oh say, a war. We could cause misunderstandings and drive parts of the world into calamity.

I huffed, not meaning what I was about to say, Then go do that. Just go!

The king, he rolled his eye sarcastically, has ordered us to stand down from such manipulating to give the earth a chance to stabilize. And his primary order for me is to guard you, a Shen. This goes against everything a Tazmark is. It made Juan weak when he became your guardian, and it weakens me too.

Then why are you obeying johnny’s orders?

Who says I am. Perhaps I have my own agenda.

I smirked. This is what Tazmarks do. Play mind games and they are very good at it. Fortunately, I have had a lot of practice with johnny, and had become quite adept at not falling for them.

DJ felt my distress and began to fuss.

I decided to try a more empathetic approach. I could never command Tupuro, and he would rather take on johnny’s wrath than kowtow to a Shen. Plus, just because johnny ordered him to protect me, didn’t mean he wouldn’t eat me instead, or truly go agitate the world into something bad.

I’m sorry for your struggle. And I actually was. I know what it feels like to be denied your nature. I wanted so badly to heal the Russians affected by the nuclear explosion johnny caused last year, and he wouldn’t let me. I thought I would go mad.

He narrowed an eye. Maybe you will . . . yet. Then he vanished. Tazmarks are good at that. They can move through time, and if they are really advanced, like johnny, they can move into worlds beyond earth.

The door cracked open. Charlotte poked her head in the room, her wizened face calming me. You called? she asked, her accent thick.

Just a small scuffle with Tupuro.

She sighed. The role Tazmarks play is much easier to accept from a distance. She made her way over to me with small soft steps in her comfortable slippers, and white blue flowered gardenia dress, gently swishing at her knees. Watching them close up makes me cringe. She squished her face for a moment to show distaste.

I blew out a hot breath. Yeah, tell me about it.

I just loved the almost comical wisdom that ever came out of her mouth. Unlike me, she never spoke defeatist words. We all lived together in a Manhattan condo, along with my best friend Randa and her female lover, Marla, a master Wiccan. After last year’s drama when we were all forced to unite and battle the Dragons who wanted to destroy the earth, we decided to stick together.

DJ began to calm down. Charlotte’s presence was probably why. I held him upright against my chest and pat his back. A little burp burst from his mouth. Feeling his warm body against me, I smiled with joy.

Charlotte reached down and drew him against her chest. He started cooing. The babies just loved her.

I rose from the rocking chair and Charlotte nudged me out of the way. "The sun is rising. You go get ready for your morning jog in Central Park. I will watch the babies. She sat down in the rocking chair, then started humming Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

Thank you, I said, I could really use that now.

She eyed me affectionately while still humming.

I headed for my dresser drawer to get my jogging clothes, excited to have alone time, thinking time, and just feeling better time.

johnny

I WAS IN THE THIRD realm of the earth’s inner core. This rudimentary place, while stirring my blood as an interesting experience, lacked the sophistication in game playing that can set my brain on analytical fire. Here, there is nothing to outwit, taunt, or torment. Everything here . . . just is.

Somewhere in the scope of a month ago, I fell through space from my home world, Gamma Draconis, known to Dragons as Dracovar Prime, and landed in this boring place in my standard humanoid earth form, naked and unable to manifest clothes.

The event occurred so fast, I barely had time to shift my energy to blend into third realm molecular makeup to survive this environment. If I’d failed, I would now be condensed into a tiny ball and plaster-casted in solid iron and nickel. However, as long as I remained attuned this way, I could, in my more porous state, roam about the earth’s center, so hot, it can’t move. And though I can, it’s like walking through compact stone, only to see more stone.

The stinging truth is that not only are my whereabouts unknown to anyone, but my time-space powers to telepath, manifest, and teleport were disabled in this remote region of existence. That meant, amongst other things, no food.

I had been feeding off the spirits I consumed from destroying other worlds, stored in a chamber of my vast inner being. Otherwise, though generally immortal, I’d be close to death. It helped that here my metabolism slowed almost to a halt, something to do with the stilled vibration of the rock. In attuning myself to it, I became somewhat like it.

But how did I get here?

I had been in my lair on my obsidian throne, feeling mighty in my recently acquired Dragon body. I was about to convene with my legions on the firefield, where we typically held our gatherings, when before me there appeared a strange and most unalarming creature.

He stood two feet tall with saucer eyes, large triangular ears, and little hairs sticking out from his wrinkly brown skin. Naked, his maleness was apparent. He announced himself as Trikolix in a language translated into the one in which I was thinking (a gift I also shared).

I pushed my snout down and stared into his saucer eyes to determine his nature, but saw mine: condensed heat, controlled fire, and a day in my early earth beginnings as a Tazmark: I was a child bathing in an undersea volcano, lavishing in molten lava. Afterward, I teleported myself to the earth’s core just to see what it was like, and found myself stuck there until a Gobi giant (a rock creature) took pity and rescued me.

Still staring into the creature’s eyes, he snickered, and I was whisked away to the very spot I’d been stuck in so long ago. I have been trapped here longer than I could have imagined, not accustomed to befuddlement, although of years late, it had been a growing occurrence. While I had always been captured by the sanctimonious notion that I am enough for myself and in need of no one, when a certain Shen entered my life, I found I was mistaken.

Pairing with her, I became derelict in my duty to uphold Tazmarkian law to fully grant the earth’s call for destruction. Oh, I still destroy, lust to destroy, and am ruthless in dispensing chaos and inciting terror, but now I seem to do it for the greater good, which is both exciting and disturbing at the same time. I have become an ambassador of sorts, an ambassador for earth—ironic actually, for it had for centuries bored me.

Pushing upward through solid iron, I was trying to get to a place where my signals work, so I could fly out of here. Since my ability to move through time had been disabled, it was taking for seeming ever.

Who was this two-foot being who seemed so innocuous? Did I arrive here because staring in his eyes while thinking of this place catalyzed instant teleportation? Or in reading my memory, had he decided to send me here? Or perhaps he resurrected that memory to send me here. Trikolix Tutorial #1. His eyes are time portals.

This disarming looking creature who could teleport living beings (something I couldn’t do) was perhaps the most powerful I’d ever known going on a thousand years now. Before I became a Tazmark, I was a full-fledged Dragon residing in the northern Draco Constellation, but many of my memories there are lost. Once I was made a Tazmark, and thereby partly human, I spun off into a whole different reality in the earth world.

I can’t say I have minded, for here on earth I stumbled upon my Shen, Jenséa. She was a piece of my long lost love, Panacéa, the goddess of rain and snow and conduit of Divine Love. Well, she’s human now, mostly. I don’t care. It’s as they say, ‘Love springs eternal,’ or is that hope? Well, since I have no need of hope, as I always get what I’m after, it’s love that is apparently eternal for me, an anomaly amongst our kind, love that is. Tazmarks are not meant for such things.

A snicker sounded at my back. Sensing it was the little monster responsible for my current whereabouts, I worked through the stone to turn around. The little big-eyed beast was there, his eyes flush with mine, his toes pointing at my chest. He gave an innocent smile, appearing more as a friendly elf than the holy terror he truly was.

When humans are faced with circumstances that present the improbability of surviving, they generally surrender, or rally and desperately attempt to beat the odds. When Tazmarks are faced with these challenges, they thrive on the thrill.

I sucked in a breath of excitement, scanning his mind for information, but it seemed blank. Apparently, he had an acute ability to smoke screen.

Guess I’d have to use my wits. You can teleport in and out of here with ease?

I can. He blinked out, gone for a moment, then blinked back in with a grin.

Can you manifest things from the surface world?

I can. My standard black clothes appeared on me: tee shirt, jeans, boots, and black fingerless gloves, matching the current density of my body. For him to know my mode of earthly dress, was proof he’d been prowling around in my mind.

What can’t you do?

He wiggled his ears. There is nothing I can’t do.

You are quite the curiosity to an ages old being like me. Who are you?

He cocked his head, looking like a sweet kid. I am Trikolix.

I narrowed an eye. "So you have said. What are you?"

I am a Trikolix, he repeated in a singsong manner.

The name suited him, as he was unassuming and seemed a master of trickery.

And a Trikolix is—?

Ignoring my question, his voice oddly carried a tone of wisdom. You are quite the aberration of your own kind. You have learned that there is nothing left to destroy if you don’t allow healing. You have learned that an out-of-balance universe, will eventually fade from existence. If a coin only has one side, it ceases to be a coin.

And what side of the coin are you?

Neither.

My eyes flicked red. What do you want?

You, out of the equation, to stop what you are doing.

You want the universe to fall from balance and cease to exist?

Yes.

You want the universe to cease.

Sometimes it’s better to let a universe die. There are others, you know.

This was news to me, if it was true, but I withheld my surprise. Instead, I cracked an enigmatic smile. I have grown rather fond of this one.

You mean rather fond of a creature or two in it.

I intensified my stare into his child-like eyes, though time portals they may be. I was attempting to burn my way through his seemingly impenetrable mind shield to get true answers. I jolted, feeling penetration into my own.

His being seemed to act as a mirror reflecting me back to myself. That would probably rule out sending Gankors (ingested spirits that I cultivate into weapons) to eat him full of holes. Since it wouldn’t require me manifesting anything from the surface world, I could likely make that attack, if only to show him I could.

I decided to experiment with just one. I blasted one out in a tubular streak that blasted right back into my semi-incorporeal shoulder, causing a burning pain. I had to suck the Gankor back in me quickly to avoid further injury.

Trikolix grinned with a snicker.

Okay, no Gankors to the rescue. Given my little experiment, other forms of magical attack would backfire too.

Trikolix Tutorial #2. He can boomerang what comes at him. I’d have to utilize a novel method of combat, and the intrigue was delicious.

Perhaps if I projected my energy inwards, I could get him that way. I journeyed into the tangled fiery halls of my being, toward my core. My volcanic power mounted, surging through my body like bubbling red-orange liquid, fueling my lust to be—me.

I felt the creature’s energy flinch as if concerned he’d lose control over me.

Deeper I went—deeper. It is thought that one can find a center in themselves, but that is only in the world of identity. The journey inward never ends, and when deep enough, our sense of identity vanishes into the oneness of everything. So I journeyed inward as far as blending with the Dragon collective to elude him. If he lost sight of my consciousness, I could launch a surprise attack on the little fiend.

However, like looking into a rearview mirror, the creature appeared in the back of my mind, grinning. He had flinched, but quickly readjusted and found me.

There is no escaping me. His eyes glowed sweetly.

I knew there was, there always is . . . a way.

I turned to him within myself. He waved his hand, and in the glaze of a heat wave, a scene played: Jen was jogging in Central Park. And though he was in me showing me this scene, I felt it to be current. I quickly took the opportunity to tap into her mind using it as a link to the outer world. She was worried about me, and wondering where I was. It would probably never occur to her that I was in the earth, not above it.

The scene vanished, I assume to cut me off at the pass. I didn’t like that she was on his radar. Caring about another is a difficult undertaking for a Tazmark, and it always put a monkey wrench in my enjoyment.

If falling into his gaze and thinking of a place got me here, maybe it could get me out. I gazed into his eyes and thought of Central Park where I’d seen Jen.

Trikolix giggled. That only works when I want it to work. And it works both ways.

I disappeared and reappeared in the cottage in India where Jen and I met High Lama Khandro last year. Only now, there was a young couple sleeping in the bed. I disappeared and reappeared in France’s great hotel, La Petite Maison, in the living room of the suite where Jen and I stayed last fall before all hell broke loose. The room was empty. He is taking me around to significant places I’ve been as if he knows all of them; how can he?

I disappeared and reappeared in the cave of red moving walls, known as Arbitron-X, where at the bidding of the Dragon Council, I severed my tie with Jen before she pulled me back in and transformed me. Even though I was going back, it seemed to be the present time of those places.

I disappeared and reappeared in the French monastery in the year 1210, where I rescued Jen in a past incarnation from repeating a horror of being raped by monks. I was in the room where she was being held with a monk atop her. Sensing my presence, he gave me a menacing eye. Okay, he can take me into the actual past too.

I disappeared and reappeared on a planet with strong pink tones and icy mountains looking down on a scene. Charlotte, Jen’s Shen great grandmother was there with many angelic beings, singing hauntingly beautiful tones that caused me pain. I had never been here; was this my future—or Charlotte’s?

Then I was back in the earth’s core with Trikolix, looking him in the face, his bare toes at my chest.’’

He cocked his head innocently. Did you enjoy the ride?

I entertained the idea of just physically choking him.

Tee hee hee, he giggled. I am far too quick for that.

Okay, so he can penetrate my mind, transport me where he wishes, deflect my attacks, and catch me when I try to elude him. However, if he’d wanted me dead, I wouldn’t be here posturing with him right now.

Just to see what he would do, I turned slightly and resumed my slow climb upward to get my signals working so I could fly out of here.

I felt my mind grabbed, and I couldn’t move.

Tee hee hee, he giggled. You can go when I let you go.

I narrowed an eye. "If it is that you want me out of the equation, why keep me here? Why not attempt to kill me now?"

I have plans for you.

Plans?

Yes, and for your Shen as well.

I was glad I’d become practiced at subduing my hot temper in trying to save Jen from it. Going cool with this little dude was about all I could do right now.

She is your weakness, you know.

I barely shrugged a shoulder. Once maybe, now she is my strength.

He jiggled his hands in front of him with condescension. "Oh, she supports the new you."

How did he know so much? Had he completely accessed my mind, or had he been watching me for an extended period of time?

He grinned and wiggled his ears, my thoughts loud to him. Neither, he answered.

I raised a casual brow. Are there more of your kind, or are you the only one?

His hand slapped his hairy chest dramatically. The one and only.

How can this be?

Well, for one, I am not the creature you see before you. Actually, I am not a creature at all.

My brows furrowed with a burgeoning thought. Perhaps he is not from this universe. It would explain why he seemed to care so little about it.

He just grinned. I disappeared from the earth’s core, going to where I did not know.

Chapter Two

Jenséa

With Charlotte tending the twins, I had slipped into my favorite navy blue leggings and light blue sweatshirt, then crossed the street to Central Park. There is nothing like the early morning sun stretching warm fingers of light to wake up the land. I began jogging the park’s six mile loop that I so enjoyed. Sun glimmered through the blossomed cherry trees of spring. Magnolia freshened the air. I inhaled deeply as I sped along the path passing elm, birch, and cedar trees. A light, crisp breeze cooled my face and made my baby fine, blonde hair dance about my shoulders.

Running had always settled my nerves. The sweet scent of wintergreen wafted my way. Looking to the source, I glanced at the mint patch, then at my navy jogging shoes, padding along the path.

Hello, I said kindly to a familiar face jogging the other way. I’d gotten better being around people, and no longer shy to wave at the regulars with pleasant greetings. The wind picked up a little, blowing my hair past my ears as I sailed along. I soaked in this special time to enjoy nature, and to think without distraction.

Even though I loved this time, a pang shot through my heart, missing johnny, missing him bad. My mind went to the time when we first met. Oh, he horrified me then, but deep down he needed me and loved me true, though I doubt he was aware of it.

When my eyes first fell upon him, his back was to me, with long raven hair trailing over his shoulder blades. Dressed in black, a silk dress shirt, jeans, and boots, he stood in a tenement hall blocking a skuzzy, red-haired man from charging after me. His elbow snapped back, then forward, punching my assailant clear across the hall, landing him unconscious on the already bloodstained floor.

As I stood there in shock with sweat trickling down my temples from running so hard, johnny turned to face me. I couldn’t inhale. He quite literally stole my breath, reminding me of a swashbuckling Spaniard.

Mesmerized by his glowing amber eyes, I slowly sucked in air. I thought I imagined the glow, but no, as he walked toward me like a stalking cat, his eyes became like bright fire, more orange than amber. I