Stolen Heart - By Bennett, Sawyer Page 0,2
he needed something more. Some action, or adventure. Anything to break these doldrums.
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
Kieran glanced over at Kayla/Kara to see if whoever was pounding on his door had awoken her. Nope. She was still sound asleep. Sighing, Kieran got out of bed and pulled on a pair of loose, drawstring pants that hung low on his waist. Padding out of his bedroom and to the front door of his apartment, he ran a hand through his long hair, hoping to give it some semblance of normalcy before he saw who was on the other side. Screw it. I don’t care what I look like.
Opening the door, Kieran saw the smiling face of his brother, Carrick. Even better, he held Emma in his arms. Upon seeing Kieran, Emma reached her chubby arms out and happily screeched, “Unca Keera”. She had not mastered the English language yet, but he knew what she wanted. Taking her from Carrick’s arms, Kieran gave her a soft kiss on her head.
“Hey, munchkin. Why are you visiting your Uncle Kieran so early?”
Kieran didn’t expect Emma to answer, so he looked over her head at Carrick with his eyebrows raised. While Emma happily babbled in Kieran’s arms, Carrick stepped inside the front door.
“Good morning sunshine. Did we wake you?”
“Nope. Just been lying in bed pondering life’s mysteries.”
Carrick snorted. “Probably pondering the name of whatever girl you have in that bed with you.”
Kieran grinned but didn’t respond. He didn’t need to…his brother knew him well. He walked into his living room, smooching kisses over Emma’s face. She laughed gleefully. Sitting on the couch with Emma in his arms, he looked back up at Carrick, waiting for him to answer his original question as to why they were there. They normally ate breakfast together every morning around 8:00am so it was out of the ordinary for Carrick to show up this early at his apartment.
Carrick didn’t beat around the bush. “We have a problem. The Scepter has been stolen.”
Kieran gaped at Carrick. Reaching behind a pillow, he pulled out a stuffed teddy bear. He had all kinds of kid’s toys laying around for when Emma visited. He put Emma on the floor to play with the teddy bear and turned his attention back to Carrick.
“What do you mean ‘stolen’”?
“What about ‘stolen’ don’t you understand? It’s gone. And it can’t have just vanished into thin air. Ergo, it’s been stolen.”
“How? You have armed guards surrounding it day and night.”
“We have no idea. The guards were rendered unconscious. They were found at the shift change at 6:00a.m. I came directly here to let you know.”
“It has to be recovered, Carrick. You know we can’t go unprotected.”
Carrick sighed. “I know.”
Picking Emma up from the floor, he looked at Kieran. “Come have breakfast and we will fill you on everything we know.”
CHAPTER 2
Kieran didn’t waste any time. He performed a cleansing spell on himself as he walked back into the bedroom and lightly swatted Kayla (or was it Kara?) on the hind end to wake her up. He got her out of his apartment with a minimum of fuss. She wasn’t expecting anything more than a quick kiss, and he was only too happy to deliver it. Changing into casual clothes of jeans, a black t-shirt and black biker boots, he walked to Carrick and Ava’s apartments.
Looking down at his clothes, he gave a nod of thanks for his ability to travel back and forth to The First Dimension. He so much preferred their clothes to what was available here in Vyronas. He couldn’t help it if fashion interested him.
The First Dimension was the original place of inhabitance on Earth. Vyronas was an alternate dimension that co-existed, along with many other dimensions, upon the same planet. Travel between the dimensions had become possible during the time of the ancient Egyptians when a massive stone was discovered that had strange, magical properties.
The stone, which was as large as a building, had eventually been chipped at and whittled away by those curious to experiment with its properties. Those sorcerers in ancient times didn’t take long to discover the stone could tear openings--or Veils--between the dimensions. These Veils allowed for First Dimension inhabitants to travel to new worlds, which eventually became colonized. A new world was called an AltVeritas, which meant Alternate Truth. The various AltVerita ranged in size, population, societal norms, climate and whatever else you could think of that would make up a dimensional world.
Because those early travelers that settled the AltVerita were sorcerers,