The Door (Part Two) Read online

  “You think the letter I received asking if I was here is a fishing scheme?” I asked.

  He nodded.

  My thoughts went to my mom and then to the fact we were all vulnerable in our sleep since we couldn’t stop anyone from entering the house. “I don’t understand,” I said at last. “What kind of mistakes was he making? Like clumsy mistakes or was he malicious?”

  “Malicious,” Carey replied. “I mean now, I think it was malicious. At the time, I thought he just needed to learn to be a better diplomat. He was always manipulating the visitors, telling them lies about one another and telling me he was pranking them. I think he might have had other motivations in becoming a Caretaker, like maybe working for the governing body on my world, which has never approved of our alliances with the Tili and Komandi.”

  “And during the ten years he was trapped on Nidiani, so he didn’t make anyone disappear.”

  “Or he was trapped here with no access to the portals. It’s why I think he’s not hurting Caretakers, just taking them somewhere. He could have killed them on either world but he wants them alive for some reason.”

  “But why?”

  He shrugged.

  “Okay then what do we do?” I asked, my alarm growing.

  “We never answer the door alone from here on out. So much about the disappearances doesn’t feel right, particularly the speed at which they’ve occurred. Some occurred simultaneously, which leads me to believe he’s not working alone,” Carey replied.

  “There must be some way for you to have your people deal with him,” I said. “Do you have police on Nidiani?”

  “My people have been decimated by war, which was why they pulled out of the fight and have been trying to negotiate peace with their enemies. The actions of some wacko on another planet aren’t high priority, and the government won’t act, if he’s under their orders.”

  “I don’t understand. Why Caretakers?”

  “Because we’re the peace brokers. We give shelter to the enemies of Nidiani,” he said with a shrug.

  “And it’s better to tear apart the alliance than face the monsters?” I pressed. He wouldn’t look me in the eye, and everything about his explanations seemed too quick, as if he’d prepared these answers in case someone asked him. Worst of all, nothing he said made much sense to me with what I already knew about the Five Peoples and the Council.

  “It seems possible to me. I don’t know his real motivation, but this blood feud runs back almost a million years,” he replied. “You have no sense of history for a million years, but we do. Komandi have always been enemies with Nidiani until recently, when we united to face an even greater foe before the alliance crumbled. There are some who would rather see our world destroyed than work with our enemies and many who believe peace to be possible. The Caretakers are likely collateral damage.”

  Carey was lying about something. But I didn’t know what or why.

  “It’s also possible …” he drifted off, troubled and frustrated. “I don’t know. Maybe he’s taking the individual Caretakers because he’s looking for something.”

  Maybe he doesn’t want anyone around who knows how to close the portals, I thought in response. Why that might be was harder for me to guess. These people had a shared history I’d never be able to appreciate. I cared about my family and the door staying open, now that I knew Teyan was alive and had been looking for me. I had time to work up the nerve to go through the portal and see him, if he didn’t come here first, but that wouldn’t be possible if someone locked my door.

  Whatever was going on, Carey wasn’t revealing everything.

  “I’ll send my mom to New York,” I said.

  “I believe that to be wise,” he agreed. “I’ve sent a plea to some who might listen on Nidiani.”

  Pulling out my phone, I checked the time and frowned. My mom had been gone for several hours. There was a chance she went to the mall, which was a solid two hour drive one way, but she should have texted me first. I sent a quick note asking where she was then put the phone away, dwelling on what I’d learned from Carey.

  He was distraught and silent once again.

  There was a part of me that wanted to chalk this all up to someone else’s problem, except, now that I was in charge of a door, it was my problem, too. Whether or not I wanted to deal with it, I was going to have to face this otherworldly threat at some point and hopefully, figure out what he was doing so we could stop him. I didn’t know enough to imagine what his motivations were, and I found myself frustrated once more at being so far in the dark.

  “You finally met your Tili,” Carey said and shrugged off his severe expression.

  “Finally?” I echoed.

  “You befriended Teyan and officially allied with him. He would’ve sent someone to find you no matter how many years passed. Their alliances are sacred and their people pretty persistent. In their belief system, allies are fated.”

  I wished I knew more about the different peoples. It surprised me to think Teyan would send someone to find me when he had a war on his hands, but Carey seemed to find it as natural as the two Tili visitors. Maybe I wasn’t special, and Teyan wasn’t interested in me, aside from the fact I was an official ally and he was obligated to check in on me.

  Uncertain what to say, I was quiet.

  “I’m kind of glad they’re here,” he added. “I heard what happened to break the alliance between his people and mine from my home world, but I’d like to know both sides of the story.”

  “Do you think –” I started.

  The loud rap of someone at the front door silenced me. My breath caught in my throat, and Carey went pale. We sat in frozen uneasiness long enough for the person to pound even harder on the door.

  “What do we do?” I asked.

  “We answer it. Together. We’ll pretend everything is normal, wait for your mom to come home, then get away from here,” he replied.

  “We leave the door exposed?”

  “I don’t know what other choice we have.”

  It may have been my first week as a Caretaker, but leaving the door exposed sounded like a really bad idea.

  “Caretaker!” the visiting Tili woman called. “Do you not answer your door?”

  Carey rolled his eyes.

  We strode together to the front of the house. The two Tili were in the garden after a day of rest, hunched over a strawberry and scrutinizing it, as if uncertain what it was. I had no time to be amused by the sight and glanced at Carey, whose haunted gaze was riveted on our destination.

  We reached the door and I drew a breath before opening it.

  The Nidiani at the front door was in jeans. Tall and lean, he appeared to be close to my age and smiled as easily as any of the people from his world. A dark, late model vehicle was parked in front of the house.

  “Hi. I’m looking for my friend. A man with golden eyes like mine. I was told he …” He stopped and tilted his head to the side. “Caretaker?”

  “Um, yeah,” I said. “You are?”

  He stared at me long enough for me to shift back from the door. “This is a little awkward,” he said. “I’m Jiod, the ambassador from the Council.”

  “Come in,” I said and stepped aside. “Carey is here, along with a couple visitors.”

  “Visitors.” Jiod looked past me as he entered.

  “A couple of Tili. Our young Caretaker befriended one and officially allied with them,” Carey supplied with a glance at me. “They came to check up on her.”

  Jiod’s gaze went to Carey.

  Carey was a horrible actor. Even I didn’t buy his attempt to appear as if nothing was wrong. His eyes flitted around nervously, and he was wringing his hands.

  Jiod, on the other hand, was cool and calm. His eyes were cold despite the golden hue, and his frame was tense. He was built like a soldier, fit with straight shoulders and back, a short-cropped hair cut and he moved crisply with discipline. He didn’t slouch or fidget or display any kind of emotion.

  Carey�
��s assertion the man before us might be working for his government made more sense when confronted with someone that reminded me of the special operations soldiers in movies.

  “Come in,” I said to break the awful silence. “Are you hungry? We have more cookies than the town can eat in a month.”

  “I’d love some, thanks,” Jiod said, though it was clear from his physique he had probably never touched a cookie in his life.

  Closing the door behind him, I gave Carey an expressive look I hope he interpreted to mean he needed to be more normal before leading the two of them towards the kitchen. My shoulders were hunched instinctively, and I had the urge to run or perhaps, to swallow a few anxiety pills to calm the tremor of fear inside me.

  The two Tili looked up from their positions in the garden, and the woman hissed at the sight of their enemies.

  “We have some fruit in the kitchen, if you’d rather not pick your own,” I told them, hoping they’d follow us.

  “We go nowhere with Nidiani traitors,” the man spat.

  Okay then. I made it to the kitchen without a knife in the back or whatever it was Jiod was doing to people. It took effort for my hands not to tremble as I made him a plate of cookies. I checked my phone. My mom had picked the worst day to go to the mall. There was no signal for over half the trip, which meant I’d have to wait almost until she got home to hear from her.

  I wanted to leave. Jiod was giving me the creeps with his intense, direct looks and the edginess of his frame.

  He and Carey sat at the breakfast bar in silence, two stools apart.

  “This place is beautiful,” Jiod said to me with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “You must be new?”

  “Yeah. My mom and I moved here from New York,” I replied.

  We passed off awkward small talk for half an hour, all while Carey fidgeted. I itched to check my phone every ten seconds to see if my mom texted. It was close to sundown, and the portals would start to open within the hour.

  Under the guise of cooking dinner, I excused myself from the two Nidiani and went to the pantry. Only when I was safe inside was I able to draw a deep breath and shake out the tension of my shoulders. This had to be the single worst day of my life in recent history. I was disappointed about Teyan and in the same house as a dangerous alien who wanted to toss me into some other world.

  It didn’t get much stranger than this.

  “Come on, Mom,” I muttered and pulled out my phone.

  She still hadn’t texted, and it was getting late. With Jiod in my kitchen, I assumed he couldn’t get to her, but that left normal, human danger: a tire blowout in a section of the desert with no phone signal, her car or purse stolen in the bad part of town, or similar.

  I tucked the phone away in frustration and grabbed a few items from the shelves before returning to the kitchen. Mom had handmade pasta in the refrigerator, ready to cook, and I had the ingredients for quick sides.

  Carey was gone when I returned to the kitchen. My heart skipped a beat as I assumed the worst – that Jiod had tossed him into some other world – until I realized none of the portals were open yet.

  Setting everything on the counter, I glanced at him.

  He was watching me with his cold gaze.

  I forced myself not to shudder and instead, offered a smile. This still felt not quite real. It was weird for some rogue Caretaker to threaten us and even stranger for him to be here. I’d been dealing with enough the past six months not to need another issue at my door, especially one like this.

  The timing of Carey’s reappearance plagued me more and more. At any point, he could’ve contacted me in New York, but he waited until I was here, at the door. A day after he showed up, Jiod did, too. It seemed too coincidental, but I had too little insight into the politics, motivations and doings of aliens to put together the puzzle Carey was reluctant to reveal to me.

  “I hope you like pasta,” I said.

  “I do,” Jiod replied. “Carey says you and your mom are amazing cooks.”

  “My mom is,” I said. “I’ll never be as good. Speaking of Carey, where’d he go?”

  “The Tili came in to find you and left when they saw us. I think he went to tell we’re both Caretakers and not to flip out,” Jiod replied. “Barbarians, they are.”

  I nodded, silently disagreeing. I set about making dinner, over aware of Jiod’s piercing gaze and trying not to have a panic attack in my own kitchen. Dropping the pasta into boiling water, I jumped when one of the Tili spoke.

  “We need ours to go, Caretaker,” the man snapped.

  I wanted to ask them to stay but nodded silently instead. The Tilis went to the adjacent dining room, and Carey returned after a few minutes with more vegetables from the garden. He was pale beneath his golden skin. I couldn’t place the haunted look on his face or why his hands trembled.

  Jiod had to have said something to him in the short time I was in the pantry for Carey to be more shaken up than before.

  I cooked in silence, somewhat comforted and distracted by the familiar sounds of boiling water and motions involved in preparing a big meal. Twice more I checked my phone and muttered under my breath to my mom. The sooner she got home, the faster I could send her away again. Carey and I had to figure out a solution that didn’t leave the door vulnerable to Jiod but also didn’t get us kidnapped or worse in the process. I wouldn’t be able to think clearly about the door until I knew my mom was somewhere far away and safe.

  When dinner was finally done, I served Jiod and Carey and spooned fat, cheese filled manicotti and vegetable sides into containers for the Tili.

  I made two trips to the dining area with bottles of water and food. The Tili placed them into their packs, and I watched, at a loss about what I could say to get them to stay a little longer without tipping off Jiod.

  As preoccupied as I was about my immediate situation, I also thought I should send a message back for Teyan without knowing what exactly to say. Hello? I’m back? Thanks for searching for me? Sorry your family is dead? Everything I came up with was completely lame.

  “Is Tili nice?” I asked, mind on the prospect of visiting one day.

  The two Tili eyed me as I stared at them in pensive silence, and I tried unsuccessfully not to blush.

  “You should visit,” the woman said.

  I nodded. “Maybe.”

  “Today?” the man asked.

  “Oh, um, I don’t think so. I’d have to talk to my mom about going to uh … another planet.” It promised to be an awkward conversation, especially when I told her why I wanted to go – to see an alien I kind of liked.

  “Hey, got a minute?” Carey addressed me, entering the dining area.

  I looked past him to see Jiod eating. A little disappointed I hadn’t come up with any message, I followed him reluctantly into the hallway leading to the courtyard.

  Don’t leave yet, I willed the two Tili. I wanted Teyan to know I hadn’t forgotten about him.

  “So … this is going to be hard for me to say,” Carey said.

  My brow furrowed.

  “Your mom’s car is in the garage, and her phone never left the house.” He held up her familiar mobile in one hand.

  I stared at it. “What?”

  “She never actually left today. I went to talk to the Tili and on a hunch triggered by something Jiod said, checked the garage.”

  I wasn’t able to process what he was implying and took the phone. Several messages from me and one from my uncle were on the screen.

  “She has a dozen texts from you on there,” Carey said. “I think Jiod took her this morning before she could leave.”

  My gaze flew up to Carey’s, and my mouth dropped open.

  “We can’t ask him, of course,” Carey said. His voice was an urgent whisper and he was wringing his hands. “But I think he thought she was the Caretaker and took her away then came back for me and found you and the Tili here.”

  Jiod’s surprise at meeting me made more sense in that light. “My mom is whe
re?” I squeaked out.

  “I’m assuming Nidiani. Her last text to you was at the right time for the portal to be open to my world.”

  “My mom is where?” I repeated in shock.

  “Sssshhh.” He glanced towards the kitchen. “I need you to listen to me, Gianna, and do exactly as I say.”

  I waited in incredulous disbelief. I’d just gotten my family back. I wasn’t about to lose her again, especially not on a foreign planet!

  “The portal system through the Five Peoples’ planets is extensive. They can move back and forth without coming here. Go with the Tili. Tell Teyan. If my people won’t help me, then Teyan is honor bound by your alliance to help you. His kind don’t take no for an answer when it comes to their barbaric form of justice. Normally, I’d discourage you from this, but this is bigger than you, or me or your mom.”

  “You’re not making sense!” I said too loudly. “You’re telling me my mom is gone?”

  “Wherever she is, the rest of the missing Caretakers are there as well,” Carey continued. “We can’t both go, and the Tili won’t listen to me if I ask for help.”

  “Never,” the woman agreed. In the time I’d been standing too surprised to register my surroundings, both she and the other Tili had drawn closer. “Carey told us his idea. It is sound. My cousin is honor bound to help you, and bound by the laws of the Discover to assist the Caretakers, but you must be the one to ask him.”

  My world didn’t feel very real and then it felt too real. I sucked in deep breaths to keep from a panic attack and tried not to imagine my sweet mom on a world with monsters. She suffered enough the decade I was gone! How did something like this happen?

  “Is my mom alive?” I demanded of Carey.

  “I believe so, yes. Jiod isn’t a murderer. Whatever it is he’s doing, he’s been methodical and careful. I truly believe all of them are alive, and probably being held on Nidiani by my government.” Carey appeared sincere for the first time today.

  How do you know for sure? I was too dazed to ask the question. Tunnel vision began to form, and I shook my head to keep from passing out.

  “We must go now,” the Tili woman said.

  This was real. They were serious. They wanted me to go to another planet, and my mom was already gone. “How will you explain me leaving to Jiod?” I asked Carey.