Page 76 of Keeping Sarah

“I am Deacon Ladrang,” I said, introducing myself before doing the same with my crew. “This is Tiger Orne, Ode Hrimp, Drift Skir, and Treg.”

Suspicion flickered in her eyes. “Are you with some sort of cult or something?”

“No, not at all.”

“Why are you here?”

Needing to get past her skeptical nature, I got to the heart of the matter. “Because Sarah misses her sisters and would like to see you both.”

“I’ll get my purse,” Jenny said before she vanished behind the door.

“Leave your purse right where it is, Jen.” The tall one was quite cross when she barked at her sister, then returned her attention to us. “I don’t know who you are, or what kind of scam you’re running, but we are not interested in following our sister to the grave or having some assholes take advantage of us.”

“This is no scam,” Ode said, trying to help smooth things over. “We are not here to hurt either of you, in any way at all. We merely wish to reunite sisters.”

Muscles feathered in the tall one’s jaw. “Prove it.”

Jenny returned with a bag in her hand. She started to walk around her sister, prepared to leave with us, but the tall one blocked her with her arm. “Just wait, Jen.”

I looked to my crew, but none of them spoke. “My word is not enough proof?” I asked her.

She laughed, though there was no humor in the sound. “Are you sure you’re not some crazy person in a cult?”

“No. I have already stated this...” But then I remembered how Sarah was when we first met. She often required me to repeat things more than once before she believed them.Doubt runs in the family.

I smiled again. “My only wish is to take you to your sister. No harm will come to either of you.”

Unconvinced, she folded her arms across her chest. “If you know my sister, then you should know how long she has been missing, right?”

I quickly calculated the time frame in my mind. “As I understand your concept of time, she has been gone for close to a year.”

Jenny’s eyes widened as she looked at her sister. “See, Elizabeth? Heknows.”

“Just hang on, Jen,” Elizabeth insisted, seemingly not convinced. “Deacon, if you know so much about Sarah, how did my sister leave us last year?”

“She had a ring. She turned the stone on it and vanished.”

“Shedid,” Elizabeth whispered, that initial distrust fading away. “And we have no idea where she disappeared to, but…we miss her every single day. This is all so…strange and I don’t understand what is going on.”

The confusion in her voice also held a bit of hope, and I used that to my advantage. I pressed a button on the gauntlet driver on my wrist to decloak the ship behind us near their vehicles.

Elizabeth’s jaw dropped and her lips parted as she stared at my ship.

“Holy shit,” Jenny exclaimed, her voice infused with awe and excitement. “Is that a…spaceship?”

“It is,” I said, liking this woman’s lively energy and easy acceptance, which was the complete opposite of her sister’s uptight personality. “There are many strange things you will learn, if you come with us. But the most important thing you should know is that Sarah needs you both, very much.”

Elizabeth swallowed hard and nodded. “I’ll…I’ll get my coat.”

CHAPTER 22

Sarah

“So, we’re going to the fights again tonight?” I asked, trying not to whine about our only source of entertainment.

“Unless you’d like to stay in,” Rex said, which sounded just as monotonous.

I sighed heavily, staring out his bedroom window, my heart aching for my companions. “I just…I miss Deacon and Jac. All the time at the fights is time we should spend looking for our remnants so we can go our separate ways.”

---