The Diamond of Freedom Read online

  The Diamond of Freedom

  The Unaltered Series: Book Three

  By Lorena Angell

  Copyright © 2018 Lorena Angell

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  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at

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  ISBN-10: 0-9795248-9-X

  ISBN-13: 978-0-9795248-9-9

  Library of Congress registration number: 8154573

  Second Edition

  Cover designed Creative Alchemy, Inc.

  License Notes

  This book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Lorena Angell.

  Warning: Any unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the publisher’s permission.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is entirely coincidental. The names, characters, places, and incidents are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

  For more titles by Lorena Angell visit

  www.LorenaAngell.com

  For Rachel and Valerie

  Contents

  Chapter 1 - Off Grid

  Chapter 2 - Uncle Don

  Chapter 3 - Properly Placed Pawns

  Chapter 4 - Heartache

  Chapter 5 - Business as Usual

  Chapter 6 - Yellowstone

  Chapter 7 - Deus Exed

  Chapter 8 - Rocky Mountain Madness

  Chapter 9 – The Things We Don’t Know We Said

  Chapter 10 –Cat Fights and Visions Realized

  Chapter 11 - Parental Consent

  Chapter 12 - New Discoveries

  Chapter 13 - Freedom’s Diamond

  Chapter 14 - The Newest Diamond Bearer

  Chapter 15 - Chris’s Arrival

  Chapter 1 - Off Grid

  He stands by the river, his black leather duster setting him apart . . . as if his mere presence didn’t do the trick. Through dark sunglasses, he observes Brand Safferson fight the crowd of boys. As I watch, a tidal wave of evil ripples through my body, causing my skin to prickle. His low voice fills my head, I can return you to your natural state so you can live your life the way nature intended, not the way Maetha plans for you. You’ll be spared from having to watch all your loved ones die, knowing you could save them, but never being allowed to do so. You’ll be free to grieve properly, instead of being forced to become cold-hearted, as Maetha would prefer. You can be freed from this terrible future and you’ll regain your identity as a human being and be able to live life to its fullest. He pauses and I can feel the words coming before he speaks them into my head: Just give me your diamond shard.

  I awake with a jolt as the front tire of the car hits a bump in the road. My body shivers from a cold sweat, and my breath comes in gasps as I try to calm down and remember what has happened. I turn my head to the left and find Chris Harding, both hands on the steering wheel, his prominent facial features illuminated by the tiny lights on the dashboard. His head bobs to the radio music that’s playing quietly. He doesn’t know I’m awake.

  I glance out the rain-splattered windshield between swipes of the blades, seeing headlights of oncoming cars and green road signs which indicate we are traveling on Route 65, ten miles north of Nashville, Tennessee. My heart rate finally slows, and I am able to relax as I contemplate the first dream I’ve had in two-and-a-half years—since I came to possess the Sanguine Diamond.

  Only a few hours ago, not even a full twenty-four, Justin Mcintyre tried to reunite the shards of the Sanguine Diamond. The disaster resulted in his death, along with the deaths of three men: the leaders of the Seers’, the Hunters’, and the Readers’ clans.

  Justin had been tricked by another man into believing he could become all powerful, when in fact the other man—who calls himself Freedom—only wanted the diamond pieces for himself. Freedom knew Justin would die in the end.

  Freedom is the man from my dream, the one who’d tried to persuade me to give my diamond shard to him. When he walked into the room at Justin’s hideout, he carried a new mysterious power-canceling black stone attached inside an old pocket watch. The black stone blocked all the supernatural powers in the room when it was exposed—even Maetha’s powers.

  My friend Brand narrowed down the cause of our power loss through a series of time-repeats, and with Maetha’s help, detained Freedom long enough for Maetha, Chris, and myself to escape with the reunited diamond and the pocket watch. I don’t know how we would have gotten away without Brand’s sacrifice. Hopefully, we’ll be able to rescue him soon.

  But there will be no rescue for Charles, Curtis, and Dominic. The clan leaders were shot and killed by Justin’s guards and now I am the prime suspect in their kidnappings and murders.

  Another major setback is before I picked up the diamond from Justin’s lair, Freedom had touched it first, claiming ownership. Because I possess the final piece of the diamond within my heart, the diamond isn’t entirely Freedom’s—but it can’t be mine either. To make the diamond whole and with only one owner, Freedom must reassign his chunk to me, or I must release mine to him. Freedom will never reassign to me. And the only way I can release my shard to him is if I die. As Maetha discovered, my shard is living within me and cannot be removed without killing me.

  On the plus side, Maetha and the other Diamond Bearers have voted to end Freedom’s life and remove his heart at the first opportunity available. As long as that plan pans out, I’m safe.

  Once we reached Indiana following Justin’s and the clan leaders’ deaths, Maetha closely examined Freedom’s pocket watch and found it has two hinges and two doors—common with old watches. Each side of the watch contains a piece of the mysterious black stone, but one stone is significantly smaller. Maetha determined the smaller stone is for personal use only and is probably what Freedom used to remain undetectable for several decades. She found that when the small side of the watch is opened then only the holder loses all powers, including any powers within the Sanguine Diamond. However, the other side of the watch contains the larger stone which removes the powers of everyone in the near vicinity.

  I am carrying the pocket watch in a leather pouch in my front jacket pocket along with the incomplete diamond. The watch is open, exposing the large black stone to protect Chris and me from Freedom’s ability to locate us through tracking the diamond. As long as Freedom doesn’t know where I am, he can’t try to recover his diamond, or try to remove my shard. And as he conveniently introduced the mysterious black stone as a weapon of sorts, we’ll use the stone’s power to hide from him, because the large black stone cancels his powers as well.

  Freedom must have other black stones at his disposal because Maetha still cannot detect his whereabouts—something she can do with all the other Diamond Bearers. Likewise, she can’t detect my location either while I’m carrying the black stone. Hiding in plain sight is necessary in order for me to survive. Freedom wouldn’t hesitate to kill me.

  Chris and I are technically “off grid” not only to evade Freedom, but also to avoid being found by Beth Hammond and her team of supernatural vigilantes. They believe, based on fairly convincing evid
ence, I stole the amulets from the other clan leaders and shot and killed them, while at the same time brutally murdering Justin. All of the clans are up in arms, demanding that their amulets be returned.

  Well, that won’t ever happen. The amulets were destroyed.

  I look over at Chris and admire his profile. I remember the first time I ever saw him in Ms. Winter’s office at the Runner’s compound and the tingles that raced through my entire being. Sort of like right now. Two-and-a-half years have passed since we raced across land as we carried out the task of delivering the Sanguine Diamond to the Death Clan. Chris has only aged slightly. He looks a little older, wiser, and—if at all possible—even better looking than before. To go all that time without seeing him and then to finally find him on the other side of the door in Justin’s compound is almost unbelievable, yet here we are, together again.

  I reach over and place my hand on top of his.

  He turns his head, smiles, and asks, “How do you feel, Calli?”

  “I’m good.” I return the smile.

  “We have about thirteen more hours of drive time till we reach Miami. Are you hungry?”

  I shake my head and place my hand back in my lap. I ask Chris, “Are you tired? Do you want me to drive for a while?”

  “No. Just rest.”

  In truth, I am relieved he doesn’t need me to drive yet. I feel exhausted, something else I haven’t felt for a long time. I miss my healing powers.

  “Calli, what can you tell me about the other people like Maetha?”

  I readjust myself in my seat so I face Chris a little better. My gut instinct tells me I can trust him with any and all information, so I launch into Maetha’s story head-first.

  “Maetha became the first Diamond Bearer back in ancient Egyptian days. The diamond was much larger then, before it was split into twenty-one pieces. No one else but her could touch the magical diamond and live.”

  Chris interrupts, “Because she’s an Unaltered, like you, right?”

  “Yes. The Egyptian priests acted the same way the Death Clan did when I carried the stone, causing the stone to shatter and a piece to enter Maetha’s heart. A woman named Crimson saved Maetha’s life and divided the remaining pieces into twenty other diamonds. She charged Maetha with finding candidates who would do nature’s will and to give them diamonds of their own. I don’t know how many years Maetha searched to find all twenty candidates, but she finally found the people she wanted, and the group became the protectors of nature.

  “Every so often a group of Healers becomes over-balanced like the Death Clan, and nature acts to balance the situation through the use of a diamond. However, once all twenty-one diamonds were inserted into people, one person would have to sacrifice their life and remove their stone so nature could restore the balance. My stone came from a man named Gustave. He was a relative of mine from long ago. In fact, Maetha is related to me as well. She’s my many-greats-of-a-grandmother.”

  Chris asked, “So are you a kind of royalty?”

  “No, I don’t think so. Maetha said our bloodline always produces an Unaltered human who keeps the line moving forward. My mother is Unaltered too, but she doesn’t have an awareness of what that means. Maetha has followed her own line throughout the centuries using one of the Unaltered relatives every now and then when nature needs a balancing act performed. Of course, there are other Unaltered humans not related to Maetha who have been used as Diamond Bearers too.”

  “So, Calli, when Maetha said you’ll receive the whole stone once Agent Alpha, er, Freedom is dead, what she really meant is you’ll become an Immortal like her?”

  “Not quite. Diamond Bearers aren’t immortal, per se.”

  “Anyone who can live thousands of years is immortal in my book.”

  “Well, I guess so.”

  “The question is, how do you kill an Immortal if they can sense you coming and see their own future?” Chris asks.

  “I don’t know. It’s a puzzle.”

  We both remain quiet for a couple of minutes.

  Chris speaks up again. “Calli, what’s going to happen to us?”

  “I don’t know. I can’t see the future.” I truly don’t know. I change the subject. “Chris, what kind of information did you feed to your father when you worked for him?”

  He glances at me with a worried look, then settles his eyes back on the road. “Well, clan locations, leaders’ names, information about new members, vulnerabilities, magical plants, and crystals used in Ms. Winter’s secret concoctions . . . stuff like that.”

  “Crystals? What do you mean?”

  “Well, you know, gemstones and rocks, not unlike the diamond. When we were given the Sanguine Diamond for the delivery it wasn’t too difficult for me to believe a stone could hold powers. I’ve known for some time that different crystals have slight powers. My uncle Don taught me about most of them before my running power ever surfaced. Uncle Don is my father’s older brother. I remember my dad talking about what it was like growing up with him. He said Don’s pockets were always full of rocks and the shelves in his room were covered with stones of all kinds. My grandparents were frustrated with his obsessive collecting, but understood his passion, so they bought him books about geology. After that, my dad said Don sorted through all his rocks and categorized them as accurately as he could. His whole world was, and still is, centered on rocks, crystals, and minerals. That’s why I immediately thought of him as someone who could identify the black stone. Personally, I think it’s a black onyx.”

  “Does black onyx have the ability to take our powers away?”

  “I don’t know. That’s why we’re going to my uncle’s house.” He smiles at me.

  “But you said he doesn’t know about the world of powers.”

  “To my knowledge he doesn’t. But he believes firmly in crystals containing powers and strengths. If black onyx has any ability to remove powers, he’ll know.”

  Looking out the front windshield, I see a brightly glowing gas station sign in the distance.

  “Chris, can we pull over for a bathroom break?”

  “Sure.”

  Chris brings Maetha’s car to a halt in a parking spot by the front doors of the busy fuel station. Several big-rig trucks are positioned off to the side of the building with their engines running, and a few other vehicles are parked at the gas pumps.

  Chris checks the Pulse Emitter attached to his jacket to make sure it’s turned on to protect him from the dangers waiting for him in the shadows. He reaches in the back and grabs the two backpacks filled with our supplies and the money Maetha gave us. “Here, let’s keep these with us at all times.”

  “Yeah, good idea.”

  We step out of the car, fling the backpacks over our shoulders, and enter the store.

  I spot the restroom sign on the far wall near the postcard display and head in that direction. Even before entering the ladies’ room I have an ominous feeling creep over me—the kind that makes your hair stand on end. I look over my shoulder to see if Chris is behind me, only to see him enter the men’s room. Shrugging off the all-too-familiar feeling, I hurry and do my business and wash my hands, all the while remembering Maetha had specifically stated that we need to stay “off camera.”

  As I am about to exit the restroom, I pause when I hear the loud male voices yelling orders outside the door.

  Stall doors slam open behind me, and two burly women come out with handguns drawn as if the yelling is their cue to exit. I’m frightened and confused at the same time. Are these ladies simply gun-toting tough chicks who heard some kind of trouble and responded accordingly, or are they actually players in the game?

  One points her gun at me and says, “Get out, sister!”

  My heart begins to race. I pull the door open and see Chris standing nearby, frozen in place with a masked gunman standing close to him. Another masked man has a gun pointed at the cashier, demanding money. The two women exit the bathroom after pulling ski masks over their faces.

 
Chris looks at me and then focuses his eyes on my front pocket. I know exactly what he’s trying to tell me: close the pocket watch so we can use our powers and run out of here.

  I slowly slide my hand to the zipper and ease it open.

  “You two,” the nearby thuggish gunman shouts. “Get on the floor!”

  We crouch on the floor right away. The two women run by and over to the front doors.

  I slip my hand in my pocket and remember I had lodged the diamond inside the watch with an elastic band to keep it open . . . and they are both inside the pouch—which is drawn shut with the strings.

  I need both hands to free the watch.

  My movement catches the attention of the gunman. “Hey!” He approaches me and pulls me up by my backpack straps.

  Chris jumps to his feet and yells at the brute, who then punches Chris in the face, knocking him to the floor.

  Before I can react to the violence, one of the women runs over to us. “Come on, Duke, we’re out of time!”

  “She’s got something in her pocket.” Duke tells her with a concerned tone in his voice.

  The woman looks at my pocket. “Whatcha got in there? You got a phone? Are you calling the cops, sister?”

  I don’t answer and wait for one of them to reach inside the pocket for the pouch. The man stands behind me and wraps his right arm in front and under my neck while still holding his gun, then pulls my body close to his.

  Duke smells like a three-day-old pile of fish guts on a hot summer day. I try not to gag while his left hand comes forward and fumbles to get in my jacket pocket. He pulls out the brown leather pouch and says, “Well, well, well, what do we have here?”

  I put on my best act and plead with the man. “Please! It’s my grandmother’s.”

  The man tosses the pouch to the woman. She loosens the strings and dumps out the diamond and pocket watch, then whistles to her cronies. “We hit the jackpot!”

  The other woman yells to the robber who has the cashier at gunpoint, telling him they have an even better prize.

  I choke out my best sob. “Please, don’t do this.”