Dangerous Designs by Dale Mayer [paranormal/YA] Read Free Book Online Page A

surprised her. How could she get reception in here? "Hello?"
    Static filled her ear. Figured. "Hello?"
    She tried answering several more times, then clicked it off, returning it to her pocket. A moment later, the musical notes on her phone sounded again. A text. Hmmm. She clicked on it to read the incoming message.
    Where the hell are you?
    Eric. And pissed.
    She answered. I'm in the mine. I told you to come if you wanted . After she hit send, she waited, a half grin on her face. He wouldn't take it quietly. Her instinct proved right as a text came right back. I'm on my way. WAIT.
    "Like I have a choice." She sniffed at his autocratic response. Speaking to the empty space around her she snapped at the missing Eric, "Then hurry up. Where the hell is that door?"
    She passed the time by walking out to each of her circles and spent several minutes studying the darkness around her. There appeared to be nothing there. Walking back to the middle, she sat down to wait. Within minutes another text came through. She hopped to her feet. Eric said he was approaching the door. She waited for the welcoming sliver of light. It never came. Nerves bunched as she waited and worried. What if he couldn't open the door? He'd done it once. The wait seemed interminable. She chewed her fingernails as she waited and waited.
    Damn it. She sent him another text, reading aloud as her fingers whipped across the keyboard. "What's wrong?"
    " I've opened the door. Where are you? "
    Shit. She hopped to her feet and spun around looking for the doorway. He wasn't there. Shakes and shivers wracked her slight frame as she realized the enormity of her situation.
    She'd landed in a different place.
    Eric had come to the rescue. He was at the door to the mine. He'd actually managed to open the locked door again, clearing one of the hurdles she'd worried about, but she wasn't there.
    So, where the hell was she?
    ***
    Eric stood in the doorway. "Storey? Storey, are you here? Where are you?"
    Leaving the door wide open, Eric stepped inside and took a long look around. He could see the back wall. There was no sign of her. "Shit." Where had she gone?
    A horrible thought surfaced. She couldn't have jumped elsewhere. She didn't know how. At least he didn't think she did. No, she'd said she was here. So, this is where she thought she was.
    "Storey?"
    No answer. Could she have gotten out? He pulled out his phone. Her incoming text asked where he was. Double shit.
    Where was she? And how could he find her?
    Paxton. Using his codex, he coded in the notes that would allow him to cross the veil where he stood. In seconds he breathed the air of his own world. After a quick glance around, he headed for Paxton's office.
    "Finally." Buried in books, eyeglasses perched on the bridge of his nose, Paxton snorted at him. "Your father has been asking about you. I do hope you have the stylus with you."
    "We've got a problem." Eric raced to the holograph screens. "Storey jumped again. Only she's gone somewhere else this time and I can't find her."
    Paxton came running, his long midnight blue robes flapping in the wind. "Oh dear! This is exactly what we were trying to avoid. We can't just have a human running loose on our side. There's no knowing what kind of chaos she could create."
    "She's not trying to cause any trouble." Storey was curious, not a terrorist. Eric was compelled to defend her. "She thinks she's in the same place as last time, but I just checked and she's not there."
    "That's because she's here. She's jumped to Stanshor mine!" Paxton tapped one of the screens on the left.
    Eric peered closer. Sure enough Storey stood in the middle of a different portal. "What? How could she have made it there?"
    "The stylus. It's trying to go home. That's the closest jump to the science hall."
    "How would the stylus know that?"
    "Through its ancient memories. It's taking her where it wants to go. You have to get her back to Bankhead Mine."
    Eric snorted. "And how do you expect me to do