Shadow of the Sun (Timeless #1)

Chapter 5: Guardian

The elevator ride was painstakingly slow, but Karen and I finally made it to my floor. Sally was absent from her desk, and I wondered where she was. I checked my watch to see if it was time for lunch. Not yet. Maybe she had quit? Nah, I wasn't that lucky.

We approached her desk. It was cluttered and dotted with Post-It notes and randomly splayed files. Her screensaver hadn't come on yet, showing she'd been playing solitaire. I was embarrassed someone from outside our office was seeing this, but Karen appeared immune.

I turned from Sally's disaster of a desk to the ajar door to my office. My heart gave a horrible jolt and shivers ran up my spine. The images of the dark creature flickered again.

I always locked the door when I left; there were confidential records in there, most of them for my eyes only. Karen mirrored my feelings, a look of apprehension on her face. I shrugged and forged ahead. With each step, it felt as if my legs were filling with liquid steel. My nerves getting the best of me.

I touched the metal door and exerted only the tiniest pressure, easing it open. I anticipated something horrific, something wrong, and I was prepared to pounce to protect myself.

I peered into my office.

It wasn't the blazing-eyed creature from before. It was Sally, so close enough. She was leaning over the open box on the chair and gingerly handling the chest within. The box cutter lay on my desk.

"What hell are you doing?" I said, my voice a whip crack in the silence.

Sally startled. Her red hair whipped around, and the ancient chest flew from her hands, somersaulted through the air. I caught sight of the symbol engraved on it for the first time. In that instant, I knew I didn't want the box to break open. Ever. Despite not wanting to touch it, for the second time that day I dove through the air, torpedoing across the floor to catch the chest before it hit the floor. But it was Karen, seemingly from nowhere, who snatched it mid-air. I hadn't even seen her come into the office.

She stood with the chest in one hand, cool, calm, collected, and stared at us with a grin. I had skidded across the floor after my failed dive (another one for my old baseball coach), and Sally stood by my desk with her lips in a perfect O shape, her skin paler than normal. The moment was comedic indeed.

"Good God." Sally put her hand above her heart as if trying to restart it. "You scared the hell out of me."

I scared the hell out of her? "What are you doing in here?" I snapped, getting to my feet and straightening my suit.

"I—well...I was just..." She trailed off feebly.

"Out!" I pointed at her desk.

Sally sprinted for the door, cheeks rosy now. And that was exactly why I kept my office door locked. Security was excellent from the outside, but once in the depths of the building, things were easily accessible. Maybe firing Sally should be on my to-do list. I'd considered firing her in the past but hadn't gone through with it. I didn't want to cause Darren any problems with his brother, and, to be honest, Sally wasn't always a pain; she could be good at her job when she wanted to be.

As the door clicked shut behind Sally, I turned to see Karen eyeing the chest. The sun was hidden behind rain clouds, and the dark, indigo sky dulled the room's brightness.

"The craftsmanship is remarkable," Karen said, delicately holding the chest away from her body. "I've never seen anything like it. Is it old?"

"Um..." My fingers trembled like I'd drank twenty cups of coffee as I reached for the chest. But it wasn't the coffee that made me so nervous to touch it; it was the images burned into my memory. Raging eyes, darkness, a black creature warning me.