Alex ate silently for a moment. “My grandfather, Ben, says that he thinks that the whole troublesome matter has something to do with the seven — the seven in twenty-seven.”
“The seven?” She looked incredulous. “That’s just crazy.”
“That’s what I thought.”
She shook her head to herself. “The seven. How could he ever come up with something like that? It’s the nine.”
Alex’s forkful of chicken paused on the way to his mouth.
“What?”
“It’s the nine. It’s not the seven in twenty-seven — it’s the nine. Two plus seven. Nine. Nines are triggers.”
“That doesn’t make sense. I was nine, once. My father was. My mother was. We were all eighteen. The one plus the eight in eighteen equals nine, just like the two plus the seven in twenty-seven equals nine.”
Alex couldn’t believe he was arguing such a point.
Jax was shaking her head. “Yes, but the nine and the eighteen are the first and second occurrence of a nine. Twenty-seven is the third nine. It’s the third that’s important.”
Alex stared at her. “The third nine.”
She nodded. “That’s right. Threes are pivotal numbers — spells of threes and such.”
Alex blinked in disbelief. “Spells of—”
“Three is a base component of nine. The multiplying element.” Jax gestured with her fork, as if to imply that it was self-evident. “That’s why twenty-seven is key: it’s the third nine. It’s called the Law of Nines.”
“The Law of Nines,” Alex repeated as he stared. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“It’s easier than tea.”
“Somehow, I don’t think so,” Alex said.
The woman believed in numerology. Alex thought that Ben should be the one sitting there having such a conversation.
Alex couldn’t believe that a number could have any kind of real meaning. A thought came to mind. He almost hated to mention it.
“I was born on September ninth. Ninth month, ninth day, at nine in the evening.”
“To be precise, you were born at nine minutes after nine.”
A chill tickled up between his shoulder blades to the nape of his neck. “How do you know that?”
“We checked.” She took a sip of tea as she watched him over the rim of her cup.
“What else do you know about me?”
“Well, you don’t remember your dreams.”
Alex’s frown deepened. “How in the world would you know that?”
“You’re a Rahl.” She shrugged. “Rahl men don’t remember their dreams.”
“How do you know about Rahl men? Are there Rahls where you come from?”
“No,” she said with a suddenly wistful look. “Where I come from the House of Rahl has long since died out.”
“Look, Jax, I’m only getting more confused.” He refrained from using a stronger word than “confused.” “You’re making me think all kinds of things about you that I’d really rather not think.” He was starting to think that she was crazy — or maybe that he was. “Why don’t you clear it up for me.”
“I’m not from your world,” she said in quiet finality as she looked into his eyes. “I’m a different kind of human than you.”
11
ALEX STARED FOR A MOMENT. “You mean you’re an alien. From Mars, or something.”
Her expression darkened. “I may not know what Mars is, but your tone is all too clear. This isn’t a joke. I risked my life to come here.”
“Risked your life how?”
“That isn’t your concern.”
“What is my concern?”
“That there are people from my world, dangerous people, who are likely to come after you for reasons we don’t yet fully understand. I wouldn’t like you to be unprepared.”
He wondered how one prepared for people from some other dimension or time or twilight zone or something — he couldn’t imagine what — who were liable to come looking for one.
Alex tapped his fork on a piece of chicken in his salad as he considered her words. If there was ever a look that meant business, she was giving it to him.
Still, he just couldn’t bring himself to take seriously such talk of people coming from a different world. He wondered yet again if his lifelong worry was coming to pass: he wondered if he could be going crazy like his mother had. He knew that she believed things that weren’t real.
He pushed the thoughts aside. He wasn’t crazy. Jax was real enough. It actually made more sense for him to believe that she was crazy. Yet, despite how absurd her story was, she simply didn’t strike him as crazy.
Even if he couldn’t believe that this woman was from some other world, something seemed to be going on, and it was serious. Deadly serious, if he was to believe her.
He wanted to ask her exactly how she had traveled from this other world, but he instead checked his tone and started over. “I’m listening.”
She took a sip of tea. “Someone is meddling.”
“With my family?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Most likely because you’re a Rahl. We believe that unless you have children you will be the last in the Rahl bloodline.”
“And you think someone is interested in the Rahls?”
“If I had to guess I’d say that they may have killed your father to prevent him from getting to his twenty- seventh birthday.”
“My father died in a car accident. He wasn’t murdered.”
“Maybe not.” Jax arched an eyebrow. “But if you had been run down the other day don’t you suppose it would have looked like an accident?”
“Are you saying that was intentional? That those men were trying to kill me? Why?”
She leaned back and sighed as she dismissed the suggestion with a flick of her hand. “I’m only saying that if they had been trying to kill you it would have looked like an accident, don’t you think?”
He stabbed a piece of chicken as he recalled the murderous look the bearded man had given him. He looked up at her. She was watching him again.
“Why are these people so interested in the Rahl bloodline?”
“We’re not entirely sure, yet. Like I said, we don’t fully understand their reasons or what is going on.”
She seemed not to be sure about a lot of things. Alex didn’t know if he believed that she was as in the dark as she claimed, but he decided that since she chose not to tell him yet she must have her reasons, so he let it go.
Jax sat back a little as she went on. “When I was but a child, a few people started to get an inkling that something was going on, something nefarious. They dug into things, followed people, spied on them, and eventually, along the way, as one thing led to another, they found out that your mother was in danger. They tried to help her. In the end they weren’t able to do so. They didn’t yet know enough.”
“If twenty-seven is so important, what with the Law of Nines and all,” he asked, “then why didn’t these dangerous people do anything to my grandfather, Ben? He’s a Rahl.” There were just too many holes in her story. He gestured with his fork to make his point. “Or, for that matter, why not come after any of the previous
