Zero Rising: Soldier of Light Chronicles Book 3

by Ireland Gill

  He shook his head. “The only reason I'm here right now is because of a slip-up. I just found out barely two months ago. Pop had been in the hospital getting treatments and once they told him he had no chance anymore in kicking the cancer, his outlook on life, and death, changed quite a bit. He started spilling his guts to me and told me about a letter he'd written to me that he'd hidden with his Last Will. He told me that he needed me to know everything that he knew, down to the last secret, or he'd never forgive himself for dying before he could tell me.” He sighed, putting his head down for a moment before continuing. “He didn't last very long once he took a turn for the worst, but he let me know where I'd find the will and the letter. After he passed, it took me a couple of weeks to muster up the balls to open that envelope with the letter inside.” He shook his head. “I put it on the kitchen counter and stared at it every morning before I left for work. 'Jaxon' was all I read as I passed it in the morning. And 'Jaxon' was what I'd pass when I came home. It made me sick, thinking about having to be alone, without family, and having to read this note from the guy who raised me all my life spilling his guts onto paper out of shear guilt.” He looked up into my eyes, which were, yet again filled with tears. “But then I finally opened that damned envelope and read that letter one night. It was a bad day at work...on a Friday. It told me about you, what you are, what our father was. About how he had to die to save you because he knew what you would become someday. It explained the legend of Soldiers of Light, about Alysto and the Guardians and how angels can Fade for humans....about our mother, Lavinia – followed with a bunch of other details and a really long apology.” He sighed, leaning his back against the plush booth. “And then I reached the end of that letter,” he said softly, “telling me to destroy it after I finished reading.” He shrugged. “So I did...after I read it again about twenty more times.”

  I sat in silence, staring at my twin, searching his eyes and finding nothing but honesty, truth and innocence. I envisioned him sitting alone, opening an envelope containing a letter he was so afraid to read; no friends or family left who knew the secrets he so desperately needed to talk about. He was alone. At least I had Hayden when this whole new drama in my life started.

  “Omigod, Jaxon. I'm so sorry for all of this. I'm so sorry you had to do it alone.” My heart ached for him. “I just wish we knew why we were kept apart.”

  “He didn't give me the reason. I just remember him telling me he didn't care any more about breaking the secret he swore to keep. It was one of the last things he told me before I started really losing him.” His eyes narrowed before he continued, as if suppressing a negative emotion. “And yes, I could have been angry about it, but I'm just not the type of person to hold onto things like that. Once he told me about you in that letter, all I could do was hold onto that. So, I set out to find you. I packed up a few things, quit my job, gassed up the car and here I am.”

  I just stared at him in amazement. Pure amazement. “So, you were just as clueless as I was about this less than two months ago and it doesn't even make you angry...or infuriated that you didn't know about your own twin?”

  He swallowed a few gulps of his coffee, then looked at me solemnly. “Why waste the energy being pissed about it, Evika? I put my energy into finding you instead. I figured that was a better way to go. I found you, didn't I?” He said it with such confidence and looked at me expectantly, as if I was supposed to see it that way as well.

  I'd envied him, my brother. My resentment and his acceptance over our late knowledge of each other were indicative of a severe difference between the two of us. My energy and emotions were immediately geared toward the anger I had for one of the persons responsible for my ill-knowledge of Jaxon. I couldn't help myself. But here was my twin brother, shrugging it off and forgiving those who kept him in the dark for over twenty years.

  My eyes welted up with tears, or maybe they were still the ones that had already been there. Jaxon immediately leaned over the table, raised his thumb to my cheeks and gently wiped them away. I just stared in awe. He gave me the sweetest smile, yet again, and I gave one back.

  “Hayden does that for me, too.” I said, quietly. I felt a quick hint of queasiness in my stomach as I thought of how I'd left Hayden at the house. Guilt started to seep in.

  “What, wipe away your tears? Eh, don't let that fool you, Ev,” he laughed. “I'm no angel.”

  “Maybe not, but you're close.” I assured him. I honestly felt that way about him. Jaxon had this quality in him that was so pure, so innocent.

  “Hardly,” he chuckled, handing me a clean napkin from the table. “I just don't think salty coffee tastes so great. Figured I'd spare you.”

  I took the napkin and looked down, laughing as I glimpsed at the mug of caffeine under my nose.

  Our pancake breakfast turned into a drawn out brunch by the time we left Pancake House. It was as if Jaxon and I couldn't find a stopping point in the conversation. There was so much to know about each other; so much to catch up on. It amazed me how comfortable I was with him; how calm I'd become by this unexpected familiarity I felt around him.

  “So, who was born first? Do you know?” I asked him.

  “You know, I'm not sure.” He tilted his coffee mug toward himself to take a peek inside. Concluding it was empty, he placed it upside-down onto his empty plate. “But I can be the little brother if you want,” he smirked. “I'll only grant you the older sibling card by a few minutes, though. I don't want you getting a big head about it, just in case I really was the first born.”

  I laughed. “That's very generous of you.”

  “What can I say? Pop always said I was a giver.”

  I couldn't help but grin at him. I'd realized I'd been smiling so much that my face actually hurt.

  His eyes lightened when he laughed. There was this aura about him that was so positive and good. Down-to-earth. Innocent.

  I took a look around the restaurant. Most of the patrons I'd noticed earlier had already gone. I knew Jaxon and I had so much more to learn about each other, but sitting in that booth for the rest of the day was not something I wanted to do and I was quite sure he didn't either. I checked the time on the wall clock above the register. 11 A.M. On the dot.

  “You into mini golf, batting cages and arcades?” I asked eagerly.

  “I'd be lyin' if I said 'no',” he grinned. “You got a place in mind?”

  “Sure do.” I grabbed the check and nodded my head to the cashier stand as I slid out of the booth. “A place called Island. Eighteen holes on a seriously complicated course of fun. Can't go wrong with that, right?”

  Jaxon threw his head back and let out a giddy laugh. “I'm in.” He looked down at my hand holding the slip of paper. “I can get that, you know.” His hand reached out, expectantly.

  I looked up at him, wondering if the subject of an account full of millions of dollars was appropriate; my account. I decided against it. We still had a lot to learn about each other before delving into that route. I just smiled at him assuredly. “I got it this time, little brother.” I winked at him.

  He looked at me, thinking hard for a moment as if he were searching for an answer in my eyes. “I should have known you had one too.”

  “Had what?”

  “Our father's assurance of financial comfort,” he answered with a smirk.

  I studied him briefly. It was as if I was in a state of awe. The “money subject floodgate” was opened between us by none other than the stranger I'd known only for a few hours as my very own twin brother. It felt as though any boundary I assumed we shouldn't cross was bravely led for travel by Jaxon. No secrets. No hiding. Just truth, and truth only. A spillage of guts. Is that what it was supposed to be like between people like us? Is that what it was like to have a brother? A twin?

  He chuckled lightly at my expense. “You still here? I'm ready to game.” He grabbed the slip from my hand. “You can cover the arcade if it makes you feel better,” he nudged me and walked up to the register after d
ropping a ten dollar bill on the table as tip. Wow.

  On our short drive to Island, I drove without speaking. I wasn't quite sure what my struggle was. Maybe I was still just processing. It was odd to me that there hadn't been any moment yet that made me uncomfortable with Jaxon. Don't get me wrong - I didn't want one. But I expected it, and even braced myself for it.

  “You don't seem as talkative now. You okay?” he asked with concern in his tone. “I didn't offend you before, did I?”

  I blinked hard. “Oh, no. Of course not.” I focused my eyes on the motorcycle up ahead; conveniently a Harley on which its driver sported a black leather jacket. Graffiti in red and orange flame-like letters read: “Fate is twisted,....so twist it back” across the back, along the shoulders. “I'm sorry, it's just.....” I tried searching for the right words while I pulled into the parking lot of the venue of our afternoon entertainment. I parked further away from the rest of the cars, as if an attempt to separate us from the regular world around us. I turned off the engine and took a deep breath, finally determining what I really wanted to say. “Jaxon, why is this so easy with you? Like I already know you? Like we've never missed a beat? As if.....as if we've always had this between us all along?” The truthful words spilled from my lips. “And why am I not really afraid of that feeling?”

  His solemn eyes studied mine. “You have that feeling, too, huh?”

  “Since the minute I opened that door this morning and saw you standing there. Is it a twin thing? Is that normal?”

  “Not sure.” He shrugged. “I guess it could be.” He paused and smiled. “Not so bad though. Feels like a missing piece isn't missing anymore, you know?”

  “Yeah,” I nodded. “It's comforting, nonetheless.” Like the feeling I had back on the porch when I saw the mark on Jaxon's wrist, I felt like part of me came back. A part of me that was missing for so long just dropped himself on my doorstep and I didn't want to let him go. Ever.

  “Well, eighteen holes sounds like a good place to start if we still have talking to do,” Jaxon suggested with a laugh.

  I matched his enthusiasm and got out of the Mustang. “It's a start.”

  We headed into the building and through the arcade, walking past some of my favorite games. One of which was Zombie Mayhem. I practically salivated and saw Jaxon looking over at me as we made our way to the counter to get our putters.

  “That's my favorite, too.”

  “You're kidding,” I chuckled.

  “Total sucker for killing zombies,” he admitted. “The game's got wicked effects, too.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “I'd say that's our immediate destination after the course. Deal?”

  “Undoubtedly,” I agreed.

  The eighteen holes went quickly, but by the time we were done, Jaxon and I had discovered even more similarities between us. For instance, we favored approaching everything as a lefty, but could just as easily switch and swing as comfortably as a right-hander. We both bit our bottom lips when we concentrated on the target and, like all visually-stimulated people are, we completely lost track of the score and paid more attention to the pretty colors and surroundings; bridges, waterfalls, dinosaurs, butterflies, huge ceramic plants and rainbows and a massive pirate ship threatening to sink your golf ball into the deep, blue sea. That, along with the fact that we didn't shut up long enough to take more than a breath, may have been part of that distraction as well.

  After hole eighteen, we sat and relaxed on the bench at the end of the course before turning in our putters and watched a few of the kids in the batting cages. I noticed Jaxon and I both focused on a man with his two children. A little boy and girl, neither older than about seven or eight. He took the boy in the cage first, offering tips before the machine started firing rapidly. The boy swung and struck out, the dad seemed to speak something encouraging to him, the sister clapping and jumping up yelling, “C'mon, Sam! You can do it!” The boy swung a few more misses and then finally hit one so hard, the entire facility struck with vibration of its impact crack against the bat – or maybe it was just me.

  “Do you remember him?” I heard Jaxon ask in a sullen tone.

  I looked over at him to find a serious look on his face. I knew who he meant. “No,” I shook my head as I thought of my father. “Not really. Just sort of an image I think I remember before he died. But it fades and I lose more detail each time. You?”

  He kept his eyes on the batting cages and shook his head. “Sometimes I think I do, like, I see this image in my head of what I think he looked like or even the sound of his voice...but then I realize those were just from old dreams I had. Or even daydreams where I tried to imagine him.” He paused. “But to answer you truthfully, no. Not one memory.” After a longer pause, he huffed a laugh. “It wasn't so bad since I had Pop, but even when I was really young I knew he wasn't my dad. Other kids knew it too. I used to tell everyone my real dad was in the military doing special ops; crap like that, you know?” He chuckled lightly.

  I gave him a reassuring smile. “Very creative.”

  He shrugged. “More fun than just saying he was dead, I guess.”

  “And much less depressing, by far,” I agreed. “Although, sometimes that can bring out the creative side as well.”

  “What, death?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, I mean, like, emotion you never knew was there. A depth within you that you never traveled before that forces you to dig so deep it just becomes easy to bring it out through some sort of outlet. Like writing songs, poetry, lyrics.”

  Jaxon's familiar grin returned before he spoke. “Don't tell me you write songs, too.”

  I matched his grin. “Yeah, why? Do you play?”

  “Call me Cobain. Got my Fender Strat in the trunk.”

  I laughed. “No shit?”

  “I shit you not, sister. What's your gig?”

  “Piano. Well, not for a while now, really. Wow, we are like one person. This is insane!”

  “What's next? Are we going to compare bad habits? Because I have a plethora of those.” He let out a huge, infectious belly-laugh that I would have loved to bottle up and keep forever, all to myself. His eyes lightened, but still showed their chocolate brown color. I watched him for a moment, wondering if that was how I looked when I laughed. I hadn't felt that giddy in a long time, (with the exception of my engagement with my angel that very morning.)

  Jaxon brought something out of me. Hayden could always stop me from my fits, calm me down and take pain away when it was too overwhelming, but there was something in Jaxon that was so naturally magical...so pure and so good and instantly non-threatening. He didn't even have to try.

  “You up for some zombies now?” I finally asked.

  “Born ready.”

  We walked into the building, returned our putters and proceeded to Zombie Mayhem; the holy grail of arcade games. (In my opinion, anyway.)We must have spent nearly two hours battling the zombies in the apocalyptic world once known as peaceful Earth to earlier inhabitants. A terrible plague struck the world, turning all humans it infected into ravenous, flesh-eating zombies. You know, the typical “dead walk the Earth” stuff.

  After finally tiring of zombies, blood, and guts, we explored the back of the arcade which brought us to the pool tables. I looked at Jaxon and raised an eyebrow. It was all I needed to do to ask if he was interested.

  “Oh, it's so on. You and me. I'll rack, you break?” He said, unhitching two pool sticks from the stand and handing me one.

  “Hm,” I said. “You sure you want me to break?”

  He bulked for a second. “That either means you're really good or really bad,” he declared.

  I shrugged. “Guess we'll find out, won't we?” I smirked at him confidently as I chalked up the end of my pool stick.

  Jaxon raised his brow. “Oh, now this should be entertaining.”

  I set the Q-ball at the second mark a little to the right to get a good angle and put all my force into knocking it into the other billiards. I'
d managed to break them up perfectly, sinking in two solids and leaving a good set-up for my next shot.

  “Well,” he scratched his head, “apparently, you're really good,” he chuckled.

  I smiled. “It's only one of my favorite hobbies, little brother.” I patted him on the shoulder.

  “Wow,” he said looking at the table with a fake, worried look. “I wasn't sure at first, but after seeing that little move of yours I'll just have to try to step it up a notch... if I can,” he said, condescendingly.

  I had a feeling I knew what that meant as I watched him lean into the table calculating his move. He took his shot and sank a striped in the corner pocket and looked at me, confused. “Eh, guess I got lucky that time,” he shrugged.

  I laughed and rolled my eyes. “Sure ya did.”

  He took another shot and sank another two striped, one in each of the side pockets. “Oh, now that was luck, I swear.”

  “You are so full of it.” I laughed.

  He missed his next shot by a hair and it was my turn again. I sank three more solids until missing a shot. We'd given up playing normal billiards since it was so predictable between the two of us, so we created new rules and new stakes. We'd gotten extremely creative after about three more games. Our bets escalated from whoever would pay for the two rounds of loaded nachos to who would detail the other's Mustang. But eventually, we ended in a truce in which we'd agreed to get piercings. We agreed on a size sixteen gage in the center cartilage of our right ear. I'd always wanted one there anyway and I convinced Jaxon that girls would definitely dig it on him.

  It started getting darker outside before I even realized it. I couldn't believe the day had flown by as fast as it had. I looked at Jaxon and wondered if he knew I could see them at night. I wondered if he even knew they came out in the dark. The Seekers would be waiting for me – something that was normal. My life. I wondered, now that Jaxon was around, what things may change or become more dangerous. Hayden's voice echoed in my head, telling me we were kept apart for a reason and it was too dangerous for us to be together. As much as I really didn't want to head back to that house, it was the only safe place I knew we should be.