The First

by A. Claire Everward

  “You knew.”

  “Yes. I felt it, as you did.”

  “Why?” Aelia looked at both Neora and him. “Why there?”

  “Ah, that one is easy,” Neora said. “That was your first time among your people. And”—she threw a look at Ahir—“a Protector just happened to be there.”

  The man, who introduced himself as Ahir Kennard, concurred. “We understand now that you had no idea who you are. But also that you must have never come near Firsts, or near enough of us, which has to do with the life you’ve lived, we believe. If you had, you would have known, you would have sensed it. What must have started your awakening was the fact that you came to Rome, there are many of us there. And when you found your way to the cathedral, I was there, and Benjamin, you know him of course. And quite a few others, we have a center there. So in essence, you walked into a concentration of Firsts. Between that and who I am, that was enough.”

  Aelia’s mind was swamped with questions. “How could I never have met one of you . . . of us?”

  Neora smiled at the correction, but the old man's anger was evident. “Those who took you, they kept you where they did for a reason. We have no presence at all anywhere near Michigan.”

  “But after I returned there, it started again, it . . .”

  “Accelerated,” Neora completed the thought.

  “I saw Benjamin. Was it because of him? But it can't be, when I saw him there was nothing, I just noticed him among everyone else around me, that was it,” she answered herself, thinking. “No, nothing marked really happened until . . .” Kyle, she wanted to say, but didn't dare let on what the circumstances had been.

  “Until you encountered Kyle Rhys when he tried to kill you,” Ahir simply said.

  Aelia turned to him, her eyes blazing. “He saved my life, and he lost everything because of it. He would never hurt me.”

  “It's all right, child. We know.” Neora put a calming hand on her arm. “And he didn't quite lose everything. He found everything. He left Aeterna before Ahir had a chance to speak to him, explain as I have explained to you.”

  “He is one of the Firsts,” Aelia said, the sudden revelation leaving her shocked. “He is, isn’t he? That would explain so much. But it’s different.” Her brow furrowed as she tried to sort things out in her mind, to understand. “I can sense him but it's stronger. Much stronger. No, not just that. It’s different. None of you feel like that. No, you do”—she looked at Ahir—“but it’s not nearly as strong, and something there is still markedly different. And what you said, what it took to start this, to awaken . . . Kyle was there alone. How could his presence alone be enough to do this to me?” She replayed in her mind the day Kyle tried to kill her, and their time together since, as they took a new path side by side. Throughout that time, one element stood out. She raised her eyes to look at Neora and Ahir. “Exactly how are Kyle and I connected?”

  Ahir chuckled in disbelief. “You're quick. But then I shouldn't be surprised, should I?” He turned to Neora. “Keeper, perhaps it is time to tell Aelia about the Protector.”

  “I mentioned it earlier, though only fleetingly. I thought you should be present in that conversation.”

  Ahir nodded and, motioning them to sit back down on the sofa and sitting himself on a couch nearby, he began to explain. “Well then. In my formal position I am the head of the Council of the Firsts. I am, I suppose you could say, their administrative leader, while Neora is the keeper of the faith. But most important, I am what our ancestors have termed the Protector.”

  Neora continued. “A long time ago the Light realized that She could not defend herself. That had never been a problem until the humans progressed enough. Certain circumstances, if you allow us to leave that part of it for another time, led to an attack on Her, but one man, one of the Firsts, stood facing Her attackers, stood and won but gave his life in the incident. In thanks and in realization of Her own vulnerability and the impact it could have on Her people, She designated his son to be the start of a line that would stand as Her protector. A man who will be linked with Her through the Light, and who above all others will be able to protect Her.”

  And together Neora and Ahir told Aelia how the Firsts, an ancient species born for peace, found themselves in the impossible position of having to share their home with the humans, who were so different from them and who quickly overwhelmed the planet in numbers and actions. And the one thing that kept the Firsts going was the eternal Light they were granted, that signified virtue and hope and gave them strength and endurance. And to keep the Light safe, they were then given a remarkable man to protect Her. She was told how the Protector of the Light was always born only a few years before Her, thus becoming a beacon to Her imminent presence. Told how the Protectors kept being born even after the disappearance of the woman they were created to champion. And so they lived, had families, died. Always had one child, always a boy, and every generation or so the boy would turn out to be the next Protector. Like Ahir, who was the current Protector.

  “And as a Protector, I would be able to feel the presence of the First, the Light within Her, at all times. I am not linked to you as your designated Protector is, but still, as soon as you walked into the cathedral I knew who you were.”

  “Why didn't you say anything?” Aelia asked, and the words came out more painful than she meant, holding in them the uncertainty of the past days, the hurt of a lifetime. “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—”

  “It’s perfectly understandable. Considering what you've been through since, I truly am sorry I said nothing. Please understand, it took me by surprise. I am an old man, and I had resigned myself to the possibility that I will be the representative of yet another Protector generation that did not see the Light return. Whenever one of us is born, everyone holds their breath for a number of years, hoping She will appear, and when She doesn't something breaks within us yet again. And then I felt it, I’ve never felt that before, no Protector had since the last Light passed, and I cannot describe to you what it was like, the hope, and I saw you and—”

  The old man was in obvious distress and Aelia could feel it, could literally feel what he was so desperately trying to say, and before she knew compassion washed over her and she reached out and put her hand on his, and that now increasingly familiar feeling flowed through her and he calmed down, breathed in deeply. Only then did she realize that Neora was looking at her, her hand covering her mouth in astonishment. Ahir's face had a similar look.

  “I saw it,” Neora said. “I saw the . . .”

  “Yes,” Ahir said, standing up. And then he bowed his head. “First.”

  Aelia heard Neora repeat the same title, in the same awed tone. She stood up and looked from one to the other, flabbergasted. “No, please. You two . . . I'm not . . .”

  Neora stepped forward quickly and guided her back to the sofa. “It's all right, child.”

  “No, it's not. People here have been treating me like . . . No, I'm no one. I'm just me, just Aelia. And you two, you're their elders, their leaders, aren't you? And if you treat me this way too–” She couldn't breathe.

  “It's overwhelming, I know. For us too, but it must be putting so much pressure on you.” Neora glanced at Ahir and motioned him to sit down. “I promise you, child, we are both here for you. We will teach you all that you need to know and help you in any way we can.”

  Aelia shook her head, struggling hard to make sense of the words she was hearing even as her very essence, now awake within her, was proving to her that the impossible was true. She tried to grasp on to logic, tried to put everything in place in her mind, tried . . .

  “My Protector,” she suddenly said. “You keep saying I have a Protector who is not you, Ahir. You called it a line, a family line.”

  Ahir nodded and spoke. Yes, he had a son. His son, Aelia learned, had not been born a Protector, but he knew that his own son was, and would have raised him as such had the child not been taken and he himself been killed. The child, Ahir's grandson,
had not been found, and that meant that he was either killed and gone forever, or was lost, perhaps stolen. They all refused to believe the former, for that would signify that there would never be another Protector and that the Light would never return. And for Ahir that would mean that the last of his family was gone. And so Ahir never stopped believing that the child was alive and would be found, and had searched for him, as he had searched for Her.

  The Protectors served faithfully alongside the reigning Keeper, Aelia was told, always on the lookout for the Light, never allowing the search for Her to stop. But for Ahir it had become more personal. And when he had recognized Aelia, felt the Light within her, that day at the cathedral, he knew that not only had the hope of his people finally come true, it was only a matter of time before he would find the Protector, Her Protector. His lost grandson.

  Aelia wasn't listening anymore. Instead, she turned her head toward the door. That which had been missing within her since the night before was now back.

  Kyle was here.

  “Kyle is back,” she said absentmindedly, and did not see the look that Neora and Ahir, Keeper and Protector, exchanged. Then suddenly she turned back to Ahir as all the pieces finally fell into place. “Kyle.”

  Ahir nodded somberly. “Yes.”

  Chapter Twelve

  The shock lurked in the back of Kyle’s mind and might otherwise have been allowed more place, but there was no time to deal with it, not now, there was simply too much at stake. Aelia's life was still in danger, and so was his. He had to keep his focus. Any kind of rest was out of the question so he made himself a strong cup of coffee in the jet’s galley, some exquisite, aromatic blend he did not recognize, and sat back down.

  The possibility that Semner was the one after them, that he was coming after him this way, confounded Kyle. That wasn't the friend he knew. He and Kyle went a long way back, and Semner would have tried to contact him, find out what was going on, instead of marking him as a target without question. Even if that was Jennison’s order.

  Unless Semner's part in Kyle's past was as much a lie as everything else. Kyle's eyes hardened. That was one more reason to face Semner himself. To hear it straight from him.

  He focused on recalibrating his assessment of where they stood. He didn’t even consider the possibility that Jennison would call Semner off now, after Kyle's visit, and regroup. It was the smart thing to do, but Kyle knew how Jennison's mind worked, and the hate he had seen in the man's eyes . . . No. Kyle bet he would let Semner follow through, and hope for success, hope that Semner might know of a weakness in Kyle he could exploit, or that Kyle might think Aelia and he were safe now that he'd confronted Jennison, and let his guard down.

  Even in his outburst Jennison hadn't given a clue as to how much he knew about their escape, but then Kyle was the enemy now and Jennison wouldn’t forget that and let anything operational slip. Nor could Kyle assume that his surprise appearance in Jennison's office would lead him to believe that Aelia was also still in the country. By now the organization would have had enough time to begin tracking them, and all it had to do was find that they had boarded a flight to Italy. And that wasn't impossible. They would go through security footage and flight records in the airports around Grand Rapids. They would find him, and they would certainly find Aelia, since she used her own passport. And yes, Kyle had come back. But he himself had made it clear to Jennison that he would be returning to Aelia’s side. And Jennison would have every reason to believe that would be in Italy.

  Jennison might first assume that Kyle would choose to stay in Rome because of what Jennison himself had told him, the reason that made the need to kill Aelia immediate—and that was fine with Kyle. If Semner were sent to Rome first that would buy them some time. But Jennison knew about Aeterna. Semner would get there eventually.

  He ran scenarios of how Semner, with whom he'd served together for so long, would approach Aeterna, and considered the likelihood that he would not do so alone. The latter he doubted. He knew more than anyone that the organization planned this as a one-man mission in an attempt to contain both the kill itself and any possibility of knowledge about it leaking, even inside the organization itself. Except that this wasn't just a one-man mission after all, was it, he thought ruefully. After all, Jennison had prepared Semner as a backup.

  Bottom line was, he had to be there when Semner came for Aelia. The guy was good—damn good—and if he wanted to get to her, he would. And he was not a nice guy. Kyle himself was a trained killer, but he'd always tried to make sure those he killed had no idea what was happening. And he always got them alone, with no one else around to get hurt. Kyle stared out of the jet’s window, dark blue eyes seeing past kills. Exactly how far had the organization's lies reached—had he himself killed any innocents? Did he kill friends of those who were now helping Aelia and him?

  He pushed the thought away. There was no sense in this, no time now. Semner should be his focus. Semner's targets had no meaning to him. His belief in the necessity of their death was blind, and for him all means were justified. All means.

  Kyle thought of Aelia.

  Of Semner getting to her.

  Defenseless, Jennison had said. But Kyle didn’t need him to say it. He already knew that. And Aelia wouldn't have on Semner the effect she had on Kyle. She would be vulnerable to whatever he had in mind for her.

  I've got to get to her, Kyle thought, willing the aircraft to go faster. He had talked to Rolly during the flight and knew Aelia was safe, but that didn't mean Semner wouldn't get there at any moment. While he wasn't there to protect her.

  Restless, he got up again to make another cup of coffee, aware of the security detail's eyes on him. He was, he knew, a mystery to them. A stranger who turned up out of nowhere, and the next thing they knew they were ordered to obey him.

  They were those Firsts Jennison was talking about, the thought popped into his mind. Weren’t they? Them, the pilots, Rolly, everyone at Aeterna. Aelia.

  Him. That's what Jennison had said.

  He pushed that away too. He couldn't even begin to deal with that. Or with the hazy memories that were now more adamantly than ever trying to surface. Or with the fact that his entire life was a lie. That he had nothing.

  He sat staring at the steaming coffee. He had no idea who he really was. That was one revelation he hadn't expected. Stolen as a child. But not only him. Aelia, too. Her life was as much a lie as his was. Except that the life she got was nothing like his, was it? He remembered what Jennison said they did to her. Born to protect her, Jennison said that, too. That he belonged with her. That one stuck.

  That along with the realization that gnawed at him, that had the organization's plan succeeded, he would have killed her by now. She would be dead, and he would be lost forever. The thought, the truth of it, struck him like a bullet to his heart.

  He had to get to her.

  When the jet finally landed, the helicopter was already waiting for Kyle beside the hangar. In no time he found himself on Aeterna's helipad, not too far from the great house but a world away as far as he was concerned.

  He said nothing to his driver, who obviously knew his way very well, expertly traversing the winding roads in the pitch dark. But the driver noted his restlessness and, throwing him a look, smiled. “We'll be there in no time, Sir. Been traveling these roads since I was a kid, my uncle is Aeterna's head driver. The driver for Mr. Kennard.”

  Kyle nodded and tried to force himself to settle back. When he finally got out of the car at the great house, Rolly came toward him, scrutinized his face.

  “That must have been some talk with Jennison.”

  “They won’t stop until they get to her. And they will get to her,” Kyle said evenly. “I would.”

  “We can protect her.”

  “Here, perhaps. But for how long? And what happens if and when she goes anywhere? Can you protect her as well in transit? Or anywhere outside this private little world of yours?” Kyle's voice was dangerous. “You don't get it.
I could get to her. Even here, I could get to her. Someone like me, who's been trained specifically to kill her, I could get to her anywhere.”

  “You, yes. You can get to her anytime, anywhere,” Rolly retorted. “But you're on her side.”

  “That's not enough—” Kyle stopped. Aelia was standing at the great house's main entrance, watching him intently. Feeling his worry, he had no doubt. That and everything else. He kept his eyes on her while half-turning his head to Rolly, to excuse himself, but Rolly nodded.

  “I'll wait,” he said.

  Kyle walked to Aelia, and she stepped out to meet him. A member of her security detail appeared of the shadows, another behind her, but Rolly called out, “It's fine, stay at a distance,” allowing the two some privacy.

  “How're you doing?” Kyle asked Aelia quietly.

  “Me? How're you doing? Rolly said you went back there.”

  “I did. I found out what I needed to know. There's nothing there for me anymore.”

  Aelia felt a jab of his pain. “I'm sorry,” she said somberly, her eyes on his. “It's because of me.”

  “No, Aelia, I don’t think any of it is your fault, or your responsibility. And switching sides, that was my choice.” He looked at the great house behind her and shook his head. “I don’t know, everything that happened back there, when I was still targeting you, and what I found out now, I think this place might be more of an answer than we both thought.”

  Aelia nodded. She already knew that was true. “What did you find out?”

  “That I was lied to about you.” He rubbed his face and sighed. “That I was lied to about everything. About my life, who I am.”

  “Kyle.” She put her hand in his.

  He held it, looked at her. “You know, I'm not even sure that's my name. Apparently I was kidnapped when I was a child and raised as someone else. My father wasn't my father, I might not even be”—he shook his head incredulously—“the same species as he. I know how it sounds, but . . .”