Revelations

by Butler, Christine M.

  All too soon Seth was pulling away from the kiss that Jaxon had waited her entire lifetime for. “Seth,” she started, but he held up a finger to her mouth to silence her and then laid one more gentle, chaste, kiss upon those same lips.

  “As much as I would like to continue this, and we will continue this later, we have some things to discuss with Caislyn that can’t wait.” He stood and placed her firmly on the ground in front of him. Before he went to retrieve Caislyn he took Jaxon’s face in his hands one more time and kissed her again, with all the promise of what later would bring.

  ~...~

  When Caislyn returned to the living room she immediately noticed the glow on her friend’s face and figured that all was right in the world with Seth and Jax. The one thing about this turn of events that bothered her was what she had told Seth before they left for the apartment. He knew that she was going to come at him from the skeptic’s point of view, and now she lost the edge that normally had Jaxon behind her one hundred percent. Jaxon was obviously lost in the moment she had shared with Seth, and Caislyn knew what that meant. If she questioned his loyalty now, Caislyn would be the bad guy. Frustration was beginning to well up just under her skin as she looked down into the pile of sketches sitting before her and she noticed one she hadn’t really looked at in a long time.

  Caislyn picked the sketch up and devoured the image with her eyes as if it were tantamount to her survival that she memorize every detail. It was the sketch she had drawn of Gregore, the one that lead her to him so many years ago. The frustration she had been feeling only moments ago gave way to the loneliness that she had been trying to stave off since the last time she saw Gregore. She knew now, beyond a shadow of a doubt how Gregore felt about her and here she sat in Ireland, with her parents disappearance still at the forefront of her mind, unable to do anything about the feelings she also had for him.

  Jaxon had been preoccupied with watching Seth making tea for all of them in the kitchen so she hadn’t noticed what Caislyn was looking at. She only knew that her adoration for Seth was quickly becoming a desperate longing and that didn’t seem right to her. Then, she looked over at Caislyn and saw the longing there in her eyes as she looked at the sketch she had picked up moments ago. “Cais,” Jax started to say, then she got up and moved over to see what Caislyn was holding, “what are you...” she saw the sketch then, the same one she had framed and sent to Gregore the night of Caislyn’s gallery opening. “I meant to tell you about the night of the opening.”

  Caislyn looked up at her friend, unshed tears threatening to spill over and reveal the loss she was feeling. “What,” her voice came out a little strange, so she cleared her throat and tried again, “what do you mean?”

  “The gallery opening for your sketches,” she smiled at Caislyn, “Gregore was there.”

  “He was?”

  “Yeah, he was and this is the sketch he was staring at when I found him.” Jaxon lightly touched the xeroxed copy that Caislyn was still holding. “I put a sold sign on it to hold it for him after he told me the story of what happened this day. I got sidetracked though and when I went back to tell him it was his, he was already gone.” Jaxon grabbed Caislyn’s hand and pulled her mental shield around her a little tighter so she could shut out some of the emotion that Caislyn was leaking all around her. “I had it sent to him via courier that night and I meant to tell you all about it, but then the everything turned into a big jumbled mess and I never got to tell you about it.” Jaxon watched as the tears began to run down her friend’s cheek. “Hey, that boy is madly in love with you, you know!”

  “That seems to be the problem.” Caislyn said meekly. “He’s in love with me and can’t have me because here I am hiding out in the middle of nowhere Ireland with my best friend, her stalker vamp, and my ghost granny.” She hesitated as a silent sob wracked through her, “and here I am, in love with him and can’t do anything about it now and was too stupid to do anything when I was able to.” Caislyn took the copy of the sketch and put it aside. She began wiping furiously at the tears that were now flowing freely down her face.

  Seth came back in the room and set the mugs of tea down. He looked at Jaxon and nodded in Caislyn’s direction, silently asking what was going on. Jaxon just shrugged and decided it was time to change the subject a bit. “Okay, so now that we are all in the same room again, why was it so important for us to get the copies of the sketches?”

  Seth looked over at Caislyn who had her face buried in the sleeves of her sweater. “Caislyn?” Seth questioned and then grabbed the box of sketches that had been sitting in front of her. He began to rummage through it until he came away with the sketch he was looking for.

  “You were looking at that one in the gallery,” Jaxon said, remembering now how he had asked a lot of questions about how Caislyn knew the person. “You know who this is, don’t you?”

  At that, Caislyn finished wiping her eyes and looked pointedly at Seth. “Let me see.” She held out her hand for the sketch, which he passed to her without hesitation. She looked at the image, remembering when she had drawn it. She was 17 and had been having a crazy kind of dream in which she felt as thought she were almost trapped in the past. She had woken up with this one sketch to remind her of the dream. “Who is it?” She put the question out there without looking up.

  “So, you don’t know then?” Seth questioned back.

  “Obviously not if I am asking.” Caislyn sat the sketch down on the table in front of her and looked right at Seth, “let’s not play games. Remember what I said before I left to retrieve these sketches. I meant it!”

  “Wait,” Jaxon chimed in, “what did you say?”

  Seth looked from Caislyn to Jaxon and said, “Caislyn just told me that she wanted to know the whole truth when the two of you returned, because she was tired of all the half truths and lies.” Seth stopped Jaxon before she could say anything, “she’s quite right!” Seth grabbed the sketch off of the coffee table and held it up. “I do know this man and I was shocked to see this scene laid out in this sketch. Actually, you might say seeing this sketch is what resulted in me being one hundred percent on your side.”

  Caislyn eyed Seth skeptically, but said nothing, willing him to fill in the blanks with the simplicity of her stare.

  “I know the man in the sketch. I worked for him right up until you teleported me out of the council meeting, what I didn’t know was that he was responsible for my sister’s death.” Caislyn already knew the dead girl was there in the sketch, she had lived the dream as if she were that dead girl. Jaxon, however, looked shocked.

  “Oh my God, I never noticed their was a girl in the picture when we talked about it at the gallery that night. I was so focused on him.” It suddenly dawned on Jaxon what he had said about the girl. “That’s your sister?” She looked up into Seth’s eyes and saw the pain there.

  Caislyn didn’t move, she didn’t look up because she knew what she was about to say was going to be painful for Seth. “I lived it, you know.” Now, she forced herself to look up and she saw the horror etched across his face. The dream that sketch came out of, I lived it. I was her for the duration of the dream, until she...” Caislyn let her thought trail off as she remembered the strange dream she had as a teenager. It’s the only dream I ever had in which someone died. It’s coincidentally, the only dream I have ever had where I am thrown into another person’s life, body, and death.” The room was too quiet. Caislyn wished she could stop the instant replay of the dream that was there before her eyes, but she couldn’t. On her worst nights, this is where her mind took her, or at least it was before her parents were kidnapped. “The thing is, I don’t think she died. I mean, I know she died, but I stuck around in the dream a bit longer than that. It felt like I, like she was still there just beneath the surface. I don’t know, maybe she was turned too, like you were?”

  A strange look glossed over Seth’s face as he thought about what she was saying. “After all these years, I can’t even begin to fathom the fact tha
t she may still be out there somewhere. I thought Brigid had been killed with my family, at least I had thought that till I saw your sketch. I don’t see Marc being one to turn her though.

  “Marc?” Jaxon questioned.

  “Marc Pithview, my former employer, member of the vampiric high council, and it would appear the man who murdered my sister, he is the man Caislyn drew.” Seth stopped for a minute, willing the fury he felt to subside before he went any further. “He is the one who killed my previous employer, Darren. He is the one who ordered me to watch Caislyn. He is the one who is hunting the two of you right now with that witch, Melina.”

  ***

  ONCE UPON A DREAM

  Caislyn spoke quietly into the phone after listening to what Arkos had to say, “do you really think it’s safe for us to stay put until you can get your pack together and all the way over here?”

  “I’m assuming you have taken precautions with the house?” Arkos replied.

  “Of course, but that didn’t stop them from eventually getting in my old apartment either, now did it?”

  “Ah, yes, about that. I’m going to have to find another way to communicate with you next time. The message I left may have been compromised.”

  “Um, I don’t think that’s really a concern,” Caislyn said as she twirled the old fashioned phone wire around in her hand.

  “Yes, Caislyn, it is a concern. This is a burner phone, but if they have the number...”

  Caislyn cut Arkos off, “I took the entire machine with me.” She caught the hint of a snicker on the other side of the line and felt herself smile too.

  “Well, I guess that takes care of that worry then. Look, I can’t promise anything, but I think you will be safer staying put right where you are until I can get there. Once we figure out what’s going on with this Brotherhood and your parents I will help you guys relocate with a band of Gypsies I know in Russia, well, it’s not exactly Russia anymore. Damn, time is hell on geography. I’ll spare you the details till I can get to you, but they are more than willing to take you guys in and more importantly, I trust them.”

  “You trust a band of Gypsies with my life, that’s reassuring!” Caislyn heard the tale-tell snicker again that let her know either she had said something incredibly smart or incredibly stupid. She decided it didn’t matter at that point. She needed to go fill Jaxon and Seth in on the plan. “If there’s nothing else for now, I am going to go fill the others in on what we talked about.”

  “Alright, try not to worry too much and Caislyn, be careful. I know you aren’t used to a low profile, but do try, at least until we get there.” He hung up before Caislyn could protest so she placed the phone back on it’s cradle and walked outside by the stream where Jaxon and Seth were talking. She would fill them in and then head off to dreamland to get some rest. It seemed like months since she last got any uninterrupted sleep. As she approached the pair she tried to perk herself up and sound cheerful for once. Even if she was beginning to lose hope, it didn’t mean she had to take theirs too. “Hey guys,” as they turned to look at her she began to tell them about the conversation, “I just spoke with Arkos, so here’s the deal...”

  ~...~

  Caislyn was sitting straight up in bed without knowing what she was doing it. She searched by the bedside for her pencil and paper that usually lie there, but she wasn’t at home in her apartment. The tools she kept for her auto sketching weren’t there. Instead, Caislyn now sat for all the world looking as if she was drawing on her sheets with her fingers. It was an automatic response that she couldn’t stop if she wanted to and she would later realize that she failed herself by not being prepared.

  ~...~

  “I had a dream last night about a strange woman coming here to the cottage.” Caislyn looked from Seth to Jaxon and then sat down trying to recall the details that were fading fast from her memory.

  “Well, let’s see the sketches, then.” Jaxon interjected.

  “I can’t. I mean, I didn’t have anything.” Caislyn looked immediately frustrated. “It’s so hard to remember when I don’t have the sketches to show for it, but this isn’t my apartment. There wasn’t anything to draw with.”

  Seth finally understood and went to the boxes that the girls had procured from the apartment the day before. “Here,” he said as he handed her a nearly filled sketch pad. “This has a few blank pages. Maybe it will be enough until we figure out what else to do. If nothing else, we’ll take these xeroxed sketches and have you draw on the backs.”

  “Oh,” Jax looked at Caislyn and allowed herself to feel a little of the frustration that was now rolling off of her friend. “Listen, we know someone is coming and that’s a good thing, right?”

  “Maybe we should leave though.”

  “Didn’t Arkos tell you that we should stay put?” Seth asked.

  “Yes, but I had that dream and I am so troubled by it. I know there is a woman coming, she’s coming here for...” Caislyn’s voice trailed off as she tried to think of the reason behind the woman’s visit. “Damn, this could be important. I feel so crippled by not being prepared last night.”

  Jaxon reached out and tried to comfort her friend. “We’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.” She tried to smile and to hide her own worry. “Maybe this isn’t a bad thing. And maybe if you just go relax and meditate a little you will be able to recall more details.” Jax pulled Caislyn up off the chair she had perched on and nudged her outdoors. “You don’t have your fancy room here, I think the good old outdoors will just have to do.” Her smile and her charm were working on Caislyn.

  “Okay, already.” Caislyn was brought back to herself for a moment, “I get it, you and lover-vamp there want some alone time. So, now I need to meditate with the bugs?” She couldn’t stifle the giggle any longer as she watched Jaxon’s eyes growing wider with surprise. Seth walked up behind Jaxon and winked at Caislyn who was turning to walk away. “I’ll be over by the stream, you know meditating on my bizarr-o dream from last night. If I think of anything, I will still wait another hour to come knocking - you know to spare myself the sites.”

  The door slammed behind Caislyn just as she cleared it. She walked over to the creek and sat down beside it running her fingers through the icy waters. Temperatures for this time of time of the year were a tad high, which was a good thing because Caislyn hadn’t grabbed her coat by the door on the way out. She flopped back into the grass, some of her long hair trailing into the creek water as she continued to lie there staring up at the sky, fingers swaying back and forth in the water, sending herself into a trance before she even understood what had happened.

  “You know it’s not safe to be sitting out here unawares.”

  Caislyn startled herself into a sitting position and looked around. Panic was registering as her body prepared to run. The only problem was she couldn’t figure out where the voice had come from so she wasn’t sure which direction to run to.

  “Caislyn dear, look into the water.” The disembodied female voice spoke again.

  Caislyn did glance at the water quickly and saw there the youthful visage of her great, great grandmother.

  “Oh, you scared the crap out of me!”

  “I can’t seem to manifest myself beyond anything more than a reflection right now. I suppose since my visions came in the waters, this is appropriate.” The ghostly woman looked up at Caislyn, “someone’s coming soon, Garinion.”

  “I know, a woman. I had a vision, but I didn’t get the chance to draw it.”

  With a knowing nod of her head Caislyn’s grandmother continued, “she will be here soon. She will not harm you, but you must be wary of how her presence amongst you will play out. She comes baring both good and ill omens.”

  “Why is it that everything has to be a riddle? Seriously, you can’t just say she’s a good thing, but you’ll have a bad hair day when she gets here?”

  While the ghostly visage of the woman trapped in the stream looked slightly amused, she chided Caislyn for her comment. “
It will be more than just a little bad hair, Garinion.”

  “You know what I mean. Why can’t you just tell me what’s going to happen?”

  “Because things can always change. If I tell you now and it doesn’t come to pass, you will ever be waiting for the bad thing to happen. I can only warn you of possibilities, so you can keep eyes wide open to what may come.”

  Caislyn sighed in protest. “Enough of my life is trapped in riddles already.” She stood and began to pace back and forth along the water's edge. “So, who is this woman then? Can you at least tell me that much.”

  “Better to hear it from her, dear.” Catronia appeared to be looking to her side for a moment, almost listening to what someone else was saying. “She’ll be here soon. Welcome her, but be wary, Garinion.” Catronia wiped her hand across the waters she seemed to be peering out of and just like that she was gone with the ripples it created.