“I already have a family.”
“Everyone can use more.”
“Not me.”
His words stung. He couldn’t possibly mean her and the babies, but there was that lingering doubt in her mind. She covered up her feelings with a smile, and turned to look at him. “But wouldn’t it be nice—”
“No! Now drop it!”
His shout got her to shut her mouth. She felt the anger boiling up inside of her, but decided to stay silent and look out the window. She saw the world flying by, and tried to calm herself. It wasn’t working, but she still stayed silent. Even when her palms started to sting from where her nails were digging into her skin, she stayed silent. She hated to be scolded like a child, and she sure as hell didn’t deserve his attitude, but she still… stayed… silent.
She didn’t’ care if he believed it or not, but she knew that Gemariah would eventually need his brother, just as her children would need their uncle. Therefore, she wouldn’t stay silent forever. All she needed was a plan.
CHAPTER 15
Ever since the encounter outside the ice-cream shop, Gemariah was even more watchful over her, so it was harder to slip away than she thought it would be. Everything she said that she had to do, he was right there with her.
Everywhere they went, she was more in tune with her surroundings. She would look at anything and everyone more closely than she had before. There were even a couple times she thought she saw Conner turn a corner or disappear into a building right as she looked over.
After a little over a week, she was sure that it had been Conner and was positive that he was still following Gemariah. She had had enough. He was either a psychopathic stalker or he really was trying to look out for them. Whichever the case, she planned to find out. She had a plan to break away from Gemariah’s watchful eye… it was time for her to get some answers.
There were too many secrets still being kept from her. The farther along in her pregnancy she got, the more anxious people became. Anytime that she asked what was wrong, the person smiled and said the same thing, “Nothing.”
There was something about listening to Conner speak. It was his own language of words and terms that Gemariah had no problem following. To her, it was completely alien. She couldn’t help but think that what he had to say was important. She had enough of Gemariah blowing off her questions. It was time that she went right to the source and got her answers. Or better yet, he would come to her.
Nicole packed her purse. She made sure that she had her ID, pepper spray, some money, and just in case she was wrong about everything, she slipped a four inch dagger in as well. Now came for the tricky part.
She walked downstairs to see Gemariah watching television from the couch. She couldn’t help it as her gaze took in how much the house had changed since she first saw it.
She remembered what it looked like coming into the house for the first time. The house was clean, but it was also cluttered. It looked as if he had quickly picked up and wiped things down before she got there. Magazines were stacked in a corner, dirty dishes were nicely organized in the sink, and patches of dust were on the woodwork where he had missed. Nicole could tell right then that cleaning did not come naturally to him. A glorified bachelor, as some might put it.
When she had come to live with him, he constantly would throw down a shirt or a towel on the floor if it was dirty, not ever bothering to pick it up. It drove her insane, and she had hounded him enough that eventually he had started using the hamper.
She was off of bed rest, and now could help around the house when she wasn’t exhausted. Except, it was as if Gemariah had trained himself to become the type of person who didn’t let things lie around.
She smiled and looked at the candy wrappers, empty bag of chips and an empty soda can on the coffee table in front of him. He is still a slob, she thought with a smile, but at least he's a slob that picks up after himself when he's done. Like it or not, he had become somewhat domesticated.
She finished her way down the stairs and put on a big smile. “Okay, I’m off. I won’t be home too late.”
“Mmmhmm.” He didn’t even look up from the TV. Thank God for football, she thought.
She was almost to the door that led out to the garage when she heard him shout out. “Wait! What? Where are you going?”
Dang it!! Keeping her smile on, she turned around to face him just as he hopped over the back of the couch and started towards her. “Don’t you remember? It’s girls’ night out.” She pointed over to the dry-erase board on the fridge that clearly stated, “Tonight: GIRLS NIGHT OUT!!”
He looked somewhat confused as if he didn’t remember seeing that written before. That was probably because he hadn’t since she wrote it on there twenty minutes ago while he was still engrossed in the game.
“Who’s all going to be there? Trinity?”
“No, just some girls from work. I don’t think you’ve met them.” Best not to get into specifics, she thought.
“Where are you going?”
“Jeez Dad! Interrogation, much?”
When he didn’t say anything, but kept looking at her expectantly, she sighed. She guessed he expected specifics. “We’re meeting at the Blue Runner for food and drinks.” She held up a hand to silence any comment he might throw in. “Obviously non-alcoholic ones for me,” she stated before going on. “I’ll be home no later than eleven, I feel fine, and I’ll drive slowly.”
At first, he didn’t say anything and she thought that she was busted. He was looking at her closely and even tilted his head to the side as if he were inspecting a unique bug and wondering if he was going to smash it or not. “Why are you so nervous?” he finally asked.
She thought that she could play dumb and act like she didn’t know what he was talking about, but in the end, she went with honesty. “Because I am so scared that you won’t let me go, or if you do, you won’t let me go alone,” she whined. “Don’t get me wrong, spending time with you is great, but I need to breathe! Just for one night,” she added. She told herself that she was going to be honest with him, she wasn’t counting omitting information.
He stepped forward slowly and surprised her when he put a hand on each side of her face and tilted it up as he lowered his lips to hers. They had been living under the same roof for months, and even fell asleep in the same bed occasionally, but everything had been platonic. He had not kissed her since the morning after their intimate night together, and she found that she had really missed the feel of his lips.
It was just a simple kiss that never became too intense. He finally pulled away and smiled. At that moment, he looked so young and carefree that she almost kissed him again to keep the expression on his face. Instead, it was him that moved first and leaned down again. He lightly kissed her forehead and when he pulled his lips away, his body followed as he took a step back.
“Have fun,” was all he said before he turned away smiling.
This new development between them clouded her mind and threw her off kilter. All she could think of to say was, “Really?”
He turned to look at her and raised one side of his mouth higher than the other in a crooked smile. “Unless you want me to come with you,” he said as he started to walk back in her direction.
His words snapped her mind back in place and she remembered what her plans were. Startled and thinking that he was actually going to come with her, she jumped back and held her hands in front of her to ward him off. “No. No, that’s alright. I’ll be back soon.”
He laughed at her antics and walked back over to plop himself down on the couch. Before he could lift the remote, she was out the door and climbing into her car.
She had come up with her plan the other day when Trinity and she went out for lunch. In tune with spotting their new shadow, she had caught a glimpse of Conner when they were walking into the restaurant. It was then that she knew. He wasn’t just following Gemariah. He was following her too. Maybe just her, who knew? Either way, she would soon find out
.
She drove into the heart of the city. Once the buildings started to block what little sunlight was left, she started to slow the car. An eerie feeling started to lick at her spine and for the first time, she started to have doubts about what she was doing.
Taking a fortifying breath, she kept the car moving, and proceeded with her plan. Originally, she was going to drive farther and closer towards the neighborhoods south of the city, but with her resolve already faltering, she thought it best to find someplace to stop sooner rather than later.
It wasn’t too long until she found a small patch of grass mingled in with the buildings. It looked as if they tried to make a park, but the environment and surroundings were not kind to it. There were a couple trees starting to get their leaves and a bench that was semi intact. Someone had once painted what looked to be a beautiful mural on the side of a building that bordered the area, but it had since been disfigured by graffiti.
Deciding that the place was as good as any, Nicole parked her car across the street and took her time getting out. The night was descending fast and with the surrounding buildings blocking her view, the only light came from a flickering street lamp at the corner.
The eerie feeling crept back up, and she stood at her car, wondering if her plan was such a good idea. Then she remembered all the times Gemariah shut her out when she tried to bring up what happened outside the ice-cream shop. That was her motivation to keep moving. Everything had a place and everything had a meaning, and it all felt like too much of a loose end. It was unsettling to her, and she was on a mission to correct that.
Therefore, she came up with the idea of putting herself in an unsavory situation. Conner approached Gemariah to warn him about something, so she was banking on the logic that he would approach her if he thought she was in danger. Little would he know that she had a small knife and pepper spray in her purse that she was tightly hugging to her chest. She might be doing something drastic, even for her, but she wasn’t stupid.
Entering the grassy area, she slowly walked to the bench and sat down gingerly. When it didn’t collapse underneath her, she sat back a little more. Then she waited… and waited… then waited some more. Sighing loudly with impatience, she brought her wrist up to check her watch and wasn’t shocked to see that thirty minutes had passed. It was unusually quiet and the only people that she saw were an older couple walking down the street. They looked at her strangely, but kept walking. She didn’t blame them. To them she was a tiny blonde woman sitting alone in the dark for no reason. She might have kept walking too. She didn’t know what they would have done if she hadn’t had her large pregnant belly covered up.
That wasn’t the case though. She had a reason!
Where the hell is he, she thought? Deciding to let him know why she came, she abruptly stood up and started looking around. When she didn’t see anything, she decided to yell.
“Conner!” she shouted. “I know you’re there, and I just want to talk!” She bluffed in hopes that it would bring him out of hiding.
When there was no movement, and no sound out of the ordinary, she tried again. “Conner!’
A twig broke, and she spun around to look at the other side of the park. At first she didn’t see anything but grass and a tree, but when she looked closer, she saw that the trunk was casting a larger shadow than it was supposed to.
“Conner, is that you?”
The shadow shifted and a large man slowly stepped out from the shadows and into the light. The first thing she noticed was how big he was when he straightened to his full height. The second thing she noticed was that the man, with his pockmarked face, greasy black hair, and missing teeth, was not the same man that she saw Gemariah talking to.
“No Conner here, Sweet cheeks, but I can be the man you’re looking for.”
Terror immediately set in and she started to back away. At the same time, she reached into her purse to wrap her hand around the pepper spray. She just needed to get to her car, and then she would be safe.
“Stay back,” she said to the approaching figure. “I mean it.”
It was a time when she wished that she didn’t look like a little girl, and that she had a more menacing sounding voice. She couldn’t scare away a puppy, if she wanted to.
When he sneered and took a larger step toward her, she turned to flee. She didn’t have the opportunity to run because the moment she turned, she hit a wall. It was a fleshy wall, but still just as unmovable.
Hands came up and grabbed her shoulders. For a moment, she thought that it might be someone to help, but her hopes were dashed away when he spoke. “Don’t worry. We’re not here to hurt you… much. If you do what we say, there could hardly be any pain at all.” The voice was smooth, completely betraying the words he spoke.
She swallowed the lump in her throat and tried to look how close the man behind her had gotten, but was stopped when the other man gently moved her chin up to look at him. Her eyes widened in shock. Every feature on his face was perfectly placed. He was beautiful. She felt herself slowly starting to relax, until she looked into his eyes. To go along with his perfect looks, and silky voice, his eyes should have shown her the world. Instead, there was nothing. They were blank, empty… soulless.
She started to struggle, and his grip tightened on her arms. She pulled back even more, but her back hit another soft surface. Immediately, she knew that the man from under the tree had made it to them.
“Such pretty hair,” his gruff voice said as he ran his hands through her long strands. “Soft to the touch, and long enough to get a good grip on.”
She squeaked when he tightened his hold in her hair and tugged back.
“Let me go,” she gritted out between clenched teeth. “You’ll regret it, if you don’t.” She had lost her grasp on the spray when she ran into the man still holding her, but she desperately moved her hand around in her purse to try to find it again.
“Are you sure you want to do that?” the man with the silky voice asked. He made his voice sound like he was talking to an annoying child. “If you try to do what you’re thinking, there will be a struggle. If there is a struggle, how will your babies fair. You did just get off bed rest after all. I don’t think it would take too much to put you back into labor.”
A feeling of horror and panic consumed her. How did he know so much about her? That’s when it hit her. It was no regular, run of the mill attack. She had been followed, and not by the person she had hoped would.
He was right. She didn’t want anything to happen to her babies, so she went with them willingly. He turned around to sling his arm around her shoulders and walk next to her. That left Pock Face to walk behind.
When they were almost to the street, Nicole felt something breeze by her head. The sound was almost like an insect, but not quite. A gargling noise from behind them had her covering her stomach protectively and turning around to see what was happening.
Pock Face was standing in shock. There was something silver sticking out of the side of his neck. She watched as he grimaced and slowly brought his hand up to tentatively touch the object. Once he found the shape, he wrapped his hand around it and with a savage jerk, pulled it out. He looked down at the star shape in his hand and slowly brought his head back up to look at them. Not five seconds later, the man shut his eyes and crumbled dead to the ground. She didn’t know the guy, and she definitely didn’t like him, but she was still in shock with how quickly he died. The object had to have hit a main artery for it to happen that fast.
“Wow. I was expecting flames,” came a voice from the shadows. “Anyone that ugly would have to be of a demonic nature.”
Mouth open in surprise, Nicole watched as another man walked into the park; the man that she had went there looking to talk to, the same man from the other day. Conner.
He strolled in as if he were on a leisurely walk and stepped up to the dead man on the ground. Leaning down, he picked up the silver weapon, grimaced, and wiped it clean on the man’s jacket. “I guess in th
e end, it doesn’t matter,” he continued as he stood up. “Dead is dead, right?”
With speed that Nicole hadn’t seen before, Conner threw the star in their direction, and the man that was still holding her, leaned to the side just in time, before it got lodged in his skull.
An inhuman hiss came from his lips and he tightened his grip on her arm. Quickly pulling her to face him, he leaned down to look into her eyes. She reared back and tried to pull from his grasp. Eyes that were once hollow were then a muted red.
“Stay here,” he growled.
His eyes widened marginally, as if he wasn’t expecting something and instead of letting her go, he grabbed her neck, spun her around, and moved her in between Conner and him.
“She’s mine. Leave now, Nephilim, and I won’t have to rip you to pieces.”
Conner lowered the star he was about to throw, but his body stayed alert. He shook his head. “Not gonna happen.”
Nicole felt something on her stomach and she looked down to see a mangled limb with long claws gently stroking her belly.
“Do you know what I can get for these babies? Master will be pleased.”
The smooth voice from before had turned into something unnatural. She looked up and saw his tongue slide between his lips; a very long and forked tongue.
She tightly shut her eyes, and started to ramble. “I’m hallucinating. Great! I probably didn’t even leave the house tonight. When I open my eyes, I’m going to be on my bed, sleeping off the long day.” She opened her eyes, and when nothing had changed, she closed and opened them again with the same result.
Conner took an opportunity from the distraction she caused and threw another star. The thing holding her was not so fast a second time, and it got a small nick on the cheek. Immediately, she heard a sizzling sound.
As if she were a discarded piece of trash, Yellow Eyes threw her to the side and charged forward. She hit the ground hard, but managed to scramble to the edge of the sidewalk. When she looked up, she saw Conner throw Yellow Eyes to the ground, but it wasn’t too long before the tables were turned and Conner was pinned.
The Divine Whisper Page 26