Shrugging her shoulders, Mother Bernadette said, “Of course, none of this could be true. But you were wild, distrustful and knew no human language.” She held up her hand, which had prominent veins running across it. “The first thing you did when I took you from Señor Sanchez was to bite me!” She laughed. “But of course, you were frightened to death. I thanked Señor Sanchez for bringing you and I took you to our laundry room to begin your cleanup process.”
Ana shook her head. “I remember none of this! I should. It sounds so important.”
“Frequently, children do not remember early events. You know,” Mother Bernadette said, gently tapping her temple, “our brain protects us from trauma, so that we can get on with our life, survive and thrive.”
Rubbing her brow, Ana closed her eyes. “All those fragments, those pieces. I remember seeing a jaguar all the time. Her face. Her beautiful gold eyes.”
“Hmm, that’s interesting! Jaguars often kill humans. We have two or three farmers a year who are killed by them in the jungles of Peru. I can’t imagine the legend of a child living with a jaguar family could be true—that such a thing could actually happen. The child would be eaten for sure.” Mother Bernadette gave a cackling laugh. “It could be that you were kept by another farmer’s family, got lost, and a hunter saw this jaguar stalking you. That was why the cat was killed, I’m sure. And then Señor Sanchez accidentally happened upon the scene and rescued you.”
Shrugging helplessly, Ana said, “There’s so much to think about here. I’ll have to compare the nightmares and dreams I’ve had over the years with what you’re saying.”
“Of course, Ana.”
“Señor Sanchez lives near Aguas Calientes, you said?”
“Yes. You might go down there and ask him and his family about that time. He may be able to give you more information than I have here.”
“I will. What other records do you have on me, Mother Bernadette?”
Squinting, she held up her magnifying glass and studied them for a few minutes. “We put in the notes that you were untamed. You had no social skills. You did not know how to get along with the other children. The only sounds you would make were hisses, growls, snarls and mewing, and you’d bite anyone who came close to you. I recall that we put you in a room of your own, and it took me about three months to get you to trust me.”
“Oh.”
“And after you gave me your trust, I began to teach you Spanish. You caught on very quickly, I might add. You were a very sharp student. During the two years you were with us, you learned how to get along with others, to communicate and play without feeling threatened.” Mother Bernadette put the magnifying glass aside. “By the time your adoptive parents, John and Mary Rafael, came along, you were a beautiful green-eyed child with shoulder-length hair. You were a voracious reader and had gone through every book in our children’s library. You caught up in a hurry in those two years, learning not only how to read, but to write, as well. I loved taking time out of my day, every day, to teach you something new. You were so alert and hungry for information. John and Mary Rafael fell in love with you at first sight. At the time, we did not give adopting parents all the information you are now receiving. Peru’s laws have changed since then.”
The nun smiled benignly. “I felt glad that you would be leaving the country, to escape the curse that everyone said you carried. Where you were going, myths and legends and symbols were not given such importance in a person’s life. I knew this would be good for you. You would not have to carry around the awful knowledge of who the Quero thought you were.”
“What do you mean?” Ana asked. She felt the birthmark on her neck heat up. Unconsciously, she rubbed the area.
“I don’t want you to become upset by what I’m going to say, Señorita Rafael. Keep in mind, this is a Quero or Incan myth, and that’s all it is.”
“Please tell me about it.”
“It has to do with your birthmark.” The nun pointed to her neck. “It is said to be the symbol of the Tupay, or Dark Forces.”
A chill worked its way up Ana’s spine. The dream with Grandmother Alaria came back full force. All that fear she’d felt returned. “What?” The word came out strangled.
“Oh!” Mother Bernadette admonished, “pay no attention to these legends, Ana! They mean nothing.”
That isn’t true, Ana wanted to scream. Instead, she bit down hard on her lower lip and kept silent.
“The legend goes that the Tupay are a group of people who are considered pure evil,” the nun said in a bored tone. “They are sorcerers who learned the dark arts of ensnaring helpless and innocent victims to do their bidding. Those who wear the birthmark are said to be part of a growing army, in this world and the Other Worlds—” she waved her hand in the air “—that will eventually take over the earth and rule through fear, war and violence.”
Snorting softly, Mother Bernadette added, “All lies, of course. But you’d be amazed how ingrained this belief is in the Quero people. And that was why Señor Sanchez’s wife, when she saw the birthmark of the sun, became crazed with fear and insisted you be given immediately to an orphanage. That was why she wanted you out of their home.”
“She did not want me there because I—I represented…” The last work stuck in Ana’s throat and made a lump. She touched her neck and rasped, “…evil?”
“I’m afraid so, my child.” The old nun gave her a kindly smile. “But listen to me, will you? We believed nothing of that silly stuff! We were glad to have you. I do remember my time with you, and you were a challenge to be sure, but not because you had that birthmark. You were a wild little child without social graces or language. But that could—and was—rectified.”
Scanning the book-lined office, Ana said, “And was I evil here?”
Laughing, the nun said, “No, of course not! You were like any other normal child we cared for, my dear. You were not mean by nature, nor did you hurt others. Oh, at first you were very wary and would protect yourself from whatever you thought was a threat. But eventually, you stopped being so defensive. By the time your adoptive parents found you, you were a sweet, shy child. So beautiful, as you are now. You are anything but evil, from what I can see.”
“My adoptive parents never told me any of this and they tried to find out more so they could let me know at an age when I could handle the information.”
“I know, and I made a conscious decision not to tell them any of this. I told them an unnamed farmer brought you to us. I gave them no name. We didn’t want you saddled with such superstitious garbage.”
“Thank you.” Ana dragged in a ragged breath. But she was evil. The mark on her neck meant something, after all, and the dream was coming true. She began to realize her dream on the plane was somehow the precognitive type—a dream about the future, one that later became reality. Inwardly, she knew it meant a great deal more than what Mother Bernadette was telling her. Ana searched the nun’s face and asked why the abbess hadn’t even told her adoptive parents. “What else do you know about the mark of the sun?”
Shrugging, Mother Bernadette closed the file, pressing her hand across it. “Nothing, really.”
“Would Señor Sanchez know more?”
“Most likely. He is Quero and it’s an Incan legend. We try to erase all those silly notions from the children who come here. We instill a good religious beliefs instead, ones that are not fraught with such ridiculous fears and threats. Here, they learn that Jesus is their savior and that he loves all children. We replace their fears with love. It’s a healthier, much more positive belief than the dark, heavy energy, the terror that the Quero believe in.”
“Yes.” Ana felt it was time to leave, so she stood. “Thank you for your time, Mother.”
The abbess rose and shook her hand gently. “I’m glad to have been of help, Ana. Your journey to find out who you are can now truly begin. Try to locate the Sanchez family farm near Aguas Calientes. Perhaps they can give you a lead to whoever was caring for you before that. God
bless you….”
Ana staggered out of the orphanage, tears blurring her eyes. With her briefcase in one hand and her luggage in the other, she stood there. The sun was high now, removing the coolness of the damp morning air it. The grassy, tree-filled plaza was just across the busy street. She had to think. Stomach roiling with nausea, she tried to battle the burning tears that leaked from her eyes as she woodenly crossed the road.
Ana saw an empty bench near the center of the plaza. Young people walked across the lawns and older folks traversed the crisscrossing sidewalks. A few mothers with babies in carriages strolled by. Just a normal day.
Ana felt anything but normal. Her legs wobbled and she felt sick. She sank onto the bench beneath the shade of a nearby tree and placed her luggage beside her feet. Pressing one hand to her throat, she bowed her head and gripped her stomach. She was evil. Somehow, she knew that. It was why she’d been so afraid to come here, why she’d resisted going into the orphanage.
The dark truth was…she carried evil within her. Ana’s birthmark meant something. The dream on the plane confirmed it, too. Oh, Great Spirit, what was she going to do? Her stomach was a rolling knot of pain now, and sobs tore from her compressed lips. All her life, she had waited for this moment. Dreaded it. And now, to be told she was the spawn of evil was devastating. The knowledge began to eat through her like acid.
The world of honking cars, smelly diesel engines, chatting people and barking dogs all faded away from Ana’s consciousness. As she sat there, head bowed, she felt her world fall apart, just as it had so often in her dreams. Fragments. Fear entwined with massive confusion within her.
Now that she began to understand the cause of her nightmares, an even deeper sense of foreboding took root in her. She wore the symbol of evil on the back of her neck. And now, she could feel evil release itself within her soul. This frightened her as nothing else ever had, like a time bomb ready to explode.
Ana seemed to have no control over this dark, unnamed thing unraveling deep within her. She was coming back to where she was born, like a salmon returning instinctively to the stream of its birth, where it would spawn and then die.
But her drive to know who she was had turned up such horror that she was shocked beyond belief. Never had she expected such a sentence. People in Peru would consider her evil personified if they saw the mark of the sun on her neck. Now more than ever she had to hide it. Keep her hair down and never wear it up. No one could see it!
Behind her tightly shut eyelids, new pictures were unleashed in Ana’s consciousness. She saw a man studying her now, the same man with the black goatee, his eyes glinting like obsidian. This time, his face was lined and his beard silver interspersed with black. Before, she’d only seen glimpses of his face and those disturbing, haunting eyes that frightened her to her soul. Now she saw his face fully and he was even more scary. Somehow, she knew this man.
Daughter? You are of my blood. You and I are one. I come to you in peace. Can we not share an olive branch between us?
Was she going crazy? Ana heard his low, mellow voice inside her head like the echo of a drum. She grabbed at her skull, willing it to stop. Willing him to go away. But he did not. She saw him handing her an olive branch.
“Go away!” she rasped, terror in her voice. “Get out of here! I don’t know you! I don’t want to know you!” She began to breath harshly through contorted lips.
Ana saw pain and hurt on his face the moment she whispered those harsh words to him.
Daughter, I love you so much. I have searched the world over for you. I have just found you once more. Can you not forgive me? Can we not move on and share one heart filled with love toward one another? Surely you want to know me. I am your father. You are of my blood—
“No!” Ana shouted. She jerked upward, her eyes flying open. The day was sunny and real life intruded. There was no man in black standing before her; it was her imagination. It had to be. Breathing hard, Ana fell back on the bench and tipped her head backward. Without thinking, she closed her eyes once more.
This time, she saw the angelic face of a woman smiling at her, with such love that all her terror dissolved in an instant. The unknown woman spoke in a language she did not understand. Her voice was soft, filled with warmth and joy. For a moment, it soothed Ana’s tumult.
She felt as if she was strung helplessly between these two people, not knowing who to believe. Was she completely losing her mind?
Her stomach clenched as she saw the man in black once more. He was walking away from her, raising his hand in farewell.
I’ll be back, my lovely daughter. I will return when I do not cause you so much stress. I love you….
“Ana?”
Ana barely heard the low, male voice calling her. It sounded familiar, but she was so ensnared in her vision that it seemed to be coming from far away. Only when she felt a hand, warm and gentle, settle tentatively upon her shoulder did she realize the voice was real and not a figment of her imagination.
With tears streaming down her face, she lifted her head. Mace Ridfort! Oh, his hand felt so good to her! So comforting, when she felt so horribly vulnerable and at a loss. His touch was stabilizing to her wild, tumbling world.
He stared down at her with genuine concern, those blue eyes filled with care. Ana felt the heated sunlight of his aura, and instantly, his presence brought her a modicum of peace, of sanity.
“Oh…” Ana hiccuped through her tears. “Mace…”
“I was coming out here to eat my lunch and I saw you. What’s wrong, Ana?”
Chapter 4
His quarry was literally at arm’s length from him. Finally, after all the years of training, of practicing for his mission as a Warrior for the Light, his target was here, right in front of him. Unbelievable. In his wildest dreams, Mace Ridfort had never imagined that she’d literally show up and he’d be standing this close to her.
Shaken by the quixotic and unexpected events, Mace forced himself to concentrate on his task. From the time he was nine years old, his job had been to find and destroy the two Tupay—the Daughter of Darkness and her father, the Lord of Darkness—who could lead the planet to its ultimate destruction.
And here she was—the daughter herself. Mace’s mother and father, both Warriors for the Light who wore the Vesica Piscis symbol on the back of their necks, had trained him relentlessly for two decades to find this duo. Mace had never dreamed that finding either of these sinister beings would be so easy.
As his hand rested on Ana Rafael’s shoulder, and she looked up at him through teary green eyes, Mace was torn. He had been told that the Daughter of Darkness would be as evil as her father. But as he gazed into her anguished eyes, he couldn’t feel one drop of evil within her. Had his jaguar guide been wrong?
Mace hardly noticed the warm sunlight or the noisy traffic as he quickly thought back to the moment his jaguar guide had woken him out of a sound sleep at his Lima apartment. He’d been there on well-drilling business at his main office. The last thing he had expected was for his jaguar spirit guide to growl and wake him up. His guide had informed him that the Daughter of Darkness was coming to Peru. That Mace had to get to the airport and board a certain flight in order to meet her. That it was time to become the hunter.
His quarry had finally appeared. It was Mace’s job to locate her and then use her to find her father, the Lord of Darkness. His guide transmitted a picture of her so he could identify her.
Shaken awake by his guide’s unexpected orders, Mace had quickly dressed, left his apartment and taken a taxi to the Lima airport.
And when he’d walked into the first-class section of the Condor Airlines jet, there she was—two seats back and across the aisle from his own seat. When Mace saw her, he didn’t feel anything but turmoil around her, certainly not the evil emanation he’d expected. His jaguar guide insisted she was the one, however, and Mace accepted that dictate. His jaguar guide had never been wrong in the past, so he had no reason to distrust the information, even if Ana
Rafael looked like an innocent angel.
Shaking himself internally, Mace kept his aura tightly guarded so that Ana wouldn’t suspect who he was or why he had suddenly appeared in her life. She could not know he was a hunter-assassin who was going to manipulate her to get to her father.
No one knew where Victor Carancho Guerra was. The Dark Lord was so powerful that he could cloak himself from even the most highly qualified and psychic Warrior for the Light. No one would find him—until he resurfaced. A vibration much like a radar signal would then be sent out, throughout all the dimensions. And only then would Mace be able to locate him.
Now, with his daughter showing up here in Cuzco, Mace knew without a doubt her father would finally unveil himself. And when he did, Mace would be there to kill him before he could claim his daughter and make her queen in his kingdom of chaos.
As he gently gripped Ana’s shoulder, Mace felt no guilt about hiding who he really was. He had been born for this task. When they had created him, his parents had known what his mission on earth would be. They’d realized that by coming together in an ultimate act of love, a special child would be conceived. He would be carefully trained and educated by both of them.
Mace was very clear about his destiny. He’d been born to kill the two people who stood in the way of one thousand years of peace unfolding on earth. And no one wanted peace more than Mace.
Still, as he watched Ana’s face, he found himself wondering why she didn’t feel evil to him. With his highly sensitized metaphysical abilities, he sensed only her pain and shock.
“Do you mind if I sit with you?” he asked quietly.
Dark Truth Page 6