by Paige Watson
“So my parents, Mickey, and Kit all wanted us to be together?”
“Yes. Your dad said you were happy, but he could tell something was missing from your life. He said when I was gone, you never married, had children, anything. You were always alone. He figured it was because we’d been separated.”
“I missed you, even though I didn’t know you. How can you miss someone you’ve never met?”
“No, you missed someone you couldn’t remember,” he said. The washcloth slipped from my hands, falling into the water. His hand touched my chin, drawing my mouth to his. My hands slid up his arms, stopping behind his neck. He leaned back, pulling me into the tub on top of him. I gasped as my body met with the hot water. My clothes and hair were soaked within a matter of seconds. The skin on his shoulders was smooth and slippery beneath my touch. His hands played with the bottom of my nightgown, raising it slightly over my stomach. Water spilled over the edge of the tub and splashed onto the floor. My mouth opened up to his and my hold on his neck tightened. He kissed me in a crazed fever; his lips discovering every uncovered part of my skin.
“It’s not fair,” I said breathlessly.
“What isn’t?”
“That they took my memories of you away. They hurt us by making us stay apart from one another.”
“They were just trying to protect you. They thought what they were doing was for the best.”
“I can understand that,” I said. “But it’s obvious it doesn’t do either of us much good to be away from each other.”
“I think the Concilium tries to look at a bigger picture. Plus my presence threw a big kink into the system they had.” I looked at him with a puzzled expression on my face. “For hundreds of years you and Aden ruled together, creating a pathway for humanity throughout the course of time. However, that all changed when we met; it all changed because we met.”
“Did you have any say in becoming one of my secundae?”
“I did, and clearly I chose yes.”
“If you had it to do again, would you still say yes?”
“What do you think?” His hands cradled the back of my neck, drawing me into another kiss. He sat up, steadying my body across his lap. His mouth glided down the side of my neck to my shoulder. The feel of his lips on my skin made me shake, and my head fell backward as I savored his touch. I returned my focus back to his face and then I saw the water in the bath was tinged with red. The wound on his chest was dripping blood.
“Oh no,” I said, calling attention to the blood running down his body. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s ok, it doesn’t hurt that much. I guess bath time’s over though,” he answered with a smirk.
“You are awful,” I teased. “Let’s get you dried off and I’ll put some new dressings on.” I stepped out of the tub, dripping water all over the floor. I was making a huge mess, so I grabbed some extra towels and laid them on the floor to soak up the water. “Would you mind closing your eyes?”
“Why?”
“Because I’m going to take my nightgown off and I don’t have a bra on.”
“I have seen you naked before, you do realize this?”
“I know. Could you just do it?” I asked in an exasperated tone.
“Of course, but just so you know, I’m picturing you naked in my mind,” he said grinning.
“Oh my God! You are impossible.”
I peeled my wet nightgown off my body, wringing it out over the sink. I hung it up to dry and covered myself with a towel. I walked into the room and grabbed some extra clothes for us. Once I was back in the bathroom I finished drying off. I looked behind me to make sure his eyes were still closed before I started getting dressed. I put on my underwear and covered them up with jean shorts and a coral tank top. I pulled the stopper out of the bathtub and helped Conrad stand. He dried himself off as I held onto his waist. When he was done I looked away while he dressed in a pair of shorts. I piled the wet towels in the corner and helped Conrad back onto the bed.
“Will you hand me a cloth? The cut is starting to bleed again.”
“Here, I got it.” I dried the blood from his chest and covered it with gauze and tape. When I had finished taking care of his leg I cleared everything off the bed so I could lie down beside him.
“I feel better,” he said, falling back onto the pillows. “Would you mind grabbing me another pillow to put behind my back?”
“Yeah.” I jumped off the bed and grabbed an extra pillow from Caroline’s.
“Just so you know, I didn’t have my eyes closed the whole time in the bathroom.” The look on his face was utterly mischievous.
“What?”
“I have to say, you look exactly how I remembered.” The grin he wore told me he was enjoying this immensely.
“I can’t believe you! You— are just horrible!” I launched the pillow at him, hitting him in the face.
“Don’t be mad. I don’t know why you’re shy, because you are so beautiful.”
“I’m shy because you can remember everything and I can’t. You know what it’s like when we—well you know what I’m getting at. And you have power over me because you can recall these different experiences but I can’t.”
“You don’t have to be nervous around me.”
“I know, but it’s kind of scary. You have this vivid memory of me and I don’t want to disappoint you. I don’t want to be less than what you expect.”
“I don’t think there’s any way you could disappoint me. My feelings for you haven’t changed in the last 500 years and they never will. You don’t even know how I happy I was just to be in the same room as you on the first day of school. If there’s anything that I have learned from living all the different lives with you it’s that you’re never what I expect, you’re always more.”
“You aren’t just saying that to make me feel better, are you?”
“Nope. I’m saying it because it’s the truth.”
I curled up beside him in the bed and covered us with the blankets. I racked my brain, analyzing every second of the last conversation I had with my father. It was in the field; a way to get in touch with the Concilium and we definitely needed to see them. Aden had sent souls and demons after me. None of us could really be sure what he was up to, but there was one thing we were sure of; he was after a consiliarius too. That meant the Concilium and I had something in common; we both needed to stop him. I got out of bed and retrieved the painting. I wanted to look at it again. I was missing something and the feeling kept nagging at me.
“Bring it over here,” Conrad said, holding out his arm for me to sit beside him.
I sat down and held onto one end of the rolled canvas. He took the other end and we stretched it out in front of us. My eyes scanned the painting again, starting at the bottom and then slowly moving up to the top. The grass looked soft and green. It spread in tufts around the girl. Her hair fell in golden curls around her head, making it look like a halo glowed above her face. She was immersed in a sea of red blossoms. I looked up at Caroline as she walked back through the door.
“Hey,” she said, handing me a box of donuts. She dropped her purse on the table and brought our coffee over to us.
“Thanks.” I grabbed one with my free hand.
“Did you find anything while I was gone?”
“No, we just started looking though,” Conrad said, taking a drink of his coffee.
I opened the box and handed him a chocolate iced donut. I took one for myself and looked back to the picture as I ate.
“Here’s the magnifying glass.” She laid the heavy glass on the bed beside me.
I zoned in on the girl; I was unable to tear my eyes away from her. Her arms were folded underneath her head and her picnic basket was lying next to her in the grass. A white and blue scarf was tied around the handle of the brown basket. The ends of it were flying in the breeze like a flag. I scrutinized every blonde curl in her hair and every eyelet in the lace on her dress, but my search was in vain. The answers I looked for el
uded me. I shook my head, breaking my gaze on the girl. I kept my eyes closed for a minute trying to picture the girl in my mind.
“Are you ok?” Conrad asked.
I nodded, not daring to speak because it might interrupt my train of thought. I envisioned the girl again. I saw her white lace dress that looked delicate and pristine in the cradle of poppies. Her eyes were closed as if she were sleeping and her arms crossed into a pillow beneath her head. Then I saw what I was looking for. At first glance the way she was holding her hand looked careless and at ease but she was pointing ever so slightly to the basket at her side. My eyelids flung open and scrambled for the magnifying glass at my feet. I grabbed it and held it up to the painting. I was right; the gesture of her hand showed she was pointing, but just barely. I followed the trail from the tip of her finger with the magnifying glass. I leaned close to get a better look of what was inside the basket. A bundle of the red poppies was poking out of the side of the basket and beside it was a glass jar filled with blackberries. I set the magnifying glass right over the lid of the jar. There was a sequence of numbers and letters that circled the edge of the jar. I could barely make them out, even when magnifying them.
“I found it!” I looked up to see both Caroline and Conrad staring at me intently. “I found something,” I repeated.
“What is it?” Conrad bent low to the painting beside me.
“It looks like an address written on the lid of the jar. See, the girl is subtly pointing at the basket,” I said, showing Conrad. “I can’t make the numbers out. Here, you take a look.” I handed him the glass and stepped back so he could see better.
“Is there a pen and paper near? I’ll call it out and someone write it down,” he said, as he leaned closer to the magnifying glass.
I grabbed a pen and paper from the table beside the bed. “Ok, what is it?”
“421 Chicago Avenue.”
“Chicago Avenue,” I repeated. “As in Chicago the city?”
“What else could it be?” Conrad looked up at me from the painting.
“I guess this means we’re going to Chicago,” Caroline said.
“It’s the only lead we have on getting in touch with the Concilium,” he said, answering her question.
“I would have thought you’d be more in touch with the Concilium, especially since they’re the ones that allow you to be reborn,” she added.
“The Concilium went into strict hiding in order to be protected from Aden. Not to mention the fact that the Concilium only talks to you if they need to. They aren’t exactly the most social group of people.”
“Oh,” she replied. “Then how did Evey’s dad have that address?”
“I don’t know for sure. My guess would be, that since Evey is the primum; the Concilium wanted to be sure her secundae had a way of getting in touch with them in case something happened or in case they needed help.”
“How does the Concilium know where to place Evey every time she’s reborn, or when to have her reborn?”
I joined Caroline in looking to Conrad as we waited for him to answer.
“I suppose you could say they receive their instructions from a higher power.”
“That is so weird,” she said.
“I wonder what it’s like to talk to God,” I added.
“When you remember, you’ll have to let us know,” Conrad smiled.
“I just might have to do that,” I said, looking back at the girl in the painting. “Well, I guess we should start packing. It’s going to be a long drive to Chicago.” I rolled the painting back up and set it inside my bag. Even if it was just a clue to lead us to get us in touch with a consiliarius, I was still going to keep it. It was a connection to my father and the more connections I could hold on to, the better. I started to pack up some of the things around the room, and then I stopped. “Conrad, do you feel ok to travel?”
“I’ll be fine. I probably won’t be able to drive very much though.”
“That’s ok, Evey and I can take turns.”
“Ok,” he replied. “Well I guess we should leave as soon as we can then.”
An hour later we were loading up the car and heading toward Chicago. It was going to take us about nine hours to drive there and I could only pray we would find what we were looking for. I almost felt as if we were on a wild goose chase; running all over the country trying to find some great treasure. Caroline offered to drive the first few hours and I was to drive last. We made Conrad lay across the back seat so he could stretch out his leg.
“Are you comfortable?” I glanced over my shoulder to get a better look at him.
“About as comfortable as you can get, in a car this size,” he said with a smile.
“How’s your leg?”
He lifted his shorts to look at the tape over his wound. “It still looks good.”
Satisfied with his answer, I repositioned myself in the passenger seat and closed my eyes. I wasn’t intending to fall asleep, but the last thing I heard was Caroline singing along with the radio and then I was out. Caroline was supposed to wake me up at ten, but when she finally stirred me awake, it was almost midnight. We were pulled over at a gas station somewhere in Illinois.
“I needed to use the bathroom and I was going to see if you needed anything.”
“You let me sleep too long!”
“I wasn’t tired at all, so I decided to let you get some rest.”
I looked to the back seat and saw it was empty. “Where’s Conrad?”
“He went inside to get some snacks and use the restroom.”
I got out of the car and stretched. I was sore from being cramped in the car for so long. “How far away from Chicago are we?”
“About two hours. It won’t be too much longer and then we’ll be there,” she said, before walking into the restroom.
I couldn’t believe it. In two hours I would hopefully be meeting a consiliarius. The thought made me nervous and excited all at the same time. The Concilium knew me, or at least were vaguely familiar with me, but I had no recollections of ever meeting one of them. I began to wonder what they were like, but instantly regretted it. What if they were cruel or refused to help us? I didn’t think I could bear the thought of seeking out the Concilium’s advice or aid and then being disappointed by a rejection from them. I clutched the necklace around my neck. When Conrad first put the necklace on me I found myself holding it in my hand because I wasn’t used to the weight of the pendant, but now I found the feel of it oddly reassuring. It was just another tangible link to my past and everything that was happening around me.
“I’ll drive the rest of the way,” I said to Caroline, as I sat in the driver’s seat.
“Thanks.” She took a drink from her steaming cup of coffee. “I was starting to get tired.”
“The two of you should sleep while I drive and when we get there, I’ll wake you up.”
“I can drive,” Conrad said from the backseat. “If you don’t want to, I’ll do it.”
“You still need to rest and I don’t mind driving at all.” I turned the GPS on and double checked the arrival location before pulling out of the gas station parking lot. “Do you know each consiliarius?”
“Yes,” he said with a yawn. “Some of them I know better than others, but I’ve had contact with all of them at some point in time.”
“So they know who we are right? And they will have to help us?”
“Of course they know who you are, and I would think they would be most interested in putting a stop to whatever Aden is up to. He’s just as much of a threat to them as he is to you.”
“I just hope that by working together, we can figure out what he wants.”
“Me too,” he said. “Me too.”
I turned the radio to the oldies station and sang along to the Temptations as I drove down the interstate. I drove a little faster than normal, but it was one in the morning and there wasn’t much traffic out. A glance in the rearview mirror told me that Conrad was fast asleep and Caroline was passed
out to my right. According to the GPS we would be at 421 Chicago Avenue in forty minutes. I felt my stomach tie up in knots as I drove; with each second we were closer to the consiliarius and to answers. I turned my focus back to the road and concentrated on getting us to our destination safely. Miles of interstate disappeared into the night sky as we continued on our mission. A few days ago I thought I was just a regular teenage girl. Now I knew most of my past was written in the pages of the history books I used to study so intensely. Then there was Conrad. He had loved, protected, and saved me for centuries. He knew me better than anyone and I knew him. I just wished I could remember more of the time I spent with him. I knew it would all come back to me with time but I didn’t want to wait. I wanted to remember every whisper, every touch, and every kiss. I could feel the car slightly veering toward the shoulder. I corrected the steering wheel and focused my attention back on driving. Thinking about kissing Conrad and driving were clearly two things that didn’t mix. It only seemed like a few minutes had passed before I was pulling up to the building that was located at 421 Chicago Avenue.
“Hey! Wake up!”
“What’s going on?” Caroline rubbed sleep from her eyes.
“We’re here.”
“And where exactly is here?” Conrad’s voice sounded from behind me.
“I really don’t know,” I said looking up at the building. It was a four story building that had modern style architecture to it. Large windows covered the upper floors and a formidable looking door
stood at the bottom. It was grey, matching the color of the building. A small gold rectangle was set about eye level in the door. It looked like some sort of peep hole. “It kind of reminds me of a huge apartment or something.”
We filed out of the car and I grabbed my messenger bag before walking up to the door.
“I guess there’s only one way to find out if we came to the right place,” Conrad said as he pressed the buzzer. Nothing in the building seemed to stir. He pressed the button again, this time holding it down longer. “That should wake somebody up.”