by Abbie Payne
I knew she was right, though. The court and the Watchers were surely going to find loopholes in every piece of evidence I was going to bring forth. I sighed as I leaned back in my desk chair.
“And what do you suggest I add onto it?” I asked exasperatedly. Missy looked up at me, “Let me think about it.” She mused.
I scowled at her, “We don’t have time to think about it!” I protested. Mi ssy shook her head, “Dr.
Caeruleus, for all we know the court could not see the boys for months.” She mused.
I folded my arms across my chest as I waited for her to continue. “Halloween’s going to be in three days, a holiday that vampires,
werewolves, witches, and demons all live and breathe for. They’re not going to be seen this week. And November 1stis Rockfell’s
anniversary so they won’t be seen next week either. Then there’s Legacy Day on the 20th and the whole week of celebrations, then preparations for Christmas and the New Year. You have a psychology degree, you know that the Watchers did this for a reason
– so they have time to plan.”
I sighed, “You have a point. But what do I do until then? Hazel made me promise that I wouldn’t take them back to Rockfell until the trial
because there’s so many people out for them.”
Missy gave me the look that told me what I didn’t want to hear come out of her mouth. I knew what I needed to do.
I needed to let the boys know about their history.
Chapter Thirteen (Lazarus)
“Can youremember who you were before the worldtold you who to be?”-Unknown
Mr. Caeruleus came back to the mansion (?) after almost two hours of
Levi and I being left to our own devices. He was still being nice to us, of course, but it was obvious today that he wanted to get work done.
That was why it was so weird for him to come into Levi’s room in a t- shirt and a pair of jeans and ask us if we wanted to see Crystalhills in all of its glory.
I guess I was used to my mom who set aside specific days for work and specific days for having fun with Levi and I, but I always expected Mr. Caeruleus to be the same way.
Even so, Mr. Caeruleus promised the both of us that he would treat us to food, so we gladly accepted his offer. Our mom had so many different special recipes she made for us that it was almost weird for us when Mr. Caeruleus just ordered pizza for us the night before.
We were grateful that he was open to going out to a restaurant instead. Levi and I followed him out and we
– or at least, I did– half-expecting the limo to be waiting for us, but much to my surprise it wasn’t.
Mr. Caeruleus clearly sensed my confusion and smiled back at me. “I figured you two would be more comfortable walking. Though if you really wanted to, Taz, Levi and I could fly and you could teleport to our destination.” He explained.
Levi was standing so close to me I felt every muscle in his body grow stiff. I watched as Mr. Caeruleus revealed his mighty white wings to us and stood calmly as he waited for our answer.
Levi let his own mottled brown wings show and he stretched them out to make himself look larger than he was.
I had to admit that I was a little jealous. All I had was my stubby red horns that had yet to grow out.
But I also had to admit that I was a little uncomfortable. Levi loathed his wings and kept them hidden pretty much all the time unless he genuinely did feel
threatened (or more so if he felt something was threatening to me). I knew how he felt about angels
because it was the same way that I felt about them.
Except I think he hated them even more.
Because he was one. Because they made him fear his own power and what he could possibly become.
If Mr. Caeruleus was an angel did he have an ulterior motive, too?
Or was he one of the few good angels that were left? Mr. Caeruleus noticed Levi’s
behavior and quickly hid his wings once more. Levi stood perfectly still and kept his wings in their same position. Mr. Caeruleus sighed and looked timidly at his feet.
He put his hands behind his back and turned to begin silently walking in the opposite direction.
I started to move to walk by his side, but Levi quickly pulled my arm and made me stay beside him. His blue eyes were narrowed into thin slits as he stared down the back of our lawyer’s head. I could sense the presence of dark magic, but I couldn’t tell if it had actually been used by him or not.
I knew this new hatred Levi had for Mr. Caeruleus wasn’t unprecedented, but I also knew it didn’t come from a place of stereotyping all angels
together.
Levi didn’t like admitting his fears and he came awful close to admitting one.
He was terrified of clowns, but he would much rather hang from the top of a circus tent while two hundred middle-aged men and women with face paint and bright crimson grins did somersaults and made balloon animals in the sand pit below him than admit they scared him.
Clowns weren’t his only fear, though. Several years ago, during his freshman year of high school, Kyan and his posse broke into our house in the middle of the night.
To this day, none of us know how he got past our familiars or Bali (who at the time came out of the basement every night), but they did. They snuck into my brother’s room and Kyan drained the magic from his wings.
The next morning, Levi was going to fly to school, but when he went to jump from the second-floor balcony (it was always easier for him to let the wind catch under his wings first), he couldn’t move his wings. He fell straight down and landed on his wings with a sickening crunch.
Neither of us went to school that day. Levi was rushed to the hospital and I had to stay home to protect Bali and figure out what I could about what had happened the night before.
Levi became the wonder of the hospital. No angel had ever broken their wings simply due to the inability to fly.
Many of the doctors blamed our mother, claiming if she had
terminated him like she should have then his “dark” blood wouldn’t have interfered with his power of flight (they didn’t believe that this had never happened before).
It wasn’t until they peeled back a group of the feathers on Levi’s wings that they saw the mark of a vampire’s fangs and it was only when we got back to school that we realized Kyan was guilty– and I use that term loosely.
Mom was always off after that and created a forcefield around the house that blocked out anyone except for the select few she allowed.
Eventually, Levi’s wings healed and Mom used a spell to restore the magic in them, but Levi never tried to fly again.
I knew that was the whole reason for Levi to get so angry with Mr.
Caeruleusall of a sudden, but I didn’t have time to ask him about it before we got to the diner: The Crystalhills Historical Café.
Inside looked like it was straight out of a 1950’s movie except for the pictures on the walls that were clearly from a later date.
They were all of Crystalhills, which hadn’t been around for much longer than Rockfell.
Levi – naturally– got distracted reading them as we were following the hostess to our table. He caught up with us though and sank down beside me as he peered up at the picture that hung above our table.
It was a picture of a guy singing into a microphone; not very interesting to me, but obviously very fascinating to him.
We ordered our food before being left to our own devices. Mr. Caeruleus twiddled his thumbs as he stared down at his lap. He grew flustered and quickly rose from the table claiming that he had to go to the restroom and would be right back.
I turned to Levi after he left. “ Levi, I’m gonna need you to calm down. You’re at a fifteen and I need you at, like, a seven.” I mused.
Levi looked up at me with a scowl on his face.
“But he…” He began to protest. I raised an eyebrow at him, “ I know he’s an angel, but you are kind of jumping to conclusions
about him, Levi. There’s still good angels just like there are still bad demons out there. Aren’t you the one that always says we need to give everyone the benefit of the doubt?”
Levi sighed as he studied my face. He smiled softly as he looked down. “Geez, you forget everything, but you remember every word that comes out of my mouth.” He chuckled.
Mr. Caerul eus “mysteriously” reappeared right as the food arrived. “Must have been a long line huh, Mr. Caeruleus?” I mused.
Mr. Caeruleus looked up and chuckled, “You can call me Sam. No need for formalities.”
I shot him a look, “So, Mr.
Caeruleus, what all are you planning on showing us exactly?”
Mr. Caeruleus let out a long sigh at my obvious opinion on his suggestion of just calling him Sam before
shrugging in reply to my question.
“I don’t know yet. Is there anything in Crystalhills either of you have always wanted to see?” He
questioned.
Levi and I both shook our heads. Levi was a geography geek, but even he didn’t know that much about things to do in this city.
Neither of us had ever dreamed of traveling and it would’ve been kind of weird to look for things to do in Crystalhills just for the sake of doing it.
“What can I do to make you two trust me?” Mr. Caeruleus asked quickly.
I shrugged, “Maybe tell us more about you.”
“Like what?”
“Well… first off, why aren’t you married?” Levi shoved his elbow into my ribs for being so blunt, but I didn’t care what either of them thought. He asked what I wanted to know about him and I wasn’t going to lie.
Mr. Caeruleus bit his lip as he tried to formulate an answer. “I just never found the right person I guess.” He replied meekly.
“Do you have any kids?” Levi pitched in.
Mr. Caeruleus simply shook his head, looking down into his lap. “I was always content with being the uncle of the two of you and then when I left the only “baby” I had was my business.” He explained.
While Levi thought, I came up with another question, “What is your greatestaccomplishment?”
Mr. Caeruleus shrugged, “My business.” He replied simply.
“What is your biggest regret?” Levi asked coolly. Mr. Caeruleus hesitated with that one, muttering something under his breath neither of us could catch before looking back up at the two of us.
“ Breaking my promise that I gave to your dad: if something happened to him I would look after you to the best of my ability. I wasn’t there to protect you two and I feel asthough it’s my fault that all of this has happened.”
Chapter Fourteen (Samuel)
“We take photos as a return ticketto a moment otherwise gone.” -Unknown
Ididn’t know what was going to be the outcome of me telling the boys what my
biggest regret was, but I was glad I told them. Levi looked up at me from his food and managed to allow the smallest hint of a smile to appear on his face.
“Everything’s been okay up until this point.” Levi replied coolly. I smiled softly, “Well, your mom has always been pretty good at handling things on her own. She’s a very strong woman.” Levi and Taz shrugged.
“We could have told you that,” they replied in perfect unison. Taz ran a hand through his alabaster white hair as he breathed a heavy sigh.
“Hey, Sam, I know you told us how you knew our dad, but how did you meet our mom? Was it just by association through our dad or something else?” Taz asked curiously.
I resisted the wide grin that wanted to appear on my face when he called me Sam. I always hated being called Mr. Caeruleus. It made me feel older than I already was and– in a way– invalidated. I was barely okay with being referred to as Dr. Caeruleus.
I hesitated to reply to my question. It wasn’t my place to reveal Hazel’s past to her sons and I definitely didn’t want to make them think I was slandering her. “We worked together. I was actually the one that set her and your dad up on a blind date. I watched Levi for her and the two of them went to a diner – this very diner, actually.” I replied, looking around to see if the picture of the two of them was still hanging on the wall.
I pointed to the frame on the opposite side from us, “That’s the picture from their very first date over there. I knew the owner of this diner and I asked him to get a picture of them to prove to me that they ended up going.” I explained.
Taz eagerly got up and moved into the empty booth beside the picture. Levi quickly followed him. I was taken aback when I saw Levi tear up at the sight of the young version of Lincoln. He was only four years old when Lincoln passed away and I had forgotten how close he was to his father.
Even before Link and Hazel were dating, him and I took care of Levi quite a lot while Hazel was working. I was the one that taught Levi how to fly and Link was the one who taught him– well– everything else except for how to cast spells.
I stepped out while the boys looked at the pictures to go pay for our food at the front desk. The hostess glanced over to look at the two boys.
“What are they doing?” She asked me with a hushed tone. I smiled, “Looking at that picture. Their mother and father had their first date here eighteen years ago.”
The hostess slowly nodded, “Excuse me for a moment.” With that, she quickly walked away to the kitchen. No more than ten minutes later, she returned.
“I just talked to the owner. You can take the picture for them if you want,” she offered.
I was surprised by the gesture. People in Crystalhills weren’t known for being so kind. I offered her payment for the picture, but she quickly refused it saying that it was the diner’s treat to us. I smiled softly and sent the boys out to wait for me while the hostess got the picture down for me.
I held it behind my back as I walked out. The brothers were sitting on a bench just outside the diner watching the tiny flecks of light that ignited the black blanket of velvet above us, even behind the dark gray patches that drifted by.
I stood in front of them as I got their attention and handed the picture to Levi. “This is for you.”
Levi’s eyes widened as he looked up at me, “You mean it?”
When I nodded, he grinned and held the frame close to his chest. “Thank you so, so much… Uncle Sam.” He said quickly as he got to his feet and flung himself into my arms. I smiled and slowly returned his
embrace.
Taz stared at us in shock. Just a moment ago, Levi wouldn’t even look at me without a scowl on his face and now– within just a couple hours– he was hugging me and calling me by a title no one had used in a
tremendously long time.
I smiled softly as the Zephenrite got to his feet and joined our little
embrace.
“Listen, if you’re up to it, I have one more thing I’d like to do with you guys before we head home.”
Chapter Fifteen (Leviathan)
“Attitude is alittle thing that makes a big difference.”
–Winston ChurchillUncle Sam didn’t have to take the extra step after dinner, but he did anyway and he brought us to this huge body of
water called Liberty Bay where a
huge yacht was sitting tethered to a
dock with hundreds of other boats.
He smiled back at the two of us, “I figured this would be a nice end to our night. I thought we could use some time to ourselves.” I looked behind us as a man in a suit walked up to us.
“Good evening, gentlemen. I’ll be your captain tonight.” He mused as he held his hand out for us, shaking our hands one at a time.
Taz and I cautiously followed Sam and the captain onto the boat and sat with Sam in the cabin of the boat.
My brother and I sat on the couch and watched as Sam dug through a drawer of an admiral blue dresser.
“Do you own this thing?” Taz asked curiously. Sam glanced up at us and nodded, “I bought it a few years ago and I kept a few of your dad’s things on it. He l
oved boats and I wanted to feel like he was with me every time I
boarded.” He explained as he pulled out a jacket.
It was an old letterman jacket. The body was burgundy red wool and the sleeves were a dark gray vinyl. On the bottom there was a burgundy and gray striped trim.
The front of the jacket had a white patch with the letter “T” on it with the words “Timbercreek Academy” etched in burgundy down the side of the same letter. On the left sleeve there was a patch with the year 2062 on it as well as a burgundy football patch.
On the back of the jacket it had huge letters in an old-fashioned font that read ‘Rizo” and there was a small tail at the end of the “I” stretching all the way under the familiar last name to make some kind of underscore. Carefully etched into this underscore was the name “Link”.
Sam handed this jacket to Taz. “Your dad would have wanted you to have this. When you go back to school, I want you to wear that jacket with pride every single day.” He stated, putting emphasis on the word “when”. I smiled slightly as Taz quickly slipped on the jacket and buried his nose in the sleeves.
“It still smells like him.” Taz told me happily as he offered me the sleeve of the jacket to smell.
I grinned wider when I realize that he wasn’t wrong. That same smell of blue cypress, vetiver, and coastal air that Dad always wore was on the jacket.
I watched as Uncle Sam pulled out another jacket. I swallowed hard as I recognized the jacket almost
immediately.
Dad had gone to a lot of car shows during his lifetime and loved to race cars, too. He always took me to the car shows with him and I remember he always used to wear the jacket Uncle Sam was holding up now.
It was a black satin with patches all down the sleeves. I remembered that whenever Dad would carry me, I would play with the satin on his jacket.
Without thinking, I held my hand out to take the jacket from Uncle Sam.
“Hello, old friend.” I muttered softly to the inanimate object in my lap. I knew it was silly to give lifeless objects so much meaning and