by S. J. West
I suppose all girls fantasize about their first time making love, turning it into something reality would be hard pressed to match up with. I always thought Ash would be the person who took my virginity, but now I couldn’t imagine anyone living up to the high standard Jace had set.
Unable to stop myself, I let my fingers trail lightly down Jace’s chest feeling the warmth of his skin against the tips of my fingers, stopping just below his belly button where the sheet lay across the lower half of his body.
“Don’t stop,” I heard.
When I looked back up at Jace’s face, I found him watching me with half closed eyes, closing them fully as my hand ventured underneath the sheet.
Later, I lay wrapped in his arms spent of energy. What little sleep I had gotten the night before had just been used up in a totally worthwhile way.
“We should definitely start out our mornings like that from now on,” I said in complete sincerity.
I heard the rumble of Jace’s laughter inside his chest.
“Your wish is my command,” he replied, kissing my forehead.
I leaned up and kissed him on the lips, not being satisfied with such a simple show of affection.
“Can I ask you something?” he said, his tone turning serious.
“You can ask me anything.”
“Was I your first?”
“Yes,” I said. “Why would you think you weren’t?”
“Before you left to be with the Queen …” he started but couldn’t seem to bring himself to finish.
“Oh, that,” I said, remembering what I had said to Jace about finding someone to satisfy my sexual needs if he wouldn’t. “No, I was never with someone while I was with her. I came close,” I admitted, not wanting to hide anything from him, “but that’s when my future self came to visit me. She told me she was stopping me from doing something I would end up regretting.”
“I’m glad she did, or you did, I guess. All this time traveling gets me confused sometimes.”
“You’re not the only one,” I confessed.
Jace was silent for a while, and I could tell he wanted to ask me something but didn’t seem to know if he should or not.
“You might as well ask me whatever it is you’re thinking,” I told him. “I’m an open book to you. I’ll tell you the truth about anything.”
“Was I … did I …” He put a hand to his forehead. “Crap, how do I ask you this without sounding like a complete idiot?”
“Just ask,” I said, kissing him in an attempt to ease his tension.
“You were my first too,” he confessed. “Was I good enough? Was there anything that I didn’t do that you would want me to do?”
I smiled.
“What?” he asked. “Why are you smiling like that?”
“I was just thinking that for two virgins we did pretty well last night … and this morning … and hopefully right now.”
Jace smiled and rolled me over onto my back proving my hope was right.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
It was decided we would travel to the Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. The plan was to set up Zoe, Rose, and Simon in one of the larger caverns and dynamite the entrance to the cave so no one would inadvertently discover them, keeping them safe. The Queen would have no way of knowing about the existence of their shield, leaving us with the element of surprise. She would still mistakenly think she was safe when she would become the total opposite.
Jace and I rode in the same helicopter with Zoe and the babies to the location. I wanted to spend as much time as I possibly could with her before she was lost to me forever.
“Promise me one thing,” she said to me.
“I’ll promise you anything. You know that.”
“Don’t tell Simon and Rose about me and Ash until they’re older.”
“Why?” I asked, confused why she wouldn’t want her children to know what a brave woman their mother was and the sacrifice she was making to save the world.
“I want them to think of you and Jace as their mother and father,” she said to me, handing me a white envelope. “When the time is right, give them this note. I don’t want them to blame you for honoring my last request.”
“I’ll do what you ask, but I don’t like it. I don’t like to lie,” I said. “And I will find a way to stop your aging before you’re woken up. I promise. You’ll be able to live out a normal life with Rose and Simon.”
“I know you will,” Zoe said with a knowing smile. “Ash told me what my future holds, and I’m ready for it. I only wish you were going to be there when I wake up, like you were the first time.”
I squeezed Zoe’s hand, silently wishing I could be there too.
Rose and Simon met us at the entrance to the cave. They were both dressed in white flowing gowns made of a gauzy fabric and had a third one ready for Zoe to put on.
“Uncle Kirk and Aunt Teegan made them for us,” Simon said in explanation. “They said if we were going to be stuck in a cave for God only knows how long, we should at least look fashionable when we’re woken up.”
“Will I see Kirk and Teegan soon?” I asked them.
“You know we can’t answer that,” Rose said.
I shrugged. “Had to try.”
Once we all walked to the large cavern that would be Zoe and her children’s home for a while, older Ash appeared to play his part in the event.
“So, what’s the future like?” I asked him.
“Bright,” he said with a smile, one of the few I ever saw him give so readily. “Don’t give up hope, Skye. My future will be your present soon enough. There’s a lot more you have to do to make that happen though, but I know you will. You’re strong, and you’re brave. You always have been. You’ll be the one who saves us all in the end.”
I hugged Zoe good-bye for one last time, determined not to cry but failing miserably as my heart was forced to let her go.
“I love you,” she said to me, squeezing me tight. “Don’t forget me.”
“I’ll never forget the little pigtailed girl I found,” I said.
“It’s time,” Simon gently reminded us.
Zoe reluctantly let me go. She kissed baby Rose and Simon who were cradled in Jace’s arms and walked over to their adult counterparts. After she kissed them both on the cheek, she told them how proud she was to be their mother. They formed a circle facing one another and held tightly to each other’s hands.
Jace came up to me and handed me baby Rose. I looked down at the child in my arms and instantly felt a connection that hadn’t been there before. When I looked up, I saw adult Rose smiling at me like she knew this was the moment when our true relationship started.
The smell of electricity filled the air as their shield suddenly appeared and disappeared, spreading as far as it could to the outside world. As if knowing exactly when to do it, older Ash touched them all on the shoulder one by one to put them into stasis, forever trapping them in time until the day came when they could be awoken.
“The angels are in heaven,” I heard Michael say into the walkie-talkie he had in his hand. “Get ready to blow the charge as soon as we’ve cleared the cave entrance.”
As I looked at the three figures dressed in white, I realized how appropriate Michael’s code name for them was. They were our angels, gifting us with the opportunity to save what was left of humanity.
I knew then without a shadow of a doubt what my next step would have to be.
I had to kill the Queen.
Dawn
Book Three
∞
Harvester of Light Trilogy
By
S. J. West
List of BOOKS in the Watcher Series
The Watchers Trilogy
Cursed
Blessed
Forgiven
The Watcher Chronicles
Broken
Kindred
Oblivion
Ascension
Caylin’s Story
Timeless
Devoted
Aiden’s Story
The Alternate Earth Series
Cataclysm
Uprising
Judgment
The Redemption Series
Malcolm
Anna
Lucifer
Redemption
The Dominion Series
Awakening
Reckoning (Spring 2016)
Other Books by S.J. West
The Harvester of Light Trilogy
Harvester
Hope
Dawn
The Vankara Saga
Vankara
Dragon Alliance
War of Atonement
©2012 S. J. West. All Rights Reserved.
CHAPTER ONE
The distant cry of a baby woke me from a sound, dreamless sleep.
“It’s your turn,” I mumbled, pulling the covers over my head in a futile attempt to block out the incessant cry.
“Are you sure?” Jace asked in a tired voice.
“Yes,” I said, rolling over to look at him.
Half of Jace’s face was obscured by his pillow, and he seemed determined to keep his eyes shut. I scooted closer to him and gently placed one of my hands against his exposed cheek. Slowly, his eyelids fluttered open. He looked at me in the dim light of the bedroom and smiled in contentment. It was a smile I had come to depend on since regaining my humanity.
A second, even more demanding cry joined the first.
“How can they eat so much?” Jace asked. “They can’t weigh more than ten or twelve pounds apiece, but it seems like we’re feeding them a bottle every two hours.”
I smiled, finding Jace’s utter amazement over the babies’ insatiable appetites cute.
“They’re only four months old,” I said in way of explanation. “They eat a lot.”
Jace sighed and rolled over onto his back, rubbing his hands against his face in an effort to fully wake himself up.
“I’ll help you,” I offered, sitting up in bed.
Jace grabbed me by the arm and pulled me back down, forcing me to lie across his bare chest.
“No,” he told me, “it’s my turn. I’ll handle them. You stay in bed and try to get some rest. We have a busy day ahead of us.”
“I don’t really need as much sleep since the conversion,” I told him.
Jace’s eyes became laced with worry by my statement. I knew he didn’t like me talking about the consequences of becoming a Harvester, but I didn’t see any reason to hide the facts from him. I was different now. I wasn’t the same girl he found in that dusty old library once upon a time. I was forever changed, for better or worse.
But when I was with Jace, I felt more like my old self than the Harvester the queen made me into. He was my rock in the sea of turmoil my emotional state had become. Some days were better than others, but I still felt the pull to completely cut myself off emotionally, especially when I let my thoughts drift and think about Zoe. I missed her. I longed to see her again but knew such a miracle was beyond my reach.
“You still need some rest,” Jace insisted, reminding me my body still had basic human needs.
Rose and Simon’s cries became more insistent.
“You better go to them,” I said, sitting up. “Otherwise, they’ll end up waking the whole compound.”
Jace kissed me on the lips lightly before getting out of bed and seeing to the needs of our children.
Our children.
I shook my head at the thought. My feelings for Rose and Simon seemed mixed at best. I loved them and felt a connection to them, but something within that connection was missing. I knew the fault lay solely on my shoulders and feared I just didn’t have the motherhood gene. I knew I would lay down my life for them because it would be the right thing to do, not because I couldn’t live without them. If they hadn’t been Zoe and Ash’s kids, I might have considered pawning them off onto someone else more capable of taking care of them. I’m not sure why Zoe picked me to be their mother. I seemed to lack that particular primal instinct.
The fact of the matter was I just wasn’t very maternal. Weren’t those angels of mercy supposed to be loving and the embodiment of kindness? But I suppose that depended on the person. Emma Blackwell, the woman I always thought to be my mother, had been a role model of parental love. But if there was ever an antithesis to motherly love, it would have to be the woman whose DNA I actually shared, Queen Lucena Day. The blood coursing through my veins belonged to the woman who basically killed a planet with her greed for power and quest for immortality. What did that mean for me? Was I genetically doomed to follow in her footsteps, or was Emma Blackwell’s impact on my life enough to influence how I would raise Rose and Simon?
I rolled over and hugged my pillow to my chest while I listened to Jace croon to the kids. Between the two of us, Jace was far better at filling the parental role he had been asked to undertake. He was kind, patient, and loving with them at all times, just like he was with me. Unfortunately, I leaned more toward impatience when having to cope with their never ending demands. I tried to fight against what was left of the Harvester inside me but simply failed at the task most of the time. To be honest, I wasn’t completely convinced the Harvester chip still embedded within my brain was the sole cause of my impatience, but I felt sure its continued presence didn’t help my sunny disposition.
Ever since returning, my emotions felt like they were on a never ending roller coaster ride. There were days when I felt completely human and seemed almost normal, and there were days when I simply couldn’t stand being around anyone except Jace. I felt like my brain was short-circuited, and maybe it was. I talked to Michael, Jace’s father and leader of the rebellion forces, about my problem, and he assured me it was completely normal because of the way I was able to revert back to my humanity.
“You and I both had a jolt to our system to change us back,” Michael told me. “Hope’s love for you helped you reconnect to your human side. Do you remember me saying when you were first converted that I might have a way to bring back your humanity?”
“Yes,” I told him. “I remember. But you didn’t say how at the time.”
“No, I didn’t. When I learned of Jace’s existence, my love for him is what changed me. I was hoping your love for Jace would eventually become the trigger you needed too, but Hope provided it for you instead.”
“So you think love is the key?” I asked him.
“I’m sure it’s part of it,” Michael said to me. “How or why I’m not sure. You’d have to ask someone a lot smarter than I am that question.”
As I let that conversation with Michael ebb back into its box within my mind, I closed my eyes and listened to Jace continue to sing his lullaby to the babies. The tone of his voice was smooth and rich. It not only brought contentment to the children but to me as well. I tried to let his song erase the thoughts running rampant in my mind about the day to come, but not even his singing could wipe them clean of the possible nightmares we were sure to face later in the day.
For the last four months, we had been using my knowledge of the Queen’s installation to attack her, and at some point, we hoped to flush her out into the open. When I was a true Harvester and completely brainwashed into believing she was all-knowing and all-powerful, she made the mistake of showing me a map marking where all of her key facilities were located, so we could strike her where she was most vulnerable.
Since I had gotten back, Michael used my knowledge to destroy over half of her complexes so far. Today we were supposed to go to the Roanoke camp, a place I never thought I would willingly return to.
I didn’t go to all of the attacks, but for this one I requested to be present. The living corpses I first saw there of the humans doomed to be harvested still haunted my thoughts. Their limbless bodies floating inside the large metal cylinders in the warehouses were images my mind simply couldn’t let go. Thankfully, since my conversion, I hadn’t had any dreams. I felt sure if I was still able to dream, they would be filled
with nightmares about that place. It’s where I thought my soul had been forever lost. If it hadn’t been for Hope’s pure and innocent spirit reawakening mine, I’m not sure where I would be right now. Probably still by the Queen’s side, acting as her right hand and learning to be just as cruel and ruthless as she was, if not even more so.
Unable to drift back to sleep, I got up and went to the nursery. I found Jace sitting in the white rocking chair there with Rose and Simon cradled in each of his arms as he continued to sing to them. I leaned against the doorframe and watched him, marveling at the man who had stolen my heart before I even realized he held it.
When Jace noticed me staring at him, he looked up and winked but kept singing to the babies until they fell back to sleep in his arms. Careful not to jostle them awake, Jace slowly stood from the chair and laid them side by side in the white painted crib in the room. He covered them with a blanket and walked over to me, easily pulling me into his arms and surrounding me with his warmth.
“Couldn’t get back to sleep?” he asked before kissing the middle of my forehead.
I shook my head and wrapped my arms around his neck.
“No,” I told him, looking into his eyes and leaning my body against his while lacing my fingers through his thick brown hair. “I don’t think sleep is what I need right now.”
I brought his head down to mine for a kiss, not even trying to attempt to hide exactly what it was I wanted from him in that moment.