Interra (Awakened Series Book 5)

by Harley Austin

  When Jake reached the end of the hall, Rion was already at the foot of the stairs.

  “Hey,” Jake called out. “I need some answers.” He descended the stairs quickly still waving his gun at Rion.

  Rion waited for Jake to descend, his arms folded. “You should put that thing away before you hurt yourself.”

  “Cute. I don’t take orders from you.”

  Rion’s grip was suddenly on Jake’s wrist; Jake’s fingers weakened as if immobile as Rion deftly pulled the weapon out of his hand, smoothly disarming him, all in a split second. The move had been inhumanly swift. No man moved that fast. Jake had not even time to react.

  Rion looked Jake in the eye then handed the weapon, grip-first, back to him, still fully loaded.

  Jake studied Rion’s face for a moment. Rion motioned for him to take it.

  “Okay,” Jake offered, taking the weapon back. “Truce.”

  “Truce,” Rion repeated with a nod.

  Jake re-holstered the gun.

  “Rion, what’s wrong with Serena?”

  Jake followed him to one of the sitting areas of the big lodge’s great room.

  “She’s fine. You know, she told me a little about her previous boyfriend, but she never did mention your name.”

  “Jake,” the stranger stated.

  “Serena seems to keep a circle of some rather impressive friends,” Rion complimented. “I wasn’t aware anyone knew about my little getaway here.”

  “I got lucky,” Jake offered.

  “Jake,” Rion began taking a soft place on a couch, “Mossad showing up on my doorstep is a bit more than just ‘lucky’. I hope for everyone’s sake no one else knows you’re here. I don’t need both the IDF and DHS breathing down my neck at the moment.”

  “They won’t. It’s unofficial. I came alone. For Serena.”

  Rion nodded. “It’s too bad you couldn’t have shown up a couple of days from now; Serena will probably be awake by then.”

  “Probably? What’s wrong with her? She looks like she’s in some kind of coma. Why?”

  “It’s complicated, Jake. I really don’t want to go into it.”

  “She’s awakening, isn’t she—” Jake leveled.

  Rion’s empathy was now all over the guy. Jake wasn’t just fishing, he indeed knew something of the gods.

  Rion nodded.

  Jake let out a uneasy sigh. “Did she want to be here with you or did you just kidnap her against her will?” he glared.

  “It’s not at all like what you’re thinking, Jake. The truth is I’m protecting her.”

  “From who?”

  “The Feds. And from someone else, someone I’m not sure about yet. An assassin attacked her along the trails back in San Antonio. They obviously weren’t part of DHS.”

  “Nice. Governments and private assassins. You have some ugly enemies, Rion.”

  “You don’t know the half of it,” Rion assured.

  “So why are you involving Serena in all of this?”

  “I’m not involving Serena in anything. The UN was already tailing her before I even entered the picture.”

  “Why?”

  “Because, she’s a goddess,” Rion offered flatly.

  “Sure. She is now, after you jumped her, I’m sure.”

  Rion could feel Jake’s jealously on the rise. He could easily understand Jake’s feelings at the moment and kept is own cool.

  “It’s a little more complicated than that, Jake. Serena was born a goddess.”

  “Huh?”

  “You heard me.”

  “You mean, she’s—,”

  “—one of the Reborn,” Rion finished.

  “Really?” Jake suddenly cooled his jets. The ISA had quite the dossier on the Ra and he’d read over their intel several times during his flight into Seattle. He knew most of what they knew now about the Ra and there prophetic ‘Reborn’. He sat down on the couch opposite Rion.

  “So now what happens to her? You’ve made her a goddess. She’ll be a target for these, Seven, whoever they are.”

  “She was already being targeted by the Seven, Jake. If I hadn’t rescued her she’d either be dead or in the hands of evil gods right now. Take your pic.”

  “So you were acting as her bodyguard?” Jake began, “Isn’t that a little menial for ‘Zeus’, isn’t it? Aren’t you supposed to be the ‘prince’ of the gods?”

  Rion wasn’t going to rub salt in Jake’s pain. “Serena and I are attracted, Jake. I’m not sure if you know what that means.”

  Jake suddenly grew a little cold. The file he read had a whole section on the ‘genetic attraction’ of the Ra.

  “So you’re going to marry her?”

  “The Ra don’t marry, Jake. But to answer your question, yes, she is my consort. Her coronation is already being planned.”

  Jake just blinked. “Coronation? She—ah,” he stammered. “She’s—she’s going to be some kind of—a—”

  “A princess.” Rion finished.

  “Really.” Fell out of Jake’s mouth.

  Rion nodded.

  A frown was now crossing Jake’s face. Rion could feel the guy’s remorse. He still had very strong feelings for Serena.

  “Listen, Jake—you’re welcome to stay until Serena’s awake. I’m sure she would love to talk to you and catch up. Take the room across the hall if you like.”

  “Nice. So you can kill me in my sleep.”

  Rion breathed a smile. “Jake, if I wanted you dead, believe me, you’d be dead right now. And you would not even see it coming. You’re just as safe here as Serena. You have my word. Whatever that’s worth to you.”

  Jake nodded. “Alright. I’ll stick around.” He pulled his phone from a pocket and made a call. Jake looked at Rion as he spoke.

  “Hey, it’s me. Fine. No, this lead’s cold. I’m following up on a few more while I’m here. I’ll meet you back in Austin in a few days. Let me know if you turn up anything else.” He clicked the phone off.

  “I’m sorry, Jake,” Rion offered.

  “About?”

  “I know at one time the two of you had some deep feelings for each other.”

  He nodded. “I’ll get over it.”

  “Then you’re a much better man than I,” Rion admitted.

  “Oh, how’s that?”

  “I wouldn’t have been able to.”

  31

  J ake walked the snowy grounds outside the lodge home. He had not slept very well the night before, even though the room he had been given was comfortable. The cold morning air somehow brought clarity to his thoughts. So Serena had already done it with this god-guy, someone she was somehow genetically attracted to; someone fraught with dangerous enemies, and whose family was obviously filthy rich and well-connected with the underworld. However, from what Jake now knew and was able to piece together about these Ra, he was having a hard time sorting out the difference between the good gods and the evil ones. Neither side looked at all benevolent at this point.

  Whomever it was that was after Steele had now gone after Serena, and apparently was after her family as well. That’s why they had disappeared; it was Steele’s version of witness protection. That made sense. Still, all of them could be in grave danger. Jake bristled at the thought of all of Rion’s clandestine life unraveling on Serena and her family in one big cataclysmic and untimely disaster. God or no god, one assassin’s bullet or a well-timed federal raid, and Steele’s entire underworld empire could come crashing down.

  Jake entered a side door and walked into a small mudroom. He tapped the snow off his boots. In the large kitchen Jake found Rion brewing some hot coffee.

  “Care for some, Jake?” Rion asked, holding up the pot.

  “Sure, please.” Jake sat at an island bar in the middle of the kitchen watching Rion, thinking about Serena, and warming his hands. Rion set a hot cup in front of him that smelled really good.

  “Rion, how crass am I going to sound if I ask you some questions about you and your family?” Jak
e asked.

  Rion shook his head, “Not crass at all; but I probably won’t answer all of them. We have our secrets, Jake. I have a few questions for you as well.”

  Jake nodded. He wanted to ask Rion about how he and Serena had met, but those questions would need to wait for Serena to answer.

  “Who are you people, really?”

  “We’re simply an ancient race. Just like yours.”

  “My people still show up on the genetic timeline,” Jake pointed out.

  Rion nodded. “We do a pretty good job of keeping ours out of sight; that includes keeping our genetics off the record, and out of any databases.” Rion leaned back against the far counter. “It seems, however, we have some loose ends. You must have friends in the ISA. Mossad and Shabak? That must be an ugly marriage,” Rion snickered, sipping from his mug.

  “It works,” Jake offered and then paused not sure how to ask his question. Somehow it just came out. “Are you really these Sons of G-d, or Ra?”

  “Jake, the more you know, the more of a loose end you become,” Rion warned.

  “I’m already a loose end; and an ignorant one at that. That’s a lot more dangerous. I need to know who I’m dealing with,” Jake appealed. “If you’re not the Sons of G-d, who are you?”

  Rion paused. Jake was right. “We are.”

  “So, your people took human wives and the result was this kind of super race, the Nephilim, half god and half human.”

  “We’re not gods, Jake. Not even close,” Rion corrected again. “We’re just people. Just like you, mostly.”

  Jake nodded, impressed by Rion’s humility. “So why all the secrecy? My intel says you’re in some kind of feud.”

  “It’s not just a feud. It’s all-out war. The other side wants us exterminated.”

  Jake thought about Rion’s choice of words. Jake had visited a number of the concentration camps as part of his own education growing up. He had seen the old Nazi films of bulldozers pushing the bodies into mass graves by the thousands. He grew up fighting for his own survival in the midst of an unseen enemy that wanted him dead for no other reason than he was part of a hated race. He knew what that kind of pressure meant—personally.

  “Why?”

  “Because we dared to stand up for you, to share our knowledge with you. Our actions caused a millennia-long civil war within my people that has continued to this day.”

  Jake thought for long moments about what Rion was saying. The ramifications were staggering.

  “That’s quite the epic,” Jake noted.

  “It is. Probably the greatest story ever not told.”

  “So part of your people hated you; was that the reason for Nephilim? You needed soldiers?”

  Rion shook his head. “We needed survival.”

  Jake offered him a puzzled look.

  “Your people, Jake, the sons of Shem, were some of the first to join with us.”

  “Oh?” Jake pulled back on his sarcasm.

  “And because of that, you are just as hated as we are. The blood of God—of Ra—runs deeply in your veins. That’s a capital liability in the minds of some; what remains of us anyway.”

  “Remains? You’re dying out?”

  “We are,” Rion almost whispered.

  If Jake’s attitude about Rion had been ambivalent before, it was certainly not now.

  “Can you stop it?”

  “It’s too late, Jake. My parents were murdered last year. Their passing only accelerated our demise. All that will eventually remain of us are the Nephilim, the unwanted bastard children of the Sons of God.” He took another sip of his coffee.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Me too.”

  Both men were quiet for a while; until Rion broke into their silence.

  “I need some answers as well,” Rion began.

  “Like what?”

  “Like why is a Mossad agent knocking on my front door? If you found me so easily, I’ve obviously made some really terrible mistakes in my cover.”

  “No. It was my dumb luck. I probably destroyed the career of someone at the ISA to get here. Even then it was just a lead. I didn’t know what I’d find here.”

  “I see. Still, it’s loose end.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Clean it up.”

  “I hope that doesn’t mean killing anyone,” Jake added.

  Rion raised his eyebrows over his coffee mug. “Jake, you may not realize this yet, but, we are the good guys.”

  “What about that dead soldier the Feds found in the park next to Serena’s school? Was that the work of the ‘good guys’ or the ‘bad guys’?”

  “That was no soldier,” Rion corrected. “He was one of the Nephilim, a contract assassin. I caught him just as he was about to rape Serena. He would have murdered her afterward. There’s no telling how many people he had already murdered for whomever he was working for. I gave him exactly what he deserved. We don’t kill anyone if we can avoid it. Just like you don’t.”

  Jake imagined what it would have been like if he had come upon such a scene. He was pretty sure he had have done the same, given the circumstances. Yea, pretty much. The fact was, Jake had just as much blood on his hands as anyone in the Mossad. He was hardly one to criticize about war and killing under the banner of self-preservation.

  Jake was getting to know more and more about this mystery guy of Serena’s; he tried to remind himself. In many ways, both he and Rion were a lot alike; not just in their struggle for survival against insurmountable odds, but he seemed to genuinely be a nice guy. The irritating thing was, he was actually beginning to like Rion.

  * * * * *

  A bright morning light drifted in through the open drapes of their room. Lifting himself from their bed, Rion found Serena still deep in sleep. He smiled and kissed her on the lips, lightly at first. Her sleeping lips were sweet, alluring. He folded his mouth into hers, kissing her a little more than just sweetly. His hand moved to her breast and began teasing her before he realized what he was doing.

  Rion forced himself to pull away from her. His breathing had even kicked up a notch.

  “Jesus,” he mused under his breath. Even in sleep Serena’s new body was unbelievable, how she attracted him. Rion left their bed and dressed quickly. If he stayed in their room any longer, consort or not, he was pretty sure the sleeping goddess would get much more than just kissed.

  Rion looked at his beautiful Serena one more time before closing the door. He sighed deeply from the hallway, shaking off the warm sensuous feelings as best he could before heading down stairs.

  Jake was already dressed and looked like he had been outside for a run. He poured some pancake batter onto the range’s hot griddle. Rion found the coffee already brewed and helped himself to a cup.

  “Mossad coffee,” Rion quipped while exaggerating an exploration of the contents of his cup. “Is it dangerous?”

  The question drew a smirk from Jake. “Only if you drink it.”

  Rion chuckled at the joke and sat at the bar.

  “Care for a pancake?” Jake asked.

  “Thanks, I’d love one,” Rion replied.

  “I take it Serena is still—“ Jake fished for a word that didn’t sound insensitive.

  “Sleeping,” Rion finished. “Don’t worry Jake, it’s perfectly normal. She’ll probably be up in another day or so. You haven’t worn out your welcome here.”

  “Thanks. I tend to be really good at doing that,” Jake confided.

  “By the way,” Rion sipped some coffee, “just to satisfy my curiosity, I did some homework last night. You have quite the family.”

  Jake wondered what kind of resources Rion’s people would have and what they might be able to find out about not only his family but others as well. These people could be a huge national security issue if they were able to draw on accurate intelligence. Jake wondered how deep Rion’s ‘homework’ had gone and what he now knew. Rion wouldn’t be disclosing his sources, whatever they were. At least
Rion was offering him the courtesy of telling him.

  “So what’s in my file? Nothing bad I hope,” Jake half grinned.

  “Actually, you have a lot of files, some sitting in the hands of some really ugly organizations.”

  That was nothing new, but the conversation got Jake’s attention. “Everyone’s got a file somewhere, Rion; even you.”

  Rion nodded.

  “Several of your files mention Serena. Just curious about what happened?” Rion asked.

  “That’s getting a little too personal,” Jake frowned.

  “It is. It’s none of my business,” Rion apologized, seeing that the issue was obviously something Jake had painfully wrestled with. “Just curious.”

  “Everyone has times in their lives when they second guess their decisions, Rion. I’ve second-guessed that particular one more times than I can count. I made my decision for reasons I’m still second-guessing. I did what I did. I’m not happy about it.”

  “Your people were more important to you,” Rion offered. “There’s no shame in that.”

  “They had to be,” Jake assured. “Survival wasn’t something Serena had been raised fully understanding. She just couldn’t understand why I had to leave. We had a big fight.”

  “Serena told me about it. She said it put her totally off men after you two broke up.”

  “Really?” Jake hadn’t heard that part. Then he chuckled. “Did she tell you why?” Jake wasn’t sure if Rion knew the whole story. If Rion didn’t, he wasn’t going to say anything. That was something that would be between the two of them as a couple; and Jake wasn’t about to get mixed up in it again.

  Now Rion chuckled. “Are you trying to tell me about Alexis?”

  Jake nodded. “So you already know about ‘Alex’.”

  “I do. At some point I think Alexis and I need to have a conversation. Is that why you broke up with Serena?”

  Jake sighed. “It wasn’t because the two of them were an item; it was because I didn’t exactly feel like sharing. It’s one of the things I keep second-guessing now. I keep telling myself it was for my people, but, now, now I’m not so sure.”