“I’ve felt you like this before; when we make love. It’s like you’re all over inside me.” Ethan reveled in the sensations of feeling what Ty was feeling.
“I have—secrets, Ethan. Things I can never let anyone else know. My family died trying to protect those secrets. Now I’m all that’s left.”
“So you’re like the last of these gods?”
“No, there are more of us. Most of them are good. But some of us, some of us are not good—at all.”
“Is that what happened in Montreal? These bad gods found you?”
“More like their minions. Halfbloods.”
“Halfbloods?”
“Ever hear of the Nephilim?”
“Oh—yea. I read a story about them in one of my lit classes. The gods mated with people and had children. They were like half man, half god. They were supposed to be like giants or something. They weren’t well liked.”
“That’s an understatement.”
“So, that’s who was in Montreal. Some of these Nephilim?”
Ty nodded.
“Why are they after you?”
“It’s a long story. Suffice to say the gods aren’t well liked by you Humans. So now your governments are using the Nephilim demigods to come after us. Take us out. One by one.” Ty sighed, the ugly memory of losing his parents to the demigod assassin still as fresh in his mind as the day it happened.
Ethan bristled at Ty’s choice of words, ‘you Humans’.
“I’m not trying to take you out,” Ethan defended.
Ty broke a short smile, pulling him into a warm cuddle. “I know you’re not, Ethan. It’s not all of you, but a lot of you.”
“I thought these Nephilim were like—mythology. I didn’t know they actually existed.”
“Oh they exist. Probably your government’s closest held secret at this point. They work mostly for the U.N. now.”
“Ty, the Nephilim were like superhuman. A whole race of these people? How do you keep that a secret today?”
“Easy. They’re a lot smarter than you are. No offense.”
Ethan nodded. He already knew Ty was smart, even brilliant. They guy knew math like it was nobody’s business.
“So I still don’t get why these Nephilim would care about you and I having sex—”
“Ethan, the Nephilim are people who’ve been infected—by the blood of a god.”
“Infected?” Ethan moved out of their embrace.
Ty sighed, letting Ethan pull away. “You don’t need to be born a halfblood. If our blood, even our semen, comes in contact with certain kinds of human cells, our DNA invades, like a virus, it—overwrites your Human code, it—upgrades a person, for lack of a better term. In a matter of weeks, they ‘awaken’, into something halfway between human and god.”
“So, you didn’t want me getting upgraded?” Ethan now understood. He reached his hand out, placing it on Ty’s chiseled chest.
“I didn’t want you getting killed.”
Ethan’s face showed surprise.
“People don’t always wake up from the upgrade. Most of the time it just kills them.”
“Oh—ah, wow.” Ethan was suddenly having second thoughts about even being this close to Ty now.
Ty felt his trepidation. “I’m sorry. I should have said something to you before now.” Ty reached out and took hold of his hand.
“But, it doesn’t always kill people, right? You said there were these Nephilim demigods running around?”
“I don’t think you have anything to worry about, Ethan. If something happened, you’d wake up, I’m pretty sure of it.”
“I’m just surprised that these people even exist without anyone knowing about them.”
“Governments know about us, Ethan. It’s just the general population that doesn’t. Halfbloods and even some of the gods are secretly rounded up by the Seven. They’re forced into servitude or they’re killed by whatever government. It’s a very clandestine operation, something only the highest levels of world leadership are fully aware of. American, Canadian, Australian, Russian, Chinese, it doesn’t matter now where you go. They’re all under the authority of the Seven now.”
“These Seven; they don’t sound like people you’d want to meet in a dark alley.”
“No. They’re not like that at all, Ethan. They’re very intelligent. Very civilized. They operate like a global Oligarchy, invisibly pulling the strings of heads of state like puppeteers.”
“For what? If you have all that money—?”
“They think people have too much knowledge. They want to take Humanity back to the beginning. Put them in a kind of garden paradise where people just hang around all day picking nuts and berries while they as the all-powerful gods rule from on high.”
“Hasn’t Humanity sort of moved beyond that?”
“You would think. Not so much the Seven. They tell and teach people that utopia is doing nothing but hanging around with family and friends and worshiping them all day in some garden paradise.”
“Garden paradise—” Ethan began. “That sounds a lot like Eden.”
“Aden is what it was originally called. It was a long time ago.”
“So that’s why you were acting the way you were; never splashing me while we were playing around.”
“I really shouldn’t be playing around with you so unprotected, Ethan. It’s very irresponsible of me. If any of my semen makes its way under your skin, you’ll be changed, whether you want to or not.”
“So, I’d become like one of these Nephilim?”
Ty nodded.
“I’m sorry about your family, Ty.”
Ty drew a long breath and let out a long sigh. “Yea. Me too.”
“Guess we’ll have to be more careful.”
“It’s hard being careful with you Ethan,” Ty admitted. “It’s like Nature just takes control and—I just want to fuck you senseless.”
Ethan understood that feeling, all too well. And it was that same feeling for Ty that now had Ethan moving over Ty’s body once again and sinking his lips deeply into the god’s.
9
H onestly, Ethan, I don’t know why you’re telling me all of this?” Paige looked at him with a scowl now. “You should be keeping things like this a secret. That is what Ty is expecting you to do, I’m sure.”
“I don’t have anyone else I can talk to, Paige. I don’t know what I’m doing. There’s a god living with me in my apartment. I’m entitled to be just a little freaked out. Okay? Besides, I’m a little surprised you even believe me.”
“Ordinarily, I wouldn’t, Ethan. But, there is just a little too much truth to your Ty-guy that’s keeping me wondering—wondering if maybe his story is exactly what he says it is.”
“Oh, like what?”
“Like I watched the two of you yesterday running at the lake.”
“Your office isn’t by the lake.”
“No, but I’m trying to move to a new firm. Their offices are right by the lake. I scheduled my interview yesterday afternoon just so I could see if you two would be out there. You were.”
“Then you watched Ty lap me.”
“I did. He lapped you a few times. I can’t believe you’re sleeping with a guy that hot. He looks like a god.”
Ethan grinned, looking down at his food.
“So what else did he tell you about the Nephilim and these Seven?”
“Not much. Just that they’re really old, really evil and they want to drag Humanity back into the Stone Age.”
“Did he say why?” Paige took another bite, listening.
“One side thinks Humanity wasn’t allowed to develop naturally on its own; they feel like the gods interfered with man’s natural development. So they want to return Humanity back to our original state, before the gods tainted us with their knowledge, and then they’ll leave us alone so we’ll progress as Nature and evolution intended.”
“How do these other gods plan on doing that, exactly?”
“I don’t know.”
>
“Ethan, most people are not going to want to regress back to building barns and living like—some Amish farmer.”
“I know but—that’s what a lot of people are being told we need to become, right?”
“What do you mean?”
“The environment movements, when you get to the core of what they are, they’re really all about returning people back to some natural state with no electricity, no cities, living in harmony with Nature. Only they never really tell you what that natural state really is. It’s all about getting rid of what they see as too many people hurting the planet; reducing our carbon footprint. At some point they’ll want to euthanize a few billion of us. It’s like it has become a kind of religion. And all of this nonsense is being pushed onto humanity by this Oligarchy of gods called the Seven.”
Paige was glaring at him.
“What?”
“I belong to some of those environmentalist groups, you know. I’ve never heard anyone say anything about killing people. We’re trying to save people by reducing fossil fuel pollution and giving everyone clean air and clean water.”
“But they complain about there being too many people, right?”
“Of course.”
“How are they planning on reducing the population then?”
Paige scowled.
“I’m not trying to insult you. I’m just telling you what we’ve been talking about.”
Paige softened her glare. “So what else did he say?”
“I’m not going to say any more. I don’t want you getting ticked off at me.”
“Ethan, you know what you’re saying, right? That all of these people who are trying to make the Earth a better place are all just being led by a group of evil gods who really want to depopulate the planet? Like some global Jonestown?”
“You’re upset. Sorry I brought it up.”
10
N o run today?” Ty asked walking into their apartment just after three, nicely dressed in his typical suit and tie. Usually Ethan had his shorts on by now, but he was still dressed in his jeans lying on the couch looking dejected. Ty could sense his feelings; Ethan was more than just a little upset.
“Lunch with Paige not go well?”
“She hates me.”
“You mean she hates me,” Ty corrected with a grin.
Ethan’s eyes met Ty’s. “How would you know?”
“Ethan, please. I know what you guys talk about. I can’t read minds but I’m not stupid.”
“You’re not upset?” Ethan asked.
“I’d prefer that you didn’t talk about us with her, but I can’t tell you what to do.”
Ethan got up from the couch. “I didn’t mean to out you; I just, needed someone to talk to.”
“Paige doesn’t strike me as the irresponsible type.”
“You talked to her?”
“No, but I felt her; yesterday. She was watching us.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“It’s none of my business.”
“I don’t even know if she’ll talk to me again after today.”
“She will. She’s intelligent. She’s probably realizing for the first time how insipid and deep the tendrils of the Seven sink. No one wants to think that what they’re a part of is evil, Ethan. The Catholic Church murdered hundreds of thousands of people in ruthless carnage a little more than five hundred years ago. Those popes were no better than Hitler or Mussolini. The Church is still around. People will dismiss in anyway possible, using whatever excuse they need, the evil of whatever their group does. It’s how the Seven work. Classic Sun Tzu. Divide and conquer. Us against them. One little piece at a time.”
“The Seven control the Church?”
Ty chuckled. “The Seven control everything, Ethan. Religion. Politics. Industry. Media. The markets. Even science. No one evades their grasp.”
“You are.” Ethan corrected.
“For now. The rest of my family wasn’t so lucky.”
Ethan thought for a moment as a huge boom thundered in the distance. Both now went to the window as the rain began pouring, striking the glass of the high-rise condo.
“Well, it looks like neither of us will be going for a run this afternoon,” Ty sighed.
“They control everything, huh?” Ethan asked him, still looking out the window.
“You don’t believe me.”
“It’s just—everything?”
“Ethan, take your current president for instance. He’s hated by the other party, even people from his own party don’t like him.”
“Sure.” Ethan agreed.
“When was the last time he failed to get anything passed that he really wanted passed?”
“On what issue?”
“Pick one. Any one. Sure, the opposing party rips into him on camera, but then what happens behind the scenes? He gets the votes he wants. The votes he needs. Always. His predecessor was the same way. His opposing party hated him as well. He still got everything he wanted. Passing laws and writing executive orders that shredded your Constitution’s most basic protections. Then even your Supreme Court rubber-stamps what is clearly and logically a violation of your nation’s founding document. It leaves Constitutional scholars scratching their heads when they read the logic, or lack of logic rather, of SCOTUS’ decisions.” Ty continued watching the rain fall outside moving in waves across the lake. “They’re all being manipulated in one way or another.”
“Yea, that does seem the way it always turns out, doesn’t it?” Ethan admitted.
“It doesn’t matter what party you root for or belong to. At some level, in some capacity, they’re all working for the Seven.” Ty looked at Ethan. “Just enough of them anyway.”
Ethan slumped against the thick glass. “Jesus,” he breathed as he turned his attention back outside.
“It is only getting worse, Ethan. The more people who divide themselves from each other, the easier it will be for the Seven to start picking off different groups of resistance. You paint a group as ‘unfair’, or ‘radical’ or ‘fringe’. Then you keep it up long enough and pretty soon people start believing the propaganda, even if it is not true.
“The Seven are fanning the flames of religious and race wars all over again. The Seven did it with Christians and Muslims during the Crusades; they used Hitler to paint the Jews as evil so they could isolate them for extermination. You even have two States now that are openly preparing to secede, others are talking about it. Gay and straight people hate each other; men versus women, even Dominion is on the verge of splitting because they now have a woman apostle. And all of it brought to you by useful idiot minions of the Seven.”
“Hitler was part of the Seven?”
“He was a tool of the Seven, Ethan. They used him to try to extinguish the newbloods.”
“What’s a newblood?” Ethan asked.
“I’m a newblood, Ethan. What the prophecies called the Reborn of the gods. My family, all of them, were newbloods. Were.” Ty frowned, trying not to remember.
“How old are you?” Ethan asked.
“I’ll be twenty-one next week.”
“Jeeze, Ty, you’re younger than I am. Why did I think you were older?”
“Maybe because you haven’t lived on the streets for the past four years.”
“I’m sorry. About that. About your family.”
Ty nodded.
“I wake up and I hear you sometimes. I can tell you’re weeping. You know you don’t have to do that alone. I’m here for you.”
“Thanks, Ethan. That means a lot. Some days are better than others.”
Ethan moved himself around Ty. He felt Ty draw an emotional breath. Even though Ethan’s own family was falling apart, maybe Ty had shown up at just the right time. For the two of them to become and start a family of their own.
11
T y had never been to a theme park before. The very public places were typically off-limits for people like him; but Ethan had talked him into only a few hours at Un
iversal Studios and Islands of Adventure. Perhaps just this once would be all right as a one-time birthday treat for the young god.
Although the lines were long for the well-hyped Harry Potter Forbidden Journey, both Ty and Ethan enjoyed the experience of walking through Hogsmeade and then riding the Hogwarts Express to Diagon Alley for Escape from Gringotts.
“Well? What you expected?” Ethan asked, very much enjoying the whole experience while the two of them walked through the park.
“Yea. It’s fun.”
“Ty, you’re a little distracted.”
“I am?”
“You keep staring off into space for some reason.”
“I do—I mean, I am. I’m sorry. There’s somebody else here. I’ve been feeling them since we left Hogsmeade.”
“Who?”
“Another awakened,” he said to Ethan quietly. “They feel like a halfblood, I think.”
“Where are they?”
“This way.”
Ethan followed Ty through throngs of tourists, past shops and then into a narrow alley between two buildings that had been theme decorated like the rest. The two of them watched as four tourist-looking men surrounded someone. Bright bursts of light were going off like camera flashes between the large men and who they were standing in front of at the and of the alley.
Ethan suddenly felt Ty grab his arm; he very strongly began dragging Ethan quickly away from the opening of the narrow alley and then through the park’s swarms of tourists.
“Ow,” Ethan complained.
“Sorry. We have to leave. Now.”
“Why? Who was that?”
“Seven agents.”
“Here?” Suddenly Ethan knew exactly why Ty was in a hurry to get away from the alley.
“No, don’t run.” Ty took hold of his arm again. “We don’t want to attract the attention of security. Just keep moving.”
It didn’t take long for the pair to make it out of the Islands park, through the City Walk and then back to the parking garage where Ethan’s car was. Both of their hearts were still pounding as Ethan started the small sporty two-seater and drove them off the property.
Paradisus (Awakened Book 6) Page 5