by Robin Helm
And so it was that Elizabeth’s name was a testament to her mother’s constant petitions to the Almighty. Throughout her life, every time she heard or wrote her middle name, Elizabeth would remember how much she was loved and wanted.
~~~~~~~~~~
Appropriately it was Halloween, a time when the veil separating the physical world from the spiritual realm was at its thinnest. It was the night when demons most easily slipped through the diaphanous curtain and came out to wreak havoc upon mankind.
The attention of the evil ones had indeed been drawn to Xander’s presence with the Bennet family. The activity had been reported to the Prince of Darkness who had already felt that something was afoot. He had sensed faint waves of excitement in heaven. Contingency plans had been made, and within a month of Elizabeth’s conception, another group of angels of a very different sort had been gathered to observe a major event in a different part of the country.
Holding court in utter pandemonium, the Dark Lord, the Prince of the Power of the Air, called his minions to order.
“Bring the girl to me,” he ordered.
Two large demons roughly dragged the small, terrified teenager before their master.
The master, while still one of the most beautiful angels ever created, exuded the stench of pure wickedness. The girl was frightened beyond belief, nearly past the ability to speak.
“You have been chosen,” he told her in falsely honeyed tones. “Are you ready?”
“Yes, my lord,” she choked out, cowering before him, nearly incoherent and barely able to breathe.
“Good,” he replied with a hideous smile that held no light or joy, knowing that his plan was being set into motion.
“Take her to the chamber,” he thundered curtly at the two dark ones who held the girl.
The Dark Master turned on his heel and quickly strode through the curtains into the appointed chamber, his long black robes flowing about his feet as he strode confidently to the act that would achieve his purpose. Entering the room, he looked upon the altar on which the girl, almost unconscious from fear, was being laid, as his minions prepared her for her destiny.
A demonic sentry drew the curtains aside so that all could view their lord’s triumph.
The air of wickedness was nearly palpable in the abandoned warehouse as the dark ones watched, leering salaciously as their prince, Lucifer, the Day Star, took human form. This place was forbidden to the beings of light. It was within the realm of darkness and controlled by the dark forces.
The Dark Prince lay with the runaway, viciously impregnating the human girl who had been chosen and led to this desolate place for this heinous purpose. The teenager was disposable. A homeless prostitute would not be missed by anyone, and because she had been possessed by a dark one at a tender age, there had been none of the angelic guardians present to interfere with her abduction earlier on that fateful evening. Hope had abandoned her.
The vile act which had created the child she would carry was obscene – a parody of the act of love that had given life to Elizabeth. The girl had fought feebly, crying out piteously against the pain of the rape, but the dark one living within her had enjoyed her agony, feasted on her fear, and reveled in her torture. He knew that she had turned from God in her childhood, and now there was no one to help her, no one to hear her cries. After her purpose was completed and her child was born, the demon who possessed her would have to find a new body in which to live, but he was not concerned. Though the girl would not survive the birth of her son, she would be easily replaced from among multitudes of non-servants who would welcome the dark one, never knowing that it would cost them everything of any real value.
~~~~~~~~~~
On July 6, 1990, in the small, sleepy South Carolina town of Bethel, located in the thick of the Bible belt, Elizabeth Faith was born to David Thomas and Lynne Frances Bennet. As Dr. Gardner had finished his shift, Dr. Neil had rotated onto hers about four hours before the birth; consequently, the delivery room was well fortified with five strong guardians who were heavily armed and ready for battle, but there were no dark ones present. Because of their visits to the doctor’s office, Alexandra, Dr. Neil’s golden-haired, Amazon-like guardian, was already aware of Xander and Niall. She knew them fairly well, and she had shared an assignment with David’s guardian, Roark, some one hundred earth years previously, but she still had to repress a shock each time she encountered the powerfully built champion. She tried not to stare and willed her errant thoughts not to betray her awe, but Alexandra had never before met anyone of Xander’s formidable reputation, overpowering beauty, and exalted position in the ranks.
Xander knew her thoughts, but it was nothing he had not heard before. He did not betray his knowledge by any change in his countenance. His thoughts were well regulated, and Alexandra had no cause to be embarrassed. His total focus was on his charge.
While the stunningly beautiful Alexandra may not have been surprised, the labor nurse’s guardian was totally unprepared for the sight of the imposing Xander. The sinewy, more slightly built Warner fought the urge to step back as he gazed at the small family with no little surprise and wonder. This tiny dark-haired girl being delivered with such an impressive audience was obviously someone important in the Master’s plan, and both Alexandra and Warner were anxious for her to be safely born and in the unequaled care of Xander. They realized with a sense of reverence that they were part of a momentous occasion that could be a turning point in human history.
And with the current path humanity was choosing to travel, a turning point was desperately needed.
Chapter 3
“For it is written: ‘He will command His angels concerning you to guard you.’”
Luke 4:10
In the sterile delivery room of the local hospital in Bethel, Xander relaxed very slightly upon the safe delivery of Elizabeth and in the absence of any members of the demonic host in his immediate vicinity, but he maintained a vigilant watch on his charge just the same. The fiends had ample access to the facility because of all the non-servants who worked there, and Xander could almost smell them through the walls. He knew from the thoughts of Niall and Roark that they were uneasy as well. It would be so until they left this public place for the sanctity and relative safety of the Bennet home. He fully expected to see one of the dark ones floating through a wall at any time.
After she had taken her first breath and cried out, Elizabeth was laid on her mother’s chest so that her parents could adore her properly, her eyes squeezed shut and her short brown curls still wet and matted. Her cries revealed a double-dimple in her right cheek.
Lynne tiredly joked, “Look, David. The angels kissed her before they sent our little El to us,” producing a round of smiles from the invisible ones surrounding them.
David was too busy counting his daughter’s tiny fingers and toes to give much of a reply other than a sigh of relief and a quick, silent prayer of thanksgiving that the ordeal was over. He kissed his wife as the nurses took Elizabeth to examine her and clean her up.
“She is perfect and beautiful, Sweetheart. God has blessed us again,” David told his wife.
~~~~~~~~~~
In order to save money, Lynne had opted to stay in the hospital only eighteen hours, and she looked forward to going back to their modest home to introduce little Elizabeth to her big sister Janna. All of Janna’s friends had siblings, and Janna had wanted a baby sister or brother more than anything else.
Lynne was delighted that David was such an involved father; having a baby at thirty-six was much more tiring than having one at twenty-seven had been. She was exhausted, and she went to take a nap soon after they arrived home.
“Can I hold El now, Daddy?” Janna asked plaintively, her arms outstretched and ready to receive her much loved little sister.
Xander, Roark, and Alexis, Janna’s protector, hovered, smiling at the sweet scene. Niall listened from Lynne and David’s room, enjoying the warmth of the moment.
“Yes, Janna. You are he
r big sister after all. Sit down and hold her head steady like this,” David replied as he demonstrated the proper way to hold a newborn. “She isn’t strong enough to hold her head up yet, so you have to support it for her.”
Janna listened carefully to her father’s instructions. She took her responsibilities as a big sister very seriously. David placed Elizabeth in Janna’s arms, and she was thrilled to hold her baby sister for the first time. He looked at his two darling daughters and felt that his heart might burst with happiness.
Both Janna and David were ecstatic to have the care of Elizabeth left to them while Lynne slept. Janna had looked forward to her sister’s birth more than she had ever anticipated anything before in her nine and a half years, and she was not disappointed. To her, Elizabeth was better than any toy, doll, or amusement. Janna and her father were both in love with their “little El.”
Xander could see that his charge would be well looked after by her human family.
~~~~~~~~~~
On the thirty-first of July, another family was forming in the suburban sprawl of Charlotte, North Carolina.
The pregnant girl had been running blindly since the rape in the warehouse. She had hitchhiked and jumped trains until she could run no more. She was terrified that they would find her again. But now, her time had come. She could run no more. She stumbled into the ER of Mercy Hospital, already in labor.
“Can someone help me? Please?” she cried as she went to the admissions desk.
“My goodness, child. Do you have any family? Is there anyone I can call?” asked the kind lady, coming out from behind her desk. Another admissions clerk paged a nurse to the waiting area.
As the girl’s water broke, a middle-aged couple stepped up beside her, each of them taking one of her arms.
“I’m her Aunt Cathy, and George here is her uncle,” the woman replied.
The girl looked at them in astonishment. “What?” she began, as she tried feebly to shake her arms free.
“Don’t worry about anything, honey. We’ll take care of everything,” the woman assured her, patting the girl’s arm while handing an insurance card and identification to the admissions clerk. Cathy and George gave the requested information and filled out the paperwork.
The girl was too weary to argue. As she doubled over with another contraction, the nurse arrived, closely followed by two orderlies with a stretcher. The teen was caught by one of the men just as she fainted.
She had had no pre-natal care, no doctor’s visits, no help at all. Her diet had been poor, and she was physically and mentally exhausted. In addition, she was very young. As the parasite within her had predicted, she did not survive, and no one mourned her passing. Within minutes, the demon had transferred to another host, having located a vulnerable human with no trouble at all.
The doctor cleaned himself up and came into the waiting area to speak with her “family.”
“I’m sorry. We did everything we could, but your niece did not pull through.” He spoke tiredly and sympathetically.
Cathy shed a few false tears while the dark one within her gloated. He loved controlling simple-minded humans, and he was very good at it.
“Did she suffer much?” Cathy asked with a show of concern.
“No, she did not fully regain consciousness after she left this area. She mumbled and muttered a bit, but she felt no pain. We delivered the baby by Caesarean section. Your niece was simply too weak and malnourished to fight for her life,” the doctor replied. Actually, she seemed to want to die. Where have you been while she was pregnant, and barely seventeen at that?
“Oh, that’s too bad. She ran away a couple of years ago, and we just found out that she was here in Charlotte. She called us from a pay phone on her way to the hospital. The rest of her family is dead; we were all she had left. We always wanted her to live with us. We had even added her to our insurance after her parents were killed in a car accident more than a year ago and left us as her legal guardians.” The lies flowed easily from Cathy. She and George had the story well-rehearsed, and the Dark Lord had placed many of his servants in key positions to make the records agree with everything they said. Possessed humans were putty in the hands of his minions.
“How is the child?” asked George.
“He is fine. I want him to stay in the hospital nursery overnight, and you can take him home tomorrow,” answered the doctor. He knew that there was something oddly convenient about Cathy and George appearing just at that particular time, but there were many other people in need of his attention, and he promptly dismissed his suspicions. The child will have a home, and that is what really matters, he thought.
~~~~~~~~~~
The following day, after spending the night in the waiting room on the maternity floor because they were unwilling to leave the baby unguarded, Cathy and George made arrangements with a local funeral home for the girl to be cremated, settled the remainder of the hospital bill not covered by insurance, and collected the baby boy to take him to their home. Everything was ready to receive the son of their master.
Upon arriving at their two-story colonial in an upscale neighborhood in the suburbs of Charlotte, they were greeted by a group of people who worshipped the same Dark Lord as they did. The living room was teeming with his followers and their companions – the vile fiends who possessed them and controlled their every thought and action. All of them, demon and human alike, bowed to the half demon child in Cathy’s arms.
Lucifer and his guards floated unhurriedly through the ceiling, and the Dark Lord took human form. He was magnificent. His long black hair flowed in waves across his powerful shoulders, his body was wonderfully proportioned, and the light amber of his eyes – ringed with thick, black lashes – was startling. His face was a study in sensuality – full lips, a strong chin and jaw line, and a perfect nose. He was glad that humans always pictured him as being ugly because it made it that much easier to trick them into trusting him. He laughed at the ridiculous caricatures which portrayed him as a goat with horns or a man in a red suit with a pitchfork and tail.
Fixing his eyes on the human couple, he asked, “What name did you tell them to place on the child’s birth certificate?”
George kept his head bowed as he answered, “Gregory Drake Wickham, my lord, just as you commanded.”
Lucifer bared his teeth in a semblance of a smile, “Very good. He will be my Gregory, my vigilante, who will right the wrongs that were done to me and will give me the power that should have been mine for millennia. He is also Drake, the dragon, my own son. He will thwart Jehovah’s schemes. Whatever God has planned for the girl child will be stopped. She will die if she must. Wickham will identify his human origins. It is well done.”
The assembly of humans and demons chanted Lucifer’s name and worshipped him as he took his son from his adoptive mother and held him high for the assembly to see.
It was time to begin his training. Gregory Wickham would be taught to embrace his destiny.
~~~~~~~~~~
The group of powerful demons waited in the warehouse for the arrival of Satan, the Dark Prince. All of them had arrived early from their different strongholds of power. To arrive after their master would be unthinkable – the penalty would be banishment.
They inclined their heads in submission as their master drifted unhurriedly through the rafters, his hooded group of guards clustered around him.
“Vega,” said Lucifer menacingly, recognizing the huge demon who controlled the southeastern portion of the United States. Underprince Vega stepped forward and knelt before the Prince of This World, the Prince of the Power of the Air.
“Yes, my master?” he asked in a quiet, low voice, keeping his head bowed.
“I am entrusting a task to you. The human girl, Elizabeth Bennet, must die before she reaches adulthood. Do not fail me, Vega. It would be . . . unpleasant for you if you were to be unsuccessful in completing this assignment. Do you understand?” Lucifer’s voice was quiet and threatening, silken. All in the circle
of power shuddered at the sound. They had all heard that tone before.
Vega answered, keeping his voice carefully under control, “I understand, my Prince. It shall be done. I will not fail.”
Lucifer sneered, exposing his white teeth as he looked at his cabal. “See that you do not.” He gazed at the group of principalities with their captains and said, “You would all do well to remember that the death of this human is my, and therefore your, highest priority until it is accomplished. If she leaves Vega’s area, you must be alert to continue the mission.” If she manages to reach adulthood, my own son will surely deal with her. Even the great Xander cannot defeat my own son, he thought with satisfaction.
No one moved until Lucifer and his protectors glided back through the roof into the night. Then, as one, the underprinces and their captains released the breaths they had been holding, and silently flew through the walls in different directions, back to their dominions. All of them hoped for Vega’s success, for none of the rest of them wished for the assignment if he failed. It was too horrible to contemplate.
~~~~~~~~~~
Xander, Niall, and Alexis glided effortlessly in formation alongside Lynne’s Aerostar minivan as she and her daughters drove the familiar twenty minute drive home from school. It had been a normal day. Lynne had taught her high school classes while Janna had studied with her fifth grade classmates and three-month-old Elizabeth had stayed in the nursery. Janna was in the front passenger seat, and Elizabeth was strapped into her car seat behind her mother, gurgling contentedly. Lynne and Janna were chatting about the school day, as they usually did on the drive to and from school. Everything had been so calm and mundane, until it wasn’t.