Judgment (The Alternate Earth Series, Book 3)

by S. J. West

  Surprisingly, the beauty of Eden begins to fade into the background of my mind. As we walk, Mason begins to tell me more about our children and life back on our Earth. He tells me about my mother, Mama Lynn, and my sister, Faison. He tells a story of our time as husband and wife, which seems almost too perfect.

  “Don’t we ever argue?” I have to ask.

  “Not often,” he tells me, “but when we do it gets pretty heated.”

  “What kind of things do we fight about?”

  “Mostly me getting upset if I think you’re placing your life in unnecessary danger.”

  “Do I do that a lot?”

  “More than I like.”

  “Do we ever go to bed angry?”

  Mason grins. “No. We always come to an agreement by then.”

  “And do you ever win an argument?”

  “You let me think I do sometimes.”

  I have to laugh. “I must be a pretty good wife then.”

  “The best.”

  Mason and I stumble across a small aqua-colored lagoon with a cascading waterfall. It’s very tropical-looking with greener-than-green palm trees and a small sandy white beach.

  “This spot is a lot like a place we go to near our Bahaman home,” he tells me before planting my new sword in the ground and kneeling down to glide his hand through the water. “Just the right temperature for a swim. Are you up for one?”

  “Do I know how to swim?” I honestly don’t know, so I have to ask.

  “Yes,” Mason answers as he stands back up and begins to remove his black t-shirt. “You are a very good swimmer.”

  I become speechless as Mason tosses his shirt to the ground and begins to remove his shoes. When he reaches for the button on his jeans, I quickly shade my eyes with one hand.

  “You’re not going commando under those, are you?” I ask like an idiot, feeling shy all of a sudden by Mason’s half-nakedness, which seems to be heading towards full-on naked.

  “Do you want me to be?”

  I peek at Mason over my hand to see that he’s silently chuckling at me.

  “I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that it might incriminate me.”

  I slowly hide my eyes again, and hear Mason laugh aloud just as I also hear the zipper of his pants being drawn down. Not long after, I hear a loud splash and deem the area safe from a naked Mason. I slowly drop my hand and look over into the water. I see Mason swiftly emerge from beneath the smooth, glassy surface of water like a god out of Greek mythology.

  Mason paddles in the water, looking at me with a come-hither grin and bedroom eyes. He says, “Take those clothes off and come in here with me. I promise I won’t bite…much.”

  I shake my head at him in exasperation. “Are you always like this?”

  “Horny?”

  I laugh nervously. “I was thinking flirtatious.”

  “Only with you,” he tells me, and I know deep down that it’s the God’s honest truth.

  I cross my arms over my chest, unsure I’m ready to jump in the water with a naked Mason so soon. It can only lead to one thing, and I’m not sure I’m ready for that type of intimacy just yet.

  Mason must realize where my thoughts are going, because the desire in his eyes fades a bit.

  “Seriously, come on in, Jess. I’m still wearing underwear. I just want you to enjoy yourself here. I don’t expect anything from you except your friendship. Above anything else, you’re my best friend, and I enjoy doing things like this with you. I’ll keep my distance for as long as you need. I’ve done it before. I can do it again. Come on,” he says teasingly, crooking an index finger at me. “You know you want to feel this water against your skin.”

  “Why? What does it feel like?” I already know the grass feels like velvet to the touch. I can only imagine what the water feels like.

  “Only one way to find out.” Mason dives back into the water, cutting off our question and answer session.

  I quickly strip down to my bra and panties, unwilling to disrobe completely. Sure, Mason’s seen me naked, but I have no memory of that. In a way, this feels a lot like a first date to me, and I’m pretty sure I’m not the kind of girl who goes all the way on a first date.

  As I lay my leather pants down on the ground, I happen to notice a few stretch marks across my stomach, and instantly feel self-conscious about them. I run my fingers across the white trails they make.

  I hear Mason step from the water, making me look up at him.

  “I love those scars,” he tells me in all sincerity as he comes up and takes the hand I’m using to hide the marks away from my belly.

  Lovingly, he looks down at them, and uses an index finger to follow one from my belly button to the top of my panties.

  “That one you got while you were pregnant with Max,” he tells me, giving a history to the marks on my body. “And that one,” he says, sliding his finger over to a second scar and following it across to my hip bone, “you got when you carried Brynlee.”

  “Why would you like them?” I have to ask, thinking them ugly.

  “I love them,” he corrects, “because they’re proof of how strong you are and how much you can endure. I love them because they’re proof that you’re the mother of my children. I love them because they’re a part of you, Jess.”

  As I stand there looking into the eyes of the man I love, I can’t prevent what happens next. In full control of my own actions, I rise up on my toes and loop my arms around Mason’s neck. He doesn’t say a word or move a muscle. He allows me to be in total control of the situation, which makes me love him even more.

  I hesitate before meeting his lips with mine, but only because I know there’s no going back after this. Once I take this step forward, I’m committing myself to Mason. And you know what? I have absolutely no problem with that.

  When I press my lips to his, I feel his hands go around my back to pull me fully up against his wet body. I hear him moan with pleasure as I tease his lips apart with my tongue and find his to make our kiss more intimate. The warmth of his mouth and the sweet taste of him against my tongue fill my heart with joy and a sense of being exactly where I’m supposed to be.

  I hear a loud thud come from directly behind me.

  Mason breaks our kiss after also hearing the sound, and stares at whatever it is that just joined us.

  “Don’t make any sudden movements,” he whispers to me. “We don’t want to frighten it.”

  “It?” I quickly think through the creatures I’ve seen in Eden and which one could have made such a loud noise. “Is it a dragon?”

  Mason slowly nods his head. “It won’t harm you, but it might fly away if you make any sudden moves or speak too loudly.”

  “Ok,” I whisper, slowly moving my arms from around Mason’s neck and lowering the heels of my feet to the ground.

  “Turn around slowly so you can see it.”

  I do as told, and feel myself smile like an excited child as I take my very first, close-up look at a real dragon.

  “It’s beautiful,” I tell Mason as I study the sapphire-blue dragon with emerald-green eyes and ebony slits in the center. The dragon stares at me like I’m the curiosity here, not him.

  “What should we do?” I ask Mason.

  “Do you still want to ride one?”

  “Seriously!”

  The dragon snorts, like it didn’t appreciate my sudden outburst.

  “Sorry,” I whisper to the dragon.

  “It can’t understand you, Jess,” Mason informs me, sounding amused.

  “It probably understands the gesture,” I reason.

  I see Michael appear next to the dragon. He starts pointing at it, as if urging me to take my joyride.

  “I think Michael wants me to get on it,” I tell Mason.

  Michael holds up his left hand and gives me a thumbs up.

  “Yep,” I confirm. “That’s what he wants me to do.”

  “Ok,” Mason says a bit begrudgingly. “But be careful and hold on tightly.�
��

  With great respect and caution, Mason and I walk up to the dragon. As if knowing exactly what we want, the dragon huffs a bit, but lies down on the ground so I can climb up on its back. There is a natural indentation across its spine, which acts as a saddle. Once I’m seated, two scales on either side of its belly flare out like footholds.

  “Put your feet in those,” Mason tells me, looking down at the outstretched scales.

  I do as instructed, and find the scales the perfect place to rest my feet.

  Directly in front of me, two more scales pop up, revealing patches of soft fur.

  “Grab the fur,” Mason instructs. “You should feel handholds inside it.”

  I glide my hands over the soft, blue fur and tightly grip the boney handholds I find there.

  “As long as you don’t let go and don’t yell,” Mason cautions, “the dragon should just fly you around and bring you back here once it gets tired.”

  “So I’ll be at its mercy? What if it doesn’t want to come down?”

  “It will,” Mason assures me. “I think it actually came here for some water, but they’re trained to do whatever their rider wants them to do. I don’t think he’ll be flying for very long before he remembers that he’s thirsty.”

  “Ok. I can handle that.”

  Mason leans up and kisses me gently on the lips.

  “Have fun,” he tells me with a smile.

  After Mason steps away, the dragon rises to its feet and lurches forward, into the sky.

  I can’t help but giggle at the sensation of flight, but I try to do so quietly because I don’t want the ride to end before it’s even started.

  As the dragon makes its way higher and higher into the sky, I feel an exhilaration that is beyond joy. Flying through the air on my own personal dragon seems like something you only read about in books or see in movies. Not that I remember any books or movies, but it doesn’t matter. I’m having the time of my life, and I know this memory will be with me forever.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I spy something that seems impossible until I remember he’s just a figment of my imagination.

  Michael is flying next to me like he’s Superman. He smiles and waves at me, which makes him look like a total goofball. He holds up the index finger of his right hand and points straight ahead, as if signaling me to watch something. Michael zooms forward until he’s eye to eye with the dragon. He then begins to rotate like a corkscrew in the air, and I suddenly feel my dragon begin to turn in the same fashion.

  “No!” I yell at it, realizing too late that I shouldn’t have screamed so loudly.

  The dragon reacts to my outburst violently, and begins to turn over even faster.

  I grip my furry handholds tightly, holding on for dear life. Apparently, my fear isn’t unfounded. As the dragon continues to rotate in midair, I feel gravity begin to work against me and my grip begins to slip.

  “Please, stop turning. Please stop turning!” I end up screaming at the end because I suddenly find myself completely upside down and dangling feet first, with nothing except air between the ground and me.

  The dragon continues to spins through the air, mimicking Michael’s movements until I finally and completely lose my grip.

  As I enter a freefall to my doom, only one word comes to mind.

  “Crap!”

  CHAPTER SIX

  Whose bright idea was it to ride a dragon? I have no one but myself to blame. Well, that’s not completely true. I have Michael, the harbinger of my doom, to blame as well!

  Speaking of the sharer of my soul, Michael appears directly in front of me and begins to flap his arms wildly, like a dying fish on hot concrete.

  In any other circumstances, I would have laughed at him, but the fact that I am only a few hundred feet from my death kind of puts a damper on my funny bone.

  “What the hell are you trying to tell me?” I scream at him, the wind whistling past my ears. Even if he could talk, I probably couldn’t have heard him.

  Michael holds out his hand to me, like he’s a real person wanting to hold hands. With his other hand, he points up. It’s obvious he wants me to go up in the sky with him, but how am I supposed to work that small miracle?

  Then, it hits me. Maybe Michael is trying to tell me that I have the power to fly.

  Well, that just sounds ridiculous, but him trying to kill me on purpose sounds just as insane.

  I begin to flap my arms but feel certain it isn’t making me fly. I probably just look like a crazy woman trying to prevent her inevitable demise.

  I look at Michael and scream, “Help!”

  Michael taps the side of his head with an index finger and then points to me.

  The only thing I can think of is that he’s telling me my ability is mental, not physical.

  How the hell am I supposed to fly my body with the power of my mind? is what I want to scream at Michael, but I’m sure he knows exactly what I’m thinking.

  It’s obvious now that when he was flapping his arms at me like a mad man, he didn’t mean I could literally fly like a bird does. But, what am I supposed to do?

  I quickly realize that I may not know how to fly but Michael does, and he’s a part of me. We’re connected to one another forever.

  “Help me!” I beg, as I let go of myself so he can save us.

  Michael vanishes from my sight. The sensation of him taking my body over is odd, to say the least.

  The instant he takes control, I feel like a passenger in the backseat of a car, just along for the ride.

  Michael flies us straight up into the air until we’re flying beside the dragon I was riding.

  Traitor, I think to myself as we continue to fly alongside it.

  I sense Michael’s amusement at my thought, but I still don’t hear his voice. I think he’s trying to use my voice to talk to me, because I feel him become frustrated after a while. Then I feel him become energized about something.

  Michael dives down to where Mason is waiting for us on the ground. As soon as my feet touch the grass, Michael relinquishes control over my body and appears beside me.

  “What happened?” Mason says, rushing up to me. “If I could die, I’m pretty sure I would have just had a heart attack!”

  Mason wraps his arms around me, as if to prove to himself that I’m actually alive. I wrap my arms around his waist, because my body is shaking so violently I need his strength to make it subside.

  “Can you tell me what happened up there?”

  I go on to tell Mason exactly what transpired.

  “Michael shouldn’t have been so reckless,” Mason says with controlled anger.

  “I think he was hoping I would fly on my own, but I just couldn’t remember how. I think he tried to talk to me after he took control of my body, too, but it didn’t work. I still can’t hear him. How was the dragon able to see Michael, when he’s supposed to be a figment of my imagination?”

  “I don’t think the dragon actually saw him,” Mason replies. “Michael has always had a natural gift with creatures of all sorts. It could be that he was able to influence the dragon through you. It’s a trait I think he passed down to Lilly. She told me once that, when she was a little girl, she had a puppy that would follow her around everywhere.”

  “Don’t most dogs do that with their owner?”

  “Yes, but most animals consider self-preservation first. This one was run over because he was following her blindly. Plus, she’s able to control the Watcher children when they are in wolf form. All of her children have the same ability, though it seems like Mae’s gift is stronger than the others’ for some reason.”

  Michael appears right behind Mason and taps the side of his head, letting me know he has an idea.

  “Michael wants to tell me something.” I take a step back from Mason, so I can see Michael more clearly.

  Mason turns to stand beside me and face Michael, even though he can’t see him.

  “Ok,” I tell Michael, “show me your idea.”

&nbs
p; Michael bites his bottom lip as he considers the best way to convey his message to me. Finally, his eyes light up and he holds his right hand palm forward, as if he’s asking me to wait just a minute. He makes fists with his hands and bends his arms up slightly at the elbows. While he swings his arms back, he moves his hips forward. He makes this odd gesture a few times before looking at me expectantly, like I should magically understand the message he is trying to convey to me.

  “I don’t know what you just did,” I confess, even more confused now than when we started. “What was that? Some kind of interpretive dance thing? Are you saying I need to go skiing?”

  Michael shakes his head vigorously, causing his curly black hair to bounce. He points to me, then to Mason, and begins to make the same motion again, but a bit more vigorously this time. He stops when he sees that I’m still not getting it and points to Mason and then to me again.

  “I’m sorry. I still don’t understand,” I admit, feeling like the answer should be obvious but, for whatever reason, it’s going over my head.

  Michael seems to huff and stops to think for a minute. Finally, he points to me with his left hand and uses it to make an ‘O’ by touching its index finger and thumb together. He then uses his right hand and points to Mason. With the index finger of his right hand remaining straight, he pokes the ‘O’ in the middle and begins to move it back and forth.

  “Oh, my God!” I yell, immediately covering my eyes to block Michael from my line of sight.

  “What?” Mason asks worriedly. “What’s wrong? What did he tell you?”

  I begin to shake my head. “I can’t….I don’t…. I’m at a loss for words right now….please, just give me a minute.”

  “Ok,” Mason says, sounding unsure about the whole situation.

  I work up my nerve to drop my hands and look at Michael again. I almost wish I hadn’t when I see him nodding and smiling at me knowingly.

  “I can’t tell him that,” I say to Michael, feeling my cheeks grow warm from embarrassment.

  Michael just waves his hands at me, like telling Mason what he thinks we should do is a piece of cake.

  “I can’t,” I say, feeling mortified by what Michael wants me to do.