The Evolved (The New Era Saga Book 1)

by KT Webb

  He looked around for a few more minutes, then headed back to the house. The twins were waiting for him at the front door. They shook their heads to tell him they found nothing. Thatcher nodded and told them what he found.

  When the three of them returned to the dining room, they saw Tahlia and Dorian busying themselves over Malcolm. They had stripped him down to his boxers to get a better look at his injuries. Romulus had his hands on Malcolm’s temples in an effort to determine what happened to him. Kerr returned with clean towels, rubbing alcohol, and antibiotic cream.

  “Kerr, can you do your weird healing thing?” Whitley whispered to him.

  “I tried. He’s not conscious. I can’t sense his feelings. If I can’t sense his feelings, I can’t help him,” Kerr said sadly.

  Tahlia began cleaning the wounds, muttering to herself about the severity of some of them. She looked at Thatcher briefly with a sad look in her eyes, then continued with her work.

  “What can I do?” Thatcher asked desperately as he took in the broken body of the young boy in front of him.

  “I’m going to need you to cauterize these wounds,” Tahlia said seriously.

  “What? No. No way.” Thatcher felt his stomach start to turn.

  “Thatcher, it would take too long to get him to a hospital or call an ambulance to come here. My only other option is to heat a knife, but if he moves I could cut him. Focus. You can do it,” Tahlia told him sternly.

  Thatcher looked at Hadley, who offered him a supportive nod. After that they fell into a rhythm of cleaning and cauterizing. Once all the wounds were closed, Dorian helped apply the antibiotic cream and dress the wounds.

  Just as they were finishing, the doorbell rang again. This time, Thatcher, Hadley, and Whitley went to the door. They exchanged a grave look before Thatcher reached forward and pulled it open.

  “Daddy!” the twins squealed in unison.

  His security detail had finished their perimeter check and deemed the house safe enough for Eric to enter. Good thing there weren’t any paparazzi around to capture this moment.

  “Are your security guards coming in?” Thatcher asked as he glanced outside.

  “No. They only came to check the location. I insisted on being free to spend this time with my family and sent them home to theirs,” Eric replied.

  Thatcher nodded his head. “It’s nice to meet you, sir, but I need to get back to the other room.”

  Thatcher shut the large front door and went back to Malcolm.

  Romulus was having a hushed discussion with Dorian, as Tahlia lovingly wiped the dirt and blood from the rest of his body.

  “He lost a lot of blood, Thatcher. These wounds were deep, but they weren’t done with any manmade object. Romulus was pretty shaken when he finished reading him. Only time will tell if he will recover. I will put him on a blow up bed in my room until he improves.” Tahlia looked stricken at the state of this boy.

  Romulus helped take Malcolm upstairs while Kerr and Tahlia got the bed ready. Tahlia took time to clean up so she didn’t greet her ex-husband while covered in blood.

  Once Malcolm was situated, Kerr went to check on Nora. Tahlia made her way downstairs to be with her family. Thatcher stayed next to Malcolm until Romulus and Dorian joined him to tell him what they knew.

  “He was tortured,” Dorian told Thatcher.

  “That son of a . . . ”

  “Thatcher!” Romulus chided.

  “What did they do to him?” Thatcher spat as the anger burned in his chest.

  “Absalom had been punishing him for leaving us. His purpose was to infiltrate the Evolved and undermine our plans. Instead, he left and went back to the one person he thought supported him.” Romulus continued, “When Absalom tired of burning him, Silas threw ice shards at him. They were going to kill him when Malcolm had a burst of power. His pain, anger, and hurt all boiled over and he burst through the roof of the metal building Absalom calls his lair and flew away. He made it to Benton and collapsed.”

  Thatcher was shaking his head thinking about the pain and betrayal Malcolm must have felt when he discovered he truly was just a pawn in their game.

  “He’s just a kid. He didn’t deserve this. It would have been better if Absalom had just killed him like he did the rest of the descendants of the Old Immortals,” Thatcher said bitterly. “He’s just a kid.”

  He knew the last statement sounded more like a plea than a statement, but he didn’t know how to process what had happened to Malcolm. The kid was raised in hate, conditioned to believe the worst of the people who were destined to destroy those who had spared him. His parents were murdered by Absalom and Silas, but they raised him to believe they had to die. He couldn’t handle the possibility that Malcolm would never wake up from this.

  “What do we do now?” Thatcher asked quietly.

  “Nothing. We continue with our plan. Absalom and Silas knew that Malcolm would come to us. They would have stopped him if they wanted to. They were counting on him being the catalyst to provoke us before we were prepared to attack,” Dorian told Thatcher firmly.

  “We do nothing?” Thatcher responded enraged.

  Both Dorian and Romulus nodded at him solemnly. “The anger you feel right now isn’t going to go away. It will continue to build, and you will be able to gain restitution for what was done to Malcolm. We just ask that you stay the course.”

  Thatcher was angry at first, and couldn’t bring himself to even look at either of them. He finally closed his eyes against his tears of frustration and nodded his head.

  “Alright. I see your point. Right now, I just want him to be okay. I will do everything I can to help him make a full recovery so he can be there when we finally stop Absalom and Silas.”

  “There’s more, Thatcher,” Romulus said, giving Dorian a sideways look. “Absalom is Malcolm’s father.”

  “What? How?” Thatcher was completely stricken.

  “I’ll let Malcolm tell you the details when he wakes, but that’s why he was tortured. Absalom told him when he returned, and Malcolm told him you were right and refused to help him,” Romulus said.

  Thatcher stared at Malcolm lying lifelessly on the blow-up bed. His breathing was steady. Aside from the freshly-cauterized scars and burn marks, he looked as though he was simply sleeping. Thatcher’s chest hurt just thinking about everything Malcolm had endured because he stood up for what was right.

  Chapter Thirty-Two:

  Hadley

  Hadley woke up on Thanksgiving morning to the sound of pans clanging in the kitchen. She stretched and climbed out of bed. She looked at the clock and realized the sun hadn’t risen yet. Turning back to her bed, she briefly considered climbing back in, but the idea of joining her mother and sister in the kitchen was far too attractive. The walls in her room were painted a misty gray with a bold yellow pattern swirling all over. She had really come to appreciate the accents throughout the house. Everything seemed so perfectly planned. Hadley made her bed, smoothing out the duvet cover with its embroidered birds and branches.

  She went to the attached bathroom and quickly undressed to get in the shower. Once she had finished brushing through her hair, she picked out an indigo sweater dress and gray leggings. As soon as she was ready, she bounded down the stairs.

  Hadley was surprised to find her father helping her mother instead of Whitley. It warmed her heart to see them getting along so well. In fact, they seemed to be more than just getting along.

  “Morning, sweetheart!” her father sang out as he rounded the island to give her a hug.

  “Hey, guys, what can I help with?” Hadley asked.

  “You could tear the bread for the stuffing,” her mother responded.

  Hadley went over to the bread, then started pulling it into small chunks and tossing it in the large bowl. She remembered helping her mother with this when she was little. It was one of the few jobs she and Whitley could help with that didn’t involve touching something hot or messy.

  “Here, Lia,” she he
ard her father say as he handed Tahlia a cup of coffee. “You too, Had?”

  Hadley nodded appreciatively as Eric poured another cup and added her favorite creamer. She took a sip of her coffee and smiled at her parents, who were moving around each other effortlessly as they finished preparing the turkey and placing it in the oven.

  “How is Malcolm doing, mom?” Hadley asked, afraid to know the answer.

  Tahlia looked tired and concerned as she shook her head. “He didn’t wake at all, but his sleep doesn’t appear restful. He’s so pale and broken.”

  “Thatcher stayed with him last night. He wouldn’t leave his side. I let your mother sleep in my room,” Eric replied.

  Hadley raised her eyebrows pointedly. “I’m sorry, what?”

  Tahlia rolled her eyes. “Your father and I are adults. We can sleep together if we want.”

  “Mom! Yuck! I can’t believe we’re talking about this,” Hadley replied in shock.

  “Oh. No. Hadley, that’s not what I meant,” Tahlia tried to explain. “I meant we slept together. We didn’t sleep together.”

  “Yeah, that clears things up,” Hadley said, looking from Eric to Tahlia, who was waiting for an explanation.

  Tahlia crossed her arms in front of her, refusing to answer. Eric caught Tahlia’s eye and started giggling, which was very uncharacteristic for him. Hadley was completely exasperated by them both, but couldn’t help but smile. They were acting like a couple of teenagers, and she was acting like the mom.

  “Oh, for cripes’ sake,” Hadley said, throwing her hands in the air and leaving the kitchen.

  Hadley walked down the hall to the library. She hadn’t read a good book in a while, and since they had a day off she might as well enjoy it. She had never gone in Dorian’s library just to look for a book, and she really didn’t know where to begin. With all the prophecies and destiny stuff, Hadley decided to close her eyes and reach for a book; surely the book she grabbed would mean something.

  Opening her eyes, Hadley looked down at the book she was holding. Her stomach clenched as she saw that it was the one Thatcher had told her about, History of the Old Immortals. She decided to apply the same principle to the section she would read. She closed her eyes and thumbed through, then stopped at a random page.

  History of the Old Immortals:

  Tahlia

  According to legend, the first woman brought forth the end of an era. The Old Era saw the Creator walking amongst his creations, teaching and guiding them in a new world. The Creator gave his people the will to choose their own path, and with that, he gave his first woman a golden sphere. This sphere held all evils and struggles that could befall the world.

  Now Absalom had already fallen from grace and spent his days trying to gain the upper hand on the Creator. Absalom went to the first woman, sometimes called Eve or Pandora, and convinced her that the Creator actually wanted the sphere closed because it held the power and knowledge he did not want his people to have.

  The seed of doubt Absalom had placed in her mind was her undoing. In a fit of jealous rage, the woman threw the sphere to the ground, shattering it and severing the link between the Creator and his creations.

  Each tiny piece began to change into the various evils contained within. The first woman cried out in anguish. Believing all hope was lost, she begged the Creator to forgive her. The Creator could not come to her, for she had disobeyed him and released the evil.

  After all the pieces had transformed and flown away, the final piece of the sphere began to vibrate and glow. This final piece transformed into a woman. Tahlia, sometimes called Elpis, was the Creator’s gift to his people; she was created to bring hope to a hopeless world.

  “What the . . . ?” Hadley was so confused by what she just read. She knew her mother was one of the Virtues. She was hope. But what she just read told her that her mother literally was the embodiment of hope. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense. Everything her mother accomplished had spawned hope. Her mother was the only Old Immortal female to have children, and that gave the others hope that there could still be a future for them. She left her family, hoping it would keep them safe. The fact that she was still out there alive left Hadley with the hope that she would someday find her mother again. And now, as Tahlia busied herself in the kitchen with her estranged husband, she gave their family hope that they could be whole again.

  Hadley’s head was spinning. There was more to read, but she had to put the book down before she passed out. Her mother had been released from Pandora’s Box? Her mother came from the forbidden fruit Eve plucked from the tree of knowledge? But those weren’t the real stories, they were variations. Just as Dorian had told them; they are the gods and goddesses of every mythology and every religion.

  She put the book back on the shelf and turned to leave the library. Hadley didn’t know why she was meant to read that section, but she silently thanked the Creator for the information.

  As she entered the kitchen, she was pleased to see more of the family coming down to join the Thanksgiving preparation. Kerr and Whitley were both sipping coffee at the island, and Dorian was putting dishes in the dishwasher.

  Hadley signaled to Whitley that she needed to come closer, and waited anxiously as her twin approached. She took Whitley by the hand and led her back to the library.

  “Here, read this,” Hadley said as she handed the book to her sister.

  Whitley gasped as she read and looked up at her sister a few times. When she finally finished, she closed the book and looked at the floor for a few moments.

  “How did you find this?” Whitley asked.

  “I was bored and looking for something to read. I came in here and just grabbed a book. Remember when we used to do that at the library? Or when we couldn’t decide which mystery novel to buy at a book store?” Hadley asked.

  Whitley nodded. Her eyes were wide as she looked at her sister. “So, what does that mean? Mom is hope, she’s not just the Virtue?”

  Hadley shrugged. “I guess. I’ve sort of given up being surprised by this stuff.”

  Whitley laughed and agreed. The girls got up and went back out to the kitchen. Whitley grabbed her coffee and offered Hadley a cup, which she readily accepted.

  It all seemed so normal. Anyone looking in would think they were just a large family preparing for their holiday meal. Hadley felt bad about razzing her parents so badly, especially after what she just read. It couldn’t be easy for her mother to be the hope of all mankind for millennia. She remembered her mother telling them that being with Eric and having the twins was the only time she had ever been selfish in her life.

  She looked around the kitchen, realizing that her mother was missing from the bunch. Tahlia must have gone to check on Malcolm. Hadley realized the sun had risen and it was now almost eight o’clock. She wondered if Thatcher had slept at all last night. She heard someone coming down the stairs and saw her mother come around the corner.

  Tahlia glanced nervously at Hadley. She must have been expecting more questions. But Hadley just smiled apologetically and winked. A slow grin spread across Tahlia’s face, and she hugged Hadley tightly. Tahlia went over to the breakfast table where Eric was sitting. She sidled up to him and leaned her head on his shoulder. They looked as though they had finally found peace again. Hadley could get used to having both parents.

  Chapter Thirty-Three:

  Kerr

  Kerr took a deep breath and knocked on the bedroom door. He heard Nora groan from the other side and grinned to himself.

  “Nora, it’s me, can I come in?” he asked.

  “Depends. Are you going to get me pregnant again?” she asked.

  Kerr laughed and opened the door. Nora was lying on the bed with the blankets over her head. She peeked out at him and groaned again.

  “How ya feelin?” Kerr asked as he sat on the edge of the bed.

  “Better. The food smells really good,” Nora said quietly.

  Kerr smiled at her and leaned down to ki
ss her forehead. Nora smiled at him as she sat up in the bed.

  “So, I was thinking . . . ” Kerr began.

  “This could be dangerous,” Nora teased.

  “Well, my mom and stepdad are coming for dinner today, and I was thinking I could introduce you as my future wife,” Kerr said hesitantly.

  “Wait, what?” Nora asked, taken off guard.

  “I would like to introduce you as my future wife,” Kerr repeated.

  “That’s a little quick, don’t you think?” Nora questioned.

  “Really? I mean really?” Kerr said with a furrowed brow.

  Nora thought for a moment as her hand flew to her stomach. Then she laughed. Kerr loved the sound, but he still didn’t have an answer.

  “Your future wife, huh? Does that mean we’re going to tell them about the baby?” Nora asked uncertainly.

  Kerr smiled at Nora. “Is that a yes?”

  “No,” Nora said defiantly.

  “Oh,” Kerr replied, deflated.

  “It’s an absolutely,” Nora said lunging at him.

  Kerr hugged her close and kissed her as she giggled. Everything was falling into place for them, and he was elated. Kerr pulled away and grinned widely at Nora. It was so surreal how quickly everything in his life had changed, but he wouldn’t change a single moment of it.

  “You better get up and get ready. It’s already almost noon. We’re just waiting for the turkey to be done. My family will be here soon,” Kerr said.

  “Oh gosh, you’re already starting to boss me around?” Nora said throwing her pillow at him.