Hope (The Descendant Trilogy Book 2)

by Theresa M. Jones

  “The man who stood next to her in Kansas was David Donnelly. You may remember him from…”

  I cut him off, “Yes. I remember him. Immediately draw up the genealogy for him. I already have hers. Do it now. I want you back here tomorrow with the answers.”

  “Yes, Leader.” He bowed and backed away.

  Had I been a better leader, a leader who cared and was kind, I would have told him that yes, this was important information that I would have wanted to know immediately. But I was not that kind of Leader, Instead, as he walked out, I told him, “And I expect the damn Russians to release that weapon soon, Nigel.”

  “Yes, Leader.”

  ***Allison***

  After breakfast, at 6:25 in the morning, we walked to the couch to wait. Samantha ended up in my lap again, as the men tried to find topics of conversation to keep the anxiety at bay.

  “So, how is your bike?” Rick asked, though he already knew she was riding it well.

  “It’s awesome, of course. Just the one I wanted. And David said that he will take the training wheels off soon, if I keep having such a great balance.” Her excitement and pride filled her words. I was proud of her too, she was riding much better than I had originally expected. She was so brave.

  “I almost forgot what it looks like. Can you describe it to me?” He asked in an attempt to distract her from what was about to happen.

  “Yeah, it’s blue, with purple fire on it. It kinda looks like Mom’s hands when she had her shield up, so I feel super safe on it.” A burst of pride goes through me. She knows I’ll keep her safe. “And at the handles, it has little ribbon things that hang down and glitter kinda. It’s so cool, Rick. Maybe I’ll ride it to your office one time.” She giggled, because she knew, just as we all did, that she isn’t allowed to ride her bike anywhere up near the Council’s offices.

  “And it’s…” and then she paused and I think for a minute everything in the Compound stopped working. The lights flickered and the radio, which had been playing some Debussy softly, crackled and fizzled out. Even the clocks stopped ticking. It wasn’t in my head that time, thinking the world had stopped. Everything really did stop functioning in our room in that instant.

  No one knew what would happen if someone received their Power here, at the Compound. It had never happened before. I knew that all the Council members were already awake, waiting to see what would happen. But no one could have expected this. It was if the air in the room stopped circulating. It was thick and stagnant. Heavy with a pending explosion of Power.

  Everything stopped operating effectively. I held her closer to me, just pulled her the slightest bit closer, trying to envelope her in my own safety net. But it was that slightest move that made everything change.

  Her eyes rolled to the back of her head, and she screamed, a guttural growl that I never would have thought could have escaped through her tiny, delicate lips, as her whole body started shaking and convulsing. I found my shield and covered her in it, like a layer of lace that shrouded every inch of her skin, dying it purple-almost. It was instinctive. I didn’t even mean to. But I could see my Power shimmer over her, not like the fire I was used to seeing, or the aura of my normal Power. This was definitely a shield, just one I had never used before.

  Rick leapt forward and knelt down in front of us. And David came to sit beside me.

  And then it stopped and she stopped moving. Everything started working again. The clocks ticked on.

  Tick. Tick.

  Debussy started wafting through the air with its soft melodies.

  The lights stopped flickering.

  But still she didn’t move.

  I looked up to David, pleading with me eyes. And then he looked to Rick. David was just as new to this as I was. He had never seen a child receive their Power either.

  “Allison, lower your shield.” Rick commanded.

  I didn’t want to. I didn’t want her to be in pain, and really I didn’t even know how my shield went up in the first place. But it felt right, and I was afraid to lower it.

  “She needs to receive this Power, and your shield may be stopping it.”

  For the shortest second I hesitated. I wondered what this man was doing standing inn front of me telling me to allow my baby to get hurt. But then my mind cleared and I nodded as I pulled my shield back in. I watched it slither inch by inch away from her skin, leaving in place of the purple, her soft cream-colored skin.

  Once it was gone, still nothing changed. Had I hurt her? Did I stop her from receiving her Power? Did I ruin everything? An immediate sense of wrong filled me. I was wrong. What did I do?

  “Stop shouting, Ally, you didn’t do anything wrong.” Obviously my thoughts were projecting again, I needed to get myself in check. I needed to regroup and regain control. But as David said the words, he wasn’t even sure. He couldn’t be, so he looked to Rick.

  “Why isn’t she moving? She didn’t release it… This isn’t how it’s supposed to be. She has to release it.” I could hear the hysteria seeping through. I could feel my own anxiety filling the room.

  “Calm down, darling. She is okay. I can feel her.” Both he and David placed their hands onto her arms. David’s hand wasn’t glittering green, so I knew he wasn’t using his Power.

  “There is nothing to heal. She is fine.” David said.

  Then she woke up. She opened her eyes, fluttering her lids softly open. And David pulled back, but Rick didn’t. He spoke to her.

  “Samantha.” It wasn’t a question, but a command. I could feel him speaking to her mind as well, he was projecting loudly.

  She looked to him, her whole body turned towards him.

  “How do you feel?”

  She didn’t move. She just looked at him. It felt like forever, like we sat there for hours instead of minutes. I needed to know she was okay, and if not, I needed to fix it.

  And then the convulsions started again. But Rick looked to me, “You do not put your shield around her again, do you understand?”

  I nodded. He had never spoken to me like that before. So demanding and unkind, the way a parent speaks to a disobedient child. This was important. I kept my shield buried down deep. All the while fearing that I had made a huge mistake. Maybe this wasn’t the right thing. Maybe a child receiving Power here, in the compound would be too much. Not only their own Power, but the weight of all the Power in the entire building would pound down on them, on my baby.

  “David…” I spoke only his name. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder, and grabbed my hand. He only nodded. Trust him. This will be okay. He spoke to me in my mind.

  I was pretty sure I was going to have an anxiety attack. I was freaking out, sitting there watching it happen. How could I have been so stupid to think we should experiment on my own child? I was so blinded be my own selfish need and love for her, and not wanting to be away from her, that I thought this was the best way.

  Calm down! It was Rick. He spoke to all three of us. And called to Sam again.

  “Samantha.”

  Her body was still shaking, and my arms still held a cage around her, as I tried to hold her in place.

  He closed his eyes and grabbed ahold of her hands. They looked so tiny in his giant man hands. I felt his Power slither up through her, his royal blue aura flowing up her arms like a gentle splash of water. “You must find this Power, Samantha, and guide it. You must find the outlet. Listen to my voice. Listen to me. Follow me.” He spoke both aloud and in her mind.

  She stopped shaking. He body calmed and lay heavy in my arms. But Rick was still holding her hands tight. I could hear him still saying, Follow me. Follow my voice. Guide the Power, Samantha. Though he no longer spoke out loud.

  And then his Power went away. It didn’t go away, inch by inch, like mine had. It just dissipated into the air, the way fog disappears when hit by the sun.

  In its place was the deepest plum purple I had ever seen, deeper than the darkest plum. It was gorgeous, more red than blue. It shimmered its way out o
f every pore in her skin. Her hair started blowing around, tangles and all, as if there was a tornado right in this room. The tips of her golden tresses turned a deep plum as well, as if she had dyed the tips on purpose. There was a slight vibration to her now, nothing like the convulsing before. So subtle that a Powerless wouldn’t even feel it. It was the soft humming, like a hummingbirds wings.

  Finally she took a deep breath, sucking in air as if it was the first time in her life. And she opened her eyes. Her normal blue eyes were then a deeper purple than I had ever seen before, the most beautiful purple I had ever seen.

  I held her steady, as she calmed down, letting out a breath and sucking in another. Out. Then in.

  Out.

  In.

  Again and again.

  Until finally, she was okay. She looked at me, finally breathing normally, wrapped her arms around my neck and started crying. It was the hardest she had ever cried before. Harder than when she fell out of the tree in the backyard and scraped all the skin off her left shin. Harder than when Elisa Robinson, the school bully, pushed her down in front of everyone in the school. Harder than when we left mom for the first time, or the second time.

  And I held her and cried with her, forgetting that David and Rick were even still present.

  She will be okay. She has received and released her Power. She is perfect. She accomplished, in this one moment, what other children could not accomplish in a year or more. You made the right decision, darling. Rick whispered to my mind before getting up and walking out of the room, to offer privacy to our family.

  David started to get up, but I held him in place. Stay. I commanded.

  Yes, please stay with us, David! Please. Please.

  I tensed at the new voice I had never expected to hear in my mind, as did David. I don’t know if she meant to say it telepathically, or if she even knew that we would hear her. But we did. And he did stay. And finally I knew that my baby would be okay.

  She had Power.

  ***Lilith***

  “My Leader, I have come with an update.” Nigel said, as he bowed low before me yet again. I had him whipped and beat yesterday, both physically and with Power. He hadn’t tracked the Donnelly lineage back in the time I had granted him. It was a doable request. And he failed.

  He was lucky I allowed him to live. He thought I was going soft, well I wasn’t. I killed over twenty men yesterday, after freaking out on Nigel. This was important and they all needed to know. But the twenty men were indispensable. They were the group Nigel chose to help with the task, and they failed. So they died, slow excruciating deaths.

  It was three days after I assigned him the task, and about damn time for me to have my answers.

  “I have tracked the Donnelly man back to several Primitus. So far I know that he has descended from Minerva, Castafonda, Idadurant, Esperence, Verefidel, and Temperence.”

  I got up and wobbled my way back to my desk. I pulled out the file I had on Allison Lee Stevens, and searched down until I found who we knew she had descended from. Beatrice, Esperance, Verefidel, Arabella, Temperence, and Idadurant. Between the two of them, they had eight total. Eight out of nine. So close…

  “You are certain this is it?” I asked. He already knew the risks of failing again.

  He stood taller and held his head high, he demanded respect from all, all except me. “This is an update. This is what I have discovered so far. I am not finished, but thought it wise to tell you what I know as of yet.”

  He spoke each word carefully. Enunciated each syllable.

  I sighed. “Dammit Nigel. Do you know how important this is? Do you know what this could mean?”

  He only nodded. I knew he knew…but then why wasn’t he working harder.

  “Listen to me now, Nigel. You will take as many people as you fucking need to make this happen. You will go through every single record ever to figure this out. We must know this, and soon. If he has descended from the last Primitus, than it is over. We will have to forget the damn Seals and focus only on finding her and killing her before the damn fetus can be born. You understand me?”

  He nodded. “Yes, my Leader.”

  “You will do this before the end of tomorrow. You will not disappoint me again, or you will cease to live and join your fellow failures in the pit. Got it?”

  “Yes, my Leader.”

  “And even if this is it, even if there is no more to find out, we still have to kill her. Allison is already too strong, as is the man. This child has descended already from more than either of the two of them. Call Frank to me. His new mission is to act. We must find them and now, before it is too late. This child cannot be allowed to live. They must die, and soon. The shit just hit the floors, Nigel and I don’t want to wipe it up.”

  “Yes, Leader.”

  “Leave me now, and fetch Frank.”

  He nodded and left, leaving me alone once again. I was the one who should have the most Power. Not this bitch and definitely not her kid.

  Me.

  I wanted the Power. I wanted my kid to have it.

  And I would. She would die and I would have the Power.

  Power…

  It would be all mine.

  Chapter 14

  Discoveries

  It was strange how often I ended up in those chambers, the Councils chambers, considering I wasn’t even a Council Member. But it didn’t matter.

  David sat next to me, at the deep cherry red oval table in the center of the room. The six Council Members sat around the table, with Rick at the head, again directly in front of me.

  The room smelled the same, jasmine and honeysuckle. It was the smell of the Council, their Power mingling and intertwining with the others. It was as if they were connected, not just sitting next to the others at the table, but more physically connected, like the strings of fate.

  There were some books against the walls, filling the shelves completely. And there was a desk in the far left corner with a computer atop it. Other than that, there were only a few couches on the sides and a lamp, but nothing more. There were no pictures, or decorations. There was nothing that made that room unique to those men, because it wasn’t for them. It was for the Council, and council members change.

  The men sat then, since David and I were in and seated, all except for Rick who remained standing.

  “Today David and Allison Donnelly join us again to make an account of what happened when Samantha Stevens received her Power on the 8th day of January. She is the first to receive her Power at the age of six in more than a century, and the first ever to receive it while inside the Compound.”

  The men nodded, and Rick sat. It was odd they wouldn’t just take his word for it. He witnessed everything I did, probably knew more since he helped her when I couldn’t. It was Rick who had guided her to release her Power, to accept it and allow it to go forth.

  David gave an account of what happened, as Christopher jotted down notes in a tablet. No one interrupted him as he spoke, sometimes someone would say, “hmmm,” or nod, but that was it. I listened as he spoke, remembering every single moment of it.

  Finally when he was done, Henry spoke. Henry was the shortest of the Council members, even while sitting you could tell. And, if you could believe it, his skin was even more wrinkled than the last time I saw him. It sagged low, hanging just barely onto his bones. It made me wonder how old he actually was.

  “The first question I have is for you, Allison. I would like to know what type of shield you put over Samantha and why you did it.”

  “I’m not sure. It was different than other shields I have created before. It wasn’t like the fire that comes when I am shielding from an attack. But it wasn’t just a normal manifestation of my Power either. It felt different. I’m not exactly sure how to describe it. Also, I don’t know why I even created it to begin with. I just heard her scream, and…” I tried to find the words. “It just happened instinctually.”

  Nicholas asked, “And how long did it take, from beginning to e
nd?”

  This time David answered. “It began exactly at 6:30 in the morning, and she released the Power exactly 15 minutes later at 6:45.”

  Wow… Looking back I knew it hadn’t taken long, but it had felt so much longer than that. Hours at least.

  “Wow. That’s fast.” Nicholas said incredulously.

  “I know. Though we only know how it is for an adult now, since a child hasn’t been able to keep the Power in so long. Do any of you remember?” Rick asked.

  Henry, the shortest, and I believed the oldest, said. “I remember John telling me of his own child.” I realized he meant John Coleman, the man who commissioned the Compound in the first place. “He said he had hoped that perhaps he wouldn’t have to bind her Power. But she fought with it for over two weeks before he relented to binding her.”

  “Well, it’s obvious Samantha will be strong, at least as strong as Allison.”

  As they talked amongst themselves, I just listened in. I listened to what they each thought, and what they believed. I found it odd no one spoke of the descendent anymore. It had been so important before, when they all thought it was me. But they didn’t mention it any longer.

  It was at that moment I realized why. Why no one spoke of it anymore. Why it was never mentioned. Why everyone seemed to know so much, even though we hadn’t told anyone.

  Why Sharon always asked how I was, and why I could swear she kept glancing at my stomach. Why Rick always showed more concern than normal.

  They knew.

  And they didn’t know because someone mentioned it, but because it made sense. We got married, people have children after they get married. Obviously it doesn’t normally happen the way it happened for David and I. But it was fate. Just like the strings of fate hold the Council members together, it binds us all to our destiny.

  It was prophesied.

  David has descended from more than any other human being alive, and I just one less than him. But that wasn’t all.

  We did not descend from all the same Primitus.

  The realization made me choke, and I had to try and catch my breath…