“But I thought you just said no place on earth--”
“Dracht,” she said, taking a step closer. “It's difficult to explain. Eden is here, but...not here. And we're wasting time talking when I should be leaving.”
“I'm not letting you go by yourself.” He grew defensive, posture stiffening.
“You don't have a choice.”
Chapter Twelve
Minna couldn't see the weak fingers of light penetrating the front of the cave from her spot along the right fork, but she knew the sun must have gone black by now. Three hours had passed since she'd broken the seal. More than enough time to set things in motion. She was sure the tour van had already left, ferrying the frightened people back to Jerusalem. With her back leaning against the opposite wall, she stared into the blackness and contemplated her next move.
Tonight, a red moon would rise, keeping the population in upheaval. Tomorrow, she should break the next seal, releasing a plague that would blanket the earth as thoroughly as any mighty rain shower. And that was the final seal in the set of the Sixth. Rain. An inescapable deluge accompanied by fierce storms that were really nothing compared to what would be unleashed with the destruction of the Sixth Seal itself.
Making it back to Eden would be a harrowing, dangerous journey.
If anyone was up to it though, she was.
Minna had been ready her whole life.
Stepping forward, she touched the wall beside the hole and followed it back toward the main cave entrance. Gray light filtered in through the opening, making it seem as if darkness was ready to settle over the land. Squeezing past the protruding piece of rock, she made her way to the mouth of the cave and stepped out.
The Dead Sea looked like an iron plate, the sky like blackened silver. And the sun, oh, the sun. Dipped in ink, the rays it radiated turned the landscape into a monochrome theme that looked as foreign as it felt. If death itself could have colored the world, this is what she imagined it would look like. Bleak, dismal, uninviting. Even in the darkest throes of night, stars dressed the sky and the moon hung like a fat silver coin, casting down an ethereal glow that many poets had immortalized in verse and song.
But this. This did not belong.
Retracing her steps, she found the spot she left the van and other tourists behind. Both were gone. Not one person left in sight.
It was just as well. The next stage would be uglier than the first.
***
“What, exactly, comes next?” Roth demanded, hustling her away from the window back to the chair. He all but shoved her down to sit.
Evelyn sank down into the seat, getting a glimpse of Rhett on the monitor. He looked like he was managing the pain, features twisted into a grimace. Blood flowed in thin streams from the opened wound over his chest and down his abdomen. Back to Roth, Evelyn frowned.
“The only thing I'll tell you is that you won't want any of your loved ones to be outside when it hits.”
Roth backhanded her across the face.
Evelyn yelped, head snapping to the right. The event outside had changed Roth's entire demeanor. They didn't like it so much when their own were threatened or put in danger.
He leaned in, closer, enunciating each word. “What comes next?”
“Release Rhett and I'll tell you. Only when you show me proof that he's left the building and is out on the street.” She stared Roth down, hating how she felt the gust of his breath on her chin.
Beyond the door, several people shouted. One woman screamed. The situation continued to deteriorate at a rapid pace. The sound of running feet intensified and without warning, someone burst through Roth's office door. A man in a suit, wild eyed, tie askew.
In those few seconds when Roth started in surprise and glanced at the intrusion, Evelyn knew she had to act. Her loathing of violence and confrontation took a back seat to survival. To Rhett's survival.
Bringing up a foot, she kicked Roth square in the crotch with enough force to rock her chair back. It was a dirty shot and she knew it, but she lacked any weapons and was at a disadvantage both in height and weight. Roth doubled forward while his co-worker screamed for him to get out, and Evelyn exploited her first strike by bringing up her knee hard under Roth's chin.
It snapped his head back, pitched his whole body into the wall behind him. The monitor tilted and almost fell. His co-worker, too stunned and scared to help or hinder, ran back out of the office, leaving the door open in his wake.
Evelyn jumped out of the chair and ran for it. Swinging into the hallway, she bolted to the left, running the same direction everyone else was running. She even pushed a few people out of her way, adding to the chaos, searching frantically for a flight of stairs instead of the elevator. Rhett had to be somewhere in the building, and from what she recalled of the room he was in, there had been no windows, no other light other than the one glaring down from overhead attached to the ceiling.
Perhaps a basement. A ground floor conference room stripped of its usual furniture—no, it had been too clinical, too clean. Too cold.
Like Roth.
Spotting a door to her right at the end of the hallway adjacent to the elevator bank, she ran to it and jerked it open. One glance back the way she came gave her no clue whether Roth had recovered and had left his office. Too many people scattered here and there, one office to the next, creating an effective shield.
Taking the stairs at a quick clip, encountering several other employees racing downward, she counted three floors when she glimpsed an emergency lever next to a door leading into that level.
Pull in the event of a fire. Next to it, in a niche in the wall, was a fire extinguisher.
Acting on impulse, waiting until the landing was empty of people, she flipped open the clear cover and pulled it.
Sirens blared through the building, loud enough to shoot a tingle down her spine. Sprinklers overhead turned on with a hiss, spitting water over her, over the stairs. She held onto the banister so she wouldn't slip.
With any luck, all the doors in the building would unlock automatically and Rhett would have a chance to get out.
Bursting out into what looked like a lobby, Evelyn paused a second to get her bearings. Marble floors led deeper into the structure from the bank of doors across the front and a high, domed ceiling arched over an information desk where security scrambled to keep the flow of people moving out, not in. There were so many bodies running every which way, no one noticed her cut through the crowd for a hallway on the opposite side of the foyer. There were several octopus-like thoroughfares leading off different directions.
Trying to find Rhett in all this mess was like hunting the proverbial needle in a haystack. When someone grabbed her arm from behind, she screamed and swung a fist around, not about to be contained now that she'd gotten free.
Little Miss I Hate Confrontations was doing an awful lot of it all of a sudden.
Dripping wet, Rhett caught her fist in his palm. “It's me. Let's get out of here.”
“Rhett!” Evelyn hugged him, half laughing half sobbing against his chest. Somehow he'd found a shirt to pull on—it wasn't his own, the fit was too snug across the shoulders—and had jammed something soft up under it to cover the bleeding injury. His face seemed paler than she remembered and he twitched when she held him tight.
With one arm, he hugged her quick and hard. A whoosh of warm breath crossed her skin before his lips touched down on her throat. Then he disengaged and used her elbow to guide her along the hallway toward the back of the building. “Too many security people in the front. What the hell is going on? Did you set off the alarms? Why is everyone so panicked?”
“Someone broke one of the seals. You'll see when we get outside. It's going to be pandemonium, so be prepared. Are you all right? I saw them hit you with the tire iron.” Out of breath, she ran beside him and followed through a side exit straight into a parking lot.
“What seals? Don't worry about me, I'm fine.” Confronted with the strange, gray day, Rhett speared
a look up at the sky, squinting like he expected to see the sun at normal strength. He didn't stop moving, tugging her along with him toward the rows of vehicles. His expression moved through several stages of startled disbelief and shock. That he was in pain from the tire iron was obvious when he winced or hissed.
“The start of the apocalypse,” she informed him, warily checking the parking lot and surrounding area for signs of security guards or Roth himself. The guards were as freaked out as everyone else, a thing that currently worked in their favor.
Rhett shot her a startled look. “Are you kidding me? Who—why? I mean, why right now? That's really coincidental.”
“Could be one of my sisters or the—Rhett, can we get out of here? I can tell you on the way.” The sounds of panic filling the streets, people running everywhere, unnerved her.
“Where are we going? To Eden still?” He released her and stalked through the cars, looking for one that suited him.
“No, to the docks, where you're going to help me get a boat so I can leave Greece.”
When he found an unlocked one, he got inside and hot wired it like he had the last one.
Evelyn climbed into the passenger seat, expecting to be grabbed at any second or darted with another tranquilizer.
Revving the engine, Rhett tore out of the lot, forced to brake often and shout at passersby who ran pell mell through the streets, heedless of cars or traffic lights or anything else but the anomaly in the sky.
“That sounds like a singular venture to me,” he finally said when he'd hit an open patch of road.
“It is. You can't go with me where I need to be, Rhett.”
“Bullshit. It's not safe, especially not now, and I don't care what's there, I'm coming with you.”
“It's not allowed--”
“Well, you bringing me into Eden isn't supposed to be allowed either,” he pointed out, shooting her a hot look across the car.
“That's different. This is--”
“How is it different?” He made a hard right turn.
Evelyn flung a hand against the door to prevent herself knocking into it. A woman ran right out in front of them and she yelped, sure Rhett was going to mow her down.
“Get the hell out of the way!” he shouted against the windshield, managing to maneuver around the pedestrian at the last second.
“I think there's a good reason to convince the Guardian to let you enter Eden. For our safety, to protect us on a long term basis. There's no good reason at all to show you where the seals are kept. None. You think people want to know where Eden is? Imagine what they would do if they knew where the seals were.”
“You don't have to show me the exact location, but I'm going with you as far as I can. You're not getting on that boat by yourself,” he said. He grit his teeth so hard she could hear it across the car.
And so they were at another proverbial standoff, the friction between them as hot as it had ever been. Evelyn stared out the front window at the chaos that grew worse with every minute that passed. More people were becoming aware that the problem wasn't going away. Instinct whispered in places reserved for superstition that their lives could be in mortal danger.
Many of them were. Millions upon millions would not survive the coming judgment.
Dodging bodies, cars and bikes, Rhett drove them in the direction of the docks. Downtown Athens, bathed in what looked like liquid ash, had never seen hysteria like this.
It was only the beginning.
She thought they had perhaps a half hour until sunset but it was difficult to tell. Feeling around her pockets, she realized the money Rhett had given her was still there. She might need that when they got to the docks. If she had to, she would simply take a boat—but who would drive it? Evelyn knew next to nothing about navigation. Whether she would be able to talk anyone into taking her across the Mediterranean remained to be seen.
Rhett pulled into a parking lot facing the marina and cut the engine. Boats moored to the docks bobbed on gentle waves while people rushed around like crazed ants on a hive that had just been attacked. Some were shoving off, heading out to sea, others abandoned their vessels for home or higher ground.
Evelyn got out of the car and closed the door. Rhett was right on her heels.
She could feel a showdown coming on.
“Where are we going? You're going to have to tell me at some point,” he said, walking brisk and determined beside her.
“Rhett--”
“Don't start, Evelyn. Just tell me where we're going. This one looks good.” Rhett steered them to the third yacht in the slip to their right.
It reminded her of the Selena Marie in size and function.
He didn't even bother to see if anyone else was on board, or search for an owner. Yanking the cloth out from under his tee shirt, he tossed the bloody thing on the deck and started making preparations to depart. Rhett handled himself like he was familiar enough with boating to get them where they needed to go.
Standing on the dock, Evelyn considered her options. She really didn't want to be parted from Rhett at a time like this. But rules were rules and if she wanted to save his life, if she wanted to try and prevent any other seals from being broken, she couldn't take him with her to Israel.
Maybe she should just forget the seals and take him to Eden and plead with Ashrael to let him in. That left all their family unaccounted for; her sisters, his brothers and father and others she might not know about. Aunts, uncles, cousins. Surely he had some. Neither of them would be happy if they saved only themselves and left everyone else to their fate.
Besides that, she was not the type to give up and give in. There was still something left to fight for here. And, whether she liked it or not, she had to trust someone in all this, and who better than Rhett?
Time and again he'd put his life on the line for her.
Knowing the location of the seals would put him in grave danger. Leaving him here while she fled across the Mediterranean would leave him in even greater danger.
Back and forth went her thoughts. A cacophony of noise—shouts, crying, begging—didn't interrupt the indecisive volley.
The gray began sinking into a darker hue, as if an enormous cloud of black fog were covering the earth. It startled her out of her thoughts, the sheer eerie feel of it, and she glanced out past the boats. Night time would not be the same as other nights on earth. This blackness would be more complete somehow, less expansive.
Like a suffocating bubble.
“We're going to Israel,” she announced and hopped on board the yacht.
Her decision had been made.
***
“The hell I don't have a choice. Look at it outside. Not just the sun, the panic in the streets. I'm sure you're adept at self defense, but that's too much mayhem to risk. We're a better team together than we are apart.” Dracht argued his point with grim determination.
Alexandra knew it was the truth when she heard it. Even the two of them would have a difficult time of it getting from there to Israel. The sounds of unease and hysteria bled through the door, through the windows, and into their room. Always the one to take risks quicker than her sisters, she slung the bag over her shoulder and gave Dracht a curt nod.
Sometimes, you just had to do what you had to do. Dracht knowing the location of the seals seemed less perilous than them facing the repercussions of doing nothing. Dracht had skills she didn't, was bigger, stronger and knew his way around weaponry. He also had a survival instinct to match her own.
He was coming with her, no matter the consequences.
The alternative was to stand there and die.
“Let's go then. Pack what water we have left. We need to get to the docks before the boats are all gone or someone else steals them.” Taking a plane, which would get them there much faster, wasn't an option with the sky looking as bleak as a widow at a funeral. She'd bet every commercial flight in the air would be making an emergency landing as soon as they were able.
Dracht didn't celebrat
e his victory; he loaded up his bag and tucked the guns into his waistband.
Things packed, they left the hotel room less than five minutes later. The hallways were filled with confused, fear ridden people. Alexandra didn't stop to answer any questions from anyone or discuss the strange event going on in the sky. They would have to figure it out for themselves.
Hovering at Dracht's flank, she followed him down the stairwell and into the streets.
“One thing I do know,” Dracht said, cutting to the right.
“What's that?” she asked, scanning their surroundings in the pall of the waning day.
“We're not going to have to worry about our other friends. They'll be too busy trying to secure their family and loved ones.” He seemed sure about this.
Alexandra felt torn. The cabal would either take the route Dracht suggested or double their efforts to find her and her sisters.
One glance around her at the running bodies and mass confusion made her realize Dracht was probably right. The hectic scene assured that even if they did come looking, they would have a hell of a time finding them.
“Feel up to a run? We'll probably get to the docks faster on foot at this point,” Dracht asked, breaking into a steady jog.
“You're right. It's only a couple miles anyway, if that.” Alexandra, a lover of exercise and good health, fell into step at Dracht's side.
And they were not the only ones running. Citizens fled into the streets to stare at the sky, blocking traffic, causing accidents, only to run into a business or a hotel or a home in hopes they could call someone to give them some answers.
Alexandra wondered what the media was saying about it all. Were they still even on the air, or had the anchors abandoned their posts to seek shelter?
Rounding a corner, they came face to face with a mob. Looters with half their faces covered by scarves had banded together to raid whatever businesses they could. It was a wild array of young and old, eyes frantic and round, some narrowed to calculating slits.
How fast civility turned to greed and desperation.
Dracht, to her surprise, didn't stop jogging. “We're going to go right through them. Just act like you don't care what they're doing and they should leave us alone. They've got bigger fish to fry here.”
Daughters of Eve Collection (Books 1, 2 & 3) Page 37