At the time there were other Enchantors living nearby. Their children were forbidden from practicing the dark arts after the Guild put Marcus to death. Some of them abandoned their home and returned to Mahlyssa; hoping for a new beginning.
Unlike Virgil who completely Mahlyssa tried to mask her appearance by wearing expensive clothing and living in a large estate home. Though she was a gifted Enchantor, her father never taught her the spell that would reverse the curse.
New York with
let himself go,
The rest of the Guild arrived in Aeden with their families after lunch. “I thought you weren’t coming home until after the New Year?” Aura asked.
“Your father thought it best for us to return now. No one knows what Richard is planning, but it will be better if we have the protection of your mother’s shield,” Joseph said. “We’ve already filled everybody in on what happened here the lastcouple of weeks.”
Aura introduced their guests to the rest of the family.
“I know it’s a lot of names to remember , but you can always look at the family tree if youforget them,” Aura laughed. “Some of the other family members are with the Guide or on other business. You’ll get to know all them sooner or later.”
When she came to one of the youngest of the group Aura smiled. “This is ourMia.”
“It nice meet you. We have chocolate milk?” she asked Aura.
“It’s in the kitchen. Stay here and get to know our friends and I’ll bring you a cup.”
As Mia hugged everyone, she proudly introduced her two fathers. “Me have two daddies,” Mia said, pointing to her biological father John. “This me other daddy,” she ran to stand beside Logan.
Aura returned with several cups of chocolate milk which she handed out to the little ones. She knew that Alannah liked the drink almost as much as Mia. “Logan is Mia’s godfather. She calls him daddy too. The two of them are very close,” Aura smiled.
“We having wedding,” Mia said. “We are? Who’s getting married?” Bren asked.
“Tristan and Jasmine getting married.” She started clapping her hands with excitement.
Mia was two years old, with blonde pigtails and bright blue eyes. Shehad the mind of a genius. She couldn’t always annunciate her words, but she had no trouble getting her message across for the most part.
She was Adam’s granddaughter and her best friend was Joseph’s son, Joey. Like Bren and Tracy, most of the time Mia and Joey were inseparable.
“When did all this happen?” Aura asked. “Tristan proposed to me on Christmas Eve,” Jasmine said.
“We’re planning to have the wedding on New Year’s Day,” Tristan said. “We’d like to have the reception here if that’s alright.”
“I would love it,” Aura said.
Aidan walked over to hug his sister and offer his congratulations. He had never seen Jasmine so happy before. She had a twinkle in her eye. “Does Father know?” he asked.
“Yes - hehas given us his blessing. I trust you’ll be at the wedding too?”
“I wouldn’t miss it.” “We have a lot to tell you. Let me just unpack, then we can have a long talk.”
Bren and Tracy immediately went to the other room to get the bridal books. Alannah followed them. When they returned, they asked Jasmine what color she liked.
“Actually,I like periwinkle,” Jasmine said.
“OK, we have to find something with a periwinkle trim,” Bren said. The girls started thumbing methodically through the magazines.
Rusty started laughing. “They handled most of the details for my wedding. Renatta and I only had to show up.”
While the Guild went to the library for a discussion, the rest of them talked excitedly about the wedding. They only had five days to bring everything together. Of course they were angelbloods. They could throw a party together in just a couple of hours.
Aura was glad the family was home. It didn’t take any time for everyone to become comfortable with the rest of the family. It was as if they had known each other their whole life.
“We can call Anastasia. She can have the dresses made in no time,” Bren said.
Anastasia was their dressmaker. Anytime they had a special occasion, she would make the gowns for the girls. She never failed to impress them with her designs. Usually all they had to do was tell her the colors and she did the rest.
“I’ll let her know that we’ll be arriving in the next day or two,” Aura said.
Despite everything else that was going on, a wedding would be a welcome distraction.
Chapter 8
Paul and the Guild entered the library after lunch. They planned to leave for Utopia in the morning. They already knew that Natalie was gone. Since Richard would already have her hidden, there was no urgency.
They were surprised when a knock on the door interrupted their discussion. Aura walked in and apologized for disturbing them.
“I don’t usually involve myself in the Guild’s business, but it’s important that I speak with you now. I don’t want you to disclose Natalie’s involvement in Ella and Jasper’s deaths.”
“What benefit is there to keep such information to ourselves?” Adam asked her.
“Natalie wasn’t acting alone.”
“Have you had another vision? Was Jeziel involved?” Paul asked.
She looked at them with great sorrow. “I know Virgil was an angel. I’ve seen him in my visions.” She looked at her father. “I also know Myra is his daughter.”
Martin turned to face her. “Myra only knows her father gave up his wings to save her life, nothing more.”
“Her mother is alive.”
“Mahlyssa is alive? Are you certain?” Martin asked.
Aura nodded. “I don’t know where she is, but I do know she and Virgil did not part ways amicably. She blamed Virgil for taking Myra away.”
“He was trying to protect her from Marcus,” Martin insisted. “Your own father took his life after he deceived Virgil into giving up his wings.”
“I know,” Aura whispered. “My intention is not to upset you. But if I know Mahlyssa is alive, it’s possible someone else knows too. Were you aware that Marcus cursed her?”
“ No - I had no contact with Virgil after he lost his divinity. He was too ashamed tomeet with me,” Martin said.
“Richard was lying about Virgil’s involvement in the Utopian deaths. I think Virgil knew a great deal more. That could be why Richard killed him.”
Aura turned to her father. “My visions are much stronger now. I know they will guide us. I’m asking you to trust me about this.”
Adam looked at his friends. “Perhaps Aura is right. There’s no advantage in revealing everything we know. It might be prudent to wait. Richardcan’t avoidus forever.”
They agreed to delay the news. Aura excused herself and walked out of the library.
Paul smiled. “Who would have thought Aura would be so diplomatic. She would make for a finepolitician.” They all laughed before adjourning the meeting.
After a quiet dinner, Aura told the family of her plans to meet with Anastasia. “Good, we could use a little retail therapy,” Rita said.
“What’s that mean Bren?” Alannah asked. “That’s another way of saying they’re going shopping.” Bren looked at Tracy for approval. She had a mouthful of food, but nodded in agreement.
“I like shopping,” Alannah said, looking for approval from her mother.
“We’ll all go,” Aura said.
Acadia was grateful to be included. She really was adjusting to being a part of the family.
Aidan decided that the girls should have a day out by themselves. Aura suspected while they were shopping, he would once again look for Jeziel. Aura’s visions had shown her with Samhael. They had to consider that Jeziel was still with Lucifer.
When Rita woke up that morning, she looked at her hand to make certain the ring Aura gave her was still there. She wasn’t sure if she was having visions throughout the night, or if her si
ster was trying to show her something.
“Jess wake up,” she said shaking her friend. “Jess you need to wake up.”
“What time is it?” Jessica moaned.
Rita looked at the clock. “It’s five o’clock.”
Jessica pulled the pillow over her head. “Why are you wakingme up so early? We aren’t leaving until later this morning,” she said, still half asleep.
“We might be changing our plans. Jess are you listening? I know where those creatures are that attacked Will and Joshua.”
Jessica shot straight up in bed and looked at her friend. “What did you say?”
“I’ve had a vision or at least I think I did.” Jessica looked at her ring, “If it’s your vision I should be able to see it too; shouldn’t I?” she asked. “I’m not sure,” Rita said. Jessica moved closer to Rita.“Can you make it appear again?”
“Yeah - I think so. At first I thought it was a dream, but it kept coming back again.”
Jessica became excited. If Rita had the gift of sight it would be an invaluable weapon.“Maybe Aura was right and you can see more than you realize.”
Rita laughed.“I doubt that.”
“Why not - you have Esra’s blood? Maybe you just needed towait until your sight developed.”
“Considering you’re right and it’s my own vision, I should be able to make you see it by using the rings.” Jessica looked down at her hand. “How does it work?”
“I’m not sure. You remember how Will described those creatures?”
Jessica responded hesitantly. “Yeah – I remember.” “They were exactly the same in my vision.”
“OK! OK!” Jessica said. She was definitely awake now. “Let’s think about this for a minute. Why don’t you try to envision what you saw again and I’ll think about what Will told us. If we’re right, the rings should connect us.”
Rita sat next to her friend and thought about the scene she witnessed. Within seconds the creatures were in front of her again.
“Whoa!” Jessica shouted.
“Do you see them too?” Rita asked.
“Yeah - they look just like your father said. They can almost pass for humans, but when they get mad they turn into something I’ve never seen before. I can see why people would confuse them with wolves.”
They continued to watch as the two creatures fought each other. They overheard them call each other by name; one was Faelan and the other Fenryr. Jessica and Rita deduced they were brothers.
“Nothing like brotherly love,” Jessica chuckled. “Look how they turn on each other. Do you think we should tell your father and the rest of the Guild?”
“No. I think there’s a reason this image came to me. We have to go after them Jess.”
“What? You s aw what they did to Will and Joshua. Those are the creatures made with the blood of hellhounds. It’s too dangerous.”
“Well I’m going .” Rita wasn’t going to budge. Once she had her mind set, nobody was going to change it, not even her best friend.
“Damn. You know I won’t let you go alone. But I swear if one of them bites me, you’ll never hear the end of it,” Jessica scoffed.
“They won’t get close enough. We can call for angelfire. I doubt they have even seen that before.” “I still think it’s too dangerous, but I’ll go,” Jessica huffed.
“Jayden wants to ask for an annulment and Dad wants to speak to Henry again. He can ask him to call a meeting with the Council. We can tell Will and Joshua to visit his father before they leave for New York. We’ll make a stop and meet them there.”
“What if they ask us where we’re going?”
“They won’t. Those wolf things are only a short distance from Utopia. We need to make sure Richard and Meredith are both at the Council meeting.”
“How do you propose we do that?” Jessica asked.
“We’ll tell my father we want Richard questioned today for Virgil’s death. It’s been more than a month and we need some closure.”
“Do you think your father knows where Richard is?”
“It doesn’t matter. He can tell Meredith to notify Richard about the hearing. I’m sure she knows his whereabouts. They can stress it would be in his best interest to appear, becauseif he doesn’t,he’ll have to accept the Council’s decision. We’ll make sure Meredith knows the death penalty is on the table. Trustme; she’ll get him there if his life is on the line.”
“Are we going to tell anyone what we’re doing?” Jessica asked.
“We can tell Aura. If I’ve had the vision, she’s probably seen it too. Those creatures may give us the evidence we need to finally link Richard to the deaths of Will’s parents.”
“Are we going to take them back to the Council?”
Rita smiled. “We’re going to kill them. But I just thought of something else. I’ll tell you about it after we leave.”
“Are you sure about this?
“Absolutely,” Rita said. “You’ve seen them. How long do you think they’re going to stay hidden? If they’re working for Richard, I have no doubt he’ll have them kill again. We can’t let another attack happen.”
“Do you think the Guild will be angry with us?”
“Jess we’ve already come of age. We don’t need to ask permission. We would be guaranteeing the safety of our family by helping to expose Richard. We’ll talk to Aura before we go and then we’ll convince Will and Joshua to visit Henry.”
“Do you think they’ll go back to Utopia?” “They’ll go if they think Henry’s in danger.”
“Can you send Aura a silent message like your mother does?”
“Yeah I’ve been practicing,” Rita smiled. “Let’s get dressed and remember to wear something comfortable. I’ll make sure we have plenty of sunshine today,” Jessica winked.
The girls grabbed long-sleeve cotton t-shirts and jeans to wear. They both decided that one braid would work better for them.
When they finished dressing, Rita hesitated for a minute. “Aura will meet us downstairs when we get there. Mom will send our father’s over for breakfast with Jayden. We should have enough time to put our plan together then.”
Jessica became serious. “We should watch the vision a few more times, so we can see how they move when they’re attacking. We don’t want any surprises when we go after them. It looks like they use their claws first and then their teeth.”
“My shield will protect us and I’m not planning on staying for lunch if you know what I mean.”
“Are you going to ask them about Richard?” Jessica asked.
“We’ll secure them first. You can use your whip to hold one of them, while I take the limbs off the other one. If I remove his arms it will slow him down. They won’t be able to see the shield, which will frustrate them when they can’t reach us.”
“What if they try to run away?”
If they’re injured they won’t be moving fast. The shield can keep them from leaving, at least Aura’s can. You remember when Samhael came to visit? Aura used her shield to keep us on the porch. I might be able to do the same thing,” Rita said.
“Let’s hurry so we can get there before the others wake up, especially Aidan.”
“Have you noticed how quiet he’s been since the fire?”
“Yeah and I’ve also noticed he isn’t spending time with Aura.”
“You don’t think he was involved with Jeziel do you?” Jessica whispered.
“He’s known her a long time, but I don’t think they were romantically involved. Iris said Aidan has loved Aura since she took her first breath.”
“Maybe he has,” Jessica said. “But he had some kind of relationship with Jeziel.”
Rita nodded. “Where do you think she went? She’s been gone for almost three days. The longer she stays away, the guiltier she looks.If her eyes are still black, they’ll be more suspicious. I would like to know what she was saying to Samhael while the fire was burning. He knows Aidan is here now doesn’t he? He probably knows Alannah’s here too?”
“You don’t think she’s in any danger do you?” Jessica sighed.
“Are you kidding? You’ve seen what Aura can do to hellfire. What do you think she would do if anyone tried to hurt Alannah?”
“Aren’t you even curious about what other gifts He,” pointing to Heaven,“gave her when he removed her veil?”
“Yeah, but I’m more concerned about Lucifer finding out about them. He’s already taken two of the eternal children. If Aidan’s right, he might come after Aura and Alannah.”
“Aidan would never let anyone hurt either one of them,” Jessica insisted.
“Aidan is distracted right now, which is why Aura needs to stay focused. At least until after Jeziel is found. I think we need to monitor any visitors entering the valley,” Rita said.
“Your mother’s shield is up. I don’t think we have to worry.”
“Her shield didn’t stop Samhael from coming into the valley.”
Chapter 9
Aura was waiting at the front door when Rita and Jessica arrived. She was still wearing her nightclothes. Everyone else was still asleep, including Aidan. She motioned for the girls to follow her where she had tea and muffins waiting in the kitchen.
Jessica was nervous.“Does your mother know why we’re here?”
“She does, but don’t worry, she agrees with you.” “She does?” Jessica asked.
“Of course, Mom agrees you can disable the creatures and hopefully gain some vital information.” Aura looked at her sister. “By the way, I think your plan is brilliant. It will certainly send a message to Richard.”
“What plan are you talking about?” Jessica asked. “I’ll tell you after we kill those Hounds bane,” Rita smiled.
“Hounds bane that’s a great name for them, but whywon’t you tell me now?”
“I don’t want to upset you.”
Jessica looked from Rita to Aura. They were both smiling. “I’m not going to like it am I?”
“You’ll like it fine if it works,” Rita laughed. “I trust you Rita.” “When have I ever let you down?”
“Never and I intend to keep it that way.” Rita and Aura started laughing and soon Jessica was giggling too.
Fall from Grace (Book 2: An Angelblood Novel) Page 6