by S. J. West
Devoted
Caylin’s Story
Book Two
By
S.J. West
List of Watcher Books in the Watcher Series
The Watchers Trilogy
Cursed
Blessed
Forgiven
The Watcher Chronicles
Broken
Kindred
Oblivion
Ascension
Caylin’s Story
Timeless
Devoted
The Redemption Series
Malcolm
Anna
Lucifer
Redemption
Other Books by S.J. West
The Harvest of Light Trilogy
Harvester
Hope
Dawn
The Vankara Saga
Vankara
Dragon Alliance
War of Atonement (2015)
©2013 S.J. West. All Rights Reserved.
CHAPTER ONE
Heaven. Not exactly somewhere I thought I would be going at my age. And, to be totally honest, the reality of it isn’t what I expected either. I feel…like I don’t belong in this place. A little voice inside my soul is telling me I should leave, that it’s not my time to be here yet. I do my best to ignore it and just hope we find the help my mother seems to think is here for us as quickly as possible.
I stand beside my mom on a sidewalk in what looks like any ordinary little neighborhood in America. Yet, the cars parked on the streets and the colorful clapboard houses with white picket fences surrounding them look like something you would see in a movie set in the 1950’s. I hear bluesy jazz music of that era come from one of the houses down the street and see a young black woman dressed in a white sundress with a black and red rose pattern waving at us and smiling for all she’s worth.
“Who’s that woman?” I ask my mom.
When I don’t get an answer right away, I look over at my mother to see she has tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Are you ok?” I ask, worried by her reaction.
My mom wipes at the wet trails with her free hand and nods.
“Yes,” she says, tightening her hold on my hand. “Come on. I want you to meet Utha Mae.”
“That’s her?” I ask, having grown up hearing stories about Mae’s namesake, and someone I knew my own mom thought of more as her mother than my Grandma Cora.
“Yes,” my mom says. “That’s her.”
We walk down the quiet street hand in hand towards Utha Mae.
She isn’t exactly the way I imagined her either. All of the pictures my mom has of my Aunt Tara’s grandmother were taken when she was old. The woman we’re walking towards now looks like she’s in her late twenties. But, I can tell it’s Utha Mae because of the way her eyes sparkle with happiness as she watches us approach. They hold the same love and understanding I saw in her pictures.
“Hey, baby,” Utha Mae says to my mother when we’re only a couple of yards away. Her gaze shifts to me, and I see her smile become even brighter. “Well now, I haven’t seen you since you were up here waiting to go to your mama.”
My mom lets go of my hand and walks up to Utha Mae, hugging the other woman tightly around the waist and resting her head against her shoulder, like it's something she's done a hundred times before.
“I didn’t think I would see you again until it was my time to be here,” my mother says with a small sniffle from crying.
“Me neither, baby. Me neither. But, God works in His mysterious ways I guess ‘cause he told me I needed to help you out a little bit.”
My mom pulls away slightly to look at Utha Mae.
“In the dream,” my mom says, “you said you had something for Caylin that would help her.”
Utha Mae nods. “Yes, baby. I didn’t know what they were when I first found them a little while back, but God came to me and explained she would need them one day. I guess that day’s come.” Utha Mae looks over my mom’s shoulder at me and smiles. “But, right now I would really like to hug your little girl again before we get into all that.”
My mom turns to me and holds her hand out for me to take.
I walk up and take her hand as I meet the woman who raised my mother to be the person she is today.
“Caylin,” my mom says, “I want you to meet Utha Mae.”
“Oh,” Utha Mae says wrapping her arms around my shoulders, “we’ve met. She probably just doesn’t remember.”
As soon as Utha Mae hugs me, I feel a familiar peace settle over my heart.
“I think I kind of do actually,” I tell her, not having visual memories, per se, but emotional ones.
Utha Mae leans back away from me and smiles.
“Love has no barriers,” she tells me, her eyes filled with that emotion as she looks at me. “I think you probably remember that I loved you even before you were born.”
“So, I was here with you before I was sent to Earth?” I ask, a little confused by the concept.
Utha Mae nods as she looks at me in wonder. “You were one of the brightest souls I’ve ever seen, child. And look at you now,” Utha Mae says standing back from me slightly to look me up and down, “all grown up into a beautiful young woman. Maybe God’ll let me meet your children before they’re sent to you.”
“I probably won’t have any kids for a while,” I tell her, “at least not until after college.”
“Well, I know they’ll be gorgeous, especially with that handsome angel you’re in love with.”
“You’ve seen Aiden?”
“I get to see a few things up here,” Utha Mae says with a wink. “And yes, I’ve seen your man, and I know he loves you very much which is all I’ve ever wanted for any of my babies, true love.”
“Utha Mae,” my mom says regaining her attention, “how can you help us with the princes?”
“Well, you two come on in, and I’ll show you. Maybe you’ll know what to do with what I found because it just looked like junk to me.”
Utha Mae walks up the two remaining steps to the front porch and opens the screen door. My mom and I follow her into a quaint living room decorated simply with basic furnishings. The music I heard when we first arrived is emanating from an old-fashioned turntable record player in the room sitting on a cabinet against the far wall. Utha Mae walks over to the cabinet and kneels down to open the double doors at the front. She pulls out a cherry wood lacquered box about the size of a shoebox. Inlaid in the wood are strange symbols written in silver. Oddly enough, I know what the symbols say.
Utha Mae stands and walks over to my mother handing her the box.
“I found them one morning lying on my front lawn. They shined so bright it was like they were diamonds,” she tells my mom. “I didn’t know what they were for, so I put them in this box I had. Then when I closed the lid the symbols appeared, and I couldn’t open the box anymore. God said you would know what to do with them, baby.”
My mother takes the box from Utha Mae and studies the symbols. She looks over to me and hands me the box.
“Can you read what it says?” She asks me, almost like it's a test of some sort.
I take the box from my mom because I can read the message.
“Yes,” I tell her, staring at the box in my hands. “It says ‘Caylin’. But, I don’t understand how I’m able to read it. What kind of writing is this?”
“It’s angelic writing,” my mom tells me. “And you can read it because it's something you inherited from your grandfather. Why don’t you see if it will let you open it?”
I’m a little hesitant to open the box and wonder if this is how Pandora felt when she was given her own magical box to peer into. I take in a deep breath and swin
g the lid open back on its hinges to discover what help lies within its depths.
Lying inside the box is a multitude of small, oddly shaped pieces of silver.
“They were just sitting out on the lawn one morning,” Utha Mae tells us. “And nothing up here just appears for no good reason. So, I gathered them all up because I knew He would want me to do something with them one day. I hope you know what they're for and how they can help you because He didn’t tell me.”
I look over at my mom. “Do you know what they are?”
“I think so,” my mom says, staring at the pieces of silver. “Did you hear me ask Jess about the crowns earlier?”
I nod. “Yes. But, I didn’t know what you were talking about.”
“When she and the other vessels closed the Tear, they used their archangel crowns to put the princes into a type of stasis. The crowns siphoned some of the princes’ powers which helped provide enough energy to close the Tear. The crowns flew into the Tear and no one knew where they went, until now.”
“So, you think this is what’s left of the crowns?” I ask. “Do you think we can use them to put the princes into stasis again?”
“I have to assume so,” my mom says. “I don’t see any other reason for God to give them to us. We’ll just have to figure out how to use them.”
“There’s something else that God told me when He came to visit,” Utha Mae tells us with a troubled frown. “He said when the princes were exiled from Heaven, they stole something that was very important.”
“Did he say what it was they stole?” I ask.
Utha Mae shakes her head. “No, child. He didn’t tell me that much. But, He did bring me a gift that day.”
“What kind of gift?” My mom asks.
Utha Mae smiles and turns slightly towards the back of the house. “Why don’t the two of you come with me, and I’ll show you.”
We walk to the far side of the house and through the kitchen to a partially screened in porch.
Out in the backyard, I see a handsome young black man swinging a brown haired, brown-eyed girl, no older than seven, with porcelain white skin on a tire swing. Her laugh is like the sound of pure joy and her smile easily brings my own smile to my face. I instantly feel a well of emotions come to the surface as I watch her and have to wipe at the unexpected tears spilling from my eyes. I hear my mother sniff beside me and know the girl is having the same effect on her as well.
“Who is she?” My mother asks Utha Mae.
“She says her name will be Anna,” Utha Mae tells us, smiling proudly as she watches the little girl play. “And apparently she’s going to stop the princes from whatever shenanigans they have up their sleeves.”
“Does she know what they plan or what they stole?” I ask.
Utha Mae shakes her head. “No, child, she doesn’t. But, she seems awfully ready to stop them. She’s the spunkiest little thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Why is she here with you?” I ask.
Utha Mae smiles. “I think it’s God’s gift to me. He lets me spend a little time with your babies before they have to go to Earth.”
“But,” my mom says, “from what He told us, she won’t be born for a long time.”
“Time here doesn’t move the same as it does on Earth, baby,” Utha Mae tells my mom. “She could leave at any moment but still go who knows how many years in your future. I got the feeling when He left her that He wanted the two of you to see her.”
I look back at the little girl and feel my heart swell with love and pride, even though I don’t know her at all. Perhaps God wanted us to see her so we knew who we were fighting for. We would need to set the stage for the work she would be born to do. And now, after seeing her, I feel even more determined to find a way to stop the princes in my own timeline so that her job is made easier when the time comes.
The little girl seems to notice us and asks the man to stop pushing her. She scrambles off the swing and runs up to the steps leading to the porch.
“Hi,” she says to us, smiling for all she’s worth, “I’m Anna.”
As I look at her, I can already see the beginnings of the beautiful woman I saw in the vision of the future.
“Hello, Anna,” my mom says. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Don’t worry about anything,” Anna tells us with a small shake of her head. “You’ll figure out how to stop the princes. I know you will. And when I’m born, I’ll get back what they stole from God. I promise.”
“I’m sure you will,” my mother says smiling at the little girl’s rambunctiousness.
“And, Lilly,” the girl says in all seriousness displaying a maturity beyond her young years, “don’t be sad about Malcolm. I’ll take good care of him. I promise you that with all my heart.”
My mother simply nods, too choked up on emotion to say anything in reply.
“Caylin,” Anna says as she turns her gaze to me. “God told me to tell you something.”
“Tell me what?” I ask.
“Blood binds.”
I feel my forehead crinkle in confusion.
“What’s that supposed to mean exactly?”
Anna shrugs. “Sorry, I have no idea. He just said it was something you would need to remember.”
Anna smiles at us before turning back towards the man and waves before saying, “Bye!”
She runs back to the man who is beaming with pride and love as he lifts her up and places her on the swing again.
“My husband is flat out in love with that child,” Utha Mae tells us with a small laugh. “He’s going to hate it when she has to leave. But, like all you girls, she was made to do a job and seems ready to go do it, bless her heart.”
I grip the box I hold tightly.
“We should get back,” I tell my mom. “The sooner we figure out what needs to be done the better. I don’t want to let Anna down.”
My mother turns to Utha Mae and gives her another hug.
“You know, I’ve met your little ones already,” Utha Mae says to my mom.
My mother pulls back and looks at Utha Mae in confusion at first then seems to realize the implications of what she said and starts to laugh.
“Well, I guess Brand will be happy,” my mom says, but I can tell she’s happy too. “But, did you say little ones?”
“I most certainly did,” Utha Mae says.
My mother giggles. “So now I have to come up with two names. I’m running out of ones that mean something to me.”
Utha Mae winks. “You’ll figure it out. I have faith in you, always have.”
Utha Mae walks over to me and gives me a kiss on the cheek and a hug.
“And you take care of yourself, child. Don’t let them little devils scare you any either. You’ve got God on your side, always remember that.”
I nod. “Yes, ma’am. I won’t let them win.”
I look over to my mom.
“Ready to go back?” she asks.
I look down at the box. “Yes. I have a feeling we have a lot of work to do.”
As I phase back to my room, I have to wonder what it is God wants us to do with the remnants of the archangel crowns. How are we supposed to use them? And what exactly did the princes steal from Heaven that God wants to get back so desperately?
CHAPTER TWO
When we phase back to my room, my mother turns to me.
“I’m going to go wake your father,” she tells me. “I think we need to tell the others what we learned and brought back. Maybe one of us can figure out what we’re supposed to do with the crown pieces.”
“Ok, I’ll go wake Aiden.”
My mother phases and I follow her lead and phase to the living room where Aiden is sleeping.
My parents offered him a bedroom upstairs, but, for whatever reason, he said he wanted to sleep on the couch down here.
I stand there in the semi-dark beside the couch looking down at him. The only light coming into the room is from the moonbeams shining through the wall of windows where the river roc
k fireplace is. Aiden is sleeping on his stomach hugging the pillow I gave him from my bed underneath his head with both arms. His hair is tousled and partially covering the side of his face that is exposed. He isn’t wearing a shirt leaving his torso bare, but he is wearing a pair of loose fitting gray pajama bottoms that hug his hips. I stand there for a few seconds just watching the gentle rise and fall of his back from his breathing and realize one simple fact.
He’s beautiful.
“I know you’re there,” Aiden says, a slow grin lifting the corners of his mouth. He opens his eyes and in one smooth motion, turns to lie on his back, raising one arm over his head and resting the other across his abdomen as he looks up at me.
I feel the walls of my heart tighten as our eyes meet and instantly find my gaze drawn to his lips. The memory of our first kiss is fresh and the feel of his lips against mine lingering.
“Are you ok?” Aiden asks, becoming worried over my continued silence. I see his eyes drop to the box in my hands, and he instantly sits up. “Where did that come from?”
“Heaven,” I tell him, sitting down on the edge of the couch beside him. “My mom and I just came back from there.”
I tell Aiden about meeting Utha Mae and how she came to be in possession of the crown pieces. But, I don’t tell him about meeting Anna. For some reason, I feel like her identity should remain secret, like I shouldn’t talk about her to anyone. I’m not sure why I feel this way, but I know it’s the right thing to do.
“What was it like up there for you?” Aiden asks.
“I felt like I didn’t belong,” I admit with a small shake of my head. “It was almost like something there was telling me to leave.”
Aiden absently places his hand on my right thigh in what he must think is a gesture meant to bring me comfort, but it’s just the opposite. The warmth emanating from his hand seeps through the thin material of my pajama bottoms, causing unfamiliar yearnings to stir inside me.
“You don’t belong there yet,” he tells me, squeezing my thigh with the tips of his fingers in a reassuring up and down motion. “I plan to make sure you have a long, long life here on Earth filled with as much happiness as one person can have in one lifetime.”