Devoted (Book Two, Caylin's Story)

by S. J. West

  “Then I'm glad to not disappoint you,” I tell him, and feel at ease with my first choice.

  With Aiden by my side, I walk by one row of Watchers until I'm standing in front of Brutus.

  “Are you willing to help us, Brutus?” I ask him, once against marveling at the girth of the man’s muscles.

  Brutus stands.

  “I will now and forever be at you and your family's service,” Brutus promises me. “I will not fail you.”

  “I have absolute faith that you won’t.”

  The next Watcher is someone I've meet a few times at my Uncle Malcolm’s house, Andre Greco. Jess said he was the prettiest man she had ever met, and I couldn’t disagree with her opinion. His eyes are a light blue, like the sky on a sunny winter’s day. His lips are a rose petal pink and perfectly bow shaped against a complexion so clear it looks permanently airbrushed.

  As I approach Andre, he smiles at me and stands.

  “I assumed you would need me,” he says, a slight Italian accent bending his words. “I won’t let either of you down. You have my word on that.”

  “I know you won’t let us down,” I tell him.

  I look over to the man kneeling beside Andre, our fourth chosen. He’s one I haven’t met before in person, but I know who he is. He’s in charge of the Chinese Watcher Headquarters in Beijing. I assume he was placed in charge of China because the form he chose to come to Earth in is Chinese.

  “Will you help us, Daniel?”

  Daniel stands to his feet, and I’m faintly surprised at how tall he is.

  “My life is yours to command, Caylin. I am here to serve you in whatever capacity you need me to.”

  “Thank you,” I say, looking between the two men. “Thank you both.”

  I look to the back of the group of Watchers and see Slade staring at me.

  One side of his mouth lifts as Aiden and I make our way to him. I see him smile sardonically because he knows what’s coming.

  As Aiden and I walk over to him, I hear Aiden whisper, “Are you sure?”

  I glance at him before returning my attention to Slade.

  “Yes,” I tell him, “I’m sure.”

  “I guess I should have known you would need someone with some pretty big guns to help protect your family,” Slade says, standing to his feet and lifting his arms up bent at the elbows as he kisses each of his massive biceps as if they’re precious to him.

  It’s only in this partially unclothed state that I notice the intricate tattoo work covering Slade’s left shoulder and arm down to the elbow. It looks like a tribal tattoo of some sort, but I’m not an expert in such things.

  “Well, I hope you can put them to good use for us,” I say, amused by his obvious love for himself.

  “Don’t you worry, little lady,” Slade says with a wink and an over confident grin. “I’ll do what needs to be done.”

  I turn to Aiden.

  “Who’s missing?” I ask him. “Because the last one isn’t here.”

  Aiden looks confused. Obviously, he thought all of the Watchers were present. He looks around, taking inventory of those around us then sighs as he realizes who didn’t show up.

  “Jered isn’t here,” he says. “He probably didn’t think he would be chosen after what happened last night. Plus, Malcolm hasn’t exactly been shy about telling him just how incompetent he thinks he is.”

  “Then he must be the last one,” I tell Aiden, tugging on his hand to follow me back to where Mason, Jess and Uncle Malcolm are still standing on top of the dune.

  “How do you know that exactly?” Aiden asks, sounding mystified by my ability to pick and choose among the Watchers.

  “They’re glowing,” I whisper, not wanting to be overheard by those we’re walking past.

  “Are you serious?” Aiden asks, sounding like he thinks I’m making a joke.

  “Yes,” I say, looking over at him. “I can see them glowing. That’s why it was so easy for me to pick them out. I think God chose them for me.”

  “Doesn’t really sound like something He would do,” Aiden says, slightly confused by God’s participation in such a monumental event. “He normally stays out of most of our decision making.”

  “Well, all I know is what I see. I just need to find Jered and see if he glows too. Then we’ll know for sure.”

  “Is Malcolm glowing to you?”

  “Yes.”

  “What are you going to do when he asks where the seventh one is?”

  “I’m not sure,” I say, hoping I can find a way without having to blatantly lie to my Uncle Malcolm.

  When we come to stand in front of Mason, I ask, “Do you know where Jered is?”

  “Are you serious?” Uncle Malcolm almost explodes. “He can’t possibly be one, Caylin!”

  “I need to see him to be sure,” I reply, trying to be the calm before Uncle Malcolm's storm. “But I’m pretty positive he’ll be one.”

  “Even if he is, that only gives you six,” Uncle Malcolm points out, making me cringe inwardly because I know he’s going to want an explanation about why I’m only choosing six Watchers.

  I had hoped the question of the seventh one would be asked much later.

  “Who is your seventh?” Uncle Malcolm asks directly.

  “Maybe we only need six,” Jess answers for me, and I silently thank her. “We have no way of knowing when Levi will retake a body and who knows where Lucifer is or when he’ll show back up.”

  “So what are the ones I chose supposed to do with the princes exactly?”

  “We’ll discuss the details later with the ones you’ve chosen,” Mason says to me. “Right now you need to go see Jered. Aiden,” Mason looks at Aiden, “take Caylin to Jered’s cabin in Montana. He’ll probably be in the barn. He usually likes to take care of the horses when something is bothering him. While you handle that, I’ll gather the ones you’ve picked and take them to our villa. Meet us there when you’re done.”

  “Ready?” Aiden asks.

  “Yes.”

  Aiden phases us and I find myself standing inside a rather large barn. It’s warm considering the time of year it is, and I have to assume there’s a heating system keeping it such a comfortable temperature. I hear the sound of a horse chomping on something solid come from one of the stalls, which has its door open.

  “Easy does it, Samson,” I hear Jered say in a calm, soothing voice.

  With Aiden by my side, we walk hand in hand up to the stall where Jered is.

  “Jered,” Aiden calls out to give the man some warning of our approach.

  Jered steps to the doorway of the stall and stares at us in confusion as we walk up to him. To say he looks stunned by our presence is an understatement.

  “What are the two of you doing here?” Jered asks.

  “You didn’t come to us so we had to come to you,” I tell him as I stare at the glow surrounding him.

  “But…why?” He asks, still mystified by our presence.

  “Because you’re meant to help us,” I tell him. “I choose you, Jered, to be one of the Watchers to protect my family.”

  Jered shakes his head.

  “You don’t want me,” he says vehemently. “You could choose someone a lot better.”

  “Are you refusing to help us?” I ask.

  “No, but why would you want me?” Jered says, doubly confused. “I’ve already failed you once. How do you know I won’t fail you again? Why risk it?”

  “It’s not a risk,” I tell him. “And I think the only person you need to prove yourself to here is you, Jered. I have faith in you.”

  “But why?”

  “Call it a gut instinct,” I say, feeling that I shouldn’t mention the whole “glowing of the chosen” to too many people. “Will you help my family or not, Jered?”

  Jered sighs deeply and looks down at the straw strewn haphazardly across the stall’s floor. He stuffs his hands in the front pockets of his jeans and remains silent for a time.

  I patiently wait for him
to come to terms with what I’m asking of him. Finally, he lifts his gaze to meet mine.

  “All right,” he says. “I promise I’ll do my best for your family. I won’t fail you this time. I solemnly swear that to you.”

  “I know you won’t fail us,” I tell him.

  “So, what now?” Jered asks. “What do you need me to do?”

  “You’ve been to Jess and Mason’s villa, right?” Aiden asks.

  Jered nods. “Yes, I’ve been there many times over the past few years.”

  “Mason is gathering up the others and taking them there. You should probably go ahead and phase to join the ones who have already been chosen.”

  Jered nods and phases.

  Aiden turns to me.

  “Are you ready to hear the rest of Mason’s plan?”

  “Do I have a choice?”

  Aiden grins. “No, I guess not.”

  “Then let’s go so we can find out what needs to be done next.”

  Aiden takes the lead and phases us, but I don’t make it to the villa with him.

  I end up somewhere else.

  I find myself standing on a patch of greener than green grass within a lush forest. The thundering screech of a large animal in the sky above instinctively makes me look up. Flying in the air as if playing with one another is an array of colorful dragons.

  I know where I am.

  The Garden of Eden.

  The only reason I know it so well is because my father painted a mural of it in Mae’s room.

  “Hello, Caylin,” I hear a familiar voice say to me.

  When I look to my left, I see God standing beside me looking up at His creations as they fly over us high in the sky.

  This is the first time God has ever wanted to speak with me one on one. Most of our conversations have always been in the presence of my parents. The only member of my family He ever wanted private conversations with was my mother.

  “Why have you brought me here?” I ask.

  God looks over at me with a closed lip yet understanding smile.

  “I thought you might want to ask me something.”

  “Why did you take the choosing of the seven out of my control?” I ask Him because I did want to know the answer to that particular question.

  Aiden was right when he said God usually didn’t make our decisions for us. So, what was different about the choosing of the seven? Did He not trust my judgment?

  “I didn’t choose them. They chose themselves.”

  Now, I’m even more confused.

  “What do you mean they chose themselves?”

  “You were able to see their desire to be a part of your quest. That’s why they glowed to your eyes. Over all of those present, the seven of them wanted you to choose them the most.”

  “But,” I pause to think because one thing doesn’t make sense, “Uncle Malcolm glowed.”

  “Yes, he did.”

  “He wants to stay?”

  “It’s not so much that he wants to stay here on Earth after your mother’s passing, but Malcolm has always felt a need to protect her and her family. Deep down I think he knows he will need to stay until Anna is born. He just doesn’t want to face that decision yet. He doesn’t trust anyone else to do the job as well as he can. He fears the others will fail if he isn’t here to lead them.”

  “Why can’t my mother and I talk about Anna to anyone? My mom is having a hard time keeping her a secret from my dad. She feels like she’s lying to him by not being able to mention her.”

  “I don’t want Anna’s identity revealed. Tell your mother she can speak about the child she met to your father, but she will not be able to reveal her name to anyone, neither will you.”

  “Why?”

  “Because if you tell your chosen her name, they will keep waiting for an Anna to be born or worse yet they will keep trying to influence the name choice. So, you may speak of the girl but never say her name to anyone but your mother.”

  I nod, letting him know I understand.

  It was better than nothing, and I hoped it would bring my mother some much needed peace.

  “Now, go meet with your men,” God tells me. “You all have a lot of work to do.”

  I look around me one more time because I have no way of knowing if I’ll ever see the Garden of Eden again in my lifetime.

  Just as I phase, I hear God say, “Be strong, Caylin.”

  What exactly was that supposed to mean?

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  As soon as I phase into the living room of Jess and Mason’s Villa, Aiden is by my side.

  “Where have you been?” He asks me, taking me into his arms and hugging me so tight, I’m not sure he ever intends to let me go. “You didn’t have a phase trail for me to follow. I thought…”

  “God needed to speak with me,” I tell him, making sure he understands I was perfectly safe.

  Aiden kisses the top of my head. His lips linger there for a long time before he finally loosens his hold enough for me to pull back from him slightly. The worried expression on his face breaks my heart, and I can only guess at what horrible scenarios his mind conjured up after my disappearance.

  “What did my father want to speak to you about?” Aiden asks.

  “He explained the choosing to me,” I say in a whisper, knowing the others are nearby and not wanting them to hear more than they should. “And to tell me we have a lot of work left to do.”

  I look at the others in the room and see that everyone is present. I direct my gaze to Mason and Jess.

  “I think it’s time we learned exactly what your plan is,” I say.

  “Then why don’t you all sit down while we explain,” Mason tells the others in the room.

  Everyone takes a seat either in one of the armchairs or the sofas. Aiden and I sit side by side on the couch facing the fireplace, which is lit, and crackling with warmth.

  Mason goes on to explain to the Watchers how we intend to have Brutus make daggers from the remnants of the archangel crowns with Zack’s daggers.

  “That’s where the rest of you come in and why I asked Caylin to choose you. Each of you will be given the responsibility of hiding one of the princes after he is placed into stasis, and you can never tell anyone where you’ve hidden him. You will each need to protect your prince until Caylin’s descendant is born and is ready to take care of them.”

  “So why do we have to wait for this girl to be born?” Brutus asks. “Why not just find a way to kill them once we place them into stasis with the daggers?”

  “Because our father needs something back from them that only she can retrieve, apparently.”

  “What could He possibly need from them?” Andre asks.

  Mason pauses and looks at the group of angels around him.

  “They stole something from Heaven after the war and our father wants it back.”

  No one says anything.

  Finally, Jered asks, “Stole what exactly?”

  “Yeah,” Slade says, leaning back in the chair he’s sitting in, and absently rubbing his left arm where the tattoo is, “if they stole something wouldn’t we have known about it?”

  “Are you saying God is lying?” Mason asks him.

  Slade rolls his eyes. “Of course not. It just seems odd that none of us have ever heard about this theft.”

  “Maybe it was something God knew none of us could do anything about until now,” Desmond says. “And we still can’t really do anything, apparently, except set the stage for Caylin’s descendent to do the real work.”

  “Do we know how she’s supposed to take back what they stole?” Slade asks.

  “No, not exactly,” Mason admits. “But she will be born and she will stop them from doing something catastrophic according to our father. All we can do is make sure we keep them safe until the time comes for the girl to take care of them.”

  “So, Brutus is making the daggers?” Daniel asks.

  “Yes,” Jess replies. “We’ve already set that up to happen tomorrow. We fe
el it’s important for all of you to be there when it happens. All of the vessels are coming to help as well.”

  “So we’re assuming this will work,” Desmond says, “but what if it doesn’t? Do we have a contingency plan?”

  “Not really,” Mason admits. “But I don’t have any doubts about this working.”

  “Is there anything else we need to know?” Andre asks.

  “There’s nothing else to tell,” Jess says. “You all know about as much as we do now.”

  “So, after these daggers are made,” Andre says, “I suppose we need to test them out?”

  “Yes,” Mason says. “Malcolm and I have talked about it. We need to draw out one of the weaker princes so we can test one of the daggers on him.”

  “And how do you plan to do that?” Aiden asks, but something in his voice makes me think he already knows the answer to his question, and he’s not happy about the answer that’s coming.

  “We’re going to use Caylin as bait,” Mason says.

  “No,” Aiden says with such finality that a lesser man would have simply let the subject drop.

  “There’s not a better way to draw him out and take him off guard,” Mason says as he turns his gaze to me.

  “She shouldn’t have to risk her life,” Aiden says. “It’s not right.”

  “She’ll be guarded,” Uncle Malcolm says. “We won’t be so far away from her that we can’t act quickly. Do you honestly think I would put her in any real danger?”

  “Is anyone here going to ask me what my opinion on the subject is?” I ask, feeling like my fate was being decided for me without my consent yet again.

  Aiden squeezes the hand he still holds, and I look over at him, my heart breaking from the worry on his face.

  “I don’t want you to put your life in danger,” he says, and I can almost hear him begging me to say I won’t do what they want.

  “Nothing’s going to happen to me,” I tell him. “Remember, I’ve already seen our future. I’ll be all right.”

  I look over at Mason and Uncle Malcolm.

  “Have you picked a prince to test?”

  “Yes. Belphagor will be the easiest to trap.”

  “The prince of sloth,” Slade says derisively. “She’s in no danger then. I could probably knock him out with my pinky toe.”