The thrum of the Trinity Stones grew louder in the background. Cara scanned their faces again, wondering about the traitor. It saddened her to think one of them had secretly fallen.
“Events have moved slowly over the last two months, but that’s about to change. The Trinity Stones have confirmed more of the Twelve. Constantina will brief you later. In the meantime, the time has come for us to share more details regarding the Prophecy.”
Cara’s heart sped up.
“Since the time of Christ, the Sanctus Angelorum has provided the ballast against the pull of Lucifer and his fallen minions, the Dark Ones. In order to live, the fallen and their demons must prey upon the souls of men. Our job has been to maintain the delicate balance on Earth to ensure their power doesn’t tip the scales too far in one direction. Are you familiar with the Book of Revelations, Cara?”
Cara shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “The Second Coming, Judgment Day… is that what you mean?”
“Yes. That’s the one.” Angelis grinned, a playful twinkle in his eye. “Our predecessors, Semyaza and the Watchers of old, were bound and cast down into the earth under the desert, where they remain, awaiting Judgment Day. I assume you recall the secret text of our existence, the Book of Human Angels? It’s no coincidence that the Dead Sea Scrolls, penned during the same time period, contain the Book of Enoch and the story of the original Watchers. Our book contains an alternate plan, a loophole, if you will, for the Dark Ones… to escape Judgment Day.”
The skin on Cara’s arms tingled and rose in gooseflesh.
Angelis continued. “But they must win the battle you will lead in order to do so.”
Cara’s mouth went bone dry. She raised her hand again and waited for Angelis to acknowledge her. “I have two questions.”
He bobbed his head. “Go on.”
“How are twelve people going to wage a war against the Dark Ones?”
He smiled broadly, clapping his hand on a thin box in front of him that she hadn’t noticed. “With spirit, ingenuity, and a well-hewn plan.”
As long as it’s not “a wing and a prayer,” thought Cara before she managed to ask her second question. “How does defeating us allow them to escape Judgment Day?”
Tapping the box again, he said, “My dear girl, that’s part of the puzzle you and the others must solve. Not only does the Book of Human Angels contain our story, it contains the blueprint of your battle plan. Part of which is in this box.”
Cara eyed the box, dreading the answer before she even asked the question. “Where’s the other part?”
“Hidden… even from us. Your next mission will be to find it.”
She was afraid he’d say that.
Chapter 65
KAI
France. Angelorum Sanctuary. Wednesday, May 29, 11:00 PM GMT +1
“ARE ANY OF THE RESULTS back yet?” Kai asked the tall, attractive Nephilim physiologist as he entered the lab with a fresh cup of coffee. A poor substitute for sleep but his only acceptable option.
He planned to pick up where he’d left off with the comparative blood work of Cara’s blood next to Zeke’s. He figured he’d get a baseline before he dove into the results of the post-Lucifer injection samples.
He had Celine working on those. She was in the process of queuing up the test results based on the hourly samples he’d taken on the plane until Cara had awoken and disappeared with Simon. He drew one last sample when they’d arrived.
As for the growth spurt samples, they had been inconclusive. Celine needed to do a different type of genetic testing panel to see if Cara had the abnormality that caused Nephilim Adolescent Collapse Syndrome or what she called NACS. He’d sneak those tests in with the others during Cara’s appointment.
“I may have figured something out,” she said, walking over with a report in her hand. “Hold this.” The nametag stitched to her lab coat read DR. CELINE, DAUGHTER OF ARIEL. At six foot three, she had the body of a well-built man in drag. But given Cara’s ongoing changes, Kai had no doubt there was all woman underneath the white garment. The thought sent a shiver of loneliness through him.
Would he ever be able to make love to his wife again? He released a breath. God, he hoped so.
“Kai?” She rustled the report in front of him.
“Sorry, just thinking,” he said, taking the report with his free hand as he drained his coffee cup.
She squeezed his shoulder and her eyes filled with concern. “You need to get some sleep. I can take it from here for a few hours.”
He blew out a breath. “I can’t. I need to keep going.”
Celine nodded. “Something struck me while I was working on the sample from the plane. So I pulled one of the baseline tests you’d started. For your comparisons, did you use a sample from the refrigerator or a live donor?”
“Live donor. Why?” he asked.
Ignoring his question, she asked, “Whose blood did you use?”
“One of the young Guardians on our team,” he replied.
Celine nodded. “Wait here.” She walked into the refrigerator, closing the mammoth door marked with a biohazard symbol behind her. Inside, they stored samples of anything and everything imaginable—from tissue samples to diseases. They could probably wipe out the entire planet with the contents inside just one of the antechambers within the frozen sixteen hundred square meter room.
Celine emerged a few minutes later. “Bring the report I handed you.”
He met her at the sophisticated piece of equipment located in the opposite corner of the lab.
“Let’s try this.” She placed the sample she retrieved from the freezer inside and punched in a series of sequencing codes. The machine sprang to life.
“What are you thinking?” Kai asked, rife with curiosity.
Arms crossed, tapping her foot, she said, “You’ll see… maybe… if I’m right.”
He chuckled. “You’re very rarely wrong.”
“True. It’s part of my charm.” She smiled warmly.
They’d worked together for the last several months since he started his assignment with the Angelorum. She’d been a brilliant lab partner and truly enjoyable to work with. Plus, she had a surprisingly good sense of humor.
Working had been the perfect distraction to keep his mind off of his family issues, giving him a release and allowing him to maintain his sanity. Over the last couple of months, Celine had supported him, giving him a crash course in Nephilim physiology down to the genetic level. Looking back, he was amazed that he’d actually been able to engineer the vaccine he’d used to save Cara.
The timer rang. Celine pressed the print button and the machine spit out the results.
Celine laid the documents side by side on lab table. “As I suspected… Cara is showing true adolescent markers. Here, see this?” She pointed to the chart.
“That spike?”
“Yes. It’s a special protein that will disappear when she matures in Nephilim terms. You can’t compare her to samples of post-adolescent Nephilim.”
“So she really is going through adolescence? Why haven’t we spotted it before?” he asked, wondering how he’d made such a blunder.
“We weren’t looking for it.” She frowned, and rubbed her chin while she paced next to him. “It never occurred to me until you sent the request from New York. Given her human age and the ages of the Guardians sampled for their DNA, I always assumed the vaccine was post-adolescent. It never occurred to me that the DNA would revert to adolescence once administered. From now on, you need to use test samples from Nephilim who haven’t yet made the change.”
Kai gave her a sideways glance. “What change?”
“The transition into Nephilim adulthood.”
“Why do you look so worried?” Kai asked.
Celine stared at him gravely and shook her head. “We need to do the genetic testing as soon as possible to rule out NACS, but that’s only one thing in a long list of worries. There’s something else… but I need to do more tests to confirm it. If I
’m right, the vaccine is adapting and Cara’s human DNA is fusing with her Nephilim DNA in an unexpected way.”
“How so?” Kai asked as a chill traversed his spine.
“Part of the DNA is expressing traits found only in the males of our species. She’s carrying multiple distinct types of DNA inside her. In simple terms, she’s becoming a chimera. This may explain the intensity of her adolescent urges and slightly aggressive behavior. My bigger concern is the impact on her skeletal structure.”
Kai paled. “Male as in man?”
Celine arched a brow. “I don’t expect her to grow male genitals if that’s your concern. Come sit down. I’ll explain.” She led him over to a pair of chairs in the lounge area and spent the next hour explaining in excruciating detail what the “change” and the genetic abnormalities could mean for Cara. The phrase “uncharted territory” came up at least a dozen times.
Cara was afraid of how fast she was growing. In reality, there was a possibility she wasn’t growing fast enough.
His reaction at the conclusion: Shit.
“At least there’s a silver lining… kind of,” she said, pointing to the table with the samples she was working on.
“And what’s that?” Kai asked.
“Cara’s body is fighting, and eliminating, most of what Lucifer injected into her.
Kai eyed Celine warily. “Most?”
She nodded. “All the foreign biomatter is being destroyed and absorbed into her body. Problem is, not everything in the syringe he used was biomaterial. Some of it was… um, mechanical.”
Kai’s eyebrows popped up. “Nanomaterials?”
“Yes. Microscopic computers.”
“For what?”
“Could be anything. But we need to be prepared. They could be transmitting data about anything from her physiology to her location,” Celine said over her tented hands.
Kai rubbed his temples and sighed. “That can’t be good.”
“We need to tell Constantina immediately about all of it. Honestly, I’m more worried about Cara’s transformation and ruling out NACS than Lucifer’s nanomaterials right now. After we break the news, you need to sleep, and then we need to lock ourselves in this lab until we can determine what’s going on. It will take a few days to run all the protocols once we get the right samples,” Celine said, and then placed a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, Kai. We’ll have a team on hand when the time comes, in case we need to do emergency surgery.”
A chill passed over Kai. He’d done this to her. “Let me tell Cara first, after the meeting. I owe her that…”
Celine’s eyes were kind. “I understand. In the meantime, I’ll start working on whatever protocols that I can. But we need to get her in here for those genetics tests. After that’s done, we’ll tackle the mechanicals.”
Chapter 66
JESSA
Marin County, California. Serenity Spa. Wednesday, May 29, 2:00 PM PT
“CAN WE HELP YOU with that?” Jessa asked from where she stood. A floral delivery guy maneuvered his way through the front door of the spa. At least she thought it was a guy. The arrangement was so large she couldn’t see his face behind the flowers.
“I think I have it. Mind if I put it down on the front desk?” asked the masculine voice behind the bouquet.
“Um… how about over here instead?” Jessa led him away from the front door.
This had to be a personal delivery. The Spa’s flowers had arrived yesterday.
Her receptionist, Callie, popped up. “Let me help you.”
Among the three of them, they managed to get the flowers onto a table that normally held a hair care display.
“Can one of you please sign?” The delivery guy held out an electronic device with a stylus.
“Jessa, I’ll sign. You open the card,” Callie said.
“Make that cards,” Jessa replied, removing both the small and larger envelope from the plastic cardholder. She opened the smaller one first.
CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT YOU. —BRETT
A wide smile spread across Jessa’s face. The feeling’s mutual, she thought, touching her fingertips to her lips. She’d revisited the feel of his kiss and his strong embrace over and over since Sunday morning. Those pleading blue eyes of his made her weak in the knees.
“Lemme guess, that cutie you met in New York?” Callie asked, all smiles as she settled back behind the reception desk, the roar of the delivery truck fading into the distance.
“Yup,” Jessa said, aware of the sappy look she had to be wearing. She didn’t exactly mention who Brett was when she’d told the girls about him. Much better that way—for everyone’s sake.
“Sweet! Can’t wait to meet him.”
She suppressed a sniff. If you meet him.
Why couldn’t she have a normal life? No visions, no psychotic stepfather with a pretentious British accent, no goons following her every move.
Escher’s creepy henchmen were probably watching her right now. Out of spite, she looked out the front door and stuck her tongue out when Callie wasn’t looking.
God, she hated her life. The only upside was her mother had left her enough money to live comfortably and independently. The best move her mother had ever made was insisting on a prenuptial agreement when she married that prig, and putting all her wealth in trust for Jessa.
The phone rang, and Callie picked it up. “Serenity Spa?”
Jessa tipped a rose woven amongst the flowers to her nose and inhaled its sweet smell. A date with Brett. What she’d give for that. The thought made her heart beat faster… if only she could ensure his safety.
Lost in pleasant thoughts, she mindlessly opened the second envelope and slid out a picture. Her breath seized in her chest. A black and white photograph of Brett with his band in New York City dated Monday, May 27th with a note in red marker.
IF HE SO MUCH AS BREATHES IN YOUR DIRECTION, I’LL RUIN HIM IN EVERY WAY THAT COUNTS. ALL MY LOVE, ESCHER
Callie hung up the phone and asked excitedly, “What was in the other envelope?”
Jessa just shook her head, not trusting herself to speak. Rather than bursting into tears like she wanted to, she took a deep breath and then said to Callie, “I’m going to do that thing again. You know the one where I work out my frustrations against my bastard stepfather?”
Callie gasped. “One of the notes was from him?” she asked in a hushed whisper.
Jessa nodded vigorously. “I’m a prisoner in my own life.”
A look of pity crossed Callie’s face. “Go for it. Your next appointment isn’t for another thirty minutes.”
Jessa stomped back to her office, slammed the door, and threw the lock. Best investment she’d ever made… soundproofing.
She stood in the center of the room and screamed until her lungs were empty.
Chapter 67
CARA
France. Angelorum Sanctuary. 11:55 PM GMT +1
CARA SAT ALONE in the conference room located in the medical wing of the Angelorum compound, mulling over her meeting with the High Council.
Leather seats surrounded the oval wood conference table, easily large enough to seat twenty people. Pin lighting in the ceiling illuminated the room with a warm glow, and what looked like a translucent television screen covered one wall. The clean and modern design, coupled with the skillful use of wood, glass, and leather, gave the room a high-tech feel like the resort in Geneva where she attended an international investment banking summit two years ago.
Sipping a can of Diet Coke to beat back another wave of jetlag, she stared at the table with the weight of her responsibility draped heavily around her shoulders and fingered the diamond next to her engagement ring on her necklace. She wondered about the thin box Angelis kept touching.
Warm lips touched her ear. “Penny for your thoughts, and a dollar if I’m in them,” Simon said before nibbling her earlobe.
She leaned back into him, a jolt of electricity traveling through her and coaxing a smile to her lips. “How
about ten if you’re naked?”
A deep chuckle rose from his throat. “For that, I’d gladly give you twenty.” Dressed in black Guardian regalia, he sat down next to her. “You’re early. How did your meeting go with the Council?”
She slumped into her chair. “Overwhelming. Kind of a “good news, bad news” scenario. Angelis said there’s plan for the battle contained in the Book of Human Angels. That’s the good news. The bad news is part of it is missing. Constantina said she’d brief us later.”
He laid his hand on her shoulder, and leaned in to kiss her forehead. “We’ll figure it out.”
“Speaking of meetings, how was yours?”
Rubbing his brow, he sighed and shook his head. “Versailles is teaming with Dark Ones, and people have started to disappear.”
“Kidnapped?”
Simon shrugged. “That or murdered.”
Hairs raised on Cara’s arms.
Jovial voices and footfalls sounded from outside and the door flung open.
Michael’s tousled near-black hair popped through first, an amused glint in his eye. “Didn’t I tell you there were some interesting options on the curriculum?” he said. Brett followed him in faded jeans and a T-shirt with the collar cut out.
“Yeah, but seriously? Any skin-on-skin contact, or live practice sessions?” Brett wiggled his eyebrows and gave Michael a crooked smile.
Kai walked in behind them looking distracted but the rose-colored blush on his cheeks showed he was listening. Cara could sense his embarrassment. “It’s a simulation, actually,” he mumbled.
Through the banter, Cara couldn’t help but notice a synergy between the three of them. Seeing them together like this, she felt like an intruder in their private moment. At the same time, love for them all coursed through her. She was happy to see the pall of Roxy’s death not dangling around Brett’s neck. The distraction was probably exactly what he needed.
Simon cleared his throat next to her. Their conversation abruptly stopped.
Kai noticed her first. “Hey, guys.” Then he frowned and sent a message over their telepathic link. “Cara, I don’t want to alarm you or Simon. But we need to speak when the meeting’s over. I have your labs.”
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