It was the evening of the party in our new home, and guests would be arriving soon. I had finished curling my hair and decided I could go ahead and slip on my dress. I shouldn’t get it too messed up by the time everyone arrives. Matilda was gently snoring in our bedroom in front of the fireplace. I loved our new home. The exposed dark beams and stone throughout were beautiful, especially with the garland hung everywhere. I was amazed at how quickly we were able to organize everything. Arie, of course, was able to get all of the Christmas decorations up in between us all hitting the slopes. She had a large tree up in the family room and a smaller one in the living room to greet the guests. It made me miss the one we so valiantly picked out down in Kingston. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be completely dead by the time we got back to it.
I was thankful she catered everything. It took the heat off of this event. Especially since I was so worried about meeting so many new people. It has never been my specialty, but it certainly had gotten easier with the arrival of my family. I heard Athen coming down the hall and wondered if he was going to pop in to get his change of clothes on.
“Hey, sweetie, you look ravishing.” His voice lifted me up to the heavens and made me feel instantly better.
“Not so bad yourself,” I told him, swatting him on his butt.
“Do you think the combination of everyone will be okay tonight?” I asked Athen innocently, which led him to laugh uncontrollably.
“What?” Giving him my best shot at an evil eye.
“Honey, we have been existing among humans since the beginning. Don’t you think we’ve got the hang of it?”
“True. I only remember how you all made me feel that first night.”
“Well, that was only because we were testing the field so to speak. That doesn’t happen to humans. We were trying to find out if you sensed us yet.”
“What about Karen? Why did she feel so horrible? Remember she had to leave that night? I took over her table.”
“I didn’t say we couldn’t do that to humans, but it doesn’t happen by us merely being in the same room together. We have to provoke it. We had a plan that night and couldn’t afford to miss our chance because we got sat in the wrong section, so in that case, yes, Arie used her powers in that way. It won’t be coming out tonight though,” he said still chuckling.
I was in disbelief. They actually made Karen ill so I would serve them that night. Pretty clever, but wrong on so many levels.
Athen walked into the closet, and I backed up a few steps so I could get a glimpse of him changing. He was so irresistible. I had to get my fill when I could. I saw him grabbing a nice pair of corduroys and a navy sweater, which I’m sure he would make look incredible.
I heard a car pulling up into the driveway and knew that was my signal. Our first guests had arrived.
The evening was in full swing, and Athen was right. There was nothing abnormal about the evening at all. I was so thrilled to see Karen and her boyfriend Justin. Everything seemed wonderful with both of them so I was relieved about that. I’m not sure how much influence I had over that situation, but it made me proud. In between the many introductions with all of my new ‘friends’, it felt as if Karen and I were able to connect again as we had before all of the crazy changes.
Karen did a good job of inviting people on my behalf. It was mostly people from the pub that I had worked with. It was great to catch up with my favorite bartender Tim, and of course, my boss Don. I was touched that they took the time to show up. Sabrina, who was always so perky, came with her fiancé. They were newly engaged, and I could relate to her happiness at long last. She clung onto about every word her fiancé spoke, and I thought it was sweet since he did the same with her.
I met several of Arie and Cyril’s friends. There was Gloria, who owned a restaurant in the town below Whistler in Squamish, and she was stunning. Her brown hair complimented her green eyes or the other way around. She seemed genuinely excited to meet me. Although I had a feeling we had met several times before. Vanessa and Trina were sisters who came up to the village every winter, and Arie and Cyril had known them for years. They seemed so very kind as well and very familiar too. I probably had been serving them all this time and obviously had no idea. One thing that struck me was how many of the friends seemed to be Arie and Cyril’s, and so few were Athen’s. I made a mental note to ask Arie about that later.
I was able to sneak over to Karen, and she filled me in on how well things were going at the pub, picking up crazy hours due to the holidays, but still able to enjoy her other favorite pastime, which was jewelry making. Her pieces were always so intricate, and I was honored that she had chosen to give me a piece for the holidays. It was a sterling silver, pendant angel that seemed more fitting now than ever. I was able to present my gift to her as well, a cashmere scarf, hat, and glove set that I picked up down in Seattle at her favorite sweater boutique. It was well after midnight before they took off, and not one of the other guests from my family’s list had left.
Arie’s playlist of Christmas music finally hit the repeat mark, which was impressive being that it had been playing for well over five hours. She hopped over to our Bose system and switched it over to non-holiday music. It was kind of a nice reprieve after noticing how similar so much of the holiday music was no matter who sung the song. Rudolph and Frosty can only be sung about in so many ways.
I noticed most of the guests were starting to gather in the family room, drinks in hand, and a quiet hush came over everyone. Death Cab for Cutie was playing softly from the other room, but other than that, the mood had changed pretty swiftly. Athen came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist.
“We are going to discuss a few of the iniquitous occurrences with everyone before they all leave,” he whispered in my hair.
“Oh, the real reason for the party.”
Cyril began with a toast to everyone for coming up for our holiday open house, and everyone responded back in a loud, “Cheers!”
“We have some business to quickly get out in the open too. As you know there have been occurrences. We initially attributed them to the re-phasing of Ana. However, they have become more frequent, persistent, and candidly rough. It seems Azazel is involved and possibly Asmodeus. It has been pretty calm since we have been back to Whistler, but before we left we had noticed increased activity. We had a couple of run-ins that we were able to thwart. Once we got down to Washington, their presence was much more pronounced. I think there may be a movement going on, a building of legions. I don’t know why or if it’s over anything specific, but I think we all need to be a little bit more cognizant of our surroundings and make sure our network is strong. We need to be vigilant in our methods of communicating any threats that may be lurking out there to one another for the time being, no matter how big or small.”
Jordan, who I met only briefly at the front door, began to speak up.
“Cy, it’s not only your family who has been targeted. We have had run-ins similar to your family. The presence around us is much more than we have ever experienced for no specific cause. Many are low level demons, posers, with very little experience, but all the same.” His voice trailed off.
A woman stepped through the crowd. I had not met her yet. Her mate was right behind her holding her hand as they made way to be able to speak.
“That’s Jessica,” Athen whispered. “She has been in Whistler with her husband longer than any of us.”
Jessica began speaking.
“We, too, have experienced unexpected interference, far more than usual when stepping in with humans. We have had several situations in the last few weeks while we are working with our targets, and the creatures would vanish only to bring in a new set. We honestly dismissed the occurrences. But hearing some of your stories makes me reconsider. What struck me as worrisome was that on even minor infractions, the demons were persistent, where they normally would retreat. They’ve lingered on infidelity scenarios an
d everything. Usually we try our persuasion a little, and they flee. It hasn’t been that way.”
Our front door opened, and a breeze began drifting though the entire house. I couldn’t see who was at the door. I hoped it wasn’t one of my friends returning for something. I began to sense an uneasiness infiltrate the room. The crowd was completely quiet as the stranger made his way into the family room. I saw his bright green eyes look up at us all. It was the snowboarder. How could he be one of us, and my family miss it or my vision be so wrong? There was an awkward silence throughout the entire room as he made his way to the center of our family room.
“Is Ana here?” his voice uttered the words I least expected.
Athen tightened his grip around me a littler harder.
“You are going to have to explain the significance of all of this to me later,” I whispered to Athen.
“I honestly don’t know the significance.”
My heart plummeted and confusion set in.
I had no idea who this person was, and the fact that my family didn’t either made me worried. Arie stepped forward.
“I’m Ana.”
What was she doing? My body stiffened at the notion that she was putting herself in jeopardy. I noticed the mood in the room shift from awkward silence to anticipation. I began seeing bodies around the room shift and ready themselves for what was about to begin. They were preparing for a fight, but I couldn’t understand why they would be fighting one of our own. There was a feeling unlike any that I had encountered thus far. A restless stirring just daring the being to make a move was hovering in the air. Athen slowly moved my body back into the crowd’s protection. That’s when I realized the snowboarder was a demon, an imposter posing as one of us. He had been taken.
This demon was sent into our den to masquerade as one of us. He was probably created on the mountain just for this very occurrence. His masters fully knew that he wouldn’t come out in the same form he went in. He was being sacrificed as a message to us. The legions were building, and we were the targets, not just our human companions.
Before I knew it, the demon leapt for Arie who crouched down as graceful as a swan while Cyril leapt over her capturing his neck by one hand in a quick, fluid motion as I had seen many times before. From every angle the white demons collapsed onto the imposter tearing every piece of him to shreds. As the black cloud began to surface, it traced its way back out the front door. I collapsed onto the floor in a sitting position in utter disbelief. From this moment on, I had no shame for what I was, only pride.
I was proud to be a white demon, a fallen angel. I now fully understood the difference. I would never again feel the shame that haunted me from that first night of my reintroduction process. We were all intertwined, somehow, and had to fight for the common goal. I looked up at Athen and whispered I love you to him as he helped me up.
The silence in the room began turning into a flurry of activity. I heard Arie continue speaking, letting them know the specifics of our occurrences that she had attempted to tell everyone before we were interrupted. We were in this together. That was apparent. To what degree, we didn’t know, but we definitely had to build up our forces. I squeezed Athen’s hand, so thankful for him.
I suddenly wanted everyone to leave. I needed time to absorb what was going on, hoping that my imagination was much more active than what reality could hold. I learned quickly that my reality was far beyond what my imagination ever dreamed. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but while I was trying to wrap my head around things, Arie had finished up, and everyone was beginning to gather their coats and other items, trickling out the front door. I followed Athen to the foyer to say goodnight to everyone. Amidst the many hugs and cheek kisses, I began feeling stronger, more secure with what might be lurking out there against us. We had a strong community, and this was only a tiny portion of it.
Athen and I made our way up to bed. Matilda decided to stay downstairs. Sometimes she enjoyed the thought of not moving more than being tempted to snuggle with us.
“So what did you think of tonight?” Athen asked, as we hugged under the covers trying to warm up.
“I had my reservations for sure, but I’m happy Arie did this. It makes me feel not so alone in this, whatever this is. I can’t believe one of them showed up in our house though. I thought they wouldn’t trespass in our area and the green eyes?” Athen squeezed me, and I cozied up even more.
“We have a strong network out there. We have to dial into them all and let the word spread. As for the uninvited visitor… It’s a shame. The demons knew what they were doing. He is only weeks old. He was just sent in, not even knowing his own fate. As for the green eyes, laughable as it may seem, green contacts do wonders.”
“I can’t believe he was turned. It makes me sad we couldn’t get to him. His poor family.”
“Well, that would explain why I didn’t sense him as one of us. I’m surprised I didn’t catch that he was one of them, however. I was so shocked that I was looking at the same person as in the pictures and then when he asked for me by name, I was at a loss.”
“Yeah, it was a trigger for us, but as you saw he didn’t have a chance. We’ve got to figure out why the demons are moving and taunting us so much. We have got to find out what their motive is sooner rather than later. We’ll get it, though. Don’t you worry.”
“I have to admit I was comforted a little to hear that the others were noticing things too. It makes me feel like it isn’t me the creatures are out to get.”
Athen nodded, “I know. But don’t get too comfortable.”
We laid in bed quietly holding each other until morning let us know it had arrived. Then we finally fell asleep. Christmas was only a few days away.
The Watchers Trilogy: Awakening Page 46