In a panic to stop what was about to happen, I pounded on the door to distract the surgeons. One quickly looked up from the heart monitor he was observing. It was Michael Sanderson.
I reached for the door, but was lifted from the ground and carried away by multiple men. I kicked and fought, trying to get loose.
I yelled for Michael, knowing he had done all of this and wanting to see him face to face.
The burly men slammed me down onto a cold surface. My head connected with the metal, causing shards of light to flash before my eyes. James and David came into focus and hovered above me.
A sharp pain shot through my left arm. I looked down to see an IV being inserted into my arm. A warm sensation coursed up my arm and quickly blossomed into a wildfire throughout my body. Slowly, my body began to melt into the cold, hard table.
I tried to speak, but it only came out as long, drawn-out mumbles. I had just enough energy to roll my head in the direction of Corinna.
Michael Sanderson and Gabriel Griffin were beginning the procedure to remove her Copula and I couldn’t do anything about it. Michael took the scalpel in his latex-gloved hand and steadied it on Corinna’s neck. He hesitated only for a moment. Then, he slowly sliced along her nape.
My vision started to blur, and my eyes became heavy. I finally gave in to their intense weight, letting my eyes close.
I could still hear their voices. Suddenly, I heard the sounds of the scalpel dropping into a metal pan and a respirator starting up.
Is Corinna on life support?
I heard Michael curse, “Damn it!”
Something was going wrong. I tried to open my eyes. They opened enough to catch brief blurry images of surgeons working closely on her. Clarity and focus came to my vision all of a sudden. I saw an archaic-looking instrument propping open the nape of Corinna’s neck.
Michael’s hands were working slow and meticulously within the opening. “Damn it! The scar tissue is too thick. I need to cut deeper in order to embed and attach the Copula. Gabriel?”
Gabriel passed Michael another scalpel. The heart rate monitor began beeping rapidly. Michael continued to work.
Gabriel turned to the monitor. “Michael, she is becoming hypertensive. You are cutting too deep. Stop!”
Michael pulled away, running his forearm across his sweating upper lip. He put the scalpel down and grabbed for the set of surgical pliers.
Gabriel grabbed hold of his arm. “Michael! You can’t remove it without killing her! Stop!”
I couldn’t hold my eyes open any longer. I continued to listen to the voices until they became muffled and then silent.
I woke with a metallic taste in my mouth. It was blood. My eyes opened slightly, revealing only a small sliver of light. I quickly closed my eyes as a sharp surge of pain shot through them and into my skull. I heard a familiar voice.
“He’s waking up, Michael.”
I saw Gabriel hovering over me, and then the room became dark again.
I slowly opened my eyes to see only the light of a small lamp on the other side of the room. Everything was blurry. I continued to blink to bring objects into better focus. I saw silhouettes of two people in the room with me.
I tried to move my arms to right myself, but I couldn’t. They were cuffed to a gurney. When I lifted my head to look at the figures again, a sharp pain shot up the back of my neck, spreading over my entire head. I remember wondering what they had done to me.
I slowly lowered my head to the pillow. Then, Corinna popped into my mind. I wondered if she had survived. I slowly shifted my eyes to the other side of the room. The other gurney was vacant.
I tried to move my mouth to speak, but all that came out was a puff of air being released from my dry lips. I tried to moisten them with my tongue.
Sensing my thoughts, Gabriel spoke to me. “She is alive. We deactivated the Dobrian implant since we could not remove it without killing her. We implanted the live Sondian Copula below it.”
My head lolled toward Gabriel’s voice. Once again, the sharp pain made me wince and slow my movement.
Gabriel visibly reacted to my painful look. “Careful. Here, let me get you some medicine for the pain.” He moved out of my sight.
I heard a man clear his throat. Then he came into my line of sight. It was Michael.
He condescendingly looked at me and said with pity, “Balthazar.”
I groaned angrily, acknowledging Michael’s presence and tone.
Michael put his hands in his pant pockets and spoke matter-of-factly, “Your Copula has been removed. The board has decided that you are a liability and can no longer be trusted. But, I’m sure you read all about it before you came to save young Corinna. The little lamb. It’s just too bad Sammy boy couldn’t get Jesca.”
My voice cracked as I tried to speak. It came out as a whisper. “Trusting me? How can you talk to me about trust? You and the others have conspired behind my back and turned our fellowship against everything we have believed in.”
He raised his index finger to me, gesturing to make a point. “No! It was never what we believed in. It was always what you wanted—what you believed in.”
Michael waved his hand back and forth in an attempt to clear the air. “None of that matters now, Balthazar. You will be accompanied back to London, where you will be watched. You will have a small medical staff on hand for the first seventy-two hours to monitor your healing.”
Gabriel came back into the room, interrupting Michael briefly. Gabriel had a bottle in hand and two nurses followed behind him.
Michael acknowledged Gabriel and the nurses, and then he turned back to me. “Gabriel and these two nurses will be with you the entire seventy-two hours. They are armed and will take you down in a heartbeat, so don’t do anything stupid.”
Michael walked to the door of the operating room, turning to look at me once more before leaving. “You will be watched, Balthazar. Someone’s always watching.”
* * *
I lean back against the chair, completely drained from what I’ve shown my father.
“I don’t know if it was the first day back on earth or the day after, but I awoke in the middle of the night in a hotel room. I assume Gabriel and the nurses traversed through the wormhole with me to get me here.
“My arms were tied down to the bed. I peered through the darkness to find the staff or Gabriel. Gabriel was half-reclined in two chairs that he had pulled together into a makeshift bed. I could hear two female voices outside of the hotel room door. It was the nurse staff.”
I looked down to my father. “You were the first thing that came into my mind. I had to see you, Dad. I felt a burning need to ask you for forgiveness. I don’t expect it. I know I don’t deserve forgiveness from you, considering what I have done to humanity. My ignorance and misguided trust has put our fellow man in corrupt hands.”
I tightened my fists on the chair. My face was full of determination. “I won’t let it continue. I would rather die fighting to save humanity than live another day with this guilt hanging over my head.”
My father stood and walked to me. “I want nothing more than to have you fight at my side.”
The first thing we needed to do was get my physical body back to Onoch Estate and out of London. It would take some crafty maneuvering, but with inside help, it could be done quickly and discreetly.
Within days, I was back at Onoch Estate and undergoing the implantation of the Dobrian Copula. My father was hesitant at first due to how close this procedure was to the removal of my Sondian Copula. It could be life threatening to put my body through too much too soon. Knowing the risk, I insisted that if I weren’t implanted, then I would be a liability.
He needed to get me up to speed on the events that had culminated over the past few months. A whirlwind of Dobrian medical staff, military staff, physicists, biologists and government officia
ls briefed Balthazar with intelligence in two days with minimal breaks.
I had Sondian information to disclose to him as well. I was willing to tell my father anything I knew or had discovered through the Sondian executive files.
In the lab, we scanned and reviewed all the documents, blueprints and files that covered every available space on the large worktable. Exhausted, I rubbed my neck. The sutures had been removed, but I could feel the groove of the scar tissue rising off the nape. It was still tender to the touch.
He stopped sifting through the data for a moment, sensing my exhaustion. “You all right, son?”
I closed my eyes and leaned my head back to stretch a little. “Yes. I can’t believe how much I have let slip through my fingers. It’s like I was living in another reality—the reality that I wanted to believe.”
My father thought for a minute. “It’s very easy to slip away into a personal reality. I did that when your mother passed.” He leaned forward a bit. “I left you and your brother out of my personal reality, too.”
His last words stopped me in my tracks. As I looked at him, the sorrow he felt was evident on his face. I wanted to take that sorrow away. I said, “You can’t be perfect.”
He replied, “No, Balthazar, you can’t be perfect, but you can be present. And, I wasn’t. For that, I am so very sorry. Please forgive me.”
I leaned forward, grabbing my father’s hand in a comforting hold. “I forgive you.”
I sat back slowly and yawned. As I sifted through a few more documents, I questioned him. “I see the last name Gershon mentioned a few times throughout the recent months.”
“Do you remember your Aunt Elisabeth and Uncle Seth?”
I thought for a moment. “Vaguely. Did they live with us in Georgia for a little while?”
He said, “No, they lived with us here at the estate for a short while. Do you remember your cousin Anna?”
I concentrated on the name for a moment, and then it came to me. “Anna. Yes, I think so. She was close in age to me and Caleb, right?”
Sebastian nodded. “I never told you why they lived with us.”
I listened eagerly as my father told me about Anna and her abilities. How he had implanted her and how it had saved her small body. He explained how Anna’s abilities had surpassed anything he had ever seen. He continued describing her dedication as a guardian. He told me that she had married Ezra Kahn, had a child, and that the child, Jesca Sera, had inherited Anna’s abilities as well as others. Then, Sebastian gave me the data he had collected from Ezra Kahn while Ezra had observed Jesca in the facility.
I sifted through each page carefully. “My God. Telepathy, Lucid Dreaming, Ushering, Premonitions, Astral Projections. This girl must be able to pack a punch. Where’s Anna? Is she helping Ezra train her?”
My head jerked up as I noticed my father’s sudden silence. “What is it?”
He hesitated a little. “Anna was close to bringing down the Sondian fellowship. Sam Crest discovered that she was a Dobrian. Balthazar, Sam murdered Anna. I thought you knew. I’m sorry for assuming.”
My jaw dropped a little, and then I closed it into a thin line. I shook my head and closed my eyes before I buried my face in my hands. “Michael Sanderson. He ordered her murder while I was still leading our fellowship. This just keeps getting worse and worse.”
I grabbed the closest stack of files and threw them across the room. “Sam Crest thought he was following my command and killed my fucking cousin!” I shoved back from the table, toppling the chair over behind me.
I paced the floor and looked at my father. He nodded at me, obviously realizing who was pulling the strings in the Sondian fellowship. It was never me. It was Michael Sanderson.
Jesca and Ezra came into my mind. I stopped pacing and asked Sebastian. “Is Jesca with Ezra? Is she safe?”
My father replied, “There was a close call in Miami, but they’re fine. For now, she is safe under Ezra’s guidance and Nathaniel Sera’s protection. Her abilities are powerful, Balthazar. They cross all borders of metaphysical and physical properties. The Sondians, Michael, knows this and will try to kill her before the intersection.”
He crossed his arms and nodded with understanding. “We need to take down Michael and the board. That is the only way we are going to eliminate their threat after the intersection.”
I quickly sat in front of him. “This unknown force within the Andromeda galaxy increasing the pull toward our galaxy—the Sondians caused that.” I hit my chest with my closed fist. “I did that.”
Sebastian raised his voice briefly. “No, Balthazar, you didn’t!”
I yelled back, “But, I am responsible! It was my duty to keep humanity protected, and I went and dropped the ball!”
I ran my hand through my hair. “I left it in someone else’s hands when it should have remained in my own. Under my leadership, Earth and our salvation would not have been jeopardized like this!”
I looked up at my father more determined now. “Michael and the rest of the board demanded the increase of implanted humans to attract these beings from within Andromeda. They were only concerned about the discovery and advances they were commandeering, not the residual effects the beings could have on the human race after they arrive.”
My father nodded. “We are doing all we can to find out more about this force that is drawing us to Andromeda and the beings that are behind it. We can’t do anything about it until then. Right now, we need to focus on keeping the Sondians from enslaving any other humans with their Copula. Then, during the height of the intersection, we need to stop them from opening a wormhole that could unleash a multitude of beings into our world.”
My father stood and began to pace. “Sam Crest is in Tokyo. We have Siobhan Cronin, Angela Turner and Isabel Cain tracking him. Siobhan has been listening to the rumors among the Sondians in Japan. The Aokigahara Forest, the Sea of Trees near Mount Fuji, has been pegged as the site for the wormhole during the intersection.”
I remember details of this location. “The high levels of magnetic iron in its lava overflow give the forest the magnetic interference necessary to make it ideal for a highly charged and volatile wormhole.”
His worry was evident. “Balthazar, the longer the wormholes stay open—”
I whispered my thoughts aloud, “The likelihood of more beings passing through into our world.”
***
CHAPTER 14: LINE IN THE SAND
Jesca
The image of Balthazar and Sebastian fades into another blinding, bright flash of light.
I blink quickly and see that I’m back in the plane, slumped down in my chair. I sit up quickly just as the plane jumps as it touches down. It was a fucking vision inside of a vision.
I see Nate’s head bob up from the seat in front of me. Then, Ezra’s head does the same from the seat across from both of us. Both Nate and Ezra look back at me.
Nate asks, “What the fuck was that?”
I look at Ezra. “How could we all be in the same dream?”
Ezra is visibly concerned, but doesn’t respond.
Nate rubs his face, and then shakes his head as he tries to bring himself to the present. “Sebastian and Balthazar were giving us a message.”
Ezra finally speaks. “Balthazar is on our side. It’s true. Sebastian told me but I didn’t believe it until just now.”
I think about Balthazar and his relation to me. He would be my great cousin, I think.
I recount what stands out the most from the vision. “Sebastian said that the focus is on keeping the Sondians from enslaving more people before opening a wormhole during the height of the intersection of our galaxy with Andromeda.”
Ezra nods. “We need to wait for their directive, but I think it’s safe to say we’ll be en route to Japan within a week.”
As the plane comes to a stop, I feel ner
vousness creep into my stomach, and a chill runs through me. I can’t imagine what the Xander situation will resemble. I’m afraid of how Xander will react to us finding him first. Then I’m afraid he’ll run, just as he had that night he left me standing there in the middle of the road.
Ezra announces, “There is a car waiting for us. Let’s go.”
As Ezra heads to the front of the plane, I lag behind as Nate grabs his things. “Nate?”
Nate barely looks in my direction. “Yeah.”
He doesn’t bother looking at me or stopping his walk toward the front of the plane through the aisle so I move after him and grab his shoulder. “Hey.”
Turning around quickly, Nate asks in an irritated manner, “What?”
His harsh response catches me off-guard and I take my hand off his shoulder. I want to tell him that I don’t want Xander joining our team; to draw a line in the sand between him and me. I want to admit that the unresolved feelings I have for him, are still at the forefront of my mind. I want him to remember that no matter what happens when Xander comes on board, it doesn’t change the bond we have. But, I can tell that a line has already been drawn just by the way he is looking at me now. I move past him, pushing him aside and whisper, “Never mind.”
There’s an SUV waiting for us as we exit the plane. I see four men in black windbreakers and slacks approach Ezra. Ezra shakes their hands and thanks them for meeting us. They nod at Nate and me. I can tell they are guardians as well.
While the men load our things into the car, Ezra turns to Nate and me and tells us to get into the car. Quickly getting into the SUV, I move out of the cold rain that feels like pinpricks on my face. Ezra and Nate hop into the driver and passenger seats.
Ezra pulls a slip of paper out of his jacket pocket. He starts the navigation system on the car and punches in an address., the cabin where Xander is I assume.
Nate turns to me with a weak smile. “You okay back there?”
Showing little expression, I nod and look out the window to avoid him.
Copula Chronicles: The Complete Collection: Origin, Descend, Ascend, Legacy Page 31