One of the men taps Ezra’s side window and gives him the thumbs-up to leave. Watching the men behind us, we drive off.
I absently ask Ezra, “Do they know what we’re doing here?”
Ezra replies, “No, for their own safety, it’s better that they don’t.”
Ezra tells us that it’s a short drive from Sevierville, Tennessee to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.
As we keep our worries and concerns to ourselves, the car remains quiet, but none of us blocks our thoughts. Ezra warned us about blocking our thoughts when we might be in a dangerous situation. I rank this expedition high on the dangerous situation gauge, considering that we’re going after Xander behind the Sondian fellowship’s back to tell him that he’s a Dobrian guardian.
What will Xander do when he sees me? Will he remember what he said to me the night he left?
Ezra interrupts the silence. “When we get to the cabin, I want you two to stay in the car. If he’s been practicing his newfound abilities, which I’m sure he has, he’ll sense us a mile away. If I approach alone, he might be less likely to run.”
Nate asks, “What do we do if he runs?”
“Just stay in the car. If we all go after him, he might think it’s an attack.”
The word “attack” makes me uneasy, and I hope that it doesn’t come to Ezra chasing down Xander alone.
The car winds up the mountainside for a good thirty minutes. The sleet is turning to snow very quickly as we gain altitude.
I look up, seeing an amber shard of light scale across the sky. “Whoa! What the hell was that?”
Ezra looks at me, and I point out the window at the sky. “The streak of light. It scaled across the entire sky!”
Nate is looking out the window now. The amber shard of light streaks again, branching out across the sky as far as the eye can see.
“There! Did you see it?”
Nate says, “Shit. Is that what I think it is?”
Both Nate and I look to Ezra. He’s gripping the steering wheel tightly while his eyes are glued to the road straight ahead, as he says, “Lightning.”
I mock, “That’s some pretty big fucking lightning, Ezra.”
He looks at me sharply. “Nice language you use with your old man!”
Nate backs me up on Ezra’s quick answer. “That was not lightning, Ezra!”
Ezra briefly looks at us both, and then his eyes move back to the road. “It’s arc lightning. Increasing amounts of cosmic rays entering into our solar system from outside of our galaxy. In this case, the rays are coming from the Andromeda galaxy.”
But, I haven’t noticed the lightning until today.
I ask Ezra, “When did this start?”
Ezra has worry in his voice. “Our researchers spotted the first sign of arc lightning two weeks ago in Melbourne, Australia. At first, it was sporadic and hop scotched across the sky. They tracked the locations as the arc lightning spread, increasing across the globe. I can tell you that this was not happening two weeks ago. And, today, it is. It’s happening at a rapid pace.”
My chest tightens, thinking that this is the beginning of the intersection, and I can only imagine in horror what I should expect as a result. “How long do we have until the peak of the intersection?”
Nate looks at me, not anticipating my direct question.
We both look at Ezra for the answer.
I probe, “You’re getting daily intelligence from the fellowship, Ezra. What are they saying?”
Ezra pulls the car over. I look beyond the steering wheel through the windshield. We are at a street that has a small green sign labeled “Lodging.” Ezra turns to Nate and me. “We have a week, maybe two.”
I didn’t realize that I’d been holding my breath until I release a long sigh. I turn to Nate looking down at the center console. “Two weeks until all hell breaks loose.” He turns to look out the window and starts biting his thumbnail.
Ezra puts the SUV back into gear and turns down the street. The pine trees become thick, and the snow is falling harder now. I see cabins peppered along the drive. Ezra pulls off the main road onto a winding private driveway.
My mind focuses on Xander, remembering what he looked like the last time I saw him. All of a sudden, I sense him. His presence, God, I even smell his cologne. If I can sense him––Shit. He knows we’re here.
We drive through a canopy of trees. When we come out the other side, I see a cabin off on its own. My heart feels like it’s in my throat as I think about seeing him again.
Ezra stops the SUV about fifty yards away from the cabin. The front porch lights are on, and I can see one light on inside.
Ezra turns to Nate and me. “Stay here.”
He gets out, shuts the door and walks across the light dusting of snow on the ground. I watch closely as he approaches the front door.
“Jes.”
I keep my eyes on Ezra as I listen to Nate. “Yeah?”
“I’m sorry about the way I snapped at you on the plane.”
I look back at him as he continues, “I don’t want you to think that I’m mad at you. It’s my stupid flaws, all right?”
Even though his thoughts are well hidden, I feel his tension. I nod, “Okay.”
Nate nods quickly, and then breathes a sigh of relief as he looks after Ezra at the front of the cabin. “He knows we’re here. I sensed him about two miles back. We should be out there with Ezra.”
I don’t mention my sensing Xander, knowing it will do more harm than good. My attention is still on the door, watching as Ezra knocks.
I feel Ezra’s voice flooding through my mind. He is letting me in, so I can read his reaction to Xander when he answers the door.
I ask Nate, “Can you hear Ezra’s thoughts?”
“Yeah, I can kind of hear them both, except Xander’s thoughts are chopped.” Nate pauses, and then asks, “Can you?”
Omission is one thing. I won’t lie to him though. “Yeah, I can hear them.”
Xander’s in there. We all can feel it. Xander’s thoughts are very faint and scattered, like an out of tune radio station. He’s trying to block us, but with three against one new guardian, he can’t cover all the groundwork.
I can sense Xander is curious about why we’re here. He’s wondering why we would look for him after he took part in the abductions with Sam back in Miami. He keeps repeating in his head that he didn’t know anything Sam had put him up to. The guilt he feels is thick as mud as it flows into me. If he had known, he would have never stayed with Sam. I know this. He would’ve never knowingly helped him. All of a sudden, his thoughts turn to me––my presence here. An internal heat radiates through me, something I have only felt with Nate. Then, his thoughts coursing through me stop all together. I keep my eyes on the door as it starts to open.
Nate reaches for the door handle as soon as Xander partially appears through the opening.
“Don’t Nate. He’ll let us know if he needs us.”
Even though I’m being the voice of reason, my body is ready to surge from this car and toward the cabin if Xander tries to run.
I see Xander blocking the doorway, crossing his arms over his chest, then hear what he’s saying in my head, like I’m standing right there with him, “Why did you come looking for me?”
Ezra sighs. “Because we need to tell you things that Sam omitted from your past.”
Xander looks around Ezra, focusing on the car. “Nate Sera. What’s he doing here?”
Taken aback by Xander’s irritated tone, Nate whispers under his breath, “I’ll show you what I’m doing here you asshole.”
“Stop.” I hush him so I can continue to listen.
Ezra says, “He’s a guardian, just like Jesca and me, and he is more to you than you know.”
Nate mumbles, “That’s right you prick. I’m your fucking cousi
n.”
Xander moves away from the doorway, disappearing into the cabin. Ezra turns to look at us then waves us up.
CHAPTER 15: FAMILY TIES
Jesca
Standing in the doorway, I look around the cabin. Rich amber-colored wood adorns the walls and much of the furnishings. My eyes gravitate to the fire that is blazing in the living room and I instantly want to be close to it to thaw, but I stand still next to Ezra and Nate, waiting for Xander’s reaction as he stands in the kitchen, arms crossed watching us. He looks the same except for the beard he’s let grow in. “What? Did you think I would attack you at the door?”
My stomach flutters briefly from the anticipation of seeing him again under the circumstances. The same flutter I got the first time I saw him at Ms. Olivia’s store.
Ezra takes a seat in a chair in the living room, turning on the lamp on the side table. “You had a visitor before us.”
I don’t feel the remnants of the presence until Ezra brings it up. Nate and I exchange a look knowingly––Sam.
Xander admits, “Yeah, an unwanted visitor.”
He glances between Nate and me seeing our exchange. The weight of his gaze stays with me longer though. Under his intense gaze, I try to escape by moving to sit on the sofa. Ezra takes a seat across from me, while Nate joins me on the sofa. “Yeah, we know.”
“How did you know?”
Xander joins us in the living room, standing in front of the fireplace and making sure to keep us in his sight.
Nate answers, “The same way you could sense us a couple of miles down the road.”
Ezra interjects, “Sam Crest leaves an unforgettable presence in his wake.”
Xander asks, “Are you here to tell me more bullshit about this Dobrian, Sondian fellowship he keeps babbling about? Or are you here to kick my ass for being involved with Sam Crest?”
Nate snickers, and Xander is on him instantly. “Something funny?”
Nate’s grin doesn’t cease as he leans back on the sofa and drapes his arm over the back of the sofa behind me. “Kicking your ass would be kind of funny.”
As I shift away from his arm resting behind me, I hiss at Nate. “Enough Nate.”
I look over at Xander, just as his deep green eyes take me in from head to toe. Again, a wave of radiating warmth courses through me from his intense stare. While I could sit here and bask in its soothing caress, I’m concerned as to why Xander’s ability to make me squirm has gotten so intense, so fast, and how Nate or Ezra might react if they catch a glimpse of it.
I clear my throat and look to Ezra to create a distraction.
He takes the cue, thank God. “We’re here to tell you what Sam didn’t. Tell you what you’re undeniably a part of.”
Xander replies, “I left Miami because I didn’t want to be a part of anything. I can’t trust Sam. How can you expect me to trust you? Better yet, how can you trust me?”
Nate speaks up, “I think that’s the smartest thing I’ve ever heard you say.”
Both Ezra and I are on Nate instantly. “Nate!”
He rolls his eyes and looks between Ezra and me before he glances half-heartedly at Xander. “If there’s anyone you can trust in this world, it’s going to be Ezra. So I suggest you listen to him. He hasn’t steered me wrong yet.”
Seeming to have Xander’s attention, Ezra adds, “Just hear me out, and then you can decide if you trust us or not, all right?”
Xander stands there looking at each of us before he decides. “Fine, I’ll listen.”
Ezra waits for Xander to sit in the open chair next to him before starting. “You were born to Paul and Rebekah Sera in Boulder, Colorado. After your birth, they moved to Miami Florida where you lived with them until they were—murdered.”
Ezra watches how Xander processing what he’s says before continuing. “Your parents were Dobrian guardians.”
Xander interrupts, “I thought they were Sondian.”
Ezra shakes his head. “No. Your parents were most definitely Dobrian guardians. They got in too deep and were killed by a Sondian.”
“By who?”
Xander’s question is direct and painful to hear.
Ezra glances down before he returns to Xander and answers. “Sam Crest.”
Xander’s face becomes stone like, all expression and color escaping as the density of his adopted father’s betrayal is too heavy to bear.
Ezra treads carefully. “Being in foster homes didn’t sit well with you, so you hopped from shelter to shelter until the day I tracked you down.”
Xander looks at Ezra with confusion in his eyes. His mind tries to make sense of when Ezra tracked him down before this, when suddenly realization hits. “A man was following me. It was you! That night at the club, I thought I had seen you before.”
Ezra nods, “I was trying to tell you about your parents, give you safe haven, guide you. Then, Sam came.”
Xander shakes his head and stares at the fireplace as he grits his teeth, “Damn it! If I wasn’t a scared little shit, I might not have gotten in that car. It’s just the way he said it––he sounded so...”
Ezra cuts off his train of thought, “You were a kid and you were afraid. And easy target for the compulsion he used on you.”
Ezra tells Xander about Sebastian and Balthazar, Dobria and Sonde, and the implantation of Copulas. He describes his being implanted and my guardianship and relation to Balthazar and Sebastian. He tells him about my mother, Anna, and him being my father. He even tells him that Sam murdered my mother while I sat crying in my crib.
Hearing that story, makes me want to shut out everything as I close my eyes and try to close off the imaginings of me crying as a baby and my mother being killed.
Then, Ezra tells him about the upcoming collision of our galaxy with Andromeda. I’m waiting for Xander to have a reaction similar to mine.
Looking back, I thought Ezra was insane when he told me about the collision. It took a little while for the shock to wear off.
But, Xander doesn’t bat an eye. He takes everything Ezra is feeding him in stride.
Maybe he’s taking everything so well because all of this news is mild compared to the life he lived as a child.
He lost his parents and then his grandmother. He was put into foster care, ran away, and then the trusted father figure who took him in and betrayed him repeatedly. When someone has lived through things like that, I suspect it’s hard for anything else to come as a shock.
Then Ezra tells Xander about his purpose. “Just as I told Jesca, Nate, and the other guardians, these abilities that you possess have always been within you, hidden your entire life. They are hereditary. The Copula you were implanted with as a child has intensified the strength of those abilities so that you can guard humanity. You are a Dobrian guardian, and your purpose is to use those abilities to protect yourself and our human race during and after the intersection. Your Copula will help you adapt to our evolving world. The changes are already beginning within you just as they have with Jesca and Nate.”
Xander sits quietly and leans forward. He puts his elbows on his knees, resting his mouth on his intertwined fingers. He looks like a frightened tortured boy all of a sudden.
I remember that feeling like it was yesterday. I don’t want to see him go through it. It hurts me to watch it stir within him. I get the urge to walk over to him and hug him like the urge I had to hold him and fall into the kiss the last time I saw him, but I hold still on the sofa, gripping the cushion on both sides of my legs.
Xander stands and walks to the fireplace mantel. “I don’t even know what my fucking abilities are. I’ve only stumbled upon a couple of them when I was with all of you!”
Ezra nods. “That is why we came. I knew that as soon as you started discovering them, it would be hard to hold back the others from surfacing within you. ”
Ezra looks to both Nate and me now, and then he returns his gaze back to Xander. “We are going to help you discover what you are capable of. And, if you’re anything like your cousin, then we’ll have a lot to work with.”
Ezra moves his hand to his mouth nervously and closes his eyes, realizing that he has let slip out what he wanted to withhold longer.
Xander turns slowly from the mantle, looking at me then at Nate. “Cousin?”
I feel anxious for Ezra all of a sudden as Xander stares hard at him. “I don’t have a cousin.”
He stands up and walks to the kitchen stiffly as he announces, “Nate Sera is your cousin actually. Could I get a glass of water?”
Xander’s mouth tightens. His jaw is visibly twitching from his frustration. His eyes go straight to Nate. “You?”
I see that Xander has found his threshold for shocking news. And, it’s Nate.
Xander stalks toward Nate, and Nate rises to level up to him. I quickly jump between them, putting my hands on their chest, and command them, “Okay, stop! Ezra, a little help here!”
The wave of energy each of them possess suddenly soars through my arms, setting me off balance for a second. I pull my hands away immediately just as Xander looks down at me accusingly, “How long have you known?”
I rub my hands together to take away the tingling energy still leaving its sting and snap back at him, “I just found out. Nate and I both did.”
Ezra moves quickly back into the living room to stand between Xander and me as I keep Nate at my back.
Ezra confirms, “Xander, it’s true. I just told them.”
Xander looks from Ezra to Nate before backing away from me. “How could I not know about my aunt, uncle and cousin? My parents, my grandmother never said anything.”
Ezra answers, “There was a falling out between both of your fathers. Nate’s father pleaded with your parents to become inactive for your sake, as Nate’s parents had done for him. They refused, saying the only way they could guarantee your safety is if they remained active. I’m sure your grandmother was persuaded into silence after their death. Making you and her estranged from your aunts and uncles.”
Copula Chronicles: The Complete Collection: Origin, Descend, Ascend, Legacy Page 32