I keep my eyes on the woods. Come on! Where the fuck are they?
Sam’s hand suddenly rests on my shoulder as he comes to my side. “The wait will kill you if you let it son.”
I want to shrug his hand off my skin, but that wouldn’t appear to send the vibe I need to be faking now, would it. I look over at him and force a grin.
He looks back at Corinna, who’s watching the groups of Sondian assets moving in to take the front line against Jesca and the other guardians. “Don’t worry about her Xander. She just needs to warm up to you.”
I nod and try to deflect my reactions to Corinna. “So, when you open this wormhole, what do you think is on the other side? How can you be certain we’ll make it through?”
Sam smiles softly and looks out into the woods, “We will.”
He pats my shoulder, releases me and looks up into the sky, lightning and rolling waves of orange rolling over the heavy clouds. “There is no doubt about it, something is beyond it. Granted it won’t be like traveling to Sonde. That makes it all the more intriguing, doesn’t it Corinna?”
He looks over at her and she nods to him. “Yes it does.”
Sam continues to explain as he paces in front of me. “For months now, we have been studying the gamma ray bursts coming from the black hole in the Andromeda galaxy. Our physicists have a theory. Whatever is on the other side is attracted to us because of something we have within us.”
I remember that Claiborne guy and Ezra both talking about this!
“Tell me, Xander. Isn’t it true we always want something that we don’t have? Like a nice car, or a house, or a—woman.”
I hold my ground with my mental block and answer him, “Yeah, it’s human nature.”
Sam lowers his head, seeming satisfied with my answer before continuing. “Well, they, whoever they are, want what we have because they don’t possess it.”
“Like what?”
With his closed fist, he hits his chest firmly, then smiles, “Like our souls for instance.”
Is he fucking serious? “What? They want our souls?”
He nods, “Yes, but not ours.”
He continues to pace as I search for some kind of caveat. “Why not ours? Who’s to say they won’t take our souls and kill us the moment we land on the other side of the wormhole Sam!”
I can’t help my voice rising as I consider the idiocy of Sam’s plan.
Seeming unaffected, he places his hands in his pocket, looks back at Corinna who’s grinning from ear to ear. Looking back at me, Sam says confidently, “Because we have an offering.”
I can’t fathom what the hell he’s talking about. “An offering?”
Sam’s smug look suddenly transforms into a maniacal and hardened stare. “He took her away from me years ago. It was his fault I couldn’t protect her from them. Now, it’s his turn to suffer. I’m going to take the one thing he has left on this earth.”
His talking in code makes no sense. “Who are you talking about?”
Sam shakes his head at me, and then turns back to Corinna and chuckles. She covers her mouth, trying to hold in her laughter as I’m left in the dark.
Clearing his throat, he smiles and looks back at me. “Jesca Sera.”
I feel like the blood has drained from my body as all the pieces fall into place. He wants to get back at Ezra, so he’s going to take Jesca.
It takes everything in me to hold my poker face as he glares at me. “What? You still have a thing for her?”
Swallowing hard, I fold my arms over my chest and shrug. “I just figured that I’d never have to see that two-faced bitch again.”
Sam’s hard stare suddenly breaks as he smirks. I glance at Corinna. She seems satisfied with my comment too. Sam comes over to me, puts his hand on my shoulder and leads me over to Corinna. “Don’t worry, son. Once we get there, her purpose will be short lived.”
As he leads me away, I try to figure a way to send a warning to Nate without Sam or Corinna discovering.
CHAPTER 35: THE EDGE IS NEAR
Jesca
If I keep running, stay away from him, he’ll have to follow me. Eventually, he has to see them! They are real! The woman and the baby are as clear as day! It has to be the forest screwing with his head!
I turn and see Nate right on me.
He thinks, “Damn it, Jes! It isn’t real! Come back!”
Looking ahead again, I see the cloaked woman turn to the left into the thicket and I change direction again, throwing Nate off and sending him sliding against the slippery leaves and earth of the forest.
As I peel away from Nate, I’m a mere ten feet away from her when she cuts to the right around a group of trees. I seize the moment, round the trees with all the speed and agility I can muster, and grab a hold of the woman’s free arm.
“Please, let me help you!”
She looks back at me, then over my shoulder. “He’s coming. You must go.”
The baby’s cry is strained as it turns from a wail to a scream. I shake my head at the woman and pull off my helmet to look at her straight on. Holstering my gun and holding my hands up to her, I say, “No, I’m supposed to help you. I’m only here to help.”
My wiping my tears seems to bring forth her own as she shakes her head at me. “No, you can’t. I shouldn’t have come. I was so afraid though. I need to find Balthazar—”
I cut her off before she can finish speaking. “Balthazar?”
Her saddened and worried face grows full of warning as she looks over my shoulder. I turn and see Nate approaching slowly, breathing heavily. Taking off his helmet and throwing it to the ground, he looks between the woman, the baby in her arms, and me, then points and says slowly, “The woman and the crying baby.”
I nod and look back at her. She doesn’t look much older than me in the flare of the gamma ray burst setting the forest ablaze. Why would she mention Balthazar? Her soft blonde curls fall around her shoulders onto the smaller whimpers coming from the baby as she lets the infant suck on the tip of her finger to sooth it.
Suddenly, I hear a barrage of thoughts hit me in a chain. Ezra’s strikes first. “Jessica! Balthazar and Sebastian are coming to you! Nate, help them!”
Then Balthazar’s hit me, “Miriam and the baby. Please keep them there with you! Don’t move!”
Miriam. Is that her name? “Is your name Miriam?” I ask her.
She nods as Ezra’s thoughts come back in. “Jesca! Do you hear us? Don’t run! Hold her there until Sebastian and Balthazar can get to you!”
The woman nods at me confirming her name.
“Who are you?” Nate asks.
Seeming skittish with him, she doesn’t answer as she searches the woods beyond us and starts to back away slowly.
I try to hold her, but I don’t want to hurt her either. Tugging her arm away from me, she stares at us for a moment, then whispers through her quivering voice. “He’s almost here.”
Suddenly, she vanishes before our eyes.
Shit! Nate and I both spin circles as he asks, “Where’d she go.”
As another strike of Gamma ray bursts sets the forest aglow, I see a sliver of blue billowing in about fifty yards ahead. “Damn it! She’s jumping.”
“Jumping?”
Nate’s questions are expected. “Astral projecting. Quick, hold onto me.”
I stand in front of him, take his hands, wrap them around my waist and focus on the small piece of blue fabric contrasting the chartreuse greenery of the woods. Everything blurs and the pull of the jump combined with Nate’s life force is so forceful, the jump is instantaneous as we both land in front of her, blocking her path.
Clutching the baby to her and muffling its cries with her breast, she looks beyond us urgently. I glance for just a moment to see the opening in the forest. Her exit. Looking back at her, Nate moves past me to t
ry to grab hold of her, but she has jumped again.
Knowing her goal is to get out of the grips of the forest, Nate holds onto me again as I project us beyond the woods and into the open.
Not knowing the terrain almost sends us over the edge of a jagged edge of a cliff into the depths of one of the lakes surrounding the forest.
Nate pulls me back against his chest to keep us from going over. Breathless and feeling the exhaustion of the last two jumps I slowly roll off of him and start to rise when I hear a bloodcurdling scream echo across the lake. Instantly I know it’s her. I listen for the baby’s cry, but I don’t hear it as I exchange a worried glance with Nate. We both look out over the lake, trying to find her when I spot her blue robe stumbling on the rocky terrain of an overhang and a shadow of darkness following closely behind her.
“Do you see that?” I ask Nate as I keep my eyes on it. The pang of nausea heats my stomach and sends the bile mid-way up my throat as panic creeps in seeing the familiar dark aura that hovered over me in the cabin.
“Yes, I do.”
His voice carries through the wind coming up off the lake.
I don’t grab hold his hands this time as I focus on the dark shadow following her.
Just before my jump, Nate calls out to me, telling me to wait, but I’m already behind the transparent blackened figure beginning to take form. As the limbs begin to lengthen and the height towers over me, the essence of him hits me right in the fucking face. Michael Sanderson. Like my internally saying his name is a call to the figure in front of me, Michael’s face materializes.
No sooner he glares at me, he whips around to Miriam and the baby just as they disappear.
I reach for my gun and lunge toward him just as he disintegrates into a jump. “Damn it!”
“Jesca!” Nate yells for me in the distance.
Knowing he can’t get to me, he sends me his thought. “Don’t go after him Jes! Please! Balthazar says he’s on the way!”
Ignoring his plea, I jump again; this time projecting just behind Sanderson as he holds Miriam over the cliff, his grip tightly around her neck.
With the ground uneven under me and the drain of my energy from the jump, I start to tip sideways. I get a look at how narrow the catwalk cliff we are on really is, maybe three feet wide, and right myself before aiming my gun at the back of Michael’s head. I grit my teeth as I steady my shaking hand. “Don’t fucking do it!”
Suddenly, Miriam’s already swollen and oxygen deprived eyes bulge as she sees me behind him. Michael slowly turns his head to me. “You won’t kill me Jesca. You can’t.”
Suddenly, the gun is yanked out of my hands and sent over the edge of the cliff. I quickly reach for my dagger, but its missing. His hand slips into his pocket then brings forth the very dagger I possessed. With his eyes wide and his smile sinister, he slowly holds it up in the cascading orange glow of the gamma ray bursts and arc lightning stretching across the sky. “Ah, ah, ah. Were you looking for this?”
How the fuck did he get it? What kind of ability would have him take something from me without my knowing?
As quick as the lightning strikes above us, Michael flips the blade in his closed hand, turns, and strikes down in the center of Miriam’s chest!
All the air leaves me as I watch her eyes pinch shut from the powerful blow he’s hit her with. I try to move to her. To him. To fucking kill him with every ounce of power that remains in me, but my legs are so weak beneath me, I stumble and fall to one knee. The baby—its cries have gone silent and I fear the strike has not only hit her, but the child.
The life still stirs in Miriam’s eyes as they open once again and find me. Even though she’s been struck down by this fucking bastard, she clutches the still child to her chest. And no sooner I look down at the bundle, it stirs along with the softer whimper before its infantile scream echoes over the lake.
Its my life force and I rise back up on both feet, determined to get past Michael to Miriam and the baby. She’s not gone yet. Nate. He can save her.
Suddenly, Michael looks back at me, pulls the blade from her chest and lets the life pour from her onto the white linen wrapping the baby.
As the blood flows, my mind drifts back to her face as her eyes start to drift shut. The baby’s screams are now bellows pleading for me to save them and the image of my mother dying in that cabin with my screams roaring, a beacon to my father fills my head.
Michael drops the knife by his side and with a swift release; he drops both Miriam’s failing body and the baby’s over the edge.
The moment she disappears below, I feel the rage burn deep within me as I lunge for the discarded dagger, then leap towards Michael in one swift motion. With the dagger my only anchor, I bury it in him as we stumble off the cliff and free fall to the water below us.
The icy cold water is disorienting as I hit with such force it pulls me from Michael’s grip. Free of him, I get my bearings and start my search below knowing that Miriam and the baby are sinking beneath us. The light from the sky above is faint, but enough to catch the deep, vibrant blue of Miriam’s billowing robe fading deeper into the lake. I kick my legs and pull my arms to get to them as fast as I can knowing that there’s no time to waste if I’m going to try and save them.
As I close in on the flowing fabric, I try to push it away and find both of them beneath it. Pushing at the cloth, it gives way revealing Miriam’s face, her eyes shut to the world. Her arms are still clutching the bundle, no longer squirming but frozen in the stillness of the water engulfing them.
No! They aren’t gone yet. It hasn’t been long enough. I need to get them to Nate!
I grab a hold of Miriam and hold her to me; the baby nestled between her and me as I look up and start pumping my legs. The weight of her is wearing on me, but I power through knowing there are two lives depending on me.
Moments in the facility training with Ezra in the pool come crashing back as the urge to release air hits me. No! I won’t release air. I can get us to the top. I hear Nate’s thoughts all of a sudden. “Just hold on! You can do this!”
Knowing he’s with me in spirit gives me a boost of energy as I pump my legs harder and faster. Swinging and pulling my one free arm, the light flashing above me is no longer a haze beneath the water. The more I ascend from the depths, the water above transforms from dull and murky to bright and clear until I’ve surfaced. Gasping for air, I shift Miriam around and balance her lifeless body and the baby on top of me.
“Jes! Oh my God! Balthazar! Sebastian! Over here!”
Nate’s yell gives me so much relief as I try to keep my face above the water. I close my eyes as the gamma rays above continue to burst. The sound of splashing and arms around me, pulling me toward the water’s edge are my salvation as I let go and drift out of consciousness.
“Oh my God! Miriam! Miriam! No, no, no!” are the chain of words that pull me out of my black out. Nate’s holding me, the warmth of his energy bringing me back from the darkness.
The water laps around my stiffened legs, spasming from the cold water soaking them.
“NO!”
Bathazar’s final plea and bellowing cry as he holds Miriam to him is startling and gut wrenching as I watch the sorrow that floods over him as he clings to her, the baby still nestled in her arms. I try to speak but the words barely rise above water lapping against Nate and I. “The baby. You have to save the baby Nate.”
Reading my thoughts, he doesn’t need my words as he moves from me to go to Balthazar.
All of a sudden, a sonic boom fills the atmosphere. A bright flare of white light rises above the Aokigahara Forest in the distance, reaching for the heavens, and then slowly descends back to the earth.
“The wormhole. Sam opened it!” Sebastian yells before refocusing on the baby and Miriam.
I scramble to my knees and crawl to where Balthazar, Sebastian and Nate are hovering o
ver them. All of them have their hands placed on the bodies. Still shaky, I place both of my hands on the very still and pale mother and child.
As I send whatever energy I have through my hands to them, I look through tear-filled eyes between Miriam and the baby. I pray the signs of life will begin to filter through; a blink of an eye, or their flesh darkening as the blood begins to flow again, the opening of their mouths gasping for air, anything. Seconds feel like eternity as I watch them both and listen to Balthazar’s lamenting whispers turn to babble under his breath. A husband and father on the verge of losing both loves of his life. My heart breaks for him and the image he portrays of my father as he held Anna in his arms as I screamed.
Suddenly, the stir of the bundle catches my eye. I look into the partially concealed face of the baby as its mouth starts to move then releases a whimper. The water logged cough comes before the swelling strength of a wail deep within the infant. Its hands break free from the blood soaked wrapping as its cry trembles with all the energy it’s taken from us.
As Sebastian starts to unwrap the baby, my hands instinctively go to lift it from Miriam’s very still breasts. I look at Balthazar for permission to take the baby and he quickly nods. Sebastian takes off his jacket and hands it to me. I quickly wrap the baby and hold him to me as I watch Nate and Balthazar continue to bring back Miriam.
Sebastian returns his hands to her as I try to rock the baby, offering my finger to its lips to suckle. Instantly it latches onto it and quiets as I continue to watch and pray for Miriam to come back.
Then, Balthazar can’t contain his frustration any longer. He reaches down and pulls Miriam into his body, breaking Nate’s contact with her. “Breathe Miriam!” he commands.
“Come back to us! Breathe!” he repeats once more before he rests lips on her forehead then buries his face in the crook of her shoulder.
The moments pass as he sits there rocking her back and forth, her hand dragging along the sand and rock lifelessly. I can’t keep from weeping and holding the baby tighter for both my sake and it’s as I watch Balthazar crumble and call to her as her soul parts from this world to the next. “I love you Miriam. I love you Miriam. I love you Miriam.”
Copula Chronicles: The Complete Collection: Origin, Descend, Ascend, Legacy Page 47