by S. J. West
I felt my body start to tremble. “Does that mean I’m dead too? Are we actually in Heaven?”
Will shook his head. “No, you’re not dead. You have a long life to live. He just let me come say goodbye to you before I move on.”
I felt God standing behind me and turned to him.
“Your love and that of Tara and Utha Mae taught Will the true reason why I treasure human life so much. In the end, he sacrificed himself in trying to save you, a mere human who he would have destroyed an eon ago and never thought twice about.”
I looked back at Will. “Where will you go now?”
“Back home,” he smiled. “I get to go back to Heaven because of you Lilly. It’s the greatest gift you could have given me.”
“I’ll miss you,” I said, taking him in my arms for what I knew would be the last time for a long while.
“I’ll miss you too, but time is different in Heaven. It won’t be as long for me as it will be for you.” Will hugged me close before letting me go. “Promise me one thing,” he said.
I nodded. “Anything.”
“Promise me you won’t cry over me after I leave. I’m finally happy, Lilly. I want you to be happy for me too.”
“I can promise I’ll try not to cry much,” I said. “But I’ll still miss you.”
Will smiled. “I guess that’ll have to do. I love you, Lilly Rayne. Enjoy your life. That’s the greatest gift you could give to me.”
Will disappeared.
I turned to God. “If I’m not dead, why am I here?”
“I wanted you to meet the reason Lucifer didn’t win.”
God pointed out past the porch towards the lush green lawn in front of the house.
I took in a sharp breath feeling lightheaded as the reason for Lucifer’s failure smiled at me.
Chapter 26I grabbed Brand’s wrist just as he was about to plunge the tip of his dagger into my heart. The fire emanating from my hands died down, and I looked at Brand’s tear streaked face. I felt the presence of Lucifer still inside me but felt him be unceremoniously pushed out by a pure soul.
Brand’s eyes were drawn to Lucifer now standing outside my body. He immediately looked back down at me daring to hope what he was seeing was real.
“It’s me,” I said.
The dagger fell from his hands onto the snow as he pulled me into his embrace, crying tears of happiness now instead of sorrow.
“That’s not possible!” I heard Lucifer scream behind me like a child who had just lost his favorite toy.
I turned to face him still basking in the warmth of my husband’s love.
“Haven’t you ever heard the phrase ‘love conquerors all’?” I asked, dropping my hand to my belly.
“But the curse,” he began to say. “You should be practically dead with that thing’s spawn growing inside you.”
I heard Brand’s sharp intake of breath behind me. “Lilly?”
I turned back to my husband and brought his hand to my stomach.
“I guess you’re getting your Christmas gift a little early. I would like you to meet our daughter,” I said to him gently, letting the realization of my condition sink in.
Brand fell to his knees in front of me, resting his head against my stomach and holding me tight. I felt his body tremble as he cried.
“But that’s not possible!” Lucifer stormed.
“That’s quite enough,” I heard a familiar voice say beside me.
I turned my head and saw God. He was looking at Lucifer like a father getting ready to discipline his child.
“So you chose humans over me again,” Lucifer spat. “Typical.”
“I had hoped your time here would have taught you something about the strength they possess. I suppose it will take a while longer for you to realize how wrong you are about them… and me. I never chose them above you. That’s just what you’re jealousy of them led you to believe. I still love you Lucifer, but I don’t condone the way you’ve been behaving. You were one of my greatest triumphs but you also turned out to be one of my greatest disappointments. Now leave and let me talk to my other children about what needs to be done with the mess you’ve created.”
Lucifer disappeared as ordered and the snowy plain before me was instantly dotted with black as the Watchers appeared.
I felt myself gasp. Most of them were covered in red, and I knew it was blood. They all fell to a knee as one in front of God, everyone except for Malcolm.
Malcolm phased in front of me and I threw my arms around him, not caring the white coat I wore would now be red.
“Are you all right?” I asked frantically, reluctantly pulling away from him to see if he was missing any limbs.
“Yes, dearest. I’m fine,” he held my face in the palms of his hands and kissed me lightly on the lips. When he pulled away, he looked over at Brand.
“I couldn’t help myself,” he said in way of an excuse for his boldness.
“Not even you could spoil today for me,” Brand said.
Malcolm’s eyes finally found God.
“You,” God said to Malcolm, “out of everyone has surprised me the most. I thought you were lost to me for good when you started to drink human blood. I’m thankful to Lilly for bringing you closer to me.”
“Can you forgive a sinner like me?” Malcolm asked, obviously not expecting a favorable response.
“I can forgive any sin with true repentance,” God answered. “But, it doesn’t seem to be me you need forgiveness from. You are your own worst enemy, Malcolm. You allow your guilt to eat at you not allowing yourself to realize how much you’ve changed. I will always be able to forgive you, but first you must find a way to forgive yourself.”
God looked out at all the Watchers. “I know many of you feel the way Malcolm does. Until you are able to forgive yourselves for what you have done, I don’t see a way to bring you back to me fully. Fortunately, Lucifer provided you with a way.”
I looked at God completely confused.
God looked up at the white ribbon of light floating like a white sash in the sky. “The Tear Lucifer made today will take a lot to heal. When the time is right, you will be given the knowledge on how to repair the damage Lucifer caused to the universe. In the meantime, I ask that all of you do what you were sent here to do in the first place: serve humanity. Teach them what they need to know in the trying times to come. The world as they know it doesn’t exist anymore. Their reality has been shaken to the core and many of them will never recover. They will have to face the fact that they are not alone in the universe and they will need you to guide their way. Help them face their fears. Let them lean on your strength in their greatest time of need.”
God took two steps forward. “Mason, stand before me.”
Mason phased, still kneeling on one knee in front of God.
God placed one of his hands under Mason’s chin encouraging him to stand in his presence. I watched as He traced the scare over Mason’s eye with the tips of his fingers, much like I had the first time I met the leader of the Watchers.
“I see the old scar has not yet healed,” God said, not taking any joy in the fact Mason still wore the proof of his wrath.
“No,” Mason said. “I fear it will never heal.”
“It can be healed,” God said. “But you have to allow it to happen. Your guilt keeps it as deep as when I first made it. When you find a way to forgive yourself, it will begin to fade. That is my promise to you.” God put his hands on Mason’s shoulders. “You must lead the Watchers once more during the dark days ahead. You will be the one who finds a way to close the Tear and helps bring peace back into the universe.”
“Will you help us?” Mason asked. “Will you give us the power to close it?”
“I already have,” God said, lowering His arms back to his side. “The answer is here on this Earth. But you will have to figure out how to find it and then how to use it. Only then will you all feel as though you have done enough to be forgiven. I will help if I see you being led astray,
but ultimately you will have to figure things out on your own. Without the struggle, you will never feel like you have done enough, and I fear this may be your last chance at redemption.”
“I will lead them well this time,” Mason promised. “I won’t let them be led astray again.”
“You are not solely to blame for the first fall,” God said. “I should have known you would all eventually fall in love with the humans. How could you not from working so closely with them? I release you from that promise to me. Especially considering that type of love is what saved the universe in the end.”
God turned to Brand and I. He walked up to us and placed his hand over the hand Brand still had resting on my stomach.
“Your daughter will be strong willed,” God warned us, smiling at the irony. “But I guess I shouldn’t expect any less from one of your children.” God looked at Brand and was silent for a while like he was studying something about my husband. “I know the answer to this question but I will ask it so Lilly can hear it for herself.” He paused, making sure I was listening. “Brand, if you could have one wish which only affects you, what would it be?”
Without hesitation, Brand said, “To be human.”
As he said the words, I remembered the moment Brand told me that same wish once. I knew it was something he desperately wanted, granting us a true life together. But, I felt trepidation in my heart over the possibility of it happening. What if Brand didn’t see me the same after he became human? A vision of the paintings Brand did of me flashed through my mind. Tara had been right that the paintings were idealistic version of me, not the real way I looked. What would Brand see when he looked at me through human eyes? Would he still see the woman he fell in love with or would his view of me change? Would he still love me the same?
God nodded his head at what Brand wished for. “Then your wish is granted as long as you can forgive yourself for your past.”
“Abby…” Brand said, letting his guilt over his daughter’s circumstance resonate in his voice. It would be the one thing he would always feel guilty about.
“Only the children who have drunk human blood with retain the curse,” God promised him. “Those who have been protected by their fathers and abstained from their natural instinct to drink human blood all these years will be granted a normal human life from this point forward.”
God turned to the other Watchers. I could hear some of them sobbing over the lost opportunity to save their children. “But,” God told them, “to those of you who allowed your children to hunt humans for fun and kill for sport, I will grant you a second chance to prove your children deserve redemption. You must show them you were wrong in dooming them to live with the curse and have them serve humanity by your side. If you do this, I will lift the curse from them also, in time.”
God looked back at me and Brand. “Can you forgive yourself now?” He asked.
“Yes,” Brand said. “I can.”
God nodded his approval.
I felt Brand put his hands on my shoulders to turn me to face him. I almost resisted, not wanting to see his disappointment in how I really looked. I refused to meet his eyes for fear of what I would see there.
“Lilly,” Brand said, his voice trembling. “How can you be even more beautiful?”
I looked up at Brand’s face and saw he wasn’t just saying it to hide what he might have truly thought. He did believe I looked more beautiful through his now human eyes than I did when he was an angel.
I threw my arms around his neck, feeling the power of pure joy fill my heart.
“I will see you again in time,” God told us. “’Live a full life together. Love one another and nothing will ever seem insurmountable.”
God disappeared then, leaving in his wake a new sense of hope and purpose to everyone present.
Still holding onto Brand, I looked up at the sky and wondered what the Tear had done to the world. Even though it scared me, I knew whatever damage Lucifer had caused God would stay true to his word and help the Watchers heal the wound. It was just a matter of time.
EpilogueI stood in our home in Colorado looking out the picture frame window at the snow capped mountain and lake beyond. My hands rested on the large bump of my belly as I felt my son move to gain a more comfortable position inside me.
“Give me your hands,” I told Brand as he came to stand behind me. I put his palms on top of my belly just as our son moved again.
“He’s strong,” Brand said in my ear, nibbling at the tender flesh. “Just like his mother.”
I smiled and leaned back into my husband feeling eternal bliss like I always did in his presence.
“Mommy!”
We turned at the sound of our daughter’s excited voice as she ran down the stairs from the second floor towards us. She was almost three years old now with a head full of chestnut colored hair like mine and beautiful grey eyes like her father. Brand let me go as he bent down to pick her up, holding her against his side.
“Mommy, is it time?”
“I don’t know,” I said to her, unable to repress a smile. “You better go to the kitchen and ask Aunt Tara and Uncle Malik that question.”
Caylin wiggled out of her father’s arms and ran head long to the back of the house to find the kitchen.
Malcolm was still crouched beside the large blue spruce Christmas tree in the living room.
“Are you sure you have a gift for me under here, dearest?” He asked, scanning the tags on the presents. “I still don’t see it.”
“It’s there, Malcolm,” I said for what had to have been the hundredth time that day. “But you can’t open it until tomorrow morning. That’s the rule.”
Malcolm sighed heavily and stood up. He turned to face me and Brand.
“All I seem to be able to find are gifts for Caylin,” he half heartedly complained.
“I’ve been a good girl, Uncle Malcolm,” Caylin said, walking back into the living room with a half eaten cookie in her hand.
“Did Aunt Tara give you that?” I asked, already knowing Tara had bribed my child with sweets once again.
“She said supper wasn’t ready,” Caylin answered with pieces of the sugar cookie dribbling out of her mouth as she spoke.
“It’s almost ready!” I heard Tara yell from the where the kitchen was. “We’re just setting the table!”
The front door of the house opened and Abby and Sebastian walked in, stomping the snow off their boots in the entry way.
Brand and I went to greet them. When I hugged Abby, I had to carefully maneuver my belly along side her own growing one.
“I love you both,” Abby said hastily kissing us both on the cheeks. “But your grandchild has been pressing my bladder all the way up here.” Abby waddled off to find the bathroom.
Malcolm came and gave his son a hug. “You should have let me phase you here,” Malcolm told him. “I don’t know why you insisted on risking my grandchild’s life driving in this snow.”
Sebastian smiled. “We’re trying to live the way humans do, Dad. And humans don’t phase everywhere they want to go.”
“Have it your way,” Malcolm said, throwing his hands up in the air. “But when the time comes for my grandson to be born, I’m phasing us all to the hospital. Your driving isn’t that great in the best of times. I am not about to let you risk his life when you can’t even think straight.”
“Come on, y’all,” Tara said, walking from the back of the house with Malik right behind her. “Supper is ready.”
Just before we went to the dining room, the phone rang.
“Go ahead,” I told everyone. “It’s for me.”
When I picked up the phone, my mom yelled, “Merry Christmas, sweetie!”
“Hey, Mom. How is everyone doing?”
“Oh, your grandpa is as ornery as ever but your grandma is keeping him in line.”
“Even after God himself visited them and told them everything, he’s still giving you attitude?”
“It’s just the way he is, swee
tie. I don’t take any of it personally. I’m just glad he let me spend Christmas with them this year. It’s been so long. And your grandma wants you and Brand to come visit after her newest great grandbaby is born. She said she missed seeing Caylin as a baby, she’s not going to miss seeing…Oh, have you decided on a name for him yet?”
I smiled. “Yes, we’re going to name him Will.”
“Will,” my mother repeated. “That’s perfect.”
When I walked into the dining room and saw my family gathered around the table discussing who was the most worthy of the prized turkey leg, I couldn’t help but smile.
My dream really did come true.
A Note from the AuthorI hope you all enjoyed The Watcher Trilogy. I would like to thank those of you who have left such nice reviews for the series at the various book outlets where it is available. I truly do appreciate the kindness and your time.
I would like to tell you that a new set of book based in the world created by the Watchers will be out in 2013. The first of which will be out in the first quarter of next year. They will take place 15 years after the Tear is formed and deal with its aftermath. The main character will be new and the story told from her perspective. Many of the characters from the Watcher series will pop up here and there, especially Malcolm.
At the moment I intend to call this The Tear series. If you would like to view the first chapter of it, please visit my blog. It will be posted by (Dec 2012) at: http://teefymllems.blogspot.com/
If you liked this series, you might be interested in another series I have out. It is the Harvester of Light series and is currently available at only Amazon.com until Dec. 10, 2012 due to contractual obligations. It will be available for the Nook at Barnes and Noble beginning Dec. 11, 2012.
Thank you all for reading my books. It means the world to me.
S.J. West